September 23, 2013

 COMMUNITY SERVICE!!

September 23, 2013

So much craziness has happened this week in so little time missions are great!!

 

So lets begin!

 

So this has been another amazing week! We were able to pick up 6 new investigators, Erika began to quite smoking and coffee I actually told her I would quit unhealthy eating while she quits smoking we said it sounds like a plan!! We had 5 of our investigators at church yesterday, two of whom it was there first time at church. One being Collin (28yr) that we have taught twice he is amazing guy he is very socially awkward lost his mother a yr ago to cancer and he has cancer as well a brain tumour, he enjoyed it!  We also had Elizabeth and her daughter Gabrielle at church who we started teaching this last Saturday, Gabrielle is 6 yrs old and they enjoyed church as well! And we will be teaching them again tomorrow!

 

So we had Zone Training on Tuesday and my Doctrinal Discussion went great! We are focussing as a mission to talk to 400 ppl a week and not just say hi but have "real conversations" I love it because when we talk to everyone we bring so much more success.  I have seen that on my mission!

Then Sister Broadhead was able to come and have a "visit" and Sister T and my area after Ztraining.  She stayed till the next day, she has a greeny new missionary.  I loved working with Sister B she is a great example and leader and I look up to her alot, we both are very focussed missionaries but yet can have fun in the work and enjoyed our time with one another! The 4 of us went downtown wolfville and street sung  hymns for 1 hr it was great!

 

Then Weds we had a full day of appointments and street contacting- serving in University town is wonderful its just a candy shop of people it literally could take us 1 hr to walk 20 ft when we stop everyone and have conversations! We had ward council that evening so I attended that with Sister Pinch(the new missionary) the ward’s respect for us missionaries has drastically changed.  Before I came they would give the missionaries 5 mins to discuss our work, but now its over half of the ward council discussions, the Bishop and I get along great and I just love developing Spiritual relationships with the ward, they can see the work that we are doing is really progressing from our efforts!

I had a interview with PL over skype that weds night and it was great! He is a awesome mission president!

 

Then Thursday we had a full day in Windsor where our day was literally just stacked with lessons.  We had enough time to hop on our bikes and bike to our next apt in time, with few mins here and there to stop and talk with people.  We actually had alot of success in setting up appointments with few potential investigators for this week!  It is amazing to see how HF drops people in our paths as he trusts us and see's that we won't let them pass by us without inviting them.  I JUST LOVE TALKING TO PEOPLE.  Then we were surprised to see as we went to attend a lesson with a less active part member family (real complicated family situation) that their son Baily came in the room to join us and informed us how he wants to be baptised, so we changed the lesson right then for Bailey about the Restoration, and he will be working towards him being baptised.  We are helping them all understand that baptism is about taking upon ourselves the name of Christ and being CHRIST-LIKE haha. But us and the Bishop our just taking this step by step and not getting involved in the family drama and will prepare Baily for baptism when he is ready.

 

Then Friday we drove to Halifax in the morning at 7 am and we arrived at the stake centre for training at 8 am where we had breakfast then training from 8:30am- 6pm.  It was awesome PL asked me Weds night to give a 15 minute training on how to style hair and hair tips for the sisters!! It was awesome and so fun! There were 28 sisters and I had Sister Broadhead as my hair model, I talked to the sisters about the importance of hair care, and how to curl hair with a straightener, a blow dry technique, and how to braid, and answered questions.  Sister Leavitt just loved it! haha Sister Leavitt is always dropping bold comments about our appearance and how important it is to look appealing and you can tell she enjoyed it, particularly some sisters to hear. I learnt soooo much in Zone training and Sisters Conference about effective planning etc. There are 28 of us now and its interesting our group of mtc sisters are the leaders kind of now, I would say me and Sister Broadhead really do alot of the leading, PL asks our opinions on quite a bit during the training. I love all the sisters in this mission! Then we went and ate and after we finished eating as soon as we were done eating most sisters sat at the table of the restaurant and talked and I took Sister Judd and we went outside of the restaurant and street contacted, other sisters shortly followed as they saw how many people we were able to approach . It was amazing to see sisters from mtc and sister judd, starkie and other sisters I have served around, it reminded me of Alma 17 and Alma 26!  Afterwards we all went downtown Halifax and some sisters street sung and Sister Keeler and I went off to street contact with one another it was great!!  MISSIONS ARE AWESOME. Then we all went to the temple - i love going to the temple with questions they just get answered!

