This week has felt so long, but yet at the same time I can't believe it's p-day already! 

This week was really awesome because we were able to schedule a lot of lessons with people. That being said too though, we had a lot of lessons fall through. Haha I think honestly one of the things I have been learning the most lately is just how much patience is required in missionary work. Call after call, missed appointment after missed appointment, until finally you get one and all just comes together!

One lesson in particular was with Janis the women from Cuba. She is so awesome! With all of our lessons so far we have just met on lungomare (the street by the sea). This time as we walked up she was just sitting there reading the Book of Mormon. That is the best sight in the world to see when you are walking up to a lesson! We asked her how the reading of the Book of Mormon is going and she just said that when she reads the Book of Mormon she just feels something else, something special. It is so cool to watch the spirit working in peoples' lives. I love moments like that too where our investigators are explaining their experiences and the things they are learning. They are kind of bearing their testimonies to us. It is so good to hear and it strengthens my testimony. 

This past Saturday we had the very special occasion of seeing a member's daughter get baptized. It was the daughter of our ward mission leader. It was so cool to just see everything. It was such a special experience. That little girl is so extraordinarily blessed to be born in a family already members of the church. It would take soo much courage and strength to grow up being surrounded by so much adversity and with literally no one else in her school to support her. Truly this little girl will be a leader for so many as she grows up. It just makes me want to build up the church as much as I can! 

The church is such a blessing in our lives. Today I read the talk "A Sin Resistant Generation" from the last general conference. It is so good. I love the part where she talks about doing things because we said we would. It is so meaningful when she talks about Jesus Christ and how he did the atonement for us because he said he would. I love reading my acceptance letter that I wrote in response to my mission call, or my patriarchal blessing. I am reminded what my call is and what I have been called to do and most of all, what I have agreed to do! 

I love the people of Italy so much and also the Nigerian and other African people too. Italians are such social friendly people. This morning we were walking down the street and some old man walked past us and as we (and most Italians) often do we called out "Buongiorno!" Well, he stopped and talked to us and just started pooring out all of his problems and worries and life happenings to us. We talked for a bit and then parted ways and that was it. Haha I love them so much. I love this language. I am so glad to be with Anziano Compas because he speaks Italian really well so this will be an awesome opportunity to learn. We have decided to plan certain days where we do English fasts and I am so excited! 

Well, that's all for this week. Emails have been so easy today because Anziano Compas had a bluetooth keyboard that I am using to type emails today so I am able to type so fast. Haha

Vi voglio un sacco di bene, Anziano Stucki.
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​Hello all! 

So the main thing from this week would be our new investigator Janis. We found her doing a sondaggio of American history. We basically walk up to people and ask them if they want to take this like 10 question sondaggio and then it talks about history of America and then how Jesus Christ came. It super fun and it is an easy and relaxed way to introduce the Book of Mormon. Well Janis is a young mother from Cuba. The best part is she speaks Spanish and is "working" on Italian. Haha At times it is hard to understand her because she mixes in a lot of Spanish, but we always communicate well in the end. I have really seen the gift of tongues in teaching her. Digging back to when dad taught me like 5 phrases in Spanish and when studied Spanish for about half a semester in 8th grade I am "surviving". Haha however I have seen several moments in talking to her that I just start understanding her. Maybe not every word, but all of the sudden there will be one that sticks out to me and that I can connect to Italian and then it all starts to come together and make sense. The gifts of tongues is so real!! 

I love you all!!! Anziano Stucki 

Well it's been another week! I can't believe how fast the time is passing. People were really hard to get a hold of this week. 

We did have a couple lessons though. One was Monday night after P-day. It was with our investigator Caster. That day before the lesson we called him to confirm and he asked if he could bring a friend! Haha we were ecstatic! His friend is also from Nigeria and his name is Lucky! He is so cool! That lesson was so spiritual just like the first. They asked such sincere questions and learned so much. Speaking Italian has forced me to simplify my teaching and now after teaching so much in Italian my teaching in English has also been refined so much. It's the perfect mix in English now because I teach simply and directly, but have the ability to perfectly articulate it. Diciamo the Africans speak English, but it's not your usual English and if you talk to them like you would to an American they may not understand everything. Anyways, it was so cool to see just how pure and simple teaching can have a profound effect on people. We weren't able to meet with Caster again during the week because He didnt answer his phone and he didn't come to church so now we have to move his baptismal date, but we have high hopes for this week. We will keep working with him and his friend Lucky! 

General conference was so awesome! We were able to watch the priesthood session live Saturday night and then Sunday morning, we watched the priesthood session in Italian with our investigator Nino and then the Sunday afternoon session later in English. I will definitely have to go back and watch the priesthood session again in English! Haha

Real quick though, one of my favorite talks in conference (out of the session I've seen) is the one by Gary E. Stevenson about the eclipse. But I also really liked Anziano D. Todd Cristofferson's talk in the Saturday morning session. I don't remember exactly what he said, but it stuck out to me that in one of the stories he said he talked about Jesus Christ and how Jesus Christ was preaching to the people and said one thing or another to them and they went away and rejected his message. It just stood out to me that even Jesus Christ, a perfect person and teacher, "lost investigators" and not all of his "street contacts" were just awesome and perfect. People had their agency and Jesus Christ did His part and that's all that mattered. 

I also loved what Anziano Ronald A. Rasband in the Saturday afternoon said about how to God there are no coincidences. To God it's all just part of the plan! Everything good thing that happens to us way back from the start is pretty much because God planned it that way! It's such an overwhelming thought. 

That's all for now! Love, Anziano Stucki