As you know, we had a baptism on saturday. What you didn't know is what follows.
On Thursday, I found out that I was going to Vercelli again on Scambio, this time with my district leader, Anziano Joshua Merrell, who's going home after this transfer, meaning June 21st. Thursday was a hard day, because we saw very little success... meaning we taught two lessons and basta for the day... not a very effective day for a missionary.
Friday, we planned and I went to Vercelli, where we taught a few lessons to the investigators out there. We got in once doing casa, to an old catholic couple. We talked about prayer with them. We then went out to a far part of Vercelli, where we taught an investigator about the need for the book of Mormon. What was much more... touching though, was that outside as we waited for this investigator, a ragazzo about 18 years old walked up to us, asking what we do. We talked with him for a while, and found out that his mom died 10 years ago, he lives essentially alone, and his dad died 2 weeks ago. He looked so lost. We told him that God does exist, that he loves him, and that there is something after this life, and we have proof. He met the missionaries at the right time. I don't know what happened to him afterwards, but I hope the Anziani there did a good job teaching him. We then got lost on the way home, for fully an hour, which meant that we got home late. I was really tired that night.
Saturday morning, we taught a lesson, then found out that the bus we were going to take back to Alessandria was cancelled, so we took a train about 30 minutes later, which broke down, so our travel time to Alessandria took all of 4 hours, when it's normally an hour or less. We got there, starving and a little frustrated.
And then we had our baptism. I gave a talk in Italian about the Holy Ghost, and then Vivian got baptized. (Fernando will get baptized eventually, but not right now... I don't know. I hope he does soon). That was really good. I like baptisms. They're a lot of fun.
On Sunday, most all of our investigators came to church, and we confirmed Vivian. Seeing Vivian get confirmed under our hands, with a lot of our investigators watching was so good. It made me feel better about all of the frustrations and slowdowns and little problems we had all week.
Sunday night, we hadn't found ANYONE new to teach all week, but we were pumped. We went out, did casa, taught lessons, and found 6 new people to teach, 2 of which are former investigators from 30 years ago. It was a lot of fun to see that kind of success in one day. Since then, this week has been great. Monday, we taught some people and got their numbers, so we may teach them again, and yesterday we took care of ALL of our Asti appointments in one day. That was really nice. We spent all day in asti yesterday, almost all of which was spent teaching, and we saw two of our new converts. The members there are solid. Since we had that day of all asti, we can now spend the rest of this week here in Alessandria, and spend a lot less time on a train, which isn't the best proselyting environment.
Last week was a week of frustrations, two scambi, and a baptism. The frustrations are worth it, though. Because guess what? We BAPTIZED Vivian! Let me tell you, Baptisms are fun. I'm glad I'm in a "baptising mission". I've been here a little over a month, and we've seen our first baptism! I can't wait to see how things turn out in the next several months.
Vi Amo!
Anziano Benjamin Jolley
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