Week of AMAZING!

Date: Wed, Jul 21, 2010 at 4:28 AM
Subject: Week of AMAZING!

So... this week... was a week to remember. mostly because of one of our investigators, Candide. I'll tell the story with him. On Thursday, we saw him at his house, he had read the entire 1st lesson pamphlet, and read all the definitions in the back, and did the homework at the end. No one does that. He then told us as soon as he was finished, he wanted more to read. He then went over the questions with us, understood them all very well, and then went to the definitions at the end. He pointed at baptism, and asked if we do baptisms. We said yes, and he asked when he could get baptised. He read the definition, and said "Covenant with God... I want that." (All of this took place in Italian). We said august 14th would be the best, and he was super excited. We then gave him the Book of Mormon, in French, and he was very excited to read it.

On Friday, he came to the ward activity, and jumped right in with the Young Single Adults. On Saturday, we went to his spectacular, a group of africans doing drums and dancing and awesome. Sunday, he wasn't able to come to church because he'd been dancing and drumming till 3 AM... who could blame him? we saw him that afternoon, and talked with him a little about his reading, and church and such, and he told us he'd read up to 1 Ne 17.

Tuesday, we taught him the Gospel lesson, and talked about his reading. He has read up to 2 Nephi 12, and intends to finish the Book of Mormon by August 1. He told us he really wants to get baptized. His every 3rd word is baptism, I swear. Since he didn't come to church Sunday, and the guide is 4 times in church, we had to move his date back to August 21st. but boy howdy... He's amazing. He understands everything he reads. He asked us about the fall, which is precisely what we want to talk with him about the next time. He ALSO told us that he feels people are starting to treat him worse, even though he constantly feels better inside. Satan is kicking it in high gear against him. Pray hard for him to keep on chugging and to be protected. He's amazing, and deserves every prayer he can get on his behalf.

In other news this week, I'm apparently a theologist, or at least had theological training, according to our theologist investigator Roberto. Apparently Biblical hebrew counts as theological training. This man Roberto is a pretty cool guy. He really likes what we teach, and knows the Catholic church is at least misled, if not false. But he hates saying that.

Our friend Sunday is making a lot of progress too. Pray for him. He's come to church twice in a row, and understands everything we teach him, and says that he was depressed the last several months, but the message we bring has brightened his mood. He's great. I hope we can get him to the waters of baptism as well. He also understood 2 Ne 2 really well.

The bizzarre thing about our investigators this week is that the idea of the kingdoms of glory is almost visible in the speed they make progress. Roberto is slowish, not as slow as others, but still solid. Sunday progresses at an amazing rate, but he's totally outshined by Candide. It's like the Sun compared to the Moon compared to the stars. It's really cool to see them all absorb the message and change their lives.

We've taught other investigators too, but their stories aren't nearly as exciting. I will however mention a less active peruvian family. Javier and his mom live in Novara, and are really nice. We taught them on Sunday, and the mom, as always, speaks half Italian half spanish, which I understand a very large portion. She cracks jokes about differences in Italian and Spanish, and then laughs. It's quite amusing to see. She told us a story about when she first came to italy and her signora that she lived with asked her to get the burro out of the fridge. She wonders... why is there a donkey in the fridge. Doesn't find one, and the signora shows her that butter is burro. She says... that's mantequila, not burro, then decides that when italians say burro that's what they mean. It reminded me of the bad spanish at the dinner table at home, when we'd say pass the burro per favor. That's actually good badly pronounced italian! who knew?

Anyways, I love you all. Please pray for our investigators. Also another named Angelo... that he'll want to meet with us... and Marinella the same. Thanks.
Vi Amo!
Anziano Benjamin Jolley

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