August 17, 2011

Caro Madre,

Hey Mom! happy birthday for tomorrow, I hope the letter I sent will arrive tomorrow morning. Hopefully it will! So this weekend we don't have a baptism, He is going to take some more time to teach and have more opportunities to come to church, I still think he will be baptized it will just take a lil more time.

Its good to hear that you are recovering well and hopefully will soon be back on to normal life. Take things slow and do it right. For me. But I'm sure things get a lil stir crazy. I made the apple syrup the other day and it was delicious. Just what I needed to satisfy the craving. Don't worry about the CDs, I haven't gotten anything yet but don't worry, I've added to my personal library a ton in the last transfer or two from my comps and district members so no worries.

So changes for me and for Bologna apartment, So I got another companion, crazy how many changes that President is making these days. But there is nothing that I can do about it just role with the waves. So my new comp, Anz. Weller, His name is Ryan Weller, ya sounds a lot
like Ryan Wells. Kinda wierd. He's about my height maybe a lil shorter, probably like 180lbs, he's from California, Bay area. He hits his year mark tomorrow. So transfer 8, he is really good at the language and a really bravo missonary. Really good. I'm really excited for this transfer with him, He is a great teacher and there will be lots of opportunity for growth. Its only been a few days together and we have already had some very strong spiritual experiences. I'm expecting really good things for this transfer.

We have been teaching a lady named ****** for some time now and she has not been able to progress much because of her work. She is a house nurse and only has Saturdays off, So we have been seeing her just about every Saturday for some time now. Well miracle this week, we found out that she is changing jobs and should be able to start coming to church this very upcoming Sunday. Doesn't sound like that big of a deal but if she can start coming to church consistantly she will be baptized for sure. She is the most elect person I think I have ever met. Just so ready for the gospel. Our lessons with her are always so powerful and full of love on both sides. We taught her the Word of Wisdom and the law of chasity this last week, Usually the hardest things to teach but she was totally down for both of them and really already had a testimony of these commandments. I hope and pray she will be able to make it to church this week. That will mean everything.

We went to Modena yesterday for a leadership training with Bologna and Firenze zones. It was really good and spiritually uplifting. We talked alot about the doctrine of Christ and then the assistants stressed the importance of the "How To Begin Teaching" points in Preach My Gospel and using faith in Jesus Christ to start lessons off with new investigators. My companion and I were asked to give a presentation/testimony for the assembly of missionaries on the Start Chart,  a program that this mission does. It's pretty much Preach my Gospel, but it's a Chart with 12 weeks on it and has 2 principles a week, (Faith, Word of Wisdom, Tithing, Repentence) just gospel principles and we do four, two minute drills a day, where we teach our companions, using the principle of the week, an inpired question, a scripture and testimony. I shared an example that happened a few days before in a lesson when my tongue was tied and I didn't really know what to say next after my companion had finished talking and it was my turn to say something. The principle of the day was "God is our loving heavenly father", so when I didn't have anything to say that came to my mind because we had done our 2 min drills that day, I testified that she had a loving Heavenly Father and that was exactly what she needed.

Well I love you Mother so much, Get better soon. And try and find out if Cole got his call or not yet... I'm still crazy curious about that. Sorry my letter isn't really personalized today, Didn't have much time. Love you always have a great birthday!