Buon giorno everyone! :)
This week has been just so wonderful! The most excited news that I have that I just can't save for the middle or end of the email is that I am moving out to a new city! I will be going to Udine and my new companion will be Anziano Ramey. I have heard some great things about him! (Well, in my opinion!) Haha, one of the missionaries here said gloomy "oh man, get ready to get after it. Anziano Ramey works ya hard." I am SO excited! I have been praying hard for a companion exactly like that--who goes out and just does work! So I am excited to work hard in the cause of the Lord :)
I haven't heard much about Udine, I'm sure you guys can look it up, other than that it is a relatively small branch, and that we have bikes. But I am just really excited! It will be pretty tough to leave all the wonderful investigators and new converts and members here in Lecco, but I know that if I am being transferred, then the Lord needs me in Udine. I will go and do all that He asks me to do.
This past week has been so great. We have been teaching like crazy and just getting everything ready for the next missionary that will come to take my place with Anziano Lopez. One of our investigators was in the hospital this past week, and so we made a few visits to share a message with him, and during one of them he said "well, it's kind of boring here, do you guys have anything that I can read?" My companion and I just smiled and I pulled out a Book of Mormon, and like 7 pamphlets about different gospel principles. He was happy to have something to read :)
The roommate the man in the hospital (Martin) had the same type of illness that Martin did, but a lot more advanced...Martin told us that he only had 40 days to live. That was a sobering thought...made me really value and be thankful for the good health that the Lord has blessed me with, and realize the importance of every single day. We are so blessed to wake up every day and know that we have a full day ahead of us to live!
It finally snowed!...not. Haha, it sprinkled the kind of snow that melts as soon as it hits the ground for like an hour, and then it just rained for the rest of the time. :P I feel like I'm in the Amazon it rains so much here. But what can ya do! (What would you-u-u do. For a Klo-on-dike....bar.) hahaha.
Wow! So we had Martha's baptism on this past Sunday! (I will write more about that in a second). But first I have a greatt story of getting everything ready for it! Basically anything that could go wrong went wrong! haha. So we planned on having the baptism at 5:30 that evening, and so we left Lecco right after church to head to the Muggiò building, (because we don't have a baptismal font in Lecco). So we got to Muggiò at about 2:00, and to make a long story short, neither us nor the Lecco Anziani knew/remembered where the church building was, and the Zone leaders gave us the wrong address, so we walked around the city asking people where "Via Della Reconstruzione" was, (which apparently is a pretty obscure street, because noone knew where it was). 2 hours and 10 miles of walking later, we finally got to the building...which was locked! And it turns out that the 2 pairs of Anziani in Muggiò were both out of the city! So we had to wait for another 20 minutes for a member to come unlock the building. It was about 4:30 at this point, and it takes 2 hours to fill up the font. So we rushed in, cranked the water up, and starting filling pots full of water from the kitchen to bring to dump into the font as well. But it turns out that the faucet in the font took all the warm water from the entire building! :P haha. So we starting using the stoves to warm up huge pots of water, and then dump them in the font! We still ended up having to postpone the baptism for about 45 minutes because of a bunch of other "technical difficulties". It was a good time! haha but no, if it were easy that it wouldn't be as great as a memory! "It's all part of the experience, Russ." haha. But it was definitely worth all the trouble and work that we had to go through last Sunday, the baptism was so very wonderful. Which leads me to our miracle this week!
Miracle: This week we had a wonderful miracle. We were blessed to be able to attend Martha's baptism!! And adding even more to the joy of that was that Samuel, her husband and a new convert baptized in June, was able to her baptize her! We were unsure whether or not he was actually going to do it, because the Tuesday before the baptism he had expressed to us some concerns about not being ready, and some trials that he was going through at that time. But through the power of prayer and the help of the Holy Ghost, he had a wonderful feeling of peace come over him the Saturday before the baptism, and he came to church the next day and expressed to us his willingness to baptize his wife. It was such a wonderful experience to see them standing in the font together, and the expressions of joy that they had on their faces after the ordinance was completed. In Martha's testimony at the baptismal service she told everyone how happy and thankful she was that Samuel was able to do it, and she expressed her happiness that she has begun anew, and has truly found a family here in the church. The Lord truly touches hearts, and the gospel, has made such an impact in her life. Her countenance is so much more light, and their home radiates with the love that abounds in families who work together to serve God. We are excited for her to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost next Sunday in sacarament meeting.
Everything else is going very well, I am really excited to go to Udine and work hard. I know there is much work to do in the army of the Lord! I hope that all is going well with all of you; you are always in my prayers!
Love,
Anziano Wilson
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