September 27, 2010

Some of the questions we ask Blake and his answers:
So have you found a place to live?
-- Yup, we have to share kitchen but we get the whole basement to ourselves. They are way nicer. The Johnson's. We move wednesday morning. She (the wife) was born in Edmonton and moved here when she was young. I'll get more details later plus her maiden name.
Are they in control now? (fires)
-- Yes, the win flipped and blew south over night.
Is that normal for there? (warm weather)
-- I think so, I love it right now. Not to hot. Like our summer. But we have to wear suits 24/7 after conference. Lame.


Hello Family and Friends!
I have no time left! And so much to say! I think this was probably one of the best weeks in my mission. I have like ten stories to tell but it looks like most of them will have to wait until I get home with my journals. I will probably make them short so you won't get the full effect but try! First mom wasn't it your birthday!? Am I wrong September 24th? Man I am terrible, this probably looks bad. But I love you and you know it! Happy Birthday if so! 28th?

Alright so lets start off at the beginning of the week. Things in the mission have been all over the place this transfer. We had a member of the Quorum of the Seventy come and make alot of suggestions/changes. The mission is trying to figure out what they want and like so things have been going back and forth for awhile. But in result to the many meetings they have cancelled quite a few District Meetings to keep the proselyting hours up. So this past week I had only my SECOND district meeting but it should have been my fourth! Anyways the meeting start and I turned 15 minutes over to everyone to share spiritual experiences from the week, as we always do. Well President Miller walks in and takes a seat as we are wrapping it up. It's only my second district meeting and I had another District sitting in on my meeting (their DL was sick). So its like packed and Pres. Miller is there, no pressure right! Then I thought to myself, "I prepared, why be scared?" So I didn't. The district meeting went unreal! I never taught so well! Everyone was involved and I was able to speak with energy and share testimony frequently. It was alot of fun.

After district meeting and brake-offs (I meet with each companionship privately and talk) Pres. Miller took E. Wright (other DL in the zone) and myself out to lunch. This was a cool experience. He asked us alot of questions like, "what do you think of...?" It was an awesome opportunity to say what I want to say. Then we went to the sick DL of our zone and had a meeting with our zone leaders and the rest of us. We talked about whats going on in the zone. Who's struggling and what we can do. He asked us what we think of basically everything that's going on. Sometimes I think people are quite and afraid to speak up and voice their opinion, why!? Speak up and say what you think. I think that's what people like, in these kind of cases. There is a reason they are asking for you opinion. So that was alot of fun!

OK so like I said this week was packed with spiritual experiences. I was able to go on two exchanges this week, right in a row. I missed my Elder Lundwall but I do love exchanges. There is something you can learn from everyone. First I went with Elder Conrad on Wednesday. He has been out for 11 months and he is doing unreal right now. He had a few struggles at the beginning but he is on FIRE right now! We had the greatest day together. First of all we had five lessons. Just to let you know this whole week we had to cancel dinners because we had two many lessons. We were eating dinner at 3:00! It's a good problem to have. But back to E. Conrad. We teach in complete unity, just mesh together like no other. Every lesson we had together was spiritual, we both agreed it was nice to have complete confidence in what your companion was going to say next! We had this lesson with a new guy named John. First time we ever met with him and we had a two hour lesson! All of us, including John, thought it was thirty minutes. John is ready. Man we walked out of his house and freaked out! It was to perfect. I could go on but no time.

Then I had an exchange with Elder Aleman. He's from Cali and has been out one transfer less than myself (I'm finishing up my 5th). We didn't have near as many lessons as I did with E. Conrad but we worked hard. Elder Aleman is in the Spanish assignment so it was a little different for him. We picked up a new investigator that night as well, Nicole Valencia. She is engaged to a RM (returned missionary) and we set a baptismal date for October 30th. All I will say is that she reminds me too much of Lindsay.

Then on Saturday we had that District Leader meeting at the mission office with President and Sister Miller. That was good as well. Talked about our purpose and responsibilities as district leaders. Discussed whats going on, some of the mission culture things we are trying to get rid of. Learned alot there. But no time to talk!

