E-mail on December 14, 2011
Ciao Babbo! e tutti gli altri.....Mama ti ama anche, non ti preoccupare. (Hi dad, and everyone else ... Mom, I love you, too ... so don't worry)
Well this week went really well for us. We had a good amount of success and we are gearing up for Natale (Christmas). Well I will just start by answering some of the questions you all raised. I have not yet received your Christmas presenta. Was it sent to the mission office or to an apartment? We haven't had any conferences for awhile but we will this next Tuesday. So if you sent it to the mission office I will pick it up Tuesday(just in time for Christmas).
Are you planning on having any family over to skype with us?
Well we did find out about transfers the other day. We are going to stay together for this next transfer. It was a big surprise for us because it will be Anz. Scheurn's 5th transfers here. Presidente Wolfgramm even told us that he doesn't usually keep missionaries there that long but he felt like he should. I have yet to do 4 transfers in a city haha. My companion was wanting to stay for Christmas because he loves the members, but he's a bit tired of Pisa. I don't really blame him though. We will have a couple new faces in the district as well. Our district leader was transferred and I was asked to be the new one. Should be fun.
Well Wong went back to China so he's not around anymore. Apparently he has the church though in his city so that will be really great. Lin and Chen are just doing awesome. We brought them to a couple appointments this week with an investigator. After that appointment we met with a less-active guy, Carlos from China and it was super cool. They talked a bit in Chinese and we got to hear about how Carlos became a member. We weren't able to get him to church but I think it sparked his desire a bit. I think he'll come to the Christmas party on Saturday. Cross your fingers.
It's so awesome being able to teach them though. They seriously are so smart and remember every detail about what we teach. I think Lin is a lot more spiritual then Chen but he's been a member longer and understands the language better(both Italian and English). Chen is great though and is just always so happy. You wouldn't be able to see it in the pictures because they just don't smile in pictures haha. Me and my companion are convinced that millions will be baptized when China is opened up. I love just being able to teach them and have them accept everything we say because they can feel the truth of it. They don't let what the world has to say interfere.
I'm gonna try sending some pictures again but if it doesn't work I'm gonna smash my camera.
Well this week we finally met with the Mendoza family. We met them doing casa a little bit over a week ago. Tehy were so nice and just an amazing family. The wife is Catholic but the husband isn't. They are both from Ecuador and have been here about 10 years. The husband, Charlie said he was actually almost baptized in Ecuador when he was 15 years old but he moved and lost contact with the church. He remembers very little but is very open. The wife kind of surprised us because when we first met them she didn't want us to have their number.
When we met with them last night she was doing the dishes as we began teaching. After a few minutes she came and sat down. We kind of got to know them at first and asked them about their beliefs. We brought up the importance of the family and kind of glided into the Restoration when the wife asked question about the church. She told us that all her family is Catholic and really hasn't had the desire to change religion or even listen to another one. It was awesome to see her just warm up to us and get interested. Their kid, Mattia age 6 was so cool. He was the nicest just coolest little kid. He was just smiling the whole time while playing with their nativity set under the Christmas tree. Every so often we'd ask him a question or listen to what he was saying.
We invited them to read the BoM and they said they would. It went so great and was really guided by the spirit. Charlie works a lot! But he said they would try coming to the party on Saturday. We are hoping to see them again in about 3 or 4 days. The Lord is really just blessing us though in small ways. We still don't have lots of investigators but we have a lot of new converts to help integrate into the ward as well as less-actives to juggle. We really have to balance out the work though so that's sometimes a challenge.
Other than that nothing much is going on. I'm gonna get to have a pretty warm Christmas so that will be great! I don't like the cold much. Tell me what time is best for you guys and we will try working around that.
I'm thinking in the range of 3-5pm. That's what we got so far......sorry.
Love you guys a lot though.
Ciao
Tuck
Thursday, December 22, 2011
"You Can Just Feel the Truth of It As the Words Leave Your Mouth"
December 7, 2011 e-mail:
Well this week had it's ups and downs but we got through it on a very good note. The baptism went really well despite some minor difficulties. We realized when we arrived at the church around 11 AM that the faucet for the baptismal font was running slower than a snail in the desert. After going on a search for a garden hose, to run form the kitchen sink into the font, we returned to the church. There was no garden hose so we started the process of bucketing water. Don't worry it took all of about the next six hours to fill up the font. When I say fill up the font I mean fill it up to my knees haha.
We actually had Lin and Chen both come to the church around 1 pm to eat lunch with them. Boy it was just not our day because me and my comp left them to fill up the font while we searched for pizza. Who would have though that everything would have been closed. We finally found a place that was selling super expensive pizzas but we had to give in. It was fun though even with the difficulties. His baptism was very great and I got to do it 3 times! Man the water was so low!
