December 11, 2019

Some good stuff happened.

After 7 months of walking with an ingrown toenail, I've finally gotten it taken care of. The nail was growing sideways so it feels good to have that taken care of.

An earthquake happened, but unfortunately it was only a 4.8 or somethin like that, so nothing exciting, but still the most fun I've had on the mission.

We have 2 latina ladies in our English class and I suggested to them that we bring food for the next English class, which was last night. They ended up bring empanadas and we brought brownies. We had like 10 there and everyone was happy. It was kinda cool to see people happy because of an idea I had.

We so service for Light The World as a zone. My comp and I decided to make brownies and take them to our neighbors. The first one we went to didnt answer. The second did and she said she'd make us some italian sweets, so I'm excited. The third person said "I dont know you so I dont want them." We heard some noise so we followed it up two floors. Knocked on the door. They answered and we told them we made american sweets for them and they actually invited us in. Yes! We were finally let into a home!! First time in 9 months. We weren't there to teach a lesson, just to give them brownies and wish them a merry Christmas. We ended up spending the rest of the night in their home just getting to know each other. It was awesome. I guess some would consider that a miracle, idk tho.

Have a good Christmas. If I have anything noteworthy, I'll send another "Weekly".

Sempre avanti,
Anziano Brady

December 4, 2019

So Prato... the ward is fantastic, the city itself is full of asians who dont understand Italian or English so it's a fun time trying to talk to them.

We did Thanksgiving with 4 other missionaries and it was awesome!

We met with a brava family who helped take care of my toe. They saw my toe, set up an appointment with a foot specialist, and took me to a local medic to get a prescription for antibiotics which helped a lot. I've had this issue for the last 7 months and so I was really excited to get that help.

For English class, I teach two women who dont know very much English and they're both from South America. Yesterday, we started talking about empanadas and one of the ladies said she knows how to make them. So I said maybe we can eat empanadas and brownies next English class. That's what we're gonna do haha.

Anziano Prince got transferred to Milano and I have to finish the training of another missionary. We dont get along super well, that's just because I do not like being called "honey" or "cutie" and flirted at by another man.

Speaking of gay, I was getting off a bus at night to go back home and a male prostitute groped me. Then the next night I got smooches at by a different one.

I'm just really happy to be out of Merate.

Sempre avanti,
Anziano Brady

November 14, 2019

We got transfer calls! I'm serving with Anziano Prince!! And we'll be in prato, which is deep in the land of Tuscany. After almost 7 months, we're comps again.

I'm gonna cover almost 3 weeks in this weekly but I'll try to keep it all short. No one reads long weekly emails anyway.

We did service with Alfredo again. This time we helped moved about 2 tons of food. He runs a thing that provides families that cant provide for themselves lots of food. About 100 families go to this thing. Each family gets 2 crates of food. Each crate of food is enough food for a week.

We met more families. I'm really only gonna miss the Muiruri family, Bri of course, and Mattia(uomo). We met some less active families and it's confusing when they have "strong testimonies", but members havent seen them in years. I want to help these people who struggle to come to church, but I don't know how. Any suggestions are welcome!

I've learned 3 things while being in Merate. 1)there is work in other places. I've seen what no work is like. 2) It's all about opening my mouth to speak, whether I'll be right or wrong. 3) covenants made AND kept bring real miracles.

Quick story. A recently return missionary and I were talking about the mission. Language got brought up. He showed me a video, then bore his testimony to me about covenants. I was inspired to make a covenant of my own. For about 3 weeks, I've been tempted a lot, but I've seen the improvement already with the language. More understanding, both the people and the grammar. More confidence in speaking. More fluent when I speak. It's incredible. Covenants that we make AND keep with the Lord have power in them. Offering a heart in sincerity with willing hands brings amazing results.

Scambio! I went on a scambio with a greenie that has more fire and energy than I've ever seen. This kid just wants to do finding. Hours and hours of finding. And he tries to talk to everyone. That energy was starting to wear off on me haha. So I noticed that having a companion that's excited to work makes a big difference. When we hit the bed that night we were both out haha. That was my first scambio that I've done as senior companion. That was also the first time I taught a lesson on the street yee yeet. I was the main speaker and it was terrifying at first, but after the first person talked to us and I understood what was said, every bit of doubt left me. That kid is gonna go home and be able to say he hauled butt every day.

La famiglia Muiruri invited us to their home again and so I got to spend one of my last nights with them. I love that family and hope i get to see them again soon. The friendships you make as a missionary are somethin special.

The day I got to Prato with Prince, we hit the ground running. We had a huge service opportunity that went really well. We were told to just speak english and help people make conversation and what not. Every group that came in asked our question, and like every missionary, we pull their attention to our tags and they ask us elders why we're called old. Anyway, we just ended up teaching so many things to everyone we talked to. It was awesome! They were the most open and accepting Italians I've met so far. Some even said they wanted to come to church to see what it's all about. Good day to start off the transfer

Catch y'all on the flip

Sempre avanti,
Anziano Brady

October 30, 2019

Doing a weekly every week is tiring. Another week down of being with a driver who's worse than an old Asian woman on LCD driving a little Prius on the autobahn going 20kmh in the fast lane🤦‍♂️ but he makes a good lasagna, for sure

