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Cosenza – Week 2

March 28, 2016 By Leave a Comment

Buona Pasquetta tutti!!!

Hope that everyone had a nice Easter Sunday and a great weekend. We were able to have a really nice Easter yesterday and the rain luckily stopped for the whole day.

This past week went really well and we were able to enjoy a nice week of work here in Cosenza. We were only able to see one of our investigators this week, but we went over to his house and then were able to sit down and talk with his whole family, which went really nice, and they want to have us all over to have dinner with them again. They were super nice and the father speaks English really well due to work, so he loved to be able to speak English with us the other night. The lesson with the investigator went well, but we, unfortunately, didn’t get to talk about the spiritual things with the family when we sat down with them. We will look to pick them all up as investigators the next time that we go over to meet with them all.

During any time this week, where we didn’t have a prospective lesson or anything, we went in search of less actives, and finding the right places here in Italy can be very difficult sometimes. We were unable to find some of them and the ones that we did find we were unable to get inside to get to know them and share a short message. It was really neat the because Saturday night we had helped a Sorella from the church here in Cosenza buy some Easter eggs for the kids in the branch. After that we went out again in search of some less actives and we were able to find some of the places, but one didn’t live there any more and the other wasn’t home. We then decided to walk a ways to try the last two of the night. We had to walk up these pretty big hills to get to one and it ended up that Apple maps sent us to the wrong street. We had two good conversations and one was with a younger couple who were both really cool and super nice. It was awesome to be able to see that we may have been sent to the wrong street to talk with them. They directed us to the right street and at last we found the house that we were looking for. Upon arriving, we knew that we only had this one last house before having to head home. We doubled tapped the citofono (that double tap works miracles) and the door just opened. We went up the stairs and got to her door and rang the door bell. When she opened the door she was so surprised. She told us to wait and came back out 15 seconds later. We weren’t able to go in since there wasn’t a man at the house but we got to know her for a little bit and were able to share the Easter video with her. It was really awesome and super special that we were able to do that and it was really touching to see that she appreciated the visit. I really hope that we will be able to see her again soon and help her in any way that we can.

Easter was really nice and we got invited over to a member’s house for lunch and had a nice meal with them. We had some home made gnocchi with a red sauce with some beef in it. For the second plate we had potatoes and chicken, with a zucchini casserole on the side, some meat balls, salad, oranges for the fruit course, and then finished up with two different types of cake and some chocolate. It was a really nice meal and the family was so nice and were super happy to have us over for lunch. They are so nice and I look forward to continue to getting to know them better. They gave us chocolate eggs here too which is a different tradition than the Easter egg hunt that we do back home.

They were really good and I was able to hold their pet bunny so I thought that was pretty festive as well. It was a good time and we were able to then go and visit a less active in the afternoon as well. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Assignments, Cosenza, Food, Holidays, Italy

Cosenza – Week 1

March 21, 2016 By Leave a Comment

Buongiorno tutti!!

I hope that everyone was able to have a great week and that you are all doing well! I made it to Cosenza nice and safe and everything. I was traveling with Anziano Cleveland, Anziano Raedielli, Sorella Holiday, and Sorella Workman. It was really nice and we were able to really enjoy the time getting to know one another better. It was really pretty across Sicilia and the train then gets loaded on a ferry and then we get to the mainland of Italy. It was really awesome and it went well.

It was a busy last week in Tràpani and I was able to see a lot of people to say bye to them and everything. It was a lot of fun and I will really miss a lot of the people that the Lord gave me the opportunity to know. It was a time that I really loved and was able to spend with so many wonderful people. I am now looking forward to the time here in Cosenza! It will be a lot of fun.

I got in to Cosenza about 3:00 last Thursday. Anziano Borner is my new companion and he is from Idaho. Including the transfer that we have together he has 3 transfers left and has been up here in Cosenza for 4 already so this will be his 5th. We have some similar interests so that is really nice and I am sure that we will enjoy this transfer together.

