We'll start with Felix. So, last week (10 days ago) Felix didn't come to church, and I immediately lost faith in him. I know, I'm a terrible person. I immediately started assuming that he was just another flaky foreigner. BUT!!! Last wednesday or so, Felix gave us a call on some random number and apologized for not having talked to us lately, but his phone was stolen and so he had to get a new one. Whew! So, we saw him last weekend before church and had an awesome lesson where he showed us his baptismal calendar, and he has not missed a single day with reading the scriptures or praying! He's a stud! and then on Sunday, he came to church!!!! Hahah I may seem like I get excited over the weirdest things, but coming to church for the first time has seemed to be the BIGGEST obstacle in a person's personal conversion. So when they finally make that step, it's so much easier!!! So Felix, Alessandra (and Alessandra's less-active dad), and Guido came to church. It was also Alessandra's first time in church, and she really enjoyed it as well.
I don't know if I've said much about Guido yet, but he was actually found by Anziano Smith (from my MTC group) over a year ago. He is very skeptical about all things religion, and he's had a lot of trials in his life that has led him to ask if there is a God, why are there all these trials??? Some missionaries in the past have dismissed him because he won't get baptized in 3 weeks, and others have kept teaching him to no avail. So hoping not to fall into either of these 2 groups, we started teaching him. We've been very patient with him, and I feel that we've done a good job in responding to his questions but also in helping him see what the important questions actually are (if that made any sense). We're trying to help him understand that God loves us. But to do that, he needs to read the scriptures and come to church. So this last sunday was a big step for him as well!
As for Stefania, she's still super awesome, but she is currently in Sardegna. In fact, I don't quite know what to do with her. We're taught (and I've seen in first hand experience) that without an objective, people normally don't progress in the gospel. That objective more often than not is a baptismal date. But, with her not even able to come to church because her parents won't allow it, I don't know how we're supposed to set a baptismal date! I will definitely be fasting about it this weekend...
Alessandra is also awesome, just a little more unsure of things. Which is completely fine. She's only just beginning to learn about our church. She is also leaving on vacation this weekend.
As for others, there's Mohammed, who is a non-practicing muslim who wants to better his life. We taught him yesterday in the church about The Word of Wisdom, and he really wants to quit smoking, and knows it's bad (he's already quit drinking). He takes some convincing usually, but he's super diligent about reading the scriptures, we just need him to come to church on sunday!!
Umm... oh! We also found a super awesome chinese kid who was super excited/surprised that we were offering him something for free! Oh man he had THE best chinese accent I have ever heard in my life! When I get home I will imitate it for you. Hahah he also gave us some chinese tea to take with us, and we didn't have the heart to tell him yet that we don't drink tea, so we just accepted it and went our way.
And for now, that's about it. Nothing else really going on. We went to the Ferrari Museum in Maranello today. And this isn't just any old Ferrari Museum, this is the Ferrari Museum where they make the Ferraris. We wanted to drive one, but it costed 70euro to drive the cheapest one for 10min. So, that clearly didn't happen. One day....
Well, thank you all for all of your prayers and support! I love you all!
Anziano Bushman
No comments:
Post a Comment