Buon giorno tutti!! Wow!! This has been a pretty crazy past couple days! So I don't have a whole lot of time to email but I'll write fast! But it's been an overall amazing week!
To make a loooooong story short, we are in San Remo right now! :) We are emailing in the church...it is really cool to be around all these people that I knew long ago, but to finally be able to speak with them and understand what they are saying!! haha. It is great! But we had to come here alllll the way from Udine to pick up my Permesso di Sojourno, (10 hour train ride). But we split it up half way so we could work Tuesday morning and took the long trains so we would have time to talk to more people (and because it is like half the price, let's be honest). But pretty much everything that could go wrong has, and it turns out we have to spend a night here with the Anziani instead of being able to head back to Milan (where all our clothes and stuff is), because when I started my permesso they messed up on my fingerprints and didn't tell me, so I have to go re-check and do them again at the Imperia questura (police station). We tried doing that this morning after we met with the people here, but turns out that the questura is only open from 9:00 to 12:00 and then closed....so that's Italy for ya. haha. Noone likes or wants to work. It's a pain sometimes, but I still love it! :)
So I could go on about all the things that went wrong on the way here, like that they charged us an extra 50 euro because the machine ticket thing was all broken, and so we had to buy tickets on the train for triple price, or that there was a landslide on the train tracks so we had to get off like 5 stops early and track down a bus to get us here, and got here over an hour late....but I would never go on about that kind of stuff :)
The work is going fabulous anyway! We are working hard and just having a blast! My companion is such champion, we have been really motivating ourselves a lot! For example we decided that even though we have to take 3 days this week away from the work in Udine, we are going to work just as hard as usual, and try to get phone numbers of people to refer to the Anziani in the areas where we are traveling to. We already have found a few really great people and given there numbers to the other missionaries. It is such a blessing to be a missionary!
Miracle: We had a ''challenge'' from the mission president this past week to get 5 lessons with a member present in Udine (which has been averaging 2 or 3 for about 6 months). So we have really been working hard with the members, strengthening them and getting them motivated about missionary work. To make a really long story short there as well (sorry I have to keep doing that), we were doing such a great job (well, by that I mean the Lord was blessing us so much), and had 3 member present lessons by Thursday. And so we were feeling great, but then like 4 or 5 lessons just completely fell through. We had the members bring us to people's houses who then cancelled, we had a guy call us up and invite us over to talk, only then to find out that instead of being interested in the gospel, he wanted us to help him find an apartment, and just so many little discouraging things took place. so it was like 8:00 on Sunday, and we were walking home with a member, after being cancelled on for yet another appointment. At this point we were just a little disheartened, and had done a few pass-bys also, which didn't come through. And so we decided to say a prayer and just ask the Lord what we should do. WE ended the prayer and turned the corner to walk back towards the station. There we met with a wonderful man named Ike, who had just moved back to Udine after 6 months out of the city. He had known the missionaries before, taken lessons, and had a Book of Mormon already. We talked with him right there for about ten minutes, and taught him about the Restoration, which he was so happy for. Right as soon as we ended our closing prayer with him, two African men walked past us. I went up even before we had said goodbye to Ike and asked them if they believed in Jesus Christ. We learned that one had actually attended our church in Switzerland, and had just come here and was looking for the church here! He had a friend there who was also interested, and so we taught them too the Restoration! 2 member present lessons, at the very end of the week. just when we were about to go home. To make it to 5 :) Our district of 5 companionships had 27 total. Up from a total of 8 lessons with a member present last week. The Lord is truly in this work. He loves us, hears our prayers, and wants to bless us. As we put our trust in Him, I know that he will strengthen us and make us far better than we ever could become by ourselves. I have tons more to write, but we are out of time. Boy it has been a crazy day!
I love you all so much, thank you for all you have done for me, and for your prayers.
Love,
Anziano Wilson
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