October 1, 2014

My beloved brothers and sisters

I was thinking that the best feeling in the world (or at least on the mission) is lying in your bed at night, not being able to move a single muscle, so sore all over and yet so happy at the same time.  Just knowing that you did the best you could and were obedient and felt the spirit guide you throughout the day, it's so cool. You can only experience this moment for 2-5 minutes however, because then you're so tired you've fallen asleep. Then you wake up, and you are obviously renewed by the Lord and pumped and ready to go again, since that doesn't happen normally.  I don't know why I wrote that, other than I love that feeling.

I've finally think I've gotten comfortable enough talking to people on the bus, I still don't necessarily like them rejecting me, but the fear of rejection is the biggest thing that stops missionaries and I've learned that real success comes when that rejection doesn't affect you and you're still excited to get to the next person. Imagine if you were guaranteed success, every single person you talked to in a 10 hour day would accept your message, how much time would you spend proselyting? So some of my favourite phrases are,"what's the worst that'll happen?" and,"it's only awkward if you make it awkward," if an evil spirit (or rather natural man) is telling me not to talk to this person.  It's a lot more pleasant to talk to the person next to you on the bus anyway, than sit in silence and not make eye contact for however long the ride is. People like talking, they are all just shy to start up conversations or think it's not normal. Who cares? I've really started having fun, the other day we're coming into Milano for a companion exchange, and it's rush hour with everyone packed in like sardines on this train, and about 20 people are listening in silence to the first vision as I recite it to this man we're talking to, and I loved it, just makes you feel powerful bearing a testimony.  And he wasn't interested, but got another man's info who's back was squished against my arm because he heard it.  Don't know where I was going with that either, I guess go make friends and then share the gospel with them, you never have an excuse that you've shared the gospel with all your friends already since there's a lot more children of God than you could ever be friends with.

Man, that was a long paragraph.

On that companion exchange, I'm with Anziano Quinton again in Busto, who I served with back in Treviso and had some of the funniest moments on my mission (bike stops, applesauce stops, twirling pass-along cards) and the work is going a little slow in Busto right now, they had one appointment set up for the evening and we end up finding 3 new investigators and setting a new baptism date, better they've done all month in one day. Probably the most miraculous scambio [companion exchange] I've been on, every time we walked onto a bus or train we seemed to get another number for somebody they will contact in the future.  The baptism date we stopped on the street, and it turns out he me missionaries in Brasil, met missionaries here 2 years ago, and now he wants to meet us again, in his closing prayer he said something like, "I thank you that it's not by accident that we've met, and this time I really want to follow you and your teachings."  AAAAUUUUGGGHH!!!! (That was a happy scream if you were wondering) So after he leaves we say a grateful prayer, get off the bench, walk 5 steps and then we turn to each other and say, "Yeah, we should say 2 grateful prayers for this one," and say another prayer. 

Other huge highlight, (there are a lot of lowlights, but you don't remember those) was our practicing Muslim investigator who's 19 and just about the coolest cat in the world. He tells us that he talked to a friend at school about us, and we gave him a pass-along card with Jesus' face on it, and he loved it, so I offered him 10 I had in my pocket, and a couple days later he comes to a ward activity and picks up 30 more to give to everybody at school. It's so great and ironic and hilarious,  he tells us, "I'm just fed up with atheists. You teach them about God, and then I'll somehow convert them to muslim."

But I'm so grateful for him, one major thing I've learned on my mission is that without members, we literally cannot do missionary work. It's not possible.  And me and my comp were talking the other day about Ammon and Aaron, they end up converting the whole Lamanite nation, but in reality Ammon just converted King Lamoni, and then his words and his father's words convinced others that maybe they should listen to these strangers.  Specifically with Aaron's account of the king over all the land, it was the king's words that converted them, not the missionaries.  So so often people have a preconceived misconception of missionaries, what ever it might be, walking around in white shirts and a tie, but when a friend introduces them to the gospel then they say, "Hey, maybe these guys have something important I need to listen to, just for at least once to decide."

Think about it.

