Ciao!: Week 55: July 25 (Brindisi)

THE HIGHWAY

Hey everyone!! I hope you are all doing so well. I know I say that
every single week, but I really do. The mission is great. I am so
grateful that I can serve here in Brindisi--we have been seeing
miracles and things are going well. The one girl who called us last
week passed her baptismal interview and so if everything keeps
going well she should be getting baptized this Saturday! We are soo
excited for her and praying for her so badly. I know that this has taken
years of effort from other missionaries working with her and I
am grateful for the opportunity that I have to be the Lord’s instrument
for her at this time. Because in Brindisi the church is small and without a font,

we will be doing the baptism in the ocean. So how it works is

we are all going to come here [to the church] and open with a prayer and a song and
then there is one talk. After that we go to the ocean which is FULL of
people in the summer, so this is going to be really interesting. I am
so pumped. Also, tomorrow we have Zone Conference up in Bari so that
should be really fun. I am excited to go there and see all my mission
friends and receive some new instruction.

There were some really tough parts to this week, but it was also really great. Last
Monday night my companion and I were able to see a huge miracle as we
met a friend of ours named K. (17 years old). We were walking on the
street doing some finding and we started talking to him. He explained
to us that he was from Nigeria living with an Italian family and that
he came here 2 months ago. What normally happens is when refugees come,
they are put into what they call here "camps" which are literally
like old run-down buildings that look terrible and are destroyed and
there are hundreds of refugees there. But (I think it’s because he is
so young) K. was chosen by this family to live with them and be
taken care of. Honestly right when we met him I had such compassion
for him--he hugged us and he explained to us his situation and we
talked to him. While we were walking we realized that his shoe was
broken that he was walking in. Having experiences like this really
helps to open my eyes to how blessed I am to be born into the family that
I was born into in America. We were able to walk him home and invited
him to come to our English course so he could practice Italian and just
be with us because he seriously reminds me of my little brothers
and so I just want to do everything I can to help him. With everything
that we say or even do he just goes, “Thank you.. Thank you so much."
So humble and so special for us to meet him. He came to our Corso the
next day and we were able to give him some shoes, and then on Sunday
he walked into church. He's awesome and I love him so much. I want the
best for this guy, and I hope we can do more to help him.

So other than that we have been focusing our time trying to find new
investigators and working with M. and her family (family of 10
kids.. 9 daughters and 1 son). It's been tough because all of our
other investigators including C. have basically dropped us but
we are really working hard to follow the invites that our Mission
President has given us. We were able to see M. this week though
which went so well; the lesson was great. So I will explain the purpose
of the title of my email now. So to get to Miriam's what we have to do
(because she lives in the country) is we need to take a train and
get off at this abandoned station that no one uses and then the father
comes and picks us up. But, the father was not able to come and get us
and so we were told that we needed to walk which is totally chill.. Or
at least so I thought, especially because we walk all the time and it's not a
big deal. Now, with the car we are only on the highway for about 5
minutes... So we started off walking to the house pretty excited just in
the middle of nowhere in the blazing heat. After about 10 minutes it
starts to become not as exciting as we are drenched in sweat and just
barely getting on the highway.. So we were doing fine and walking and
not gonna lie we walked for about 20 to 30 minutes on the highway
"thinking" we knew where we were going. We passed an abandoned gas station
like 10 minutes in.. Yeah, no idea where we are going.. So on the
highways here it is really sad to say but there are a lot of
prostitutes. So we passed about two by now and just said a friendly
"ciao" and then kept going. After about 30 minutes I asked my comp if
he knew where we were going.. "Yeah man, don't worry I know where we
are--I remember that roundabout up there.." "Okay.." So we just kept on
going and it's so hot.. We pass the round about and after a while I
ask my comp if he is "sure" this is the right way and he tells me yes.
So we keep going and then I finally give them a call and the brother
answers and tells me that they live before the gas station off a dirt
road. Awww man not gonna lie I was sooo ticked.. So I turn around and
start jogging on the highway all the way back to the gas station,
passing now five prostitutes.. So sad.. And we finally get there..
After like an hour and a half. My companion looked like he was about
to pass out. I never want to do that again in my life but I am glad
that we went because we were able to have a really good lesson with
her and finally meet all the family. So with this family of 10 (on
Wednesday when we finally met them all) I discovered that there is 1 son
and 9 daughters.. Ohhh my. Not gonna lie I think the dad wants to
marry me off to one of them. He always gives me gifts when I go over
there and I am not really sure why. When we were leaving he gave me a
chunk of wood with leaves inside.. "Uhhh thanks" so I tried to tell
them that we were okay but they insisted and so it was really funny
carrying a massive chunk of wood back home on the train and to our
house. So many people were staring at me. There were two guys sitting
by us on the train and I looked over cause they were talking about us
and I was like, "Hey.. Y"all want some wood?" Hahah it was funny, so
yeah now we have some logs on our balcony for a fire or something, I
don't really know..

The other big event is when I went with one of the zone leaders (who I
knew back in my old zone in Palermo) named Anziano Nessen. He is such a
funny guy and I really enjoy working with him. When we got to M's
house again, we were able to talk to the whole family and the son told
me that if I can beat him in a 7 K that he will be baptized.. Ohhh BABY!
Better start training now. But he can run it within like 30 minutes
which is really great, but I totally want to do it now. The interview went
well though. While Anziano Nessen was having the interview, I was
talking to the family and as we were talking, their horse
wandered away and went missing. It was really bad because we were
out in the countryside in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of olive
trees everywhere. SO once the interview ended, we all went looking for
the lost horse and it was hilarious as Anziano Nessen spotted it and
we both took off running in the field of olive trees to get their
horse. It was a really good day. I enjoyed being able to work with him.
That night as Anziano Morlock and I were doing some finding, we were
able to run into our old investigator, G, that dropped us out of nowhere.
He wanted to talk, so we were able to have a really good talk with him

last night about what happened. He has still made his decision

and is set about what he thinks, but he said that he will stop by the
church sometime and he might even come to the baptism on Saturday,
which we are praying for. He is really an awesome guy and so we were
grateful that he was able to come.

Yesterday was really special and went really well in church because
M. with her two sisters and even her dad (the dad had to
leave after like 15 minutes) came for all of church!! Afterward one
of the members invited us and all of the sisters to their home for
lunch and so we were able to share a spiritual thought about the
Restoration and about looking for Jesus Christ more in our lives. We also talked about
growing our faith more like we talked about in church. We are really
excited for this Saturday and we hope that it really touches their
family because they are all incredible and this would bless their
lives so much.

I know that Jesus Christ lives. I know that he loves us and I am
grateful to be a missionary for him to find those that he has prepared
for us. We recieved a promise from Elder Ballard that if we at least
talk to 10 people a day (so 20 per companionship) about the
Restoration that we would receive blessings, miracles, and baptisms.
We are trying to do our best to follow that invite and let everyone
know about the message that we bring of the Restoration! I invite all
of y'all to learn for yourself, and to share with others the truths
that you know!! It's an incredible thing!

Have a good week!!

Vi Voglio un mondo di bene!!!

Anziano Spencer

M. and the runaway horse.

Taming the wild beast.

M. and some of her siblings, and the garland they gave Tristan (representing graduation, so I guess it had something to do with M. finishing her lessons??)