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.

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.

Love Pushes Me

Yeah...it's cooling down! We have just been loving the fact that the last couple days have been nice and cool. Hopefully it will keep on coming. Can you believe that Summer is almost halfway over?

The work has been going pretty great this week. I love being able to do numbers because it shows exactly where we need to improve. We are really needing more investigators and the Lord has blessed us a ton. We've been re-introduced to Teach to Find which consists of small powerful statements of truth, a question then a testimony. It works sort of like this:

Missionary 1) Principle(one sentence)
Question based on principle
Testimony

Missionary 2)Testimony on last principle
New Principle
Question
Testimony

Missionary 1) Testify
Relate to Restoration
Invite

We struggled with it a bit seeing as how we were just used to talking a lot without getting the perso(s) involved. It really helps us get them involved and bring a stronger spirit. We are finally getting good at it. Basically in nightly planning we envision who we want to find and then plan princples according to the persons needs. In the mornings during personal studies we write up short phrases to use and question to ask. This past week we have really found quite a few interested people using this method.

Felice has been doing pretty good. We found out on Saturday when we went to teach him that it was his birthday. They had a cake all ready haha so after the lesson we ate cake and sang happy birthday to him. We have gotten really close with him and his family over the last few weeks. He threw away his coffee on Sunday and hasn't had any since. He didn't come to church on Sunday though. I guess his wife had some ''emergency'' with her sister so for that they couldn't come. We might have to change his date because he hasn't made it to sacrament meeting for like 3 weeks. The two weeks before his daugther vomited in the car both times and they got there late. Besides that he will get baptized this transfer.

Ivan is sort of waiting for his girl friend to leave back to Ukraine. He is totally putting off praying about chastity. He keeps just saying that when she leaves he will have some time to reflect. At least he's being honest but we want to get started sooner rather than later. He misses church every other week because he's sick. Miraculously he seems better around noon time though. haha. We really need to solidify his desire to follow Christ and help him realize he needs to act. It's great though that he's been able to notice changes in his life from this message.

I talked a little bit about Romolo last week. He's from Peru and was taught a bunch of times about two years ago. He remembers Joseph Smith quite a bit and the Book of Mormon. We've been seeing him about every other day and he just loves the lessons. He wants to learn more about Joseph and the Book of Mormon. He was also very interested to learn that there are living prophets and apostles. His wife is still in Peru but will be coming here soon. She is a Jehovahs Witness though so we better get him an answer quick before she hits him over the head with her Bible....ansì...New World Translations.

Yes I'm still writing down the lessons I've learned in the mission.

They talked yesterday in Zone Conference a little bit about loving people. I was able to really realize how much my love has grown for people. Obviously I get impatient sometimes and don't always show it like I should, but it's grown a lot. I think one of the things that pushes me to just keep working is this love. I think those who don't have love do it out of duty. At the beginning of the mission I think I did it more out of duty but it's slowly transformed me. I just feel happy as I talk to more people and get to know more people.

I'm excited how to see how this love will show itself after that mission. Don't get trunky. Have some fun this week and we will hear from each other next week.

Chugging Along

Ciao tutti...

This week has been going piano piano. Things have been going so so here in San Remo Town. We are dealing with the loss of a few investigators (Maud and Claudio). We tried to teach so simply the Restoration yet they just didn't really understand it. We are down to about 3 investigators right now but luckily they're all great.

Felice is about 35ish I would say maybe even a bit younger. His wife, Edith, is from Ecuador and is awesome! She has been coming to church in San Remo for awhile but not always been fully active. I think it's been tough living 45 minutes away and having a non-member husband. She loves the Church so much though and they've been a lot more active since he's been coming(obviously). Their daughter, Michel, is years old and is the cutest little girl. She's super shy and doesn't talk much when we come and teach Felice. They tell us that every time we leave though she starts to cry.

We just taught him last night about the Word of Wisdom. He only drinks coffee but he said he can't stop and that he gets bad headaches when he tries. We explained that as one of the reasons we don't drink it and that Heavenly Father will help him. I think mentioning the fact that to be baptized he has to stop also helped. We gave him a blessing of comfort and so now we just got to pray and encourage him to keep going. His date is for the 29th of this month. As of now he doesn't have anyone he's super close to in the ward. We have to start getting him that church buddy though even though he's wife is great. It'll really help him get in well and become a great/much needed priesthood holder.

