I’m so excited to listen to conference and to hear the words of the Prophet and Apostles!

Ciao Tutti,

 

So I’ll answer the conference question first. We get conference this Saturday like you guys, the first session is at 6:00pm; that’s the Saturday morning one, then the next day on Sunday at 11:00am we get priesthood session and then at 2:00pm we get the Saturday afternoon and then at 6pm we get Sunday morning session. We don’t get to watch the Sunday afternoon session, and I don’t know if we get to watch it next weekend either. It would make sense to me but I’m not sure. So we watch the Saturday and the Sunday sessions live. So mom you can still watch those sessions and know that I am watching it at the same time. We listen to it in English. There is another room just like how we do it in Quebec. I was thinking about listening to it in Italian but this is important to understand and I don’t want to miss a single thing so ill watch it in English. I’m so excited to listen to conference and to hear the words of the Prophet and Apostles! It’s weird how much more excited I am to hear from them. Can you believe we are actually going to be able to hear from the Prophet.... THE PROPHET.... do you understand how big this is? Haha they should put it on CTV or something hahaha no I’m just joking but for real it has just become really real for me about how we actually have a Moses of our day.

 

So this week, because last week Thursday was my pday, I’ll just start on Friday.

 

FRIDAY- We did our weekly planning and just planned what we would teach our investigators and think of ways we can help them. We didn’t really do a lot on Friday, we were supposed to have a dinner appointment with a member and his less active wife but she called and said his son was sick so we just did casa instead and guess what... we didn’t get in haha but that’s okay we will get in one of these days.

 

SATURDAY- We taught Titus and told him that if you put the Lord first and move out, like live with another friend or something, then he will be blessed with a job. He can’t get baptized while living with Helen (his girlfriend) so we had that lesson with him. I know it’s hard and we explained that it isn’t going to be easy but when God gives us a huge trial, the prize at the end is twice as bi, and that he will be blessed more then he can think. Later that night we went to Vanessa’s house to teach Samantha. Vanessa’s mom cooked for us and the food was really good. We ate this pasta stuff which was to die for and then we had this chicken pot pie thing which was sooooo good. Anyway, when we finished eating we watched the restoration video with them and then talked about it afterwards. Samantha has been taught the restoration but we wanted to watch the video with her to help her understand better. At the end we were asking questions like what did you understand? How did you feel? And stuff like that, she said this "I understand that Joseph Smith was confused and so he prayed and then God and Jesus appeared to him and told him that he was to join none of the churches but to restore the Church of Christ on the earth again." Anziano Zippro and I both look at each other (in amazement) and told her she was exactly right and then Anziano Zippro asked her and do you believe that? Then Samantha said "I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t believe in it." It was so cool to watch her bear testimony and to know that those things are true.  I’m really excited for her and I know she’ll get baptized! :) It was just a really cool lesson and we learned that she was really serious about knowing and comprehending these things.

 

SUNDAY- so today the time changed and I lost an hour of sleep! Hahaha like a missionary needs less sleep haha well that’s another story haha joking. So yeah we went to church and Titus and Sam both came to church even though the time changed so that was cool. They both really liked it. After sacrament meeting we taught them the Book of Mormon, they both know what it is but we thought it would be a good idea to talk about how we got it and why its important. So that’s what we did. My comp taught and I translated for Titus because I wanted to make sure he got everything! The lesson was really awesome and they both understood the reason for the Book of Mormon. Afterwards we were invited over to eat with the Quaresima family. I think I've talked about them before. They are a really cool family and they remind me of our family they have 2 sons like a year apart from each other. So with them we ate spaghetti and then this deep fried chicken stuff it was soooooo good! I promise I’m going to learn the name of these meals so you can know hahaha but for now I’ll just tell you how good everything tastes. :) That night we went to a less active family and they also fed us. I was soooooo stuffed! But it was really good, this lesson was really intense.  We were teaching about how they need the gospel to be more happy and the father said that he knew that but that he wasn’t coming back to church and he told us not to try to get him back and his family isn’t baptized, he’s the only one but he told us not to try because they don’t want to. And then he said if you want to come over and teach us that’s fine we like having you over but we won’t come back to church and my family wont get baptized. We were put back because he just came as a shock like it happened really fast so we asked why, and then he said because there is no Church of Christ on the earth, so we doesn’t believe there is a Church of Christ on the earth. Anyway, we tried to bring the spirit back and bore testimony but he didn’t want to hear any of it so we ended with a prayer. I don’t think we will go back but we will pray for them that there hearts will be softened. They are really nice people and I don’t know what happened to make that man think that this isn’t Christ’s church. We must remember that the church is perfect and the members aren’t, I hope he comes back one day.

