Nutella spaghetti

May 1, 2012


Hey my family,

so how's is everyone doing? I'm so glad that you were able to talk a
little to sister Boshi. I really love her and her son Gabry he's sooo
awesome, I'm grateful that the Lord has sent me here to Firenze, I LOVE
MY MISSION!

The situation hasn't really changed with our investigators, Danilo is
still planned for the 11th of May and Francesca hasn't said yes to
baptism yet, but I have faith that things will change. Other then that
we have a bunch of investigators that aren't very committing to meeting
us and such. So this week our main focus is find find find, we are
going to go out and find them people that the Lord is preparing for
us.

The young men are doing well, I love my calling, I can see myself
being a young men's president for the rest of my life. I think its
something I really enjoy. Yesterday I went to one of the youths houses
to help him with English his name is Moroni. His little brother
Kevin was there with no homework so I made him get his duty to God to
work on, so I was helping one with English while I was helping the
other with the duty to God, I love these KIDS!!!!

The reason I took my pday today is because its a holiday here and Gabry
doesn't have school so we agreed to hang out with him :) We are going
to have nutella spaghetti and maybe go bowling, it should be a fun
day.

I hope I get to finish my mission here, I don't think its tooo likely.
I do know that the branch president loves us and is grateful for
the work we are doing, he came up to us and said that we are the best
young men's presidency he's seen in a long time. We have kinds coming to
things that haven't in a long time. He's already written President
Wolfgramm an email and he also said he was going to call him to see if
he can get me and Anziano Weller to stay together and finish our
missions here. That would be sooo great! I love the members here and I
love that they love me, the work is going so well and its because of
the relationship between us and the members. So DAD if you want
success in the YSA get tight with the missionaries.

Anyways that's it for me this week, I love this church and I love this
gospel. This mission has changed my life! You can tell Mordecai that
this is better then any anime he will ever watch! I feel so prepared
and I really understand my purpose in life. I know what I want to
become. I will never be able to thank you enough for raising me in the
faith, and for being such great examples. I love you all much, Jesus
is the Christ, Joseph Smith saw God the Father and Jesus Christ face
to face, the Book of Mormon is the word of God and if all of this is
true then...WHAT ELSE MATTERS! I love you all have a great week.

Love Anziano Glowa

My life is going great, our investigators are doing so well,

April 26,2012

My life is going great, our investigators are doing so well, 

DANILO- has almost just about quit smoking, he smokes like 1 everyone like 3 days or something. He's doing great, we moved his baptism to the 11th of May because there is an activity on the 12th. He's on the path, and he's going strong, he has been prepared so well, he just understands everything so well and just studies more then I've ever seen.

FRANCESCA- she has been receiving answers left, right and centre, she reads the book of Mormon everyday. I asked her how she feels when she reads it she said its like cotton all around her and that waves are inside of her... If that's not an answer I don't know what is haha. She knows she needs to be baptized, she's having a war with her heart and mind...her heart says yes and her mind has doubts like her parents and family and stuff like that... but she is just so amazing!! 

Those are our most progressing investigators. I don't know if I've told you a lot about one of my most favourite families on the mission the Boschi family. Sister Boshi is amazing and her 16 year old son Gabry is awesome. He reminds me of when I was with Elder Merrell and Gould. He is just soooo awesome, yesterday for pday we had such a good time together. He has such a strong testimony and is just so strong. Sister Boschi is separated from her husband and she is just such a great example of personal strength. I love them soooo much!!! You'll be able to talk to them on mothers day because we will be doing the phone call at her house. she speaks English very well and I would love for you to talk with her a little haha, she is just amazing! 

Other then that, we have been working hard, with being zone leaders to being the young men's presidency haha . Life just doesn't get better!! I love my mission so much, if I could give one piece of advice to the youth it would be to SERVE A MISSION. Here I thought I would be going to help so many people. I am doing that, but I didn't know how much I WOULD grow. Or how much the mission was for ME, I don't know what I would do without the mission or where I'd be, I'm so grateful for this mission, I love the Lord and I love my mission 

I'm sorry my email isn't longer I know I've been slacking. Just know that I'm trying my best, haha. And know that I'm working hard, and that I love serving the Lord. The mission is the best thing that has ever happened to me... I love this church, and I KNOW THAT ITS TRUE! I know that Joseph Smith saw God the Father and Jesus Christ face to face and I know that through Joseph Smith they restored their church. I love this work and I can't express more then that. I know I am a servant of Jesus Christ and I am an instrument in His hands. I love that song, I'm trying to be like Jesus, its so humbling to be a representative of Him. I represent Jesus Christ, I put His name on my chest everyday, He is my Lord and my Master and I will never stop. I will never stop, He's done so much for me, the most I can do for Him is to NEVER STOP! I love this church with all my heart and I grateful for you and the examples you've given me, I LOVE YOU SOOO MUCH!!!

and I say this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen

I love you family, you're the best,

Love ANziano Glowa

Amazing things are happening here,

April 18th,2012


Hey my family!!

How are is everyone doing?? I'm doing great! dad is sounds like things are going good with your new calling, I'm so proud of you :)

I don't have too much time sorry, but amazing things are happening here, I won't be surprised if we baptize 3 to 4 people this next transfer.

First off anziano Weller and I are staying the same I'm so happy I prayed that we would. And I found out, that anziano Mitchell my last companion is going to Pisa so I'll be able to do scambi with him.

I'll tell you about our legit investigators

FRANCESCA- a 27 year old Italian girl, from Ancona but is living here in Firenze, she needed a place to stay and found out that the famiglia Boschi (Gabrys house) had room. So when we went over we met her and they referred us to her. She is sooooo elect, she has a friend that served a mission and a few friends are members of the church, anyways she came to church last Sunday and we have taught her the restoration and the book of Mormon and last night we taught her again. It was one of the most spiritual lessons on my mission. We wanted to establish our purpose, how do you do that, invite to baptism haha so thats what we did. First its important to note that Francesca is very sensitive to the spirit and has already said things like "when I walk into the Boschi home I just have a good feeling" and then she also said "when you guys come over or when I talk to you(us the missionaries) I feel good energy". Anyways so we started the lesson by talking about that and then read Alma 7:11-14, every sentence she read she was like "wow" and then she started to shake, the spirit was so thick, we invited her to baptism and she agreed. We just asked her if she wanted to feel like this always, we didn't give her a date, we asked her to pray about it and we will talk about it on Friday. We had sorella Boschi who is like a mother to me I love her. You will get to talk to her on mothers day :) sorella Boschi talked about her conversion and it just helped Francesca know that it was the right thing, it wasn't awkward. Talking about baptism I mean, and now she's going to get baptized and she knows our purpose. She is one of the cooler investigators I've had, im excited.

DANILO- he is the ex-boyfriend of one of the members I told you he called us asked to meet with us. He could get baptized, he is amazing, he reads the book of Mormon with the student manual, he has all the LDS apps on his ipad haha and he has a date for baptism for the 12th of May, he is soooo LEGIT!!! we are teaching him again tonight

STEFANO AND CATIA- we set the law, they have to get married or not live together to get baptized, the ball is in their court. Catia has expressed to us that she knows that this is the road for her. Stefano says he hasn't goten an answer yet but we all think he has he just doesn't want to say he has. We have to find out what his true problem, is.

Those are our legit, we have other that we have meet with and its too early where things will take us but those 4 people i just talked about are sooo legit, especially Francesca who we met last Friday not even a week haha and Danilo! 

Now about the young men, you can tell Patrick that we have frustrating young men here too haha  But I really feel like we are making progress, we have about 5 active youth and we are working to re-activate 3 they are all awesome. We don't have mutual tonight because we have an activity on Saturday, we are going to this mountain to play capture the flag. It should be fun the young women are coming too. Things are just gong great, new transfer, I'm just pumped to get things done and to baptize its been a while... but I'm stoked. 

