Wednesday, January 19, 2011

The ups and downs of a mission !!!

HEY!!!
To answer your question , I didn't receive letters or packages yet because I only get them at Zone Conferences . So I'll be getting packages and stuff tomorrow because it's our zone conference ,if they are there.
So about my week

WEDNESDAY- Nothing really happened . Anziano Meszaros had to pack because he was getting transferred on Thursday. After we packed we went and had a meeting with Enzo our ward mission leader. I like him a lot, he's 26 and he served in the Catania mission when it was open. Then we got pizza together from our pizza place La Perla for the last time.

THURSDAY- Transfers ,so we had to go all the way to Milan. There were a lot of missionaries there and I got to see Anziano Sanders (we were in the MTC together). That was cool and I met my new comp Anziano Bevan.  He's really old in the mission ,this is his last transfer as I've mentioned already I'm sure. He's a good missionary, works hard, and he's not trunky ,so thats good.  He's really good in the language which is helping me a lot . Hopefully I'll be able to be fluent sooner then I thought.  By the time we got back from Milan we only had time to do one apartment and then we got pizza and went home. I'm pretty excited for this transfer, the work is just going to explode.

FRIDAY-Friday  was a big waste of time. Just because when we went to the bank in the morning ,the bank machine ate my card and it was a huge mess. Now I have  to get a new card. I took so long to figure out what do ,that we didn't get to do any work it was a bit frustrating. That evening we did casa and we taught Enrico the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is really progressing, he's way different now then when we first starting teaching him. Then that evening we did more casa.

SATURDAY- Saturday was a good day, we did strada so we walked on the busy streets and talked to people and just before we were going to go inside for lunch I saw this watch place. I had the watch Courtney gave me and I needed to change the battery so I felt an impression to go to this place. There was no one inside except for the lady working so I gave her my watch she said it would be £4. Then she started asking about who we were ,so on and so forth . She was really touched that we were so young and doing this. She told us to come back at 4 to get the watch and to talk to her mother(she said her mother would love us). At 4 we came back and talked to her mother, she too was really touched and excepted a Book of Mormon from us it was awesome. She also said to call her whenever we wanted to talk, so we think we are going to call her this week and see if she wants us to teach her.  The person at the watch place also gave me a Canadian dollar coin from 1967 it's awesome, so I tapped it in my journal. She also gave my comp a silver american dollar . That was a cool day just because you never know when you will just shine and people will want to know about you and what you are doing. Then when I went to pay the £4 for my watch and they gave it to me free of charge it was so awesome hahaha .Dang I love missionary work, just for the small things like that and how we can bless peoples lives just a little.

SUNDAY- was a little bit weird haha church was okay and everything and then we did casa and taught a first lesson to this guy that seems solid. We'll go back this week and see him. Then we did casa some more and tracked into this guy's house and he let us in, now we didn't know at the time but this guy is crazy! He brought us into his back room to sit down and he had a friggen doctors table with medicine everywhere and posters and it looked like a real doctor's office. He even had a waiting room, so we asked him if he's a doctor ? He said no he just likes medicine. He's obsessed with medicine, he even has a bunch of folders and stuff it was so weird and creepy, and he was a pervert. He told us that he was obsessed with girls . He had a bunch of posters with women's breast sizes and posters of women that doctors would have in their office and stuff ,it was just weird . Anyway I wanted to get out of there because I knew the guy was crazy but my comp talked to him. We ended up giving him a Book of Mormon...after talking to him for an hour and a half it was a pretty big waste of time but I'll never forget how crazy that guy was, thats for sure hahahha .
Good news about Sunday is that Enrico came to church so he's progressing but the famiglia Serra didn't... that's okay we called her and she said her mom was really sick. That she got stuck looking after her and that she would come next week ,ell see how it goes.

MONDAY and TUESDAY- we did casa and found this awesome new investigator named Mattia, he's like 24 and he's a university student, we got his number and we are going to meet him again this week or next week.

Anyway that was my week, I hope all is well at home.  I love you all ! Have a great week!!!!!!!


I LOVE YOU

LOVE ANZIANO Glowa

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

" It was just really cool to see the Lord's hand in our missionary work."

                        

HEY!!!!!!!

So this has been a pretty good week and as you may have guessed transfers came in yesterday, don't worry I'll get into the good stuff but let me tell you about my week.

SATURDAY- We were doing casa and at the last apartment at the last door, we got let in...finally.  It was really amazing, first off my door approach was the worst, it was one of those times where your mouth just doesn't work, anyways I quickly explained how "oviomente non sono italiano, sono canadese" (obviously I'm not Italian, I'm canadian) and then they were like oh no problem we'll speak English, haha they had both lived in the states and learnt English. So I gave my first lesson in English hahaha it was really cool. They were way interested and they excepted a Book of Mormon, we're going to give them a call this week and meet with them again.