 

MONDAY- We had district meeting and we talked about consecrating our missions and leaving everything behind except what the Lord wants so that was cool. Then we did scambio and Anziano Osborn came to Collegno. I know him because he was in the group under me from the MTC so it was a lot of fun to serve with him. We were going to teach Titus but he wasn’t home so we did casa instead. I love changing it up on scambio because you learn so much from one another and how other people do things. We then had a lesson with Samantha, and we taught her about baptism and about how it’s important. It was a really good lesson. I taught her about Christ and his life and how he was baptized and then we read in 2 Nephi about why Christ was baptized. Afterwards I bore testimony on how Christ is the example and we need to follow him and then we invited her to be baptized. It made sense that maybe she was scared so instead of just asking, I asked her what her fears were. I asked her if she believed Joseph was a prophet and that he saw God and Christ and she agreed. Then I asked her again and explained how she isn’t ready for baptism because if she was we would baptize her tomorrow but that we need to set a date or set a goal or she would never be ready. I explained how we would help her and if she wasn’t ready in the end we wouldn’t push her into the water. After a moment of thought I asked her if she would prepare herself to be baptized on the 16th of April and she agreed. And she said that we (the missionaries) and Vanessa will have to help her.  I continued to bear testimony about the blessings she will receive and how strong her testimony is and that, as missionaries, our purpose is to help her. She seemed really excited. I know I was guided in what to say to help her understand why she needed to be baptized and that it’s what she needs to do.  That night we went and ate Kebab with Andrea (a member) and then we had a power lesson. That’s when we teach a little principle to bring the spirit and then ask him to pray and ask where we should do casa so he told us we should go to Corso Susa in Rivoli. So that’s where we will go! :)

 

TUESDAY- We re-scambied and then we taught Enrico our new convert about the plan of salvation because that’s what we were teaching Sam as well. It went really well. And then we taught it to Sam and she understood everything. It’s amazing how fast she learns things. She also said she has started reading the Book of Mormon daily and she’s on 1 Nephi 2. So she is for sure going to get baptized. Keep her in your prayers and I know her baptism will go through. :) We didn’t do much else that day.

 

WEDNESDAY- Today is pday and a member family, the Catolanos, are bringing us around Torino to see some sites and show us around and to bring us to the good shops. So that’s cool and I’ll tell you how that goes. I may be tempted to buy some shoes. don’t worry, I’ll buy church shoes so I’ll actually wear them but I wanted to get some penny loafers haha. I’m not sure brown or black yet anyway we will see and I won’t spend a lot of money... trust me! ;) Hahaha…

 

I LOVE YOU ALLL SOOOO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I’m so grateful for the love you show me and that you support me. I love you so much and I’m so grateful that we will be a family forever and eternity! :)

 

Love Anziano Glowa

 

Happy Father's Day...In Italia!

HEY!!

I’ll start off with the week!

WEDNESDAY- We had pday. I wrote you guys and then we went to the church to play foose ball, because every church in Italy has a foose ball table. Hahaha it’s pretty funny but what’s awesome too is that I’m getting really good. We taught Vanessa, our new convert. We were supposed to teach Sam but she couldn’t make it so we gave our lesson that was supposed to be for Sam to Vanessa as practice. Then we had family night and we ate. It was good and we also continued to play foose ball, hahaha good pday!

THURSDAY- We had district meeting. We haven’t had it in a while just because of the confusion of companionships changing and then we had Anziano Dean for a week. We talked about teach 2 find and why we use it. I understand the point of it and I really like the whole teaching at the door but we just simply don’t get in as often. Which is understandable but I like it... When I get home I'll be a lean mean teaching machine....in Italian hahaha! I wonder how I’ll do in English when I get home. Hahaha it’s pretty funny that even though I’ll be talking in English and I’ll completely forget a word in English or just something will come easier in Italian or the thing that I want to say can only be said in Italian because it doesn’t translate to English. Haha anyways I like it, it means I’m really getting the language even if I still have a lot to learn. We taught Samantha the first part of the restoration but we ran out of time. We focused on like prophets and why they were called, how they were called and authority. It’s really important for that to be understood so people can see the importance of the restoration. Then we had English class during which we did a show and tell and guess what I showed. :) I showed my McDonalds belt buckle! :) Hahaha they all loved it. I was going to bring pictures of Courtney but I had done that already hahaha! So they have already seen all the pictures of Courtney so I figured I’d show something they haven’t seen yet.

