November 7, 2011

November 7, 2011 - Week 4 of Transfer 15

Today is a good day! We got the November Ensign which includes all the October General Conference talks! We have a few weeks of business ahead of us so we are going to try and get some time today this PDay to let some energy out. We will be heading up Big Cottonwood Canyon to go play in the snow. We have a snowbike from our landlords we will be taking up and I plan on doing a backflip, lets hope we stay safe. Do you have snow in the homeland?

Elder Stanley G. Ellis of the Second Quorum of the Seventy will be doing a mission tour this week with our mission. A mission tour consist of basically zone conferences and leadership trainings SO this week should be quite exciting. It could damage the work in our area so President has agreed to have only one of us in attendance each day while the either works our area, that makes me happy. We are so blessed to be visited by some many general authorities in our mission. I won't even begin to talk about December and who is visiting in that month, we have promised President to seal our lips and not tell a soul. They ask him to tell no one when he finds out. I forget if I told you that last Monday Stephen B. Allen (managing director of the missionary department) spoke to our mission Halloween night. He gave us a buttered up version of Alma chapter 5, "could ye say, if ye were called to die at this time, within yourselves, that ye have been...". He basically gave us a extremely bold sermon but used many stories and analogies to get the point across. Kind of like President Monson as he speaks. Stephen B. Allen (the king of missionary work) will be returning to our mission with Elder Evans to give another leadership training which will be completely focused on working with members, I am way excited.

That is an update of the mission, also this past week we baptized 43 people which is basically our weekly average right now. In our area Gabriel was baptized this past Saturday, it has been great working with him. We were fasting and praying that we would find someone a few weeks ago and right in the middle of our fast he came out of no where. He moved from Texas and there he was taught for six months, he moved into our area and he was baptized two weeks later. We had Jeff Mantels one of our favorite investigators attend his baptism so he could get a better feel of the whole situation. Jeff loved Gabriel's baptism and the spirit touched him. I remember looking at him just after the ordinance and a tear was running down his cheek. This week we will be going downtown with Jeff, Jessica (his future wife), his Bishop and the Bishops wife for a tour at temple square. We will be focusing on the temple and the importance of families. Jeff and Jessica have been with each other for a few years now and have four of the cutest kids in world. I love their family.

This is a short update for the week because we must be going and I emailed a few other family members today as well! I love you very much and thank you for your emails. I love the mission and its coming to an end just a little to fast. I can't believe we will be talking on the phone in December!
Love Elder Pizzey