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Anziano Taylor Garrett

Thoughts and Reflections from the Mission Field

Roma 1 – Week 10

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Ciao tutti!

This week went well!  I forgot to mention for last p-day we went to the Colosseum and it was really awesome!  I have always wanted to go inside so that was super cool to be able to do that.  If I do it again I would love to have more time to read and learn more about it.  We had a good time there, but didn’t have time to go to the Roman Forum afterwards, unfortunately.

Today was really awesome too because we just got back to the church from the Vatican and there is so much to see there and to learn about.  I got a lot of good pictures I will be able to send later.  It was really neat though.  Tons of really cool art, and I especially liked the rooms done by Raphael and in Michelangelo in St.Peters Cathedral.  It was super awesome.

So my grandpa had a few questions and I will answer some of them on here so others can no know.

So for food we usually eat at home everyday.  We will eat out occasionally, and then we also will get invited over sometimes for meals.  We usually make just simple things like pasta, meat, and what not.  We will get fruit from fruit stands that I still haven’t got a ton of luck with on the fruit I pick.  We will make pizza sometimes as well for dinner to make when we get home.  When we go out to eat it will be pizza and other things here and there.  There is this french fry place that started in Amsterdam, I think, and it is super good and cheap as well.  The food the members make is super delicious.  We had lunch yesterday with a member family and it was super good.  We had a little sandwich platter, then some fish and rice dish, then Sicilian pasta, sword fish, watermelon, pineapple, gelato, and flan with some fruit.  Needless to say it was a good meal.  The members are super awesome here and I am really getting to love them more and more every week.

Anziano Rasband and I have started to run.  He ran track and cross in high school so that’s what we do in the mornings.  We usually go just 4 but today only 3.  It’s been nice.

Well back to last week.  After the p-day was over we went on a scambio (companion exchange) with our zone leaders.  So Anziano Calvagna and I were together again for that night and the next day.  It was super fun to be back together again.  We had 3 appointments that day and so we were busy after our District Meeting and pranzo [lunch time] hours.  It was a great scambio. [Read more…] about Roma 1 – Week 10

Roma 1 – Week 6

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Ciao!!

This week has been really nice and sorry I don’t have a ton of time to write today, but I will tell you about my week and what all we did.

Well last P-day was a lot of fun and we just walked around Rome and saw some things, since Sorella Arnold is headed back home this week from her mission.  We ate at Subway (which was really expensive for Subway), but it hit the spot for sure.  We then just went around to some other significant places and such and didn’t do anything too new, but I still love just getting to walk around.

We received a fair amount of biedones (where we get a lesson cancelled), but that is OK and we just keep on working.  A lot of our investigators are about the same as last week.  We only got to see a couple of them this week.  We saw Riccardo and he is just still struggling to find his faith and it’s hard.  We are trying our best to help him find it and understand that faith is action (Peter 2:17).  We have to have action to exercise our faith.  Without it we won’t receive testimonies or answers if we never pray and ask Heavenly Father.  He wants to hear from us and has so many blessings in store.  We just have to sincerely ask for them with real intent. [Read more…] about Roma 1 – Week 6

Roma 1 – Week 5

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Ciao!!

We didn’t have a ton happen this week and I don’t have a ton of time to respond today so I will try my hardest to just give a recap of the week and what all happened and share something I learned this week in studying.

We had a second lesson with someone from our English course and he ended up dropping us after the lesson.  He has different beliefs and just doesn’t want to continue, but that is ok.  It reinforced the fact that we aren’t here to force people to do anything at all.  We are here to invite and for people to ask God themselves if the things we teach and if the Book of Mormon is the word of God.  We are unable to convince people.  We have to allow the Holy Ghost to touch their hearts and do what we can do to create the best spiritual environment.

We met with Silvestro and Claudia again and we just seem to continue to run into the problem that they will not commit to the things we ask.  It’s hard when they tell us they will and they just continue to fall short, but I am trying to remember that everyone has their moral agency and they have the right to choose for themselves what they want to do.  That seems to be a main struggle is getting to meet with our investigators and getting commitments.

So the family that I had talked about that is here from Nigeria?  We haven’t heard from them and whenever we call it goes straight to voicemail, so we went to visit and see what was up and we ended up finding out the dad went back to Africa for work related purposes (we think) but one of the sons was there.  He had a priest over from the Catholic church and they said it would be fine to be able to share a message with them.  We did a quick lesson on the restoration and then left. [Read more…] about Roma 1 – Week 5

Roma 1 – Week 4

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Ciao!

My first draft got deleted so I am trying again right now, so this might be shorter than the first one, unfortunately.

Last Tuesday we had a scambi [exchanges] and I went up north to Terni for the day and stayed the night up there one night.  We had two lessons on Tuesday and we taught this 8 year old, who is preparing to be baptized soon, and he just knew everything.  It was so awesome.  He was really educated and has a strong testimony.  I was happy to be able to teach him for sure.

We had another lesson that went well after that, but he talked a ton and so we had to go straight to English course.  It was a lot of fun and we taught the basic course about computers, but they knew so much that we just had a really complex conversation about technology.  It was a lot of fun and I had a blast on the scambi.

We did some finding the next day, Wednesday, and it’s crazy how many fewer people were walking the streets compared to Rome.  It was very different. [Read more…] about Roma 1 – Week 4

Roma 1 – Week 3

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Buongiorno!!

Ciao tutti!!  Today was a fun P-day, but before I get to that I want to pick up a little where I left off last Thursday, so some other things i wanted to share about Elder Bednar’s conference.

He was super funny and definitely had some great jokes, don’t know why that popped into my mind, but I really wanted to share that.  He knows so well how to be guided by the spirit when he teaches.  He wants to be sure that he addresses people’s needs and I really like that.  Through the QandAs he is able to address what people need and give us answers and then I love that he makes the point not to write down everything he says but to write down the things that the spirit teaches us.  We can receive teaching from the spirit that no one else can receive.  It can be so very specific and personal to us.  This makes me think of how it is with investigators that we can’t always know exactly what they are learning if they may not be comfortable sharing everything, but as we teach through the spirit, and their hearts are softened, the spirit can touch their hearts.

I just realized that I forgot my journal at the apartment, but I will share something that he said that I really liked.  An elder asked the question pertaining to how we can best prepare now for being fathers and mothers.  Then he asked if he could add to the question.  His response was that we first have to make sure that we are good husbands and wives and that really struck me.  I really loved what he said.  We have to make sure that we are good husbands and wives and then the fathers and mothers part will follow.  I love that.  He talked about how we have the responsibility to raise our children and raise them knowing the Gospel, and I thought that was really cool.  It reminds me of this past general conference, with the focus on families.  Family is so important to me.  I love my family so much and I am so grateful to know that through God’s plan I can be with my family for eternity.  That is so powerful.  God has ordained marriage.  The important bonds we make here can be bound and sealed for eternity.  I love that.  That is such an amazing part of God’s plan for us. [Read more…] about Roma 1 – Week 3