Anziani Johnson, Thomas & Hansen

Ben Looks Happy!

P Day in Portofino

Companionship of 3 for 3 more weeks

Ciao!

Wow it's crazy to think that Daniel is finally leaving. I remember being in Bergamo and hearing about Daniel going to Kenya and now it's finally here!! I know he's ready to go and know that his mission will be the best experience ever! Sounds like everyone is doing great it's great to hear that Jake Keller left for his mission that's really exciting.

This week I found out that for the next 3 weeks we will be in 3 haha. I can't tell you all how tiring it is. We have to cover all of Genova now. So one day we go to Anziano Johnson's part of Genova, and then the next day to we go to our part. So we are going back and forth which is super tiring. Sunday's are interesting as well, because there are two churches, we drop Anziano Johnson at his ward and then we take a 30 minute train ride then a bus to get to our church building. It's been tough because we thought Anziano Johnson is getting a new companion but now until the end of the transfer we are in three. We have two wards to cover so we have many lessons to teach. This week I thought that we should do a fast together. Just so we could be able to survive until the end of the transfer. So we fasted and things are starting to get easier especially since we wrote all the train times. So things are getting less hectic.

Church I got to translate for a couple that just finished their mission in Paris and they were traveling around Europe before they went home so that was fun. This week we found a really cool couple to teach. Flor (from Peru) and her husband (Italian). We met Flor on the street and she said that she feels like our church has been following her, her whole life. So we had the first lesson and it went great. I really tried applying the Restoration of the church and showing her how much this message will bless her and her husband. The husband is really cool he works forensics and follows cases and was open to hear our message. Really cool couple so pray that all goes well with them this week! I have to say this week went by really quick because we are running from one spot to teach someone to another. Right now Erminio should be back so tonight I think I'll give him a call to see how things went.

Today we had a really cool P'day haha we went to Portofino. It's a small city that is right on the Liguria Sea. So amazing we hiked up and explored and had a ton of fun. It's funny because I asked some students in my English class where would be a good place to go for P'day and they told us Portofino is really cool because a ton of celebrities like Lady Gaga go there haha but really the houses were amazing. I started the Book of Mormon again and loving learning new things every time I read it. Also I'm trying to finish all of Paul's epistles in the New testament. Right now I'm starting 2 Corinthians and am noticing how tough it was for the first christian missionaries and am grateful I can continue this great work. The scriptures are great and loving my personal studies every morning! Other than that things are going fine for me, next week I'll know if I'm going to stay in Genova or not. I hope I stay but it's very likely I'll go so we'll see. Thanks for all the support hope alls going well at home Love you all!

Anziano Thomas

The Burned Hot Pad!

FIRE!!!

Ciao Tutti!

Really weird week! We got a new companion!! So now we are 3 missionaries. His name is Anziano Johnson and is from Greenwood Village, Colorado. What happened was there was some problems with some other missionaries in another city so they took Anziano Johnson's companion and sent him there while we took Anziano Johnson. Anziano Johnson has been in the mission for about 2 months and is super funny. But when president called me to tell me that he was sending him here he said by the end of this week he will get a new companion. But now we are SUPER busy!!!! Anziano Johnson is from another part of Genova so now we have to cover his area.. and ours as well!! So we've been in the train a lot these past few days. It's a little stressful but we are having alot of fun doing it! Also these past few days we have got a ton of numbers and people who are interested in hearing our message. In fact the other day we taught someone who was blind. We looked at the area book and called this guy up. Really cool guy and we should teach him again in about 2 weeks is just super busy. Also this last week was Anz. Hasens Birthday!! Haha I totally forgot about it but we did a scambio on his birthday and the guy who was doing a scambio with him called to tell me some things and was like oh, and by the way you know it's your comps b-day today. Uhh.... yeahh of course. So that next morning I made him some lemon cookies that mom sent in my Christmas package. I made the first batch and when I went to check how things were I realized they were a little burnt. So I put it on the hot pad and quickly took the burned but still edible cookies and put some new ones on and threw them back in the oven. After 10 minutes the buzzer went off and I went to check up on it it and the was smoke EVERYWHERE!! FIRE!! So I scream to my comp and turn off the oven, then the fire alarm goes off and there's just chaos! We open all the windows and turn the alarm off. So much smoke. So what happened was when I put the pan on the hot pad, the hot pad stuck to the pan, so after it fell to the bottom of the oven and burned. Haha but the second batch turned out a lot better and Anziano Hasen was super happy that I made him some cookies for his Birthday. Lately I've felt a little tired just because we are running around all day and just a lot to do but this p'day we should rest. Things are going great here and Erinio should be back here in Genova!! So this Thursday I'll give him a call to see how things are going. I'm having a lot of fun and working hard. It's nice being in three because no one gets by without someone talking to them. We are talking to everyone and getting a lot of numbers this week it's just getting these people progressing towards baptism. Thanks for all the support you're all great!

Anziano Thomas

January 16, 2013

Ciao tutti!

