Elder Bednar - Week 38

Hey everyone,

This week certainly was one to put in the memory book. Our mission had the privilege of having Elder Bednar of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles visit us. Every missionary in our mission went to Milan on Monday to have a conference with him. We spent 6 hours together discussing many subjects. It was great to see him in a more casual environment because he was more relaxed and had fun with us. He and his wife would joke about each other and it was just so pleasing to see. I was able to ask him a question myself and get a great answer. A couple of things we focused on were how we need to be agents and not objects. When we are objects we allow things to act upon us and control us, but when we are agents we are the ones who are acting making our own choices. He also mentioned how we need to use personal revelation more. We shouldn't only rely on answers from apostles and prophets, but we can go through prayer to Heavenly Father and ask him directly. Revelation in short definition is thoughts to the mind and feelings to the heart.

The Duomo in Milan

With all the information we learned from Elder Bednar, we are all pushing hard these next few months to increase our desire to work and share the gospel. One of the many ways we are going to be pushing forward is through sharing the gospel in every way, through personal face to face, and sharing the gospel through online methods. Our mission is going to be adding in some additional ways to share the gospel with the Italian people through Mormon.org and other sites where we can message them online. So many people these days go straight to the internet to find answers to their questions, so this will be a great way for us to be there to answer questions and find more people this way. We hope it will help us reach the society that we now essentially live in, the digital age.

With the Bednar Conference taking up most of our time we were not able to visit everyone we wanted to teach, but we were able to go on a stake activity hiking in the mountains. We brought an investigator named Moret with us and I really think he enjoyed the fellowship given to him. We hiked in the Tuscany mountains to a peak that overviewed many hills. It was certainly amazing to be able to get out in the forest and view another part of Italy.

I know this gospel to be true. I love it, and want others to know that. Everything we have is possible through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We need to give thanks to him daily. I hope everyone has a fantastic week!

Anziano Chase

What is Success? - Week 37

Hey everyone, another week goes by and the time seems to be going faster than it ever has. Anziano Cameron and myself had a pretty good week, and met some great people.

We went and visited a family this week of a recent convert that asked us to visit his family. We brought our branch president who ended up being a huge help. We expected the mother, Assunta, to be the one asking all the questions, but when we started explaining the fundamental beliefs of our church it was the 13 year old daughter, Francesca, that started throwing questions at us left and right. It really took us by surprise too because she was throwing out intellectual questions I did not think I would even have to respond to in the lesson. Our branch president really helped us out by volunteering to go into a good explanation about her questions, and it really helped us create a good beginning to the lessons that we will be teaching them.

Also, we met a great new friend named Darlington. He is from Nigeria, and really enjoys talking about the life of Christ. We spent a couple of hours with him just talking about the beliefs we had in common, and he got really excited. He hasn't found a good church to go to so we invited him to church on Sunday and he happily accepted.

Things are really going fast, as we are seeing Elder Bednar on Monday. We have been trying to spiritually prepare ourselves to have a good meeting with him. It made me think about how people measure success and what it truly means to be "successful". In the dictionary success is, achieving something you have been trying to do. In many ways that makes us successful and failures every day. We all compare ourselves to what we think we need to be every day. We tell ourselves, I need to be the star player on the Los Angeles Angels, or I am a failure. And in dictionary definition if we don't make it we fail. It makes me think about how God measures success. I truly believe that God doesn’t measure success by what you achieve, but by what you become trying to succeed. All of us grow in ways that we don’t see when trying to achieve that ultimate goal we set. We fail to notice our talents we learned on the way, or the small things we accomplished during the attempt. It all applies in missionary work as well. We get all caught up in how many people we baptize or what title of leadership we receive. But it isn’t about that. Sure it is important to strive to be the best, but our success should be focused on being the best we are, not the best others think we have to be.

I know that the gospel allows all of us to see our true talents and gifts, and that each of us are a successful child of God. I love this gospel and love sharing it with others. Have a great week everyone!