Also I love getting packages but customs are so expensive, they take the money off of our church card... anyways they are asking parents to not send packages but to just give us money, because if you buy  60 dollars worth of stuff and then it costs 60$ to send it here and then 60$ in customs, you can just put 200$ on my card and i can get stuff here. It makes sense and I'm coming home soon anyways so I can wait to have candy and such, like for my birthday just give me money so I can buy like shoes and a suit and stuff I love you guys! :)

I love you all, I know that Christ lives, I love putting the name of Christ on everyday, its so humbling to think that I represent him. I love my mission, which brings me to my next point...I will be extending, I have goten spiritual confirmation, the only thing that would stop me is if President thinks it would be better if I go home, which would only happen if me staying would make the mission odd numbers. It would only be for one transfer so I would come home the 15th of November. I love this work, its the best and I know we will all get blessings because of this I love you so much. Just know I want to extend, I feel its what the Lord wants me to do, and I feel if I didn't i would regret it and if I stay there are no regrets so I'm going to stay :) I love you all 

Love Anziano Glowa

PS Happy Birthday Ashley !!! I wish you were still living there when I got home !!!

We had probably the biggest miracle ever yesterday.

April 11,2012

hey my family,

How are you all doing?? I miss ya'll so much!!! I cant believe about dad, I'm so happy for him. I know that you'll do great dad, I wish I was there and I could support you :) You don't need a young men's president, but if you did you would know where to look ;) haha  I'll give you one piece of advice, and that is to let the missionaries know that you love them, invite them over and be involved in there work. Its made the difference of my mission when I would get a call from the bishop asking if there was anything I could do for them, or how they were doing. Invite them over for dinner, make sure they are allowed because you don't want them to be disobedient. But I would say if you get in with the missionaries, they will do anything for you and that will help them branch a lot. I like how you want to focus with the less actives and that all ties in with using the missionaries. That is my advice go far and beyond what the missionaries expect of you and you will find they will do the same for you. Like I said its made the difference when my bishops didn't just see me as a missionary but as someone they could work with. I hope that makes sense, if not I can clarify next week.  Its weird that no one goes to Lasalle Ward anymore... its all about the YSA haha I don't know how long Courtney and I will be in the YSA when I get home ;) haha so use her while you still can :P 

My missionary work is going well, I'm very good at balancing my Calling with my missionary work. They don't conflict at all, so no worries. I'm not getting stressed or anything, the Lord knows me and knows that I'm capable :) I'm having so much fun though, there is this young man named Bruno, he's such a cool kid. He wants to go on a mission, the only thing is he plays b-ball, Sunday or Saturdays, and has practice every Wednesday, so for sure he cant come to mutual, and he'll be able to come to church every once and a while, but he has such a good heart. His ball is done in June so its not that much longer. I actually had Easter with him. I had Easter at the Boschi family, they have a son named Gabry, one of my favourite youth of all time! He reminds me of me when I was 16. He's best friends with the missionaries, its kinda how things were when Elder Merrell and Gould were here, anyways we and Bruno went there with his mom because Gabry and Bruno are best friends. Bruno came to church that morning and blessed the sacrament also.  I love the youth I feel so close to them and tonight we have mutual with them we will be diving straight into Duty to God, there is a new manual, its a good thing i know how to read in Italian, haha. I had to read it to find out how the new booklet works, so we will go over it. I know I completed it when I was a youth because of the push you gave me. I dont think these kids have that same push so to start them off and get them excited about it, we will do it every week for 20-30 mins at the start of every mutual. That way I can help and answer questions and they can see that if they do that they will complete it :) So we will do that and then I am going to teach them how to give a short explanation of the book of Mormon and we will do some role plays, like if I friend goes to their house and they see a book of Mormon they will know how to explain in simply and clearly. I LOVE MY CALLING!!!

Now to talk about the reason I came to Italy, my missionary work. We had probably the biggest miracle ever yesterday...we got a call from this guy named Danilo, he is the ex-boyfriend of a member named Ester. Anyways Danilo has been coming to church but never wants to meet with us, yesterday he called us and said, Anziani I need to meet with you, its regarding my baptism, I want to be baptized! Anyways we don't know if he's doing it for Ester or because he wants to be closer to God, but whatever it is we will help him be ready and get baptized for the right reasons. So we are meeting with him tonight so you'll find out more about that next week.  We are still working with Stefano and Catia and they have such strong testimonies! We taught them the Plan of Salvation and they both said that this was there favourite thing of all the religions because it just makes sense :) They are awesome, they "have" a date for the 14th but it wont happen. They are still living together non married, we are meeting with them Thursday to explain Chastity and that they either get married or move out, or they cannot get baptized, and they want to get baptized. I think Catia more then Stefano but they both want it. Other then that we are teaching this new guy named Femmy, he's from Nigeria. He's not like other Nigerians haha he knows English, Italian, and Russian fluently and knows Japanese, he is studying business and will be going to Canada to get his masters and he also has a job anyways he is very educated. He is 32 and was studying medicine before then but didn't like it so he changed, he is so cool. He has a date for the 5th of May, he accepted, and we prayed at the end of our first visit and he said it, the spirit was so strong he got freaked out. He kept saying, I've never felt like this before... it was awesome. He already believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet its awesome. We are contacting people and trying to set up appointments, we are teaching 20 lessons weekly, and working hard, I love the mission. 

I love you my family have a great week, know you are always in my prayers! 

Love Anziano Glowa

Conference was amazing!!

April 6, 2012

Hey my family!!

So Conference was amazing!! Unfortunately I didn't bring my notes so I don't know what to tell you. Obviously I have the speakers I liked a lot like Anziano Bednar, and I loved Anziano Oaks. President Uchtdorf's there are just so many, I took notes like always. Dang I'm grateful that you taught Jason and I to talk notes. There were missionaries who just wouldn't take notes... how are you going to remember if you don't take notes... Anyways I'm grateful I did :) Everything has really changed for me, like conference for example. I could watch conference forever! or listen to other talks or firesides. It used to be like after church the tv is one, but I'm going to make the goal for myself that I try not to watch tv on Sundays. To do more productive things like listen to talks or read my scriptures more thoughtfully, and things like that. Its weird how I'm the same person but I'm also different, does that make sense? I've also made other goals for myself that I'm going to do to ensure that I keep the spirit as I do on the mission. Because if I don't have a plan I'll just go back to how i was before. Which isn't the worst but I feel like that's not something I want to do. Like get ready for when I get home because I don't care what you do we are reading the book of Mormon and praying everyday together. If we have to wake up at 5 in the morning to do it we're doing it :P haha I have other goals, like FHE, not just like going to see a movie but like real, good messages :) I have a list of things that I am going to put into practise to make the transition from missionary to RM smooth :) I LOVE THE GOSPEL!!!!

The young men are doing well, I need to change things around, no one came to YMS last Wednesday night, except for Gabri. One of my favourite youth I've meet on the mission. He's 16, he reminds me of myself. He's soo awesome!! Hahahah !! We have about 5 active youth and about 4 that we need to work on that just aren't motivated, but things are going to change. I've already called all the parents of the active parents hounding them to push their children to come and telling them that we have mutual now and the time that we have it so we will see how many people come.  This Sunday I have to prepare a lesson for them, I'm just excited to get the ball rolling and to show the kids that its different then the past. Before they never had mutual, they didn't do anything, like I experienced once, but I'm going to make sure that things get done and things change! These young men will go on missions!

The week went slowly, my comp was still sick for the later part of the week and then we did a blitz at Prato. Then we stayed there and watched conference, it was awesome! Then Monday we had district meeting and then had to plan for the week and then we went to visit one of our less active youth. He's soooo awesome his name is Bruno. He's 17 and his problem is basketball every Sunday and every Tuesday Wednesday and Friday so he doesn't have time. He's born in the church and has a testimony when we went over and shared a message, he had his book of Mormon open reading and answering questions. He's just let basketball take over his life, which isn't the worst, but also isn't the best, he finished in June. But before then we are planning on moving mutual on to Thursdays if all works out with other kids and he doesn't play ball every Sunday just most and then he's too tired to go to church... but I feel we started things off well for him and we will continue to work with him, he will serve a mission. 

As for our investigators. 

XIOMARA- will not be baptized due to parents... but the Lord has a plan for all his children, we will be patient, and continue to try and work with the situation, I have faith that she will get baptized, it may not be when we want but it will be when the Lord needs her to be baptized.

STEFANO & CATIA- are sooo legit but couldn't come to conference and they just are busy with work all the time. We can't meet with them as often as we want and they are still not married, they wont be getting baptized the 14th but I know they are progressing, they read the book of Mormon like 3 times a day, morning lunch and dinner, haha they are so awesome, 

Other then that we have a bunch of contacts that we are trying to make appointments with and now that we are both health again we will be able to go out and baptize everyone!

