Week 74: Dec 5 (Napoli)

The Good Samaritan Missionary

Hey family, it is so good to write to y'all. I hope that everyone is doing well and staying warm over there. It is still hot here in Napoli and I am not really sure if that’s because of how many people are just crowded into one city and just all of the body heat or because the weather is just hot. But I am still sweating when I go outside haha. It’s crazy to think how time has gone by so quickly and it is already December. If you have not already seen it, the Church is doing a calendar of service this month called LIGHT THE WORLD. It’s powerful and I would recommend to anyone who has not seen it to go watch it. We are seeing a lot of success by sharing it with others as we are doing finding and so maybe others at home could use it as well! This week I was able to have a really good scambio [exchange] with Anziano Draghi who is a super sincere and hardworking missionary. It was fun to work with him and this week I am really excited because I will be able to work with the missionaries from Caserta and so I will be companions with Anziano Cowden. He is a big rugby player and has been in the mission for a long time, so I am excited to learn from him and see what happens!

We spent a lot of our time this week preparing and planning for last Saturday, which was our Specialized Training. This is when all of the missionaries from the Zone were able to come into Napoli and we received instruction from President Pickerd and Sorella Pickerd and learned from each other. My companion and I also had the privilege of giving a training for one hour on what we felt inspired would help the missionaries achieve the new standard of excellence that we have to have of one baptism per companionship every transfer. We felt inspired to make a training based off of the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10 (which is something that my stake president shared with me right before I left for my mission that touched me a lot).

We then took apart these scriptures, talking about what type of characteristics the Good Samaritan had and what type of characteristics the fallen man had, and compared that to us as missionaries and those here in Italy that are searching for the truth. After establishing those characteristics, we focused on five main points from the list and expounded on them and did some training. We had a lot of fun doing it and I believe that it went really well and so I am very happy. Here are the five main points that we talked about...

1. Opening our mouths (the Samaritan stopped..) to not be as the Levite or Priest
2. Establishing Purpose 
3. Commitment
4. Come and See (bringing to the Inn) or Church in this matter
5. Diligence

After the training we received instruction from President and Sorella Pickerd. I love both of them, especially for the love that they show us as missionaries. They talked about the House of Israel (interesting because this is what President Nelson talked about recently) and the progress we are making as a mission. It was kinda funny because President Pickerd was listing off a few cities that maybe the church is not very developed in... He mentioned a couple and Trapani and Brindisi were both mentioned in the list.. Dang.. My last two cities that I love so much. Success is happening there now, especially in Trapani, because there have been two baptisms there the past few weeks which makes me extremely happy. The training ended at around 1:00, after which we ate and then did a Christmas Nativity reenactment. I was again a wise man like last year and we all had a really good time. I love being around all the Anziani (especially Anziano Morlock); they are all powerful missionaries and I love to learn from all of them individually because everyone has their own individual strengths and talents that they can share. I think it’s incredible.

The other super special event that happened was yesterday at church with the little girls and the mother. The mom is fully coming back to church and bore an extremely powerful testimony yesterday about how she hopes she can be an example for her daughters and how she knows without a doubt that this church is true. We were then able to have a lesson with them later in the day reading in Nephi 31 and talking about baptism! The girls told us their thoughts and told us that they want to be baptized! L. asked me if I could be the one to baptize her and then she was like, "I am not scared because I know that you will be with me." That really touched me a lot. Anziano Berger with be able to baptize J. and I am seriously so excited for these two girls. Their baptism will be on the 17th of this month. I love them. The mom is incredible too and wants the very best for her children.

This week we have also really been focusing on working with the members. The members here are all really awesome and we are hoping to build our relationships with them more to increase the missionary work here. Another update on our work is that we are working with L. (a different L.) a lot more! She is doing well and is going to read the Book of Mormon this week. She came to church and is planning to come next week, so we have high hopes!

