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.