Finding, finding, finding...

This week we are going to the tip of the tack to a city called Leuca. Ocean on 3 sides. Should be pretty cool. As always when we try to do stuff there is not much time. But... This week not all that much happened. Just lots of funny stories about doing finding and talking with funny people.

Sadly this week Gabriele did not progress. The girl he likes said she didn’t like him and he got super sad and went out and drank some beers. We haven’t been able to see him this week either. She will keep working with the boys.

This week I got a little frustrated again about finding new investigators. We were not able to. We are doing our best man. Seriously working super hard. It just gets a little tiring when you do finding for 10 hours every single day all week and don’t see much from it (felt like I was back in Sciacca). But we are keeping our faith high and are never giving up!

Zone Conference = Packages & Letters

This week I got a letter from Anziano Creg Jones’ mother. It had 20 US Dollars in it! What a nice lady! She says she reads my blog. Thanks Anziano Jones’ Mom!

Oh! Mom you said Coke has been doing the bottles with the names of people on them. They were doing that in Sicily when I was there. It was super cool because all the names on the bottles where Sicilian names, and even the packaging was written in Siciliano. It was super cool. (Goes to show how strong of a culture Siciliano is.)

This week we had Zone Conference and it was really good! We got to play a good game of soccer with the other missionaries the day before. I also got the small package with Fourth of July stuff in it, a letter from Kris, and a letter from Grandma Barbara. At Zone Conference we talked about how we need to use the scriptures more in lessons and about how we need to become leaders. This transfer and the next, about 60% of the mission leaders (APs, Zone Leaders, Trainers, District Leaders, etc) are going home and now we need to step up to the plate. I personally do not want to train. I do not think I am ready. I can barely iron my shirt in the morning much less be expected to help someone be a missionary. It’s terrifying.

This week we have been doing a lot of finding and member lessons. Also, this week Gabriele (13 years old, Kevin’s friend) accepted a baptismal date! We prayed a lot and did a fast about what we should do about him and both felt that if he accepts a date then God will figure out a way for his father to accept what he is doing. It is going to take a lot of faith on all of our parts. But anything is possible in this line of work.

We are working hard and doing our best!

Exchanges and the World Cup

We are currently in Bari doing email... The choir course is going well... I am essentially just making up stuff to do because I have never been in a choir... But... We are sounding alright?

We did an exchange with the Zone Leaders this week that went well. I went with Anziano Romano (He was my friend from the MTC). He is rad.

We are continuing to work with Kevin and his friends! Everybody is at the sea and there are many tourists. This week there were mostly Germans. 

I am excited for Zone Conference tomorrow!

Sorry this letter is super short... We do not have much time.

CIAO!

We got permission from the ZL's to watch the World Cup (we had to be home by 10:00). However...I don't think that they asked the President... But I didn't want to ask. We watched it with Kevin and he brought six friends for us to meet! Woot! 

Young Men's activity.

Independence & Reactivation

Haha. The city of Lecce is completely empty now. Everybody has moved to their sea side homes, or at least seem to go to the sea about every day. It’s very fun for them. But a little harder for us. But we are getting by and continue to find people. We have been tracking down less active people this week mostly. Turns out about 40% of this branch list doesn’t live at those addresses anymore, so we are going to work with the ward clerk and get their names cleared off the list. They then send all the names to Frankfurt.

For some reason the Branch President’s wife has selected me as the choir director. So every Tuesday evening I now teach singing lessons to the members. There is going to be a big Stake Conference choir soon, so I have to prepare my students for that.

4th of July this week was sweet. We talked with the Napoli Pizza place near our house and they agreed to make us red, white, and blue pizzas (the dough was blue, white Mozz, and red sauce). It was a super good memory and all the employees were taking pictures with us. It was a good time.

This week was a little sad because two of our less actives expressed a lot of doubts, faith issues, and seem to be drifting further from becoming active. We are doing our best to try to teach to their needs but they are not keeping commitments and continue to bring up more and more problems they have with the church. We are showing them love and being patient. But it may be out of our control for now unless they change their circumstances or they start keeping commitments. We pray for them multiple times a day. The other less actives we are working with are now fully active and have kept all commitments and are attending church every week. 

Our 13 year old investigator, Gabriele, loves the church and loves meeting with us... However, his father is against religions and does not really allow his son to attend church. We have not been able to meet with his parents yet which is the hard thing but we are praying that an opportunity will be opening up so that we can meet with them and explain a few things. Gabriele reads the Book of Mormon and hangs out every day with his member friend, Kevin.

The member friend Kevin (new convert) is super cool! This week we encouraged him to tell his friends about his standards. He instead thought that we could just meet with his friend and do the same thing we are doing with his friend Gabriele. Yes. A referral! This new friends name is also Kevin and he is really cool. We are very impressed that Kevin (member Kevin) is doing so much missionary work which is amazing because he sometimes calls them and invites them to church and likes to explain his new standards to his friends. This week we have planned a youth activity of volleyball where member Kevin has invited all his friends (guys and gals) to come! SWEET! I personally may make some hamburgers for everybody.