"It really isn't an easy path, but one that makes us stretch and grow our faith..."

Hey guys!

Well can I just say I am tired. Agh. We all went running today and it's been awhile since we have run. This transfer I've maybe gone running about 4 times...yeah I know I am so lazy. With the freezing cold weather and all the scambios we've been doing we are finding lots of excuses to not run. Basically I need to just push myself a little harder to get up and get going! I'm tired now because this morning during our run we did more sprint type stuff. I didn't realize how out of shape I am....yikes. I will probably set a goal to run more.

So I was just kidding about the Italians messing with the package. I was planning on writing at the end of the last letter that I was just kidding but I forgot. I really like the addidas shirt so thanks!

Our ups and downs are continuing. This week we took a really big dagger to the heart with Fernando. Our lesson with him last Thursday didn't really go as we had wanted it to. We didn't really bring the spirit like we'd wanted to and he wasn't super excited about the Word of Wisdom. We told him to pray about it before the next lesson. Well our lesson was the next day and he cancelled on us. When we asked if he would come to church he said no because he was going to go to his mom's church. Basically it seems like he's done but we aren't sure yet. He told us to call him the next Tuesday, but yesterday he didn't answer. We were super bummed about that because he is so awesome.

On Sunday we were pretty blessed. We were a little down about Fernando but we went forward. Right as we finished our lunch appointment we met this woman from Moldavia. She stopped and talked and was very kind. She kept asking about where we learned Italian and if she spoke well. We then talked with her about the gospel and about Jesus Christ. We introduced the Book of Mormon and she sounded super excited about it. A little bit later we were doing casa and we found an African family. The three children all spooke Italian but the parents didn't. We got a return appointment with them as well. Right after them we met another woman from Moldavia who also was super nice. She too wanted to know more about the Book of Mormon.

It was really awesome to see how much the Lord blessed us as we were going forward. We don't have time to sit and lay down over our trials and other problems. The energy and hope that got sucked out of us after the setback with Fernando was replaced with a renewed sense of joy and energy! The Lord is always thinking about us and helping us along this path. I love how it really isn't an easy path, but one that makes us stretch and grow our faith.

I'm finding that I need to be so much better. There isn't a moment to lose when trying to be a better missionary. I feel like every second there is something I need to get better at. My companion and I have both noticed that I can tend to find too many things to improve. I need to take things one step at a time. My biggest goal is to really think more about this zone we are working with. We both feel that yeah we are working hard in our city, but we need to dedicate more of our hearts to the missionaries in our zone. It's a bit tough when you have the biggest zone in the mission but we will find a way.

I am about finished with the book of Mormon(in the Book of Mormon). It has been super interesting and sad to see how the Nephites went from being the happiest they've ever been to being the most wicked in a matter of 200 years. Mormon talks about his attempts at calling them to repentance but they were to no avail. After trying his best he had to witness his brothers get slaughtered by the Lamanites. I really like what he says after the great battle. It is found in Mormon 6:17-22. Mormon was truly sad and just crushed about his people. They turned to wickness and did not find happiness. I'm not really trying to relate this to anything I've said thus far in this email. It just helps me realize how the Lord's arms are always open to receive us and we just have to walk toward him.

Well...I hope you had a great week. I can't believe another transfer has yet again almost passed by. Thanks for all the great news. That is super awesome that JOGA kicked some butt!

Love you all....have a great week!

Success: Step by Step, Day by Day

From February 14 email:

(With a Blake Dowdle voice)...GOOOOOO MISSION....wahwhooooooo!. Man the mission is so legit. It's just great! Well, we have been seen success slowly but surely. Step by step, day by day.

So, mom you were talking about making a new dress for Rae. You should just give her my old medieval costume and she can be Joan of Arc.....I would. Plus she would win some history points right? Maybe even best costume.

Anyways I did get the packages you sent. They arrived at different times but I got them. It looked like one had been opened. There were some nuts and floss but that was about it. Thanks for the package it was great, and yes my birthday was abbastanza fun.

Man you were making such a fuss last year when I didn't skype you all. Now when you are in Puerto Rico it's, "oh we will be on vacation....good thing our phones work...we can just do that..." haha LAME!!!!! No i'm just messing that will be fine with me. I just remember though we might have P-Day that day so I might be busy writing letters but I will try to find time to talk with yall...just kidding again...I could go on forever.

