good leaders

​Ciao famiglia! 

This week has been another exciting one. I feel like our weeks are just so crazy here. I think for one thing, because it's a small town the bus system isn't as reliable/often so we very much have to base our schedule on the bus. Another thing is most investigators and members actually don't live in Reggio and so it makes it kind of exciting trying to schedule lessons and coordinate travel. 

This week has been kind of sad because we literally dropped like 5 investigators. The thing is, that they shouldn't have really ever been considered "investigators" because many never had interest. They were more like random people on the street who missionaries just met and briefly talked to and then labeled them as investigators, or people who have no interest in the church, but have only been inviting the missionaries over because they like their company. We are really trying to clean up the areabook and decide who are our focus investigators. I just hope that as we are opening up our schedule the Lord will fill it with people who are sincerely searching for the truth.

So here in Reggio we are the only city in our zone that is not in Sicilia. So every Tuesday when we have DDM we take a boat across to Sicilia to the city of Messina. It is such a pretty ride. At DDM this week we talked about what it means to be a good leader. We watched a video called "Building leadership cability." One phrase from it stood out in my mind. It was, "Good leaders try to make others better than themselves." So basically you can derive that good leaders try to make others, leaders too! I began thinking how people say at the end of the first 12 weeks of a new missionaries training the idea is that the trainee will be able to train. So in my case Anziano Cooney has finished his first 12 weeks so technically he is ready to "train." This week and just my time here in Reggio so far has really been a time of contemplating and thinking about what I need to improve. A lot of the time I've also heard trainers say that they are not the ones training but that they are being trained. The thought came to me that as Anziano Cooney's follow-up trainer this is a chance for me to allow him to train and in doing so I can learn from him. So in a certain sense Anziano Cooney is my new trainer. This is a time of learning and growing for me! 

I am so thankful for this time. I know the Lord knows what He is doing. We just need to have faith in Him.

Love you, Anziano Stucki.

​1. Good'ole American food. Long story short of how I got this, a member who comes to English course got a package from the missionaries who are now in America who baptized her a long time ago and they sent her Twinkies and she decided to give us some. 

2. This is a picture of the baptism last week. We're on the beach near Locri.