First.. I am disappointed the Utes lost but....i guess it's USC but still that sucks. They better kick butt against BYU though.
Second. I totally asked mom or dad(don't remember) last week about what I could buy Hillary but nobody responded. That sucks. I'm just gonna send a card. I realized that if i buy something it's gonna cost some amount but with the sending fee...it would just be way to much. Plus I haven't got a clue what to buy. I'm therefore going to send a card! yay.
Well it has actually been a pretty boring week here in Modena I'm not gonna lie. We have worked hard and taught lessons but nothing really exciting. Wah wah... Scusate! We did have Zone Conference which was very fun and full of ideas for things I can improve on. I also got a sack of letters which was soooo sweet. I think there were like 3 envelopes from Aunt Carol full of sports stuff, a few from Dianna, Jake McNeil and one from Lisa(dated back to last February???. I guess it was the lost letter.
We have recently started teaching a less-active member, Fabio. He's been a member for about 1 year and is just super cool. We met with him about two weeks ago and he was in great need of the gospel. He expressed his appreciation for the lesson and invited us to come back again. He's been super depressed lately and actually before our next appointment with him he checked himself into a clinic.
The stress from not having work was too much for the guy. We have started passing by like 3 times a week though and teaching him the gospel. He's super nice and super cool, he's struggling with a few commandments but he wants to change. He even asked us if our bishop could pass by(which was funny because that same lesson we wanted to ask him if he could meet with bishop).
He hasn't been able to come to church yet because he's been in the clinic. We are really hoping and praying that when he gets out that he can just be active again. His family basically doesn't want him around(he's like 26 yrs old and super smart). He told us the first time we met that the ward is basically his family. He needs your prayers!
Something small that has been a miracle for me is the growth of our investigator Ettore. You know we have been teaching him for a little over 2 months now and he's just a stud. Up until the last week or so we just haven't seen any excitement from him about baptism. He's had a date for awhile now but never have we seen the dude really smile or any real emotion toward this baptism.
Finally he is prepared for baptism and it's this SATURDAY! Yeah yeah. We are so excited and HE IS TOO! In the last week or two it's like when we see him in church he's smiling. When we ask him.."are you ready for your baptism?", he smiles and says yes. It has been super cool for me to see this and to see how much happier he seems, following the commandments and changing his life to be in line with that of our Savior Jesus Christ.
I know that it's just a smile but for me it has really shown that he does want to be baptized. It shows me that he knows it will change his life and bring him closer to Christ. We are excited and I know he's excited and it shows. It's simple, the restored gospel of Jesus Christ brings happiness.
Our buddy Edmond(Ghana) is also progressing too. He has come to church the last couple weeks and we have been teaching him like crazy. We have a date for him for the 24th! We are hoping he can be ready for that date. His only problem is that he can't meet with us super often so were having to teach lots of lessons in little appointment. We are hoping it wont overwhelm him. If we have to we will move his baptismal date but who knows yet.
It sounds like everyone is doing great! Oly soccer is kicking butt, Savannah is just owning everyone it seems like, that is super dope. I bet Lisa loved how in the newspaper article, it didn't spell her name right.
It sounds like Ashley to be upset about her role. I can't believe (R)Ashley is already in 8th grade and that Hill is turning 17.......This is crazy, this is crazy, as Clark Griswald would say. Well I am praying for you all and hope all is well.
Fill me in next week with the BYU game, how the cousins are doing in football and everything. Let me know if there is anything you want to know.
Next week is transfer ah.....the 29th is my year mark...yikes...I might have another companion..."ohhhhh boy".
Love you alll....clam CIOWDY
PS
Another thing...wow I don't want to complain but being Senior companion sucks ahahahahahahahaha. My Italian totally got better last transfer because I was having to speak a lot lot more but know I have not gotten better at all. haha. I need to just speak more and really work on it, but man it's tough when the person you're with doesn't speak better than you.
Cross my fingers...maybe I will train an italian...DESIDERO (I want to)
Tuck-a-luck
Hold the press......I just got a phone call from the office in Milano...We got a referral and the person's name is BOAT....haaha such a cool name...Boat. I also might be going to FIRENZE next week because my companion has to get his Permesso di Soggiorno (Visa). Firenze has the best deals on cool looking ties so I might buy a bunch for myself and you guys. Pray that I will be able to go hahaha.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Sunday, September 25, 2011
"I hope I will be a great member in your church"
From September 7 e-mail
hey everyone!
Well we were able to have a pretty decent week this week. I was actually able to leave Modena and go to Reggio Emilia for a scambio. Our zone leaders felt that since we don't have elders in my district to do scambios with that we could do one. Reggio Emilia is super close but it was super fun. We were able to teach a bunch of lessons, see some really cool investigators and members of the ward there. I was also able to see how much better their apartment is than ours haha.
So a little update on our investigators. Monday night we had a super awesome lesson with Ettore. So basically Ettore had been taught just about everything and was willing to follow the commandments. He'd actually been following them for quiet some time but he was waiting to receive a solid answer to his prayers before being baptized. On Monday though we brought one of the returned missionaries to the lesson and talked all about Alma 32:21. It talks about how faith isn't having a perfect knowledge of things. We applied it to his situation about baptism and invited him to be baptized a week from Saturday and he said yes!! We were soooooooooo stoked for him. Tonight we are putting all the arrangements for the baptism together. We are super excited.
