Saturday we had interviews in Firenze (Florence) with President Wolfgramm, but before that we (the missionaries of our zone) were able to go see the groundbreaking for the chapel that will be built in Firenze. It will be the first actual "chapel/church building" (not just using part of an apartment) in the Tuscany area! And, I even got to help "break the ground" by throwing up a bit of dirt with a shovel. After that we had to hurry super fast to get some lunch (we had like no time, so we just went to a market and I bought some fresh bread, some ham, and some cheese, and threw together some simple, huge, and delicious sandwiches. Then the interviews began. While president was interviewing, all of the other missionaries were able to be trained and taught. It was an amazing meeting! I learned a ton! Many of the things that we learned from the member of the 70 who came to a zone conference a couple weeks ago were brought up again, and a couple new ideas about what we can do in our work (many of which ideas were sparked from things that Elder Capisca said). One of the biggest things that we're doing is making our teaching better by being much more simple, reading and expounding the scriptures, testifying, and asking good, inspired questions (all of the things that we should be doing...). However, we're starting to do what Anziano Capisca suggested, and president has nicknamed it the "2 minute drill." We have 2 minutes to teach one principle from one of the missionary lessons (examples: God is our loving Heavenly Father, the Great Apostasy, or the Fall of Adam and Eve), making sure that we explain the doctrine simply (one thing that our president suggested was to use the points at the end of each preach my gospel lesson, which are the main ideas of the principle that the investigators need to understand), use a scripture, bear testimony, and ask an inspired question. It's called the 2 minute drill because, while we're doing casa or going in between activities, we test each other and practice teaching. It's a lot of fun, and already my teaching has become a whole lot more clear, powerful, and it's easier to focus on the people and their needs.
Then, Sunday is when the miracles started happening. We went to church, and in church we saw a nigerian man who we'd seen in church several times before, always coming with other nigerian friends who are members. Then, after sunday school, we were talking with him and then he told us that he had never before been baptized and that he wanted to be baptized! We told him that we could help with that... He has a book of mormon, participates in everything, and acts just like a member, so we just assumed he was a member - whoops! I'm glad he said something. Anyway, so we went over the next evening to teach him about the restoration of the gospel and to invite him to be baptized. We were coming close to the end of the lesson, and we were almost to the point in which we wanted to bring up baptism and ask him to be baptized, when he interrupted us and told us again that the reason he wanted us over was that he could be baptized, and asked if he could be baptized! We told him certainly, and asked if he would prepare himself to be baptized the 12th of February. He said yes! We don't have a lot of time to teach him, and we have to go over everything, but above all, we need to prepare him to make this sacred covenant with God, and we need to be sure that he's ready. However, everytime we see him we see how prepared he is, and we feel that he will be ready! This was a really cool experience for us, because we've been working really hard and haven't had a whole lot of success, especially with people that make significant progress, but, within two days, we found a guy (actually he found us...) and got him a baptismal date that's only a week and a half away! We didn't see this one coming at all! ...
Thanks for your love, support, and prayers!
-Anziano Barnes
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