Now to more serious business. We found out that Fernando has another name so now we call him Jeevan Fernando or just Jeevan or just Fernando. He doesn't really care which one it is. His baptismal date though for March 2 is planted deep into his heart. He came to church sunday and despite the meetings just sucking big time he managed to have an ok experience. I say that church sucked because it did. We had a guy come from the stake and talk about finding jobs for the first 2 hours(we pulled Fernando out after the first hour and taught him a lesson from Gospel Principles). Then the same guy talked for 30 minutes during sacrament meeting about the SAME THING!!!! I was supposed to give a talk(they called me the night before haha too) and it was going to be on the BoM being a testament of Christ, but they needed more time for this other guy. It was probably the least spiritual meeting I've ever attended. The guy wasn't prepared at all for his first presentation and then his talk was a real sleeper.

I shouldn't complain because Jeevan came to church but the wards here don't really know how to host a church meeting. We tell our investigators how church will be so spiritual and worthwhile, but then it's hard for even me to feel the spirit in church. I guess I need to have more faith in our church leaders and maybe give them some advice?

Our lesson went amazing though with Jeevan. We taught him about the gospel and the plan of salvation this week and he understood everything. He has already finished reading 2 Nephi!!!! He has told us that he knows it's true so we are super excited about that. He even told us that he is excited for his baptism. Tonight we are teaching the Word of Wisdom and we feel it will all go well...Still pray for us!

Juliet's got a date with baptism.

I think one of the highlights of the week came with Juliet. Alright so it's Valentines Day night and we are at our appointment with Juliet. Her husband David who is just a lazy sack of potatoes said he was too tired so he just watched tv in the other room. We were actually sort of glad because he wasn't interested in the other lessons too much, and was really holding Juliet back. Of course we'd want them to be together because it's a family but his wife is at a point where she needs to learn and he's not helping her learn.

So we start the lesson and right off the bat we ask her if she had read the BoM. She told us that she hadn't found time to read it. We decided immediately to talk about the importance of it in our lives and how it could help her know which church was true. Following the explanation and testimonies of my companion and I, we read all of 2 Nephi 31. We emphasized throughout the reading the importance of following Jesus Christ. She was in gamba and understood everything. Again we bore testimony of what we had read and asked her why baptism was important. We followed that up by inviting her to be baptized on the 16 of March and she said yes! It was really awesome and she has definitely been prepared by the Lord. Her kids Divine and Ephraim are super cute kids and super funny.

It's finally warming up!

I will start thinking a bit about school. I still have no clue what i'm wanting to do....agh...yeah I know it's not good.

Yeah I got grandpa's letter about Franco and yeah I remember who he is. We'll start thinking about what we can do with him. There was one thing that wasn't clear. Is the picture for me or for Franco?

Love you guys...Thanks for the emails, packages and love....

"I'm Coming"

Happy Valentines day next week!

We'll last week had definitely had some downs but this week has had its ups! We managed a grand total of about 5 lessons last week...wah wah. Our week was very busy though so we aren't too down. We were in Modena last week for about a day and a half then in Milano all day. We were in Milano for Consiglio (Council) with the other Zone Leaders. Between bouncing back from Verona and the other cities we couldn't really find a groove. This week were determined to find that groove and kick some butt.

We just got back yesterday from Bolzano where we did a scambio with the district leader. Anziano Scheurn says it's pretty cold up there, and after the scambio I was in agreement. There wasn't any snow, but man it was windy! I about froze my fingers and toes off. It was really fun though, and it was good to do some really solid work and give them some pointers with their work.

Yesterday we went and visited Fernando. He's still struggling with his belief in God and Jesus Christ being the same person. He has always believed that they are the same, but when he met us we told him they weren't. Well when we gave him the BoM he read the verses which say they are the same. Now every time he reads he gets confused so we are trying to get around that. We have tried through scriptures and prayers to help him gain a testimony of it but so far we've had no success. With that being said he's doing GREAT! He feels that the BoM is true and he wants to continue learning more. His baptismal date for March 4th is super solid.

We had a super spiritual experience teaching him about the Plan of Salvation. After explaining how Christ was baptized we asked him how important he thinks it is that we are baptized. He responded giustissimo (of utmost importance) and said very important. He then asked us if we feel something after baptism. We bore strong testimony of the feelings afterward and of how we receive the spirit. It was awesome and you could see the desire to be baptized increase 10 fold. He gave us his work schedule so we could prepare with him how to work towards his baptismal date. Unfortunately, he finishes working at 5 am on Sunday morning. We started promising him that if he comes to church the Lord will help him. Before we could finish that sentence he said "I'm coming". After exiting his apartment door me and Anz. Meszaros gave each other an ultimate high five! It was really awesome. We feel that his desire has really come from reading the BoM and praying about it. His concerns really aren't holding him back from anything, so it's awesome to see how the BoM has really helped us go forward.

