Just so you know. Its 4:45pm and we are in a huge rush. I have been typing for the past 20 minutes and everything just got deleted... Not to happy anymore. Well let me try to shorten everything up I said.
I am glad to see everything went OK this past weekend with the funeral and the birth of Marli, I like that name. I loved the pictures you sent of the kids, I hardly recognize them anymore. Good work Sisters for laying up treasures in heaven. Now Taren and Dave you better get started, don't let me beat you. I am really excited to have little Pizzey's running around. I almost forgot to mention the bad news you shared though. The car, I knew it. To be honest I thought it was already totalled and you were just waiting to tell me until I got home. Well good thing your off to Africa Paige! (Blake obviously does not know they are going to Ecuador) You won't need a car there that's for sure. Have fun girls! Love both of you.
Today we are emailing so late because we hiked Mount Olympus with Elder Brand who is leaving this week, he leaves mid transfer for school. We will miss him, he is unreal. Served as an Assistant from his 10 month mark until his 20th month mark, way intense. The hike killed me though, I am way out of shape. You just don't get enough time to exercise everyday as an Assistant. We also don't have meals everyday, which you think would be good but that just means we eat food that isn't as healthy. Fast food. I hate it. We just don't have time during those crucial hours for meals though.
This past week has been crazy hectic as well. We had Zone Leader Council last week. We addressed a few of the topics we felt our Zone Leaders need. There are a few that have polar opposite needs but with the training that was given both sides were met. It was focused on serving those we preside over and building our love for them. While we trained on that for an hour President Miller actually got down on the floor and polished every ones shoes... that was humbling to have him do that. I will never forget it. Then switched that around to IF you actually have true love for your Elders and Sisters you will have high expectations, therefore you will hold them accountable. The spirit was ever strong and it was the best ZLC I've attended. We have a few Zone Leaders who are departing this transfer and they shared their testimonies as well. I've learned alot from them.
There have been some crazy miracles with investigators that I wish I could share. This work is truly the work of our Heavenly Father. This past month we baptized 12 and for August we are projecting 9 and have a goal of 10. I hope we can hit it. It is a little stressful to have the "model area" for the entire mission but truly its my favorite part. I love being in our area and working it. We are trying to help our mission catch the vision which we have obtained. That is baptizing weekly.
The Salt Lake Big Cottonwood 2nd ward is the greatest ward in the world. The demographics are all over the map. Different ethnicity's and from extremely wealthy to low income. We attend this ward every week and feel at home here. A majority of Baptisms have been in this ward. I think it is stressing the WML out but also the ward council a little. The WML needs some help though, hardly any Ward Missionaries. I think one... doesn't work so well for teaching weekly new member lessons, which is scary. It is definitely keeping all of us on our toes though. The great thing is the retention rate in this ward is basically 100%, they do an unreal job.
Behreh this past week was baptized into the 2nd Ward this past Sunday. He is from Berma and speaks Korenni, not a common language. He is 14 years old and just the cutest little guy. We have been teaching him for 5 weeks and has come to church each week. Sumeh, one of Elder Bertolino's recent converts has been translating for us. She is 18 and preparing to serve a mission. She will be one of the first Korenni speaking missionaries. She will be the Lord's tool in bringing her people the Gospel, its so exciting.
So many other great things have happened. Recent converts receiving the Priesthood and passing the Sacrament for example. This week we have two Zone Conferences and next week two more. That means late nights and early mornings and long days at the mission office. Recently Zone Conference has gone from the Assistants training with the Mission President for the majority of the time to the Zone Leaders taking a big bulk of it with the mission President. So we will see how it goes, hopefully we can stay in our areas to study and proselyte.
Love you Ma and Pa! Also family and friends.
Love Elder Pizzey.
Behreh's Baptism
Elder, I passed through your area a couple of years ago on during my own mission. There were some great people in the 2nd ward, as you found out. Is Bishop Winkler still there? He was such a great guy, but I lost track of him over the last couple of years. I'd love to get back in touch. He's got some really inspiring stories from when he was the engineer of the temple in Seattle, WA. Hope you had a chance to get to know him and hear some of his stories!
ReplyDelete