OK so Warren and Nicole Fowlks got baptized. Unreal the spirit is always present during an ordinance. But on Sunday when they were confirmed had one of those unreal experiences were you receive another witness that this work is true and real! It's these crazy moments that you hold to and rely on in difficult times. We walked up there and Warren sat down to go first. The bishop confirmed them a member of the church and when he said the words "receive the Holy Ghost" Yikes! I could feel it. I could describe it perfectly but don't like sharing or describing spiritual experiences unless its in the right situation. But I knew every person in that circle was feeling exactly what I was. It is all up to the person as to when they "receive" the Holy Ghost. Warren's heart was softened and his mind is in the right place to receive it at that time. He overcame a lifelong addiction to smoking and man it was unreal. Same thing with his wife Nicole. They were both touched. Perfect. Plus it was the Primary program, what a perfect Sunday to be confirmed. Will never forget it. It was so nice to see their two daughters Shelby (6 yrs.) and Jessica (7 yrs.) totally involved in the Primary. Man it got me a little too excited to have kids one day, those primary kids are cute. It was a cool to hear them sing, "I hope they call me on a mission..." while actually being on a mission. I was pretty happy, finally made it! The lyrics are pretty cute as well.

OK my time is way up! I must be going! But I am even more excited for this week. Picking up more people to teach and others progressing. I can hardly wait for conference, its the greatest thing as a missionary. Next conference I will be able to go! But make sure we prepare ourselves for this weekend! I'm going to make a list of questions and concerns I have about life and the mission. Keep that list with me as I watch and when the Holy Ghost answers them I will write! Love you all!

Keep that faith - Elder Pizzey

"pics"

I have posted three new posts with pictures. Here is the link to the post:

• http://elderpizzey.blogspot.com/2010/09/august-2010-six-month-mark-tie-burning.html
• http://elderpizzey.blogspot.com/2010/09/more-summer-pics-2010.html
• http://elderpizzey.blogspot.com/2010/09/pictures-summer-2010.html

Or you can just scroll down on the blog and you'll find the posts! ENJOY!!!!



September 20, 2010

Dear Family and Friends,

 

The work moves forward. We keep finding and teaching! I don't even know how. Before I get going let me say to Rob, Rob Hirsche that is, that his old companion Shawn Marsing says Hi! I spoke in his ward yesterday and he came up and talked to me yesterday. It sounds like the trip was killer and you had some funny stories. I can just imagine Paige soaking up the whole thing. We will see if I can get some pictures on this email for you guys. We will be moving really soon by the way. Our landlords have had Elders for a year and there time is up, they have some other plans for the future. They might go serve a mission. The stake thinks they found new place for us but just yesterday they told us there might be a 20 year old girl living there that they didn't know about so that is a huge NO NO. So we are desperately looking for a new place as we have to be out before October starts!

 

Have you seen the fires going on in the south east part of the valley? Last night as we were finishing up we could hardly breath, ashes falling like snow in front of the light on our bikes. Cool story. When President Hinckley announced the Draper and Oquirrh Temples he mentioned another temple that will be built in the south east part of the valley but said. "He will let that be and talk about that another time though." Something along those lines. Well the church owns property in the south east corner of the valley near Herriman (5000 people evacuated from that town due to the fire) which a surveyor of the church told us was land designated for that temple which was announced. Well the fire rolled up the hill and burnt all that land. Pretty interesting isn't it, was he not inspired when he said that!

 

I really don't have a whole lot for this week. Elder Lundwall and myself have had a cold this past week. I just got over it and he is still recovering, man it makes it harder to work and teach. Some killer headaches, ear aches and sore throats. We took some home made medicine from the Crowley's (our landlords) called "the cure of the black plague". It either kills or you cures you. It was pretty nasty but it worked. There are some funny videos of that. But Elder Lundwall and myself continue to work together in unity. We are becoming good friends, really loving the time we have. We have a weird feeling it might be short?

