Friday, August 8, 2014

August 4, 2014

This week has been amazing, like absolutely fantasticly amazing!
So as a missionary I have like zero time to write in my journal my letters to you are my letters in my journal... literally every night for my whole mission and especially now we are working till 10:15 PM 10:25 PM then we race to bed wakeup at 6 AM then get back at it! I love it and the the thought of this being my last full month on my mission makes me want to give her like 10X more!!!
So I am going to begin by giving as detailed of letter because this week has been a blessed week of doing the Lords work. The Lords work is always amazing, especially if we allow Him to be in control of all things as we diligently do our best to work by the Spirit. 
 
So my companion we just love each other, she is my age 22 will be 23 in November, she has been out for 5 months but I feel as though she has been out as long as me. We are 100% on the same page, and learning so much from one another. This Sunday we are opening up transfer letters, we are hoping and praying we will be with one another next transfer 3 weeks is not enough. I feel we will be staying the same although I have been in the Cole Harbour ward since January, but who knows! I love the Cole Harbour ward so much it is the best ward in the mission, and well it just feels like my home ward. But Sister Howell and are just hard working and loving it, we get along so well and yea what more can I say! She has a great style we share clothes, and we will be life long friends! I love being a STL with her.
 
So I am not sure if I gave you the update about Debbie last week ... Two days before Debbie's baptism she got a call from the hospital because she has been on a waiting list for 6 mnths to recieve this neck surgery. And BOOM TWO DAYS before her baptism and got a call that they recieved a neck bone donar for her surgery and that her surgery would be the Friday before her baptism.  She had the bone replaced in her neck as her evil horrible tenants from a year a go pushed her down the stairs and broke two disks in her neck, so this surgery was a result of that. So Debbie and us were quite sad but also happy because this neck surgery is a blessing. It is a pre baptism gift from Heavenly Father. So as Debbie has been healing she ended up getting blood clots in her lungs so she has been on blood thinners for the past week, and she has been in the hospital since July 25th so we are hoping and praying she can get out tomorrow! She can't get her wound wet for 3-4 weeks, so her baptism is postponed till Aug 23! We all and Debbie including call herself the "dry mormon". She is great and we have been visiting her and reading the Book of Mormon in the hospital. 
 
This week we had a exchange with Syndey sisters who are 5 hours away so we each met half way and switched.  I served with Sister Olsen during the day who actually came out with me, her and I have not served around one another for our whole missions so it was quite nice and learned alot from each other! 

