Missionary Life in Beenleigh

Small world!
This is Elder Pierce with a member of his ward, Brother Butler.
Bro. Butler was a former mission companion of Tyler Bellows.
The Bellows family are great friends from our home ward in NC!

7/17/2017
Dear Everyone,

   First things, I have no idea what to put as the subject of these emails... but oh well. This past week was a pretty good week, pretty busy though! Haha On Monday we did some street contacting at night and it was so crazzy for the first time in my mission we talked to this guy who wanted to fight us... He almost started swinging blows at my companion! Pretty intense but I am pretty sure the guy was on drugs because he had this crazy look in his eyes... a little scary, but it was all good :) haha 

Wednesday we had Zone conference with the Mission President and a couple of other zones. It was really fun because me and Elder Choi did our musical item of "Thy Will Be Done!" which we had practiced for the first time in the morning before the zone conference... But Elder Choi is a master at reading music so it was all good :) We are making some pretty good steps with one of our investigators who is dating a member. We just finished teaching the hard stuff like the law of chastity and the word of wisdom and that seemed to go well. So Ya we will keep helping her progress! 

Then awesomely I got to do a trade-off with Pimpama and it was so good :) I showed the new missionary a couple of former investigators and good members to work with. But it was really fun to see some good ole faces :) But ya it was a busy but good week! 

Love you all

-Elder Pierce

Beenleigh

7/10/2017
Dear Everyone,

  

So this past week has been really busy I guess, but really fun! It is good to be in a new area and to be working hard and putting my shoulder to the wheel. So as far as the Fourth of July goes, I completely forgot until halfway through the day when I was writing down in my planner what day it was and then I was like... WOOHHOOO MURICA! haha The only thing I did to celebrate was to read 

1 Nephi chapter 13 during Elder Choi's language study, haha.

But while I am talking about Elder Choi, he has been on his mission for 4 months and he was born and raised in the church. His English.. haha we are working on it, but it's not TOO bad. But when I got transferred here they told me I would really have to work on language study. And he is also the man! haha I have been trying to learn some Korean from him, so now I know how to say like hello, thank you, and what not. We had another missionary with us until Wednesday because he is training a new missionary and the golden didn't come in until Wednesday.  It was really fun to have another missionary around especially for when we go door knocking. 

Lots of cool things happened so I will try and share a few. One amazing thing is there is a brand new recent convert guy here in Beenleigh and he was just baptized last transfer. But the coolest thing is that this man is the first ever potential investigator I ever found while I was in my first area!! When I saw him and heard about him I was like NO WAY! It was so cool to see him because he has changed like everything and it is so cool. The ward here is very keen to work with us and to get stuff done especially our ward mission leader. On Tuesday it was a little weird because I had to run our district meeting but it turned out pretty good and I gave this last minute training because i didn't know if I was suppose to have one prepared.. haha But it turned out great! I also got to go on a trade off with our zone leaders on Friday and it was so fun because they live down the road from Jamie and Kim'lee Wright (my recent converts in Pimpama) So I got to visit them! So good to see them :) Then on Sunday it was pretty crazy because Not only was i introduced to the ward but they also got a new bishop of our ward! So new and exciting things happening. And then another cool thing about Elder Choi is that he can play the piano very well and we are going to be doing a musical item for a zone conference this Wednesday so that should be pretty fun. 

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

-Elder Pierce

Bitter Sweet

                                       Saying Goodbye to the Lovely City of Warwick
7/3/2017
Dear Everyone,

  So I will start this letter with some of the good news: By this past week Wednesday I was feeling all better! I had my voice back and everything!  Which might i say was really nice. It was a bit of a slow week in Warwick because I was still recovering and what not. 

But now for the crazy news.....(drum roll)...... Today was the transfers day and it turns out that I got transferred! I thought I was going to be staying in Warwick to finish the training of Elder Haiane but.. nope, I guess the Lord had some other plans. But the awesome news is that I got transferred to an area in my last district!! haha I am in a place called Beenleigh. So you know for sure that I will be visiting some people in Pimpama!!! When the calls came in Saturday night about the transfers I was like what? and then when I found out where I was going I was like.. haha awesome! I have been in Beenleigh before just for a day or two. 