I am so grateful for my mission, I love my mission with all my heart, and I'm honoured to wear the Saviours name on my chest everyday. I think that will be the hardest thing to do is take off the tag for the last time... my mission means everything to me. Thing I heard that I like a lot is, the mission is the best 2 years FOR my life, instead of the best 2 years of my life.... It's true to mission shapes everything and I feel like I said before I'm different. I hope that's okay but I feel like its a good change. I'm so grateful for you guys and that you taught me to prepare to serve. I'm so grateful for that, I see missionaries who are here because it was a last  choice, they don't know the scriptures, or even why they are where. It's great that they are here and learning and growing but I feel so grateful that I made the decision to serve when I was so young. I've been truly blessed to come here and to learn so much more and to grow my testimony. With the testimony that I have now makes me feel like i didn't even have one before. That's how much its grown haha. I'm so grateful for the Saviour and for his love for us, we must follow His example and love each other as He loves us.  I love you all so much and just know that I'm giving these last 6 months everything I have because iI know that's what Heavenly Father would have me do. I love you guys have a great week :)

Love Anziano Glowa

We NEED TO STOP THINKING ABOUT OURSELVES!!

March 28th,2012

Hey everyone!

I'm really tired so i'm not going to make this a long email sorry, haha So things are going well  as far as being young men's president again... I was sustained on Sunday and had a meeting with the young women's presidency to talk about things we want to do together. I talked about my desire to reactivate the youth and to get the boys pumped up to serve missions. I'm so excited to have this calling :)

MONDAY. we had district meeting and then my companion wasn't feeling well, he was pretty sick so we just stayed in. I did stuff around the house and read and stuff it was great. Unfortunately we didn't teach any lessons.

TUESDAY & WEDNESDAY- we went to La Spezia and did a blitz. It takes a while to get there, we had to go to Pisa and then from there take a train that takes us more north to La Spezia. I was with Anziano Eveson, whose grandpa was Canadian and lived in Alberta. He told me he's been to Carmengay and Lethbridge and so dad are we related to any Anziano Everson? He's a really cool guy and I got to get to know him, he's so fun! He's such a good missionary, a real "preach my gospel missionary". He's what we need in the mission this is his second transfer and he's just on fire! Today we went to Cinque Terre, I dont know if you know what that is but it's sooo beautiful and it's right on the cost and its just houses that are built on mountains it's sooo awesome. There are 5 cities but we only saw 2 of them because there was a flood not too long ago and some of them are under construction. But we did that today because its right next to La Spezia. I took such good pictures and you would all be so proud, you'll just have to be patient though :) love you guys! tonight we have an activity with the Yms and YWs we are going to learn how to sew! :) it should be good practice for the boys when they go on missions!

I'll give you a heads up of my week, tomorrow to Friday we are doing scambi and then the week- end is General Conference, I'm so excited :) haha but this week has been so busy and it's going sooo fast haha but its way fun I love the mission so much!

Our investigators... MICHELE- we dropped him, there was nothing left we could do to help him and we just felt he wasn't progressing so we dropped him.I feel like in the future he will get baptized.

XIOMARA- still the same problem with her parents, we are really hoping for a miracle and we know that the Lord has a plan for all of his children and he will prepare a way for his daughter Xiomara.

STEFANO & CATIA- they are sooooo legit and they have dates for the 14th of April and they are soooo awesome, they read, come to church and pray and are so sincere, but the only problem with them is they aren't married... The Lord will help us and if they have the testimonies I know they will decide to get baptized!

We are working with a lot of other potentials but no one really legit comes to mind right now. With my new young men's calling I know we will get referrals from the youth and help new youth come back and all with the Lord we will do a great work here in Firenze.

I love you all and I love the mission. It has changed me and it is a commandment for every worthy young man to come on a mission what isn't a commandment is to be unworthy. We must all strive to be our best and I know that I am a different person because of the mission. I don't know where I would be without the mission. All I know is that everyday I see how the mission is preparing me to be a better member for the rest of my life. Something I heard this week was that Preach my Gospel isn't for the Investigator its to convert the missionary.  I know that I'll be  a better  husband, father and member when I come home, because missionary life isn't 2 years its a life time. I love it soo much! and when people ask me if I'm excited to go home I tell them, heck yes I am, because I can't wait to go home and continue to be a missionary. I know that as we strive to be obedient and help our fellow man the Lord will bless us. We NEED TO STOP THINKING ABOUT OURSELVES!!! stop it! we don't need to, if we put the Lord first and put his children first then the Lord will put us first so STOP THINKING ABOUT YOURSELF and everything will work out. I know that this is true, this church is true and families can be together forever what a great blessing to know that we are one forever and we will always be together. I love you all

Love Anziano Glowa

Just when it couldn't get busier !!!

MARCH 20th,2012

I'll start by writing about the craziest thing that happened this week... it all started Saturday night. We had a ward party and left late and my bike had a flat tire so we had to walk home which took about 45 mins. All in all we got home at 10:30. When we get in past 10 we have to call president Wolfgramm. So I called him and he understood the situation. In fact he told me that he had talked to my branch president that night. Apparently my branch president called president Wolfgramm asking about the rules of asking a missionary to hold a church calling...like young men's president. President Wolfdramm said that it has been done but that the missionaries in his ward are the zone leaders and he wouldn't do that to us because of our other responsibilities. Anyways when I was talking to president Wolfgramm he had just remembered that it was me that was YM pres in Mantova and he wanted me to talk to my branch president at church explaining how it went in mantova and all that. So the next day I did and my branch president was so excited he asked me if I could ask president Wolfgramm if I could become the new ym's president. So I called president Wolfgramm explaining that I would be able to handle the responsibilities and that it would help with the work and we would just explode Firenze. He said..."well I wasn't going to allow it but if you say you can do it then do it".  So I called the branch president and told him that I'm the man for the job and now I'm going to be the new young men's president in Firenze and anziano Weller will be my 1st counsellor. I'm really excited to be able to work with the youth and reactivate and baptize :) I'm sure it will be challenging at times but I like the challenge and I know it will get busy but the Lord will bless us and as we organize our time well we will see blessings. Also our branch is way bigger then what it was in Mantova. It would be a ward but we are in a district here in Toscana. We are about 65 or 70 at church on Sundays. There must be something 6 active youth, I don't really know them since I've only been here 3 weeks :P haha but the Lord always has a plan.

Our investigators are doing good, we have 5 baptismal dates we have:

MICHELE-his date is for the 7th of April. He is still progressing very well. he still suffers with depression and is very unsure of himself which causes him to be unsure about alot of things like baptism. But he keeps saying that he feels good when he meets with us and comes to church but it goes away when he's at home. We have been teaching him more about the spirit and how he will feel good all the time even at home when he is baptized and has the gift of the holy ghost :)

XIOMARA- we fasted again for her, she is doing great. She just has the biggest desire to get baptized, its just her parents won't let her. We will continue to work with her, she has a date for the 7th of April also.

STEFANO & CATIA- they are a couple that were investigating and just started again. We had lost contact with them but got it back. They are sooo awesome, we had such a powerful lesson. Catia said " I know that my old church  isn't true and I want to know what is true". So we invited them both to find if our church is true. And if it is  true would they be baptized and they said yes and they agreed to work for the 14th of April. They are so legit and love coming to church, the problem we will have to face with them is that they are not married but live together. We will try to get them to either get married or not live together. Pray for them.

JOSEPH- he is a man from Guana and comes to church every week without fail. We can just never meet with him and he is always "busy" he comes to church every week and he knows this is true. But before he gets baptized he wants the missionaries to find his wife in Guana but he also agreed for the 14th of april. 

That is our work for now it's going great and we are finding people and having miracles. Like the other day we were riding our bikes to an appointment and we got stopped at a red light. I  saw this guy waiting a cross the street and I started talking to him. I asked him "what do you believe in" and he said "do you have time that we can talk" and we stopped at the side of the road and talked and taught him and he became a new investigator. It was just a cool miracle that the Lord is preparing people and we don't have to rush quickly to and from appointments but follow the spirit for who the Lord is preparing people just like it says in D&C 61:3 :)

So a few other cool things, there is a leadership training tomorrow and we are hosting it here in Firenze, so we have to do some stuff for that. Oh also they have a subway here in Firenze. The only place in Italy that I've seen one. So I had to raid in it  last week. It was the first  time in a year and a half and I'm taking it again today. Also it's so easy to find mountain dew here I love it! haha anyways just know that I'm doing great and I'm excited to start working with the youth, pray for me, I love you all.

