Christmas and such

Anziano Benjamin Jolley
Via V. Monti, 3
23870 Cernusco (LC)
Italy

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, Dec 29, 2010 at 3:11 AM
Subject: Christmas and such

Dear Family,

This week's been an interesting one. On Wednesday night we taught Wassil, an albanian man with his family. after, we started a scambio. That was cool. Thursday, we had like 4 lessons planned, and we were on scambio, all of the lessons fell through, so we did some casa, getting in to 2 old men, Giovanni, and then Vittorio. Giovanni showed us his Nativity set, which was AWESOME. it moved and had lights and music and just... yeah. unfortunately, he wasn't particularly interested in our message, so we said a prayer with him, then he said a padre nostro, and then we left. Vittorio says he believes in prophets and not in God, which was odd, and then didn't want us to come back. bummer. I was on Scambi with Anziano Brown, from southern missouri. He's a cool kid. It was a weird scambio.

Friday, we made a ton of brownies and banana bread and took them to our various investigators, and contacts and neighbors, and then taught Marcel, asking him about his desire to serve a mission, which is there, but very... I dunno. something doesn't fit with what he says to us. He has a desire to be a missionary, but he doesn't come to church. It's... odd. We went to the Pogetti's that night, for whom we had made some banana bread, and we had a nice christmas eve dinner. That night, we went to the Oratorio di San Luigi in Cernusco for midnight mass. It was packed, and interesting. I found the part where they blessed the bread and wine the most interesting. and sorta weird. mostly interesting. before the mass started, we sang all these weird hymns that were accompanied by an organ and an acoustic guitar. That was fun.

Saturday, we chilled around the apartment after sleeping till 9, and then we wrote a couple letters, and then Emmanuele Dallari picked us up to go to his house for lunch. We stayed there till 9. 12 PM till 9. that's a long time. we had lunch with them, then we watched Monster's Inc (called Monster's and co. in Italian.) I then called you , and then I went downstairs to where they were watching "Jesus". My comp was still on the phone, but that movie was... um... perhaps a little more violent than I was expecting. but I liked it. We had dinner with the Dallaris, and then went home.

Sunday, we went to church, where NONE OF OUR INVESTIGATORS SHOWED UP!! NO! So we called them. two of them showed up about 20 minutes before sacrament. We shortly taught them the second lesson in gospel principles, and then went to sacrament meeting. phew. It was then snowing, so we did some finding work in Osnago, finding a guy named Tulio, and a catholic priest named Lorenzo, who speaks english. He likes talking with other faiths, and the missionaries in Milano gave him a Book of Mormon shortly before. He apparently goes to school in the States, though, at Georgetown. He also introduced us to his OTHER catholic priest friend, who lives near como, so I called Anz. Petersen and gave him the referral. His name is Ivan.

Monday, we had district meeting, and then we grabbed a kebap from the delicious ridiculously spicy kebaperia in Lecco. It was quite delicious. we then headed back to Merate. On the train, I thought "I think I'm getting sick." Turns out I was right. But not badly. We taught Manuel, watching The Restoration with him, but in Black and White because the connection to his TV is bad. That was different. We went down to Carnate, where we looked for Luli, who wasn't at home... and didn't give us his phone number. bummer. We came back to Merate, and taught the Muçe family part of the plan of Salvation with Valerio Dallari, who helped a lot.

Tuesday, we taught Sebastiano, who is a way cool guy. He had all sorts of questions about the fall, and just... reads the scriptures really well. I love that man. After that, I started to get a little sicker, so we went in, and I slept the rest of the day. Just so you know, my illness is just a minor cold that mostly just gives me a headache and is annoying, more than an illness that actually is threatening. It's just really hard to smile and be happy when you have a bad headache. and people don't listen to a message about happiness from people that aren't happy. I'm thinking I should be all the way better by tomorrow.

This morning, I broke the key to the outside gate of our palazzo. in the lock. because it was frozen. managia. I love you!

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Transfers again? Already?

Date: Wed, Dec 1, 2010 at 2:27 AM

Subject: Transfers again? Already?

