This has definitely been one of those kind of low-key and disappointing p-days, but I did my best to scrap up the best photos I was able to get.
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Dear family, This week has been so crazy. Last week we had found some new investigators but when we tried contacting them this week they didn't answer. It was sad, but it was kind of just like, well, the work goes on! At the beginning of this week the zone leaders gave an invite for each companionship to knock at least 20 doors a day for the whole week. I was totally down to do it, but a little bit surprised because house to house is usually one of those finding methods that isn't really the most successful. Nonostante, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday passed and we did our 60 doors. No one let us in, but we did have a few short conversations and gave away some pass along cards. So Wednesday early evening after we finished our 20 doors we didn't have anything scheduled for the evening so we went out to do street finding. We walked to the metro stop so we could take it to a more central part of the city. As we were at the little ticket scanner thing my ticket was being wierd and not scanning and so as I was standing there for a moment messing with it Anziano Lamoureux looked back and saw a girl who had come to English Course the night before. Anziano Lamoureux had mentioned that we should ask her and her sister who had also come if they wanted to take the missionary discussions. At this moment her and her mom were walking towards the exit to leave the station. We changed plans and left the ticket scanners. It was awkward because we had only just briefly met her at English course, but Anziano Lamoureux asked if we could walk with them for a little bit. They were friendly and we just started walking and talking a bit. Turns out they are from El Salvador in South America and moved here to Italy. We arrived to their house and then asked of we could come in and share a spiritual message with them. They agreed and we went into the apartment and walked up a couple floors to their apartment. Turns out it was locked and they didn't have the keys so we sat outside in the hallway while we waited for the other sister who had the keys to come let us in. We sat and talked for another good 20 minutes before she came. When we went in we taught them the Restoration lesson and gave them a Book of Mormon. It was such a spiritual lesson. The whole time we were just in awe. They are Catholic, but were interested in learning what was in the Book of Mormon. Towards the end the mom expressed a bit of apprehension at how learning these new things and reading these things of our church could cause confusion. Pretty much it was like she just didn't want it to change her faith and connection to God that she already has. A prompting just came to me so strongly and I assured her that if this book really does come from God and is true, there will not be confusion, but in fact, everything will make sense. We left that lesson floating on cloud 9. For sure it was a miracle. Even after we were doing house to house and didn't get let in at all God blessed us for our obedience by helping us be in a certain place at the exact time to meet this girl and her mom so we could teach them the gospel. And then he gave us the courage and strength to boldly step up and invite them to learn and do the things they need to gain testimonies and experience the joy of the gospel for themselves. This letter is long, but one other quick thought. This week during district meeting we had a brief addastramento from the senior couple who is serving here in our zone. The Senior Anziano told a story about his childhood. He grew up in a broken home and just dark place without the church or the gospel. One day however he walked into a member's home and saw beauty and happiness and felt the spirit. He saw a vision of what he wanted his family to be like. Shortly afterward he took the lessons and was baptized. Now years later he has a beautiful family and is serving faithfully in the church blessing the life of his family and the others. Well, during all this I had this thought come to me. On my tablet I have a couple of our family pictures that I love to show to members or friends sometimes. They always comment on how big my family is, on all the adorable nieces and nephews, my beautiful sisters and sister and laws, and then admiring my parents saying how proud they should be and how hardworking they must be to have raised a family this beautiful. I am usually very happy and proud to show those pictures, but on a few particular occasions when I am sitting in the humble home of a poor family, or a family that has been torn apart by drugs and addiction or other hardships of life, I just pause wondering if maybe pulling out pictures of my "wealthy American family" would instead be discouraging or depressing for them to see in their rough situation. The thought just came to me though of how beautiful my family is! I don't have to feel sorry to show pictures of my family because they are actually a light and example to people who do not have the joy and blessings of the gospel! I had thought this before, but in that moment I just realized how much there is a light and beauty in my family that others see when they look at those pictures. I have seen it. I know they see a light in us when they look at those pictures. We may not be a perfect family, but you have so much going for us. Our family is eternal and that is powerful! I wish so bad everyone could have a family like mine. I don't know why I ever got so lucky to grow up in it, but somehow I did. I am so thankful for this opportunity to now share this with others. I love you all. Have an amazing week! Anziano Stucki. To answer your question, yes I have been waiting months to put that