I also talked a little bit about Edmond last week, I think. Anyways he ran into us about a month ago. We started teaching him and came to find out that he went to church when he was in Ghana. He wasn't ever baptized though. Anyways he knows quite a bit about the church, even a little about the temple. We brought him to church last week and were starting to teach him so he can be baptized the 24th. He told us the other day haha, "I hope I will be a great member in your church". We laughed and told him he would.
This week my companion helped me to really realized how much I need to be me. We were just doing casa and brought up the fact about how weird we sound when we speak sometimes. We got talking about our entire casa approach and even just the way we talk. We really realized that we weren't fully being ourselves. We are both super funny and outgoing. Up until that point it didn't feel like we were entirely ourselves. We also realized how when we were teaching we weren't being ourselves either. While it's good to sound like this well-mannered, spiritual, Satan fighting person, we still need to be ourselves. For me I realized how much more I need to put my own personality into this work. I need to be my funny, slightly goofy self. That is one of the things we are working on this week!
So up until this point me and my companion haven't gotten inside a whole lot doing casa. A little of this is due to the fact that we do lots of strada and parco. It just has seemed that we hardly ever get in doing casa. This last Sunday though we planned to do some casa in centro. In the past we have avoided doing this because we both dislike doing casa in centro.
The night before during programming we both felt fine with the thought of doing it. So we started Sunday afternoon by doing casa. After the first small palazzo we exited without meeting anyone. The next palazzo though we got in at the first door. We were able to have a pretty good casa lesson although we left a little rust on his couch. It was really a great example for me because it helps me to know that sometimes we can't just not do certain things because we don't like it. For us we don't usually like centro casa but we both felt inclined to do it and in the end it paid off. We just need to follow the spirit and it'll lead us to the God's elect.
So I got your package yesterday! I was so pumped when I saw it. I tore it open sooo fast. It was actually my companion's birthday yesterday. Kinda funny that I got a present yesterday and he didn't. He was definitely super into it about having it be his birthday. I remember for me it was like something that was so not a big deal but haha I've never seen someone so into the whole birthday thing...I made him German pancakes in the morning so that's about the only thing special that happened for his birthday.
This morning we went to a half-member families house to work in their vineyard! It was super fun and I will send some pictures.
Anyways that is cool the Utes won, hopefully they can pick it up this week verse USC. I'm totally gearing up for another general conference. We also have transfers coming up in a few weeks so I dunno what's gonna happen there. in the words of Lloyd Christmas..."aahhh..uhhh"
Love you guys and can't wait to hear from ya next week. Hope you liked the email!
Tuck
hey everyone!
Well we were able to have a pretty decent week this week. I was actually able to leave Modena and go to Reggio Emilia for a scambio. Our zone leaders felt that since we don't have elders in my district to do scambios with that we could do one. Reggio Emilia is super close but it was super fun. We were able to teach a bunch of lessons, see some really cool investigators and members of the ward there. I was also able to see how much better their apartment is than ours haha.
So a little update on our investigators. Monday night we had a super awesome lesson with Ettore. So basically Ettore had been taught just about everything and was willing to follow the commandments. He'd actually been following them for quiet some time but he was waiting to receive a solid answer to his prayers before being baptized. On Monday though we brought one of the returned missionaries to the lesson and talked all about Alma 32:21. It talks about how faith isn't having a perfect knowledge of things. We applied it to his situation about baptism and invited him to be baptized a week from Saturday and he said yes!! We were soooooooooo stoked for him. Tonight we are putting all the arrangements for the baptism together. We are super excited.
I also talked a little bit about Edmond last week, I think. Anyways he ran into us about a month ago. We started teaching him and came to find out that he went to church when he was in Ghana. He wasn't ever baptized though. Anyways he knows quite a bit about the church, even a little about the temple. We brought him to church last week and were starting to teach him so he can be baptized the 24th. He told us the other day haha, "I hope I will be a great member in your church". We laughed and told him he would.
This week my companion helped me to really realized how much I need to be me. We were just doing casa and brought up the fact about how weird we sound when we speak sometimes. We got talking about our entire casa approach and even just the way we talk. We really realized that we weren't fully being ourselves. We are both super funny and outgoing. Up until that point it didn't feel like we were entirely ourselves. We also realized how when we were teaching we weren't being ourselves either. While it's good to sound like this well-mannered, spiritual, Satan fighting person, we still need to be ourselves. For me I realized how much more I need to put my own personality into this work. I need to be my funny, slightly goofy self. That is one of the things we are working on this week!
So up until this point me and my companion haven't gotten inside a whole lot doing casa. A little of this is due to the fact that we do lots of strada and parco. It just has seemed that we hardly ever get in doing casa. This last Sunday though we planned to do some casa in centro. In the past we have avoided doing this because we both dislike doing casa in centro.
The night before during programming we both felt fine with the thought of doing it. So we started Sunday afternoon by doing casa. After the first small palazzo we exited without meeting anyone. The next palazzo though we got in at the first door. We were able to have a pretty good casa lesson although we left a little rust on his couch. It was really a great example for me because it helps me to know that sometimes we can't just not do certain things because we don't like it. For us we don't usually like centro casa but we both felt inclined to do it and in the end it paid off. We just need to follow the spirit and it'll lead us to the God's elect.
