Ciao mamma,
Today has been pretty crazy. I would love to tell you all about it, but I am going on a scambio with the zone leader down in Bologna in about an hour, so I am pumped for that. Today we went to Vicenza and visited the American military base there. Needless to say, we ate Taco Bell and Subway. Plus, we bought a whoooole lot of groceries. They were out of Reese's Puffs though, so I was a little bummed about that. However, I did get some peanut butter, Reese's cups, Aunt Jemima's syrup, and some other American snacks. It was super weird hearing everyone talking in English. I feel like my brain switches to Italian mode now when I am outside, so now when I hear English I have to translate a little backwards. Afterwards, we went with Fratello Arbergast (he is the senior couple missionary that lives on the base) and he took us to a sweet view of Vicenza. I will send some pictures the next time.
This week has been great with the work. Stefano accepted a baptismal date, however, it is all the way in July, so I don't know if I will still be here by then. He is progressing greatly, and it is really a miracle to me to be able to see someone just turn their life in a complete 180 degree direction when they learn the truth. I can tell that the spirit has really touched his heart and that he has recognized that. Batti is also doing good, he wasn't able to make it to church, but that was because he lended the bike he usually rides to a friend, so hopefully next time he will be able to make it. We saw him this week and he really liked the Joseph Smith restoration movie. I feel like that helps them understand exactly who we believe him to be, and what he did, better than we can put into words. He did say how it makes sense for there to be a prophet, he just isn't sure. So we invited him to read the Book of Mormon, and promised him that once he has come to a knowledge that they are the words of Christ he will know that it truly is an inspired translation revealed to us through Joseph Smith by the power of our Heavenly Father.
Sorry my letter this week is so short! I have to catch a train in about 10 or 15 minutes. I love you all! Hope you all have a great week, it is great hearing about all the stuff you guys are up to. Keep me informed.
Ti voglio bene,
Anziano Vaclaw
P.S. Jack, if you become taller than me I will be upset. I have been bragging to people about how I'm the tallest in my family. And also, can you send some pictures of the family that I can show to members? They love that here. Don't feel rushed, just whenever you send a package next time.
Friday, May 9, 2014
Thursday, May 8, 2014
Che fanno i missionari. . .What the missionaries are doing!
Ciao mamma!
This week went by a little slow at first, as Elder Gneiting was just healing up, however we did get back to doing some more good ol' missionary work again, and then I realized that I have a need to do it, I feel the spirit go away when I am not working to strengthen the ward here in Padova. Speaking of that, this last week while we were inside a lot, we and the other Anziani felt inspired to implement some new ideas into our work here. We felt like, yes we are working, but are we just continuing the work, or are we adding onto it and really building it here. So, our last meeting we threw out a bunch of ideas, which we are starting to work on. One idea that I really like was a board that we put up at the church, and we just finished yesterday, so I am excited to see how the ward reacts to it on Sunday. But anyways, the board is titled "Che fanno i missionari..." basically, "what the missionaries are doing..." And with this we put up our events we have planned, our times and dates for English class, family home evening nights, and the other things we do, so the members can know what we are up to on a weekly basis. That way, we are more accountable for the things we do, and the ward can feel more involved and informed about what we are doing. I thought it was a really good idea anyways, but we'll see. One thing I have learned being out here is that finding is necessary, and it is great, however, referrals from members are overall the strongest investigators we missionaries can find. So we want to start working more in that direction.
Besides that, one new investigator we found was Batti. He was on our phone list, and while my collega was sick, I was doing calls through all the prospects that were listed. So when I called Batti I knew he was going to be awesome because he asked me when he could see us. That doesn't tend to happen much. So we met with him at the place where he works, and he speaks Italian, English, and Hindi. He is a super nice guy, and we taught him the Restoration, so he wanted to know where our church was. We met him next in the church and he said that he likes it a lot more than the cathedrals, because it is a lot simpler, and more peaceful. So we knew that he was feeling the spirit that we can feel in church. He said he would come to church Sunday though and he has started reading the Book of Mormon.
Which brings me to your answer about why we need the Book of Mormon. In my personal experience of studying the Book of Mormon here in the mission, I read for 15 minutes to 30 minutes a day, and I am keeping a study journal that I have already written about 10 or so pages in about impressions I feel about things I am reading. As I study it more and more each day, my faith and confidence in it, the prophetic calling of Joseph Smith, and the truthfulness of Christ as our Savior, grow more and more. Without the Book of Mormon, there would not be so many 19 year old kids that could grow the faith that is necessary to be able to serve away from their homes for 2 years. I have only seen 2 investigators in my 4 months of serving that have received this witness so far. But I can see from their choice to read it sincerely, that they found the strength to change their lives, and before, they had not had that strength. So I know, and I am continuing to understand more, the power that is in the Book of Mormon.
Why does Jack look so different?!!!! Please tell me it is just the way the picture was taken. I have not even been gone that long. But happy birthday bro! Tanti auguri a te! I love you and hope you had a good one. It looks like you all had a blast at the sales thing. And I am completely envious of what was in those cakes. They have kit kats and some other american candies here, but they are super expensive, so I never buy them. I will get along with my pasta though. Just so dad gets jealous, I made my first pizza the other day with buffalo mozzarella. I am worried I won't be able to make the stuff I make here because they won't have the ingredients when I get back home.
We bought a slack line last pday as well. I don't know if you guys have seen that yet, but it is fun. It is kind of like tight rope walking, but you just tie this thing between two trees and do it. Italians love doing it at parks and stuff, so me and my companion want to get good so we can go and slack line with them and start talking to them that way. Anyways, I love you all! Have a good week.
Ti voglio bene,
Anziano Vaclaw
This week went by a little slow at first, as Elder Gneiting was just healing up, however we did get back to doing some more good ol' missionary work again, and then I realized that I have a need to do it, I feel the spirit go away when I am not working to strengthen the ward here in Padova. Speaking of that, this last week while we were inside a lot, we and the other Anziani felt inspired to implement some new ideas into our work here. We felt like, yes we are working, but are we just continuing the work, or are we adding onto it and really building it here. So, our last meeting we threw out a bunch of ideas, which we are starting to work on. One idea that I really like was a board that we put up at the church, and we just finished yesterday, so I am excited to see how the ward reacts to it on Sunday. But anyways, the board is titled "Che fanno i missionari..." basically, "what the missionaries are doing..." And with this we put up our events we have planned, our times and dates for English class, family home evening nights, and the other things we do, so the members can know what we are up to on a weekly basis. That way, we are more accountable for the things we do, and the ward can feel more involved and informed about what we are doing. I thought it was a really good idea anyways, but we'll see. One thing I have learned being out here is that finding is necessary, and it is great, however, referrals from members are overall the strongest investigators we missionaries can find. So we want to start working more in that direction.
Besides that, one new investigator we found was Batti. He was on our phone list, and while my collega was sick, I was doing calls through all the prospects that were listed. So when I called Batti I knew he was going to be awesome because he asked me when he could see us. That doesn't tend to happen much. So we met with him at the place where he works, and he speaks Italian, English, and Hindi. He is a super nice guy, and we taught him the Restoration, so he wanted to know where our church was. We met him next in the church and he said that he likes it a lot more than the cathedrals, because it is a lot simpler, and more peaceful. So we knew that he was feeling the spirit that we can feel in church. He said he would come to church Sunday though and he has started reading the Book of Mormon.
Which brings me to your answer about why we need the Book of Mormon. In my personal experience of studying the Book of Mormon here in the mission, I read for 15 minutes to 30 minutes a day, and I am keeping a study journal that I have already written about 10 or so pages in about impressions I feel about things I am reading. As I study it more and more each day, my faith and confidence in it, the prophetic calling of Joseph Smith, and the truthfulness of Christ as our Savior, grow more and more. Without the Book of Mormon, there would not be so many 19 year old kids that could grow the faith that is necessary to be able to serve away from their homes for 2 years. I have only seen 2 investigators in my 4 months of serving that have received this witness so far. But I can see from their choice to read it sincerely, that they found the strength to change their lives, and before, they had not had that strength. So I know, and I am continuing to understand more, the power that is in the Book of Mormon.
Why does Jack look so different?!!!! Please tell me it is just the way the picture was taken. I have not even been gone that long. But happy birthday bro! Tanti auguri a te! I love you and hope you had a good one. It looks like you all had a blast at the sales thing. And I am completely envious of what was in those cakes. They have kit kats and some other american candies here, but they are super expensive, so I never buy them. I will get along with my pasta though. Just so dad gets jealous, I made my first pizza the other day with buffalo mozzarella. I am worried I won't be able to make the stuff I make here because they won't have the ingredients when I get back home.
We bought a slack line last pday as well. I don't know if you guys have seen that yet, but it is fun. It is kind of like tight rope walking, but you just tie this thing between two trees and do it. Italians love doing it at parks and stuff, so me and my companion want to get good so we can go and slack line with them and start talking to them that way. Anyways, I love you all! Have a good week.
