Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays from the Land Down Under!

1/2/2017
Dear everyone,

   

As the disclaimer to start, sorry I am emailing a day late because yesterday was a public holiday (New Year's holiday). They had us go out and work. But here I am today! So Christmas was great I loved being able to see all the family on Skype! Great to hear your voices and see your smiling faces :) 

So you can say the past however long it has been since I emailed has been crazy. So I will just have to try and cover a couple things. Christmas and Christmas Eve went well.  On Christmas eve we had to go and dedicate a guy's home who showed up to church one Sunday saying that his house was possessed and that he needed some holy water (of course the ward sent him to us, haha, it reminds of that one general conference talk "ask the missionaries they can help").  Then on Christmas we got to Skype and we visited a few members and had a few meals... needless to say that we were very full. But the family that we Skyped at they got me and Elder Meyer presents and everything so that was really fun haha.  Also by the way I loved the package!  Very appreciated and also the lanyard is perfect! because my last one was very broken.. But it was also good to have American candy and such :) 

 I'm a real Aussie! 

haha that is a worker shirt that a lot of people wear and one of those wide brim Australian straw hats

                                                            Christmas Package :)

                   (so they opened their presents on Christmas Eve which is tradition in Germany,                          
home of his companion Elder Meyer)

Then most of the week after that was normal missionary work until New Year's Eve but needless to say it has been very hot.. on New Year's Eve it was 38-39 Celsius (100-102 F)... and we were out knocking on some doors. Needless to say our brains were a little fried but all is good in the Lord's vineyard! Sometimes we have to show the Lord we are willing to work. But unfortunately last Thursday while we were doing a service for an older sister in our ward, we were helping her change some light fixtures and clean them. But one of the light fixtures I didn't put in properly and it fell and out of instinct my hands went out to catch it and it exploded on my wrist and cut it pretty deep. So the rest of that day consisted of us going to the Gold Coast hospital and waiting in the emergency room for about 4.5 hours to get seen by one of the doctors to see if it needed to get stitches. Which it ended up that it did need stitches, I had to get 3, but don't worry because very luckily(I know it's not luck but the Lord looking out for me) no major veins were cut and all of my nerves remain completely intact! The only thing was that it was a deep cut. So I am very blessed, it reminds me of when Alma and his people are in captivity and the Lord lifts their burdens and says that He will always visit his people in their afflictions. But that is enough about my wrist, it sufficeth me to say that it is fine.. haha 

Then New Year's Eve we had to be in the flat by 5:30 to avoid any problems that could possibly occur. And then on Sunday we were able to see more really cool miracles because one of our investigators and his daughter came to church and we also had a random person turn up to church with this senior couple and they said that this lady, Annette, had read the Book of Mormon 2 times and has taken a lot of the discussions with missionaries and she finally decided to come to church! So we will see how that goes :) It is always cool to see the many blessings the Lord is willing to give us! 

But I love you all and I wish you a happy new year!

Elder Pierce

Christmas Skype

                                                                    #LightTheWorld

One Happy Missionary!

Heaps!

                                                   Happy Day!  The baptism of Mavis!!
12/16/2016

Dear everyone,

Temple Day at the Brisbane Australia Temple

Wow this past week and some has been really busy!  Sorry for sending an email on today here (Friday) and not on Monday.  It's because we went to the temple today. But it has been a really good last little bit. 

So to start it off I'll talk about Mavis. So it turns out that the complications about her baptism were a confusion and we didn't actually know what was up. Her family didn't disapprove of her being baptized but it was something to do with her family that is down in Sydney- they were wanting to fly her down the day before the baptism but they kind of got that sorted all out. But Mavis has such strong Faith and we know that Satan will do all he can to stop the work from progressing. In the end it will always move forward! So we had our last lesson with her last week and it included a lot of stuff to cover because she was getting the baptismal interview the next day.. haha, but it all went smooth and on last Friday we were able to witness the Baptism of Mavis Boateng! So cool and she wanted me to be the one to baptize her so I was very honored and it was just pretty awesome! We had her confirmed on Sunday and Elder Meyer did it and when sister Tapaitau was like Elder Meyer we want you to do it and she was like do you think your English will be good enough.. and he was like I BELIEVE IN THE GIFT OF TOUNGES! haha so that all went good as well.  