For my spiritual thought I want to share something that was honestly pretty sad to hear, but it was true. During one of our lessons with someone that we are working with, she really opened up to us and told us something that I haven’t really thought of before. (I hope I can explain my thoughts well enough to share what she told us). She started off asking us why most of the members don’t pay attention to her when they come to church and they see her. She explained how she knows that she does not come to church for the people, but she comes for God. But, she then went on to say how it would be nice if people were friendly and genuinely asked her how she was doing.. Not just to say hi, but to actually talk for a few minutes and see how things are going. That hit me hard... Because I remember many times in church where I maybe overlooked others who were not my best friends and maybe just went to talk to those who I literally saw only 12 hours before because we spent Saturday night together. It really reminded me of how important it is for everyone to feel loved. Everyone is needed and I want to do better at including everyone. I hope my thoughts make sense... it's interesting to see that we can touch others with just a simple hello at church to make them feel loved. Everyone needs to feel loved and included in Christ's Church!

I love you all I hope you have a great week!!

P.S We got kicked out of a palazzo [apartment building] this week while doing finding. It was great... Kinda not a fun experience but it happens every once in a while..  It was kinda lame though, because we were looking for a refferal from a member; the referral was actually an inactive member and her friend wanted us to check on her. While we were there in the building trying to find her, some old lady got super ticked at us and threatened to call the cops even though we were not disturbing anyone. While we were outside trying to ring the doorbell for the apartment, the lady came out (the refferal) that were looking for and the old lady was like, “ hese men are looking for you!! Do you know them??" With a smirk on her face, the member leaned forward, looked at my tag and said, “No, I don’t..." and then walked away. It was pretty bad because we were denied so hard but at least we tried! Fun and good stuff.

Anziano Spencer

With unnamed elder, playing football at a castle with amazing views!

Reenacting the Nativity at Zone Conference. 

Tristan is a wise man for the second year in a row.

Fellow wise men: Anziani Morlock and Ridd.

He's probably pretty happy he got to be a wise man...

Zone Conference.

Week 73: November 28 (Napoli)

GUAGLIU (Guys)

How are y'all doing? I hope that this email finds you well and that everyone had a great Thanksgiving! This week was incredibly busy with lots of different things going on and it has been great! The mission life is goood. Today for Pday we are going to play football at a huge grass field that is right in front of a castle overlooking all of Napoli, so it’s going to be a great time. We are also planning on doing a scambio with the missionaries from Pozzuoli this week which will be fun. I will have the chance to work with Anziano Draghi who is Italian. I am excited to learn from him and see what happens. Also, this Saturday we have our specialized training with President and Sister Pickerd. It will be a really good time to be with all of the zone and to learn. Anziano Burger and I will have the opportunity to lead a training that we are preparing so we are praying that it will go well!

Alright so for this week I want to start off with a GREAT experience that we had last Monday night. So Anziano Burger and I went out to a different city to teach a family that we are starting to work with.Unfortunately they ended up not being there and so we made our way back to the train station, still trying to remain positive. Well, once we get there we realize that now it’s closed... FANTASTIC. Well Anziano Burger and I are a little bit worried now because it’s about a 2 and a half hour walk home and so we decided to try the brilliant idea of hitchhiking on the highway. I thought it was going to be kinda cool but then after about 10 minutes of sitting there sticking my thumb up with a big ole grin on my face I realized that this was probably the most least effective thing possible. And kinda creepy.. Two American guys dressed up in shirts and ties in the middle of nowhere at night.. Sweet. As we made our way back to the station my companion was thinking of ideas to just sleep in the station, which would have been an interesting /terrible experience. We called our district leader and by some miracle the Hydes (senior couple) were at the church and so they were able to come and pick us up!! Hallelujah! I love senior couples, and I learned a great lesson: check what time train stations close when we are in new cities.. 

We were able to see a lot of success with finding and teaching new people this week. One lesson that really touched me a lot is with a woman named L. She was able to attend Fabio's baptism a few weeks ago and was really touched from the ceremony. Anyway, Fabio invited his friend and her to meet with us and she accepted. We went to the house and it was a very interesting experience because the friend of Fabio speaks Spanish/ Italian while L. speaks mostly English because she is from the Philippines. What we ended up doing is just splitting the lesson and I had the opportunity to teach L.. She really is super sincere and explained to me some of her thoughts about the church and how she is really curious to learn more. We were able to talk about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and then at the end I invited her to pray. She told me how she has not prayed for a long time but she would like to try. She then began praying out loud and it was such a sincere and touching prayer as she spoke to God. Afterward, she told me that that was the first time she has prayed for 4 months out loud. During the lesson she also accepted a baptismal date and so we are praying so badly that she will receive an answer of the truth! Meanwhile, while I was having that lesson my companion was teaching a lesson to this really cool Spanish lady who speaks soo fast. But, it’s sick because what we both found out is that if we concentrate hard enough we can both understand what she is saying even though she speaks in Spanish and then switches back to Italian. 

