Week 32 (Feb 15)--Trapani

BUON SAN VALENTINO!!

Hey everybody!! I hope everyone is doing well, and that y'all had an
awesome Valentine's Day yesterday! This week was really good, and it
was fun meeting the new missionaries in the district. They are all
hilarious, and so this is going to be a really fun transfer. One of
the sorelle said that she wants to teach me how to cook more which
will be super cool because she gave me all these recipes. My goal is
to get better but not gonna lie I am totally down just eating a can of
beans every night for dinner now;) Haha life is good. Tomorrow I am
actually going to Palermo for an exchange for the next few days with a
different Anziano so it will be really fun, and then after that we
have Zone Conference, so this week is going to go by fast.

Okay so we had so many miracles happen this week, yeah some hard stuff
happened too but seriously we were really blessed. So the first
miracle was this one guy that we met on Monday. We had these lessons
planned on Monday night, but everything fell through so we headed out to
go do some finding. Like literally nothing was going well that night.
So the last guy that we talked to ya know just kinda a last effort
kinda "please listen to us" sorta attitude. So we started talking and
he was like I am not religious and so just walked away. Dang. I
mentioned that we do a free english course if he would be interested
in that and we started talking. He was super sick and asked us why we
were here and we ended up doing a little restoration lesson on the
street with him. He listened the whole time and then told us about
some things he thought about religion and then said, "Okay I want you
guys to know that I have never talked to anyone about my religion
before.. Besides today.. And I think everything happens for a reason
and so I would like to meet with you." WHAT?! So we were super pumped
and we planned to meet two days later and he texts us asking "Why did
you stop for me, like why did you even try to talk to me after I
rejected you?" Like this guy was awesome, so we were super excited and
headed to the church for a lesson with him. This is when life just
changes cause he didn't show up, we tried calling him and he even
blocked our number. I don't know what happened but honestly I hope in
the future he meets the missionaries again. We kept our heads up about
it even though that moment when we realized he was not coming was
really hard. But, everyone can make their choices and decisions and so
we just gotta make sure we keep on going with faith and trusting in
God. That is something that I am definitely learning a lot more in
this city is knowing that if I do my part and obey, then I know that
God will provide for us. I definitely saw this Saturday.

Saturday was really good, because it really was like the first day
that things worked out and our lessons happened. Our first lesson was
with one of our English Course students (we have such a tight
relationship with them that we are literally trying to meet with every
single one because we love them and they really mean a lot to us) that
went really well. It was weird though cause he speaks really good
English and so he asked us for the lesson to be in English. Teaching
in English is the strangest thing. It just feels weird haha. But the
lesson went really good, and I really like M. because he thinks. 

 And he really understood and accepted to be
baptized. Me and Anziano Garrett were so happy. And then our lesson
that afternoon was with one of our friends who we met doing street
contact and I loved that lesson cause one, I felt more comfortable in
Italian, haha and two, because he is super humble. He really is so
humble and just willing to listen so I have really high hopes for him.
He wants to meet again, and sadly he didn't accept to be baptized but
he wants to read the Book of Mormon and was really excited when we
gave it to him so we are really excited!!

Something that Anziano Garrett and I are really trying to work on is
being more bold with people. Obviously in a loving way, but it's
something that we are both trying to work on and it really is paying
off as we are asking our really close friends to take the lessons and
meet with us. I am really excited for how things are turning out.
Another person that I just love is Fratello C. He is a super
strong member in our branch and he just gets missionary work. He
shares the gospel with everyone and talks to us about all the people
we are working with. And he is very strategic too. Like he took us to
see one of his friends who was working so that we could give him a
Book of Mormon and talk to him for a little bit. His work involves
people coming in and dropping off equipment and for those like 15
minutes while we were talking to this friend of his, Fratello C.
was distracting everyone outside so they wouldn't bother us. Little 4
foot 11 inch Fratello C... Aww man, I love him. And then after
wards he was like okay I am going to drop you off at this bread shop
and go in there and buy something. I gave a Book of Mormon to the
woman that works there and go and talk to her.  So sick!! So yeah I
love working with him; missionary work seriously is so important from
the members too!!

Another experience that I personally had this week was when we were on
the bus on the way to Palermo. We have to leave for district meeting in 

Palermo at the time we normally study in the morning, so I was planning

on studying on the way and then this girl and her mom came and sat

across from me. And then immediately this little thought was like,
"Talk to them" I was like "Gosh dang it (in the back of my mind).."
And then for the next ten minutes I was like no man that was just a
thought I don't need to do that and just this huge wrestle with the
spirit and me but then eventually I just got over myself and started
to talk to them. They actually knew a bunch of the members, and were
super open. They had heard of the Anziani before but had never met
them and we ended up talking for the next hour on the way to Palermo.
The Spirit is REAL and that experience definitely strengthened my
testimony of that.

Okay so for my spiritual thought this week I was reading in the Book
of Mormon about Nephi who I really love. This is when he was talking
about how his family had been in the wilderness for eight years, and
something that really stuck out to me was how the Lord does provide
for us.

3" And thus we see that the commandments of God must be fulfilled. And
if it so be that the children of men keep the commandments of God he
doth nourish them, and strengthen them, and provide means whereby they
can accomplish the thing which he has commanded them; wherefore, he
did provide means for us while we did sojourn in the wilderness."

I have such a strong testimony of this. I know that when we sincerely
do our part the Lord will provide. He will always provide. I have
definitely seen this in my life but also on my mission too. Like right
now I am super happy, I am learning so much, and I love being a
missionary.

Vi voglio bene a sai!!!

Anziano Spencer

PS For P-day, Tristan and his companion took a 3-mile run down to Centro. They happened upon a burned out car, which wasn't nearly as beautiful as the beach that followed!!

A marshmallow treat--not raw bacon!!

No worries about sending Tristan any food-filled care packages.
I think he's eating pretty well over there! :-)