But then do it, thinkings not enough :)

Oh, and at this activity (that members invited all their friends and we were getting referrals left and right) there was a little talent show and I ate apples and now everybody loves me. While juggling, but that goes without saying if you know me

So, this turned out into one of those missionary letters again, when I get going I don't want to stop, but I liked it, feels good to write testimony, feels good to say testimony, feels good to keep the commandments, so you have the choice to feel good or not, but I really suggest it. Feeling happy is a great feeling:)

Last spiritual thought- I got my monthly pass for all the transportation in the province of Lombardia, all the way down to Milano, since our companionship travels a lot, and I got them to accept a picture to put on my card of me making a double chin, it's great!

Sorry, that wasn't spiritual at all if you were expecting something more.

Love y'all just as much as a duckling loves a wild rose, however much that is.

Anziano Berg

real spiritual thought, or at least cool quote [by C.S. Lewis] - I believe in Christ as I do the rising sun, not because I can see it, but because by it I can see everything else  

October 2, 2013

Ciaowdy!

Lots of fun this week, working hard, being obedient, that about covers this week.

In detail, last P-day [preparation day] went to the Milano Duomo again and walked around Milan with another coppia [companionship] in our district.  Also went to a church relatively close to the duomo that has an entire room that the walls are created out of skulls and bones, that was cool and creepy. Not really sure the back story, just some cemetery had to be dug up or moved or something, didn't have the words free agency or atonement in the explanation so I couldn't understand it completely.

Then that night super miracle, we are on the street at 8:30 and there is nobody out and it's dark and and my legs hurt. So we decided to say a prayer to know if we should continue this way, said a prayer, felt impressed to continue, and taught a lesson on a bench. Only 2 people we saw that hour, but one of them (technically mother and son) we taught them when they had turned us down in the past, once at least I remember. Then we start to walk home, and one of our potentials walks past and invites us to walk with him, so we walk to his house and got his address so we can now drop by when he's free, needed to get back to our house at that time.

Next day we're teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Anziano Green suddenly bears a super strong testimony of the Book of Mormon. After the lesson, he tells me he didn't plan to say anything at all, and wasn't even quite sure what he was saying when he opened his mouth. We don't usually focus on Book of Mormon in the Gospel of Jesus Christ (faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, repentance, baptism, gift of Holy Ghost and persevere to the end) but just reinforced that we are representatives of Jesus Christ and we just need to do all we can do and open our mouths and the words will come.

Then we finish that lesson with them definitely feeling the spirit, and we're in the same apartment as a dropped investigator, we drop by and he's not there but some of his relatives are, they invite us in and we teach a lesson. Anziano Green thought it was the dropped investigator, and I tell him afterwards that I didn't know them either, just walked in and taught a lesson and walked out, pretty funny, going to bring them a French Book of Mormon this week.

Other highlights this week, taught 2 member present lessons on back to back days that had some nice space doctrine thrown in brought up by the members (multiple spouses in heaven, how resurrection works, the millenium, who is a son of perdition-that was actually our recent convert reading D&C) and so those were fun to teach in a different sort of way. ("Different sort of way" you need to read in between the lines to translate to annoying) No, but really it wasn't that bad, mostly funny because the investigator and the new convert could take it and it wasn't hindering their eternal progress. I enjoyed it

Sunday taught a huge Gospel Principles class. Huge by my definition is 5 compared to 0-2, but that was great to see.

Went on a scambio [companion exchange] to Muggiò, that was really fun. Miracles always happen on scambios. Got a bunch of potential numbers, lots of people stopped and talked even if they weren't really interested. Funny stories while there: met a middle-aged woman who wanted to show off her English, pointed at her mom and said "I am... your son" (I'm her daughter) Also met a man who fights destiny and won't ride in cars, but buses are okay because his son is a bus driver. I was pretty clueless on what he was saying until Anziano McKinnon told me as we were walking away. Had pizza kebab for the first time ever, kebab on pizza, SUPER good, but took 2 years off my life.

Next day we have it timed perfectly where we ride up to Merate on the train to rescambio and we have a minute before the next train comes going the other way, our train is late and we jump off, run to the other platform where the other train is already there, Anziano McKinnon jumps on and Anziano Atwood, who is 3 weeks old [in Italy on his mission] so can't blame him, starts walking the 5 feet towards the train and the the doors close and the train leaves. First time that's happened on my mission, had to start calling President and zone leaders, but we ended up just waiting at the station for another half hour while Anziano McKinnon got off at the next stop and came back. But it all turned out good, not sure if I'm allowed to include that in weekly letters but it was definitely an exciting highlight and pretty funny watching Anziano McKinnon's face as he realized that the doors wouldn't open.

