Buongiorno a tutti! :)
Man, what a wonderful week it has been! We have been seeing so many miracles it is insane! I love being a missionary!!!
--This past week we have been working a lot with the members--trying to strengthen them and teach them HOW to do missionary work. They have a huge desire to do it, but they just need to be helped with the how. This week we saw some serious success and established 6 Family Mission Plans with various families, and hope to see some success with those!
--One of the families that we went to visit, the Criscuolo family, lives waay out in the mountains, about an hour from Alessandria. We went over for the first time since I arrived here three months ago, and they were so shocked/glad to see us! They welcomed us in, and we had a wonderful dicussion with them. They told us that this is the first time that missionaries have been over to their house in over 5 years! (Apparently the missionaries in Alessandria didn't have a car until about a month before I arrived here...and it is IMPOSSIBLE to get to their house on a bus. Those roads are intense.). I can't believe they drive all that way every single Sunday to get to church. It makes me really appreciate the 5 minute walk in two directions to a church building in good old Pocatello... But anyway, they were happy to have us over, and we made with them a great Family Mission Plan.
--This week for Correlation (the meeting that the missionaries, ward missionaries, and Ward Mission Leader), our ward mission leader was gone, so he asked me to lead the meeting. You have to kind of know Martin (that's his name), to appreciate this...but he is a 24-year-old from Argentina and is SO funny. I had a fun time trying to impersonate all the little funny things he does. :)
--There was a missionary homecoming this week in Alessandria!! One of the missionaries that was serving from the ward came back from his mission to the Rome mission. He had a lot of funny stories to tell. His talk was really good, too! All about using our time wisely, and bringing others unto Christ. It made me really motivated to use every second of the precious time I have left here as a servant of the Lord.
--The YSA here is on fire when it comes to missionary work! We started this Harry Potter game thing with them, where they get points for the missionary work they do...it has been a major success!
--I just bought some store-bought pizza. Even that is some of the best pizza I have ever had! I love Italy.
--So today for P-day we went out to visit this outlet shopping mall, where we thought we were going to find some sweet deals on ties/suits/etc. They were some sweet deals, but it was at all the really luxury stores. Like Armani and Prada and Boggi and Brooks Brothers. Instead of 2.000 euro the suits were a whopping 999!! What a steal! There were hundreds of stores there with stuff that costs more than most used cars! I have never felt so out of place...but it was sure fun pretending like a rich person! I walk up to a suit (2500 euro), look at it, and the store clerk is like "It's a nice suit! Do you want it?" I pause, pretend to be actually considering it, and then say "Give me a minute to think about it. For now I'm just looking..." And then we, as the scriptures said "got ourselves out." :D
--We have been meeting some really amazing people out on the street lately. It has strengthened my testimony so much that there truly are people prepared by the Lord. We just need to find them!
--So, I will start this point with a little background information. So in Italy the streets are really narrow. REALLY narrow. So narrow that a lot of the time, when cars are parked on the sides (like they always are), two cars going opposite ways can't pass at the same time. ONe has to wait and pull really close to the side car, and wait for the other car to squeeze past. If it is a bus...forget about it. And so what the busses do if the get stuck, is they just start laying on their horn for minutes on end, until the person who parked the car comes and moves it so that they can get through. So like 3 days ago, I was sleeping. It was about 4:36 AM (I checked the clock). And I just hear a horn start BLARING over and over and over! There, apparently, was a delivery truck driving down one of the streets, and someone had parked just a little to far away from the curb, so he couldn't pass. So, of course, he doesn't back up and find another way around; he is Italians! They don't do that! He starts honking his horn, for about 20 minutes, until the owner of the car comes out. They yell at each other for about 10 minutes, and then the driver moves his car, and the truck goes on his way. I was so ticked. Italy..it's a love-hate relationship sometimes.!
--My companion mentioned to me the other day "It would be interesting to see, in graph form, the path of the missionaries, and then just all of the other paths converging onto it" It really seems to be that way!
--Miracle: This week has been full of miracles! The miracle I would like to share happened last night! We were out talking to people on the street, and we stopped a young couple, asking them if they believed in Christ. The man stopped and immediately pointed to his girlfriend, saying "She does! She does a lot!". We began to speak with them about the importance of us having a Savior, and why it is important to put our beliefs into action. She then started asking us a lot of really good, really well thought-out questions, like "In the Bible there are multiple examples of Jesus being seperate from His Father...what do you believe about the Trinity?" It was music to my ears! You can really tell a well-studied Christian when they start to have questions about the Trinity. We explained to her what we believe, and went from there into the Restoraion. She asked us a few more questions, to which we responded. At the end of the conversation they both looked at each other, smiled, and said "wow. You answered those questions really well." We exchanged contact information and will see them tomorrow! It was such a blessing to me to see and feel the Spirit working through me, literally giving me the words to say to answer those questions. What a blessing it is to be a missionary!
--Scambio: I had a wonderful scambio this last week with the new district leader in Alessandria, Anziano Larson. We saw some serious miracles, including finding a new investigator, and I learned a lot from him! It was a good experience for us both.
--I have had so many witnesses lately of the promise that the Lord will give us, through the Spirit, the words to say. I have been able to confound so many "wise" men on the street, who intentionally try to confound us. It is such a blessing to know that the Lord is always with us, and he will protect His missionaries. :)
Everything else is going well! We are working hard with Ernesto and Guiliano so that they can get back on track towards baptism in the near future. Speriamo bene! Thanks for all your support and prayers. I love you all!
Love,
Anziano Wilson
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