We have been able to do a couple of lessons already. One of our investigators up here is really cool. He is studying law and he is a younger guy and he reminds me so much of Niko from the cross country team. It is super awesome. He has a hat just like Niko had and he has a beard and everything. He is also just super smart as well. It is really interesting to see so many similarities in people here in the mission that I know back home hahaha. We were able to have a lesson with him and then went out with him to get some cotton candy at this fair that is super close to the church. He is super cool and I look forward to seeing how we will be able to help him progress. I wasn’t able to see any other investigator here but met some members and then was able to see a lot of them at church as well. They are super nice and it is about the same size, probably a little smaller, than Tràpani. I look forward to getting to know them all and be able to develop close friendships and relationships with them. It will be a lot of fun and a good time to get to know them all.

Today we haven’t done much since we did spesa [finances], cleaned, and ate lunch. We are meeting someone here in a little because he needs help with something.

I am very thankful for Christ and his Atonement and this sacrifice that he made for us. I hope that you all had the chance to look at the website that I posted last week. There are a lot of good things on it.

I am excited to be able to celebrate Easter next week. I am so thankful for all that the Savior has done for us and through this infinite sacrifice we will be able to live again. And we can even live together with our families forever.

8 And now, behold, I will testify unto you of myself that these things are true. Behold, I say unto you, that I do know that Christ shall come among the children of men, to take upon him the transgressions of his people, and that he shall atone for the sins of the world; for the Lord God hath spoken it.

9 For it is expedient that an atonement should be made; for according to the great plan of the Eternal God there must be an atonement made, or else all mankind must unavoidably perish; yea, all are hardened; yea, all are fallen and are lost, and must perish except it be through the atonement which it is expedient should be made.

10 For it is expedient that there should be a great and last sacrifice; yea, not a sacrifice of man, neither of beast, neither of any manner of fowl; for it shall not be a human sacrifice; but it must be an infinite and eternal sacrifice.

14 And behold, this is the whole meaning of the law, every whit pointing to that great and last sacrifice; and that great and last sacrifice will be the Son of God, yea, infinite and eternal.

15 And thus he shall bring salvation to all those who shall believe on his name; this being the intent of this last sacrifice, to bring about the bowels of mercy, which overpowereth justice, and bringeth about means unto men that they may have faith unto repentance.

I am so thankful for this infinite and eternal sacrifice. After Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden it was all dependent upon Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer to truly reach out and save us all. I know that he has and thanks to this we have so many wonderful blessings and things in store. I am so thankful for Him and the love that He is full of to save us all, and to always show forth that love towards us no matter what.

Love you all and hope that you have a great week!! Talk to you all soon!

Our travel group, leaving Sicily on the ferry, March 17, 2016. Note the train on the ferry in the background. Front, Sorella Holiday, Sorella Workman. Middle Anziano Cleveland and Anziano Raedelli. (Photo courtesy of Sorella Holiday's blog)

Our travel group, leaving Sicily on the ferry, March 17, 2016. Note the train on the ferry in the background. Front, Sorella Holiday, Sorella Workman. Middle Anziano Cleveland and Anziano Raedelli. (Photo courtesy of Sorella Holiday’s blog)

[Here are some photos from this week from Anziano Spencer’s blog.  Taylor has really enjoyed working with him for the past 12 weeks and will miss him]

On a hike with Anziano Spencer on last P-Day in Tràpani

On a hike with Anziano Spencer on last P-Day in Tràpani

Last session of the English course in Tràpani

Last session of the English course in Tràpani

Recently arrived returned missionary couple that help the missionary work in Tràpani.

Recently arrived returned missionary couple that help the missionary work in Tràpani.

Filed Under: Assignments, Cosenza, Missionary Work, Transfers Tagged With: , , , ,

Transfer Day

March 17, 2016 By Leave a Comment

It’s transfer day!  Tràpani to Cosenza:

 

Filed Under: Assignments, Cosenza, Missionary Work, Transfers

Tràpani – Week 24

March 14, 2016 By Leave a Comment

Ciao Tutti!!