A couple weeks ago, we did some street finding through town. We had a nice stroll for about 4 hours. As we were making our way back into town (because we walked to the other city and back) a man stopped us asking for money and help. The shorter side of this companionship is desperate to get those numbers, so we told the man that we can help him with his visa and legal paperwork, so of course this illegal immigrant was excited. First off, this man is from somewhere, idk, but he doesnt speak any language fluently enough to make a conversation, and he cant read anything. He speaks mostly french and hardly any italian. His name is Bamba (the Fruitcake Fugitive). He's a 38 year old fugitive running from the police I wish I were kidding about that haha. We had a "lesson" with him in the church and he was asked if we were gay and if our church is gay and if we only accept gay people and if we do the uomo uomo in chiesa. No, se saint uomo homo bamba. I thought he was about to go Bruce Jenner on us and whip it out. I was so ready to get my first K.O., but nothin happened. My companion told him "we accept everything and so does Jesus Christ, so if you're gay, that's perfect!" At the end, I asked if he has any questions or if he understood and he just giggled and said "oh wi si, no viengo delli africas" and I almost lost it haha So, it was an interesting lesson, absolute waste of time, he understood nothing, but he's still excited that we are going to help him with his visa and paperwork to become legal and have an Italian boyfriend. Oh, and my companion now considers him an investigator and is excited that we get to teach him again soon. The same night Bamba called to say that he loves us and the next morning he sent a text saying "I love you too much, you're so cute." He also invited us to his home to meet his friends who dont have any interest in the gospel at all, but they want to meet us, I wonder what they're interested in...eggplants anyone? Italians put eggplant on pizza here, I thought pizza was messed up big time with pineapple

If you all could pray that I get transferred to Anziano Prince or Anziano Lex at the end of this transfer(or sometime soon), that would be gretchen awesome!

We started doing service at the catholic version of the bishops storehouse, but it's only for families with little children. I work with 2 old ladies who are just adorable. They asked what my name is and I obviously said Anziano Brady but they wanted my first name, so I told them Tyler and it was too hard for them to pronounce. One of the ladies said I heard Paolo, so I told them I'll respond to Paolo haha. At the end of the "work" day, they stuff a bag full of food because they're worried we arent eating enough haha. They're so fun to be around. There's no one quite like old italian ladies together.

One thing happened while we were doing service there for the first time. Everyone there wanted to know what two young men were doing in their country, so we started to explain. We told them all our beliefs in the Godhead and the plan of salvation, about sacrament, about temples, families, everything, mostly answering their questions. Then Giancarlo had to say something. He was like "excuse me, you aren't Christians. You believe in a different Jesus Christ and God just like the jehovah's witnesses. You worship satan. That's what I've heard, and it's true." Okay, bahahaha Good gretchen, I've wanted to say some really dumb stuff back to people before. It's been a while since I've felt so tempted to say somethin back, but that would have just given in to the natural man. The natural man... I've learned to stay quiet and let them go for it, but I start smirking while they do. It irritates so many people and I end up walking away laughing while they're behind me saying all the mature and grown up words they know. But then I'm the one getting in a Prius to drive home... that's a major L.

I used to hate Sundays as a missionary, mostly because we're expected to do the same things that we do every day, so it didnt feel like a special day, definitely not a day of rest. Now I look forward to Sundays, I get to see members who are happy to see me, I get to talk to some of them and make friendships, and it's good to just sit there and relax a little while I pretend to pay attention to the talks. There's one member who asked me what kind of gun I have and I told him I dont have one yet so he asked which one I wanted. I showed him the lever action Henry rifle and he just loved it. Then I showed him a .44 revolver and he thought those were the coolest things ever haha.

Sunday night we did a lot of pass-bys, which means that we went to a bunch of less active members homes. The first one we went to, a woman answered the gate phone thingy and we told her who we were and that we were looking for brother Luigi (that's not name, Idk his name) and she said "he's in the bathroom so just wait there" and then hung up. About 30 minutes later, we called again and the member that we were looking for answered and we told him who we were and he said "oh, my daughter thought you were jehovah's witnesses. Come in". Walking into their home hurt my heart, the wife is on her death bed and she hardly has the energy to raise her hand. The husband isnt doing too well himself, but he is still able to move around a little. We decided next week we will start taking bread and water to their home for sacrament. The daughter isnt a member and doesnt like us one bit. As we were leaving, I went to the bed side of the wife and she grabbed my hand and held it for a while, telling me that it's been years since she's felt the Lord's presence so strong and she didnt want us to go. She said she misses her church, she misses the Lord, she misses feeling the spirit. They havent had the sacrament in years because neither of them are physically able to leave their home. We went to some more homes after that, but most of the members had moved so we had some really angry people to deal with. We ended the night getting to know and older couple which was fun. I felt like I was back home doing home teaching haha, that was one of the best nights I've had as a missionary. We didnt do anything fun, we just talked to them and got to know them and that was fun.

Something ishnish spiritual now. I've been reading the most recent conference talks and they're all so good. I read these parts a while ago: "Giving our all doesn’t mean that we will be continually enveloped in blessings or always have success. But it does mean that we will have joy."
"That may be true of all of us—it’s not our successes but rather our sacrifice and efforts that matter to the Lord."
Thinking about my mission, I dont have a lot of success (based on the numbers), but after reading those parts, after thinking about it, when the question "Did you have success today?" arises, I answer it with this question: "Did I make sacrifices and give my all today?" Sacrifice is success. In the words of one of the 2 greatest leaders of this mission "at the end of the day, you just realize what you're doing is good and it's about just loving people and serving people." -Anziano Prince. It's true, it doesnt matter whether people are missionaries or not, members of our church or not, God fearing or absolute heathens, serving and loving people brings that warm feeling to anyone's heart, that's what brings joy. A huge part to serving others is sacrificing something to do that service. Whether it's your time, your attention, your money, sleep, temporal wellbeing, or your life, you sacrifice something to serve another and that's all that matters. When you sacrifice something that's important to you for someone else, you grow love for that person or a people.

