Buongiorno a tutti!!
Another week down in the Dirty B. That's our nickname for Brescia. Not entirely sure why but that's what the other missionaries told us so......Haha. Anyways onto the week.
For p-day we went to Lake Iseo. Which is a super famous lake and had a huge island in the middle of it. So Anziano Thomas and I hiked to the top of it! It was so tiring and took a little while but it was super fun and the view from the top was amazing. We got back to Bresica around 6pm and then went to the church to call home. A pretty good p-day.
Thursday we had combined district meeting in Verona. It was a pretty good meeting. Got to meet everyone in my zone. It's always super fun being together with a bunch of other missionaries. Finished around 2pm and headed back to Brescia. Got home and went to get some kebab! Then that night had institute. Not much because of combined district meeting but still a good day.
Friday we had a good day of finding. We went and knocked on doors. We don't do that a ton here in Italy because it really isn't effective at all because of all the citofoni (intercom's). But we wanted to hike up this huge hill that had all the rich people living on it. It was a long way up and didn't have any success ringing houses but we had an amazing view from the top. We made sure to get to the top before sunset happened so we could watch it from up there. It was beautiful.
Saturday!!! Saturday was one of the best days ever! We had a huge mission conference in Milano with the entire mission. That doesn't happen a lot. Actually almost never. But it was because Anziano Uchtdorf came and talked to us!! It was so dope. I've seen 2 apostles now. Anziano Andersen and now Uchtdorf. It is amazing to see them in person. Something that stuck out to me the most was how he talked about not being discouraged about our work here in Italy. Sometimes we get really hard on ourselves here because we aren't a very high baptizing mission and honestly we don't really get to teach a ton as well. And when there are missions having like 6 to 7 baptisms a week....it can get discouraging. But he was just telling us that we are doing very well and should be very proud of ourselves. He told us how many baptisms a month we get in the entire world. 20,000 baptisms a month! He then said that we all have the same calling. Missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We just have different assignments. So we all were part of the 20,000. The 20,000 came from all of our efforts. It just helped me a lot because sometimes it gets hard. Not only did we get to hear from Anziano Uchtdorf, but I got to see so many other missionaries. Man it was so good to Anziano Lombardi. We gave each other the biggest hug. He is like a brother to me and to see him was something I needed. I also got to see Anziano Work which was also so good. A few other special people that I got to see, my mom in the mission Sorella Spencer, and my two favorite Sorelle, Sorella Haisman and Sorella Sharp. It was so great to see all of them. I cant explain how happy it made me to see them. We got back to Brescia around 6:30pm. It was an amazing day.
Sunday was good as well. My first actual Sunday meeting in Brescia. It was great to meet all the members. They are super happy to have Anziani back! So that's good! Church was good. After church we ate with some members at the church. They do like a potluck lunch after church every third Sunday. It was good.
Monday we started our scambio with the capi ( zone leaders). I was with Anziano Favro. He is a good guy and a really good missionary. We basically did finding together all day and talked. We didn't know each other very well so it was fun talking with him. Its always fun having more than one companionship in the house. You always just joke around and have fun together.
Tuesday we finished up the scambio in the morning with companionship study and scambio review. After that we went to the church because we had interviews with President and Sister Allen. Like always, super good talking with them. I love talking with President. Because of my Torino situation Pres and I are pretty close. He has trusted me with a lot of things. He told me during my interview that he really likes me and wants me to do big things in the mission. Pretty cool to hear that from President. He is a great guy and an amazing President and it will be different when he goes home in July. Anyways, after interviews we had district meeting and that went well. Then we had English class later that night.
Overall a pretty good week. I'm doing well being in a new city. I'm pretty adjusted to it now. Thomas is still pretty quiet but it's getting better. We have fun though so it's good.
Thanks for your emails, thoughts and prayers. They all mean a lot!
Vi voglio bene!!
Pics
1 - finding
2,3 - pics from Monte Iseo
4- top of the rich hill in Bresica during sunset