Week 90: Mar 27 (Roma)

Note: click the link on the right (Pickerd's Italy Rome Mission) to see pictures of the installation of the Angel Moroni on the Rome temple.

JAMAICA

Hey everyone! I hope y'all are doing well. This week was an incredible week that went by really fast. This last Tuesday we were able to take the missionaries to the airport because they had finished their missions and so it was really special to talk to them and hear what advice they had. That Monday night we were all staying at the mission home together and they bore their testimonies about their missions... it was really impactful to hear their experiences and for them to talk about the Holy Ghost, love, and charity for other people. Wednesday morning Anziano Battaglia and I had the opportunity to go to the airport and pick up the new missionaries that were coming in... once they got in we took them to the temple to get pictures in front of it (the angel Moroni was placed on top of the temple on Saturday, ohhh baby!!) after which we headed to the mission home. There we had them settle in for about 10 minutes [editor’s note: Wow! 10 whole minutes…not too much settling in] and then Anziano Battaglia and I took them out to go do a giro [tour] around Rome.. IT WAS SO FUN, going to the Colosseum, Vittorio Emanuele, and a massive church because we were talking to a bunch of people. All along the way, we were talking and teaching people about the Book of Mormon and the Restoration so that the new missionaries could get used to that. They had such greenie fire, it was incredible... the same power and spirit the the departing missionaries had from Monday--just not kinda guided and controlled yet. It was really awesome to see the contrast. It was also funny because they were just all over the place with the questions about Italy: from what my favorite city is to what my favorite fruit is... I loved it haha. 

The next few days after that were pretty intense as we did a few trainings and prepared the new missionaries, and then transfer day happened!! It was incredible how much stuff we have to do that I didn't even realize went on before I was called here with Anziano Battaglia. We drove around most of the day picking up missionaries and dropping them off. We also drove to Terni to drop off some bunk beds for the missionaries and were there for a max of 3 minutes before turning around and driving back to Rome to meet with President Pickerd. Saturday and Sunday were much more tranquillo [peaceful/calm] and we were able to see some of our investigators!! We are working with a half Jamaican family who are members but the husband isn't. We had a great time with the family yesterday, and Jamaican curry is amazing!!!

There are two other elders living in the house with us. One of them is Anziano LaRussa, who I have wanted to be with my entire mission, and so that has been really fun. The other is Anziano Cates, who we picked up from the airport last week! All of them are wrestlers, including my companion, so that has been super cool. Well, I love you guys so much!! I have to go now and I apologize for the lack of time and small email! Just know I am doing extremely well, loving being a missionary, and loving Italy!

Vi voglio un mondo di bene!

Anziano Spencer 

Taking departing missionaries to the airport.

New missionaries getting the lay of the land.

Transfer day!

Yep, that's a live cat tied to this guy's neck. Wow. That's one way to transport it. 

President and Sister Pickerd, with Anziani Spencer and Battaglia.

That's Tristan behind, getting the gate.
That thing is just a bit larger to drive than the Nissan Sentra.

Week 89: Mar 20 (Roma)

Editor's note: Tristan doesn’t ever specify below, but he was just called to be an AP (assistant to the mission president). I share that with you because he will need extra prayers for safety (he will be driving as he mentions below [super terrifying for mama], and also traveling all over the mission). Additionally, his letters may be sporadic or even non-existent. He sent this tidbit after he sent the letter below: "I will have a Pday next week but after that I won’t really have one for the next month, so I will do my best to send letters as best as I can. In two weeks I am going to fly to Sardegna to start the trainings/zone conferences and then I will be traveling all over Italy doing that so it will will be pretty intense.” He said when he was called that he felt "nervous and inadequate, but also excited."

I love you guys!! I am sorry these are probably going to be getting shorter and shorter. Know I love y'all!!

Anziano Battaglia

Hey everyone! I hope you are all doing so well!! I just want to let all of y'all know that I love being a missionary so much and this experience is incredible. I know that I have less than 3 months left but I am doing my best to work my hardest and to keep learning and growing my testimony. I have actually been transfered but it’s pretty cool because I am still serving in Rome, and actually in my same district! My new companion is Anziano Battaglia and honestly he is incredible. He is 24 and just a straight up stud/beast in every single way…literally his last name translates to “battle" from Italian. He has already taught me so many things in these few short days that we have been together and I can’t wait to keep learning from him. I admire him a lot too because he is a convert of only 3 years and is constantly studying to learn more. I am really excited for this transfer and for what it brings.

