Rain, Rain Go Away

                    Elder Pierce weathering the rains and flood from Tropical Cyclone Debbie
4/3/2017
Dear Everyone,

   So this week was a pretty awesome week! On Tuesday we had our interviews with the mission president and the assistants asked me and Elder Tewes to do a musical item for a mission tour that is coming up.  So we will be singing a mix between the children's hymns "Did Jesus Really Live Again?" and "To Think About Jesus". I came up with the idea to do those songs but Elder Tewes is the one that makes it work because his amazing masterful piano skills, so that will be pretty fun. But after interviews we had to rush back to Warwick because we had the funeral of the recent convert, Fred, and me and Elder Tewes sang "Where Can I Turn for Peace?" which was pretty good. 

We also are teaching this Filipino lady whose name is Franka (french-ah) and since our bishop served his mission in her part of the Philippines he has been helping us teach (he does most of it since we can't speak Tagolog) which is pretty awesome! 

Then on Thursday it was pretty crazy because our mission president told the whole mission to stay in their flats all day past 11am because of some really big cyclones that are hitting Australia (Tropical Cyclone Debbie made landfall on March 28, 2017 in northeast Australia's Queensland state) . Luck enough Warwick is pretty far inland so we were not that affected but we did get quite a bit of rain and lots of flooding! But no damage really which is really good! 

Here in Australia there has been some massive flooding and what not (not as bad for us in Warwick because we are pretty inland..) but here are the pictures from all of the rain and flooding

If you see the parallel line of trees, well that is where the water is suppose to be in between.

Elder Tewes and I now found a new way to do language study since his English is already perfect... what we do is I read words from his German English dictionary and he has to a. guess the word I'm saying and b. translate in English. It has been pretty fun and my German pronunciation is not that bad! haha Also we have been doing a lot of service for this older guy helping him fix up his house and paint and what not and he recently let us share the restoration with him and he said he really wants to read the Book of Mormon which is awesome! 

My investigators that wanted to be married, Robert and Shonna have been having some big trials. But ya Robert has been having some really bad health issues with his blood pressure because he has a blocked bundle in his heart. So we were just able to see them this week finally after a long while. His faith is still strong but his body is a little weak. He was telling us about the difference about saying we have faith and then actually having to have faith. We were able to give him a blessing and watch the Mormon Message (which  highly recommend you watch) "Mountains to Climb" about trials in this life. But ya that is the go with them. and again things with my companion are awesome :) We have a lot of fun with music and what not and doing the Lord's work. He is a little more bold than I am.. maybe that is the German in him though.. haha

Other than that in our ward choir practices since there aren't too many (meaning no) altos who can read their part I get to sing alto with them and the men's part as well! haha which is fun. In this upcoming week we will be having trade offs so that we can bring this Taiwan missionary to teach our Chinese investigator which will be really cool I bet! 

But that is about it I guess. I hope you all have a great week!

-Elder Pierce

Also I got a new bag from the recent convert because my old bag looks a little worse for wear.. haha

Fast Week

                                                                  Warwick, Australia
3/27/2017
Dear everyone,

  

   I don't know why but I feel like I just emailed everyone yesterday... haha it goes by SO fast. This past week has been a good week for us here in Warwick, fast but good! So to start off, our investigators Robert and Shonna (the couple who want to get married) we still haven't been able to meet them in a while because Shonna is still working heaps and Robert has been pretty unwell... so not much progress there but they are still doing good reading the Book Of Mormon and what not. So on one of the days we decided to leave a treat for them but since we didn't really have enough time to make them anything... we gave them a couple of packets of kool-aid that I had left over and we hoped that it was good enough. 

Our Chinese investigator has been going very well we try and use as much Chinese resources as we possibly can! We showed her The Restoration in Mandarin and also Finding Faith in Christ, both were really good for her! Click to view "Finding Faith in Christ"  Lots of times she will ask us questions in English and then we will find the answer in the BOM and show it to her in Chinese (just so you know it's very hard to find because we can only understand the numbers..haha) Kind of on a bitter sweet note we are going to the funeral of one of the recent converts of a month because he had terminal cancer and he was baptized very soon before he passed away. It is a very long amazing conversion story but I don't have time to write it but Elder Tewes and I will be singing at his funeral at his wife's request (she also was baptized at the same time).