Love Anziano Glowa

I love being a missionary !!!!

MARCH 14th, 2014

This week went, by quick. I like how you talked about the story of Naaman in the old Testament. I loved his faith about bathing 7 times. We actually learned about the importance of numbers. As you may or may not know in the European missions there is a promise by an Apostle that if you get 20 lessons weekly,our baptisms will double. So we talk a lot of how numbers are everything but nothing at the same time. We don't go teaching 20 lessons for the numbers but to help those people. It's like Naaman that had to bath 7 times, it's not the number 7 that matters, it's just what was asked of him. Like Peter denying Christ 3 times and then Christ asking him 3 times if he loved him, giving him 3 times to repent and say that he loves Him. In the scriptures numbers are important but sometimes we forget that it's not so much about the numbers. It's what's behind the number in this case like I said it's not our job to teach lessons but to teach people, we need to look for those people not those lessons, anyway thanks for sharing that with me :)

Today i bought 14 ties, they are soooo legit and look so awesome I bargained with the guy and he gave them to me for £2 a piece. You won't find a better price in all of Italy, I'm super tight with the guy so when we come back to Firenze ill show you where to buy cheep ties, and just because they are £2 doesn't mean they suck, they are top of the line, made in Italy, not some Chinese made stuff :)

So I'll give a run down of our investigators...

MICHELE- He's a man in his 60s who has suffered with depression for 20 years and wants to make a change in his life and has a baptismal date for the 7th of April. We had some trouble having him progress, but he's doing way better. We just found out that the medicine that he takes causes his brain to be empty. So he doesn't remember things he reads in the book or Mormon or the things we teach don't always stick in. But he's way cool so we made a program with him of reading only 5 verses a day and just keep reading them until he understands and its been working, and he has learned to say more sincere prayers, he's way cool :)

XIOMARA-  Is a 16 year old girl whose parents won't let her get baptized. So we had a fast and invited her to be baptized the 7th of April and we will be doing a weekly fast asking her parents to change their hearts. She's way cool and all she wants to do is get baptized. It's against rules to ask you to fast with us so I can't do that, but just keep her in your prayers. she will get baptized.

JESSICA-  Is a 24 year old woman who got married to an Italian 5 years ago, she's american. She's way open and cool and wants to learn more, she just has a great desire and just a real honest person. 

SAMUEL- Is a referral from a new convert. We invited him to baptism for the 7th of April but we haven't met him lately so we will have to move his date.

We have other potentials that will become more legit if we can meet with them this week, so we will let you know also we have some referrals from members. The work is just blooming with the warm weather, we just need to meet theses peeps to make them legit!

Yesterday we went to Milan, every month, the zone leaders all over the mission meet at the mission home for something called "consiglio". All 7 zones get together (14 missionaries) the APs and the travelling APs which are like assistance but they travel the mission going on scambi with other missionaries to train them. So in all it's a meeting at Presidents house with the leaders, its soo cool and they feed us, it's soooo good. All the zone leaders are  my good friends in the mission, its just so much fun. So yesterday we got taught on how to help our zones and how we need to be the best example and everything which is cool because just about all of us are getting 20 lessons a week or more. So the work is just going to explode as we continue to lead with example. I'm just sooooo pumped! I love Firenze, I love the mission and I love being a missionary, I almost don't want to come home ever, because this is what I'm good at. I don't know what I'll do when I get home... haha go out with the missionaries I guess :) 

Soo WHAT ABOUT MY DRIVERS LICENSE? 

Anyways just know that I'm doing well. I love my mission and I'm working hard. I just want to baptize and help people so much!! I love working, it's not easy and Satan tries to tell me that I don't want to but I do and I love doing it so much! The mission has changed me I mean I know I'm the same but I'm different, does that make sense? Anyway I love you all thanks for writing me, also please thank the Gagnons. I got the Christmas package they sent me thank them very much and give them a huge hug from me.... thanks !

I LOVE YOU

Love Anziano Glowa

Milan.... February 2012

First week in Firenze

MARCH 7th, 2012

HEY!

Wow, let me just tell you how busy I feel all the time!!! haha It seems like we are always doing something and have no time for anything, some how we were able to get 20 lessons but we haven't had ANY time to do finding work together let me explain...

THURSDAY-I got to Firenze at around 4. It was a 4 hour train ride or something like that. Anyway there were 8 elders in Firenze but 2 companionships closed and one of sisters opened, so we are now 4 elders and 2 sisters in the zone. There are 2 branches of about 60 people in each maybe more and the sisters are in our branch which is called Firenze 1. So we get home and I bring in all my bags Before I got there there were 4 missionaries living there, so 3 of them left and I came in. So lets just say the place was a super gross... and I've learned something on the mission, if your home is dirty, you can't feel the spirit. So it was worth taking a few hours to clean it so that we could have the spirit to guide and direct us. Anyway we were just about to start cleaning when we get a call from the sisters that their apartment was super dirty and there pillows were gross and didn't have sheets. Anyway long story short we had to go over, because we are zone leaders we are able to go into the sisters apartment with them there to investigate the place. Let me tell you, it wasn't half as dirty as ours, our pillows were 10000 times grosser and the sheets wasn't such a big deal anyway to make this short. We spent 3 hours, helping the sisters deal with their problem because we had sheets so we had to go all the way home and back again so we did that 4 times there back there and back and it takes 15 mins on bike just to get there. Anyway so that took forever and then we didn't even get to clean our apartment ... Also as zone leaders we have to make a zone vision for the zone and present it by Monday so we had to do that. We are doing 8 this transfer... so many!! Anyway we just had time to start thinking about the vision we wanted,.... long day but way fun, I LOVE ANZIANO WELLER, he's just like my trainer and I LOVE MY TRAINER. We are just such good friends  Anziano Weller and I and we just want to serve and work hard.

FRIDAY & SATURDAY-I don't remember exactly how everything went but we had to run a bunch of errands and make our zone vision and clean the apartment and everything! We got just about all that done with, I like cleaning it helps me think and I like the environment I create! :) Also dishes don't really bother me, so watch out Courtney I'll just be cleaning and washing dishes all the time! hahaha I'm sure you have no problem with that ;)

SUNDAY- We went to church and it was awesome. I bore testimony introduced myself .  We came home and had to finished our weekly planning and on top of having to make a vision for the zone we have to have our person vision...long story short, we didn't get the chance to leave our apartment...but everything is finally done, thank goodness now we can focus. 

MONDAY- We presented our vision to the district and then I had my first scambi as a zone leader. I went to the other part of town in Firenze 2 with Anziano Hess. It's only his second transfer,he's  just a fire ball. I was able to lead by example in casa, street contacting and teaching. I'm proud that the Lord can trust me in a zone leader position. I was happy to able to help this missionary grow, also I learned alot from him too. When you are so old in the mission you just get stuck doing things the same way. He was able to help me change and even do things better, it was a great scambi. My comp Anziano Weller stayed in our zone with Anziano Kimball who was my zone leader 2 transfers ago when I was in Busto.

TUESDAY- I never got to were I wanted to go , so we re-scambied and then we went to another district meeting to present our zone vision and do another scambi (yeah I haven't been home since Monday morning, my first week as zone leader and I do 2 scambi so awesome!) We went to Pisa. So we had district meeting and for the scambi I stayed with Anziano Hardy (Courtney you meet him in Treviso, he was the younger missionary, do you remember him) He's way cool we had a blast, he's not much younger then me in the mission. So I didn't have to  train him or anything we just really worked together and were both really good examples. It was a fun time, and because we were working and I'm 100% obedient, I didn't go take pictures with the leaning tower of Pisa... but I did see it and it's sooo amazing, so awesome to actually see it in person.

WEDNESDAY-my comp came back to Pisa so we could re-scambi and because today in pday we are able to take pictures so we did today, so no worries I got pictures and I would send a bunch home but I DON'T HAVE MY USB.....UMMM I WONDER IF THERE IS ANYONE AT HOME WHO COULD HELP ME WITH THIS PROBLEM.....COUGH COUGH HINT HINT..... anyway it was way fun

We have awesome investigators, I'll go through them quickly...

-Michele has a bap date for the 17 of March.