Hope that everyone is doing well and that you all had an awesome week!! I will start off with transfer calls so you don’t have to dig around for them. So I am leaving Tràpani this week and I am headed to Cosenza which is in Calabria, and my new companion will be Anzinao Borner. It will be hard to leave Tràpani it has become like a second home to me. Speaking Italian better in these past transfers has given me the opportunity to be able to really get to know the members and everyone I have been able to meet well. I have really been able to gain a lot of friends since I have been down here. I am excited to move on to a new city with some new adventures at the same time. I will have the chance to get to know some new people and a new part of Italy where I hear they like really spicy food. So it is a given that I am excited about that. I will miss the people a ton and just the beauty of Sicilia in the countryside and of course in the food as well. I am really grateful for the things that I have been able to learn down here with my companions. I will miss Anziano Spencer a lot!

We have been able to work really well together and I have enjoyed these two transfers that we have had together. I have definitely learned a lot from him and really am thankful for the things that he has taught me and the lessons that we have learned together as well. It has been 4 really awesome transfers down here in Sicilia. So far a perfect track record for 4 cities with 4 transfers apiece. Hope I will be able to continue that as well. I know that Tràpani is in good hands with Anziano Spencer and his new companion will be Anziano Olsen who is coming down from Pozzuoli. Sorella Workman is getting transferred to Rome 1 so that is really sick. So a greenie will be coming in place of her and the new zone leader down here will be Anziano Bellows with Anziano Trejo. So not a ton of changes happening to the district.

This week was really awesome and we were able to have some really good lessons with our investigators. We had one last Monday night where we were able to bring the two move-ins from the recent weeks with us who are both returned missionaries. The lesson went really well and it was cool to see the members and the investigators hit it off. It was really awesome. The lesson went well and we have another one with that family this evening. We had another one with this other family that went well and we really touched on coming to church on Sunday and it went well, but unfortunately they didn’t make it out to church yesterday so we will talk about that with them again this week. We were able to meet our English Course student twice this week which was really nice and the lesson went really well. I hope that he will continue to read in the Book of Mormon and really find his answer as he continues to genuinely search it out. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Assignments, Companions, Food, Italy, Missionary Work, Transfers, Trapani Tagged With: , , , ,

Tràpani – Week 23

March 7, 2016 By Leave a Comment

Ehi tutti!

I hope that everyone had an awesome week and that you were able to find the time to do everything that you had to do.

This week went really well for Anziano Spencer and I and we were able to see a lot of cool things happen in our work. We really hope that we will continue to see awesome things as well.

This past Monday we had another good lesson with that family and we were able to watch the restoration video together and it went really well. We really think they understood at least the major differences between our church and theirs and we hope that they will continue to search out this for themselves. We really love them a lot and they are super awesome and we really just want to help them as much as we can, but it is up to them to act and keep the commitments that we leave to find out for themselves whether or not it is true. We had a good lesson after that with another family and it went well. It was kind of a crazy dinner with a lot of random things happening hahaha. It was short because we got done eating dinner so late, but they invited us to come over again Thursday night so we will see how it goes.

Tuesday after our DDM we started our scambio and Anziano Trejo and I were able to ride back to Trapani with the Wurdles who are a senior couple in Mistretta right now. They are super nice and they had to come down to do another apartment check so that went well and we were able to enjoy getting to know them better and chat with them the whole way down. They are super awesome. Anziano Trejo and I had a good night of finding, English course, and then we went over to visit a member’s home. It all went really well and I always enjoy learning everything that I can from all the other missionaries, since there are so many things that we can learn from everyone. Which is why I like so much that we have different people speak in church each and every week and never the same people each week. We can all just learn from everyone.

Wednesday we got two bidones and then we went to visit this member house for lunch but things got swapped around so they gave us food as they watched us eat because we had to get back to Palermo. She wasn’t going to allow us to leave without eating something so we sat their and ate a quick lunch before heading back up to Palermo to swap back.

