Hey fam!
The highlight of this week would be a referral that we received from a girl from Honduras who was visiting here. She has now since gone home, but right before she sent us the number of her friend, Luis, and told us to call. Before she sent it to us, she said she felt hesitant because in her words, "He is very Catholic." Well we contacted him and made an appointment. The first appointment went so well. He was actually very open and sincere and said several times how much he just wanted to find which church was true. In preparation for our next lesson with him we decided to do the Plan of Salvation. We began doing a roleplay and made it almost to the end when Anziano Jensen just stopped and said that it just didn't feel right. He suggested that we try teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It came unexpectedly but I agreed though and we went ahead and taught it later that evening. During the lesson the spirit came so powerfully. Luis himself actually asked several questions about baptism. As we began talking about baptism the thought came to me to pull out the bible video of Christ's baptism. Anziano Jensen was talking at that point and I didn't want to interrupt so I waited but then a little bit later as Anziano Jensen finished speaking he turned to me and mentioned that we should pull out the baptism video and watch it now. It was the coolest moment! It's nice to know we were both in sink with the spirit. The lesson went so well and we asked Luis if he wanted to be baptized. He said that yes he would very very much. He said in these two meetings he has felt so good and he just wants to be a part of this church. It's so amazing to see how people are being prepared for this gospel! That's all I have time for now, but love you all! Ciao, Anziano Stucki.
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Well things here in Roma 3 are just going great! By the way I don't think I said this last week but my new companion is named Anziano Jensen. Haha
One cool experience we had was at the friendship center which is pretty much a center at an Evanglist church but pretty much run by our church and it is to help the refugees basically just have friends and incorporate themselves into the new society. We wear missionary clothes, but can't proselytize. We can teach them outside if they want though. Well on Tuesday one of the classes is a choir class. Also there is this member from another ward in Rome who works at the Evangelist church and on that day he was outside handing out flyers for a concert. He handed a flier to a young Chinese woman and she must have asked for more information or something. The concert is for the Evangelist church but this man presented her to us. Basically her name is Lolia and she came here to Italy from China for religious freedom. She literally has fled for her life because many of her fellow Christians in China had been caught by the government and taken away. She is amazing and so faithful and strong. I feel so honored to meet her. We passed her off to the Sorelle and they are teaching her now. Well as you know I was in a four-man house, but during the week one missionary got emergency transferred and so the three or us were put in a trio. It was pretty unexpected and exciting. We lived the trio life for one day when then to our surprise our mission president calls and says that actually the other missionary was needed in another area and he had four hours to pack up and get to the train station. Hahaha sooo now it's just me and Anziano Jensen in two. We had an amazing experience with a contact on Friday when we were in our trio with me, Anziano Jensen, and Anziano Strong. We went with this contact to the hospital to give a blessing to his mom who is sick, but when we arrived his sister was there and they began arguing and yelling at each other even threatening to bring in lawyers because one or the other isn't doing this or that to take care of the mom and actually the dad who is also pretty dependent and needy. After several uncomfortable minutes of listening to them it was obvious we were not going to do a blessing. We pulled our contact out and left and went to his house. There we said a prayer and had a moment of silence. We then gave him a blessing. The spirit came back and you could see a change in him. The spirit was so strong. It's amazing when you can see the difference so clearly between when they have the spirit and when they don't. That's all for now. Love you all! Anziano Stucki Gettin' our African on in our one day trip. Haha This is all I've got for you this week. I love you all! Anziano Stucki This week was so unique and fun! We had a huge ward BBQ on Wednesday for some Italian festa and then on Saturday we were invited to go with the young men's activity on the NATO military base close by here. As I mentioned in an earlier letter there are a good bit of Americans here. They work for the military or government or something. It was so fun! This week we had several awesome lessons that were so spiritual. I have noticed that many of those lessons were just the most lessons that were made up of things that we teach so often and hear all the time, but I had so many sweet moments as I just listened and taught and saw these things being taught. One of these lessons was when we watched the 20:00 Restoration film about Joseph Smith with Fabrizio our recent convert. He had never seen it and loved. We had seen like a thousand times haha but it was just so spiritual. I felt the Spirit as I just looked and watched how loving and anxious God is to answer us. I am so thankful for personal revelation. I know God here's our prayers and will answer them. Another sweet experience was Saturday and we did a pass off lesson with Lucia to the trio of Sorelle that is here. We introduced the lesson and followed up on her Book of Mormon reading to find that in the 10 days since our first and at that time only visit with her she had read to 2 Nephi 10. Even more amazing was the fact that she read it 3 or 4 times just to make sure she understood it correctly!!! After that we handed it to the sisters and they taught the most beautiful, simple, and clear lesson on the plan of salvation ever. Once again even after hearing and teaching that lesson so many times I found myself on the edge of my seat just listening. The spirit was so sweet and so strong. I was just so filled with gratitude and awe at how awesome this plan really is. It is so cool and so perfect! I am so thankful for the moments when I needed guidance that I have recieved help from the Lord and felt his loving presence. That is the best feeling in the world! Love you all! Anziano Stucki Hey famiglia!
