A Month of Changes, Lawn Care, and Easter

It was a stellar week here in Italy!  Transfer calls were Monday night and I found out that I am staying in Brindisi! I was super stoked when I heard the news, because I still have a lot of work I want to do here before I leave. This week I stayed in Lecce until my new companion arrived on Friday. It was a blast hanging out with Anziani Lancaster and Jenson, I've learned a lot of good stuff from them! 

It was weird not being with Anziano Vrska, I felt a little lost, haha. He is going to be missed for sure. We had a lot of good times.  On Friday I met my new companion! His Name is Anziano Bellini, and he is a spiritual giant! Haha he is literally 6 foot 6 inches. He is so tall! Maybe if I just start eating what he eats I'll grow a little. It has been fun to get to know him, and I am excited to be working with him in the future.  He was born in American Fork then moved to a city in northern Italy called Brescia. I was able to show him around Brindisi. It was then that I realized how lucky I am to be involved in such an important work. It really has been such an awesome experience that I have had so far. The people here have changed my life in so many ways. It has been truly an amazing opportunity. This Pday it was a little more relaxed. We took a bus to to check out the ocean. We ate lunch and threw a Frisbee. It was pretty fun. 

I want to share something I learned from the Doctrine Covenants: "Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not." (D&C 6 36). There will be times in your life when your testimony wavers,  people may tear down what you believe, and make you second guess everything. When that happens, turn to what you do believe to know is true. An apostle once said 'to doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith'. Be confident in the testimony you have, even if its small. You guys are awesome! Thanks for all the love and support!! Hope everyone has a good week! 

This week was a little bit slower. We unfortunately had a lot of lessons fall through and one of our awesome investigators found work a couple hours north and decided to move. It was hard to hear the news, but I'm glad he was able to find work. I guess this upcoming week we are just going to have to find another person as ready as he was!! On Wednesday night we went over and helped teach a member. We were teaching about the restoration of the church and my companion used a Rubix Cube doing it! Haha, he can solve one of those things wicked fast, it was cool to watch. We also had an awesome weekend! 

The whole world was able to join in for this event, General Conference! At home, we always had a tradition to make crepes and so this year I learned how to make crepes for me and my companion! It was a blast! But instead of lounging around all day in our pj's, we suited up and headed off to the church to watch it and it was awesome!! 

There were so many different things I enjoyed about conference. 

One of the my favorite things that was talked about, was the wonderful plan that our Heavenly Father has for us! Isn't it such a reassuring feeling to know that, one: we have a Father in heaven who knows us better then we know our selves that loves us beyond measure, and two: He gave us a way to make it back to live with Him and our families for all eternity? I think it's pretty cool that we have Heavenly Father rooting for us, wanting us to make it back to Him. I hope everyone had a good General Conference weekend, and felt the love that our Father in Heaven has for us! Hope everyone has a good rest of the week, love you guys!

Another fun week in Brindisi! This week we had Zone Conference on Monday so we had our Pday on Tuesday instead. This week has had its ups and downs. I'll get the sad news out of the way first. Monday morning we had some guys come and take a bunch of stuff out of our apartment that wasn't ours and was just kind of taking up space. Well I guess they thought my pull-up bar was apart of that junk!  When I got home Monday night and I saw that my pull-up bar was missing, it  was one of the hardest nights in the mission! Some how I made it through though. It's okay though, accidents happen. 

Then later this week we went and did service for a less active couple in our ward who actually speak english. The sister is from Texas and her husband, who has other beliefs, is from England! They were so fun to go do service for! They live in Ostuni which is about 30 minutes from us. We went and weed-eated all of her weeds in her little tree grove!! It took me back to the good ole days of mowing lawns!! The smell of gas and grass! 😉 Haha it was good. Then she fed us a wonderful meal afterwards! On Sunday we got invited over again!! It was pretty crazy to get fed two days in a row. I was dying I ate so much food haha. Then of course this Monday we had our Zone Conference, which was awesome! They really focused on the importance of the Book of Mormon and using it in lessons. It was cool! 

This upcoming Sunday a lot of us will be celebrating Easter by painting eggs, eating chocolate and being together as families! But we are also celebrating something much more important. That is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He leads the path to all happiness, joy and peace in this world and the world to come! He did it all so that we might be able to live again! This Easter we should all try and live more as the Savior did, and look for the blessings that we can bring to the lives of others! Love you all! Have a good rest of the week!!

