Week 45: May 16 (Trapani)

CIAO OMPADEEE

What's up everyone?! I hope that y'all all had a good week! I don't
have that much time to write today because in 30 minutes we are going
to go climb Mount Erice with some of our friends and so I won't be
able to make this that long. We were planning to hike a different
mountain called Mount Kofono, but apparently it's "dangerous" and
unfortunately our friends don't want to go. It sounds so sick--there is
one point where you have to use a rope to climb up to the tip and like
get over the edge. [Editor's note: obviously, thankfully their friends have better judgement in saying no to this dangerous mountain!!!]

Dang, we wanted to go so bad, but that's okay;
climbing Mount Erice will still be really fun. Then next week we are
planning on going to Favinana which is an Island off of the coast
here. Some of the other Anziani are going to come down with us so it
will be really fun. I need to take advantage of all the amazing things
to do here on Pdays before I leave.

So this week was really great. I don't know how to explain it other
than yes, we are doing a lot of finding and we don't have a lot of
investigators right now but I am still so happy. I am content with the
things that I accomplish and do every day and we are really working
hard to help Trapani grow and to meet new people here. I love being a
missionary so much and we did see a lot of miracles from this past
week. One of the miracles is one of our families that we haven't been
able to see for so long invited us over because it was their daughter’s
birthday. There were like 15 people there and they were all super nice
and we were able to talk to a lot of them about why we are here and
what our message is. Hopefully we will be able to see some potientals
come out of that. Another lesson that we had that really touched me
was with our really good friends who we found a few months ago when I
was with Anziano Garrett. We have had a lot of lessons with them and
they are very faithful Catholics and to be honest not really
progressing. We had had some powerful lessons with them where the
spirit was really strong, but there were some things that they just did
not want to accept. Well, this week they are moving to another city
for the summer, so we had a last lesson with them and it was really
special because even though maybe I wasn't able to see the "success"
in them getting baptized, they explained to us how the husband (who is
practically atheist) never invites people over, so it was rare and very
strange that he invited us over to meet his family that first time;
their son (who is also atheist) accepted a Book of Mormon and said he
would read it even though we met him once for like 10 minutes; and
while sitting down at the dinner table, the father offered his first
prayer that he has ever said over the food. There were a lot of other
little things, but these were some main ones that really touched me,
because my purpose is to help invite others to come unto Christ and I
hope and pray that in the future they will be able to take the
necessary steps to receive an answer. I do feel like we were supposed

to meet for a reason with them and I was grateful to know that the
things we did were able to help them be closer to our Savior. At the
end of the lesson we were able to sing "God Be With You Till We Meet
Again." It was powerful and a special experience for us. [He sent a video of this; I will try and post on the blog.]

Other than that we have being really meeting some sick people on the
street lately and it's been great. There is this one homie that we met
a few days ago from Russia who is really interested in having a Book
of Mormon, so we are meeting with him tonight.  While we were talking
to him, I felt the spirit so strong just bearing my testimony, so I
really hope that he has a desire to continue to meet with us.
Yesterday was another powerful experience as we were with some members
for Sunday pranzo [lunch]. They are one of my favorite families as they have
the beast couple Vito and Sara, and then the missionary son (who was
talking to me yesterday and wants to go back out on his mission.. LET’S
GO!!) and the others are so awesome. The dad and I are really close;
yesterday he was trying to teach me how to Salsa dance, it's so hard
haha. Anyway, they invited us to stay a little longer so that we could
meet some of the friends of Vito and Sara. When the friends showed
up, it was not only so sick that the guy looked exactly like my bud Zach

Ruther from back home, but they are super sincere and have a lot of
really good questions for us. I was talking to the guy and he started
asking me questions and me and Vito were able to teach him a little
about the Restoration. The spirit was so strong, and it was really
cool being able to teach it with Vito because he is a returned
missionary and is an absolute beast with teaching. We will hopefully
be able to see them this week so I hope things go well!!

Yesterday in church the Stake President came and really gave a great
talk about the Church organization and things like that. I am really
excited because this Tuesday I will be able to go to Branch
Correlation which I have never really had the experience to do on my
mission, and so I hope that continues and together with the branch we
will really be able to help things grow!!

Also, this week I will be able to work with Anziano Ridd doing a
Scambio. He is new in the field and is actually from Texas (yes, that's
really important) and so I am super pumped. It will be his first
scambio and so I am excited to work with him and learn from him.

Well, I love you all so much!! For my spiritual thought I want to share
something that Vito said yesterday while we were talking to his
friend. At the end of talking a little about the Resotration he told
his friend, "Ya know, as these missionaries and then also while I was
a missionary, our goal was not to force anyone to do anything. We share
our message and then you choose to accept it. It's like for me saying
that this chair right here is yellow (and it was gray) and you say it
was gray. Okay we could just leave it at that. But, until you come
over to look from my perspective you could see that this part is
yellow. That's the beauty of the Gospel and the beauty of the Restored
Gospel because what we have to do to receive an answer is to act. To
see it from another one’s perspective. And to do that we have to move.
(Like reading the Book of Mormon, Praying, Acting, Going to Church) I
am so grateful for the restored Gospel because not only do we have
these restored truths, but we have the truth that we have a direct
personal relationship with him and can find things out for ourselves
personally.”

I am honestly not sure if that made any sense. But, I really liked it
and the way he said it and I know that is true. I know as a missionary
my purpose is to be a guide and find those people who are ready and
willing to accept the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ on the earth
today. I love being a missionary!!

Vi Voglio BENE!!

Anziano Spencer