This week is going to be pretty different because as part of my new calling for this upcoming transfer I get to go and pick up the new missionaries coming in and drop off the older missionaries at the airport to head home. I am already figuring out how to drive in Rome which has been pretty interesting as well. It’s kinda like driving in downtown Dallas during rush hour with motorcycles all driving everywhere. It’s been pretty fun haha. On Wednesday the new missionaries come in and Anziano Battaglia and I have the amazing opportunity to take them around Rome and do some proselyting with them. I am seriously super excited! After that there will be some meeting and trainings. I am really excited to see what this upcoming transfer brings!

As part of my spiritual thought I just want to share a couple thoughts I have from talking to some of the missionaries that will be returning home. It’s actually been a really cool thing to be with them, and to hear from their experiences. They are powerful missionaries that bring an incredible spirit when we talk. The underlying theme that most of them tell me when I ask for their advice is to have charity and love for everyone: to love everyone and serve them because I want to help them. I love that.

I love you all so much!! 

Vi voglio un mondo di bene!

Anziano Spencer 

Danny and Nicole (Tristan's aunt and uncle) turned up in Tristan's church meeting in Rome on Sunday! #blessingsofchurchattendance

Tristan and Nicole. 

With new companion, Anziano Battaglia. 

Week 88: Mar 13 (Roma)

MA SCUSA EH

Hey family! I hope that you are having a great spring break at home. It’s starting to get warmer here in Rome which has been really nice. Today for Pday we are planning to go with our district to this Via Appia street which apparently is like the first street that was created here in Rome. Also, we are going to go check out some catacombs, and go to this big park to play some frisbee. The thing that is also really cool is this Via Appia street connects Rome all the way down to Brindisi, which is where I was serving 4 transfers ago. The church there is found on Via Appia.. pretty interesting.. I am super excited. It is going to be a lot of fun. Also, this week I will be able to do an exchange with Anziano Haws who is such a stud. He is only in his 2nd transfer, so I am really excited to work and with and learn from him. 

This week has been pretty interesting in many different ways. The really cool thing is Anziano Kolsen and I have definitely found our MOJO together which has been great. We have a lot of fun together because we get along really well, but we also work really hard. Our finding has been awesome and teaching has gone really well too. Unfortunately, one of the tough things from this week is a lot of our investigators have stopped meeting with us for different reasons. One of them (who we seriously thought was going to be baptized this next week) got into some heavy anti-Mormon stuff online and he has decided to not meet with us anymore. We tried our best to help him understand that what he read was not true, but he unfortunately has made his decision. It was really sad because before this he had really started to change his life and see improvement but then he believed more what he read online on sites that were not true than what we, as true witnesses, were telling him. A simple example of our last lesson is this from our investigator: "I read that basically this church is going to control me... to let it take away my all my freedom and happiness..." (ummm completely not true) and my companion (who is a beast and also the kinda guy that does not let anyone boss him around or tell him what to do) looks at him and just says, "Look at me man... do I look like some who would let anyone.. anyone boss me around or control me?" Our investigator started laughing and was like "yeah you’re right, no..." and then I looked at him and said, "now look at me.. do I look like I am not happy? That I am not free??" He looked at me and then started to smile, realizing that honestly what he read online was just not true, but sadly he has remained firm with his decision and he is not meeting with us anymore. For anyone wanting to learn more about our religion I invite all to search at Mormon.org or lds.org because that is where you will find our right information... the other sights apparently explain that we are not happy people. Now, anyone who knows me knows that that right there is automatically a false accusation and so I just pray that our investigator will eventually come back and all will search the right things online to find the correct information.

Another one of our investigators (the one that we found and brought to the party at the YSA/GANS center a few weeks ago) has found a job in Germany and moved there yesterday. He is willing to still meet with the missionaries in Berlin so hopefully things will start to progress for him while he is there and feel the spirit to confirm this truth. 

We have been doing a lot of finding which has been good. There is a really cool place that we have found that is very successful. It’s close to another college in Rome and every time we have gone we have found some people that have been interested. We were able to meet with this one really cool guy on Saturday that brought two of his friends to the lesson! They had a ton of questions for us that we were able to answer and then explain the Restoration. They are really curious for right now but they are not sure how much they want to commit. We will be seeing them this next Saturday and I really hope it goes well.  I have really enjoyed doing finding when we are able to do splits and go with members as well. This last week I was able to go out with Jonathan Calvagna [returned missionary] which was so great. Even though we only had about an hour together it was still great. His energy is incredible and it was cool to be able to go with him and talk to people. I love seeing the change from both of us--especially from me—because the first time we were together was my first transfer in the mission. Now I can talk to people a lot better and work a lot better with him. The mission change is great.

For my spiritual thought I wanted to share something that I read this week that I loved, and really helped me. I forgot what talk it was that I was reading since I copied it in Italian... I apologize that this isn't in English.

