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.

"I Just Kept Thinking...Have Faith...Just Have Faith"

Cioudy!

What's happening?

It sounds you are all doing just great there in Salt Lake. Dad, sorry to hear you are a little jealous of me going to Verona last week. If it helps at all I am going again today. It is true that we still don't have culture days, but yeah Verona is in our Zone. It is kinda a long train ride, but we get just enough sites in to satisfy our taste buds. We are only going today because yesterday we had a specialized training in Milano with most of the district leaders in the mission and their companions. We were there all day learning about what we can do to improve and be better missionaries. It was super fun and lasted basically all day. We ended up staying the night in Mantova with Anziano Glowa and his companion. We figured we'd just go to Verona again because it is only like 45 minutes from Mantova. Too bad I don't have my camera with me. Next week for sure I will send some pics to quench your thirst.

Well, I finally got our ADDRESS!!! Get your pen ready, alright? Via Frosinone 25, Modena 41125. The only catch is that it is already almost transfers again...Can you believe it?.....Anyway, with my long run of success of keeping companions around I'm not quite sure what will happen. I got hinted to yesterday by the assistants that we might not be staying togethers..YIKES...Just the thought of 7 companions in 7 transfers is super funny haha. So DAD I don't know whether to instruct you to send those sports letters here or not. I will just say, do what you think is best. I do think the odds will be that I'm staying here but ya never know. I will leave this decision to you.

Well, the work has really been going well here in Modena. It was going super good but at the beginning of last week it really seemed as if it was starting to collapse and just tank. We had like 3 baptismal dates, Ettora, Hasan and Giuseppe. Hasan, the Iranian who is really poor but wants to follow Christ, has become really wiffy and preoccupied with solving his document issues. Giuseppe is too preoccupied with his wife that he's separated from to ever read the Book of Mormon and sincerely pray. We were also concerned that Ettore didn't really have a strong desire to learn about our message and read the BoM. While I was kinda feel skeptical about our teaching pool and the success of our companionship, I just kept thinking...have faith...just have faith.

It has been really interesting this past transfer about how excited I am to just go out and work everyday. In the past I would get down every so often(only every so often) because it would be super, super hot, the work wasn't going well, and because this work is just tough work. Now I really just joy in doing this work. It is actually fun to do it and I look at it with just such a better attitude that maybe I didn't use to have...all the time anyway. I really saw in this last week though that as I just have faith the blessings come. In just a matter of days, Ettore came soaring back and we really can see his desire to change, to be baptized and to follow Christ. He will be getting baptized the 27th of August. It was previously the 6th of August but he's going on vacation for like 2 1/2 weeks..bummer.. but it's all good. We are excited for the 27th! We have also found soooo many new people in the last couple days I literally don't know where to start. It is super early in the process so I don't want to start predicting things because there are like 10 people.

Me and Anziano Hutchinson are really starting to mesh and teach well together. Of course we still aren't perfect but we are helping each other out to do our best. Our goal is just to get ourselves psyched out for each day and pumped to get outside and teach. Being pumped to do the work is so much better than just being content to do the work. We are also just starting to find that yes, everyone is leaving on vacation. We are starting to also find the best times for when people are outside, inside or whever. Our time management is super important out here and its really key. We are teaching close to 20 lessons every week. This week we are just gonna have to hit like a grand slam though, a walk-off shot or something. We only taught one lesson all day Monday, yesterday we were gone in Milano all day and today is P day. So probably by Thursday we will be at like 3 lessons, maybe 3. We will have lots of ground to cover but I'm super excited.

A little update on our district. The sisters have just had two more baptisms and are planning on one more Saturday. It will have been there 5th baptism this transfer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They are awesome. Sorella Johnson is on her last transfer so somebody else will be coming in next transfer. Her companion, Sorella Bowman is only on her 2nd but we all think she will train this next transfer(sisters generally train super early. I have a strange feeling I could be training this transfer but I'm not gonna say more than that. Being District Leader is hard enough haha so having to do both would be a real challenge.