I think I'll take a break from weekly's for about a year and 4 months. Love you all and catch y'all on the flipside

Sempre avanti,
Anziano Brady

October 23, 2019

Another week in Italy! Not a whole lot happened this week. We did 2 exchanges because my companion is district dictator. I learned that the people from Sicily actually loved (still do) Mussolini! Supposedly, while he reigned, he helped terminate the mafia families in Sicily, but they're back so he really didnt do anything🤷‍♂️

Our first exchange, I was with the other Anziano Brady in Lecco. The people we stopped either asked if we're gay and married or brothers. It was interesting to say the least. During that exchange, I tried talking to 2 men who seemed middle eastern. Their names were probably Muhammad or Ali. I broke the ice with "hey, we're Americans and new to this city. So what is the best gelateria around." In italian though, obviously. They didnt speak any Italian or English, but they were so willing to help us, so they started taking us to the train station haha. Google translate helped a lot. So, they walked us back into the city center to their favorite gelateria which took about 20 minutes and nothing came of it haha. We ended the exchange and went to Zone conference the next day.

Our second exchange, we went to Muggiò with the zone leaders. I went with Anziano Brase. The similarity between him and I were freaky. We have the same personality, the same sense of humor, the same interests, we're both good drivers. I basically did an exchange with myself. Anyway, the whole day and night and next morning, it was pouring rain. In italy, no one strolls the streets when it's raining. But! There's no rest for the weary! Gear up and go out! Pneumonia give me some!! No one wanted to stop to talk in the cold rain haha. We taught a man the Plan of Salvation. While we taught him, he didnt make eye contact and he just spacing out into lala land, it was kinda like talking to boo haha. We asked him if he had any questions at the end and he had 3, very specific and to the point questions. So he actually did pay attention! It was pretty cool, so overall that lesson went really well.

English class... I'm thankful that Bri comes to help me. She's absolutely amazing. La mia cuore e chiuso, quindi, fret not.

For pday today, we dont get to do anything fun😁 greenies are puppies and jr comps are dogs.

No pictures, because there hasn't been anything to take pictures of.

I hope everyone has a fantastic week!

Sempre avanti,
Anziano Brady

October 16, 2019

This week has been a little more normal. We had combined district meeting (a less formal meeting for the missionaries in the zone) which is always great because you get to be with other missionaries. Only seeing and being with your companion gets old real quick. We have zone conference on the 18th.

We met with a family who probably only invited us to lunch just to have us help them move some stuff haha, but that's okay, if we can get into a home, we'll take the invitation. Theyre both members, both return missionaries. The patriarch of the family was mean to me and basically told me to go home haha, he took to the British attitude way too much. That's up there with Gary. His wife was super nice though, I guess opposites really do attract.

Lasagna... oh wow, we made lasagna for dinner. But while it was in the oven, about 5 minutes before completely done, we found the plug had been burned and the Anziani before us didnt do anything about it. But! Easily, without a doubt, the best lasagna I've ever had. So I'll part ways with this companion knowing Italian and knowing how to make lasagna. Double dates with Prince are gonna get us hitched real quick haha...bdubs?

We received news from our mission president a while ago that I only shared with my family. My mission president announced that instead of getting on a plane to fly home at the end of our missions, we will be getting on a train headed to Rome. There, we will be able to visit the Rome temple (for my first time) and we will be reunited with the other anziani from our MTC group. From Rome we will fly home. I can't for the day the boys get on a train to Rome to visit the Rome Temple for the first time (Sorella mom you better be there too).

We finally met all of the active members of the church in Merate. We stood at the door to welcome everyone in and everyone was just as excited to see us as we were to see them. Other than Cooper boy and the boys, Anziano Prince and Lex, no one has been that excited to see me haha. That was fun. I hope they keep that excitement as we try to work with them. They said Merate now has an Italian and an American giant haha. We were invited by other Anziani to a baptism of one of their friends that they've been teaching. That was awesome. It was the first baptism I've been to on the mission, it was ottimo.

Monday night we met with a member. At this point, I cant tell if he's less active or going to another building. Him and his family are from Ecuador, so imagine this happy little Ecuadorian man haha. His family is still in Ecuador, so he's by himself here. He hasn't seen his family in over 3 years, his work is not going well so he cant get them here and he cant go home. He misses them a lot and it's weighed him down. Anyway, at the end of sharing our thought with him, he told us that he feels spiritually happier when he's with us and he's excited to be with us again and to talk with us about the gospel because he feels it lift him up. He was just so happy to be with us. Ive never felt so much appreciation from strangers before. 

The miracle of this week: I'm not killed in a car accident. Not yet haha

Love you all

in avanti con la speranza,
Anziano Brady

October 16, 2019

Ragù
 • 1 union • 1 carrot • Hamburger meat • Olive oil (maybe ¼ cup) • White wine • 700g passata di pomodoro • 400g can of polpa di pomodoro Dice onion and carrot, put in large pot with oil and meat. Slowly add small amounts of white wine, cooking it all together. When meat is cooked, add all pasta di pomodoro and ¼ of the can of polpa di pomodoro. Let it boil for long time (like 2-3 hours) stirring occasionally.

