Ciao!: Week 57: August 8 (Brindisi)

CIAO TUTTI!

Hello everybody! I hope you are all doing well. So today I am here in
Bari because we played Calcio again, which was so fun!
Afterward, we are doing a scambio, so we are staying here in Bari which
I am pretty excited about. I have a lot of respect for Anziani Nessen
and Burrough, who are our new zone leaders, so it will be fun to work
with them. And then after that I will be going down to Lecce to do a
scambio there with Anzino Larrain. We are doing all of these because
transfer calls are this Saturday which is crazy. This transfer has
gone by really fast. I think my companion will be transferred because
he has been here for 6 months now, so I am curious who my next
companion will be.

Alright ,so I want to first start off with my story from last week and
the crazy family with the baptism. It has gotten worse hahaha…Oh my
gosh, I never thought anything like this would get this bad on my
mission. So basically what happened is we had not seen M. for a
few days because of how crazy her father had gotten and our branch
president wanted to be with us when we went over to her house. So on
Friday we were planning on going with our branch president. Right as
we were about to leave, we received a text telling us that we "we're
not invited to come because our branch president is “evil.'” Whatttt?????
Sooo lame. He is one of the coolest and nicest guys that I have had the
opportunity to work with. So we sent a text back saying that was fine
and we respect that. After about a few hours everything just goes
insane. All of the sudden our branch president’s phone blows up with
texts.. I looked at him and was like “Hey, you are super popular, aren't
you.." And he just responds saying it's his daughter. When he looks at
the texts, it's actually from M.'s mom.. What the…???

So basically
what happened is the mom sent him videos and texts of what was
happening at M.'s house in the country, including a video with a car driving away really fast and the
father screaming in the background saying that he is blaming us and
the church for this. The texts explained how M. basically "escaped"
and “ran away” . . .long story short, her father was going Soo
crazy. He took all the keys for the house to lock M. inside and
broke her phone. I honestly don't know how she got her clutch boyfriend
to just swing in and grab her but he did and now they are literally
hiding from her family. And the best thing is is the father blames our
branch president for setting the whole situation up. So he threatened
him and the church, saying that he was going to come to church and destroy
everything. This Sunday I literally was like a bouncer at the door
ushering people in because we had to be careful that he was going to
come to church and do something. Hahah—me, being the body guard--it was
interesting. We are pretty safe here, I think, in Brindisi, but still we
have been told to be careful. I personally have no idea where M.
is and what's going on now. I feel really bad for her because her
parents have told her that if she comes back home she is never allowed
to leave and if she doesn't come home she is never allowed back. It's
a terrible situation and we have been told to just be careful on the
streets, making sure he doesn't try to do something to us.

Other than that, this week we have been doing a lot of finding to really
try to build up our work. It's tough, but it's also good at the
same time. I get to meet a lot of really interesting people. Yesterday
I was literally violated by a drunk 50-year-old woman on the street.

[Editor’s note: he sent me details privately and he is not kidding, but I will spare you. Yuck.]

Oh my....
But life is really good, when we were in Lecce we were able to meet some
really sick people from Milano. There are so many tourists here that we
are trying to find people that are actually from Brindisi or Lecce.
But these guys from Milano were really cool and doing a giro [tour] here in
the south of Italy with their bikes and taking the train to different
places. They sleep on the beach and they have like a didgeridoo that
they bring around to play for people in the streets and the city
centers. It was cool to talk to them and they were really open about
the gospel and to learn more about who we were.

The other things that were awesome this week is we were able to have a
lesson with an awesome family that we are teaching in their country
house outside of the city. They are all really cool, and super open.
Being at their house was awesome because it was really beautiful
and just proprio [translates to something like “straight-up”] Italian and how you would imagine Italy to be like.
We were also able to eat an African food with one of our strongest
members called fufu. Basically it's like polenta paste that you dip in
a sauce/soup of crawfish, other fish, spices, really spicy stuff all
mixed together. It was the best thing in the world, and you don't chew
it, you just swallow it whole. Except when there are bones because "they
make you strong" so you chew and eat those. SOOO SWEET.

So for my spiritual thought I was able to read a really good talk
called Accepting the Lord’s Will and Timing by Elder Bednar (an

apostle) and he explains about a couple that are married and then the
husband has cancer.. The story is incredible and I invite all to read
it, but the couple talks about how they have faith that the husband will be
healed. As Elder Bednar was talking to them, he asks them if they have
the faith sufficient in case he will not be healed. Basically stating that maybe it
was not God’s will that he should live but that he should continue his
work on in the afterlife. It really made me think a lot about turning
my will and my whole desires over to God even more and doing my
absolute best to serve him. I know that as I do so and that as I have
my faith to trust that there is a plan for me here and that I am here
to work for a reason that I will be blessed. He ends with these quotes
that I really like and really touched me..

"But this young man and young woman were blessed in extraordinary ways
to learn essential lessons for eternity through affliction and
hardship. I have shared this episode with you because John and
Heather, who are just like so many of you, came to understand that not
shrinking is more important than surviving. Thus, their experience was
not primarily about living and dying; rather, it was about learning,
living, and becoming.

"For many of you, their story is, has been, or could be your story. You
are facing, have faced, or will yet face equivalent challenges in your
lives with the same courage and spiritual perspective that John and
Heather did. I do not know why some people learn the lessons of
eternity through trial and suffering--while others learn similar
lessons through rescue and healing. I do not know all of the reasons,
all of the purposes, and I do not know everything about the Lord’s
timing. With Nephi, you and I can say that we “do not know the meaning
of all things” (1 Nephi 11:17).

"But some things I absolutely do know. I know we are spirit sons and
daughters of a loving Heavenly Father. I know the Eternal Father is
the author of the plan of happiness. I know Jesus Christ is our Savior
and Redeemer. I know Jesus enabled the Father’s plan through His
infinite and eternal Atonement. I know the Lord, who was “bruised,
broken, [and] torn for us,” can succor and strengthen “his people
according to their infirmities” (Alma 7:12). And I know one of the
greatest blessings of mortality is to not shrink and to allow our
individual will to be “swallowed up in the will of the Father” (Mosiah
15:7)."

I love you all. The Savior lives and loves us!! Have a great week!!

Love,

Anziano Spencer