 

My favorite moment of the week was probably speaking! I haven't spoke for awhile, not since the first week Elder Ng came in. I feel like I got 10x better, I think just due to a better understanding of the doctrine and more experience in the field I guess. I spoke on how we can receive revelation through the Book of Mormon. One thing that I find I am slowly learning on my mission is how to connect with heaven. How to be a instrument in the Lord's hand. Actually more like how to tune my instrument to get on the same wavelength as the Lord's. If that makes sense. I was on my knees one night asking what I should speak on. So many topics and I have no clue. I hate giving the same talk twice and felt they the ward need something other than missionary work! It didn't come to me in the very moment but maybe a half an hour later just has I was about to fall asleep it came to me. Inspiration. How do we get it? How do I? The Book of Mormon its so powerful! And I sat up quick flicked on the light and wrote it down. I'm starting to recognize and know the promptings better and better as time goes on. Preparing myself to receive revelation for my future family! Well the talk went good. Shared a couple spiritual experiences involving that topic from my mission which I felt grabbed peoples attention. We will be speaking quite a bit in the next few weeks, looking forward to it.

 

Another experience I had this week. I was on a exchange with Elder Wakefield from my district in my area. We were leaving a dinner appointment and we were riding to the other stake to visit a few people. I had this feeling turn around and go see Shauntae right now. A little history. Shauntae is a 18 year old girl with learning disability who has a comprehensin of maybe twelve year old. She was had a date for baptism this Saturday the 25th. Well we spun around on our bikes and started to bike towards her house. We knocked on the door and her foster sister opened the door with a blank look on her face. I said, "Is something wrong?" then she asked me, "Who told you to come?" The conversation went on and she went to get the Makkies (Shauntae's foster parents) and Shauntae. All three of them came to the door in tears and said, "its a sign" I was just completely confused and had no clue what was happening. We sat down and eventually they told me what happened. Shauntae's Uncle and Grandma (the only family she has) just got off the phone with her telling her how terrible of a decision she is making. We were there to comfort her with words, scripture and testimony at the right time. We told her what to do and now a few days later all is good. She was able to explain to them her reasons for deciding to be baptized and eventually her Grandmother is supportive. Long story but it was unreal for me. I thought of 1 Nephi 4:6 the second I knocked on the door and saw the look on her sisters face. I was led by the spirit and I hardly knew. I have realized we always need to act on these small promptings. Its just like anything else. Practice, practice, practice. As we act we learn if it was just us, or really one of those distinct impressions from the Holy Ghost.

 

Finally we have district meeting tomorrow! I can't wait. It will be a good one. How to teach simple, clean and ask inspired questions! Also this week there is a District Leader training that should, should be good. We should be starting to teach like three new people this week! Exciting! Two weeks ago we found four and this past week two! We have six people working towards baptism, two of them this Saturday.

 

I will briefly tell you about Nicole and Warren Fowlks. They are people we will be visiting when we come back for sure. They are a most likely in there mid 40's and have a solid family. A couple cute little girls who will be turning eight in the next year or so. But they are as perfect as they can get for baptism. She was the lady who wanted to wait until Easter to get baptized but we said no way! And she agreed. They love the neighbourhood and what really caught there eye was the other memebers on the street. How they try to live the gospel compared to just understand it. They have a solid testimony and will be a strength to the ward. I am excited.

 

This letter has been all over the place but I will blame it on my headache. My thoughts are not flowing from my mind to my fingers to this screen as well as I would like them to, but hopefully it was a good enough update. Next week I will be back 100% and right in it. Thanks for your emails I love hearing the updates from home. Miss all of you Paige, Taren, Kamry and Breanne! The Brother in laws. Parents! Grandparents! Lindsay! Friends! But I must say your all missing out! Keep the faith! Can't wait for General Conference. Like what are they going to speak to us about!? Such a mystery!

 

The main idea from my talk. The biggest thing that separates us from other Christian religions in the way we read and study the Bible and other scripture, it is our belief that it isn't the ultimate source knowledge but it precedes the ultimate source of knowledge. And that is revelation!  Bye bye!

 

Elder Pizzey

August 2010 - Six Month Mark (tie burning)

More Summer Pics - 2010

He had a great visit from his Nana and

Aunt Tara!  Tara gave him a Canadian Apron that he loved wearing for the July 4 Celebration!