Another lesson that we had was with M., who was a referral that we received. She is very, very spiritual and is only 22, which is really cool. I don’t know if it’s just because her eyes are really blue but she has the brightest eyes I have ever seen. There is an incredible light that she just "lets off" (can I say that?) and so teaching her was a powerful experience. She is very faithful to her church, but it was cool to see her reaction when we told her that we are not here to take away her faith but only to add to it—to help her improve her life with the message that we bring. We are hoping that we see her tonight and so I will let you know how she is doing! And we will not make the same mistake with the train again haha. 

THANKSGIVING!! The coppia Hyde are so incredible. On Thursday for around 3ish hours we were able to  eat the normal Thanksgiving meal of turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes (with brown sugar, mamma mia, it’s sooo good), some rolls, and peppermint patties, fruit salad which I have missed, and stuffing. It was a great time and we were even able to invite our new convert with her non-member husband, so it went really well! We were also able to have another Thanksgiving feast yesterday with a member family who invited us over. They are so kind that they prepared Thanksgiving food and so it was round two! Both times were very good and yeah.. I love America.

One of the biggest highlights of my week was being able to do a scambio with Anziano Morlock. It was really special to see how much he has grown and changed after only 3 months. I haven’t laughed so hard as I did than when I was with him and we both had a really good time. We were able to do some finding together and we had a great time! I love my old comp. 

The little girls who we are working with are doing really well! Going over and teaching them is one of my most favorite parts of the week because they are so accepting of everything and just are so humble. They came to church this week because we went and picked them up, so you know what that means... Sunday morning I was totally skipping through the train station and down the streets with one of them holding on my hand singing Tarzan.. It was the greatest!

For my spiritual thought I want to share something that has been on my mind about the mission. I apologize for not sending doctrinal things with scriptures or talks, but last Wednesday we were able to have a special experience as we met with all the district leaders and sister training leaders to talk about the zone. Anziano Burger and I have never done this before in a "council" type setting but we have received instruction to do so from our Mission President and so we had a two hour training/ council meeting about the needs and the focus for our zone this next transfer. During the meeting, it was really powerful just to think about how we are just 19/20 year old ragazzi [kids] that are meeting together to discuss how we can improve. How we can better ourselves as missionaries. It was a really spiritual meeting and it was interesting to see how it turned out so well even though we did not have any "older" leaders there making sure we were on track or things like that. I don’t really know if I am making any sense but the spirit was strong.. We were edified... Learned from each other, and we all went away wanting to work harder and do better. Councils are important, and it was cool to think of the things that I got out of that meeting even though all those I was meeting with were all my same age. The spirit is real and Jesus is in charge of his church!!

I love you guys! Thanks so much for your support, and your emails! They mean so much to me!

I love y’all!!

Love,

Anziano Spencer 

Thanksgiving Dinner, Round 1

Yum!!

Thanksgiving Dinner, Round 2

With Anziano Hyde. The family provided the bibs/aprons!

"I absolutely love Anziano Morlock!"

Week 72: Nov 21 (Napoli)

Giorno di Ringraziamento 

Hey family and friends!! I hope that you all had a great week and have a great upcoming Thanksgiving! For Thanksgiving this year, our district will be meeting at the church to have a lunch that will be made by our beast senior couple who is serving here named the Hydes. I am so grateful for them because they support us so much --and they want to make us Thanksgiving food. We are hoping that we can bring some investigators so hopefully that works out! I also have my new companion with me!! His name is Anziano Berger and he was actually trained by Anziano Trejo (who will always be like a legendary missionary in my eyes). He is an awesome missionary and works really hard, so we are really excited to see what happens this transfer!! We are totally finding our MOJO so fast and so it has been awesome.

