Stolen Bikes, New Bikes, and the Train Miracle

Anziano Boscia and Barnes with new bikes in Pavia

What an exciting week... sort of.  I have two bits of news.  First the good news - we received new bikes!  The bad - the old bikes were stolen.  I'll explain later.  First, let me give the important part - the updates.

The African new converts are doing well.  We've stopped teaching in groups completely and now we teach them all individually.  Although they all have amazing faith and a strong testimony, that testimony is still very young and their understanding of the doctrines is still very limited.  Now, teaching them one by one, we are able to hit their needs exactly and make sure that each one understands, believes, and applies the important principles, ordinances, and covenants of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  ...

Tiziano is still doing fantastic.  He is always calm and happy.  There isn't really much more to add than that - the spirit is always super strong when we go, he always understands really well, he reads and prays like he should.  Oh, I do want to say one thing - we ate lunch with them on Monday and he said the prayer on the food - he prays better than most members I know!  His prayer was an example for me of how I should pray!  Anyway, he is doing amazing.  We hope that something can happen so that he can make the next couple steps - baptism and confirmation.

The Rodriguez family is doing good.  Frida wasn't able to come to church on sunday because she got a last-minute call Saturday night that she had to work.  However, her brother, Roberto, came!  From what we could tell, he really enjoyed it.  We go back to see them all tonight and we'll learn more.  Oh, the sister is doing good.  She came to Italy yesterday, so we should be able to meet her tonight.

Christian, the man that has been coming to church for years who is married to a member who we taught with the Calio family last week is doing well.  I think we "broke the ice."  He is now willing to meet more with us.  However, his father is in serious health condition - he had a heart attack and is in the hospital.  They receive phone calls fairly often and they have to leave to go see him.  Because of this, we've been unable to see him more.

We haven't been working with the other investigators. 

Okay, now for the "exciting" part of the week.  On Saturday we went to the Virzo home again.  This time we got to paint!  After getting a bit messy (not in missionary clothes, of course), we went back to Pavia.  We went walking towards the bikes, and I didn't see them.  I asked my companion, "do you see the bikes?"  He said "No, where did we leave them?"  We went to the place where they were, and we found the only thing remaining that was ours: a chain that was now destroyed (see picture).  They completely destroyed the chain we had!  That's about the biggest thing that you can get here in Italy - in fact it's what people use to lock up their scooters so that the scooters don't get stolen!  Anyway, those old bikes are long gone...  But, we have new ones (see pictures).  This time we decided to get the biggest thing we can to lock up the bikes (see pictures).  Hopefully these will do the trick...

Okay, time for the amazing miracle of the week:  We had to go to Voghera (another city) for the appointment with the Calio family and Christian.  Recently, the machines where you buy the tickets haven't been accepting credit cards, so we've used cash instead.  I brought, in addition to the 5 euro I had in cash, all of the coins that I had collected over time (I had the feeling that they might have been useful).  We went and bought the ticket - it required the 5 euro I had plus a couple euro that Anziano Boscia had.  After that, all the money that we had left were the coins I had and 1.90 that Anziano Boscia had in coin.  We decided that before coming back, we would stop at a bancomat (a machine where you put your card in and withdraw money - it's like a free ATM service).  Anyway, when we came back, we tried first to use our card to buy a ticket.  It didn't work.  Then, we went to the bancomat near by.  It didn't work either!  We didn't know what to do.  I counted my money - I had 4.40 exactly.  We remembered that it cost about 7 euro if we could take the cheap train and it would take 13 to take the faster train.  There was only one train that went back to pavia within the hour - and it was a cheap train.  We decided to take it - we had to run to get there in time.  We told the conductor that we needed to buy a ticket (sometimes they let you do it on board).  He told us right away that it would be about 7 euro.  Oh shoot!  We sat down and prayed that somehow what we had would be enough.  We counted our money again - 6.30.  We had it in hand until he came.  When he came back with the bill, he showed it to me.  It showed 6.30.  I dumped my coins into his hand and Anziano Boscia dumped his coins into his hand and he left.  As he left the train car, we burst into laughter!  Nothing could have taken the smile off or our faces!  God really had helped us!  Still, in this moment, I can hardly believe that we had exactly the right amount of change to get home - no more, no less.

I love being a missionary!  I am growing so much.  I am still a long way from perfection, but slowly I am being changed and refined.  One of the coolest things is to look back on the weeks, months, and years, and see the progress that has happened.  There is a phrase in Preach My Gospel that I absolutely love - through our Faith in Jesus Christ, we receive help to change the desires of our hearts.  It is so true!

-Anziano Barnes