"Il Signore ha dichiarato: “E dovete essere istruiti dall’alto. Santificatevi e sarete investiti di potere, affinché possiate dare proprio come ho detto”. La parola santificatevi può sembrare poco chiara. Il presidente Harold B. Lee una volta ha spiegato che possiamo sostituire questa parola con la frase “Osservate i miei comandamenti”. Letto così, il consiglio sembra più chiaro."

I love this quote a lot.. basically what it is teaching is that the Lord has declared for us to sanctify ourselves. But sometimes this word doesn't seem very clear, and so Harold B. Lee (a prophet) basically declared that this word can mean to simply observe the commandments...  super simple, but I know as I am more sanctified as I observe the commandments of God and that I will have his blessings and that I will feel the spirit more. Especially at the end of my mission I have these thoughts always about what I can do more and so this was a good reminder to just simply do what I have been striving to do my whole mission. Observe the commandments of God, especially the rules that we have in the mission, and I am blessed with miracles. Simple... but very powerful.

Well, I love you guys so much!! I hope y'all have a great week!

Anziano Spencer

P.S I got bit by a wolf pup last week. Not gonna lie, I think it’s pretty sweet. More like nibbled, but still haha.

Investigator mentioned above who moved to Germany.

With very stylish and awesome member, Abraham.

Via Appia, first street in Rome, that connects all the way to Brindisi, incredibly.

With Anziano Haws, mentioned above, and a bit of Anziano Kolsen!

With Anziano Kolsen at Via Appia.

Week 87: Mar 6 (Roma)

(Don't miss all the pics at the bottom!)

AMO ITALIA! [I love Italy!]

Hey everyone!! I am sorry for the short email from last week. I hope that y'all are doing well. Things have been going really well here in Rome. Today for Pday we are going to a park with all the Elders in our district to play a game that we call speed ball, which is basically like frisbee and calcio [soccer] combined, so it’s going a lot of fun. We then are planning on going to a big mall that is really close to where the temple is being built so it’s going to be great.  Tonight, as normal, we have our family night at the GANS campus so I am really hoping that some of our investigators come. 

This week was honestly so great. Yesterday was the highlight because we had the first YSA sacrament meeting that was held in the center. It was such a cool experience. So basically what happened is all of the GANS ([giovanni adulti non-sposati] or: young single adults) in our entire area (which covers all of Rome, the surrounding region, and also NAPOLI!!!) went to their own wards in the morning and then in the afternoon they all came to the center to eat at 3:00. After the meal, we had a sacrament meeting and Sunday School at 4:00 and 5:00. It was the first time that this has ever happened in Italy with all the GANS being all together for sacrament meeting, so it was a special experience to be able to be there. We also were able to have some of our investigators there, which was great. Probably one of my most favorite parts was being able to see Jonathan (who I served with in Terni) and then my Napoli family with Genni, Giuseppe, Joelle, Alexa, and Nikita. It was soo good to be able to see all of them and see how they are doing. They told me how Napoli is doing and I found out that Fabio (my great friend who was baptized in the ocean) received the Melchizedek priesthood yesterday and the little girls that I was really close with that were baptized are doing really well and still coming to church! I am so happy that they are doing well. I seriously love hearing about my old friends and seeing how they are doing.

Last Tuesday to Wednesday I was able to do a scambio [swap] with Anziano Battaglia who is our AP [assistant to the president]. He is such a beast; I learned a lot from him and we had a great time. It was cool to see that even though he is AP, he is just working hard and doing his best—not for show to anyone else, but truly for himself and God, which I really admired. We were able to find a person who is a member from South America but moved here 10 years ago and could never find the church. She still listens to hymns every Sunday and was so happy to see us. We got her number and hopefully she will be able to come to church this Sunday with her 15-year-old daughter. We were also able to go and help out at a ward party that was held for carnivale. First off, it was kinda weird being involved in the ward activity with all the families, just because I am normally working with the GANS. It was nice to be able to be around them.. the second thing that was really great is Fratello P. (from Terni!! The guy I would refer to as Tarzan in my letters) was there and he remembered me! He came up to me and just grabbed my hand and started crushing it so hard haha. I started doing the same thing because that's how we bonded when we were back in Terni. It was good to see him even though it has been a year and a half. 

As for the work, we are doing really well. We have seen a lot of progress with one of our investigators, who we are hoping will be baptized in 3 weeks. He is working hard to completely change his life and is really doing well. We have had some great lessons with him and it's cool to see that even though some of the commitments we are leaving with him are difficult to do, he is willing to do them because he just wants to "better his life." That's what he always says to us is that he just wants to "better his life.." Another really cool experience is we have been teaching this guy who actually has never learned how to read in his life. He lives a super humble life and is having some tough difficulties but he had been coming to church and trying to change his life. Something that was really cool to me is when we meet we read a chapter from the Book of Mormon while talking about the power of the Holy Ghost. The first time that we did this he couldn't read anything. Now he can read better and he is improving significantly.. .he said, "nevertheless" a few days ago... ummm what?! The power of the Book of Mormon along with the Spirit is real!