SUNDAY-This Sunday was awesome because Enrico came to church (first investigator to come to church) and we set a baptism date for the 12th of Feb. I'm really excited for him and he is really progressing.  After church we went to brother Bowcuts' house for lunch. He is from the states but he has been living here for 6 years with his Italian wife. He actually served here 12 years ago.  Lunch was nice, is wife is not active(she doesn't come to church anymore) so we went over and just shared a simple little message. Nothing like you have to come back to church or anything just slowly and surely, we'll be going back to their house for sure.  Then Sundaynight something amazing happened. Everything wrong that could have happened did. So when we got back we decided to go to familial Serra(the family we taught on Christmas Eve.) When I closed the door I remembered that I forgot the keys...and the door locks automatically. We had to go to the church because the ward mission leader was there with an extra key(ward mission leader is something in the church that helps us with the missionary work) Anyways it took forever! We wasted sooo much time just having to walk to the church then we had to go with the ward mission leader to his house to get the keys. Then he talked with us and then we finally were able to walk to famiglia Serras house.  We walked into the front where you ring the persons name so they can open the door and saw the family just coming in. We asked them how they were and they said they just came back from a funeral . It was such a blessing that I forgot the keys and that we took forever to do anything because if not we would have missed them . And we would not have been able to set up an appointment to come back on Tuesday night, so it was just really cool to see the Lord's hand in our missionary work.

MONDAY-I had my permesso appointment(for my residence)usually it takes 6 hours because there are a lot of people and I have to get finger printed. But we were out of there in an hour and a half so that was sweet. Then we did casa and had a dinner appointment at a members house the Quaresimas .They are such a good strong family they have 2 sons, 17 and 18 so just like Jason and I.

TUESDAY- We went to get pictures so now I have a cd that I will mail to you this week .So don't worry pictures are coming just calm down hahaha.
Then we did casa till lunch, at lunch we got the call. I'm getting transferred to PISA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hahahahahahahahha .I'm just kidding, I'm staying in Collegno but I had you there for a second didn't I haha. My companion is getting transferred to Vicenza and he was called as District Leader there. My new companion Anziano Bevin(don't know how to spell it yet) is being called District Leader here. He's been out 15 transfers which means I'm killing him here(killing him means I'm the missionary that is sending him home because he is done is mission, each missionary has 16 transfers). Besides that ,I dont know much about him. I'll tell you more next week when I actually talk to the guy. Then we had casa and English class and then we taught Famiglia Serra. It was amazing we have taught them twice and they have kept a commitment so now they are progressing investigators, so that's awesome. We also set up a regular pattern to meet with them twice a week Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8. I really feel good about the mother and her 11 year old son, I know they will except this gospel.

So over-all this week was good we found 2 new solid investigators, we have 3 progressing investigators, Enrico and famiglia Serra(2) and we have one baptism date Enrico. Now that the holidays are over we are finally starting to see some miracles.

That's it for me I love you so much and I'm so grateful for all of you prayers and support. I LOVE YOU!!!!!!

Love Anziano Glowa

Saturday, January 8, 2011

The End of the Holidays...Hopefully!


HEY I’m glad you got my package and that you enjoyed everything. Don’t worry I’m sending pictures this week so hopefully you’ll get them soon. You must be wondering why the heck am I e-mailing you on Saturday. On Wednesday we had culture day (I’ll talk about that later), Thursday was a holiday in Italy (the bean day) so everything was closed and Friday the Internet point we go to was closed too. That is why I’m e-mailing you on Saturday.

WEDNESDAY (29th)
After I e-mailed you, we went to Collegno to do more casa but we didn’t end up doing a lot.  We knocked 3 doors and got them all slammed in our faces but on the 4th door the guy opened the door and asked if we were hungry. We said yes, can we eat with you? He got so excited and he ordered his mom to make us pasta. He was 40 years old and of course he still lived at home... so Italian hahaha, so we ate dinner with complete strangers and taught them a lesson. In the end they weren’t interested but they did except a Book of Mormon. Haha it was just so random to get in and eat a meal...only in the beautiful country of Italy hahaha.

THURSDAY
On Thursday (Courtney’s birthday) we just did casa all day, we didn’t get in but we worked hard.

FRIDAY
We had dinner with a member and her non-member husband. Her name is Dina, she’s from China and when she moved to Italy, she heard about the church and got baptized. As a new missionary I have this sheet of things that I need to do and 1 of those things is to teach all the lessons to members so we taught Dina and her non-member husband about the Restoration. It went very well and I’m being about to talk more in Italian. Later that night we did something called a mostra, I don’t know if I explained this or not but pretty much we have posters that we put up in a public area. We go around talking to people, in this case me and Anziano Meszaros go our separate ways so that we can talk to more people (don’t worry we can still see each other). I talked to a bunch of people and was able to place 2 Book of Mormons! I know that I wouldn’t have been able to do that by myself and that the Lord was truly with me hahaha. I don’t even remember what I said to them hahaha. We didn’t do anything special for New Years Eve. We just went to bed hahaha I know we're sooooo cool hahaha:P

SATURDAY
New Years Day in the mission is a cleaning day. So we just stay in all day and clean our apartments and if we finish early we can just relax or do whatever so I cleaned the kitchen, everything in the kitchen including the fridge hahaha. It was a little gross but I didn’t get the bathroom hahaha. Then I swept everywhere and took care of my side of the study area and the bedroom. We finished at 4:30 so I took and nap and then my comp and I just hung out and listened to music and stuff and talked. It was a pretty relaxing day.