So I got your package yesterday! I was so pumped when I saw it. I tore it open sooo fast. It was actually my companion's birthday yesterday. Kinda funny that I got a present yesterday and he didn't. He was definitely super into it about having it be his birthday. I remember for me it was like something that was so not a big deal but haha I've never seen someone so into the whole birthday thing...I made him German pancakes in the morning so that's about the only thing special that happened for his birthday.
This morning we went to a half-member families house to work in their vineyard! It was super fun and I will send some pictures.
Anyways that is cool the Utes won, hopefully they can pick it up this week verse USC. I'm totally gearing up for another general conference. We also have transfers coming up in a few weeks so I dunno what's gonna happen there. in the words of Lloyd Christmas..."aahhh..uhhh"
Love you guys and can't wait to hear from ya next week. Hope you liked the email!
Tuck
"The Power of Example"
August 31 E-mail:
What's up everyone? What's happening in SLC?
Is everyone gearing up for an incredible season with the UTES in the PAC-12? I bet...I'm even pretty excited and I won't even get to see any of the games. Well things have returned to normal here in Modena. Dad you are right about the weather, it has cooled down considerably. It has gone from being literally blazing hot to nice and cool. It's amazing!!!
I was excited to see some pictures from the cabin. Man I love our cabin!! I think I express that every time it gets brought up. It is hard to think that it's been a whole year since we were there right before I left to the MTC. Everyone says that year two of the mission goes by faster than the second. If this is the case than I'm kinda scared because this first year flashed by. I refuse to believe it has been this long haha.
Well we finally got back in the groove and hit our mark of 20 lessons this week. We also were able to get back teaching Ettore! It was really cool seeing him again and hearing that he has been keeping all the commandments! He really does have a desire to know if these things are true. His only problem right now is that he can't seem to get an answer. We have been trying lots of things to help him to recognize an answer or find his answer. Hopefully our lesson with him tonight will go well.
Giuseppe is really struggling right now. We reset a baptismal date with him this past week and we could really see his desire to be baptized. All of his problems just seem to heavy for him though. We set a smoking plan to help him stop and he basically failed it after the first day and basically hasn't tried. He is basically alone because his wife left him and he doesn't get to see his kids often. He worries about everything and frankly I don't blame him. Right now I think the biggest thing we can do is get members to the lessons and get some support. I strongly feel that the members will be able to provide some much needed support because we as misisonaries can only do so much. Hopefully we can find some stud members to help us out. We got a couple of them in mind.
Well this is more of a miracle for the sister misisonaries in my district I guess but I will tell it anyway. This last Friday we were out doing strada in centro. We had been doing a Fast that day with Ettore(so he coulD get his answer). We we're passing by a market and of course we were hungry so we decided to stop really quick and check it out. We had seen this market a ton but never went inside. We saw some really good dolce that we wanted to buy for after when we ended our fast. While we were waiting in line a lady we had met about a week earlier stopped us and started talking with us. Of course we recognized her because she was super funny and old haha and we had a nice little chat.
The miracle of this story is that during district meeting on Monday the sisters told us that one of their investigators had seen us that day. He told the sisters that he overheard us talking with this lady and was very impressed with us. He said that he's seen us before and that we always had good things to say. The sisters went on to tell us that it really helped him to have the desire to learn more from them and want to be baptized! It was cool for us because we didn't know we were being "watched"(sounds kinda weird) but people really do watch our every move. It helps me to know that we need to always be witnesses of Christ and act like he would. I know that as we do this others will see our example and want to follow.
So that is cool that oly soccer is doing great 4-2-1? not too shabby. Hopefully they can continue to kick butt. I don't know that it is Hillary's birthday on the 17th...I'm not that bad of a brother...Dai!
I spent some time today looking for something to get her for her birthday but I couldn't think of a darn thing. Any ideas? I'm looking at something under 20 euro because it will also cost lots to send it back to Utah. If you mention clothing, try to send me measurements in Italian.
So dad?....you gonna send me some salsa?..?
Also I forgot to mention...I did send the the right address but I left out the number to our mailbox. It isn't a huge deal because the mailbox has our name on it, but it will make it easier....our mailbox number is #15.
I saw some cool stuff this week. The highlight(of coincidences or interesting things that happened) was talking with an African that went to TCU for track and said he'd been to Utah. We also saw a bum walking the street in a UNLV jersey. Just thought I would let you know
Love you guys a ton...are you excited for General Conference? I am in shock that it is already almost conference again. Feels like yesterday that I was in Milano with Anziano Bolnick watching conference.
Well watch some good movies for me. Mi sento la mancanza di vedere le film. è stato già un anno che non li ho visto però addess io ho un macchina di DVD!....haha love you guys so much
CIAO!
What's up everyone? What's happening in SLC?
Is everyone gearing up for an incredible season with the UTES in the PAC-12? I bet...I'm even pretty excited and I won't even get to see any of the games. Well things have returned to normal here in Modena. Dad you are right about the weather, it has cooled down considerably. It has gone from being literally blazing hot to nice and cool. It's amazing!!!
I was excited to see some pictures from the cabin. Man I love our cabin!! I think I express that every time it gets brought up. It is hard to think that it's been a whole year since we were there right before I left to the MTC. Everyone says that year two of the mission goes by faster than the second. If this is the case than I'm kinda scared because this first year flashed by. I refuse to believe it has been this long haha.
