Monday, August 26, 2013

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

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