Ciao!: Week 8: August 31, First Week in the Field! (Terni, Italy)

First Week In The Field!!

Ayyyye my fav people!! I hope that everyone had a good week and for those that started school that it was a good first week. So this week had a lot of ups and downs but I am just trying to keep my head up and trying to work my hardest! It's still weird for me to think that it's like 6:00 there in Texas in the morning but eh va bene.. So last Pday we were planning on going up into the Pintails but the ward mission leader (the crumper dude, I saw one of his videos and he is an absolute beast) couldn't take us so we ended up hanging out in Terni. We went to the park and ended up playing football with the 4 of us (one of the guys in our apartment lives in Southlake, Texas!!) so random! Anyway, went with 2 young adults from our ward, Matteo and Bruno, and they are awesome. Hahaha it was probably the funniest game that I have ever played cause these two Italian bros have never seen or played football before so it was a very new experience teaching it and playing all together. It was a good p-day and nice to just de-stress.

One thing that happened this week is when Anziano Ray and I traveled up to Rieti to visit someone who was interested in hearing about the church. It is a city high up in the mountains so we took a 40 min bus ride to get there. It was really cool and scary though cause these roads up the mountain were so small and there were tight turns where you could just look right over the side of this huge cliff. When we got there is was pretty disappointing though cause the guy called us and he had actually been kicked out of his house last night because his wife was mad at him. So we couldn't meet with him cause he was on the other side of town. Instead we did some finding and found a guy who actually wanted to talk to us and told us that he was sad cause so many people were racist to him (he was from Nigeria) and we talked to him about how in 3 Nephi 17:7-9 when Jesus Christ comes and heals the people that he healed ALL not just some. He took a Book of Mormon so hopefully it will help him.

Other than that we have been teaching Stefano (the one guy whose wife hates us). When we got there she was sitting on the couch watching tv and barely wearing clothing and then started yelling/growling at us for being there. I just did my normal smile and nod thing cause I didn't understand half of what she was saying anyway haha. Stefano is doing really well and wants to receive the Melchezidek priesthood soon so hopefully he will be able to. We are also teaching this one guy who is actually crazy. He is a member of the church but doesn't come at all so we are teaching him again. Anyway, the first lesson he brought us into his room and sat us on his bed as we talked about Jesus Christ and he sat across from us. It was very strange, but I felt the spirit there so that's what matters haha! Our last lesson with him I had the brilliant idea to show him a picture of my family and he thinks my mom is beautiful (which is totally true) but now I have 50 year old stefano hitting on my mom. Awesome lolol. But, he did buy me a European book about the culture and history of Europe so I thought that was really nice. He has a really good heart, he is just hmmm.. Slightly insane.

For a lot of the time this week we have been doing a lot of finding. It's frustrating cause I really want to teach more people but to do that we need to find people that want to listen so I am working on being patient. Patient that we will be able to find people, and patient with myself and the language. Something that really helped me this week was when I was reading in Alma 14: 26 :

And Alma cried, saying: How long shall we suffer these great afflictions, O Lord? O Lord, give us strength according to our faith which is in Christ, even unto deliverance. And they broke the cords with which they were bound; and when the people saw this, they began to flee, for the fear of destruction had come upon them.

I really liked it a lot and it really helped me because Alma didn't pray just to be released from his affliction so the Lord does everything but he prayed for strength to overcome this affliction himself. I love that a lot and have been praying more for strength with the language.

Well I love you all so much!! One more thing that was really awesome this week is that Charles and Linda came to church!! It made me so happy. Anziano Calvagna sat with them and translated and I sat with this guy named Moroko who is a professional soccer player and suchhhh a cool and solid guy! I asked him for some advice that I could give to my brother especially cause he made the high school team so shout out to you little man!! I am so proud of you!!

Thanks again for all of your support and prayers! The mission is the hardest yet the most rewarding thing that I have done! I can't wait to see what these next two years bring!

Love, Anziano Spencer

P.S sorry for the late email we played a zone soccer game in Rome so I couldn't write until now, on the train haha. I will talk to y'all next week! THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!

P.P.S Jen I hope you have an awesome wedding I am so excited for you!!

P.P.P.S I don't know if I said this last week but our neighbor in our apartment put salt outside of her doorway in a large pile. Obviously because we are vampires and need to be warded off hahaha. I love it so much! It's so sweet and I just laugh at those things like that cause that's so funny to me.