This Missionary's Testimony

1/23/2018
Dear Everyone,

So this past week has been a good week. even though it has only been like 3ish days since I last wrote. But ya It's pretty funny on Sundays since we cover the two wards we go to church from 10am-4pm.... haha heaps of church but it is a good thing. We even get to take the sacrament twice. We did some service on Monday cleaning out a shed. And now we are on today.... haha 

But I guess I will just bare my testimony in this email. 

    I know that God lives and that His plan is perfect and that no one of His children will ever be left behind. I know that Jesus is our Lord and our Savior, that He suffered and died for us and through His atoning grace we can be made perfect. His grace is truly sufficient for all no matter how far we have fallen. I know that the work I am doing here in Australia is pleasing to God and that I am working hand in hand with the Savior to bring to pass the salvation of souls. 

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

Also this is the last week of the transfer so we shall see what happens...

-Elder Pierce

Busy Week- Brisbane, Brad Wilcox and a Baptism!

Baptism Day!

1/19/2018
Dear everyone,

Brad Wilcox

  Sorry about not emailing until today... I has been really really busy.  Well I feel like it has been so long since I last emailed that I don't even remember what happened. ya lets see... Well I guess I will start with our mission conference with Brad Wilcox. It was really cool because he such an animated speaker and everyone there was able to feel the spirit. He talked a lot about the scattering and gathering of Israel. He talks about the double portion of the birth right which was given to Joseph which is why there is both Ephraim & Manasseh. Really cool stuff. 

We have busy with a lot of meetings recently which has been both a good and a bad thing.. haha Also been working on doing lots of door knocking so that we can find more people to teach. (that is the never ending cycle) And then we went to the temple yesterday and I had to go into the police station in Brisbane city so that I could get my finger prints done (part of getting a Visa extension). But the only sad part was when we got back to Ipswich all the libraries were closed.. So hence I am emailing today. 

And then we have been busy getting Brandon's Baptism organized. But that happened today and it turned out great :) Our Mission President has said something really cool when he first got in the mission. He said it is our job to be like Ammon as a missionary and find our Lamoni converts (people just prepared for us to teach) and it has been a sweet experience knowing that Brandon is one of the people I know the Lord sent me here to teach. 

Hope you all have a great week!

-Elder Pierce

L to R Elder Bullock, Brandon, Elder Pierce

G'day from the Land Down Under!

A picture of my companion in his glory (with a giant dictionary)

1/9/2018
Dear Everyone,

This past week has been a week of what we call hard yakka (or hard work) for instance on Saturday we went door knocking for 7 hours! yeah! haha needless to say we were tired after that. Also the day before on Friday we helped this less active lady move who needed a lot of help... So that was an all day move. But it has been really cool because while we have been working really hard the Lord has blessed us in other aspects of the work. Like we have gotten a couple of really good referrals from some of our members in the Raceview ward. And then it was really cool because Brandon (that foster kids who I talked about that I taught in my first area) he finally got permission to be baptized on January 20th!!! Which will be awesome! So we are so pumped and he has been way keen to get baptized. 

Also in our mission we type up what we call "miracle texts" when you set someone on baptismal date and so this is the one that me and my companion came up, we thought it was pretty funny. 

Twas the night before P-day

And thoughout all of PEC

Everyone there had a referral as far as we could see

And just when we thoguht the night couldn't get any better

Our First counsellor piped up and said we just got the letter

That their foster child, young Brandon Baker (11)

Will finally be more prepared to meet his maker

After the 20th of January when he will be baptized!

And all we could say was we were delightfully surprised  

Also really cool we will be having a zone conference with Brad Wilcox on Friday which will be cool!

Love you all have a great week!

-Elder Pierce

Some good ole taro 

(the potato-like root that is a favorite in Polynesian cooking)

Happy New Year! (Living in the Future)

Zone t-shirts!  

(An awesome pic I forgot to send)

1/2/2018
Dear everyone,

Wow it has been like ages since I have legit emailed... haha also just so everybody knows p-days from now on in my mission will be on Wednesday. ( I forgot to mention that..) But ya This past bit has been really good. We enjoyed Christmas and it was great to see all of the family. 

Sorry to hear about Janice, wish the family well for me. Also sorry if I didn't write you a personal email this week because I had a lot of emails to read..... heaps.... But things have been going really well with my new companion, Elder Bullock.  He is a farm boy through and through- he ain't no city slicker. haha He is really handy to have around he can practically fix anything and he has a great work ethic. 

Birthday dinner for Elder Bullock (the blonde Elder)

We have been doing lots of tracting because we have been losing a lot of our investigators, which always makes for good fun. As far as our New Years went we had a dinner with a family around 3:30 and then we had to be back in the flat by 5. So we just celebrated by going to bed early because we were really tired.. haha We also had a busy week because we had to do a lot of paper work... which means not as much work time. But ya we are excited for the New Year! to work hard and smash it. 

I love you all and hope you have a great week

-Elder Pierce

PS. We had the new years before you! so i was living in the future!

The whole zone with our t-shirts

Some mangoes a member gave us for Christmas