August 26, 2013

These past two days have been the most spiritually and emotionally draining haha on my mission thus far, "character building" ?

 

Are you still in a twosome? 

 Yes I am and I am thinking it is permanent but I am learning so much it really is amazing how much God qualifies us for our callings

Have you got your area more organized?  You said it was quite disorganized.

YES we reorganized the area book this week and felt SOOO GREAT! its Beautiful! All we need to tackle this week is the organization of the office and the map.

 

So we had another amazing week! We were able to pick up 9 new investigators again and they are for the most part really solid people! To keep all my thoughts and this email organized I am just going to begin from the beginning of the week and go from there. I may jump off range but we will see! haha.

 

SO Monday night we taught Elkanna and Leah for one last time before they left to Montreal, I feel really blessed to have met them because although they are not members they are great people and call themselves "missionaries" as well, and I'd like to say they are missionaries... just for the wrong church! and Who knows maybe they will be missionaries for the right church in the future ;)

 

We were able to begin teaching Yvette's son this week! Jonathon. He is a great kid 14 yrs and has been raised in a really rough life and we feel we are teaching them for Jon. We taught him quite simple things but very meaningful Godhead and Prayer we did alot of testifying and he wants to learn more and have the gospel in his life so he can be successful and happy. We will be teaching him and Yvette tonight! 

 

We began teaching a LA named Judy this week who seems like she was baptised without much understanding of the gospel and has never really been active so we are re-teaching everything to her and helping her be able to partake of all the blessings in the gospel.  We were in Windsor Wednesday and we picked up a new investigator named Mona who was a potential gator for a while and had a great first lesson with her and was able to sing to her as well!  (singing the hymns in lessons is something we always do, it brings the spirit in so much stronger!) Then we went and tried to contact Sister Zewicker (who is LA).  When we went to her house her daughter answered and said she was sleeping so we said "okay thankyou" and walked back to the car. 
While we were walking back I was like SISTER THOMPSON!  WHY did we just walk away without talking to her daughter about the gospel?!  So we got out of the car and went back to Sister Zewicker's house and knocked back on the same door and her daughter answered again.  We were just like "so whats your name?!" and her name was Ashley and we asked her if she had ever met missionaries before and she said yes.... so we continue talking... turns out she was baptised 2 yrs ago and LOVED it.  She is 19yrs old and when she told us that I just said "well what the heck Ashley!?  Why aren't you at church then?!" She laughed and well now we are teaching her and we told her we look forward to seeing her at church.  My goal is to get her on a mission :) because missions are the best!

 

As we were driving back from Zewickers house we were passing a gas station and I felt like we needed to stop there and I pushed it off.  It kept reoccurring that same thought in my mind and would not go away, so finally I turned the car around and we went to the gas station.  We talked to Tony who worked there and he is a really nice man in his 30’s.  He is interested in learning about the church and the everlasting restored gospel of Jesus Christ.  We will be teaching him on weds and hopefully will be picking him up as a new investigator !

 

We were in Canning Thursday and while we were knocking and at one of the homes a neighbor came out with her two kids and asked if she could help us.  She was very stand offish, but its okay we buttered her up with being real kind, friendly and genuine and she LOVED us!  She is catholic, very religious and has two kids that are 5 and 7.  After talking with her for 20 minutes she called her husband over and she said to him "honey these two are" explained who we were and said AND "They are FILLED with the Spirit”! and I would like to have them over next week! will you be home?" Her husband is Andy her name is Neve and well, we will be teaching them this week and we can't wait!  She said we are serving in the "Bible belt" haha we said that doesn't stop us.

 

Then on Thurs we had an appointment set up with a potential investigator named Cecilia (who we found through one of our investigators that we are currently teaching) Cecilia has 4 children - Ty whose 13 to Mia whose 7,  Nevaeh (6), Jayshawn (4) her bf is Breton he is from Jamaica. At first Breton was in the kitchen but during the lesson he slowly moved on into the living room and became quite engaged and interested in the lesson. They know their family needs church and desires to have one but are confused "amongst the tumult of opinions" haha sound familiar ;)? but are confused which church to go to because of how many they are...so we were just like " WELL LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT THE RESTORATION!" So we were able to teach their whole family the restoration, the Spirit was quite strong and she believes that Joseph Smith vision was true. It was an amazing lesson and we knelt with them at the end of the lesson and had a family prayer it was wonderful! Felt like a movie! 

 

Then that night we were teaching Kenta (Japanese gator) and he lives in the Univeristy student housing so in the main common area we were watching "Finding Faith in Christ" and a guy walked in and saw we were watching a movie and walked away but I called after him and invited him to watch with us, so he plopped right down and we all watched Finding Faith in Christ together! And that guys name was Ohrium he is from South Suden and well we picked him up as a new gator and taught him twice this past week! 

 

Then on Friday we went to go sing to one of our investigators sisters who was in the hospital, we finally were able to teach Grace and pick her up as new investigator (who we met couple weeks ago) she is 22 and the Elders are actually teaching her bf in Kentville- we all put two and two together in the lesson!

 

Then Saturday we taught the LA Judy again and had a great lesson- she didn't come to church yesterday (disappointing) but we have faith she will in the future! After Judy at 10:50am we went to go contact Tiffany Taylor a LA who we have never met before who lives near Judy. So we go and she is strung out on something from the night before, very nice girl though, we talked to her a bit but she was sick.  We actually met her cousin who lives with her named Mason who we ended up teaching.  And Mason was a great normal guy and he said 3 days ago he decided that he wanted to change and re dedicate his life to God.  It was funny when we showed up a Jehovah Witness was teaching him and then we taught him right after. (We bump into JW's alot haha they are interesting ppl)  But the Spirit was so strong we taught the whole restoration and he said that quote on quote "this is the best I have actually felt in a long time" . I shared with him my conversion and testified that it takes work to  change but through this gospel we can be made whole again.  We extended a baptismal commitment to him for Sept 27 and he said yes.  His unaccountable uncle named Lue was there during the lesson and Lue wants to be baptised tomorrow basically but we are really just focusing on Mason.  Lue is unaccountable we think do to drug use.  Mason completely understood the importance of authority for sacred ordinances and the Spirit was there the whole time. It was amazing I just felt sooo much love for him, I can tell all of them were raised from hard circumstances and that Mason needs this gospel so much and that he understands it and wants to change!  (Mason is 24) Being a missionary is so amazing because with the people we teach we literally see and feel for them in Christ's eyes.