FRIDAY- We did weekly planning which was fine; just planning for our week ahead. Later that day we taught Enrico, our other new convert, about service and about him going to talk to the Bishop for a calling. Later that night we had dinner at this less active’s house. Long story short, she thinks no one wants her at church which is not true at all. Anyway, some people just can’t hide their pride or they let one little thing offend them and then they don’t come back to church. We ate with them and it was good but she just like talked the whole time about that and we taught a lesson about salvation, and we were bold with her in saying that salvation is our goal, so how do we get salvation? We get it from Christ and how do we follow Christ? His Gospel, which is faith, repentance, baptism, and the Holy Ghost. We didn’t get anywhere with her so we just had to leave and pray that her heart will be softened.

SATURADAY- We did casa today but didn’t get in. We almost did a few times but we just worked haha you know how it is. :) We were supposed to teach Titus but things didn’t work out...we didn’t do anything else besides casa this week.

SUNDAY-  We had church and then we ate at a members house. The Catalano (I think that’s how you spell it) we ate was really good. I should write down the name of the meals I eat but it was a pasta type thing. And then we ate fried meat which was really good. I’m really surprised by how much I eat haha I wouldn’t have never thought that I would be able to eat this much! I guess it’s because my stomach is growing. That night we went to a member’s house to teach a lesson about getting referrals. It was a really good lesson. We based it off of this CD that Anziano Zippro has. I hope it touched them and they will find someone who is ready for this gospel.

MONDAY- today we finally taught Titus he has been acting weird because he felt bad that he had not been keeping his commitments. Anyway that’s good that he is honest about it and he is trying to change. We made new goals for him and we are going to help him through this. I would rather him be honest like that, then try and hide it from us and that would just be frustrating haha! We taught him about the importance of church and how you can get revelation there and we also talked to him about solutions of overcoming temptation when it comes. He is looking for a new place to live because he lives with his girlfriend Helen.  Pray for us. :)  We taught this other member family: the Quaresimas. They are a cool family. They remind me of us because they have 2 kids that are 17 and 18 just like Jason as I. We did the same referral lesson with them and at the end of the lesson the father said "Anziani, I want you to come in about 10 days. I will invite my sister to eat with us and you will come." Anyway that was really cool because his sister isn’t a member and it’s just awesome how right after the lesson he knew what he needed to do. We must have said something that hit him. It was really awesome!

TUESDAY- We taught Titus again and he is keeping his commitments. He is still looking for work and for a new place to live. We need to pray for him and give him the strength he needs. If I was in his situation, I would be scared; looking for a new place to live without a job. But he has amazing faith and I know he will be blessed for it. We taught 4 lessons in a row! We had Titus and then we had to race to the church to teach Enrico about referrals (as you can tell that’s kind of what we are doing with members now is doing this referral lesson that we came up with) and then we taught Samantha. We taught the rest of the restoration and it was such a powerful lesson. The spirit was really there and she was asking questions while we were asking her questions. All together, it was a really good lesson. In the end, we invited her to be baptized for the 9th of April. She said that she would need to think about it and we encouraged her to pray about it. I know we were supposed to ask her to be baptized then because it just felt right. We are meeting here today and we will see if she has thought about it. I think she’ll get baptized.  After Sam’s lesson, we went to this member’s house. His name is Andrea he served in like Georgia or something. Anyway he is a new father; his baby was born last month. He is so awesome haha! Anyway, we went there and gave a referral lesson. :) Haha I really like this lesson because it shows members that we are here to work and that we need their help.

