Goodbye old friends and Hello to the new!

                                   Twinning ties (by the way the Christmas package was perfect!)

                                        Handmade ties by the Ide Family-sent for Christmas

12/18/2017

Dear everyone,

 So it has been a really crazy week!! Wow! haha It has gone by like a blur. So first things first is that my date to come home will have to be postponed I am not sure when to.... but ya sounds like some crazy stuff is happening so I guess only time will tell what will happen. I will have to leave that one in Heavenly Father's hands! 

Like I said it was quite a busy week. It being Elder Ray's last week, we spent a lot of time saying good bye to lots of people that he has come to know very well. He was pretty trunky but hey it was his last week. 

                                                          Goodbyes for Elder Ray                             

                                                                         The Zone

So we had everything this past week. The Christmas conference which ended up being really fun and good. A great time to gather as a mission. We had every this part where every zone teamed up with another zone and sang about Christmas and the culture of the area where they are serving. So we had Australian Christmas and my zone did a song called Christmas in the Island, which was heaps of fun! But ya so then on Friday it was Elder Ray's last day in Ipswich because we took him into the mission home around 3pm. 

                                             Taking Elder Ray to the Mission Home

Then after that I went with another missionary whose companion also went home. His name was Elder Ho and I spent a couple of days with him until today. But it was really fun because I was in Pimpama with him! So it was really fun to work in my old area for a few days and see a lot of old faces! But then today I picked up my new companion. His name is Elder Bullock and he is from Canada, he is a farm boy and a hard worker. So ya we will see how this transfer goes :) 

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

-Elder Pierce

                                             L to R: E. Walburger, E. Pierce, E. Meyer
                   Pierce trained Meyer, Meyer trained Walburger = Father, Son, Grandson, haha

Elder Pierce's Mission Posterity goes on with a "great grandson" being trained by Elder Walburger

Stake Conference

12/10/2017

Dear Everyone,

 Sorry everyone this is going to have to be a short, rushed email because we had to do quite a bit of things. Also the other elders are with us so we all traded pictures, it being the last week of the transfer. So with all of that in mind I will have lots of pictures to send next week! But you will all get jipped a bit this email. 

The week was really good. We had a stake conference session where a local Seventy spoke.  His name was Elder Leota, a very funny Samoan guy. Elder Ray is as you could say ready to be home.... haha or in other works pretty trunky. But I have really enjoyed serving with him he has been one of my favorite companions by far :) Lots of lessons learned and now I am excited for my last transfer. Home stretch which will start this next Monday. 

Love you all and have a great week! 

Elder Pierce

A few group pics grabbed from the Mission website :)

In His Own Time and Way!

12/6/2017

G'day everyone

  So sorry that I am emailing late... we got to go to the temple today which was awesome as always! This past week was a pretty good week one in which we were able to see some cool miracles! always fun. 

Recently we have been going through some of the church records to find some potential -part-member families/ less active families. And we have recently found this one who is a lady named Vannesa who joined the church when she was about 10 and came for a few years and then just fell away. But we came by the first time and she said when the Elders usually came by she would just argue some points of doctrine like tithing or Word of Wisdom but she said something was different about the day we came by and she was just more willing to talk. And then we set up a return appointment and we taught her a close-to 3 hour lesson where we just broke through a lot of her concerns which was really cool. Then on this past Sunday she just texted us and said that she was going to come to church (first time in a really long time and we didn't even invite her..) and when she came she just couldn't stop crying, she felt the spirit so strongly. So it is really cool to see the Lord work with people in his own time and way! 

But ya this next coming week will be really, really, really busy with it being the last week of the transfer so hopefully I will have some pictures. This is truly God's work and I know that He loves us and has a plan for each and every one of us :) 

Have a great week

-Elder Pierce

Knocking Doors in a Big Way

11/26/2017

Dear Everyone,

  So this past week was a pretty good week nothing TOO exciting that happened and nothing really bad so it was pretty good overall. We have recently dropped some of our investigators that were kind of wasting some our time kind of.. haha your classic telling us their life story for 2 hours every time we go and then not really progressing.... so yaaa... 

So we back at it again with the door knocking in a big way. So we have found some new people with some really good potential so we will see how that goes. Really that was pretty much our week. 

My love sent to the Ides in this hard time! You are always in my prayers!!! 

Have a great week everyone :)

-Elder Pierce

Busy Week

11/19/2017

Dear Everyone,

 

So we had a pretty busy week, luckily it was kind of cloudy and overcast so it wasn't as hot for us :) always nice. But ya we had to drive in the city one day to go for a dentist appointment for Elder Ray. and then on Friday we had a last minute awesome Mission tour with Elder Uceda and Elder Halleck and a local authority Seventy Elder Walker. It was so awesome because Elder Uceda has some fire in him, I tell you what. He talked about how sometimes missionaries just talk to much when people don't keep commitments and such when we should instead just DO things with them instead of talking about it. If they haven't prayed then that is what you need to do. Stop the lesson and pray with them. We have to get out of the way of the spirit and Heavenly Father! 

But ya that was really good. And then we have a new investigator we found through a referral who has started to come to church so ya things are moving along quite well.

Love you all! have a great week!

-Elder Pierce