 

We had the Hair cutting booth on Saturday which was awesome!! I cut 5 ppls hair in like 1.5hr . And we might be in the paper for it, we find out Wednesday! We will be doing the Hair Cutting booth for the next month every Saturday so each week it should progressively get more and more success!  I am so grateful for this skill its so convenient! 

 

So Sunday I speak in church about "Prayer to Heavenly Father" Maybe I will send you my chicken scratch notes for it haha but it went great i LOVE speaking! The Spirit definitely guided my thoughts and words, it was one of those talks where you sit down and think about what I you said and don’t really remember because it was from the spirit- i LOVE those moments. We had 3 investigators Mason and Leu were there and Patrick who we actually haven't taught yet but elders met in Kentville gave us his number and we called him and invited him to church and will be teaching him this Thurs in Canning! 

 

Anyway so that was our crazy week! And we have a very busy week to look forward too! Missions are great I love doing the lords work and the time is so short. 

 

Next week could you guys email me about at least 1 missionary opportunity you each individually had, of you inviting someone to learn or something to serve some one and bring them closer to Christ!  As we sacrifice our time we understand the blessings that come from serving and doing the Lords work. Our family is so blessed and we need to help bless others :). As we step out of our comfort zone that is the ONLY way we can rely on the comforter the Holy Ghost and as we stay in our comfort zones we are choosing to not rely on the Holy Ghost.  As we study and pray, the Lord will fill our mouths with what to say as we open our mouths! Its His promise!

 

I love this work and keeping our eyes focused on the glory of God and seeing the "eternal perspective" not the mortal perspective and focusing on the things that truly matter in life will carry over for the eternities. Its better to start being a missionary now in mortality and enjoy it and be a good missionary because that will be our life in immortality BEING A MISSIONARY. The skills we acquire here will bless us for eternities! Faith without works is dead! Just as prayer for missionary opportunities is dead if we don't ACT and open our mouths and be not ashamed! 

 

I can't wait to hear about your missionary efforts next week and I will keep you posted on mine :D! 

 

LOVE YOU ALL

Sister Pizzey!

 

August 19, 2013

This week as been pretty amazing! I loved the photos of dad Lindsay and Blake in Newfoundland looks like so much fun! Isn't Eastern Canada so beautiful?! And the pictures of Penny and Colby are so cute! Penny definitely looks like a Low! 

Alright so lets get ready for this week! So  we started doing 5BX this week.... GOOGLE it haha its a workout that Pres Leavitt wants all of us missionaries to do, but we do it ontop of biking 20kms a day on Thursday we biked 28kms haha yes we are working like dogs and i love it!!

 

So Monday we taught a LA then we actually went out knocking in a area we felt we should knock and we actually met a great family(which are kind of interested haven't been able to pick them up as investigators yet) which listed of like 8 referrals of people in the neighborhood they felt we could teach. And its amazing to see how Heavenly Father works because we picked up a investigator from one of them Mahe a man from Sir Lanka he has two kids and a wife we haven't been able to teach his wife yet, and then through one of the referrals we met a man who wasn't entirely interested but gave us a referral so this Mother whose husband just passed away a year ago and she has a 8 yr old daughter and 15 yr old daughter total kingdom builder family we have been able to see them twice this week; i have faith we will be able to pick them up as investigators we can just tell the mom has been through alot and is kind of hesistant but her 15 yr old daughter loves us. 

 

Then Tuesday we went to Windsor (A town our area covers) and we did alot of LA work. its actually quite sad there use to be a branch in Windsor like there is a church in the town and everything but it closed down in October of last year, she there are alot of less actives we visit but not many come to church because of the drive to kentville. Sounds like there was alot of drama amongst members with the closing and stuff. We also picked up Yevette a lady in our apartment she is a single mother who is not the greatest mother her kids have been in and out of foster homes- she is wrapped up in the world and her self, She has a 8 yr old daughter 14yr old son and 16 yr old daughter and I feel really bad for her kids but basically Yevette is being humbled right now and I know we met her for a reason because her family needs this gospel and she loves us and recognizes the Spirit we bring into her home and has began praying everyday and its remarkable the difference that has already made, it will be a stride for her to change to beable to be baptized but I feel we are also teaching her for her kids especially her son,he is really interested and I feel will be baptized. Its amazing how mindful Heavenly Father is of the needs of all his children.We really are just bold and testify to her that this is what she needs for her life and how she needs a change for happiness and the gospel will do that- and she knows that. She calls us her sisters haha. We always sing a hymn for her and most of our lessons with gators to set the mood and spirit in lesson, but first time we taught her I felt like I was ready to through up  I just felt sick for how horrible life her kids have been brought up in and wasn't sure where it was all going to go teaching her, but we have taught her 3 times this week and things are gotten better and I have faith and know we are teaching her for a reason, its amazing that as we are representing Jesus Chrsit we truly see Gods children in his eyes and for who they can be- I know the gospel can do wonders!

