Another week that just flew by! ...
It was an awesome week of miracles. One of the coolest happened on Sunday night. We wanted to teach 20 lessons that week. We had just finished teaching the 19th, and it was 8:20, just a few minutes before we needed to go in. What made it more difficult was that we were a ways away (it takes about 20 minutes from our house). We had the 20th lesson set up, but we went late and had to cancel. However, the man with whom we had the appointment didn't answer his phone, so we couldn't see if he could just see us a few minutes later. Anyway, we left, determined to teach again. And, as we got on the bikes, we got a text from this man (his name is Bamba) saying that he was at the station and could see us. The problem was that the station is a pretty far distance (if we went at a normal speed it would take 35 minutes or so). If we tried to teach him at that time, there would be no way that we would get back to our house in time! My companion wasn't thinking or something when he called, because he said that we'd be there in 20 minutes (that would give us just enough time to teach him and ride back to our house). Well, the impossible became possible - we rode that road that would normally take us 35 minutes in 18! I don't know if time just slowed down for us or if we were strengthened a ton, but we rode as hard as we could and we made it! And, that's just the beginning of the miracle - Bamba is amazing. He wasn't who we expected, though (this would be our first lesson). We met him and he was a muslim from Senegal. He's in his mid-twenties and is much better off than most Africans here in Firenze (he actually has a decent job and stuff). Anyway, this man is amazing! He accepted the soft baptismal invite, and when we asked if he thought that his life would be in danger at all if he were to become a Christian (usually for muslims this a big problem), he told us that there was nothing to worry about, "tranquilo..."
Another cool miracle happened on a scambio that went from yesterday until today. I was with Anziano Anderson, who has been in Italy for just 6 months now. He is an absolutely amazing missionary - many times I felt like I should've been the junior companion! Anyway, we saw a ton of miracles together. We had a goal to teach 8 lessons (which is extremely difficult here - on a normal, good day, we teach 4 or so). What made it harder was that we only had 2 appointments set up and we didn't have the few hours in the morning that we usually would've had if it weren't for district meeting. So, we had to find a lot of people. And, wow! We found a ton. God blessed us a ton. We tried to speak with everyone (we worked a lot on the street and in some park type places), and most of these people we were able to teach as well. I think there was probably just one period of time when we went more than 10 minutes without teaching someone about the restored gospel. It was wonderful! It was one of the most fun and fulfilling finding days that I've had!
A couple other fun/interesting things that we did. Last P-day, we had a district celebration because we were all staying the same (no one got transferred). We went to lunch together to a really good pizza place. I ate the best pizza that I've had so far in Italy. It was one of the most simple, but it was delicious (It was a margherita pizza - just tomato sauce, fresh basil leaves, and mozzarella cheese - but the mozzarella came from a buffalo)! Then, a couple days later, we were riding our bikes and Anziano Heninger's bike chain exploded on him! We had to leave the bike where it was for the night, and he had to sit on the back of my bike - that was an adventure full of laughter - we probably looked pretty silly. Anyway, the next day we had the opportunity to fix the bike. Most of the stores were closed, and the only one open that we found said that it would take a week. So, I decided that I would try to fix it. We bought a new chain and I got to fixing it. 30 minutes and a complete arm-full of grease later, it was fixed! That was exciting - I'd never tried replacing a chain before... (Don't worry mom - I took my suit off to change - the only "casualty" was a black spot on one of my ties...). The fun part was that after that, we had to go straight to a teaching appointment (before we had the chance to go somewhere to wash up - Blanchard wouldn't wait longer)! It felt quite good to remove the grease (which took about 10 minutes of scrubbing...) 30 or 40 minutes later!
I don't know what else really to add. I'm feeling great, I'm growing and improving a bunch (especially in prayers - my prayers have become a lot more meaningful the past week), and we're trying really hard to pick up the work here again. I absolutely love staying really busy, loving our zone members and the people that we teach!
Vi voglio bene!
-Anziano Barnes
No comments:
Post a Comment