JULY 4, 2010

Roosendaal Family!  A very dear family to Blake!      

SOME OF THE SPECIAL PEOPLE FROM BLAKE'S FIRST AREA -

Willow Creek Sandy Stake and Wasatch Stake

Bonnie May has been so kind to Blake and even went as far as to email me and ask what Blake's favorite breakfast was and make it for him! 

This is a picture of the Father of the boys below! Wonderful Family

Pictures - Summer 2010

This bishop had a wealth of knowledge and would answer any of the missionarie's questions. 

We are the mom's of these two wonderful missionaries above and related through marriage. 

Who would have ever thought our sons would be companions.  They were so excited!

This is a great and hard hike he did on a pday! (forgot name, oops)

Blake love it!

What a pose!

Always having a good time!

Blake's Colonoscopy!!!

The liquids he had to drink the day before.

Lounging Before Surgery

Passed out before procedure  

And recovering after, All is good!

September 13, 2010

Hello Family and Friends!

It's Elder Pizzey once again! I wish I could just recorded this because I feel like talking and not writing but here we go once again! First mom. I had basically the exact same dream just last night. I woke up this morning and I felt so disappointed and sad, like something was wrong. I kept thinking why? What did I dream about? Finally remembered. I dreamt that I slept in and missed all Pday so I didn't get to write you guys a email or anything. Hearing from you guys being the biggest thing I look forward to on Pday I was fairly upset. But just a dream. Well I really liked your emails today. Have you guys seen Denzel Washington? (we were staying in a hotel in NY that he lives parttime) I love him. Mom your email was great as well, I was completely following along and understanding what you meant and felt.

 

So this week... how do I wrap it up in a few words. "Happy Are We!" I love serving the Lord. Even though it's a roller coaster I love it. I don't think people get it when missionaries say that. Not just the transfer or the week but everyday! And these are BIG ups and downs. Not things like "Dad won't let me go to the lake this weekend". We are talking about peoples SALVATION being on the line. People you learn to love, care for and think about everyday all day. These are crucial moments in their life!

 

Sorry if that made no sense. Let me describe to you the success which we have had. This week we found FOUR new "investigators" and at one point had five people with a baptismal date, four of them being really solid. But now we only have three people working towards a baptismal date. We had something like twelve lessons this week, that's only counting legit real lessons. Many of these being extremely spiritual experiences! This upcoming week we should at least have three more people on date and continue to find as well. Just you wait! This area is literally exploding! We are trying to reschedule with the people we are teaching and we hardly can find a place with in four days, like its nuts. The Bishops, WML and members are starting to not just love us but TRUST us! We are scheduling alot of speaking opportunities starting next week. It just shows what some obiedence and hard/smart work can do.

 

Let me quickly tell you about Ray. Ray we taught for the first time at the beginning of this last week. He is mid 40's and has a family. Two kids in their mid-teens who attend a Catholic school. Ray goes to a Catholic Church with his family every Saturday night, his wife is a very strong Catholic. He attended a Catholic school in his youth as well and always had questions but they never has answers for him. It has drove him crazy his whole life, he said he would get in trouble for asking questions. Here's a little detail on Ray. He is Asian and hilarious! He calls us his Elders! "Hey it's my Elders, come here, come here." He tries to use all this young lingo with us in the way that Dad tries to. Well the first lesson we had with him was powerful! I was with Elder De La Garza (one of my ZL, on exchange). Some of the first words out of Rays mouth are about his baptism. He shares with us how he knows this is the path God wants him to take. He has been studying the LDS faith for a year now and is confident in his decision. We invited him to be baptized  on September 24th and he accepted without hesitation. 

