September 3, 2012

Hello Family,

 

Thanks for your emails this week. It was great to hear from you. This week has been a pretty good week for us. The weather has really changed. It has gone from terribly hot to cool and rainy. I love the rain so It's been a good week.

 

Last P day was super fun. We drove down to Genova with the ********* family. Ill help you pronounce that when I get back. We drove down with ******** (24) and ******** (18). We had fun on the way down telling jokes. It was fun translating all our american jokes into Italian. We got to Genova and went to the Port and ate lunch. At the Port there is a super old pirate ship they have from hundreds of years back. So we saw that. Then we just kind of took a stroll through the center of the city. We saw the house of Christopher Colombus. And did a lil Window shopping. That's pretty much it. We did get a Gelato at Grom though which was good.

 

This week ****** and her two kids came to church again! The ward is getting really excited about them. It's been awhile since the missionaries have found a family to teach. She is loving church and especially loves the classes for her kids. We had an amazing lesson with her this last week on the Restoration. Tonight is Ward council and Bishop has already talked to me about how this month and for the rest of the year his focus is on Missionary work and reactivation. So the Bishop will be breathing down our necks like a hungry dog but I'm ready for the challenge. We have a lot of people right now to teach so at least that's not the problem. We just need to move forward, us the missionaries and the ward together and get these people baptized. I'm really excited though for ******.

 

We also picked up a new investigator this week named ******. She is a member referral and is actualy the mom of a member here in the ward. They are from the Philippines. Here in Alessandria there are about 40 active Phillipinos and they are all related. So this lady just moved here from the Philippines and everyone she knows is mormon. She can't not get baptized. We have taught her twice now. She speaks okay english but understands mostly what we say. We just have to use a translator a lot of times. It is tough teaching to her but she has a great heart, that is easy to see and is always happy when we are there. Her daughter who is the member is so excited that we are teaching her mother that every time we are over there she makes us a bunch of food. Amazing food. I'm afraid by the end of the teaching process I will have gained a few pounds. I might just need to start throwing up to get where I want to be before I get home. Joking.

 

The other day this old guy stopped us on a park bench and wanted to learn about the church. Of course, anxious for the opportunity to teach him we sat down for what would become one of the angriest moments of my mission. This guy was just ridiculous. Trying to tell me that I'm not Christian and I'm going to hell. He even brought Romney into the conversation. I wanted to rip this old guys head off. He sounded a lot like Boyd K Packer too. To give you a picture of his tone of voice.

 

On A more positive note, How exciting is it to hear about the Italy trip next year. Yeah I think Verona would be a pretty good area to base from. It's a lil far away from where I am now but I think its a good half way point between the places we want to see. Plus I know that area of Italy well. 

Well I Dont have much more time. I love you all so much!

 

Anz. Mendel