 

So Weds President Leavitt came and did interviews for the Nova Scotia South zone and he came to our apartment at 7pm and was at our place till 8:50 pm. We shared with us how he got a email from first presidency asking if we could take anymore sister missioanies because alot of missions are full for sisters because they won't have more than 50% sisters, and our mission is sitting at 34% sisters and well guess what by January and early next year it will be bumped up to 50% sisters and 50% elders! So crazy the times are really changing- we are living in the LAST DAYS everyone.  I had a great interview with President Leavitt he is such a great man! I love him! I feel so blessed to have such a great missiona president he is hilarious ! So we had a lot of interesting conversations actually, we talked about how short sister missionaries time on our missions really are, he brought up how i am almost 1/3 done... WHICH IS CRAZY and we talked about how sad it is.... then well somehow it came up that I can extend.... ( haha calm down mom) but i may... or may not  be extending my mission by 1 month, President Leavitt is keeping it in the back of his mind and I would love to do that because our time is so short! Its not like a reward or anything he explained if with all the new sisters they need me to stay for keeping things running smoothly an extension may be an option haha. But anyway he also was saying to me how when my mission is completed in the future that he will have all of us over whenever and we can take our kids on his helicopter (yes he has a helicopter haha) but I just feel so blessed! Any ways so that night Sister Laxton actually left with President to Dartmouth because a sister is sick and she is in the mission home and Sister Laxton left to go serve with the sick sisters companion, so that left Sister Thompson and I in the area where Sister Thompson has been here 3 weeks and myself 1 week haha and this is where the week of miracles begins!!

 

So Sister Laxton left with President at 8:50pm and Sister Thompson and I have to be in by 9pm and Sister Thompson was like "I guess we will just start planning then?" once they left, and I looked at her and was like "no way we got 10 minutes to go talk to people outside our apartment" ... so she gave me a crazy look and we go outside talk with this guy who wasn't entirely interested invited him to look at mormon.org and while we were talking to him and I saw this family walking in our apartment with a little boy and we were in a middle of a convo but it was killing me watching this family leave so once we were done the convo it was 8:56pm and I looked at Sister thompson and was like "where does that family live!?" and she was like "right across from our door ..." and I was like "perfect! we are going to go knock there door!" Sister thompson was all like "really?? your crazy, its a bit late" and I looked at her and was like " Sister Thompson is the Spirit telling you those thoughts? Or is it your nerves??" she didnt say much so we went in the apt and said a prayer and right after I was like yes we need to knock there door.. what do we have to loose! So we knocked and Elkanna answered and he is from Nigeria (I LOVE Nigerians!) and I was talking with him testifying Spirit was strong and Elkanna says"You know i am going to listen to what you teach because you have so much "zeal" and no one here has zeal about religion and i love that, everyone in Nigeria is to excited what they know and its a breath of fresh air seeing this." so BOOM we got his info and picked him and his wife up as new investigators this week! 

 

So it was pretty crazy having this whole area to run this week because sister Laxton has been here the longest and she wasnt here, and Sister Thompson pretty well knew as much as i did, and Allen (who will be baptized this Friday) had SOOOO much to be taught still in order for him to be baptized like big important things like Law of Tithing and Law of Chasity, and we had to organize his bapt. interview, his whole baptism schedule alot of stuff on top of organizing a very messy un organized area book and go through there whole pool of investigators that they hadn't dropped yet! and well it turned out to be an amazing week. 

 

So Thursday we just worked like horses haha we biked 28kms and many times id be done at the top of the hill and Sister Thompson would be still at the bottom so I would bike down and bike back up with her haha, so we taught Allen Law of chasity (allen is 58 and very un educated, most lessons we have to re teach for him to understand) SO we had to be very bold to make sure he understood and it was a little weird because he had been taught by Sister Laxton and Sister Broadhead and boom we come in and appears to him laying the law down but were just really teaching him what he knows so he is accountable for baptism. So it was a little thrown off but the great thing about him is we will leave him with the pamflets to read and pray and then he will understand. So that was good, then we went to teach Thanuga a gator from Sir Lanka but she wasnt home so we were going to go to our backups but  we prayed and felt strongly we needed to go back in the apt ... werent really sure why but we did - we began knocking and then heard someone coming down the stairs we went to go see who it was and met Leona a lady who is in her 50s whose very lonely and we taught her then and she cried and I could tell Heavenly Father used us a instruments to do what he would do, love her and help her feel the spirit and we did, she understood that too, so  we picked her up as a new gator but she dropped us 2 days later too bad but peoples agency we did everything we could!  We had great amount of success Thursday though! 

 

In my patriarchle blessing it talks about how I will have many opportunities to serve in the church and to accept them to and to go forward with faith hope and trust in the Savoir and that as i do i will see His hand leading and guiding me with power of the Holy Ghost far beyond my own abilities and capacities... and I know that this was how everything happen, the Holy Ghost was literally leading and guiding Sister Thompson to do things that we ourselves aren't capable of doing its amazing! The Spirit literally was working right through us. I distinctly remember this week doing things and saying things and thinking this isn't from me at all. 

 

Its amazing I LOVE BEING MISSIONARY! 

 

So Friday we have weekly corilation with the Elders at 10am before we weekly plan, and the assistants were actually there because they were on exchanges with the elders for the day which was awesome. Right now we are really focussing on working with the ward and literally making us ONE for the Work of Salvation, so we are visiting 3 different families, but we also decided that we are going to visit all the auxillaries and talk to them about our goal and vision and get them inspired and excited to work with us so we made a goal for 2 weeks from now to have visited all the auxillaries in the ward because they truly are the leaders of the ward. And we are doing something unique we are literally "putting the members on date" where we are committing them to a date in the future will they have found someone for us to teach. Because literally as there are an increase of missionaries serving the field is LITERALLY "white and ready to harvest" the Lord is preparing many for the missionaries to teach and they are amongst us all at work our family friends whether they be at work or where ever! its the members and missioanries working as ONE for the Work of Salvation.

 We also were brainstorming unique ways to find and we were thinking of what talents we have that we could us to serve and find people to teach and BOOM not this Saterday but the next we are going to have a " Haircuts in the park booth!" in wolfville ! Where we will have a booth where I will be giving free haircuts with a table of mormon messages playing with brochures and pamflets and free freezies! haha it will be awesome and we annouced it in Relief Society and they are all so stoked for it! They will be inviting there friends and families to come especially families with children where it gets pricey to pay for haircuts to come out and get there hair did! They Elders will be there and members as well! I am excited I am so grateful and thank Heavenly Father everyday for the talents he has given me its amazing looking back at my life before my mission and even my job prepared be for being a good missionary in being able to talk to people, set appointments up to cutting peoples hair and getting in their hearts before we bombard them with eternal salvation! 

