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.
Our English course went really well this week and we were able to do a sweet spiritual thought with them. For this spiritual thought we needed to get some sweets so we went down to this Pacifico to buy some of these good pastry things. On the way over to this place we passed by this house of this guy that we met outside one time who was super cool. He is pretty big and likes to go to the gym and stuff and loves things about America like cars, music, etc. So we were walking to this place and I didn’t see him but apparently he was in the car with his friends and he ducked down in the passenger seat so we wouldn’t see him and his friends pulled up his scarf and looked the opposite direction. I didn’t see this, but I thought it was pretty funny. We then walked by again of course since we had to go back to the church and we passed the again. The friend in the back of the car sees us coming up and tells everyone in the car and they do the same thing. It was super funny because they were the worst hiding spots in the world since we literately walked right by the car hahaha. I said hey to him and we just kept walking since they clearly didn’t want to talk to us.
It was just pretty funny hahaha.
So it rained a lot this week and we are still focusing on hitting as many less actives as we can to help update the information and also to help them at all possible to return to church and feel that spirit in their lives once again. We were searching for one this week and we rung on the citofono [intercom] and started talking with one lady who didn’t know if the member lived there anymore. We rang another and they unlocked it and then started screaming, “CHI È!?!?!” (WHO IS IT!?!?!) And we tried to explain from the door but we had to go inside since they couldn’t hear us. We went up the stairs and tried to ask this anziano if he knew about this member and if she lived there in the past, but the whole time this is going on this lady from inside is still just screaming bloody murder. It was soooo loud. It was indiscernible and just crazy loud. The old man just looks at us and just, “Che dice mia moglie?” (What is my wife saying?). We were just like, “No lo sappiamo signore” (We don’t know sir.). The only thing I got towards the end was, “CHIUDA LA PORTA!!!! CHIUDA LA PORTA!!!!” (CLOSE THE DOOR!!! CLOSE THE DOOR!!!). It was just a really strange experience hahaha.
It was a really awesome week and I am really happy the way the lessons with our investigators and hope that we will continue to help them find this in their lives so they will be able to really know that the things that we are bringing them are true. I am so thankful for the time I have to be here serving in Italy and meet all the amazing and wonderful people that I have met and look forward to continue to meet more amazing people. I am so thankful for my Savior Jesus Christ and something that I really enjoyed from studies today was from Mosiah 14 when Abindai is teaching Noah and his wicked priests about Christ and what we would do for the world. And I am so thankful that he did all these things out of the pure love that he has for us.
Mosiah 14
1 Yea, even doth not Isaiah say: Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?
2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground; he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb so he opened not his mouth.
I really know that it is through that charity the pure love of Christ that he did this all for us. I love him so very much and am so thankful for all the love that he offers each and everyone of us and that he performed this Atonement for each one of us. Right now on FollowHim.mormon.org there is a lot of amazing things on Easter and I want to invite you all to check that out this week! I love you all and hope that you all have an amazing week!
Vi voglio tanto bene!!!
Anziano Garrett
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