So, I have been seriously lacking on time to just read the Book of Mormon and learn what it has to teach me, but recently I figured out that I can understand it pretty completely in italian, and reading it out loud makes for a good language study, so I've found some time to read a chapter or two each day now. And as I was thinking about the whole obedience with exactness thing, and the negative attitude of most missionaries towards it, I went to go do my language study, and picked up in 1 Nephi 2, and as I was reading, it really, really hit me what was being said. About from verse 16 to the end, minus the whole large in stature thing, I felt very confidently that God was talking directly to me through these words. And that there may even be the possibilty that God would have me be a teacher of my brethren here in the mission field. But I know for sure that I won't be an effective instrument at all, in fact I would be pretty ineffective if I just went about trying to teach them, but I know that I can't be an instrument in the Lord's hands if I don't seek him dilligently and with lowliness of heart. So that was a really neat, and also really blunt answer to my prayers, and I just thought I would share that with you. It kind of even felt like a second patriarchal blessing. It was way cool.
Another thing that happened this week, is the sunday school president in our ward is about 25 yrs old, and he had to fill in for the gospel essentials class, and asked us to help him because he was nervous. Turns out he served his mission in england, so he spoke english, and in fact several times throughout the lesson couldn't think of the italian words that he wanted to say, and had to tell us the english so we would give him the italian word to tell the rest of the ward. It was kind of funny.
There is a member of the Church living in our ward region that is from the United States, and she's here teaching english to people, and this week we saw her at the Ward barbecue, so we talked to her a little bit to get to know her and everything, and she was more than willing when we asked her if we could send people her way to learn english (because we have been considering starting the english courses, but they would seriously hurt our opportunities to teach our progressing investigators, and we were kind of at a crossroads of what to do) and then she told us that she was trying to teach the gospel to this family that she is living with, but wasn't having much success because she isn't too accustomed to the language and gospel terms, and so we decided to team up on this effort, and she gave us their number and everything, and things are looking pretty good! So we are going to have a family to teach here pretty soon, and also a member to be there with us at each lesson!
Pasqua (Easter) was great! we ate at the Merenda's house, and s.lla Merenda made a delicious lasagna for us, and several different meats including lamb, rabbit, and sausage. ALL of which were very delicious. I think the only thing I've run into here that I don't like is the tuna. Tuna is gross. Comunque, then roberta (the daughter) had picked out presents for us, and I guess it's a tradition, but they gave us a very large chocolate egg (about a foot tall) and I had to break it open by hitting the top of it with my fist. Then there was a little toy inside it, but that seemed to be the only traditional thing we saw. Idk. Hahah but the little girl, Roberta, who chose the presents, got an egg for herself that was about twice as big ,and she literally could've fit inside it! haha it was funny. We did notice people gathering olive branches on palm sunday, but I still don't get what they were doing with them. Also they celebrate the day after easter, and call it <<Pasquetta>>, or also <<the day of the Angel>>. And that was way fun, because we got to go to a ward grigliata (barbecue) and Anziano VanAucker and I laughed a little to ourselves as we watched all these italian families bringing little tiny grills, and then lighting them with little sticks and branches, it was fairly comical. And a lot of them didn't even know how to start the fire, so there was one member who was a seasoned pro at the whole grilling thing, and he went from grill to grill helping each family. It was great. The food that they made was delicious though! They made a ton of meat, which italians never do, and that was basically all it was: meat, bread, and grilled potatoes (just like baked potatoes). Then we got to play some calcio, so that was super fun. We got to show our calcio skills off to the ward, and got the young men all buddy buddy with us. We also got really burnt/tanned. So that was fun. And exhausting. We did have several investigators there with us, so it was still a useful missionary activity, and I figure if we get the young men in the ward to think that we're pretty cool guys, that will make them have a good attitude towards serving a mission themselves. Also, we grew closer to the ward, and thus got several referrals, and a couple of people to help us out in teaching lessons to our investigators.
Unfortunately we do not have a ward choir... The women sang in our ward though. It was pretty good.... I feel like there's not much opportunity for people to sing in organized groups here, and so thus they don't know how.... Oh well. They brought the spirit, and that's all that matters!
Unfortunately, Azayra went out of town with her family for pasqua... And so she'll be two weeks baptized without the help of the Holy Ghost..... But, she will be confirmed this coming sunday and given the holy ghost, and I will be performing that ordinance.
Ahh with Claudio, things were looking up. He was progressing A LOT better than he had been before, so we went over the baptismal questions to see if he was ready to redo the interview, and he couldn't remember who Joseph Smith was.... And every single time we've talked about Joseph Smith and asked him about Joseph Smith he tells us he doesn't remember him. We even gave him a picture of the first vision that says <<Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ. They called him to be a prophet. 1820dc>> and he went and got it laminated and everything, but still, nothing. We've taught him several times about Joseph Smith, but nothing seems to stick... Bahhh idk. If you have any suggestions, I'm sure even in a week we would more than welcome them. Also, when we got to The Word of Wisdom he was shocked (again) that we wanted him to stop drinking even a little bit of wine after lunch. We had been checking up on that every visit, and he had been drinking grape juice that we bought him, and he told us that he was going to go buy more, but some how he got a hold of more wine. And we have even put a little sign on what used to be, and i guess now is again, his wine cabinet, that has a wine bottle in a red circle with a cross through it. I don't know what to do with him. He really wants to be baptized, and is upset each time we have to set a new date for him. But he can't be baptized without a testimony, and he can't gain a testimony without obedience... Prayers would be nice. Just if you could pray that he will even remember. Remembering is always the key..
Carlo is still interesting. He seems to maybe have a testimony though, so the teaching is going good. He reads the Book of Mormon and remembers the things we teach him, I'm just worried sometimes his priority is just to get married, and so he acts like the perfect student.... Idk, if he's reading the Book of Mormon, and following the commandments, he's likely to gain a testimony anyways. He does keep telling us however that he wants to get baptized with his girlfirend, who lives in Bergamo, so we won't even get to see the baptism, but oh well.
With Bruno we tried to get him to come to church, but instead he just gave us ice cream, and then didn't let us leave until we picked some ice cream to take home. He said he couldn't come to church because he works Sunday mornings, and it's way busy Sunday morning. I'm hoping to go back sometime in a week or two and maybe just share with him a spiritual experience we had, and then tell him that we still have plenty of ice cream in the freezer, and maybe committ him to pray, or read the Restoration pamphlet... His ice cream is way good though. I'm going to also have to ask him how he makes it.
(In response to Chelsea's email) That's way awesome that you're taking the initaitive to organize a whole service project for some random person like that! That's definitely something I've been trying to work on.. Key word being <<trying>>. I think I'm starting to realize the significance in the short statement made about Jesus Christ's life when all that's said is <<And he went about doing good>>. That's how I want to be remembered. And doing service projects like that is the perfect way to start.
And I am most definitely on the verge of conquering Italy. It's pretty intense, not gonna lie. Everything's been building up, and now we're just going to find, teach, and baptize people every week!
ti voglio bene!
Anziano Bushman
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