 

We were able to pick up another gator friday night Aven a guy from China! Then Saterday we had another amazing day! We taught Yevette again, taught Allen Law of Tithing took him a while to understand but he was willing to pay it which was amazing because he has very low income! Seeing people like him willing to live laws such as that with such little money really confirms to me how true this gospel is, literally everyone can understand the truth and happiness that comes from this gospel through humble heart and reading and praying! Saterday night we taught Elkanna and his wife Leah and WOW that was an amazing lesson, he actually was a pastor in Nigeria, and has his masters in theology and will getting his docteric in theology as well.... yes in that lesson is was not Sister Thompson and I teaching it was the Spirit filling our mouths. It was great because the Spirit was so strong and although he knew the Bible WAY better than us, it didn't effect the power and authority from our teaching, the Lord truly made up for our weaknesses through the Spirit, his wife and him were truly listening and not bible bashing like most pastures would do, and we could tell they felt the spirit. We testified to them that what we were teaching is 100% true or 100% false and out to lunch , and how to know the truth of all things is to read the Book of Mormon and pray and ask God if Joseph Smith is a prophet. Its amazing how teaching simple truths answers all questions and as we pull out scripture the spirit brings understanding through Gods word not us. He looked at mormon.org prior to meeting with us because we asked him to and he agreed with everything; except how laying on of hands for gift of the holy ghost. and we were just real with him I said " to be honest I don't know the exact answer to that but I do know that " bore testimony of restoration" and said that everything in our gospel is supported in the Bible and that when we come back we can address that"and he respected that, so we will when we see them this week. But they said they will read and pray- and any honest seeker will come to know the truth! Its too bad they are moving to Montreal in couple weeks but I still feel strongly its meaningful for us to meet with them and refer them to missionaries in Montreal. 

 

So Sunday Sister Thompson and I decided it would be smart if we didn't sit beside eachother in sacrament so we can sit with members and get to know them better and well we can still be in site and sound of one another! So she sat with Allen and I sat with  a row of LAs haha it was great! Thats my biggest focus trying to get to know everyone, know there names, faces and about them so we can use them in our lessons, its hard in Charlottown I knew everyone haha but it will come with time! Its funny though I don' think the sisters here made much of an effort to get to know members... So we actually met with the Relief Society President before church for an hr and we shared the "We are one" video and told her our goals and she was right on board! We set a date of the first tuesday in sept for her to find someone for us to teach, and we actually will be doing the spiritual though for the relief society presidency meeting in sept on " we are one" and might be the theme for all of relief society! Its great! And we will be meeting with her this Sunday morning again to go over lists of LA's and families we should go teach. So Allen after church had his baptismal interview over skype with the DL, and before we went over the questions again for the 3rd time this week, and he just has a hard time explaining them (again pourly educated) and I was feeling quite stressed about it- it was just weird because we came in and taught him all the important things and basically got him all ready for bapt. but we passed it and well he will be baptized this Friday and we can't wait and he can't either! . After church (p.s: I have been driving this week!!) we drove out to Canning and taught 3 lessons and I will be actually cutting an investigators hair this thursday who lives in Canning ( one of the towns we cover) and then taught Allen again that night, then met with a LA family! It truly was an amazing week! 

 

I love pdays here Sister Thompson and I literally sweap mop clean bathrooms the works every monday makes apartment feel like home and do our laundry before we go out! and We have had a spectacular week! It is truly great to be a missionary! We got a call from the assistants today and were informed that we were the top area in the whole mission for key indicators this week and they were so excited for us, but said they weren't surprised. They asked us what have we been doing because we gained 8 new investigators this week and taught over 20 lessons this week. Our District leader called us today and told us that last night on the Zone leader conference call they had that they were all humbled and talked about our area and what us two have been doing and how they can apply what were doing in there area, he specifically said they were very inspired from our work, its truly amazing to be serving with Sister Thompson because I have seen such a change in her from how she was on PEI till now its crazy she has made huge strides and she literally is on a cloud right now and can't get over how great it is to be a missionary! She came from a area where she would get a call from the assistants for being the bottom every week. this whole day she keeps saying its a great day to be a missionary!  I love it because its like YES WELCOME TO HOW MISSION'S SHOULD BE!!! But the Lord is truly pouring out blessings; I dont take this as our work its His work, he is working through us and we get the privilege honor and blessing to be apart of this great work and see miracles happen before our eyes. I am grateful for the strength that Heavenly Father gives me to be serving in this changing world that is so apparent that is preparing for the return of the Savoir. The couple from Nigeria were talking about how different it is here in Canada, people are so in the World. And how people in Nigeria are open about there faith and not to closed off and hard in heart, they really respected us for doing this work in a area where people dont really care about God, and I really reflected and am so grateful to be here, I don't care what others think or how crazy they think we are - I will do whatever to teach everyone I can about Heavenly Fathers plan for His children and a better way of life to live! People are missing out on simply a more excellent way! 

 

I am so grateful for the Light of Christ- God is the Father of Light! I read in John 3 this morning such a great scripture the Spirit was so strong! really confirmed to me that the Bible does come from God as well. During my study I went through chase looking up references in the footnotes about God being the Father of Light and I came across a great scripture D&C 50:24, i love it at the end until the perfect God when we are like him... because we ALL have potential to become like Heavenly Father. then D&C 67:9 then go to James 1:17 . YOU BETTER ALL OPEN UP AND READ THEM AND STUDY AND PONDER ON THE WORDS. 

 

I love this Gospel, I love my Heavenly Father and my family and earthly Parents I am so blessed. And I owe so much to my Heavenly Father we are all so indebted to him, and I love serving and do all i can absolutely as a missionary because I owe him everything and just need to give it my all. Its that simple. 

 

Dont forget to read study and pray daily, the Spirit is such an amazing gift- and in this world we need to work to have it work for the Light to be bright with in us; so others can see and recognize the Light in our lives and want what we have and what they are missing. The best way to do feel the Spirit more abundantly in our lives is missionary work and serving others. I will forever be a missionary!

