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!