Week 45 - Teaching at the Kebabery

It was manifested pretty plainly earlier this week that I'm living the life here in Livorno. We went on companion exchange with the zone leaders a few days ago in Florence and as cool as Florence is, I'm glad I'm where I'm at. It was SOOO hot. Florence is surrounded by mountains and so all the hot, recycled-tourist-breath air lingers. It made me feel really bad for all the miserable tourists I saw walking around that paid big bucks to be there... Most people looked wet and frankly, a little agitated! However, on the bright side: we witnessed a massive firework show from he zone leader's balcony that was taking place over the Arno River, I discovered that I love fried eggs, and now I'm back in Livorno- where there is a sea breeze and investigators to teach (we did finding work the whole time on companionship
exchange)! ;)

Too much tracting!

Speaking of teaching investigators, I want to tell you guys about our attempting teaching experience last Saturday night. Back story: Anziano Freckleton and I met a few young men last week while doing finding work and they seemed really energetic and positive. Unfortunately, after baring testimony and talking about what we do here in Italy as missionaries, they weren't super interested in meeting again... But, I didn't want to just let them escape without trying, so I asked if we could go to a kebabery later in the week and talk about life together. They readily agreed to grab a kebab with us and have a little bro time.

Now, fast forward to Saturday night in the kebabery, it felt like I was at one of those crazy college parties that us Mormons see in the movies! Two of the three guys we were with were pounding shots and saying some pretty stupid stuff. The third guy on the other hand wasn't taking part in the drinking, smoking, or cat-calling and was asking Anziano Freckleton and I a lot of questions about what we believe in. The third guy, Michael, seemed genuinely interested... I just hope it was interested enough that he's interested enough to meet with us
again in a more formal setting without his little less than formal friends. If not though, it was definitely a night to remember- and hey, I got a free kebab and an invitation to go clubbing out of the encounter. ;)

This letter is about to take a depressing turn... I'm sure you guys remember Alex (one of our long term Nigerian investigators that bought us McDonald's for our first lesson together). Well, this week, we had a "drop lesson" with him. A drop lesson is basically a final lesson you have with someone when they aren't progressing where you tell them that you can't meet anymore unless they start acting. I've given quite a few drop lessons during my mission, but this lesson was so different. It was one of the hardest emotional things I've had to do out here.

Besides from the companions I've had here in Livorno, the most time I've spent with someone here has definitely been Alex. I love him so much! When I told him that because he wasn't keeping commitments, we couldn't see him anymore, I just lost it. What made it harder was that he just couldn't understand why... He just didn't get why we wouldn't teach him anymore when we're such good friends and he likes the word of God. After a long talk about emphasizing the importance of keeping commitments we thought he was on the same page and understood why we couldn't see each other again. However, after the closing prayer, he looked at me and asked completely seriously, "When are we going to meet again?" Needless to say, I WAS DYING! I really hope that Alex decides to do something, so we really can meet with him again.

We were eating lunch a few days ago and we get a call from a random
American number.... It turned out to be a guy that Freckleton knows
(standing RIGHT outside our apartment) and he brought a lot of
American candy for us while passing by Livorno for business!!