My new companion's name is Elder Choi from South Korea, Seoul. He seems pretty cool, it will be funny, they told me I have to make sure to work on his English skills, which I thought was funny because that is what the last mission president said to me about my trainer! haha I don't know too much about him yet because we have only been together for a few hours but I am excited. It is a bit sad to see all of the people in Warwick off, because I formed some good bonds there but you have to do what the Lord says that is for sure! 

The Clark Family

Ya I don't really know what else to say I hope you enjoy the pictures I made sure to take a couple more. So ya we shall see how this goes. 

Love, Elder Pierce

Us at the Warwick Chapel

The Warwick Chapel (A Queenslander style building)

There was frost on the ground

A Little Bit Under the Weather in the Land Down Under

                                        Thankful for the kindness of ward members!
6/26/2017
Dear everyone,

   So after an awesome week like last week of course Satan has to strike...... haha but pretty much since last Wednesday, which was the day I emailed last, I have been sick with some kind of cold flu thingy.... That has been pretty bad. But it started out as just a scratchy throat with a cough and then just into the whole shebang with possible fever, aches, ears in pain and just like you can imagine it being. So ya we stayed in the flat most of the week.. I mean like all of it. And just doing whatever we can, like we have done a little bit of service and what not but not much missionary work, mostly resting and sleeping. 

One night a family invited us over for dinner (the Clarks) and I told them I was sick and they were like, all good just come over, apparently they had just gotten over the sickness that I have. And since they knew I was sick they have been looking after us like dropping off food and being really nice! We are very lucky to have some awesome members in our ward! But then on Saturday one of the members who is a doctor found out I was sick and came over and checked on me to see how I was going. He checked me out at his doctor's office and he said it was probably just a virus and that I will get better pretty soon. So this past Sunday was the first Sunday on my mission that was a day of rest! haha because I was asleep for most of it, but I am feeling a lot better today -still only about 75% but it is a lot better! I think I will be good by tomorrow or the next day. 

But ya that is pretty much it, Hope you all have a great week! Also I recently watched a Mormon message that you all might like it is called "The Music of the Gospel" about a Native American healer guy. 

Love you all!

-Elder Pierce

A get well note

Surprise Miracles!

                                                  A Surprise Miracle- Baptism Day!
6/21/2017
Dear Everyone,

  

First thing, Sorry I forgot about fathers day because it is not Australian Father's day.... I think every country has their own Father's day but everyone has the same mother's day. Either way though... happy LATE father's day! 

So I feel like heaps has happened because heaps has happened... But I will try and capture most of it in this email.  I will get the big things First. So last Friday We had the awesome opportunity to have Francia's baptism! She was pretty funny because she kept saying that she would be baptized only if she would pass her interview with our district leader (who by the tender mercies of the Lord is a Filipino as well and speaks her native language) and she did awesome with her interview, it was a bit awkward though because we had to do it over skype so that the district leader wouldn't have to travel but it worked out pretty good still. Then We had to schedule everything like making programs, she wanted to be baptized on Friday and 2pm was about the only time that suited our bishop due to him being a police man. So it was a bit of a weird time but it ended up that we still had the baptism well attended. But the morning of, since our chapel has no baptismal font, we had to make our own! (pictures were sent) It was like this big metal sheet that we rolled out to make a circle then we screwed it all together and then we put a pool bladder in and then just filled it up with hot water so that by the time it was filled it would be warm (it look 3-4 hours to fill up) and we had to be there while it was filling because of Australia law. The baptism went pretty smooth other than the fact when our bishop was baptizing her he didn't mention she should close her mouth... so she breathed in a bit of water and came up coughing! But other than that it was really good!

                                       Francia's Baptism Day (she was baptized by the Bishop)

                                                       Setting up the Baptismal Font

                                                       Elder Pierce filling the font with water

Afterwards the assistants of our mission had come up to see the baptism (they ended up being 30 min late) but they made it up to us by buying us lunch! Then on the Saturday We had a trade off with our zone leaders and I stayed in Warwick. And me and the zone leader made it a goal to re-invite Anne (one of our investigators who was going to be baptized) to be baptized and we found out she planning to move possibly at the end of this week and she was pretty stressed about it.  When we finished teaching about the gift of the Holy Ghost to her the elder who was with me made her a promised blessing and said Anne you could be baptized as soon as tomorrow but we promise you that if you will be baptized that Your move will go a lot smoother! (now when he said you could be baptized as soon as tomorrow we didn't mean for it to be tomorrow..) But she sat there and thought about it and said,"Well, can I be baptized tomorrow??" and we were like uhhh... yes I think so. So BAM it was happening we called up everyone and made it possible and she was baptized right after church! But on that Saturday night we did a "Meet the Mormons" night that we put on and we had a fantastic turn out! We had like 7'ish non members and everyone loved it! Then on the Sunday we got our baptismal font re-set up ( since we took it down) and we had another awesome baptism of Anne! 