My dear family,
I'm doing quite well in all aspects. The work here is picking up
again, and as always when that happens, someone got transferred.
Anziano Clove is headed to Biella, in my old district. Anziano Millar,
who's currently in my district is headed to Vercelli. And I'm getting
a new companion. I'm apparently the senior companion now. hmm... that
should be... interesting. In other exciting news, my new Zone Leader
is Anziano Petersen! This'll be the first time I see him since May. I
can't remember my companion's name... ballet, dallet, something like
that. I'll tell you next week.

This week has been an interesting one. since I forgot to bring my
planner, it may be a little less detailed of an email. Last wednesday,
our bishop gave us the job of meeting every member that he doesn't
know, and finding out their stance toward the church, as hostile,
indifferent, or willing to meet with him. So we proceeded to attempt
this task. Unfortunately, half of them live in areas that we cannot
get to without a car. Trains to those areas simply don't exist. oh
well.

Thursday, we taught one of our less actives, Marcel and his sister
Giordana. She had some rather... odd questions about several things
that led us to decide that she doesn't really have a testimony. This
conclusion came from the fact that she doesn't understand commandments
that breaking doesn't have an obvious affect on others. As we
listened, her brother fell asleep. That was pretty funny. So.. we'll
be trying to help both of them develop a testimony, probably starting
from the beginning of the missionary lessons. Should be an interesting
experience.

Friday, we did some whiteboard survey, asking another question.
Apparently people believe that Jesus is the Savior of the world, but
aren't so sure that God exists... how that works, I'm not entirely
certain. oh well. That evening, we tried to contact a few of the
inactive members the bishop gave us, and then we went to the Pogetti
family, who we taught about missionary work.

Saturday, we had an appointment with Manuel and Ingrid, to which we
were going to bring the Carcelen family. We went to the carcelen's,
and it turned out that Manuel and Ingrid had gone to visit their
children in San Remo for a week or so... oh well. We did some strada
for a bit that evening.

Sunday, after church, we ate lunch with Ken, our new Convert, and then
we taught him about several of his questions. We were going to go to
an appointment with him to Tina, another Nigerian, but she was in
Milano for church still. So we rescheduled for Monday. We then did
some finding work, during which I found that Anziano Clove was
discouraged and down, and I tried to help him out of it. It sorta
worked. As I was doing so, Ken called, telling us he had scheduled an
appointment for Monday with Tina. That cheered me up a lot.

Monday, we taught Tina, with Ken. Tina was very open to our message,
but she kinda had trouble understanding me an Anziano Clove, because
we speak American, and she speaks African. Ken was able to translate
for us, thankfully. He also invited her to church. She then asked if
she could feed us. I didn't want to, because we had an appointment
shortly thereafter, but apparently Ken had asked her to cook something
for us. So we ate her food. I hate being fed on the first appointment.
Then they think they have to feed us every time. I hate that. Anyways,
after that, we had district meeting with Lecco, and then we did a
scambio, me going to Lecco with Anziano Millar. We did some
interesting finding work, and since he doesn't sleep well, neither did
I. Also, they live right next to a bell tower that rings every hour.
That's annoying when it's 4 AM and you're trying to sleep. oh well. It
was a fun scambio. We came back to Merate, after being delayed by
several trains being cancelled due to snow, and then Anziano Clove and
I went to Paola's for dinner, as always. We got transfer calls, and
Anziano Clove started packing.

This morning, it was snowing pretty hard. and it hasn't stopped.
There's a good inch or two on the ground now.

I love you all!
Anziano Jolley


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well, improvement is improvement.

Anziano Benjamin Jolley
Italy Milan Mission
Via A. Gramsci,13
20090 Opera (MI)
Italia

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, Nov 24, 2010 at 7:24 AM
Subject: well, improvement is improvement.

Dear family,

This week has so far been my best week in Merate so far as numbers are
concerned. It's still worse than any other place I've served in that
respect, but... improvement is improvement.

Last wednesday, we had a rather different Ward Council meeting.
Instead of having a normal Ward Council where we discuss all sorts of
things, our bishop (who was made bishop when I got here) decided that
we needed training on how we do Ward Council, and why. It was quite
refreshing. Apparently, we have local church leaders to do what
Captain Moroni did in Alma 43:48, to inspire us to do better. That was
very different. I like this bishop.