 

On our second lesson with Ray. We were teaching the Fall of Adam and Eve to him. As we were reading from 2 Nephi 2 with him, he stopped reading and went quite. A few seconds went by, then 10 seconds and eventually a minute of silence. Not being afraid of silence I said nothing. Everything was coming together for him. Those questions he has had and has gotten in trouble for asking were being answered by God himself. The dots were being connected. With a few inspired questions that were given to me as I LISTENED to the Holy Ghost the situation was turned into one that he could teach us. He was able to share with us his testimony of Book of Mormon. Its importance and from that the importance of the Fall. Shortly after we ended on that high spiritual note. He offered the closing prayer, asking God for help in every way he could and offering thanks for all that he had.

 

Something I have learned is to LISTEN. Listen to your companion teaching, the investigator speaking, the testimony of the fellowshipper. Don't think what to say next, what scripture or question to ask next. Just pay attention and listen and it will we given to you. Listen to people's prayers. It has been made known to me exactly what to teach next lesson just by the prayer of the investigator. Listen to what they say, what they ask for, how they struggle and then discern and teach!

 

Well here is one of the lows of the roller coaster. This morning as I am eating my breakfast I get a call from Ray. I can tell he is a little emotional. I told me that September 24th wouldn't work, that the next lesson he has to cancel and that we better stop coming by. He tried to sit his wife down last night and tell her about the 24th. She threatened to file a divorce and there was a huge fight. But he loves his family, his wife and children and feels he needs to hold off for awhile, which I understand. But it is sad, she won't let him explain his feelings and why but instead just puts up a brick wall. So this is half the story of ONE of the people we are teaching. No lie there are five or so stories this week that I similar to this. But with happy endings!

 

Now I could go on about the mission tour we had this week as well. Elder Grow came from the Presidency of the Seventy.  He changed alot of things in the mission. Some I like and some not fond of. No more zone activities unless the Mission President is present. That means no more gathering on Pday and playing basketball with all the good ballers in the zone. You can only gather as a district. So all districts have there own building for district meeting and mail pickup on Pday's. Not to sure why but I guess it's inspired, rule comes from the brethren. No more call in's at night, only on Sunday for numbers, which I love! Actually have time to write in the journal. We talked alot about setting goals and following the spirit. It was a very interactive atmosphere, I was able to talk back forth with a general authority! Cool feeling. He is so quick and snappy, like a young attitude. There was one point while he was changing the structure the mission is run when he asked all the District Leaders to stand up. I was in the front row. And he just lectured us on how our role and responsibility has just upped big time. He started me right in the eyes from five feet away as he told us how important it is for us to lead by example by being obedient and have our areas as a model. It felt so good to be able to stare him back in the eyes with full confidence in the Lord, knowing that I have worked my hardest to bring others unto Christ.

 

He taught us alot of cool things which I wish I had time to share. He told us that we are the arms of the Apostles. He told us to question our Stake Presidents on their knowledge of the missionary flow chart, way to SCARY! But it is cool we are the only ones who are able to dedicate 100% of our time to the Lords work. Man this time is crucial! So much to take in, must be like a sponge. So much to learn and to change. So many attributes to work on. I hope this email gave you a taste of my week. I miss you all and look forward to being with my family at some time! Love you all.

 

"The will to win is the will to prepare." -- I like.

 

Elder Pizzey.

September 6, 2010

Hello Family and Friends!
Another week has passed! First I'll say I'm pretty lucky to be emailing today alot of Elders weren't able to because it's labour day and everything is closed. I'm at a family history center. OK let me start by easy with the fat comments! I would like to let you know I weigh 185lbs. and that isn't that bad! I have gained 15 pounds in total and ten of those were in the MTC. I have stayed steady for close to four months! And we have made a companionship goal waking up at 6:00 AM and running to the stake center, shooting hoops for 45 minutes then running home. Not to much work but fun and wakes me up for studies!

Today was lots of funs! I have to stop using exclamation marks they are getting over used but I want you to understand how I feel about everything. Well we had a zone activity. We all met at this neighbourhood/little town? Not sure, called Daybreak. I love the area. This crazy modern little community and alot of different styles of homes. Google it, street view it. The address of where we met was 11445 South and 4540 West. ANYWAYS. We all met there played some out door basketball, beach volleyball and frisbee. We got a BBQ over there and we all brought some things and had some good burgers and hot dogs. We were there from 11:30 till 2:00. We have a really good zone for basketball. I love it, we play everyday and I probably loose 5lbs every pday. I don't have much time left for the rest of the day though. But that's OK.

