Missionary Letters--Rome, Italy: Mistake Turns Into Blessing

Cari Miei,

So this week has been absolutely amazing, Rome is HOT but I love it. I am trying to really recognize how many miracles we have everyday and to see the Lord's hand in everything. Yesterday we had a experience that I could not forget.

So in the morning we went to see a man named Flaminio who the sisters who were here before us met, they wrote us a note telling us how to get there and that he was Italian but had a Romanian wife named Maria. We found a Book of Mormon in Romanian and wrote her Maria a dedica in the front. Then we planned to call some of the old investigators who we had found in the Area Book.

When we went to see Flaminio he told us that his wife was not Romanian but Italian and that the Book must be for someone else...

We were supposed to meet a new investigator named Fernando at 9pm at a bus stop so we went but we were about 30 mins early, we had planned to knock some doors in that area. At first we were heading towards a street and we passed this beautiful family with two beautiful blond babies and didn't talk to them because they just passed so quickly and we were headed in the other direction. However on the Bus going there I had seen a little piazza with some benches and trees and a child's slide. So I told Sorella Chavez that we should go there instead. When we got there we saw this family sitting on a bench. We headed straight for them and told them about eternal families and prophets.

We asked them for their names, Claudio and Maria, Claudio from Rome and Maria from Romania. We told her that we had a Book for her with her name in it because God had prepared it for her and that it would teach her more about her Savior Jesus Christ. Yea I know amazing but it gets better... we finished the 1st leasson, left them a reading assignment, got their phone number, and told them we would call them in 5 days.

So when we got home after our appointment I told S: Chavez that we needed to call the old investigators still and looked in my planner for their names and phone number, on today's page of my planner I saw Claudio and Maria... I told Sorella Chavez to get the sheet with their information written on it and read me their description... Written was Claudio is Italian, Maria is Romanian... I told her to read me the phone number... it was the same. God had lead us to this family, once they passed us but he lead us to the park where they were so we could talk to them. He also had prepared us with the Book of Mormon to give them with her name written in it with our testimony... But even before all of that we already had their phone number, but maby they would not have accepted us if we had just called so God lead us to them TWICE.

I know that God loves these people so much that he leads us over and over again to them, to give them the opportunity to accept the gospel. He works mighty miracles all to bring people peace and joy in this life. I love being a missionary. I love that God is all knowing and that he prepares every needful thing. I love you all so much. Trust the Lord to lead you where you need to be and seek always to be an instrument in his hands to bless the lives of others.I love you all so much. Vi Voglio Bene

Missionary Letters--Rome, Italy

Cari Miei, So this week was really good, happy 4th of July in 2 days. You all make sure to burn a firework for me and I will make sure to say the pledge of alligence and sing the national anthem for companionship study. I remember last 4th of July, I was in Livorno and me and Sorella Boynton had a conversation about how blessed we were to be born in the US of A. Anyways we just got transfers and I am leaving Ladispoli. I am a little sad but excited to get a new start one more time before I finish. I will be blown into Rome 3. It will be the 1st ward that I ever serve in. It will be a little crazy but my new companion will be Sorella Chavez who is from Mexico maybe I can even get her to teach me Spanish. I hear that it is the ghetto of Rome so that will be really cool. I am excited to finish with a bang we are being blow in which means that neither of us have served there before so we do not know anything but I am so sure that we will be lost pretty much every day for the next transfer. I am sad to leave all of these people that I have come to know and love and especially because we have so many progressing investigators who are almost ready for baptism but I know that the Lord needs S. Call here and she will be so good for them... she can put um in the water. I listened to a talk today by P. Monson he said that we are to thrust in our sickle with all of our might and that the harvest is the Lords. I am trying to work as hard af I can and always have more faith.

Missionary Letters--Rome Italy

Cari Miei,

This week was good, it actually has been keeping pretty cool and I am grateful to be close to the sea so that the breeze just keeps coming in. We finally had some time this week to do some good old knocking on peoples' doors. I have been feeling like we need to go to a certain neighborhood for a few days so last Thursday we headed over there right after our companionship study.

After knocking on a few houses the gate of one house opens and there are 4 17 year old ragazzi (Ivio, Tomas, Corrado, Massimiliano) standing around in the front yard of this house. They let us in and tell us to come sit on the front porch. So we start by telling them who we are, to which Ivio the ragazzo who lives there tells us that none of them believe in God. Hmmm so we teach them a first lesson. They are all listening, it makes me want to laugh because they look like total punks who would not be at all interested in our message. They have died longer hair, percings, and are all wearing black with pictures of things like skulls and cross bones. They ask us really good questions that you can tell they have thought about.

