Sunday, October 28, 2012

Time flies when you're working hard.....

Hello everyone! This week was a little hard. We had tons of finding work and didn't find anyone. It was really cool though because here in Cuneo they had "La fiera di marone" (The chestnut fair). There were tons of people here so it was a great opportunity to find people. Unfortunately we didn't find anyone. At this chestnut fair, they had a huge market all over the center part of ton. It was really cool because they set up huge coal pits where people put huge pans and roasted chestnuts. I was so mesmerized by this that I ended by a ton of chestnuts. Little did I know, they are REALLLLYYYY GOOOD!!!!!! So that was something coool that happened this week. My companion and I cant believe how fast this transfer is going. Its amazing how fast time flies when you are working hard. He is very scared about going home. I don't blame him...its a very weird thing. He goes home a week before Carson. Yesterday we started up our English class and it was really cool. A ton of people came and it was a blast. We are hoping that we can find some people doing this. I'm not really sure what else to say. Its not that we are doing anything, its just that we aren't finding people that will accept us. Its crazy because we run into people all the time who really need the gospel of Jesus Christ in their lives but they simply dont accept it. Its really frustrating some times. For example, we contacted a woman on the street and she was going through a really rough time, husband died, no work, no help from family, and the the gospel of Jesus Christ is exactly what she needed but she didn't want to accept it. But she will one day!!!! In our branch its really cool because we have 3 recently returned missionaries who are really fun and help us a lot. Two of them served in the Rome mission. I hope that you all are doing well. Until Next time!

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Eravamo Bloccati.....

Buongiorno!!! This past week was crazy.( Like usually, I don't remember what a normal day is like anymore)- So Anziano Hutchinson and I are doing some good work here in Cuneo. We found a Brazilian family that lives about an hour from Cuneo. They are very faithful in God and they are looking to strengthen their faith in him. They are really kind and gentile(Italian word that I do not know how to translate into English because it has replaced the English word in my mind). They were really cool because they really tried to figure out or message and committed to read the book of Mormon. After that lesson we got stuck in that little town because another bus wasn't going to come for another 3 hours and it started to get windy and then it eventually rained. It was a lot of fun. Its got pretty cold here, winter is definitely here. We had to turn on our heaters the other day. Last pday I bought a football at a sports store so we are really excited to exercise in the morning because we just throw the ball around. On Sunday we did a mostra, that is, we set up a table in centro and had stuff ready to hand out and we talked to tons of people. It was a lot of fun. My companion loved it because he talked to tons of cool people, I however, was fortunate to have the Jehovah s witness, and Evangelists to come to talk to me and try to argue with me. Luckily they cant argue when I have the book of Mormon on my side! We still are looking for investigators, we still don't have any but that's okay, we are looking to improve and we are seeing cool little miracles all the time. Yesterday we went to a conference in Alessandria(A city near Torino) and we learned a lot of cool stuff. The main topic was desire. Our desires determine what we do, which determines who we are, then shapes who we will become. It was really cool to learn about this. We are searching to change our desires and focus more on this wonderful work! Its so weird to think that time has flown by so fast. Yesterday I completed 11 months in the mission! I feel like I have only been out for like 2 months! Its so insane! Whats even crazier that all of the anziani that have been my companions (Anziano Russo, Anziano Scheurn, and Anziano Boscia) all go home next transfer and my companion now goes home after this transfer. I wont know ANYONE! Its soo crazy. My group in a bit will be the biggest group in the mission.Its sooo weird! I hope you all are well that you keep enjoying yourselves! Have a great WEEK!

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Freddo, Orzo, Lavoro

CIAO! Hello everyone, this week has been fun and crazy again. From the second my new companion, Anziano Hutchinson, came we have had crazy things happen. We are finding tons of people. We don't have investigators yet but the work is growing like crazy. Anziano Hutchinson and I get along really well. He is my second comp from.....the factory...Bountiful Utah. He will finish his mission here. We have been doing a lot of good work. SO the things that happened this week. We found a really awesome woman who is really elect so we are excited to get her as an investigator. Its starting to get cold her so we will be doing a lot of knocking on doors because no one will be outside soon. Conference was really good! We were excited that they changed the ages for the missionaries....looks like Robert and Josh can come out sooner. I feel like I might train one of these new young missionaries in the future. I really liked all of the talks. We got to watch all of it except the last session of conference. This past week we got a referral from our office to visit Japanese people in a hospital in a little town in our area. So that was a lot of fun. They didn't speak tons of English but at least they spoke it. They weren't members of the church but they had met the missionaries in Japan and were meeting with them, so they wanted us to say hi and help out if we could. It was an adventure to find them. We had to travel 40 minutes on bus then when we got to the town we had to find the hospital, it was a lot of fun. We found some good areas that we want go to to find people. We are going to be starting an English class here because tons of people have asked us if we have it, so that will be fun. Other than that, nothing else has changed. We are working hard and happy to do so. I hope all of you are well. Its weird to think its already October, time is flying by. Have a great week!!

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Strike one, Strike two, Strike 3.......

Allora, We got the news of transfers this week. My companion Anziano Boscia will be going to Lugano!!(Svizzera) He is excited to finish his mission there. I will miss the kid. My new companion will be an old missionary..in the sense that he will finish his mission this next transfer...so im killing again! His name is Anziano Hutchinson(I think that is spelled right). I will most likely be here until the end of December. I will leave December 28 to another city(most likely). I will get another companion after Anziano Hutchinson and then I will be somewhere else. This transfer I will hit my year mark, time is flying by too fast!!!!!!! Its going to be weird to be with an American again. I asked president if I could be with another Italian but he couldn't do this transfer. I am excited for conference this week! I am not sure if we will watch it in Italian or English, I hope English because I don't like the voices of the translators in comparison to the voices of the real people! We have seen tons of cool miracles that have been happening in our area. The craziest miracle happened yesterday. We started off the day by finding a really cool man who wants to believe in god but for certain reasons.The other miracle happened later on in the day. We went to see a less active member,who is making tons of progress in the Gospel. The only time we can see her is when she has work off during the week around 4pm. She lives in a town about an hour from Cuneo, so it takes a lot of time out of schedule to teach her. Anyways, we went to her house and had a great lesson. After we left to catch our bus home, while waiting at the bus stop I got a feeling that our bus would not come. Feeling a little uneasy, we asked around and apparently there was a sciopero(Strike) going on and we had no way to get home. The way strikes work here is that some people actually come to work and thus there are some buses that are in service, but there is no guarantee of a bus going to your destination. After waiting for a awhile A bus finally came, but it was not headed in the direction that we needed to go, so we decided to ask the bus driver if he knew if there would be a bus to go back to Cuneo. He had no clue, but told us he could take us as far as he could to help us out a bit. Where we were left was about 25 km from Cuneo. "It just so happens" that there was a girl in the same situation as us, and while we were trying to figure out what we would do, she asked us how we would get to Cuneo. We told her on foot,(none of the members could give us a ride). She then said, if you want my boyfriend is going to pick me up and we can give you a ride. We immediately asked how old he was...and he was 25 years old! allora, we got a ride with them. We tried to teach the gospel to them, it didn't go amazingly but at least we helped them know who we were and that there is a true church on the earth. Anziano Boscia and I were shocked. When we got to Cuneo, we felt as though there had been no problem at all. God is truly a god of miracles! Love you all and hope all is going well!