Thursday, we tried a new method of finding that we got in a packet
about how to improve teaching and finding. The idea was to use a
whiteboard on the street. So we did. We wrote a question of the soul,
"Is there a life after death?" with "Yes" and "No" written underneath.
we then asked people what they thought. If they looked in the
slightest interested, we'd then talk a little more with them. in
short, our results were 30 yes, 20 no, and about 20 I don't knows or
not interesteds. Also, we got one lady that responded "My husband just
died. Now's not the right time to ask that question". That was a
rather unexpected response. We later ate lunch with Giuseppe, a
widower of about 75 years who is one of the first members here. He's
been more or less less-active since his wife died, though his entire
posterity of about 30-40 are members, most of which are active. He's a
cool guy, and very interested in astronomy, so when I told him grandpa
was an astrophysicist, he was very interested. Later that day, we
taught Marcel and his sister, Giordana. He's 19, and wants to go on a
mission, but for some reason is still less-active. She had some
strange questions about some words and how they relate. It was odd. We
then taught Yusuf, a Moroccan, who was interested in having a book in
arabic. We'll give him a book of Mormon in arabic next time we see
him.

Friday, we did another whiteboard survey, this time "Is there a God?"
we got very different results. 37 yes, 7 no, and 41 not interested or
in a hurry. We think the 41 people weren't sure or didn't want to say
no. That was very interesting. That evening, we taught Manuel and his
wife Ingrid for the first time. They're ecuadorians who met the
missionaries about a year ago in San Remo, which is near Genova. We
tried something I'd never thought to try before, to offer a kneeling
prayer at the end of the lesson, and since we'd never taught them
before, it wasn't awkward. One of the important concepts we're
spending a lot of time and effort on is how to begin teaching. The
concept is that the first 5-10 minutes with an investigator in their
home set the tone in a very real way for the rest of the time we teach
them. so I've tried to improve the way I do so using the suggestions
in Preach My Gospel chapter 10. It makes a difference. a big
difference.

On Saturday, it rained. a lot. and sunday. and monday. We spent a lot
of time stopping people on the streets, that's how I know. a lot of
people were really open... until we wanted their phone number, which
they wouldn't give us. bummer. oh well. That evening, we had a ward
party, involving a lot of meatballs. And logic games. I won the logic
game. and therefore a lot of meatballs. It was delicious.

Sunday, I had another really good day in church. It's amazing the
difference taking notes seems to make. I learned a lot. we then did
some casa and some street. After a while, I asked Anziano Clove to
recount to me the entirety of the Star Wars trilogies. It was amusing.
He has seen those movies too many times. We got in doing casa to a man
from buga ne faso (sp?) a country near the Ivory Coast. He was muslim
and wouldn't let us pray or come back, but he did tell us where two
nigerian Christians live, who we'll be teaching tomorrow, I think.
that was nice of him. We also did some area book work, finding a few
people to recontact. one of them gave us an appointment for saturday,
and we'll do another pass-by probably tomorrow. so... that was good.

Monday, I exercised fully 30 minutes, for the first time in a long
time. normally I do 10-20 minutes in the morning. I've been sore
yesterday and today because of it. oh well. We taught Ousman, a
sengalese man who was interested in the Book of Mormon as well. He
brought his friend who doesn't really speak Italian as well. Also, he
was unfortunately a little inebriated, so I'm not sure how much he got
out of the lesson. oh well. We did a lot more strada that day.

Yesterday, we had another "Leadership Training Meeting", where we went
over all 8 of the "Fundamental Principles" that the 12 recently
released, which are 8 priniciples designed to help missionaries learn
better how to teach. They are as follows:
The Doctrine of Christ -The Missionary Purpose
The Role of the Holy Ghost
Revelation through Prayer
Revelation through the Book of Mormon
Revelation through Church Attendance
Teach People, Not Lessons
We Invite, They Commit, We Follow Up
How to Begin Teaching

These 8 points each have an 8.5x11" page of scripture and Preach My
Gospel references and questions connected with them. Very simple. Very
effective, when applied. Mostly things I didn't do before. It's pretty
cool.

