Buongiorno a tutti! I hope your week has been fantastic! Mine sure was! The Lord has been blessing us so much in this little town.
We had the opportunity to teach another zone training this past Thursday (man, that seems like a lifetime ago). There are 26 missionaries in our zone, and so it was a great experience to have a discussion with them and teach them about the importance of the work we are here to do, and why we are here doing it. We also talked about setting baptismal dates with investigators on the very first meeting. The members here think we are crazy for doing it, but it works! (more on that later).
--Just a side note. I am SO full right now. So, there is this pizza place basically across the street from our house...it is so delicious. Really good. And they give you HUGE pizzas for the regular price of 5 euro. It is like double the size. Anziano Pinnock and I had the "brilliant" idea of getting one each (because usually you can eat a whole pizza by yourself here in Italy...the crust is really thin and amazing..). Long story short, we got about halfway-through each and I was like "man. There is a lot of pizza left still." And Anziano Pinnock said "oh, good! I thought it was just me being a wimp!" So we still have half a pizza (the equivalent of an entire pizza) waiting for us at home :) But if I start falling asleep while writing this...bear with me.
--We have been having some really full days recently. I have gotten a lot better at planning things in advance, (I know, that's a shocker for those who know me), and it has been great! We taught 23 lessons last week, and found 5 new investigators! (the average for the zone is about 8, and 0.7, respectively). So it was a great week! Thank you for your prayers, they are a big help!
--During one of the lessons with a man from Nigeria named Experience ( yes that is his name...it is actually a pretty common...yes, I was surprised as well.) , we read together 2 Nephi 31:10-13.
"And he said unto the children of men: Follow thou me. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, can we follow Jesus save we shall be willing to keep the commandments of the Father?
11 And the Father said: Repent ye, repent ye, and be baptized in the name of my Beloved Son. 12 And also, the voice of the Son came unto me, saying: He that is baptized in my name, to him will the Father give the Holy Ghost, like unto me; wherefore, follow me, and do the things which ye have seen me do. 13 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I know that if ye shall follow the Son, with full purpose of heart, acting no hypocrisy and no deception before God, but with real intent, repenting of your sins, witnessing unto the Father that ye are willing to take upon you the name of Christ, by baptism—yea, by following your Lord and your Savior down into the water, according to his word, behold, then shall ye receive the Holy Ghost; yea, then cometh the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost; and then can ye speak with the tongue of angels, and shout praises unto the Holy One of Israel."
He sat there in silence for about a minute, and finally said, "wow. That hit me. This book hit my heart. I must be baptized." We were thinking "WHAT?! that never happens!" But it did! He is an awesome guy! We are helping him to prepare to be baptized the 23rd of May. Keep him in your prayers!
--We found a candy store outlet!! The outlets are the stores that other stores send their excess orders to for really cheap because they can't sell it all, and then they sell it instead, for really cheap! Usually it is just for clothes, but we found the jackpot! Needless to say, I was snacking on a nice Lindt chocolate bar about an hour ago. ;)
--I am so excited for General Conference. I have continued to listen to talks each morning while I make breakfast; it is so inspiring! I listened to one from Elder Eyring this week called "Man Down" (or something like that). I would recommend it! I am just so amazed at how inspired the leaders of the church are: they seem to know everything that is going on in the world, all the time.
--I had the chance this week to do a scambio with one of the new missionaries in our zone yesterday. His name is Anziano Lingardo. He is awesome. The only member of his family, and a convert of only one year and a half. His conversion story is inspiring. His best friend is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and has always been a good example to him. He ate often at their house for dinner. One night, they had the missionaries over, and it all started from there. He gained a personal testimony, and then told his parents that he wanted to serve a mission. They weren't supportive, but didn't prevent him from going. He is a good kid.
--While on scambio, Anziano Lingardo told me that he was a "pun-master". I took it as a challenge...For the next 15 minutes we spoke only in puns. It was a grape time. *ba dum ching*. Towards the end I just started putting emphasis on random words in a sentence and pretending it was a pun. "It's a good thing we are walking on the street!" "...That's not even a pun!" "What, don't you get it? Street?? Walking??" *he smacks his forehead*. Good times :)
--Josè came to church on Sunday!! It was amazing! He had a great experience. It was his first time attending any church for over 10 years! He turned to me during one of the breaks between classes and said "Everyone is so nice here...It really is just like a big family!" What a blessing!
--Miracle: This week was full of miracles! We have been seeing many blessings from the Lord as a result of working diligently and trying our best to talk to everyone. This week we have been blessed to set 3 baptismal dates with investigators, each on the first lesson that we taught with them! We expect great things from Benito, Jerry, and Umberto! Keep them in your prayers, especially Jerry! But besides that, I had a miracle while talking to a man on the metro the other day. I approached him to start a conversation, and he began to ask me, in very broken Italian, if I was from Italy. I immediately replied "do you speak English?" to which he replied, "yeah! I'm from Wisconson!" It's not every day that you get to speak to an American! We had a wonderful conversation on the metro, and he got off at the same stop as us. He, rob, is here in Italy for a business trip, but returns next week. He said both of his next-door neighbors are Mormons, and both served missions out of the country. He had always wondered when he would see some missionaries out and about, but didn't expect to see them in Italy! We had a great conversation, and I invited him to watch the church's new "Because He Lives" video on the 28th of March, and then talk to his neighbors about what he thought about it. He agreed. It was a great experience!
Everything here in Brescia is well. We are working on keeping our investigators progressing, and motivating the ward to be more missionary-work motivated. A few members have expressed to us that they need motivation. I can attest to that. But we are pumped up and ready to go, and so we will transmit that to them! We hope to inspire them, and I have a wonderful opportunity to give a talk this Sunday. It will be about "living off of your own light and testimony". Get ready Brescia...here it comes! ;) We expect great things from this ward. I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Love,
Anziano Wilson
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