transfer 16

From: Benjamin Jolley <benjamin.jolley@myldsmail.net>Date: Wed, Jan 25, 2012 at 3:14 AM

Subject: transfer 16

Well. Transfers again. Anziano Nelson is off to Reggio Emilia. lucky duck. I'm getting Anziano Guest. My district is also changing significantly. The Rimini Elders are getting "Pinkwashed". They're leaving, and Sisters Simkins and Arume are coming in. So no more scambios for me! That's a huge change. There haven't been sisters in the Rimini District for a LONG time. maybe as much as 15 years. crazy.

 

So on Friday, we went out and taught Yvette about the plan of Salvation with our new convert, Moreno. He is awesome. Bore super awesome testimony of the restoration. the prayer at the end offered by one of the boys was funny. He had had the question "my teachers say that Christianity is the child of Judaism. what does that make Mormonism? So Moreno said look, this is the true church and this is why... so in the prayer, he said "Heavenly Father, we thank thee for making us know that the Mormon church is the true church." I'm sitting there thinking, "I have not seen so great faith, no, not among all the people of the Italians." It was awesome.

 

Saturday, we went with our Branch President and taught Moreno and Laila, and then we went and taught Roger. Roger has a question. "What are the doctrines of the church?" President Dago tells him, look, we want more specific questions. When you see something in church that you don't understand, ask questions. write down your questions, and ask them to the Anziani. That was an interesting lesson. It was really good for that fact. He commited to church on the 29th.

 

Sunday, we went and did some finding work and knocked into a house of students. It was funny our door approach. In the background, one of them is yelling "Jesus Christ!" obviously taking the Lord's name in vain. I say to the girl my usual approach, "Hi, we're here talking about Jesus Christ." She yells around the corner, "Don't Blaspheme! These guys are here talking about Jesus Christ!" So then we go and explain to them the restoration of the gospel and the Book of Mormon, and invite them to English class. They were curious, if not particularly interested in learning more. maybe in the future.

 

Monday, we cleaned up the apartment and I helped anziano Nelson packed his bags, on the surety that he's leaving. Then we went and taught Roberto, an interesting guy. We taught him two weeks ago, and we invited him to read the Book of Mormon from the introduction, then changed our minds and said from 1 Nephi 1, and then again to 3 Nephi 11 and 12. He read all three assignments. He has a rather interesting character. In my first transfer, we taught our member, Nick. He's a similar type of person. He commited himself to church on Sunday, and said he'd have to think about what we taught. He believes that "god will save all mankind". He also accepted the commitment to read 2 Nephi 2. Then we went and taught Sister Tassi in our branch, and she was super good.

 

Tuesday, we went and taught Padre Claudio again. The only reason we went back is because I didn't have the courage to say no. The man is very fixed in his beliefs. It really hurt when he said "as I opened the Book of Mormon, I saw that it was pure fantasy." Excuse me? I don't go around calling your most cherished beliefs fantasy. I don't tell you that your claims to an unbroken chain of priesthood authority are fantasy. Please be respectful at least! Then we left. He said he'd read the Book of Mormon from start to finish, and then he'd give us a call. Then we went and taught Moreno and Laila. Laila has been struggling the last several days, so we gave her a priesthood blessing. She felt a lot better afterwards. Then we went and saw the Garcia family, who are pretty discouraged about doing missionary work here. Fratello Garcia then inspired me with a vision for my last transfer. The Forlì branch has had to import branch presidents from other branches for years. So I am going to pray and work to find a Forlivese Branch President, and then baptize him. I'm excited about it. I love you all tons. Pray hard for me to finish well.

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Fwd: The answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything

From: Benjamin Jolley <benjamin.jolley@myldsmail.net>
Date: Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 3:34 AM

42. That my friends is a scary number. It has a lot of meanings. It is the number of days in six weeks. Which happens to be the time I have left as a missionary. That is a crazy thought. thinking about it, it feels like a LONG time still, but also very short. I'm coming to realize that this time will soon come to an end. I love my mission. There is nothing better I or anyone can do but serve the LORD full-time. I know that. I love it. It is so fun and rewarding. I had an experience yesterday that made me think. As I rode the train home from a Zone Conference in Verona, three of the most worldly and materialistic girls I've ever seen in my life sat down next to me and my companion. One of them got a text message and went out of the carriage to cry for a bit. She came back, and started playing solitaire. She has not found happiness in material things. These girls had EVERYTHING the world says makes you happy. They had jewelry, a lot of it. Dolce and Gabbana watches. Brand name clothing. designer glasses. a smart phone. they obviously had money, and plenty of it. I started to talk to Liam, and asked her what makes her happy in life. She responded, "not a whole lot right now." then silence for a bit, and then smiled and said, "being with my family and my friends." I told her we have a message that will help her to have lasting happiness. then we had to go. So I handed her a pass-along card that says on the front, "Faith brings Hope." I know that that is true. The only thing that will bring her lasting happiness is personal righteousness and a resulting happy family. As I walked past the train 30 seconds later, her friend was looking at the pass-along card. I don't know if that will end up causing her to actually be happy or will result in a baptism, but I felt the spirit testify that I had done right. I love the gospel. It will solve all the problems that we face, indivually and collectively. Designer clothes and watches and smartphones and all of the toys and things that the world offers don't bring true happiness.