Ti voglio bene,
Anziano Vaclaw
All Things Italian
Ciao Mamma,
This last week has been pretty slow. A lot of our appointments we meet in parks with people, and because of the rain we haven't been able to have many appointments at all. Along with that, my companion (who is an awesome guy, we get along great) has been sick. From about Sunday on he hasn't felt up to doing finding work, but the appointments we can make we go to anyways, which is funny because since he is out of it I had to carry the conversation for the most part for the first time. Which once I started to, I figured out that now I can almost talk to people about anything, sure I have to ask a lot of questions about new words, but then once they say them I can remember for the most part. But anyways, it has been kind of a long week. When I am not working I am thinking and planning and calling and then those appointments dropped because of rain. The reason I was unable to e-mail yesterday was because me and my companion were at the hospital waiting for him to get tests. One quick side note, I never realized how lucky I was to, first of all, have American health care, and second of all, not have to wait in lines at hospitals. I guess I just hope to never get sick enough to have to go to an Italian hospital. Anyways, they said he had an infection in his ears and throat or something, and so he has to take some medicine and rest it off. So it might be another couple of slow days before we can get back to working again. It is a good lesson to me to learn what missionary life is like if I don't work hard every day. I would rather talk to random people all day than just sit inside all day.
So you will have to forgive me for this letter being a little shorter than usual, like I said not much has been going on. Elena (the Russian lady) went back to Russia because of family things. I don't know if or when she will be back, she didn't know either. We will find out where she is and hand her off to the missionaries there though. Stefano is still doing great, we hope to invite him to be baptized the next visit. We are also starting a new English class, so we have been handing out tons of fliers for that. Last time 10 people came, but we have to have at least 30 in these next 3 weeks.
That is about it, it is great to hear all those things, and tell Owen, Sam, and Ellie that they have to make sure Uncle Ryan takes good care of the chickens. That looks like they are going to have a bash with the new group of chicks. Jenny and Aunt Stacey are doing great work, it is really tough getting people to come to activities regularly, but if there's anyone that can make someone do something, Jenny can. Oh, and I bought my first set of Italian clothes. I know it looks funny, but hey, it's the fashion over here. I got two pairs of pants for 15 euro each, and the shoes were 60. I decided now that I don't want to have any American clothes by the time I get home. Don't worry I still use them every once in awhile, mostly on the rainy days though. Haha. I also learned to cook carbonara, it's super easy, just cook eggs and noodles then mix them, but it's Italian, so it counts. Jack is turning 14! Wow. That is crazy. This week I also had my first English mistake because of Italian. We were getting a ride from a member who speaks English and he was talking about something to do with the ward activity we want to do. So to agree with what he was saying I wanted to say something like "you're right I think that's a good idea" but instead I said, "you have reason, I think that's a good idea." Which I guess isn't wrong, it was just a literal translation of "ha ragione," so that was funny.
Not much else to talk about, I hope to be able to fill you in on all the miracles we are hoping will happen this next week. Have a good week!
Ti voglio bene,
Anziano Vaclaw
This last week has been pretty slow. A lot of our appointments we meet in parks with people, and because of the rain we haven't been able to have many appointments at all. Along with that, my companion (who is an awesome guy, we get along great) has been sick. From about Sunday on he hasn't felt up to doing finding work, but the appointments we can make we go to anyways, which is funny because since he is out of it I had to carry the conversation for the most part for the first time. Which once I started to, I figured out that now I can almost talk to people about anything, sure I have to ask a lot of questions about new words, but then once they say them I can remember for the most part. But anyways, it has been kind of a long week. When I am not working I am thinking and planning and calling and then those appointments dropped because of rain. The reason I was unable to e-mail yesterday was because me and my companion were at the hospital waiting for him to get tests. One quick side note, I never realized how lucky I was to, first of all, have American health care, and second of all, not have to wait in lines at hospitals. I guess I just hope to never get sick enough to have to go to an Italian hospital. Anyways, they said he had an infection in his ears and throat or something, and so he has to take some medicine and rest it off. So it might be another couple of slow days before we can get back to working again. It is a good lesson to me to learn what missionary life is like if I don't work hard every day. I would rather talk to random people all day than just sit inside all day.
So you will have to forgive me for this letter being a little shorter than usual, like I said not much has been going on. Elena (the Russian lady) went back to Russia because of family things. I don't know if or when she will be back, she didn't know either. We will find out where she is and hand her off to the missionaries there though. Stefano is still doing great, we hope to invite him to be baptized the next visit. We are also starting a new English class, so we have been handing out tons of fliers for that. Last time 10 people came, but we have to have at least 30 in these next 3 weeks.
That is about it, it is great to hear all those things, and tell Owen, Sam, and Ellie that they have to make sure Uncle Ryan takes good care of the chickens. That looks like they are going to have a bash with the new group of chicks. Jenny and Aunt Stacey are doing great work, it is really tough getting people to come to activities regularly, but if there's anyone that can make someone do something, Jenny can. Oh, and I bought my first set of Italian clothes. I know it looks funny, but hey, it's the fashion over here. I got two pairs of pants for 15 euro each, and the shoes were 60. I decided now that I don't want to have any American clothes by the time I get home. Don't worry I still use them every once in awhile, mostly on the rainy days though. Haha. I also learned to cook carbonara, it's super easy, just cook eggs and noodles then mix them, but it's Italian, so it counts. Jack is turning 14! Wow. That is crazy. This week I also had my first English mistake because of Italian. We were getting a ride from a member who speaks English and he was talking about something to do with the ward activity we want to do. So to agree with what he was saying I wanted to say something like "you're right I think that's a good idea" but instead I said, "you have reason, I think that's a good idea." Which I guess isn't wrong, it was just a literal translation of "ha ragione," so that was funny.
Not much else to talk about, I hope to be able to fill you in on all the miracles we are hoping will happen this next week. Have a good week!
Ti voglio bene,
Anziano Vaclaw
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Taking the Reins. . .for a day!
Ciao mamma,
It is good to hear from you again! This week has been a little hectic, it is weird getting a new companion. Speaking of which though, Anziano Gneiting is a great guy, really fun and nice and works hard, so we will get along great. I have been doing great though here in Padova! Tomorrow my companion is going to a district leader/zone leader thing, so I will be training a new missionary for a day! I am actually kind of excited, I have improved in the language now to the point where I can get by kind of, just slowly. So we can go around being clueless together tomorrow.
This week was great though! We set three baptismal dates! And we are hoping to set 2 more this next week. We have an amazing investigator right now whose name is Stefano. He was a referral from a girl in the ward, I am not sure if I have told you about him or not. Well, anyways, he is super interested in the gospel, and really is looking for a change in his life. He told us just this last visit though, he said "I don't know if this is true, I have prayed and I feel good about these things I hear, but how can I understand that to be my answer?" So I asked him if he had read the Book of Mormon and how he feels about it, and he said that he knows it's true! So from there we got him to realize that since he knows that the Book of Mormon is true, he can eventually learn the truth of the other things. But what he said at the end really renewed my faith in the power of the Book of Mormon. After we asked what he thought about that, he said, "I know that this book is true, I feel like I should rely on this for now, and learn more about everything else later." More or less, it is weird trying to translate Italian to English. Anyways, we will set a baptismal date with him next time, and I feel like he will accept it for sure!
Besides that, we have had a normal week. It took a while for me to train my senior companion on the area, it was weird having to be in charge for a couple of days before he knew enough to take over, but I felt like I was able to do it. I had a weird moment where I thought about what I was doing, and I know that without everyone's prayers and the Lord helping me, I just couldn't do it. I never worked so much in my life! I was telling Jack just how easy all the stuff you make us do around the house is when you compare it to this work.
Dad and his chicken's, wait, I thought that was Jack's business. Haha. Or is it Ellie's? Oh well, you all just share it I guess. That sounds fun though, how many chickens are there now? The weather here has been better as well! We even got to go out without wearing a sweater or jacket for the first time in my mission and it was awesome. I was really excited to do that. Turns out people still look at you funny anyways. Haha. I hope you all have a great week! Love you.
Vi voglio bene,
Anziano Vaclaw
It is good to hear from you again! This week has been a little hectic, it is weird getting a new companion. Speaking of which though, Anziano Gneiting is a great guy, really fun and nice and works hard, so we will get along great. I have been doing great though here in Padova! Tomorrow my companion is going to a district leader/zone leader thing, so I will be training a new missionary for a day! I am actually kind of excited, I have improved in the language now to the point where I can get by kind of, just slowly. So we can go around being clueless together tomorrow.
