Ciao!: Week 61: September 5 (Brindisi)

DI VAI

How is everyone doing? I hope that you all have a good Labor Day today--
I don't even remember why we have that as a holiday lolol. So for Pday
today we were able to go play American Football with our beast friend
Luca (the one who is a singer and will be going to study Broadway in
New York in November... His music is incredible, his name is Luciano
Carlino if you want to look him up..) at the park. We had a really
good time and it was fun. After a while this one guy showed up and he
explained to us how he used to play for the football team here in
Brindisi and then after a while he started taking videos of us and
ended up calling his old coach because he wanted us to play for
Brindisi. Lol-- it was cool and kinda funny as we explained that we
couldn't be recruited and play on teams while we were here. Not gonna
lie, it would be sick, but he might take us to go meet the team anyway
and who knows-- maybe they will be interested in learning English and the
Gospel;) Also, my title is what Italians say when you pitch the
football or something like that, kind of like “Here, go”... Sooo cool.

This week was pretty good. Pretty tough as well as we got a lot of
cancelations from our investigators with appointments. Probably
the hardest was when our good friend D. told me that he was not
interested anymore in learning about religion and making a change in
his life. That made me pretty sad, but I asked him to promise me that
in the future when he has the desire that he will talk to the Anziani.
So hopefully he will have that desire in the future. But we are doing our
best to move the work forward and find new investigators. The biggest
miracle that we saw this week was on Saturday though. We had an entire
day of finding and so that morning my companion and I felt like we
should go down a certain street to go to the park instead of going our
normal way. As we were walking and talking to people we look over and
there is G. (the golden investigator who dropped us a few months ago)
standing across the street waving at us. I haven't seen him for about a month
now. We were able to go over and talk to him and we invited him to
church and he accepted. It made me so happy as he walked into church
yesterday and then afterwards he asked us to meet in the park that
night. We were able to go and have a good talk with him about how he
is doing and yes, we understand that he has accepted to be Evanglist
but it would also be really great if he started reading the Book of
Mormon again and things like that. At the end he accepted to meet with
us again on the condition that we study from the Bible in Corinthians
and Romans and talk about the letters from Paul and specific things that he doesn't
understand.. Ohhh boyyyyy, that's going to be interesting; I really
hope that lesson goes well. Looking back on the past few days though,
it was a blessing and again a testimony builder to me that we were
guided and led to go on that street so that we could meet with
G. The spirit is real and I just hope and pray that things go
well with this lesson.

Some funny/sweet experiences this week-

As Anziano Young and I were walking along in Centro heading back to
our house we see this huge tall black guy that is probably like 7ish
feet tall and these Italians standing by him taking pictures. (Here in
Brindisi there is a really good basketball team who are in Seria A.) I
wanted to talk to him so bad and I was just like “Hey man, are you
American?" He looked back and was like "Yeah bro, I am from Washington
D.C but I grew up in Arlington, Texas." Sooo SICKK, so he grew up like 30
minutes away from my house and is here playing basketball for
Brindisi. That was cool, and it was nice to hear English too.

While talking to G., he started to explain how he is going to be
opening up a restaurant next year and he wanted me to come work for
him. This restaurant is on the beach and it's like a sea food place
for "200ish" people. Lolol I tried explain how I am going back home
after the mission and that I am going to school but I don't think he
really liked that answer. His only response was like, “But it would be
great working together you and I.. Brothers.. Christian Brothers...”
Ummm… no, sorry man, but that's not happening.

So these past three days there have been a lot of people here in
Brindisi because of the Festa of San Teodoro... He is basically the
"Saint" here in Brindisi. I don't really understand the full story or
why there is a party but the whole city is decked out with lights and
lots of tourists come. We have been able to talk to a lot of different
people and a few days ago we met some of the people that come to our English
course. They're these younger 14-ish girls and I have no idea how or
why but they have found my younger brother Gav on Instagram and so now
all of them are talking about him and so that's going to be
interesting...Especially because Brindisi is small and so I wonder if
he will become famous here soon;)

The other experience is we were able to talk to this Italian family
who hosts people from America to have a cultural experience and so we
were able to meet this girl from Canada and while we were talking to
them, they told me to ask the little daughter (who was like two years
old) for a high five in English (because the kids are learning). As I
held out my hand she instead leaned forward and kissed my cheek. It
was super cute; the kids here are so funny and super nice.

So that's an update on my week. We are working hard. Anziano Young is
progressing really well and is a stud. While we were having a lesson
with some lady on a park bench, one of our other friends came up to talk
to us.. It was just as we were getting into the First Vision and so what Anziano Young
does is stands up and puts his arm around the friend and walks him away so I
can keep having the lesson and so the friend doesn't feel neglected. It was sick and I was proud of him. He's a beast.

Okay, so for my spiritual thought I wanted to share something from the
book of Acts in the Bible. I think this scripture is pretty powerful
and a really good example of something that I want to remember
throughout my mission..

40 And to him they agreed: and when they had called the apostles, and
beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of
Jesus, and let them go.

41 ¶And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that
they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.

42 And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to
teach and preach Jesus Christ.

Especially these past few weeks and in recent days we have been doing a
lot of finding. I am grateful and want to rejoice that I can suffer
persecution and shame for the name of Jesus Christ for it is his name
that I bear and it is his name of which I am a representative. I know
that he lives and I am grateful to be a missionary and stand with the
prophets in the scriptures to declare this great truth to those here
in Brindisi.

I love you all so much!!!

Anziano Spencer