That evening we ate dinner with Paola, during which I was tired and
distracted. There was an interesting discussion of Hindi religion,
which I could've taken advantage of to bend towards a discussion of
the gospel, had I been less distracted. 6.5 hours of your mission
president teaching you and you focusing a lot are... exhausting. Oh
well. I'll do better the next time.

Today, Anziano Clove got a haircut. I thought about it, but 15 euro
seemed WAY too expensive.

I love you!
Anziano Jolley


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Another week gone

Benjamin's new address is: (To answer his request that is at the end of his letter).

Anziano Benjamin Jolley

Via V. Monti, 3

23870 Cernusco (LC)

Italia

For those who want to know how to send packages,

USPS Priority Mail International Packages are recommended with the words "dalla famiglia" at the end of the list of contents. This means that the contents are "from the family" rather than having been purchased via mail order to prevent problems with customs. The Italian gov't often charges an import fee of 25% or more of the value of the package. Candy and food items are generally fine, except jerky. I have had a package returned but couldn't figure out why except I didn't list the contents and they said the address wasn't an address--I sent it to his current address. ( May Ensign, recipes, photos of his new niece)( ?)

Packages need to be sent to the mission office:

Anziano Benjamin Dean Jolley

Missione Italiana di Milano

Via A. Gramsci 13/4

20090 Opera (MI)

Italy

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, Nov 10, 2010 at 2:24 AM
Subject: Another week gone

Dear family,

I'm still here in Merate, and I'm a little more content about my
situation. I have had an interesting week. On Thursday, we did some
finding work, and then we taught a less active 19yo named Marcel, who
we're trying to get out on a mission. He's a good kid. Really likes
his Xbox, though... we'll see what happens with him. We also taught
English class, which was a lot of fun, because there's an interesting
mix of different students with different ability, and they're all
related. It's interesting.

Friday, we went to Lecco, where we had lunch, and then I did a scambio
with Anziano Malku, a missionary from Albania. We taught a member
family, a cameroonese named alexis, and a part member family. We
taught Moses, and Faith, Ruth and Godwin. That's the part member
family. They're from Nigeria. Ruth and Godwin were baptised in the
past 2 months, and Faith got baptised on Sunday. Moses should be
baptised at the end of the month.

Saturday, Anziano Malku and I did some casa in Lecco, and met a 85yo
man who let us into his house, spoke to us in dialect, which was hard
enough to understand, on top of the fact that he had no teeth. He told
us to leave when we asked if we could say a prayer. huh. odd. That
afternoon, we had Anziano Malku's 21st birthday party of eating Indian
food at a kebap restaurant. Anz. Clove and I then went to teach Jules,
one of our investigators. That was a really good lesson. We started
teaching the plan of Salvation, and then I asked him a question like
"why are we here on the earth?" he then recounted the story of the
creation, the fall, the atonement, and then his story in search of the
true gospel. He studied with the Jehovah's Witnesses, but when he saw
the conduct of the members that were teaching him, he decided not to
be baptised into their church. His mother is muslim, but told him to
keep searching for the true path, which she was never able to find. I
then bore testimony that his understanding of the fall and atonement
were good, and we said a prayer. I love asking questions like that.
That evening, we went to the Pogetti family, who fed us some rather
delicious eggplant/cheese dish, after we talked with them about
enduring to the end and ETB's Beware of Pride. It was a good lesson.

On Sunday, we had Stake Conference in Milano, which was good. Our
Mission mom, Sorella Wolfgramm's italian is improving! She spoke,
among other people. After the conference, we went to Lecco with one of
their members, had lunch, and then went to Faith's baptism in Como.
When we got back to Lecco, we found that the next train back to Merate
wasn't for 3 hours. So we were stuck there all day. oh well.

On Monday, we had a lunch with Giuseppe Nicotra, an old man who
recently has gone less active. He's very interested in Astronomy. It
was a very interesting appointment. He really likes SOHO, for those
that know what it is. That afternoon, we taught Gaetano, who is a new
convert who likes motorcycles. He's a good guy. We then did some
finding work, getting two phone numbers, but both of them were muslim.
We'll see if they develop. Mostly I try to leave muslims alone, but
when you have 2 investigators... you're grateful for what you get.