I have also received some requests to share some more about my companion. Well he is pretty cool we get along really well... haha He absolutely loves music and he wants to be a film score composer, like Hans Zimmer. He is verry good at what he does needless to say. He also loves to sing and he is very good at it. On that note yesterday at church We sang a song together "In Humility our Savior" hymn 172 that went really well!  Also right after I sang the song it was my turn to give a talk. My subject was about overcoming our fears to share the gospel and I shared some of my experiences on my mission and I told everyone that as they probably noticed I am a very shy person who doesn't like to talk to people. and to my astonishment many members came up to me and talked about how they would not have guessed that and some people even said I was really outgoing... haha, well that's a change! 

But recently I have been studying a lot from Jesus the Christ by James E. Talmage and I am about half way through and I have also been studying and pondering a lot about faith and believing in things which are not seen. Along with prayers and how we should not be casual in our prayers but realize that we are approaching the throne of God (we also got to watch that face face broadcast to the youth) But things are going pretty well and we are both really keen to do the Lord's work! And I still can't get over  the fact that I have been in my mission longer than a year.. crazy but it is always amazing to me with what the Lord can do with the little bit that we give him! 

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

Also if anyone has any specific questions they want to ask me just go ahead and ask me and I'll try to answer!

-Elder Pierce

                                                            The Warwick Post Office

                                               typical Queenslander style homes/buildings

Another Week in Warwick

                                 Our full day p-day with President! Ipswich West zone!! haha
3/20/2017
Dear everyone,

This past week has been a pretty good week! So we didn't get back to Warwick until Wednesday afternoon because we were still in Ipswich for full day p-day and zone meetings and what not. But it was really fun to be in Ipswich because it is very similar to what Camira is like :) nice and dodegy! haha 

But now it is good to be back here in Warwick! I think the highlight of the week is that we found this Chinese lady, Esther (that is her English name because we couldn't pronounce her Chinese one...) She is a young mom with one daughter who is just over a year old! She and her husband have been Australia for two years because her husband has a job here working with I think crop yields and what not. But we have been teaching her, and while we were in Ipswich we got a bunch of stuff in Chinese so we could give it to her. So the way that we have been teaching is that we give her the Chinese pamphlet and we use the English one and read and discuss (and she understands about 70% 'ish I would say). She has such sincere questions because in China they teach them in school that God is not real and that it is just you. So we are having to teach pretty much everything! It has been so cool talking about the plan of salvation and teaching about Eternal truths that we take for granted. Like when we told her that even her own ancestors would have a chance to hear the gospel she was like, no way! 

Also pretty cool is that our ward is going to be singing in stake conference and being that both Elder Tewes and I are musical we are going to sing a song in a quartet and be in the ward choir! which is awesome because I love being in choirs!! 

But I think that that is about it... I love you all and hope you have a great week! 

-Elder Pierce

** Side note: This is Noah's message to me (Mom) about our recent health scare and 9 day hospital stay with Tanner (our 13 year-old).  Noah's faith lifts me up and gives me strength, I'm sure he wouldn't mind me sharing...

WOOHOO Tanner is home!!! That is really good! I sent you and dad and email for him! Let him know I love him! I wish I could do something more... but all I can do is pray and I KNOW that Heavenly Father hears every one of my prayers, so I am trusting it in our Heavenly Father's hands! There are just some things that only God can do for us and our family! love you mum! Have a great week!

G'day Y'all

3/14/2017
Dear everyone,

First I realize that I still say y'all and also G'day so now a lot of people can't actually tell where my accent is from?? A lot of people think I'm from western Australia or NZ and then the rest of them think I'm from America. (and one drunk guy thought I was Irish...) 

My prayers go out to Tanner! I hope you get feeling better and that our Heavenly Father will inspire us to know what to do!

But this past week has been another good week up in the bush of Warwick! A bit busy but good! I'm getting to know the members better which is good and it is pretty easy because there are not that many so that means less names to try to remember.. haha But since Thursday we've been doing your normal missionary stuff just working hard and praying hard!  We've had some dinners in members' homes with our investigators Robert and Shonna (the ones who want to be married). We are still working on when they want to be married but they are taking to the gospel like a fish to water which is awesome! 

