Week 94: April 24 (Roma)

Mizzica*

*[Tristan never explained the title of his letter this time, and it’s an Italian term I didn’t know, so I looked it up. “Mizzica” is an expression of surprise, like “Holy Cow!” or “No way!” or something like that. However, it’s also the name of a hotel in Catania (where he was last week) and a pastry shop in Rome (note the pastry below). Your guess as to which meaning he’s referring to!]

Hey everyone! I hope y’all had such a great week. We are finally back in Rome and we have finished our Zone Conference rounds; it’s going to be great staying in Rome and being able to really focus on our work here. It has been absolutely incredible to travel around the mission and do trainings. Like I said in my last letter, we went to Catania last Monday and were there for two days, after which we drove to Palermo through Sicily. It was an amazing drive and brought back so many memories of being in Sicily and busing through those roads to go to DDM's [district meetings] from Trapani. It was also so great because in Catania I was able to see Anziano Berger (who was my companion three transfers ago) and Anziano Young (who I was able to train), both of whom are incredible missionaries who I have learned so much from. For Pday today we are planning on going to play calcio [soccer], which I am super pumped about, and hopefully we will have time to see the Trevi fountain. It’s going to be awesome.

Last Monday was great. We ended up arriving in Catania at around noon and going straight to the ward barbeque that they were holding. No one had told us, so we didn’t bring extra clothes to change into. We ended up playing a really fun game of volleyball with the ward and missionaries, while at the same time I was trying to not rip my pants because that would have been terrible for the rest of the week. The members there in Catania were so crazy and fun! I loved it. Right when we got there they sat us down and just filled our plates up with lasagna and all different types of meat. Just to give you an idea of how fun/crazy they were, I was eating my food and talking to Anziano Berger and the bishop (who was around 35ish years old) comes up and sticks his 5-month-old baby in my arms and just walks away.... Ummmm what?! I am not supposed to be holding children on my mission and all the missionaries were looking at me like, “What is going on?” Hahah! But there wasn't anything I could do with his child because I was just sitting there and there was no one to give him to, so yeah... Luckily after a few minutes some of the members started yelling at the bishop, saying that he had left his child with an elder, and he came and got his boy. That night I was able to have a great exchange with an elder named Anziano Rodriguez, from Peru. He has a powerful testimony of Jesus Christ and so it was a really fun time to serve together and go and find people. 

After Zone Conference the next day, we drove around 3-4 hours to Palermo. It was so great to go back there after about a year. It brought back a lot of memories of when I had served there with Anziani Garrett/Olsen, Palazzo and Trejo. I was able to do two scambios [exchanges], which was great. I had a lot of fun that Wednesday afternoon, being able to serve with Anziano Bently and his friend named Dennis (a member there planning on serving a mission). We went out and had a good time finding together. I loved being in Palermo because everyone is so open and willing to talk to you. Literally, no one told us no, and we were able to tell so many people about the Book of Mormon and teach from it. One of my favorite moments was when we were doing finding across from the main opera house in the city center and we saw some other missionaries doing a gesso (the thing with the bed sheet and the chalk). They were kinda crowded around the sheet and not talking to a lot of people, so I was able to go bring two of them with me and talk to this guy that was sitting on one of the seats near it. He explained that he was agnostic but that he would really like to find the truth. We then read with him in Alma 32, which talks about growing faith as a seed but how we have to plant that seed first. He accepted what we were teaching him and then we were able to give him the Book of Mormon. He then expressed his interest in meeting missionaries up in Milano, which will be great. My most favorite part of it all was walking back to the gesso and looking over with the other two missionaries that I was with and seeing that he had opened to the title page of the Book of Mormon and had already started to read. It was powerful and a good experience for us. The next day was Zone Conference, which was our last time giving our addestramento [training]. I hope it went really well and we are seeing the fruits from it. We have gotten more messages from the missionaries in the mission letting us know that they are putting into practice what we taught and that it’s working, so that has been a really cool miracle! I love so much being able to interact with the missionaries. I had a great time talking with Anziano Haws (who served up here in Rome and who says I am his Godfather...hahaha I don’t even know what that means) and talking to the two missionaries that are now serving in Trapani and seeing how the branch/work is doing. After Conference, we took a plane and got back to Rome at around 11 o'clock that night. 