We just had an amazing week let me share a few experiences we had:
So on Friday we picked up 4 new investigators. For a big part of the day we were making our wall maps of the areas, it was crazy first off our area is HUGE so we have like 6 maps we had to make, now we have to put dots on them for all members, LA's, investigators, formers, potentials crazy huge project but it is helping with us prioritizing our efforts and making effective efficient plans. So we went to Staples (being deprived of talking to people we talked to everyone in our flyingsight during out time in the store) and we ended up setting up a appointment with our cashier guy who was ringing us through, his name is Kabu!! He is a African canadaian who is baptist, so we called Sister Brooks who use to be baptist and is african canadian planned to have her come with us to teach him, she was the most perfect person to come! We ended up teaching Kabu late Friday morning after our weekly planning in the temple grounds it was amazing!! We taught him the Restoration and it would not of been the same without Sister Brooks there, she was able to relate to him and testify in a way we could not. So we picked up Kabu and will be teaching him again tomorrow!
Then afterwards we had a lesson set up with Debbie's neighbour actually, so we went and picked up Sister Pinsent to come with us to the lesson, and we drove 15 mins to and no show.... we were little stumped because Carlene seemed so interested!! So we drove back dropped Sister Pinsent off at home, then BOOM we get a call from Carlene and she said she was running late from a doctors appointment, so we swing on back and go and pick up Sister Pinsent again and go on right back and teach  agreat first lesson with Carlene, she will be on vacation for 2 weeks but we will be teaching her when she is back and she looks forward to attending church when she is back. She has a 4 year old son and 11 yr old daughter! She is a single parent. 
then we go and do some finding then we have a DA with a member that day, we drive past the church and we see a young fellow walking through the church parking lot, and we just are like "dang! we don't have time to stop and talk to him!!" So we continue to drive to our apt, had a great member visit. Then we end up going back to the church after knocking that area, as we felt prompted to so we did... and we pull up and Sis H and I see that young man again and we both just look at one another and I am just like"OK go Sis H!! Run out I will park the car and follow!!" haha so we whip in the church parking lot i slam on the breaks she hops out I put the car in break and run following her haha it was great!! So we go introduce ourselves to this boy and friend that is a girl, we talk to them his name is Twyron and her's is Mckenzie, he is 18 and she is 17. So we invite them to come in the church after having a good convo with them, and we end up giving one of the most powerful church tours!! The Spirit was so strong, we could tell Twyron is raised in tough circumstances, and we knew we were exactly where the Lord needed us to be. So we end up getting to the end of the church tour where we described all the paintings pretty well give a good understanding of the gospel and the blessings of it through teaching through the art in the church, and we get to the point where we are about to go into the chapel, we explained it all and we invited them to sit down where ever they wanted and to pray and ponder in the chapel in silence, to reflect on the spirit. So we all go in quietly all take our seats and Twyron just is praying so fervently, he bows his head and for about 10 minutes we are all just silently sitting in the chapel. The Spirit was sooooo strong!! It was a profound powerful moment, I just felt so at peace, I truly felt as though angels were around us, (as weird as that sounds) it is true. My heart just felt so still, I just was praying in gratitude and asking Heavenly Father to help me to never forget this transcendent moment. I know this gospel is true, and I know that their is a great spirit in the chapel, I feel it is so easy for me to forget the magnitude of the chapel the importance of it, we have a sacred ordinance each week that takes place in the chapel the sacrament, what a blessing it is to have these miraculous truths and blessings in our lives that just is so normal to us that we tend to forget the importance of it. So afterwards we all quietly walk out and go sit in the Relief Society room we ask Twyron how he feels. He said " I felt as though Christs hand was on my shoulder, I felt impressed that everything is going to be alright one day and that things will get better" at this moment Sister Howell and I truly experienced the spirit literally burning our bosoms, my heart was so full and so warm. It was amazing, we commited Twyron to be baptized for Aug 30th and he accepted, just as we were coming to a close of the lesson, the YM's president and the elders quorm president randomly showed up at the chapel and we were able to introduce Twyron to them both. 

Saturday we went to the hospital with Sister Kidd to see Debbie, the Cole Harbour ward is so great they already have visiting teachers assigned for Debbie even though she isn't even a member yet!! Like that is fellowship right there!! I know and have faith the Lord will be preparing many wonderful people for us to teach with the ward like this!

Sunday was absolutely amazing so it was fast and testimony meeting, and with all the amazing experiences the members in the ward has been having in coming out and serving Gods children with us through street contacting, knocking and prayerfully picking LA's for us as member and missionaries to go reach out to Sister Howell and I have been asking the members that have been coming out with us to bear their testimonies about their missionary experiences, so couple members did. It has been amazing because Sister Patti Devlin who served a mission 20+ years ago is pretty shy and has been struggling with the lose of her mother this past year was one of these members. Last ward council we mentioned to the ward that she has been prayerfully selecting LA's to come out with us and the ward was shocked because she has been LA in the past, we had an great expierence where she came out with us to go reach out to these LAs she was tearful about it so we invited her to bear her testimony and she said yes and I excitendly said "OK I will bear my testimony with you!!" This was a couple weeks ago. So with 10 minutes left she gets up and bears her testimony, then infront of the whole congregation as she closed her testimony before she walks away she points her finger and says " sister Pizzey your turn!" hahaha. So I got up after came up to the podium and said: "Well I felt ... prompted? to come up today " haha everyone had a good chuckle from that ;). So I bore my testimony but it was just amazing looking out to this ward that I love so much, and have had such amazing spiritual experiences with one another as we have done missionary work together it has influenced and impacted both of all our lives so much! I normally don't get tearful like dad does when I bear my testimony but I did, I just got choked up when bearing my testimony of member missioanry work, I could just feel so much love in that fast and testimony meeting. 

