G'day Mates

10/30/2017
Dear Everyone,

 

So just to let everyone know next weeks is transfers, which means we will find out this Saturday if either me or Elder Ray goes. Hopefully not! But it is all in the Lord's hands so whatever he wants to happen will happen. If there is one thing I have learned on my mission is that, pretty much the Lord does what He wants... haha but in the best way possible. 

But this past week has been a good one.  Elder Ray has been feeling heaps better which is  a big plus! We have been pretty busy with a few paper work things etc.. Umm... I don't really know what much to say, we found a couple new investigators through some miracle referrals that we have been getting which is awesome because just when we have baptized most of our teaching pool the Lord just gives us some more people which I will not complain about! 

Hey, I just thought y'all might like to see these. Every month as zone leaders we have to make up a plan that will help our missionaries to work hard and smart for the month. So here are the last two months. Turns out that I do get to use my Photoshop skills. (Yakka definition: work, especially hard work)

But ya it just was you could say a regular good week! :) So everyone have a great week!

- Elder Pierce

I Call it Good!

Last p-day we went down to the bottom of our area, called Boonah with the other Elders and just mucked around so here is one of  those photos

10/23/2017
Dear Everyone,

   So this past week was a pretty good week. But man, can I just say how fast time can fly by.... it is already week 5 of our 6 week transfers! pretty crazy. It was pretty funny this week Elder Ray and I got our car traded for one of the new 2017 Toyota Corollas and we have been joking about how we have been riding around in the future! haha Very Flash Az. 

But for a lot of the week unfortunately Elder Ray has kind of gotten sick again but this time with his cough he has been throwing up... needless to say not that much fun. So this week has been mostly just doing the things that NEED to be done and the rest of the time giving Elder Ray some time to rest. 

Awesomely, we had our baptism for Dianne and Jesika which was awesome very good experience and they were very prepared people from the Lord so I was glad to be a part of their conversion! 

                                                   Baptism Day for Dianne and Jesika

We also had a stake activity on Saturday (it was like a singing festival) And one of our investigator kids came and was part of it on stage! Awesome (I sent a picture I think....??? maybe)

Stake Singing Festival

 But I hope you  all have a great week!

-Elder Pierce

Busy (In the Best Way!)

                                                        Michael's Baptism Day
10/16/2017
Dear Everyone,

So this past week has been pretty busy! We have been working hard and we have been seeing a lot of success. umm I don't really know where to start and because I only have ten minutes left to type this, I will try to be quick. 

We have been doing a lot of preparing for Michael's baptism which was on Saturday (which went really really well).  I also had a trade off with one of the missionaries in the zone on Wednesday. It has been pretty rainy this past week which is really nice because that means it's not so hot because it is not too much fun to go door knocking in the 35-39 degree heat (95-102° F)... haha 

But ya and then Saturday all Elder Ray and I did was go to baptisms because we had four in the zone which was so awesome! One at 11, 3,  5, and 7. Very good day to say the least! 

Ya time is literally just flying by. I hope everyone has a great week!

-Elder Pierce

Elder Ray and Elder Pierce- random silliness

what a white handbook looks like when it goes through the wash...

                                                                   

Miracles and General Conference

10/09/2017

Dear Everyone,

  Okay so I will try to get everything in with this email. First off to answer Dad's question about the investigators who we took their tea from, it is a mom and a daughter (both Australian 52, 26 'ish) We found them through door knocking and they have been coming to church every week and they are preparing to be baptized not this upcoming Saturday but next one. So that is really cool.

It sure was a busy week with Zone Conferences and General Conference as well but it has been a great week full of some cool miracles. We have 4 dates set for baptisms this week (October 14) in the zone. So, we have been seeing a lot of successes in Ipswich and our missionaries are working hard. Our area as well is going very well, especially Raceview ward.  I will tell you one cool miracle that I will hold close to my heart that happened. Last week there was a kid who came to church who came up to me and asked me if I remembered him. And I knew that I knew him but I wasn't sure where from. Well after church it hit me that he was a kid from one of the part member families I taught in my first area and he had gone into foster care for some reason soon after I left the area. And he was just accepted to be with one of our families in Raceview ward! On his first Sunday he went up to his teachers and asked them if he could be baptized. So, we taught him our first lesson this week and he is so keen, we will have to do some work about child services but I think it is amazing how the Lord prepares people especially for us! 

Also at zone conference, like I was saying, I got to sing which was fun again. One of the assistants asked me to sing "You Raise Me Up".  I thought it went really well. We also have a baptism planned for this Saturday of a 13-year-old boy from a part member family and he is such a cool kid we are still working with some of his other siblings but it should be an amazing experience on Saturday. (I will get some pictures for that). 

