"Anziano Neff, You Are Really Strong"

Try asking more questions next time.....just kidding. Well, this week had its ups and downs but we managed to get through it. I think we were both a little burned from working so hard last week. We got some good solid work in though this week as well. We have had more appointments set up this week then last so we don't have as much time for finding. You asked a little about my companion. He is like 25 years old and is a really good teacher. He was born in the church and yeah I'm starting to improve in the language. We have been speaking Italian a lot more than I have in the past transfers. Aside from lessons, I have probably spoken more Italian this transfer then the other three combined. I'm in my 4th transfer wow. Anziano Marino can cook pretty well, and hopefully I will learn some new cooking tricks. It can definitely get super stressful at times because his English is so so. There are times when we can't express to each other our thoughts about stuff. Overall it isn't too bad though, and we are learning to really work together and get through those minor obstacles. He is teaching me Italian and I'm teaching him correct English.

So yeah, this week, like I said had its ups and downs. It started out super sweet with our interviews with president this week. Our assistants are awesome and always have awesome advice on how to better the work and ourselves as missionaries. I think I forgot to mention to that about half my group from the MTC, the Milano missionaries anyway, are training. When I saw Anziano Glowa at the train station during transfers he looked like he was going to poop his pants. I was giving him such a hard time but at the same time I was assuring him he will do fine. He had an awesome trainer who really pointed him in the right direction. Plus he is already a good missionary. I totally saw it coming because he has killed the last two transfers and was put with some really really difficult missionaries.(killed vuol dire-- means-- missionaries on their last transfer. There were two other Anziani (Elders) and a Sorella (Sister) from my group that trained. I felt pretty left out of the bunch...hahaha... psyche. All those missionaries are super,super good though. I was excited for them.

The baptism went super awesome this week. We had it after church and it went off without a hitch. There was a slip though. haha. So we had left the font up from last week and when I got in it just seemed super, super slippery. I thought too myself, OK I will just have to power stance this. I get through the baptismal prayer and all 100 of Domingos names(he is from Santo Domingo). OK, actually it was only like 5. So I get him under the water and pull him up. I bring him all the way out and then his feet just slip out from under him and since he is holding on to me, I went down with him. So basically I got to go for a little swim. haha. It was cool though and we didn't need to do it over again. Apparently, though afterward everyone was coming up and joking, "Anziano Neff you're are really strong". I guess when I pushed him down I really slammed him into the water haha. They all said it seemed better that way though. I guess I took what they say literally, Baptism by Power and Authority right?

Saturday we had some bad news though. Lourdes, the Peruvian lady, called us and basically told us she is done listening to the lessons. We talked on the phone for about 15 minutes about why. Basically she said she prayed all night and felt that she is "sto bene cosi", which means I'm content with my life. She said she doesn't want to change religion and what not. She had had some difficulty comprehending the meaning of all the commandments though. I wasn't very surprised when we got the phone call either. She was never really committed to our invites either, such as coming to church. That is the problem with many of the people we teach. They don't really have that DESIRE to KNOW. They don't take Moroni 10, 3-5 seriously which is, pray to know with a sincere heart, real intent, having faith in Christ. It sucks but now we can focus on finding those people that do want to know. We are hoping she will be able to feel the emptiness of the spirit our lessons bring in her life. Dropping people, or getting dropped by people, is the best thing to help people progress.

On a happier note, Daniel is progressing. Monday, during my scambio (exchange) with Anziano Cluff(who is struggling mightily) we taught Daniel. Just imagine this in your head, Daniel doesn't speak to great of Italian, Anziano Cluff doesn't, I speak just enough and understand just enough. haha It was an interesting lesson. I was able to lead the lesson though, alhtough there is definitely room for improvement. The Plan of Salvation is pretty tough, haha, for me anyway. Practice makes perfect though right? It was a fun experience. I was able to give a lot of tips to Anziano Cluff about how he can start learning the language and improving his teaching. I think a major flaw I found was that he has read the BOM 4 times already in the mission. I finished for the second time just the other day. I was like "dude....you gotta start reading Preach my Gospel". Obviously its good to read a lot from the BOM, Joesph Smith himself said that it is the most correct of any book on the earth. It was a fun scambio though and we both learned a lot. I learned that I can start learning to take part more in teaching, asking better, inspired questions and many other things. Oh yeah, I was talking about Daniel. He is doing awesome! His wife looks like she is going to explode. She is super pregnant.

The Spring weather has been great. It is the perfect mix of cool and hot. The only thing that sucks is that I have been sneezing non stop for the past two days. I have never had allergies in my life but I guess Italy isn't Utah...oh well. Thanks for the emails and the updates. Love you all and am so lucky to have you as family.

Any luck on the address of Jonny Madison?

Oh yeah, we are allowed to SKYPE for mothers day so....how do I do it, what do I need to do? I have no clue.