So transfers happened. I am sad to say that I am not at Napoli anymore, but it makes it a lot better when I tell you that I am now serving in the great great city of Roma!!!! My new companion is Anziano McConkie. Yes, he is related to the general authority McConkies. He is from Baltimore, Maryland and loves singing and acting! His goal is to go to Broadway someday and his voice is literally stunning so I don't think that is going to be a stretch at all! Haha seriously his voice is crazy!!! He is really cool too. I think we will have a lot of fun this transfer! We are also in a four man house which is super fun! Speaking of fun, the ward here is so cool!! As you might guess from a huge melting pot city like Roma, the ward here is very diverse. As far as I can remember from meeting tons of people yesterday in church, there are people from the Phillapeans, Columbia, Honduras, Egypt, Morocco, United States of America, Nigeria, Peru, India, Ghana, Argentina, and obviously Italy not to miss a couple from Sicilia a notable mention from one man who moved here from Napoli 14 years ago. That guy doesn't know that he may or may not be my favorite member. Needless to say, church here is sweet!! All united by the Italian language which everyone speaks on extremely different levels of proficiency. Haha Spanish would be really useful sometimes. I find myself reaching way back to the Spanish dad taught me when I was little, the two month Spanish class I took in 8th grade and the random words that I've learned from family and friends, or my Dominican Republic companion last transfer, or scraping to make connections between Spanish and Italian words. Haha me la cavo. This saturday we had two baptisms! I literally only met one of the converts just a day before the baptism and the other at the baptism, but I already love them so much. There names are Fabrizio (Italian) and Russell (Philippino). They are both so spiritually mature. Russell's two kids came to the baptism, but his wife couldn't. We included her by doing a Facebook video call with her during the ordinance so she could watch it from work. Fabrizio is so cool! He has so much energy and excitement for the church. He spent all day Saturday just calling friends and family telling them to come to the baptism. He bore the most powerful testimony ever too. He is so extremely spiritually prepared. We did a lesson with him and read the story of Alma baptizing all the people and he kept stopping us to mark scriptures and make notes. Haha I literally consider it an honor that I have been able to meet him in my mission. Yesterday morning when he showed up to fast and testimony meeting he brought these two huge textbook looking things. We asked him what it was and he said he had woken up at 5:00 AM to prepare those things for his testimony!!! Haha we had to explain to him what a testimony actually was. He is so funny. Also, by the way me and Anziano McConkie did a musical number at the baptism! I played the piano and he sang. We did, "Abide with me tis' even tide" in Italian. It was pretty intense. The spirit was forte! We decided we are going to try to sing on the metros for finding this week so I'll keep y'all updated on that one next week! Then Sunday evening we went with Fabrizio, Russell, his wife, his son, and our bishop to go visit the temple!!!!!! It was soooooo sick!!!!! I have missed going to the temple so much on my mission. We obviously couldn't go inside and the grounds are still being done so all we could do is just look at it from this mini "visitor center"/trailer, but the spirit was so strong!! There was just a presence there. Fabrizio was so happy too. Seeing him there at the temple made me think of the line in the Book of Enos where he says, "the words which I had often heard my father speak concerning eternal life, and the joy of the saints, sunk deep into my heart." I love the line "the joy of the saints." Fabrizio is now one of the saints and he is so happy! He has found what he was searching for. I was able to meet Russell's wife and talk to her. His son is funny too. I think he is like 9. He only speaks Italian because they moved to Italy when he was 3 so he forgot English. While his parents were looking around at all the stuff he got bored so I sat with him and we read scripture stories in the children's version of the scriptures. It was so peaceful just reading scriptures and sitting there by the temple with such a funny little kid. I love the temple so much. I would not have traded that moment for anything in the world! I am so grateful for the opportunity to be here in Rome with Anziano McConkie and so many cool investigators and members. When we first arrived there at the temple there was an Italian member couple there visiting for a second. I talked to them and they mentioned how they lived in some palazzos just right across the way close to the temple. I said, "Voi siete molto fortunati!" (You are so lucky!) The husband responded saying, "No, non esiste la fortuna, solo le benedizioni." (No, luck doesn't exist, only blessings). How true that is! Everything we have from the world around us to our homes and lives all the way to the temple where we are sealed to our families forever is a blessing from God. It is not luck! We should be sure to be thankful for everything we have. It is not there by chance. Love you, Anziano Stucki. Weeeeell, it's another week!