WEDNESDAY- We had zone conference and it was really good. I went to zone conference with a question and it was answered by the end of it. I never did that before but it really works, and it works for everything too church, General Conference, talks, whatever. If you go with a question in heart that you have prayed about and have faith you will get the answer, you will get it. Anyway it was just a cool experience. The zone conference was focused on how to teach with asking questions and how the asking questions part makes or breaks everything. By asking a good question you can open someone up and then hit them with your testimony. That is what I’m going to do now, not that I wasn’t doing it before because with the teach 2 find you ask questions but they haven’t really been soul searching questions that really help. So that is what I am going to do in order to get in more often. :) It was a really good zone conference and I’m grateful to be on a mission to learn and grow. This mission is changing my live everyday for the better :)

That was the week; not as eventful as others but that’s the mission sometimes. Today we went to the back to get our bikes out to ride to the internet point and someone didn’t lock the gate last night. Our bikes weren’t stolen but our seats were! Hahahahaha! So now we ride around standing up. It’s weird, we will have to buy seats. Haha I just can’t believe that some little punks took our seats as a joke! Hahaha oh well sometimes you just have to laugh these things off.

Some other things that happened this week that I forgot to mention, I sowed my first button this week and I taught myself. I did it and it’s perfect. I really like sowing buttons! When I was done, I wanted to rip it off and do it again but I didn’t haha. Aren’t you so proud that I’m learning! :)

Also I didn’t know this but Father’s day in Italy is different than in Canada or the States. It was last Saturday, the 19^th, because at church the primary did this thing. I freaked out a bit because my whole life I thought father’s day was in June and then I was talking to some members and they reassured me I was right so father’s day here is in march.... weird I know hahaha. Okay last thing, something kind of funny, so Titus our investigator is from Africa and so I don’t know if you know this about Africans, well especially those from Nigeria like him, they are really intense with prayers. They will say the Lord’s name over and over in difference ways. I would write it but I don’t want to be sacrilegious. Anyway, they say things like "let my friends the missionaries, the people of God be washed with the blood of Christ". At first I was confused but then I realized that was a good thing. They are intense and it’s hard not to laugh sometimes. Titus sneezed one time and instead of saying excuse me he said Jesus is our Lord. Hahahahahaha I had never heard that before so I busted up laughing hahaha! It was really funny; maybe you had to be there but part of it was just in my head, like did he really just say that? Hahaha…

Yesterday at zone conference I got the packages thanks so much for the pictures and chocolates and candies and such and such. :)

I love you my family and I’m so grateful for your love and support. Just keep praying for me and just so you know I already knew Jason was going to be Zone Leader because I had a dream about it and told him last week and look what happened! ;) Hahahaha! I love you all and will talk to you next . :)

I LOVE YOU! :)

Love your Benda boy Anziano Glowa! :)

The Lord's Work Done in Threes ~ March 16th 2011

HEY!!!!

I’m glad that you enjoyed the birthday note, it makes me feel good to know that you still remember all those stories. We were teaching one of our investigators about prayer and I shared that time that you pulled me aside at the race and prayed with me. I explained how I didn’t win but I felt peaceful. Haha…

One question before I get into the week: So mom I feel like a terrible son but I want to know your conversion story. I know I’ve asked you before and I know that it was Pat’s grandpa who greeted you at the doors and all that but how did you know where the church was? Where did you meet the missionaries? What did you think about Joseph Smith, or the Plan of Salvation? I want to know your feelings. I think knowing this will really help me relate to people I am teaching. Also tell me when dad came into the story, can you put lots of detail into. Haha not like what you were wearing that day or anything just like age and feelings and stuff that would help a lot, sorry I didn’t ask in the past, or I may have but just forgotten.

Question for dad: Who was the first person you had to drop or get rid of? Do you remember who they were, why you had to or how you felt? This will help me a lot because I’ve had to drop a few people and I feel terrible but I know it has to happen because they aren’t ready and I need to have as much time as possible to find the people that are ready.

The week....

WEDNESDAY

This week was interesting! Someone from Milano went home for medical reasons, so they took an Anziano from Torino Uno and they made a bunch of switches except they didn’t give Anziano Dean (our district leader) a companion. We were in a trio this week. It was interesting because we were in 3 but we had to take care of Collegno and Torino Uno.  so we had to balance appointments, Anziano Dean got permission from president to go on splits with members so he could go to appointments in Torino while we had ours in Collegno, but if he couldn’t get a member we would either have to cancel one of our appointments or he would cancel his. Because of that, it was a fun and interesting week. We didn’t get a chance to do a lot of casa because we were all over the place but it was interesting. Besides that we didn’t do anything else on pday. We just had a lesson with Vanessa and her friend Samantha. Samantha is really interested so it’s way awesome. We taught her about the gospel of Jesus Christ and let her know that baptism was in the plan and she agreed to live it and to meet with us regularly to get the discussions, we’ll see what happens. :)