This week was really interesting with not having a companion for about 3 days but I am grateful for how it worked out. I was able to have probably one of the best experiences of my mission on Wednesday when I was able to do an exchange with Genni. What I had been doing was on Monday and Tuesday I was working with Anziano Ridd and Anziano Youngblood in a trio. But, on Wednesday Genni came to the church and I was able to go to work with him. Before this exchange, though, I had just been praying that things would go well because he is preparing to go on his mission next year and I wanted to get him really excited and have lessons. What we had planned is we were going to go and teach a less-active, and then teach two lessons to some other people, and afterward, finish at his house with a family night. Well, when we got to the less-active’s house the mother said that her daughter wasn’t there, so unfortunately we couldn’t teach.. Dang.. strike 1...So I was walking along with Genni and as we were heading to our next appointments we ran into this guy who wanted to know where our church was and so we showed him and then taught him there on the street. It was super sick because Genni normally wears a baseball hat, but as we started teaching, he pulled it off and waited for his turn to bear his testimony and share his experiences. I was super impressed. Then we had a lesson with our investigator who is really struggling with a lot of things in her life just because of past involvement with gangs and things like that. As we were there we were able to teach the restoration and then she accepted to be baptized!! HALLELUJAH!! We walked out of the lesson and Genni was soo pumped! We then headed over and were able to teach another two women in their store about the Book of Mormon and at the end they gave us a free Powerade.. Sweet! It was really cool, and everything ended up going really well. As we headed over to Genni's house we were both so excited and so happy; it was great. He is probably the strongest youth I have ever met here in Italy! That night we had a great family night Genni’s family and his mom asked us if we can come back this week and just keep meeting with her sons to help them!! I am sooo happy to keep working with Genni and his brother. They are beasts.

Transfers went really well as well! And my babe Anziano Morlock is in Battipaglia. I am super excited to see him and be able to work with him. We are planning on doing a scambio this week and it will be just like old times back in Brindisi. He actually ended up getting a little lost during transfers because his train was late, so he missed his other one.. Ohh boy.. But he’s a stud and figured out what do do himself and was able to make it to Battipaglia. Man, I cant wait to work with him!

Other really exciting news is F. wants to serve a mission!!! He is progressing so fast that it is incredible to see. He literally reads out of the Gospel Library any free time he has and has already read through all of Preach My Gospel. A few days ago he was like, "Anziano Spencer, I love Alma 42.. that is like my favorite chapter in the Book of Mormon.." Wow. And last night we invited him to hit the streets with us and teach some lessons and he was so excited. He taught two lessons with us and then afterward we had a gesso planned for two hours in this massive piazza area. There was a ton of people there and he stayed for the entire two hours talking to people and would come up and bear his testimony to people as we would be teaching them!! It’s so cool to just watch him and see how much he wants to learn and grow.

A huge miracle that we saw this week was a member referral that we contacted on Saturday. Referrals are the best way for missionary work!! We went to the family’s house and they were so excited to talk to us and we are meeting with them tonight. We are praying that it goes well because they are so awesome. There are 4 kids who are all around  25ish and the parents are also really great. They have a lot of questions for us, so we are really hoping for a miracle tonight!! Our work is going really well here; we have a lot of good potentials for this week and one of the little girls (who I was skipping with a few weeks ago) accepted to be baptized yesterday! I love that little family so much; they are my favorite. It’s always so fun going over there because they are always dancing and singing, but when we teach they are really serious and we always pray in a tight circle together. It’s super special. I love being here.

Well, I love you all! Know that I am loving the mission so much! I love being a representative of Jesus Christ! 

I am so GRATEFUL for you all!!

For my spiritual thought I just wanted to share a little spiritual insight that I had while I was studying on humility. As I was reading in the Book of Mormon, I was reading in Ether and a prophet is asking God to help him help his people by touching these stones he had made to light them. It is interesting to see in the chapter the humility that you can see in this prophet. What I was able to see and learn is humility is completely aligning our will with God's and having trust and confidence in ourselves as we do so. I always thought humility was just kinda like putting ourselves down like saying “yeah, I am not good at that" and "I am just not good at anything.” But, humility is recognizing our weaknesses and knowing that they can become our strengths, ONLY through the power of God. I think it is a really interesting concept to think about and I want to do better at being more humble for God.

Later on in the chapters it says this in Chapter 12:

27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.”

I am grateful for the weaknesses that I have so that in my humility, relying on God, I can make them become strong.

I love you all!! Have a great week!

Vi voglio un Napolitano di bene!

Anziano Spencer

With Genni and the free Powerades mentioned above.