The scambio went really well and I can just see how much Anziano Trejo cares about the members and the people he works with. He is also really good at being super bold with everyone he meets which is a super good quality that he has, that really helps him in so many different aspects of the work. I was really kind of having a rough day that day as well and we were on the bus home and I just was kind of down. I was really hoping as the bus filled up that I would get someone to sit next to me and on the last stop the last guy to get on sat down next to me. It was super awesome and was able to have a really good conversation with him that really helped me a lot. It went really well.  It is just unfortunate that he lives on one of the islands off the coast of Tràpani so seeing him is near impossible. Well I really wanted to get him a Book of Mormon so we exchanged numbers and said that we could possibly meet the next morning down near centro where he would be staying before going on a boat to his home. We finished off the night trying to find some less actives and trying to visit all of them if we can. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Assignments, Exchanges, Missionary Work, Trapani Tagged With: ,

Tràpani – Week 22

February 29, 2016 By Leave a Comment

Ciao tutti!

Hope that everyone had a great week and that you were all able to accomplish the things that you needed to do! Our week went well for us.

Monday night we were able to go over to that family’s house and were able to have a nice meal together and then share a shorter spiritual thought than we had originally planned, but it went really well! They are super awesome and the mom was able to read in the Book of Mormon which we were really happy about. We hope that she will be able to continue in it and that we will be able to really get the girl to get started in it as well. We will be watching the Restoration film with them tonight so we are excited.

Tuesday we had our DDM, which went really well, and Anziano Brandon and I started our scambio and we stayed in Palermo. It went well, and we were able to do a good amount of finding for the night before English Course. It was really cool to see some small miracles while we were finding. One guy in particular stuck out to me. We were walking and we both made eye contact and I just think that he knew I was going to say something and I had a small feeling that he would stop, but also possibily go on. He stopped and watched the video that we were sharing and it went really well. Hopefully they will be able to see that guy soon. English course went well and then we were back to the house. The environment of a four man house is a lot different. It was really funny because Anziano Trejo is trying to eat better and put on more muscle and of course Anzinao Palazzo knows what he is talking about. He just has to ask every night what he can and can’t eat hahaha. Pasta was a big no no, but he couldn’t find anything else so he let temptation beset him and Anziano Palazzo wasn’t happy with him. His punishment was getting punched in the stomach for his ab workout the next day. It was really funny hahaha.

Wednesday started with a good workout and we were able to finish up our scambio with some more finding after doing some permesso stuff for Anzinano Brandon.  We headed back to Tràpani after Anziano Spencer and Anziano Jensen showed up. W finished up our night with some finding in Tràpani.

Thursday we started off with doing our program sheet to keep track of Book of Mormon reading for the members. I really hope they will undertake the challenge to read it within four months. We were really pumped for English Course because afterwards we were able to share the film Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration. It went really well and I think that the English Course students definitely enjoyed it and they were able to definitely learn more about the story and history of Joseph Smith. I am definitely thankful for all that he has done for us and all the sacrifices he made to keep doing the will of the Lord. I know that he is a prophet of the Lord and has done so much for us I love these scriptures in D&C 135. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Assignments, Exchanges, Missionary Work, Transfers, Trapani Tagged With: , , , ,

Tràpani – Week 21

February 22, 2016 By Leave a Comment

Ei buondi!!

Hope that everyone is doing well. Sorry that my emails didn’t make it through last Monday. I resent them to everyone so hopefully they all got there and everyone was able to read them. President Waddoups did a good job of scaring the crap out of me too. I had just had my interview and Anziano Spencer and I were finishing up a sick night of finding in Palermo and I got a call from him and he says, “Well Elder you’re in trouble.” I was like oh crap, “What did I do?” He replies it, “It wasn’t what you did, it’s what you didn’t do.” My reply, “Uhhh…” Thoughts were running through my head. Did I miss someone to give a pass along card to or something like that?  He then explained that I didn’t email my family and everything which was really weird since I spent like 3 hours in the church emailing. We got it all figured out and I sent them off the next day while we were waiting for Zone Conference to start.

Last week went really well though! Monday night we had a really awesome lesson with this family and it went super well. We were talking about the plan of salvation and they really enjoyed it. We could feel the spirit super strong at the end as we bore our testimonies on the Book of Mormon and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that has been restored through Joseph Smith. Super awesome lesson and we are going back over there tonight to watch The Restoration film with them and then have dinner. We are excited and really hope that it goes well.

