First week in Florence

Anziano Heninger and Anziano Barnes

I'm in Florence!  It's great to be back in Tuscany.  It's been kind of funny actually because there were a bunch of members from Prato at our church one day and I was able to say hi to them. It's like I "came back home" in a mission sense.  My companion is Anziano Heninger.  WOW!  I love working with him!  We're alike in a ton of ways.  A couple cool things about him - he's the hardest worker I've ever seen - he can multitask like a professional, he's always giving at least 100% at least 100% of the time.  I think that I'm going to learn a lot from him, especially about going the extra mile all the time, giving yourself all the way to the Lord, and making sure that nothing ever holds you back.

Life as a zone leader this week has been crazy - super crazy.  Today, P-day, has been the only day where there has been enough time to breathe!  We've ran all over the zone for the missionaries in our zone and all over our city for our investigators.

Right now we have 5 people with baptismal dates!  And, guess what - they're all African refugees!  Their names are Daniel, Odion, Cross, Blanchard, and Godsent.  Daniel's situation is a bit tricky...  He wants to go back to Germany because that's where his wife and child are at.  However, he doesn't have enough money to buy a ticket back.  He said that as soon as he gets enough money, he'll be off the next day.  Anyway, in church on Sunday one of the members got talking to him and found out about the situation.  She told Daniel not to worry and that she would figure something out.  She did.  After church, she mobilized the relief society!  There were 5 or 6 of them that stayed after church, without Daniel even knowing it, to try to find people that could donate a little bit of money.  They arranged a place for him to stay and food for him to eat (the last few days he has had to live on the street).  So, within the next few days he will be gone.  Usually the members are the ones that help to integrate people into the ward, not send them out and away to another country!  Oh well, there are exceptions (and good ones) to every rule.  Daniel is really excited to go back to his family, and he's set on getting baptized (and getting his family involved as well) shortly after arriving in Germany!  Blanchard speaks French, and his knowledge and testimony is incredible - we asked him a few questions and it seemed like he was reciting preach my gospel back to us!  Cross is absolutely golden - he ran into the missionaries shortly before leaving his country, and from the first meeting he knew that the message was true.  Now, he's found the LDS again and is waiting for baptism!  His friend, Odion, is progessing pretty well.  However, he can't read.  So, Cross reads with him every night!  Godsent reminds me a lot of Bismack.  He's given quite a bit of resistance and is really intelligent, but he finally accepted a baptismal date and it seems like he is really searching now to gain a testimony of the truth for himself.

There is also a girl named Michelle (she's Afrtican too...).  She's been an investigator for over a month and she hadn't come to church yet.  She committed, however, to come last sunday.  We called her Saturday night to remind her and encourage her.  She was sick with a fever.  We called her Sunday morning (this day, church was in the afternoon).  She was sick with the flu.  However, Anziano Heninger told her to pray so that she could get better so that she could be able to come to church.  So, when we got to church, who did we see?  Michelle!  She felt all the way better and was able to come!  God really does provide a way so that we can accomplish the thing that he commands us to do!

There are like a billion other investigators that we have right now and there is like no time ever to see them.  So, as we see what happens with them, I'll let you know.

We've worked a bunch with the other missionaries in the zone already.  We had to come up with a training to do and something to focus on this transfer to help them and their work.  The thing that we chose to focus on was the missionaries themselves.  After a little training, we invited them to seek out revelation to know who the Lord wants them to become and who they can become by the end of this transfer, and then to go to the Lord and learn what it is that they need to do in order to get there.  The best way to improve missionary work is not by improving what the missionaries do, it's by improving who the missionaries are.  When that happens, everything else follows naturally.  This is what we're trying to do for our zone.

I've been learning a lot the last week.  And I'm going to learn a lot more in the weeks to come.  I've been trying to do for myself what we've invited the missionaries in the zone to do, and it's been a great thing for me.  I've still not yet finalized it, so I can't share some of the things I'll be improving and becoming.  But, hopefully next week (especially after a feast of revelation from General Conference) I'll have it down.

God has blessed me a ton this past week.  I'm already becoming a better and different person.  Large part of this, I believe, is coming from my responsibilities as a zone leader - He's strengthening me.  I don't have much more to say other than that I love it here, I love serving with Anziano Heninger, and I'm super excited for the work that we'll be able to do to serve the people here in Firenze as well as the missionaries that serve around (there are 9 companionships and 3 districts in our zone - we're not too big)!

-Anziano Barnes