Mission Conference with Elder Bednar

Hey guys! I am doing really well here in Olbia. For the past 3.5 days we were in Rome for a big conference with all of the missionaries in our mission. It was chaos but the conference part was really instructive. Elder Bednar came and gave us a training about many different things. It was interesting because he didn’t come with a prepared theme. He just asked us questions and we asked him questions. We talked for about 30 minutes about the use of technology in our mission but mostly we talked about life. It was really good. Elder Teixera the Area President came, as well as the head of the missionary department. I think this new technology thing will be a big change in how we do missionary work. It was really fun to have this as my last zone conference. 

We are working with a lot with kids here in Olbia. This week we were introduced to 3, 20ish-year old kids who want to learn more by their 16-year old friend. I love working with kids because they are way more open to learning and they are really curious. But it’s hard to find kids because they think they are to cool most of the time or are scared of us. But I love teaching kids. Sometimes I don’t understand why they are afraid us when we are usually younger than them or the same age and have literally the same interests. Patience I guess. They will get their chance. 

We also met this man who is part of group of people who searches for truth in all religions, especially manifestations of Melchizedek. They believe that Christ is the savior and the prophet of prophets. The guy we met loved the Book of Mormon and I am excited to teach him more about the Priesthood. 

I love Oblia. It is a cute little town. I love the cheeses here as well.

Well that about it for me this week!

Beautiful New Area

Is there a reason you were transferred?

I got transferred because I told President I wanted to work hard my last transfer. So he sent me to this little tiny city to shape it up. I am really happy to be back in a small city. I have missed serving in branches. The missionaries are kings. The surrounding area is super beautiful. Koby Bryant and the former Steve jobs have their yachts parked to the north of us. The water and beaches here are incredible. The people are super funny and speak like nothing I have heard before (Not like Italian at all, or French.). The people are all farmers or boat workers. There are a million sheep on the island as well. We can see Corsica from the north part of our area. It is a fun little town though. The branch is very small and it is going to take some hard work to get it moving but I am ready.

Tell us about travel to your new area.

The city we are in is small and it feels a lot like California. Modern. Palm trees. Beaches and what not. There is not a lot of old here (unlike Sicily or Rome). There are old walls and towers everywhere though.

What are your impressions of Sardenia?

The people are funny. They speak strange and the dialect is unreal. They are more closed and cold than normal. The island is super green and the beaches are awesome. We are actually going hiking today to a place called Golfo Aranci. Should be really cool. 

Describe the area where you live and work.

The church is literally next door to the house which makes things really nice. The branch is about 7-10 people. More elderly people. We are going to baptize some young people though. There are a lot of youth here in the city. 

Which was your favorite conference talk and why?

We didn’t get to watch all that much of conference and the session we did see was in Italian so it was a little hard to follow. I want to reread the conference talks. I will get back to you on this question in a couple of weeks. 

Yesterday I also got to meet on old investigator. His father lives here and he came here to visit his dad. I got a referral out of him that we are going to pass by soon. I am really excited to work. I was sad to leave Rome though. There were a lot of good friends there. I will go back for my last Sunday though.

I also did 2 baptismal interviews for two women in Sassari. They are super cool. One is 16 and was found through English course. Super cool.

Headed to Olbia

It has been a good week in Rome. This week we got our calls and I got transferred to a place called Olbia in Sardegnia. It is a really small town but very beautiful. I am really excited to go but sad to leave Rome. We had some good work going here. To get to Olbia I have to take a plane down to Cagliari and then a train to Sassari and then a bus to Olbia. It will take a long time. But it should be really fun. This city is super famous for its beaches and all the rich and famous park their boats there. You can also see Corsica from certain parts in our area. It is a really small branch.

Anziano Maxwell will be in my new district. It is us and Sassari. I am really excited to work hard ina small city again. I have missed it!