Then Saturday morning we had a testimony meeting at 630 am infront of this beautiful lake! We all sang and bore testimonies as the sun raised it was beautiful day and Spirit was quite strong!  Afterwards I actually cut Sis Broadheads hair, I cut 5 inches of her hair off Sister Leavitt was soooo excited! haha. Then we ate, and watched some videos of the travelling musical concert that missionaries go and show in the provinces as a fireside. Then we headed back to Wolfville!

Saturday Night we were able to pick up Elizabeth and begin teaching her! And we were able to meet quite a bit of people, its funny we are working with the Bishop in trying to locate LA's and as we have made that goal we have met 4 less active this week by meeting them walking on the street and they originally had no info on ward list or wrong address and everything!  Heavenly Father is certainly blessing us here!

Then Sunday we had 5 investigators at church! We had a wonderful lesson with Ozzie (Nigerian gator) Spirit was quite strong and he is really progressing.  The only thing is his dad would stop paying for his tuition if he is baptised... but you know "much is given much is required!" right?! haha, but we have faith the Lord will provide a way!  Its funny when we started teaching Ozzie he was quite smug and rude and during the lesson THROUGH THE SPIRIT  i was able to boldly testify of importance of a humble heart- and its funny since then he has been very humble and receptive!

 

This Gospel is unreal! We are anticipating 3 maybe 4 baptisms this month! I know through the grace and power of the God we can!

 

It truly is amazing how I am meeting soooo many people that I could not of imagined never knowing in my life, this mission has changed me and is continuing to change my life. I am sooo blessed to be a missionary and doing the Lords work with every sacrifice we make I know we are blessed 10 fold! It is true as we truly forget our selves in the Lords work we find ourselves; everyday I see myself do things that aren't me. Jesus Christ is our comforter and he is our enabler to make us who we planned to be in the pre existence. My mind is soo blown everyday about Gods plan for us and how he truly is mindful and loves everyone of us! Everyone of us have so many uniqueness and amazing stories about Gods love for us because we are all so special in his eye. I love life, I love you all soo very much, I love this gospel , I love Gods plan for me. These have been the best 6 months of my life.

 

I hope and pray for you all that you are taking the time out of your day to balance it out and make time for the Spiritual things because we are here temporarily, everything this World has to offer us is temporary we are really here to prepare for the eternities and its important we develop the skills and attributes of ourselves that actually are eternal and will make a difference in the eternities as it says in Alma 42:10 and Alma 41:6-11.

 

I love you all! Go let your light shine forth!

xoxox

Love

Sister Pizzey

 

 

September 16, 2013

So this week has been another miraculous week we are seeing so much success here we were able to set 4 people on date this week which leads to 5 baptism that we have to look forward to for this October!

Erika is continuing to progress and we moved her baptism date up earlier to October 18th! She is awesome I feel so blessed to have been able to teach her I feel like have known her for years, she is currently looking for a dress on line for her baptism! Her sons Keagan (6yrs) and Isaac (12yrs) came to church this week and loved it! And Isaac told us that he would like to be baptized yesterday as well and that he wants to go to the temple one day! My heart just melted when he said those words! And Erika would like to as well her husband Matt I know will get baptized but he will not be ready for the 18th and Erika does not want to wait, I feel Matt seeing the baptism will push him to be baptized and then in a yr they can all go to them temple with eachother! Teaching her is such a blessing and yesterday Sis T and I emptied there house and took all there coffee it was great! This morning the Gee's had a breakfast for us and Erika and Isaac came , afterwards the Elders gave her a blessing for comfort and strength as she is quitting smoking. She really enjoyed it.

