Lodi Branch, Another "best" week ever!

Anziano Barnes and Jenson, Branch in Lodi (near Milano)

 

This past week has probably been one of the best of my mission.  Let me start with a little bit of background information.  Ever since I've been an AP, we've had hardly any time to go out and teach people - do "normal" missionary work.  We've never had time to teach more than 10 lessons per week - or so we thought.  However, in the past little while, we've been feeling bad because we are supposed to be examples - and right now we're not.  We want to up our performance and increase the number of people we help each week by teaching at least 20 lessons per week.  At first we were talking about doing it "piano piano" (which means little by little).  But, then we sat down and thoroughly (I can't remember how that word is spelled!!!) and mapped out our week and found any little blocks of time that we could possibly have.  It turned out that we could squeeze 21 lessons in this week!  So, that's what we've been working toward.  And, as of right now, we're still on track to get there!  It seems that this past week has been a really cool one of getting a raised vision of what can be done and I've been able to exercise more faith in working towards real goals.

We officiallly made the switch off to work in the new area - Milano 3.  We haven't been to church yet, but we went to a baptism there and the ward council, so we've met a bunch of the members.  And, we've been going around meeting some of the less actives, new converts, and also the investigators that were left to us after the other missionaries left.  It's been a lot of fun!  I haven't taught this much in a long time - it feels so good!  Here's a new update with the cool new things that we have:

Gianni is a middle age Italian man who is married to a recently reactivated less-active member.  They weren't married before and they've been waiting for the paperwork to go through so that they can get married and then get baptized.  It will all happen the end of may.  Their story is super cool because Gianni wasn't super interested before, but God was able to get to his heart.  They have a 17 year old son who, one night with his friends, got stabbed 7 times in the stomach.  He was rushed to the hospital and was supposed to die.  For the first time in his life, Gianni humbly invoked the Lord's blessings, and their son lived.  This son was reactivated and Gianni began to investigate the church.  Now, Gianni wants to be baptized (and the son is doing just fine)!

Claude is a man that was found on the other side of Milano but was interested in finding out more.  It turns out that he lived with a member of the church who recently moved away.  Anyway, Claude is from Cameroon (in africa), and he speaks English, French, and Italian.  He wants to get baptized!  However, he hasn't been answering his phone for the past few days - we don't know what happened.

This past week we've had lots of cool experiences of our plans not working out - people cancelling - but then awesome things happening instead.  One night we only had 45 minutes left in the night.  We weren't able to see Claude.  But, we went out to where he lived to try to find some new investigator in the time remaining.  And, we were able to teach 2 lessons!  We met an amazing lady who, in the end, turned out to not be interested but she committed herself to pray (she's religious and has a really strong belief in God and a testimony of prayer) and ask God if what we were telling her is something she should listen to, and for when she receives her answer, to contact us.  Hopefully she does it with an open and sincere heart and some miracles happen.  And then, within a minute, we found a new investigator!  His name is Sunday and he's from Nigeria.  He was really interested in learning more and we were able to get a return appointment with him.  He seemed really legit, so if he shows up to his appointment tonight I think we'll be able to help him progress towards baptism!

Then, last night, a similar situation happened - 2 of our 3 appointments got cancelled.  We went out to the area of our last appointment (we'd never been there before) and it turned out to be probably the smallest town I've ever seen!  But, we were determined to find some new people to teach.  And, even though we got rejected pretty hard for the first little bit, afterwards we had a ton of success.  We taught a lady and gave her a Book of Mormon, and she wants us to come back because she thinks that her 20 year old son will be interested!  Then, we found a guy from Napoli who wants a Book of Mormon.  Then, we found an old guy who invited himself to come to church!  Then, to top it off, we met one of the most solid new convert families I've ever seen - their 5 year old daughter is one of the cutest and well behaved kids I've ever seen (it was super cool to see her smile every time that we bore testimony or when they talked about the book of Mormon - she's a great girl).  And, we got 2 referrals from them!

So, not only has it been great as far as our "missionary work" has gone, but it's been great working with the missionaries in the mission as well.  We've been to 2 of 4 zone conferences.  Right now we're trying to do a big 20 lesson push.  Elder Perry promised us, a few years ago, that if we'd teach 20 lessons, the number of converts baptized would double.  And, in fact, there was a point last year when it happened - many companionships were reaching 20 and the number of baptisms in the mission per month went from the average 20, to exactly 40.  President trained us about how we need to "get in the way" by making sure we are doing all that we can (obedience, planning, and studying) so that when it comes time for letting God do His plans, we can "get out of the way."  We trained about how we can plan better.  One thing that we realized, especially from our experience last week, was we don't really know what we have to work with (how much time we have and the people we can bless in that time).  So, we taught about how we need to evaluate our week, "build" it, and then just do it!  We got lots of good remarks - most of the missionaries were like us and never really did the first part - evaluation and examination - which is crucial if we really want to set goals that matter.  The cool thing about what we've learned is that all of the number goals we set are accounted for in our weekly set-up.  We can now exercise real faith and not just shoot a number out and hope that it happens!

It's been so great being able to interact with all of these missionaries.  God has been blessing me a ton to be filled with even more love!  I wish I could express all of the cool things that have happened, what I've learned about these missionaries, and the cool, short, and powerful experiences we shared together.  I really think God is guiding me and helping me be an instrument in His hands to help lift these missionaries - both while we're "training" and during all the other time.  It's great!

We also had mission council this past week.  That went really good as well.  I learned something really poweful for me that actually was one of the reasons why the trainings have gone so well.  I've always tried to teach others, especially those that get scared or feel awkward talking with everyone, to not think about it and just do it.  And, what I realized, is that I have just been failing to do that when I'm with other missionaries.  I over analyze about what I'll say or teach, and when it comes time to do it, everything falls apart.  But I saw something amazing happen.  In mission council I was called on, out of nowhere, to present what our break out group had decided (we divided into 4 small groups to figure some stuff out), and I had to take about 10 or 15 minutes.  I didn't have time to over-analyze, but I knew that I had prepared and studied well, and I had a prayer in my heart that God would give me what to say (I know that when I'm left to myself I'm not a good speaker at all...).  And, it went great!  I've never felt like I've taught with more power and authority!  What I learned is that the scripture that talks about taking no thought beforehand what we should say is a principle about trusting God.  When I worry about what I say beforehand, I'm basically saying that I don't trust God enough so I'll just figure out myself what to say.  Whoa!  Where's the faith?  Anyway, so I've been applying this principle this week - making sure I prepare well, but then not worrying about what I'll say.  Instead, I can focus on others and love them, and everything goes great!

One of my sisters asked me to talk more about Anziano Jenson.  He is absolutely fantastic!  I don't know if I've ever met someone my age who has more light in his countenance or more love for others.  He is super fun - always cracking little jokes or doing stuff that's kind of weird.  He's one of those people that doesn't care at all what others think of him, so he'll do whatever is necessary - even putting himself in a seemingly awkward situation - to help others smile and feel comfortable and loved around him.  He's incredible.  I'm learning so much from him.  One of the qualities that I admire most about him (and one that I'm striving to develop) is that he is able to see people and see their potential - who they really are as far as attributes, gifts and qualites - and he lets them know; he praises them and, if their not living up to their real potential, he super lovingly helps them see what they could do.  I don't know if I've ever been with someone who makes me smile and laugh so much!

Vi voglio tanto bene!

-Anziano Barnes