This week has flown by! Last thursday we went to get tests done for Anziano Wilkinson. We go back tomorrow to get the results. Hopefully we'll figure something out. Anyway, it's been another great week of seeing the power that comes from the Spirit when we try to do what's right. And, we've seen some cool miracles.
First, an update on Geris, our investigator from Egypt. We tried teaching him again last week and were very disappointed; he understands and speaks a lot less than we thought (it took us 10 minutes to explain where we wanted him to read from in the Book of Mormon...). However, he came to all the activities (including the family night, baptism, and church). But, the miracle happened in church. A man, who doesn't even live in our ward but in another part of Milan, for some reason came to our building. We talked to him for a couple minutes and learned that he speaks Arabic! We introduced him to Geris and they sat together during sacrament meeting. This man had to leave early from the meeting for some reason, but gave us his information before he left. In talking with Geris after sacrament meeting, he said that he and this other guy who speaks Arabic talked a bunch throughout the meeting. He continued to tell us that he always feels good when he comes to our church (and he said that he has bad feelings when he goes to the casino and stuff like that). Then he said something amazing - I think that this church is true. Wow! I guess something of our teaching (not our teaching - the Spirit's teaching...) rubbed off on him! The man who speaks Arabic said that he will help us teach Geris, so now we just need to find a time when we can all get together!
Okay, next cool miracle: an italian man named Luigi. He was a referral that we got from the Sisters in our ward. We called him up Friday night, and in talking with him I felt that I should invite him to the baptism the next day. He said that he would try to come if he was free. The next day at the baptism, long before it started, we found Luigi at the church! What made it even better was that he was talking with one of the members - a lady named Milka that is an absolutely amazing member-missionary. He had an amazing experience at the baptism. Afterward, Milka gave him a Book of Mormon! He couldn't come to church on Sunday due to some previous commitments, but was more than happy to meet with us the next week. Monday night, we got a call from him. It came at absolutely the perfect time. It was about 7 or 7:30, and Anziano Wilkinson was really tired and was feeling really sick(he still hasn't gotten any better - this sickness thing completely drains him) and we were debating of whether or not we should go in so that he could rest. He later told me that he was "talking to God" in his head, saying that if He wanted him to stay out, he needed to have a way in order to do it. Right at that moment, our phone rang. Luigi asked if we were free - we were - and if we were close to a certain area - we were. He bought us gelato (yum!!!) and then we went to the church and taught him a little lesson about Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, and praying to know the truth through the Holy Ghost. We invited him to pray to know (and to continue reading the book of mormon because he had already started reading after he got the book at the baptism on Saturday). We talked to him the next day, and he was super excited! He told us that he was pretty sure he had felt the spirit (he even did some "research" and found the scripture in Galatians 5 describing the fruits of the spirit)! The next time we see him we want to invite him to be baptized! The cool thing is that the Italian members of the ward have just embraced him (there aren't a lot of italians - they're mostly south americans), and I think they're coming more to appreciate our efforts as missionaries.
And, that reminds me, the member work we've been continuing to do has been going amazing! We've had our first "fruit!" A family that we taught invited a friend over to their house and then got the missionaries to come (the sisters went because the investigator is a woman). They had an absolutley amazing experience! The family knew exactly what to say (the missionaries that taught them a week or so ago must have done a pretty good job...) as the message of the restoration was presented. At the end of the lesson, when the investigator was praying, she began to cry! She seems pretty solid. And, it's cool that we are working together with the sisters as a team. Like this, the members get to know both sets of missionaries and we as missionaries get to know more members!
Anyway, that's the highlights of the week.
Thanks to all of you!
-Anziano Barnes
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