Working with Genni "such a powerful guy!"

Great friend Anziano Jensen was passing through Napoli.

As I said, "great friend"!

With Anziano Simonson, from Tristan's MTC group--just released as a branch president.

With Anziano Scott.

"This is what we found when we arrived at the church to send emails this morning. He didn't wake up, even when we stepped over him and opened the gate."

P-day pizza!

P-day at the Museo Cappella Sansevero to see The Veiled Christ statue.

With new comp, Anziano Berger.

Quickly getting the mojo going.

I believe this is the Museo Cappella Sansevero

Week 71: Nov 14 (Napoli)

Transfer Number 12

Buongiorno tutti! I hope you are all doing really well and had a great week! I am now without a companion because Anziano Gay left this morning on a train headed up to Rome. I really enjoyed serving with him because he was such a good missionary and a really cool guy in general. He taught me so many things, but probably the biggest thing that I learned from him is the way that he leads. When different situations would come up he would always try to figure out a way to have the missionary teach themselves what would be the right thing to do instead of just telling them a straight answer. I really like this type of approach and I am really trying to put that into practice here in Napoli. A quote that he would always say that he got from President Pickerd is, "I don’t want to be a policeman, but instead a shepherd." I think that is really profound. 

As for now I am in a trio with Anziani Ridd and Youngblood who are both stud missionaries so I am excited. My new companion will be coming in on Thursday so it’s going to be an interesting three days of doing our work and their work. I will also have to organize the transfers for the missionaries coming in and out of Napoli, so I am pumped. I hope it goes well!! One thing that I am really looking forward to is in our branch we have two guys who are around 20 years old that are just absolute studs. They both are super strong in the gospel and are planning on serving missions and so for Wednesday afternoon to the night I am planning on working with Genni (short for Gicardo) to go teach some lessons and meet some people. He’s really excited and I am excited to because I think it will be a really cool experience for the both of us!

This week the main thing that I want to focus on is a really special experience that I had with a guy named E. who is from the Caserta ward (about an hour away). He has been meeting with the missionaries and was baptized this last week on the American Base (because there is a font there). Before his baptism (and this is how it works for everyone who wants to be baptized), there is an interview (which is really just to talk about your testimony to see if you are ready to be baptized) where we talk about the Gospel and the things we believe. I had the privilege of performing that interview with him and it was a really sacred experience. I just want to say that God loves his children so much. I was able to catch just a glimpse and feel a fraction of the love that God felt for his son as he was telling me why he wanted to be baptized. I wish I could explain it better in words, but I know without a doubt that God lives and he loves us. 

I was able to do a scambio with the Battipaglia Anziani (they are an hour away from us too), which was really awesome. It reminded me so much of my last two cities of Brindisi and Trapani because the city was really small. We could walk it within like 30 minutes and so it was so awesome to be there because it was nice to be able to think a little clearly without sirens going off and just chaos lol.. Napoli lol--which I still absolutely love and was glad to come back to. My companion was Anziano Morrill who is being trained by my my stud homie Anziano Chilvers (who was in my district in the MTC). We had a really great time together; he made me laugh so much. We were able to see a big miracle too as we were doing finding when we found a brother and sister who were really intrested in our message. They both are around their 40's and lost their parents some time ago. We were able to share our message of the restoration and how yes, we do believe there is a life after this, and so they accepted to meet again. They now both have baptismal dates and are doing really well so it was great!! Another thing that was really insteresting in Battipaglia was I was able to eat a thing called Mozzarella di Buffala. Buffalo cheese.... Basically just picture a ball of cheese that was just leaking buffalo milk... And eating them plain... SOO GOOD. (I don't think you would like it Mom haha;)) Battipaglia is where like the original Mozzarella di Buffala started so it was like the "original" stuff. 

This Saturday was the baptism of E. and another investigator from the Caserta ward. Like I said it was held on the American Base because of the font that was there. It was sooo weird going onto the base because everything was HUGE. Like we saw a big grocery store that looked like Walmart and the parking was ginormous... And we saw a football field, track, with tires to train with.. It was so sweet. The baptism was really special and there was a lot of support which was great. Because the Caserta ward is mostly American (although E. is actually from Africa), we had the ceremony in like a mix of Italian and English and then afterwards we had refreshments... Ohhh I wish I could explain better how much I love random ward potlucks in the church.. All the normal things were there like that Broccoli salad, Mom, with the bacon, or chips and queso, roast beef in a crock pot, pies, and this thing that I think is called puppy chow if I remember correctly? Like chex mix with some white powder? It was incredible!

