Week 97: May 15 (Roma)

"Call Me Simba"

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a great Mother's Day! It was so great to be able to talk to my family. It was super exciting but also a little weird at the end of the call saying, "See you in less than a month!" I love my family so much and I am excited to see them so soon, but I am grateful that I have another 4 weeks to serve here in Rome, Italy! As for Pday today, we are going to play Zone Calcio which I am super hyped for. It’s going to be a lot of fun. More than anything, I just like to hang out with the other anziani from the zones because they are some of my closest friends that are still left in the mission. Also, as of last week, the two GANS elders (where I was previously serving) have moved in with us, so we have a six-man house now instead of just a four. It has been super fun and the two missionaries that came in are my absolute bros, so it’s been pretty sweet. 

As for this week, Anziano Draghi and I have been doing a lot of finding. We have been trying really hard to build up the work here just because we were out of town so much last transfer. It is kinda like a cycle building the work up and then hoping that all the investigators we find don’t go away next transfer because we will be traveling too much. That’s kinda what happened this last transfer, so we are really trying to put a focus on finding investigators that want to commit. We had some good success from it and there are two guys that I am really excited about. One of them is a Napolitano guy (Maa people) who works here as a hair cutter. He is actually a refferal from a member and so we passed by and had a great conversation with him. He is a really open guy, and was just recently married this year and said that he is searching for something. He is a believer but has gone around to different churches to find the truth. We were able to explain to him the Restoration and then I was able to tell him the First Vision. When telling the First Vision to people, it is always powerful, but there are some people who you can just feel the spirit so strong with and he was definitely one of them. He held my eye contact the entire time and seriously, the spirit was incredible. I am really excited to work with him. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he said that he will read it together with his wife, so things are looking great with him! 

Another great lesson that we had was with a guy from Germany that we met a few days ago in the park while I was doing a scambio with Anziano Hinkley (who lives with us in our house). This guy is seriously one of the coolest guys that I have met on my mission. Imagine just like a stud-looking guy, young, speaks English perfectly, is traveling around Europe for some time just because he wants to, and also finds religion fascinating. We started talking to him and he was like, “Please, guys, sit down with me.. Do you have time? I love talking about God and these things and I have a lot of questions for you.." Ohhhhh yessss. We started talking to him and it turned into probably the most deep and effective conversation that I have had with a contact in a park. He’s agnostic and has so many questions. I can’t really explain it very well, other than giving a few examples of his questions. Literally as we were explaining about what we believe, he pulled out a notebook and started taking notes and writing things down. He asked us questions like, “Okay, you said that God calls prophets, and that they speak his word. Does that make them Gods? Can they become Gods?.." "Why are there so many different languages in the world if there is one God?" "I really like Inception [the movie with Leonardo DiCaprio]... So let’s make an example.. there are two stages that we can say that we are in right now. The first stage is that we are all in a second dimension and having this conversation, but in reality it’s just a different perspective from our brains, or the second stage is that you both are trying to plant something in my brain so that it grows and I believe.." Ohhhh yesss. Hahaha! I loved his questions and for the last one, we read in Alma 32 how he is the one that plants the seed and lets it grow, but we are just here to explain and show him how he can come closer to Christ. It was a great conversation and hopefully he can meet with us soon to get a copy of the Book of Mormon in German. At the end of the conversation, he thanked us and then said, "I love seeing the fire in your eyes when you talk. You truly believe what you are telling me and I can see it." He then said how he was also grateful that before we responded to his questions, we would think about what we were going to say before just responding immediately. It was really cool. We asked for his name again and he just looks at his and says, "Call me Simba.” WELL, THAT’S LIKE THE SICKEST NAME EVER... this guy was already super cool to me, but with his name, it just doubled.

Other than that, things have been pretty normal--just really trying to find people that want to progress and be baptized! Our main investigator is doing well and is so close to making the decision to be baptized, he just needs to realize that God is giving him answers and that it is not just himself. We are really hopeful for him that he will choose to be baptized soon! Yesterday in church I was able to translate for the whole primary which was a lot of fun. It reminded me a lot of being back and teaching swim lessons to kids.

As for my spiritual thought, I want to share with y'all what we were able to read with Simba after his "Inception" question. This is found in the Book of Mormon in a book called Alma. It says, 

Alma 32

28 Now, we will compare the word unto a seed. Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves--It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me.

29 Now behold, would not this increase your faith? I say unto you, Yea; nevertheless it hath not grown up to a perfect knowledge.

30 But behold, as the seed swelleth, and sprouteth, and beginneth to grow, then you must needs say that the seed is good; for behold it swelleth, and sprouteth, and beginneth to grow. And now, behold, will not this strengthen your faith? Yea, it will strengthen your faith: for ye will say I know that this is a good seed; for behold it sprouteth and beginneth to grow.

31 And now, behold, are ye sure that this is a good seed? I say unto you, Yea; for every seed bringeth forth unto its own likeness.

I love this because what it shows is that belief is a choice. We are the ones that in the end choose if we are going to grow the "seed" and our faith or the ones that choose not to. It all depends on ourselves and that's why I love sharing this message with everyone; in the end I am doing my part but then it's up to them or us to choose to accept it or grow it. I hope you all have a great week!!

I love you all!!

Anziano Spencer 

P.S. We have zone conference next week on Monday so my Pday will be on Tuesday!