Week

From: Benjamin Jolley
Date: Wed, Jun 15, 2011 at 3:44 AM
Subject: Week

So this week was awesome. We taught lots of lessons, and it was just good. My companion is a genius. Wednesday, we taught Sorella Nardini a sweet lesson about member missionary. She told us that it was exactly what she needed. So that was sweet. Then we went and taught Claudio Marengo and his wife Lucia. They were super open and Claudio really wants to know what church is true. He recently had a lot of time to think while he was in prison, so it's pretty cool to teach him now.

Thursday, we had a sweet district meeting and then a scambio. Three of our four appointments fell through, but we still had the opportunity to go and do some finding work and have a very spiritual experience of doing so. It was probably one of the coolest experiences finding I've had, even if no one gave us a return appointment. We talked to this lady who's separated from her husband at her door for about 20 minutes about prayer and the purpose of life, just bearing awesome testimony to her. She started crying and the spirit was amazing. Then we taught some young girls in a baseball field about Joseph Smith. They listened super intently and seemed super interested, but I wasn't sure whether to try to get another appointment with them because they were 14. But they seemed super interested. Hopefully we meet them again with their parents.

Friday, we riscambioed and then taught Teresa Santoro, a super less active member. She claims to be catholic and mormon and I dunno... it's a weird situation. Then we went and taught Renzo, reading 3 Nephi 11 with him. He was saying "I returned to the catholic church recently, but now I'm seeing that there are problems with it and that your church is more true. But I can't come to church yet." Then we went and did some finding work.

Saturday, we planned, then taught Fratello Marengo about missionary work, then we found Albert on the street after he'd cancelled our appointment, and we taught him a short lesson. Then we went and taught Claudio and Lucia again, this time about the Book of Mormon, and Claudio prayed.

Sunday, we had church and only Livia our dry member grandma type person came of all our investigators. Then we went out to this area where we knew an inactive member lived, and we found him, taught him, and taught a man in his palazzo, and then taught a really old man ( 97). They gave us return appointments.

Monday we had Zone Conference. It was awesome. Then on the ride back to the train station, I started talking to the nearest person. His name is Umberto, he's in his 20's and he was covered with tattoos, and wore earrings with skulls on him. Last person you'd expect to accept the gospel, right? So I ask him "Have you ever had an experience that made you think there's a God?" He explained that one time he was scuba diving near the island of Elba, and he had gotten separated from his group. He was in the middle of two bits of land and he was out of energy. He was expecting to die there. Then something happened and he was able to swim to shore. He believes that God helped him. Then we talked a little more and we gave him a Book of Mormon, and got his phone number and address and gave his contact information to the missionaries there.

Tuesday, we decided to go to this area where there's another inactive. We found her and then did finding work in her area. We found Michael and Mensen and their son. They are Nigerian and awesome. They're now investigators. That afternoon, we very quickly taught Oscar Ridolfi, and then went to the church where we taught Viola with Sorella Falchi, watching the "Restoration". Then we taught English and taught Claudio and Lucia again. They committed to read and pray every day. Then I woke up this morning at 8:20 because the alarm didn't go off. And now I'm writing this email. I love you.

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