This week was great though! We set three baptismal dates! And we are hoping to set 2 more this next week. We have an amazing investigator right now whose name is Stefano. He was a referral from a girl in the ward, I am not sure if I have told you about him or not. Well, anyways, he is super interested in the gospel, and really is looking for a change in his life. He told us just this last visit though, he said "I don't know if this is true, I have prayed and I feel good about these things I hear, but how can I understand that to be my answer?" So I asked him if he had read the Book of Mormon and how he feels about it, and he said that he knows it's true! So from there we got him to realize that since he knows that the Book of Mormon is true, he can eventually learn the truth of the other things. But what he said at the end really renewed my faith in the power of the Book of Mormon. After we asked what he thought about that, he said, "I know that this book is true, I feel like I should rely on this for now, and learn more about everything else later." More or less, it is weird trying to translate Italian to English. Anyways, we will set a baptismal date with him next time, and I feel like he will accept it for sure!
Besides that, we have had a normal week. It took a while for me to train my senior companion on the area, it was weird having to be in charge for a couple of days before he knew enough to take over, but I felt like I was able to do it. I had a weird moment where I thought about what I was doing, and I know that without everyone's prayers and the Lord helping me, I just couldn't do it. I never worked so much in my life! I was telling Jack just how easy all the stuff you make us do around the house is when you compare it to this work.
Dad and his chicken's, wait, I thought that was Jack's business. Haha. Or is it Ellie's? Oh well, you all just share it I guess. That sounds fun though, how many chickens are there now? The weather here has been better as well! We even got to go out without wearing a sweater or jacket for the first time in my mission and it was awesome. I was really excited to do that. Turns out people still look at you funny anyways. Haha. I hope you all have a great week! Love you.
Vi voglio bene,
Anziano Vaclaw
New Companion/Bodyguard!
Ciao mamma!
Well, everything here in Padova is going great! This week was transfers, and I am staying here a little longer, which I am excited about! Anziano Lefler sadly, is not. He is heading down to Ravenna to be a zone leader, and he even gets a car. Lucky. But my new companion Anziano Gneiting will be here tomorrow, and I hear he is an awesome guy. When President Dibbs called to tell me about what I would be doing for transfers he said, "Well anziano Vaclaw, I am sending you down a body guard, so you will be feeling safe there in Padova" because I guess Anziano Gneiting is a very tall, big guy. So, if you were worried about my safety for some reason, I am going to be in good hands I guess.
Besides that, things went very great with the work here! Jackson was able to be baptized this Saturday, and I can't say how grateful I am to have played a role in that. There really is no greater joy than missionary work. He does have a difficult situation here in Italy, but he is so faithful and willing. Like this week he had to go to Bari, so he called us to get the missionaries number down there so that he could find the church on Sunday. I think he will be fine. I would send a picture as well, but I forgot the wire at the apartment this morning, because we were in a rush to get to Ferrara and play some calchio with the zone. So next time you will get more pictures!
The little old Russian lady I mentioned is Elena, sorry about that, I didn't realize I hadn't said her name yet. I feel like I am in a race with the clock everytime we e-mail because there is so much I want to say but I don't have the time. She is doing great though! We have had a lot of member present lessons with her, and I think that that is making all the difference. We talked a bit about the plan of salvation with her and it was awesome because she had so many questions about it, and at the end she seemed really content with her answers. She wasn't able to come to church this last sunday, but hopefully she can make it this week.
Another person that we met is Kipepa, and he is awesome. He is from the Congo, and speaks fluent french and Italian, and his kid rocks at soccer. He said that he is really looking for answers because about 4 months ago, he had some kind of "anurism?" I hope that is how it's spelled, it is weird trying to spell English words sometimes, because Italian is just spelled exactly how it sounds, so much easier! Anyways, he had that happen to him, and he was close to dying, but he lived, and now the left side of his body is paralyzed, but it is recovering a little. So we came over to help him out with some things, because his wife is busy with work a lot, and because he has a friend in the church and his friend told us go to see him and help him out around the house. He said that he felt like God let him live for a reason, he is just not sure what that is. As we taught him the restoration and plan of salvation, he was super attentive and asked a lot of really great questions. I know the things we are bringing to him will bring him so much joy, and he has already told us that he feels something different when we are with him. I am grateful that the Lord is working with him, and we hope to invite him to accept a baptismal date this coming week, but we'll see.
That is a bummer that some of the chickens are missing! I am sure Jack and the Christiansen kids will love raising some new ones though. Nicole is leaving though! Wow. I remember hearing she was leaving early next year, and it felt like a month ago I heard about her call. Time is going by too fast! I am already done being trained, now I hope to be a lot more responsible, I basically am one of the resident experts on Padova, so that will be a little fun for awhile. Only me and Anziano Chamberlain have been here for 2 transfers now. She is going to have a great experience. Sacrifice brings forth the blessing of heaven, and I feel like trials come when we aren't willing to sacrifice enough. I feel like I have learned here that we can always give more, and that applies to anything, but especially to missionary work.
Buona settimana, e ci vedremo la prossima volta!
Vi voglio bene,
Anziano Vaclaw
Well, everything here in Padova is going great! This week was transfers, and I am staying here a little longer, which I am excited about! Anziano Lefler sadly, is not. He is heading down to Ravenna to be a zone leader, and he even gets a car. Lucky. But my new companion Anziano Gneiting will be here tomorrow, and I hear he is an awesome guy. When President Dibbs called to tell me about what I would be doing for transfers he said, "Well anziano Vaclaw, I am sending you down a body guard, so you will be feeling safe there in Padova" because I guess Anziano Gneiting is a very tall, big guy. So, if you were worried about my safety for some reason, I am going to be in good hands I guess.
Besides that, things went very great with the work here! Jackson was able to be baptized this Saturday, and I can't say how grateful I am to have played a role in that. There really is no greater joy than missionary work. He does have a difficult situation here in Italy, but he is so faithful and willing. Like this week he had to go to Bari, so he called us to get the missionaries number down there so that he could find the church on Sunday. I think he will be fine. I would send a picture as well, but I forgot the wire at the apartment this morning, because we were in a rush to get to Ferrara and play some calchio with the zone. So next time you will get more pictures!
The little old Russian lady I mentioned is Elena, sorry about that, I didn't realize I hadn't said her name yet. I feel like I am in a race with the clock everytime we e-mail because there is so much I want to say but I don't have the time. She is doing great though! We have had a lot of member present lessons with her, and I think that that is making all the difference. We talked a bit about the plan of salvation with her and it was awesome because she had so many questions about it, and at the end she seemed really content with her answers. She wasn't able to come to church this last sunday, but hopefully she can make it this week.
Another person that we met is Kipepa, and he is awesome. He is from the Congo, and speaks fluent french and Italian, and his kid rocks at soccer. He said that he is really looking for answers because about 4 months ago, he had some kind of "anurism?" I hope that is how it's spelled, it is weird trying to spell English words sometimes, because Italian is just spelled exactly how it sounds, so much easier! Anyways, he had that happen to him, and he was close to dying, but he lived, and now the left side of his body is paralyzed, but it is recovering a little. So we came over to help him out with some things, because his wife is busy with work a lot, and because he has a friend in the church and his friend told us go to see him and help him out around the house. He said that he felt like God let him live for a reason, he is just not sure what that is. As we taught him the restoration and plan of salvation, he was super attentive and asked a lot of really great questions. I know the things we are bringing to him will bring him so much joy, and he has already told us that he feels something different when we are with him. I am grateful that the Lord is working with him, and we hope to invite him to accept a baptismal date this coming week, but we'll see.
That is a bummer that some of the chickens are missing! I am sure Jack and the Christiansen kids will love raising some new ones though. Nicole is leaving though! Wow. I remember hearing she was leaving early next year, and it felt like a month ago I heard about her call. Time is going by too fast! I am already done being trained, now I hope to be a lot more responsible, I basically am one of the resident experts on Padova, so that will be a little fun for awhile. Only me and Anziano Chamberlain have been here for 2 transfers now. She is going to have a great experience. Sacrifice brings forth the blessing of heaven, and I feel like trials come when we aren't willing to sacrifice enough. I feel like I have learned here that we can always give more, and that applies to anything, but especially to missionary work.
Buona settimana, e ci vedremo la prossima volta!
Vi voglio bene,
Anziano Vaclaw
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Happy Valentine's Day!
Ciao Mama!
First off, I hope you're doing okay! I bet that was extremely difficult, and I wish there was a way that I could have helped out as well somehow. It's comforting to know that Dad takes as good of care of you as anyone could. He does not sound as if he is doing too well either. It sounds like Sawyer and I need to work harder and reap some extra blessings this week. The little Russian lady is doing great by the way! We are going to see her tonight before English class and invite her to be baptized again, she is so nice and loves to see us, so we just need to get her to realize the spirit I am sure she has felt as she has read the Book of Mormon. Speaking of which, she has already read to 2nd Nephi! Also, we have met some awesome new investigators, Stefano, an awesome guy who we taught and is very interested in the church. I feel like we just need to help him understand why baptism is something necessary, and also Joelma, a Brasilian girl who actually called us and asked us to come and give her a blessing. She said she would love to meet us again, we just have to wait and see if she is staying in the hospital longer or going home, so this has been quite a great week in that sense!
