Buonissimo Giornissimo! haha, that doesn't make sense at all, but I am just in a great mood today! (Well, how can you not be when you are serving the Lord all the time!) :) But I am having just the greatest experience here in Udine so far. It has been less than a week and (despite the setback of me forgetting my bag with all my scriptures and everything in Lecco...shocker there right? I forget so many things.) we have just seen so many miracles and wonderful things happen.
The branch here is great! They seem so nice! The branch president is super great, and we actually have an ex-missionary in the ward, who just got back a few months ago from his mission, where he had to return 9 months early because of problems with his back. But he is super awesome, and willing to help us however he can with the work. It is basically like having another missionary around with us for the lessons. We taught a lesson the other day to a SUPER catholic lady (even more than usual) with him, and it was such a help because he actually was converted just a few years ago, and used to be Roman Catholic himself. There is wisdom in the words of President Monson when he said to try to find a member who was converted from the very same religion as that of the person you are teaching. It was a great experience.
Udine is really great, besides the fact that the missionary who lived here before me left me a broken bike. So we have had to take the bus around the past couple days while we wait for it to be fixed at the place. It is super annoying and costly, but oh well, what can ya do. We have actually had some really great experiences contacting on the bus though! (Something that i didn't even know was effective until now!)
My new companion, Anziano Ramey, is a total champion. He was training a new missionary for the last six weeks, and almost always the trainer and the trainee stay together for another six, but for some "odd" reason, his companion got transferred and I took his place. My companion thought it was a little strange when it happened, but I know that the Lord meant for me to come here, because he know where I would learn and grow the most. The power of prayer is so wonderful.
Anziano Ramey is super diligent and obedient and just motivates me to do my very best and work hard every day. He is the living embodiment of "talk to EVERYONE". If we have five minutes while we are waiting for a bus or a train or something, we are out on the sidewalk talking to people! It is the greatest thing ever! I love working hard in anything that I do, especially missionary work, and I am just having a blast.
The other missionaries we are living with are also super great! Finally I am not the only one awake by 6:30...or even 7:00! All four of us are! It is a lot easier to stay awake when the lights are on in the morning. :) It is so great to be around obedient and hard-working missionaries-it inspires me to work even harder every day :)
I am sad though to leave all the investigators and new converts that we had in Lecco, but I know that they are doing well, and we have found some really wonderful people to teach here in Udine.
Ivan is a 45 year old man who has been taking the missionary lessons for years. He almost always has come to church, and knows the doctrine well, but he just has a little trouble with quitting smoking. We are working hard with him to encourage him and prepare him for baptism. He needs your prayers.
We are teaching another lady, Franca, who is just the nicest old lady you will ever meet. She works at the bus station, and everytime we go to buy tickets she has a little treat for us, like a chocolate or something, and we talk to her a little about how things are going. They have only taught her a few times, but we are working and praying hard to prepare her to be baptized in Februray.
We have a few other investigators that I have yet to meet, but we have a lot of potentials too that we are working with. It is just so great to be a missionary!
Udine is also cold (thank goodness!) , but really, I much prefer the cold to it being hot. But it is kind of a cool little...well big, city.
Well, I think that's about it. I really should write things down more. But...oh! i almost forgot our miracle!
Miracle: Our miracle this week consisted of two seperate miracles, which occurred to both me and my companion, but while we were scambio-ing (doing companionship exchanges) with the zone leaders. Each of us experienced a wonderful miracle. Anziano Ramey and Hackamack were here in Udine, and I traveled to Pordenone with Anziano Olsen. (by the way, the Pordenone churhc building is AMAZING! They have an Air Force base like 20 minutes away, and so they have both an Italian ward and a big american ward! And you know what that means?? They had both a drinking fountain AND an INDOOR basketball court! The only ones in Italy I'm pretty sure. haha. I still didn't get to play on it, but it was cool just to see it...felt like home a little bit :) While there, we were out on the street contacting, talking to as many people as we could, when we ran into(almost literally) an African man, and engaged a conversation. He explained to us that he had seen and breifly spoken to the sister missionaries in that area a little while ago, and that he had received a copy of the Book of Mormon a few years back from another set of missionaries. We talked to him for a few more minutes about his faith in Jesus Christ, and what He meant to him, and he expressed sincere gratitude for what we had shared, and readily gave us his address and phone number, and we set up an appointment to come by his house tomorrow.
Anziano Ramey and Hackamak had a similar experience. They too were out contacting, and a man got off the bus near them, and so they started a conversation with him. The conversation went really well, and they ended up setting up an appointment with him, also for tomorrow. One of the things that struck me the most as Anziano Ramey was recounting the story to me was something that Feriit (the man they met) told to them. He shared with them that he had been athiest for a few years, because he couldn't seem to find an answer to what religion was right, and he asked himself in his mind why it was so difficult to find the truth, and why he had to be searching honestly for so long. And he said that right as he thought that thought, Anziano Ramey said "Ciao!". It was a touching miracle to me, that the Lord has a plan for each of His children, and they are truly out there, seraching for the truth. We just have to bring it to them.
We have been having a really great week! I know that we will experience miracles this transfer as we work our very hardest and give out whole hearts to the Lord. I love you all so much! Thank you for all of your prayers for me, and for the examples you have been and all you do for me!
Love,
Anziano Wilson
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