August 14, 2013

My dear brothers and sisters

Amazing week.  BAPTISM!!!!  I was going to go day by day as I usually do, but this is just too big of a miracle.  Last Saturday our golden investigator, the one who phoned us up originally because he had a Liahona in his mailbox with our number on it, got baptized.  I've just been so happy all week,  nothing can even start to get me down right now.  It feels like I'm floating around, I'm so happy for him.  And we invited President Dibb [mission president] to the baptism since it was the first one we've had in Merate for 2-3 years, and we couldn't find in the area book an Italian baptized in the last 10 years, and he shows up with Sorella [Sister]Dibb, and asks to speak.  And gets up and bears a super powerful testimony using really simple Italian.  He said he was talking with Elder Holland on the phone the day before, and Elder Holland said every member needs to read the Book of Mormon again. That was cool, so started to read the BOM again, now currently reading in 3 separate spots in the BOM every day. 

I will now resort to my boring same ol' calendar method

Aug 7- Saw an Amish couple today, they asked us in English where to buy tickets for the train, that was really weird

Aug 8- I was here with Anziano [Elder] McKinnon on scambios [companion exchanges], and we desperately needed lessons and specifically with an investigator who’s come to church that we haven't met with yet. But she lives 2 hours away on bike, and we had appointments a half hour apart on either side of her appointment, so we needed a ride there.  So said a prayer that we could get there, and I phoned everybody for half an hour, right up to the time we teach our lesson before.  Start teaching our lesson, and in the middle of the lesson the phone rings, and it turns out to be someone who wasn't answering their phone that could give us a ride to the lesson and back again.  Super miracle.

9- Teaching one of our investigators at the church, the buzzer rings, and it turns out to be a member they invited to the lesson.  So can't complain when our investigators set up their own member-present lessons, a key indicator. 

10-BAPTISM!!!! Just had to write it again, looks so good.  And ate pizza spaghetti, shaped like a pizza but all spaghetti strands fried together or something, an inch thick and a bit thick, super good.  Had my camera with me, but didn't want to seem rude and pull it out at a member’s house and start taking pictures of their food. Look it up, pretty interesting

11- Our golden investigator got confirmed in church today, that was a really spiritual experience.  And our one person who plays the piano was on vacation, and she's really good and can play whatever they choose, so they assumed I could do the same thing and I played 4 hymns they chose, 1 of which I knew.  That was fun to stumble through and play a lot of right hand.  And we're walking back to the apartment at the end of the day, and Anziano Locklear says, "here, put the BOM in your sidebag" since he was carrying it and wasn't wearing one, and we're only 5 minutes away from home.  And I say, "Nope, we're pushing the miracle fence.  We're going to see a miracle after we pass this dog that always barks at us up here"  And he agrees, pass the dog, and meet a lady who is interested and gives us her number and address.  Going to see her tomorrow.  That was cool, at the very end of the day when we've given our all, that's when the Lord puts our faith to the test and starts pouring out the miracles.

12- Another scambio with Anziano Moore, super good day, just talked with everybody, including stopping people in their yards and on bikes, and got a bunch of potential investigators.

13- Similar to the 11th, not a lot of success all day at finding people to teach, and in the last hour we taught 2 lessons on the street. Haven't taught a street lesson for a month.  And the second lesson, cool how the Lord works, we were running late, jumped on the bikes, and my front tire was totally flat.  So start speed walking to the appointment, and meet a man who was originally born in Calgary, but moved here when he was a kid and doesn't speak English, and we taught him a lesson right there.  Wouldn't have stopped if we were speeding by on bikes already late.

That's all for now folks, thanks for the prayers and support.  Read the Book of Mormon every day, that's going to give you a lot more knowledge or incentive than I could write in these letters when you need a spiritual boost to keep you going. I'm so thankful for the power it has, we literally do nothing, just invite people to read and pray for themselves, to know if the Book of Mormon is true.  So read it.

 Sinceramente,

Anziano Berg