Lasagna
600 ml besciamella (or more if you want) Cold ragù • Put a little besciamella on the bottom, then ragù, stir. Should look creamy, add more besciamella if needed. Spread over bottom of pan. • Place lasagna on top of mixture, breaking pieces to cover mixture. • Add more besciamella, spread around to cover all lasagna. Place more lasagna on top of besciamella • Add ragù on top of lasagna, spread around to cover all lasagna. Add more lasagna on top of Ragù. • Add besciamella on top of lasagna, spread around to cover all lasagna. Add more lasagna on top of besciamella. • Add remaining besciamella on top of lasagna. Add ragù, stir into creamy mixture. Spread around to all corners and edges. • Top with cheese

Recipes2
Besciamella

Milk 3L
Flour 300g
Butter 300g
Salt
Nutmeg
Melt butter in a pot. While doing that heat up the milk. Once butter is melted add equal parts
flour slowly on low flame while mixing. Once all butter and flour is mixed together add the boiling
milk slowly to mixture and continue to mix. Use whisk to keep somewhat creamy (or beater if
lazy) while heating. Add salt and nutmeg (like a lot) to flavor it up. Done.

Lasagna

Ragu
Besciamella
Parmesan
Lasagna pasta
Super simple use the previous recipes to make the ingredients needed for the lasagna. Preheat the
oven to 225 Celsius. Once done put a layer of ragu in a cooking tin then a layer of besciamella
then a good amount of parmesan for the next layer and finally the lasagna pasta for the last layer.
Keep repeating this till you acquire desired height of lasagna. After prepared put in the oven and
cook as long as it says the pasta says to or just be a chef and judge it yourself. Done.

ChocolateSalame
Ingredients:
• 4 eggs
• 1 stick of butter (250g)
• 1 Bag of cookies
• 10 spoons of Sugar
• 2 big spoons of cocoa powder
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• 1 container of strawberries (if possible)
Directions:
• Soften (melt) butter in large bowl. Then add sugar and cocoa powder.
• Separate yolks and egg whites; put yolks into bowl with cocoa, sugar, and butter.
• Add vanilla.
• Put cookies in a separate bowl and smash, leaving chunks (large and small).
• Cut strawberries into fourths.
• Add cookies and strawberries into bowl with all other ingredients, stir.
• Freeze overnight in a cylindrical shape.

October 9, 2019

Ciao a tutti!!

I am transferred again after only 12 weeks in Udine. My next city is Merate, just above Milano.

During my last few weeks in Udine I experienced some awesome things. There is a man that missionaries have been working with for a while, they invited him to be baptized, but he didnt feel ready and shortly after that, he stopped having the missionaries teach him. He recently started having missionaries over again. I've been able to see his progress. He went from not showing up, to church to showing up to church with his mom, to showing up with his son, to showing up by himself. Our last lesson with him, we asked his mom if she would share her testimony about Joseph Smith as a prophet and after she ended, he said his. We were blown away. His mom told us that he feels something special when he's at church and he wants that feeling always. It was truly incredible to watch him progress.

Another crazy thing happened. A woman, whose sister is a member, was having a difficult time in life and her sister told her that she should come to our sacrament meeting. She came, out of the blue, no one knew her, and we later found out after her 3rd time in church that she told the branch president's wife that she feels something so special and it softens her heart and let's her feel peace while she's in church.

After the past 12 weeks, I've seen my Italian improve to the point that I can communicate with very little help from my companion. I'm excited about the progress I've made and I'm excited to progress even more with my next companion. My current companion, Anziano Pluchino, is a native italian who speaks no English, which is helping me a ton with the language and I'm trying to help him learn English. I've been going to bed every night completely mentally drained from speaking only Italian. In just 3 days I'm already starting to think in Italian. The gift of tongues is really somethin else.

Anziano Pluchino and I are whitewashing Merate, which means the two of us are reopening a city that hasn't had missionaries in it for a while. Neither of us know the area, including the members of the ward. We have a car which we decided to name Stella. Our appartment is a missionary appartment, I cant expect anything special as a missionary. We've been having lots of problems with the water and with the electricity. The last missionaries that were in the appartment before us, left it disgusting. Not a single thing was clean, that is not an exaggeration. So we had to forfeit our pday to clean up everything.

Our first night in Merate, we called the bishop and told him that missionaries are back in town. He was so excited. He invited us to his home for lunch and we discussed the missionary work. I hope this ward is willing and ready to help us.

On Friday we had to travel back to Forlì because the government requested that I take a culture class on Saturday. So half of our day on friday was traveling. We weren't able to see more than 2 sessions of conference, but that's okay because it was a struggle to stay awake during those 2 anyway🤷‍♂️

Anyway, 1 week down in Merate, we met the Vescovo and he is so so excited to have an italian missionary serving in Merate haha. The few members we've already met are really excited to have missionaries back. No one knew we were coming back, so it completely surprised everyone. It's fun to see how excited they are and it makes me excited to serve with them.

