Transfers! June 29, 2011

Well, I'm gettin shipped off to Ravenna. It's in the Bologna zone, and on the east coast of Italy. It's a beach city, so it's one of the places where everyone will be going for these next few months. The only thing is, they will probably all be there just for vacation. So we'll have to meet them, teach them, and baptize them relatively quickly =) My companion will be Anziano Bona, who everyone is very jealous of, so it should be fun! I always said I wanted to stay in Muggiò (which is still true, Muggiò rocks!!!!), but I also had gotten to the point where I wouldn't mind leaving, and I would be able to trust the area to Anz VanAuker becaue I've gotten to know him pretty well, and he's earned his stripes by now. But, when we got the call last night, literally this was the one thing I did not want to happen, we're getting whitewashed. Which means Anz VanAuker is also getting transferred. A friend of Anz VanAuker, Anz Delloso will be training a new missionary in muggiò. Which means they will know nothing about our exceptionally large area (except what we can communicate through sticky notes before we leave) and none of our investigators or ward members. So last night I was very, very, unhappy for at least an hour. And my companion kept telling me that it's for the best and whatnot, and then an hour or two later we switched and I was trying to comfort him lol. As of now I'm just going through the motions. Packing up, and getting ready to say goodbye to everyone. Still not too happy, but we're movin on. Man, I know that the Lord knows what he's doing, and that he's not going to let anyone miss their chance to be baptized, it's just wayyyy hard to trust missionaries that I've never met, with people that they've never met. 

ANYHOW, F.llo Romani is doing great. We weren't able to see him again last week, but he did finally come to church! Haha and they even asked us if we could come over to have dinner with them on thursday, so the new missionaries are going to have a dinner appt their first night. Lucky.

We saw Marco and family again saturday night, and this time with F.llo Alaimo, our recently called Ward Mission Leader. F.llo Alaimo always tends to ramble, and take over the lessons, and kind of just says whatever he thinks is important, so that's always interesting. But, we were able to steal some time to explain the last half of the plan of salvation, cioè what happens after death and what not. We did not get a Baptismal date set yet, and in fact when we called earlier the wife told us that she thinks that it's a little early to be pushing a baptismal date, but Marco seemed totally chill with it, so we think she's just a little crazy, but yeah haha. 

Hmm... not sure what else there is to say... my brain is a little mixed up today with trying to get everything done before we leave... We have been seeing a lot of success with talking to people at the door, and getting in, so that has been good, oh! and we had some pretty positive interactions with J-Dubs (Jehovah's Witnesses, JWs, J-Dubs) that I wanted to share! The first one was sunday when we were going door to door, we met a young italian man, of about 19 yrs or something, and he started talking to us in english because he recognized that we were american, and he had studied english and been to america and whatnot. But anyways, he kept us there, at the door, for about 20min and just kept on asking us questions, and essentially trying to prove to us that our religion is not logical. He started pulling random interpretations of Bible scriptures about what a shepherd is, and who Jesus's other flock was, and thus <<proved>> to us that his other flock is not in the america's, or even on earth, but in heaven. Or something like that. But anyways, we remained fairly calm, and when we were just plain tired of standing there, and needing to leave, I decided I wanted to bear my testimony, and then scap. (Oh, and background info real quick, I have been trying to work on asking questions lately, and even went all day thursday just asking questions, the entire day, in attempts to get in that mindset). And so as I was about to bear my testimony, a question came to mind, and so I asked him <<How did you come to know that the bible is the word of God?>> he responded by saying he has analyzed it, and has seen proof, and talked about how logical it is, and so I interupted and asked him if he has prayed about it. He quickly responded saying he has, and then I told him that we have too. And that we also have prayed about the Book of Mormon, and that we know, deep down in our hearts that it is the word of God. His entire countenance changed, and he realized that he was not going to be able to convince us of anything. He accepted our biglietto, and we told him about the website, so hopefully one day he will check it out, and remember how he felt talking to us that day.... Idk, we just felt good after talking to him. The spirit bore witness of our message. It was awesome. 

So, yeah. I want to issue a challenge to all of you. In every moment, wherever you are, remember that you are a disciple of Christ. Don't waste time bible-bashing, or arguing. If someone tries to argue about you and your beliefs, say a quick prayer, and follow the spirit. Usually the spirit will tell you to testify and walk away. I know this church is true, with all my being. I am so grateful for this opportunity I have to dedicate two years of my life to building up God's Kingdom here on earth. I know that God loves each and every one of his children, and that our older brother, Jesus Christ will always be there for us. I say these things in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, amen. 

vi viglio un saccone di bene,

Anziano Bushman

My district this transfer! in the front there is S.lla Chambers and Walton, then me, then in the back Anz and S.lla Rampton, my companion, the our Capi- Anz Lesa and Anz Maughan.

Carabinieri, with swords!!!!

Our amazing Family Ligas! With Marco on the left next to Anz VanAuker, then Giorgia (shorter) and Alessia and S.lla Ligas.

Making our last pizza at Rami's place.