Anne's Baptism Day!

And then today (Wednesday) we got to go the temple! which was awesome and we also had our interviews! Which is the reason that we got to come down to the temple because usually they say that we are too far away... But since they were already doing interviews, they decided to let us come down to kill two birds with one stone! So we had a pretty good week :)

Love you all and have a great week!

-Elder Pierce

Car trip to the temple

Zone Photo at the Brisbane Temple

Statue in downtown Warwick

Service

Stay Golden Pony Boy

                               Elder Pierce with his new companion, Elder Haiane
                                          (Brisbane skyline in the background)
6/12/2017
Dear Every one,

   

   So we had a pretty busy week. There was a lot of switching around and what not. One thing was we learned on Sunday night last week, was that this past week was golden orientation! Meaning on Thursday and Friday we went to Brisbane to drop off Elder Haiane so that he could get some extra training and what not! But you know what that means... road trip to Brisbane!!! haha It is only about a 2'ish hour drive though so it isn't toooo bad. Plus while we travel down I love to listen to a lot of talks and things and my companion loves to... sleep. haha But it gives me some good time to ponder and think. On Thursday we dropped him off and then me and another missionary who is training went to an area in Bunya Forest and blitzed the area. (that just means we came and gave them an extra hand) funny enough the missionaries we went with were both my friends Elder Iufoni (a Tongan elder that was in my first district) and Elder Cummings from my MTC. So it was actually pretty good to catch up with them both and then on Friday we got some more training for being trainers from President McSwain which was really good, something that really stuck out to me was that he talked about living after the manner of happiness which is of course being obedient. But it was very good. 

In Brisbane for Golden Orientation

Then after we finished with golden orientation on Friday afternoon we drove back up to Warwick and then we did a whole bunch of service for the Clark family because they are moving and they are getting close to that deadline... so we did the best we could to be available. (it is the same Clark family who we used their house to Skype at). 

Then on Sunday it was a good day at church. We are also pretty busy trying to organize for the baptism of our Filipino investigator Francia, which will be this Friday! So we are really excited for her... and really busy scheduling it all in but that is a good kind of busy. ummm... let's see also this week our ward is having a ward activity, which we are organizing with our ward mission leaders help. It is going to be a "Meet the Mormons" movie night so that everyone can bring friends to come and see who the Mormons really are. Next week I probably won't email until Wednesday because we will get a chance to go down to the temple. 

But other than that, I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Pierce

I found a Australia jersey and I bought it.... so yup

A Good Week!

                                            Yes, that's a real lizard on Elder Pierce's tie!
June 5, 2017
Dear everyone,

   So this past week just like it says in the subject line was a pretty good week, Elder Haiane has been adjusting very well and he is going to be a great missionary! He has got a lot of heart. 

Well let's see, we have been teaching lots of people and we have been particularly working with our Filipino investigator, Francia, because we saw her twice this week and she came to church as well! But I will get into that more. We have been doing heaps of service for the former member because she has been moving houses and she is older and needs a lot of help so we spent many hours helping with that. Then Wednesday we had a chance to go to a zone conference (a meeting with President McSwain and 2-3 other zones). Luckily we have a senior couple missionaries in our ward and they helped give us a ride down to the place. And awesomely enough it was held in the stake center of my first area (which when I was there hadn't been finished being built yet) so that was very fun to see! 

We also had some more funny experiences while out knocking doors, one older guy talked to us for like 30 minutes and he was "departing his wisdom to us". He told us to stay away from drugs but the funny thing was that he would look at my companion and point his finger when he would say stay away from drugs! Then he was like, "and stay away from the night clubs in Brisbane, especially you"(pointing at my companion) hahaha I was cracking up about it after that! 

Also about Francia she has once again accepted to be baptized and she is looking a lot more prepared! The cool thing too is the guy who will be doing the interview is also a Filipino elder and he speaks her language which will be good! I guess the Lord has got his timing for everyone and everything! But ya it was a pretty good week. 

I hope you all have a great week too!

Elder Pierce