July 19

Hello!

Weeks go by so fast! You guys don't get it, they just fly. Each day you have something that happens weekly that you look forward too and they just keep rolling by. It's funny it seems like nobody is on a time crunch like we are as missionaries. We are always on a limit and time is ticken! Whether it's the countdown of two years, the six weeks of a transfer, just the week, or the day! There is no time to wait! To postpone things! It needs to be done this very minute right now! For others it's summer, time to slow down and take it easy. Push the date back a few days, cancel a lesson and re-schedule for next week because it will all get done eventually. NO!

We have some much potential in this area, so many people just purched on the fence. Families attending church, people willing to meet with us and it is great. We had some high goals set this week and we didn't hit them all, but they were reachable. That just means that we are left with more work this week and thats OK with me. I'll give you just a quick summary of the past week. Didn't pick up (start teaching) as many of the potential investigators we would have liked too although we did start teaching Austin Hammer last night. He is 16 and has a baptismal date of August 19th and he is pretty excited, people are just ready! He wants to serve a mission as well. He's pretty funny guy, big baseball player, everyone calls him Ham. I haven't told your much about Bro. Asalmi I have been teaching I'll save his long long story for the big day when he finally gets baptized. We have been teaching him for five months and the last two lessons we had with him have had some very spiritual moments, he's making progress. Tell Elder England (I guess Daniel now) to keep doing his work, there are people he should be calling/emailing! Alot of our investigators have been out of town for holiday's so not to many lessons this week. This weekend might get worse for that, July 24th is a HUGE holiday here, Pioneer day. People are going buck for it and basically everyone is heading out of town for something.

So like I have already said in earlier emails there are some many ups and downs in a mission, every day. It's good. We teach alot of youth classes and after teaching one we get a call from this girl Rebekah letting us know she scheduled a lesson for us with her friend! She can't wait to meet with us! We go wild. Then we knock on someones door for a key lesson and no one is home. Later we have dinner with a family who is hilarious and we just have an enjoyable dinner laughing around, share a message and make a friend. Then Rebekah calls us back her mom was excited for her to meet with us but her dad said 'heck no!' Then that night we meet someone at church, schedule a lesson with them and set a day for baptism that very day! Before we head it we schedule two new lessons with potentials for the up coming week! ------ This was how our Sunday went, missing alot of detail of course. But as you can tell it's like YAYYY! ..... AGH..... and back and forth but usually and most of the time their are more postives than negatives. Making serving a mission the greatest.

Some days are blistering hot and go by a little slow but it seems like if you keep working hard and stay busy the Lord takes care of you. The work moves along and something a few days later just falls into you lap and says, "Don't stop sprinting".

So this email has been very brood and general maybe I'll just share one experience that we had last night. Each day we have a list of people we need to visit whether they be active members to check up on, ninvite, less actives we are trying to activate or potential investigators we are trying to work with ourselves. Well a Bishop gave us the last name of this young couple. Usually when we go to visit somone not of our faith once they see us they start to panic, walk the other way, hide, not answer the door, run, tell us to get lost, say "I'm good" shut the door, give us the "I know everything about your religion, probably more than you do" and shut the door or just nicely and politely dismiss us. Well this guy we went to visit was friendly and wanted to talk. Not so much about the church or religion but about us, who we are. As missionaires you are always the one asking the questions and I never realized this, for some reason no one wants to ask you something. But this guy did and man was it fun, I loved it! Asnwering questions. Like I said at first he didn't want to talk about religon at all. He had some good funny questions. He did the good ol game of tell me something your companion doesn't even know about you. Mine was, I was the biggest little wimp when I was young. Afraid of needles, water, anything you name it and I wouldn't do it. Elder Ng's was he sucked a singing a few years ago (he's really good).

So after like ten minutes of just chatting I started to turn our conversation into a gosepl related chat. He soon started to ask questions like. When did you know this religion is true? What did you do to become "converted"? What was something you learned in the MTC you didn't know before? Why are you out here for two years? What do you want to go home with from you mission? Just for yourself, what are you going to take away from these two years? Well he was loving our answers as you can tell he continued to ask more questions. Gospel related questions yet still personal and I like it. For the question, what do you want to take home from this? I whipped open the blue hard copy Book of Mormon we always carry one us to Alma Chapter 5 verse 14 (p. 218) and shared it with him. "And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye recieved his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?" I told him I believe, to a point, this is what I came out here with. I had some of his image in my countenance. Of course we could all do better but I did. I went through this mighty change in my heart meaning from the inside out. BUT to answer what I want to go home with I asked him to read verse 19 of the same chapter (p. 219). Which reads. "I say unto you, can ye look up to God at that day with a pure heart and clean hands? I say unto you, can you look up, having the image of God engraven upon your countenances?" I told him I want to truly be able to say I have worked my hardest, wasting no time. And in doing so I will recieve the greatest gift. His image with now be ENGRAVEN within myself. Sketched in, carved in, made permanent. It will be going nowhere, there for ever and this is what I want. I then expounded on how it will bless my family and future generations. I will be ready to be a father and to start this life and related how the gosepl blesses families. How they are ordained of God.

It was just a good moment. It was unreal to see the change in this guy that took place in twenty minutes on his back porch (under a mister). Went from a nice guy not wanting to talk about religion to being curious. I asked him if I could now ask him one simple, short question. Of course yes. What do you believe a prophet is? He responded "well someone who speaks with God, let's us know his word." I said one more? yes. If there was a prophet of God on the earth today, who speaks with God, would you follow him? Well of course yes! I then shared my testimony of the Book of Mormon and how it is the only evidence there is of this! I told him there is no other way, you can't take anyones word for it. There is no website that will help or give you truth. It's all between you and God. Simply read and ask. Well he defintely changed over this short period of time and was really curious. He accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon and said he would crack it open sometime. I wrote down on a card of ours a few of my favorite chapters and set him on the right path. He didn't want a return appointment, I think he would if it wasnt for his wife. BUT he said come back and visit anytime and you never know. One day we might be in a different situation.

Well I spit that out fast, but I hope it made sense. It was a good experience for myself and the testimony of Elder Ng and myself while answering those questions was powerful. I hope you guys enjoyed what I had to share. Have a good week and keep the faith!

Love Elder Pizzey.