-Xiomara (pronounced sea-oh-marra) is a 16 year old girl whose parent's wont let her get baptized. We just set a date for her for the 7th of April, and we are going to do everything to help her parents say yes.

Those are our 2 baptismal dates. We have other potentials and the work is just going to well here. I didn't really talk about the lessons we taught this week and I'm sorry I just talked about the things I had to get done, I'll talk about the week better next week.

I just wanted to comment on dad's question if we have a car and if i drive...we don't have a car, we are on bike, YEAH! but if I was in car I wouldn't be able to drive...BECAUSE MY DRIVERS LICENSE IS EXPIRED....I WISH THERE WAS SOMEONE AT HOME THAT COULD HELP ME........COUGH COUGH HINT HINT...... 

Anyways I love you all and I hope you have a great week, I'm going to explain my zone vision to Courtney in letter form so you will hear about it its sooooo great. I'm so pumped to just help everyone and to BAPTIZE HERE!!!!

P.S. all my missionary friends like Anziano Bolnick and Anziano Dunshee got home last Friday, Courtney add them on facebook and tell them if you can, that I love them! :) 

I love you all

Love Anziano Glowa

New Posts !

Hello fellow blog followers.
I've finally updated Anziano Glowa's blog.
The next 6 posts are all new.... Enjoy !!!!!

I'm going to FLORENCE!!!!!!!

FEBRUARY 29th, 2012

 I have something huge to tell you, so this transfer was only 5 weeks because next week President Wolfgramm has to go to a mission president conference. So he did transfers early which means it was transfers this week... And the Lord has called me to be a Zone Leader, but not just anywhere. You're never going to believe this but I'm going to FLORENCE!!!!!!!  Can you believe that!!!??? I'm so pumped and excited, I leave tomorrow. I go to Milan and from there I go to Firenze(Florence in Italian). It's about a 3 to 4 hour train ride, my companion will be Anziano Weller. Courtney met him in San Remo last year, he's a cool guy .I was in the MTC with him he's one group older than me. Anyways so that's the huge news, I'm going to serve in one of the prettiest cities in the world!!! I'm just so excited. I'M GOING TO FIRENZE!!! The other cities in my zone that I have to visit are as follows, La Spezia, Pisa, Livorno, Siena, Prato and Pistoia and obviously Firenze!! I'm so excited it's going to be so much fun.  Its like a dream come true, everyone wants to go serve there but I actually get to :) haha anyways I'm not trying to be prideful I'm just excited!

Hey so I had a pretty good week, lots of work work work...

Friday we were trying to contact as many people as possible and we found this guy named Arshed Mohamed haha. Well he's Muslim .So we talked to him and he was really open and I offered a book of Mormon in his language which is ordo or something like that, and so we made an appointment for the next day to give him the book of Mormon.

The next day was Carnavale ( carnival) which is like Halloween, everyone dresses up, there confetti and rides and parade and food and candy and everything. Anyways Centro was packed and I mean packed and I thought it was going to be impossible to find Arshed Mohammed. But we called him and he was there like he promised and we gave him the book of Mormon. He said he would read it. We felt we needed to invite him to church...I didn't think he would come so the invite went something like this..."if you want to come to church, you're invited, this is the address" and he was like yeah I'll come tomorrow... Anyway we didn't think anything about it. Then we had an appointment with Winsin it was about the restoration. He's interested but he's always saying things like  "I don't have time" anyways he said he would come to church so we were pretty pumped for him to come.

On Sunday, at 10:30 we got a phone call and  I thought it was going to be Winsin but it was Arshed Mohammed haha. He came to church and Winsin didn't! haha. The person we didn't think was going to come came, haha He came in for sacrament meeting and answered his phone during the sacrament prayer it was so embarrassing but he came haha it was really funny, we had a good Sunday besides that, working hard and all that,

On Monday we went to Varese for d-meeting, at 11:05 we got a call from president, my companion anziano Mitchell answered the phone, and pres said he wanted to talk to me. It was nothing epic he just said that he was calling me to be a zone leader in Firenze and just gave me some expectations like how to be a zone leader. He said  you need to be an example in finding, teaching, baptizing and in obedience, everything I already know but anyway that was it.

Sorry I'm not writing more, I don't have that much time, but I'm soooo excited to go to Firenze.

Anyways all in all I'm sad to leave Busto because I wasn't there very long, but lets be serious here I'm going to friggen Firenze haha. I'm going to get soooooo many ties! Anyways that's not what's important. I'm going to do the Lords work there and to baptize a heck of a lot! I I love you all and I'm so grateful for the support I get.

Love Anziano Glowa

All in all I'm working hard, I'm loving my mission and miracles will come,

FEBRUARY 22nd ,2012

Hey!

So this week was interesting...right now we have no progressing investigators and we dropped Mary, it's not as bad as it sounds and I'm not crushed. It just means we have to do a lot of finding work this week to find legit peeps! Oh how I love finding work, I really do love it.  I was talking to the bishop and I kind of made a comment to him about how I'm sorry that I haven't baptized since I've been here. And he just like took me by the shoulder and was like Anziano, just because you haven't baptized doesn't mean you're not working. I know your working hard, and it means a lot to me.  It was just nice to hear that the bishop sees that I'm working hard, and he understands that it's not how many baptisms you have but its your dedication to finding, teaching and baptizing. It's your dedication to do those things, not the actual number, and I'm understanding that more and more in my missionary work with everyday that passes.

Anyway back about the work, we have some investigators that are pretty cool, but they just don't commit themselves to meet with us. Like I'll give you an example, we have referral we got a while back and we have met him once so far. He's so cool, He's a south American who's 29 years old, his friend's on a mission. But he just always says stuff like I'll see you at church, last Sunday he didn't come. Then after church my comp and I  saw that we had 5 missed calls. My comp had the phone and it was on silent. It turns out that we didn't see him but he did in-fact come to church. He was outside and couldn't find the building... So we called him and wanted to set a meeting with him ,he just couldn't commit to a day or time. Anyway all of our investigators was like that, so this week we are on the finding train just look for those elect people that we don't have to drag to church or to meet with us but we can draw them, anyway that's what we're doing.

Miracle of the week has to do with this guy named Valentino. First let me just say I love ward parties talking to people and seeing who's members and who's not. This story goes back a little bit to my first week at Busto at the Christmas party. Keep in mind it's my first week, even before church so I have NO idea who's members and what not. But I still had a fun time talking to people and what not. Then I start talking to Daniele and his cousin Valentino. Now Daniele is a member and Valentino's not, but to fix the confusion I just asked straight out, are you members here? I don't know anyone! Then they explained that Daniele was a member and Valentino wasn't. Anyway that night I made friends with Valentino just getting to know him talk to him about church and stuff, he's a cool guy. I told  we needed  to talk to him more some time, he agreed. Fast forward to about 6 weeks ago, we go with Daniele and Valentino for a lesson.Daniele tells me to meet him at the church so I'm pumped I'm thinking we are going to have a sweet lesson at the church. It turns out they just wanted to pick us up and go around centro talking....Not what we had in mind, but we found out way more about Valentino and about how he's read the new testament. How he's confused about if there's a God  and how to get answers from prayers. So we talked to him about Joseph Smith. It's super powerful and then  we told him that we needed to teach him more things. He said that was fine and to  just call him up. Nothing happened for about 4 weeks and then Daniele gave his cousin a Book of Mormon with his testimony in it. So now we are at what happened last Friday... We get picked up, (I already had thought we weren't going to the church) We ended up going to this sweet place to eat called old wild west, anyway it was awesome. Valentino had so many questions and we were just guided by the spirit and after ever response we gave, he would say that's what I needed to hear. Or he would say  that's so interesting. He had a lot of questions like is there a God? and  how do you know? We didn't just respond with  pray and read, but we were just guided by the spirit in the way we answered his questions. We even talked to him about baptism and how if he knew these things were true he would follow it by getting baptized and he said  of course. It was such a good lesson but this is the best part, he agreed to meet us at his cousin's house. We will finally be meeting with him and giving him a discussion. We don't know when we will start, but its just great progress. He just wanted to get to know us first and make things casual but now he's like so when will we meet our anziani at your house (talking to Daniele) anyways it was awesome

All in all I'm working hard, I'm loving my mission and miracles will come, this week will be fun with finding work, please pray that we will have success, I love you all and im so grateful for you!, 

Did you get my pictures I sent last week? Anyways also I did a scambi with Anziano Higgs, we are such great friends and he's sooo cool, I really love that guy, he's like one of those guys that you meet on the mission and you know you'll be friends forever :) 

Love you all have a great week

Anziano Glowa

p.s Tell Courtney that Anziano Higgs has a girlfriend named, Kiersten Knobloch, ask her to add her on facebook if she hasn't already. Also when she add her just send a small message to her telling her that your boyfriend is on the mission with her boyfriend and we're best friends :)

LOVE YOU!

