It's been a lovely last couple weeks with lots of happy moments accompanied with some sad goodbyes. After receiving the news that I was going to be training in Pesaro, my last few days as an office elder flew by. We scheduled a lot of farewell appointments with member families and got fed an unholy amount of food. On the Tuesday evening before I left, we had two member appointments scheduled. Our second member appointment was for dinner so we made it very clear to the first member family that we couldn't stay for dinner. To our surprise, when we showed up to the first appointment, the mom of the family was cooking dinner. Personally, I was a little worried and remarked to the mom, "It looks like you guys are going to be eating good to night" (hoping with all my heart that the food was for their dinner after we left). After hearing that, the mom proudly said, "Yes Anziano, WE are going to be eating good tonight." HAHAHA, NOOOO! By the end of that night, my companions and I had all grown some nice food babies.
I love the members in Lodi so much and after 6 months as an office elder, it's going to be really weird not seeing them anymore. That being said, my new branch in Pesaro has some of the most faithful Latter Day Saints I've met in my mission!
It was a little weird being at the meetinghouse 5 minutes beforehand on Sunday and being the only members there! With our attendance, Anziano Leavitt and I grew the Pesaro branch by 20%. There is literally seven active members that attend the Pesaro branch (two of whom are primary aged boys). Their faith and kindness astound me. Being raised in a ward with 250 active members makes me really admire these faithful saints as they diligently serve in multiple church callings (not to mentions the fact that they have to give a talk every other week in church). After the three hour block, the members prepared a lunch to welcome in the new missionaries!
You would think that the members may be a little sick of us after spending over four hours with us today, but that didn't stop them from agreeing to let us pass by each of their houses this week. Anziano Leavitt and I have plans to help the three families in the branch to implement a mission plan. These guys may not be part of the Willie Handcart Company, but they are without a doubt modern pioneers! I already love them all so much. At the lunch today, they all agreed that I must be ill because of my pale face. Little do they know, I'm always pretty white. ;)"
Now that you know how great our seven members are, I can brag about my companion a little bit. My greenie is named Anziano Leavitt and he's such a stud (and I'm not just saying that because he's from Washington). He's a cross country star, he was the second seat violin player in a fancy orchestra, and was captain of his school's knowledge bowl team!! He makes me feel a little under qualified to be his trainer with my major accomplishments being found on the high-scores of Runescape.com. ;)
Considering we don't have any investigators and have been doing quite a bit of street proselyting, I've developed a new hobby: making Anziano Leavitt feel as awkward as possible. I thought he might peel over from embarrassment a couple nights ago when I offered a Jesus pass-a-long card to a teenage couple making out. Unfortunately, they weren't interested... Luckily, a super sweet Peruvian lady that we met right after was! Her name is Berta and has already attended a Mormon church service with her brother in Peru. She gave us her phone number and told us she'd come to church on Sunday!
Right now, Anziano Leavitt and I are focusing on becoming friends with the local shop owners. It seems like all the local geleteria and pizzeria owners are familiar with the Mormon missionaries, but don't really know what we believe. We have plans of developing our friendship with all of them over the next couple weeks and then gifting them with a Book of Mormon with invite to hear the missionary discussions. Last night, we gave a Book of Mormon to a local bike shop owner named Massimo. He seemed very grateful and promised us that he'd read it this week! I don't want to say Massimo is elect, but he WAS wearing some sporty camouflage pants and we all know that camo is the celestial kingdom's color scheme (I've developed a slight passion for camouflage on the mission).
- Sister and President Allen with my new companion Elder Leavit
- Saying goodbye to Lodi members :( #
YouMakeSomeGoodMexicanFoodSist erCruz - Who wouldn't want to accept a Book of Mormon from two Washingtonians like this?
- Taking advantage of some beautiful architecture thanks to the Catholics
- Embracing our inner Instagram-selfs before delivering Valentine's Day goodie plates to our neighbors
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