This week we began teaching Hope who is a members friend, I really have built a good relationship with her she is very kind older lady that has not allowed Elders in the past to teach her she has Parkinsons disease and we began teaching and she will be baptized Oct 11 it is very exciting and she doesn't want anyone in the ward to know till the Sunday before because of how excited they will all be so it is our little secret and the Bishop of course knows.

The Chinese investigator we picked up last week we were able to put on date for Oct 12th! and as well with Mona for Oct 18th! Mona is going in for surgery today for her eyes and we will be seeing her on thursday! We will start teaching her over the phone because we can only make it to Windsor once a week.

We were able to have 6 investigators at church yesterday and we have been blessed to meet and teach so many amazing prepared people from the Lord we have 8 progressing investigators. Tomorrow we have our zone training from 10-1 and I have been asked to give the Doctrinal Discussion for it ... kind of nerve racking but I can't think of it that way I just got to do it, be bold and have fun!
A LA family was able to come to church yesterday which was awesome and they met with the Bishop as well which is great! We will be in Halifax this week on Friday and Saturday for sisters conference which will be so nice to see all the sisters especially Sister Keeler and Sister Judd and Starkie! I will miss being away from the area for two crucial days of the week but I also am quite excited to be in the temple!
We are teaching a guy named Oz from Nigeria - I just love them Nigerians! And he is progressing quite well and I hope we can have him set a goal to work towards for this week as well!
We have alot of organizing to do with the Musical Concert we will be having on the 29th and making sure everyone can make the baptismal date! We hopefully will be able to have one of the baptisms in the old Windsor branch the font and building are much nicer!
Anyway sorry for the shorter email this week but I love the gospel and thank you for the package mom I loved it your awesome!
The priesthood is amazing it is here to bless our lives, and be bold and share the gospel everyone !
xoxox
Love Sister Pizzey

 

September 9, 2013

So another amazing week of miracles! Sister Thompson and I are truly blessed here and I love it here, we are right in with the "groove" of things and are having alot of success! We will be serving with one another for another 6 weeks atleast here in Wolfville and Sister Laxton who was our comp. for little less than a week will be now permanently serving in Dartmouth. 

 

And Yes Sister Olsen was in my district in the MTC, in my room and also met Blake and Lindsay on the rock, come on Kell bell got to get in with the "dets" ! And Dad I actually laughed at Instabull because I totally remember dancing around to that song hahaha thats hilarious! 

 

I feel so blessed to be serving with Sister Thompson. This work is soooo inspired, I have learnt so much from serving with someone like her its amazing, so much about my character and how I need to change my nature with me being not patient pretty well haha. AL righty so on to the week of miracles!!

 

So on Monday the old Windsor Branch that was shut down had a Corn Boil at a members home so we went there from 3-6 and I actually was able to talking to a LA members bf who is not a member and we had a great convo, I was able to relate with him and why he is anti religion and be real with him but also testify of this gospel and the blessing and strength it can bring in our lives. So he ended up giving me there number and hopefully we will be teaching them this week! They live way out but its great! I love being a missionary and talking to people I really could talk to anyone now give me anyone and I will squeeze a convo out of them whether they'd like one or not- haha I have turned into such a "maritimer!" 

So we have done some organizing this week for the Musical Concert that us missionaries in the kentville ward (aka us sisters) are having for Sept 29th! (day after moms bday!) it will be a great event for local artists that are and aren't members to perform gospel or classical music and have people come and feel the spirit in the chapel! it will be great! 

