Buon giorno tutti!
It has finally started to cool down here in Piacenza! In the mornings when Anziano Wilkins and I run it has started to feel cooler so we're doing better. Although, it's not cold enough for all of the Tiger Mosquitos to go away. I don't know if I've told you about those. They are basically the most evil thing on the face of the planet. They're just like regular mosquitos except for their tendency is to bite you 5 or 6 times in a row, and their white and black striped (hence the name "Tiger", or in italian "le zanzarre tigre"). My first couple days in Italy I woke up with 5 red mosquito bites right in a line on my forearm. Anyways, within a couple weeks it should be too cold for them!
So this last week there were some great happenings in Piacenza. The Lord has blessed us in some very very interesting ways. It is a mission goal to teach 20 lessons every week, a goal which Anziano Wilkins and I had struggled to meet until this last week. Our Area President, Elder Kopische promised us that if we taught 20 lessons every week our baptisms would double and we would see miracles. With everyone gone on vacation it was very difficult to get 20 lessons with solid investigators who made solid progress towards baptism. Anyways, this last week we had just committed ourselves to doing it, no matter what. By Sunday night with very little time left before we had to be back home, we had only taught 18. We met one of our investigators in the park to teach him right as it started to rain. We had an awesome discussion with him. Then as he left under his umbrella, the rainstorm turned into a tempest. The park was emptied within 20 seconds. We knew we still lacked that last lesson for the week and were about to turn in. But we knew we had to do it, so we strapped on our battle-bike-helmets and mounted our 2-wheeled-steeds and set off into the rain to find that last person who we could talk to. We had ridden maybe 30 yards and around the corner walks one of our investigators who we hadn't been able to reach in 2 weeks. We slid to a stop and asked if we could teach him. So we stood under the pouring rain for the next 15 minutes and shared our testimonies of the Book of Mormon, the weather conditions obviously adding to our conviction that the book is true, as we were not going to leave. What are the chances that we would just find him 2 weeks later under the pouring rain, when there was not a soul outside. The 20th lesson came by a miracle.
Like promised, having taught 20 lessons last week, we have been seeing so many blessings. We have found a couple very strong investigators who are all very possible (and we think probable) converts. There is a man named Biju, a cristian man from India. Then there is Sassan, a former Muslim from Iran who is searching for the truth (who has a date to be baptized October 8th). Also, there is a young man named Jonas, a Pakistani med student (who used to live on the street where Osama was killed) who we soft-invited to baptism and he accepted. We're taking him to a baptism in Modena on saturday so that he can see what it is like. Who says we don't do missionary work in the Middle East?
Anyways, we've got to go so I will sign off! Mom, can you let those select few who I wrote to know that I wrote them? In your birthday email to Elder Olsen, wish him happy birthday for me because there is no way my handwritten letter will get there on time :/
Okay, love you all and will hear from you next week!
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