La prima verità - Week 88

Hey everyone I hope you all had a great week! This week was strange, due to the fact that Is was the last week serving with Anziano B. I had been serving with him since December and it's weird to me that he will no longer be my companion. My new companion will be Anziano S., who I am good friends with here in the mission. He served in my district in Busto Arsizio and now we are going to be companions. It was a good week.

Our English class students

Just a good ol selfie with Anziano B., M. and N.

We were able to have a family home evening with a family in the branch and P. It was great because as a new convert it helped P. get to know another family in a more personal way. The Liberatos are a
great family and they took in P. and really tried to get to know him. We are slowly reading through the Book of Mormon with him and he really tries to learn from every chapter.

We were also able to go out and have a lunch with the Tomanis before Anziano B. will leave. P. just wants the best for us, and really keeps surprising me how much she listens to what we say. She probably knows as much about my family now as I do, and that's saying something! But she's great! We were also able to go play some calcio and basketball with E. and some of his friends, to make a closer connection with him. He's become a good friend and is willing to listen to our message.

Other than that we spent a lot of time saying goodbye to the members of the branch. In this branch we had been known as cheeseburger, and as we were going to make the visits for Anziano B. I had realized how much of a relationship we had made with these people. The members are devastated that our companionship has to be split up. As a companionship we tried our best to get to know everyone in the branch, and now we were able to see how much of a change we really had made in these people's lives. It just made it harder for me to think when I have to leave these people. But for now I can continue being with them and continue to help them the best I can.

Anyways my mind has been on the subject of a quote that Elder Holland said at the last general conference. He said "we all know the first great commandment is to love the lord with all thine heart, might, mind, and strength. But we also need to remember he first truth, and that is that our father in heaven loves us". A subject in many of our lessons this week has been that of hope. It is easy for us to get lost in the troubles of the world. It is easy to lose hope when things go wrong. But when Elder Holland said this, there came to my mind the most powerful hope and knowledge we can have. When we know or even hope that our Heavenly Father loves us, we can feel a change in us. We can go forward. If we even have a desire to hope or believe that he loves us, then we can receive his love and help in abundance. If we don't believe that Heavenly Father loves us, we blind ourselves to the endless love he offers us. We need to hope and believe that he does indeed love us. Otherwise we are choosing not to hope, and thus choosing not to see his love he desires to show us. I know here in Italy that I have been blessed by his love. I know he is watching over me every day. Without his love, I would not be able to go forward. I would not be able to be happy. I know his love is eternal.

The district

Io oddio le allergie.... - Week 87

Hey everyone, I hope you all had an allergy free week. Here for some reason the pollen is especially potent, and everyone is being affected right now. I've already gone through 30 packets of tissues in two weeks.

This week went by quick so I'll get to it.

E. is going great, we taught her the first half of the plan of salvation and were able to give her a copy of the Book of Mormon. She really is taking this challenge to learn for herself, she wants to know what god's answer is and she is doing what she needs to do to find a response.

After church we had a branch lunch in celebration of P's birthday. It was a blast and everyone was super nice to him. P. is doing well, and we are reading the Book of Mormon with him. It's really nice because we get to go slowly and really go over every chapter with him.

The Codarins are doing really well, and we did a ton of work in a big storm so it was pretty dang fun. D. is doing fine, he seems content how he is, but he is always attentive and willing to follow the commitments we invite him to do.

Today we did a bunch of work for the Bressans and hence why this email is short. We did some work shoveling a bunch of gravel, and moving wood. We are helping them organize their shed space etc. it is pretty dang fun, even with all the blisters.

Anyways, my mind lately had been focused on what Elder Uctdorf said in general conference about the shepherd and lost sheep. We all are shepherd as members of the church, but we can all get lost at times. But something that I like that uctdorf said was that the only thing we need to know in order to be able to be saved, is to know that God loves us. We can all be found if we know this principle. We can all stop in our tracks and let the shepherd find us. If we don't believe God loves us, we will keep walking away assuring that we will stay lost. But if we stop, if we turn around, we will be found. The promise is that. All of us can be found.

I know that this gospel can help all of us. Gods love is sufficient to help us, even if it is just a sense of comfort, it will help. I know this church is true!

Non lo dimenticherò mai - Week 86

Hey everyone, I hope you all had a great week. Just a reminder to everyone, it's my mothers birthday, number 26 so make sure to give her a happy birthday message.

This week was one to celebrate. P. took the steps to be baptized, and it was just a great event. The night before he told us that Saturday was his special day, the most important day in his life. And it indeed was a special day. The night went great, there was lots of support, and he was all smiles. The following day on Sunday, he was confirmed a member and given the Holy Ghost, and it was an emotional blessing. Being a fast and testimony Sunday we were able to hear the testimonies of soo many people who were touched this last weekend. Now we are working with P. to teach one of his friends that he wants to help be baptized.

Wooooooooohhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

Getting ready

Passing time eating pizza while the font fills up

Sunday a member brought a sister in law to church, because she had been asking questions. Her name is E. She met us and when we told her that we teach people about our religion, she immediately asked to meet with us so she could learn and understand. The member friend joined us, and he really was a big part in the teaching. It helped because being 20 year old boys sometimes we don't know how to relate with people who are in their 60's, but this member did, and it brought an extra boost to our meeting we had together.