Have my official card that says I'm allowed to be in Italy now, don't have to carry a bunch of photocopies around with me wherever I go. Had to stand in a crowded room for 2 and a half hours to get it, but have my permission to sojourn. (Soujorno in italian, don't know if that's a word in English)

So yeah, like I already said, overall great week, singing primary rounds with Anziano Green in the evenings when there's not a lot of people on the streets, looking forward to conference, have permission from bishop and going to watch some of it at the Americans family's house in English, forgot to say went to Muggiò this morning and played basketball and soccer and handball (with the soccer ball) with 4 other coppie [companionships], that was really fun, but no pictures. Brian, never realized handball was so fun.

The end.

Anziano Berg

   

September 25, 2013

Heya Howdy! (Brian's Italian google translation)

Great week this week. Last P-day [preparation day] went back to the hill that we climbed to find less actives and we were planning on doing the same thing with pictures, but we saw a hiking trail and took that instead, it was short but really beautiful. And we go get our bikes, Anziano [Elder] Green had a huge whole in his inner tube and we were pushing time already, so switched it off with a tire that only had a small leak, and he rode the whole way there and back with that, I had a pump in my backpack that we filled it halfway. That was a week ago, we still haven't changed it, just pump it up before we start riding.

Next day we taught another park lesson to a girl studying on a bench, super spiritual lesson. This is the second lesson in less than 2 weeks we've taught college students studying in parks; I'm really starting to like school.

Also made a giant map probably a meter wide and tall of Merate with all the members marked on it and less actives, President told me personally that the best way to do missionary work is through the members. (skip ahead for full story)

Then Aug 21 whatever day that was got a call from president Dibb breaking up the threesome even before the middle of the transfer, Anziano Hillyard is going to Bologna. But he had one day to pack everything, and it's going to be funny him writing home today and saying "By the way, I'm already in another city"

But then the next day President Dibb drives to Merate and interviews us in the church, where he tells me the best way to do missionary work is through members, which is so true. Referrals compared to casa [house to house] or strada [street contacting] is hugely different results. And I just love Bishop, told the ward straight up that they needed to bring at least 1 person who is not a member to the activity we are holding, a party with a dress-up halloween theme. But then super scary after the interviews he wants to come to our house and see if it's big enough for 4 missionaries, and I was very very grateful I had done a good job of organizing my desk and making my bed and doing the dishes.

And he told us to prepare for another 2 missionaries, so dropped off Anziano Hillyard, went to district meeting in Muggiò, and spent the rest of the day cleaning and moving furniture to make room for new bunkbeds and a closet.

Then the next day get a call that we aren't getting new missionaries here, and so we spent that day between lessons and english class putting it back, but everything is really clean now, I much prefer it.

And then in English class we were talking about the differences between RAM and ROM and SDD flash memory with Greggorio, the only person who showed up, who is a programming engineer. So had a more intellectual conversation in English than most native-english speakers would have had, that was fun.

And this is my abrupt end to this week's letter. God loves you

Anziano Berg

September 18, 2013

My beloved brothers and sisters;

Good week. Main difference is there's 3 of us now, which I inititially thought some problems could arise like splitting up space in a small apartment or finding work and stopping and talking with 3 huge guys in suits, but so far all it's been is FUN! If anything, it's the opposite. Merate is small enough that we approach somebody and they say "There's usually only two of you,right?" and it's a great way to start up a conversation. So got a shwack tonne of potentials this past week (I'm allowed to use bad english, I'm trying to learn Italian).

One cool story, it's about time to head back to the house for lunch, nobody is around, so we say "one last person before heading back" keep on walking, end up meeting this girl sitting in the grass that we sat down in the grass with her and taught the whole restoration. She lives in another zone, but it was a great referral.

