Well, I'm getting a new companion tomorrow morning! But first I wanna talk about this last week.
SO first I would like to direct your attention to any news sites from last week (last tuesday and wednesday). In Liguria, Italy more specifically in La Spezia and Cinque terre, there were some MASSIVE floods. I talked to Anz Bona afterwards (he's serving in La Spezia) and he said that tuesday night the water was up to their calves, just out on the sidewalks. So, the reason I bring this up, is because for the last month or two we have ben planning and trying to get to Cinque Terre (really close to La Spezia) for Pday, becasue it's supposed to be super amazing. So, this last week we had it all figured out, and Wednesday Morning around 6am we had even made it all the way to Firenze. But, our next train from there was over 30 min late, and was going to make us miss our only train from Pisa to La Spezia/Cinque Terre.So, we didn't go. And instead we just went to Pisa then back to Firenze for the day. So, yeah. Cinque Terre (5 Lands) got kind of destroyed, and reduced to 3.5 Terre, And won't even be reopened untill the next summer. So, missed out on that chance. Crazy, right?
Alright, now some better news. We met with two of Tina's friends, Mafwenn and Bright, and had a good quick lesson with them. They were looking for a place to go worship God, and the next day Mafwenn, Bright, and two more friends (Harrison and Valentine) came to church! So that, in combination with the 20 BYU students, and an american family in visit, and another investigator, the church was kind of completely packed this sunday! It was awesome!!!!! We haven't got to meet with Mafwenn and friends again yet, but we did have a good lesson with them in church before sacrament meeting about the Restoration. Hahahahah and my companion felt it necessary to teach them how to pray (which normally I would agree, but most africans have already grown up praying the same way we do). So, he taught them by writing on the chalkboard 4 things: Address Heavenly Father, gratitude, questions, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. And we prayed for them at the beginning of the lesson, but at the end we asked one of them to pray, and this was his prayer (word for word) "Address Heavenly Father, gratitude, questions, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen." =) it was pretty great.
Alright, so now even better stuff. Lorena is the name of the Albanian that we met a week and a half ago. I don't remember if I wrote this part last week, but Lorena sent us a text about a week ago to set up an appointment to meet with us, and also asked if she could bring her sister, so we were already SUPER excited! Alright, so we had a lesson with them on thursday, which went great! Her sister's name is Bianka. When they came they had both already looked at a lot of the things on the church's website, and were very excitied to learn more. They didn't grow up going to church or anything, so a big thing was that they were wanting to get to know Jesus Christ more. So yeah, first lesson: Awesome. We then set up to see them Saturday. Saturday was equally, if not more awesome. Lorena had read all the way through the intro stuff, and testimonies, up to 1 Nephi 4, and had some questions. Apparently the albanian translation has some things that are a little unclear, so we gave them italian copies, and it helped a lot. In 1 Nephi 4 they had some questions about why Nephi was commanded to kill Laban (which she had understood from the Albanian trranslation to be Laman, Nephi's brother). So, we read the chapter together, and talked about how it said that it was expedient that Nephi did those things, and how everything fell into place with being able to get the plates, and even bringing Zoram with them, because and only because he followed the spirit. So, awesomeness. They loved it. One thing that Lorena said (and Bianka confirmed) is that she just wants to follow the Spirit. She just wants to do what is right. She accepted baptism when we invited her, but Bianka was a little worried, because she wants to first know what happens after baptism. SWEET! second lesson: awesome. Next appointment was just yesterday morning. We talked about the Plan of Salvation, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and they were just super excited to be learning all this! Bianka started reading as well, and they just already have such a great testimony of the things we are teaching! In fact, they even started this last lesson by giving us souvenirs that they had picked up in Sissi (maybe south italy?) for us! It was super thoughtful!!! They got us these little plaques of the St Francesco prayer, which is kind of a little catholic, but they don't know any better, and it's the thought that counts, right? SO yeah, they are freaking awesome. We're seeing them again on friday!
So, transfers. Anziano Lehnardt is going to Padova, and Anziano Palmer is coming to Siena. Anziano Palmer is going into his 14th transfer. He's from Mesa, AZ and went to Mesa High even! So thats pretty cool, I'll have a fellow arizonan with me! I've actually already gotten to know him pretty well from when I was in the same zone as him in Ravenna, and he seems like a pretty cool guy! So, yeah! Anziano Lehnardt was super sad to leave, but with this whole Tina thing, we kinda knew it was coming. So yeah.
Oh, and we actually did get to have a pretty fun Halloween party, thrown by the BYU students! It had some musical chairs, some other fun games, and then ended with some homemade caramel apples, that were AMAZING!
So, yeah. That's all for this week! The work is goin great!!! I'm loving it here in Siena!!!
Take care, and stay strong! And send some letters this way!! =)
allora, vi voglio tutti un sacco di bene!
-Anziano Bushman
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