Then last Thursday we  Did the stop smoking program with Tenielle.  It was a fifteen step program that had her doing all sorts of things like drinking grape fruit juice and taking vitamin c tablets but she was so excited and so ready to stop smoking!  And yesterday marked the seventh day where she has had no coffee tea or tobacco!! And she is very keen to be baptized with her family so we are excited there! Thank you all for all of the prayers that y'all have said for her! We can tell they have worked and the Lord is blessing her heaps! 

Tenielle and her family

But honestly it's been like a blur but I can't even remember all that has happened the past bit but it was great :) haha I have been able to see many miracles and small tender mercies of the Lord. Anyways, I know the Lord lives! And he loves each and every one of us and I am so glad I am here bearing His holy name! But I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Pierce

                                                             Just thought I'd share, haha

Busy, busy

                                   The random little Christmas tree we found in our flat. :)
12/5/2016

Dear everyone,

  

So this past week was like a blur it was so busy.  But first things first GOOD NEWS! Neither me or Elder Meyer got transferred! so we get to keep going in Pimpama! which is exciting because we have been seeing a lot of progress!

On this past Monday we had a dinner at Tenielle's house with our ward mission leader and I thought to give Tenielle my usb so she could watch Meet the Mormons, which was on there, and now she says she has watched it about 3 times... hahaha so that was pretty awesome. She has been talking with us saying that she wants to be baptized before Christmas and the only obstacle we have left is smoking... so we are trying to push that one. She wants to stop but i think she just needs that extra bit of help! So there is a stop smoking program that is supported by the church that we are going to try and do with her so it should be good!

But we have also been making heaps of progress with one of our other investigators Mavis who is a foreign exchange student from Ghana. She is about 23 and is pretty much a dry Mormon. We had set a date for her to be baptized Dec. 30 but when we had a lesson this week and talked about it she said that she wanted to be baptized this Friday... and we were like uhhh YES of course you can do that! But we did find out that there is some big opposition in her family back home from Ghana, so we will see if it goes through this Friday. she knows it's true and she loves the church but we will have to see.  We'll find out tonight.

Us teaching Mavis

We also did a fair bit of service with painting some members' house and also on Thursday there was a baptism of one of the kids in our ward and the mom asked us to be the witnesses, so we went and it turned out when we got there that the bishop also asked me to conduct the baptism so haha that was pretty crazy.  We also had our investigator Mavis there and then a miracle is one of our other investigators Mathis and Makeu showed up at the baptism even though we didn't invite them.. turns out they are friends of the sister whose son was getting baptized so that was pretty awesome!

Then since it was last week of the transfers we had our deep cleaning of our flat and also our ward Christmas party which was at a lake where all the kids went swimming (Christmas here people just go to the beach and pool and have bbq's) But it turned out none of our investigators made it to the activity so we were only there for like 30 mins. But ya and then on Sunday Tenielle made it to church again! So ya a busy busy week but a good one full of tender mercies of the Lord :)

I know the church is true and that Christ is our Savior!

Everyone have a great week,

-Elder Pierce

 The Christmas tree we set up in our flat ( because there was a random Christmas tree in our flat)

#LightTheWorld

                                               Elder Pierce visiting a Kangaroo Park
11/28/2016

Dear everyone,

First things first, if y'all haven't seen the new Christmas initiative video yet called "Light the World", you should do that right now because it is so awesome! I would say one of the best ones yet! Truly what better way is there to celebrate Christmas than by paying our devotions to the light of the world that entered into the world. We can become more like Him as we serve as He would serve! Just pretty awesome! 