Spring time Continues - Week 36

Hey everyone,

First off I would like to give a special birthday shout out to my mother that turned an amazingly young 26. Don't believe me ask my dad hahaa

Anyways transfer calls were this week and the trio has ended and Anziano Revorado is going to Udine. However, I am staying in Pesaro to be with Anziano Cameron again, so needless to say I am excited. They are not sending down any other missionaries to be in Pesaro so it will just be myself and Cameron. This will be really interesting for me because I have never been alone in a city with another missionary. All the work is now solely for us to do. No pressure right??

So this week has been full and quite busy. We had our preparation zone training for the conference with Elder Bednar, and are really trying to consecrate ourselves more fully so that we can get the most out of his visit. On Saturday we also helped a family move their belongings from the 6th floor of an apartment to the first. I think overall we did about 200 flights of stairs that day. I was pretty dang sore for the next few days. But we were really able to bond with the grandma of the family. She was grateful for our willingness to help, and even more surprised we would do it for free. She asked for a book of mormon so she could get to know our religion better and we hope that something good will come from it.

The rest of this week was focused on saying goodbyes for Anziano Revorado. We visited a less active that hasn't been to church in a few years, and he was very delighted to see us. He had been having marital issues and needed the friendship from us. He works as a caretaker for a formula one driver's house. the owner is Gianni M. Anura, the caretaker took us to M's villa and it was pretty stinking awesome. It has the prettiest view of Pesaro I have ever seen, and it just screams luxury. But best of all aside from the villa, Anura wants to come back to church.

The work is progressing and we have a lot of great possibilities this week. We are keeping our eyes open for people who want to hear our message. Just to finish with a little portion that Elder Ballard said last year. "Catch others doing something good" Too often we look to point out the negative. Our inner selves tell us that we need to see the mistakes in others to make ourselves feel better. But how does that help us truly be better people? It doesn't. If we want to "catch" other people doing good things, we can notice is so much more, and make it known. Everyone wants to know they are a success, even if it is just in the little things. No one wants to hear everything they mess up on or do wrong. We need to help them realize the talents they have.

I know this gospel is true, and that we can all apply the Christ like attributes in our own lives, through service and love. I hope everyone has a fantastic week!

Egli Vive - Week 35

Hey everyone,

I hope you all had a great Pasqua and Spring Break. This week was truly a week to remember in my mission. To start off, we were invited to join an English group for one night to meet people who wanted to practice their English and make friends. We went and ended up talking to many people and started to actually teach some of them. This all came from one person we friended that wanted others to meet us. It really taught me the concept of being a friend to all, because we never know where that friendship can lead us.

So many of you know I love sports, and this week I got to see the culture of Italian basketball of all sports. We were allowed to go see Pesaro's basketball team play. It was so incredibly fun, and although they are not nearly as good as the NBA, it was cool to see some Italians play ball.

This next part to me is truly the highlight of the week (I know conference was this weekend and was still great but I’ll get to that too). Our branch president took us Friday night to the city Cantiano to watch a live manifestation of the last days of Christ, the judgements with Pilate, Herod, and the Last Supper, all the way to him dying on the cross. The whole city of Cantiano puts this together. There were hundreds of people dressed up reenacting the whole purpose to why we celebrate Easter. It was truly amazing. It was so accurate to the teachings of the Bible, and so many people were there to watch it. It certainly was an experience that I will always remember in my missionary days.

On Sunday we went to The Villajuans for Easter Lunch. We ate Ceviche, and then a Chicken and Rice Entree. We played some games with them and ate Italian Colomba, a desert that does not exist in the states. After that we went and watched some of Saturday's conference. We have not been able to watch all of conference yet but there were a couple of things that stood out to me.