Branch President, Tucker, Chen & Anziano Scheurn
Chen was just happy all day though and was so grateful to be there. His confirmation the next day was also very awesome. Me, my companion, the ward mission leader and the branch president all participated. I later translated it for him because it was in Italian(the person who confirmed him didn't speak English. haha don't ask me why he didn't want someone doing it in English so he could understand). It went great though.
Well Sunday night we had a string of success. We taught this kid from Casablanca, Morocco that we met a few weeks ago. We kind of forgot about him until just the other day so we called him up and he was very reluctant to meet with us. We come to find out that he isn't Muslim, and in fact went to church activities in Sardegna. He talked bout how he has a great love for the family and wants to have a happy family, unlike his own. We were able to bear strong testimony about how gospel blesses the family. It was really cool and we are excited to teach him more. It was also great though to be able to testify about I have seen the gospel bless our family and promise specific blessings that come from it.
I think one of the great blessings as a missionary is that we get to see how much the gospel has blessed us. I didn't get to fully realize the full power of it until I got to bear testimony of it to others. As you bear testimony you can just feel the truth of it as the words leave your mouth. It's something I've really come to enjoy and love as a missionary. It's interesting to see the missionaries who let the thoughts of home devour their mission. I'm not talking about my companion but just missionaries I've seen. I honestly love doing finding work even though it's not the funnest thing in the world. Icould be playing B-ball, watching ESPN, Airborne, listening to music but honestly they don't bring true joy. haha I still want to do those things, but for now I'm happy as a missionary doing the things the Lord wants me to do and doing the things I want to do.
We also ran into an Ecuadorian family that didn't have time to talk with us, but that wanted to in the next week or so. The wife was kind of sketchy and didn't really want to give us their number but the dad stepped right up and basically was like, oh sure elders, come by next week in the night because I work until 8pm. He then gladly gave us his number. As we went home we ran into an Ethiopian man by our house who was so open and willing to talk. We were abe to recount the Joseph smith story. Afterward he said, "well many people claim to have seen visions or things like that, how can I know if this is true?".....ding ding ding....Book of Mormon. He was really interested and said well if it doesn't go against the Bible I'm game. We are praying he will call us because he doesn't have a telephone. You could see the diference though in someone who really does want to know the truth. This guy was very elect. It was funny because right after we finished saying a prayer(we were outside) the rain just start pouring. It was cool how Heavenly father just led us right to that guy.
The next day after seeing some miracles we were faced with a trial. We came back from district meeting early Monday morning and our bikes were gone.....aghagh....we were ticked. We were already late for a funeral of two twins that died at birth. I was supposed to be playing the piano for the funeral but we weren't able to get there in time. We found out though the next day that our bikes had been taken by the police because apparently they were in no parking zone. So we went and paid the price to get them back. haha of course when we got on them we realized that basically every wheel was bent the crap out of place.....They were unrideable. The police basically just beat the crap out of them. Luckily the bike place we usually go to gave us a good deal to fix them...
haha so that was my week. The ward has taken well to the Chinese and we are really working well with them. We need to start getting the less-actives back to church because there are many....too many. I'm excited though for the challenge. Our transfers are coming up next week and I'm probably getting a new companion....yes another. Anz. Scheurn has already been here for six months so he will most likely go.
Our address is Via Vittorio Vento #18 int. #10...I'm not sure of the area code but I will get it to you soon.
I'm planning on skyping so I need to get a new account because I forgot my last one.
Also try and get me Jake's mission address. We wrote a few times while he was in the MTC, and I still owe him a letter.
Love you a lot
XX00xxooXXXooo
Tuck
Well this week had it's ups and downs but we got through it on a very good note. The baptism went really well despite some minor difficulties. We realized when we arrived at the church around 11 AM that the faucet for the baptismal font was running slower than a snail in the desert. After going on a search for a garden hose, to run form the kitchen sink into the font, we returned to the church. There was no garden hose so we started the process of bucketing water. Don't worry it took all of about the next six hours to fill up the font. When I say fill up the font I mean fill it up to my knees haha.
We actually had Lin and Chen both come to the church around 1 pm to eat lunch with them. Boy it was just not our day because me and my comp left them to fill up the font while we searched for pizza. Who would have though that everything would have been closed. We finally found a place that was selling super expensive pizzas but we had to give in. It was fun though even with the difficulties. His baptism was very great and I got to do it 3 times! Man the water was so low!
Branch President, Tucker, Chen & Anziano ScheurnChen was just happy all day though and was so grateful to be there. His confirmation the next day was also very awesome. Me, my companion, the ward mission leader and the branch president all participated. I later translated it for him because it was in Italian(the person who confirmed him didn't speak English. haha don't ask me why he didn't want someone doing it in English so he could understand). It went great though.