(Click below to see the video)

Light the World- A Christmas Message

But umm what's happened since I emailed like a few days ago?... Well on Saturday we had an open house for the new chapel which we invited heaps of people to but... not too many came but it's all good. The stake put it on and they were actually doing tours and stuff so that was pretty cool. Then on Sunday it was stake conference so the new stake center was way packed! There was a 70 who came and his name was Elder Johanson and he is over a lot of the islands like Fiji and Vanuatu and some other little islands. He was really funny and very fob (that's what they call islanders). But he gave a really awesome talk about the importance of agency and also about Adam and Eve and he said that if any person feels like there are a nobody tell them they aren't because only Satan and his followers are NoBodies because they don't get a body and they don't get the gift of agency. So remember that you are always a somebody because you have a body and you are of infinite worth to your Heavenly Father! 

Also after conference when we helped set up chairs and stuff all of the missionaries were outside taking pictures and all of the sudden Elder Johansen came out and was like those are some good pictures Elders, but now I'm going to have get some selfies with you Elders as well and we were like YES! haha but anyways Me and Elder Meyer are going to have a dinner with Tenielle and our ward mission leader again so that is going to be really fun! But anyways The church is true! 

*featuring Elder Johansen of the Quorum of the Seventy

Everyone have a great week!

-Elder Pierce

More pics in front of the new Stake Center Building

                            On Friday we went to a kangaroo park with our zone and took pictures

                                        The best Australian Christmas Decorations ever!                                                    

an awesome truck we saw

Busy Week with Miracles

                                                              Our Zone Photo
11/25/2016

So since it has been more than a week since I've last emailed I can't even remember everything that has happened.  It has been pretty busy with lots of meals with members and some good progression with some of our investigators! For example our investigator Tenielle's son has come to mutual the last two weeks! and he has loved it. And not to mention the biggest miracle all week!! Tenielle and her family were at church last Sunday!!! So we were like YES! haha  We've been trying to get her out to church for like 8 weeks so it was awesome to actually see her there. She was late and missed the sacrament but baby steps I guess. And she and her whole family have been taking some big steps and they are so close! We even had a dinner with our Ward Mission Leader and her on this Monday past, where we were able to find out some of her concerns and then solve them! So really awesome with them this last week. I just hope I don't get transferred before her family gets baptized... haha because this next week is the last week of the transfer. So we will see how that goes... I have a feeling one of us might be leaving but we shall see.

We also have been teaching another one of our new investigators who was like super prepared and her name is Mavis and she is an exchange student from Ghana (let me just say those people from Ghana are full on when it comes to the bible and gospel knowledge they know so much) and she is living with the Tapaitau's so we are going to keep working with her and just keep pushing a long! 

Australia Brisbane Temple

The temple today was awesome! I always love the temple. The feeling inside is just not of this world just as the Savior said, Peace I leave with you not as the world giveth, give I unto you (paraphrased a little bit). I learned about a scripture in Ether 12 talking about the prophets who saw with their own eyes that which they had already seen with an eye of faith.  I've been pondering about seeing with an eye of faith and the importance of asking believing that ye shall believe. But overall a great week :) Yesterday (Thursday 24th) the family that gave us dinner even did a Australian thanksgiving which was awesome! haha 


I love you all and hope y'all have a great week!
-Elder Pierce

President and Sister McSwain (seated in the center)

Ups and Downs

11/14/2016

Dear everyone,

So this week I think has been a great week! One filled with a lot of small miracles and some opposition. So this week first off, Elder Meyer has been feeling like sick.. like light headed and head aches and pretty much like he is going to pass out at anytime.. we think maybe it has something to do with the heat and that his German-ness can't handle the heat (it has been at least over 33 c everyday and very humid). So a couple of the days this week we have had to take it pretty slow for him and on one day we just stayed in the flat all day as Elder Meyer slept and I studied.