As for our work, things are going really well. We have some really good potientals, and some less-actives that we are working with. One experience that we had that was so cool was we were walking back to our house from the scambio and we got stopped on the streets in napoli by a guy who said, "Elder!" He came up and started to speak, but he only speaks Spanish. It turns out that he moved here just two weeks ago from El Salvador and has been looking for the church everywhere! Wow.. To meet like that just on the street was a huge miracle. He is a member and served a mission as well so we are going to be helping him. Also, his whole family is here in Napoli but none of them are members soo... We will see what we can do! Also, F. is progressing incredibly. He received the Aaronic Priesthood yesterday and told us how he would like to go on a mission!!!!! We will be helping him to prepare but he is just the coolest, most humble guy ever. Also, he loves to dance.. And he’s good too, so we have been having a super fun time while walking down the street together and things like that;) 

Another miracle was a guy that we met on the street a few days ago. He told us how his father passed away two days before that and that we met just at the right moment to help him grow his faith again. I am excited to see what happens this week when we see him again!!

For my funny/crazy experience this week I want to share something that happened when Anziano Gay and I were on the metro. I am not really sure why but we have just had weird experiences together with old people. When we got on the metro, there were so many people that we were all smashed so close together. Anziano Gay was barely making it on when the doors started to close and right when they were about to slam shut there was this old man that ran up and was like, "NO!” And then he jumped right in between the doors but because there were so many people he didn’t make it in, so then he was like crushed between the doors... So then Anziano Gay and I grab the doors and we rip them open to help him but there is still no room for the old guy to walk in, so then they just slam shut again right onto him... We do the same thing and I know I probably sound like a horrible person for sharing this experience but that man was just not giving up! And luckily he was okay. After a third time of being crushed, he finally made it in and was like "Mamma mia c'è troppo persone" like "Mamma mia there are a lot of people..." Man.. It was an interesting experience. Being a missionary is the best.

I love being here! Thank you all for your love and support. I am super grateful for the time that I had serving with Anziano Gay. This last transfer went by so fast; it was the fastest transfer I have had on my mission so far. I really learned a lot and I love how on the mission you can just work with so many different people and learn from everyone because everyone has their own special gifts and talents. It has helped me a lot because I always need to be more humble and realize that I have so much to learn and so much to improve on. That is why I am so grateful for the Atonement—the ability and freeing gift that we get to use daily to help us become better. The gospel is true!!

Vi voglio un mondo di bene!!

Anziano Spencer 

Buffalo Mozzarella Balls with Anziano Morrill

The Texas Flag in the midst of all the others at the American Base! A sight for sore eyes!!

American Base football field

American Base

Yummy Italian food after the baptism mentioned above.

Good-bye Anziano Gay!

 

Anziano Gay heading to the mission office and then home!!!  (Missionaries with Branch Mission Leader in front.)

View from the Branch Mission Leader's apartment.

The two "stud" young men mentioned above. The one is the baseball hat is Genni,
that Tristan will be working with next week.

Week 70: November 7 (Napoli)

"Sto limonanda cu 'na bella guagliana"