Henry B Eyring talked a little bit about fasting and how we do not have to wait to fast and give fast offerings, but to follow the spirit. Also that we need to believe when we fast, that there will be blessings that come from it. Fasting won't mean anything unless we know that there is cause behind it, and effect in the future.

Larry M Gibson also quoted something very profound. I don’t know who originally said it, but it really stuck out to me. "Teach the gospel every day, and if necessary, use words" It is important to share our beliefs by telling others about them, but it will leave a much bigger impact on others, if they see us LIVING the gospel.

Last bit from the parts of conference I saw is from Elder Clayton of the 70 about believing in things. We must first have the need or desire to believe, and then let it work in us. But further more we need to CHOOSE TO BELIEVE. If we make the decision to believe it WILL work, we will receive the answer we need to hear, I can testify of it.

I know this gospel is true and that everyone is an IMPORTANT child of our Heavenly Father, and that he knows each and every one of us personally!

Have a great week everyone

Pesaro - Week 34

Hey everyone,

This was a really nice week. The sun was shining, it even got up to 21 degrees Celsius this week. The warm season is actually on its way. So first off, a really interesting thing happened to us. We were doing some parco in the evening and we hear a lot of croaks. In this park there are thousands of frogs and toads. So we spotted two and decided they were going to be our pets for the week. We caught them and named them Wallace and Bernard. They were little green tree frogs and it was so awesome. The only thing was one of them got out of our man-made home at like 3 in the morning and got into our bedroom waking us up and creeping us out (We had no idea what was in the room until we saw the frog and heard the croak) We don’t know how it got out and 3 rooms down, but it was interesting.

I had to give a talk in Church on Sunday and usually they are easy topics that I can pull out of my studies and notes, but with my luck I got a topic that was not easy for a 19 year old missionary. I had to talk about how parents need to be a strong example to their kids. I’m not a father yet, so I had to go off what my parents taught me, and it sure made me realize how much parents actually influence their kids. I looked at the things my parents had done, how I mirror their decisions, and never even realized it. It is important to be a good example because you never realize how much your actions influence others. It all starts with who you are.

We taught a really good lesson to our investigator Zoila (Soya I actually don’t know how to spell it yet). Her boyfriend, Carmine, is a member and so is her son, so she came to us asking for us to teach her what our church is about, who Joseph Smith is, and why we are so happy. She was really open with us and it was such a great experience. She is surrounded by great examples already in her life and WANTS to feel closer to God. 

President Dibb threw us a curveball this week. One of the new elders in Rimini went home for medical reasons, so he sent one of the elders from the other coppia in Pesaro to Rimini and once again I am in a trio. To be honest, I did not like hearing it because of the flow and enjoyment Elder C. and I have, but it is for 3 weeks and then we will have another transfer just us again. We will hopefully still have a good time and get lots of work done in three.

For Pday today we went to another country. I know crazy right?! We went to San Marino and it was a blast. It is a very small country, no exaggeration, but it is a nice little area with lots of cool things they sell such as knives, guns, cologne and other things. It is on a hill and has a nice view of the Adriatic Sea. The whole zone went and it was just a blast.

The view of the Adriatic Sea from San Marino

Just a little thought on courage. It takes a whole lot of courage to stand up for yourself, your beliefs, and the things you hold dear. It takes even more courage to say something. I was reading in the scriptures, and it constantly says "Open your mouth and they shall be filled" The biggest step is to open your mouth. That shows our willingness to act. The Lord will do the rest. It can be related to anything. If we ask to get big muscles, we have to hit the gym and do our part. He will do the rest. He has the power to do anything, but he wants us to grow from our own experiences too.

Hope everyone has a great week and a great Pasqua. Also hope everyone enjoys General Conference!!!

