Date: Wed, Aug 18, 2010 at 5:32 AM
Subject: Ferragosto
Dear Family,
As you know, we are currently in ferie season. I've explained what that means. In the middle of ferie, there is one day, equivalent to labor day in the states, where no one works, everything is closed, and missionaries do spring cleaning. This day is called Ferragosto. It is always the 15th of august, but since that was on Sunday this year, we did our cleaning the 16th. It's been a very good week. Much of the pain and annoyingness of last week have since been taken care of.
Last week, coming back from scambio, I met a Nigerian man on the train, named Jolly. Jolly Monday. That made me very pleased for somewhat obvious reasons. I taught him a short gospel principle on the train, doing an "invito", essentially teaching a short idea then inviting them to investigate the church by asking for their phone number. Doing "dieci inviti" (10 invites) is one of my favorite finding methods. I have seen a lot of personal growth and success doing them. essentially the idea is that during the day, when you haven't programmed (sorry, planned, in italian is programmato... missionaries use programming and planning interchangably here) finding work, you do an invito, during the day, you personally as a missionary do 10. It is absolutely my favorite. It's the best way to cry repentance to people I know. I've said many times that we do a lot of casa here in Milano, which is true, and we see success from it. quite a lot. That's essentially how I spend my time. but as we're going from palazzo to palazzo (apartment building), and city to city on the trains, I LOVE just starting up a conversation in any way and then guiding it to a teaching situation ending with me getting their phone number. It's a lot of fun. I'm getting pretty good at it.
On thursday of this last week, we taught a drunk man that my companion thinks we can save from his drunken state. I have less hope. When someone tells me they see Jesus standing in the distance, and this person is very drunk, I assume that they won't really remember what I'm saying. but... we'll see. His name is Emiliano. He drinks 4 liters of wine a day, and smokes 2 packs of cigarettes or more every day. We'll see. wait. that may have happened some other day this week. Because on thursday it rained a lot, and we weren't in that park. nevermind. This lesson happened, but not on thursday.
Actually on thursday, it rained. and rained. I found out my shoes aren't waterproof. that was exciting. by about 7 o clock, my shoes were full of water. around that same time, we knocked on a door in an alleyway that looked empty, which went directly into a house, unlike a palazzo, which goes to a lot of doors for houses. My companion was very convinced we should go down that alley. We did. We knocked the door, saying essentially "we're missionaries with a five minute message about the family. can we come in?" They let us in. we taught them a very short version of the restoration lesson. This was a man and his wife (actually they're not legally married, but... same idea) who are both practicing catholics, who were just finishing dinner. We sat down at their table and taught them. The wife, Cinzia, was struck by the idea that every church has a piece of the truth, but a restoration was needed to have the whole truth. We then got their phone number, and set a return appointment. It was really good. Unfortunately, they went on vacation the day before our appointment, but they actually want to meet with us when they come back in september. so... that'll be fun!
On Friday, we taught a lot of contacts that we got over the week before, and five people accepted return appointments. We taught my friend Edwin, from several weeks ago, who is a nigerian under house arrest, who just moved out of a house that doesn't like us. We gave him a book of mormon, and taught him the story behind it, with a short introduction to it. He gave us a return appointment. that's one. On the way from Edwin's house, back to the station in Novara, and then to Jolly's house on the other side of the city, when we got on the bus, who's there but Jolly himself, and his friend Kennedy. They escort us to his house, where we've never been, and we teach them a short restoration lesson, and get another appointment. Jolly wants to be a preacher. He wants to get a bible in Hebrew English and Greek side by side like his preacher in Nigeria. He was extremely grateful we came over. that's three. then, we met with a man named Alessandro and his family. They are peruvian, and have at least prayed with missionaries in the past. He and his wife have 2 daughters living with them, along with one grandson. Only the wife and he speak Italian though, so it was an interesting lesson. that's five. We then went home, superbly happy about having finally contacted these people, and having new people to teach.
On Saturday, we taught several more contacts, and received referrals from Temple Square... which has never happened before. anyways, since that point till today, we've been trying to contact 7 referrals from different places, and teach them. It's made sure we've been busy enough. We were unsuccessful in contacting them, but we did teach Francesca, an investigator we haven't seen in over a month, and won't see in over a month, who was very sincere. We read with her 3 Nephi 11, and wished her buone vacanze (good vacation?). We'll teach her again later in september. We also met a man named David in Sunday's palazzo. (I'll call him Domenica from now on to remove confusion. His name is Sunday, but in Italian it's Domenica. To remove confusion in letters home, I'll call him that.) David was very interested, and gave us an appointment for later on this week.
