Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Fifth Companion in Five Transfers

How we doing everyone?....Ok, well last week I actually did write you all an email. I had some pictures attached to it but I don't think it sent. I will try and resend it though after. What is up with you guys not writing last Wednesday though huh?.....just kidding. I don't think I got your emails until after I had done my Internet, so oh well.

This week has been pretty interesting for us. I will start off by saying that I'm staying in PAVIA!.....haha the other news is that I will have my 5th companion in 5 transfers! What the heck? It's not me I swear! I'm either just the worst missionary in the mission or I'm the best(I'd like to think the second option). Nah, I'm just messing. The Lord has his plans and I obey them. We are supposed to be with certain missionaries in certain places at certain times. I will be serving with Anziano Barnes who right now has been serving in Milano. He is only one transfer above me and I knew him pretty well in the MTC. He is super kid and is pretty fluent in the language so it will be another awesome transfer in which I can learn a lot. What am I saying? I will learn a lot in every transfer. So yeah he is a super cool kid and I feel we will work together really well. Anziano Marino and Anziano Barnes are just switching places basically. I think my companion might be relieved to be leaving, but I'm not quite sure. We have definitely had our hard moments with each other, frustrating moments with communication.

I'm excited though to be able to do another transfer in Pavia. We worked super super hard this transfer doing casa, strada and all the other ways you can do missionary work. Our pool of investigators is super down right now but we are going forward and continuing to work hard. It was kind of a dagger in the heart the other night with our lesson with Daniel. We hadn't seen him for almost two weeks because of the baby. After that it was hard because he was having to make up for lost time in work. We finally saw him and he told has he had started smoking again. We come to find out that he was really only following the Word of Wisdom because its for our health and it saves money, not because it is a commandment. He kinda went on to tell us he wants to find his Will or drive to follow the commandments before he decides to follow them. It was a super confusing lesson, for me anyway because a lot of it was in french between him and my companion. We aren't going to be meeting with him as often either but Saturday we are going over so hopefully it will go well. I think the main thing is that his life is super stressful right now with work, the baby and other stuff. I still have faith in him though and that he will make the right decisions.

Apart from sort of kind of losing Daniel we had some good news this week. So there is this 15 year old girl that comes every once and awhile with the Virzo Family. We taught her after church about a month ago and her name is Francesca. So she has come the last two weeks and last Sunday her mom came. We introduced ourselves but other than that we didn't talk a whole lot. Yesterday Sorella Virzo called us and told us that in two weeks the entire family wants to come to church and afterwards have a lesson with us. She told us that they were impressed that as misisonaries we are normal (that was good to hear). The parents of Francesca had been having marital problems and they both feel that the church will be able to help them become closer. We were so stoked to here, seriously, what better way to heal a marriage then to listen to the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

That is super cool that Chad and Emily are moving back to SLC!!!!That will be super cool. I feel so so blessed that almost all of our family lives in the state of Utah and better yet, almost all of them live in the Salt Lake Valley. I cant believe Andy has an apartment. I didn't realize that I won't have a roommate when I return from the mission. You guys better watch out, lets hope that loneliness doesn't urge me to go and get married right away. Just kidding. Mom asked me about Domingo. Domingo is in fact married, but right now I don't think his wife has any desire to know about the gospel. I think he has lived here in Italy for about 15 years but only 2 years or so here in Pavia. He was reading on his own in True to the Faith and read about the Patriarchal Blessings and he asked us the other day if he can get one. It was pretty cool.

Dad!...what is up?...This may be the first time that mom has beat you in the sports section. She definitely kicked your butt this week. I feel bad for you really. Thanks Mom! haha. That is super cool the JAZZ got the 3rd pick in the draft. How did they pull that off?(trade up? Luck of of the draw?).

LOVE YOU ALL!

Tucker

Friday, May 20, 2011

There Is No Better Cure For Problems As A Missionary Than To Just Work

One little session of skype and you all forget to e-mail me....I'm shaking my head right now. "Come On".....alright I'm only kidding. You're all lucky I felt the desire out of the pure love of my heart to write today haha. I could be sitting on my balcony out in hot Tuscan sun getting my tan on while writing letter to certain people but no...I'm here in a little cubicle that smells, or what my companion described as, "stinky dog" because he just absolutely couldn't type in this sort of condition. haha anyways...I know it has only been like 3 days but WHATS UP?

So, since Sunday we have experienced some down moments as well as some frustrating ones. We have also had some really good bonding experiences as well. We sometimes have frustrations arise because of the language. He can't understand English too well and the same for me in Italian and sometimes we just misunderstand each other. We were able to get over it though and talk about how we can stop this from happening. We decided we just need to have more patience with one another and start having fixed periods of time when we speak English and Italian. Inside is English and outside is Italian...It's settled! We are all good now.