as the title of my letter for when I got transferred from Reggio. ;) I love Reggio assai and miss it. But, instead of spending this whole letter mourning I'll focus on the sweet, beautiful, awesome city of Napoli where I found myself now!! First off, it's the birthplace of pizza and I for sure didn't even know what a pizza was until I ate a Napoli one. More on that later though. :D I was so overwhelmed when I got this call. Mostly just over excitement! There's an Italian saying that goes, "Vedi Napoli e poi muori." (You see Naples and then you die) After being here only three days I see why! This place is unbelievably gorgeous. It is also HUGE. Between the metro lines, suburbs, innumerable buses, and hordes of people, it's gonna take me not a short amount of time to learn this city. Luckily my sweet new companion Anziano Lamoureux has already been here for almost 6 months so to say the least he knows the city very well! Despite what you might think he is not French. As cool as that would be, he is actually way cooler! He is a Utahn from the great city of Alpine, dances, sings, and does parkour. Seriously, he is the coolest companion. We get along so well and have a lot of similarities. We are definitely going to have a blast this transfer! He is one of the most chill people I've ever met, but at the same time he knows how to get it done and he is also a really good missionary! I feel like since I have been out a few transfers longer I should be the one setting the example and teaching him, but he is totally teaching me so much! It will be really good for me. He is making me rethink everyway I do missionary work. Haha The work here in Napoli is poppin. Here in Napoli there is an awesome branch of 60-70 members. There are 6 missionaries in this city, or maybe I should specify and say 6 anziani. There is a reason why sorelle don't get called to serve here in Napoli. *cough* #Mafia #MyMainGoalInThisCityIsToNotGetMugged *cough cough* We have some awesome investigators too. The main ones are a mom, Monica, and her daughter, Ylenia. They both are making so much progress! They both have baptismal dates. We are so excited! Just within my first few days here we have also seen several miracles doing finding. Because this city is huge there are so many piazzas and big streets full of people so it is very very easy to do finding. Friday night we were doing English course finding. We stopped several people, but didn't really have any long conversations until we went off onto this kind of side street. I walked up to this guy and his girlfriend sitting on a bench and asked them if they knew how to speak English. The guy responded yes and we started talking about our English course, but then soon the conversation moved to us as missionaries and what we do. We asked them what they knew about our church and turns out his girlfriend who is actually Russian, but speaks Italian perfectly, went to our church a year or so ago and her boyfriend goes to America everyone once in a while for work and has stayed in Utah and saw a Book of Mormon in one of the rooms! Anziano Lamoureux is so smooth and good with people. He just went on to explain the Book of Mormon lesson, then next moment we were reading Moroni 10:4-5, giving them a Book of Mormon, saying a closing prayer, getting their numbers, and setting up a return appointment. Haha that was just one of many miracles I have seen. I am so grateful to be here in this amazing city with an amazing companion and members and investigators. I'm thankful for everything I learned in Reggio, but I know this is my time to move forward and learn and grow in new ways. I know this church is true and God loves us. Love you all, Anziano Stucki. Also, two other random things that I didn't say in my weekly email. First off, here in Napoli they speak Napolitano which is more than just a dialect as they would have in other cities. It is an actual separate language. Basically everyone knows how to speak Italian and they do often, but still a lot revert to just speaking Napolitano. It is the craziest and coolest sounding language ever. I feel like a greeny walking down the street again listening to people's conversations and not understanding even a word. Haha even Italians from all the other parts of Italy don't understand Napolitano. For example one phrase in Napolitano is "Jamm a' mmagna a' pizz!" In Italian you say, "Andiamo a mangiare una pizza!" which means, "Let's go eat a pizza!" It's crazy. Haha
Second thing, I have so many companions and old mission friends serving in the zone of Napoli. A bunch came to Napoli today for p-day. I got to meet Anziano Macdonald my follow-up trainer in Trapani, Anziano Melling my trainer from Trapani, and Anziano Gibson my MTC companion is in my district! Also, in my house (It's a fourman house) I live with a missionary from my MTC group! I am so stoked for this transfer. Anyways, that's all for now. Love you again, Anziano Stucki. It's already the end of another transfer. I can't believe it! I will officially be on the downstroke and that's scary. What's also scary is that I'm probably getting transferred and who knows where! Honestly as long as I don't have to take a plane I will be good because if I do I am going to have to burn some stuff to get my bags underweight. This week was just a really good week. We were able to meet with a lot of people! I don't have much time again now haha but this past Sunday in church I bore my testimony because I didn't know if it would be my last time doing it in this city. I have grown so close to this city because I have spent 3 transfers here, but it has also been in the later part of my mission and so I have been able to communicate and actually be my real self in Italian around these members and people and so I have grown the closest to them. I know that God places each of us right where we are for a