A little downer though, Jackson's baptism didn't happen last week. The day of the baptism he got an opportunity for work, so he went to Venizia for the day and would have come back too late, so we canceled it. We are hoping he will be in Padova this saturday, but we do not know for sure. We should know tomorrow. He has such a large desire to be baptized! It just seems like his situation is getting a little more difficult and intrusive on his progress towards baptism. I see it as a trial of faith, for both us and him. I know whether he stays in Padova or not, he has expressed his desire to continue to meet with the missionaries, which is comforting to me.
I knew about that e-mail actually! Sister Huntsman asked me for your email, because she had recorded the song. I am grateful to have helped in that small way, and I love how the ward here loves involving the missionaries in functions like these. The Plan of Salvation is such a comfort, it gives a meaning to the losses we have, and with it we can find more growth from the difficulties.
Happy B-day Padrone!! (which means boss, but literally it means big dad, you can choose whichever definition you want, it's your birthday after all)
That is awesome about Jack giving a talk! And also, goals=progress! That is one thing I have seen since coming out. When you have a goal to work toward you can measure your work. So that is great that he has that goal! My one bit of advice is to take goals seriously. If you don't work towards your goal hard enough, you know you did not work as hard as you could have, and I dislike that feeling that I could have done more. Everyone does, so work hard at those numbers! So whether you make it or not you can say you did your best. That is my overall mission goal, to be able to say in prayer that I gave all that I was capable to the Lord that day. It's a tough one, ma speriamo bene dai.
I love you mom! Hope you and dad feel better soon. As always , I will continue to pray for you all, have a good week! Know that you're all loved here in Italy as well!
Vi voglio bene,
Anziano Vaclaw
First off, I hope you're doing okay! I bet that was extremely difficult, and I wish there was a way that I could have helped out as well somehow. It's comforting to know that Dad takes as good of care of you as anyone could. He does not sound as if he is doing too well either. It sounds like Sawyer and I need to work harder and reap some extra blessings this week. The little Russian lady is doing great by the way! We are going to see her tonight before English class and invite her to be baptized again, she is so nice and loves to see us, so we just need to get her to realize the spirit I am sure she has felt as she has read the Book of Mormon. Speaking of which, she has already read to 2nd Nephi! Also, we have met some awesome new investigators, Stefano, an awesome guy who we taught and is very interested in the church. I feel like we just need to help him understand why baptism is something necessary, and also Joelma, a Brasilian girl who actually called us and asked us to come and give her a blessing. She said she would love to meet us again, we just have to wait and see if she is staying in the hospital longer or going home, so this has been quite a great week in that sense!
A little downer though, Jackson's baptism didn't happen last week. The day of the baptism he got an opportunity for work, so he went to Venizia for the day and would have come back too late, so we canceled it. We are hoping he will be in Padova this saturday, but we do not know for sure. We should know tomorrow. He has such a large desire to be baptized! It just seems like his situation is getting a little more difficult and intrusive on his progress towards baptism. I see it as a trial of faith, for both us and him. I know whether he stays in Padova or not, he has expressed his desire to continue to meet with the missionaries, which is comforting to me.
I knew about that e-mail actually! Sister Huntsman asked me for your email, because she had recorded the song. I am grateful to have helped in that small way, and I love how the ward here loves involving the missionaries in functions like these. The Plan of Salvation is such a comfort, it gives a meaning to the losses we have, and with it we can find more growth from the difficulties.
Happy B-day Padrone!! (which means boss, but literally it means big dad, you can choose whichever definition you want, it's your birthday after all)
That is awesome about Jack giving a talk! And also, goals=progress! That is one thing I have seen since coming out. When you have a goal to work toward you can measure your work. So that is great that he has that goal! My one bit of advice is to take goals seriously. If you don't work towards your goal hard enough, you know you did not work as hard as you could have, and I dislike that feeling that I could have done more. Everyone does, so work hard at those numbers! So whether you make it or not you can say you did your best. That is my overall mission goal, to be able to say in prayer that I gave all that I was capable to the Lord that day. It's a tough one, ma speriamo bene dai.
I love you mom! Hope you and dad feel better soon. As always , I will continue to pray for you all, have a good week! Know that you're all loved here in Italy as well!
Vi voglio bene,
Anziano Vaclaw
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Pictures from Padova!
Austin with a view of Padova behind him!
Elder Vaclaw showing off his favorite treat from his Valentine Package. . .Reeses!!
Cosa la rende felice? (What makes you happy?)
Ciao mamma!
That is crazy about Brooklyn getting her call here! What is even funnier is that somehow Anziano Lefler's family knows her family, so he got an e-mail saying the same thing, and I was sure I would hear about it from you. Haha. But that is awesome! She is going to love it here. I mean, how can you not, it's Italy. But yeah, I am feeling all better, and this week has been full of experiences for me.
Speaking of small things, this week has been full of those. For example, this week we were riding our bikes when we saw a guy outside his car and he seemed like he was trying to fix something, so we asked if we could help. He asked us to push the car for him so he could get it started, so we pushed it and sent him on his way and we went back to what we were doing. It was a neat little act of service that we were lucky enough to find. And then not two days after, the river flooded (because of all this rain), and a whole neighborhood was put in what was basically a pond of knee deep water. So the vescovo called to tell us that a member had, and I quote, "a water problem" so, thinking that it was a leaky roof or something, I went in shorts and a hoody, because I actually left all my casual pants at the MTC.. I think I have forgotten to mention that. Anyways, we get there to find the whole street is knee deep in water, so we went and bought trash bags to tie around our legs and we went in and helped them move stuff in their house to higher ground so it didn't get damaged by the water. It was great, because it was a part-member family, and it really gave us a chance to speak with the husband and hopefully an opportunity to visit and continue to help them in the future. But these small things are really making me feel grateful for my mission, and that I am able to help people in both the temporal and spiritual things.
Speaking of helping with the spiritual things, this week we ran into one of the coolest people I have met yet on my mission. She is probably 50ish, and she is from Russia. But we ran into her on the street and at first she ignored us, but then after I said that God wants us to be happy I asked as she kept on walking, "Cosa la rende felice?" (I love that question by the way, people love talking about what makes them happy, and they almost always say their family), so anyways I asked that, and she stopped and replied as I thought she would, her family, friends, etc. So we started talking and she sounded more and more interested because she said it had been a very long time since she had talked about God or really cared all that much. So we made an appointment to meet her at church with a member and went on our way. We met her at church and the member made all the difference! She really opened up to the member that we brought, and it went really great! We haven't been able to set a baptismal date, but we have asked, so now we are just praying that she receives a witness about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. She said she will read and pray, so we are hoping for the best. It is true though, you can only bring people as far as your own conversion, so personal progress is key.
I usually respond paragraph by paragraph, so I just read about the service, but that is awesome! Service is great, and it is important to take advantage of as many service opportunities as you can, as missionaries we are supposed to look for those, but it still seems like we cannot find enough of them. That is great that Jack is involving Hunter in all those things, nothing wrong can come of that. That reminds me of a girl in our ward who invites her friend over to church all the time. We wanted to invite her to be baptized, but she doesn't think it is the right time. We will probably invite her as soon as the mom comes over as well. I always feel like me and my companion have to hold each other back not to because we do it with so many other investigators.
I will be sure to remember Grandpa in my prayers, I know Grandma will make sure he doesn't keep working like he probably wants to be. That is awesome though! Mama mia, these new cousins.. Sawyer is right, and it has only been 3 months for me!
Over here it has been rain rain rain rain rain, with a bit of fog. You can just tell them all that they aren't missing out on much. Haha. Oh, by the way, we are baptizing Jackson this weekend! I am super excited. I will be sure to send a picture. First baptism, I was worried it might never come. Just the other week we were teaching him about Alma 7:11-16 and he said afterwards, "I need to be baptized, but we have not been able to do it yet, when will we be able to do it??" But we are finally doing it, we have had to push it back alot. I am super excited.
I did get my valentines package! And I loved it!! I was just telling my buddies Gage and John how much I missed Reeses! Thank you so much. And Anziano Briand says thank you for your Christmas package! It was the only one he got, so he was very grateful, and it meant a lot to him. I have an awesome family, and am grateful for your support to me and that bit of support to him. I love you all, have a great week!
Ti voglio bene,
Anziano Vaclaw
That is crazy about Brooklyn getting her call here! What is even funnier is that somehow Anziano Lefler's family knows her family, so he got an e-mail saying the same thing, and I was sure I would hear about it from you. Haha. But that is awesome! She is going to love it here. I mean, how can you not, it's Italy. But yeah, I am feeling all better, and this week has been full of experiences for me.
