Fwd: Week of some sweet stuff

From: Benjamin Jolley
Date: Wed, Jun 1, 2011 at 3:35 AM
Subject: Week of some sweet stuff

So... this week, we did the following. Thursday, we went to the hospital and found Tony Eucera, the hondurasian man that we met previously, and we taught him a short lesson with his daughter. We prayed with them, and he commited to coming to church. Then we went and we taught the Di Cosimo family, who we taught a short lesson on the restoration and organized the baptism. I don't think they remembered anything about the restoration, except the broken chocolate bar.

 

Friday, we did some finding work and taught a man named Renzo Tonucci, who had begun reading the Book of Mormon. He explained to us that he has no intention of changing religions, but was willing to talk anyways. He explained his story of how he was communist earlier in his life, and then accepted Jesus again in his later years, and was now reading everything he could about the savior. Cool. He was interested to read more in the Book of Mormon.

 

Saturday, we went and taught Albert, our new convert, practicing with him what to say to his friends when they ask him the classic "What's the difference between your church and my church?" I decided to do that with all of our members during weekly planning, and the experiences that have come as a result lead me to believe that it was straight revelation. He had never thought about how he could respond to his friends and coworkers questions before, and so he was happy to think about it. Then we set up the baptismal font, and ate lunch, then we taught Manuel shortly reading 3 Nephi 11 with him. Then we had the baptism which was pretty cool. Manuel was there.

 

Sunday, we went to church, to which Tony Eucera showed up for the last two hours. This gave us the opportunity to teach him the first lesson, and then he enjoyed sacrament meeting and got to know our members. After church, we went and taught Liz, with one of our members who totally stole the teaching out of our hands. oh well. It happens. It wasn't really the best lesson. Then we went and taught our Ward Mission Leader and his family about the same "how to answer questions from friends," and in the end of the lesson, our relief society president expressed exasperation and frustration at the fact that we are so few here in Pesaro, and I had the opportunity to bear testimony to her that if she keeps praying, they will have the opportunity to see the church grow. This very obviously touched her, as she started crying. We left literally 30 seconds later. That was intense.

 

Monday, my companion dubbed "Miracle Day". In the morning, we decided to go and find one of our less actives, teach him a lesson, place a Book of Mormon, and find a contact. That is exactly what happened. Which is amazing, because we'd tried to find that member before, and he wasn't at home, ever. He told us he didn't have a Book of Mormon at his home, since he was in the process of moving. So we gave him one. Then we knocked on another of our less actives, who claims to be Buddhist, and taught her non-member son an interesting lesson. Then in the evening, we continued to find people. It was sweet.

 

Yesterday, we went to Leadership Training. This was a very good meeting, but the more interesting parts are the people we talked to on the trains. I love my district, because when we travel together, we talk to people on the train. And we do a good job of it, too. We first talked to a man who talked very softly, about various things, till he looked at our nametags and said "Why Latter-day Saints?" when we explained and proceeded to give him a Book of Mormon. Then we talked to a lady who was very interested, but told us frankly that she wouldn't read the Book of Mormon. Then on the ride back, we talked to a Ghanan named Ben, who told us he'd love to read the English Book of Mormon that we gave him, and also would love to talk to our friends in Modena.

 

Today, we'll be doing a nice little P-day, and then we'll teach the member that went rogue on us how to talk to his friends and also how to act in lessons with us.

 

Much love,

Elder Jolley

 

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