Week 62: September 12 (Brindisi)

ROME

Hey family!! Alright, so this week I am super excited because just like
I said in my last letter, we are going to Rome for a big mission
conference. We will be leaving on Wednesday and taking a train up
there and that night we will be working in Rome, probably doing some
gessos (with the bed sheet and talking to people) or some other things
so I am really excited. And then that night we will be sleeping in the
Mission Villa (which I found out is Mussolini's old house that's Soo
sick) and then we have the conference on Thursday. Elder Kearon is
coming to speak to us so I am pretty excited to hear what he has
prepared and also I think it's going to be cool to see some of my old
companions like Anziano Brown from the MTC and Anziano Olsen.
Unfortunately there are two conferences and so all my old companions
will be in the one in Sicily, so I won't be able to see them. But, it
will be fun to see everyone still up in Rome! Then after the
conference we are taking a train back to good old Brindisi and
everything goes back to normal.

This week has been really good. The one thing that has made it
interesting is that it has rained every single day. And not just like a
light rain but it has been pouring basically non-stop. Like don't get
me wrong, rain is great and I love thunder and lightning--when I get
to stay inside... Being outside is a different thing. Today was fun as
we were carrying our groceries home in the river of a street lol
walking with the water up to my shins. So I am kinda ready for the
rain to stop and I think it finally will this week. Nevertheless it
was still a sick week and we saw a lot of miracles. One of the
miracles that I wanted to tell y'all about is our investigator D.
who we met a few weeks ago. I don't know if I have mentioned him
before, but he is pretty sick to be honest. He has studied theology and lots of
different religions because he is searching for the truth, so he is a
smart guy and he knows the Bible. He came to church yesterday as well
and participate,d so that made me really happy. We invited him to be
baptized and he accepted but he told us how he will not be getting
baptized for us just because we are friends.. He said he only will if
he knows that this is true... Perfect, because that's exactly what we
want anyway. One of the cool things that I saw with him is after one
of our first lessons…(So to help you understand he is not atheist,
but he does not believe there is a God. He believes that there is
something and that it could be God but he wants to have answers and he
is searching and so we have been working with him to help him realize
that God really does exist and that he loves us so he has restored his
church on the earth using the Book of Mormon.) So one of the first
lessons at the end he looks at us and he says, "So you guys believe
that this is the Word of God, do you?" "yes" "Okay.. Well then what I
want to do is we are going to say the closing prayer and then after
the prayer I am going to flip the Book of Mormon open and you, Anziano
Spencer, are going to point to a verse and we will read from there and
see if it's important for me.." Ohhh boy…! So I looked at Anziano
Young and said, "Say a really good prayer because we need it." After
the prayer D. flipped right open to Alma 22 and I scanned it as
fast as I could and picked verse 7-12. Here is what it says:

7 And Aaron answered him and said unto him: Believest thou that there
is a God? And the king said: I know that the Amalekites say that there
is a God, and I have granted unto them that they should build
sanctuaries, that they may assemble themselves together to worship
him. And if now thou sayest there is a God, behold I will believe.

8 And now when Aaron heard this, his heart began to rejoice, and he
said: Behold, assuredly as thou livest, O king, there is a God.

9 And the king said: Is God that Great Spirit that brought our fathers
out of the land of Jerusalem?

10 And Aaron said unto him: Yea, he is that Great Spirit, and he
created all things both in heaven and in earth. Believest thou this?

11 And he said: Yea, I believe that the Great Spirit created all
things, and I desire that ye should tell me concerning all these
things, and I will believe thy words.

12 And it came to pass that when Aaron saw that the king would believe
his words, he began from the creation of Adam, reading the scriptures
unto the king--how God created man after his own image, and that God
gave him commandments, and that because of transgression, man had
fallen.

He finished reading and we just kinda looked at him and were like
trying to remain calm because that was probably the most perfect
scripture that he could have read and I was just like "hai visto?”  [Have you seen?] So
things are going well with him; we hope that he keeps progressing and
keeps coming to church.

Gods Power is doing well too; meeting with him is fun. He kinda goes
off sometimes and starts preaching too which I love. For example while
we were talking about sanctifying ourselves for God and what we can
do, he holds up his phone and is like, "You see this phone? Without the
Bible on this phone it's a stone.. Do you understand? The Bible, the
word of God, needs to be on here or this is a stone... It's worthless."
The best…!!

The other thing that happened this week is I was able to do a scambio
with Anziano Raimondi from Lecce. He is a sick missionary and we had a
good time working together even though we were out in the rain for
most of the time. Even still, we were able to teach people the
Restoration on the street. That is something that our mission
president and our leaders are really pushing for right now: teaching
people on the street and even leaving them with a prayer. It works
really well and we have met a lot of really cool people from it. So Anziano Raimondi 

and I were doing this to try to find new investigators
because we need them. Something that I learned from him is how bold he
is with people, even when they are not interested. As we were talking
with people, if they said they were not interested, he would be like,
"Why not?" And just keep talking lolol. As we finished up our scambio
we ended up having a really big problem because all of the trains were
closed from rain water covering the tracks.
There were people waiting everywhere and it took us about 2 hours to
get back down to Lecce, which is just 30 minutes away. We were anxious 

 to get there because Anziano Raimondi had to be at the
church to be set apart as a counselor in the branch presidency.
Getting back was even worse and so after waiting for 2 hours again and
searching for a train or a bus we ended up taking a taxi with some
German woman who were going to Brindisi. We were able to talk more
about the church with her which was cool, and then even the taxi
driver, who looked like a huge, ripped Native American, we talked to
about coming to church. In the end we were just really glad to get
back home and so we are just hoping the train situation is okay for
Wednesday when we need to go to Rome.

So for my spiritual thought I wanted to share a scripture that really
came true for me yesterday that is found in Doctrine and Covenants 100
(which additional scripture that we use that was revelation give to
Joseph Smith.. continuing revelation for our day today):

5 Therefore, verily I say unto you, lift up your voices unto this
people; speak the thoughts that I shall put into your hearts, and you
shall not be confounded before men;

6 For it shall be given you in the very hour, yea, in the very moment,
what ye shall say.

7 But a commandment I give unto you, that ye shall declare whatsoever
thing ye declare in my name, in solemnity of heart, in the spirit of
meekness, in all things.

8 And I give unto you this promise, that inasmuch as ye do this the
Holy Ghost shall be shed forth in bearing record unto all things
whatsoever ye shall say.

Yesterday we were out doing about 4 hours of finding and we were able
to have some really good conversations with people and teach them
about the Restoration. As we were talking to these two 22-year-old
guys, one of them asked me a question that I hadn't really thought of
before and as I started to answer, I was able to explain it to where
the question that he asked and the answer that I gave made sense.
Basically what I am trying to say is I didn't know how to respond but
as I opened my mouth to respond "it was given to me in the very moment
of what I shall say" and I was able to respond to their question and
now they are meeting with us tomorrow. I really hope that our meeting
goes well!! I know that these scriptures are true and that as we open
our mouths to our friends, family, and neighbors we will not be
confounded, we will know what to say and invite others to partake of the gospel
with which we have been blessed!!

Vi Voglio  BENE!!!

Anziano Spencer

After the rain