As for our work, things are going really well. We were able to meet our main investigator’s girl friend, who is super nice. She has kinda been against him meeting with the missionaries and so it was awesome to be able to meet with her and just introduce ourselves. Something else that we have been doing is we are trying more house to house [door-to-door tracting]. We are doing our best to find a family and so we are hoping that we can find a family at home who is ready for the gospel. It’s been fun trying something new because I am pretty used to talking to people on the street or parks. We will see how it goes this week! We also were able to meet with one of the American families from the ward and eat with them at their house. It was so awesome to eat Mexican enchiladas and to be able to get to know them more. They have a son that is 16 years old, so it reminded me of being around my little brother and we talked about with them about how we want to take him out and do some missionary work. This week we will be able to do that, which will be great. Unfortunately, while we were driving home from the appointment, I [ended up getting really sick] (editor’s note: you’re welcome—I just edited that nastiness right out for you readers!).  It was terrible hahah but Anziano Battaglia and I had a good laugh about it. We then got home and I was feeling awful and so I slept for a while and luckily I am now feeling a lot better! Anzaino Battaglia was able to give me a blessing, which just again reminded me of how grateful I am for the priesthood and how it truly does have the power to heal. I feel a lot better today, so I hope everything goes well with calcio!!

Well, I love y’all so much!! Thank you so much for your support and prayers! For my spiritual thought I just want to share some insights from what we have been sharing about the Book of Mormon. There is this quote from Ezra Taft Benson that says,

"The Book of Mormon is the great standard we are to use. It shows that Joseph Smith was a prophet. It contains the words of Christ, and its great mission is to bring men to Christ and all other things are secondary. The golden question of the Book of Mormon is 'Do you want to learn more of Christ?' The Book of Mormon is the great finder of the golden contact. It does not contain things which are “pleasing unto the world” (1 Ne. 6:5), and so the worldly are not interested in it. It is a great sieve."

I love this so much, because it shows again the power of using the Book of Mormon in everything. Something that I have noticed through my mission, especially about myself, is when people ask me questions about what I believe, I always just tell them the answer immediately. Like "Who is God?" Or "Why are there bad things in the world if God loves us?” But, what I have come to understand is that we should first direct people with these questions to the scriptures to help them find out the answers for themselves, because then it gives greater clarity as to why we need/read the Book of Mormon. For example, “Why are there bad things?” Going first to 2 Nephi 2:11 or other scriptures and explaining there is a need for opposition in all things makes sense to people. This then helps everyone that we talk to understand that to find the answers, we can use the Keystone of what God has given us and read the Book of Mormon and find the answers for ourselves; it truly does teach and testify of Christ to those golden contacts.

I love y’all so much and I hope you have a great week!!!!

Vi voglio bene!

Anziano Spencer 

Tristan said to note the "volcano in the background" (I'm assuming this is Mt. Vesuvius).

At the BBQ last Monday (local elders were more appropriately dressed for the volleyball game!).
Anziano Berger, former comp, is next to Tristan.

Italian BBQ

Catania

Cannoli? Is this the Mizzica?

With former comp, Anziano Berger.

With former comp, Anziano Young.

Traveling to Palermo. 

Palermo...maybe this restaurant is Mizzica?

Is this ball thing Mizzica?

At Palermo Zone Conference.

Love this shot of these two companions!

Dinner with the Pickerds!

Heading back to Rome.