Speaking of small things, this week has been full of those. For example, this week we were riding our bikes when we saw a guy outside his car and he seemed like he was trying to fix something, so we asked if we could help. He asked us to push the car for him so he could get it started, so we pushed it and sent him on his way and we went back to what we were doing. It was a neat little act of service that we were lucky enough to find. And then not two days after, the river flooded (because of all this rain), and a whole neighborhood was put in what was basically a pond of knee deep water. So the vescovo called to tell us that a member had, and I quote, "a water problem" so, thinking that it was a leaky roof or something, I went in shorts and a hoody, because I actually left all my casual pants at the MTC.. I think I have forgotten to mention that. Anyways, we get there to find the whole street is knee deep in water, so we went and bought trash bags to tie around our legs and we went in and helped them move stuff in their house to higher ground so it didn't get damaged by the water. It was great, because it was a part-member family, and it really gave us a chance to speak with the husband and hopefully an opportunity to visit and continue to help them in the future. But these small things are really making me feel grateful for my mission, and that I am able to help people in both the temporal and spiritual things.
Speaking of helping with the spiritual things, this week we ran into one of the coolest people I have met yet on my mission. She is probably 50ish, and she is from Russia. But we ran into her on the street and at first she ignored us, but then after I said that God wants us to be happy I asked as she kept on walking, "Cosa la rende felice?" (I love that question by the way, people love talking about what makes them happy, and they almost always say their family), so anyways I asked that, and she stopped and replied as I thought she would, her family, friends, etc. So we started talking and she sounded more and more interested because she said it had been a very long time since she had talked about God or really cared all that much. So we made an appointment to meet her at church with a member and went on our way. We met her at church and the member made all the difference! She really opened up to the member that we brought, and it went really great! We haven't been able to set a baptismal date, but we have asked, so now we are just praying that she receives a witness about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. She said she will read and pray, so we are hoping for the best. It is true though, you can only bring people as far as your own conversion, so personal progress is key.
I usually respond paragraph by paragraph, so I just read about the service, but that is awesome! Service is great, and it is important to take advantage of as many service opportunities as you can, as missionaries we are supposed to look for those, but it still seems like we cannot find enough of them. That is great that Jack is involving Hunter in all those things, nothing wrong can come of that. That reminds me of a girl in our ward who invites her friend over to church all the time. We wanted to invite her to be baptized, but she doesn't think it is the right time. We will probably invite her as soon as the mom comes over as well. I always feel like me and my companion have to hold each other back not to because we do it with so many other investigators.
I will be sure to remember Grandpa in my prayers, I know Grandma will make sure he doesn't keep working like he probably wants to be. That is awesome though! Mama mia, these new cousins.. Sawyer is right, and it has only been 3 months for me!
Over here it has been rain rain rain rain rain, with a bit of fog. You can just tell them all that they aren't missing out on much. Haha. Oh, by the way, we are baptizing Jackson this weekend! I am super excited. I will be sure to send a picture. First baptism, I was worried it might never come. Just the other week we were teaching him about Alma 7:11-16 and he said afterwards, "I need to be baptized, but we have not been able to do it yet, when will we be able to do it??" But we are finally doing it, we have had to push it back alot. I am super excited.
I did get my valentines package! And I loved it!! I was just telling my buddies Gage and John how much I missed Reeses! Thank you so much. And Anziano Briand says thank you for your Christmas package! It was the only one he got, so he was very grateful, and it meant a lot to him. I have an awesome family, and am grateful for your support to me and that bit of support to him. I love you all, have a great week!
Ti voglio bene,
Anziano Vaclaw
Monday, February 3, 2014
Making Pasta and other Stories - Jan.29th
Ciao Mamma!
So I realized that Mama actually has 2 m's, that is a little embarassing. That basically shows my progress with the language right now though. I make tons of mistakes, but luckily my trainer speaks really well, so he is always correcting me. I am just grateful that I am able to talk enough now that I make mistakes. I have been doing a lot better though, for example, last night we went to the member family's house that loves having us over. It is really neat actually because their daughter has a friend who is about 16, and we go over once about every 2 weeks and have dinner and teach her a lesson. She is interested, but we have not been able to ask her to be baptized, because the family worries that they do not know her mom well enough. So the next time they are inviting her over for dinner as well! I hope that goes well. Since dad loves hearing about the food, I will mention what we ate, because it was amazing! We started out with pasta, of course, and we actually made the pasta ourselves by pushing dough through this guitar-string type thing that cut out a bunch of noodles for us. I wish I could say all the stuff they put in it, but I honestly do not know the names in English or Italian. I should write them down more. Anyways, after that we had sliced potatoes in olive oil and other stuff, and then to top it off we had donuts with sugar, they always have some kind of desert. The lesson went great, we taught the piano di salvezza and she was really attentive. It is awesome to see how the plan of salvation just makes sense to people.
Kathleen had a baby?! What is this little guy's name? One more boy and she is going to end up with a family like ours. Maybe you should give her advice on how to deal with so many little guys. Aunt Stacy and Uncle Jeff must be busy with all these new additions to the family, and mission papers in the future too, that is awesome to hear.
Elder Ruka sounds like a cool guy, which is to be expected since all missionaries are cool guys. One missionary that is excited for the work and wants to serve the Lord really makes a large difference, not only to his area but to the missionaries serving with him as well. And I am wondering, what are some of dad's projects around the house? He is always doing something.
The weather here is cold, cold, and colder. My warmest part of the day is the shower now, because we finally got hot water again! I am super happy with that. Those vacations you mentioned would be fun! I bet Jack is dying to go to New York or DC. I hope you start feeling better! Sunshine will be coming in about a month for us, and I cannot wait. For my entire mission I have been cold. I want an Italian Summer!
Well for this week's story, I guess the neatest thing was that I was feeling pretty sick, I do not know with what. I had bumps on the back of my throat, hurt to swallow, headache, felt a little weak, maybe dad might know. Anyway, I did not feel super good for about 3 or 4 days. We had appointments scheduled for those days, so I still went to each appointment and we did finding when we were supposed to, and so far we have had much success with finding, in the sense that we have return appointments with the three people we found. We found a girl named Valentina, and she was with her friend, and her friend was quiet, so we asked if they had time in which we could share the message of the plan of salvation. We talked about it, and she seemed interested, so we made another appointment to see her. We met her at Prato, and her friend was there again, and she talked a lot this time! So it was a neat 2 in 1 deal. They are making good progress and we are hoping for a baptismal date the next time! So we are finally getting those progressing investigators. The Lord blesses us when we do what we can.
That is awesome to hear that Sawyer is training as well! All the Bartlesville boys are taking on some responsibilities while I am still being trained. All in good time though. I hope you all have a great week!
Ti voglio bene,
Anziano Vaclaw
So I realized that Mama actually has 2 m's, that is a little embarassing. That basically shows my progress with the language right now though. I make tons of mistakes, but luckily my trainer speaks really well, so he is always correcting me. I am just grateful that I am able to talk enough now that I make mistakes. I have been doing a lot better though, for example, last night we went to the member family's house that loves having us over. It is really neat actually because their daughter has a friend who is about 16, and we go over once about every 2 weeks and have dinner and teach her a lesson. She is interested, but we have not been able to ask her to be baptized, because the family worries that they do not know her mom well enough. So the next time they are inviting her over for dinner as well! I hope that goes well. Since dad loves hearing about the food, I will mention what we ate, because it was amazing! We started out with pasta, of course, and we actually made the pasta ourselves by pushing dough through this guitar-string type thing that cut out a bunch of noodles for us. I wish I could say all the stuff they put in it, but I honestly do not know the names in English or Italian. I should write them down more. Anyways, after that we had sliced potatoes in olive oil and other stuff, and then to top it off we had donuts with sugar, they always have some kind of desert. The lesson went great, we taught the piano di salvezza and she was really attentive. It is awesome to see how the plan of salvation just makes sense to people.
Kathleen had a baby?! What is this little guy's name? One more boy and she is going to end up with a family like ours. Maybe you should give her advice on how to deal with so many little guys. Aunt Stacy and Uncle Jeff must be busy with all these new additions to the family, and mission papers in the future too, that is awesome to hear.
Elder Ruka sounds like a cool guy, which is to be expected since all missionaries are cool guys. One missionary that is excited for the work and wants to serve the Lord really makes a large difference, not only to his area but to the missionaries serving with him as well. And I am wondering, what are some of dad's projects around the house? He is always doing something.
The weather here is cold, cold, and colder. My warmest part of the day is the shower now, because we finally got hot water again! I am super happy with that. Those vacations you mentioned would be fun! I bet Jack is dying to go to New York or DC. I hope you start feeling better! Sunshine will be coming in about a month for us, and I cannot wait. For my entire mission I have been cold. I want an Italian Summer!
