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| Ben shaking hands with the Bishop after Midnight Mass The Mission President allowed the missionaries to go. |
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| Ben in his Christmas Eve pajamas- tradition in the Thomas family! |
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
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
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Buon Natale! Merry Christmas!
Ciao Family and Friends
Christmas was great and I really enjoyed getting to skype my family!
A lot has happened these past two weeks. With the work we found this
really cool guy named Alfredo from Ecuador and he is really open to what
we have to say. We have seen him once and we should be seeing him
again this next week after the Christmas holidays. We had a really
spiritual lesson with him where we bore strong testimony that through
Gesù Cristo his sins can be forgiven. He really liked that because
he's felt bad about the things he's done in the past. So we are
excited about him!
These past few days I have never eaten so much in my life! From
Christmas Eve all the way unto tonight we've eaten with members.
Dinner. Lunch. Dinner. Lunch. Dinner. So much good food. Christmas
day we ate with Claudio M. and his mom had 6 courses for us to eat!
Almost all of it was fish. It's a tradition here in Genova and I
think most of Italia to eat Fish for Christmas day. But I loved it
ate some salmon and shrimp which was great! After we went to Bishops
house and I got to skype my family for about 1 hr 30 min. It was
great to see everyone and here how everything is going. After I went
downstairs and hung out with the bishops family and played some soccer
with Alessio the Bishops son which was great!
Christmas Eve I had a really cool experience. We went to the Duomo of
Genova and had midnight mass there. I loved it. I was the first time
I went to Catholic mass here in Italy and it was very interesting.
After I got to shake the had of the Bishop and he saw my name tag and
he just commented on it a little saying "Thomas" and giving me a
thumbs up haha.
Today we went to Savonna for P'day. My comp Anziano Webb started his
mission here and he got to show me around. We went to the church in
Savona and it's really small because it's only a branch but we bumped
into one of the members and they took us out for lunch. After we
walked around centro and it ended up being a nice last day in Italy
for Anziano Webb. Tomorrow we go to Miliano and drop him off and I
get my new comp and we are coming back to Genova. We are going to
have a lot of work to do here in Genova especially because the other
companionship got closed so we are getting all their investigators.
I'm looking forward to having a lot of work and helping a lot of people
out. Things are going great and this Sunday I'm giving a talk to the
ward on my preparation to becoming a missionary. I'm really glad I got
this topic because I'm directing it right at the youth so pray that
everything goes well with that! Missionary work is going well I'm
about to finish The Book of Mormon again and am loving it. Especially
every time I read it I find something new. Right now I'm in Ether when
the brother of Giared crossed the seas. Thanks for all the support I
know that this is God's work and I am so thankful that I am a
missionary of Jesus Christ! Love you all and have a great year!!!!!
Anziano Thomas
Christmas was great and I really enjoyed getting to skype my family!
A lot has happened these past two weeks. With the work we found this
really cool guy named Alfredo from Ecuador and he is really open to what
we have to say. We have seen him once and we should be seeing him
again this next week after the Christmas holidays. We had a really
spiritual lesson with him where we bore strong testimony that through
Gesù Cristo his sins can be forgiven. He really liked that because
he's felt bad about the things he's done in the past. So we are
excited about him!
These past few days I have never eaten so much in my life! From
Christmas Eve all the way unto tonight we've eaten with members.
Dinner. Lunch. Dinner. Lunch. Dinner. So much good food. Christmas
day we ate with Claudio M. and his mom had 6 courses for us to eat!
Almost all of it was fish. It's a tradition here in Genova and I
think most of Italia to eat Fish for Christmas day. But I loved it
ate some salmon and shrimp which was great! After we went to Bishops
house and I got to skype my family for about 1 hr 30 min. It was
great to see everyone and here how everything is going. After I went
downstairs and hung out with the bishops family and played some soccer
with Alessio the Bishops son which was great!
Christmas Eve I had a really cool experience. We went to the Duomo of
Genova and had midnight mass there. I loved it. I was the first time
I went to Catholic mass here in Italy and it was very interesting.
After I got to shake the had of the Bishop and he saw my name tag and
he just commented on it a little saying "Thomas" and giving me a
thumbs up haha.
