I'm going to learn Italian this week. How does it sound? I really want to learn Italian because of an awesome guy we met this week, and right now I will tell you what happened:
Saturday, all of our plans fell through. We had this cool idea to do Service Finding! So we got in our service clothes and were planning on knocking doors and asking people if they had any service we could do for them, just as a new way of finding people. We walked to the metro station and both looked at eachother and said "This is a bad idea, we should not do this." So, with that powerful warning from the Spirit we went home and changed back into normal missionary clothes. At this point we had no plan, because the man we were supposed to meet with cancelled, so we decided to get out and follow the Spirit. Maybe this wasn't the smartest idea ever, because I think the Lord expects us to be a little more prepared that we were, but things worked out okay. We followed the Spirit as much as we could and acted on every thought, and eventually found ourselves in the middle of the Muslim Commune. The muslin people are really kind, the actual practicing ones, but it's bad for finding because we are not allowed to teach or contact them because if they convert, they run a very high risk of getting killed if they ever return to a muslim country. So, we were very lost. We sat down, said a prayer, and decided to walk home because it was almost dinner time. We walked passed a bar and a little Italian guy popped out and stopped us to talk. The conversation went like this:
Nico: "Bonjourno! (itallian chichiblachliblah) Mormoni?"
Us: "Oui! Do you speak French or English?"
Nico: "No. (lots of itallian) Address? Missionarios?"
Us: "Oui! Heres the address!"
In reality this lasted about 15 minutes and there was lots more pointing and Italian involved, but what we understood was that his name was Nico, he is form the south of Italy and is here working, but had been meeting with the missionaries in Italy, and he's read the Book of Mormon all completely. He even called the missionaries in Italy so I could talk to them! But we just got his number and gave him the address to the church and then went home. The next day though, on our way over to the church for Preisthood session, there was Nico at the tram stop with his friend! They came to Preisthood with us and an Italian member of our ward very kindly translated for them, and we're going to start teaching him! What a miracle, eh?
Then this week we also had Zone Conference with President and Sister Poznanski. I dont know if I've told you, but starting in July the mission's goal was to have 100 baptisms in 2 transfers, or 12 weeks. We reached 100 by week 10, and reached 115 by week 12! It was a huge accomplishment for the mission, especially because in the past, the months of July and August have been the lowest baptising months, because literally everyone leaves on vacation for weeks on end. But in this zone conference, we fixed a new mission goal. Every companionship to baptise one family before Christmas as a gift for the Savior. Wow! We are all really stoked about this new goal, and I really believe we can accomplish it. But, what was even cooler was in General Conference when Elder Ballard said: "If every member young and old would reach out to just one, millions would feel the love of the Lord Jesus Christ before Christmas. What a wonderful gift for the Savior" or something very similar to that. What a confirmation of my mission's goal and the inspration of our President! I thought that was so cool and am really excited to find this family! Pray for us!
Seriously tons of other things happened this week, but this email would be way too long if I put them all. It's hard to chose just one or two miracles every week to share! My comp is doing so good, he's just a little boss. I really like him a lot and he's a great missionary. And he doesn't even do any weird stuff, that's me. Also, do you guys realize we were watching Conference at the same time?! And that's so cool that you were there! I actually tried to scan the crowd a little bit because I was thinking it was possible that you were there, so voila. I'm so grateful for the Prophet and apostles and for the spiritual boost they give us during each session. We got to go to our chapel and watch in English which was really nice, and members even came and watched and we all had lunch together. So fun.
That's about it for this week! I love you guys, I'm proud of ya. The speakers talked a lot about families this weekend, and it made me very graetful to be a member of such a great one. Keep up the good work, champs. I'll talk to you next week!
Love Elder Wood
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