Our branch is in much need of priesthood holders who can be leaders. In elders quorum there are about 10 people but only about one of them really know what's going on. Most of the ''strong'' leaders are fulfilling their callings so there isn't a lot of people. The brothers from Ghana and Nigeria aren't all there because we have to translate and most of the time they still don't understand us. They actually all don't really follow along much in church when we translate and are really struggling to read the BoM. We visit them weekly and invite them always to read and sometimes we read with them but I just know they don't. I have taught enough Africans to know when they are reading. Even after teaching simply the Restoration I fear with some that they don't realize it's the only true church. I can tell them directly to their face but sometimes it just doesn't enter their brains. Yesterday though we had some good spiritual lessons with them and although they didn't understand everything they understood the spirit.

We had to move Twum's date back because he missed a few appointments. We also really want him to be ready. He's got a great spirit though and is just full of joy.

Ivano is chugging along.  We are really trying to get him closer to Christ. The law of chastity has sort of put the train of the track. We are hoping by building his desire to follow Christ so he can just chug through the obstacles. He told us his girlfriend is going back to Ukraine in a month for about a month and it'll give him some time to ''reflect''. He's been great though and is coming to church. We really need to get him some more friends. He's a bit strange so members don't really flock to him at church to say hello. He also only stays for sacrament meeting because his legs hurt him and he has to get back to his mom. She isn't doing well either apparently (maybe she should come to church too).

I've been really thinking lately about how I can better change before I get home. I really need to get better at receiving/seeking revelation. I've felt like it's been a weak point for me throughout the mission and so I want to get better. I seem to just completely forget to even try seeking for it. I'll say prayers, thanks Heavenly Father for everything and ask him to bless those we work with but I don't ever really ask questions. There have been some great talks though in General Conference since I've been in the mission so maybe I'll give them a glance.

I read this sweet talk by Brad Wilcox the other day and there was a really great quote. It talk all about the grace of our Savior Jesus Christ. One of the things I liked was that it says that grace is not the light at the end of the tunnel but the light throughout the tunnel that guides us through it. It gave me some greater perspective on the Savior's grace. He goes on to say something he said to a friend. You've been saved by grace but have you been changed by grace?...interesting huh?

Haha oh yeah so we are staying the same, actually our whole district is staying the same. Anziano Hardy is continuing to follow me around the mission. He is going to Verona. So he was with me in Modena then took my place in Pisa and now is in Verona. I heard a week ago that the Benemerito's are doing great! Salvator (the son) has been coming every single week. I think that is like 10 weeks in a row or something. He and his girlfriend got taught Chastity a few week ago so they are overcoming that right now. He is totally cool with it but the girlfriend Valentina wasn't as excited. Anz. Parker told me the dad still hasn't been to church but that MariaRosaria finally came to church a few weeks ago.

I also learned a few weeks ago that Domingo (from Pavia) moved to Chicago. I guess he got transferred there for work. I hope he's doing ok and is continuing to go to church. I will have to visit Chicago sometime (Cardinals verses Cubs?...just a though)...think about it.

That is just about it though. We are excited because we have been getting lots of new contacts and referrals lately so we just got to find them and get them going. Here is a quick story. The other day we planned to do Casa in Casa by our church. We planned to find a Hispanic person. Now the area is really small and there aren't many apartment buildings but we chose to do it anyway. In the last building and the second to last door we met this Hispanic guy. We talked with him for a few minutes while his little grandson ran around the hallway. He wasn't really interested but we left a Jesus Christ ''Faith in Christ brings Hope'' pass-along card with him. Well like two days ago we get this call and it's this guy, Ramolo. He is Hispanic and said that found this card with Jesus Christ and hope on it. He said he wants to meet with us tomorrow! Kind of cool huh....no...REALLY COOL. WE aren't sure if it's the guy we talked to at the door or like his son or something. We will find out though.

Well I love you guys a bunch!

Dad...are you trying to wean me off sports?...Let's not get lazy now.

Love you guys...Ciao