 

I LOVE YOU ALL!

But I love you all so much let your Light shine forth!!

 

xoxox

love,

SISter Pizzey

August 12, 2013

This week as been pretty amazing! I loved the photos of dad Lindsay and Blake in Newfoundland looks like so much fun! Isn't Eastern Canada so beautiful?! And the pictures of Penny and Colby are so cute! Penny definitely looks like a Low! 

Alright so lets get ready for this week! So  we started doing 5BX this week.... GOOGLE it haha its a workout that Pres Leavitt wants all of us missionaries to do, but we do it ontop of biking 20kms a day on Thursday we biked 28kms haha yes we are working like dogs and i love it!!

 

So Monday we taught a LA then we actually went out knocking in a area we felt we should knock and we actually met a great family (which are kind of interested haven't been able to pick them up as investigators yet) They also listed of like 8 referrals of people in the neighborhood they felt we could teach. And its amazing to see how Heavenly Father works because we picked up a investigator from one of them Mahe a man from Sir Lanka he has two kids and a wife.  We haven't been able to teach his wife yet, and then through one of the referrals we met a man who wasn't entirely interested but gave us a referral so his Mother whose husband just passed away a year ago,  She has an 8 yr old daughter and 15 yr old daughter total kingdom builder family we have been able to see them twice this week.  I have faith we will be able to pick them up as investigators we can just tell the mom has been through alot and is kind of hesitant, but her 15 yr old daughter loves us. 

 

Then Tuesday we went to Windsor (A town our area covers) and we did alot of LA work.  It’s actually quite sad, there use to be a branch in Windsor.  There is a church in the town and everything but it closed down in October of last year.  There are alot of less actives we visited but not many come to church because of the drive to Kentville.  Sounds like there was alot of drama amongst members with the closing and stuff.  We also picked up a lady in our apartment, she is a single mother who is not the greatest mother.  Her kids have been in and out of foster homes- she is wrapped up in the world and her self.  She has a 8 yr old daughter 14yr old son and 16 yr old daughter and I feel really bad for her kids but basically.  She is being humbled right now and I know we met her for a reason because her family needs this gospel and she loves us and recognizes the Spirit we bring into her home and has began praying everyday.  It’s remarkable the difference it has already made, it will be a stride for her to change, to be able to be baptized but I feel we are also teaching her for her kids especially her son, he is really interested and I feel will be baptized. Its amazing how mindful Heavenly Father is of the needs of all his children.  We really are just bold and testify to her that this is what she needs for her life and how she needs a change for happiness and the gospel will do that - and she knows that. She calls us her sisters haha. W e always sing a hymn for her and most of our lessons with gators to set the mood and spirit in lesson, but first time we taught her I felt like I was ready to through up.  I just felt sick for how horrible life her kids have been brought up in and wasn't sure where it was all going to go teaching her, but we have taught her 3 times this week and things have gotten better. I have faith and know we are teaching her for a reason, its amazing that as we are representing Jesus Chrsit we truly see Gods children in his eyes and for who they can be - I know the gospel can do wonders!

 

So Weds President Leavitt came and did interviews for the Nova Scotia South zone and he came to our apartment at 7pm and was at our place till 8:50 pm.  He shared with us how he got an email from first presidency asking if we could take anymore sister missionaries because alot of missions are full for sisters because they won't have more than 50% sisters, and our mission is sitting at 34% sisters.  So guess what by January and early next year it will be bumped up to 50% sisters and 50% elders! So crazy the times are really changing- we are living in the LAST DAYS everyone.  I had a great interview with President Leavitt he is such a great man! I love him! I feel so blessed to have such a great mission president he is hilarious ! So we had a lot of interesting conversations actually, we talked about how short sister missionaries time on our missions really are, he brought up how i am almost 1/3 done... WHICH IS CRAZY and we talked about how sad it is.... then well somehow it came up that I can extend.... ( haha calm down mom) but i may... or may not  be extending my mission by 1 month, President Leavitt is keeping it in the back of his mind and I would love to do that because our time is so short! Its not like a reward or anything he explained if with all the new sisters they need me to stay for keeping things running smoothly an extension may be an option haha. But anyway he also was saying to me how when my mission is completed in the future that he will have all of us over whenever and we can take our kids on his helicopter (yes he has a helicopter haha) but I just feel so blessed! Any ways so that night Sister Laxton actually left with President to Dartmouth because a sister is sick and she is in the mission home and Sister Laxton left to go serve with the sick sisters companion, so that left Sister Thompson and I in the area.  Sister Thompson has been here 3 weeks and myself 1 week haha and this is where the week of miracles begins!!

 

So Sister Laxton left with President at 8:50pm and Sister Thompson and I have to be in by 9pm and Sister Thompson was like "I guess we will just start planning then?" once they left, and I looked at her and was like "no way we got 10 minutes to go talk to people outside our apartment" ... so she gave me a crazy look and we go outside talk with this guy who wasn't entirely interested invited him to look at mormon.org and while we were talking to him and I saw this family walking in our apartment with a little boy and we were in a middle of a convo but it was killing me watching this family leave so once we were done the convo it was 8:56pm and I looked at Sister thompson and was like "where does that family live!?" and she was like "right across from our door ..." and I was like "perfect! we are going to go knock there door!" Sister thompson was all like "really?? your crazy, its a bit late" and I looked at her and was like " Sister Thompson is the Spirit telling you those thoughts? Or is it your nerves??" she didnt say much so we went in the apt and said a prayer and right after I was like yes we need to knock there door.. So we knocked and Elkanna answered and he is from Nigeria (I LOVE Nigerians!) and I was talking with him testifying Spirit was strong and Elkanna says "You know i am going to listen to what you teach because you have so much "zeal" and no one here has zeal about religion and i love that, everyone in Nigeria is to excited about what they know and its a breath of fresh air seeing this." so BOOM we got his info and picked him and his wife up as new investigators this week! 

