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| Pondering the scriptures in Italy |
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| Two Buff Dudes! |
It's been amazing teaching some INCREDIBLE people
and understanding more Italian! We aren't teaching any Italians right
now, but that's okay with me. I feel like the Lord needs me working
with these Africans at this time, speaking my native tongue.
Nonetheless, my Italian is improving quite quickly! Last Sunday at
church, I could actually understand some of what the speakers were
saying. ;p I'm not very smooth at speaking the language, but I can
understand 100x more than I could a month ago. We got a new sister in
our district named Sorella Sharp, the replacement of Sorella Ince. She
is a very good missionary and has recently challenged our district to
only speak Italian for a whole week at the end of this month (unless
you're teaching a lesson in English to someone). I am really scared
for this challenge, but am excited to become better in this language!
I want to tell you guys some more awesome things about Nosa, a
Nigerian convert of 8ish months that I've already told you guys a
little bit about. We had an appointment with Nosa this week and got to
go to his new house! He recently moved out of his old apartment (who
he was sharing with several other Africans) and into a basement owned
by an African family because it was cheaper. When Anziano Gibbons
walked into Nosa's room, the first thing I saw was his Book of Mormon
and Gospel Principles book on his pillow. Then, Nosa fed us dinner as
we taught him a lesson. This man has NOTHING and gives to us so
freely! After the closing prayer, Nosa went on to tell us about all
the missionary experiences he's been having with his friends...
There's something about new converts doing missionary work that sits
right with Anziano Anderson.
I also need to catch you guys up on our new convert, Solomon. He is
becoming such a strong member. Anziano Gibbons and I had him teach us
the Plan of Salvation at our last appointment, and I learned so much!!
You could tell he put a ton of preparation into the lesson and the
spirit really did work through him. It was pretty funny earlier this
week though because we had a lunch appointment at a member's home that
Solomon was invited to too. At the lunch appointment, it was the
funniest thing in the world watching Solomon gag down pasta with pesto
sauce. For some reason most Africans don't like Italian food. It was
nice pay back watching Solomon eat the food because he thought it wasand understanding more Italian! We aren't teaching any Italians right
now, but that's okay with me. I feel like the Lord needs me working
with these Africans at this time, speaking my native tongue.
Nonetheless, my Italian is improving quite quickly! Last Sunday at
church, I could actually understand some of what the speakers were
saying. ;p I'm not very smooth at speaking the language, but I can
understand 100x more than I could a month ago. We got a new sister in
our district named Sorella Sharp, the replacement of Sorella Ince. She
is a very good missionary and has recently challenged our district to
only speak Italian for a whole week at the end of this month (unless
you're teaching a lesson in English to someone). I am really scared
for this challenge, but am excited to become better in this language!
I want to tell you guys some more awesome things about Nosa, a
Nigerian convert of 8ish months that I've already told you guys a
little bit about. We had an appointment with Nosa this week and got to
go to his new house! He recently moved out of his old apartment (who
he was sharing with several other Africans) and into a basement owned
by an African family because it was cheaper. When Anziano Gibbons
walked into Nosa's room, the first thing I saw was his Book of Mormon
and Gospel Principles book on his pillow. Then, Nosa fed us dinner as
we taught him a lesson. This man has NOTHING and gives to us so
freely! After the closing prayer, Nosa went on to tell us about all
the missionary experiences he's been having with his friends...
There's something about new converts doing missionary work that sits
right with Anziano Anderson.
I also need to catch you guys up on our new convert, Solomon. He is
becoming such a strong member. Anziano Gibbons and I had him teach us
the Plan of Salvation at our last appointment, and I learned so much!!
You could tell he put a ton of preparation into the lesson and the
spirit really did work through him. It was pretty funny earlier this
week though because we had a lunch appointment at a member's home that
Solomon was invited to too. At the lunch appointment, it was the
funniest thing in the world watching Solomon gag down pasta with pesto
sauce. For some reason most Africans don't like Italian food. It was
pretty funny watching me gag down African food at the Family Home
Evening we had with him a couple weeks ago.
Earlier this week, when Anziano Gibbons and I were calling random
names from our phone (with over 500 contacts in it) in an attempt to
locate people interested in hearing a lesson from us and deleting
people that did not, we stumbled across Abbel's name. It turns out
that Abbel was met by missionaries long ago, was interested in hearing
a lesson, but was never re-contacted! Abbel happily agreed to meet
with us and expressed how sad he was that he wasn't re-contacted
sooner. He even told us that when we called him that day, he had
something in him that told him he needed to meet with us. We've only
had one lesson with Abbel so far, but he's incredible! We have another
appointment with him later tonight and he is beyond excited. When I
called him on Monday night to schedule the appointment, he told me how
much he missed us. ;p
I'll leave one last "silly" story with you guys before I head off(silly is Anziano
Gibbon's favorite word). There was a youth stake
activity in Florence on Saturday night where the members got partnered
up with missionaries and did tracting! I got partnered with a 14 year
old boy named Eghosa. He moved from Nigeria 8 months ago and doesn't
speak Italian very good, so we made a good match. After about an hour
of tracting, we met an Italian man who started speaking English to me.
He came up to me and started telling me how handsome I was and what a
nice color of tie I had. I didn't think much of it (considering how
open the Italian culture is), but I felt a little uncomfortable
because he wasn't giving any compliments to Eghosa. I then start to
share a gospel principle with him and he stops me and tells me that
he'll never convert to Mormonism because he was born "different". I
had no idea what he meant, so I continued to share some more things
with him... Then, he just came straight out and told Eghosa and me
that he was gay and had to act on his desires. Our conversation ended
soon after thar, but for the rest of the night, Eghosa was SO freaked
out!! ;p
up with missionaries and did tracting! I got partnered with a 14 year
old boy named Eghosa. He moved from Nigeria 8 months ago and doesn't
speak Italian very good, so we made a good match. After about an hour
of tracting, we met an Italian man who started speaking English to me.
He came up to me and started telling me how handsome I was and what a
nice color of tie I had. I didn't think much of it (considering how
open the Italian culture is), but I felt a little uncomfortable
because he wasn't giving any compliments to Eghosa. I then start to
share a gospel principle with him and he stops me and tells me that
he'll never convert to Mormonism because he was born "different". I
had no idea what he meant, so I continued to share some more things
with him... Then, he just came straight out and told Eghosa and me
that he was gay and had to act on his desires. Our conversation ended
soon after thar, but for the rest of the night, Eghosa was SO freaked
out!! ;p
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