punny Facebook status tomorrow... You know the one... May the fourth
be with you! This week was goooood, but it's been weird. We set a
baptismal date with Ursula on Saturday and I got my haircut my a
member in Rimini on Monday that told me that I didn't have to worry
about going bald (apparently he has the ability to foresee if a person
will go bald or not). So, yay!
Remember how I said I got my haircut by a member on Monday in Rimini?
Yeah, that's because that's my new city! I'm leaving my greenie and
favorite city behind and going to the neighboring city of Rimini. It
was a weird transfer call, but I'm content. Anziano Leavitt and I have
been in a trio with my new Rimini companion, Anziano Montalto, for the
past few day. Anziano Montalto's companion left Rimini on Sunday
afternoon to Milan because he's our new AP which created our trio.
We've been switching back and forth between our two cities to see our
friends!
Anziano Montalto is a total stud and because he's only done one
transfer in Rimini, I'm probably going to finish my mission with him!
He's Italian and has a very pure, laid back personality. It's been fun
speaking Italian with him. Sometimes he starts speaking his Sicilian
dialect at me and makes me feel like I'm a greenie again. 😂 He used
to DJ for the Mormon dances and is dating a 32 year-old woman (he's
25, but dang). I'm pretty stoked to learn some cooking skills from
him. He used to work at a restaurant and knows the Italian kitchen
pretty well, including how to make arancini (my all time favorite
food). I'm going to make sure I take advantage of companion's ability
and make my future wife a lucky gal'. ;)
I wanted to visit Stefano and Lydia's church before leaving Pesaro, so
that's where we spent our Sunday evening. I know that sounds weird,
but I think it's important we know where our investigators are coming
from when we teach them. They are Protestant and their church was a
blast! Their church has a band, a lot of amens being screamed from the
congregation, and a pastor that screams at you. The doctrine they
taught was hundred percent accurate and could've totally been preached
in a Mormon church! All the women had on prayer head-shawls and the
men and women sat on opposite sides of the room... One could say that
there were a lot of things that felt very familiar. The only thing
that made me feel a little uncomfortable were the prayers when all of
us got on our knees and said a prayer allowed (everyone was praying,
but it felt rather chaotic). However, I was really glad that we went
and thought it was a positive and learning experience. In fact, at one
point, the pastor had Anziano Montalto come up to bare his
testimony.... It was legendary (he straight up bore testimony of the
Book of Mormon)! Afterward, we ate dinner with Stefano's family and
talked more about the Book of Mormon. When we asked Lydia about her
experience with it and she told us she didn't want to comment on the
book until after she's read it all. Brava!
Before entering into the Rimini/Pesaro trio, Anziano Leavitt and I
experienced a fantastic lesson and the worst lesson of my mission.
I'll start with the good. Anziano Leavitt and I met with Bruno and the
day before, he had read five hours in the Book of Mormon. He brought a
stack of notes to our lesson that he took while reading and we spent
40 minutes discussing all the questions he said. It was incredible
because his desire to know the truth is so genuine! It's clear that he
doesn't completely grasp the grandness of what it entails if the Book
of Mormon was written by ancient prophets called of God, but with time
and testimony that will be changed. :)
Ok, now to the hardest lesson of my mission... We met with a young
evangelical couple earlier is week in our church building. We met them
while doing street finding a couple weeks ago and were really excited
to teach them because they were very cool and very set on following
Jesus Christ. When we met each other for our appointment, they opened
up and shared their conversion stories and their experiences with God.
I was so excited to share the restoration with them! Unfortunately, as
we taught them, things went downhill fast... They questioned some of
the doctrine we taught them and were much more familiar with the Bible
than me or my companion.
I thought things would get better after baring testimony about Joseph
Smith. Unfortunately, it's at that moment we were absolutely
obliterated. They started telling us we were on our way to Hell and
that we needed to go back to "the word" (Jesus Christ/The Bible). They
said that exaltation came through Jesus Christ and that pain and
suffering was in store for us Joseph Smithians. When we invited them
to experiment on the word, Diego asked us, "If there was a naked woman
in front of us and I wanted you to look, would you? I'm not going to
read something I know will bring me down to hell." They told us they
didn't believe we've ever had the Spirit manifest to us, we don't have
a relationship with God, and that the only reason we believe in these
things is because our parents raised us with these beliefs. That
night, I left the church building absolutely destroyed. I was in
spiritual pain that crushed my spirit.
Fortunately, I woke up the next morning and I felt incredible! There
wasn't a negative sentiment in my body. I was able to reflect on the
previous night's experience with clarity and realized that one, I
still had a testimony of this church. And two, I had a greater desire
to study the Bible to be more familiar with the stick of Judah. Two
good things!
I know that Jesus Christ is our savior and I DO have a spiritual
witness of that testimony.
1. Father and son
2. Saying goodbye to the Pesaro church
3. Stefano's family minus the daughter taking the photograph
4. Rimini's finest barber
5. Goodbye party with the Pesaro ward, Bruno, and Jesus
6. Sister Leon was a little bit furba after the party ;)
7. Chilling with Manù at the hospital today (this player only has one leg)
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