Trials of being a missionary. #35eurosaplate

Late & Short

Hey guys. Sorry my email is late, but we had our deep cleaning yesterday because it was Pasquetta (an Italian holiday). So today we are going to a place called Tivoli. It should be really cool.

Our work here kind of tanked last week and we dropped essentially everybody. We are hunting for new people!

Families

What are some the Roman Easter traditions? Anything you are looking forward to?

Rome is too big to really have any traditions, unfortunately. I loved Easter in the small town of Sciacca. That was seriously the most memorable experience I have had on my mission. There might be some Easter traditions that people do here but we don’t hear much about them. The people on this half of Rome are all from Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Bangladesh, China, Peru, Russia, Nigeria, and Ghana. It’s nutso. So this side of town has lots of different traditions. I am looking forward to conference more than anything. We are planning on making some Napoli Pizza and watching conference. We are inviting all the members who want to come to come. We will see.

What was the best thing you ate this week?

This week we had a lesson with a less active Peruvian family. They cooked a really good turkey and rice dish! We have been trying to meet with this family for about 2 months now and eventually one of our members was able to work some magic and convinced her to let us all come over. 

Who was the most interesting person you talked to this week?

We did a lesson with a referral we got from Salt Lake City. From the office they said he has just been married and has met Mormons in the past and is looking for something more in his life. He is having some marriage troubles and wants to learn more about how Christ can help him.

We were super excited! So we get there and within 2 minutes he is screaming at us telling us everything that he thinks is wrong with our church (95% of which was the Catholic Church, which he must have thought we were or something). We eventually calmed him down enough to pray with him but right after the prayer he got super heated and started going off about nonsense. So for 30 minutes we tried to calm him down but he just kept yelling at us. We eventually had to tell him that we had to leave. Wow... 

What was your miracle of the week?

We were able to meet with a family! They have been coming to English course. They are really nice. The father however may be the coldest most Catholic man I have ever met in my life. Anyways... I will give an update on how that goes but it was really hard.

Baptismal Date!

Is Anziano Kenney still you companion? You never told us what happened last transfer.

Yeah, Anziano Kenney is still my companion. He is great. We are doing good work together. We both finish our missions together as well. I am wondering if I will stay here in Rome with Anziano Kenney next transfer or if I will go someplace else for 5 weeks. We will see. 

What was coolest thing you saw this week?

This week our homie, Mamun accepted a baptismal date. He is awesome. He was Muslim but we converted him. We have been working with him about 2 months. He is really cool. Unfortunately his family is not very happy about it. I hope so bad that he can make friends with the members here and get baptized. We went out to eat with him and our member who was Muslim as well this week. The member is from Egypt. It was really good.

What was your best lesson of the week and why?

We taught a less active who just moved here in from Afghanistan (He used to live in Sweden and was baptized there). He was also Muslim. But we started doing family history with him and it’s really cool because he comes from a land where there are no members of the church. He is currently living here as a refugee because he cannot return home or he will be killed. There is a pretty steep barrier language when we teach him though. He is really cool. 

What was the hardest thing you did this week?

Church was kind of stressful. We had some cool people in church and also some investigators and everything didn’t go as well as it could have. But I guess if the cool new people can make it through a day in church like that then they can make it through anything!

What was your miracle of the week?

We had a conference with Elder Teixeira this week. He will speak in general conference in a few weeks. It was a really neat conference. He talked about leaving behind the culture that our mission has had for the last 20 years (He has been working for the area for a very long time. 20 years. Wow.). It was cool.

Indian Party

What was your best experience this week?
This week we were able to teach Mamun the restoration lesson! It was super cool because he is from a Muslim background!

What was the best thing you ate this week?
We ate some Indian food at our English course student's house at his birthday party. It was super fun. Everyone was in their traditional Indian clothes and everyone was speaking in Punjabi. It was really cool to be there. They are very very Hindu.

We have the mission conference coming this next week! That should be really awesome!