Tuesday, we went out for a giro (a walk?) and we met a man from Ghana,
to whom I gave a first lesson pamphlet. We then had district meeting,
after which my companion got sick, so we stayed in till 7:30 PM, when
we had an appointment with Paola for dinner. Those dinner appointments
are interesting. We teach them sneakily, by sort of directing the
conversation towards gospel subjects as we eat. I ate a peperoncino
during the meal. Those are really hot. (They're the tiny red hot
peppers. I don't remember the name in english).

I love you. I have a request for you all. I would appreciate it if you
would send me your testimony of going to church on Sunday, what
blessings you see from it, etc. Thank you.


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transfers

Date: Wed, Nov 3, 2010 at 4:10 AM

Subject: transfers

Dear family,

I just spent an hour writing an email that I was about to finish, but
because the computers here are old, it didn't save draft and I
randomly signed out. So... you're going to get a less exciting and
detailed version of my week.

First of all, Merate is tiny. It's got about 10,000 people in it. and
no palazzi. My companion is Anziano Clove. My mailing adress is

Anziano Benjamin Jolley
Via V. Monti, 3
23870 Cernusco (LC)
Italia

Wednesday evening, I taught Iro, who read all the way to Alma 9. He's
probably finished the Book of Mormon by now. We talked about the Plan
of Salvation. We then did some casa and found a lovely family of 4,
who told us we could come back. Then we went home, did planning, and
then I got a call from Anziano Bona in Alessandria, who asked if I was
being transferred. I said no. I then got a call from the zone leaders
telling me I was transferred and I had until the next noon to pack up.
So I packed, did my laundry, and was in bed by midnight.

Thursday, we sent off that email to y'all, and then we finished my
packing, did a short giro of Vercelli, and went to the station. On the
train, I talked to a man and got his number, which I forwarded to the
missionaries in Udine, where he lives. We then found out that we were
in Milano 2 hours early. oops. Eventually, after getting mcdonalds,
our companions showed up and we went off to our cities. I'm taking
Anziano Bolnick's place here in Merate, and he's taking Anziano
Baxter's in Pavia whose taking mine in Vercelli. odd. oh well. Anziano
Clove and I went to Merate, I unpacked, ate a little dinner, and then
we did a giro of the town, It is tiny, and then we knocked the two
palazzi in town that have more than 3 stories. we got in once, to a
man named Manuel.

Friday, we did a giro of the town, then we planned, and then we ate
lunch with the remnants of our food supply. While I spent a large
amount of money on shopping on P day, Anziano Bolnick bought a loaf of
bread. so... we were out of food on Sunday. We then went to Lecco,
where the missionaries have prepared a girl named Faith for baptism.
We got there several hours early because we didn't look at the time
properly, and then we left late for the same reason. We got back to
Merate around 7 PM, where we did a bit of strada, encountering 2
people in a half hour. The city is kinda small.

Saturday, we taught one of our 2 investigators, Elisa and Jules. We
taught Elisa about baptism, and how she needs to be a little more
comitted and actually come to church. We then went home, had lunch,
and went to Carnate, a small city nearby, where we knocked every door
in the city, followed by a dinner appointment in the city with the
Pogetti family, a lovely member family of a married couple about the
age of my mom and dad. woot.

Sunday, I had a particularly good block, where I felt the spirit
stronger than I have in a long time. I learned a lot. We then had
lunch with the last of our food, and then we went to Osnago, another
small city nearby, where we knocked a few doors, and then we realized
it was Halloween, because we saw trick or treaters and a few people
answered the door with candy in hand. We didn't get any though. oh
well.

Monday, we had district meeting, which was a little more different
than I'm used too. Anziano Clove is a different kind of District
Leader. We read Moses 7 and discussed. We then ate lunch with the
Lecco Anziani, (we had to go buy some) and then we did a bit of casa
in a nearby city called Robbiate. It was raining hard, though, so we
were a little discouraged and wet, and Robbiate is even smaller than
we thought, so I suggested we try supermarket finding work. We tried.
I felt super awkward, and wasn't very successful because my companion
just was standing nearby more awkwardly. But I think the concept has
potential. That's how we spent the entire day. It was rather
ineffective. The city is so small that I often feel I'm wasting time
just being here.