We did some street finding on Monday and Anziano Pluchino tries to stop everyone, literally everyone. If they're carrying something, he tries to stop them, if they have earbuds in, gospel is more important, if they're on the phone, well, he still goes for it haha. It paid off tho, after being told about 100 times in a row (that's an exaggeration, it was more like 40) a woman stopped and listened to us. She said she came to Northern Italy searching for answers that she's been having about life. She and Anziano Pluchink started talking and he asked her if she thinks it's a coincidence that we happened to be on the street the same time she's looking for these answers. She realized that it was no coincidence, we exchanged phone numbers and gave her a book of mormon. It was crazy. We hope she contacts us soon. Also, the same night there were about 6 members who stopped us on the street to say hi. All of you who have served missions in the US, having even one member say hi to us on the street is an absolute treasure.

Okay so on Tuesday we had our English class, wow. My companion does not speak very much english at all. Other than the gift of tongues, I have no idea how we are able to communicate with each other. Anyway, English class. I taught the class by myself. We had one one person show up, and that was helpful for him, because I was able to direct my attention to only him. I taught him direct and indirect object pronouns, which is one of the hardest concepts to understand when learning a new language, in the opinion of many people who have learned new languages. I dont know how I was able to teach that man, because he also spoke little english. He understood it all. After it all ended I just looked back at it and realized, i just taught a man who speaks very very little english, in Italian, for a whole hour. There is nothing that denies the gift of tongues in that. Absolutely nothing. I am surprised every day with that gift. Now that I'm taking advantage of it, more like I'm forced to take advantage of it haha, I'm seeing the many blessings that come from it.

Compared to the beginning of my mission, I'm happy. I've been struggling to have a positive attitude and struggling with my testimony. That's the weird thing about missions. My dad told me before I left that I will feel lonely, even when I'm a special servant to the Lord. I didnt believe it, but I quickly came to know that it was true. I've never felt so alone in my life than I have on my mission, especially during my first 12 weeks, not including the MTC. At the same time, my testimony of everything, simple truths that I've known to be true ever since I was little, were challenged. I was doing good for a little at being positive, but over time, I was less and less happy. My mom told me she noticed that. She said she noticed how happy and positive I was at the beginning and every week when I sent something home, she noticed less and less of it and it's true, i was losing my positivity and happiness. Now that the sad stuff is out there, I had my interview with my mission president and his wife today, the one thing they both said to me was that I have this glow in my face and they said it's new. They too noticed I wasnt very happy when they arrived, but they notice something different. I do too. I'm happy again. Im more positive. My testimony still has lots of room to improve haha, but it's good to have room to improve. "We are every progressing or we are regressing"- I dont know who said it, but "not me do it"- uncle Aaron. I thank every one of you for the prayers and thoughts. They are what have been helping me through these past 218 days.

I have some Italian recipes if people want them

Io so che questo Vangelo è vero. Dio ci guida tramite Presidente Nelson, chi è un profeta moderno. Io so che veramente Gesù Cristo vive! Lui ci ama tantissimo. E siamo figli di Dio. Ritorneremo alla sua presenza. Gesù Cristo è il nostro Salvatore.

Vi voglio un sacco di bene!

Sempre avanti,
Anziano Brady

Pictures: 

Branch president of Udien and his family

 

Pizza pizza!! We always got pizza Tuesday night to celebrate pday the next day, we called it "Peeve's" for pday eve

The boys of the Pordenone zone in Venezia

🤷‍♂️gotta make do with what you got

The Boys of Pordenone, and some sisters too...

My last district. They'll be missed, I guess

VENEZIA🇮🇹 I got to go there twice for like €40 total, it was cool

La compagnia dell'area di Gemona

July 17, 2019

Transfers happened and I was transferred to Udine. My bottle breaker is really my new trainer, I've learned way more from him already than I did in my 12 weeks of training. I love this guy already, we get along really really well. I like this city more than the other but I am so lost when we go out, this city is kind of a maze. I love it though. We met with a kid who truly wants to find the true church of Christ and he's awesome, he's happier than most members of our church it seems because of his devotion to God and to do what's right. We got stopped by a dude on the street who told us our testimonies are fake because he cant see the gold plates, but we both couldn't say anything, it was weird. We both wanted to ask if he read the book cover to cover, but we couldn't put the words together. We supposed that we weren't supposed to talk to him. That's it for this week.

July 11, 2019

A huge surprise came on Saturday; we got transfer calls. We had been expecting Anziano Moss to leave Forlì. We told all of our investigators, potentials, english class students, less active members and members that Anziano Moss was leaving. Our english class student took us to dinner and he was the first that we broke the news to; it wasn't Anziano Moss that was leaving, it was me. We got fed so much, which was nice, but it was kind of disappointing that our members needed a reason like that to make time for us, but we were able to meet with them and that's all that really matters. Forlì was a hard mission to be born in, I didnt work as hard as I could have. I have a fresh start though. I have been transferred to a city in the Northeastern part of Italy called Udine (oo-dee-nay) and my new comp is Anziano Weight. He's now in his 8th transfer so we get to celebrate his year mark together. This is gonna be good, Anziano Weight and I are almost the same person haha he's just a little shorter than me. I'll be here in Udine for at least 6 weeks, I already like this city, but my perspective may change as we go along. Being a missionary in Italy is all about service. Traditional missionary work doesn't do much here. Forget about the numbers, focus on befriending and serving. That's the biggest thing I've learned as I've been here.