Something else that happened is we got invited to go play a calcio game from some of our investigators. We normally play calcio only on Pday, but we got permission from our mission president to go and see if it would be a successful activity because we were told that it would basically be young adults there.. So we went expecting to play some nice little easy game... ohhh my. That is not what happened at all. We meet at the place and as we are getting to go to the camp [field], these 10 Egyptian guys walk in.. the same 10 Egyptian guys who were kinda talking trash to us as we were walking to the place to meet... the same guys... awesome hahahah. So we start playing and, oh my gosh, it was so intense. The Egyptians were going so hard and we had some Brazilian adults on our team and then some Albanians came.. it was definitely not a nice like “hey, let's be friends and invite you to church and the campus" thing.. it was kinda like a life and death game and so unfortunately we are not sure if anything is going to come out of it. We will see if they come to learn English with us because we were able to talk to one of them about that, but we don't think we will be going back for more soccer with them!

We are still working with one of our member friend’s parents to try to get them to church [the parents are not members]. It’s been pretty tough, but our relationship is growing so I am really excited!! 

Another thing that is really incredible is the how much the one girl has changed from when she followed us to the center. She explained to everyone at the center that she just felt like we had something that she really felt was good... that she wanted to know what it was. That day when we first saw her she decided to quit smoking because she just felt like she should and then ever since she started meeting with the sisters, she has been making huge progress. She would come to the center for hours just because she felt good just talking to all the GANS and just loving everything. She wants to be baptized, but then she moved to Dresden, Germany, so I really hope she continues to take the lessons there. It’s amazing to see how much people can change because of the gospel.

For my spiritual thought I wanted to share some of my thoughts that I have been having on the Plan of Salvation. We were able to teach this plan to one of our investigators who was just soaking the lesson all in like a sponge. It was really cool. I have felt a lot of hapinesss and joy this week just seeing a lot of people that I haven't seen from the mission for a long time, like different friends from my old areas and the joy that I felt when I saw them was so great. It’s great to think about the Plan of Salvation and realize the joy that we will all feel when we see those of our friends and family who have moved on to the next life.. we will be able to see them and be with them forever without any trials or difficulties... what an incredible plan! I love having the opportunity to share this plan with others.

Vi voglio bene!

Anziano Spencer

P.S Our good member friend left for a mini mission this week!! It was so cool because I was able to work with him in the GANS center and now he is going to go to Terni for a few weeks! So sweet!!!

Friend mentioned in the PS who left on the mini-mission.

Great friends from Napoli who came to the GANS center for the combined Sacrament Meeting (worship service).

Tristan really loves these young people--some of his favorite friends from his entire time in Italy!

Especially these two! 

I believe this is an investigator.

Tristan approaching the Pantheon, with his comp taking the pic in the background.

What..lunch at an actual restaurant (thanks, Dad!)!?

OK, these boys are going to need a lot more food than that!

And...there you go!

I think I can guess one reason these cuties were assigned to the young adult center...

With former apartment-mate Jonathan Calvagna, a returned missionary from Italy. They lived together in Tristan's first city, Terni, and he is a great friend...

Clearly!

Former comp Anziano Jensen came up to Rome for a permesso.
 

I mean, seriously. Not a shabby place to spend two years...Viva Italia!

Week 86: Feb 27 (Roma)

VATICANO

Hey everyone! I hope that you have all had a great week. I unfortunately don’t have a lot of time today and so I am going to mention the biggest details. Yesterday we were able to have a lesson with the guy that we were able to find the night of the party at the GANS a few weeks ago. It was such a powerful lesson and even before we started talking about baptism, he mentioned that he wanted to be baptized! We then challenged him to be and I looked at him and asked, "Are you ready to be baptized." He replied, “Yes, I am ready.. I will be ready on the 25th." I responded by saying, "I believe that you will be ready too." First lesson with him and it was incredible! At the end he said, "I don’t feel tired anymore; I just feel good." Wow. I love serving a mission. 

We met a few people a few days ago that we think are trying to convert us to their church. Haha we will see how that goes. They want us to come and play soccer with all of their youth this week which will be great. We will see what happens;) 

Well, I love you all. I love serving a mission and I love being here in Rome!!

Love,

Anziano Spencer 

This is a picture of K's baptism in Brindisi. Tristan and his former comp Anziano Morlock found K, and started teaching him in Brindisi, but he wasn't ready for baptism until after they left. Tristan was thrilled to hear that he decided to be baptized later! He was baptized by the branch president, who Tristan loved.