Tuesday, we did some errands, and then we ate lunch and then we went
to Villasanta, a city too far away, and we did some strada. This
strada was also ineffective. We then got on a train to come back, and
we talked to a nice pair of Albanians who were interested and we got
their numbers. We then went to Paola's house, a nice ex-english
student who has fed the missionaries for forever, but knows
surprisingly little about the gospel and is definitely not baptised.

This morning, we came out here to the library, where the computers are
old and can't use normal gmail, hence my draft wasn't saved. grumble.

I love you all. Please pray for me to have a good mood about this
city. on Monday as we walked through the rain, I went on a rather
self-destructive thought pattern that was rather unhealthy. I wasn't
particularly happy. I'm feeling ok now, though.

Anziano Benjamin Jolley


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happiness

Date: Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 4:21 AM

Subject: happiness

Dear Family of mine,

I love getting emails from you. they make me very happy. thank you. This week has been a good one, more or less. I've decided to take a different approach to my work than I have previously. I've decided to focus more on the things I can control, like what time I wake up, whether I read the book of Mormon at night, what I study, how I study, doing the dishes, writing in my journal. It makes me much more peaceful about everything that happens, and I seem to have more energy and drive to do our work when I do. I've been apparently very stressed, or at least my body seems to think so, because every so often I have these weird spasms of weird muscles I didn't even know existed. So I talked to the mission mom, and she told me to relax a little more. I've decided that approaching life more towards things I can control is a better approach. so... yeah. good times.

Last wednesday, we acquired Anziano Jones's bike from a nigerian man who possibly stole it. we're not sure. but... we bought it anyways. after a few days of use, one of the pedals fell off because the screw that holds it was totally stripped. oops! oh well. We'll have to fix that, I guess. Thursday morning, we acquired a pump and an adapter for said pump so that we could fill the tires of aforementioned bike. That afternoon, we taught a man named Luigi again. He seemed to like what we were teaching, but at the end he said come back in a month. I pushed for early the next week, and he accepted, but when I called to confirm, he said that we shouldn't come back. (being too pushy with 90 yo men... maybe a bad idea). That night, we taught English (we moved it at the request of our YSAs to thursday) where we had a new student in our basic class, and our conversational class seems to be interested in the gospel. They may become investigators soon. (success!)

Friday, we did our weekly planning, talking about how we want the area to be at the end of the transfer, or when Anziano Jones goes home (I think I'll send him home... maybe). We decided that 3 of our investigators could be baptized at the end of that period, along with fulfilling a dream of Anziano Jones's which is to find a family and baptize them. So.. inside of 3 months, we want to see 5 baptisms. I think it's definitely possible. We just need to find the family. That afternoon, we taught Daniele, reading with him out of the Book of Mormon, and commiting him to read it from the beginning to the end. He seems excited to do it. The rest of the right, we did finding work.

Saturday, we helped one of our members get into church and gave him an albanian Book of Mormon for his wife's friend. (investigator?) We then did some more finding work, followed by lunch, followed by going to Novara to teach Edwin again. We taught him about the Law of Chastity. I knew we'd find a kink somewhere along the line. He says it's VERY difficult to follow. So we challenged him to follow it, he said he'd try. é duro, famiglia. duro. We then went out to Candide's where we taught him a short refresher of the 2nd lesson, followed by eating african style with him. Fish in hot sauce, plus Yams flour prepared as a gooey thing the consistency of playdoh, sorta. It was pretty darn good.

Sunday, Maria and Paolo came to church! (we weren't expecting Maria because she was kind of angry with us last week.) In Gospel principles we talked about the Law of Chastity, and the coolest part was seeing Paolo and Eleonora, his wife, just look at each other with this look of love and a knowledge they were keeping it. that was awesome. That evening, we taught Alessandro and his family with Fratello Simoncini (who is awesome). We talked about the restoration again, and the dad commited to read the Book of Mormon for 5 minutes every morning. That was really good. We'll see if they do it. (preghiamo). Monday, we had a good district meeting, where we were more or less called to repentence as a district, because we're really struggling. we talked about baptism and practiced giving the baptismal invite. The rest of the day, we did finding work until the end of the day, when we taught our less active Sonia, inviting her to read the book of Mormon again all the way. and then pray. and pray the whole time she does. She said she would, then she called a member friend of hers telling her she'd do it. (after she left that happened). That's way good, because she needs the strength to her testimony.