 

So it was pretty crazy having this whole area to run this week because sister Laxton has been here the longest and she wasnt here, and Sister Thompson pretty well knew as much as i did.  Allen (who will be baptized this Friday) had SOOOO much to be taught still in order for him to be baptized like big important things.  We had to organize his bapt. interview, his whole baptism schedule alot of stuff on top of organizing a very messy un organized area book and go through there whole pool of investigators that they hadn't dropped yet! and well it turned out to be an amazing week. 

 

So Thursday we just worked like horses haha we biked 28kms and many times id be done at the top of the hill and Sister Thompson would be still at the bottom so I would bike down and bike back up with her haha, so we taught Allen Law of chasity (allen is 58 and very un educated, most lessons we have to re teach for him to understand) SO we had to be very bold to make sure he understood and it was a little weird because he had been taught by Sister Laxton and Sister Broadhead and boom we come in and appears to him laying the law down but were just really teaching him what he knows so he is accountable for baptism. So it was a little thrown off but the great thing about him is we will leave him with the pamflets to read and pray and then he will understand. So that was good, then we went to teach Thanuga a gator from Sir Lanka but she wasnt home so we were going to go to our backups but  we prayed and felt strongly we needed to go back in the apt ... werent really sure why but we did - we began knocking and then heard someone coming down the stairs we went to go see who it was and met Leona a lady who is in her 50s whose very lonely and we taught her then and she cried and I could tell Heavenly Father used us a instruments to do what he would do, love her and help her feel the spirit and we did, she understood that too, so  we picked her up as a new gator but she dropped us 2 days later too bad but peoples agency we did everything we could!  We had great amount of success Thursday though! 

 

In my patriarchle blessing it talks about how I will have many opportunities to serve in the church and to accept them to and to go forward with faith hope and trust in the Savoir and that as i do i will see His hand leading and guiding me with power of the Holy Ghost far beyond my own abilities and capacities... and I know that this was how everything happen, the Holy Ghost was literally leading and guiding Sister Thompson to do things that we ourselves aren't capable of doing its amazing! The Spirit literally was working right through us. I distinctly remember this week doing things and saying things and thinking this isn't from me at all. 

 

Its amazing I LOVE BEING MISSIONARY! 

 

So Friday we have weekly correlation with the Elders at 10am before we weekly plan, and the assistants were actually there because they were on exchanges with the elders for the day which was awesome. Right now we are really focussing on working with the ward and literally making us ONE for the Work of Salvation, so we are visiting 3 different families, but we also decided that we are going to visit all the auxillaries and talk to them about our goal and vision and get them inspired and excited to work with us.  So we made a goal for 2 weeks from now to have visited all the auxillaries in the ward because they truly are the leaders of the ward. And we are doing something unique we are literally "putting the members on date" where we are committing them to a date in the future will they have found someone for us to teach. Because literally as there are an increase of missionaries serving the field is LITERALLY "white and ready to harvest" the Lord is preparing many for the missionaries to teach and they are amongst us all at work our family friends whether they be at work or where ever! its the members and missioanries working as ONE for the Work of Salvation.

 We also were brainstorming unique ways to find and we were thinking of what talents we have that we could us to serve and find people to teach and BOOM not this Saturday but the next we are going to have a " Haircuts in the park booth!" in wolfville! We will have a booth where I will be giving free haircuts with a table of mormon messages playing with brochures and pamphlets and free freezies! haha it will be awesome and we annouced it in Relief Society and they are all so stoked for it! They will be inviting there friends and families to come especially families with children where it gets pricey to pay for haircuts to come out and get there haircut! They Elders will be there and members as well! I am excited I am so grateful and thank Heavenly Father everyday for the talents he has given me, its amazing looking back at my life before my mission.  Even my job prepared be for being a good missionary in being able to talk to people, set appointments up, to cutting peoples hair and getting in their hearts before we bombard them with eternal salvation! 

 

We were able to pick up another gator friday night Aven a guy from China! Then Saterday we had another amazing day! We taught Yevette again, taught Allen Law of Tithing took him a while to understand but he was willing to pay it which was amazing because he has very low income! Seeing people like him willing to live laws such as that with such little money really confirms to me how true this gospel is, literally everyone can understand the truth and happiness that comes from this gospel through humble heart and reading and praying! Saterday night we taught Elkanna and his wife Leah and WOW that was an amazing lesson, he actually was a pastor in Nigeria, and has his masters in theology and will getting his docteric in theology as well.... yes in that lesson is was not Sister Thompson and I teaching it was the Spirit filling our mouths. It was great because the Spirit was so strong and although he knew the Bible WAY better than us, it didn't effect the power and authority from our teaching, the Lord truly made up for our weaknesses through the Spirit, his wife and him were truly listening and not bible bashing like most pastures would do, and we could tell they felt the spirit. We testified to them that what we were teaching is 100% true or 100% false and out to lunch , and how to know the truth of all things is to read the Book of Mormon and pray and ask God if Joseph Smith is a prophet. Its amazing how teaching simple truths answers all questions and as we pull out scripture the spirit brings understanding through Gods word not us. He looked at mormon.org prior to meeting with us because we asked him to and he agreed with everything, almost we " bore testimony of restoration" and said that everything in our gospel is supported in the Bible and that when we come back we can address the questions we were unsure of and he respected that, so we will when we see them this week. But they said they will read and pray- and any honest seeker will come to know the truth! Its too bad they are moving to Montreal in couple weeks but I still feel strongly its meaningful for us to meet with them and refer them to missionaries in Montreal. 