On Sunday we saw this less active guy (who has many mental health issues like schizophrenia and what not) but he is really nice and has been teaching us these cool games that he makes up out of Uno cards some of them are really fun and really creative! And then Monday was a zone conference so we drove down to Ipswich (1 1/2-2 hours) and we stayed in Ipswich because it takes up too may of our k allotment to drive back and forth so we have been helping our zone leaders in their area by knocking on doors and what not!  Then today which is Tuesday our zone has a full day p-day with President which is awesome!! and then we will drive back to Warwick tomorrow (Wednesday) but lots of good things! 

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

-Elder Pierce

A picture Elder Meyer sent of Jamie and Kim Lee visiting the Brisbane Temple! :)

 I bought some American treats from an American shop on my year mark day! haha 

Warwick part 2

3/9/2017

Dear Everyone,

So I didn't know what to put for the subject title so ya... first sorry I am emailing late because today is our zones temple p-day, but we don't get to go here in Warwick because we are too far.. (about a 2-3 hour drive to the temple) But this past week has been a pretty good week! it feels like I've been in Warwick a lot longer than I have but then again it also feels really short. Just funny how our perception of time works. But today is Thursday here, and coincidentally it is my one year mark! which is pretty crazy it feels like I've been out for ages while at the same time it feels like time has flown by SO fast. But i'm really glad and grateful that i am still here serving the Lord :) 

But I'll get into the email. So About Elder Tewes, Warwick is his first area and I am his second companion. He has been in the mission two transfers so he still has what we call that golden spirit! haha He is 19 and just came out on his mission right after high school. but ya he is a cool Elder and we get along pretty well. But the week like I said was good it was so weird because Elder Tewes is driving and leading the area because he knows all of the people which is different where I was running the show pretty much in Pimpama.

The master at work- Elder Tewes is an excellent piano player

Warwick is a pretty small town kind of place and the chapel is in an old house in downtown Warwick they call the type of house a Queenslander (maybe you can look it up on google because I forgot to take a picture of it) We have about 60-80 people that come so it is very similar to my first area Camira in that sense. And everyone is Australian which is much different.. haha big change to see none of my Polynesian people.. haha But we have been doing lots of door knocking (even on the farm houses because it is very rural in some parts) but we have already had some cool miracles and tender mercies. Such as we have an investigator couple who want to join the church but they have to be married and we were worried for the lesson.. but when we got there they were like ya we want to be married but we had no church to do it in.. so we married ourselves in our backyard between us and God. haha So they are keen to have our bishop marry them. And then one morning after a lot of trying to follow up with potential investigators and what not and former investigators we stopped by one more and of course he wasn't home but I felt impressed that we should knock on more of the doors on his street, just after we had been talking about how there was no one home and lo and behold a Chinese lady answered the door and let us teach her a short lesson and she said that she wanted to know and believe in God but it's hard because in the schools in China they teach them that there is no God. But it was really cool to follow a prompting and it work!! :)

I love ya all it has been awesome and I hope things start to clear up back home it sounds like a lot of crazy stuff is happening.

Love you all and have a great week!

-Elder Pierce

A really big spider we saw!

This is district meeting.. we live too far away so we Skype in using a members i-pad.

Out with a BANG and Germany part 2

                                                                    The Baptism 
                      (sorry the picture quality is a little bad but we kind of look celestial.. haha)
2/27/2017
Dear everyone,

So legit, so many things have happened that it is crazy! haha I'll try and capture it all. Also I forgot to mention but this past week was the last week of the transfer..... But the week was bitter sweet but mostly sweet! 

