Their Eyes Just Full of Joy

From Tucker's May 23 e-mail:

Well we've had a great week thus far! Since last week a lot of things have happened. Last Wednesday after emailing we went and had a lesson with Valentina, the girlfriend of Salvator Benemerito. We met at the Benemerito home and talked mostly about the Restoration. It went super well and there was a great spirit throughout the entire lesson. Valentia has had some tough times in her life and has many doubts of whether God exists and if he loves her. She's been treated badly by friends and for that she doubts. We have started this "perscorso" with her and she's ready to start trying to receive answers.

Right after the lesson with them we went to their daugter, Mariarosaria's house. We ate dinner with her and her family and had a great time. Their oldest kid Samuelle is a really awesome kid while the middle child, Jasmine, is LOUD. The youngest, Alessia is Loud but mostly tranquillo. They made us a typical Napolitano pasta but then afterward gave us something really tasty. Get this....Honeydew rapped in Prosciutto crudo...It was so good! I would have elaten more but I was full.

We had a really cool finish to the week. Around Wednesday we were ahead of pace in getting to our 20 lessons. By Thursday we found out that we needed to do a Blitz in Brescia on Sunday. With one day gone we were gonna have to kick our butts in gear and make up for time. Well the next couple days proved difficult and we kept getting cancelled on. We even had a member cancel on us which made it even more difficult. By Sunday morning we were around 16 lessons haha and we had planned to be in Brescia around 4:30pm. We taught Valentina right after church and had another one planned around 2pm with our new convert. Well we still needed a few more. As we drove home from church we decided we didn't really have any time for lunch.

On arriving at the apartment Anz. Parker got out his side of the car and immediately saw these two Brazilians across the street. He went right up, I was still grabbing my backpack, and started talking to them. I made my way over quickly and we starting getting to know them. A lady came outside and asked who we were so we again introduced ourselves as missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ. She quickly said, "oh well I am cooking right now, do you want to talk with them?(asking the two young Brazilians). They both said yes so we sat down on their porch and talked with them about the Book of Mormon. There is Ezekiele and Moses, Moses doesn't speak Italian and is 18 years old. His brother is married and speaks Italian because he's been here about 5 years. We set up another appointment and actually saw them last night for the second time!

Last night we went to their apartment. It was one of those attic apartments where the roof has a decline in it down to the corner of the floor. This time Ezekiele's wife Morganna was there. After conversing for a bit we had a kneeling prayer and flipped on the DVD Finding Happiness in Portuguese. Immediately after it ended there was such a strong spirit in the room. I proceeded to bear testimony of the fact that we are all children of a loving Heavenly Father. They said that they felt really good and so we indicated that it was the spirit in the room. Anz. Parker then went on to express our expectations and the blessings from this message. You could really see their eyes just full of joy. They wanted to know more and the spirit was fueling the desire. We are gonna see them on Friday again!

This week we have just been finding loads of people. We had a member, Giovanni Dal Pozzo that always helps us bring two people to church. We had sat down with him 3 weeks ago and invited him to start praying to know with whom he could share the gospel. He immediately thought of this girl who lived close by. He didn't know her well but he knew she was familiar with his sister. A week later he added her on Facebook and the week after that he invited her to church. On Sunday she came to church!...with her younger brother. We are hoping to start meeting with Lilia this week! It's just amazing to see what happens when members take our invites seriously and see the fruits. Tonight we are going again to see Valentina and eat with the Benemerito's. The work is just going great and I really just thank Heavenly Father. The last 4 months we (Anz. Meszaros, Smith and Parker) have been working hard and now He's really helping us out.

We went and saw Franco this morning! Side note:  Franco Lorenzi is a business associate and friend of Tucker's uncle, Mark Knaphus. When our family visited Italy in 2005, Franco took us on a tour of the marble quarries in Carrara.  Haha man he's so Catholic....He definitely remembered Mark and Grandpa just a little bit. He kept saying Mark Knaffus. After awhile he asked me if that's how you pronounced it and i had to fix it for him. He's a super nice guy but just too ingrained into the Catholic "tradition" to change. For 72 years old though he isn't doing too well. He doesn't look too old but he's got the shakes a bit and you can tell the last 8 years haven't been his best.

Tucker and Franco Lorenzi

My focus outside of missionary for the next little bit will be to increase my relationship with Heavenly Father. Mom's question during the last skype session really hit deep. She asked, "how's your relationship with Heavenly Father?" It caused me to think then and even over the last couple weeks about how it is. It needs to better. I've seen a lot of improvement though even in this last week and it's been great! I know it will be something that blesses me long term but also now with our investigators. I just feel great after praying and knowing that you've prayed with "all energy of heart" like the scriptures say. Kneeling prayers with investigators is something we've been really striving to do and that too just brings so much more power to the prayers.

I'm curious to see what happens to our coppis on Monday. We aren't sure what will be happening. It's really a toss up on who will go and who will stay.

We will see.