Week 18

Ciao Tutti!
I just wanted to start off by telling everyone thank you so much for the emails you all sent. It is so great to hear from everyone, it really means a lot to me. Well, its been another busy week here in Italy. On Thursday we woke up at 4 in the morning and walked 5 miles to the station to catch a bus to Rome for Zone Conference. Buses don't run that early so we had to just walk. It was a 3 hour bus ride to get there, but it is such a neat ride to see all the Italian country side! There are just random castles and ancient buildings all over the place- ha ha buildings that have been around longer than the United states existence, its kinda crazy to think about. Zone conference went well, I gave my coming in testimony, and my companion gave his going home testimony. I can tell he has really changed since he has come on his mission. I didn't know him before but he is a really incredible missionary now. It was a lot of fun to meet all the other missionaries in my zone and to see some friends from the MTC that i came in with. The trainings that they gave us were good as well, but I was really disappointed when the AP's presented the mission goals. They gave an incredible training on Christ and the Atonement and Faith, then presented the goal of finding (1) new investigator a week. 1!!!!!? Are you serious! It blew me away that they would set that as the mission goal. With goals like that, this mission will never grow. I don't care what mission your in, or who you you are working with, 1 should never be a goal. A missionary could sleep in till noon every day and take a 3 hour dinner break and still find 1 new investigator in a week. Sorry, I'm not trying to be arrogant or rude about this it just really frustrated me. People just don't realize their potential, and how influential they really can be. Especially the older missionaries, they just seem to be stuck in a rut of; oh were in Italy, its hard, we cant baptise in this mission, we'll just plant seeds.....NOOO! I just want to take every missionary who has been out longer than 6 months and tell them to snap out of it, cus we CAN BAPTISE! GRrrrrr..... But anyways it was a fun day in Rome, we got a chance to talk to some really great people out on the streets. Its so different being in a huge city like Rome, as apposed to Pescara. I hope that some day I'll get to serve in a big city. I love Pescara too though- its so great!
ha ha We met this bum in Rome who had a guitar that he found and didn't know how to play and he was trying to play for people to make a little money. As missionaries we aren't allowed to give homeless people money, and I always feel bad cus I always want to help them. After seeing so many you can tell who really needs help. So I asked the guy if i could play his guitar for him, and he gave me a weird look and hesitantly handed it to me. I quickly tuned it, then gave my backpack to my companion, and stood on the bums crate and played and sang "viva la vida "by coldplay. Hahaha it was so much fun, all these people gathered around, and they actually threw some money in the empty hat. At the end of the song I got a round of applause from the crowd then handed the the bum his guitar and told him that God loved him, and my companion and I walked away feeling good. Ha ha I counted that as my act of service for the day.
Friday and Saturday we were booked all day with appointments. We have found that appointments with members present are definitely the way to go. It has really helped so much. On Monday morning we felt impressed to leave the house early to go visit GLoria, the woman we just baptised. We didn't know why we needed to go, but we knew we needed to. SO we went and found out that She is never coming back to church. Lets just say it was the last thing in the world we were expecting to hear. She has been doing so GOOD, and has been growing in the gospel and has even been sharing the gospel with her family. She said that she didn't feel comfortable at church cus no one ever talked to her and some people were rude, so pretty much she got offended and is never coming back... She has now changed her number and is moving back to L'Aquila. We are still kinda in shock, and have talked to the relief society president and other members to try to get some help, but nothing has made a difference. We have no idea what to do. At this point it comes down to her agency, we have taught her everything and she knows the truth, so we cant force her to endure to the end.
On the other hand though - we have a for sure set baptismal date for the 22nd with a woman I found named Sofia. She is so incredible and has been progressing so fast! She has already read the first half of the Book of Mormon. We are so excited for her, and proud of her. Yesterday I taught Italian to a couple of African guys who are investigating the church. They are from Nigeria and have some crazy stories of how they got to Italy. They are such great guys, I really enjoy teaching them. That's pretty much been my week. The Lord has truly blessed us, with so much! All you guys at home don't forget to count your many blessings, it really WILL surprise you what the Lord has done. Thak you all for the prayers, letters and support, I love you all!!! Anziano Koozer