February 20, 2013

Ciao!

Ciao tutti! This week went by great! Yesterday we had interview and they went well. We learned a lot especially since the announcement they've talked alot about "the hastening of the work" which is true! It's really cool because here in Italy there's going to be an explosion in the mission with missionaries. Especially with Sisters. We have 146 missionaries in the mission and it's projected that by this summer there will be 250 missionaries!!! Haha so many people but it's exciting I've also heard that there's a chance that they'll split the mission and have two missions in Northern Italy. But that's just people talking we'll see. Anyway this week was super busy we had alot of people to see but we also had to drop a lot of investigators as well just because they weren't willing to commit. But this week we'll find some new people instead. As for our investigators Jamal is doing well we finally got a book of Mormon in Arabic so we will give it to him soon this Thursday. We weren't able to give him a baptismal date this week but we'll try for one tomorrow. Mario we saw the other day and gave him a baptismal date for the 24 of March which is great. The search for our new apartment is still going we are still looking to find something so today we are going to pass by a few agencies we got to find a new apartment by the 31 of March we got about a month until we are out on the street. I just finished the new testament again love reading about the early days of the church. Now I'm starting D&C as well as reading from the Book of Mormon.  But things here are going well not doing much for p'day just relaxing thanks for all the love have a great week!

Anziano Thomas

Goodbye Daniel & Happy Birthday Dad

Ciao!!!!

Wow so much has happened this week and it sounds like so much is happening at home!! This week it's been pretty funny. I've been looking at the calender alot and thinking how Daniel is finally leaving for his mission. Haha I can't believe it! It's so weird like it seems like I was in Bergamo with Anziano Treadway when I found out he was going to Kenya!! I just can't say how happy I am and how weird it was to see the photos of him leaving from the Airport!! I remember being pretty nervous leaving from the Mtc in Utah I can't even imagine going by myself to South Africa!! So weird.. But I'll know he'll do great because one he has such a strong testimony and two I've taught him well ha! Still can't get over it but I know he'll have such great experiences because I know that missions bring these experiences that will last us for eternity. Get them Daniel!!

Also I would like to wish my dad a happy 53rd birthday! He's been a great example in my life and has really prepared us boys to serve missions and taught us great principles that will last us forever. Always say thank you at Del Taco or else.. But hope you have a great birthday and thanks for everything you've done for us!!

Well this will be the last day in the three some haha FINALLY. I loved it though, Anziano Johnson and I have been laughing the whole time and cannot stop it's ridiculous. It was a great experience in the end the whole time we had fun but at the beginning we were thinking this is soo hard theres no way we can do this trio and cover two areas at the same time... Impossible but we did it and did good work! So transfers are tomorrow and I found out that I'm staying another 6 weeks in Genova HOLLA' so I'm really excited for that.

1.) It's winter and is perfect weather

2.) The food here is soo good

3.) We are going to BAPTIZE this transfer

4.) I love the ward

There are many other reasons why I would want to stay longer but I'm glad I'm here. I'll still be companions with Anziano Hansen. And also we will have 8 missionaries in this district which will make district meetings great. Anziano Johnson will go back to his side of the city so I'll still hear from him which is great. So it means I'm here in Genova for another 6 weeks. Also right now my job is to find us a new apartment because ours is super old and gross. But I have to say the apartment in Bergamo was by far much worse. It seriously was a small box we had to live in. And we were in four missionaries there.

In fact cool miracle so about 4 nights ago I planned that we would go knocking on houses but at the same time when people would open there homes we would kinda get a glimpse in the home and could tell if it would be a good place to live. Anyway the place I planned turned out to be terrible haha it was all office buildings and we were super bummed. So I was like alright let's just go do knocking doors by our house and also like yeah let's just let the office figure out where we are going to live. So while we were walking to our home we bumped into a woman and found out she had sold to the missionaries a home a long time ago and for that we started talking and turns out she said yeah I can help you guys find a new apartment so yesterday we went around with her husband looking for apartments. There was one that I liked but we need to find a really good location.

In terms of the work we had a blessing from heaven come down haha. So this member who stayed in Brescia (a city by Bergamo) came back down and was married. In sacrament meeting she introduced us to her husband (jamal) whose from Morocco the wife is from Venezuela. Anyway his mother tounge is Arabic and we taught him the first lesson and he's like when can I get baptized?? Uh... NICE! Super cool miracle I'm not sure though because usually people from Morocco are Muslim and it is sometimes dangerous to teach them because if they convert they're lives are in dangerous so hopefully that's not the case. But Jamal is great and we just need to make sure he understands and not is just doing it for his new wife. But we just ordered a Book of Mormon in Arabo and looking forward to teaching him. The other day we got condemned by a Catholic Nun.. haha she was screaming at us at the bus stop and saying Leave the people alone! And then condemned us. Wow che esperienza! Funny we just smiled and waved at her. The work is picking up I'm a little bummed though because Erminio just got back from Brasil and now his mom is having some heart problems so we can't see him this week. Also when we were in the other area and we did area book and taught this guy named Silvano. We went to his house and we sat down and the first thing he starts doing is (he has true to the faith) and start arguing with us.. We just kinda took it and didn't say anything for about five minutes and he really started getting worked up and starting screaming haha we sat down and literally said nothing. Finally I was like (tranquillo, Silvano, non vogliamo un infarto) calm down, Silvano, we don't want a heart attack here. And then he felt ridiculous because he was getting worked up for nothing. He didn't belong to any church and lived by himself about 60 and was a little crazy and at the end I was like look this is our number and address of our church call us when you don't want to argue and actually want to learn. Fun week to cap off our trio together but it will be nice to just take care of one area. Things are going well here I'm excited to stay here for another transfer thanks for all the support again keep Daniel in your prayer and Happy Birthday Dad!

Vi voglio bene

Anziano Thomas

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