Anziani Neff, Smith, and Webb (doing his Wace face) at Lago di Garda
This morning a member from the other ward here in Verona came and picked all of us(me, Smith, Webb and Money) to go to Lago di Garda. It's is actually a pretty short drive in car so it left us a lot of time to take pictures and walk around a small portion of the lake. I think I will be able to send you a few today (if I can work this computer haha man I suck with technology).
Well we have basically finished all of our traveling, in terms of scambios, for the transfer. On Monday we traveled up to Trento for district meeting and then afterward to Bolzano. I teamed up with Scheurn again which was pretty fun. We definitely had fun walking around the small city and inviting everyone in our paths. Unfortunately nobody really wanted to hear what we had to say. Around 8pm we went to a member's house for family home evening and brought a small pensiero (thought). It was really fun especially because another lady in the ward had brought her 9 year old kid, too. I won't go into details but there were two 9 year old kids who haven't been baptized yet even though their parents are now members. At the end of the lesson/night they asked us if we wanted to start teaching them the missionary lessons! That will be a cool boost for the missionaries in Bolzano.
So last week we did not reach our goal of 20 lessons. We finished the week at an abysmal 11 lessons. Actually it wasn't too bad considering the fact we were gone half the week. We were so close though and had soooo many cancellations on Saturday and Sunday that didn't help. I think we need to just have a little more faith and just keep showing the Lord we want it.
Yesterday we were excited to start working in our city. We had 3 lessons planned and unfortunately all of them fell through. After the third one fell through I was pretty annoyed. I just kept thinking, "how can we teach 20 lessons if everyone we teach cancels on us?." I was also a bit frustrated because we've been working pretty hard and just not having much success. It seems that everyone we do find can only see us once a week or just doesn't understand certain things.
We'll after the third cancellation I said a prayer in my heart and walked straight towards a palazzo. It was 8pm and usually we never...never do casa this late. I was desiring a lesson so bad though that I didn't care and I felt like we should do the palazzo. We'll we got in and I was calmed down and ready to teach anyone who would give us a second of their time. We'll we talked with an evangelist lady who could only say that the BoM is false and that all she needed was the Bible. I bore strong testimony but she wanted none of it. We'll we finished the palazzo and had found nobody. I was puzzled because I had felt that the Lord wanted us to do it and find someone.
I was moping a bit but we kept going and within a minute we saw this 18 year old kid riding by on his bike. As he was along side of us we said hi and he kind of gave us that who are you(in an interested way) look. We stopped him and boy are we glad we did. He is from Brazil and is just a super cool kid. His name is Michael and is actually relatively religious which for a kid his age in Italy is not common. After talking with him about the BoM and believing in Jesus Christ he looked at the BoM and asked for it. We told him we could bring it to him in his language and he agreed. He was super humble and just ready to be found. I was just so grateful for the Lord in telling me to do that palazzo because it helped put us in Michael's path.
I'm really trying to work this week on having more faith and trying to be more patient. Is it bad to just expect success all the time? haha I know it's a lot to ask but sometimes when I'm working I get frustrated because I want success. I think I just need to keep focusing on loving people and then success will come. My companion has been such an awesome example for me of patience. Hopefully we will be able to pick up our work this week and really show our love for the Veronese/other non-Italians which are many here.
I've been reading the past few days sort of just skimming through 2 Nephi. There is a verse in 2 Nephi 4 that I just loved. It talks about how Nephi cried unto the Lord and was given knowledge by day and by night, or something like that. It really hit me though about how I need to pray more and ask the Lord for his help or for knowledge. The Lord will give to us when we ask. Obviously it needs to be in his will and in his own time but he will give. I also loved the chapter 27 and 28 in talking about the Book of Mormon and why we need it. I feel so blessed for having it and for the clarity it brings about the doctrine of Christ. It's ridiculous how important it is and how necessary it is.
Well I said at the beginning it would be a bad email and yeah it's a bit boring. I dunno if it sounded like a complaint, a "what Anz. Neff needs to do better" email or what haha. I just write what comes to mind. I hope you all enjoy it!
I love you all and wish you all another great week!
Don't worry...be happy!
No comments:
Post a Comment