Well Sunday night we had a string of success. We taught this kid from Casablanca, Morocco that we met a few weeks ago. We kind of forgot about him until just the other day so we called him up and he was very reluctant to meet with us. We come to find out that he isn't Muslim, and in fact went to church activities in Sardegna. He talked bout how he has a great love for the family and wants to have a happy family, unlike his own. We were able to bear strong testimony about how gospel blesses the family. It was really cool and we are excited to teach him more. It was also great though to be able to testify about I have seen the gospel bless our family and promise specific blessings that come from it.
I think one of the great blessings as a missionary is that we get to see how much the gospel has blessed us. I didn't get to fully realize the full power of it until I got to bear testimony of it to others. As you bear testimony you can just feel the truth of it as the words leave your mouth. It's something I've really come to enjoy and love as a missionary. It's interesting to see the missionaries who let the thoughts of home devour their mission. I'm not talking about my companion but just missionaries I've seen. I honestly love doing finding work even though it's not the funnest thing in the world. Icould be playing B-ball, watching ESPN, Airborne, listening to music but honestly they don't bring true joy. haha I still want to do those things, but for now I'm happy as a missionary doing the things the Lord wants me to do and doing the things I want to do.
We also ran into an Ecuadorian family that didn't have time to talk with us, but that wanted to in the next week or so. The wife was kind of sketchy and didn't really want to give us their number but the dad stepped right up and basically was like, oh sure elders, come by next week in the night because I work until 8pm. He then gladly gave us his number. As we went home we ran into an Ethiopian man by our house who was so open and willing to talk. We were abe to recount the Joseph smith story. Afterward he said, "well many people claim to have seen visions or things like that, how can I know if this is true?".....ding ding ding....Book of Mormon. He was really interested and said well if it doesn't go against the Bible I'm game. We are praying he will call us because he doesn't have a telephone. You could see the diference though in someone who really does want to know the truth. This guy was very elect. It was funny because right after we finished saying a prayer(we were outside) the rain just start pouring. It was cool how Heavenly father just led us right to that guy.
The next day after seeing some miracles we were faced with a trial. We came back from district meeting early Monday morning and our bikes were gone.....aghagh....we were ticked. We were already late for a funeral of two twins that died at birth. I was supposed to be playing the piano for the funeral but we weren't able to get there in time. We found out though the next day that our bikes had been taken by the police because apparently they were in no parking zone. So we went and paid the price to get them back. haha of course when we got on them we realized that basically every wheel was bent the crap out of place.....They were unrideable. The police basically just beat the crap out of them. Luckily the bike place we usually go to gave us a good deal to fix them...
haha so that was my week. The ward has taken well to the Chinese and we are really working well with them. We need to start getting the less-actives back to church because there are many....too many. I'm excited though for the challenge. Our transfers are coming up next week and I'm probably getting a new companion....yes another. Anz. Scheurn has already been here for six months so he will most likely go.
Our address is Via Vittorio Vento #18 int. #10...I'm not sure of the area code but I will get it to you soon.
I'm planning on skyping so I need to get a new account because I forgot my last one.
Also try and get me Jake's mission address. We wrote a few times while he was in the MTC, and I still owe him a letter.
Love you a lot
XX00xxooXXXooo
Tuck
Sunday, December 4, 2011
"She Was Just Full of Light and Happiness."
Well my week just kinda wend down the drain now that the Utes lost......wah wah. Alright I'm kidding but at the same time I'm not. Championship in the first season in the PAC-12 woulda been suhhhhhweeet. Colorado really?
Well enough about that. We have had a really great week this week! We almost reached our goal of twenty lessons last week but fell just a bit short. We were able to teach 19 lessons so it was a great improvement from other weeks. We are finally back in our house and getting things in line. It's been really nice to be able to teach people around 8pm instead of having to wait at the train station. We are still trying to find lots of people to teach, but piano, piano (slowly, slowly) we are growing the work.
Chen is getting baptized this Saturday! He actually asked me if I would baptize him so I'm really excited. We were hoping he would choose his friend and new convert Lin to do it. We were a bit bummed about that, but it's what he wants right? Chen is really excited, in fact, every time his baptism has been mentioned in church, institute or the young single adults activities he gets the biggest smile on his face. It's been such a great experience getting to teach him because he just remembers everything we teach him, and he feels that it's all true. We asked him the other day what faith was and his answer was just pin point. It's also been really great having Lin here to help us along the way.
Other good news is that we were finally able to meet with Catherine. If you don't remember, Catherine is Wong's(new convert) friend. She came to church and had a great experience a few weeks ago. Anyways, we met with her Friday and it was amazing. We sat down and started doing our "how to begin teaching" lesson(from PMG). It basically consists of these 10 bullet points in PMG that promise blessings and get across our purpose as missionaries. They are super awesome and bring the spirit in great abundance. Anyways we kinda just asked her what she's seeking in her life, and she told us how she just needs peace and tranquility. She told us how she basically had a guy(probably a long time boyfriend) leave her(in a very rude way) and that she's felt bad from it. She talked about not really being able to forgive him, and that it's just been hard on her. We talked about how through Christ she could heal and be able to forgive this guy.