Rome countryside...possibly the scene of the "incident" edited out above...??? :-/

Week 93: April 17 (Roma)

PALERMO/CATANIA

Hey everyone! I hope y'all had a great week and an awesome Easter. As of right now I am typing this on a train on the way to the airport. We have a flight that we need to catch this morning to go down to Catania, where we will be greeted by the Zone Leaders (Anziano Berger and Anziano Bertoldo, both of whom are my really good friends, so I am excited). We will be there for tonight and tomorrow and then we will drive across Sicily to Palermo. It will be really interesting to be back there because I left from Palermo about a year ago. I am really excited to go and work in Sicily again and see the missionaries there. We will get back to Rome on Thursday night, so it’s going to be a fast but really rewarding few days!

This week was incredible. It went by extremely fast as we went to Bari, where we met up with two missionaries there at the station and immediately went off to go and do some finding. I was able to work with Anziano Whitaker, who is from my MTC group and is a really good missionary. We had a good zone conference there and then drove to Taranto where we had a good scambio with the missionaries in that zone. One huge miracle that I saw is as we were walking down the streets in Taranto, President Miccoli (my old Branch President from Brindisi, who is from Taranto but drives every Sunday to Brindisi because he was called as a branch president there) pulls up on the side of the road as we were doing finding and gets out and gives me a huge hug. It was a really joyful experience for the both of us. He was just on the way to the store to get some groceries, so it was definitely a miracle and a great experience. I don't know how much of a "coincidence" it could be, seeing your old branch president from Brindisi within an hour of arriving in a different city that is as big as Taranto. I enjoyed working with the missionaries in Taranto. One of them told me that this was the most he has ever talked to people on his mission after we got done working together. I am not saying that to brag or anything... but I am writing that because the missionaries here have such an incredible potential, and it’s awesome to help them discover that and get over their fear of talking to people.

After Taranto we drove to Napoli…probably my most favorite city of my mission. The pollution was super high, the smell was pretty bad, and I just felt like I was right at home again. [Ok, wait. Editor’s note: this does not describe his true home, here in FM!] I love Napoli so much. I was able to do a scambio with Anziano Faranoti who is from the north of Italy. We had a great time together and we made a goal to find 2 new investigators and 4 contacts from it and we did! It was super fun to work back in my old area. I love the people of Napoli--they are all so crazy! Anziano Battaglia and I, of course, bought a Napoli pizza as well, which was delicious. The best part of being in Napoli (other than the zone conference and seeing my former comps Anziano Brown and Morlock) was on Wednesday night; Anziano Friedman and I were able to go find the family that I worked with a lot when I was in Napoli. Two of the little girls were baptized that we worked with a lot. I was really close with this family and it was sad when I got transferred because I was not able to say good-bye and they took it pretty hard as well. So Anziano Friedman and I headed out to their house, but when we got there they were not home... after waiting for a while we headed over to her sister's house and managed to get through the gate, but they were not home either. I was starting to get nervous at this point because I really wanted to see them so badly, but I was running out of time. We ended up talking to the sister’s neighbors and they directed us to the grocery store. As we were heading to the grocery store, someone started screaming my name and then sprinted up to me. It was the mom!!! I honestly don't know how we met up other than saying it was a miracle because we were walking through the streets trying to find them and we ended up crossing paths!! She was so happy and brought me to go see her children, L. and J. It was a super happy reunion and probably one of the most special nights of my mission, being able to see them and hear that they are still reading the Book of Mormon, hear them pray, and see that they are doing so well. They actually are in the process of moving houses because there were complications with the house and basically the owner said that the mom couldn't go to church anymore with her children, or have the missionaries over. So, the family ended up moving. It was super special to see them and something that I will never forget. While I was in Napoli, I was also able to see Fratello Grandulli, (Genni's father), President Amodio, and Fratello Granata (who I spent Christmas Eve with); they were all in the church, so that was a really happy reunion as well.

As for the work, things are going well. Our main investigator is doing well and is coming to church! We will be doing another Skype lesson with him this week and we are really happy to see him progress. We also were able to perform some service for this family in our ward in their huge yard. I absolutely loved being able to work out in the yard again doing yardwork. I never thought I would say this, but it is something that I miss a lot. The father of the family ended up coming to church the next day, which was great because he is not a member but he is really supportive of his family. I have a lot of respect for him. 