Tuesday we did a scambio with the Palermo B Anziani in our district, so Anziano Jensen and I came here while Anziano Spencer and Anziano Brandon were in Palermo. It went really well and was good to get to know Anziano Jensen some more because we didn’t get many chances to talk one on one in the MTC. We were able to have a pretty successful scambio together and I definitely took a lot of good lessons away from it. We were able to randomly meet so many people I knew on the street that I never really see at all. It was really weird, but we turned out to have a lot of really good conversations.  We finished up the scambio visiting some members and having lunch with them. We headed back to Palermo Wednesday so we could get there for interviews. Anziano Spencer and I teamed up again and went out for a night of finding that went really well and we were able to talk to some really awesome people. Hopefully the numbers will go places for the Anziani there. We stayed the night with the Anziani at the Palermo 1 house with all 4 of the anziani plus the assistants as well. It was fun, as always, to get to talk to everyone before heading to bed.

Zone conference was a lot of fun and we were able to really learn a lot from all our leaders. President Waddoups did two really good addestramentos. One on becoming a consecrated missionary, based around Tad R. Callister’s Becominng a Consecrated Missionary talk. It was super good and a really good reminder for me to make sure that I am putting my all on the altar of sacrifice for the Lord during my service over here. He then focused on the Book of Mormon and we have the challenge right now to read it in three months which is going really well. I am excited that we are all really trying to focus on Preach My Gospel and the Book of Mormon right now. The assistants, Anziano Flynn and Anziano Taranto (Toronto), gave an amazing addestramento about focusing on Preach My Gospel. Sorella Waddoups also had a really awesome activity that she did where we were able to share our thoughts on two missionaries, then the Book of Mormon, and finally the Savior. It was really awesome. Super fun zone conference for sure.

We did a lot of planning Friday night and then coordination meeting with our branch mission leader. Saturday we were able to have 4 lessons which was really awesome and they all went really well. The one with our new investigator from English course went really well and we were able to read Alma 32 together and it was awesome. We really look forward to seeing where he goes and how he progresses. He came to church too!! It was so awesome. I really love him a lot and really hope it all works out with him.

We went to Segesta again today, which was really fun,  and we were able to go with Anziano Palazzo, Anziano Trejo, two other members from Palermo 1 and then an investigator of theirs. It was super fun.

Something that I really enjoyed from my study this week was from this morning was 2 Nephi 9:39.

39 O, my beloved brethren, remember the awfulness in transgressing against that Holy God, and also the awfulness of yielding to the enticings of that cunning one. Remember, to be carnally-minded is death, and to be spiritually-minded is life eternal.

I really like the last sentence. It is so true that as we are spiritually minded it truly helps us make the best decisions in life and helps us avoid falling into temptation from the adversary. I really liked that a lot to just be spiritually minded which will help us get to where we want to go, our enteral home with our Heavenly Father.

I love you all very much and hope that you all have an amazing week and that you enjoy life in all ways possible. Talk to you soon!

Vi voglio bene,

Anziano Garrett

Sometimes sidewalk chalk drawings are used for finding on the street.

Sometimes sidewalk chalk drawings are used for finding on the street.

On the beach at Tràpani, Sicily

On the beach at Tràpani, Sicily

Segesta excursion, Feb 22, 2016

Segesta excursion, Feb 22, 2016

Zone conference fun, Palermo Zone, Feb. 2016

Zone conference fun, Palermo Zone, Feb. 2016

Palermo 1 District, Feb. 2016

Palermo 1 District, Feb. 2016

[Photos of zone conference from Sister Waddoups’ blog]

Palermo Zone, February, 2016

Palermo Zone, February, 2016

Palermo Zone Conference, Feb. 2016 (from Sis. Waddoups' blog)

Palermo Zone Conference, Feb. 2016 (from Sis. Waddoups’ blog)

Palermo Zone Conference, Feb. 2016 (from Sis. Waddoups' blog)

Palermo Zone Conference, Feb. 2016 (from Sis. Waddoups’ blog)

Palermo Zone Conference, Feb. 2016 (from Sis. Waddoups' blog)

