Miracles and Opposition...

Ciao!

Miracles and then an opposition in all things - that pretty much describes the week!  Let me start with the coolest miracle.  After I got done doing email last week, we went and ate a pizza and then got on a bus to go do our shopping for the week.  As we got on the bus, there was a lady that saw us and said "Elder, Venga!" (Elder, come here!).  I was a bit surprised that she knew who we were so I went over not knowing if she was one of the active members here (I still don't know or recognize all of them) or a less active or a random person who had learned a bit about the church.  I went over and she said, basically in these words:  Hi.  I'm a member of the church, but I'm inactive.  But, this is my son, he wants to get baptized!  We asked a little bit to figure out the situation.  His name is Alessio and the mom is Veronica.  She is married to a nonmember, and, ever since moving to Italy she's been inactive.  But, they went back to Ecuador a couple years ago and stayed there for a year.  While they were there, the grandma of Alessio made him go to church, and he loved it and wanted to get baptized.  However, the father wouldn't give permission.  And, when he gave permission, they were about ready to go back to Italy.  So, he didn't get baptized.  And, about a week and a half ago Alessio told his mom that he wanted to start going to church again and get baptized.  And so, what happens, we show up on the same bus!!!  We set up a return appointment and went over to see them a couple days later.  He accepted a baptismal invite!  He's super smart and super ready.  When we were talking about prophets, we asked a question (I don't remember what) and he responded that he thinks that prophets are like God's secretaries here on earth (he made that up himself!!!).  We asked him to say the closing prayer and he did - almost.  He couldn't finish.  He burst into tears after a few phrases.  So, his mom tried to pick it up and continue and then she broke into tears as well.  It was so great!  But, here's the opposition in all things - some unexpected things showed up and we're unable to see them for more than a week (which throws our plans way off in trying to help him prepare for baptism).

Here's another miracle - I guess we can call this week the 10 year old miracle week.  On saturday we got a call from a member who has a less active friend who has a daughter that wants to get baptized (what!? the same story again?!  Yeah - that's right!!!).  She came to church and loved it.  We'll be going to see her (her name's Luisa) in a couple days for the first time to start teaching!

More miracles?  Definitely! In the way we expected? Not at all!  We've been trying super hard but we haven't been finding hardly anyone that will even listen to us (fortunately, there are a couple people every day that seem inerested and that helps to recharge us and keep us going).  But, this sunday in church, a bunch of people showed up (well, they were brought by their member friends).  And, again, they're not the friends of the members that we've been working with, but other random miracle people!  We're seeing one of the ladies tomorrow and we'll be seeing the young man the beginning of next week when he gets back from a short vacation or something.

Mimmo is doing okay - he hasn't stopped smoking yet and he's having some difficulties in a lot of things.  But, it seems to be humbling him and he's still changing slowly.  Hopefully we'll get a "click" and he'll start making some rapid progress.

We have a few other really awesome people (like Saro) who want to be baptized but who want to wait for a couple months before their baptism. We've tried to help them understand what it really means to be ready for baptism and what's most important in the process of preparation, but they're pretty stuck in their way of thought.  But, they're jumping into the book of mormon and love everything about the church so far and have made the decision that they're going to be baptized by the proper authority in this church.

And, the coolest thing is that the success and difficulties are hitting all of us in the district at the same time and in the same way.  We've found a ton of people that want to be baptized in this past week, but in the past couple days we've been hitting a lot of resistance and these people are all in really critical situations.  But, the work in Genova (for the whole district - we're all in this city) is going up and is ready to soar!

...I'm amazed at how much God is answering my prayers and helping me become who He wants.  I am totally changed and I'm still changing - I'm excited to see how I'll be grown and changed even in these last few weeks!

Vi voglio bene!

Anziano Barnes