Im actually getting a lot better ( at Italian) when I concentrate I can understand 95 percent of what everyone is saying. I really do love it here haha.
Im sad that my trainer is going to have to leave me in a couple weeks. Its so strange I have almost been out for 4 months now! Time really does fly way too fast.
(Re Hurricane Sandy and his NJ Uncles) Thats really great that Davin and Merrills houses were not damaged, I cant believe how crazy that is. My companion is from Miami so he always talks about how thats nothing compared to what hurricanes they get in Miami. That is good that nothing got destroyed and things.
We are getting a ton of rain here in Reggio Emilia (like right now) and its really interesting riding bikes in the rain because the roads here arent too great at all and there are tons of roundabouts with cars we have to ride on to get places. So horrible! But we keep on going!
Lots of great work is happening here, we recently found many people who are really interested in the church. One man is named Fabio, and he met with the missionaries about 15 years before. We were inspired to go walk a certain street behind our house and we found him. We started talking for a good 15 minutes and asked if we could say a prayer with him right there, and so he did without hesitation! Fabio has a lot of faith and he knows its his time now to recieve the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. He is getting baptized on December 22nd, that is definitely going to be a great day.
Im really loving being a missionary right now, and I wanted to tell about how our week usually plays out. We do a lot of finding work on Monday and Tuesday, and usually dont teach too many people, but thursday friday saturday sunday we have SO MANY APPOINTMENTS its kind of crazy. This last sunday we had 5 people to visit and we also arranged to have members meet us at every lesson. It was really hard to organize it all but so worth it. I really felt the spirit that day.
Plaza in Reggio Emilia
The Bishop in our ward Bishop Carrus continues to be a spiritual giant, he gave a talk in church this Sunday and talked about how he was inspired when he went to the temple and he is planning at the end of five years to increase membership in the Reggio Emilia ward so much that there will be Reggio Emilia 1st ward and 2nd ward. He set up 3 copias (companionships) of people and they are going to visit every single family in the ward by the end of 1 to 2 months. WOW. Action plan I must say.
It was also really hectic on Sunday because we had 9 people that we were teaching come to church on Sunday, so we were scrambling to make sure everyone had a friend and someone to talk to and everything! wow. I love being a missionary.
We are continuing to teach many people including a Sri Lankan man named Anton, he speaks Tamil, and he really loves church and feels the Holy Ghost super strongly whenever we come to his house. Its hard for him to come to church because his wife (named Romila) is bedridden with child, and has to stay on the bed all 9 months of her pregnancy, but he always wants to. She is cruising through the Book of Mormon, she reads it all the time. They are both super spiritual and we love teaching them.
Other things we have been doing lately is something Anziano Fiorentino likes to call specific planning, which is where we ask God for what kind of people we should look for and where to go during planning the day before, and then follow through the next day. We always get specific inspiration where to go or who to find, and if we work our hardest and have faith that through Gods inspiration we will find these people, we see miracles. The other day we saw our greatest miracle I have ever seen on my mission. We both felt strongly prompted that we would find someone named John (I thought of the name John but didnt say anything then Anziano Fiorentino said the name John.. miracle in itself) in a specific area that we were going to go knock doors at. We were riding our bicycles there and my companion Anziano Fiorentino felt like we should contact a man who was walking on the street. So we stopped him and guess what his name was... Gionni! (Johnny) He was an Italian middle aged man but... he wasnt interested in our message.
So we were sad but we knew we were going the right direction. We arrived at the place we had planned and continued to knock on some doors and other things, but no one was interested. Suddenly there came a group of ten Nigerian men walking and they passed us. We said hi to them and they told us they were working. Then, a man from their group came walking toward us when everyone else was running and asked, Are you from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints? We said, of course! We are missionaries. He told us he had been looking for us and our church for five months, and that his wife is a member in Nigeria, and she sent his number to the missionaries in Italy but he had never been contacted. (She is going through the temple tomorrow) We asked him what his name was... and it was John!!! Wow! It was seriously an amazing miracle from God. We showed him our planners and told him we were looking for him too. We taught him and he is an amazing man! He is also going to be baptized the 22nd of December with Fabio. I am so thankful that God is merciful enough to give us inspiration and we were very thankful for that miracle that day. I know that it was because of fasting and prayer that this happened. We fasted for that specific purpose for a day, to find someone who was ready to recieve the gospel of Jesus Christ.
That was an absolutely amazing experience and there was a lot more in that story but I dont have a lot of time to write this email! I know that God is there and he loves EVERYONE. I see and talk to many people and it is amazing that each one of these people is loved by God. I am so thankful to be a tool in his hand to help others come unto him and Jesus Christ and feel the same joy that I get to feel every day. I know that this Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is His true church on the earth today. If I didnt know that by the Spirit I would know it because of the Book of Mormon. Thanks for everyones prayers I really feel the help from above on days when it is hard.
Ciao Belli!
Anzianio Ryan Day
Wow, makes you want to go on a mission!
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