It was amazing to see how she responded to what we told her. She was just full of light and happiness. You could see hope in her eyes and it was awesome. She expressed her gratitude and basically accepted with open arms the things we taught. We talked about how following Jesus Christ was how we could receive these blessings. We invited her to be baptized and she said yes! We still don't have a date but it'll come. We are excited to start helping her to have the gospel bless her life.
Well, Thanksgiving dinner was amazing!!!! The Trexler family is just amazing. The food was amazing. Root beer is amazing. My stomach afterward was not so amazing. haha I was so full afterward. Guess what? Who would have thought that I could make a pretty mean pumpkin pie?...yeah that's right. It kicked butt! They also had some eggnog that was just buonissimo(of course).
Well we are just really excited for the baptism. We went with Chen, Lin and the Livorno missionaries to Firenze today and it was really fun. We saw lots of the cool stuff there and just had a blast. We ate lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe and had some pretty dang good hamburgers. Purtroppo we didn't have time to buy some really inexpensive ties and trinkets because we had to catch the train....darn.
I do want to wish Ashley a very very very HAPPY BIRTHDAY! 14 years old? Holy smokes rAsh Attack! I keep hearing that you are just an amazing dancer; sorrry I'm gonna be missing the performances and what not. I hope yesterday was a great day! I love you lots!
Well.....the Utes lost....lame.....haha Colorado?....Well I hear the Packers are undefeated?....not too shabby....Will I miss another super bowl championship?....oh well
Well enough about that. We have had a really great week this week! We almost reached our goal of twenty lessons last week but fell just a bit short. We were able to teach 19 lessons so it was a great improvement from other weeks. We are finally back in our house and getting things in line. It's been really nice to be able to teach people around 8pm instead of having to wait at the train station. We are still trying to find lots of people to teach, but piano, piano (slowly, slowly) we are growing the work.
Chen is getting baptized this Saturday! He actually asked me if I would baptize him so I'm really excited. We were hoping he would choose his friend and new convert Lin to do it. We were a bit bummed about that, but it's what he wants right? Chen is really excited, in fact, every time his baptism has been mentioned in church, institute or the young single adults activities he gets the biggest smile on his face. It's been such a great experience getting to teach him because he just remembers everything we teach him, and he feels that it's all true. We asked him the other day what faith was and his answer was just pin point. It's also been really great having Lin here to help us along the way.
Other good news is that we were finally able to meet with Catherine. If you don't remember, Catherine is Wong's(new convert) friend. She came to church and had a great experience a few weeks ago. Anyways, we met with her Friday and it was amazing. We sat down and started doing our "how to begin teaching" lesson(from PMG). It basically consists of these 10 bullet points in PMG that promise blessings and get across our purpose as missionaries. They are super awesome and bring the spirit in great abundance. Anyways we kinda just asked her what she's seeking in her life, and she told us how she just needs peace and tranquility. She told us how she basically had a guy(probably a long time boyfriend) leave her(in a very rude way) and that she's felt bad from it. She talked about not really being able to forgive him, and that it's just been hard on her. We talked about how through Christ she could heal and be able to forgive this guy.
It was amazing to see how she responded to what we told her. She was just full of light and happiness. You could see hope in her eyes and it was awesome. She expressed her gratitude and basically accepted with open arms the things we taught. We talked about how following Jesus Christ was how we could receive these blessings. We invited her to be baptized and she said yes! We still don't have a date but it'll come. We are excited to start helping her to have the gospel bless her life.
Well, Thanksgiving dinner was amazing!!!! The Trexler family is just amazing. The food was amazing. Root beer is amazing. My stomach afterward was not so amazing. haha I was so full afterward. Guess what? Who would have thought that I could make a pretty mean pumpkin pie?...yeah that's right. It kicked butt! They also had some eggnog that was just buonissimo(of course).
Well we are just really excited for the baptism. We went with Chen, Lin and the Livorno missionaries to Firenze today and it was really fun. We saw lots of the cool stuff there and just had a blast. We ate lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe and had some pretty dang good hamburgers. Purtroppo we didn't have time to buy some really inexpensive ties and trinkets because we had to catch the train....darn.
I do want to wish Ashley a very very very HAPPY BIRTHDAY! 14 years old? Holy smokes rAsh Attack! I keep hearing that you are just an amazing dancer; sorrry I'm gonna be missing the performances and what not. I hope yesterday was a great day! I love you lots!
Well.....the Utes lost....lame.....haha Colorado?....Well I hear the Packers are undefeated?....not too shabby....Will I miss another super bowl championship?....oh well
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