Well for this week's story, I guess the neatest thing was that I was feeling pretty sick, I do not know with what. I had bumps on the back of my throat, hurt to swallow, headache, felt a little weak, maybe dad might know. Anyway, I did not feel super good for about 3 or 4 days. We had appointments scheduled for those days, so I still went to each appointment and we did finding when we were supposed to, and so far we have had much success with finding, in the sense that we have return appointments with the three people we found. We found a girl named Valentina, and she was with her friend, and her friend was quiet, so we asked if they had time in which we could share the message of the plan of salvation. We talked about it, and she seemed interested, so we made another appointment to see her. We met her at Prato, and her friend was there again, and she talked a lot this time! So it was a neat 2 in 1 deal. They are making good progress and we are hoping for a baptismal date the next time! So we are finally getting those progressing investigators. The Lord blesses us when we do what we can.
That is awesome to hear that Sawyer is training as well! All the Bartlesville boys are taking on some responsibilities while I am still being trained. All in good time though. I hope you all have a great week!
Ti voglio bene,
Anziano Vaclaw
"Hot Hand" at Finding - Jan. 22nd
Ciao Mama! Actually we have not been able to contact either of the people that we met during finding last week, but such is life around here. Besides them we have found 5 new investigators this week though! So that is good. We already accomplished our monthly goal of new investigators. My companion says I have a "hot hand" at finding work, which I am not sure if that is true or not, but we have had a lot of success there. Now I just need to work harder on making sure that they progress, that is my next goal I want to work on. My language is taking some good strides this week by the way! I am grateful for your prayers, I feel like yours get more done for me than mine.
That is awesome to hear about Jack starting piano again! I knew he had it in him. Piano will help him and he will be more grateful for it than he could imagine right now, even if it might stink sometimes. But after the trial comes the blessings. High school soccer?? I can hardly believe it either. He better work hard, Lippy does not put up with holding back effort. It is good that he does not have to deal with comparing himself to the older brothers, I had the same problem. It can either be a motivator or a de-motivator. I always thought of it in the sense that Coleman and Sawyer have paved a little path that makes it all the easier to follow their example, what I did not see for awhile though was that the only example of them I needed to follow, is that they were worthy enough to be able to serve the Lord on a mission. Other things like piano or soccer are not so important as that.
This week we were actually supposed to have a baptism, but he had to go somewhere, so hopefully he comes back and we can do that. We also made, and lost a baptismal date. He is nice and open, but he is not willing to change, hopefully other Elders can visit him later when he is. So on my end this week, there has not been much success except in the finding people area. My letter this week will be shorter but I am glad to hear that everything is going so great over there! I am slowly learning more and more of what the Lord wants for me, and for those people that I teach. Every day I feel a little more of the endless love He must have for them. I do love the people here and this place though, and am still grateful for the small amount of experiences I have had now, and look forward to what I will yet experience these next 2 years. It is great to hear about all the new additions to the family! It will be fun to find out how many new names I will have to memorize when I get back! And I did not get the suit actually, I figure that will be a more later mission kind of thing. I will be pulling out money though because I need some stuff like a bag. I hope you have a great week!
Ti voglio bene, Anziano Vaclaw
That is awesome to hear about Jack starting piano again! I knew he had it in him. Piano will help him and he will be more grateful for it than he could imagine right now, even if it might stink sometimes. But after the trial comes the blessings. High school soccer?? I can hardly believe it either. He better work hard, Lippy does not put up with holding back effort. It is good that he does not have to deal with comparing himself to the older brothers, I had the same problem. It can either be a motivator or a de-motivator. I always thought of it in the sense that Coleman and Sawyer have paved a little path that makes it all the easier to follow their example, what I did not see for awhile though was that the only example of them I needed to follow, is that they were worthy enough to be able to serve the Lord on a mission. Other things like piano or soccer are not so important as that.
This week we were actually supposed to have a baptism, but he had to go somewhere, so hopefully he comes back and we can do that. We also made, and lost a baptismal date. He is nice and open, but he is not willing to change, hopefully other Elders can visit him later when he is. So on my end this week, there has not been much success except in the finding people area. My letter this week will be shorter but I am glad to hear that everything is going so great over there! I am slowly learning more and more of what the Lord wants for me, and for those people that I teach. Every day I feel a little more of the endless love He must have for them. I do love the people here and this place though, and am still grateful for the small amount of experiences I have had now, and look forward to what I will yet experience these next 2 years. It is great to hear about all the new additions to the family! It will be fun to find out how many new names I will have to memorize when I get back! And I did not get the suit actually, I figure that will be a more later mission kind of thing. I will be pulling out money though because I need some stuff like a bag. I hope you have a great week!
Ti voglio bene, Anziano Vaclaw
Service and Finding - Jan. 15th
Ciao Mama!
My week has been great! We definitely did get back to work, and we have met a lot of cool people with the minimal amount of time for finding that we have had this week. We have met the young man that we found during finding, but unfortunately the mom has yet to answer her phone. It was a neat lesson with him though, we taught the restoration and he had tons of questions. One thing that he did not seem to be able to believe though was the Book of Mormon, which is obviously really important. We talked about Joseph Smith and he said it makes sense to have a prophet today, but we talked about the Book of Mormon and he was not able to see that it was an account of other prophets all testifying of Christ, he is kind of stuck on the "one and only Bible" thing. But we challenged him to read, so hopefully he receives a witness for himself.
Edison is actually a member, and he is an awesome guy, he accompanies us a lot to our English speaking investigators. Also, the Italian is coming along fine. I am able to understand a lot during lessons and church, and I can teach the lessons well, my problem is still talking about other things. I have held my own with conversations though, just slowly with probably incorrect grammar. Include that in your prayers though if you are not already doing so, I feel like I have hit a plateau and it is getting a little bit discouraging. But then again, I have only been here for a month and a half, so I try not to be too hard on myself.
A couple highlights of this week were the people we found! We were walking through Centro doing finding work, talking to people and all, and we met a lady named Rosaria. She is older, and when we first talked to her she said, "God thinks of me today", so we asked why, and she pulled out prayer beads, and said that someone had given them to her 10 minutes before us and that then we ran into her, which is funny, because those might have prepared her to want to talk to us a little. Anyways, as we were talking to her I saw someone struggling to get herself and her baby carriage in through to a shop, so I saw that chance to run over there and help her in, and it turns out she was the wife of an investigator we contacted from the area book that week, so we saw them again actually. Anyway, I ran back over to Rosaria and when I got back she had tears in her eyes, so I was thinking "ah man, I missed something important" and we continued to talk to her and she said she was having difficulties with family and other things, so we told her a little about the blessings of the gospel to families and the promise that we can live together forever through the plan of happiness which God prepared for us, she was really interested and we should be seeing her this week. We are excited to see her!
Also, another person happened along when we were sitting and waiting for my questura appointment, which is the place I get my permesso to live here in Italy. While we were sitting there waiting for that a girl who is attending the University sat by us and we did not really think anything of it and continued to talk to each other in English. As we were talking, we got on the topic of Russian literature, I am not sure why.. but as we were talking about that, she said "did you say something about Russian literature?" in english, so we started talking to her, and found out she was Russian, and spoke English, Italian, Russian, and German. We got her contact information and we just need to call her to schedule an appointment! So yup, those were some cool experiences for this week. Jackson, another investigator, is doing good, we just need to get his "getting to church" problem settled and he will be baptized this next weekend hopefully! Your prayers for this are appreciated too. He is finishing his curriculum, so hopefully he can find work and get this all figured out.
Your week sounds like it has been tons of fun! Owen is a goof huh, I love him. I hope he did not follow too much of my example by talking so much. Haha. Ellie will be great at basketball, and that is awesome that she and Lucas play together! Vaclaws have a telepathic communication when we play sports.
That is really interesting about the non-member girl in your young women's, I have already seen that being a problem to people here in Italy, the thought of giving up time, things, and wealth seem to baffle some people. The thing is though, you do not see the blessing that comes from sacrifice until you have taken that step to give it up. People want to know how it would help them, and we can only say, give it a try, with hope they will make that first step of faith. Like Ether 12:6 says, we do not receive a testimony until after the trial of our faith. So maybe something like that would help her understand, I am sure you know best what to teach though mama, after all, you taught me all these things. I hope everyone is doing well at home! Love you guys! And tell Jack to check his e-mail once in awhile, cause I am going to write him every so often!
Ti voglio bene, Anziano Vaclaw
My week has been great! We definitely did get back to work, and we have met a lot of cool people with the minimal amount of time for finding that we have had this week. We have met the young man that we found during finding, but unfortunately the mom has yet to answer her phone. It was a neat lesson with him though, we taught the restoration and he had tons of questions. One thing that he did not seem to be able to believe though was the Book of Mormon, which is obviously really important. We talked about Joseph Smith and he said it makes sense to have a prophet today, but we talked about the Book of Mormon and he was not able to see that it was an account of other prophets all testifying of Christ, he is kind of stuck on the "one and only Bible" thing. But we challenged him to read, so hopefully he receives a witness for himself.