Easter Sunday was great. We ended up doing some finding which was awesome. I love being here and testifying that Christ lives! 

For my spiritual thought I wanted to share some from the Doctrine and Covenants (a book of modern revelations given to prophets by Jesus Christ). This is found in section 18 and it is instructing the prophet about the church. I like to think about how this can relate to me as a missionary. 

10 Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God;

11 For, behold, the Lord your Redeemer suffered death in the flesh; wherefore he suffered the pain of all men, that all men might repent and come unto him.

12 And he hath risen again from the dead, that he might bring all men unto him, on conditions of repentance.

13 And how great is his joy in the soul that repenteth!

14 Wherefore, you are called to cry repentance unto this people.

15 And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!

16 And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!

This week I seriously had so much joy in being able to see my missionary brothers, my good friends from other cities, and being able to see that they are all doing so great! This scripture has really come true for me and I am so grateful for this time I have to "call repentance" and invite others to come unto Christ in his restored church because He lives and loves us!

Vi voglio un sacco di bene!!

Anziano Spencer 

Taranto Zone Conference

Taranto Zone Conference 

With Anziano Osmond on the right, as if that weren't obvious!!

Miraculous meeting with former Brindisi branch president on the side of the road!

I"m guessing this is leadership training.

Traveling from Taranto to Napoli.

Yummy Napolitano pizza 

Tristan introduced this young man to the gospel in Brindisi and he was later baptized after Tristan left. Happy reunion!!!

The beloved family mentioned above that Tristan miraculously found during his short visit to Napoli.

Napoli Zone Conference

Napoli Zone Conference 

With former comp, Anziano Morlock. 

With some crazies, apparently.

With MTC comp, Anziano Brown.

Week 92: April 10 (Roma)

Zone Conferences!

Hey everyone! I want y'all to know that I am doing very well. Thank you for your love and support. Today we had zone conference in Bari, after which we drove here to Taranto. The Zone Conference rounds are going really well; I love being with all the missionaries. Last week it was incredible to fly to Sardegna, and then have the Rome conference after that. I have learned so much from the missionaries and being around them. I was able to do some scambi [exchanges] with some missionaries and one in particular was great. His name was Anziano Dunn. I love doing scambi and hearing the missionaries says, “This is the best day of my mission!!" We had a fun time together and learned a lot.

As for the work, things are going well. It’s been an interesting thing to balance--we might try to Skype some of our investigators to still teach them even when we are out of town. We don't get back until Friday and so we are doing our best to stay in touch. Two of them came to church, which was awesome. Something that we have really been trying to do when talking to people on the street, instead of responding to their questions with our own thoughts, is to go right into the scriptures. Right into the Book of Mormon. We have seen a lot of success with it and saw a great miracle from it a few days ago. I was talking to a couple about the Trinity and instead of just telling them what we believe, we read in 3 Nephi 11 about when God presented Jesus Christ, His son, to the people. It was really powerful. They accepted a copy and want to meet again. 

Well, I love you all. I am so excited to go to Napoli this week; it's going be be great. I love teaching people here in Italy. I love being a missionary! It's a special thing to teach our trainings during zone conference and then getting a text later from the missionaries telling us the success that they have had from doing what we taught. 

I know Jesus Christ is our Savior. What a great privilege we have to celebrate his resurrection this week during Easter!

I love you all!!

Anziano Spencer 

(Note: Tristan sent lots of pics without any kind of explanation. I think many of the other elders in the pics are from his MTC district (when he was learning Italian back in UT, along with others he has served with in the past. Also, you can clearly see the travel shots from their trip to Sardegna. And then there are some zone conference shots. The largest group is the double zone conference in Rome.)

Tristan's cousin, Anziano Ethan Cannon!