THURSDAY

We got a few lessons that fell through so that was too bad, but we had lunch with a member, Andrea. He’s the one that took us to Como. It was very good! His mom is a good cook and I can’t explain to you how good the food is! Then we had a lesson with Vanessa on how to be an example and how to encourage and help Samantha; just stuff like reading the scriptures together until she gets the habit of doing it herself and stuff like that. Not that she wasn’t being an example before just because by doing things like that it will be a lot easier for Samantha. Then we had English class and nothing else. Haha but English class was fun like always.

FRIDAY

Today we had a lesson with Titus explaining that he won’t be able to be baptized on the 19th of this month. I told him the only thing that is stopping him is Chastity because he is living with his girlfriend, but it’s a complicated situation. He doesn’t want to get married because he has a girlfriend and a son in Nigeria and he is more just friends with Helen and they split the rent because housing in Italy is so expensive. We gave a bold lesson telling him how he needs to pray every morning for an answer of what to do about Chastity.  Hopefully he’ll have the faith to find another house or something but we can’t force him to do anything. He must make the choice on his own and all we can do is build to his faith. But I think everything will work out. I can’t see it now but the Lord always has a way of doing things. :) We did weekly planning and that is where we make our goals for the week and so from last Friday to this Friday on our speaking Italian goal, we did amazing! We talked like the whole time so we made another goal to continue. I really feel a hang on this language. Obviously I feel I can speak more times than others but overall it’s coming along. :)

SATURDAY

Today we taught Titus the plan of salvation but didn’t get to finish it so we will finish it next time we meet.  He seemed to really like it and he was following along great and asking a bunch of awesome questions, from the first time I met him to now he is making such great progress. Then we went to Torino to have lunch with Anziano Zippro's grandma who isn’t a member. Anyway we ate and talked and it was fun we tried teaching her the gospel of Jesus Christ but it didn’t really go over too well. She didn’t understand. I don’t know if she didn’t want to understand or if she was just really confused. We taught it simply but she just didn’t seem interested. It’s too bad but you can’t force people to do what you want them to do. Then because we were in Torino we did a couple lessons with Anziano Dean and his investigators and we went home. That night I called Titus (we call him every night to see how he is doing with everything but more importantly the word of wisdom). This time he said all is well like every other time and that he was happy we called and he told us he read the plan of salvation pamphlet so that’s awesome! :) I really hope all works out with Titus. Please pray for him.

SUNDAY

We went to church and it was good. I pretty much understand everything being taught and said in class unless it’s like way off topic. Hahaha not that I can’t understand; it’s just I choose not to if that makes sense. But yeah, church is awesome and I love singing in Italian! I can’t wait to come home and sing in Italian for all y'all hahaha! I sound like those Italian singers but not really hahahaha! Anyway for lunch we went to eat with Anziano Zippro’s family and shared a 5 min spiritual thought on being like Christ; it was awesome and the spirit was really strong. I ate sooooooooo much though. I thought I was going to explode! Hahaha let’s just say I’m glad it’s getting warmer. Now I’ll be able to start running in the morning hahaha.

MONDAY

I went to the police station to get my permesso ( my temporary residency). We got there at 9:30 in the morning and left at 4 in the afternoon. Fun, fun, fun! I had 200 people in front of me hahaha! When my number got called it took me 2 seconds to go get my permesso and leave. But it had to be done; I had time to write Courtney so I was happy. :) So since that ate up our whole morning and half of our afternoon, we went to the church to teach Samantha. We taught her about prayer. We did the whole who, what, why, where, when and how and it went well. She accepted to pray. It was in this lesson where I talked about mom and how she set the example for me that I can pray where ever, whenever (at the race). For those of you who read this and don’t know what I’m talking about, when I was 9 or so I went to run a race for school but I was really nervous and didn’t want to do it. My mom pulled me aside calmed me down and prayed with me. I still didn’t want to run but I felt peace and comfort so I ran. I didn’t win but I learnt the lesson that I can pray whenever and the Lord will always comfort me. So I shared that and other stories and testified and I think it really hit home for her. We also taught Gabriela Serra. We finally got a hold of her and she met us at the church. We were going to have a lesson to bring the spirit and help her realize that it wasn’t about the meat but it’s about our relationship with Christ and God. Anyways she kept bringing it back to the word of wisdom and eating meat, so we had to drop her. We did all we could but in the end she wasn’t satisfied. I wouldn’t mind if she didn’t want to eat meat, that’s fine with me, but for her she didn’t want anyone to eat meat. She didn’t want to join a church that believed in eating meat. So it was really hard but we let her go and told her to call us when she is ready to move on.  That’s why I asked you the question dad if you ever had to drop anyone, this one really hurt for me.  When you teach someone and learn to love them and then they turn the other way, it’s not the best feeling so just asking if you have ever had anything like that.