Edison is actually a member, and he is an awesome guy, he accompanies us a lot to our English speaking investigators. Also, the Italian is coming along fine. I am able to understand a lot during lessons and church, and I can teach the lessons well, my problem is still talking about other things. I have held my own with conversations though, just slowly with probably incorrect grammar. Include that in your prayers though if you are not already doing so, I feel like I have hit a plateau and it is getting a little bit discouraging. But then again, I have only been here for a month and a half, so I try not to be too hard on myself.
A couple highlights of this week were the people we found! We were walking through Centro doing finding work, talking to people and all, and we met a lady named Rosaria. She is older, and when we first talked to her she said, "God thinks of me today", so we asked why, and she pulled out prayer beads, and said that someone had given them to her 10 minutes before us and that then we ran into her, which is funny, because those might have prepared her to want to talk to us a little. Anyways, as we were talking to her I saw someone struggling to get herself and her baby carriage in through to a shop, so I saw that chance to run over there and help her in, and it turns out she was the wife of an investigator we contacted from the area book that week, so we saw them again actually. Anyway, I ran back over to Rosaria and when I got back she had tears in her eyes, so I was thinking "ah man, I missed something important" and we continued to talk to her and she said she was having difficulties with family and other things, so we told her a little about the blessings of the gospel to families and the promise that we can live together forever through the plan of happiness which God prepared for us, she was really interested and we should be seeing her this week. We are excited to see her!
Also, another person happened along when we were sitting and waiting for my questura appointment, which is the place I get my permesso to live here in Italy. While we were sitting there waiting for that a girl who is attending the University sat by us and we did not really think anything of it and continued to talk to each other in English. As we were talking, we got on the topic of Russian literature, I am not sure why.. but as we were talking about that, she said "did you say something about Russian literature?" in english, so we started talking to her, and found out she was Russian, and spoke English, Italian, Russian, and German. We got her contact information and we just need to call her to schedule an appointment! So yup, those were some cool experiences for this week. Jackson, another investigator, is doing good, we just need to get his "getting to church" problem settled and he will be baptized this next weekend hopefully! Your prayers for this are appreciated too. He is finishing his curriculum, so hopefully he can find work and get this all figured out.
Your week sounds like it has been tons of fun! Owen is a goof huh, I love him. I hope he did not follow too much of my example by talking so much. Haha. Ellie will be great at basketball, and that is awesome that she and Lucas play together! Vaclaws have a telepathic communication when we play sports.
That is really interesting about the non-member girl in your young women's, I have already seen that being a problem to people here in Italy, the thought of giving up time, things, and wealth seem to baffle some people. The thing is though, you do not see the blessing that comes from sacrifice until you have taken that step to give it up. People want to know how it would help them, and we can only say, give it a try, with hope they will make that first step of faith. Like Ether 12:6 says, we do not receive a testimony until after the trial of our faith. So maybe something like that would help her understand, I am sure you know best what to teach though mama, after all, you taught me all these things. I hope everyone is doing well at home! Love you guys! And tell Jack to check his e-mail once in awhile, cause I am going to write him every so often!
Ti voglio bene, Anziano Vaclaw
Jan. 8th - Back to Work!
Ciao Mama!
My week has been great! Now that all the New Year's festivities are over a lot of our investigators are back in town! So this week we have been having a lot of appointments. We actually have not been able to meet with the people we came across while finding yet. Because of the New Year's week thing they do here, both of them said it would be better if we contacted them afterwards, we have called them though and should be meeting the boy on Thursday and the mom with her family on Friday. So that is exciting for us. I also need to do a better job of keeping a journal, I know that tons of stuff happened this week, but when I get here I feel like I am not describing things as well as I should because honestly it is just hard to remember what happened even 2 or 3 days ago. Without my planner I would be lost.
We have done a lot of lessons with our favorite member Edison though! He is the awesome guy from Brasil that I think I mentioned before. It was funny because this week, everytime I see him he says something about my "southern accent." And he seems to get a kick out of some of the things I say. I did not think I had one, and he agrees it is not that strong, but the funny thing about it is that his English accent sounds like the main character from Despicable Me! So we both get to enjoy listening to the others accent. We take him with us to teach Jackson a lot, who is doing great. In fact, this week we are going to talk with the Bishop about him getting baptized, so that could be coming up soon, or not. Whichever happens, I know that the Lord has his purposes for some obstacles being there.
The go-kart racing sounds like a blast! I am really surprised that he only beat Jack by a little bit. Jack must be a natural born driver. Make sure it does not get destroyed for at least another year or 2. I cannot believe I have been out here for a whole transfer already, I thought people exaggerated when they talked about how time flies by. I do not want to think I am already 1/16 done! I know that may not sound like much, but to me, that means now I am only left with 15 transfers, I want to make sure I have nothing to regret about any of them.
I am glad to hear that the whole situation with Aunt Stacey went well, when I think about serving others selflessly I think about Dad. I hope all the Burkinshaws are doing alright, especially Uncle Jeff. I loved Uncle Jeffs talks that he gave me in that letter, I actually took them out and taped them into my Preach My Gospel, they are great for missionary work. I know! That OU game sounds like 1 in a million. It will probably still be on DVR so dad can watch it every year or so. It sounds like there is a lot of snow over there! It stinks because there is no snow here, just cold air and long bike rides. All the lights are down now, so the evenings look a little less beautiful. I hope I stay in Padova for another couple transfers, the members here are starting to seem as close as the members back home, almost. Maybe that is the case wherever you go.
Oh boy, I hope you guys acted more normal for Emily when she came by. Haha. Just kidding, I am sure she had tons of fun. It is good that Jack is getting practice serving by doing things like shoveling snow! More than anything, a love for serving others will be what prepares you for a mission. Me and my companion are trying to come up with ward service ideas, I wish I had more opportunities to do things like that. Little acts of service are something we are both on the look out for. Anyways, I hope everyone continues to have a safe and fun New Year! I hope to fill you in on more things next time, with a journal and all to help me remember.
Ti voglio bene, Anziano Vaclaw
My week has been great! Now that all the New Year's festivities are over a lot of our investigators are back in town! So this week we have been having a lot of appointments. We actually have not been able to meet with the people we came across while finding yet. Because of the New Year's week thing they do here, both of them said it would be better if we contacted them afterwards, we have called them though and should be meeting the boy on Thursday and the mom with her family on Friday. So that is exciting for us. I also need to do a better job of keeping a journal, I know that tons of stuff happened this week, but when I get here I feel like I am not describing things as well as I should because honestly it is just hard to remember what happened even 2 or 3 days ago. Without my planner I would be lost.
We have done a lot of lessons with our favorite member Edison though! He is the awesome guy from Brasil that I think I mentioned before. It was funny because this week, everytime I see him he says something about my "southern accent." And he seems to get a kick out of some of the things I say. I did not think I had one, and he agrees it is not that strong, but the funny thing about it is that his English accent sounds like the main character from Despicable Me! So we both get to enjoy listening to the others accent. We take him with us to teach Jackson a lot, who is doing great. In fact, this week we are going to talk with the Bishop about him getting baptized, so that could be coming up soon, or not. Whichever happens, I know that the Lord has his purposes for some obstacles being there.
The go-kart racing sounds like a blast! I am really surprised that he only beat Jack by a little bit. Jack must be a natural born driver. Make sure it does not get destroyed for at least another year or 2. I cannot believe I have been out here for a whole transfer already, I thought people exaggerated when they talked about how time flies by. I do not want to think I am already 1/16 done! I know that may not sound like much, but to me, that means now I am only left with 15 transfers, I want to make sure I have nothing to regret about any of them.
I am glad to hear that the whole situation with Aunt Stacey went well, when I think about serving others selflessly I think about Dad. I hope all the Burkinshaws are doing alright, especially Uncle Jeff. I loved Uncle Jeffs talks that he gave me in that letter, I actually took them out and taped them into my Preach My Gospel, they are great for missionary work. I know! That OU game sounds like 1 in a million. It will probably still be on DVR so dad can watch it every year or so. It sounds like there is a lot of snow over there! It stinks because there is no snow here, just cold air and long bike rides. All the lights are down now, so the evenings look a little less beautiful. I hope I stay in Padova for another couple transfers, the members here are starting to seem as close as the members back home, almost. Maybe that is the case wherever you go.
Oh boy, I hope you guys acted more normal for Emily when she came by. Haha. Just kidding, I am sure she had tons of fun. It is good that Jack is getting practice serving by doing things like shoveling snow! More than anything, a love for serving others will be what prepares you for a mission. Me and my companion are trying to come up with ward service ideas, I wish I had more opportunities to do things like that. Little acts of service are something we are both on the look out for. Anyways, I hope everyone continues to have a safe and fun New Year! I hope to fill you in on more things next time, with a journal and all to help me remember.
Ti voglio bene, Anziano Vaclaw
Happy New Year!
Ciao Mama!