Tomas tells us that if he doesn't believe there is anything after this life, why in the world would it be important for him that there is a Christ. Then Corrado tells us that he thinks that people believe in Christ because it is easy for them and they need that thought to feel better. We told them that to really follow Christ it means sacrifice and submitting yourself to the will of God and letting go of your selfish desires, things that are all hard. That if they want to know why they NEED a savior and redeemer they can learn if they will read the Book of Mormon and they will feel the truth and importance of its message.

We asked them if they had ever heard of the Book of Mormon, to which Ivio replied yea it is that book that was the gold plates that Joseph Smith translated... I almost fell over backwards, I mean most people just think that we are Jehovahs Witnesses or Amish. He told us that his mom had read the Book of Mormon so he had heard about it. They told us they didn't really have anything else to do for the next 3 months of summer anyways and that we could come back by next weeks because they are always there together hanging out on the couch and that they would read.

Every day this transfer it seems like we have chances to talk to people like these ragazzi and it always blows my mind that it is not that they just choose not to believe in Christ, they just really don't have a knowledge of the Plan of Salvation and therefore don't understand why they need a Savior. They see the people around them who say they are believing but that it doesnt really mean anything, a belief in Christ has become something so cliche that lots of youth are rejecting it because they don't understand what it means.

I love that I know the plan of salvation and that I know the answer to questions like why am I here, what do I need to do, where was I, where am I going after death. I know that in each and every part of the plan the most important part is Christ. I love you all. I love that you teach me what people who are trying to follow and have a testimony of Christ should do.

Vi Voglio Un Mondo di Bene

Missionary Letters--Rome Italy

Cari Miei

So this week was really good, we went to Roma for stake conference. It was nice because
it wasn't just like normal stake conference instead there was a Area Conference broadcast to us from somewhere (chi sa dove boh?) Elder Holland and President Monson spoke by satellite. Something that really touched me was when Elder Holland said that God sent some of his very elect strongest children here to this part of Eurpoe because he knew that they would be strong and keep the faith. I loved that because it is so true. I love being able to be with these people who have sustained the branches here since they were only like 3 members and to talk to them about their testimonies that have been tried in every imaginable way.

This week we went to Rome to see the Colosseum because we met a man on the train who became our new investigator who works there as security for the state. It was crazy to stand in such an old building and think hmmm men and animals used to fight each other while other men watched. Our friend pointed out the woman's section right at the end of the nosebleed section because it wasn't acceptable for them by society to watch those things.

Sorry this email is kind of lame but times up! I love you. Sempre Avanti... Press Forward...

Vi Voglio Bene

Missionary Letters--Rome Italy: Finding Honest in Heart

Ciao!!

This week was good, we were in Rome basically every day. I am emailing today because tomorrow we will be in Rome yet again to give blood in a blood drive at an the international school where our mission presidents children go to school. So that should be exciting, I hope that my companion doesn't faint!

Because we were in Rome so much we really did not have a lot of time to go to some of the other cities near by Ladispoli but Friday night as we were praying we thought that we should go to Santa Marinella to pass back by this man named Salvatore.

Three weeks ago we knocked on a rickety old fence where we were not sure if anyone lived. Two men came down the back stairs of this house an older man Salvatore and a younger man Gaetano. At first they thought we were Jehovah's Witnesses (like everyone else in Italy... that or the Amish) anyways when we explained who we were they took a pamphlet and told us that right now they were eating dinner but to come back after they had a chance to read it.

We didn't know how interested they were but a week and a half later when we managed to get back out to Santa Marinella we passed back by. Gaetano was there and he told us that Salvatore wanted to see us but that he wasn't home. We couldn't go up because there were no women in their home but we taught him about prayer and asked him to pray. He told us that he loved Jesus and was in fact that night going to go and get a giant tattoo on his chest to show his love for Christ. To this I replied that God didn't want him to damage his body because it is a temple and that if he would pray God would tell him that it was not a good idea, in fact that God would answer any of his prayers. He agreed to pray about it and read another pamphlet we left about the restoration.

So now we really didn't know if Salvatore was interested or not but Saturday night we went by. We rang the doorbell and both of them peaked their heads out. The second they saw us they just smiled and came right down. Salvatore told us that since we came the last time that he had read the pamphlet and that since that moment the desire that he had lost to pray come back to him, that he was going through a hard period of time but that ever since we came that things that he didn't know how to face were working themselves out and that he had found a desire to understand if God really would listen and answer his prayers. I didn't really know what to say so we told him about Joseph Smith and gave him a Book of Mormon and asked him to come to church the next day.

BTW Gaetano got the tattoo... Piano Piano I guess we should work on his testimony of prophets and modern day revelation sometimes you learn the hard way...

