It is good to hear that the weather is heating up in good old SLC. The weather here in Pavia has also really warmed up a lot this week. It has been very cool in the mornings and evenings, but just about perfect during the afternoons. Last Saturday was an exception though. So we were at an appointment with this African from Ivory Coast(spoke Italian) and it just started pouring. Like it was raining super hard and there was lightning all over the place. At the end of the lesson the guy kept telling us that we needed to call someone for a ride. He didn't want us walking home. We were actually somewhat close to our house, Pavia being a small city, but it was just raining way too much. We called Fratello Almarante to come pick us up(as he always does when we need a hand). He flashed us(called and hung up to save on money) like 3 times. We could not see him anywhere though. Finally, we got got a hold of him and he was saying he went to the wrong palazzo (building), but was super close. The only thing was is that he said his car had broken down. We had suspected as much, his car always sounded like the motor was about to drop out from it. So we had to run through this rainstorm looking for him. We put our jackets in our backpacks and ran like the wind. Finally we found him and we were pretty soaked. We waited in his busted car for like an hour for another member to pick us up. haha it was a sweet experience.
Other than that, this week was pretty sweet. We had to wait an extra week for Gian Luca's baptism because our bishop wanted to have him become familiar with the ward. There were also concerns because he hasn't stopped smoking completely yet. We just got a call from him though like 5 minutes ago saying he had stopped...finito...basta. So that was pretty cool. During our Consiglo di Rione (Ward Council) this week we all knelt down in prayer and prayed that he could stop. It was super cool. There were a lot of members that were saying he should wait longer to be baptized(members who don't even know him or know of his desire to be baptized). It was frustrating at first to convince them that as missionaries we have the gift of discernment for our investigators to know if they are ready or not. So yeah Gian Luca is getting baptized this Sunday!
I got a funny call this Friday. Biyao from Torino 2 called me up and was like....."NEFF...guess what?...(I kinda already knew about it though)...haha what Biyao?....I'm getting baptized on Sunday!"....It was so funny. I was so excited for him though. The zone leaders in Torino who baptized him were telling me that when they set his date, they asked if he would like to invite anyone. The first person that he told them was me haha. It was super cool though. He told me on the phone "NEFF I'm am so excited right now that I'm actually talking to you"..That guy is such a stud. They Capi Zona (Zone Leaders) said that the members just love him.
Baptism of Helen (she was baptized the week Tucker left Torino)
On another note, we had to drop one of our baptismal dates because she just wasn't answering our phone calls. She was basically avoiding us and we were spending way too much time trying to contact her. It was super cool though because in the next two days we set two more baptismal dates. Domingo, from Santo Domingo, and Lourdes. Domingo is such a stud and literally understands everything we are teaching him. He is working two jobs right now, one as a DJ at a discotecca(dance place). Just yesterday though, he told us he is going to quit because he doesn't think he can work in that environment while preparing to be baptized and follow the commandments. HOW AWESOME IS THAT? We didn't even have a problem with him working there. It was just something he feels he needs to do. We are working right now to get his wife involved in the lessons as well. As of now though he will be baptized in about two weeks!
We also had Zone Conference yesterday which of course was a real energizer. It always seems like they come at just the right time. They really focused a lot on asking lots of question to our investigators. Using questions to open them up and using them to teach them. We also talked a lot about our purpose. What are we willing to do as missionaries and why we will do it. It was just a balling conference, like all of them.
We have had a lot of stuff thrown at us by the adversary this week. This last week while seeing lots of success with the investigators we have, we have seen zero success in finding new ones. We took this as our sign of how Satan is working against us. For every good thing there is a bad thing. Just like how without sadness we cannot know happiness. We really pushed ourselves to not dwell on it. I took it to mean that we are just really supposed to focus on our seven investigators that are just super super solid. As long as we are focusing on the good things of this life, we will continue to move forward. We will continue progressing in every aspect of our lives. The adversary throws opposition at us for a reason. Our Heavenly Father allows him to throw these 'fiery darts' at us because without them, how can we progress? We learn through our mistakes and through the decisions we make. After all this is why we have our free agency, right? It is as simple as getting down on myself because I can't speak the language. If I allow that simple things to get me depressed then Satan has won the battle. If we allow ourselves to get down because we haven't found a single person after 3 hours of casa(happened plenty of times this week haha) then Satan has won the battle.
Well I managed to write another chapter to the never ending novel of my life as a missionary. Hope you enjoy it and are doing great. I also managed to write it in half of the time of what I used to do it(I gave myself a pat on the back for that one). I also realized this week that I'm just adding on the pounds, at least by my standards. And another thing, General Conference next week! Yahoo....!...It is like the 6 month mark of my mission, HOLY SMOKES...Don't worry I'm thinking of it in terms that I only have 1 1/2 years left, not 1 1/2 years to go. Crazy crazy crazy.
Love you all...thanks for writing me this week mom. You managed to totally to redeem yourself.
No comments:
Post a Comment