So our numbers for this week were pretty low but that's OK because we were able to do alot of work and it is paying off. We are really starting to know all the leadership in the wards, well one ward at a time. It takes forever! There is so much work in this area though! I don't want to talk it up too much just in case next week nothing happens but we should be picking up five new "investigators" this week. I find it weird calling people "investigators" more like people we are teaching, who are our friends who we grow to love! But we have so many people inviting people to meet with us and already have a few new lessons. It's like previous Elders just didn't know how to work it. It's all about knowing the leadership, being aware of every possible situation, then figuring out who is the right person to invite them to meet with us. It's ten times better than us knocking on there door and saying, "Your close friend told us to come ask you if you want to meet with......" Door shut on the face.

Elder Lundwall and myself are getting along real good. I really think it can work between any companionship, if your being obedient. It's cool though you learn things everyday by working together. I think this goes for all relationships but there is something I always try to remember with any trouble in a companionship. This is going to be way hard to explain by email, way easier in person. BUT it is always equally you as it is the other person. It is hard to not just think of what your companion does wrong and how they can change. But there is alot that we do wrong and can always improve on. I'm not just saying this though! I've really learn't this and it builds unity like no other. I think having a girlfriend really prepared me for companions, learning to compromise and realizing that they are usually always right.

So this week we were able to set two baptism dates for these people we are teaching. One lady Nicole who is in her late 30's I'm guessing. It was my first time meeting her this week and all I knew is that she wants to be baptized next year on Easter! And I thought no way, way to long. But when we went in there, we vwere able to come out with a goal for September 25th! She is ready and has been studying all religions for a year now. She has come to a conclusion this is the only church that makes "sense" and has answers to questions. Something that also convinced her of the truthfulness was the focus on families and the doctrine we have that supports it. She knows satin is attacking the family today. But Nicole and her husband have four children. Two around the ages of 6 and 9 and the other close to mid teens. Her husband doesn't know if he was baptized when he was younger but the WML (ward mission leader) says they have records of him. He is completely supportive and involved just has much as Nicole is. Nicoel's father was also a preacher at a Christian faith and she will be facing some tough family opposition. So that is that! We will keep you updated.

We also set the same date for another girl we are teaching who's name is Shauntae. She is 18 but has a learning disability. I am not to sure what it is but she has the comprehension of maybe a 14 year old. She is learning alot and what we are sharing with her is really helping her out. We have the same goal for baptism September 25th. This area is really exploding though! Everything is going the way it is suppose to! Just keep working is all I think. Time flies.  This week we have a "mission tour"? I'm not to sure why it's called that but Elder Grow, I believe a 70, is coming to the mission and giving a few trainings. One to all the District and Zone leaders then another to the zones combined. I'm pretty excited, alot to learn.

Well yesterday was a good fast Sunday. Even though we have the opportunity to share our testimony everyday I like sharing experiences at fast and testimony meetings. Plus it builds trust. Well something I feel like I have come to understand while serving is how living the gospel of Jesus Christ it truly makes us WANT to live with our families forever. Does that make sense? Everyone always says, "I know I can live with my family forever." But does everyone really want that? Not everyone but they can get there by living the gospel. I thought I loved you guys before I left but I feel like I didn't even know what love was now. As you truly live the pure and simple gospel it brings you to a new level of love. My family is all I care about and they are my best friends. I love teaching and sharing these simple principles of the Gospel because I'm able to build this desire with people, to live with our families forever. I hope that made sense. Basically we can draw close to each other by trying to become more Christ like. This doesn't mean I'm trunky and wanting to come home because I miss you guys so much but I mean I love you guys and look forward to the February 2012, which is real soon, when I can come through those doors and squeeze the brains out of all of you. Starting with you mom. This week I was asked if I am a mommies boy and I said Yep, of course. If I could get one point across today it would be to truly live it. Be converted and realize the change we need to make. This is church is real as I like to say. Not just true but REAL.

Elder Pizzey