The first part of the week was normal stuff p-day as normal. Tuesday we had a district service for this old guy in our district leader's area where we cleaned his house. Wednesday we did some more service for Sister Rodriguez the older sister in our ward (the same one where i cut my wrist and had to go to the hospital) and then we had a meeting with our brand new ward mission leader who got called on Sunday.  Then Thursday was the day of baptismal interviews. We had our district leader come and do Anthony's interview and he will be baptized this Saturday upcoming ( but I won't be there....) and then later in the day we had our mission president come and do the interviews for Jamie, Kim-lee and Atlanta.  It was so cool they got to meet our mission president and he is such a great guy! The interview went well and they were all set for Saturday! But we had to make the baptismal program and they had the hardest time deciding who was going to baptize them either me or Elder Meyer so we ended up deciding to split and let one do the girls and the other do Jamie but then we actually had to flip a coin to decide who did what... haha and Kim was like WE ARE BETTING!! haha  So it came out that I did Jamie and Elder Meyer did Atlanta and Kim and the bishop did all of the confirmations at church! It was SOO awesome! 

Right after the baptism we had our ward activity which was a karaoke night which was so fun and of course since they were all Maori they were mean singers!

Also Elder Meyer has been feeling pretty sick the last few days which means that we are only able to go to our set appointments and the rest of the time let him sleep.. I feel bad for him but it is the way it goes sometime I guess. But then on Saturday night we got the call to tell us if we were getting transferred or not and they said........................... Elder Meyer staying and Elder Pierce going! .............................. but they didn't know where?? So it was really bitter sweet to have such cool amazing experiences and then to have to get up and leave. But I will go and do the things the Lord commands! Then Sunday was our last day and it was ward conference so I didn't get to give my testimony in the meeting and then we tried to say goodbye to as many people as we could but the time just kept slipping away but at least I got to say goodbye to Jamie and Kim and also Tenille. I know the Lord will continue to look out for them!

Saying goodbye to Tenille's family

Well I don't remember giving Nevaeh my camera but here is a picture she took with our car

Now I found out that I got transferred to Warwick (pronounced without the w in the middle) which is out in the bush... middle of no where! haha but it should be awesome! And my new companion is.......................... Elder Tewes (pronounced weird... kind of like Tay(but no so hard ay) vus) and guess what? he is also from Germany! haha Now I have had all the Germans in the mission for my companions! haha  Elder Meyer and I were cracking up when we found out he was going to be my companion. He is from the more southern part of Germany called Stuttgart and I checked neither Elder Meyer or Elder Tewes live near where Dieter F. Uchtdorf lived... oh well.. haha  We have already connected pretty well, we both love choir music and music and he is an amazing piano player! 

The drive up to my new area Warwick - it's such a pretty drive very bush and mountainy!

My new companion Elder Tewes (pronounced weird... kind of like Tay(but no so hard ay) vus) he is also from Germany

But I am excited to do the work here in my new area and I will tell you more about it next week!

Love, Elder Pierce

How'sitgoin?

                                           The wonderful wedding of Jamie and Kim'lee
2/20/2017
Dear everyone,

First, the subject of the letter is like a traditional Aussie greeting.  It should be "how is it going?" but they smash it all together really fast. 

But this past week has been awesome!! So other than the wedding on this Saturday, not much happened. We had a trade-off with our zone leaders on Thursday and it went pretty well it's always nice to have a switch up every once in a while!  After that Elder Meyer has been pretty sick for the week and we stayed in the flat some and let him get some rest.. because he has been throwing up a little bit and just not feeling great.  So we went to the doctor to get him checked out and the doctor said that he probably just has the flu but it was pretty cool because the doctor knew how to speak German so that was a cool little tender mercy of the Lord.

Other than that the wedding was really awesome!  It was pretty cool because we were in charge of like none of it so we just had to show up and be there! But it really was awesome they are making such awesome progress. I also was the witness for their wedding so I had to sign these legal forms! Pretty crazy!  We also gave some speeches as the best men but it was a good time overall!

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

 -Elder Pierce        

So I have heaps of videos but I can't send them because it takes to long for them to load.... 

the bishop and his family and a few other kids from the bishopric's family did this really cool Polynesian dance show but I only took videos so yup sorry.. haha 

But here are some pictures I got:

                                                                  Wedding Photos

                                                              Jamie and Kim'lee

                                               This is Jamie and Kim'lee's whole family-

 one of the sons was flown in from Darwin (the older boy who has brownish hair) to get to the wedding

                                                  The Wedding Party with the Best Men :)

                                                       I thought this photo was pretty funny :P