So Wolfville is just bumping with back to school students aka candy shop for Sister T and I the streets are so sooo full now! The town size literally doubles in numbers during the school year full of LOTS of wondering students that are determining who they are in life and are just lost with that because THEY NEED THE GOSPEL! So Sister Thompson and I are literally talking to every single person we can, and when I say literally talking to everyone we don't just say hi, or we DO NOT just give them our "missionary bit" we go up and get to know them, we be "real" we our open with them and ask them questions to make them be open we build a relationship and I have come to realize that any conversation can be brought into the gospel yes ANY conversation and have it not be awkward, so we are actually keeping count of "real conversations" we have daily and on saterday we were able to talk and have real convos with 50 diff. people and get to know them and of those 50 we found 5 solid interested people who know what our purpose and that we believed our gospel is the only truth and that our invitation was to them to know this as well and the accepted, but they also knew our personalities and we knew them as well and 5 of those were 3 new investigators for that Saturday! There is 17 finding ideas in PMG and we also try to use all of them because knocking is probably one of the least effective ways to find new gators!

One of my goals for this transfer was to come to know the best finding technique for here in Wolfville and I have realized that street contacting and the Free hair Cutting Booth is the best finding technique here! They work awesome!! I love it! Saturday we had the Free Hair Cutting Booth and I was cutting hair for 2.5 hrs straight! haha We actually had a line up of people waiting for cuts and as people waited the elders and sister T taught them and as they sat down in my chair I re taught them haha it was great! And two of the peoples hair I cut gave me there number to call them to teach them! Its hilarious unique finding idea but works like a charm. We won't be having it this saterday because we have service that the ward is giving and then the next weekend there is "sisters conference" where all sis missionaries will be in Dartmouth at the mission home for training and we will be going to the temple(I am soo temple trunky I can't wait!! Speaking of which I am excited to see a new "presentation" ;) hehe ) 

 So we started teaching Erika's husband Matthew this week he is hilarious haha its amazing I really feel like I am here for them! Like our personalities are all the same I feel like I have known them for years.. ( Mom and Dad this will be another area that we visit in the future) But he is going to take longer than Erika forsure. Erika is like the definition of a prepared investigator and Matt will be a member one day as well! Its great because Erika is like a member present in the lesson we teach something and get her to testify of the truthfulness of it haha she said this week in our lesson quote on quote " I know this gospel is 100% true" ahhh its music to the ears! They have a 12 yr old with handicaps and they moved here for school for special needs children and they are currently fighting the government to take care of some of the schooling fees of $25,000 tuition, and the day after the started praying as a couple they found out their neighbour is in with politics here and will be helping them with this issue... HF hears all our prayers its a truth!! But Erika is loving the BOM and we will teach Matt over skype when he works out of town as he leaves tomorrow. We will be having dinner at there house tonight and teaching them before he goes for 2 weeks! 

So on Wednesday we did the YW activity where they were all sapose to bring a friend where we styled their hair  and stuff but none of them did, but it still turned out to be productive where a LA YW that we have been teaching came and we cut their hair and shared how "we are one" in work of salvation and got them all pumped up about missionary work now and serving missions its great! One of the YW was so excited she showed up at the hair cutting booth on Saterday to help us with it! she was my little "assistant" for the day.

On Tuesday we gave the spiritual thought in the relief society presidency meeting on "we are one" and were able to commit all of them to prayerfully pick a date to find someone for us to teach, it was a great spirit filled spiritual thought (haha go figures hey?) but we could really tell that their eyes were all opened to how they haven't been fulfilling their role as members in the work of salvation.. it was great!

I also served one of the Elders investigators Thurs morning at 10am we went to her house and we gave her dreads haha yes I never have done dread locks before but there fun and we were able to teach her as well!

So Saturday we had so many opportunities to talk to people it was great actually at one point we were grabbing our car for the booth and we saw a new person moving to the apt. and we insisted for him to let us help him move in so we helped him move and he is from Uganda and has a wife and child and he gave us his number and said to call him when they are more settled in there apt, in a week to teach them he belives in God!! we can't wait! We also went to see a former investigator and as we came to his house he was moving and had no car to move his stuff so we popped his bed in our car and drove it over to his new house where he walked over and met us and we were able to teach him that day and pick him up as a new investigator as well! But talk about timing it was amazing he was just moving his address( which was our one way of communication with him )  and pop HF dropped us in his path and allowed us to move him to see his new address its great! the gospel is true!

