Ciao-issimo a tutti!
Italy is so great! The people here are one of a kind! :) I was just thinking back this morning at all the crazy experiences I have already had, and just all the mannerisms and everything of the people here. You would just never see so many things in America...ever. haha. Like 90 year olds everywhere on bikes, INSANE drivers, and just so much kindness, too! We had an investigator and his sister the other day, that we barely have even met, invite us to come over and eat dinner with them to thank us for the "free book." (Of Mormon.) haha. Italians are great!
Let's see...another wonderful week on the mission! It is such a privilege! We had such a miraculous week, I wouldn't have nearly enough time to write it all! (But I'll probably try anyway!) :) We ended up teaching 29 lessons this past week (the mission average is like 7 lessons), and 8 of those were member-present! It was such a miracle. As we added up our numbers at the end of the week we both were just kind of taken aback, because we hadn't been thinking about it all week; we were just taking it one day at a time and working as hard as we could. The Lord has been so good to us. And to me. I am so thankful for His support and love for me, even with all the silly mistakes I make every day. Being a missionary is such a blessing!
So I'm just going to skip the side-salad, if you will, of the week, and go right into the meat!
Miracle: We saw so many wonderful miracles this week! On Sunday Salvatore and Elisabeth, and their 4 little boys, our new family of investigators, came to church (a 40 minute drive away from their home)!! And they loved it! They are such tender-hearted; as we talked about eternal families in gospel principles they both listened intently, and at the end of the lesson President Caramia gave a wonderful analogy about marriage. He compared it to buying a house, knowing that it would be destroyed. "I would never buy a house if I knew that it would one day be destroyed! So why do people do the same thing with marriage?" President Caramia is such a good teacher, and it was such a blessing that he was even in that class with us (That is the first time he has come to gospel principles instead of the other class, since I arrived in Rimini!) The entire ward was so warm and friendly and basically smothered them with smiles and welcomes...it was so great!
But the best part of the miracle was that during sacarament meeting, one of the little kids, 3 months old, got a little fussy, and so Elisabeth took him out of the room during the sacrament. Soon after, their 3 year old did the same thing, and so Salvatore took him out. As soon as sacrament was finished, 3 women from the relief society got up, unasked, to go take care of the little kids! Soon both Salvatore and Elisabeth came back in the listen to the rest of the meeting! It was so wonderful! The other two children, ages 4 and 6, were absolute angels, sitting reverently in their chairs the entire time! It was a wonderful experience!
Another wonderful miracle happened as we met with Cristian yesterday! He is such a man of faith, with a testimony of the Book of Mormon and of everything we have taught, but he is struggling at the moment with smoking, and so we have been slowing down a little to help him through that. Well finally, after about a month of thinking about it, we brought him a calender, and sat down together to ponder a date of when he thinks he can be ready and completely worthy to be baptized. He has repeatedly expressed his desire to us to be baptized, but he has just been having some rough times. So we decided to do the only thing really that we knew to do: to pray right then and there with him to decide on a date. We did so, and the Spirit was so strong! We sat in silence for a few minutes, and then he said "2 months." So we set the baptismal date for June 15th! As we said that, he said "June 15th...that's my father's birthday." (his father had passed away, at least we think, a few years ago) He continued,"That's not a coincidence..." It was so special for us to experience that together! Cristian is such a champion! He needs your prayers to help him overcome smoking, though!
Another wonderful little experience we had while we were walking around in centro, doing some finding work. We met a man and started talking and walking with him for about 5 minutes, before stopping in the middle middle of the place to talk. As we spoke, 2 Argentinian(?) people started walking up to us saying "los missionarios!" (Luckily we understand at least that much spanish, haha) As we spoke with them (I can understand about 80% of Spanish, since it's so similar to Italian), we learned that he was a STAKE PRESIDENT from Buenos Aires, here visiting with his wife, so they could see the Rome temple! AND it turns out that the man we were talking with, though he was Italian, also spoke Spanish! So we asked the members to bear their testimonies about how to know the truth (through prayer), and then asked him to offer a prayer for us! (the man we were talking with translated it from Spanish to Italian for us....so he heard every word!) It is so awesome to be a missionary! :)
Well, this keyboard is about the worst I have ever seen; my fingers hurt from having to press so hard. So I'll wrap it up there! It has been wonderful in Rimini!
I love you all so much, and thank you for your support and prayers in my behalf. I need them, and feel much strength from them. I always remember you all in mine! Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Anziano Wilson
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