Gratitude for so many Baptisms!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING, I guess.  ha ha ha  The Italians sort of tried to celebrate Halloween, but obviously Thanksgiving is a holiday they don't even know about.  For us it will be just another ordinary day, but we're so busy I'm glad we're not having a big dinner or anything. 

Well, JULIE IS GOING TO BE BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY!  We're way super excited for her but she gave us a bit of a scare because she didn't show up for her baptismal interview.  Things all turned out for the best, though, as President Wolfgramm came yesterday to do the interview instead and said she is golden.  She is really happy and after the interview was literally glowing.  This will be the first baptism in which through the help of the Lord, I was able to find, teach, and then actually see them enter the waters of baptism instead of just being there at the beginning or end.
n saturday one of our appointments fell through and I felt like we should go visit one of our less active families, even though they live quite far away.  The mom is a member but all four of her children are not, her husband left her when she joined the church.  We showed up around 10:45 AM and the only one home was Jonathan, who is 10 years old.  Obviously we couldn't enter the house, so we asked if we could sit on the stairs and have a lesson with him.  We've been wanting to invite him to be baptized for quite some time now because he is ready...he's already read over half of the Book of Mormon without anyone asking and loves it!  He also has started coming to the primary activities by himself!  When we read Mosiah 18:8-10 with him and asked him what he thought, he said ''I want to be a part of the fold of God.''  We asked if he wanted to be baptized on December 10th and he said that after he asked his mom permission, he would love to!  I think he's just been waiting for someone to ask, and the timing happened to be right because he is usually persuaded by his older siblings who need a bit more time to wait.  

Finally, at our english class a woman walked in and greeted me, so I talked with her a moment but honestly had no clue who she was.  A member came up to me a few minutes later and said that she told him she wanted to be baptized.  I went to talk with her again and she told me her name was Carlota, that she had had all the lessons with the missionaries about 6 months ago, and wanted to be baptized as soon as possible!  My companion was so surprised that she asked if she had prayed about this decision and she said, ''Yes, I know it's true.''  We asked President how to proceed and he said to give her a mock baptismal interview, review anything that isn't clear, have her come to church one more time (she's already been twice and knows almost all the members), and then baptize her as soon as we can.  This is like those stories you read in the Ensign, not in real life!  We meet with her tomorrow.  And the best part, she plays raquetball and wants to play against me one day!  ha ha ha

 

We are so blessed!

Sacrifices bring forth Blessings

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!  Because they do not celebrate Thanksgiving here (obviously), everyone is already starting to decorate for Christmas.  All of the shops are changing their windows and people have even started hanging lights.  The city has put up wreaths and such and everyone is starting to get in the Christmas mood.  I love it!  It's like an extra two weeks of Christmas. 

 

On Saturday, we had over 30 people in our beginning English class!  It was insane.  We teach beginning, while the other elders teach intermediate and advanced.  When they came back in at the end, one of them came up to me and said, ''What happened here?!'' with a big grin on his face.  Because my companion is Italian, it's basically up to me to teach.  I guess we must be doing okay because more and more people keep coming.  Plus, our members are so awesome that many of them are friends that they have invited.  Many new participants also decided to stay for FHE afterwards, and we ended up getting appointments with 8 of them!  (4 of them are a part of the same family!)  We are super excited for these contacts and hope that they will turn into investigators.

 

In other news, it appears I have been called to be the pianist in BOTH wards now.  I play in sacrament every sunday, and was in the other ward with one of our investigators (who was previously excommunicated) and because no one plays in that ward either I stepped in.  We are also doing an English/Italian choir that meets before English class and I am in charge of that as well.  Who knew that I would use music so much! 

 

Julie is still on track for her baptism on the 26th and never ceases to surprise me with her faith.  She always has a ''one-liner'' that I can write in my journal after every lesson.  For example, yesterday we were talking about the law of chastity and she didn't seem to be getting it at first.  But by the end, however, this is what she said, ''So, if I met a guy and he says he wants to marry me, I will say 'Good, you can come and meet the Anziani (Elders) at church and we will wait until after we get married.'''  It was much more hilarious in Italian, and I also had to edit it a bit.   

 

Apart from that, things are going really well.  We're trying hard to be obedient so the Lord can lead us to those who are prepared to be baptized, because we are in need of more investigators.  We have 6 or 7 that we meet with regularly, but not all of them are willing to make the changes necessary in their lives.  The gospel is a gospel of sacrifice, which makes it difficult.  However, the blessings far outweigh any sacrifice. 

Busy Bergamo

It's hard to ever know what to write you all because every day so much happens, but then looking back it's hard to remember what happened!  Yesterday the Lord blessed us with six lessons in one day, three of which with people we had never met before.  Imagine this scene:  an American and a Ghanese, in Italy, speaking German.  The best part was my companion breaking in in Italian after 5 minutes saying, ''Wait, are you guys speaking German?''  That sent us off into hysterics.  We found out he's actually a member but moved in five months ago and hasn't been to church in a year.  He said it was a miracle and kept asking how we knew to come and knock on his door.  Before he told us he was a member, he went to get his bible and said, ''Does this look familiar?''  At first I was struck by the fact that it was a King James version and then I read ''The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.''  Needless to say we'll be putting him into contact with the elders.  