reason and each of us has a mission and ruolo da svolgere! I know He loves us and does all He can to help us learn and grow and help others do the same. Love, Anziano Stucki. Beh, my time is about up. I just want to say this week has been full of miracles. It was so awesome to recieve that miracle from the Firenze Anziani. I know God continues to bless us. This past week on the 28th I hit my year mark in the MTC. It has been a time of thinking and pondering as I've reflected back on my mission. I am so grateful for my mission! I don't know how to say that more powerfully, but I mean every word of it. This is truly the best experience of my life. I am so grateful for everything I am learning and experiencing. I love my mission. I know God is real and loves us! Anziano Stucki. We got a referral from the missionaries in Firenze and so Friday we went to see him more up north in Calabria. Little did we know he had a lot more planned for us than just a simple incontro. He picked us up from the train station in a town called Bovalina around 13:30. He had insisted on meeting with us around 13:00 so we figured we would be eating. We weren't sure what to expect. I got excited as we pulled up in his car in front of a nice looking brick building with nice tables and chairs out in front. He said we were going to a restaurant (and when they restaurant in Italy it means NICE, not like a cafe or bar or a paninoteca) but as we entered the front doors and walked in my excitement turned to nervousness as I realized he was about to brake his bank account for us. Let's just say it was DELICIOUS. And maybe the most expensive food I've eaten in Italy and maybe my life...? Bless his heart. I felt so guilty with every bite, but he insisted. What can ya do? That being said, these pictures that I have attached here are this town called Gerace. People here say it is the "Firenze" of Calabria. It was gorgeous!Weeeell, time is runnin out and I have too much to write. It has been a really good week though! Lately (And by lately I mean like the last 6 months) I have been failing at writing in my journal. As of a month ago I started writing my journal on my tablet. Reason 1: I can type faster than I can write with a pen. Reason 2: I decided to start writing it in Italian, so it needs to be on my tablet so that someday when I forget Italian (fingers crossed I won't!!) I can just copy and paste it into Google Translate and read it. It'll have to do for now, but the thing that stinks is I totally could just send y'all my journal, but I'd have to rewrite it in English which basically defeats the whole purpose. So, the sad truth that I face every week of my mission is that I can't write everything in my weekly email! Hopes are that I will just be able to give y'all the whole spill next week on Skype. 😉 That being said too, if y'all have questions or specific things you want me to talk about, you could send me a list of questions during the week and I will just answer those in our call. Fate voi!
Comunque the ONE good story that I will share with y'all happened on Wednesday morning when I was in Messina on a scambio. Era troppo bella... me and my companion Anziano Gunnell went to the house of an investigator to teach a lesson. He is very excepting of the lessons, but his wife...not. We planned that if it was just us with him we would read the story of Nephi building the boat in the scriptures, but if his wife sat in we would read the nativity story in Luke 2 because she is catholic, it's Christmas time, and we wanted to build on some common ground. Well we went there and the wife was around but said she had stuff to do so we prayed, started the lesson, and begin reading the story of Nephi. Well, after only 10 minutes the wife just came in and sat down (what I didn't know then was that in all the months or maybe years he has taken the lessons his wife has NEVER sat in on a lesson!!). It turned out that the story of Nephi was actually so perfect and soon we were all sitting on the edge of our seats! It turned out being so good because in the story Nephi goes off on his whole discourse about how their God was the same God that Moses had and that He is the God of us all. It was the perfect universal message that built on common ground just like we had wanted! Well, the lesson ended and we left walking down the road. Well, as we walked we passed an African that we had actually seen the night before (because the scambio started Tuesday afternoon). We begin talking to him a bit and asked if there was anything we could do for him. He just asked for some book to give to him so he could read "the word of God." Being that we just carried around Italian Book of Mormons we couldn't give him an English one, but Anziano Gunnell asked him what his favorite scripture story in the Bible was. He then responded, "The birth of Christ." It was a moment of just shock and wonder as we got out our tablets and turned to the story in Luke 2 that we had pulled out earlier that morning in planning! It was just one of those cool miracles that just makes you realize God is watching over you and He is present in the small details of our lives. I love being a missionary! I love you all and I can't wait to see you all on Skype! Anziano Stucki This week we had zone conference and it was so awesome! It was so spiritual and fun. It was so good to see other missionaries and to see President Pickerd again. Sorella Pickerd still isn't traveling around to the zones farther away from Roma because she is still finishing chemo therapy. This past Sunday was really cool because I got to take part in a musical number in church. There was me playing piano and singing, a man playing the violin, and a women singing. We did that arrangement of Silent night that I sang at my farewell. I love that arrangement so much! We did it all in English too. Haha the women singing doesn't