"I Just Kept Thinking...Have Faith...Just Have Faith"

Cioudy!

What's happening?

It sounds you are all doing just great there in Salt Lake. Dad, sorry to hear you are a little jealous of me going to Verona last week. If it helps at all I am going again today. It is true that we still don't have culture days, but yeah Verona is in our Zone. It is kinda a long train ride, but we get just enough sites in to satisfy our taste buds. We are only going today because yesterday we had a specialized training in Milano with most of the district leaders in the mission and their companions. We were there all day learning about what we can do to improve and be better missionaries. It was super fun and lasted basically all day. We ended up staying the night in Mantova with Anziano Glowa and his companion. We figured we'd just go to Verona again because it is only like 45 minutes from Mantova. Too bad I don't have my camera with me. Next week for sure I will send some pics to quench your thirst.

Well, I finally got our ADDRESS!!! Get your pen ready, alright? Via Frosinone 25, Modena 41125. The only catch is that it is already almost transfers again...Can you believe it?.....Anyway, with my long run of success of keeping companions around I'm not quite sure what will happen. I got hinted to yesterday by the assistants that we might not be staying togethers..YIKES...Just the thought of 7 companions in 7 transfers is super funny haha. So DAD I don't know whether to instruct you to send those sports letters here or not. I will just say, do what you think is best. I do think the odds will be that I'm staying here but ya never know. I will leave this decision to you.

Well, the work has really been going well here in Modena. It was going super good but at the beginning of last week it really seemed as if it was starting to collapse and just tank. We had like 3 baptismal dates, Ettora, Hasan and Giuseppe. Hasan, the Iranian who is really poor but wants to follow Christ, has become really wiffy and preoccupied with solving his document issues. Giuseppe is too preoccupied with his wife that he's separated from to ever read the Book of Mormon and sincerely pray. We were also concerned that Ettore didn't really have a strong desire to learn about our message and read the BoM. While I was kinda feel skeptical about our teaching pool and the success of our companionship, I just kept thinking...have faith...just have faith.

It has been really interesting this past transfer about how excited I am to just go out and work everyday. In the past I would get down every so often(only every so often) because it would be super, super hot, the work wasn't going well, and because this work is just tough work. Now I really just joy in doing this work. It is actually fun to do it and I look at it with just such a better attitude that maybe I didn't use to have...all the time anyway. I really saw in this last week though that as I just have faith the blessings come. In just a matter of days, Ettore came soaring back and we really can see his desire to change, to be baptized and to follow Christ. He will be getting baptized the 27th of August. It was previously the 6th of August but he's going on vacation for like 2 1/2 weeks..bummer.. but it's all good. We are excited for the 27th! We have also found soooo many new people in the last couple days I literally don't know where to start. It is super early in the process so I don't want to start predicting things because there are like 10 people.

Me and Anziano Hutchinson are really starting to mesh and teach well together. Of course we still aren't perfect but we are helping each other out to do our best. Our goal is just to get ourselves psyched out for each day and pumped to get outside and teach. Being pumped to do the work is so much better than just being content to do the work. We are also just starting to find that yes, everyone is leaving on vacation. We are starting to also find the best times for when people are outside, inside or whever. Our time management is super important out here and its really key. We are teaching close to 20 lessons every week. This week we are just gonna have to hit like a grand slam though, a walk-off shot or something. We only taught one lesson all day Monday, yesterday we were gone in Milano all day and today is P day. So probably by Thursday we will be at like 3 lessons, maybe 3. We will have lots of ground to cover but I'm super excited.

A little update on our district. The sisters have just had two more baptisms and are planning on one more Saturday. It will have been there 5th baptism this transfer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They are awesome. Sorella Johnson is on her last transfer so somebody else will be coming in next transfer. Her companion, Sorella Bowman is only on her 2nd but we all think she will train this next transfer(sisters generally train super early. I have a strange feeling I could be training this transfer but I'm not gonna say more than that. Being District Leader is hard enough haha so having to do both would be a real challenge.

Well I love you all. You will have to let me know how the Box, Phil, Scott and Andy do with their football squad. I hope it doesn't turn into what happened the year I had those high school kids as coaches. I think we won the pre season game against the Bingham C team, or maybe the Z team. Then we went on to score one touchdown the entire season. Our playbook consisted of only trick plays. haha.

Well I don't think I'm in need of any American food right now. If you want to send something though, GO FOR IT. That is kinda lousy that the Cards traded Rasmus....

Love you all and I appreciate the emails and time you take to write....

Verona Photos

Most of these photos are from a recent P-Day spent in Verona.




Tuck says this is the
"real" Juliet's balcony.











Centro (center of the city) in Verona





















At the Verona Colosseum










Juliet's Balcony


















Vista of Verona





















Tuck says the Elder in the Red shirt, Anziano Vanauker, reminds him of his cousin Trent. In Tuck's words, "He looks like Box, he's big like Box, and he has Box's sense of humor".