March 14, 2012

Salve!
This week flew by!  The work has been going great, I don't know if
I've already metioned this but we will have a baptism April 7 for
Peter and Mark!  Peter is about 23 years old and is a refugee from
Nigeria and his nephew Mark is 11 years old and they both are great!
They we a referral from a member in Sardegna.  Peters brother is a
member there and called us to talk to Peter about our church.  Peter
lives in a refugee home and we had a hard time finding it but thanks
to our Branch president we found it!  It's funny because Mark just
calls me American and he loves America they both are great!  This week
the work has really picked up with teaching and finding new
investigators!  What I've learned is the importance of member
missionaries. When I first got here I did not like the idea of
involving members in our lessons I thought that we could take care of
it ourselves but this last week we have really involved the members
here!  For example we had a lesson with one of our investigators
Franceso and we brought in a member who had served a mission to help
us teach the Plan of Salvation!  For me this is one of the harder
lessons especially in Italian but it was great to have a member there!
During the lesson our investigator asked him, <<what made you deside
to be a member?>>  which was great and after the member left Francesco
told us that he was super impressed with him!  As the prophets and
apostles have said members are key to helping spread the gospel to the
world! Things in Italy are going great I love everything the people,
the food, and the culture!  Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers!
Vi voglio bene! -Anziano Thomas