Well we finally got back in the groove and hit our mark of 20 lessons this week. We also were able to get back teaching Ettore! It was really cool seeing him again and hearing that he has been keeping all the commandments! He really does have a desire to know if these things are true. His only problem right now is that he can't seem to get an answer. We have been trying lots of things to help him to recognize an answer or find his answer. Hopefully our lesson with him tonight will go well.
Giuseppe is really struggling right now. We reset a baptismal date with him this past week and we could really see his desire to be baptized. All of his problems just seem to heavy for him though. We set a smoking plan to help him stop and he basically failed it after the first day and basically hasn't tried. He is basically alone because his wife left him and he doesn't get to see his kids often. He worries about everything and frankly I don't blame him. Right now I think the biggest thing we can do is get members to the lessons and get some support. I strongly feel that the members will be able to provide some much needed support because we as misisonaries can only do so much. Hopefully we can find some stud members to help us out. We got a couple of them in mind.
Well this is more of a miracle for the sister misisonaries in my district I guess but I will tell it anyway. This last Friday we were out doing strada in centro. We had been doing a Fast that day with Ettore(so he coulD get his answer). We we're passing by a market and of course we were hungry so we decided to stop really quick and check it out. We had seen this market a ton but never went inside. We saw some really good dolce that we wanted to buy for after when we ended our fast. While we were waiting in line a lady we had met about a week earlier stopped us and started talking with us. Of course we recognized her because she was super funny and old haha and we had a nice little chat.
The miracle of this story is that during district meeting on Monday the sisters told us that one of their investigators had seen us that day. He told the sisters that he overheard us talking with this lady and was very impressed with us. He said that he's seen us before and that we always had good things to say. The sisters went on to tell us that it really helped him to have the desire to learn more from them and want to be baptized! It was cool for us because we didn't know we were being "watched"(sounds kinda weird) but people really do watch our every move. It helps me to know that we need to always be witnesses of Christ and act like he would. I know that as we do this others will see our example and want to follow.
So that is cool that oly soccer is doing great 4-2-1? not too shabby. Hopefully they can continue to kick butt. I don't know that it is Hillary's birthday on the 17th...I'm not that bad of a brother...Dai!
I spent some time today looking for something to get her for her birthday but I couldn't think of a darn thing. Any ideas? I'm looking at something under 20 euro because it will also cost lots to send it back to Utah. If you mention clothing, try to send me measurements in Italian.
So dad?....you gonna send me some salsa?..?
Also I forgot to mention...I did send the the right address but I left out the number to our mailbox. It isn't a huge deal because the mailbox has our name on it, but it will make it easier....our mailbox number is #15.
I saw some cool stuff this week. The highlight(of coincidences or interesting things that happened) was talking with an African that went to TCU for track and said he'd been to Utah. We also saw a bum walking the street in a UNLV jersey. Just thought I would let you know
Love you guys a ton...are you excited for General Conference? I am in shock that it is already almost conference again. Feels like yesterday that I was in Milano with Anziano Bolnick watching conference.
Well watch some good movies for me. Mi sento la mancanza di vedere le film. è stato già un anno che non li ho visto però addess io ho un macchina di DVD!....haha love you guys so much
CIAO!
"What Would Jesus Do.... and Don't Lie"
Ooh dad....no no no....I know I'm in Italy but putting more about sports stuff about Italian soccer than Utah football?....strike three and you are out my friend. Devi sempre spedirmi le cose degli uomini. Calcio è un pò feminile, che pensi tu? Mi piace il calcio ma babbo, dai!
Va bene padre mio, ti perdono ma la prossima volta ti aspetto di spedirmi le cose più, diciamo, maschile. ok ok sto scherzando un po. Im super grateful for the sports stuff dad! just giving ya a bit of a hard time. Im excited to get that package you guys sent.
Did you send it to my apartment or to Milano office?
So what's up everyone? You said that Salt Lake has been pretty hot these days?....haha you probably don't realize how hot it is here in Modena. HOLY SMOKES...I'm surprised the city hasn't just caught on fire from his heat. I think the temperature has been floating around 38 to 40 Celsius the past week!!!! Luckily we are still alive but it has been super difficult. The new sister in my district has basically had to stay inside the entire week because she cant take it. We literally step outside our apartment at 10:30 to start the day and within about 5 minutes we are just sweating like crazy haha. HOPE it doesn't sound like I'm complaining! I've managed to just laugh about it quite a bit but still WHEW.......tough work I'm telling ya. We have had bike problems the last couple days. I've never appreciated having a bike so much in my entire life.
Haha well other than being hot....the work is going so so. Ferragosto was pretty tough on us this last week but we managed to get through it. We were basically confined to working in centro the entire week because there was literally just nobody around. The people are starting to trickle back into Modena though. I don't have lots to tell this week because really not much happened. We only taught about 10lessons this week. haha we set up about 30 lesson but about 2/3 of them all cancelled. I don't think we had any lessons this week with our investigators. They were all with members, new converts and a couple new people we met in the parks and what not.