I mean once you get, spit on, punched in the face, hit in the face with a cane, and get the cops called on you and get investigated, there is nothing you can't do.

FEBRUARY 15th,2012

Hey!

I dont have too much time to email this week, I'll just give a run down of our investigators and also talk about how interviews went with president...

As for investigators we have Kevin, he is no longer getting baptized on the 25th of Feb. He didn't come to church this Sunday and in fact this past week we have not met with him at all, because he wasn't answering his phone and it was off, we thought he was trying to ditch us because he wasn't interested. But, we had district meeting on Tuesday morning and we went to Varese and we found him! Well actually he found us, we were walking and I heard a "HEY!" and I turned around and it was him. He had forgotten his phone on the train and doesn't have money to buy another one so that is why we lost contact with him. The smart thing would have been to say "well we will come over tomorrow at such and such a time" but we weren't thinking and instead we just kinda said "when you get your phone this week call us" which isn't the best situation... But we are hoping on running into him again he's just one of those guys you see all the time at random times. So if we are doing the Lords work, the Lord will help us meet again, and when he does call us we will be able to see how legit he is! :) So for Kevin when we do meet with him we will move his baptismal date to the middle of March just so he can meet the bishop and everything like that...SIDENOTE: mom my bishops wife said she sent you a message on facebook, and you didn't reply... could you maybe reply hahaha thanks

Lets talk about Mary Brando and how frustrating she is... we went over Saturday night and had a bomb lesson, we talked about quitting smoking and her desire and everything. She is really scared to do it, like she thinks it's the most impossible thing in the world. I asked an inspired question..." how would you feel if we took all your cigs tonight" of course she just kinda laughed and said, "no anziano, you cant". I asked her how many she had here and I told her to get her pack, she had 5. I told her she could smoke 3 tonight and had to crush the other 2 and that the next day she was done forever! She seemed okay with that and crushed the 2 cigs in front of us and we thought we were making progress. The next day at church she didn't come, not to run away but because her son was throwing up, which was true because he looked really sick the night before. I gave her a call to see how it was going the whole not smoking anymore and she told me that she bought a pack and had smoked 10 of them!!! so frustrating!! I mean I understand its hard, but I just don't know what to do, I dont think there is anything, She will have to decide if she wants to quit to be baptized or not and if not we can teach her anymore, we have a lesson with her tomorrow, pray for us to figure something out thanks! :)

We got Winsin, he was a referral about a month ago and we just could never meet with him, finally we did. He's cool, he's from south America and he's 29. He wants to follow Christ but I can tell he'll do it when its convenient for him...he accepted a soft invite to be baptized but denied the hard saying things like im way busy with work and stuff. We will be meeting him this week again to teach him and help him come unto Christ.

Yesterday we were doing casa and the Lord blessed us, with all those hours walking and doing casa we found someone :) His name is Giulio pronounced (jew-li oh) He's way cool we committed him to be baptized he said yes. We didn't bring up a date, he's from south America and has been here 2 months he speaks really well and understands well too, we will bring a south American to our next lesson. He's 24 and I have a vision of him serving a mission in about a year :)

That's it for investigators, I talked to president about my extension, it made me feel good what pres said to me, he said "I would LOVE for you to extend, in fact plan on it" and then I said well pres "I'm not sure if im extending or not because of a few circumstances, like vovo and stuff. I told him I would pray about it and WHATEVER the Lord tells me to do I'll do it". He said I have time and I'll talk to him about it in about 4 months. So I don't know what to do, I want to extend but at the same time I'm getting more excited to see my family and I know it will be hard to extend. I know I'll have to pray about it and do what the Lord wants, just know that I love my mission so much!

 I love you guys so much and just know that I'm pumped to work, and I have been rejected a lot on the mission, haha. It reminds me of when I started my call centre job and the first "why the £$%& are you calling me" haha. I was so scared and just didn't like it, haha I feel like I can do anything with the rejections I've faced on my mission haha. I mean once you get, spit on, punched in the face, hit in the face with a cane, and get the cops called on you and get investigated, there is nothing you can't do. But I know that Lord is watching out for me and that as I continue and endure to the end Heavenly Father will be so proud of me :) I love you guys

Love Anziano Glowa
PS. Happy Birthday Cody !!!

This week has been the coldest Italy has seen in 15 years.

FEBRUARY 8,2012

Hey!!

 

So this week has been the coldest Italy has seen in years. I'm talking over 15 years, it's a cold that goes straight to the bones, its been sooooo cold!!! but we go on! haha

 

FRIDAY-we were on bikes so the cold intensified by 1000% haha it was freezing. We biked for at least a few hours, going to appointment to appointment, we were visiting less actives and things like that. The fun thing is that the day we went to Palladino's house and they did a step by step, how to make an Italian lasagne! So now I know how to make a lasagne but not jut that . I also know how to make 2 types of pasta sauce, I'll be coming home and make all this good food! It's so sweet! I made my own lasagne and it tasted so good, just like an Italian one!

 

SATURDAY-  That night we did a lot of finding work, 4 hours to be exact, but in the freezing cold it seemed like an eternity, what was worse is that the people were colder then the weather. There was no one on the streets because of how cold it was and if there was anyone they wouldn't stop and talk because of how cold it was. I don't blame them, but then we went to do casa and the people were just as cold, slamming doors, swearing at us, just being rude, it was just one of those nights where the Lord try your faith, we worked hard but didn't find anyone... But I'm proud of the work we did because we worked hard until the end. Thank Courtney for the click and heat thing she got me for Christmas, I think it saved my little hands from frost bite haha I'm sure I'm just sounding like a baby haha but its friggen cold! haha

 

SUNDAY-get this church was cancelled! a pipe broke and there was water everywhere and it was cold so we got a call Saturday telling us that there was no church. So we just set up an appointment with our baptismal date Kevin in the morning. We met him at about 10:30 or so we taught him the word of wisdom and he accepted, he is excited for his baptism and I know that he will be baptized the 25th of Feb. He made us pounded yam and vegetable soup it was sooo good. Pounded yam is like mashed potatoes you take a hand full and forum it into a ball and then push your thumb in it to make a spoon out of it and then you dip it into the soup which contains who knows what but its good. That pounded yam is very common in Nigeria, in fact when we contact Nigerians we tell them we love pounded yam and they go crazy knows that we know their food! They speak an English dialect called broken English or pigeon, and they say things like how you day? which being interpreted means how was your day, or there is what did the happen? which means what did you do today. I know so many of these phrases and they call ask me if I lived in Nigeria and they are so amazed that we talk like them and have eaten their food. I love contacting Nigerians for that haha anyway we also had an appointment with Mary Brando, she's doing well and she is still working for the 3rd of March. But i just feel she doesn't have a huge desire, like she does because she wants to be baptized but it seems like she's not even trying to try and quit smoking she uses it as a crutch. We will continue to try and help her but sooner or later if she doesn't improve or shows her desire we wont be able to teach her anymore because there will be nothing for us to do if she wont help herself.  We will do our best. We had the sacrament with them our bishop gave us permission to do so because 2 of her children are baptized.

 

MONDAY-we had district meeting and I talked about how to extend commitments, and we talked about 4 answers we get when we extend commitments. There's yes, no, I can't, and I'll try (which in reality is a soft no, they just don't want to offend us) anyways we did role plays on how to respond and help them commit themselves. It was good, I taught them that if we teach the doctrine so clearly and show them how it applies to them or why they would want to keep commitments the answer will almost always be yes. Obviously sometimes they can't, like come to church when they work, so that is when you change the commitment and invite them to talk to their boss to see if they can change schedules, something like that. But it was good, then after we did finding work and again in this cold couldn't find anyone.... we had a member lesson in the evening and it went well...

