Some Wins, some fails, some postponing

From: Benjamin Jolley
Date: Wed, Aug 31, 2011 at 2:40 AM
Subject: Some Wins, some fails, some postponing

Dear family,

 

We've had a crazy week. Once again. Things are happening here in Reggio. When our Bishop got back in town, we told him we have five baptisms coming up, the sisters need an apartment and he was just taken aback. He joked that he should stay on vacation longer. Also he invited us to Bishopric meeting so that we can bring him up to speed on what we are doing. I'm pleased.

 

Thursday, we went to Kobe's with Paul Martin, and when I asked him if he'd prayed about the Book of Mormon he said "well, I haven't seen an angel yet." "But I feel inside of me that it is true." He is so cool. We then rushed to Budrio where we ate lunch with Marco, and while we ate his friend Antonio showed up. We started to teach Antonio, and he was super cool. I feel like he's not becoming an investigator solely because we don't currently have time to teach him. Maybe in a month's time? Then we taught Sasha about the Word of Wisdom. He's not currently keeping it, and it's his biggest obstacle to baptism in my opinion. Pray that he'll be able to stop smoking and drinking and such, please.

 

 

Friday, we planned and we went and taught Paul about the Word of Wisdom, and he's been obeying it since the sisters taught it to him. Then we went and talked to Shafkri, a pakistani who called us the day before wanting to meet. He has read the entire Book of Mormon in Urdu (his language), and wants to learn more. He doesn't speak very good Italian so it's hard to understand what he wants.

 

Saturday, we did some area book work and found about 30 records to give to the sisters. Hopefully that will help them to get a teaching pool again. (since they gave us practically all their investigators). That afternoon, we taught Paul about keeping the sabbath day holy and determined that he has trouble reading. Then we taught Pacomeo the plan of Salvation, and he is just solid. That evening we went to Parma and taught Perla and Gabriella a short lesson on Prayer and scripture study.

 

Sunday, Sasha, Salome, Opare, and Pacome all showed up in church. We had gospel principles about work and personal responsibility, an interesting topic since half of our investigators are looking for work. Sacrament meeting the talks were about all of the major commandments. It was interesting. The bishop gave an excellent talk about tithing. In the afternoon, we went and taught Abraham, who had taught Sunday School in his church that morning about "how to be great in this world". His church is sort of all about money, and he doesn't like that, so he taught about Shadrach Meshach and Abed-nego being great because they kept God's commandments. His pastor didn't like that. He'll be coming to our church next week. Then we went and did a lot of finding work, determined to teach 2 more lessons to round off 20 in the week. So we went and taught some people on park benches. One of them was actually a cool guy. Kwame just moved here from Ghana, but he's lived in Columbus, Ohio for a large part of his life. So he knew a lot about America and that Mitt Romney was a member of our church. It was cool. That evening, just before I called our district for numbers, a man named Bartolome, who I couldn't remember for the life of me called and said that he liked what we had said and wants to be a member of our church. "I will be in church next week. I am already a member of your church." So.. that was cool.

 

Monday, we went to the church to teach Sasha about tithing, and he said that it is a good commandment and he will keep it. Then he stayed for district meeting, and called my district out on complaining about their situation. Then I shared ideas about finding work and felt the spirit SUPER strong. Then we taught Sasha during the meeting and he helped us a lot on improving our teaching. We then started a Scambio, and I and Anziano Wilkins taught Pacomeo about Tithing, he's ok with it, then Paul about the plan of salvation, and he had a question about chastity. So we talked about it. Then we went and did some finding work and taught Issac the man from Burkina Faso, Vincent, a Ghanian, Bright, who is a "Fasting man", then Godfrey stopped us. Godfrey is a man that has been taught about 100 times by the missionaries. His teaching record is 6 pages long. So I sorta just held a baptismal interview as we walked "Godfrey, have you ever commited a crime?" "Yes. I was in prison for 4 years. But now I'm free and I don't want to do that stuff anymore" "Godfrey will you be baptised?" "If God wants me to change my life and will help me, yes." Yes, we now have 6 investigators with a baptismal date. Godfrey is from Nigeria, FYI. He was taught by my old District Leader, Anziano Shill. Then we went and talked to some people in another park among whom was Dominic, the Polish man. He is a cool guy. He doesn't want to be rich, just wants to live well with his family. And maybe quit smoking. So if we see him around we'll see if he wants to quit.

 

Tuesday morning, we went to Kobe's, and we moved his baptismal date, because he didn't come to church on Sunday. He will be baptised instead the 10th of september. We read with him 3 Nephi 11, and he wanted us to clear up about the Godhead. So we did. Then we riscambioed, and we taught Paul about the rest of the Plan of Salvation, then Pacomeo about the Law of Chastity, which he liked a lot. He obeys it. He wants to know about the Word of Wisdom, though. We'll teach that tomorrow. Then we rushed to teach Sasha, who we also taught the Law of Chastity. He will continue to obey it. We also read 1 Nephi 11 with him, which is his girlfriend's favorite story.

 

Today we'll meet with our Bishopric, and probably go on a bike ride. Not in that order. I love you!

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