Monday we had been doing casa all the day long and we just weren't having any success. We were asking what can we do better or what are we doing wrong?. The whole time I kinda knew that we really weren't doing anything wrong and of course we can always do better, but sometimes you just don't have success. The best way to not worry about these problems is to just WORK. There is no better cure for problems as a missionary than to just work. I have really realized one of my strengths as a missionary is that I just love to work. Sure it isn't always the funnest and we don't see the blessings of our work right away, but they will come. If we keep our heads up and push forward even in the hard times we will keep our reward, as the scriptures say. Whenever I am doing casa and I find my self a little bit down it is so easy for me to just smile and change my mindset. It is a blessing I feel so blessed to have but I know that I need to have the reason for doing the work. We can't just work because we like it, we need to have the actual desire for doing the work which I feel is progressing every day. I am beginning to have more love for those I'm serving and for the power and strength that Heavenly Father gives me to do it.

This morning I just got back from doing a scambio with one of the Assistants, Anziano Mangrum. It was super awesome and I learned a "butt load about the gospel." I also learned that their apartment is super, super huge and has lots of exercise equipment, so I'm a little jealous of that. haha But, anyway we had a super fun time teaching, talking to the people in Lodi(their zone) and we really taught each other a lot. We also woke up at around 5:50am and ran for about 30 minutes. The area in which we were running was so awesome and the weather was perfect. Too bad I didn't have my camera. We were really able to teach each other why we love the gospel so much and how we have learned to be better missionaries.

That is just about it for this email since we talked already this week. Thanks again ya slackers, just kidding, but really haha! Love you guys and write ya next week.

Love,

Tuck

Monday, May 9, 2011

It Starts With Love

Ouch. Hill's team lost 7-0? That couldn't have felt too good afterward. It reminds me of the old days when we lost to Cottonwood 23-3. No, I'm not talking about the score to a football game, it was baseball. With football the score was a little more respectable 50-10 but even that might be a little generous. Anyway, sorry about the loss. My attempt at a joke probably only got a laugh out of Dad.

It is good to hear you're all working hard in the yard and that the weather should be getting better. Cross your fingers that you have sunny days during the wedding. Italy has been a little cool the last couple days. I'm sure it would feel like heaven for you guys though. My companion feels it necessary to wear long sleeves anytime there is a slight breeze or a cloud in the sky haha. Every time I'm like "haha Dude...gimme a break".

We had an interesting experience this week with a baptismal interview. On Sunday we went to Milano so my companion could do a baptismal interview for this investigator of the sister missionaries in our district. So I'm sitting outside the room with the sister missionaries, Sorella Burgoyne and Sorella Baranova. After about 45 minutes and constant mumbling from the sisters because the interview is taking forever, my companion comes out and says they have to move the baptismal date. He goes onto explain to us that Elizabeth, the investigator, doesn't fully understand the Restoration and that Peter, James and John appeared to Joseph to give him the priesthood. I hear this from my companion and I'm like "dude, that's ok, it doesn't say anywhere that they have to have a perfect knowledge of things". Meanwhile the sister missionaries are super mad at my companion and my companion is stressing out because he doesn't know what to do. I already knew what i would do, go on with the baptism because if she is ready, she is ready You don't have to understand everything completely. There are many many members who don't completely understand everything about the gospel. So I'm thinking and I remember that President Wolfgramme is in the building because it is the same ward that he goes to on Sundays for church. We go get President and he is able to explain my same thoughts to my companion.

My comp tends to have moments where he just stressed out way too much but we are working on it. After he went back into the room to explain to Elizabeth everything was ok for the baptism, the president and I were kinda just laughing a bit. In a good way, my companion is awesome he just over thinks everything and lets it confuse him.

Friday I was doing a scambio (exchange) with one of my zone leaders, Anziano Newton here in Pavia. He is 6'8....yeah imagine us walking around all day haha. It was super cool though. We had an awesome lesson with this guy, Giuseppe, that we found last week. He is super busy because he is preparing to marry in the Catholic church, but its basically just for tradition. He told us during the lesson that he knows that church is wrong. He had some super sweet questions though that were all centered around the Plan of Salvation. So we will see how it goes with him.

The bad news is that after the lesson with Giuseppe we got a call from Gerard saying he doesn't want to meet with us anymore. We were pretty bummed but we gotta move on. We were almost immediately blessed too. We got in three times later that night and found like 4 new investigators. The next morning before we rescambiod we got inside with a really really Catholic couple. We talked about how the family can live together for eternity thanks to the restoration. At first they were totally against the message of the Restoration and were saying it doesn't make sense...etc...But once we whipped out the Book of Mormon and explained how if this book is true then everything else we have said is true. They were so stunned and I think touched by the spirit. They kinda raised some other concerns and argumentative question but their whole tone of voice and understanding was completely different. They fully understood the significance of the Book of Mormon. We got a return appointment for the following week. I really have some high hopes for them. I just hope they can actually read and pray about the Book of Mormon.