Buona Pasquetta tutti! Here in Italy we don't just celebrate Easter on Sunday, nope we celebrate the day after as well! I hope everyone had a good Easter! We had the wonderful opportunity to be fed by someone in our branch! Oh man, I don't think I've ever been more full in my life! It was delicious! Right before we left they told us to call if it started raining (as it had earlier today), and we agreed and started our long journey home. Well about 10 minutes into our trek, it just started to just down pour. We soon realized that we had forgotten our phone at home. As we continued in the down pouring rain some gentleman stopped and offered us ride. We gladly agreed, and had a nice conversation with him. After the short ride we thanked him and wished him a happy Easter. 

     

Earlier this week while doing finding, we met these two little kids who were around 7 or 8 years old. Well they were a little curious about who we were, so they approached us and asked us. About a hundred questions later, we walked away with two kids handing out the  pass along cards with us. We soon convinced them that they should probably go home because their parents were wondering where they were, but told them they could give the cards to everyone in their family. The kids happily agreed and we went our separate ways. 

     Alma 11:42 states "Now, there is a death which is called a temporal death; and the death of Christ shall loose the bands of this temporal death, that all shall be raised from this temporal death". Jesus Christ made it possible for all of us live again after death. I am so grateful for His resurrection, and the perfect plan our Heavenly Father has for us. Hope everyone had a wonderful  Easter! Have a good week!

     

Anziano Andersen⛷⚽

When Mom gives you money to ride!

When she doesn't....

See Mom! I really do keep things clean!

A Month of Growth, Finding and Saying Goodbye........

 A fun, event filled and loving week here in Brindisi. First let's start of with Tuesday. Valentine's Day! Man oh man was that day filled with some love. The trainer and I took on the dangerous and rigorous task of making sugar cookies for our English course we teach. Though hard, and with much trial and error on the frosting, it was accomplished! Our students loved the American cookies. It was definitely a Valentine's Day well spent.  










Thursday was my trainer's birthday! For lunch, our investigator who was recently baptized, made us an African dish. 

Lunch with our investigator.

It was quite interesting, not bad at all! 

On Sunday he received the priesthood, it was such a cool and spiritual experience. Then the guy I told you about last week, who literally walked into the church and asked to know more, came to church again! He is such an awesome guy!! In our lesson with him on Saturday we asked him how his reading of the Book of Mormon was going. He told us it went 'pretty good'. We were totally stoked when he told us he'd read not only the chapter in Alma we asked him to read, but the first 13 chapters in Nephi! Haha, we were so surprised, and excited! It was cool to see him so interested like that. I'm going to love teaching this awesome guy!

Ortranto

For P-day we went to Otranto. It is this city that is over 1,000 years old and just absolutely gorgeous. The water here is so clear. We visited the beach, an old castle, and a very old church. I know surprising about the church, right? 

 Haha, this church was different than others I've seen so far. The floor was had mosaic artwork that was incredible. They had this room full of skulls of people that were killed because they would not give up being Catholic when Muslims took over (this happened a long time ago, definitely not recent). It was really interesting.  I think the beach and the view was my favorite. It was so gorgeous.

While reading the scriptures this week I came across a verse in Alma that I really liked. It says "27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." Sometimes humbling yourself isn't the easiest thing to do. Trust me lol. But when you do, when you put it all out there and you let our Father in Heaven do what nobody else can, He will make those "weak things become strong". 

Thank you everyone for all of the love and support you have given! Love all of you!

Anziano Andersen⛷⚽

Elders in the Bari Zone with President Pickerd

Great week! On Wednesday we had a wonderful zone conference. It's always fun seeing President and Sister Pickerd and the other missionaries from our zone! Then our investigator who walked into the church has been doing so good. He has expressed a desire to be baptized! He has been to church the past three weeks and loves reading the Book of Mormon. He is such an amazing guy!

Saturday was a fun day. In the morning, we had the opportunity to work on a members olive tree farm. Service opportunities like this don't pop up very often, so we took full advantage of it! It felt so good to do manual labor again! It was a beautiful farm. We were fortunate enough to be fed a delicious lunch. On Sunday our new convert passed the sacrament and that was amazing to see! Then after church got invited over to a members house for some delicious lasagna. We were defiantly fed well this week, haha, I loved it!