Hey guys! I hope y'all are doing well and that y'all had a great week. Today is my comp’s last p-day here in Napoli before he goes home which is pretty weird. I am grateful for the time that I have had to serve with him and for the things that I have learned from him. Okay so I would like to explain the title of my email right now because this was probably one of the most funny/awkward moments of my entire mission... Let me just try to paint this picture and image for y'all. Okay so on Saturday we were teaching the awesome little family from Capo Verde who have been living here in Italy for the past 8ish years. They are progressing really well and come to church every single week which is awesome! We taught a lesson to the little girls who are 8, 8, and 11 years old about the Restoration. We brought a white board and compared the gospel to a castle and how we can use the map (Book of Mormon) to find the castle (the gospel). It went really well and hopefully they will accept to be baptized soon. After the lesson we got ready to go to the primary activity that was happening in the church, but the mom was really tired so she asked us to walk her children there. No problem; I love little kids and they are so much fun. Like I love little kids because they love life and just don’t care what anyone thinks of them!! So we were going to the church (side note: they live in a really ghetto/sketchy area so we were like holding their hands as tight as we could) and to get there we have to take a metro stop over and then walk for a while. While we were going I started singing the Lion King and me and two of the little girls holding my hands started skipping along singing Lion King, Frozen, Trick-or-treat songs in English, Justin Bieber songs in Italian and all this stuff. It was sick and honestly so much fun. Skipping in the middle of the train station with both of them singing was like the highlight of the week. Then this is where it gets really awkward... As I am skipping along and singing I didn’t realize that our phone is ringing in my back pocket. I am still not really sure how I did it but as I was skipping along with the little girls I managed to unlock the phone and send a pre-made text to our BRANCH PRESIDENT who was calling us. That text said "Sto limonanda cu 'na bella guagliana" which in Napolitano (the dialect here) translates to "I am making out with a beautiful girl." FANTASTIC.... HAHAHAHA sooo yeah that was really really funny and just super awkward when 2 minutes later we show up at the church and he comes up to show us the text that he received and we all just started laughing. Apparently there was a missionary in the past who set that pre-made text because he thought it was funny on the phone. And it came back and I was the one who had to pay. Thanks dude... Lolololol

This week was really good though. It passed by really fast because I was able to do two scambios with Anziano Stratton and Cutler. They are both hard-working missionaries and it was cool to be able to see their different personalities, especially because they are both new here in the mission. Anziano Stratton comes from Oklahoma and is huge into football so it was funny to see the Italians' reactions when they would come up to him because he is a massive dude. We had a really good time though and worked on how we can have joy in the mission as we work and we are supposed to have fun as well as work hard. He’s a great singer, so it was fun to be singing "all of me" or “I got the magic" from Pitch Perfect while we were doing finding. I also really enjoyed working with Anziano Cutler as well. Unfortunately, nothing went right for the scambio hahah so we were left with about 4ish hours to find but it was really good. We were able to see success and I think it helped him to realize that people want to talk, you just have to be persisent and bold at the beginning. (For example, we tried to talk to this cool-looking 18-year-old, but he was like "no, I am not interested” so I started talking to him about his beard and then just worked the conversation over to how there is a living prophet today and it went well!) It was also really cool to work with Anziano Cutler in his area in Caserta because in that city is the biggest castle in Europe which was HUGE. I am grateful for the opportunity to work with all these different missionaries and to learn from them! 

We are doing our best to find some new investigators right now and we met one lady who is super nice and awesome! She has had a really hard life though because her family and she herself were involved in a gang called the "Kumorah" which is the gang that takes down the Mafia here. She told us how a lot of her family has been killed because of this and she actually can’t have her children at home because it's too dangerous. She is really searching to know if there is a God and is extremely humble so we are excited to keep teaching her! Last night we also found a new investigator who is dating one of the less-active guys we are working with. She is really solid and wants to know the truth so she accepted baptism on the first lesson. I am really excited for her! This week we have a lot of potential going on because it’s Anziano Gay's last week and we are trying to go so hard. We have a goal to find 17 new investigators and teach 5 lessons a day so it’s going to be fun. Tomorrow we are teaching one of our friends from English course who is like 50 years old but looks 35 and is a sky-diving instructor. She is super humble and so we are excited. So sick that she is a sky-diving instructor!!!!

Well, I love you all so much!! For my spiritual thought, I have a lot of different thoughts because I have been studying about the House of Israel. I have never really understood all the blessings that we can truly receive from the covenants that we make. The song "Israel, Israel, God is Calling" is so much more meaningful to me now. But something way more simple to share is a conversation that we had with this one guy as he went off on us how people who believe are just "desperate" because they need something to grab onto. I was not really okay with him saying that so we started talking about how we don’t need religion because it is controlling a desperate humanity, but instead because it is freeing... It brings liberation. I don’t know if that’s a word in English but I mean that through the freeing power of Jesus Christ we can be made free, have a hope, and a light at the end of the tunnel. The power of Jesus Christ is real and it is so important. After bearing my testimony on that the guy kinda just stared at me not really knowing what to say... I love this gospel!!

VI VOGLIO BENE!!!

Anziano Spencer 

Only pic I got with Anziano Stratton. Check out his slippers!

Writing our weekly emails.