Shining Sickle

Twum's confirmation went really well on Sunday. I was able to officiate the ordinance and I think he understood most of what I said. Things are really winding down for all of them as their camps close at the end of the year. At that point in time they will be on their own and most without documents or places to stay.  

Buate (new member who baptized Twum), Tucker,  &Twum

It's been really awesome to see the growth in three of these brethren, Osas, Nicholas and Buate. They've been so dedicated in coming to church, meeting with us during the week, and going to the B of M and Italian courses in church. I feel as if Heavenly Father will bless them tremendously, all of them, as they continue pushing forward. Osas, who doesn't read English very well, has been reading from the B of M daily. Each time we see him his reading gets better and he's able to better pronounce words.

We've also seen some growth in Noah who until now has been really lazy. He never reads and doesn't come often to church or the courses. It's been tough to see Frederick and Albert really distance themselves though as things get harder and they lose hope in getting documents.

We had a bit of a down week last week. We basically only have Ivano to teach right now and today will be a make or break lesson. We are really going to be bold about chastity because it's really the only path left to take. Up until now he has pushed it aside and wanted to talk about other things. Hopefully, he will be more open and humble so he can accept it and start working towards baptism. 


Anziano Free, Ivano, Franco Genovesi

On Sunday we fasted so that we and our district could find more investigators. Monday was such a great day! We had district meeting in the morning in which I explained the importance of setting baptismal dates. The sisters have a decent number of investigators who have been taught for awhile but haven't accepted baptism. I was pretty persistent and invited all of us to be bold in our invites. I'm confident that by the end of the week we will have more dates. Anyway, our afternoon was all finding work and was amazing because everyone stopped and listened to us! We ended up teaching 3 lessons and finding a new investigator. We've really been pushing the B of M more in our work lately. It seemed as if my sickle was just shining in my hands on Monday. It was great at the end of the night to come home having had lots of success.

We are hoping that over this next week or two we will find the person who will be baptized. We have visualized having one baptism this transfer and I'm confident that it will happen. I really want to find a solid priesthood holder for this branch. I think I need to do a better job of counseling with the Lord and putting more on the alter of sacrifice. I just know it can happen. Who knows we might end up finding the person on my last day. I'm super grateful for the fact that I've been able to concentrate so well lately on the work. Every time my mind start wandering about what I will do right after the mission the Lord brings me back to the work. I don't want to make that sound self-righteous or anything but it just happens. I feel guilty when I'm not concentrating on it.

Thanks for the great emails!...times a winding so I better start finding.

Sanremo Is Just Perfect

Well, the baptism went really well but it did take quite a few tries. We had church in the morning and you could see that Twum was excited for his baptism which was to be later that day at 5 PM. We were a bit worried we hadn't prepared him and Buate (new convert from Ghana) with how to actually do the baptism. About an hour prior to the baptism we instructed them for about 5-10 minutes and they had it down.

Well when it came time for the baptism Twum was the most inflexible person I've ever seen. I thought that Africans could bend their knees and jump out of the gym but Twum isn't one of these. It took about 5 plus tries to get it accomplished. This included two failed attempts on his knees (still couldn't get him all the way under). We also had one failed attempt when he was sitting on his bum in the water with the water coming up to his lower lip (don't ask me how we couldn't get him under on that one). Buate really needed to be forcing him under the water better but oh well. Ha ha, baptism complete, with a few laughs. I laughed a bit more as I went to see if they were done changing and heard that they were arguing. Don't worry, it was a friendly argument but they immediately asked me ''who's fault was it?''.

It was pretty hectic trying to prepare everything for the baptism. Seeing how Twum speaks English the talks were in English. One of the other new converts from Ghana gave the first talk which I translated then subito dopo (after which) I gave the other talk. I also played both hymns and set up the program haha. Meno male (thankfully) the baptism went through because I was definitely stressed all Sunday.

Well we've dropped Romolo. He's been giving us too many cancellations without a notification. He didn't sound too sad about it though when I told him. I think he was probably too scared to tell us he didn't want to see us anymore and was waiting for us to stop coming.

We are still working with Ivano. Really there isn't a whole lot to say about his progress. He's comes to church every week, to the baptisms, he reads and prays. We are trying to build his faith to accept baptism and be ready  when his leg heals. We are thinking that if he's not willing to be baptized or follow chastity by the time his leg heals, we will drop him, too.

The work is sort of back to ground zero again just like that. Twum is basically a new convert, Felice is baptized and confirmed and we don't have anyone to teach. I'm still really hopeful that we will start up again with Brunella once she gets her car fixed and moves here. Other than that though we haven't had much success in finding people.