July 6, 2019

Transfers!!
My new area

Photos

This field is full of Sunflowers!!Piadina for lunch Piadina "Brady" styleThis is the Bologna zone

Photos

Mine and Wes' tags

Photos

This was a cool festival thing that went on for about a week

Photos

Photos

Potatoes seasoned with oregano, basil, and salt with prosciutto                                                        
I made a chicken cordon bleu sandwich
This is the sea next to Ravenna

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This is Anziano Debeikes and I in Firenze

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Photos

 This is Kebab 
  After I got paid again, i started to eat well haha

July 5, 2019

We finally decided to start cleaning up area book and while doing so, we found nonmembers who are interested and also less actives that not even the branch members know. We decided to start working more with the members and less active members. We visit one man often and the missionaries who taught and baptized him did not do a good job. This man knows little to nothing about the Gospel of this church, he shouldn't have been baptized without a better understanding. Anyway, the visits have been going well and we've had a busy week. Every monday we do service at a members shop and then we go to her son's home for lunch. In italy the main meal of the day is lunch. This lady who makes us lunch is American from the US who served her mission here and apparently didnt lock her heart. She's weird, the kind of weird that only homeschooling can make someone. Later Monday night we were supposed to meet with an investigator, but she bailed on us. She's been an investigator for over 10 years, so that begs the question, is she really an investigator? No, she isnt, but we still have her as an investigator because a certain missionary let's optimism eclipse accuracy about %110 of the time. Thursday I got a new mission President and he's great, we'll see how much the mission changes with him here. I think he's what this mission needs because of his ideas. We're going from a numbers mission to persons mission and it's gonna be great. Saturday we get transfer calls and my companion is most likely leaving, darn... as I've been blunt about it, I love my companion so much, he's taught me a lot, and because of him, I know what kind of missionary I want to be throughout my mission. This transfer just cant end soon enough. Next week will be exciting.

June 26, 2019

This goes along with my weekly. 
Kate Hepler sent me a message that inspired me to ponder on the simple point that God and Jesus Christ will never forsake us. With that thought in mind and with pieces of what Kaye sent me, this is what she and i have to say.

While in the Garden of Gethsemane, Christ was alone and hardly anyone knew what was happening, even the apostles were asleep during this event, but Heavenly Father was aware and heard Christ's pleadings. Often times, people don’t really know exactly what we are struggling with, but Heavenly Father always does. He hears us begging and pleading, even if it doesn’t seem like it. He knows what our spirit is begging for, even when we're too prideful to humble ourselves enough to kneel and ask for help. Too often to our misfortunes, people will say “oh I know how you feel” or "I’ve been there” which can sometimes be encouraging, but often annoying. It seems like they are making your concern seem like it’s not one, or an important one, even though it is to you. The special thing is that Christ truly does know exactly and perfectly how you feel beacuse He has experienced it himself. He knows how it feels to be rejected because He was. He knows how it feels to be sad, anxious, stressed, and alone because He experienced this! He knows exactly how you need help! It may not be how you think you need help, but ultimately, whether in this life or the next, He knows perfecrly what you need and what you can handle and He knows you perfectly! No matter how alone you may feel, because let's be honest, as missionaries it's easy to feel alone and discouraged. Christ always has his arm of hope and grace extended when we've fallen and cant go anymore. He will always be waiting for us when we think we cant go further.

We are never left alone. Our hardships are things we need to build ourselves. We are never left alone to walk this journey called life. Never, will we ever be left to walk alone. They walk with us side by side. Pushing us when we think we cant go further. 

June 26, 2019

There isnt too much to share that was really noteworthy this week. I did 2 scambi back to back and that was so fun. Scambi are splits, scambio is split, not directly translated, but that's what it means. The first scambio was with my zone leaders companion and the second scambio was with my zone leader. My zone leader is awesome, they both are. I've done a scambio with each of them and I learned so much in the little time I spent with them. 

This mission is motivate by numbers and I really don't like. I've met few missionaries who are doing missionary work because they love the people. 

The new president coming in has already restricted culture events for the missionaries, so we'll see what else he changes. 

My companion and I have been trying to work with less active members in the area because there are 87 inactive members and only 18 active members. Anyway, we've also been trying to work with a non member who is friends with a less active, but they're both girls who are minors so we cant do anything anyway and we gave up. I don't know if it was God telling me and my comp that giving up was a stupid idea that would've only come from mortals, but those 2 girls showed up at church and stayed. We don't know how we can work with the nonmember girl, but we know we cant give up. 

My heart has been softened towards my companion, this week was good, or at least not as bad. I think we're both looking forward to the end of this transfer still and to start a new one with new companions. It's coming soon. Just not soon enough.

Other than that, the only funny thing that happened is when my comp ran into a car/got hit. It wasn't serious, that's why I think it's funny. It's also funny because he tries to tell me I'm not riding my bike as a missionary should, but was I the one that ran into the car? Nope.

June 13, 2019

This week starts off on P day, when I had the idea to see how high I could throw our keys in comparison to our appartment building. This key ring had the keys to the appartment gate, appartment garage, appartment front door, our appartment, and the church keys. So it was a pretty important ring of keys. Anyway... back to my bright idea. My first attempt only made it to the 3rd level, but went forward. I tried again and backed up, this time it went to about the fourth level. There must have been a gust of wind so the keys went back and landed on the balcony of someone's appartment on the 3rd floor. We got in through a side door which is rarely unlocked and went up to the appartment. In my broken Italian, I tried to tell the lady that I had launched (her eyes got big) my keys up (her eyes got even bigger) and they landed on her balcony (she started laughing). We got our keys and that was really the end of that day.

