Last Email from The Land Down Under!!

Saying Goodbye to Brisbane!

3/6/2018
Dear Everyone,

  Woa..... haha this is pretty surreal... This will be my last email home. It is kind of a bitter sweet thing because I am excited to go home but sad to leave the land and the people that I have grown to love. 

This week has been a busy week a little slower than last week though which is good. Miracle though is our investigator Stew Lepau came to church this past Sunday which means he is as good as gold to be baptized on Saturday which I am pretty excited about. The Lord truly is good to us I think :) It reminds me of the scripture verse found in 1 Nephi 1:20 Talking about the lord's tender mercies.

I guess I just want to bear my witness since this is my last email, That I know that God knows you individually, personally and perfectly. There is a divine plan for you and even me. Even when things are looking down, if you will turn to the Lord, He will help you. And the only reason why I can say this is because He has helped me time and time again, right when I needed him. It wasn't when I expected it but it was when I needed it. I have learned while I have been serving to trust in the Lord. 

I remember when I first came into my mission my first mission president gave each missionary this blank aluminum coin and a nail and he said to engrave in it what you wanted to be engraven in your soul. And I chose to scratch in faith. I have learned so much about faith and what it is and isn't. I don't have a perfect knowledge, but like Nephi of old, I know in whom I trust. I know God lives and Jesus Christ lived and died for us but He now lives again and He continues to lead and guide us! I know Russel M Nelson is the true and living prophet on this earth. I am grateful to the Lord for making of me more than I ever could make of myself. And this is my testimony in the name of Jesus Christ, amen

Alofa Atu Fa Soifua!-Elder Pierce

Flat Out Like a Lizard Drinking Mate!!

                                               Zone Temple Day- Australia Brisbane Temple
3/1/2018
Dear Everyone,

  Crikey mate! Since I have last emailed we have been flat out like a lizard drinking. (ie very very busy) We have had meetings with the Stake President Salanoa so that we could coordinate our efforts with the stake and the zone in missionary work. We had a Zone Conference as well as continuing to work with a missionary in our zone...... yeah.....  

We mowed some lawns in the poring rain (I wouldn't recommend that one but it needed to be done) We also had that same a missionary spend the day with us.  Then Elder Bullock and I got a new companion till the end of the transfer. Elder Fiaui from Samoa! Haha we have been really enjoying that because he is really funny and we have been learning how to speak a little bit of Samoan with him. 

My new companion... for two weeks Elder Fiaui

riding the train to Brisbane for the temple

Also we have had to run a lot of errands and such for the zone and everything. We had our Missionary Leadership Council meeting (my last one) and that turned out really well, President McSwain talked a lot about getting the gospel out of our heads and into our hearts. Man it has been busy, but in a good way :) 

Then yesterday we got to go to the temple but the reason why I am emailing today is because by the time that we got back from Brisbane taking the train, all of our libraries had already closed. So here I am writing today. Also heads up, I will be emailing next week on Wednesday. 

So ya that has been my week! Sorry about all of the confusion with when I am going to email... I don't really know either.. haha But I know that the Church is true and that Jesus truly is our Lord and Savior!! 

Have a great week everyone!

-Elder Pierce

A Crazy Week

2/18/2018
Dear Everyone,

So this past week has been a good week for us here in the land down under. But like my subject header says it has been a bit of a crazy one. Starting off Thursday, I was on trade-offs with Elder Fiaui in his area Collingwood Park and we had a pretty good time just working hard. It was Elder Fiaui's first time leading the area on a trade off so that meant it was a little bit hard for him but it all turned out alright. We had some complications with some missionaries in our zone this week which is probably made it so crazy. And for a lot of the week we were busy on errands and such. 

Saturday we helped this less-active move to a place like 45 minutes outside of the area. But the good news is that the Bishop took us to a pie shop on the way back named Fern-vale pies and I ate a crocodile pie! (just like a chicken pot pie but with crocodile instead.) It tasted just like chicken though! for real. And then on Sunday we had church from 10-4 and then after church because we were having a musical fireside in Yamanto ward we had a practice at 4:15 and then the actual musical fireside at 6 and then we got back to the flat at 7:30. So Sunday we spent all day at church! haha 

But ya so overall a pretty good week. I hope you all have a great week!