The miracle of the week was the fact that Marlene came to church.  She's been working with the sisters since before I got here, and said, ''You could have been Jehovah's Witnesses or anyone else and I would have let them in.'' and said she wasn't really looking for the truth, just wanted to hear the word of God.  But now her husband is listening to the lessons too, and was coming to church with her and their daughter when they got into an argument and he went home and she came, which was ironic because he was the one who finally said yes to coming to church and she had said ''we'll see.''  They both plan on coming this week and have family who are members and friends here in the ward.  We have high hopes for them.

 

This week we've really been working with members and have had  many spiritually uplifting lessons with them.  Now more and more of them are willing to help by coming to lessons, inviting friends over, etc.  Things are really moving forward and I'm excited to be here in Bergamo.  Love to you all!

Blessings of Baptism

Stories from Bergamo

Sabrina was baptized on Saturday.  It was definitely different from Marlin and Isaac's but wonderful all the same.  Almost all of their family is Catholic, but they were so nice in talking with us and a few are interested in coming back this week for Family Home Evening.  Her mom went all out and ordered this huge buffet, complete with seaweed and fish egg sandwiches (but not exactly cavier...we never really understood the difference.)  For dessert, there were fruit tarts, cream puffs, creme brulee.  It just never seemed to end.  However, Sabrina was really happy and I was able to bear my testimony about the example she is and how the Holy Ghost will help her continue on this path she has chosen in following the Savior.  It was a neat experience.

 

Two miracles for you this week:

 

Tuesday we were walking to an appointment when we saw a woman crying in front of a health clinic.  Although we had already rang to go into the appointment, we decided to go over and talk with her.  We asked if there was anything we could do and she told us no and declined an offer to pray together.  We reassured her that the Savior knew what she was going through and that she could rely on Him.

 

Yesterday as we were going to Verona, we got off at a little city to transfer trains and ran into this same woman!  We sat by her on the train and she asked who we were.  We started telling her about the First Vision and then the Book of Mormon.  I happened to be carrying a Book of Mormon in english for interviews, and she asked if she could have a copy.  She is very religious and has a super strong faith.  She wants to continue her studies in computer technology, maybe in California.  She was so happy about what we talked about, SHE asked if she could give us her number so that we could meet up with her again.  Then, we said a prayer together in the train.  It was somewhat comical because she said ''amen'' after almost every phrase I said, but the spirit was so strong.

 

The other miracle also has to do with prayer.  One of our investigators has a brother in Bolivia who is a recent convert, and she is so impressed (apparently he is VERY stubborn) that she wanted to hear the missionaries again.  (She had previously had a few lessons before)  Our first meeting, she told us all about being willing to be baptized and LIVE the gospel, but that she had to be sure.  WE told her the only way to be sure was through prayer.  When we went back, she told us how hard she had been trying to pray, but that something kept preventing her from doing so.  We decided to kneel down and the end of the lesson and pray.  They asked me to give a prayer first so she could follow my example.  I did so, simply but fervently.  She then tried a few times, but shook her head, indicating that she couldn't.  It was then that our wonderful member missionary stepped in and prayed with her as you would a child, having her repeat the things she said.  At the end of the prayer, Marisol was crying.  She said she didn't know why she was trembling and felt so good.  Her young daughter was also very touched and when I asked her how she felt, she said, ''Bene!''  Marisol then told us she felt that she could pray now, and wanted to pray for her daughter's sake.  It was a very tender mercy.

 

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Rose and Julie accepted a soft baptismal invite and have been to church twice now, so we are really excited for them.  We had a family night with 3 evangelists who brought 3 other friends at a members house and the Spirit was really present.  We gave them all a Book of Mormon and even though I don't think they are ready now, maybe in the future they will pick it up and read it or remember what we said.  Our member was absolutely on fire, bearing testimony left and right. 

 

We also went to meet a woman we had met at the bus stop who's from Brazil and found that she had invited her husband, cousin, cousin's fiancee, mother, another cousin, and aunt over, too.  They've actually had the missionaries over before and we are excited to see how that turns out. 

 

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Before I forget, I have to tell you the greatest news.  ERICA IS BEING BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY IN FIRENZE.  Yes, Erica, our 87 year old investigator that I spent four months teaching, the first few lessons in German.  I am so excited for her and glad she finally decided to take that step, even so late in life.  I am grateful the sisters kept working with her and didn't give up on her like most people wanted us to do.  Woo-hoo!  I guess patience really does pay off.

 

 

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Update: Rose and Julie accepted a soft baptismal invite and have been to church twice now, so we are really excited for them.  We had a family night with 3 evangelists who brought 3 other friends at a members house and the Spirit was really present.  We gave them all a Book of Mormon and even though I don't think they are ready now, maybe in the future they will pick it up and read it or remember what we said.  Our member was absolutely on fire, bearing testimony left and right. 

 

We also went to meet a woman we had met at the bus stop who's from Brazil and found that she had invited her husband, cousin, cousin's fiancee, mother, another cousin, and aunt over, too.  They've actually had the missionaries over before and we are excited to see how that turns out.

  

As you can see, the Lord is really blessing us here in Bergamo.  There are so many people that He has prepared to hear the gospel.  It's just up to us to consecrate our time and efforts, and then He will help weak things become strong.  I think a quote one of the sister missionaries left me sums it up best:  ''This is the beginning of a new day, God has given me this day, to use as I will.  I can waste it, or I can grow in its light and be of service to others.  But what I do with this day is important, because I have exchanged a day of my life for it.  When tomorrow comes, today will be gone forever.  I hope I will not regret the price I paid for it.''