This week I was able to go and do a scambio with my follow-up trainer, Anziano Macdonald! That was really fun. We were in Castellemare. On Wednesday night we went and did a lesson with some of their contacts. The people's uncle who is a member was there and helped with the lesson. Well after the lesson we left with the uncle (named Giuseppe) and he took us out to gelato. He was talking about his son and how his son loves to play songs on the piano and sings and even showed me a video of him. Well we left the gelateria and we continued talking. He explained how his son wasn't a member (his son is 15) and how much he would want him to be baptized and go on a mission. Well at some point we saw this stray dog walking on the road and Giuseppe started talking about the dog. Well in Italian the way verbs work you don't have to say "he" or "it." For example in English you say, "He runs" but in Italian you can say, "corre" which can mean "he, she, or it runs" but if you want to specify who was running you have to say "lui corre" (He runs) or "lei corre" (she runs). Plus, at least in this case in Italian if they wanted to say "it runs" they would just say "corre" without a pronoun so as you can see it's a bit ambiguous. Usually you understand fine because you're following the conversation and you understand the context, but I didn't catch it, plus I kind of phased out thinking about his son. So as Giuseppe is talking about the dog I jump in and just say, "Si vede che lui sarebbe un missionario bravissimo!" ("You can see that he would make an awesome missionary!") You can guess what happened. Giuseppe just kind of gave me this wierd look and then said some comment about a dog missionary or something. Haha It was a good night. Giuseppe kept saying he hopes I come to Castellemare again. Haha I would love to go back and jam with his son on the piano. The next morning in Castellemare we went out and did finding on lungomare. It was so beautiful! Several times we would just be walking along and look across the bay and you could see the big volcano Vesuvio. It's those moments that just slap you back to reality and make me realize how amazing this opportunity is! After that we went to Caritas which is what they call a major Catholic charity institution and helped cook and make lunch for homeless people who come! That was the first time in my mission I got to do that. It was fun! I tried to follow the conversations of several of the other volunteers, but although by now I communicate just fine when I'm talking to an Italian it is so hard to follow a conversation between two Italians especially when they are talking fast. Plus even though Castellemare is part of the Campania region and pretty close to Napoli at that the accent is changed a bit and it was a bit harder to follow. Well, this week Nonna came back from Tuscania! She's been gone for the past month! Right before she left she said she would be gone for just about 2 weeks, but then after about 10 days we asked Monica about her and she just said yeah yeah yeah she'll be back in like 15 more days!! Haha That's one thing I've kind of discovered about Italians. They'll say they're just going to visit some family in another part of Italy and so you'll think alright they'll be gone a quick little weekend trip or maybe at most a week, but then they basically move away for 3 weeks and then you will call them and ask if they are back and they'll just respond that they'll be back in another week or something. So that's what happened with us, but the good news is she is back so we are going to be doing a good'ole lesson with her hopefully soon! Saturday evening we did a lesson just with Monica (Nonna's daughter), Pasquale (Monica's husband), Ylenia, and Roberta. Me and Anziano Sanchez talked about prophets and then shared our favorite general conference talks with them. I shared "The First Great Commandment" by Anziano Holland. We then challenged them to bring questions to General Conference next week and suggested that one of those questions should be whether they should wait until June when Roberta finishes the Catholic Comunione to be baptized. We have talked so much about baptism with them, and at least for Monica she has heard all the lessons many times by now. I have wondered if Monica really does want to wait for the Comunione to be baptized or if she is just using that as an excuse and then in this lesson she opened up and just said that she wasn't sure about some things so she wanted to wait to be baptized. She didn't want to say what those things were though so we challenged her to just take them to General Conference and search for answers. Pasquale opened up a lot too about his feelings and thoughts. He basically said that he feels like religion is like jobs. At different times in his life he has had different jobs--he has just moved on and found new jobs based on his situation. He said he feels fine with his current religion but someday if the Lord gives him some sort of revelation