I came across a really cool quote. Dale Carnegie once said  "If you are not in the process of becoming the person you want to be, you are automatically engaged in becoming the person you don’t want to be”. Pretty straight forward. Working on becoming that person wont always be so easy. In fact, it will probably be pretty hard, but in the end it will be so worth it! Thank you everyone for the love and support you guys show me. I definitely couldn't have done it with out you guys! 

P.S. To everyone who has written me letters, I am going to write you back I promise, I just need to find out were to buy stamps, haha! 

We had an incredible week here in Brindisi. Tuesday was Carnival, Carnival is an ancient tradition occurring the immediate period before Lent. So of course we had to throw a little party for our English class, we brought cookies and drinks and had a fun time!

On Friday, we were able to play soccer with our branch president and recent convert, we wanted to show him what a younger looking ward looks like and the activities they do. It was a blast, he absolutely loved it. 

For P-day it was soccer again!! We had such a great time, as usual! After we headed to the church for some pizza and cake for Anziano Whitakers bithday! Successful P-day for sure!

Earlier this week we met two new people that were interested in the gospel. The first person we met through our recent convert. They were playing ping pong and naturally a conversation started and he agreed to meet with us. While we were talking to this new investigator, another guy heard us speaking in English. He was curious where we were from and what we are doing here. So we shared our message with both of them! They both have gone through things I didn't even know where possible. They are truly an inspiration, their life stories are incredible! Because of their stories, I have gained a greater appreciation for Jesus Christ and His Atonement. The Atonement isn't just meant for those people who are in need of repentance. In Matthew 11 it states:

" 28 ¶ Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

The Atonement is for everyone. He felt the pains for both the sinner and the person who is having a bad day, month, year, and sometimes even longer. Whatever struggle you are going through in life, whether they be big or small, Jesus Christ and His atonement can help you. Thank you everyone for your support, I love you all!

We started the week here in Brindisi with beautiful weather and ended the with a storm. By Friday we felt like a tornado had hit us! Okay maybe not that bad but it was windy. Not the most ideal weather for missionary work, haha. This Sunday was Anziano Vrska's last Sunday in the branch, he heads up to Rome this Saturday and then on to home. It was Branch Conference so we had a ton of people in church! We had like 35, I was stoked. Although like 10 of them were from the stake, but we had a lot of other people who don't usually come, come. Oh and our new convert gave a talk today and he did awesome. So that was cool.  We had a little luncheon after and had a good time with the branch.

 I was reading a chapter In Enos. And Enos is telling the Lord about how he is not very good at writing, and that because of this he will be made fun of. The Lord goes on to say " if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble... for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them" (Ether 12:27). We are all given weaknesses. Many of the great prophets talked about their weaknesses. If we have faith in Christ, and we humble ourselves before Him, He will "make weak things become strong". Thanks for all the love and support! Have a good week everyone!! 

This week really started out pretty normal. We taught all of our investigators, did finding, taught our English course and all of the fun stuff. Then Saturday came and it was time for my trainer to go home. I'm gonna miss him. Anziano Vrska has taught me a lot, like baptizing in Italy is possible and don't ever let people say its not. We had fun working together, especially these last couple weeks. It was pretty sad watching him say goodbye to all of the people we have been working with. I hadn't really thought about having to someday say goodbye to everyone I meet here...  I already can tell that leaving this place is going to be pretty hard.  

Lecce

I'm ready to find out who my next companion is. I'm excited to work hard with him and hopefully continue growing the branch here in Brindisi! Because I don't get my next companion tell Thursday I have had to come to Lecce for a week. It's been fun, it is a beautiful city, but I like Brindisi and the people I am teaching right now, so I'll be excited to get back. 

I came across a quote from Thomas Monson talking about patience. Something I need to work on, haha. He said “Life is full of difficulties, some minor and others of a more serious nature. There seems to be an unending supply of challenges for one and all. Our problem is that we often expect instantaneous solutions to such challenges, forgetting that frequently the heavenly virtue of patience is required”. Somethings don't come right away. I've learned that trying to speak a new language. It's important to remember our time and God's timing aren't the same. So be patient with the people around you and yourself. Thanks for all the love and support! Hope everyone has a fantastic week!

Anziano Andersen⛷⚽

Lecce

                       

I talk often of the amazing food! I thought Id take some pictures to share!

  

                                       

Brownies, Baptism and Love

   Polignano a Mare

Another great week here in Brindisi! Our investigator who has a baptism date is doing awesome.  It has been such an amazing experience to see him accept the gospel. He is such a great kid. He speaks english so I am able to help teach more than I usually do. In his interview he showed some interest in a mission! I was pretty stoked when he said that.

