Buonissimo giornissimo!
Sorry for the late email everyone, we had to...err...we were blessed, to go back to San Remo this week (again) to finally pick up my Permesso di Sojourno! (I know you all have been sitting glued to the computer screen waiting for the past few days, I apologize, haha) But it turns out they only gave me a one year Permesso...(even though the church always pays for 2 years, Italy likes to do that I guess.) So I will be able to do all the paperwork all over again in a few months for another one! Hurrah Italia! haha :)
But this week really has been great anyways. We have been getting just in such a groove here these past few weeks; the work is going wonderfully! We have a little boy who is 9 named Davide, who has just decided to be baptised on the 14th of March! That was such a wonderful moment, and he also told us that he is going to invite all of his friends from school to the baptism! ...Which means they'll bring their parents! :) Apparently a missionary in our district had a baptism like that in his last city, and after the baptism all the other little kids were like "Well hey, I want to be baptized too!", and long story short they were blessed with like 4 or 5 familes to teach! So we are hoping and praying for the best!
We are also teaching a man named Morris. He is from Nigeria, but speaks Italian! (which is pretty rare; usually it's English). We had a wonderful few lessons with his this past week, and after much prayer and thought he has decided to be baptized on the 21st! He also needs your prayers for support!
Finally, we are teaching a saint of a man named Christian. He is Italian; we found him outside his house on the street, and since he has invited us into his home multiple times. He is always so kind to us, even though he is young and looks like a pretty "rugged" kind of guy. It is always kind of funny when we teach him though, because his mom is always sitting on the couch, and is SUPER Catholic, and so she tries to squeak in some nay-sayer comments about here and there. But we actually just recently found out the Christian hasn't been able to read his Book of Mormon as much, because his mom has been reading it! She always listens to our lessons, and I think secretly she knows it's true too :) So we gave Christian another Book of Mormon to be his.
We are teaching some other great people too, but those are the most progressing at the moment! The mission has been seeing so many miracles; the Lord is truly hastening His work! Even in the heart of Catholicism. It is such a blessing and a wonder to be part of the Lord's army in such a special time.
One of the members here in Rimini recently showed us a picture of the temple in construction in Rome, (It still has a ways to go until finished), becase he was down there for a business meeting. He said that it is just right in the center of one of the busiest parts of town. So everyone will see it. :)
Miracle: We had a wonderful miracle this week! So we had to travel to San Remo this week again to pick up my Permesso di Sojourno, and so after 2 full days and 18 hours of train riding, we were pretty exhausted. But after train cancellations and delays and bus-substitutions, and about everything else you could imagine, we finally arrived at the Rimini train station! Right at the bottom of the stairs leading to the station we saw a large Nigerian man with two large bags (almost as big as he was!), trying to haul them up the stairs. We ran over and gave him a hand with the bags up the stairs and across the road to the bus stop, and started a conversation with him. We learned that his name was Luke. We also learned that, in fact, he was a referral from the missionaries in Pesaro we had received a few weeks ago, whom we had already tried to call several times with no success! He explained to us that he had just been traveling, had seen our calls, but did not answer them because there would be extra roaming fees. We ended up teaching him a small lesson right there at the bus stop, and then setting up an appointment to call him next week! The Lord works in such mysterious, but wonderful ways!
Well both the weather and the work are just so beautiful here, I am having the time of my life. I am so exhausted, but so thankful. We are so blessed to be alive!
I love you all and pray for you; thank you so much for remembering me in your prayers! Remember to keep the people of Italy in them also. It is a rough place for a lot of people around here.
Love,
Anziano Wilson
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