he will readily move on, but for now he just doesn't feel it. We talked about the importance of him doing his part to recieve an answer. The conversation kind of wandered all over the place and finally Pasquale just said, "Well one thing is at least certain and that is, Jesus Christ lives." In that moment the words to a part of the introduction to the Book of Mormon came to my mind where it says, "Those who gain this divine witness from the Holy Spirit will also come to know by the same power that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world..." I quickly pulled out the Book of Mormon and flipped to the introduction. I handed it to him and told him to read the last two paragraphs. After doing so I just said, "Pasquale, yes, you are right! Jesus Christ lives! And this Book testifies of him and strengthens our faith in him. And if you believe in him, you certainly can believe in his words. And if you can believe in his words you can believe him when he taught us to be baptized. You can also learn to recognize and know which is his true church that you should be baptized in. But how can you know all of that?" He then referred back to the paragraph he had just read and said that we could know by reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. We went on and talked a bit more and although he didn't really accept to read the Book of Mormon I feel so good about the lesson because I know that we tried our best. Plus, lately I have been trying to become more familiar with Preach My Gospel and the Book of Mormon so that I would be able to remember those things when the moment arrives and so I was so happy to see it happen this time. I have so much hope for General conference this coming week. I am just praying that they will be touched and be able to recieve guidance during it. That's all for this week. I would encourage all of you to bring some questions to General Conference. They will be answered! Also, go look at the church's new Easter video and share it. It's so good! Love you, Anziano Stucki. So remember that one time a month or so ago when I said that when I went to the Amalfi coast I would bring a bag so that I didn't throw up on that crazy windy road like I did when I went Positano? Well, not only did I forget to bring a bag, but I didn't take any motion sickness pills! Not to mention Amalfi is another 30 minutes farther than Positano on that windy road. The good part of the story is though, that I made it WITHOUT throwing up! I did get pretty sick especially on the way down and my companion was asking everyone on the bus for a bag so I became famous on the bus, but we also got some cool conversations out of it. At Amalfi there are so many Americans and just tourists in general! We met two different groups/families of people from Utah, but neither of them were actually Mormon though. Haha
Allora, sometimes with all the different (and it is definitely different!!) Italian people and language and culture I entertain myself by relating it to what I consider would be its equivalent in America. So lately I've really come to love Napolitano. Napolitano is a language that they speak here and spoken in its pure form (as in not mixed with Italian words) even other native Italian speakers from other parts of Italy can't understand it. What I've kind of learned too is that Napolitano is actually considered a bit uneducated and "dirty," or maybe a bit "slangy." Anyways so this week I have decided that if Italy was America, Napoli would be like the far far down south backwoods of Georgia or Louisiana with their super having accents and stuff. Hahaha Anyways that's just my connection I made. Maybe that will help you'll understand maybe just a bit of what Napolitano is like. I love it so much! Well this past week we had zone conference and it was one of my favorite zone conferences I've ever had in my mission! During the zone conference they had an invite which was to make a list of all the regrets from our mission and determine now how we will choose to move past them and learn from them during the small time we have left in our missions. As you can imagine making that list was not the most "fun" thing I've ever done. It was actually a bit hard especially because as missionaries we tend to be extra hard on ourselves! It has actually been a very cool experience though because I have began to realize just how much 1) they don't matter anymore 2) they weren't in my control anyways and they happened even though I was doing my best 3) despite any mistake or hardship I've ever faced in my mission I am still here and still continuing forward 4) I can move and do the best with the time I have left 4) even though I can't go back and do things over again because of the Atonement I can be forgiven and I don't need to hold the burden of those things anymore! In doing that exercise I've learned just how much I need the Atonement because really I am imperfect and cannot do this on my own. It has motivated me to try harder and