Thursdays we have our English class and we went to the church early to send in orders for proselyting materials. There was a random lady who came in the church and for English class! She was asking about it and then left, but came back and we taught her English for just about 45 minutes. She was asking about what we do in church and we got to tell her about the ordinance of the sacrament and at the end, we shared with her some scriptures from the Book of Mormon. She told us that she isnt interested, but we could tell she truly was and if not, a seed has been planted and watered. I find this experience super cool and rewarding because I've been praying and passing out English pamphlets to sooo many people. My efforts and prayers have brought one person, but this one person has no idea how happy and excited she made two young men. I hope she continues to attend the English class and continue to have that desire to learn. We also had combined district meeting and that was awesome. The STLs did a fantastic training and Sorella Mason basically said there is always the choice to be positive or negative and it's always easy to find the negative, especially as missionaries, but we have more things to be positive about as missionaries and we have the choice to find those things. We have the choice to choose happiness. On the way home from combined district meeting, Anziano Prince and his trainer and I went to the bathroom, but Anziano Prince and I didnt want to pay a euro to use the restroom so we waited for his trainer. While we were waiting, there was a worker who saw us and was staring at us for a good 3 minutes and then came to talk to us. Anziano Prince and I experienced the gift of tongues. We talked to this man in Italian, switching off and taking turns speaking. It was more balanced than my trainer and I, it was so cool.

Friday was just the regular day of missionary work. Not much happened on Friday.

On Saturday we went from Forlì to Firenze for Stake Conferenze on Sunday and stayed the night with the capi there. We had pizza at a local pizzeria and it was easily the best I've had so far. I got reunited with Anziano Debeikes and that was so cool. We all went to see the Firenze Duomo and that was gnarly. I love Firenze, so I'm happy I was born in Forlì (not in the firenze zone). I start somewhere that has a reputation for being the worst place in the mission which means I can only go to better places from here on. 

Sunday was molto long. We had 6 Anziani trying to get ready in the morning and we had to be on time to stake conference. It was so gretchen hot and we had to wear our suits, so I had blue tacos all day, no doubt. I havent even experienced the real heat yet... We had a 3 hour train ride back to Forlì and we didnt have anything to eat all day. Being hangry is so real, especially when you gotta put up with someone you don't like. Sunday was a test, but at least I was able to have almost a 2 hour nap during stake conference which was so nice. Hopefully I only have 4 more sundays left in this transfer with someone. Transfer #2/16 just started 2 weeks ago, but it's quickly coming to an end and I'm so excited for transfer calls.

Monday was full of fun. My comps bike started having some issues, his tube in his tire kept getting a hole in it and we couldn't figure out why. We bought him a new tube and that one got holes in it also. We put the old one back in and it was holding up fine. We headed to service at a members shoe shop and my comp noticed a rip on the tire, but we kept going. It got shredded and the tube inside popped. He had to carry his bike. We had to buy him a new tire and a new tube, hopefully we can end this transfer without anymore bike problems. We got home and started to do our studies and I go into the other room to do my personal study. During that we both saw bees just come from out of the walls and into our appartment. It was only like 5 bees so we decided it's not a big enough deal to call the senior couple.

Tuesday was another day of regular missionary stuff.

Wednesday was supposed to be our P day, but we had zone conference and so we changed P day to Thursday, today. Zone conference was so good! I got to see Anziano Prince who was one of my companions in the MTC. I look forward to zone conference which I never thought I would. Church meetings are so boring, especially when you don't understand the language. However, during zone conference, all the trainings are given in English, except for the new APs who did it in Italian because they want President to like them. I learned a lot of new insights and it's sad to see my president and his wife leave. That zone conference was their last zone conference with my zone and they wont see us after that. I will have a new mission president on July 4th. Wednesday was a really good day.

Oh! Last thing, the lady who came to English class is planning on coming tonight and we're excited. During our online proselyting, we sent her a message on her birthday and we didnt know it was her birthday. She responded in a way that let us know that we were supposed to send her a message. It was very special. We asked her if she'd like us to continue sending her spiritual messages and she said yes! So back to when she said she's not interested, she just wants to learn English, God has other plans for her. 

May 15, 2019

This weekly is wayyyyy longer than I usually would, but i had a bit to say. Fratello Jensen this isnt really my weekly email, just an email to my mom and she puts it on my blog where everyone else can see it all.

Wednesday was our P Day and we went to Ravenna to spend the day with the missionaries there. We went to lunch there and on the menu was a pizza with habanero peppers and ghost pepper oil; it wasn't as spicy as I thought and hoped it would be, but it was so gretchen good. The next day came upon me and wowzers, the ring of fire is real. That pizza was as spicy coming out as it was going in. In the bathroom next to the glorious throne is a heater, which only produces heat all gretchen day. It was a pretty heated moment. What a time. It was incredible, quite the experience, but I don't recommend it. Mom if you decide not to include that one on the blog, thas totes fine.

