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.

New Companion

This week I have continued my study on love and charity. I am reading the whole Book of Mormon all the way through looking for references that talk about either of them. It’s crazy! Everything single page has something to teach us. Easily one of the best studies that I have done on my mission. I usually read about 30 minutes of the Book of Mormon a day looking for stuff like that. 

We also did a fun Helping Hands activity! We went to an old folks’ home (The Retirement Castle I called it) and we sang them songs, told them jokes and were friends with them. I personally sang "Somewhere beyond the Sea." I think that it was a success. We had quite a few members come! It’s the old folks home where one of our members works. 

I was super proud of our new convert member, Kevin, this week. He is 13 years old and all of his friends invited him to go the beach. But...he decided to come to church instead! (Haha... This week in church we had about 40% of the people who normally come because it was super hot all week and everybody went to the beach. It is the last week of June... I can’t imagine what is going to happen during the months of July and August. We will see. Also Kevin paid his tithing this week. His father gave him 3 euros for a Kebab… So I helped him fill out his slip for 30 cents. Good kid.

Anziano Peterson is gone. Transferred. We now have Anz Kennedy. His father is American. Mother is Italian. He has lived here all his life and speaks both languages perfectly. He also has a very nice clear accent from Tuscany which is refreshing. He is a really good guy. I like him.

This week we have continued our quest for new investigators. We have tried all our techniques. As we come into the summer there are less and less people on the streets every day and more and more people on the busses headed to the beach about 20 minutes away. Sadly, last week we were planning on going to the beach but Anz Lewis had some indigestion problems and we could not go... 

This week we also found a Napoli Pizzeria that is really good right near the house! Maybe one of the best finds of the week. 3 bucks a pizza (usually Napoli Pizzas are 5 bucks or so). But we have gotten a few of those this week. 

We are continuing to work with our members and less actives. They are doing well.

Ciao ciao ciao!

Working Hard in the Heat

This week we are trying to go to the beach near Lecce. We have never gone out there before so we don’t have all that much time to email today but this week we worked very, very hard.

We had planned to do Chalk Finding this week 3 times! But every single time that we planned to do it rained super hard! That is super strange because it is super sunny all day long and very hot. But for some very when we planned to do Chalk it didn’t work. We ended up knocking houses instead.

This week we met with a man named Giuseppe. He is a super nice guy... But... I am a little skeptical of his motives for meeting with us. His girlfriend (who recently dumped him) is a faithful member of our branch and whenever we go over to his house he always shares scriptures that have the word Grazia (Grace in English) in it which also happens to be his girlfriend name. He also keeps pictures of her in his Book of Mormon. She wants nothing to do with him. He is a super nice guys though and is really trying to get closer to God, so we will see what happens with him!

I personally I really lost as to what to do here in Lecce. We are visiting all of our members regularly and we do finding for at least 8 hours every day... But it’s really hard for me and Anziano Lewis to find investigators? It’s a little frustrating because the other Elders in this city are pulling in tons of new contacts every day... but.... they are not the most obedient and or hard-working of missionaries, which is the hard thing for me. In any case. I am doing my best. And for that I am happy. I don’t have to compare my efforts to anybody but myself.

We got transfer calls today. The one guy in our house got the boot and a new one is coming named Anziano Kennedy! He is super rad. His parents are American but he is raised in Italy. It’s the best of both worlds.

Well... Got to go.

World Cup and Saving a Cat

WORLD CUP! WOOT WOOT! The city is on fire right and I am super excited for it! Today I actually made a huge bracket and chart with all the teams on the wall of our house. I made an agreement with the new convert boy in our branch Kevin that I would call him every night to see if he read the scriptures and he would tell me the scores. Italy played at midnight the other day and the city seriously exploded! It’s gonna be crazy when they actually play at a good time of the day and in a Semi Final match. Lots of cars honking horns and hooligans running around the streets.

Our new bunk beds.

My world cup bracket.

Well. I have had world cup on my mind all day. It is on in every shop window and bar in town.

This week we had two lesson with the new convert Kevin. He needs a little help. The summer has started and he just plays video games all day. We have been trying to get him to do activities and stuff outside. We will see what he does. He did go to the beach this week with his friends though which made me happy. We are also the Young Men’s Presidents for the Branch so we have thought of some good activities we could do with the boys and their friends these upcoming weeks to get them out in the fresh air. Wednesday Night from 6:30 to 8:30. We have 4 boys in the branch.

This week I also was able to save a kitten from a tree. It took about an hour and a crowd of people, a couple cans of cat food, and a few old, Italian Women yelling at me to get it out. But! We got it out and we were able to give it to a nice crazy cat lady we lived on the street. She opened up her garage and it was filled with about 20 cats (that I could see that is). This story probably didn’t make all that much sense but just know it was noteworthy enough to make it in my letter home.

We are working super hard and doing our best to find people! The summer is coming and it is getting very hot and everybody seems to be headed to their beach homes.