Last week we met another guy on the streets and we showed him a video about Jesus Christ. He really enjoyed it so we picked a time when we would be able to meet again. So this week we have been able to meet with him a couple times. All of the lessons have been going way good; on Thursday we challenged him to get baptized! He accepted and is willing to work towards that date! He is such a humble and nice guy. I think I am learning more from the people we teach than they learn from me! Luckily my trainer is an awesome teacher and knows what he is doing. On p-day we went to Polignano a Mare. It was so gorgeous there!! Way cool place.

Polignano a Mare

         I was listening to a talk by President Uchtdorf and he was talking about faith and some things you can accomplish with faith. He also talks about things faith cannot do. It cannot violate someone's agency. Heavenly Father will not force anyone to follow Him, He will however invite and reach out to them, but He will never make you follow Him. We cannot "force our will upon God". We cannot force God to do something that we want if it's not His will. Even if we think it's for the best. He said "The purpose of faith is to not change God's will". We are all going through trials. Some trials may seem harder than others, and sometimes it might seem unfair. But God has a plan for us. He loves us! He knows exactly what we are going through. It is our job to trust in Him. If we can do that, we can make it through any trial. Thank you for all the support and the love you guys have shown me!! Love you guys!

        

Meet Flat Stanley, Raife's classroom friend, he came for a
visit and even helped make brownies!

          This week was solid. So last week we were trying to figure out some creative ways we could meet with this family; they are always too busy. Every time we scheduled to meet with them, they had something going on! So we made these guys an American desert; brownies! We figured if brownies wouldn't work, nothing else would. So we took them over and the next day they texted us telling us the brownies tasted amazing and that we they wanted to meet with us again on Friday! Haha, the lesson went well, but we never saw them at church. Maybe next week! Then our investigator had his final interview and is ready to be baptized! He gets baptized this Saturday, and we are so freaking stoked! He's an awesome kid.

Some great missionaries from the Bari
Zone in Alberobello.

On our P-day this week, we went to Alberobello. It's a city with really old houses called Trulli. They were way cool! Such a beautiful place! One of the members in our branch told us they would be able to take their houses apart really quick so that when the tax collector came by they wouldn't have to pay taxes on their house. I don't know if that is true but that's an awesome story haha!

When I was scrolling through gospel library this week (pretty much a missionary's twitter) I read this awesome quote by Ezra Taft Benson and it said “The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human behavior" Christ isn't going to take away our problems, if He did, we wouldn't have a chance to grow. What He will do is give us the strength to get through them. We are never alone. Let Christ into your lives and watch what he can do!  Hope everyone has a good week, love you all!

Anziano Vrska and I in our Comp cardigans.

       Popping week down here in Brindisi. I don't even know where to start!  On Monday night, we had just finished emailing our families and wrapping up our p-day; when we were leaving the church and this guy with a beard was standing at the door reading an English course poster we had put up. So we asked him if we could help him. He said, '"yea, I've lived by this church forever and was just kind of curious of what you guys believed in and stuff". Haha, so we told him that we could help him out with that! He ended up coming to church this Sunday and we plan on meeting with him this week. What a miracle. We also got a referral from the church website! Which is pretty rare here. It was this kid who's friend that lives out of the country just got baptized and told him how it has changed his life. So now we are meeting with him, and he is awesome! I also had to give another talk this week so that was pretty fun as well, haha. 

        But the highlight of the week definitely had to be Saturday. This Saturday our investigator got baptized! It was such a cool experience! We headed down there early with him and the branch president took us all to lunch. It was so nice of him! Then he got baptized, the spirit was so strong! After, when we were driving home he told us how he felt so good and happy.  It has been amazing to see how the gospel has effected his life.

Just Hanging' in Brindisi this P-Day.

        This week is Valentines Day!! The two most important commandments are about love. The first one is “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind" and the second one is "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself”. Thomas S. Monsan said something really cool as well "We cannot truly love God if we do not love our fellow travelers on this mortal journey".  This Valentine's Day show everyone around us how much we love them. Even if, with some people, its a little harder. Also remember how much your Heavenly Father loves you! He knows each one of us personally and what our needs are.

I love every single one of you guys!! Thank you for all the love and support you have shown me!!

Anziano Andersen⛷⚽