Scioperi and Andrews

From: Benjamin Jolley
Date: Wed, Jul 27, 2011 at 3:38 AM
Subject: Scioperi and Andrews
This week has been interesting. Wednesday, we taught Ernest, our investigator, for the first time in a week, and then we didn't see him again for a long while. He understood that he must be baptized again to join this church, but he does not want to fix a date. Also, he doesn't give us much time to meet with him, which is frustrating. Then we had Ward Council, and we taught one of our members. She told us that she was born a member. That's pretty rare in Italy, especially among somewhat older members. Apparently her mother was baptized while she was in the womb, so she's been baptized... twice.... Then we went and taught Judi, a nice Peruvian man. My companion struggles with the spantalian that south americans speak. After Pesaro, I understand it just fine. He was busy, so we quickly got to know him and said a prayer, then left.

 

Thursday, we had a bunch of appointments, which all fell through because of a sciopero on the trains. We had to leave for Modena early because the trains had a strike (sciopero). It was a disappointing day. Then we got up around 4:30 AM to go to Verona for interviews and training. We talked about planning better, and being more sincere in our teaching. I have been impressed many times this past week with the concept of sharing my feelings about the gospel more than just the gospel. My teaching for my entire mission has consisted in sorta dumping information into my investigators, rather than sharing with them how I feel about the information I'm sharing. I feel deep in my heart that the gospel in true. It fills me with joy. I love it.

 

Saturday, we did a little bit of area book, and got an appointment with a super cool looking ex investigator named Roberto. Then we went to our WML's house, to teach him a short lesson and to give him a blessing. A few days before, he had gotten into an accident at work, where a train type thing ran over his foot and cut him pretty bad. Fortunately, he was wearing steel-toed boots or he would have no toes. That evening, we passed by Franco, and taught him a short lesson, and then we taught Salome as well. We called many people for church, and no one responded. That was frightening.

 

The next morning, we called Andrews, our less active, and his phone was off. So we went to his house, knocked on his door around 8:40 AM, and his roommates let us in. We knocked on his bedroom door till he woke up, and then told him to get ready for church. We waited for him, and drove with him to church around 9:15 AM, and he came to church for the first time in about a year. The members, including most of his siblings, were very pleased to see him. Unfortunately, none of our investigators came to church. But he came. We went back to his house that evening, taught him a short lesson, and he told us about a friend of his named Hope. We're hoping to get Hope as a referral now.

 

Monday, we had a good district meeting about following your heart in teaching, asking questions inspired from heaven to dig deep into the person's concern. Then we went and passed by two members, one of which had an address for c/o Rugby Reggio, so we asked them if they knew him, and it turns out that he's in Australia, and they'll get us his new address and phone number when we go back tomorrow. This reminds me to mention that this transfer, one of our goals has been to meet every member on the ward list that is possibly contactable. We have now been to every member house inside of the city. It's incredible how many people don't live at those addresses. Having an up-to-date ward list is an incredibly important thing. I remember 3 transfers ago in Pesaro the District President telling us that we needed to update the ward list, because if these people don't live here anymore they are like a sheep without a shepherd. That man in Australia is a member, but his bishop doesn't know that he exists. We'll try to get his information to that bishop ASAP, so that that sheep can have water. Anyway, we taught a man named Nima, from Persia, who claims Bahai as his religion. I've never heard of it. He has a Book of Mormon, and he speaks English. Then we went back to Judi's, and taught him a short restoration lesson. It was interesting how when we stated "there should only be one true church," he said, "the JW's and everyone else says the same thing. How am I supposed to ever figure it out?"

 

Tuesday, we got super confused by a man who wanted to meet with us, and told us where he was, and when we got there we called him, and he said he couldn't see us, nor could we see him. "I'm at the station, wearing blue jeans and a white shirt". "We're at the station!" This was resolved when we figured out that he was in Modena. That afternoon we taught a very strange character, named Augustine, who for some reason recorded on his cell phone the entire lesson. That was weird. That evening, we taught another strange character, Spalanzane, the conspiracy man. It was a distracted lesson, we'll say. "there's no God, he's in our hearts!" ok... will you come to church? "I'd love to!" Confusing?

 

I have a flat tire on my bike, we found this morning. We'll see what we can do about that. I love you tons.

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