A Little Bit Under the Weather in the Land Down Under

                                        Thankful for the kindness of ward members!
6/26/2017
Dear everyone,

   So after an awesome week like last week of course Satan has to strike...... haha but pretty much since last Wednesday, which was the day I emailed last, I have been sick with some kind of cold flu thingy.... That has been pretty bad. But it started out as just a scratchy throat with a cough and then just into the whole shebang with possible fever, aches, ears in pain and just like you can imagine it being. So ya we stayed in the flat most of the week.. I mean like all of it. And just doing whatever we can, like we have done a little bit of service and what not but not much missionary work, mostly resting and sleeping. 

One night a family invited us over for dinner (the Clarks) and I told them I was sick and they were like, all good just come over, apparently they had just gotten over the sickness that I have. And since they knew I was sick they have been looking after us like dropping off food and being really nice! We are very lucky to have some awesome members in our ward! But then on Saturday one of the members who is a doctor found out I was sick and came over and checked on me to see how I was going. He checked me out at his doctor's office and he said it was probably just a virus and that I will get better pretty soon. So this past Sunday was the first Sunday on my mission that was a day of rest! haha because I was asleep for most of it, but I am feeling a lot better today -still only about 75% but it is a lot better! I think I will be good by tomorrow or the next day. 

But ya that is pretty much it, Hope you all have a great week! Also I recently watched a Mormon message that you all might like it is called "The Music of the Gospel" about a Native American healer guy. 

Love you all!

-Elder Pierce

A get well note

Surprise Miracles!

                                                  A Surprise Miracle- Baptism Day!
6/21/2017
Dear Everyone,

  

First thing, Sorry I forgot about fathers day because it is not Australian Father's day.... I think every country has their own Father's day but everyone has the same mother's day. Either way though... happy LATE father's day! 

So I feel like heaps has happened because heaps has happened... But I will try and capture most of it in this email.  I will get the big things First. So last Friday We had the awesome opportunity to have Francia's baptism! She was pretty funny because she kept saying that she would be baptized only if she would pass her interview with our district leader (who by the tender mercies of the Lord is a Filipino as well and speaks her native language) and she did awesome with her interview, it was a bit awkward though because we had to do it over skype so that the district leader wouldn't have to travel but it worked out pretty good still. Then We had to schedule everything like making programs, she wanted to be baptized on Friday and 2pm was about the only time that suited our bishop due to him being a police man. So it was a bit of a weird time but it ended up that we still had the baptism well attended. But the morning of, since our chapel has no baptismal font, we had to make our own! (pictures were sent) It was like this big metal sheet that we rolled out to make a circle then we screwed it all together and then we put a pool bladder in and then just filled it up with hot water so that by the time it was filled it would be warm (it look 3-4 hours to fill up) and we had to be there while it was filling because of Australia law. The baptism went pretty smooth other than the fact when our bishop was baptizing her he didn't mention she should close her mouth... so she breathed in a bit of water and came up coughing! But other than that it was really good!

                                       Francia's Baptism Day (she was baptized by the Bishop)

                                                       Setting up the Baptismal Font

                                                       Elder Pierce filling the font with water

Afterwards the assistants of our mission had come up to see the baptism (they ended up being 30 min late) but they made it up to us by buying us lunch! Then on the Saturday We had a trade off with our zone leaders and I stayed in Warwick. And me and the zone leader made it a goal to re-invite Anne (one of our investigators who was going to be baptized) to be baptized and we found out she planning to move possibly at the end of this week and she was pretty stressed about it.  When we finished teaching about the gift of the Holy Ghost to her the elder who was with me made her a promised blessing and said Anne you could be baptized as soon as tomorrow but we promise you that if you will be baptized that Your move will go a lot smoother! (now when he said you could be baptized as soon as tomorrow we didn't mean for it to be tomorrow..) But she sat there and thought about it and said,"Well, can I be baptized tomorrow??" and we were like uhhh... yes I think so. So BAM it was happening we called up everyone and made it possible and she was baptized right after church! But on that Saturday night we did a "Meet the Mormons" night that we put on and we had a fantastic turn out! We had like 7'ish non members and everyone loved it! Then on the Sunday we got our baptismal font re-set up ( since we took it down) and we had another awesome baptism of Anne! 

Anne's Baptism Day!

And then today (Wednesday) we got to go the temple! which was awesome and we also had our interviews! Which is the reason that we got to come down to the temple because usually they say that we are too far away... But since they were already doing interviews, they decided to let us come down to kill two birds with one stone! So we had a pretty good week :)

Love you all and have a great week!

