​Buona Lunedì!

I hope everything is well and you are enjoying your summer vacation. Italians, Europeans and, can't forget, Asians (they're not just in Moab....) are enjoying their summer break. There are so many foreigners! Me and Anziano Bardsley as we walk through the metro stations will just point out all the tour groups and families and try and guess what language they're speaking/where they are from. Haha I have gained a large appreciation for different languages and the fact that I was born speaking the "international language" AKA English. This is also the season of going through major touristy places and hearing someone practically scream on at least on two different occasions, "ELDERS!!!" Then moments later the Utah tourists show themselves, pictures are taken, and off they go sent to my mom's email. I also can't tell you how many members and investigators are just disappearing now. In August here in Italy they have this thing called "Ferragosto", which interpreted pretty much means, "Everyone quite working and go to the beach all month." Despite the adjustments we have to make, the work goes on and it allows more time to focus on the people who are left! 😁

As far as the picture goes that's just us out on the town doing a classy gesso. Drawing the emoji cred: me! The words on the sheet say, "Cosa vi rende felice?" Cioè, "What makes you happy?" My testimony of miracles and God's desire to bless us was increased this week a lot. At this gesso we made a goal that we wouldn't let a single person pass without us at least approaching them and saying something. Turns out we didn't have a lot of people who wanted to talk, but right towards the end a member who unbeknownst to us had passed by and seen us, showed up with a pizza and drinks! Later then we checked our phone and one of our very new contacts had text and said he could come to church on Sunday (this is after he didn't come to church the week before)! I know God sees all of our efforts and He blesses them even in ways that sometimes may be unrelated. I have been surprised many times this week seeing how after trying to talk to someone and being turned down that later we will just be going along our way and someone will come and approach us! Or sometimes we'll just run into someone that we know and haven't seen in awhile. I am so grateful for those tender mercies of the Lord and I know they are not by chance. 

Love you all!
Anziano Stucki

​Hey all! 

Well this elect man got baptized last week! We met at the friendship center when I was in my last area and the missionaires have been teaching him and now I got to see his baptism. I could not be more excited about this. Time is up so just know there is a really miraculous story behind this and God is leading this work! :D haha love you all! Ciao, Anziano Stucki.

​Hello all!! 

Not a lot of time now, but just wanted to say I love you all and God is blessing the work here in Italy. Unexpectedly and miraculously we got 6 referrals this week!! I have no idea how, but I'm just hoping it means we finally did something right. :) Thank you all for your prayers and support. My favorite moment was getting a referral from our Egyptian investigator, Ali, who upon sending us his friends number said, "This friend number. Call him. For being Christian. Fabio. Italian." Hahahaha

Here's to the one picture I got all week! Haha Love you all! Anziano Stucki

​What a week! It's been great just trying to get to know the new area and meet all the new people. Because of the friendship center and just relations in the church I already had met a few of the members here so that is a bit of an advantage.

I hope last Wednesday was a great day for all of you!! It was here in Italy for me. On p-day last week as we were standing with our district in line for 3 and a half hours for the Vatican we were thinking about the 4th of July and we didn't have any plans in specific so we decided it would be a great opportunity to throw an English course party and invite all the students and members and have some good'ole fellowshipping. Well we made plans and got permission and then Wednesday came. As last minute preparations commenced, I felt like I was fighting the revolutionary war here in Italy just trying to put things together with my patriotic Australian companion who by the way is actually originally from England which only just makes things worse! Haha Well, through many of his eye-rolls and my emphatic statements and scripture references to prove that America IS the promised land the last minute party came together and everyone had a lot of fun and the 3 Americans and 1 Australian in my house can once again live in peace together. #LongLiveAmerica

Well, today I don't have a ton of time. We went to a park to play frisbee and while we were playing an Anziano in my house whose bag had been left on a bench a bit far from where we were, got stolen. So this whole afternoon we have kind of been running around making calls, trying to get credit cards canceled, and the mission office notified so that they can use the phones account to locate the phone (they did try to locate it, but the person must have turned the phone off because no data came up). I also got to call and talk to the police department in Italian for the first time and help file a report at the police office. Haha

All I can say is that I know God is watching over us and he is guiding this work. This past week we had a man from the friendship center who wants to come to church with us!! He is from Kenya. I met him during my time there and I am so excited to teach him. They are also putting the grass down around the temple which is really exciting. It is so amazing to see how the Lord is blessing the saints here and how more and more people notice us and want to learn more. I know this is the true church and God is leading it. 

Love you all! Anziano Stucki

Well well, I'm still here in Rome!!! Fun thing is, I did get transferred though! Before I was in Roma 3 area. Now I am in Roma 2 area. Since that probably doesn't mean anything to you, just know I pretty much just moved wards and am now living, unlike before, right in the center of Rome! Literally, the Colosseum is a 10 minute jog down the road and speaking of which, they like to jog a lot here (I live in a fourman house again!) so we will probably be doing that for sure one of these days!! I was actually very very sad to leave Roma 3. I have so many good friends and investigators and the work was literally exploding, but then I found out that in Roma 2 my soon-to-be companion, Anziano Bardsley, is from Perth, Australia and the work isn't doing too bad over here so I guess I'll make do. :) Fun fact too, I actually did a scambio with Anziano Bardsley over a year ago when I was in my third transfer and he was in his first in Palermo Sicilia. I have known him for my whole mission and he is such an awesome missionary. He also is one of the most genius people I have ever met. He literally is an expert at computer programming. He literally could be already graduated from college and have a professional career in computer programming right now if he wanted to. Haha He also likes music and sings and plays the piano a good bit so that will be really awesome this transfer too!

One highlight of this week going back to before transfers: we took Luis our investigator from Honduras to the temple! We got to go in the information center and explain the building process and the importance of the temples for us. After explaining a bit about the amazing temple work and how what he is doing now like taking the lessons and reading in the Book of Mormon and coming to church, is preparing him to go to the temple. The conversation kind of got quiet for a moment and we then asked him how reading in the Book of Mormon was going. He responded that he was still at the same place as last time we met. Then, as if thinking back on our words just moments before said in a the most sincere voice that he was going to start reading better. It was so awesome!

Unfortunately here in Roma 2 I don't get to go to the friendship center anymore which is a huge bumber, but one amazing thing we get to do every Saturday is for three hours we take a shift at the information center at the temple! So inside the information center there is a mini model of the temple grounds and a bunch of pieces of different stones and materials that they have used to build the temple and we basically just give a tour to the people who come in. I love it so much! It is so refreshing to just go and sit by the temple. It's also fun to meet all the different people who come in to the center. There are a lot from Utah! Haha 

That's all for this week. Love, Anziano Stucki.