Verona, Italy - August 18, 2010

On Thursday of last week we managed to see again the investigators, a couple, that we were teaching when I first got here that we had not seen in a whole transfer [6 weeks]! It was good to see them again. And we have since seen them again, last night, and we have another appointment for next week. So I am excited. We are also finding new investigators. August in Italy is kind of funny because everyone, almost literally, goes out of town for three or four week vacations, so all the shops shut down and no one is home when we go knocking on doors and when we do find someone they go away the next day and tell us to call them when they get back. So you would think we would have a hard time finding people to teach, but we actually are teaching regularly and working steadily with some of our investigators. It is cool.

Every August 15 is a big national Italian holiday called Ferrogosto, and I think it in some way honors the Madonna. But they don't want the missionaries out and about on that day, so instead we stay in all day long and do this massive deep cleaning of our apartment. So that is what we did on Monday, all day long. We woke up, did studies, and at 10 am started cleaning. Then took a half hour-ish long break for lunch around 1, and then started cleaning again and cleaned and cleaned all the way until 9pm, when we planned for the next day and went to bed. It was intense. And then the next day, Tuesday, we went to go visit one of our investigators and helped her clean her house for a couple of hours. So this week has certainly been full of cleaning! It was intense, but also kind of relaxing to have a day of doing something different. The strange thing was that even though I was inside literally all day with my companion, I actually felt like I spent less time with her than I ever do on any other day! At the end of the day I realized we had really only seen each other at lunch, because when we are at home we can be in different rooms of our apartment, and so we had divvied up the rooms between us to clean and spent all of our time cleaning in different rooms, and really wanted to ask her how her day had been and what she had done! Usually that never happens because we are always exactly together all day. It was kind of funny. I like Sorella Tramacchi a lot. She is easy to get along with.

I had one neat experience I wanted to share. When we are knocking on doors, doing casa, and a man says we can come in, we always have to check and see if there is a woman in the house, because if there is not and it is just the man alone we cannot go in. It is the same for the anziani, of course, who cannot go in if there is just a woman at home. So usually what we all do when that happens is say, well could we send the missionaries of your gender by to see you another day? And then we pass the referral on to the other coppia (companionship in italian). So the anziani had given us two referrals from the same street, one at number 17 and one at number 19, and had told us the one in number 17 was probably not actually interested, but that the one in number 19 was really awesome and we had to go see her. When we went by, however, number 19 couldn't see us right then, and the mother of the girl in number 17 was home with her granddaughter and they let us in and they are now new and progressing investigators. So the woman the anziani had talked to was not there, but the other two are awesome and now we are teaching them! But the real story starts with when we finally did get to see the person in number 19, the one the anziani told us was a really good strong referral, so we were excited to see her. We get to her door yesterday morning and she said, yes please come in come in! So we come on in, but then she gets a phone call, so we talk to her sister who is visiting from Sicilia while she is on the phone. Then the instant she gets off the phone she starts railing into us about how she doesn't want to listen to any messages, but just wants help, so if we are not going to help her than we can just get on going and leave her be, and is talking all about her financial problems and her children who have died and her husband who passed away three years ago. We were a little surprised, and couldn't get a word in edgewise because she was very loud and forceful and so was her sister. But despite how intense and scary they were, I really didn't feel the least bit intimidated or scared, just very calm and sure of myself and that the message we have is true and that I really am God's representative and that as long as I cared about them, listened, and did my best to testify and help them, that it was all okay. So we listened carefully. We said a few things, and usually they would cut us off and talk over us and kept saying about how they had faith but had never seen any miracles come from it and asking us why there is suffering in the world and challenging us to answer all of these really intense dilemmas. But still I felt really calm, like I was perfectly capable of answering their questions and helping these intimidating people because I was not alone. I felt to tell them that maybe the reason they had not seen miracles was because there was more truth in existence than they knew, that they needed to know about and be true to before they could see the miracles, and that we knew this truth thanks to a modern day prophet, Joseph Smith. I shared the Joseph Smith story and then when I started reciting Joseph Smith's own words about the 1st Vision, the most remarkable thing happened. They were silent. Totally silent, even for a little bit after I stopped talking. It was really incredible to see how the Holy Ghost entered the room as we started testifying of Joseph Smith as a prophet and to see how that was manifest in their being calmed. The reason they were so forceful and intense was because of the pain they still feel at the suffering they have experienced in their lives, and I believe that they felt the comfort and influence of the Holy Ghost in that moment and that that is why they were quiet and still and attentive. The sister wants to learn more, and said we can give her information to the missionaries in Sicilia. Number 19 said no, she does not want to listen, but that we can keep coming and visiting her sister for as long as her sister is still there visiting, which will be for a while longer. Who knows, maybe her heart, too, will be softened as she listens to us teach her sister. It was a really cool experience. The Holy Ghost really is what has the power, not us at all. I didn't do a thing to make them listen, but they did listen all the same because the Holy Ghost was there. Neat, huh? Dad, I thought later of the lyrics of that song you sent, about how sometimes God calms the storm, but sometimes the child, and how at the beginning it really was a calming the child moment because I felt perfectly calm even while these sisters were very agitated, and then it was the other way around and the storm was calmed as the Holy Ghost worked on them. It was really neat.