Palermo Zone Conference, Feb. 2016 (from Sis. Waddoups’ blog)

Palermo Zone Conference, Feb. 2016 (from Sis. Waddoups' blog)

Palermo Zone Conference, Feb. 2016 (from Sis. Waddoups’ blog)

Palermo Zone Conference, Feb. 2016 (from Sis. Waddoups' blog)

Palermo Zone Conference, Feb. 2016 (from Sis. Waddoups’ blog)

Palermo Zone Conference, Feb. 2016 (from Sis. Waddoups' blog)

Palermo Zone Conference, Feb. 2016 (from Sis. Waddoups’ blog)

Palermo Zone Conference, Feb. 2016 (from Sis. Waddoups' blog)

Palermo Zone Conference, Feb. 2016 (from Sis. Waddoups’ blog)

Palermo Zone Conference, Feb. 2016 (from Sis. Waddoups' blog)

Palermo Zone Conference, Feb. 2016 (from Sis. Waddoups’ blog)

Filed Under: Assignments, Companions, Conferences, Exchanges, Italy, Missionary Work, Places, Segesta, Tourist Sites, Trapani, Trapani Sites Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Tràpani – Week 20

February 15, 2016 By 2 Comments

Buon San Valentino!!

Hope that everyone had an awesome week this week and that you all enjoyed everything that you were able to do!! This week was filled with a lot finding and then a nice and busy Saturday full of lessons.

I will start off with a miracle that we were able to see Monday. After getting done playing pool with two of our friends at the bowling alley, we had some lessons planned at the church. We were waiting forever for one of the guys to show up but, unfortunately, he literately took forever. So we waited and waited and he finally came with 3 friends and thought we were doing some sort of English lesson. It was weird hahaha. Well he left and so we decided to go and try a less active again. Well she was home, but didn’t feel like answering the door, so we decided to move on from that too. We got to one of the busier streets and literately saw only one person. We then decided to go up to him and ask if we could share a quick video with him. He said no and brushed it off super fast. Anziano Spencer then asked about English course and he was interested in that. He is really good at it since he lived out of Italy for a while. The conversation just kind of went on and he asked what church we were a part of, which then, in turn, allowed us to share the restoration with him. He sat there and listened, intrigued. We asked him what he thought of that and he said he wasn’t really thinking too much about it, but he believed that things happen for a reason. He said that he normally never talks about religion with others at all so he said this may have happened for a reason as well.

It was super cool and we were super pumped because then he asked us to do a little homework and he wanted to know how the gospel changed our life and in what way it affects us daily. We were pumped and then asked when he wanted to meet and he said tomorrow or the next day. We got an appointment scheduled and everything. We were super pumped to see how it all laid out.

Tuesday was really cool at District Meeting to be able to meet all the new missionaries in the district. They are all super cool and really funny. We have a super funny district and it will be a lot of fun! It was really awesome to get to catch up with Anziano Jensen as well. We will be going on a scambio this Tuesday as well.

Back to the miracle guy. Well Wednesday comes around and the miracle guy never showed up and blocked our phone. We had confirmed and everything, and he had asked us more good questions through texts.  It was hard to see, but I thought that he handled it well with moving on and we kept going.

Saturday turned out to be awesome. We started off the morning with a less active lesson that one of our members drove us t,o which was super nice of him. We then met with one of our English Course students and had a lesson in English that went super well! He is so awesome and it was great to get to know him better and share our message with him. He accepted a baptism date and everything that we will be helping him work towards. We are super excited to be able to work with him and are really happy with the way it all turned out. We never know who is ready to receive the gospel. We could never tell if he was interested in our spiritual thoughts, but he is truly ready for the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are pumped for him. We got to meet another awesome guy that evening and the lesson went super well there too. We were able to share a really good Restoration lesson with him and he is excited to read it. It will be really sweet to see where he ends up as well. It was so very nice to be blessed with all of that on Saturday and it was really just amazing. Church was awesome this Sunday and I was able to really learn a lot and enjoyed it a ton. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Companions, Trapani Tagged With:

Tràpani – Week 19

February 8, 2016 By Leave a Comment

Ciao Tutti!

