It's been a great week! I thought of a phrase earlier this week that I think
describes my life pretty well right now: "I'm doing the Lord's work and gaining
Buddha's weight."
I feel like I need to dedicate a paragraph to Thanksgiving. I didn't
get to eat any of those delicious M&M turkeys that mom always makes
this year, but this was the best Thanksgiving of my life! We had
lessons with two new investigators. Then, we had a delicious lunch
with a member family (despite the fact that I got a really bad stomach
ache from all the cheese I ate). After that, we did some service for
an African in our ward who needed help doing some word processing on
his computer; he did NOT know how to use his laptop! ;p Then, we had a
lesson with Abbel and he accepted a baptismal date on the 9th of
January... I don't know who is more excited- him or me!! :D Later that
night, the Hydes gave us all of their leftover Thanksgiving food (including
pumpkin pie). And finally, at English class, two of my advanced
English students brought me a ton of pastries and chocolates as a
thank you present to me! This Thanksgiving was definitely a day for
the books.
It feels so unreal that we're already in December! We've been using
the "A Savior is Born" video quite a bit over the past few days...
Most people seem to really like the video (I particularly like the
little black boy)! A couple nights ago we were at a members house
giving a spiritual thought. The only member of the family we were
teaching was the father because the mom is inactive and the son was
preparing for a big test math test the next day. Shortly after
starting the lesson, the mom came into the room we were having our
lesson in and told the dad that the son was really struggling with his
test preparation. Luckily for the us, Anziano Gibbons knows Italian
and algebra and offered to help. Anziano Gibbons was successfully able
to help the boy with his math homework, and then, the mom and son were
now open to hearing our spiritual message! We showed them "A Savior is
Born" and the mom LOVED it. After our message, she invited us over for
dinner later next week and wants us (it will be my new companion and
me) to come back for lunch on Christmas. It was really cool getting
those invites from her (and not just because of the free food) because
it shows that her heart is still a little open to the gospel. :)
While we're on the subject of the new Christmas video, I should also
mention that it helped us get two new potential investigators
yesterday! Anziano Gibbons and I had a scambio with Anziano Vasquez
and Kenney from yesterday morning to this morning. However, on this
scambio, Anziano Kenney was my companion for the day and I stayed in
Pistoia! When we were doing some park finding in Prato, Anziano Kenney
and I showed the video to two men and they loved it! We ended up
saying a prayer with them and they want us to see them this weekend
for an appointment. I should also mention that the scambio with
Anziano Kenney was just as successful as my scambio was with Anziano
Vasquez! I was a little scared being the guy in charge, but I got us
to all 3 of our appointments we had scheduled with no problems at all.
;p It was also really good for Abbel to meet another missionary from
the church because we haven't been able to get a member present lesson
with him yet. Abbel thought that it would be good for Anziano Kenney
to come back to EVERY lesson with him and was a little sad when he
found out that Anziano Kenney was only going to be in Pistoia until
the end of the day.
I've been talking about Nosa every week, but he's such an all-star
ward member and there's always something awesome to share about him!
This week, Nosa brought someone to church named Sunny. When I saw the
unfamiliar face in the church building, I went up to find out more
about Sunny. It turns out that Sunny came to Prato on Monday (he was
previously living in Rome). Sunny got to Prato with no money and no
place to stay- that's where Nosa came in. On Monday night, at about
11:30, Nosa got the prompting to walk to a nearby supermarket. Nosa
wakes up REALLY early to go sell stuff on the street, but he followed
the prompting to go to the supermarket anyways. When Nosa got there,
he saw Sunny sitting outside the store crying. In the words of Sunny,
Nosa just came up to him and said, "Everything is going to be okay."
Nosa took Sunny home with him and Sunny has now been living with him
for the past week! I can't think of anyone who is more in tune with
spiritual promptings than Nosa (and maybe President Monson ;p). Sunny
told me at the end of church that he really liked it and was going to
come back again next week. He said it was different, yet refreshing,
being in a church where there was more doctrine teaching than
clapping/singing. I'm really hoping to get Sunny to start taking the
lessons from Anziano Gibbons and I.
I want to share a random tracting experience I had this week before I
go: We went up to an African man earlier this week who was leaning
against a building and started talking about the gospel with him. He
told us when we first started talking to him to leave him alone
because "it looked like we were doing bad things." But, after we
brought up God, he was more than happy to talk with us. After a few
minutes of talking about the gospel and getting his phone number for a
follow-up appointment, the man said he had to go. The man then walked
down the street and started talking to a teenage boy that appeared...
The teenage boy gave him a wad of cash and the African man said
"aspetta" (you wait) and walked down a nearby alley. Anziano Gibbons
and I didn't stick around to find out what happened next.
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