Other than Fernando our teaching poor is basically nothing. We have some other people in the beginning process but we need to see them more and see their intent. We are grateful that we have a lot more time to work in our city this week. It's been tough finding, like I said earlier, a groove to get this work going. It's really great though being able to help the entire zone and keep the fire burning that pushes them to be better.

I honestly have been trying to get you all pictures but seriously every week presents a new obstacle. I have been on a string of bad computers that just aren't that good. Sorry. You will not get a lot of pictures of the city of Pisa itself because there aren't a lot. I was caught completely off guard with transfers and I only have a few of me and the tower. I do have some with members and what not so I will try sending those.

Well, Andy said in his email something about a baby coming in August. He hasn't mention anything in the past about a baby or in the email he sent. Is there something you've all forgotten to mention? Are they expecting or is he just messing with me?

Well thanks so much for the emails. Pray for us! Pray for Fernando that his concerns will resolve themselves as he obeys the commandments and continues praying. Pray!!!! thanks so much. Can you believe that conference is right around the corner again? whew..holy smokes!


Ciowdy,


Tuck

Photos from Pisa

Tucker and Anziano Scheurn in Volterra






Tucker in Volterra





Tucker and Davide (baptized January 28, 2012)






Tucker and Yolanda






Tucker and Sorella Sarti

"We Discovered That He Believes the Book of Mormon to Be True"

Hey!......So yeah, Verona is freezing!!!haha. I'm hanging in there though so don't worry at all! We've been super busy the last couple days with Zone Vision, planning and meetings that we haven't had tons of time to do missionary work. We also went to Modena on Monday to attend the district meeting there, and do a scambio with them. It was very fun getting to see the city in winter. The trees were completely empty as well as the streets. Welcome to winter Anziano Neff! Anziano Owens and I went and taught one of their investigators and along the way we saw the new converts Felix and Seth so that was cool. It was sad to hear that many of the African new converts in Modena haven't been attending church regularly. As much as they understand the gospel of Christ they really just don't understand it. It's frustrating at times but we can't force people to be obedient. On a more positive side Antonio is going strong and is just awesome(at least the missionaries told me this).

We are gearing up to visit all the other district leaders throughout the transfer as well. We will be visiting Reggio Emilia, Bolzano, and Bergamo. Our zone is the biggest Zone in the mission with five districts. We just finished our Vision for the zone and it is focused on the things that Elder Causse told us the other week. Our focus is on being a true disciple of Jesus Christ. It entails a lot of things but we feel it will really help our zone grow. Tomorrow we have a consiglio (Council) with president and the other zone leaders to present it to them and be trained a bit on how to help our zones.

Well right now our work is so so. We have one date right now whose name is Fernando. He is from Sri Lanka and is christian. We haven't taught him a ton, but he came to church last Sunday and really liked it. In our last lesson we discovered that he believes the Book of Mormon to be true. After having prayed about it he felt prompted to read it. He says he hasn't had many experiences with the spirit but we helped him realized how this prompting was it. He's about 20 years old and is super cool. We are really focusing on getting one baptism this transfer. Seeing how we are traveling all over the zone we think that one is a good goal for us.

My companion anziano Mèszàros is a stud. He is probably one of the best Italian speakers in the mission. Right now we are living in four. ME and my companion along with Anziano Webb and Ramjoué. Webb actually is a year younger than me and went to Olympus. We know each other really well because we had seminary for like 3 semesters in a row. His sister is actually married to Scott Neff...what a coincidence. Ramjoué is from Riverton. They are all awesome and we will have a lot of fun...obedient fun. The last couple days have been fun yet at the same time has made me realize how much better I need to be.

I spent a lot of time comparing myself with my companion and other missionaries in terms of teaching and language skills. I struggled a lot with confidence the first few days here. I kept thinking how inadequate I am as a missionary and wondering agh....there are better missionaries that could do better than me as a zone leader. BUTTT I finally got over my own worries and self pride(I guess you could say). I need to just be humble and grateful for the skills I've been blessed with. I also realized I need to just work harder on those skills which I lack. So now I'm good. I know I'm here for a reason and we are gonna kick butt. I am really going to love this calling and having this great opportunity to help grow our Zone to be true disciples of Christ.!!!

So how are the Jazz doing?....

Grazie for the emails and have a GREAT WEEK.