So Sunday Sister Thompson and I decided it would be smart if we didn't sit beside eachother in sacrament so we can sit with members and get to know them better and well we can still be in site and sound of one another! So she sat with Allen and I sat with  a row of LAs haha it was great! Thats my biggest focus trying to get to know everyone, know there names, faces and about them so we can use them in our lessons, its hard in Charlottown I knew everyone haha but it will come with time! Its funny though I don' think the sisters here made much of an effort to get to know members... So we actually met with the Relief Society President before church for an hr and we shared the "We are one" video and told her our goals and she was right on board! We set a date of the first tuesday in sept for her to find someone for us to teach, and we actually will be doing the spiritual though for the relief society presidency meeting in sept on "we are one" and might be the theme for all of relief society! Its great! And we will be meeting with her this Sunday morning again to go over lists of LA's and families we should go teach. So Allen after church had his baptismal interview over skype with the DL, and before we went over the questions again for the 3rd time this week, and he just has a hard time explaining them (again pourly educated) and I was feeling quite stressed about it- it was just weird because we came in and taught him all the important things and basically got him all ready for bapt. but we passed it and well he will be baptized this Friday and we can't wait and he can't either! . After church (p.s: I have been driving this week!!) we drove out to Canning and taught 3 lessons and I will be actually cutting an investigators hair this thursday who lives in Canning ( one of the towns we cover) and then taught Allen again that night, then met with a LA family! It truly was an amazing week! 

 

I love pdays here Sister Thompson and I literally sweap mop clean bathrooms the works every monday makes apartment feel like home and do our laundry before we go out! and We have had a spectacular week! It is truly great to be a missionary! We got a call from the assistants today and were informed that we were the top area in the whole mission for key indicators this week and they were so excited for us, but said they weren't surprised. They asked us what have we been doing because we gained 8 new investigators this week and taught over 20 lessons this week. Our District leader called us today and told us that last night on the Zone leader conference call they had that they were all humbled and talked about our area and what us two have been doing and how they can apply what were doing in there area, he specifically said they were very inspired from our work, its truly amazing to be serving with Sister Thompson because I have seen such a change in her from how she was on PEI till now its crazy she has made huge strides and she literally is on a cloud right now and can't get over how great it is to be a missionary! She came from a area where she would get a call from the assistants for being the bottom every week. this whole day she keeps saying its a great day to be a missionary!  I love it because its like YES WELCOME TO HOW MISSION'S SHOULD BE!!! But the Lord is truly pouring out blessings; I dont take this as our work its His work, he is working through us and we get the privilege honor and blessing to be apart of this great work and see miracles happen before our eyes. I am grateful for the strength that Heavenly Father gives me to be serving in this changing world that is so apparent that is preparing for the return of the Savoir. The couple from Nigeria were talking about how different it is here in Canada, people are so in the World. And how people in Nigeria are open about there faith and not to closed off and hard in heart, they really respected us for doing this work in a area where people dont really care about God, and I really reflected and am so grateful to be here, I don't care what others think or how crazy they think we are - I will do whatever to teach everyone I can about Heavenly Fathers plan for His children and a better way of life to live! People are missing out on simply a more excellent way! 

 

I am so grateful for the Light of Christ- God is the Father of Light! I read in John 3 this morning such a great scripture the Spirit was so strong! really confirmed to me that the Bible does come from God as well.

 

I love this Gospel, I love my Heavenly Father and my family and earthly Parents I am so blessed. And I owe so much to my Heavenly Father we are all so indebted to him, and I love serving and do all i can absolutely as a missionary because I owe him everything and just need to give it my all. Its that simple. 

 

Dont forget to read study and pray daily, the Spirit is such an amazing gift- and in this world we need to work to have it work for the Light to be bright with in us; so others can see and recognize the Light in our lives and want what we have and what they are missing. The best way to feel the Spirit more abundantly in our lives is missionary work and serving others. I will forever be a missionary!

 

I LOVE YOU ALL!

crazy riley is already home from his mission... i bet he was in shock about me being on a mission haha. 

I love you all so much let your Light shine forth!!

 

xoxox

love,

SISter Pizzey

August 10, 2013 - Pics (Good bye Charlottetown)

Add caption

Hoping those Book of Mormon's get stolen!

 Soaking in the beautiful sites of PEI

Biking Girl!

Good parking!

Working hard, organizing the area!

Alwlays great food!

Eating the real Nepalese Way ...

 Birthday presents all around!

Biked in the rain to get a sweet little present.

 Rain damage to Paige's scriptures!

Biking in the rain, a regular thing ... I think!

August 5, 2013 - WOLFVILLE, NOVA SCOTIA

So CONGRATULATIONS TO TAREN AND DAVE on being parents!!! That is sooooo exciting! He looks soooo cute! I can't believe Colby man that will be weird to meet him in a bit. He is going to be a hilarious little guy! And Taren you look great in the pictures! Doesn't even look like you were pregnant!

 

And we are getting a pool?! hhaha wow mom really did some convincing that is so exciting though!

And what the heck dad?! you are going to be like an hour away from me that is soooo weird!

 

How is it as a threesome?  Do you feel a connection?

I LOVE being in a 3 some.

 

Living arrangements, on your own or in a members home?

No we are living in a apartment on the 5th floor

 

How is the area been, is there lots going on?

Yes there is a baptism on Aug 16, and they just had one last week. The investigator pot not alot of progressing so we will probably have to drop some and find new ones!

As for other questions:

(Paige sent a video, reason for the answer below)

1) the Commission thing that we recite is what we do every morning mission wide! We recite our Purpose, D&C 4 and our commission and then at night the standard of truth, and suppose to recite D&C 4 at night but I rather it in the morning at the start of the day, cause you know-just start it off with a big BANG its a great day to  be a missionary!! 

2) as for car and bikes we are in a car area but we are covering 6 towns yes SIX surrounding towns, so we  use the car on the day that we go to the towns, and to church in Kentville and then bike in wolfville. And I don't drive, I don't think there is much chance of me driving on my mission-too bad of driving record haha. And okay whoooo let me tell you! Biking in Charlottetown is NOTHING compared to here. I literally feel like I am in a mountainous jungle here... there are sooo many hills! And we all eat sooo healthy here and run every morning so YES family I will be shedding those "lbs" oh heyyy! So far we have just been in Wolfville and have been biking average 18kms a day and up straight long hills! its great!

