The beginnings of the "exploding" in our work are coming through finally! We now have a couple investigators that are working to be baptized - Massimo and Eze! And, it's about time that it happens, for the transfer is over. Anziano Heninger is going to be going away. He'll be opening a new companionship in a city by Milano (Vercelli) and he is going to train one more time! And, to make it better, he is going to be living in the same apartment as Anziano Boscia, my past companion! I'm super excited for both of them (and really excited for Anziano Boscia because he will be district leader - it's a good time for him to have some responsibility). I will be staying here and Anziano Lusvardi will be coming. He came into the MTC a few weeks after I did, so we knew each other there. He's from Provo and I'm looking forward to serving with him.
Here's the investigator update: Massimo is an Italian man who came to church with a member friend (this friend is a bit strange - we taught with him once and then never again - we were able to teach better with other members that Massimo has clicked with). He absolutely loves coming to church and last Saturday he came to a baptismal service and loved that as well! His story is cool because he didn't accept the date right away. He said that when he knows he needs to be baptized that he will do it, but wouldn't commit to a date (that was the last we heard). Then, before church, we were talking to the member friend who introduced him to the church (the strange one) who told us that when he was talking with Massimo, Massimo had told him that he was going to be baptized on January 7 (the day that we proposed to him)! He is still very early on in the conversion process, but he is open and humble and ready to make changes in his life!
The other man, Eze, is a Nigerian friend that Godsent brought to church this past Sunday. And, as we were teaching him yesterday, he accepted baptism! If all goes well and as planned, he'll be baptized on January 14.
We also are teaching a Peruvian couple that are doing really well. They, however, have not yet come to church (we've taught them for 3 weeks) and they are living together. But, they came to the baptismal service on Saturday and felt "peace" and "happiness" from inside that "is difficult to explain;" they felt the spirit!
Right now we are finding and "going through" a lot of investigators. These are the ones that are making the most progress.
There are many things now that I am trying to be better at. One is my scripture study. The last few days, I completely changed the way I study and mark my scriptures - and it works perfectly for me. I've been learning so much more and my Book of Mormon study that I make sure to do every morning is so much more edifying. Also, my prayers have gotten a lot better - I feel like I'm really talking to my Heavenly Father. They are much less selfish, and thereby, in doing so, I've been receiving a lot more guidance of how to help the people that I'm working with.
I want to tell a cool miracle that happened this past week. The miracle was Saturday. It started out rough. We were supposed to pick up our bikes saturday morning (they broke and we left them there Friday afternoon - they said they would be done saturday morning). Well, the store was closed - we were without bikes. Anyway, that was just a little obstacle, the bigger problem was that. that morning, I had woken up with a really bad cold. I was feeling miserable - I felt a little bit light headed, I had a bit of a headache, and my stomach started to hurt (like the beginning of pains from the flu). But, I knew that I could keep going - it was just a cold and it was hit just a bit harder that day and I still had enough energy to go around. So, even though many times the temptation came to give in a bit and try to take it easy at home, I decided not to. I realized that I was just complaining about myself selfishly and I decided that I would try thinking of others. Even though the pain didn't really go away, my attitude took a 180 degree turn and I was able to do what I needed to. Anyway, I kept on enduring all day long and resisting thoughts about stopping. I think God recognized my sacrifice and how deep down I really wanted to do what was right, and he blessed us - a ton! We found a bunch of new investigators, had a couple powerful lessons with the investigators that are making progress, we had 6 investigators come to and love the baptismal service later that evening, and we even were given some great food! When we do the right thing, even when it's hard, God really will bless us!
Grazie di tutto!
-Anziano Barnes
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