Before all of that stuff started happening on Tuesday I went on a trade-off with the zone leader in his area but we pretty much ran a bunch of errands the whole day.. so ya, haha. Wednesday we were able to have a good lesson with Tenielle and we had a cool experience where we came by first at the time that we had the appointment and her kids answered the door and said that she was busy and to come back tomorrow.. and so we were like "noooo!" because we had also brought one of the Ward missionaries, Rocky Utai, with us and we were like well.. what now?  I decided to ask what Rocky and Elder Meyer thought and they both said that they felt like that we should go and leave something for her family. And Rocky remembered that his family just had an extra cake that was chilling and that we should go give it to them. So we went and picked it up and when we came back we knocked on the door and they were like "oh ya come in!" and Tenielle said that right before we knocked on the door that all of her kids just asked her, "what's for dessert??" and she said nothing. Then her oldest son Anthony asked what about some cake? and knock knock knock there we were with some cake. And then we taught them a lesson and asked a lot of questions and they brought up some concerns about baptism that we had never heard about from them and we were able to resolve them all!  They won't be ready for the original date for a baptism but they are definitely on the right path! So you never know what the Spirit might whisper to your companion, but always listen and obey!  We also had her meet the bishop.  We will just have to see how things will go! 

Also next week I won't email till Friday because we are going to the temple then! But I hope you all have a great week and always look out for the little things the Lord blesses you with because the Lord works by small and simple means! 

Alma 37: 6-7 

Ofa atu! (Tongan for I love you)

-Elder Pierce

Another week in the Pimpama Ward

The Beautiful Australian Countryside                     

A picture we took while driving through one of the rural parts in our area 

11/7/2016

Dear everyone,

  

Halloween 

 So this week not too much happened only a couple of things. Monday of course was Halloween! which like I thought was not very big at all... haha There were like a few little little kids coming around to get candy but only a handful of houses were all done up. On that day we had a good lesson at Sister Tapaito's house and she brought 2 different investigators which was awesome and we taught the family the first lesson and watched the restoration video (the 20 min version) and that turned out to be really good. 

Surface Paradise- one of the Gold Coast's largest cities

Then on Wednesday we had a crazy adventure because about 3 weeks ago Elder Meyer hurt his knee by just standing up from his chair and it has been giving him pain and he has been limping the whole 3 weeks. We had originally got him checked out 2 weeks ago and they did an x-ray and all said that there was nothing wrong with his bones.. but the doctor said that there was probably a meniscal cartilage tear (which the knee doctor has said he has never really seen in someone that is only 21). But he said that we had to go to get an MRI done to check things out further... so we got an appointment in Surface Paradise which is only about 30 k's from us but it took forever to drive there and that was the dumbest traffic I've ever driven in.. haha!  But ya, so that was pretty crazy to go all the way down there. and also we only have got the test done and we don't really know anything yet because it has to be inspected by the specialist. 

Sadly this week as well we haven't been able to see Tenielle and her family because they had a pretty bad family emergency (by the way she has like 17 siblings...) but we are keep trying and moving along with her. Also it has been pretty hot around 30 c to 33 c (86-91 degrees F) which is pretty hot especially for it being only spring here. We shall see how the summer goes... nice thing is when we are out door knocking some people give us water, they say that they aren't interested at all but that they have pity on us and give us water.. haha but overall a pretty good week! 

Also pretty cool while we we eating at a member family's house they were talking about their son, Elder Samuela, who was serving in the Kobe mission Japan. I was like I think I have a good friend serving there as well-Elder Bellows!  And cool enough they were showing me some pictures to see if he was in any of their son's photos and sure enough in one of his zone photos there was Elder Bellows! haha Kind of cool how the world is so small when you are a member!

But anyways have a great week everyone!

- Elder Pierce

       One of our members is a baker! So we always get free donuts when we go to her house!                                                        

                    One of our Maori/ Samoan families gave us these, they are a tribal hook made up 
                                       of boar tusk so now we are part of the tribe! haha                  

                 The mission office ran out of English planners so they had to give us Chinese ones