Another huge miracle, got in and taught an amazing restoration lesson doing casa [house to house] for the first time ever!  We didn't do a lot before, but try to do just a little bit every couple of days to use a bunch of different finding techniques. But it's hard because it's all apartments, and it's easier to hang up when you don't even see them, but usually wait until someone rings the door open without checking who it is and then going door to door. But got into the apartment and this young couple are interested and already know a member (who happens to be the son of a 70, that doesn't hurt) and he's working a bunch so we can't meet just with her, but we'll get them baptized eventually. They want us to come again, so super miracle.

Big push by Pres Dibb to use more scriptures in lessons, so we've been preparing and have taught some super spiritual lessons using lots of scriptures, like a scripture for every single point we talk about. Our fist lesson with tonnes of scriptures was a Plan of Salvation lesson with a less active and his girlfriend, and they asked amazing questions that our scriptures we had chosen in personal and companion study answered perfectly. We only didn't use scriptures for the creation and the atonement, and that's only because we forgot them during the lesson, so I guess the spirit was telling us that they weren't as important to these specific people. Still used 7 or more relatively long scriptures in the lesson though, and it was great.

Another cool anouncement, get on your local missonaries' cases for all those reading this to have a ward activity of some kind in this transfer, straight from President Monson. And then invite everybody you can think of to a non threatening atmosphere just to see and meet the missionaries. In our mission we just learned 69% of baptisms are referrals. That's a fairly high percentage. But the activity will be a perfect opportunity to introduce to the church.

So change of topic, planned on visiting some less actives in a little town 20 minutes away, the map didn't show elevation but looked like a fairly easy bike ride, turns out to be the highest point within very realistically 20 km. Y'all (ha, voi form) know the Nauvoo temple in some of the pictures I sent home? Right there we walked all the way up, didn't time it, but roughly 45 min, one super cool experience where she had turned Catholic and got her and her husband to commit to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it, super spritiual experience. And then a whole 3 minutes and 18 seconds down on bikes.

Learned again (I have to keep on learning this) is that you can really choose your attitude. Had a blast walking a bike up a hill for 45 minutes. Pouring rain and stepped in a puddle past my ankle, we just laughed, nothing you can do afterwards. Once just sitting down on a bench taking a break we all started laughing for no reason and couldn't stop. Possibly due to lack of sleep, but also we just choose to have lots of fun and we do.

Other fun 3 people stories- a woman was walking her puppy and walking and stopping with the dog, and she wasn't really interested in our message, but she wasn't turning us away either, so all three of us kind of shuffle-stepped after her and kept on talking. I've said before you can choose to be awkward about a situation and if you're not awkward they won't feel awkward, but it was pretty bad. Gave her a pass-along card and it turns out we shuffled the equivalent of 30 steps from where we initially met her. Couldn't stop laughing about that one too.

Another example of choosing attitude, visited a member family, but they're on a corner and they saw us biking past into a farmer's field where we proceeded to get lost and follow a mud path for 20 minutes. And it was pouring rain. But it was so much fun! Even with the pouring rain we've had a blast and working hard and expect miracles.

Ummmm... that's it for this week I think

vi voglio bene (might not translate, I wish y'all well)

Anziano Berg

September 11, 2013

Dear brothers and sisters,

Our threesome is amazing, we all get along super good, and I thought there might be contention with having to share more space and exluding someone, but it's been really fun so far. I'm loving it, as our recent convert said after hearing 3 was really rare "Well, you have more power!" All 3 of us aren't as good at the language as Anziano Locklear was, but we make gramatical errors sometimes but still communicate perfectly. At least the other 2.

Okay, time for the week

Sept. 4-last P-day [preparation day] I forgot to write we went to an investigator's garden, and rotatilled most of his garden, with a shovel. Got 2 blisters but loved it, it's been probably a year since I've done some gardening like that. Then went bowling with some other missionaries and some members and some investigators from Lecco, I get up the first time, Anziano [Elder] Locklear says "Let's see if Canadians can bowl" and I get a strike. And met a member fom Lecco, an 18 year old girl who is fluent in English and learned everything she knows on google translate and facebook. Cool and scary how much technology is changing people, will be interesting how the tablets will work, looking forward to it.

