Chieti alto!
when it's hot and you have to wait for a train
Anyways! Besides that, it's been a pretty slow week. Like I said, we did go and do a scambio (exchange) with the anziani in l'Aquila though and that was really cool. All the missionaries came to Pescara for district meeting on Wednesday, and then we left with the l'Aquila anziani to go to their city. It was really cool! I love being able to travel a little bit around Italy and meet new people. I went with Anziano Burgos, who's in his fourth transfer and is from the Philippines. He's super cold! He's already fluent in Italian because he's lived in Milan for the past few years, so it was really fun to be with him. Anyways, we started off first by just doing some finding. He and I made it so fun! That's really the key to missionary work. Yes, it's work, but you've got to have fun while you do it. Anyways, we also went to go see a less active that night, and he was really cool! Gave us some fruit that I've never eaten before, but I really liked it. That night we went and got dinner at this place that sells panini for one euro. They're tiny sandwiches, but there's 100 of them to choose from, and they're cheap, so it's fun! But because the menu was part Italian and part Spanish, I was completely lost on what to get, so I chose randomly. Turned out alright. I did get one though that was a dessert panini. It was some type of chocolate bread they made with Nutella and Oreos as the stuff inside. May or may have not fallen in love. Who knows.
Anyways, l'Aquila itself is a really interesting place. It was hit by an earthquake a few years ago, and ever since its been under construction. From the missionaries house, you could see 50 cranes just all over the city. There used to be a ton more people that lived there, but not so much anymore. Still, it's really cool!
l'aquila by night
The next day we were supposed to go check a few addresses, but ended up having a miracle lesson with a guy on the bus. He actually started the conversation! He just looked at us and said "what's that on your guys' tags?" Turned into an awesome lesson on the restoration! Aaannndddd afterwards of course we had to stop and get some ice cream from McDonald's. Yup. The Golden Arches are everywhere. I also realized that it was the first time I'd had ice cream from McDonald's since December 3rd, 2014. What's that date? Oh you know. Just the day my sister left for her mission. And now she's COMING HOME WHAT THE HECK. Time flies on the mission, and that both makes me happy and scares me because I love it here. Yeah it's hard, but it's awesome. Anyways, later that day we had a lunch appointment with a member and her friends, and we were able to have a solid lesson with them as well. All in all, it was a good scambio!
district meeting skype roleplays
Okay. For some reason my iPad is being dumb and is taking forever to type, and then it deletes stuff. So I'm going to have to cut this email a little short. Sorry! Here are a few other highlights from the
week:
We were going to drop M as an investigator, but ended up having a miracle lesson with her that totally changed our minds. Apparently, the Lord has other plans for her right now and He doesn't want us to drop her! SO COOL! We had a few lessons with Massimo and Anabel as well, the new Venezuelan converts. They're awesome! Sadly, none of our other investigators are responding to our calls, so as for now, we've only been teaching M and trying our hardest to find new investigators. It's taxing, but I'm still loving it. And the secret to missionary work is actually in the name! WORK! No we may not have been having tons of success lately, but we are 110% confident that the Lord will bless us for our efforts. We also went to Sulmona, a tiny city close to l'Aquila in order to contact a referral. Ended up only having about 20 minutes with him, but we plan on going back sometime! We did see Sulmona though, and it's a beautiful little town. Gosh dang it Italy is cool sometimes. We also found the best gelato I've ever had. Anziano Cowden says it's the best he's had too! Man you guys are
missing out, haha. We also fixed our sink! Hallelujah. Hummmm. Let's see. I've been up since 4 this morning because we needed to do weekly planning. Yay for getting up early! Other than that, Italian is coming along well. AND HEY NEXT MONDAY IS THE FOURTH OF JULY. The missionaries in our district are having a barbecue, and it's going to be awesome😎 we're also going to Rome this week again to meet the new mission president! That's going to be awesome!
Lastly, I just have one lesson I've learned this week I want to share with you all.
I've been thinking a lot lately about this mission. More than anything, I want to change people's lives (help others change their lives with Christ is more like it, cause I don't actually do anything). I want to fulfill my missionary purpose. I want to invite others to come unto Christ and help them accept His restored gospel. I want to be bold, outgoing, optimistic and happy. But you know what? That's really hard, man. And sometimes I feel like because our numbers aren't the greatest in the mission, or because we haven't had any baptisms yet, I'm a bad missionary. I'll be honest, it's literally the easiest thing in the world to feel badly about yourself. Also, there's a world of difference between humility and feeling badly of oneself. Those who are humble accept that they will never be perfect, but they
rely on God. Those who are simply down and out about themselves are relying on their own strength rather than the strength of the Lord. So I've asked myself tons of questions this week about how I can rely on Him instead of myself. One huge thing I learned is that even in this process of learning to rely on Him, we are STILL relying on Him. It baffles me that He's commanded us to be perfect, but even in our attempts to keep HIS commandments, He's helping us! I'm not explaining this very well, so I'm hoping you'll all understand. And that's something I invite you all to do - ask yourselves how you can rely on Him more! And another hard lesson to accept is best explained in a verse of scripture.
"I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another--I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants."
I need to accept that He is the master, and this is His work. I can work all I want, but I will never be able to do anything that makes me worthy of praise or glory. When I labor with a mindset of wanting
numbers, I'm laboring alone. But when I - when WE - labor with the mindset of bringing souls to Christ, we are working alongside the Creator of the Universe, to Whom we owe all things. All I hope is that we will always be able to give Him the glory. Let's do the right things, for the right reasons, at the right times without hesitation.
I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week! Sorry again for the shortness of this email and my scattered thoughts. Hopefully next week will be better. Until then!
May the glory ever be to God.
Anz Hansen
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