So that was probably the most amazing testimony meeting on my mission! I just love this ward! So later that evening, we stopped by at an investigators home who just got back from vacation. Adrianne, she actually is friends with members here we met her at dinner at a members home they invited her over, and she went to Whales to visit her friend there so she just got back and we were able to start teaching her again!! We set a goal of getting one new investigator that evening and we had 2 hours to find, and we just were like we have hope against hope and all faith that the Lord will provide a way!! So we went and began knocking the first street we had picked from our new handy dandy wall maps, and turns out there is like 6 houses on the street haha, then we go to the next Lane we chose called "Monster Lane" haha it was pretty desolate so we were like hmmmm... so we drove down the Lane and I kidd you not there was 2 houses on it.... we drove down to the end didn't have a good vibe about the back further house. So we turned around began driving to the end of the Lane to the main road and we just were like this is a waist of time lets go somewhere else. Just before we were about to leave, I just thought in my mind "wait a second we planned this last night for a reason lets just knock this last house before we leave" So I pull over and said Sister Howell lets just give this house a try, so we do and BOOM!! That is where we picked up Jerry our new investigator who is amazing!!
Jerry is just nicest jollyest little man, and we had a great convo with him he expressed all these questions he has had about the catholic church, that he could never get answered. We said " well Jerry what questions do you have?" So he came out we all took a seat on his deck we started with a prayer and we ended up teaching prayer, asking alot of basic questions he had about prayer, as soon as we met him I just felt so much love for him in my heart, Sister Howell and I just pictured him as a member and could see the great member that he would be!!

We were able to reach many of the goals we had this week, all not on our own strength but because "the Lord does not call the qualified he qualify's the called." I have come to see for anyone that "I know in the strength of the Lord thou canst do all things" Alma 20:4. 

In Relief Society our lesson was based on sisterhood, I love everything I have learnt on my mission. I just have come to love the sisters, I love serving the sisters, I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to serve, grow and learn from the wonderful sisters that I am a Sister Training Leader for.  We are all different and unique and not the same but we all need one another. Being a STL I have learnt so much about Christlike service and charity. When we have Charity we never fail!! I feel my calling as a STL is something that was always in store for me to help me to learn and understand the necessary lessons of forgetting your insecurities, and yourself and losing yourself in the service by serving your God! I just love sisterhood, and how blessed are we to be apart of this all!! The world is just missing out on so much!

Last night as Sis H and I were "pillow-talking" haha. I was explaining to her the difference I feel from within my heart, from with in my soul!! From living my life  with and with out the gospel! I just want to bear my testimony that I know this is Christ's gospel, I know this because the Holy Ghost is so prevalent in my life. The Holy Ghost brings all things to our remembrance, the Holy Ghost guides us to truth and light, the Holy Ghost is only present when truth is spoken about. I know that these experiences I am having on my mission  would not happen if this gospel weren't true. I know that these miracles happen because we are on the Lords side, we are in a spiritual army fighting to save the souls of our spiritual brother and sisters. I love it so much, and I am so grateful. This is the greatest amount of joy I have ever experienced and I know this is just a piece of what it will feel like in the eternities if I continue to endure to the end.  
In my personal reading this AM I came across Alma 30:60 "we see that the devil will not support his children at the last day, but doth speedily drag them to hell" now this sounds quite intense but satan is so suddle to have the grass appear greener on the other side, to have evil appear good and good appear evil, he does not tempt us for our good, the devil is the father of all feelings of despair, Heavenly Father is the father of light. 
Yhis week we will be having Sisters from New Glasgow visit our area for a day, as we can train them and help them a bit more, as well we will be having to mini exchanges with a companonship with  a struggling sister, where we can all take part to strenghten her,
We will be having mission leadership training during the day on Wednesday which I am excited for! It is crazy it just seems like  aweek ago was the last one. Time is going too quick!
 
I love you all, and you said you wanted details so I gave you DETAILS ;)
Love,

Sister Pizzey

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