Sorry this email is kind of all over the place but the work is good and Heavenly Father knows His children and works through the small and simple things! Oh ya conference was AWESOME! As always I especially enjoyed Elder Uchtdorf's talk on Saturday morning. 

Everyone have a great week! Also happy late 18th birthday Dallin!!

Love, Elder Pierce

PS.  Elder Pierce found a the mission blog (https://sewrefining.com/ ) maintained by the Mission President and his wife (President and Sister McSwain) with pictures and videos.  

Click on the link below to hear a short clip of Elder Pierce singing and sharing his beautiful talent!

Elder Pierce and his beautiful voice!

Sorry So Short

10/02/2017

Alright everyone, sorry this email is so short because I had to get some things figured out on the computer and now I realized all my time is gone.

They asked me to sing in zone conference "You Raise Me Up" and I had to find and buy the sheet music so that took a long time. But the week was a busy but good week. We had our missionary leadership meeting with all of the zls (zone leaders) and stls (Sister training leaders) which was fun. Also one of our investigators we taught we shared the Word of Wisdom to and before we left we got them to dump out all of their alcohol and give us their tea so that was pretty cool.

But ya I love you all have a great week!
- Elder Pierce

Elder Ray with a horse

Proof that I'm in Australia

One of our investigators we have been teaching is progressing quite well and when we taught the Word of Wisdom we confiscated all of the tea in the home and we threw it away (with permission, haha)

Another Transfer in the "Swich""

9/25/2017
Dear Everyone,

 So as far as the transfers go I will be staying here in the Yamanto/ Raceview area! Also Elder Ray will be staying but our trio will be gone because Elder Bull will be leaving. It is pretty sad to say goodbye to Elder Bull, it definitely was an awesomely interesting transfer, haha we had a crack up time! Also to let everyone know Elder Bull is doing much better! but ya he is leaving so yup... 

But this last week was interesting because Elder Ray thought he was going to leave so he was going through the stages of grief and everything haha it was actually pretty funny how real it was. On Monday we had a really awesome zone p-day where we played volleyball and ninja and touch which was a lot of fun.  Our missionaries worked really hard to get this zone p-day. 

A lot of the rest of the week went pretty slow because Elder Ray got sick with the flu for two days and because it was week 6 of the transfer we had to clean our flat and do all sorts of things so it was kind of busy. But it is pretty crazy because in our zone the only one who got transferred out was Elder Bull and the rest stayed the same which we were pretty shocked about.  I am pumped for this next transfer because I get along really well with my companion and the work is really moving forward here in Ipswich! 

But ya, hope you all have a great week!

-Elder Pierce 

A Weird but Good Week

10/17 2017
Dear Everyone,

  So this past week was pretty fun, heaps of stuff happened. But before I forget this is the last week of the transfer. So we have found a really awesome part member family a couple of weeks ago and we have set one of the kids on date, their name is the Tau family from NZ. 

So on Tuesday we had a trade off with one of the assistants for the day so we but him with Elder Bull and me and Elder Ray did some other work which was fun. We also had a dinner with one of our investigators that day her name is Tammy and she was going to go into surgery the next day and so she asked that we would give her a blessing.  She asked that I would give it and it was such an awesome blessing one of the coolest I have ever given, and so she felt much better about her surgery. 

Then because we were already planning on doing a trade-off with the Callingwood Park Elders (Elder Meyer) so I was going to go with Elder Meyer in his area with Elder Bull as well. But while we were waiting for The Collingwood Park missionaries to show up it took to long so we started mucking around.. and ya long story short there Elder Bull fell off the back of the car and now he has a minor concussion...... ya....... so ya.... but so on the the trade off Elder Bull passed out a couple of times and so we took him to the doctors and the doctor pretty much said he has a minor concussion so just be careful with him for the next couple of weeks. So Pretty much that trade-off day I just chilled with Elder Meyer in the flat and drove Elder Bull to doctors appointments and ct scans and such. 

Then on Thursday we went into Brisbane city to teach an English language study class that our mission is doing for some of the missionaries who are struggling a lot with English so we did that all day. But it was pretty cool because Elder Choi my last companion was there! and I actually got to teach a real Korean investigator with him so that was fun. And then ya we had a ward activity in Raceview on Saturday morning but we had to leave because Elder Bull fainted again..... but ya so we had a weird but really good week and the work here in our area has been picking up a lot :) so ya awesome stuff. 

Everyone have a good week!

-Elder Pierce