July 10, 2013

My beloved brothers and Sisters,

Saw an amazing sunset here, the cloud in front of the sun was the exact same colour as the sky all around it so there was a line of sunlight in the dusk in the outline of the top of a cloud.  Unfortunately this isn't a good description at all and I didn't have my camera so you can all just wish you were there and try to imagine how beautiful it was.

Made lasagna starting from eggs and flour last P-day [preparation day/day off] with a part-member family, then ate it for dinner and had a lesson and it was soo good. All the food is really good here though, you can be jealous of that too as well.

Really good gelatto, but not gelatto

Taught our golden investigator again. Our main concerns were if he had a problem with the word of wisdom [health code] and law of chastity [moral code], and while we're explaining repentance and how we confess serious sins to the bishop and he asks like what and Anziano [Elder] Locklear is trying to explain chastity without saying the word chastity since he might not undersatnd and this is a really bad run on sentence, he says "Oh, you mean like the law of chastity?" So his girlfriend has taught him both topics already it turns out, and he answers our biggest questions by himself. And our biggest concern was if he was doing it for his girlfriend, and in the same lesson we're bearing testimony [what we know to be true] and he cuts in and says "You don't need to try and convince me. I know the church is true, and I'm getting baptized for myself, with or without my girlfriend there." (his girlfriend is a member, and a really good missionary obviously) The Lord is definitely preparing more people to hear the gospel, when they start contacting you and know all the lessons before you teach them. And he takes notes during lessons as well. Then (on July 4) we go to a members house and have a little Independence Day party with the only other American in the ward apart from my companion, but the food was good, so that was a highlight. And he drives us home in his van going 50 km per hour around traffic circles, I was looking at the speedometer, and feeling like we were going to tip at every one, which traffic circles are every block in Italy, I've only seen 4 traffic lights so far.

July 5-So we haven't found any new investigators all week, and Anziano Locklear prays to start off companionship study that we can find a new investigator, and 2 minutes later the phone rings and it's a referral from Mormon.org with someone who wants the missionaries over. He actually wasn't that interested once we visited him, but just shows HUGE miracles are just waiting for us and all we need to do is keep on being obedient and working hard and praying. And another miracle- 3 new baptism dates in one day!

Biked for 2 hours, that was fun one day going to and from an appointment, 40 km total. And nobody was home. So we figured it was building up for a miracle with that test of faith, which it was. We finally got 15 lessons was our miracle. Sitting outside in the rain Sunday night, 6:00, only 12 lessons. Really want 15. Ended up getting an appointment with a family that had already said no, and two others last minute. At 9:30 back at the house we had 15. Could not have done that without the Lord's help. I view it as the huge miracle of the week.

Milan has 5 million, Merate has 14000, average in zone was 13.4 lessons, we got 15, standard of excellence. President Wolfgram promised us if we got 15 lessons a week we would get more baptisms.

Still haven't met President Dibb [new mission president] until the 16th, but he's going to all the apartments and personally doing inspections, which is like around 100-150 apartments, I think there's 160 missionaries in Milan mission and I don't know how many live together. But cleaned for more than an hour this morning, fairly nervous for that.

I know it just turned really unlegible point form there, but leaving early today. The gospel is true, there's no way it could not possibly be with the witness from the Holy Ghost that I have received. Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon by the power of God and through reading this book, we can draw closer to God our father and Jesus Christ.

Anziano Berg