Ciao!!
This past week has been a kind of an interesting week. Ill just start with last Friday and go till now!
So last P-day was so busy I actually missed breakfast. Because of trying to do laundry and emailing all in the morning. So that wasn't good. But since it was P-day I got to do basically whatever I wanted to do so I played an hour of basketball in the gym with a bunch of missionaries and that was much needed. I hadn't played basketball in so long before that so it was a ton of fun. After an hour of basketball we went straight to an hour of sand volleyball which is always fun. I weighed myself at the beginning of my MTC stay and I was 175 pounds. I weighed myself last Friday again and I weighed 166. So I have actually lost weight instead of gained at the MTC. Crazy! its probably because I don't eat a ton for breakfast and I move a lot. On Saturday my district decided that once all of us got back from our missions we are gonna meet up probably in Arizona and chill for a bit. Like we have a straight plan. I love my district so much!! During our night class we went outside with Sorella Blandford and we did a group lesson on the First Vision. We pretended she was an investigator and we just taught her. It was really cool. We all just really fed off each other. It came to be my turn and guess what I did!! I recited the WHOLE FIRST VISION IN ITALIAN FROM MEMORY!! I was so proud of myself. After the lesson was over Sorella Blandford came up to me and told me she really felt the Spirit when I recited it and so did I. It was an awesome experience. Saturday night we had a party for Anziano Caspers birthday. He is one of the Anziani in the other districts. We had a ton of candy and drinks and just jammed to church music, it was a ton of fun. Sunday was fast Sunday because of General Conference. So I fasted two Sundays in a row. It was actually really helpful. We had or Sunday night devotional and the speaker was the president of the MTC, President Martino. He talked about Peter and his experiences with Jesus. We watched a 20 minute video of all of his experiences. I felt the Spirit so much when Jesus told Peter to " feed my sheep". That is what I am training to do. And I am so excited!! Monday was an interesting day. Fratello Harbin one class made us go out around campus and just teach random missionaries in Italian. We literally had to do a street contact. Introduce, get to know, bring up the gospel, and ask to meet later and get contact info. It was kinda hard just because we were put on the spot. But it was fun to get some practice in. It finally rained here!! It was so nice. We were in class and we looked outside when it was over and there was a rainbow. And the rainbow went straight into the temple. Ill put the picture I took of it in here so you guys can see. It was beautiful. My roommates and I are so close. Monday night we stayed up until 1am talking in the hallway about life and just our trials we have had before and and we are having now. It was really nice and I think it really helped my companion. Tuesday we had our second member TRC lesson. It went really well. TRC lessons are just wear we teach a returned missionary from Italy in person. We taught about Charity and Love. And it actually was really good. The guy we taught told our teacher that he really felt the spirit when we taught. It was nice to hear that and know that people can actually understand what Im saying and the I really am teaching with the spirit. Tuesday night we had another devotional and we got to hear from Joni Koch of the Seventy. It was a really good devotional. I think it was something every missionary at the MTC needed to hear. HE kinda talked about the joy of being a member and the joy of being a missionary and sharing the gospel. We sang again too. We sang, "Hark All ye Nations". And I felt like I was singing in the Tabernacle Choir. It was just really cool and special . Wednesday was a rough day. The morning was normal. We went to class and and then eat lunch and then get back to class. Before I say anymore. Let me tell you that my district is a very special one. We are very close and we basically know everything about each other. All of us have had a tough time in the MTC in our own specific ways. Some worse than others. So we get to class, and Sorella Blandford sits us down and says she has to tell us something. So we sit down and get a little nervous. She proceeds to tell us that another week has been added to our MTC stay. Immediately all the Sorelle start to cry. It was so heartbreaking seeing all of them cry. Sorella Blandford asked us what we are feeling. I'm not gonna say details because its not my place to tell everyone's reasoning but basically its because the MTC is really hard and piles stuff on top of you and just continues to do so. And its very hard. Sorella Blandford even started to cry watching all of us take the news. I originally was supposed to report to the MTC on September 19th. But the mission presidents have some seminar to go to so they moved our report date up to the 12th. But now there are some complications with that date so they moved it back to the original date. Which moves our date again. So now we don't leave for Italy until the 29th and 30th of October. I have to admit it was a little hard to take the news. I just wanna get to Italy and start preaching. But I know we have to stay here for some reason and that reason is Heavenly Fathers reason so I will just pray and try my best. We ended up just going up to the top floor balcony and watching the sunset together. It was really pretty and just really relaxing. Ether 12:27 really helped me that night. We had a discussion about that scripture after the sunset. Thursday was a lot better than Wednesday. Anziano Weight was one of the Anziani who didn't get to leave with the older group because he broke his wrists and they weren't healed yet. We became pretty close and we were like the ultimate sand volleyball team up. It was his last day on Thursday so we had our last sand volleyball game with him and it was by far the best game we have ever had. It was so much fun and intense. He left at 6am this morning so I got up AT 5:30am with him so I could see him off. Hopefully I see him in Milan. That would be so cool. I've been binge listening to I Stand All Amazed by BYU Vocal Point. I just love that song so much. Its by far my favorite hymn. So that's been my week! Pretty crazy and emotional but also good. We went to the temple and we were able to do an endowment session so that was nice. Today has been super relaxed and been really nice.
Vi amo tutti!!
Anziano Bailey
