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.
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
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
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