TUESDAY 

We became 2 missionaries again. Anziano Dean got a new companion and we were back to where we started. :) Hahaha. We taught Abdol. He’s a Muslim that I contacted at a bus stop. We haven’t met him in 3 weeks but when we taught him yesterday. He seemed eager to learn more. We were going to have a lesson with Titus but he wasn’t home which was too bad. So we came home and worked on our area book because there were a few things we needed to fix for our area here in Collegno. The Area book is a book that talks about the area here, the people, the baptisms and stuff like that.

So that is what my week was. I love you all so much and I’m so grateful for the family that I have. I love you so much and I pray for you always. I know that our family will see so many blessings from this. I think we can see that we already have blessings from this, an eternal family. :) I love you so much and I’m so grateful for the example that you have set me for me. It’s because of your great examples that I’m where I am today. :) And I’ve never been happier! :)

Love you!!!!
Love you missionary Anziano Glowa :)

This mission is just passing way too fast!

Another week went by... This mission is just passing way too fast, it seemed like yesterday that I was getting off the plane and getting ready to meet my trainer. Can you believe it has been 5 months since we have seen each other face to face? It seems like yesterday that I was hugging you guys good bye. Anyways time has just flied by and I‘m amazed by how much I know, not only Italian but with the gospel I’m learning so much so fast sometimes I think my head is going to explode haha.

So this week!

FRIDAY- We taught Titus the word of wisdom. We really want it to sink in but we attached it with the gospel of Jesus Christ, you know faith, repentance, baptism, Holy Ghost and then enduring to the end. He really wants salvation so I think he will continue to keep the word of wisdom. Then we taught this African his name is Arnold. I contacted him on the bus on our p-day and we got a lesson with him. It went kind of well. He’s really fixed on the Bible and the Bible only, and the thing is he said he would be open to learning more about the Book of Mormon but he said he needs to finish the Bible first. So we are going to see him again next week and see if we can explain the importance a bit better of the Book of Mormon and the restoration.  We also taught our new convert Vanessa and she brought her friend Samantha. We talked about using appropriate language and why it’s important. It went really well.  Samantha even said she would come to church on Sunday. Haha so that was cool.

SATURDAY- Today we taught Elena Bruno at church. She is less active and has been for like 20 years and her family aren’t members. We taught her at church to kind of see what her expectations are with wanting them to join or if she even wants to come back and stuff. It went wellish... like she wants them to come but she doesn’t want to pressure them and she feels if she comes back to church that will pressure her family, which is frustrating but anyways we will meet her next week to help her and her family more with that. Then we went to Titus' house to teach the law of chastity. So pretty much Titus lives with his girlfriend Helen who isn’t really interested but she kind of is. Sometimes she’ll sit in on our lessons and other times she just won’t be there; pretty much she is unreliable. So we taught about how he can’t be you know doing what he’s been doing and how he and Helen need to get married. Titus and Helen both don’t work so it’s really hard. Its either one of them moves out or they get married they didn’t agree to marriage. He has a really strong testimony and I know he is ready for baptism but this is a sticky situation. So if you can please pray for him. After we taught them, we ate with them. It was the spiciest food I’ve ever eaten, I know that’s not saying a lot because I’m a light weight when it comes to spicy but my comp who has been in the mission 2 years and who has eaten a lot of spicy African food said this was the worst he had ever had. I thought I was going to die. I was ready to just pass out. But for some reason I lived; I can’t explain it but I’m alive and kicking haha! I hardly had any spicy food, like just the sauce and my face was on fire and then Helen said "hey why don’t you have any of the fish?" Just so you know the fish was COVERED in the hot sauce and the peppers so I couldn’t say no so I ate it and sucked it up and thus the reason why I’m almost dead but yeah when we come back here we will go to Titus' house and he will cook spicy for us and you will suffer just as I did. Haha the worst part is that it was soooo good just too spicy to eat haha anyways that’s what happened Saturday.