The city is great! Sanremo is just perfect. We are just passing some of the hottest weeks of the year, but it's starting to cool down. The tourists should be leaving and the people from Sanremo should start returning from vacation. It's a difficult city to get really good pictures taken, but I will start getting on it. I haven't taken hardly any so far and it's got all the other cities beat in pure beauty. The ocean breeze is the best and the perfect medicine on hot and humid days.

It was good to get a good update from Anz. Eveson about Pavia. I guess most of the Africans who were baptized have moved away. There is still one left but I don't think he goes to church often. Hopefully the others have found the church where they are now. Eveson told me that Domingo hadn't been coming to church but that he had a strong testimony and knowledge of the Gospel. He moved just recently to Chicago. I guess he had work and was just tired on Sundays or something. Gianluca hadn't been coming to church a lot either.

We've been doing so much finding lately so we are praying that the Lord will hook us up. I've seen it time and time again so I know the Lord will provide if we just stick in the sickle with all our might. I have no doubt that we will have a successful transfer. Our vision is to have one baptism and two baptismal dates before the transfer ends. It's going to be tough but fun.

Looks like the girls are all grown up. It seems as if Ashley has passed Hillary up in height. Sorry Hill. She better not pass me or I will throw a fit.

Race To The Finish

HEY guys!

Sounds like your week has been full of lots of fun; mine too! Man, from seeing those pictures it's pretty clear everyone has grown up a lot. I saw about half of Jack in one of them and thought it was me for a second. Do i dare even try to wrestle Ben when i get back? I did beat him before I left but I think I'll just stay clear. We will see.

Well transfer information is in. Anz. Free is going to take my arrival path and go to Verona as a Zone Leader with.....Anziano Hardy. Yeah don't worry I'm not at all jealous. He just gets to be with one of my favorite companions in a great city. Oh well.

I did get some updates about people in Verona. Martino, the kid who was baptized shortly after I left, received the priesthood recently and wants to be a missionary super bad. Salvatore Benemerito won't get married to Valentina (investigator) until she gets baptized. I was excited to hear that he's been continueing to go to church since I left along with Sorella Benemerito. His dad Angelo has gone twice since I left! He is actually really smart and spiritual but with health and other things he never came to church while I was there.

I'm going to be companions with Anz. Eveson(spelling?). I don't really know him super well but I've exchanged a few words during previous transfer days in Milano. I'm super glad that I always made the effort to make rounds and meet new missionaries. He's going into his 6th transfer and is really obedient from what I've been told. I'm really happy about that because I think it'll help me even more to finish strong and not fall on my face at the finish line. I don't know much about him other than that he's done good work in past cities. I guess I'll know more tomorrow.

Well you asked about Twum. Twum didn't come to church the Sunday before his baptism and so we didn't announce it. We wanted him to be there and really set for his baptism. He is getting baptized though this Sunday. One of the other brothers, Buate, will be baptizing him and I think I will do the confirmation. Twum is doing great though and is excited for sunday!

Ivano is Ivano and we are moving like molasses, but it's ok. The key is that we are moving forward even if it's slow. Valentina we haven't seen in weeks. Since we first saw her she's been working and hasn't really answered our calls. She said a few weeks ago though that she was reading the BoM every night.

On Saturday morning we though that we had lost Romolo. We got to his house and he told us he was moving back to Peru. His wife's documents weren't going through and so he wants to move back. He was not doing well and was very sad/depressed. Luckily we had planned to watch Finding Faith in Christ! dunnuh nuh nuh nneh neh!(sound). At first when we asked to watch it he told us no but we convinced him.

As we watched in Spanish(I understood lots..cool huh?) there was a great spirit felt. I felt it stronger then more than any other time I've watched it in the mission. As we finished you could see that the spirit had slapped Romolo in the face. He even told us that he wanted to start committing himself more to church and reading the Book of Mormon. Sunday he came to church and liked it a lot.

We haven't seen Brunella in over a week. She's been stuck at her house near Imperia because her car is broken. She is thinking about moving though to Sanremo and transferring her work records to the Sanremo hopsital. If it all goes down it would be AWESOME. She would be around people who love her and closer to the church. We are still working on trying to get someone to go and see her.

Sujey is actually a less-active member. She is now really good friends though with Yajaira, Steve's (Cangiolosi) wife. She comes with us to all the lessons with Sujey. This last lesson though Sujey's mom, Jenny, listened to us. She, too, is a member but when she came here to Italy she stopped attending. Apparently she wants to start coming! I've been learning a bit of Spanish lately because Sujey doesn't speak Italian. It's actually came pretty easy even though I still can't really say anything.