This week was strange. To start off we had a ton of investigators especially from the the other coppia being closed. But as the week went on, for one reason or another these investigators lost interest or couldn't see us for that week. So Phillip went back to the Ivory Coast. I was bummed to see him leave but we went and printed out some pictures that we took with him and gave him two and he was really happy. Really cool miracle about the city where he leaves in the Ivory Coast. There are 3 buildings, and each of these buildings have like 3 wards in them!! It's huge and we got Phillip the number of the Ivory Coast mission and also gave the Ivory Coast mission his number. It was really to see how the members of this ward really loved him and would always pass by the hospidal to see how he's doing. So we had one final lesson and he says that he knows that this church is true and when he returns he will be baptized. It was funny for the past few lessons we had taught him in English because that's what he always tried to speak to us. But after a few lessons we realized he could understand italian alot better.. haha but he understands everything. I was thankful for the oppurtuntiy to see and help him and glad he will strengthen the church in the Ivory coast. In other news, we've been teaching this guy named Giuseppe who we met the first day Anziano Hansen arrived in Genova. He is a huge chubby guy with a gotee and very catholic. Also is seperated and lives by himself. Anyways he's kind of a wierd guy but we were fine with that, we brought him to church a few times and everytime he fell asleep in all three classes. And when he wasn't alsleep he would just try to argue with the teacher about doctrine. So we were like whatever little by little he will get better. So the next lesson we have with him we bring a member so he can make friends in church. We tried to explain the plan of salvation but he ended up just wanting to argue with the member. Not us, the member for some reason. We tried to explain the trinity, show him a few scriptures and the member bore testimony and then... Giuseppe went crazy. We had a table in the middle of the room and he was leaned over it screamming at our member and dropped the f bomb 5 times and used some other words. I was like you need to calm down or leave. So Giuseppe left. Hahaha but we're fine it just means that God has prepared other people for us to teach! Cool miracle that happend the other day was we had a full day of finding and I was a little bummed because we didn't really have alot of investigators. So we pray before we do finding work and knock some houses. We go to the end of the night and nothing. But when we got on the bus to go home we bump into this guy named Paul from Nigeria and his wife and son we get talking and he was super excited we spoke English so we ended up getting his number. Also yesterday we had a zone conference and it was really nice just because it's a good break, we get to see other missionaries, and learn new things. Also my trainer, Anziano Betzsold is the new assistant so I was really glad to see him. He really did a good job and is a really great missionary. Things are going well especially this week we have alot of potentials and Erminio should be coming back from Brasil soon the 22nd of Gennaio. Well thanks for all the prayers I know that they help hope you all have a great week love you all!

Anziano Thomas

Ben shaking hands with the Bishop after Midnight Mass
The Mission President allowed the missionaries to go.

Ben in his Christmas Eve pajamas- tradition in the Thomas family!

New Year, New Companion

Ciao tutti!

This week has been great and a lot has happened so I'll start from the beginning. We had transfers this week and so we all went to Milano. There I was able to say goodbye to Anziano Webb and Ellsworth. I also got to eat and Burger King because they have one in the station. Anyway so after I ate I met my new companion Anziano Hansen from Bountiful, Utah. So we grabbed his luggage and took off to Genova. Once we got to Genova Anz. Hansen asks me how he can't believe I fit all my stuff into one bag. I was like what are you talking about?? We found out that we took someone elses bag from the station! So we made some calls and we had to take another 2 hour train ride all the way to back to Milano to give the bags back. Haha uhhh... then we took a train back to Genova again. So for that day I was in the train for a total of 8 hours. It was funny though just a big misunderstanding but anyways we got back in Genova and had 20 minutes before 9. So I was like lets talk to a few people before we go in. So we did and we ended up getting two numbers and now have an investigator!! Super cool miracle I feel like the Lord maybe wanted that I was on the train for 8 hours so we could find him.

The first day was pretty tough after I got Anziano Hansen. Just that when we were doing finding work everyone was so mean to us. It was so weird because usually it's not like that. But I was cool because Anziano Hansen does this cool thing called counting rejections. At first I thought it was ridiculous. Like why would I do that? But he did it from 6-8 at night and it was cool to see how many people we talked to in such a short time in the end we talked to 84 people and a lot of the time we were having some good conversations.

With the other Anziani leaving we got all their investigators. One of these investigators is Phillip. Phillip is from the Ivory Coast and has been in Italy for a few years now. He speaks his dialect, French, English, and Italian. When we see Phillip we go to the hospital because he has no legs. About a year ago he was in a car accident in which the driver died and he was severely injured. His face is all burnt up and right now he's waiting for prosthetic legs. We gave him a baptismal date for the 2 of February and he said yes. In that time he'll be reading and praying to God if it's true. He's a really great a sincere guy. Two weeks ago he came to church and it was really powerful to see the members in our ward help him out. Since he's at the hospidale they give him a wheelchair but he can't leave without it so members drove to the hospital brought a chair and carried him around for church. He really liked it but felt a little embarrassed that he was carried around by the members. But he should come this Sunday!

This Sunday I gave a talk to the ward and it went really well. The first counciler in our ward asked me to talk about my preparation for a mission. So I only had 3 days notice and worked really hard. I wrote it out but didn't get a chance to go over it as much as I wanted to so I wouldn't be reading from it the whole time. But I was short on time. What was cool was I didn't read any of it I just spoke everything I wanted to say! It was great!

The work has started to explode and within 3 weeks we will have soo many investigators because many are coming back from vacation! Things are going great I'm learning alot of patience right now and how to serve better. In fact today I finished the Book of Mormon again! Love it everytime I read it I understand more and my testimony grows so much more. Hope alls going well. It's weird that we are in 2013! We had to be inside by 7 at night because it get dangerous outside haha. Love you all!

Anziano Thomas