Our whole teaching pool of investigators has just been filled to the brim this past week. We only have one investigator Daniel with a date and who is really making progress but there are tons of people with lots of potential right now. We taught Daniel the Law of Tithing last night and it went awesome. We invited him to live it and he basically said in return, "Perche No?, Dio mi ha dato tutto"..."yeah sure, why not, God has given me everything"...He then said, I might as well give him 20%. It was pretty sweet. We also taught him the Word of Wisdom last week and he has stopped smoking. He is a stud and we are excited for him; he just needs to come to church! He was sick last week so he wasn't able to come and then this Sunday his wife will have had her baby. They have to have surgery or something because the baby hasn't turned? Something like that. But he will be super busy with her for the next week or so.

I really learned a lot this week about having love for our investigators. It is a good desire to want people to be baptized and receive the blessing of the gospel but that all starts with love. If we don't have love for them and everyone else we teach or haven't even met, then we are not going to receive all the blessings our Father in heaven has for us. Our Heavenly Father will be more willing to bless us as we are able to love everyone, no matter what. Charity is awesome and I hope I can continue growing my love for the people here in Italy.

I look forward to talking with you all on Sunday. The only bad thing is that the the member whose house we are doing it at, said that the internet cuts out every ten minutes or so...ah...I know. So we might just have to deal with it...sorry.

Ciao

The Italians Are Forcing Us To Eat!

It sounds like a lot is going on there in Salt Lake. Soccer, wedding......well maybe not (due to flooding). Just kidding, I'm sure the wedding is plenty of work. I'm pretty bummed that I wont get to be there, go through the temple, see my bro.... lucky!(Napoleon Dynamite voice)
It is all good though, I'm not letting it affect me in any way. Like all missionaries, I hope, we all made the decision to serve the Lord these two years and dedicate ourselves to bring to pass this great work. Are you guys coming up with some way to add me into all the photos? If not ya better. I was looking through some of my pictures on my camera this morning from the MTC and recent photos. Haha, I have definitely added some puff to my cheeks. What can I say? The Italians are forcing us to eat food.

Easter was pretty fun. We got invited to go over to a member's house for lunch that lives here in Pavia. As I have explained before, there aren't very many members that live here in the city. Most of them live about 20 or 30 minutes away. Anyways we went and ate and boy did they make a lot of food. By the end of it I was just dead. We then walked home which took like 20 minutes and boy was that a long walk. We got over the hump though and did finding work the rest of the night. We had two really sad yet enlightening experiences. We found this poor guy, kinda a bum who was just sitting waiting for the bus. We talked for a good 20 minutes about the plan of salvation and about what he is lacking in his life. He explained that he eats in the Caritas(equivalent of the soup kitchen) and is basically a bum. We set up a time to come back in the same spot and talk the next day. The next day however he was kinda drunk and so we only talked with him briefly. It was just interesting to see how bad off some people are and how much the gospel can bring to them if they just try. People are just so lazy sometimes and think that trying to change is just to hard. They think that to be converted to the true gospel of Jesus Christ is such a long road or process. It is amazing how wrong they are though. It is so easy to accept Christ as our Savior, to repent of our wrong doings and just do as Christ would do.

Here in Italy, the day after Easter, or maybe just 5 April is a really big holiday. I think it is the unification of Italy or something. Anyways we went to a ward party at the Calio families house. They lived like a good 30 minutes from Pavia though so we got a ride with new convert Domingo; I like the sound of that, new convert... Domingo's wife came, too, and the house we went to was awesome. I totally should have taken my camera but oh well. Their house was kind of isolated and was back in some hill/mountains. The scenery was awesome though and my comp said it looked like Tuscany. I thought that on Sunday we ate a lot of food and boy was I wrong. They kept bringing out so much food and by the end I was dead again. We had gone running in the morning to work off Sunday's feast which helped a lot though. About 30 or so members had been invited including Gianluca, haha who I now have realized is super weird haha. Don't ask me why, it is just funny.

Anziano Cluff, the kid who I scambiod with a couple times and is in my district, just went home the other day. He has been struggling quiet a bit, but it didn't help being with Anziano Poulson. He wasn't such a good example for the kid. Oh well...We had a really fun week this week and were able to teach a lot of less actives.

Daniel is loving our lessons and is reading, everything he needs to be doing, except coming to church. He was going to come last week but he went to Torino for an Easter party. We are going to really focus on the importance of church though this week so send us your prayers that he will come.

Thanks so much for the info and updates, it is awesome to hear from you all.

Mom, what was the name of the ex-missionary whose teeth you cleaned?...It is very true that Fratello Almarante is awesome and we have eaten at his house a few times. His food sucks too, but it's cool. When we go we usually just cook for ourselves. He is such a funny guy though.

Well I love you all... yes, you should send me some pics dad.

Ciao...tuck