We are still teaching the Jamaican "brothers" is what we call them haha all 4 of them are progressing and reading everyday. They all love the gospel and understand it and Jordan Bateman got transferred so it old comp. is heading over this week to teach Patricks family in Jamaica its great! Patrick wants be be baptized with his family in Jamaica but Byron may be baptized here! 

We are learning so much from the Elders here, we now do weekly planning with them on fridays and learnt alot from them. The sisters in the past were very lazy & slow missionaries and the sister field of missionaries has changed derasticly. ITS A GREAT TIME TO BE A MISSIONARY

We were able to have dinner with a RC whose Phillapeano this week and she made us some good phillipeano food!

We were able to pick up 8 new investigators and we currently have 6 progressing investigators and hopefully will have more on date this week! Last night we started teaching a girl in our apt. building Chauntee she is from Barbado's 24yrs and has been questioning her faith some questionable things have been happening at her church and so she has stopped going and then pop us missionaries came in and layed the truth down it was great! We were knocking Sat. night and we were let in a house at 8:40pm and it was the weirdest thing the couple could of been mistaken for mormons, we taught them a bit of the resto lesson but he is studying is a divinity college here for his masters and he was taken back on priesthood so he pulled out his greek bible and he can almost read a hebrew bible haha yes crazy but they were really nice and said they will read and pray and see if the bible supports our message and are having us over for dinner on tues and we will be coming back with bible passages in BOM supporting authorirty from God it will be interesting because he can totally own us in bible knowledge so it all comes down to if he is humble enough and will pray and read BOM if JS truly has the vision. SO if the Lord wants him he will be ready to be a member but we will see! We also started teaching a chinese gator Jershy who I am very excited about! I LOVE teaching chinese people, can be very bold with them haha Sis T was taken back at how bold I am with them but they love it and get it!

 

I LOVE this ward it is so great! The Bishop is awesome and has changed so much with helping us and trusting us  in my time here. Its great and its another great day to be a missionary!

 

Here is another chapter to my novel and I hope you all have a wonderful week and that mom and dad have safe travels! Will you be seeing any temples over there? That would be a good thing for you to see especially with your LA friend Karen!

 

I love you all!!

xoxox 

Love,

Sister Pizzey

 

September 2, 2013 (Pics)

Paige's new hair!  

Sister Pizzey and Elder Prince with an investigator

Haircut in the park!  Paige loves sharing her talent!

September 2, 2013

I just LOVE being a missionary, this is honestly the best time of my life- highlight of my life and I don't want this to end! Its great and I am just soooo grateful for every influence that has gotten me to be here on a mission! So thank you family and friends!

 

OKAY wow I just don't even know where to begin!

 

Anyway this has been an amazing week and let me begin! I have so much to share! First I will share with you my letter I sent to President,

 

OKAY so lets begin ( i think this will take a while I am just bracing myself haha just doing a stretch... okay lets begin with the typing!)

Erika is on date for October 25th and we started teaching her this week on Monday actually. She is the most prepared investigator ever! She was a referral from the Elders in Dartmouth, she met with them a couple of times. I honestly feel like I’ve known Erika my whole life.  We are very similar in personality. She is 28 and has a 12 and 6 yr old son and her husband is 30, he works 2 weeks out of town and 1 week home.  We will be teaching him this week. Erika is hilarious and knows this is true, it’s great how much she already understands.  She has started reading the BOM this week. We had a wonderful lesson with her on Friday, where we just spent time in the BOM and we extended a baptism commitment  of Oct 25.  She said yes with tears in her eyes, then we closed with a kneeling prayer where she said it and it was powerful moment where she again had tears in her eyes - spirit was just pumping!