We were able to visit the Codarin family again, and this time got put to work on the tomatoes. We planted hundreds, tended to hundreds, and set up room for them to grow. It's really nice being able to give help so often to this family. We were then able to talk about what our goal in life is, and how that affects the streets we walk. When we don't have a goal, or a destination point, it never matters where we walk, but when we want to get somewhere, we take the streets necessary to arrive at that point. If we want to be baptized, we need to follow the "streets" or commandments to help us receive the ordinance of baptism.

We were able to see M. again. We watched the conference talk by Sister Oscarson with him. We focused on how we need to always believe what we know, or knew. It is good to know something is true, but when we include the belief to that knowledge it gives us more assurance. We can say we know 2+2=4 but do we often believe it or care to believe it's true? Sometimes we have spiritual confirmations, and then we forget that we knew those experiences because we stopped believing that they happen or that it was true to begin with. Our focus with M. was to help him use the combination of his knowledge of the gospel, with the belief (faith) that it still can help him.

Today we went to Trieste and visited "la risiera di San sabba" one of the concentration camps that existed in Italy during World War Two. It was a humbling experience to walk through the factory that had turned into a camp. It made me really appreciate the freedom we have today, and the sacrifice many people made for us to walk around in safety. It is a traumatizing event, but it is a great reminder to us all of what we want to always avoid.

Concentration camp San Sabba

Anyways my mind this week was really centered on the guidance of the Holy Ghost. There are many promises the Holy Ghost gives us, such as comfort, counsel, warnings, and many others. It is said so many times in the scriptures that the Holy Ghost will give to us what we need to say or do, and I had always known that, but sometimes it was pushed out of my mind. When we follow a prompting from the Holy Ghost we are entitled to help, if we are worthy and follow the guidance it gives us. I have recounted many times when I stopped someone on the street, or during a lesson, and then had no idea what I needed to say. I would rely on the Holy Ghost and when I opened my mouth, words would come out that were not originally in my mind. The Holy Ghost is the ultimate teacher and converter. By it, we receive all the understanding we need from our Heavenly Father. I know that when we daily accept council from this member of the godhead we will always find help when we need it.

I hope everyone has a great week, and enjoy the wonderful weather!

La Primavera - Week 85

I hope you all had a fantastic week! The weather is getting back up to about 20*C and the sun is shining! This one was super busy week, but exciting.

So P.'s baptism is this Saturday! We are so excited for him, he has really come a long way for this. Anziano B. is going to baptize him. I realized he hasn't had the opportunity to baptize someone during his mission, and we both know it would be good memory for him and P., so I told them I thought it would be nice for them if he did. Something that I really admire about P. is how sincere he is when he prays. He really prays with his heart. He lets Heavenly Father know what his intentions are, and he lets him know what his true desires are. Needless to say, we are stoked for Saturday.

Another great bit of news. We are going to be working with a kid named G. who is the son of a less active family that recently started coming back to church. They want him to be baptized at the end
of the month so we are going to be working with him to make that possible!

This week we had zone training in Mestre again, and also had interviews with President Dibb. This was most likely my last interview with him because we do interviews every three months, and my last interview will actually be my going home interview, but President Dibb gets released two or three weeks before I go home, so my last interview was probably the last one with him. But it was nice, we really have been focusing on how we can become great workers with members of the church. We focus on teaching people so much, and members want to share the same thing. Many have served missions, but still most people sometimes just don't know how to go about it, so we are trying to figure ways to help members be missionary minded.

This week I also had the opportunity to go to Trieste to interview a teenager for baptism. It was great because it was amazing to see the growth of this person. Having just been a part of the development of
P.'s testimony it was awesome to see how everyone can go through the same spiritual change. Being thirteen years old this kid really knew the God loves him.

P. is doing well, she has been having some problems with her back, so we have been trying to help her out as much as we can at her store. We were able to meet with F. at the Tomasetti's home. We had a great time. The Tomasettis have been wanting us to start working with F. again, but we wanted to find a good way to break the ice, so we played some Italian card games, and asked her to teach us how to crochet, which she absolutely loved. We were able to bring her a good spiritual message, and she mentioned how much she missed hearing our message, so we are hoping to get deeper with her in the near future.

Well this week was general conference, and unfortunately due to our busy schedule we have only watched most of conference, but it was still great. If anyone have not seen conference, let me just say the family was definitely a focus point. But I would also just like to share one thing I liked from conference (I could talk forever about the talks, but I'll spare y'all the trouble) President Dieter F. Ucthdorf in his morning address talked about his home city in Germany. He mentioned a church that was the crown jewel of the city, and how it had been destroyed in the war. He explained that after, they took whatever remaining parts they still had and restored the church to its original form. He then said if a man could take rubble, broken pieces, and little sections of a destroyed object and turn it into something beautiful, how much more capable is Heavenly Father in helping turn us imperfect people, into disciples of Christ? It's true, we can rely on God to help us even when we are shattered and broken. If we seek him he will help reconstruct us into something amazing!

I loved conference and I love this gospel! Have a great week everyone!

Selfie of the week. Anziano B. didn't want to smile