Sunday, we went to church. I gave a talk, based on President Boyd K. Packer's The Power of the Priesthood, from conference. It went well enough. As I always feel when giving talks, I felt silly, but later our Relief Society president told me she was very touched by part of it. So... apparently I did well enough. Later on that day, we went to Novara, and walked from the station to Edwin's house. We watched "The Restoration" with him, and he loved it. We explained a few of his questions, and he asked if he could have the DVD. we gave it to him. it was really good. We then walked back to the station, came home to Vercelli, and did some casa. It was raining again. I also had a funny experience doing an invito. I was talking to a man walking his dog, walking alongside him, and trying to teach a principle, and he says several very true things, like the Father and the Son aren't the same person. And then he said Jehovah and the Son, and then said the Bible is the only way we can know anything. I then tried to get his number or give him ours. He refused, explaining what I'd already figured out, and I hope you have too. "I'm a Jehovah's Witness" (Sono Testimoni di Geova). He then told me that their church was nearby if I ever wanted to come. That was my first experience teaching an active JW. It wasn't too bad. most everything of what he said was true. Unfortunately, I didn't get his number or give him ours, because he didn't want to, but... that's ok. It was fun for me.
Monday, we cleaned the house. when I say that, I'm being serious. We spent the entire day, from 8 to 8, cleaning. I learned what ammonia and bleach do (not together. that's called killing yourself.) But I used both separately, and our apartment is very clean now. very clean. During the day, I had a funny experience. We ordered pizzas on the phone from the pizzeria below our house, and when I went to go pick it up, the conversation was like this. "ah, eri tu su telefono, no?" "Yes, for Jones... Scusi, sì, per Jones. Parlavo in inglese" "Mi parli in una lingua che non comprendo?" (in english, "it was you on the phone, yeah?" "Sì, per Jones... excuse me, yes, for Jones." "you're talking to me in a language I don't understand?") I answered in English, if you couldn't understand that. It was pretty funny. I've gotten to the point with my Italian that it doesn't matter to me whether someone speaks to me in English or Italian. And my companion is essentially the same. Other people don't speak english. That was... interesting. and very funny.
Yesterday, which would be tuesday, we had Zone Conference in Alessandria. I got up really early, around 5:30, and we caught a train to Alessandria. We then chilled with the missionaries from our zone and Genova for a few hours, when President Wolfgramm showed up and we got started. It was a lot of fun to be in my old city again. They're in a new church, which used to be a university/college. It's WAY nice. It was a massive upgrade from the chapel I went to there. During Zone Conference, President announced all sorts of big changes to the way missionary work is done. It's basically this. The church, over the past several years has done a lot of study and experimenting with how to help missionaries be better teachers. All of the answers are in Preach My Gospel, so there's no new book. It's just a new approach to the same book, and how we use it. The results are a new training program churchwide, which will be rolled out between now and July 2011. It involves 8 basic ideas that are in PMG, but will receive signifcantly more focus. the first is "Doctrine of Christ" (2 Nephi 31, 3 Nephi 11 pay attention to the word "doctrine"). this was the focus of our conference. The other 7 points will be the focus of the next several zone conferences. In relation to these changes, there are several logistic changes. first, Zone Conferences, instead of being once a transfer, are now once a quarter (2 transfers... 3 months) Interviews are once a quarter, and much shorter. Two new training meetings are being implemented, which are "Leadership Training meeting" a meeting for several days in a central location for all trainers, district leaders, zone leaders, and the assistants. The other isn't really a meeting. It's "specialized training" or essentially having the mission president directly train missionaries one on one in actual teaching situations. It's a very interesting change.
On the train ride back yesterday, we saw an investigator from a few weeks ago, named Davide, who now has a cell phone. We got his number, and set an appointment with him. That was cool.
This morning, we taught Roberto again. We read with him Moroni's Promise, Mor 10:3-5, and he said "you have put me in crisis. I have devoted my entire life to the study of God, Theology. I would like to do something, with your help. over the next 10-12 days, I would like to read the entire Book of Mormon, meeting with you for 10 minutes every 2 days to resolve my questions and problems, then spend two days in prayer, by myself, doing exactly what Moroni asks. Can you help me with this?" the answer is obviously yes. So, between now and two weeks from now, he will read the Book of Mormon. Pray for him. Pray for his understanding. I'm excited.
I've had a good week this week. I love you all. I hope all is going well at home. I pray for your welfare always.
--
Vi Amo!
Anziano Benjamin Jolley
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, and then I went downstairs to where they were watching "Jesus". My comp was still on the phone, but that movie was... um... perhaps a little more violent than I was expecting. but I liked it. We had dinner with the Dallaris, and then went home.