do everything I can to make the most of the small and precious time that has been GIVEN to me. This past week it has been a bit hard meeting with several of our investigators. A new thing we've started doing lately is standing outside the church and handing out English course cards to people. The church here is on a pretty busy street so a lot of people pass. We have actually had many new people coming to English course because of it! Thursday night we were doing a lesson with Rita Roberta, Ylenia, and Monica before English course when a man came in early. He asked what we were doing and we said a lesson. Then Monica the mom of Ylenia just went off explaining to him what we do as missionaries and then after English course we were actually able to do a lesson with him! It's so awesome to see your investigator who's not even a member doing missionary work. Anyways, that's all for this one! I know God lives and the Atonement of Jesus Christ is powerful. We need to just turn to Jesus Christ. Love you, Anziano Stucki. First things first, Rita has a baptismal date this next Saturday the 10th!!! Rita is 14 years old and has been taking the lessons for several months now. She knows all the lessons really well and we have a group chat with her, Ylenia, and then their other friend Roberta (Roberta is very close to Rita. She's also 14 and would probably get baptized on the 10th too but her mom has forbidden her until she's 18) on Messenger. Every night they read a chapter in the Book of Mormon and then write up a short summary and send it to us. Rita is almost through 2 Nefi and Roberta is about halfway through 2 Nefi. I'm so excited because I think Rita is going to get to chapter 31 about the gospel of Jesus Christ and baptism just a day or two before her baptism. The other week the zone leaders substituted and taught youth Sunday school class and they asked all the kids to raise their hand if they read the scriptures everyday. The zone leaders said that one member girl and then Rita and Roberta were the only ones who raised their hands! They are so awesome! We have also started the lessons with Rita's mom! The dad is never around when we are there, but hopefully we'll be able to start teaching him. The parents were both very supportive. Rita took her baptismal form home to have her parents sign it. She returned later with the signed document and photocopies of her parents identification cards. Haha not sure that was necessary, but it's so cool to see how serious they are taking this!
This week I have been trying to just be better at talking to people like on the metro or just walking around. I prayed to be able to be better at that and God definitely blessed me with opportunities! This past Sunday was stake conference and so the church rented a big bus for all the members to get shuttled up there. After the conference everyone was getting back on the bus and as things often happen bus seats get mixed up and it happened that me and Pasquale our investigator and also the father of Ylenia ended up sitting together in the very front of the bus (I didn't complain because on the way to Rome we had sat way in the back and I got kind of car sick). Well me and Pasquale talked for a bit and then he fell asleep. It had been a crazy busy week and many times I felt like it was hard to even just get a moment to myself to think or relax, but in this moment after stake conference and everything it just felt so relaxing and peaceful. I don't know why, but the thought came into my mind to just say a prayer. Partway through, I all of the sudden became aware of the bus driver sitting on the seat right in front of me and the assistant sitting up front too. I wondered what he thought of this whole trip and us "crazy" mormons. ;) Suddenly two sentences in Italian just formed in my mind that said to go to him, thank him for his services today, and then ask him if he knew anything about this church whose members he was driving back to Napoli. It all sounds good up until this point, but my regret is that I started thinking about other things. Into my mind came tons of random excuses about why I couldn't get up and I soon found minutes ticking by. Other people started waking up on the bus and soon that moment seemed to slip by and it felt more and more awkward to go up and talk to him. I knew I had recieved a prompting and I knew I should follow it though. A bit later we arrived back at the church in Napoli and everyone began getting off the bus. I walked off and saw the bus driver talking to some people, but I walked over to the assistant and started talking to him I asked him if he knew about this church and he said he knew nothing. I asked if he had heard of the "Mormons" and he once again said no, but then muttered something about how a quick Google Search would bring him a quick summary of the things. At that moment I was all too happy to give him pass along cards for him and his friend and to refer him to Mormon.org. I told him about our Sunday