 

I've had a lot of other interesting experiences this week. some happy, some sad, some ridiculous. On thursday, we went and taught our new converts shortly, and then had a rather LONG ward council meeting. then we passed by Ciro and Manjola's to give their son Giovanni a birthday present.

 

Friday, we planned and then immediately afterward I got a phone call. Manjola called, saying that she and Ciro feel too rushed, and want to take some time to think about baptism and what we've taught them. I think "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" but I respect their choice and will continue to pray for them. Later that day, we taught Yvette and her children the plan of Salvation, and it went quite well. unfortunately, they cannot see us more than once a week, and we have not taught them nearly all they need to know to receive baptism. So it was a rough day. six baptisms at the end of the month sorta just disappeared. oh well. We keep on going.

 

Saturday, we went and did some casa and found a man wearing a muslim worship robe, and said "Hey we're talking about Jesus Christ, can we come in?" "sure." so now we're teaching Inouss. he agreed to read the Book of Mormon and we'll be back this coming Saturday. Later on we taught Roger, who still can't come to church because he feels Catholic and doesn't seem to have enough time. darn.

 

Sunday, Yvette and one of her sons came, along with several dry members. It was a pretty good Sunday, but pretty disappointing compared to last week. Then we went out and did some strada and found a few potentials.

 

Monday, we taught Sorella Gutu and her son a lesson about family. Her son was rather distracted and started playing his PSP halfway through the lesson. his prayer at the end was very very short too. oh well. We'll keep trying. Then we went and found Jimmy, an inactive member who was drinking Vodka as we walked in. It was... interesting. Then we went directly to Padre Claudio's church on the top of a mountain and more or less bashed with him. He is an interesting man. and refuses to read the Book of Mormon cover to cover, thinking that the index in the back is more important. oh well.

 

Tuesday, we went to a park, and my companion was bit by a terrible horrible beast as he tried to pet it. The beast is called a "Coniglio" in Italian, or for you English speakers, a bunny rabbit. Yes, a bunny rabbit. We called Sorella Wolfgramm, and since we have no normal family doctor, we went to the ER. for a bunny rabbit bite. and since they use triage, we waited. eight hours. It was a fun day. Then we went home with a prescription for antibiotics. Moral of the story: avoid rabbits. other moral: have a family doctor.

 

Wednesday, we went to Verona where we were trained by Elder Caussé of the Seventy. It was a great conference. And then we went home. and now we are here, writing emails. I love you. a lot.

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Ravenna and other fun

Date: Wed, Jan 4, 2012 at 2:59 AM

So today I'm emailing from the old capital of the Western Roman Empire, the city of Ravenna, on the Adriatic sea. We're going to look at some of the famous mosaics here, which should be fun and interesting. It's been an interesting week under all aspects. A lot of disappointments on Sunday when none of our investigators came, and then a lot of miracles in getting back in contact with them and finding out why they didn't come. So... Thursday, my companion got sick, and he didn't get better until Sunday. so... there wasn't much going on there. I cleaned the house.. really well. I was INCREDIBLY bored. we went out once or twice to teach some planned lessons. Like on Saturday we went out and taught Roger, who still feels very catholic, and was asking us if we wanted him to come to our church and stop being catholic. We responded by saying that what we want doesn't matter and he should ask God. Then my inspired companion asked him an important question. "How do you think your answers to prayers will come?" "Boh (I don't know)" So we explained that concept and invited him to pray some more.

 

Sunday, like I said, no investigators showed up. Ciro, Manjola, Yvette, no one. That's a depressing sunday. So we go out after church and drop a note in Ciro's box since he's also not answering the phone. then we went out and worked. I've never been so happy to work in my life. I was smiling super big. Nothing in particular came out of our finding work, but going out and working for the first time in 3 days felt REALLY good.

 

Monday, we had a good district meeting with our zone leaders. We talked about commitment invitations. Afterwards, Anziano Nelson and I went and taught Yvette a pretty good lesson about the gospel, faith repentance etc. Those children are awesome. and it was super good because our WML was there too. Then we went and did some casa, and got in on the third door to a very nice family. I taught probably the worst lesson of my life, where they were presenting a concern, which I understood, but I just kept going with my lesson. That was bad. They didn't give us a return appointment. I guess it just shows that I'm human. during the course of the day we also met a guy who overheard my companion say "wannabe wallabys" randomly, and thought that he had said "Wallace" which is the name of a missionary that was here about a year ago.

 

Tuesday, we headed to Bologna, and started a scambio with our capi. I came back to Forlì with Anziano Andrew Strobelt from Philadelphia. We went and taught a catholic priest who we had met on the street on Sunday and who called ME on monday. He was pretty cool. We sorta presented the restoration, once again with our WML. He said he'd read the Book of Mormon. His name is Padre Claudio. cool guy. then we went and did some casa. Later on, as we were going to centro Forlì to do some street contacting to wrap up the day, Anziano Strobelt hit a car. I rode past, and the lady opened her side door, which he ran into. His neck hit the corner of the car, and he was winded. The lady, Maria Rosa, was really concerned, and called her husband and an ambulance. The ambulance took its sweet time getting there, like 1/2 an hour, so we had the chance to talk to her and her husband about the church. We ended up getting their number and giving them a copy of the Book of Mormon. so... God works in mysterious ways.

 

This morning we just came out to Ravenna. Good week, all in all. I love you tons.

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