It was really an awesome week for us though to see what our weaknesses were as a companionship. We figured out that we need to really work on our street approach and overall ability to be personable with people. We had the opportunity to do a blitz with the Zone leaders which really helped a lot. I was with Anziano Andersen and it was amazing to see how much better I can be. The dude can just teach but at the same time talk and really get to know people.
Well we had planned to have Ettore baptized this week but unfortunately we still haven't been able to see him for awhile. He got back from vacation last week but has been "busy" and what not. We can just tell by talking with him on the phone his desire has kinda vanished. We are seeing him tonight though and we fill it will be an awesome lesson. We're hoping to get back on the baptism train...CHOO CHOO!
well we've really been trying hard to find some investigators this past week. We weren't able to teach a whole lot of lessons because about 2/3 of every lesson we set ended up getting cancelled. Our Red Zone finding time from 6pm-8pm expanded to an all day process of finding! Even with all this time to find people to teach we couldn't find a single person. It was like this for about 3 days straight.
We were working yesterday for awhile in the park trying to find people. We were able to have a few lessons with people we met. We had already had about 2 lessons cancel so we were trying to make up for them to reach our daily goals. It got to be about 6 pm which was the time we scheduled to do casa.
We got to the street we chose and we both felt prompted to skip it and go to the next adjoining street. From afar they were just these big palazzi that we hadn't done yet. When we got to the front of the building we realized we had already done it.
We both decided to go and do this palazzo anyway and after a couple doors we were greeted by a family from Africa and had an awesome lesson. They were super interested, they weren't the normal "African" investigator that responds to every question with "ya ya Jesus Christ is our Savior" even when that answer has nothing to do with the question. It was just cool to see how we were prompted to divert from our programmed street and yet we found success. I know that as we try to really listen for these promptings we will find even more success.
Mom you asked about what new insight and also about the scriptures. Hm....your kinda putting me on the spot....I have really been able to focus a lot on baptism this past week and why it's important. Of course there are so many reasons for instance...we make covenants that bring us blessings, we can receive the holy ghost after and have its guidance, we have to be baptized to reach the celestial kingdom. There are many reasons but the one that has really hit me a lot the last week is this....2 Nephi 31:5(basically 5-12). The thing I've realized is that Christ was baptized. We are here on the earth to follow our Savior Jesus Christ and do the things he did. Christ was perfect but yet he was baptized so that he could show us the way. Of course there are many excellent reasons to be baptized but for me the main one is that by being baptized we follow Christ. I just think it's as simple as that. Christ tells us in these verses to follow him, in Italian it says "Seguiteme, seguiteme...follow me". So for my investigators maybe I should just ask "what would Jesus do? and don't lie!"
I'm stoked that Hillary is playing really good. So what is the team's overall record and how do you think they are doing up until now? That is kinda lame that the Xardinals are dropping off...I guess I chose a great time to come into the mission huh?. Keep on keeping on. I can tell by reading the emails you're all very busy but "Cela FATE!"
Love you all and am excited to hear from you next week.
Ciao
Va bene padre mio, ti perdono ma la prossima volta ti aspetto di spedirmi le cose più, diciamo, maschile. ok ok sto scherzando un po. Im super grateful for the sports stuff dad! just giving ya a bit of a hard time. Im excited to get that package you guys sent.
Did you send it to my apartment or to Milano office?
So what's up everyone? You said that Salt Lake has been pretty hot these days?....haha you probably don't realize how hot it is here in Modena. HOLY SMOKES...I'm surprised the city hasn't just caught on fire from his heat. I think the temperature has been floating around 38 to 40 Celsius the past week!!!! Luckily we are still alive but it has been super difficult. The new sister in my district has basically had to stay inside the entire week because she cant take it. We literally step outside our apartment at 10:30 to start the day and within about 5 minutes we are just sweating like crazy haha. HOPE it doesn't sound like I'm complaining! I've managed to just laugh about it quite a bit but still WHEW.......tough work I'm telling ya. We have had bike problems the last couple days. I've never appreciated having a bike so much in my entire life.
Haha well other than being hot....the work is going so so. Ferragosto was pretty tough on us this last week but we managed to get through it. We were basically confined to working in centro the entire week because there was literally just nobody around. The people are starting to trickle back into Modena though. I don't have lots to tell this week because really not much happened. We only taught about 10lessons this week. haha we set up about 30 lesson but about 2/3 of them all cancelled. I don't think we had any lessons this week with our investigators. They were all with members, new converts and a couple new people we met in the parks and what not.
It was really an awesome week for us though to see what our weaknesses were as a companionship. We figured out that we need to really work on our street approach and overall ability to be personable with people. We had the opportunity to do a blitz with the Zone leaders which really helped a lot. I was with Anziano Andersen and it was amazing to see how much better I can be. The dude can just teach but at the same time talk and really get to know people.
Well we had planned to have Ettore baptized this week but unfortunately we still haven't been able to see him for awhile. He got back from vacation last week but has been "busy" and what not. We can just tell by talking with him on the phone his desire has kinda vanished. We are seeing him tonight though and we fill it will be an awesome lesson. We're hoping to get back on the baptism train...CHOO CHOO!
well we've really been trying hard to find some investigators this past week. We weren't able to teach a whole lot of lessons because about 2/3 of every lesson we set ended up getting cancelled. Our Red Zone finding time from 6pm-8pm expanded to an all day process of finding! Even with all this time to find people to teach we couldn't find a single person. It was like this for about 3 days straight.