Yesterday, we did finding work the whole day, talking to really interesting people, one of which gave us his info to come back. He has a bible with 72 gospels in it, apparently. that's interesting. He said some other interesting (possibly false) stuff too. like the fact that in Cuneo, a small town in our zone, there's a museum with Mormon stuff from 2000 years ago (I think that one is false). We then went to Paolo's house, and taught the rest of the Plan of Salvation, and pulled out our well practiced baptismal invite, and he accepted to be baptized the 27th of november... if he feels ready. Pray that he will, please.

This morning, I had a good day. We did shopping, checked train times, and I'm having a generally happy day. We're going to Verbania again today. It's really pretty. I'm quite excited.
--
Vi Amo!
Anziano Benjamin Jolley

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Buona Continuazione

Date: Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 5:57 AM

Subject: Buona Continuazione

Cara famiglia,

The subject refers to two things. It means good continuation. First, I've heard it 3 times this week from various people. Second, I'm still in Vercelli. Till at least the beginning of December, and possibly till february. I think till february. We got transfer calls, and I'm still with Anziano Jones here. After this, he'll have one more transfer, so I'm guessing I'll finish him off, and then I'll have another companion, then I'll head out of here. however, it's possible I take off in the first week of december. vediamo (we'll see).

In other news, it's getting cold here in Vercelli. I'm wearing my black suit with a sweater. I hope it doesn't get too much colder. speriamo bene.

Last wednesday, we found an older couple, who told us to come back. when we did, they weren't there, though. :(

Thursday, we did baby strada. It was a really refreshingly different experience. baby strada means we walked down the street, stopping all the people with strollers, and gave them a family proclamation. There are more babies in this city than I thought. and they are cute. I'm extremely jealous of my siblings and father and mother right now. with babies that are related to me. oh well. later on that day, we tried to acquire bikes that we found out are either stolen or "fell off the back of a truck". They're a little sketchy, so we didn't buy them. We then taught our peruvian family that I still don't remember their last name. the dad's name is Alessandro... I can give all of their first names. Alessandro, Marcella are the parents, then Sonia and her son Arrian, and her sister Sara. but I don't know their last name. odd. oh well. anyways, we read part of the proclamation to the world on the family with them. they said they'd read it and try to come to church. (they didn't come to church). Also, during the day as we were going to examine the bikes, I handed a pass-along card to a guy who was just staring at my book of mormon. 10 minutes later, as we were examing the bikes, he called back, wanting a book of mormon. so I set up an appointment for the next day. his name is Daniele.

Friday, we wandered the markets doing english class publicity, followed by a lunch with Nick. He came up from Alessandria, and we ate a delicious lunch. We then headed to Novara, then to Romentino, a little town on the outskirts, where Daniele lives. He is cameroonese, is about 27, speaks french natively, lives with his girlfriend and they have a son of 1 year. He's hit some really hard times recently, so he's about to move to novara to live with a friend. He is a soccer player who used to play for inter-milano, one of the best teams, and now he has no work and no team. His grandpa, after whom he was named, was a pastor who taught him a love for the word of God, which is why he called us. It was way cool. I love miracles.

Later on that day, we went to Paolo Manenti's house, where we taught him and his wife (member) about the plan of Salvation, which they had just talked about in Institute the night before. So... he understood well. He reads REALLY fast. He read out loud all of 2 Ne 2, and we taught and he talked in a half hour appointment. It was awesome. He's awesome. Unfortunately, he couldn't come to church because of various logistical problems. bummer. oh well. We taught Candide later on, about the family proclamation, and he showed us his new computer. It's pretty nice, but he can't get the internet to work, so he wants me to come over and look at it... (I think that's ok). He's awesome.

