ciao! vi voglio bene!
Last night we went out on Pastoral visits, and I was kind of nervous because I was separated from my companion, and wasn’t extremely confident going in without an english speaker with me. So when we got there, my temp. companion told me a little bit about this less active member that we were going to go visit, but only things like his name, he has a son, and he doesn’t come to church anymore. Basta. Not very helpful. And then for the first 20 min. of our talking with this member they were just talking a lot, and catching up, and I heard them say some numbers (this less-active member mumbles a LOT, so he's way hard to understand), and I figured out that they were talking about a divorce that had happened, and how much he has to pay, and then my temp. companion said that now I was going to give us a spiritual thought, and I had NO IDEA what I could come up with that could help this guy, I didn’t know why he wasn't coming to church, or what the deal was, so I pulled out my Libro di Mormon and kind of absently turned to 2 Nephi 4, because it is without a doubt my favorite chapter in the entire book. So, I started talking about it, and how it's my favorite chapter. Then we started reading parts of it, starting with Nephi talking about how <<unworthy>> he is, and how Nephi is kind of a complete stud (except I didn’t know how to say stud) and yet he still feels all this shame. Then we started reading further, and Nephi starts talking about all the things the Lord has done for him, and the miracles he's seen, and the love he's felt from God. Then we ended with verses 26-28 when Nephi then says that if all these have happened, <<why should I yield to sin because of my flesh?>> and 28 then says <<Awake my soul, no longer droop in sin...>> And after that my companion talked about it for a little bit, and this member we were talking to said that he was going to read this chapter every morning, and my thoughts were <<wow, i didn’t even ask him, or commit him to do anything, and he's gonna read everyday, sweet!>> I later found out, that this member was having serious issues with feeling worthy, and that’s why he wasn’t coming to church. And I can honestly say that if I had know that before, I could not have possibly found a better scripture to read him, and it was not by any skill of mine that that happened. AHhhhh the scriptures are so awesome!!! Seriously, I can really see now how this book can truly help every single person, with whatever problem/issue/worry/whatever they have!
Also, there are some twins here in Muggiò ward, whose counterparts I knew before, namely Luis Belchior has a twin here named Austine, and he's an awesome investigator we have. Gerard Butler has a twin that taught our Sunday school class. George Clooney's twin is in our bishopric and also so is Bro. Porter's twin.
In church, I don't really feel like a minority, because everyone loves the missionaries (I think they’ve only had missionaries for almost a year now). And also because there are a ton of hispanics, and other people that speak poorer italian than me. Although, I do get called out by the italians (the itlaians are not bashful AT ALL) if I ever start nodding my head, and after church they’ll ask me if I’m tired, or if I’m alright, its a little embarrassing.... but it's funny, so ya. We have like 8 investigators, and when they come to church we sit by them in all three of the meetings, and our focus is 1) to worship God and partake of the sacrament/renew our covenants and 2) to make sure our investigators have an awesome experience and 3) to get to know the members.
Oh man, the weather. It's normally pretty chilly, but literally the 2° or 3° day I was here, it poured, and poured. So let me paint this picture real quick. We were running late because Vanessa (one of our crazy investigators that we are now going to have to drop because she is crazy, and doesn’t listen to our testimonies, and interrupts us every time we try to answer one of her questions) talked forever (as I came to find out was typical of her) and so it was like 9:10 when we left her house, and for some reason, we got lost or something. I don’t know how, I think my companion said we were trying to take a short cut, but I didn’t know the roads at all, so I was just following him. Also, I was wearing my favorite suit, we didn’t have pancho’s or rain jackets, and it was one of the worst rainstorms they’ve had. SO, we rode in the rain for about 90 minuti before we got home, had to call the president and tell him because we were ridiculously late, and also my suit was completely drenched, like quite literally like I had jumped in a pool. There were puddles of water everywhere, so the water also jumped up into my shoes every five seconds which was awesome, and my suit is all wrinkly and gross now, and idk if i'll get to take it to the dry cleaner anytime soon because my companion doesn’t usually see any need when I tell him I want to do something, and he'll just reason it out.... BUT! I will not complain, aaaaand, yeah. It rained several other times, but we brought panchos, so we were mostly good. But I don’t like wasting my time talking about all the lames things.... so that’s the last of that I’m gonna write.
We are the only two missionaries in the Monza area. We have 6 missionaries in our district. Us, the zone leaders, and two sisters (incl s.lla willy from the mtc)
I think i adapted really fast to the missionary lifestyle, no jetlag or anything, and within about 4 days I was able to start eating like an italian as well!
A few of the missionaries in my travel group have had some struggles and even wanted to come home. idk why, but I haven’t had any of those problems, or even close..... I do have a pretty awesome battle cry that I found I think on the flight here- moroni 9:6 the whole verse, but especially the reason mormon gives <<for we have a labor to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all righteousness>>
But I’m adjusting great. It's awesome, and it really is proof that this is the Lord’s work, and looking back and seeing all the things in my life that God has done for me to prepare me for this moment, its awesome! I would list them, but I’m out of time...
Mission prep prepared me a lot for giving out copies of the B of M, and really the best thing you can do, is read out of it. Show them some scriptures that mean a lot to you, and read the b of m yourself daily, no matter how little time you have, so you can keep building your testimony of it, because it really does have all the answers to all of life's questions, and I know that for a fact. And for staring the conversation, check out what Nephi did in 1 Nephi 7:4, first he caught their interest, maybe got to know them a little, talked about things they liked, and ten bust out the word of God. Maybe even tell them about what your doing with this whole LIGHT program.
Oh, and one thing that I learned from my companion today about loving others, is that when we call them out on something they’re doing, even if they’re against us for one reason or another, we're placing ourselves against them, and we need to make sure they know that we are always on their side. Basta.
ti voglio bene un sacco
Anz Bushman
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| The view from my apartment window |
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