Anziano Chase

 Making pizookies

Lo stesso on pier watch tower

L'Espiazione - Week 33

Hey everyone how's it going? This week went by pretty fast and there are a lot of good things that happened I am really excited for the work going down here. So this week I went on an exchange in Rimini with my district leader. We had a full day of finding work. I was first upset because usually on exchanges we try to set up appointments so we can teach with different people and learn from them but when we got to work I had some really nice discussions with some people and learned some things from my district leader that could only be learned from finding work.

We met with Kim and Thania again this week and things seem to be going really with the. We still have a lot of work to do with them but I have faith that they will continue to grow in their faith. Maurizio has been struggling with his tobacco and coffee but still shows the desire to quit. I was also able to make American treats for English class and it was a small piece of joy that I was able to share from my culture as an American.

This week I have been studying about sin and the atonement oh Christ. God is a just God and in order for God to be just there must be a law on the earth. That is where agency is involved. We have the agency to choose between right and wrong. When we sin we feel as if it is the end of the world. God however is also a god of mercy and wants to give us that forgiveness we seek. That is where Christ steps in. In order for there to be justice and mercy there must be a mediator that can perform both. The atonement of Christ is the only way we could receive the mercy from God but still execute justice

Also last thought on the atonement. Christ suffered everyone's pain and sin in one night. It is hard for us to imagine the severity of the pain he took upon himself. After he suffered in the garden he did not have to actually die in the manner he did. He had already suffered for the cause he came to the Earth for. If he wanted to die peacefully he could have (Of course he would have been resurrected still). He willingly suffered lashings, abuse, and dying on the cross so we could have just a glimpse of the knowledge of the suffering he went through.

This has really helped me appreciate the atonement so much more, and has helped me understand the power of forgiveness and getting over sin. It may be hard on us, but when we think what Christ went through on the cross, even more how he suffered in the garden, makes me realize I have it so good in life.

Sorry this email is a little short, but I hope everyone enjoys there week and can see the power of the atonement in their lives this week!! 

Tosse - Week 32

 Hey everyone,

This week I spent the majority of it in a bed. I am pretty sure I had bronchitis most of the week, and could hardly talk without coughing. It was really frustrating and by the end of my sickness I was super glad to finally be able to leave the apartment.

A couple of cool things, we had a zone training where we were told that at the end of April we will be getting ipads to use for missionary work! It will be a big change to the way we do some of our files and reporting, and will make accessing information so much easier. It is the reason why Elder Bednar is coming to Milan to speak with us.

Sunday while I was in bed laying down we had an interesting experience. Anziano C. was making some lasagna for lunch and we hear shouting and banging outside our door. An old Italian lady came in and just started yelling some vulgar things at us asking if our water was flooded. We told her no, and she showed us in her apartment below ours, that water was dripping from the ceiling. It was really freaky, so we called a plumber to check it out, and in our water heating system that was just installed, had a hole in one of the pipes in the wall , so it would occasionally leak into the ceiling of the apartment bellow us. After she found out it wasn't our fault she became like the nicest old lady you could ever meet. 

We had to stay in all Monday though because the people who came to fix took forever and we couldn't leave with them there. After the two men finished we had a really good conversation with them, and were able to give them some book of mormons before they left the apartment.

Yesterday I was feeling much better, and we met with Maurizio again. I love hanging out with him. He just is always so bright and happy to see us. We will call him and ask when to meet, and he will always say whatever time you can be there, I will be there. He truly sees that we care about him.

We also have been fellow-shipping a part member and less active family. Thania, Kim, and Moreet. They are from Peru, and are all in their mid upper 20's. They really enjoy hearing about our experiences and about who we are as individuals. I have come to appreciate this because it really helps create a bond that truly means something. They are coming to church more regularly, and Kim who is not a member has started to open up more.

I would like to leave with a scripture from John 7:17 that says "If any man shall do his will, he shall know of the doctrine" If we put the will of God first in our lives, we will truly understand what his plan is for us and the teachings behind it. As a servant of God, I know this to be true, and it is true to all those who Seek, and Do his will!

Have a great week everyone

Anziano Chase