speak English but she's like a pro opera voice major and is obsessed with apparently some version of Silent Night that Celine Dion. Haha needless to say, with only a few pronunciation tips like saying "virgin" with a hard "G" sound instead of like "J" sound, or saying "Heavan" instead of "Hayven." Haha That women really has such a beautiful voice!! The performance was so beautiful! There were so many people crying afterward. And the thkng In just keep thinking is, it was all in English! The spirit is real. That hymn is for sure my favorite Christmas song. Not to mention that women is not a member. She usually just comes to church because she likes to play the piano. We hope with time her heart will open to take the lessons. Well, I think that's all for this week. Love you, Anziano Stucki. Dear famiglia, To break the news fast, there were no changes for us for transfers. I am here writing from Reggio Calabria again! Honestly, transfers and packing and traveling and adjusting to the new city and people and companion is sometimes just exhausting so it's kind of nice to sit back and relax this time around for transfers. It will be nice to spend this time here during the holidays because I love this city and the members are so awesome. That is one of the best things about cities where it is a smaller branch, you grow so close to them. Plus, let's be honest, this apartment is the nicest one I have had in my whole mission. In fact it is one of the nicest ones in the whole mission. It used to be a senior couple's apartment and let's just say they take really good care of senior couples. :) haha Well, I hope y'all know about the church Light the World initiative that they are doing again this year. I was going to write you all about it last week, but I forgot. It is such a cool initiative and a cool way to focus on Jesus Christ more throughout the season. I would invite you all to 1) participate in it and 2) invite friends and family to participate! As we combine our efforts and focus on serving as Jesus Christ served, not only will we bless those we serve, but also many people will be touched and have a desire to learn about the gospel and the restored church. A couple weeks ago we watched some training video about this event and they said that last year during these holiday months around when they did Light the World the church department recieved more referrals than all the other months of the year combined! On Friday we had a pranzo appointment with a member and her husband who is not a member. Afterward we did a spiritual thought. We decided to show the Light the World video. At this point I have seen that video probably 30 times, but this time watching it with them I had a new thought. It was inspired by a small second in the video where you see the hand moving back the little flap on the advent calendar to grab the candy behind it and you hear the girl laugh in the background. That part just stood out to me because it is kind of odd and random. You just here the laugh and see the advent calendar and you don't know any of the background story and what else is going on in that less than one second clip. And also as you watch the whole film it's like that, just small tiny little less than a second clips of acts of service and moments of the holidays taking place. The part that is profound is that obviously behind each one of these clips is a bigger longer story. When the film ended I explained them these observations I had made and then went on to explain that so often this is how our acts of service are. So often we focus on the one act itself and we don't think of the preparation, the careful moments of planning and worrying before, or even the stumbles and scrambling and the moments of stress and anxiety. And then, we often don't see the moments after. The smile and gratitude of the person after we served them and said goodbye or the quiet moment traveling home and the aftermath and cleanup. I went on to say that maybe this season of Christmas as we follow the calendar and serve people everday could be just a little bit like that. We may be noticed gratefully for the full efforts of our service or we may be unknown and anonymous to those we are serving and even others in general. I just began to bear my testimony that even though we may not be recognized or even appreciated for our efforts Heavenly Father does see all and He is so happy for all the good that we each do. He appreciates us and blesses us. As I began to bear my testimony I got emotional especially thinking about this women and the many difficulties that she has had to face. I guess you could say she is one of those women who has to "pull the handcart" harder because of the burdens that have been placed upon her. I know she so often goes unappreciated and even disrespected even after all of the hard work and sacrifice she makes. I also began thinking about my mom at home and the many times especially around the holidays where she would get up early to cook or clean and just get things ready for all of us. I am so grateful for the acts of service that the many people in my life have done for me, the unseen and seen. I am so grateful for Jesus Christ and the sacrifice He made for me in the garden of Eden where no one was with Him and even His disciples were sleeping. I am so grateful for His love and determination to do that. I would invite you all to make a full hearted effort to serve and invite others to do so as well! I know that even if the things we do go unnoticed or even unappreciated our "Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly." Love, Anziano Stucki. Dear family, AGAIN I am already at the end of a transfer! The time really goes by too fast. This week for Thanksgiving we didn't really do much. Haha it didn't really feel wierd though because here in Italy they don't celebrate Thanskgiving (go figure;) so