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Week 86/87/88 (Busto Arsizio, Milano) Quarantine, hoops, and Apostles



Hey friends!

Its been awhile since I sent an email, so I'll just give a quick rundown of some stuff. 

So yes I'm still in quarantine.  We are over 70 days now. Which is absolutely insane. But the beginning of May the government opened things up a little bit so we have been able to go play basketball at the outside church hoop. And that has been a huge blessing. It's been great to be outside for more than just going to the store or being on the balcony. So basketball has saved me.  Also some food places have opened back up so McDonald's McFlurries and Gelaterias have come back into our lives which is also amazing 😂 

I'm still in Busto Arsizio with Anz Giacalone and Anz Barnes. And everything is going well. Obviously living with each other for 2 to 3 months without being able to go outside much has been hard but we all have our differences and we work it out. But its been good. We still have good card game sessions. 

Over the last 3 or so weeks we have had the opportunity to have some really cool firesides over zoom. When I say really cool I mean REALLY COOL! About 3 weeks ago we got to hear from Brad Wilcox who is in the General Young Mens Presidency.  The following week we heard from Brother John Bytheway who is a phenomenal teacher at BYU and does many devotionals for young adults. After him we heard from Bishop Causse of the Presiding Bishopric.  And last but not least,  last week we had the chance to hear from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland! Let me tell you that was something special. To see an Apostle of God on my phone screen talking to me was so cool. Something that stood out to me from the things he spoke about is he said "God loves broken things". And that just really made me feel happy. Because you know all of us are in some way "broken". We aren't perfect. But I love what he said after, " the reason why God and Jesus love broken things is because Jesus was broken too. And the way Jesus knows everything we go through is because he went through it to". I have a strong testimony of that. I am far from perfect,  but I know that because Jesus suffered and was broken and ultimately died for me, I can repent and become better. 

As far as the work is going, we have had some good lessons over the last weeks. We've been teaching a lot of English. We have a few members lessons a week as well as trying to get a few in with our simps. So overall it's been not bad. We actually received a call from a member Sunday night asking if we could do a lesson that night but we had a fireside so we scheduled it for Monday night at 9 pm. Which is really late to do a lesson. But we were expecting it to just be his family.  But he actually invited the entire ward to join the call! So it came time to get on the call and....there was only 3 people that showed up. So 5 in total including us 2 missionaries lol. But it was a good lesson.

Also a while ago a guy I used to work with before my mission emailed me asking about the church and my mission. So I answered his questions and ended up teaching him the restoration over email, haha. Pretty interesting. But it had been a few weeks since we had last emailed and then this past Sunday, I get a text from 2 elders saying that my friend had reached out to his local missionaries back in the States and expressed interest in learning more about the church! So that's really cool! We are gonna try and setup a lesson over zoom so I can help teach a bit. So that's awesome! 

I've been pretty bad at taking pictures. Hasn't been many picture worthy things. But I think I have a few. 

Anyways, I think that's about it! 

Vi voglio bene! 

One of my loves, ballin!

Zoom meetings