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
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