it almost felt like a normal day. Haha Also, because they don't have Thanksgiving I figure the rule of not listening to Christmas music doesn't apply so I have actually been listening to Christmas music for the past two weeks. I am so excited for Christmas! They have been putting up lights and decorations in the centro of the city. Also, here in Italy they have these really good christmas deserts called Panetone. It like a big cake tall cake kind of bell shaped and a lot of the time with cream inside. The taste isn't anything like it, but the texture and feel is almost like you are eating a giant Twinky. Haha This week on Friday we ate pranzo with some members. They some of the most awesome members and I love them so much. It was like any house In have ever been to in Italia. Put simply, they have 31 cats!!!!! And 4 dogs. To explain I have to say first that here in Italy they don't neuter their animals as much so there are more stray animals. Well, this kind generous couple gathers in these abbondened animals and feeds and shelters and sometimes nurses them back to health (because sometimes the animals are wounded or sick when they first find them). For the most part it wasn't too bad accept when one of the kittens decided to sharpen its claws on my pant leg, but I caught it fast enough and moved away before it wripped anything. :D The next day, Saturday, we had a really cool experience when we went searching for a referral that we had recieved. We followed the address we had and went to the house and rang the citifono. A voice answered and said the person we were searching for didn't live there. Well we turned around and there were these three ladies sitting on there balcony. They called down to us and asked who we were searching for. We told them the name and they said he lived there, but wasn't home then. They asked us if we were Jehovah Witnesses (we get that all the time haha) and we responded no. We started talking more and then they invited us to come in! We talked a good bit about who we are and talked about the gospel and they said they would like us to come back! It was so cool. We went out that day searching for a certain person, but instead, God had another plan and we found several others! Well, that is all for this week. Next week when I write I could be in a new city! We will see. I am so nervous. Haha Love you, Anziano Stucki. Well, in way of news as you have probably already seen in my picture email, I lost my missionary nametag today in Scilla. That was eventful. Haha Also we had stake conference this week! For stake conference they usually have all of Sicilia and then Reggio Calabria meet in Catania. It's actually pretty crazy because usually they have to rent out this huge conference room in some hotel. I actually got to go to the last one 6 months ago when I was serving on the far side of Sicilia in my first city, Trapani! I was so excited for this stake conference too because I would get to see all the members from Trapani, but they changed things up this time and all the members from that half of Sicilia went to Palermo and us and the rest of Sicilia went down south to Siracusa (the conference was then broadcast from Siracusa to Palermo). Anyways though, that meant we had a very long long travel to make. Well, put in brief words we left Saturday evening. There were no more boats leaving from Reggio Calabria to Messina so after we took the bus from our house down to the train station in Reggio we then stopped by our investigator Josephine who I will talk about below. We then headed to the train station when it started pooring rain like crazy! In an effort to pack light I was wearing my suit and suitcoat and didn't bring any jacket whatsoever not to mention an umbrella. So we got so soaked! Haha Well we got on a train and road it up to Villa San Giovanni where we got on this crazy boat that in my mind would maybe resemble a mini cruiseship. On the top floor there was a bar with a bunch of tables and then there were two big sections full of just seats.There was also cool decks where you could stand outside. Then the bottom two floors were basically a two level parking garage for all the cars and even semi trucks who needed to get shuttled across. So that took us to Messina where we spent the night with the Anziani there. Long story short, there was six of us and four twin size beds and I got the crack. Haha then the next day we woke up and walked to the church in Messina where we got on a Pullman and went on a 2-3 hour bus ride down to Sircusa! All I have to say is that was the most complicated trip to stake conference I have ever had in my life. :) As I said we stopped by our investigator Josephine Saturday evening. It was the only face to face contact we were able to have all week with her and it was pretty short too, but she had a spare minute at her store so we asked her about the Book of Mormon. She said she hadn't read it so we decided to explain it a bit more. Her day also had been really crazy so she hadn't even eaten lunch yet. So she sat down and started eating a sandwich while we bore our testimonies and promised her that reading the Book of Mormon would bless her life. It was so short and sweet, but the spirit was there and afterward she said she would read it! It was just such a cool moment of success. It felt so good to do that. It was just testimony to me that teaching and lessons can just be so simple, but if we have the spirit it will be effective and we will get the job done. When we walked into the store she didn't really care much for the Book of Mormon and had vagely attempted to read it, but then when we walked out she agreed happily to read it and thanked us for coming by. Well, that is all for this week. Love you, Anziano Stucki. |
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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