 

TUESDAY-we had lunch at the Isabella's house they are awesome. I feel like they are my grandparents, they just act like it its awesome. Sorella isabella made such a good pasta I asked her how there was so much flavour. She told me that she does it differently and she cooks the pasta in the sauce so the noodles absorb the taste. Its soo good I got the recipe and I am now a master chef haha.  I can't share these tricks or how its down, in the future everyone will want uncle Ben's pasta! haha or uncle Ben's lasagne or uncle Ben's sauce! haha anyway it was a good lunch, in the evening again finding work but not luck. I know that the Lord is preparing people and we just have to work harder, today is a lot warmer a lot! and so tonight we are free to just look for people and I know there will be more people in the streets and such,

 

I love working, obviously I'm human and I get disappointed or tired, or cold and stuff, but I'll NEVER STOP! I'm here for 2 years and although I'm not perfect I'll do the best I can and I will always improve! i love this work and I love my mission so much. I'm so scared for when I come home and I'm in a world that I don't know, this is what I know now and I can't even imagine what things will be like after. So that is why I'm focused on what the Lord has called me to do. In terms of me extending I'm leaning more on the terms of not doing soo for many reasons...

 

I love you all so much and just know that I'm working hard. I'm not perfect and sometimes I fall but that's normal. What I have to do what the happens is pick myself up and keep going until the end. Just like that racing story of that boy that fell 3 times but he got up every time. I will always get up, I love you and I know that this work and that this church it true! I LOVE YOU ALL

 

Have a great week!

 

Love Anziano Glowa

 

The Lord answers prayers, especially the prayers of hungry missionaries...

FEBRUARY 1st ,2012

First off, did you guys get the pictures that I sent last week? I sent like a whole bunch, but I don't know if you got them, if not then you can just wait till I send the usb back, which reminds me I never got it back, did you send it back in a letter or package??

THURSDAY-we had to go to Milan to get the sisters in my district, like I explained Varese got whitewashed and sisters were coming so we went to go get them, show them where their apartment was and the bus stop to go to church and all the other stuff, sadly that took up most of our day... I think the rest of the evening we just did casa or strada, talking to as many people as possible.

FRIDAY-we did weekly planning, and planned for our week and all the fun stuff, I cant remember what we did this day because I have a new planner because of the new transfer...I'm sure we just...oh I remember we just did finding work for like 6 hours.... haha and we didn't find anyone...I guess my brain is trying to make me forget that haha anyway yeah we just walked and talked to people and did some casa and sadly didn't find anyone really interested, but we will continue to look.

SATURDAY-we taught Kevin he has a baptismal date for the 25th of Feb. We talked to him about the book of Mormon and we found out that he doesn't know how to read... like at all, which is a little bit of a problem, in Mantova I had Book of Mormon CDs, but the missionaries needed them in Verona for investigators who couldn't read so I let them borrow them but I forgot them when I left. So I called the assistants to get a hold of them to tell them to send me my CDs so I will get them by next week. For now we will just meet with Kevin an extra time or two just to read with him and help him understand. He is doing amazing.

SUNDAY-Kevin came to church and so did Mary! We are working with the both of them, church was good as always, and then afterwards we went to Palladino's house. They are awesome, they just love us!! They were giving us a ride home and asked us if we wanted lunch. Since we were tight on money we didn't have that much food at home and I was praying that a member would invite us over for lunch and someone did! The Lord answers prayers, especially the prayers of hungry missionaries... FYI missionaries love to eat so mom and dad I hope the missionaries are getting fed by you 2!

MONDAY-we taught a Jehovah Witness, we  found him doing casa and he was way nice and we taught him the restoration and gave him a book of Mormon. He wasn't creating contention he was just really curious about what we really believe. Anyway so we got a return appointment, this time though he brought a friend. Like the first time he was nice and everything, he just wants to know what we believe in and why we believe that. I told him that the purpose was to help those who wanted to change or accept and we couldn't just come over and teach him if he wasn't open to change. He understood perfectly and told us if we feel it as a waste of time to go over to tell him, I think we will go over maybe 2 more times to see where this goes but if he is just having us over to be informed instead of searching something more we wont go back anymore... Anyway then we went to teach Mary Brando and we watched the restoration movie and gave her a baptismal date for the 3rd of March, this time we will teach her like a brand new investigator and give her reading commitments and follow up and really see her progress. It was different last time because I didn't know her and her husband had just died and I didn't want to be the person who just wanted to baptized her for the sake of it, but now I know her and I know that she's ready and I know that I will be able to better help her. Also she has more trust in us. anyway I know she will be baptized the 3rd of March.

All in all is was a good week, we need to find more investigators and help them progress, we have Kevin and Mary but besides them we don't have a lot going on, we need to get down and do the hard work that will find the elect!

I love you guys and I'm so grateful for your prayers and all you do for me :) I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

 extension

Love Anziano Glowa

p.s .. also I will be talking to my mission president the 10th of Feb. to see about my extension if its possible and what not, I'm not 100% sure if i wanna do it or not but I just want to see my possibilities :)

LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

Another transfer but staying in Busto

January 25th, 2012

Hey sorry I don't have a lot of time this week to write (sounds like Jason I know :P) hahaha

This was a good week we worked hard... like always... but I'm sure you want to know about transfers :) me and anziano Mitchell are staying the same :) Which is good because I like anziano Mitchell and I love Busto the bishop here is the best :) But my district is getting white washed which means they are both leaving at the same time and 2 new missionaries are coming in but instead of elders coming in sisters will be. President has asked me to be district leader... nothing new but it should be fun, it will be weird to be in a district of only sisters.  So tomorrow I have to go to Milan to help the sisters get to their area and show them a little bit around like where their apartment is and also the bus to take to get to their church, it should be fun :) I'm excited for another transfer, we didn't baptize anyone but we have some sick new investigators who are progressing well, now that the holidays are over :)

We have ALI, he is Muslim and is from Sinagol in Africa, he speaks French and Italian. In stead of teaching the restoration right away we figured it would be good for him to know who Christ is. So we did a lesson on Christ and he just ate it up he loves the idea of a Saviour and of someone who can take our sins if we choose to give them to him. We explained how we can follow Christ through baptism, we presented to Book of Mormon and taught how this book will help him better know his Saviour. Then we asked him when he reads and prays about this book and gets an answer that it is true would he be baptized and he agreed and then we invited him to prepare for the 25th of Feb. and he agreed, so we are really happy and excited about Ali and we will help him progress.

We have KEVIN, he is from Nigeria, and has met with the missionaries before and was actually going to get baptized last year but had to go to Switzerland for a year so he lost contact with the missionaries. We taught him the restoration and he understands the importance of baptism so we committed him for the 25th of Feb. and he agreed. So we have 2 baptisms set up for the 25th of Feb., anything can happen but we will do everything in our power to help these our brethren enter the waters of baptism and make there first covenant with God :)

We have the famiglia Digrazia, there is the mother Mary, and the father Roberto, and 3 children, the oldest has autism and twins that are 10, the children don't like to sit and listen so we are focusing on the parents for now. They had us over for dinner last night which I don't really like to do with new investigators because they sometime misunderstand our purpose but they caught us off guard. We went over for 7 and didn't tell us we were eating with them and then we got there and the food was ready, so we ate and then taught the restoration. They are such a sweet Italian family, we gave them the soft invite that goes like this " when you read and pray and know that this is true will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone who hold the priesthood of God?" they said if we get an answer yes. Then I felt to give them a hard invite that goes like this "we have a baptismal service the 25th of Feb., will you prepare yourselves for that day?" They didn't like that too much and were just like wow calm down there, haha I don't think they understood that it was all accordance to if and when they get an answer but anyway so they denied the date. But I'm happy we invited because now they know our purpose :) we will continue to help them progress.

