Felice Is Getting Baptized Sunday!

Hello Hello!

Yeah well everything pretty much blew over with F (the member I discussed last week). Friday morning we actually remembered we had a lunch appointment with them that day. I was a bit nervous and wasn't even sure they remembered about the appointment. Well they did so of course we went. I was able to play it really cool and just was my self. Having a deep knowledge of the doctrine about Christ, F talks a lot about his ''discoveries''.
Usually I sort of just zone out and don't really listen but I've been trying to show a renewed focus. I think it will help him think and see that I do care what he has to say. It worked really good too during lunch. At first you could see that he didn't really want to talk but I asked questions and he quickly just started pouring out info. It was a big burden off my shoulders to see that it had sort of blown over.

So Felice is getting baptized Sunday! Yahoo! We are really excited and I think the ward is excited as well. They really need another solid Priesthood holder. He a bit nervous but excited as well. We brought Fratello Salemi, the second counselor, to the lesson. He was baptized about 27 years ago. Get this, he took all the lessons 7 times through before getting baptized. Anyways the lesson went really well. Edith and Felice had so many good things to say about us as well as Fratello Salemi. I guess he helped her out financially before she was married to Felice. She kept going on about the financial aid haha and I think it made Fratello Salemi uncomfortable. 

Edith, Felice, Michel & Anziano Neff



Felice, Michel, Anziani Free & Neff

Everyone else, Ivano, Romolo and Twum all made really good progress this week. Ivano made it to two hours of church so we were really excited about that. He made some good answers as well during Gospel Principles. Hopefully we can just keep edging him forward and helping him progress. I think it will be soon that he decides to follow all the commandments and get baptized.

Romolo is coming along a bit slower than we originally thought. He's struggling to understand us and understand the Book of Mormon. He speaks and understands fine but things just don't click in his head for some odd reason. The questions he has about the things he reads are good but just odd. When we ask him questions about what we've taught he gives us the same answers. He doesn't really answer the questions we ask but instead says every time ''I like the story of Nephi and I want to learn more'' or ''Yeah, I just want to keep learning about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon''. It's a great thing to hear right? Well we hear this when we ask him, ''Romolo, do you believe the Book of Mormon is true?''. haha it's difficult. He speaks good Italian too so we know it's not the language barrier. My companion seems to think that he's afraid to say no to our questions because we might not come back. Tonight we are hoping to overcome this and really dig into him with some good questions and following of the spirit.

Twum is working towards his date on the 18th. He's still just a man of few words. Luckily we have the other brothers from Ghana to help translate. We just hope they are translating correctly. Twum seems like he understands English better everyday though.

A few of the new converts from Ghana, Noah and Frederick, are getting really whiffy. They didn't come to church last week and the week before they left early. When we asked them why one said he was sick. He's only sick on Sundays though and is better the next day. The other said he was tired. When we told him that even if he's tired he needs to come. He responded by saying it's more important to God that we are healthy and have energy. haha. He is one of the brothers that speaks the worst. We explained that we keep the Sabbath Day Holy by going to church. He then said, ''well it's the same if I stay here and talk about the Word with two or three other people''. AGH...THE SACRAMENT Frederick! We go to church to take the sacrament haha. He still didn't really fully understand.

Well tomorrow we get to ride 7 hours in train to Padova! Then on Friday we have to do some permesso stuff for my companion and we return immediately after. Last week when we came back from Padova it was just death. Those 7 hours were miserable. I should have done better at sharing the gospel. Talking on trains and buses is definitely outside of my comfort zone but I'm going to try and get a little better this time. 

Elders Free & Neff waiting at the Genova Train Station

Anziano Neff & Nicholas (new convert from Ghana)

I feel that lately my spiritual level has been rising. I think a lot has to do with my prayers and focus in studying the scriptures. There are just things that always seem to need to improve. My weakness is that I recognize them all at once, which is good and bad. Good because I know what I need to do but bad because I try to do all at once and get frustrated.

Lately our district has been struggling to find new investigators. We've been working hard in finding them but we aren't seeing success. We realized with the help of our Capi, that we need to be finding people even when we are doing scheduled finding work. I sort of realized that we need to be more focused on the people as we find.

Well regarding the baby names....I was totally joking about the names I through out a few weeks ago. I'm definitely a big fan of the girl names. If they don't use either I might use the other but I still got some other ones up my sleeve. I've heard a lot of Italian girl names that I've loved but I never write them down! Idiot. I wish I could give them some options but it seems I never have a free moment to think about that sort of stuff. The closer I get to the finish line the more I feel like there is less time each day to do things.

I'm still doing the journal thing but I've missed a few days. Don't worry though I will be better. I haven't missed too many, just a few.

So in terms of getting a painting. Do you think a water color painting would be dumb? I saw some and they weren't too expensive. If i do, would I bring it home with me or send it via packaging?
Anyways...how is everything? Anything interesting happening? Heard of any of my friends getting married? (I guess you don't really know all of them). I think just about all of them are back from missions except a few. Any update on Connor and what he's doing, that nerd still never writes. What has Trentsky been up to lately? How's TJ?

Well thanks for your emails. Things are really winding down but don't worry I'm busier than ever. I'm just trying to utilize the time that I have left to do as much as I can for the Lord and this Branch here.

Love you guys a bunch.