I hope you're enjoying your summer! :) I wish you could come over to
Rimini and take a little stroll around town with me one of these days.
I love this place so much! It was a surreal moment earlier this week
giving my "twinkling testimony" (at your last zone conference, you
bare your testimony for everyone to hear). A lot has happened over the
past 23 months! It was a little scary doing a companionship exchange
with the elders in Ravenna earlier this week because Anziano Gibb let
me know just how much I've changed. Anziano Gibb and I served in the
same city when I was in my fourth transfer so we know each other
pretty well. At a certain point during the exchange, he told me, "You
know, Anziano Anderson... You've gotten less funny and more mature
since we served in Bergamo together." HAHAHA, I wasn't sure if it was
a compliment or not, but I'll take it!
The most unorthodox activity this week was our Saturday adventure.
Fratello Pini, the un-baptized father of a ward family, loves the
mountains. He told us that he feels closest to God whenever he is
doing a hike in the mountains. Considering he's had missionary contact
for the past 30 years and hasn't been baptized yet, Anziano Montalto
and I planned a trip with him in the mountains! We got another ward
member to drive the three of us to a local mountain on Saturday for a
spiritual hike. I was a little disappointed right from the get-go
because we went to a little sand which shop at the base of the
mountain before starting the climb and Fratello Pini bought a fat can
of beer! It wasn't the best start to the spiritual hike, but it got
better from there. During the journey, we talked quite a bit about
Tesla's, Netflix, and Joseph Smith. At a certain point, we were able
to stop and we shared a spiritual thought about the story of Enos!
There weren't any visionary or angelic experiences, but I think the
hike gave Fratello Pini an increased desire to read, ponder, and pray
about the Book of Mormon with a greater intent. :)
Another interesting lesson this week happened earlier this week with a
five year-old boy sitting on my lap. The Caramia family shared the
gospel with one of their extremely Catholic friends named Anna after
the recent loss of her husband. Anna wanted to learn more! We went
over to her house earlier this week and explained the restoration and
got her prepped for the plan of salvation. I wouldn't see she is super
interested, but she said she would read and pray about the Book of
Mormon, so we're excited. I'm not sure what it was, but her son,
Riccardo, loved me! He wanted to play with me the whole time.
Another highlight we saw this week were improvements with Raff and
Sunny! Raff is an investigator, but has been making very slow
progress... Actually, up until this week, he's been making no
progress! He is this Italian guy in his 20's, but has some mental
difficulties. He's never been able to come to church because he can't
manage to wake up on time. We've taught the restoration to him a few
times and he can never seem to keep the story together in his mind
between our appointments (he gets Joseph Smith and Mormon confused).
And in the past month, he's received a job, gotten fired from that
same job, and got catfished by a "girl in Texas." This guy has some
problems! However, Anziano Montalto and I decided to switch things up
a couple weeks ago. We read the first chapter of the children's
stories Book of Mormon and asked us to teach the chapter back to us
for our lesson this week. This week he showed up to our lesson and
nailed it! It was really cool seeing some light stick in his mind.
As for Sunny, we saw a miracle during our lesson this week! He's a
Nigerian refugee that was baptized three years ago and is now working
nights washing dishing at a local club. For that reason, he never has
the energy to come to church. When he meets us for our weekly
appointment, he is always super depressed and doesn't talk much.
Normally, if you ask him any question about his personal life, he'll
give a one word answer. If you ask a spiritual question, he'll say "I
don't know." He also refuses to read any scripture we ask him to read
(we're pretty sure he's dyslexic) and will never offer the opening or
closing prayer. We've tried buying and making him food, inviting him
to play games with us, and sending him encouraging daily messages.
Nothing has improved the situation! HOWEVER, during our lesson
yesterday, Anziano Montalto and I did everything we could to build him
up. We talked about how special he was and how happy we were that he
was baptized. We told him about our Nigerian friends Courage, Sunday,
and Peace that were preparing for baptism and told him how much it
would mean for them if he came to one of the lessons when we taught
them. He accepted the invite and then went on to say the closing
prayer for us!!!!
I remember when mom used to always repeat the words of Gordon B.
Hinckley about how to retain church membership. Anziano Montalto and I
were nourishing Sunny with the good word of God every week and were
doing our best to be a friend to him, but didn't see any success until
we gave him a "calling". Sunny just needed to feel a little
responsibility! Our prophets, and my mom, are inspired!
Lots of love,
Anziano Anderson
1. Classy picture of the Rimini zone
2. Goofy picture of the Rimini zone
3. A fat Italian panino on a pretty mountain
4. Post-lesson harbor picture with Anziano Crowther and my Nigerian bros
5. I asked Courage to be my model for a second and did a Nike photo shoot
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