-Elder Pierce

A God of Miracles

2/13/2018
Dear Everyone,

  First off, hello again from the future, it is already Valentines Day here in the land down under, so I wish you all a happy Valentines day. Being a missionary I actually completely forgot about it... haha one of the members just reminded us. It's funny in a mission you are kind of in a time warp. 

But this past week has been a good week for us here in Ipswich! It has been a hot one though.... wow..... it has gotten up to 40 a couple of days which is like an oven especially with the humidity... But things are still good. A little bit of heat can't stop the work of the Lord. I think this week I have been reminded again that it is the Lord who does His work and we have the privilege of being the tools in His hands. 

A couple of cool things that happened that I will share: One day as we were going along we prayed in our planning session that morning that we could be put in the places that the Lord needed us to be. So that day was a little bit of a slow day because we had no set appointments. As we went through I remembered a Less Active family who we hadn't seen in ages. So after a lot of fallen through lessons and such we came to their home (the C's) When I came in I could tell Sister C. was a bit distressed with tears in her eyes. We had a bit of a chat and shared a scripture in 2 Nephi 2 about how the Lord can consecrate our trials for our gain. After we were about to leave Sister C. walked us to our car and said. "I knew you would come around today boys because I prayed that Heavenly Father would send you here." Really cool to be directed by the Lord and not only that but not even knowing it.. Really cool :)  

Then we followed up with this other semi-active family and then lo and behold, Brother L's Older brother Stew is living with them now because of some bad family relations. But as were teaching him for the first lesson the spirit was so strong and Stew was so prepared (at the age of around 62) and we have put him on baptismal date for March 10th (my last Saturday in the mission) So the Lord is truly moving! We also had a Pacific area broadcast on Sunday and one little insight that I wanted to share was from a talk by Lynn G Robins of the 70 and he shared about the Christ-like attribute of simplicity and how it was important that we learn to live simply. 

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

-Elder Pierce

G'day!!

2/6/2018

G'day everyone from the land down under,

 So this past week has been a good week one full of cool things the Lord has been teaching us. One of the people we have been working with Royce (he is a newly wed and his wife is a returning less active) is on baptismal date for March the 24th. We are going to try to move that up..... so that I can actually be there.. haha  It was really funny how he was put on baptismal date because after our lesson about the plan of salvation, I had to go to the bathroom and while I was in there, Royce turned to his wife and my companion and said how about the 24th?? For what? Baptism! haha So that was pretty cool he set his own date.

Other than that we have found a few new investigators who are we excited to teach but the search is still on to find those people that God has prepared to be taught. But Ya that is pretty much my week!

I hope you all have a great one!

-Elder Pierce 

"Make sure you go home tired"- The Final Transfer

 The Ipswich sign on the motorway 

1/30/2018
Dear everyone,

 

   So here is the news.........(drum rolling).... I will be staying in Ipswich for my last transfer and my companion will still be Elder Bullock. So I am excited to be able to give it my all for my last little bit of my mission. It's like President McSwain told me in my interview just past, "Make sure you go home tired" So I will try my best. 

As far as last week went it was hectically busy with all of the stuff we needed to get done for the transfer. We had our deep clean and weekly planning as well as our missionary leadership council meeting. Needless to say we were smashed and there was a lot less missionary work done than we would have hoped. haha 

We recently have started teaching a new referral who is a part-member family. They are newly weds and the husband is a non-member and he is quite keen to learn about the gospel! So we are excited for them. Things are looking good! 

I love you all and Hope you have a great week. And just I wanted to make sure to write in my email this week my witness and testimony that Russell M Nelson is truly the Lords prophet on the Earth today! I have felt the spirit bear me this witness and I know that the Lord is truly leading His church!

President Russell M. Nelson

Have a great week!

-Elder Pierce

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