-Elder Pierce

Car trip to the temple

Zone Photo at the Brisbane Temple

Statue in downtown Warwick

Service

Stay Golden Pony Boy

                               Elder Pierce with his new companion, Elder Haiane
                                          (Brisbane skyline in the background)
6/12/2017
Dear Every one,

   

   So we had a pretty busy week. There was a lot of switching around and what not. One thing was we learned on Sunday night last week, was that this past week was golden orientation! Meaning on Thursday and Friday we went to Brisbane to drop off Elder Haiane so that he could get some extra training and what not! But you know what that means... road trip to Brisbane!!! haha It is only about a 2'ish hour drive though so it isn't toooo bad. Plus while we travel down I love to listen to a lot of talks and things and my companion loves to... sleep. haha But it gives me some good time to ponder and think. On Thursday we dropped him off and then me and another missionary who is training went to an area in Bunya Forest and blitzed the area. (that just means we came and gave them an extra hand) funny enough the missionaries we went with were both my friends Elder Iufoni (a Tongan elder that was in my first district) and Elder Cummings from my MTC. So it was actually pretty good to catch up with them both and then on Friday we got some more training for being trainers from President McSwain which was really good, something that really stuck out to me was that he talked about living after the manner of happiness which is of course being obedient. But it was very good. 

In Brisbane for Golden Orientation

Then after we finished with golden orientation on Friday afternoon we drove back up to Warwick and then we did a whole bunch of service for the Clark family because they are moving and they are getting close to that deadline... so we did the best we could to be available. (it is the same Clark family who we used their house to Skype at). 

Then on Sunday it was a good day at church. We are also pretty busy trying to organize for the baptism of our Filipino investigator Francia, which will be this Friday! So we are really excited for her... and really busy scheduling it all in but that is a good kind of busy. ummm... let's see also this week our ward is having a ward activity, which we are organizing with our ward mission leaders help. It is going to be a "Meet the Mormons" movie night so that everyone can bring friends to come and see who the Mormons really are. Next week I probably won't email until Wednesday because we will get a chance to go down to the temple. 

But other than that, I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Pierce

I found a Australia jersey and I bought it.... so yup

A Good Week!

                                            Yes, that's a real lizard on Elder Pierce's tie!
June 5, 2017
Dear everyone,

   So this past week just like it says in the subject line was a pretty good week, Elder Haiane has been adjusting very well and he is going to be a great missionary! He has got a lot of heart. 

Well let's see, we have been teaching lots of people and we have been particularly working with our Filipino investigator, Francia, because we saw her twice this week and she came to church as well! But I will get into that more. We have been doing heaps of service for the former member because she has been moving houses and she is older and needs a lot of help so we spent many hours helping with that. Then Wednesday we had a chance to go to a zone conference (a meeting with President McSwain and 2-3 other zones). Luckily we have a senior couple missionaries in our ward and they helped give us a ride down to the place. And awesomely enough it was held in the stake center of my first area (which when I was there hadn't been finished being built yet) so that was very fun to see! 

We also had some more funny experiences while out knocking doors, one older guy talked to us for like 30 minutes and he was "departing his wisdom to us". He told us to stay away from drugs but the funny thing was that he would look at my companion and point his finger when he would say stay away from drugs! Then he was like, "and stay away from the night clubs in Brisbane, especially you"(pointing at my companion) hahaha I was cracking up about it after that! 

Also about Francia she has once again accepted to be baptized and she is looking a lot more prepared! The cool thing too is the guy who will be doing the interview is also a Filipino elder and he speaks her language which will be good! I guess the Lord has got his timing for everyone and everything! But ya it was a pretty good week. 

I hope you all have a great week too!

Elder Pierce

I am a "father" again!

                                                  Zone Conference (back in April)
5/28/2017
Dear Everyone,

  So yup it's a pretty big change to be training again... haha but my new golden is the man! His name is Elder Haiane pronounced like HIYAH(as in karate like Jackie-Chan)-Ne(like a mix between nay and the sound a horse makes Neigh). He is from Perth, Australia but he had only been living there for 4 years, he was born and raised in Auckland, NZ. He is half Tongan half Cook Islander. and very New Zealander haha when I first saw his name I thought he was going to be straight from the islands and that I would have to teach him English. But luckily I don't have to! He is pretty green, like he doesn't know how to do many things, but I guess that makes sense because this is his first few days. He is pretty funny and has a lot of fun and we get along pretty great so far :) 

But now I am back into the mode of doing most everything again.. haha but it is pretty fun to get to train again. He came in on Wednesday and we made the trip back to Warwick (about 2 hours and a few minutes) and then we have been doing the Lord's work here since! But one funny story is when we are about to go finding for the first time and we pray for the street and as we are driving there, Elder Haiane asks me if I have been chased by any dogs while we went out tracting, and I was like well only once when this tiny dog was chasing me on my bike. And we get to the street and here is this dog that is like following our car and barking at us. But then I say a prayer for safety and then I said we would be good to go out and this dog was like barking really weird but I knew he wasn't going to do anything to us.  Eventually we met her owner and talked to her and she turned into a potential investigator.  Then on the last house while we were walking up to it, this dog came and was running right at us but I know we were all good. and he just turned back and his owner told us that he was busy. but my companion afterwards was like... I was ready to bolt! haha but you just stood still and didn't even flinch! haha and I was like yup! But we had a pretty good week :) and hopefully everything will work out for this week! 

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

-Elder Pierce