it looks like the Pistoia Anziani are done handing out Christmas
pass-a-long cards! It's a little discouraging that we haven't even
gotten one referral from our hours of work, but hopefully we were able
to plant some seeds in the hearts of some people. During the last few
days, we've gone back to doing our normal street contacting (firing
questions and baring testimony to people in an attempt to get them to
stop and listen) and have had a little success! :) We've been able to
stop some really well-rounded, intellectual and have gotten a few of
their phone numbers. Yesterday, we even taught someone a lesson in
Italian that we met earlier this week! Granted, the man was from
Pakistan and Italian wasn't his first language, but it was still
pretty awesome. :D
New Year's Eve was a little different for me this year... No staying
up to midnight, no New Year's kisses! ;) Anziano Mastino and I
went to our ward's Capodanno party and it was a ton of fun!
We brought Abel with us and he
LOVED it (especially the Italian desserts). It was also really cool
being able to have some legitimate Italian conversations with people.
I don't know this language perfectly, but that doesn't stop me from
having a 5 minute conversation with one of the young woman in the
world about Harry Styles. ;p
In other news, I hope two of my January 1st experiences aren't
an indicator of how the rest of my year is going to go... On the
first, Anziano Mastino and I left our apartment at around 10 a.m. to do
some tracting until lunch (we were appointment-less for the morning).
Not long into our tracting session, a man started approaching us while
waving his arms and screaming. Anziano Mastino got off the sidewalk
and started walking the other direction, while I approached the man to
give him a pass-a-long card (I wanted to show up my senior companion
;p). I should've followed the lead of my more-intelligent companion
because I was literally an inch a way from getting kissed on the lips
by the man (he was obviously a little intoxicated)!! THEN, if that
weren't enough excitement for the morning, I had another encounter
with a drunkard. I was getting a little hungry about an hour later, so
I started eating an apple I had brought with me... I was two bites
into my apple when I started hearing groaning from behind me. I turned
around just in time to see a man barfing all over the street! Needless
to say, my appetite for that apple quickly disappeared.
On a more serious note, I have some really sad news regarding a man in
our ward... This particular man is someone who I have grown very close
with over the past three months and as of this past week, he's gone
crazy. He thinks he is Jesus Christ. I know this may sound a little
strange and humorous, but it's far from it. The man literally thinks
he is Jesus Christ and has come back to the world to "save the
righteous and present them to his father." As of right now, I don't
think a lot of people are taking this situation as seriously as it
needs to be dealt with. But, I am very scared for this man. He has
also developed a slight tick, almost like he has turrets. I don't know
if a traumatic thing brought this on or if the constant stress he's
been dealing with has done this to him, but things aren't looking
good. We've visited him a couple times this week in his house, which
in his words, "Reminds him of the tomb that he arose from after being
dead for three days." Please keep this man in your prayers. As
missionaries, apart from praying and continuing to show him love,
there isn't much we can do.
I now want to leave with you guys a little homework! Recently, in my
morning personal study, I've been reading old articles out of the
Ensign (after first studying the Book of Mormon and Our Heritage). I
came across a talk given in 1981 at a BYU devotional and it really hit
me. It's titled Selfishness vs. Selflessness and was given by Elder
William R. Bradford. I would really love for you all to read it. And
to get you excited about this homework assignment, I'll give you guys
a little appetizer to the spiritual feast that awaits you:
"Our eternal destiny is welded to our service to others. At the very
foundation of our existence is interdependence upon one another.
Happiness can be obtained only by establishing the proffer balance
between serving and being served. We are social beings; we cannot live
in happiness if we attempt to live alone. Self-imposed celibacy and
isolationism are extreme expressions of selfishness and an
unwillingness to serve or be served.
A mother serves by giving birth to a child and continues her service
throughout the child’s life. For life to continue, the process must
repeat itself. When one is serving, another is being served. Faith,
love of God and fellowman, patriotism, and self-esteem all depend on
how we practice serving and being served."
https://www.lds.org/ensign/1983/04/selfishness-vs-selflessness?lang=eng
We don't have a lot of time for email today because we had lunch with
a widow in our ward and we were there for waaay too long! We brought
Solomon with us to the lunch appointment and he loved it. She fed us
South American food that she made us eat with our hands (Solomon and I
were grateful for this). And surprisingly, Solomon and the widow
seemed to really click! :D
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| Lunch with Solomon |
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