Mary Brando, she and her family has been sick with the flu so we have not gone over to teach her. I have kept in contact to see how she is doing but they are just sick haha. Our plan is to go over and make a calendar with Mary with the goal of getting baptized the 25th of Feb., and just go through steps she can take to get to that date prepared, we want to figure out her desire and help her reach her goals, she really wants to be baptized. It's not like we are pushing her, she wants to and she is just asking for our help. It's frustrating because when we bring it up at ward council everyone is like..."her husband just died she needs time" and I just think time for what? It is only through the gospel of Jesus Christ that she can be fully healed, and she wants to get baptized to go to the Temple in one year to be sealed to her husband... but so many ward members are like "she needs time" They just don't understand that time will do nothing but make it harder for her to commit, we need to help her see that through the gospel of Jesus Christ she can be spiritually healed. Anyway the bishop understands and backs us up which is the best thing and so we are not lost but I will follow the prompting I get because I know I have been set apart to be a missionary here now, and that I can receive revelation for Mary and for Busto:)

Sorry I don't have a lot of time to write. I love you all so much. Dad I'm writing you a card for your birthday it might come a bit late but it will come. Just know that I love you and I'm proud of the old man you're becoming :) (quote from Jason) haha you truly are the best dad in the world and Im so glad that I'm making you happy by serving the Lord. Just know that I love this work so much and that is why this Feb. in interviews with president I'm going to talk more seriously about my extenuation that I want. I love this work so much and I only get these 2 years so why not make them a little bit longer, plus I am not a perfect missionary but I want to give more of what is expected of me, Christ did so much for me and for us that i feel i get serve a little longer, but in the end its just more blessings for me, every time i try to pay the Saviour back i just dig myself a bigger pit of debt because i learn and grow so much. Anyway just know that I will be talking to president seriously and that if i do get extended it will probably be for the November the 15th that I'll come home...unless I can extend for longer... but we will see what the Lord says, this is just me speaking. I've prayed a little about it but not as much as I need to, anyway dad happy birthday tomorrow, go see lots of movies for me, I love you so much and dad one thing...I FREAKIN LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!

Love you guys have a great week...hope you get this email :)

Love Anziano Glowa

Lost letters.. from Jan.11 &18th 2012

Hey! Sorry you haven’t gotten my emails. I have been sending pictures and the emails haven’t been sending because of the picture attachments.

Jan. 11^th 2012

Hey, sounds like a lot happened this week... with all of Vovo’s treatments and with Rebecca’s baby. Wow!! That makes me happy to hear about the blessing Jason gave Vovo; it gives me comfort because I’ve been thinking about him the last couple days and thinking if I’ll see him when I get home. Now I know that I will :)

I'm feeling a lot better. I have a cough and it’s one of those coughs that will stay for about 6 months haha but my asthma is fine. I'm going out and I'm working! This week I don’t have that much to say just because I was super sick and it seemed like one thing would start and end and then another would start instead of just getting it all in one dose. But that’s life I guess…like I said things are going much better now and I'm happy about that.

We have one real legit progressing investigator, Mary Brando. Her husband died from cancer about 6 weeks before I got here. She has 3 children and 2 of them are baptized, the other one is only 5 and we have a plan for her to get baptized the 21st of Jan. I think she can do it. She knows the doctrine really well and has a great testimony and reads and prays with her children everyday, but she smokes... that’s the only thing stopping her, when we met with her last week she was smoking 20 a day and then we met with her yesterday and she is down to 8. We made her a calendar to follow to show her the things she must do for her baptism. She just needs to drop one cigarette a day and she will be fine. I made her "fake cigs". I made a box with Jesus pictures and then found like 20 powerful inspiring scriptures and then wrote each one on a slip of paper and rolled it into a cig. Every time she has a desire or craving to smoke she takes one of those and reads the scripture. I think it has helped a lot and I hope that it will continue to help. :)

Other then that, all the investigators that we found before Christmas have kind of dropped up which is too bad. One family we found asked us on the phone why we didn’t do the cross when we prayed with them. I said that it would be best to go over and explain it instead of trying to explain over the phone but he didn’t want that. He wanted the answer then and there. I simply explained how we realize and understand that Christ died for us and many Christians have a cross to remind themselves of his death but we prefer to focus on a living Christ and the fact that he lives and guides us today and we don’t use the cross because its a symbol of his death. He didn’t like that and said true Christians do the cross...its just too bad that some people can be turned off to the gospel just because of little things like that, but I know that Heavenly Father is preparing people to receive us and we just have to continue to find them. :)

That’s it for me! Today for pday we went to this place called Stresa; it’s a cool little town with nothing too special but I took pictures which will be attached to this email. I hope you enjoy! Next week I will be going to Milan because there are sales this time of year and then the next pday I’ll go to Switzerland! :)

Hope you all have a great week! Thanks for your prayers and support. :) LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!

Love Anziano Glowa

January 18^th 2012

THURSDAY- I did a scambi with our zone leaders. I went to Como with Anziano Kimball, he’s a great missionary! He’s best friends with my trainer, so we had a lot to talk about. We taught amazing lessons; some of the most spiritual lessons we’ve taught on our missions. We just teach like bosses together.

FRIDAY- nothing special, we did weekly planning, and we just taught people and gave away copies of the book of Mormon. We don’t have like any legit investigators, thanks to the holiday seasons, like all our investigators have dropped us. Anyways we are still working hard looking for Heavenly Father’s elect. I love talking with people; it’s the best, this evening we had ward council also.

SATURDAY- same kinda deal…just doing casa and strada and talking to people and teaching lessons, like I said there really isnt anyone legit to talk about. We do have Mary Brando. She had a baptismal date for this Saturday but she can’t quit smoking and she won’t be ready for this Saturday. We had a good lesson with her about what she wants and how we can help her get that and then she asked for a blessing of comfort. It’s going to be weird when I come home and have to give blessings in English. Haha I’m just so used to doing it in Italian. :)

SUNDAY- we had church and then we got invited over for lunch by the Pallandinos. They are so awesome! They are a newlywed couple. We ate pasta with meat; it was good! :) Then we went outside and it was sooooo freezing!!!!! it was like -5...I’m sure you are all thinking right now “wow that’s really not that cold, Ben should come home and see how cold it is here,’ but its sooo humid here and there is no snow so its just such a bitter cold. So when it’s -5, I’m sure it’s like -25 for you guys. Either that or I’m just a baby who has forgotten the cold of Canada. :p

MONDAY- we did a scambi with our district. I was with our district leader and we stayed in Busto. We worked hard and we have investigators named Isaac and Rita. I don’t remember if I have talked about them but pretty much we are going to drop them. They were so legit but they are not married and they can’t get married because Isaac’s passport expired and he needs a job to get money to renew it. Anyways long story short, without the Holy Ghost it has just been hard on them and they don’t keep commitments. All they want to know about is the temple and stuff, which wouldn’t be a bad thing, but they just miss the whole picture and point of the temple. They are mad that they can’t go inside unless they are worthy members and this just brought forth other problems. When we go over they just create contention and we get no where because they are not humble, so we just need to drop them... Then that evening we went to the Brando's house the mother of the guy who died like 2 months ago. She is such a sweet lady and reminds me a lot of grandma Glowa. She made really good food! She is from Sicily originally and just made some great Sicilian food. Of course I don’t know any names just know that it was good! :)

TUESDAY- we re-scambied and then just began teaching lessons and looking for some progressing investigators. I know that the Lord is preparing people but it’s always harder this time of year. I remember last year in Collegno and how we would do 6 to 7 hours of casa...daily... I think about how Jason said he didn’t have a lot of time to do tracking. Hahaha he should come to Italy and do a split with me to see how we do things in Italy hahaha. Anyway in the evening we had set up an appointment with a lady we found before Christmas. Her last name is Digrazia. The family consists of a father, mother, 3 children, the twins are 10 and they have a mentally handicap child who is 15. They are way cool and I can really see them progressing in the future. We talked about the book of Mormon and how they can know if it’s true. We taught them how to pray and the father said the closing prayer. I know that with all the hard work we are doing, the Lord is blessing us and he will continue to bless us.

I know that this is the work of Christ and I know that I have been called to serve and I’m so grateful for this opportunity! I’m so grateful for Uncle Kim and Aunt Dawn and that they have come back. It just makes me so happy and I know that these are the blessing of serving a mission. I know that I’m led by the Lord and when I've gone so far that I can’t go anymore, I know that it’s in those moments that the Lord takes my hand and brings me the rest of the way and leads me to the miracles. I do believe in miracles and they come daily, and if we are putting in our effort and our attitude then we will make it over the miracle fence over and over again.

Please tell Uncle Kim and Aunt Dawn how proud I am of their choices, and that they are a great example to me, as you both are as well. I’m so grateful to have parents who are faithful and who do what is right and I’m so grateful for a brother who lead the way for me, and has always been the best example. I know that we can all do hard things and when we do all we can do and go as far as we can go, the Lord will ALWAYS bring us the rest of the way to the miracles.

LOVE YOU ALL HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!

Love Anziano Glowa

Sorry about all the confusion I hope you get this and I’ll write about this week tomorrow. I love you!