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 :)