"Well, How Great Is Your Faith?" ... He Walked to the Trash And Threw His Cigarettes Away

Come state? (How are you doing?)

Well to answer some of the questions real quick. We haven't moved apartments yet but I think we will in the next couple weeks. We went just yesterday to check it out but I still don't think anything will be finalized for a little while. It was really nice though and will have air conditioning. Anziano Poulson served here in Pavia his first two transfers and said the summers here are pretty hot and have lots of mosquitoes. My companion hit his year mark just last week. He is actually only like a week older than I am.

I have definitely been cooking a lot more this transfer. We switch off cooking each day and make a variety of stuff. This week we even made hamburgers that were very good. We have had a lot of pasta, gnocchi and other stuff though. I have definitely struggled though this transfer with food. I think I have been full for like a week straight now, haha it sucks. This week we're gonna try and start buying lots of fruit and stuff and stay clear of pasta as much as we can. On Sunday we actually brought one of our investigators from Togo to a members house, along with a new convert also from Togo, and had dinner. We made African food which was so awesome but killed me. It is called foo foo(fu fu?) and is sort of like mash potatoes but with a more soft, smooth texture. It was really fun and we kinda helped build a relationship between our investigator and the other members.

That really is such a cool story about the Talbots. I remember when he was my Sunday school teacher for a little bit and he was super nice. It is awesome to hear that he is alright though and how much Heavenly Father blesses us when we exercise faith in him. It definitely hard to always believe that He can truly help us through anything. We teach, preach and hear about faith so much but we don't always understand how much we really need it. When you have 'abbastanza' (enough) you can overcome anything. Heavenly Father is just waiting for people to have that faith. When they finally do have that faith, he blesses them. It is also true that he doesn't always bless us immediately or when we think we need it. Heavenly Father will bless us in his own time when he knows it will help us the most. That is really cool though how the whole ward came and fasted together.

Well this week was pretty fun. Last Friday we had a ward party for Carnevale which is an Italian holiday. We were able to bring like 3 investigators. One of them was Gian Luca and the other two are two girls we met last week. They all had a pretty fun time which was surprising because we thought the party was gonna be super lame. The kids and some adults even dressed up in costumes. I was able to get some really fun pictures. I even saw one girl in the ward wearing an East High cheerleader costume. That movie really has spread over the entire world.

On Monday we had our district meeting so we bussed all the way to the mission office. We had a really sweet district meeting and me and my comp got to talk with President Wolfgramm for a bit. After district meeting I went back with District Leader Anziano Poulson haha to Pavia for our scambio (exchange). Uh oh Pavia, watch out. It was really fun and we actually got in a few times and taught some lessons. It was cool because we had been doing casa (tracting) for a while and had just zero success. It was around 8:15 to 8:30. Anziano Poulson was like "well, lets go get a pizza for our scambio" (its usually tradition on scambios to get either ice cream or pizza). I was like, dang, we have only taught one lesson today, this isn't a good way to start off the week. We then stopped, and Anziano Poulson said, alright well lets go to some more casa. We went back to a palazzo and got in twice, teaching two lessons. We got a return appointment with these 4 ragazzi that are studying here in Pavia.

We also got in with this super old guy. It was kinda funny when we met him. When we knocked on the door, this lady opened and motioned us right away to follow her in. (she was basically this guys nurse.) Right as she leads us into the room, we see this 80 something year old guy, in a wheel chair that is basically on his death bed. Right as we see him though I hear Anziano Poulson say "Oh No....."...haha I about dyed laughing, just the way he said it. It was like, crap what are we gonna do. We ended up talking a lot about Christ and bearing some really good testimonies to this old guy, who could barely talk. He told us that he actually worked a lot with Padre Pio who is really famous here in Italia. It was just really cool how when we persevere and keep working hard that the Lord will bless us. So often I've seen in missionaries that want to give up early on the night and go back to the apartment. I think every missionary at times wants to go back early because they aren't seeing success. It is awesome to see the blessing of hard work and diligence.

We had some concerns with Gian Luca this week. He didn't come to church last week because of work. Yesterday we really stressed the importance of church and that if he wants to be baptized on his date that he has to come the next two times. Next Sunday is stake conference in Milano and we really didn't think he could come. We then asked him "well, how great is your faith". You have to know that this guy, read the BOM and received an answer it was true before meeting any of the missionaries or coming to church. After we asked him the question, we sat in silence for what seemed like an eternity. He then walked to the trash and threw his cigarettes in the trash. He said I'm quitting now. Gian Luca had been trying to quit for the last couple weeks. It was really cool to see him do that. He then said he would pray for some way to get to church this week and that he wouldn't have to work. It was awesome, especially because we know how much he wants to be baptized. I don't think before we asked him the question about his faith, that he had realized what it really meant. It was really sweet.

Thanks for the sports articles. Utes are gonna kick butt.

Tell Benny the Jet, congratulation on making the the baseball team and to just work his butt off.

Well thanks for the emails and the updates. So yeah, for now just send stuff to the mission office. I think that will be best because I'm not sure when or even if we are moving apartments yet. Nothing is set and final.

Love you all and hope your doing well.