Saturday, we got in twice doing casa, the first 2 times we've gotten in doing casa in about a month. It's a really good feeling, and a really good lift to my attitude towards missionary work. Every time we get in though, I always wonder "Why did you let me in? would I let me in if I knocked on my door?" It's an interesting thought. Anyways, the first one was a couple that have been married for 3 weeks. They got back from the honeymoon that monday, and usually work different shifts than each other, so it was a miracle that we found both of them and got in. They invited us to come back this saturday. The husband's name is Davide. We then had lunch, then taught Edwin, our house-arrest nigerian friend about tithing. We brought a member, named Favor, who is also nigerian and they apparently have met. So... that was cool. He said he'd pay it when he's free and starts coming to church. after that, on the way to the train station, I talked to Favor about pidgin english and why his name is favor. His name is Favor because he's always willing to do you a favor, and one of his friends called him that in the UK when he lived there. He explained to me a few phrases in Pidgin. I felt about 3 shades darker in skin color after having learned them. for example: Howfa?= how are you? I day fine =I'm fine. Where you day? I day house= where are you? I'm at home. It's really interesting. I'm also working on my french now. I know how to say how are you? in about 12 languages now. Italian, english, pidgin, Benin, Romanian, Albanian, French, Russian, Arabic, Spanish, and a few more. There are a lot of immigrants in Italy from all over the place. Anyways, later on that day, we got into a young guy of about 23 doing casa.

Sunday, we had no investigators in church and our gospel principles class consisted of 4 missionaries, Candide, Favor and Uyi, two less active nigerians, and John a nigerian from Biella. So it was 4 white missionaries and 4 africans. That was fun. We talked about temples because....... the Rome Temple groundbreaking is next saturday!!!!!!!!! They got permission to start it! AND, the Catholic church is opening its archives to our members so that they can do family history work. WOOT! It's exciting. After church, I did a scambio with Anziano Shill, and we did casa in Vercelli, getting in twice in less than an hour, seeing an incredible amount of awesome using the new way of teaching. We got into this 90 year old man named Luigi, and he told us that he doesn't feel that repeating the same words over and over is really praying. So... we very quickly explained our way of praying, which he was very excited about. We then said a prayer with him, and set a return appointment for thursday. He's a cool guy. We then got into a guy named Noel, from Santo Domingo, who has been married for about a year, and that day he had an argument with her, and we explained to him that the message we bring would help him have happiness and unity in his marriage and then we set up a return appointment. He's awesome. When we asked if there was anything we could do for him, he said bring me happiness. That was cool. We then went to our Stake President's house, because he invited us, and it turned out to be the YSA FHE, which we thought we weren't supposed to be at. As we tried to leave, the YSA's were just like "just call your mission president to see if you can stay another hour"..... not ok. so not ok. anyways, as we drove to the train station with President Bellomo, he explained to us that we were supposed to be there, because our GANS (Giovani Adulti non sposati=YSA) need to know who we are, and need to have push to give us their friends as referrals. That would have been good to know before we got there. oh well. We know now.

Monday, we had District Meeting, which was cool. We read and discussed "the fellowship of the unashamed", as well as our investigators. We did casa that afternoon and got in to a really interesting man, named Francesco, who is atheist, holds us in really high respect, higher than any other kind of missionaries, and hopes that when the judgement comes, he'll be able to say something to God too. It was an interesting appointment that made me think a lot. That night, we contacted a referral from Temple Square finally, a man named Claudio, and his wife Elena, who love america and have gone like 6 times on vacation, most recently in Utah. They are more or less atheist, but love to read, so they'll read the Book of Mormon and try the promise at the end. It was another very interesting appointment.

Yesterday, we bought a bike off of a man in Vercelli, and a lock, then we taught Edwin again, this time the Word of Wisdom, which he mostly kept already, but said that he will keep it because I said it was important. That's a lot of trust. We then went out to Romentino again, to teach Daniele, reading with him 3 Nephi 11. He said he'd read it again on his own. He's a pretty cool guy, in the middle of moving to Novara. We then had Ward Council, and our ward has a lot of things to discuss. ugh.

Today we went shopping. YAY!
--
Vi Amo!
Anziano Benjamin Jolley

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