meetings too and then we left. I felt better, but still wished I had talked to him earlier. You all might wonder why I share this experience and mostly I just wanted to relate it to the talk given by member of the Area Seventy Anziano Moreira in stake conference. He told a long story of him and his search to develop Christlike attributes. He prayed and prayed to develop them and noticed more and more how God gave him experiences to help him learn those attributes. He challenged us to do the same and then said how the difficult people and situations we face are not only helpful in our quest to become like Heavenly Father, but they are 100% necessary! He said if we are maybe trying to to forgive more and someone offends us we should go to them and express our love and gratitude to them because they helped us become just a bit more like our Heavenly Father! He concluded by simply inviting us to choose to be teachable in our lives, to choose to grow and learn from our experiences, and to choose to remember the eternal perspective as we face life's trials. I am so thankful for the trials I have faced on my mission. I am not perfect and even though I make many mistakes I am so happy with how far I have come. I am thankful that Jesus Christ loves me enough to help me become a better a person. I know that thanks to the atonement no pain or sin is permanent. It can all be washed away and we can feel pure and peaceful and not even that, but an added joy and love that only can come from the spirit. I love you, Anziano Stucki. Uei famiglia!
I'm writing you all from Napoli today and it is freezing here!! Apparently Rome got 5 inches of snow and fra poco Napoli might get its fair share! My new companion is Anziano Sanchez. I might be able to just stop there and you could already guess where he's from. Haha needless to say my streak of only Utah companions has come to an end. I now have a companion from the Dominican Republic! He obviously speaks Spanish and the native Dominican dialect, but he also speaks English practically perfectly, and on varying levels of proficiency he also speaks Italian, French, and German. I ask him a lot of questions in Italian and even if he doesn't know the word he can usually figure it out based on connections to Spanish or other languages he knows. The other day though we were talking to this guy and he had this really cool dog and it reminded me of a fox so I asked Anziano Sanchez how to say fox in Italian and he told me the word in Spanish which is "zorro." I thought I might as well try it because Spanish and Italian are super similar right? Well, I said, "Il tuo cane mi sembra un zorro." He gave me this wierd confused look and when I thought about it later I'm pretty sure he thought I said the word "sordo" which means "deaf" in Italian. Sooo pretty much that guy probably thought I was telling him that his dog looked deaf to me!! Hahaha Future note to self: "fox" in Italian = "volpe." Even within our few short days here in Napoli as companions we have been calling down repentance and breaking boxes. Anziano Sanchez is very bold and and not afraid to say it how it is. In church on Sunday we taught Monica and had a really good conversation with her. We invited her to pray to know if she should wait until June when her daughter will finish the comunione to be baptized or not. We also want to do a lesson with her daughter and teach her the Restoration. Monica has said this is the church she would want her daughter to join, but she wants it to be her daughter's choice. Keep in mind her daughter is 9 years old and as of right now she is choosing to basically be active in both churches; she comes and goes to church with her mom and goes to primary, but during the week does the comunione classes and is preparing to continue on in the Catholic ordinances. As I said, Monica gave us the permission to talk to her so we'll see which church she wants after a fiery Restoration lesson!! 😉 Speaking of Restoration lessons we taught Nonna and Monica's husband Pasquale. We invited Nonna to be baptized next month, but she said she had to pray to think about it. It was a little bit of a shock because she literally has had a dream that told her to get baptized in this church! We told her to pray about it though, and next time we will prepare a lesson focused just on baptism so she shouldn't have any questions or doubts. After the lesson she was talking about how someday she wants to take her dead husband's name to the temple and do his baptism so I think for sure she'll be coming around soon. Hah Anyways, that's it for this week! I love you, Anziano Stucki. Pizza from Da Mikele! Who needs to pay an expensive table fee when you can just go eat your pizza on the trash can out on the road? 😃
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PURPOSEGrateful for an opportunity to learn and come closer to the Savior, Neal shares his mission experience with us. Archives
June 2019
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