5-Went to transfers in MIlano Centrale, just feels weird speaking English to different people, didn't end up picking up Anziano Green with complications

6- Got out of an amazing lesson, get a phone call that says we need to catch the train to Milano, and we need to catch the next train if we don't want to wait an hour for the next one and hold everybody up. But we know we can't make it, just looking at the time we need at least 5 minutes even with running, start running anyways and as we're running say a prayer the train will be late, the train is 5 minutes late and we make it. Pretty direct answer to prayer, and you need to understand the train is actually really punctual. So picked up Anziano Green, the Lord definitely wanted us to have him here in Merate for some reason.

And I've just noticed a bunch of small miracles and answers to prayers this week, for example DVD player and newfamilysearch.org wasn't loading, said a silent prayer, they work. If it's the Lord's will, you need to have faith and pray to get those additional blessings.

7-Got the ward family history consultant, don't know if that's what the position is called, but got him to the lesson with our recent convert and he just showed us on the computer at the church how to prepare names for the temple, super cool lesson, I learned a lot

10-skip ahead, I'll come back. Our recent convert has now read 20 pages of the Book of Mormon in that time and submitted 24 names to the temple.

8-Gave an English Book of Mormon to a lady from the Phillipines, she took the lessons a long time ago and isn't really interested, just wants to keep her English up, but hey, if you're going to read a book in English, the Book of Mormon is the best book to do it with, actually best book ever in my opinion. And she takes care of an older lady, so she said she will read it everyday when they are sitting on a bench. If only we could get all our investigators to read the Book of Mormon daily, it would solve any concerns they have, but they have their free agency too.

And in church talked to the only American family, then Bishop Vescovo in English, then go over to our recent convert and start talking to him in English, silence for a second, "whoops, let's start that again" But he was nodding his head and looking like he understood for a while, so maybe it shows how much he understands me when I'm speaking Italian :)

9- 3 bidone (lessons fell through) but 2 unplanned lessons, so great day, and explored a bunch of places outside of our regular route, so great day.

10-Super cool English class today, we got 5 new people who don't speak English at all mixed in with a fluent speaker who regularly shows up, so I ended up going right outside the door with him and while they are learning "What is your name" I'm looking over his university thesis and he's explaining how he created an app, that was fun.

11- Bought a bike today for Anziano Green is the highlight, nice and used and ugly and beautiful at the same time. Was 60 Euro originally, met an investiagator at the used store and he noticed it was past time to lower the price (over time the price goes down and eventually goes to charity, but you only get paid if it sells in the first 3 months or something like that), so miracle to meet him there at that time and we got it for 40 Euro.

I think that's it for this week, stay tuned for next week's episode. Will Anziano Berg survive the perilous journey in an unknown land? How will he escape being boiled alive by the savage natives of the jungle? All this and more will be answered next week on "Little miracles; the Life and Times of Anziano Berg"

Ciao ciao

Anziano Berg

September 4, 2013

My beloved bros and sisters

Great week, mainly because Ferie [holiday month in Italy] is over and people are on the streets again. Met a bunch of people this week who knew about the church already too, like "Mormon was a prophet, right?" so that was really cool.

Also went to Arcore, and they have a park there, do a lap and not a lot of people are out, nobody is interested, we sit down to take a break, and a man walks up and sits down and we talk about religion, that was a super cool lesson. He's a pastor of a different church and says he casts out devils, but we can work on that. Miracle lesson right there. And he and a couple other people we met this week asked the perfect question, "So what makes your church different than others?" And we can explain Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and prophets today.

Same thing happened 2 days later with the question, we're walking past a playground and a couple approaches and say "You look like you speak english" and then the question and we explain what we're doing and what we believe. They said we just look American, regardless of accent. I'm not sure if that's a compliment or insult, but they were really nice and left a really good impression on them.

Our record for lessons taught in one day so far was 4, smashed it with 6 today. Ironically Sept. 1, Ferie ends Aug. 31. But we try to set a goal of 15 lessons a week, and we're at 13 lessons at 8:30 at night, we just taught our neighbour on the same floor (which is another miracle, they're Muslim but open to us sharing our beliefs, just started teaching them last week) and we desperately need to update the area book, so we're thinking of doing that. But we're so close to 15 lessons, get back out on the street and teach 2 street lessons in an hour. Super miracle, I've never done that before. And one of them we're doing our usual route, and we both feel we need to go another way, we do and less than a minute later we teach this man.

