Kind, Open and Elect

I remember you commenting last week about the new stake, and it's a big thing.  The work is growing in Italy.....ansi...The work is growing in Northern Italy! It's been great to see how much the mission is growing.
Felice had his baptismal interview yesterday and is set to be baptized the 5th of August! We moved it back a week so he could come to sacrament meeting one additional time. He accepted tithing on Saturday after a wonderful lesson with us together with our Ward Mission Leader Steve and his wife Yajiara. They are super awesome and bore great testimony about the importance of paying tithing. Of course Felice's a bit worried about it, but knows it's a commandment.

Twum had fallen off a bit after giving us multiple bidones over a two week period. He's been good lately though and we've been going forward. We've reset his date for the 18th of August. We really want to help him understand things and be better committed to meeting with us and coming to church. If he's wiffy now he'll probably be wiffy after.

Ivano is just sort of teetering right now. He's making slow progress but at the same time not really. He comes to sacrament meeting almost every week but goes home afterward. His excuse for leaving is that his legs hurt and he has the bus to catch. We invited him this past week to attend all of church and he committed to coming for the first two hours. We accepted his bargain and were excited because we want him to become friends with the members. By coming just to the first hour he can't really talk with people because it's sacrament meeting. Well Sunday rolls around and right after sacrament meeting ends he says ''oggi perdo la promessa''. He tells us I have to break the promise. I ask him why and he says that he has to catch the bus. My patience has been thin lately. Heavenly Father is simple, we are blessed when we obey and when we don't we aren't blessed.

I told him really really bluntly that Heavenly Father can't bless him if he doesn't obey and show his Faith. I probably could have been a bit more kind or loving about it but Ivano has just not been making the progress he needs to. I think if anything though he saw that I was greatly disappointed because I was. The guy is great but he needs to really show his faith in Heavenly Father.

So actually my entire Sunday was just crazy. Romolo said he would come to church yet he wasn't home when we passed by to pick him up for church. His mom said he went on a bike ride with his squad. Our new converts said they had work to do at their house so half of them left after sacrament meeting.

I got a member to basically hate me after making a comment during Gospel Principles. The member is F. I will give a quick explanation. F is really really into deep doctrine. He's super smart and is always trying to tell us stuff. Well, since I've been here he comes to Gospel Principles which is for new member and investigators. For the last three or four weeks he has been getting lesson off-track and isn't super helpful. For example, last week we were talking about Faith. When we compared it to a plant he starts talking about how all plants and animals have their own spirits. He went really in depth about it; I won't explain the rest. Well when we finally got over that and continued with the lesson he started talking about it again. He brought it back to his subject and not the class subject.

Well this Sunday as we talked about repentance F starts talking about the Atonement. Of course they go together, I know that. Well he starts going into depth about there being many other worlds and what not. We finally get past that and continue on with the lesson and he continues commenting on the Atonement and other in depth principles of the Atonement. Let me remind you again this is with investigators and new converts. I had about enough of it so I quickly said, ''Torniamo al discorso''. I said we need to return to the lesson. It probably wasn't in the most polite tone but it wasn't a rude tone either.

During lunch time about two hours later while we were at home I get a call from F. He just starts talking my ear off. He was thinking that I was trying to correct him on the doctrine he'd been sharing with the class. I quickly said that that wasn't what I was trying to do. I explained that the class is a basic learning class and we need to leave out profound/in depth information. He just exploded about how the Atonement is the most important thing ever, which it is, and how it must always be taught. He went onto say, the spirit in Gospel Principles used to be great but since ''certain'' people have arrived it hasn't been the same.

Anyways he got super mad and I was a bit annoyed but not mad. It was evident he'd been just brewing over my ''torniamo al discorso'' comment. I was just amazed to see a first counsel/member of many years call me and explode on me like that. I quickly sent an apology text because my mind was racing and i wouldn't have been able to express myself in Italian. An hour or so later I called him and apologized again but it was evident he was upset. Oh well..

I feel a lot better having said sorry and repenting but I think he hates me now.  Our ward mission leader told me that is just how F sort of is though. He said I shouldn't worry too much.

We all make mistakes.

On another note we found this really awesome investigator. Her name is Valentine and she's 24 years old. We found her the other night on the bike path right at the end of the day. We had been doing strada for awhile and we felt that we should stop and pray. We asked to know where to go and after the pray we both decided on the bike path. Within a few minutes we saw her and started talking with her. We quickly set an appointment up for the next day. When we saw her on Sunday she was so kind, open and ELECT. She wants help in her life and is just super willing to try. She has problems with her shoulder and heart. She speaks a little funny and has been really made fun of a lot in her life for her disabilities. She's just a sweetheart is the best way to put it. I immediately could tell that the whole branch will just love her to death. We are going to see her in a few days to meet again.

Well just pray that our investigators can make progress.

Love you guys a lot...sorry I vented so much about the little feud between me and the member. I felt super, super bad after, and for that reason I quickly apologized.