My testimony though of Heavenly Father's love for his children grows ever stronger each day. He's taken our work from nothing to something in days. He is just always watching out for us and for this branch here. The cycle of success and no success though continues to strengthen my diligence/faith. There have been so many times when the work goes well then just disappears. He makes us wait and work our butts off then blesses us right when we need it. Verona was a bit tougher than most, but He would always bless us right as we truly needed it.

I feel that the last two cities I've been in have grown me more than the rest of the mission combined. I do believe though that the previous transfers and cities prepared me and put me into position to be changed and blessed like I've been in the last 6 months. I try not to worry so much now about all my defects because there are still so many. It can be stressful but I'm getting better at just doing my best each day. It'll be a fun race to the finish line to see how much more I can change and help those around me.

Lost Sheep

Ferragosto!....You know what that means!...Everyone comes to Sanremo. The last few days the streets have had a lot more people in them. There have been tons of Germans, French and others all over the place. We're hoping the crowding of the streets will be a positive instead of a negative. We will treat it as a positive though.

The confirmation on Sunday went great! Felice is felice (happy) and no pun intended. He is doing really great and his wife is just contentissima (so content). We've actually really been working with her and her own missionary work. She has a few friends she wants to introduce the Gospel to hopefully something will pan out.

Anziano Free, Edith, Michel, Felice, Anziano Neff

Anziani Neff and Free with Felice

We were able to see Brunella after church on Sunday and had a wonderful lesson with her. She of course came to church and had a much better experience than last week. Last week the kids behind her made lots of noise and really distracted her I guess. She's become best friends over a matter of weeks with the Cangiolisi family and they ''hang-out'' often.   She is currently not working because of medical problems which makes it a bit difficult to see her often. She also lives very far away and by herself so it's difficult to go and see her. I think the Cangiolosi's are convincing her to move to Sanremo so that'd be wonderful for her and us. She, during the lesson, was just so willing to listen and partially knows already that what we say is true. We invited her to pray nonetheless so she could receive that special answer for herself.

Everything with Ivano is going forward. Still it goes slowly AVANTI (ahead). One of his legs is healed and he's really started recognizing the help of our Heavenly Father in his process. We invited him to baptism for a date next month but he doesn't feel like his leg will heal in time. We personally think he's not ready to obey Chastity yet. He did say though that he thinks by Christmas time he would be ready.! It's a bit off but I think it's good that he is thinking himself about when he could be ready. He said it in a way that sounded like he actually wants it. We are happy with his progress.

This Sunday we got this really great less-active person to church. A few weeks ago we met Sujey who is from Santo Domingo. She is about 25 years old and has two kids, Adon and Aura. Her mother and younger brother are also both members! Anyways, we've seen them twice and are all super great (we haven't taught the mom yet). They didn't know the church was here but they were already less-active upon arrival in Sanremo. Both times we taught them we were able to get a member there and seeing how they don't speak Italian or understand it, it was difficult. Anz. Free used to speak pretty good Spanish but with learning Italian everything sort of got lost. He still speaks decently but I sort of just throw out Italian, praying they understand.

Well we walked with them to church on Sunday, Sujey and her two children. It was super awesome to have Yajaira, Steve's wife there, because she's from Santo Domingo. They hit it off and had a great time in church. The two kids Adon 5 years, and Aura about 3 years also seemed to just love Primary. Yaraira in fact spent much of yesterday evening with their family and got really close with them. I guess she said that Sujey wants to help her family all get close again to the church. It's great how the Lord is always preparing his children both members and non-members. He uses all of us as instruments to better help his other ''lost sheep''.

There has been a bit of a comeback with Romolo this week. We had basically dropped him on account of his multiple cancellations and bidones (no shows). We finally set an appointment up though and were able to have a good spiritual lesson. Over the last week he's been struggling with depression. There have been lots of problems with his wife's documents. She is currently in Peru still and hasn't been able to get here. It's been really rough on Romolo and he's just preoccupied a lot with this situation. It was great to bear testimony about how Prayer and reading of the B of M can really help him in this time. It was great to see a lot of the burdens be lifted off his back after he said the closing prayer. There was a good peaceful spirit and he recognized it too. We plan on seeing him again tomorrow night.

Everything is going great here and I hope it's all going great there!....Any chance on having Dianna's baby named after her favorite nephew?.....at least get my name as the middle name...just saying.

Sorry to hear that Hill and her team lost. They'll tear it up though during the regular season. When Ben gets an interception we have to get the announcer at his games to call him Benny the Jet. If not I'll be there with a big Benny the Jet sign.

Anyways thanks so much for the letters. It was great hearing from you.

Talk to ya next week.

Love,

Tuck.