Well I love you all. You will have to let me know how the Box, Phil, Scott and Andy do with their football squad. I hope it doesn't turn into what happened the year I had those high school kids as coaches. I think we won the pre season game against the Bingham C team, or maybe the Z team. Then we went on to score one touchdown the entire season. Our playbook consisted of only trick plays. haha.

Well I don't think I'm in need of any American food right now. If you want to send something though, GO FOR IT. That is kinda lousy that the Cards traded Rasmus....

Love you all and I appreciate the emails and time you take to write....

Verona Photos

Most of these photos are from a recent P-Day spent in Verona.




Tuck says this is the
"real" Juliet's balcony.











Centro (center of the city) in Verona





















At the Verona Colosseum










Juliet's Balcony


















Vista of Verona





















Tuck says the Elder in the Red shirt, Anziano Vanauker, reminds him of his cousin Trent. In Tuck's words, "He looks like Box, he's big like Box, and he has Box's sense of humor".

All We Had to Do Was Introduce Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and GAME OVER

haha I'm gonna apologize ahead of time for this crappy email. We just got back from our doing all our P day stuff. We went to Verona today and we just got back so we don't have tons of time to do email. Our train got back late and I am just zonked right now haha just completely tired haha. Yesterday we did a scambio here in Modena with our Zone Leaders, Anziani Nielson and Andersen. I got to take the day with Anziano Nielson who is just a stud. Luckily for us we got to walk the entire day while my comp and Anz. Andersen rode the bikes. Haha I was so tired last night when I got back and then we walked around Verona all day today. I will try to stay awake while I type so yeah!

Verona was incredible! It is a like a two our train ride so it really ate up a ton of our P day, but was totally worth it. Next week I will send some pics for sure. We got to see the mini Colosseum there, Juliet's balcony which was super cool and this super tall tower that overlooks all of Verona. I got a ton of dope pictures. There were actually like a bunch of missionaries that all went for their P days. There were like 3 sisters companionships, and like 4 elders companionships. Of course, we were only with the other elders. Anziano Glowa was there which was super sweet. If i hadn't told you he is one of the other district leaders in our zone. We just had a blast hanging out together all day.

Yesterday we had this super cool lesson with this guy named Fredrick. He is from Ghana, but has been raised her in Italy and basically speaks Italian. We had met him the other day and had a short little lesson but today was the first legit planned lesson. Everything this guy was saying was exactly in line with the message of the Restoration. He already new about Apostasy, just not the phrase Apostasy. He already believed the original church had been corrupted and changed. It was awesome!. All we had to do was introduce Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and GAME OVER!....done deal. Ok not quite, but it went awesome and he totally accepted what we said. We invited him to be baptized and even though he didn't accept the date we gave him he told us that he wants to read, pray and know if this message is really true. He is a stud and I think he will go really far with this.

Aside from going to Verona, having awesome scambios, teaching the Gospel and kicking butt nothing much is going on here. I got to hear some Michael Buble today walking through the streets of Verona. haha that was cool. I think I forgot to tell you all but the last week in Pavia I got my haircut on P day. While I was waiting to get it the most unexpected song came on. The place just started blasting Grease music haha it was too funny.

Well I was jealous last week to hear you would be going to the Cabin. Right now I'm not as jealous because I went and had an awesome time in Verona. True, true there is nothing quite like the cabin, but Verona is SWEET. I'm glad to hear you all had a blast.

DAD, I apologize again because I forgot to get our address again. I'm kicking myself right now because I want the UTAH football review so bad!!! NEXT WEEK I promise. I love you all and love hearing from you every week. Sorry this email kinda stinks but I'm gonna go pass out after just kidding....we actually gotta a lesson in like 5 minutes so I gotta go.

Love you all

BUON SETTIMANA!