Today we went to Savonna for P'day. My comp Anziano Webb started his
mission here and he got to show me around. We went to the church in
Savona and it's really small because it's only a branch but we bumped
into one of the members and they took us out for lunch. After we
walked around centro and it ended up being a nice last day in Italy
for Anziano Webb. Tomorrow we go to Miliano and drop him off and I
get my new comp and we are coming back to Genova. We are going to
have a lot of work to do here in Genova especially because the other
companionship got closed so we are getting all their investigators.
I'm looking forward to having a lot of work and helping a lot of people
out. Things are going great and this Sunday I'm giving a talk to the
ward on my preparation to becoming a missionary. I'm really glad I got
this topic because I'm directing it right at the youth so pray that
everything goes well with that! Missionary work is going well I'm
about to finish The Book of Mormon again and am loving it. Especially
every time I read it I find something new. Right now I'm in Ether when
the brother of Giared crossed the seas. Thanks for all the support I
know that this is God's work and I am so thankful that I am a
missionary of Jesus Christ! Love you all and have a great year!!!!!
Anziano Thomas
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
December 11, 2012
Ciao tutti!
This week was good. We taught Erminio again and we might see him again before he goes to Brasil for his 40 day vacation. The lesson went well we taught him the Gosple of Gesu Cristo. It was cool because we were talking with him and he was like, you know what.. I've been thinking lately. When I fly over to Brasil it's going to be a long flight, I was thinking to bring the Book of Mormon along with me. It was great and I talked to him a lot about this time in Brasil will be a great relaxing experience but at the same time he can make it a spiritual experience by praying and reading everyday. It's going to be tuff when he leaves because right now he's our only progressing investigator but we will find new people. As of with the work, it's been a interesting week. We have found a lot of new investigators. But the problem is we teach them once and then after that they don't want to hear anymore from us. As missionaries we have been invited to give the baptismal invite on the first lesson every time and I feel like that's why many of our investigators have dropped us. We give them the bap invite and then they realize what our purpose is and also what the goal is. It's great because it weeds out all those who are just there to "learn about what we believe" and not are serious about really changing. But we will find new investigators and find new progressing investigators as well.
Today started off terrible but then became one of the best p days I've had on my mission. So early in the morning around 8 I had an appointment for my documents so I can stay here in Italy another year. We planned to get the documents done real quick and hop on a train for Cinque Terre. We got down to the Questura and we were one of the first people in line. We got up to the sportello and the woman was like your missing 4 photos of yourself. So we sprinted all the way to the train station took a quick picture and sprinted all the way back to the Questura. Unfortunately it took too long and I ended up missing my train. I was very upset. Anyway we switched our plans and decided to go up to the Genova Forts. It was AMAZING. We climbed up the Genova mountains and got to one of the forts and couldn't get in at first. We searched everywhere and finally found a hole and got inside. It was so beautiful everything. We had a view of all of Genova and went all over the forts it was such a great day. Tonight we have English class and a new convert. This week was great and we are working hard looking for new investigators to bring unto Christ! Hope you all of feeling the Christmas Spirit because I am getting super excited for Christmas! I would like to wish two ragazzacci out there Spencer Murphy and Daniel Thomas a very special Happy Birthday and I hope all your birthday dreams come true ;) Much love to you all
Anziano Thomas
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
December 5, 2012
Ciao tutti!
Today we went around Genova again. It is such an amazing city so much to see. We went and saw some markets, went into some Italian stores for some clothes shopping and then ate at McDonalds... haha I know but every now and then you got to get a burger. This week went well. We had a new guy come to church named Dritan who we found on a train. He's from Albania we passed him to the other Anziani because Dritan speaks alright Italian but Anziano Mustaferaj is from Albania so it works out better. Also Erminio came to church which was way cool but the bad news is that he will be going to Brasile for a 40 day vacation so I'm really bummed about that, he leaves the 14.. Other than that he's still reading a doing awesome! I was kinda bummed this week some of our new found investigators dropped us. One was because HE was attracted to me.. this is the 4th or 5th time I've had one of my investigators be attracted to me.. all of them men. Awkward situation but this week we'll find some more investigators! Things are going well we are in a hurry this week we are teaching English class at 7 tonight and we usually have 8-10 students. I really don't teach English it's all conversation and if they mess up I correct them. But thanks for all the prayers, hope all goes well this week for you. Grazie per tutto vi voglio bene!
Anziano Thomas
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