Week 36 (March 14)--Trapani

TRAPANI ANCORAAA

Hey everyone!! I hope that everyone is doing well and that you can
feel my love coming to you from Italy! So we got transfer calls and I
am staying in Trapani for another transfer. My homie companion is
leaving though, which is pretty sad, but he has been here for six months

so we were both kinda expecting it.  He is going up north
to be a Zone Leader in Caserta. I am pumped for him; he is such a beast
and is going to do awesome! So my new companion is coming from Napoli
and his name is Anziano Olsen (which is super weird cause one of my
best friends who is serving a mission too is named that). Hopefully
they act the same because that would be soo sick and so much fun. We
will see; I am excited though. The next week is going to be pretty
cool too cause our Zone Conference is in Catania (which is across
Sicily) with the Catania Zone. So we have to take a bus over there
which is going to be fun.

Alright so this week has been pretty good. We have had some awesome
lessons with our investigators and have seen little miracles

work out. One of them was with this family that we love so
much and we asked them if we could bring over that really awesome
couple. They said yes, and then in the morning they told us that they
were not really interested in meeting anymore once Anziano Garrett and
I both leave. That was really sad to hear, but we still went to our
lesson just praying that it would go well and it went great. The couple
was sooo AWESOME and it turns out that the wife Sara served a mission
in France and the mom of the family lived in France (she served in the
same city that the mom grew up in... Such a blessing) and so they
started speaking French together and so that was super sick. They all
really hit it off so we are really hoping that they receive an answer
soon that the Book of Mormon is true because they are reading, and
they have prayed about it. We want to make sure that they are doing
all that they can to receive it which includes coming to church too.
So we will see. It was great to have Vito and Sara there because they
are so awesome and they know exactly what to do in a teaching
situation.

Another investigator that we had a really good lesson with is from our
Corso. We invited him to meet with us and he said that he was
interested. So our second lesson with him went really well because we
invited the old mafia boss (don't worry he has completely left
everything behind and he is so strong in the gospel; he made that
really clear to us cause he finally talked to us about it which was
cool) and his wife to come and help us. They came and right when the
old Mafia Boss walks in he immediately knew our investigator because he
is good friends with his dad. Yhey go like "way back" and so we are
pretty sure that we are teaching a son of an old Mafia boss. Sooo
sweet hahaha. He is really awesome though, and really humble. He even
came to church today and loves to make new friends. He was saying hi
to everyone and so we are really happy. I hope things go well with him.

Okay so now for English Course haha. Alright so luckily me and Anziano
Garrett left the fog machine and the lights back at our house this time
haha;) I am just kidding lolol but this week was a lot more normal and
tranquilo. Kinda. So for our spiritual thought we were doing it on the
Atonement and so we decided to do the one activity where we brought
treats and gave them to every single one of them even if they didn't
want it. This represented the Atonement and how it is given to every single
person, but there was one condition. I would have to do 10 push-ups
for each individual person to receive a treat. Now luckily they are
Italian and most of them were all over the treats and it was a pretty
powerful spiritual thought. It represented the fact that Jesus Christ
suffered so much for us that we can't even comprehend what He did. In
the middle of it they started freaking out cause I was starting to get
tired and one of the women came up and was like "No no no, you don't
have to do push-ups I just.. I just want to give you a big kiss..”

(Ummmm what??!) And then leans down and kisses me right on my cheek.
Not a bach, a straight-up kiss. Just plants one on me. Lolol totally
not expecting that. So yeah Corso just keeps on getting more and more
interesting.

Another kinda funny and random thing that happened
this week is a few weeks ago we met these really cool 25-ish year old
guys who one of them said he had a Book of Mormon and was actually
interested in meeting with us. He was the one that stopped us too,
which was weird. Anyway, we set up some appointments with him and he
bailed and didn't even show up. We saw him again and we were still
friends and we told him if he wants to meet for him to call us now.
Anyway, so we are walking in the street and we walk past this car and
we see that it's him and all of his buds. But they are like hiding
from us... Like the one guy is ducked under the seat... The other guy
pulled the beanie over his eyes... Like are you kidding me?? We are not
dumb, haha. Lolol just straight up hiding and doing the worst job about
it.  So we walk by a second
time like ten minutes later and this time we are coming from the back
and we can see him (cause he has a man bun) through the mirror and
then one of his friends turns around and sees us (and then they all
turn around and I am sure his friend is like "Ohhh no, it's them!!")
and we see them like all duck down in their car again. 25-ish year old
guys hiding; we could not believe it lolol. So we walk by and Anziano Garrett
goes "Ciao Giuseppe!" right at them, cause the window was down, and then
we just keep walking and glancing back at his little man bun poking up from
the dash board. Like, seriously…???

So this week for my spiritual thought I just want to bear my testimony
on how grateful I am for this gospel. I’m grateful I know that there is a prophet that lives today and receives revelation for us in our day. And thanks to Joseph Smith, we have the restored

Church of Jesus Christ on the earth today with the gospel in its
fullest on the earth. I am super grateful for the Plan of Salvation
and I know that we will be able to see our loved ones again. I know
that because of Jesus Christ we will all live again and we will be
able to have our loved ones back and be able to live together all as
families with God. It is the perfect plan that God has created for our
happiness and our joy. I am so grateful that I have this opportunity
to serve as a missionary and bring this message to others and our
message is so simple. Read the Book of Mormon and ask God. Ask God
through prayer and he will let you know through the spirit. It is very
simple and I love being a missionary so much. If the Book of Mormon is
true then we have no reason to have doubts or anything behind that
because as the Key Stone of our Religion we can have our testimonies
strengthened when we read and ponder the messages and the stories of
the Book of Mormon. Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God and I am so
grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ on the earth today. The Church
is true!!


Vi VOGLIO BENE!!

Anziano Spencer

"A sketched-out apartment building...trying to find some less-active members. Let's go!"

"Fratello Carucci...Man, I love this guy!!!!!"

The entire Primary of the branch....

Doing what kids do!

"My African homies!"