It's only been a few days...

7/31/2017
Dear Everyone,

  

   So ya since it has only been a few days since I last emailed, not too much has happened. But it has been pretty cool since my companion and I have been really focusing on trying to get some more people to teach and as we have been doing quite a bit of tracting.

It is cool to see how the Lord has placed us in the right place and at the right time! For instance yesterday we tried to follow up with a less active guy who we met on the street earlier in the week while he was working and he gave us his home address. So as we went up to knock on his door, it seemed that the house was empty and no one lived there... so we were like okay. When we knocked no one came to the door. But I was like, well we are here on the street for a reason sooo... We just started knocking on the houses surrounding and we went to the first one and it was a house where the front yard looked like it hasn't been mowed in at least a year.. But we were like oh well lets knock it and then someone ended up coming out of the back door of the house. We were like uhh.. and we taught her and her sister about the restoration and the Book of Mormon and they said we could come back! Funny enough she asked us if we knew any good preachers for our church so she could listen to some sermons.... and we were like well the apostles are pretty good?? So we told her to look up Jeffrey R Holland because he gives some pretty mean talks :) haha

But we have been having many small instances like that the past week or so and it has been really cool. It reminds me of the story of Nephi and his brothers when they are sent to go back and get the plates and they try many ways to get them from Laban but all of them don't work. And then finally Nephi just goes in after being promised by the Lord that Laban would be delivered into his hands, not knowing what to do exactly and where to go exactly and as he was about doing the Lords business, unexpectedly, he gets the answer to his prayers!

The Gospel is true I love you all and hope you have a great week!

-Elder Pierce

I Love to See the Temple!

                               Elder Pierce and Elder Choi at the Brisbane, Australia Temple
7/27/2017
Dear Everyone,

This is our district at the temple

This past week was a good week! Sorry about emailing late because we had our temple p-day today. Which is always good. :) 

It feels like a long time since I last emailed because it has been a while. Sorry I don't have heaps of time to email because we rode the train back from the temple and it took ages, as well we also had interviews with the mission president after our endowment session.

Well Elder Choi and I, this past while since I last emailed, have been really trying to add some new people to our teaching pool so we have been doing heaps of tracking. As well as trying to follow up with some people that the missionaries have worked with in the past. I also personally have been working on my prayers and working my hardest while trusting in the Lord! I read a scripture in D&C at the moment I can't remember where but Joseph Smith writes something to the effect of let us do all things that lie within our power and then wait to see the salvation of God. And it has been really working as I have been bearing my soul to Heavenly Father and then do everything I can and have faith in Him and His timing. It also Helps my companion is the man who is always trying to improve our skills and our effectiveness. 

But ya We have been doing some good work and I am glad to be here serving the Lord. 

I hope you all have a great week.

-Elder Pierce

Brisbane, Australia Temple

Missionary Life in Beenleigh

Small world!
This is Elder Pierce with a member of his ward, Brother Butler.
Bro. Butler was a former mission companion of Tyler Bellows.
The Bellows family are great friends from our home ward in NC!

7/17/2017
Dear Everyone,

   First things, I have no idea what to put as the subject of these emails... but oh well. This past week was a pretty good week, pretty busy though! Haha On Monday we did some street contacting at night and it was so crazzy for the first time in my mission we talked to this guy who wanted to fight us... He almost started swinging blows at my companion! Pretty intense but I am pretty sure the guy was on drugs because he had this crazy look in his eyes... a little scary, but it was all good :) haha 

Wednesday we had Zone conference with the Mission President and a couple of other zones. It was really fun because me and Elder Choi did our musical item of "Thy Will Be Done!" which we had practiced for the first time in the morning before the zone conference... But Elder Choi is a master at reading music so it was all good :) We are making some pretty good steps with one of our investigators who is dating a member. We just finished teaching the hard stuff like the law of chastity and the word of wisdom and that seemed to go well. So Ya we will keep helping her progress! 

Then awesomely I got to do a trade-off with Pimpama and it was so good :) I showed the new missionary a couple of former investigators and good members to work with. But it was really fun to see some good ole faces :) But ya it was a busy but good week! 

Love you all

-Elder Pierce

Beenleigh

7/10/2017
Dear Everyone,

  

So this past week has been really busy I guess, but really fun! It is good to be in a new area and to be working hard and putting my shoulder to the wheel. So as far as the Fourth of July goes, I completely forgot until halfway through the day when I was writing down in my planner what day it was and then I was like... WOOHHOOO MURICA! haha The only thing I did to celebrate was to read 

1 Nephi chapter 13 during Elder Choi's language study, haha.

But while I am talking about Elder Choi, he has been on his mission for 4 months and he was born and raised in the church. His English.. haha we are working on it, but it's not TOO bad. But when I got transferred here they told me I would really have to work on language study. And he is also the man! haha I have been trying to learn some Korean from him, so now I know how to say like hello, thank you, and what not. We had another missionary with us until Wednesday because he is training a new missionary and the golden didn't come in until Wednesday.  It was really fun to have another missionary around especially for when we go door knocking. 

Lots of cool things happened so I will try and share a few. One amazing thing is there is a brand new recent convert guy here in Beenleigh and he was just baptized last transfer. But the coolest thing is that this man is the first ever potential investigator I ever found while I was in my first area!! When I saw him and heard about him I was like NO WAY! It was so cool to see him because he has changed like everything and it is so cool. The ward here is very keen to work with us and to get stuff done especially our ward mission leader. On Tuesday it was a little weird because I had to run our district meeting but it turned out pretty good and I gave this last minute training because i didn't know if I was suppose to have one prepared.. haha But it turned out great! I also got to go on a trade off with our zone leaders on Friday and it was so fun because they live down the road from Jamie and Kim'lee Wright (my recent converts in Pimpama) So I got to visit them! So good to see them :) Then on Sunday it was pretty crazy because Not only was i introduced to the ward but they also got a new bishop of our ward! So new and exciting things happening. And then another cool thing about Elder Choi is that he can play the piano very well and we are going to be doing a musical item for a zone conference this Wednesday so that should be pretty fun. 

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

-Elder Pierce

Bitter Sweet

                                       Saying Goodbye to the Lovely City of Warwick
7/3/2017
Dear Everyone,

  So I will start this letter with some of the good news: By this past week Wednesday I was feeling all better! I had my voice back and everything!  Which might i say was really nice. It was a bit of a slow week in Warwick because I was still recovering and what not. 

But now for the crazy news.....(drum roll)...... Today was the transfers day and it turns out that I got transferred! I thought I was going to be staying in Warwick to finish the training of Elder Haiane but.. nope, I guess the Lord had some other plans. But the awesome news is that I got transferred to an area in my last district!! haha I am in a place called Beenleigh. So you know for sure that I will be visiting some people in Pimpama!!! When the calls came in Saturday night about the transfers I was like what? and then when I found out where I was going I was like.. haha awesome! I have been in Beenleigh before just for a day or two. 

My new companion's name is Elder Choi from South Korea, Seoul. He seems pretty cool, it will be funny, they told me I have to make sure to work on his English skills, which I thought was funny because that is what the last mission president said to me about my trainer! haha I don't know too much about him yet because we have only been together for a few hours but I am excited. It is a bit sad to see all of the people in Warwick off, because I formed some good bonds there but you have to do what the Lord says that is for sure! 

The Clark Family

Ya I don't really know what else to say I hope you enjoy the pictures I made sure to take a couple more. So ya we shall see how this goes. 

Love, Elder Pierce

Us at the Warwick Chapel

The Warwick Chapel (A Queenslander style building)

There was frost on the ground