We were working yesterday for awhile in the park trying to find people. We were able to have a few lessons with people we met. We had already had about 2 lessons cancel so we were trying to make up for them to reach our daily goals. It got to be about 6 pm which was the time we scheduled to do casa.
We got to the street we chose and we both felt prompted to skip it and go to the next adjoining street. From afar they were just these big palazzi that we hadn't done yet. When we got to the front of the building we realized we had already done it.
We both decided to go and do this palazzo anyway and after a couple doors we were greeted by a family from Africa and had an awesome lesson. They were super interested, they weren't the normal "African" investigator that responds to every question with "ya ya Jesus Christ is our Savior" even when that answer has nothing to do with the question. It was just cool to see how we were prompted to divert from our programmed street and yet we found success. I know that as we try to really listen for these promptings we will find even more success.
Mom you asked about what new insight and also about the scriptures. Hm....your kinda putting me on the spot....I have really been able to focus a lot on baptism this past week and why it's important. Of course there are so many reasons for instance...we make covenants that bring us blessings, we can receive the holy ghost after and have its guidance, we have to be baptized to reach the celestial kingdom. There are many reasons but the one that has really hit me a lot the last week is this....2 Nephi 31:5(basically 5-12). The thing I've realized is that Christ was baptized. We are here on the earth to follow our Savior Jesus Christ and do the things he did. Christ was perfect but yet he was baptized so that he could show us the way. Of course there are many excellent reasons to be baptized but for me the main one is that by being baptized we follow Christ. I just think it's as simple as that. Christ tells us in these verses to follow him, in Italian it says "Seguiteme, seguiteme...follow me". So for my investigators maybe I should just ask "what would Jesus do? and don't lie!"
I'm stoked that Hillary is playing really good. So what is the team's overall record and how do you think they are doing up until now? That is kinda lame that the Xardinals are dropping off...I guess I chose a great time to come into the mission huh?. Keep on keeping on. I can tell by reading the emails you're all very busy but "Cela FATE!"
Love you all and am excited to hear from you next week.
Ciao
"A Mission Pays Off"
August 17 E-mail
Man....Italy is just awesome. Sorry you can't all be here enjoying the fun with me. It was a nice mix of updates from you guys this week. Keep the mix coming and I will be set. I'm excited to receive the package that you all sent. I can never get enough sports. Aunt Carol has been sending envelopes full of clippings every so often which is also really fun.
That is super cool though that Oly was able to hang on to tie Bonneville. It's too bad they couldn't have won though. So how is the team looking right about now? You said that a bunch of girls chose not to play this year, was it just a few? Is Connor helping to coach? Is Hillary looking like one of the better players on the team? Sì o no?
I'd like to announce that my hard work and diligent efforts of seeking for loose change on the ground has paid off once again. Last night we were riding home and I caught a glimpse of some pink paper on the ground. I immediately kinda said loudly to my comp..."heck yeah"...confused he was like what?...I put my bike down walked straight to the pink paper and held up £10. I'm so good! Anyways I will have to put it to good use.
We had an addrestramento yesterday which was really fun(basically a zone conference). We really learned a lot and got to do lots of role plays. It was fun to hear from President as he was talking to us about how the mission is having lots of success right now. He mentioned how Pavia had 8 baptisms last transfer. haha I immediately heard the missionaries behind me saying.."oh dang...Anziano Barnes is awesome, he is the man"..haha I wanted to turn around so bad and say....well actually I was there last transfer.... haha luckily I got over my prideful self and stayed quiet. haha. It was cool though to hear that the other 3 Africans got baptized. The mission is really just killing it though. I think as a mission last month there were 41 baptisms total.
This week for us has had it's ups and downs. We weren't able to meet our mark of 20 lessons again but we hit 19. We had some really cool thing happen though. Sunday night we had an awesome lunch and lesson with our bishop. His kids were down in the South this month but we ate with him and his wife. We just clicked though. We probably spent a little too much time with them but it was well worth it. The whole African thing is way in the past. We did this cool lesson though with the Alma 50 chapter vs 1-4. Comparing the fortifications of the cities to commandments and the family. We have a whole example with pictures and everything it was dope (something I inherited from Anziano Bolnick). Afterward Vescovo Carrus told us how much he loved the lesson. He told us that next Sunday he was gonna announce to the ward to try and invite us over so we could do this lesson. What better way to work with members than to have the bishop invite everyone to do so....I was just like...that would be fantastic!
Later that night we we're able to have cool lesson with this Romanian guy. We talked about finding happiness and having faith in Christ to overcome our problems. It was difficult for him because he felt like he's followed Christ in his life and things just got worse. He wanted to know how he could be happy if he didn't have food for his children. We were a bit empty with a solid answer but we talked about how this faith does help. I can't remember exactly what we told him but he told us how he felt good about what we'd said. We fixed an appointment for the next day but he didn't ever show up.
We are currently working with an African named Steven who is really cool. He goes to Bible study classes and stuff like that. We currently have a baptismal date set with him for September 3rd. He is just hte nicest kid ever and loves learning. We just got solidify him a little bit. He has stood us up a few times because he has fallen asleep or something. Africans do that fairly often because they just forget everything..it's bad sometimes. Oh well. Steven is really cool though and were excited for him. No news on Ettora but we think he got back from vacation today. I have a feeling this vacation will have taken him back a few steps in terms of him thinking he is ready.