After months (most likely years), the bathtub drain has been unclogged. So hallelujah amen *mmmhm amen brother*! Woohoo! This appartment is absolutely disgusting. Mom and nonny you both would gag if you saw this place. I'm disgusted with it, which says a lot. I would be confident to bet that this place hasn't been thoroughly cleaned since the Sorelle were here a couple years ago, but I'm a missionary and Frarbin said I cant bet. It's nasty in here, but we got it cleaned up because the senior missionaries do cleaning inspections and they came on Friday to inspect our appartment. It's still junky, lots of clutter, but not much I can do about that. I refuse to clean up my companion's messes and I'm done letting him wash the dishes his way. He just rinses the dishes and that's it. Its gretchen nasty and all our dishes are sticky and have crusted food on them. We don't have a dish washer so everything is hand washed. Yeeeeet.

We're gonna back up to Thursday real quick. Thursday was one of the most unproductive days I've had as a missionary, which really felt horrible. I felt as though I had wasted God's time by sitting around. I got lots of studying in which was good. The reason we didn't do much is because my companion is "sick". That didnt stop us when I was sick, but I am still a teenager and he hit 20 so now "handle with care". What I really enjoyed on Thursday, was during English class. Only one person showed up which is kind of a bummer, but he showed up. He brought an Italian book with him for the sole purpose of having me read it with him out loud. I got to hear how my pronunciation is compared to a true Italian which was awesome. It helped me know how to better pronounciate certain things. I'm still praying that more people start coming to English class. If anyone has ideas on how to teach English, I would love to know what they are. The way we teach is letting the people read a poster about simple, every day things like haircuts and all the vocab for that. It doesn't seem too effective and I think we waste the person's time.

Now we're back to Friday and the senior missionaries stop by to inspect our home. Sorella Roper was looking in the kitchen (which I cleaned) and she was impressed. She was like "Anziano Roper, come look how clean this kitchen is!" And I was thinking to myself "shoot, my momma done did teach me good" and yes mom, you would have been proud. So we passed the inspections and they left us some treats. Sorella Roper also told me that the police at the Bologna train station called and said they had my packet of documents. I had left those documents on my way from Milan to Forlì, so almost 4 weeks ago. We got to go to Bologna on Saturday. We're out walking to Centro and a little man stops us, my guess is he's 5'4" MAYBE. He says to my comp "you can walk with lots of confidence with that guy behind you" as he pointed to me haha. He kept grabbing my arms and punching my chest with his old man power. He's from Sicily so it was crazy hard to understand his Italian. It all just sounded like a slur of words and sounds put together. We headed to our weekly service at the charity kitchen and that's always an interesting time. I'm surprised with how picky people are with food when they have so little and I think to myself.

Saturday, real service. It's about time. Every day, I see opportunities to serve people and I suggest to my companion that we should go help them. He usually responds with "it isnt on the schedule anziano." or "we don't really have time today." So I decided to leave him and go help people and he usually just stops and watches. I decided that my 21 months left are about service, not what's on the schedule although some of the things are important. The service we did on Saturday that was planned was to help 2 of our investigators move. We got everything moved in now they just have to unpack their stuff. They want to meet with us when they finish settling in which is awesome. I'm excited even though I cant speak the language yet. It's coming slowly, but my comprehension is at a standstill. That's okay though, itll get better.

On Sunday when we were home after church and doing our personal study, someone rang our doorbell. My comp and I looked at each other with puzzled faces because no one rings our door bell. I go answer the door, she looked at me and then saw my nametag and said in Italian "oh I thought 'The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' was a joke." She was holding communist propaganda and asked if we would like one to help support. We said no and she went her way still laughing. On all the doorbells here, it has a sticker or tag that usually says the family name or business name. That's what she was talking about.

Monday came along and we went to Sorella Rossi's shop to do service. We're there from 10:30 to 1:30 and then we go to her son's home for lunch and to share a spiritual message. After lunch, we backtracked about 2 miles to get a bike for me. We get just just about a mile away from our home and *grinding sounds* I look at my back tire and there's a problem. My comp is just staring at the bike for a solid 5 minutes and just starts walking back. The back tire had come loose and had lodged itself against the rod so it wouldn't even move. I carried it back 3 ish miles to where we got it. It works now and it's awesome, it feels so much better on my back.

Monday night we were starving, so I made some pasta. The pasta finished cooking and I had the strainer out and started pouring the contents of the pot into the strainer. I guess I poured too much out too quickly and a good amount of the boiling water splashed out and onto my thigh. I didnt feel it at first so I was just staring at my leg with horror, waiting for the burn. It burned. I didnt have a clear spot to put the pot down so I was holding it and couldn't pull my sweats off that was burning my gretchen leg. Wowzers it was great. The pasta turned out good though, that's all that really matters.

Something molto gnarly happened. We had just finished district meeting and doing our power hour so we got on the train to head home. The train cabin that we were in was completely empty, there was no one else but us. I don't like sitting with my comp so I sit on the other side of the train by myself. A younger man, about my age, walked in and chose to sit in front of me, in a train that is completely empty. I was drafting all this good stuff above which I shouldn't have been. He asked me in Italian if I was a protestant and I told him I didnt understand so he started speaking English. He repeated his question in English and I told him no and he asked why our church is unique. I got to tell him about the plan of salvation, modern revelation through prophets, and the God Head as 3 separate beings. We talked for about 20 ish minutes and he took our pamphlets and we got his number. Ah it was so cool to have that experience. It was surprising and different because the people here don't want to hear our message, and he was asking all about it. It was super cool.

Love you all and thank you for the support, it helps keep me going when the going gets tough