I want to start off by sharing a hilariously sad experience that happened to the Pistoia Anziani this week... After arriving at the train station to meet a man named Friday for our second lesson with him, we were happily greeted by a man who we assumed was Friday. After a little small talk, we started the lesson. It wasn't until 5 minutes into the lesson that the real Friday showed up to the train station! It turns out, we had been teaching Henry, a man who we had had a lesson with a long time ago, but never answered our calls for a second appointment. Anziano Mastino and I felt like fools! I still am a little confused why Henry didn't object when I asked if we could start the lesson considering we didn't have a lesson scheduled!! ;p Nonetheless, we finished our lesson with the fake Friday and had an even better lesson with the real one. ;)
In less hilariously sad news, we had another family home at Solomon's house on Sunday night and it was a HUGE success! I don't want to knock the family home evenings I had at home, but I don't think I've ever had a more fun family home evening than the one I had with Solomon and the 10 other Nigerians that were there! ;p The Hydes came with us and brought a ton of food (hence the huge number of people that decided to take part in the fun). And after we ate, Anziano Mastino and I shared a message on faith and got a lot of our little makeshift-family baring their testimonies. :Then, we played a crazy game of Uno! I use the word crazy because that house got LOUD when we were playing. Hahaha, it was also quite fun watching my Italian companion trying to compete with the rest of us in Uno because he never quite caught onto the rules and was always a little lost at what was happening! All in all, I think the family home evening opened a lot of potential doors; everyone was begging us to come back soon for another family home evening soon! :D
Also, Anziano Mastino and I had a scambio with Anziano Kenney and Vasquez from Monday to Tuesday this past week and it was incredible! The church has started a new way of doing companionship exchanges, called blitzes. So, instead of Anziano Kenney coming down to Pistoia to work with Anziano Mastino, Anziano Mastino and I both went up to San Giovanni to work with them (while no one was working in Pistoia for 24 hours). It was basically like a big, stinky, spiritual sleep-over with the four Anziani sleeping in one apartment! ;p I worked with Anziano Vasquez during the scambio and we killed it. We had some really powerful lessons with investigators, handed out a lot of English class fliers, and even walked across the bridge that is featured in the background of the Mona Lisa painting!
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| See if you can find this bridge in the Mona Lisa painting! |
I look up to Anziano Vasquez so much as a missionary because of his hard, effective, work ethic. You will never be a good missionary if you don't exert work! Anziano Vasquez has helped me realize that I've been carrying way to much about my day's numbers. It doesn't make me a good missionary if I teach 4 lessons during a day and I'm not a bad missionary if I don't teach any. What separates the good missionaries from the bad is their dedication to the missionary purpose, which is to bring souls to Christ. Am I really bringing souls to Christ if my day is filled with flaky investigators that will listen to our message, but not act? In my opinion, I think not. The hard reality is that for missionaries serving in the Milan mission is that long hours of tracting need to be put in. I didn't come here to Italy to share weekly spiritual thoughts, I came here to baptize new ward members and strengthen the current ones! When I become senior companion and have control over how my day is spent, I am going to be an Elder Vasquez missionary. This is the Lord's true church and for the next two years, it's my duty to let others know that. As a missionary for the church in these days, I don't need to seal the validity of my words with death like Abinadi or Joseph Smith. I seal my words through hard work as I courageously share this gospel.
One of the cool blessing about having the sacred calling as a missionary is the outpouring of blessings I receive. This was made crystal clear to me last night when Anziano Mastino and I were headed back to Pistoia after the scambio. We were at the San Giovanni train station waiting for our train, and two minutes before it was supposed to arrive, Anziano Mastino looked down at his ticket and realized he had purchased the wrong ticket. My mind was instantly overcome with negative thoughts. There was no time to buy another ticket before the train came and the next train back to Pistoia wasn't for a few hours (meaning we would be arriving at our apartment at about 10:30 pm). With a heavy heart, we walked back to the ticket machine in front of the station to purchase a new ticket. When we arrived at the machine, my wallet was laying on the ground right next to the cash machine. It must have slipped out of my pocket after I had purchased my ticket 20 minutes earlier. That wallet had €60 cash, Pistoia and Prato bus and train passes, my driver's license, my mission and personal debit cards, and my Italian documents. You can argue that it was a coincidence that Anziano Mastino accidentally bought the wrong ticket on the same night that I left my wallet at the ticket machine. You can argue that it was super lucky that a ton of people walked passed my wallet without picking it up. But, I know that it wasn't a coincidence or luck. No one can argue the strong spirit I felt when I saw my wallet laying there on the ground. There's not a doubt in my mind that we are all being watched after by a God of miracles.
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