We picked up another investigator Melody who is related to LA family we are teaching, she is 18 yrs old and has been brought up in a really rough life style.  She needs a change and we are hoping she will put in the effort she needs to, for it to be able to turn around. We definitely know that we are teaching her for a reason! 

We had some great lessons with LA's.  Sister T and I have made sure that we aren't wasting are time with LA's that aren't progressing this week and well we had some interesting experiences with one LA lady in particular who actually yelled at us, but oh well that comes with our calling! 

We are still teaching Cecilia and Breton and their 4 children and they have started with baby steps by kneeling in prayer as a family each night! It’s great! 

So we started teaching Patrick this week, it was great!  He is sooo solid, he is from Jamaica.   We taught him Weds and that night he gave us his common law parents info to send to Jordan Bateman so he can teach them in Jamaica.  He is serving in that area right now.  It is nuts how mindful the Lord is of all of us and how we all are connected.  I never would of thought that I would be teaching someone here and that Jordan would be teaching their family in Jamaica, weird.  Elder Prince and I are working together here in this area! How the 3 of us are working together for the work of salvation! Building friendships for eternities!! So we taught him and he wants to be baptized, and he lives literally on a land mine of 60 jamacians that are all here for work! So we taught Patrick last night and we had 3 of his friends attend the lesson and we picked them all up as new investigators! It was SUCH a spirit filled lesson and it was amazing! They will be giving us all their families info for us to send to Jamaica as referrals for there as well! It was great and on thurs night the Elders will be coming with us to this land to teach all these people, so we will be teaching them left, right and centre and bringing the good news of the restored gospel to everyone! They are all so prepared!

We had a great lesson with so many wonderful lessons this week with great people and great potential! We taught a LA family that opened us to a ton about how they feel and why they aren't active.  It is great the Bishops trust for us has gone up for us so much as well! 

We had hair cutting in the park this week as well, it went well.  We will be having it again this Saturday.  We will have the YW's activity this week as well where they will be bringing all their friends. There was a ward corn boil on friday and another one today that we are going to.  It is a great opportunity for us to go to and get to know the members. 

It is great we are forming great relationships with everyone here in this town, people know us through the booth and us talking to everyone. We are trying this week to talk to as many people as possible like EVERYONE and have a real conversation and have it stay normal and real with still talking missionary work.

In a meeting Pres Leavitt the assistants and zone leaders and dl's called us and asked us to recite to them the "How to begin teachings" on pg 176 in PMG and Sis T and I were able to call off all 10 of them.  No one else they called could, it was funny.  PL said he new the Wolfville sisters would be able to.

 

On Saturday night Hope (a lady who has been attending church for a while with members of the ward that are her friends)- that missionaries have been trying to meet with) called us and told us she wants to start meeting with us to be taught to the lessons to be a member of the church!  The missionaries have tried meeting with her in the past with no luch, haha we were stoked! At church we really have made an effort to form a relationship with her and get to know her, last week she opened up to me at church.  She has Parkisins disease and is really sad because she teaches music and probably won't be able to in two years. She has bad days and good days and I just love her so much! She called and said that she feels comfortable with us and we set up a time for Sept 13 to start teaching her, we can't wait she is great! 

Alissa Harker is attending school here she is from AB and came to a lesson with us last night.  She is 23 yrs and is awesome and we can't wait to use her in lessons!  We had dinner at Sister Wilde's house last night who breads dogs and has NINE dogsc it was nuts! haha .

It is an awesome time to be a missionary! 

This computer is really slow and I don’t have much time to write I have so much excitement and amazing expierences I want to share, but its hard to this time.  So I hope you all can understand this letter and how amazing this week has been!

This week has been very hard but well worth it!  Miracles happen all according and after the trial of our faith!  I hope you all have a great week and great time in greece! Happy to hear about Blake and Linds house and Colby's baby blessing!

Remember to do the simple easy things daily read pray study scrips, prayer at meals and fhe because that is our armor in this changing world! 

I LOVE YOU ALL

xoxox love 

Sister Pizzey