Happy New Year to you all too! This is going to be my one e mail today because we do not have a lot of time. One New Year's resolution I made was to start acting more and to turn outwards instead of inwards. I got the thought from a talk I read by Elder Ballard called the Character of Christ. I realize I am really guilty of turning inwards when I go through rough spots, and instead I need to turn outwards, meaning think of others before myself and serve them. Speaking of rough spots and turning outwards, I went through a little one right after the skype. Not that I did not love the skype chat because I did! But I started thinking of home for awhile, and worrying a little bit. So I was not really feeling like going out and doing much. But obviously I did anyways, you guys gave me plenty of practice at sucking up and doing things I do not feel like doing. So we went out to do some finding work. And it was especially bad because we only had 30 minutes, so I thought a lot, "why are we even out here in the cold, 30 minutes is not nearly enough to find anyone." And I will not lie, I had a bad attitude about it. But as we were biking to Prato, still thinking of home, I remembered Sawyer's email about how when it got hard he thought of how much support we had at home. So instead of thinking about all the negatives that come from thinking about home, I thought of all the positives, like how many little cousins are looking up to me, and friends and family I have back home providing love and support. That seemed to boost my spirits enough that I decided I wanted to try really hard to find at least 1 person to share a message with, and to get a return appointment with them. So we arrived there, and immediately a guy a little older than us came up and just talked to us, and we got a teaching appointment. And then we kept going and we talked to a lady who had two awesome little kids, and we made a teaching appointment. So within that 30 minutes we actually had more success than the past 2 days. It was an awesome experience.
Jack.. plus a go kart. I am not sure you guys thought that one through. Haha. Just kidding. He is going to be a pro at that thing. Cole's project sounds like a great Eagle project actually. I am glad Jack worked so hard, those service projects are great things, and by the time I got here on my mission it seems like I did not get enough of them.
Speaking of a huge racket, Italy goes mad at 12! Everyone on our street was outside banging pans and stuff and fireworks were going off around town, it was awesome. I was actually laying in bed and I heard all that stuff and I was like "what is going on??" And the Italian missionary in our building comes in with pots and pans and is like, "Buon Anno, 2014!" and a bunch of other Italian words I don't know and then goes back out still banging them together. Italians really get into it I guess.
Your New Year's party sounds like it was a blast! We had a ward party and a pizza making party in our apartment. We could not be on the streets at 5pm, so we had a long evening with celebrating. I am so glad these festivities are over, because now I do not have to eat so much anymore hopefully.. I have been getting stuffed like the 2 days prior to New Years by members for lunch and dinner and my stomach is like "make it stop" but my tastebuds are saying "More Pandoro!" I love it here in Italia. It is already starting to feel more and more like home. But my heart is still back in Oklahoma, and I do not think that will change.
I love you all! Hope everyone has a great year, and holds on to those resolutions. Goals are great things, they are a measurement of progress! Buon anno!
Ti voglio bene,
Anziano Vaclaw
'Twas the Day before Christmas. . .
Ciao Mama!
This week we are e-mailing a little early since everything is shut down for Christmas, I should have warned you, but luckily we will get to talk tomorrow anyways! So that is great. If you are on at 11 (your time) than I should be calling right around then. If you could send me a quick e-mail saying which e-mail you will be using than that would be great!
This week has been jam packed full of awesome experiences! It must be a Christmas season type of thing. Well, one minor disappointment about Christmas time is that a lot of our investigators are gone visiting family or other things, so we have only been meeting with a few when we were just last week meeting with a lot. But luckily, that gives more opportunities to do finding work! I am starting to like finding work more and more as it goes on. At first I just looked at it as talking to random people about something that they probably would not either have time for, or would not care too much about. And I think since I thought about it that way it made me not as effective in doing it. So this week I really tried to work on finding a better way to view finding and to start to love it. So I found that if I just try to meet people and share something with them that I love, it makes it better! Both of them are the same thing, I just think of it in a different way. And fortunately, because of this we are having a lot more conversations and success during finding. Now I just need to find out how to get people to commit. I love Italians, but they sure know how to talk their way out of any obligation.
One cool success story though is that we did area book, which is basically where you call old contacts that missionaries stopped contacting or lost contact with for awhile. While we were going through the pile, I called one that was contacted just a year ago, and the missionaries said that "he said he was not interested anymore." But I called him anyways of course. So he picks up the phone and says, "Pronto" and of course I make a little mistake right off the bat by saying "Ciao" because that is usually what you say for people you are familiar with, anyways I go on and say "Siamo missionari della chiesa di Gesu Cristo, vorremo conoscere (that is the wrong verb to say when you say you want to meet someone by the way) Lei." And I did not know what to say after that, so after awhile I heard him say, "Quando?" So I said "questa settimana, Lunedi?" The he said, "Si" another akward silence, "dove?" At that point I gave the phone to my companion and he answered the rest of his questions. We met with him and he is a really awesome guy who has a wife and three kids, so I hope that the rest of our lessons go well! He wanted to come to church this Sunday, so yeah, it was a cool little miracle.
I am keeping it a little shorter today since it really is not our p-day. I hope that fills your desire to hear from me enough to last you until tomorrow!
Ti voglio bene,
Anziano Vaclaw
December 18th - Christmas Festivities!
Ciao Mama!
I am really excited to Skype too! My username is austin.vaclaw, so be looking for me around 11 oclock your time! That will be the highlight of my Christmas day as well. Especially since I could not bear having those christmas presents wrapped up, taunting me. So I opened them, and I love them! Thanks so much for the gifts, I am already making use of the gloves and scarf, I am finally warm.. at least some of the time. A few updates on the musical stuff, we caroled in Prato, which I think I am sending in a picture, it is the picture with the huge christmas tree and lights everywhere. Needless to say, people loved it! Of course, you had some that just gave us funny looks, but I am long since over feeling awkward about stuff like that. Some people really enjoyed it though, and I got botched for the first time! Which is the weird kissing thing, some lady came up and told us we were singing great and started to botch the other elders, who made it seem like it was no big deal, and I was kinda freaking out in my head as she was closing down on me, so I basically just went so far to the left that we still had a good foot of space between our faces. The other anziani made fun of me for awhile for that one.. and also, the bishop put us in charge of the nativity activity that our ward is having this Sunday, so I hope that goes well. We arranged the songs, the characters, and all that stuff, so I am hoping it turns out well. We have invited a lot of less actives and investigators, so there should be a decent turn up. I am really excited for it though! The kids in this ward are awesome, and since I have been working with them for so many different things they all seem to like me, which my companion thinks is why we are getting so many lunch appointments. To answer dads question about the food, my favorite food so far has been some kind of weird lasagna. It had a different name, I just cannot remember it, it had egg plant and other things in it, and then after that I had lamb with some sauce on it that was amazing. I wish I could give more details, but words can not explain it. I will send a picture of my first pizza though!
That is crazy that it snowed so much in Oklahoma! I am sure Jack is having a blast getting out of so many things. I know I would have. Unfortunately, here it never snows, all it does is get so foggy that everything gets a thin layer of frost over it and when you are biking around your pants get wet and cold, but after you go for awhile you start to warm up. That rodeo sounds awesome! When I tell people here that we have horses and stuff they think I am a cowboy or something, I try to clarify that I am really not as best I can, but I do not think I am explaining that very well, because the next thing I know a member who I have not talked to asks if I know how to ride horses really well or something like that. That makes me very sad about the Hobbit movie... I was expecting so much out of it. What is Legolas doing there anyways?? I know for a fact he is not mentioned until the Fellowship of the Ring. A shame.
Oh polly, that horse worries me. And tell Jack to just keep going at it, it stinks to lose, but when you win it feels all the better. It will be good practice for finding work out here in the field. Talking to people you tend to lose 19 out of 20 tries, but those 1 out of 20 make it all worth it. That activity sounds fun! I am sure you will make it awesome.
That thing about peace is one of the things we taught to our investigator Jackson. He has a really hard life, he is looking for work, he is moving from house to house with Usain, who is also an awesome kid, but he has a sickness that he is in Italy to get treated. We talked to him about the gospel, and he said that as he reads the Book of Mormon he feels these things. Which is why he has been reading it as much as he can every day. He is currently in Alma chapter 10, and he has had the book for maybe 8 days. I can just see the happiness he feels, and he thanked us just the other day for coming over and sharing these things with him because he said he needed these things, and that it is not just a message for him but it is life. I sure hope he can stay in Padova, but right now we do not know for sure what will happen. He is a great person to teach though.
And we actually have not seen Piergiorgio since he has left for the Holidays, we do contact him though and he is super nice each time, so we hope to continue where we left off.
I am doing great here in Italy! I am super grateful for your gifts! And for my awesome cousins. I basically stuffed myself with all the food that was in that box already. Junk food is so great when all I have been snacking on is bananas, apples, and crackers. I cannot wait to see you next week! I keep hoping Sawyer might call for a bit while I am talking to you guys so I can see him as well. Probably not, but a brother can hope. Love you, have a great week!
Ti voglio bene,
Anziano Vaclaw
Italian Pizza, YUM!!!
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