Thursday, October 17, 2013

I'm Getting Transferred October 16, 2013

Ciao tutti!!!

Well, transfers are tomorrow and sadly, I'm leaving Genova. I got the call late Monday night after a lesson and I'm going to Prato. A city that is literally 15 minutes outside of Firenze( Florence ). My new companion's name is Anziano Walker. He is from Anziano Salmon's group and he's from San Diego area. That's all I know about him right now, but I will tell you more next week. So yep, today is my last day in Genova. We are having a Ward culture night party food thing tonight so it will be a fun way to leave. Then tomorrow morning I go with Anziano Treadway to Milano where I meet some other missionaries who are heading down to Firenze and then I will meet my companion there. Anziano Salmon and Erickson are now companions and they are staying here in Genova. Anziano Treadway is going District leader in Pavia. I'm really excited to go to Prato, it is going to be so cool to see another city and to be so close to Firenze! I noticed that you said that Sean and his family are coming here in January, well there is a very high chance that I'm still there in Prato at that time, and like I said, its literally 15 min outside of Firenze. That is super exciting. 

So before I forget (like I did the past 2 weeks), Happy Late Birthday Jason and Jude!!!!!! I'm really sorry I forgot, but better late than never. And speaking of birthdays, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also, a very Happy Birthday to Jess and Annie!! I hope you all have a  great birthday!

Ok, so I want to apologize again for my really short email last week. So like I said, we climbed a mountain for P-day. It was super fun and super tiring. We followed this road, but then it ended up being someone's driveway, so we decided to just go straight up the side of the mountain. It was pretty dark because we wanted to beat the sunrise, and the way was very thorny. Our legs took quite the beating. Anziano Erickson got bit by a spider and later that night his leg was all swollen up, but he got some antibiotics and he's fine now. Any who, at the top, we saw that there was a road that went up the mountain, so we went back that way. But we decided to take a few shortcuts between the switchbacks. It was not a shortcut. It was super thorny and ridiculous. We found our way out and then stuck to the road after that. It was a super fun trip though.

So Anziano Salmon bought Scarabeo, which is basically an off brand version of Italian Scrabble. We tried playing and it is REALLY REALLY HARD!!!!! It was actually really good language study, because we had to think completely in Italian, which was really hard. Switching languages, we taught English class this week and a new student came and we found out that he and his twin brother own a pizzeria. So last night, we stopped by and ordered some pizza. While we were waiting, they made us some farinata which was really good and then they gave us our food for free! It was like 20 euros! They were so awesome and they made some good food.

This past week, I've been sick, which has really really stunk. I've wanted to go out and do things, but I had to stay inside to get better. I'm feeling better now, so that's good. And just in time for transfers! Meno male.

So this week, we've had a lot of miracles. We had 3 less actives in church!!! One stayed for 1 hour, another for 2, and the last for all 3 hours! It was really awesome, because the one that stayed really liked Sunday school and priesthood. It was so great to see all the members talking to them and welcoming them back. I really hope they keep coming. But the biggest miracle we had this week was very unexpected.  This week we decided that we were going to follow Anziano Ballard's advice from conference and talk to literally everybody. We did this and at first it was really hard because literally no one wanted to talk to us. Eventually we found a person here or there who would at least entertain us with a conversation, but nothing really came of it. We then did a pass by of a less active we have been trying to see for a couple weeks and like normal he wasn't there. But right as we were leaving, we got a call from one of our investigators, Giordana, that she wanted to meet us at the church right away. So we ran over there and when we got there she was super excited and happy. She has been having a lot of weird health problems lately and the first time we met her, we gave her a blessing, and she wanted to thank us because all of a sudden, her problems went away. She recognized the power of the Priesthood in this and had a ton of questions about the church and is super excited to learn. Its amazing all the different ways the Lord blesses us. We just need to be listening and paying attention so that we can recognize his answers and the blessings he gives us. Like Anziano Bednar said in conference, "eyes and ears of faith are required".

And that segues perfectly into my conference report. So like I said last time, it is so cool to be a missionary and watch conference. It went by super fast, but I felt the spirit so strongly and I really learned a lot. I just want to touch a little on the talks I really liked. Like I already mentioned, I really liked Anziano Bednar's talk about tithing, but especially how "eyes and ears of faith are required" for us to recognize the blessings that we receive. It's so true how if we aren't paying attention, we can easily miss the blessings that he gives us. Then I really liked President Uchtdorf's talk about the church and how everyone is welcome and fits in perfectly. This church is amazing and the gospel of Jesus Christ applies perfectly to everyone, that is the most amazing thing. Then I really like Edward Dube's talk. First of all, I really loved how he talked and just everything. Second, he had a really powerful and important message. It doesn't matter where we serve, but how. The Lord cares about where we are willing to go to help progress his kingdom. Then President Monson's talk at the end of the Sunday Morning session was super powerful. You could really feel his testimony of this gospel and how it was such a help in the difficult times. The spirit was so strong during his talk and I will never forget how human he seemed. Sometimes we forget that the Prophet and the Apostles are normal people too. They have trials and hardships just like we do. It was super powerful. But my far, my favorite session was Priesthood, especially President Monson's talk about hometeaching and beings a true shepard. I have such a strong testimony of the importance of hometeaching. Thank you so much Dad for always talking me with you and teaching me how to really be a friend to the people we visit, and not just lazy sheepherders. You have been such a great example to me all of my life of how to really be a disciple of Christ. I love you so much and I'm eternally grateful for your help. Keep on being the amazing Dad and priesthood holder that you are.

To finish up, here is my less spiritual sport talk. The Dodgers suck. I'm not surprised that they choked, but I had hope. Oh well, maybe next year. We need to get some better and more consistent hitting. I'm sad to hear that my team lost, it's always a downer, but its part of the game, so I know they will get it back on track. I have faith in my girls. I'm glad the volleyball team won and in such a dramatic fashion too! haha. Its always a good day when BYU football wins.

That is so crazy how many missionaries you have now, but we are in the same boat here. About 75% of our mission is below their first year mark. Crazy! But its just proof that the Lord is hastening his work. Keep on helping the missionaries with lessons and feeding them. Missionaries love it when members feed them. Trust me. haha

I want to see pictures/video of Lizzy's field show! It sounds super cool! And thank you for the greeting Mr. Peter!! (I guess I can call you Brian now). I'm glad to hear that the CD is underway, I'm really excited to hear it when it's done. Send all my love to everyone in the band program, especially studio.

As always, thank you so much for the letters, I love hearing from you all! I love you all so much and hope you have an amazing week! And sorry again for the short email last week. I hope this one makes up for it!

Vi voglio tantissimo bene!!!
Anziano Langlois




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