Ciao tutti!
Well one week down into the transfer. We had a pretty decent week. So here we go...
(Just went back through this email and realized it's really long. So....sorry haha)
Last Wednesday I took Anziano Reynolds to the station in the morning and said bye and sent him off. Just as he left I had a train as well to Milano to go pick up my new companion Anziano O'Riordan. So this transfer is only 5 weeks long because of Christmas. But Anziano O'Riordan is leaving a week earlier than that because it works better for his fam. So we are only staying together for 4 weeks! That's real short. And we are already a week done. So we will see what President has for me in 3 or so weeks. It'll be interesting. Anyways I got to Milano and found him and then we just took the next train back to Piacenza. We just took a chill pday once we got home. Just let him get settled in kinda thing. Then had English class that night. A pretty cool miracle happened that night. So this new couple came to English class. Sergio and Gisella. Both super cool. So we talked to them after and found out Gisella is from Venezuela and has only been here for 3 weeks. Sergio has taken the lessons before but doesn't seem too interested now. But Gisella told us that in coming to Italy her bag was too heavy and she had to leave her Book of Mormon of which she received from the missionaries in Venezuela. She said she had been praying to find another one. And she asked where she could get one. And so we whipped that bad boy out of our backpack and we were like, BOOM! So that was really awesome. We got an appointment set up with her for the next day at their house.
Thursday was a really long day. So in the morning when we were doing daily planning and we get a call from Sergio, the guy we met the night before with Gisella, he called us and told us his situation with her and said that she could come and go whenever she wants but she cant invite people over and have them come and go. So he got a bit mad. So we tried to call Gisella and ask her if she could meet us at the church and she said that she had to work and she couldn't come. And.. we haven't heard from her since. She wont answer our calls anymore. So we are pretty sure Sergio called her out and got mad at her and now she doesn't want to talk. So that's sad. So because that lesson fell through we had nothing else to do. So we did a total of 5 hours of finding that day and split it up with doing studies and eating. It was so much finding. We ended up only getting 5 potentials out of it. So 1 potential per hour, sigh. So that was a long day.
So also Thursday night we did some calls and called a lot of people from our area book. We spoke to quite a bit of people trying to find people who are still interested in being taught. We got one appointment for Friday. With an African named Nestor. His first language is French and doesn't speak English and barely speaks/understands Italian. So that was tough. But it was a good lesson. We just got to know him and retaught the Restoration. And then we also did some finding as well and had Institute that night.
Saturday was an okay day. We had a lesson with a member who only spoke Spanish. But understood Italian. He just randomly called us up and was like, hey can we meet? So we were like sure. But man was that the longest lesson of my life. He didn't let us speak at all. He rambled on for an hour and a half in Spanish. And we had no idea what he was saying. He just kept going. And he actually started crying as well. So whatever he was talking about he was feeling the spirit. We were just sitting there nodding our heads up and down pretending we knew what he was saying... He said our "talk" helped. So I guess that's good. We were in our building going home from this lesson and as we start going up the elevator we get a call from one of our simps Sam. Who I have only met on the street before and we have been trying to have a lesson with him for awhile. And he just randomly called us up and was like hey guys, where are you. I will be at the church in 5 mins for a lesson. We were shocked. So we just went right back down the elevator and went and had a lesson with Sam. It was a good and interesting lesson. We taught the Restoration and got to know him for a bit. At the end we asked if he would pray and ask if the church is true and that the things we talked about were true. (Also side note, Sam has been a simp for a while and has come to church like 8 times, just not recently, so we were trying to get him back on track). After we asked him this he was like, guys I already know that this is the true church. That's why I come here. We were like well okay! We then said the next step was baptism and he was like oh well I've already been baptized just not in this church. So we decided to talk about that next time. So overall pretty cool. We were suppose to have 5 lessons with people we called on this day. But all of them fell through. But then 2 people just randomly called up and asked to meet. Crazy how Heavenly Father looks out for you when you are doing his work. Pretty cool.
Sunday was pretty good. Anziano O'Riordan was asked to give a talk the night before. Oh the blessings of serving in a branch lol. So he did that. Then that night we went to another city in Milano. Anziano O'Riordan served there a while ago and one of the people he taught was getting baptized. So we were able to go to her baptism. It was really cool. I hadn't been to a baptism since Anziano Thomas and I baptized JP way back in April/Mayish. So it was nice to go to one again.
Monday was a depressing day. So I'm not sure if I put this in any of my emails before but over the past 2 transfers Anziano Reynolds and I had gone to visit this member who was in an elderly care hospital. And he wasn't doing too well. He was unfortunately slowly dying. Last transfer Reynolds and I went and gave him a blessing. A request from his family to give him a "buon passaggio nel mondo dei spiriti" (a good passage to the spirit world). So that was a tough blessing to give. So he unfortunately passed away this past week. So they had his funeral on Monday. It was a really sweet service. Even though I only met him a few times and he couldn't speak very well the first time and was in a comma the next time I really liked him. It was a really spiritual experience. Sad but spiritual. Funerals really make you think. I think it's really cool and special that we have eternal families. The stake and branch president were able to explain this to the those not of our faith from this man's family. It was really spiritual.
Tuesday we went to a members house for lunch. (Be happy mom! LOL). We don't get those very much so we take what we can get (4 or 5 so far since being in Italy). We had some really good Carbonara and then some nice and juicy meat and chicken as well as fruit and chips and cake. So good! It has been a while since I had a good 3 or 4 course Italian meal. So we had a good time. The wife is a member and the husband isn't a member but he comes to church every week and comes to church activities. So he is kinda stubborn with the church. But we talked about service and it was good.
Overall a pretty good week. Something O'Riordan and I read that stuck out to me was this "with all the the Savior did for us, we owe it to him to set everything aside for 2 years and to serve with all our heart, might, mind, and strength ". That just really stuck out to me. Jesus did so much for us. Literally gave his entire life for us. The least we can do is serve him with all we can. I thought that was really interesting.
Well alla prossima! Vi vogliamo bene!