So when Salvatore came to church the next day he told us that there were a million things that tried to stop him from coming to church. The night before he read the introduction to the Book of Mormon and then went to bed but that in the middle of the night he had a dream where something carried him literally to church and he knew that he just had to get there. He told us that he was up here working because he is from Sicily and that he didn't have enough money to feed his family who is still down there and that his 15 year old daughter is pregnant and that he just didn't know what to do but that after we talked about prayer he prayed and that the next day he got money from work that he didn't know if he would get and that he should be able to bring his daughter here and help her.

All we did was show up 3 times at this mans house and he was just READY, ready to accept our message, ready to do our invites, ready to humble himself and ask God. I don't know what will happen. In our training last week Elder Johnson of the Seventy said that they had a meeting with President Hinckley where they talked about increasing baptisms in Europe. President Hinckley said only one thing... if the missionaries want to increase baptisms they need to have more faith. All we did was go to this man's house three times, thats it. I think that I am realizing how much work the Lord is really doing every day in peoples lives, members, less active members, non members... he is working in our lives and giving us experiences to bring us to him. I worry a lot about my inadequacies that I am not a good enough teacher, that I don't know how to find people, that I don't love people enough... but none of that matters as long as Heavenly Father can use us to do his work. I am trying to always have more faith not so much in myself but in God and in his work here in Italy. I love that he answers the prayers of those who ask, seek, and knock.

Missionary Letters--Rome Italy: Led by the Spirit

Cari Miei,

This week was really good. In fact this week we had a cool experience with prayer. We got a referral from the office of a person who called Provo when they saw an advertisement for a Book of Mormon and wanted one. All the office gave us was the name of the person Alessio Mangiaprete, the city Orbetello, the street Perelli, and the number 122. That's all we had. I of course was skeptical because the last name in Italian means something along the lines of (priest eater hmmm)

So we had never been to this city before because our area covers hours of cities in all directions by train. So we find out that we can get there by train and that it will take 2 hours by train to go and 2 hours to come back. So of course we plan a day that we can just go for the whole day and work in that city and we go. So we get there and have no map, so we ask a couple of people who tell us there is no street by that name in this city. So finally we talk to this guy at a news stand who likes to wink at my companion, he was more than willing to be helpful =-) He tells us that we must of heard wrong and that it is the street vIA pIETRO nENNI (sounds like perelli I guess) so he sells us some bus tickets and we are on our way...

So we get to the street (the police station is one this street) and walk the whole thing the apartment numbers end at 21 hmmm. So knowing that God must of sent us to that street for a reason we knock on every singe door we see on the whole street... looking at all of the names to make sure. We see no Mangiaprete or anything like it... Nothing. By now 2 hours have past and the sun is hot, we don't know what to do but we have come all this way to just give up, I think not. So my companion asks all of the police men where the street could be and nothing...So I say lets just go sit on these steps and say a prayer and tell God we are going to need him to lead us to this person he has prepared...

So I finish the prayer and my companion says why don't we call the office elders and they can look online and see if this street really exists or what... so we call, it doesn't exist... but Anziano McFadden tells me that he saw the street Marcelli and that it sounds like the same so I should try it. Marcelli... Perelli-- no not really I mean two l's one I that's about the end of the similarities but we don't know what else to do and we are trying to follow the spirit, so we go...I wonder if anyone is even still reading this email... anyways I thought it was a cool story and you know that I can never just get to the point of the story...

So basically we ask a million people and go on an adventure to finally find this street which only had 4 apartments on it (we are looking for number 122), but we think God must of lead us here for a reason so we knock on all of them, even though by now 4 hours have past and everyone is either in the middle of lunch or their afternoon nap...So on the last apartment complex there is this name (Manganelli, mangaprete manganelli hmmmmm) SO we ring from below and the door just opens so we get in the elevator and go up and there is a lady who the second she sees us starts waving her hand no no. So I just tell her hey we are just looking for Alessio... pause interested squardo. She tells us that she is Alessio's only relative in that town and that in fact he lives at number 22 on via Pietro Nenni the street where the police station is, it is just that there are three apartment complexes that are behind the station and you have to go through a gate that looks like it is part of the police station which really isn't easy to get to them...So now we have the real last name of Alessio, The real name of the street, and the real number of his house, and how to get there because it is hidden all because we went to a street that didn't sound like the name of the street name we originally had because we were trusting God to lead us and answer our prayers...

So we found Alessio a 17 year old boy who God must sure love a whole lot to lead us to him all so we could bring him a Book of Mormon. I love that God answers our prayers that he knows us personally and that to accomplish his work he will bring about miracles. I know that God knows you and that he loves you and that if you let him he will use you as an instrument in his hands.

Vi Voglio Tanto Bene