So what was the whole, mom not happy about the pictures of me in the apartment?...I don't think i quite understood. I am glad you liked the other pictures at least. The weather is just dandy here about this time. It isn't like overly hot but it's hot. I come home with a damp collar every night haha. I can't believe it's already almost September! This summer has flown by.
UTAH FOOTBALL!!!! PAC 12!!! You do realize, dad, I'm gonna need a weekly update, right?.. Let's hope the Utes don't get thumped by USC. It will be an interesting season that I wont see. Oh well.
Man....Italy is just awesome. Sorry you can't all be here enjoying the fun with me. It was a nice mix of updates from you guys this week. Keep the mix coming and I will be set. I'm excited to receive the package that you all sent. I can never get enough sports. Aunt Carol has been sending envelopes full of clippings every so often which is also really fun.
That is super cool though that Oly was able to hang on to tie Bonneville. It's too bad they couldn't have won though. So how is the team looking right about now? You said that a bunch of girls chose not to play this year, was it just a few? Is Connor helping to coach? Is Hillary looking like one of the better players on the team? Sì o no?
I'd like to announce that my hard work and diligent efforts of seeking for loose change on the ground has paid off once again. Last night we were riding home and I caught a glimpse of some pink paper on the ground. I immediately kinda said loudly to my comp..."heck yeah"...confused he was like what?...I put my bike down walked straight to the pink paper and held up £10. I'm so good! Anyways I will have to put it to good use.
We had an addrestramento yesterday which was really fun(basically a zone conference). We really learned a lot and got to do lots of role plays. It was fun to hear from President as he was talking to us about how the mission is having lots of success right now. He mentioned how Pavia had 8 baptisms last transfer. haha I immediately heard the missionaries behind me saying.."oh dang...Anziano Barnes is awesome, he is the man"..haha I wanted to turn around so bad and say....well actually I was there last transfer.... haha luckily I got over my prideful self and stayed quiet. haha. It was cool though to hear that the other 3 Africans got baptized. The mission is really just killing it though. I think as a mission last month there were 41 baptisms total.
This week for us has had it's ups and downs. We weren't able to meet our mark of 20 lessons again but we hit 19. We had some really cool thing happen though. Sunday night we had an awesome lunch and lesson with our bishop. His kids were down in the South this month but we ate with him and his wife. We just clicked though. We probably spent a little too much time with them but it was well worth it. The whole African thing is way in the past. We did this cool lesson though with the Alma 50 chapter vs 1-4. Comparing the fortifications of the cities to commandments and the family. We have a whole example with pictures and everything it was dope (something I inherited from Anziano Bolnick). Afterward Vescovo Carrus told us how much he loved the lesson. He told us that next Sunday he was gonna announce to the ward to try and invite us over so we could do this lesson. What better way to work with members than to have the bishop invite everyone to do so....I was just like...that would be fantastic!
Later that night we we're able to have cool lesson with this Romanian guy. We talked about finding happiness and having faith in Christ to overcome our problems. It was difficult for him because he felt like he's followed Christ in his life and things just got worse. He wanted to know how he could be happy if he didn't have food for his children. We were a bit empty with a solid answer but we talked about how this faith does help. I can't remember exactly what we told him but he told us how he felt good about what we'd said. We fixed an appointment for the next day but he didn't ever show up.
We are currently working with an African named Steven who is really cool. He goes to Bible study classes and stuff like that. We currently have a baptismal date set with him for September 3rd. He is just hte nicest kid ever and loves learning. We just got solidify him a little bit. He has stood us up a few times because he has fallen asleep or something. Africans do that fairly often because they just forget everything..it's bad sometimes. Oh well. Steven is really cool though and were excited for him. No news on Ettora but we think he got back from vacation today. I have a feeling this vacation will have taken him back a few steps in terms of him thinking he is ready.
So what was the whole, mom not happy about the pictures of me in the apartment?...I don't think i quite understood. I am glad you liked the other pictures at least. The weather is just dandy here about this time. It isn't like overly hot but it's hot. I come home with a damp collar every night haha. I can't believe it's already almost September! This summer has flown by.
UTAH FOOTBALL!!!! PAC 12!!! You do realize, dad, I'm gonna need a weekly update, right?.. Let's hope the Utes don't get thumped by USC. It will be an interesting season that I wont see. Oh well.
The Streak Is Over (a two transfer companionship)!
Tucker's E-mail of August 9:
What's up! Alright Dad I'm expecting to get a Utah football review at our apartment as I am not being transferred. Our companionship is staying the same for this next transfer. There would be no point moving us around anyway because Anz. Hutchinson has only been here for one more transfer than me. My streak of companions though has ENDED! I think I will actually be able to start teaching super, super well together. It's pretty hard to develop that teaching bond in only 6 weeks.
That is freaking awesome that Ellis got called to the West Indies. That is just super crazy that things like that happen. Our ward is just a mystery like that though with everyone going to the same missions. Will he be speaking french or English?
I actually didn't go to Verona last week. We emailed in Mantova last week with Anziano Glowa(who is actually training again this next transfer), but the train time to Verona was way too late. If we had gone we would have only had like 1 1/2 hours and just wasted money. Instead we rode back to Modena and just hung out. I will have to go another time though next transfer for sure.