SUNDAY- We had church and guess who came... Titus!! And also Samantha (Vanessa’s friend) it was awesome. Titus had to go after sacrament meeting which was too bad but Samantha stayed. We taught her a lesson; it was just a little one about prophets because we didn’t have a lot of time. But it was cool, we were waiting to get started and she was talking to Vanessa and me and saying stuff like, if I want to be baptized you have to teach me more about your church. And then she was like I wonder who will baptize me, and then she pointed at me and said that I should do it. Haha so that’s good that she already has baptism on her mind. But we will see how it goes as she continues to take the lessons. I’m really excited! It’s one of those miracle things because Samantha just came out of no where and she’s already talking about baptism. So we will see. :) Then we had lunch with some of Anziano Zippro’s family. They live in Alpingnano which is a little town outside of Collegno. We ate with his aunt, uncle and 2 cousins and also his grandma. I ate sooooooo much I thought I was going to die. I had this huge thing of pasta and then 3 pieces of steak and cheese and bread and salad and then fruit and cake. I thought I was going to die. Anyway it was really nice to eat with them. They are less active so we are working with them a little bit. When we got back from that we had an appointment with the Caruso family to teach the restoration. They are members but we teach members to practice and to practice the language and to build their confidence in us so they give us referrals haha. Anyway when we finished the lesson they asked us if we had time to eat with them. I thought they meant like a little piece of cake or something because it was 8:45 but no. She started cooking and made pasta and had cheese and bread and let’s just say I had to roll myself home! Eating 2 huge meals right after each other.... oh dang I’m just glad I’m here to tell you how I ALMOST died haha twice this week haha!!! Anyway when we got home I checked the scale and I had put on like 5kg which is like 11 lbs. My stomach was super blotted; like I had a baby. It went down after a while, but I didn’t lose all the weight haha. I weigh like 162 or something like that now haha. But I’m starting to do sit ups. Hopefully that helps, haha I should start running. Don’t get me wrong the food here is amazing! I’m afraid I love it took much hahaha.

MONDAY- Nothing really happened. We had district meeting. And then that night we did scambi with the zone leaders, so I went to Torino with Anziano Brown.

TUESDAY- It was our scambi. It was awesome! We did casa and I learned so much. We, as missionaries, are doing something new called teach to find. When we do casa or strada or talk to anyone, instead of just saying hey we have a message about Jesus can we come in for 5 mins or we have a message about families can we go to your house one day, we do this thing where the missionaries work together to teach at the door. This is the process:

Missionary 1:
Teaches a principle
Asks a question
Bears testimony

Missionary 2:
Bears testimony
Teaches a principle
Asks a question
Bears testimony

Anyway you do this so that you can bring the Spirit in at the door so they let you in. It’s harder because fewer people let you in but when you get in you know they want to learn more. You know they know what they are getting into. They know we are there to talk religion. Anyway it’s harder to get used to because you have to think about it more. I’ll give you an example:

Missionary 1
God is our loving Heavenly Father and we can talk to Him through prayer

Why do you think God wants us to pray to Him?

I know that God wants us to pray to Him because He loves and cares about us and He wants to help us as much as possible

Missionary 2
I know that what my companion said is true

And that another way God shows His love and shows that He wants to help us is by sending prophets.

If there was a prophet today on the earth, what would you ask him?

I know that there is a prophet today that leads us and helps us know in which direction we need to go

Can we come in and explain more about how God as called a prophet today?

Anyway that is just one example but that’s pretty much it. If you have good unity it works really well and the spirit can get so strong. I haven’t been able to get in doing casa with this yet but I know that it’s just a matter of time. :)

That was pretty much the week! It was fun and I’m really enjoying the mission. It’s hard sometimes but I wouldn’t have it any other way, because if it wasn’t hard, I wouldn’t learn anything. Tonight we are meeting Samantha. Hopefully it goes well and I will tell you more about it next week.

I love you soo much! Thank you for your love and concern. I pray for you always and I’m so grateful for the examples you have been to me. :)

I love you my Family! :)

Love Anziano Glowa :)

Ti amo tanto bene! :)

Now,we are only allowed to e-mail for 1 hour and we can only e-mail family.

