Buona Settimana, Nov 17

Ciao!

This past week was a hard one.  We had tons of bidoni, which are appointments that fall through.  It seemed like all we would do was finding work without having any success, and that was difficult.  However, we had a pretty awesome miracle.  We were nearing the end of the week (it was Saturday), and we had only taught 4 lessons, and we had set a goal to teach 20.  Anyway, on Saturday, we taught 5 lessons, and in our time doing finding work finally payed off - we got a new investigator!  We didn't reach our goal, but we saw some fruits of our labors (eventually)!  Anyway, we have 5 progressing ivestigators - Daniel and Felice Rus, Anca (all 3 of them are Romanians), Len_Lo, and Piero.  The coolest news is with Piero - HE HAS A BAPTISMAL DATE!  We committed him last night to be baptized on the 12th of December!  He is absolutely amazing and knows/understands so much!  There is one thing that could make it so that he won't be baptized on the 12th, which is his problem with smoking.  He's been trying to give it up, and he's been making progress, but he's not quite there.  However, we will try to help him, and I know the Lord will help him, and hopefully he'll be ready to be baptized in a few weeks!

Another amazing thing happened with a couple more of our progressing investigators - the Rus familly.  We taught them and invited them to church on Saturday Evening, and come Sunday morning, they came!  And, the meetings were perfect!  Daniel (the dad) was engaged and interested the whole time, I didn't see him once look bored!  Anyway, the coolest thing was that Sunday was the Primary program, where the kids in the ward sang songs and gave little talks during sacrament meeting!  It was perfect!  It was so sweet hearing the little kids bear testimony, teach, and sing about the basic principles of the gospel - what we are teaching the Rus family right now!  The parents had smiles on their faces almost the whole meeting long!  Furthermore, the members were great - the Rus family was basically adopted into the branch within 3 hours!  Their kid, Davide, who is 7, is lvoed by everyone!  He was going around to different families, playing with little babies, looking at and reading church magazines and books, and having fun all meeting long!  Then, after the meeting, Daniel asked Davide if he wanted to ever come again, and without hesitation Davide enthusiastically shouted "si!"  In addition to this, the Rus family brought one of their friends, and she is interested now too!  Another new investigator!

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Anyway, we taught English class last week, and there are 3 students - Fahd, Xeuness (he spells it really weird, I don't know if that's right, but it is pronounced like Eunace), and Anziano Pastillo (he is learning too - so I'm the one and only teacher)!  It's a lot of fun teaching English to these guys (they're probably mid-twenties), it reminded me a lot about what it was like to tutor and help people with math and chemistry!  Also, we found a lady to whom we give "service" - we go once a week and help teach her son (and her too) how to speak English.  The kid's name is Ruben.  Oh, it is kind of funny, one thing we did with both groups of people was learn the alphabet, and of course, the alphabet song!  It was funny seeing men try to sing this song, and it was fun teaching a little kid the song too!

Okay, we also did a scambio (exchange) this last week!  I went to Pistoia (about 20 minutes away) with Anziano Fulcher (the australian that I knew from the MTC)!  It was really interesting because neither of us are fabulous at Italian (I speak and understand better than he does), so a lot of times we ended up just smiling  and saying "ahhh..."  Because Anziano Fulcher is a little quieter, I got to take the lead quite a bit of the time when we were doing casa - it was great!  However, we didn't have hardly any success.  It was difficult to even get into the palazzi!  We spent most of our time outside ringing the citofono and talking to the people (pretty much everyone was home...), and it seemed like everyone would ask, after we asked them if they'd open the door, "ma, chi è?" (but, who is it), then we'd say our names, and then they'd ask something like "e che vuole?" (and what do you want?), and we'd give a brief part of our message and they'd say "non mi interessa" (it doesn't interest me) and hang up.  We'd do this for almost all 15 or so rooms per palazzo, then go on to the next palazzo - nothing.  However, it was a lot more efficient this way! 

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Oh, and another funny part of the scambio - Tuesday morning (scambi go for 24 hours - they start at 10:00 in the morning one day and go until 10:00 the next day) I was fixing breakfast, and I decided I wanted a potato (and I didn't have much time), so I wrapped it up in a damp towel and stuch it in the microwave (kind of like we've done at home a couple times).  A few minutes later, I looked over at the microwave and saw a ton of smoke!  I quickly stopped and opened the microwave, and smoke immediately filled the room!  I shut the door of the kitchen so that the fire alarm wouldn't go off (there wasn't one in the kitchen) and opened up all of the windows and doors in the kitchen!  My potato had turned to ashes... And it probably still stinks in their apartment! 

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Today, as it is p-day, I went to Pisa and saw the leaning tower of Pisa!  It was pretty cool! 

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Allora, that was basically my week!  It was hard, but we kept good attitudes and eventually we saw some success!  I know that the Lord's hand is in this work - even if we can't always see it working! Thank you all for your love, support, and prayers!

-Anziano Barnes

President and Sister Wolfgramm with Justin and his companion, Anziano Pastillo from Equador.