Well Ettore is doing really well. He just went in vacanza (vacation) this last week and we won't see him for 1-2 weeks which kinda sucks but...oh well. He has really just been a stud. He is from Congo but has lived here basically his whole life and speaks Italian perfectly. His mom and sister were baptized by the sister missionaries here about 4 weeks ago. Right now his baptismal date is August 27th.
We also have a bunch of others we are teaching like Giuseppe and Luigi. Giuseppe is about 45 ish i think and is separated from his wife. We spent a lot of time at the beginning of the teaching process talking about the Atonement. He has struggled to find time to read and works on Sunday so it has been a struggle with him. He is starting to be a lot more positive, happy and is starting to read more which is really good. Luigi used to be really rich and tells us almost every time we teach him. Apparently he lost about 11 million dollars about 4 years ago and still doesn't know why God would let this happen. He is just starting to become more positive. He actually told us last night that he meets with us because of how positive we are and how loving we are towards him. He wants to take us out to this super expensive Brazilian restaurant and buy us tons of expensive meat (we will see if that happens). I usually don't like to do those kinda things especially now with all of the potential investigators and success we are having.
We are really starting to realize though how much more simple we need to teach. Teaching simply is probably one of the hardest things for me right now. I'm better than I used to be but haha it's hard. We are also really striving to teach people and not lessons. Teaching to people's needs rather than trying to teach all the stuff that is written in PMG. It can definitely be a struggle sometimes, but the people need to be our focus. It will be fun to get better at that.
It was fun last week to push ourselves to get 20 lessons. Unfortunately, we didn't reach and we only got 17 but considering we were in Milano all the live long day for the training conference, we didn't do too bad. I'm really proud...yeah I'm proud...with the success we have had this transfer in teaching lessons. We haven't and probably won't see any baptisms this transfer but I think we put ourselves in good position for this transfer to come.
You will have to keep filling me in with Oly soccer. I was so into it last year, hopefully next year I will get to catch the last little bit of Hillary's soccer season. If I remember correctly when I left to the MTC their season was still going.
Mom! I gotsta hear some of the latest Ty and Sam stories. It has been far too long since I heard something.
I love you all and I guess we will talk next week.
What's up! Alright Dad I'm expecting to get a Utah football review at our apartment as I am not being transferred. Our companionship is staying the same for this next transfer. There would be no point moving us around anyway because Anz. Hutchinson has only been here for one more transfer than me. My streak of companions though has ENDED! I think I will actually be able to start teaching super, super well together. It's pretty hard to develop that teaching bond in only 6 weeks.
That is freaking awesome that Ellis got called to the West Indies. That is just super crazy that things like that happen. Our ward is just a mystery like that though with everyone going to the same missions. Will he be speaking french or English?
I actually didn't go to Verona last week. We emailed in Mantova last week with Anziano Glowa(who is actually training again this next transfer), but the train time to Verona was way too late. If we had gone we would have only had like 1 1/2 hours and just wasted money. Instead we rode back to Modena and just hung out. I will have to go another time though next transfer for sure.
Well Ettore is doing really well. He just went in vacanza (vacation) this last week and we won't see him for 1-2 weeks which kinda sucks but...oh well. He has really just been a stud. He is from Congo but has lived here basically his whole life and speaks Italian perfectly. His mom and sister were baptized by the sister missionaries here about 4 weeks ago. Right now his baptismal date is August 27th.
We also have a bunch of others we are teaching like Giuseppe and Luigi. Giuseppe is about 45 ish i think and is separated from his wife. We spent a lot of time at the beginning of the teaching process talking about the Atonement. He has struggled to find time to read and works on Sunday so it has been a struggle with him. He is starting to be a lot more positive, happy and is starting to read more which is really good. Luigi used to be really rich and tells us almost every time we teach him. Apparently he lost about 11 million dollars about 4 years ago and still doesn't know why God would let this happen. He is just starting to become more positive. He actually told us last night that he meets with us because of how positive we are and how loving we are towards him. He wants to take us out to this super expensive Brazilian restaurant and buy us tons of expensive meat (we will see if that happens). I usually don't like to do those kinda things especially now with all of the potential investigators and success we are having.
We are really starting to realize though how much more simple we need to teach. Teaching simply is probably one of the hardest things for me right now. I'm better than I used to be but haha it's hard. We are also really striving to teach people and not lessons. Teaching to people's needs rather than trying to teach all the stuff that is written in PMG. It can definitely be a struggle sometimes, but the people need to be our focus. It will be fun to get better at that.
It was fun last week to push ourselves to get 20 lessons. Unfortunately, we didn't reach and we only got 17 but considering we were in Milano all the live long day for the training conference, we didn't do too bad. I'm really proud...yeah I'm proud...with the success we have had this transfer in teaching lessons. We haven't and probably won't see any baptisms this transfer but I think we put ourselves in good position for this transfer to come.
You will have to keep filling me in with Oly soccer. I was so into it last year, hopefully next year I will get to catch the last little bit of Hillary's soccer season. If I remember correctly when I left to the MTC their season was still going.
Mom! I gotsta hear some of the latest Ty and Sam stories. It has been far too long since I heard something.
I love you all and I guess we will talk next week.
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