Big news here, Anziano [Elder] Locklear is going to Busto to train [be companions with a brand new missionary] again and I'm staying here with 2 missionaries, making a 3some. Big changes in the apartment too, no idea where we're going to put an extra bed, but taking the train to Milano centrale tommorrow morning for transfers. Anziano Hillyard I know from Muggio, and don't know Anziano Greene. But I'll be in my 3rd tranfer [generally 6 weeks], and them in 4th and 5th, so fairly young I can't say companionship, but you know what I mean.

Went to eat with E., our great investigator, and he talked the whole time, even during the meal, about doctrine. Didn't talk about sports or the weather or anything else, wanted to know more about the priesthood, so we read sections of D&C 20 with him.

And Anziano Locklear was the district leader, don't know if I said that already, challenged the district to read the Book of Mormon in this transfer, so I finished it this week and I prayed about it again, and felt a spark start in the middle of my chest and spread outward, all the way down my arms and I just couldn't stop smiling during the prayer. I love the Holy Ghost, the feelings I get from it when he testifies are so unique and cool. No doubt in my mind if the Book of Mormon is true, whenever I read it and pray about it I just feel so good and so peaceful.

That's all for now, folks. Thanks for all the prayers and support. Read the Book of Mormon and pray about it, you'll receive an answer. Ciao ciao all, same time next week?

Thought I was going to end on a spiritual reference, but I just thought of Megamind right then [Mom mentioned a favourite quote a few weeks ago as an inspirational thought] .

Communque,

Sinceremente,

your favourite missionary,

Anziano Berg

August 28, 2013

My beloved brothers and sisters,

I usually like, as you are aware, to organize my thoughts in a day to day format. Unfortunately I am currently writing this epistle in an internet point that smells prominently of cigarette smoke in Lecco, and have not had time to organize my thoughts thus far. So I'll wing it.

The member who got baptized last week is now starting the Book of Mormon over again and is already starting 2nd Nephi. And has read up to D&C 82. And has read the Miracle of Forgiveness. And has prepared 2 talks already in case he gets called to give a talk in church. Whenever we have a rough day, then we always count our blessings, and say, "Well, we're teaching him. That's a miracle everyday." We taught him missionary work yesterday, and we learned every single catholic at his work he tells them that their baptism isn't valid. His girlfriend said "sometimes I think he's a little too harsh with people." And he cuts in and says "Well, this is the true church, and I want them to know that". And we brought him to a lesson with an investigator that is unsure about her baptism date, and she walks into the room and the first words he says "What's stopping you from getting baptized?" (They've met at church, but still pretty direct) And we say, "um, can we say a prayer first?" But then he throws it down. Super cool guy.

Weird stuff I've eaten paragraph came into my mind, so I'll write about that. You'd think I would be more spiritual if i didn't have instances to write about, but I want to write about weird foods. I've had raw ham and melon together, that's a fairly common snack, or you can have it with cooked ham. And I had octopus for the first time at a less actives house. It was alright, but I'm not used to eating seafood, I'm sure I would be if we ate at member's houses more often, but that's just not how it's done around here. But there's a plate of octopus cubed, and I have a little bit to be polite, and then halfway through the meal they say that we haven't touched the octopus yet. And my loving companion, who hasn't even tried it, says "I've eaten half of it already! I just want to save some for Anziano Berg!" And I'm forced to eat some more. But it tastes alright, just a funny story. What else... they have carbonated water they all drink, but you can choose natural, so I've been sticking with that. All the older missionaries said they didn't like it when they came out, and now they love it. Had fried beef liver at an Equadorian house for lunch one day, that was good. I think that's it for right now, I just eat spaghetti a lot since we cook for ourselves most of the time. But I wasn't aware there were so many different ways of eating pasta and spaghetti.

Umm... I can't actually think of specific things that happened this week. Did a lot of walking. And went to Lecco today and dropped off papers for my permesso di sogierno, permission to sojourn, don't know if that's a word in English. Permission to stay in Italia. And did a hike in Lecco with the other anziano [elder] with me at the MTC and his trainer up a mountain they can see from their apartment, the first 15 min. is around 45 degree slant so you end up taking giant steps that are a foot high. Good thing I've been training for the last couple of months. 

Not long today, thanks for the emails

Anziano Berg