SUNDAY
Nothing special happened, I went to church. In Italy there are certain items you can’t get like Dr.Pepper or Rootbeer, but in Switzerland you can. Someone in the ward went to the temple in Switzerland and got us Rootbeer. It tasted sooooooo good; it was awesome!!

MONDAY/TUESDAY
We did casa but didn’t find anyone. We were let in a couple times. Tuesday night we had English class and we played the game pyramid. It was way fun and funny hahahaha.

WEDNESDAY
We had culture day. One day per transfer you can do a culture day, which takes the whole day. So you can go to plays or see churches or museums and stuff like that.  We went to Superga. It’s this giant church, which was pretty cool but I think the shrine of St. Michael was cooler. It was still awesome and I took pictures. Then we had a pizza...sooooo good! And then we went to an Egyptian museum in Torino. People were saying that it was like the 2nd biggest in the world or something. I don’t know if it was true but it was way cool and I liked it a lot. Then we just walked around Centro in Torino, Centro is like where all the shops and lights are and everything. And then we went home and that was the culture day. It was way fun; we did it as a district. I wish we could have done something more though. We could have done all that in a p-day but oh well I always have next transfer hahaha.

THURSDAY
It was bean day so everything was closed. The streets were dead and there was like no one home, but we did casa anyways and sadly we found no one.

FRIDAY
We did weekly planning and did casa. We had a lesson with a member and a non-member friend showed up. Her husband had died a year ago and she wanted to know about the Plan of Salvation, so we taught it. She seemed to like it and the spirit was so strong but in the end she just said that she didn’t know if she could believe it.... oh well she has her own agency.

And that was my week! Sadly we still have not gotten any new investigators, but we have a progressing investigator, Enrico and he’s coming to church tomorrow. We have a bunch of people to call that said to come back after holidays so we have a lot of work ahead of us and hopefully we’ll be able to see miracles soon.

I love you all! Thank you so much for your prayers and your support. I pray for you everyday and I’m so grateful for parents like you. I love you.

Love Anziano Glowa

Friday, January 7, 2011

Missionary work continues in Italy !

Hello Everyone!

It was great to talk to you on Skype and see you. It felt so great.
          What I did this week:
WEDNESDAY:
After I wrote my emails, we went shopping for companion gifts. I got Anziano Meszaros a Ben10 toy thing (it was more of a joke toy) and he got me a really nice leather wrist band that I showed you on Skype. It has Torna con Onore written on it, which means return with honor.

THURSDAY:
For the first part of the day we made brownies to deliver to less active families and then did casa that night.

FRIDAY:
Like I already told you, we found that family (Mother, Father and child). Their family name is Sara and we also went to Mid-Night mass and I was so tired!!!! It was weird being up soooo late.

SATURDAY: 
We got up at 10, so we got to sleep in a bit and that was nice. And then we had lunch at the bishop’s house. Afterwards, we went to another member’s house and that is when I called home. Afterwards we ate again hahaha it was soooo hard eating 2 huge meals in the span of like 3 hours hahaha. Let’s just say water was my best friend for those few hours; trying to get food to go down my throat hahaha.

SUNDAY:
Church was only an hour because it’s an Italian Holiday for some Priest or something. Then we went to a member’s house, his name is Andrea. He’s a really cool guy. We ate with his mom and his sister and again we ate a lot hahaha and then we did more casa haha.

MONDAY:
We had district meeting and talked about the Book of Mormon and why we liked it and we shared our favorite scripture. It was awesome and then we went on Scambi (which is a spli), so I stayed in Tornio with Anziano Dean and Anziano Gammel (district leader) went to Collegno.  We had a few appointments and lessons and did a bit of casa afterwards.

TUESDAY:
We ended Scambi, so I went back to Collegno and then we did casa and had English class. That night we played this fun game; everyone writes a few famous people on different slips of paper and then we put it into a bowl. We then divide into teams and then you have to pull out a paper and describe that person in English and your team mates have to guess who it is.

WEDNESDAY:
Today, I am writing my emails later because we went to the Shrine of Saint Michael. It’s in a town called Saint-Ambrogio. It’s a 20 minunte train ride away from Collegno. It was this huge castle with a church in it, which was really cool. I didn’t take any pictures with my camera because I thought I forgot it at home so I got a bunch with Anziano Meszaros' camera. Later I found out that I had my camera in my backpack the whole time hahhaa oh well.  We did that with a member in our ward and afterwards he invited us and 6 other missionaries to his house for lunch. So then we ate spaghetti at his house and it was so good and Italian haha. That is what I did today and I will probably go and do casa tonight.

I love you all and I was so glad that I was able to talk to you. I hope that you all have a good week. I LOVE YOU!!!!

Love Anziano Glowa