I hope that everyone was able to have an awesome week! We are still working really hard to meet with a lot of people and we are seeing a lot of miracles with the work and just trying our best to really help people progress. We are really loving it here in Tràpani and are really excited to be able to stay together and keep working with one another. We really work well together and we are really trying to do our best to be who the Lord would have us be. We were able to have a couple of lessons this week and one of them was super cool!

We were finding last week with the white board and talking about the most important event in history and we stopped this guy that was walking his dog, who he said was named Spanky. He stopped and we had a good conversation and he said that we could stop by some day at his house and talk with him about the Book of Mormon. Sweet! So we headed back there a few days later in the evening and we couldn’t find his name on the citofonos so we kept searching and decided to check this one last house and we finally found it. So on the citofonos (the things you ring to talk to them at apartments) if you double tap the button it is the symbol of someone that is a friend or family member or something. So we double tapped it and they just unlock it (only occasionally happens). We go up to the next one and double tap it again and it is once again unlocked with no questions. So. Now we are in business. We walk up to the door that is opened and are trying to introduce ourselves with all the unfamiliar faces of a grandmother and granddaughter. The dog comes out which is the indicator that this is the right house. I explained that we had met this guy on the street with the dog, “Spanky right?” Well needless to say that wasn’t the dogs name which was a good start. We get to talking and then the guy walks out and they just invite us in. The wife was super nice and was excited to have us in. They really wanted to know about what we believe and we were able to share the Restoration lesson with them and it went really well. The wife asked super good questions and was really interested in knowing more. It went really well, but she talked about how she could never change. That is ok though! She is super excited to read the Book of Mormon which is super awesome with us!

They wouldn’t give us a day that we could come back so hopefully we will be able to stop by again this week and see where we can go from there.

We had another good lesson with the family that we met last week and were able to read out of the Book of Mormon with them. It went really well and we read 1 Nephi 3&4:1-7 which went really well! They are super awesome, but they weren’t ready to totally commit to baptism right now. We really hope as they continue to read in the Book of Mormon, which the wife is already at Jacob, that desire will be there if they are reading with that real intent to act on the knowledge they would receive. Look forward to getting to see them this week. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Trapani

Tràpani – Week 18

February 1, 2016 By Leave a Comment

Ciao Tutti!

I will start off with transfer news!! Anziano Spencer and I will be staying together here in Tràpani for another 5 weeks!! We are both really excited and look forward to be able to work hard together in the city some more! Anziano Trejo and Anziano Palazzo will be staying the same, which is super cool because we will get to continue to work with them and learn all we can from them. Sorella McFarland is headed out to Bari to train again and to be the Sister Training Leader over there. She has been in Palermo for almost a whole year so she was ready for a change. Sorella Workman will be staying here and Sorella McPheters is coming in to be companions with her. Because there is a small influx of Anziani this transfer, we will be receiving two more Anziani in the district. One of them is Anziano Jensen, who is in my MTC group, so that will be super fun and awesome to be able to work with him down here and have him in the district. He is hilarious and I haven’t seen him since the Bednar conference so that will be super fun to see him.

I hope that everyone had a great week! We had a nice week and were able to see some really cool miracles this week. After district meeting on Tuesday we did some study in the park near centro storico and we were finishing up and we both felt like we needed to go talk to this guy sitting on a bench not too far away from us. We headed over there and asked if we could practice the language with him and we got to talking a lot and ended up sharing the whole first lesson with him and he was involved in it and payed attention with asking good questions and everything. He also agreed to meet the next day which was super cool and he is just such a nice guy. We have really high hopes for him and hope that he will be able to meet soon! Another one was when we were able to have a super cool lesson with this really nice guy that we met doing white board finding. It was super awesome and we were able to meet his son before he headed off for work and gave the first lesson with him and his wife. It went really well and they were ready to schedule the next lesson and so we will be heading back over there tomorrow evening. They are super awesome and nice and really have awesome potential. Their son is a super good artist and he has constructed these boats and I got a picture of what he does. It is super cool. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Companions, Missionary Work, Transfers, Trapani Tagged With: , , , , ,
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