Hey!!!!!
So this was a good week! I got a new companion and his name is Anziano Zippro.  I'm killing him this transfer but it's going to be fun. We're best friends and get a long great. I can tell that this is going to be a great transfer.

THURSDAY-so I dropped off Anziano Bevan at the Milan train station and then got my new comp. He's awesome, he's from Farmington Utah. His mom is Italian and he has less active family in our area so we are going to re-active them all :) Thursday didn't do much because when we got back from the train station we had a lesson with Vanessa (new convert) and then basta ( thats it) haha 

FRIDAY-we did weekly planning and made our vision for this transfer. We have numbers and stuff we are looking towards like baptisms and stuff but we really want to focus on being more Christlike. So we are making goals on working on one Christlike attribute every week.  Also another goal we made was SYL (speak your language) so we speak all day everyday. haha Well we started off but its hard once you are such good friends so we go in and out of it. Now I say we SYL like 70 to 80 percent which isn't bad.  Something else Anziano Zippro is helping me with ,is that now I have a little note book and I write down every word in Italian I don't know. so if we are talking and I don't know a word I write it down with the English translation next to it. I'm learning so much its awesome.

SATURDAY-we went to Alexandria for a stake priesthood work shop. usually we dont go to those but president did and he wanted the missionaries in the area to go. it was very well done there were different work shops for different age groups and such. we did a missionary one first done by president where he talked about us (his missionaries) and the changes we are undergoing in this mission in terms of how we teach and stuff like that.  afterwards we all gathers together and talked about how parents can learn to listen and handle conflicts in their homes, it didn't really apply to us, well i guess you can use it with your companion but it was very good. we watched a few movie clips, like those mormon clips from the 90s haha those are soooo funny! hahaha

SUNDAY-went to church Anziano Zippro introduced himself and all that .Titus came to church again so that's awesome that he's progressing .  After church we did finding work and less active finding work in our area but had no luck. But that's okay because if we keep our heads up and our attitudes high there is nothing we cant do.

MONDAY-more finding work, we got a few passers by and some numbers but no lessons.  I called famiglia Serra and she answered the phone it was nice not to get ignored by her. She was at the doctors and told me to call back .so I'll call back either today or tomorrow.  We talked also with the Famiglia Burno. The mother is less active and has been for  20 years and she has a non member husband and 2 children both not members. We taught them about expectations, like what they expect and what we expect. That way no one is wasting time and we are all looking towards the same thing, it went well. They still don't really know why they are meeting with us. Like in terms of what they want to get out of it. This week we are going to meet with the only the mother and  talk about what she wants for her family and to know if we have her support.

TUESDAY-we taught a lot of lessons. Well not a lot but we didn't have time to do finding work. we taught Titus and went over the word of wisdom again. He's not keeping it which is a bit frustrating, so we went over it again and tried to get to the bottom of it. We are more active in his life now. To help him  we give him a call everynight and we teach him 3 times a week.  I know it's tough for him but we promised him that if he quits doing the things he's doing, he'll find work. Hopefully that will give him the will power so we will see. We also taught Enrico and Vanessa at church (not together),for their new convert lessons. Then we walked with Vanessa to her house to eat there and teach her parents. The next lesson we have with Vanessa will be to know the expectations of her parents. We want to know if they are interested of not.

WEDNESDAY-sorry I didn't e-mail yesterday but we had training. It's like zone conference except we do more teaching and it helps us improve it was really well done. It's nothing I didn't really already know just like building my testimony on the things that we are already doing. They did come out with a new rule in terms of internet use on p-day so from now on we are only allowed to e-mail for 1 hour and we can only e-mail family. President said that means we have write everyone else by letter only. I think it will be hard but I understand the motive behind it. I am going to be obedient so that I can get blessings. This is the last week that I can email friends and Courtney so please tell them that I cant email anymore. 

So that was my week I guess I'll answer some questions now. I didn't get a package yet , but we have zone conference in 2 weeks so hopefully it will come in by then. In terms of investigators, Titus is progressing kind of, he's finding it hard with the word of wisdom but he reads and prays and comes to church so he's trying . Then we have the Bruno family which are doing well, we will see next time if they are progressing, famiglia Serra we will meet this week. Now its time to find more people to teach.

I love you ,thank you for your emails and your love! I loove you sooooo much!

Love Anziano Glowa :)