4) 204 Pleasant Street Apartment 505, Wolfville Nova Scotia,  B4P 1N4 (maybe google postal code might be wrong ;/ )

So man has this week been a week of growth! There is sooo much to do and sooo much to learn in such little time! So this last half of the week the idea just dawned on me why don't I just wake up earlier? like hello! So I am now waking up at 5:45 am to study and get things organized then we go running at 6:30. I am going to work up to waking up at 5:30am but it has helped immensely and has taken off sooo much stress this way! I love it, its my time where I just roll out of bed sit in my sweats and study in the office as I watch the sun set slowly over our distant view of the ocean and many many trees here.  Its great i love it!

So lets just start with this week from Monday on! So Monday the montigue sisters came up to ctown (weird seems like so long ago) and we did a whole bunch of tourists stuff we got this famous rasberry anne of green gables juice stuff and drank it but filled it with the famous red PEI sand, and just many other fun stuff!  So packing my stuff up was all good but I have some how picked up a whole extra bag full of stuff! So I will probably be sending some stuff home soon! 

So my last few days in Charlotte town was great, i felt very loved there, many members called saying goodbye, the Bishops family had us over for Japanese curry stew (he served his mission in Japan). Natalie and her mom Sister MacDoogle took us out for lunch my last day and they got me a PEI going away gift of chocolates, candy and a PEI picture book to not forget it here with a really nice card and note.  It was awesome saying goodbye to people I have taught and get them to sign my book. Missions are just amazing and when you get to know people spiritually its amazing it lasts eternal!

So Wednesday Sister Davis who we actually came out to PEI together, she opened Montague and I ctown, we left the island together as well so that was fun! She was returning home from her mission. We took the Ferry and that was such a treat! I serve in such a beautiful place! So we arrived at the mission office that night at 8pm and all 11 of the sisters in the Halifax area were there along with Pres Leavitt one Sister was - Sister Olsen who served Newfoundland.  She met Blake and Linds so that was nice to see her. So once everyone got there we took a picture then we went off to Wolfville!

Now Nova Scotia its crazy! I feel like I am in the jungle sooo many trees! and hills that aren't Edmonton hills or Charlottetown hills.  These hills put those hills to shame. So it really is a humbling experience being transferred, coming into a new unfamiliar place where i don't know anything at all.  And naturally its easy to get all down and have the day feel like a year.  Just because it is naturally something that is out of my comfort zone!  So as I arrived it was alot different than Charlottetown and I realized my mind and heart wasn't fully there the first few hours.  I am sooo grateful I snapped out of it!  Because the future is as bright as our faith! I LOVE it so far. I love being put in a new area because its like a fresh new start the same feeling as when I first came out of the MTC, clean slate to go out and do all I absolutely can then put all my trust in the Lord and have Faith that some how things will work out and the Lord will qualify me. I love missions because everyday as missionaries we have a billion opportunities to do things that are out of our comfort zone, and yes some missionaries they can choose to do missionary work the easy way and stay in the comfort zone but when that happens that is a missionary distinctly choosing not to grow, and not to rely on the Holy Ghost. As we walk out of the comfort zone we are choosing to simply rely on the "comforter" the holy spirit which is so critical and crucial in this work and is what we need in order for this to be the Lords work and not our work. 

This week I have been self evaluating alot and  seeing what I need to change and do for the needs of Gods children here in Wolfville. I really focussed on looking through the "window" - out ward thoughts no "mirror" in ward thoughts. We had a zone training on Saturday and our zone leaders are amazing Elder Prince and Elder Sloan are great examples and I am really looking forward to working with them here. In zone training I was just so motivated in understanding and knowing that these are the last days and that we have to walk with urgency and prepare as many people as we can for the second coming of Jesus Christ. Our time is so short, and we literally are living in the last days. We are living in the times that the World is described as all throughout the Book of Mormon. And this sense of urgency isn't just for us missionaries its also for the members, missionary work is just as much on us missionaries as it is on you members.

So this area we have 3 ppl on date but 1 of those dates is solid and will be baptized on Aug 16, he is a awesome man in his 60s with no legs- so his baptism will be interesting! The last sister that served here with Sister Laxton and Thompson was 29 yrs old and she actually knows Jason - she is from cardston.  Sister Laxton is same age as me and from North Carolina - she is really cute, great style and great teacher. Sister Thompson has had a complete 180 and LOVES the work and is so excited about everything so that is great! They have a big investigator pool but I feel we are going to have to drop quite a bit of them because they aren't progressing, so we will be doing alot of organizing here and picking up and finding ways to find those that are prepared here! I feel there will be a lot of, less active work done here which is just as important the "real growth" and the Bishop is about reactivation! 

My first Sunday was great we were able to meet with the Elders (which they weren't doing before) and set up goals and visions we have for the ward and our areas and then we were able to meet with the Bishop and talk with him about them. We are really working at getting the ward involved in the work ( BECAUSE ITS SO IMPORTANT hint hint FAMILY get involved in missionary work) and the ward still seems to be stuck in old ideas that missionary work is for missionaries and are too scared to invite friends and family and give referrals. So we are showing every family member about the World of Salvation WE ARE ONE video on lds.org. GO WATCH IT NOW! :). I was able to go bare my testimony to on Sunday and it went great I was able to talk to many people and earn there trust and the Bishops trust which is most important! 

Being transferred as pushed me to learn so much ! and I love it!  If we humble ourselves then the spirit will strengthen our weaknesses and qualify us for whatever God asks of us. Life is all about keeping a "eternal perspective" of things and our eyes single to the Glory of God. Because in this World there is soo little that the World has to offer that will stick and last with us for eternity. 

I love missions and I love doing the Lords work, having joy and happiness peace and contentment on a mission is only possible when we completely surrender ourselves and have our mind and heart in Gods will. This truly is the best 18 months of my life and the time is so short! I love you all so much! Thank you Mom for you prayers because they truly strengthened me!  I pray for our family every night I am so grateful for us and how we will be with one another for eternity I hope all is well at home! 

Any who I will send pictures next week! LOVE YOU ALL take care!!

and have safe travels dad.

xoxoxo

LOVE,

Sister Pizzey :)