simple things

Dear family, 

This week was very interesting after being out of our area for several days. While in Palermo, I got to go on a scambio with my distant cousin (we have the same triple-great-grandfather or something #familyhistorypaysoff) Anziano Anderson which was pretty fun!! While on our scambio we sat at this bus stop for like 30 minutes waiting for the bus to come. We were just sitting there talking not really paying attention when all of the sudden the bus we needed to take came flying by. We ran after it trying to wave it down, but it was hopeless. The next bus didn't come for another hour so we ended up walking a good 40 minutes home. Haha

This week back in Trapani we were very much guided by Heavenly Father! Saturday night and Sunday we had all of our plans fall through. Saturday we went to our last house on our list to find that the people weren't home. We looked down the street though and saw an old lady outside her house who we had seen a day or so before (we met her when my awesome tall companion helped her get something out of a truck that was too high for her to reach). So we decided to go talk to her. We talked to her, her daughter, and her son. She also gave us this really interesting kind of fruit that I've never seen before. It was pretty good so it was a win-win! Then, Sunday night after all our plans fell through we were walking over to a roadside bench to have a mini planning session and before we even made it to the bench some guy approached us and started talking to us. We had a long conversation. He had many different beliefs than us but in the end he decided to take a Book of Mormon and said he'd read it!

Also, this Sunday the Italian lady from the new Meet the Mormons movie came! She is an old convert of this branch and grew up in a small town nearby Trapani. She is so awesome! She actually referred her good friend, Antonella, to the missionaries sometime ago and Antonella is now our investigator! 

Tonight we recieve transfer calls. It would be so so awesome to stay in Trapani but chances are I will probably move. I'll let ya'll know next week!

I am so grateful to be serving here in Trapani, Sicily. I have learned so many lessons while in this city. I definitely am not the same person I was when I came. If there's one thing overall that I can say I learned it would be that God never leaves us and that He gives us trials for our benefit. I am confident that God could do whatever He needs to and could rush in and save us instantly in any moment of despair, but He doesn't always do that. And thank goodness too because He knows what He's doing a lot more than I know what I'm doing. This past week me and Anziano Macdonald were talking about one of out investigators and what invite we could give her to help her. As you may or may not know, on a teaching record there are a list of invites that you could give your investigator. You can give them other invites as you feel inspired but in general these invites have something to do with reading the Book of Mormon, praying, keeping a commandment, or going to church. For some reason as I thought through them this time, it really stuck out to me that they really are basically the primary answers--those things that we talk about and know we should do to stay close to God. I realized I was trying to think of some sort of invite that was too complicated. In reality, those simple things apply to virtually every situation. No matter the diverse and complex problems that occur in life there is an answer found in following the simple things God gives us to do (reading the scriptures, praying, repenting, etc...). I know that is true. Sometimes we go on long long searches to "find God" in complex ways only to go in one great big circle back to the simple things that we are encouraged to do time and time again. I know the gospel is true and I have a testimony of our Heavenly Father and that He knows exactly what we need to do to make it back to Him. And He loves us so much that He does what's best for us to help us grow and turn to Him. 

Love you all! Anziano Stucki.