November 2

Ciao tutti!
 Yeah, the spaghetti was a bit tough on the body, but nothing compared to this week's challenge (eat 1 kilo of gelato each).  I thought I was going to die afterwards... but alas, we overcame the trial and are now closer as companions.  We also decided after this challenge that we're never going to do something like this ever again.  I had a pretty good Halloween as far as the mission goes (although it was a pretty mediocre Halloween as far as Proctors go).  We spent the whole night teaching investigators and knocking doors.  It certainly was a different kind of trick-or-treating.  Although I think our "costumes" (shirts, ties, and name tags) still scared the Italians pretty well...  Maybe that's not a good thing.
 Anyways, big news of the week: I am getting transfered from Piacenza to..... Torino!  I will be companions once again with Anziano Minà, my beloved past companion from Palermo.  We got the call late last night so I am packing today and will be in Torino by tomorrow afternoon.  I'll have the opportunity once more to exponentially improve my italian and ability to cook.  Yes!  I don't know much about Torino right now (ex. the address, the ward, etc.) but I will let you know this week.  Also, obviously since I'm being transfered, letters sent to my old address in Piacenza wont get to me.  If anything, for some reason or another, needs to be send this week you can use my address in Milan:

                     Anziano Proctor

                     Via Gramsci 13/4

                     20090 Opera (MI)

                     Italia

 

I got a really good email from Searle this week, which talked about the old Provo Tabernacle (and the new Provo Temple).  A man in his ward gave a talk about how the Tabernacle, once a beautiful edifice of the Lord, burned to the ground and how it is now to become a Holy Temple of the Lord.  He spoke about how this is how the Lord develops us as people.  Sometimes we think that we are a holy part of the Lord's kingdom on the earth (a tabernacle) and that we've reached our potential.  Then we see that the Lord causes us to be burned down so that we can become something much more holy and beautiful (a temple).  We see that the only way for this transformation to take place is for us to be burned down and brought into the depths of humility (or humbled and changed through repentance).  He then applied this to the Savior Jesus Christ, he being perfect and holy, then being subjected, in an atoning sacrifce for us all, to a descension below all of us, so that he could accomplish something incomprehensible.  It was a really interesting insight on a current day work of the Lord.

 

Anyways, I have to go pack, but I love you all tons!  (Also, we're giong to have lunch with a member and her investigator son, Felipe.  Brazilian food!!)

 

-Anziano Proctor

October 27th

Ciao!

 

I sent a longer email to Dad this week so I don't have a lot of time left, but I thought I'd shoot you a quick message and some pictures. 

 

We went to Milano twice this last week, once on Saturday and then yesterday on Wednesday.  On Saturday there was a fireside with Elder Gonzalez from the Presidency of the 70.  It was awesome!  He talked to us about our purpose as missionaries and helping people to make and keep covenants.  Then yesterday we went for Interviews with President Wolfgramm.  He pretty much told me that after being in Piacenza for 4 transfers (and my whole mission), I'm probably going to be transfered.  But we'll wait and see eh?  I also got your package, by the way.

 

I'll explain the pictures real quickly.  The first picture is of me with all of my companions I've had.  Starting from the left: Anziano Minà, Anziano Nielsen (my trainer), me and Anziano Wilkins.  Then the next 4 pictures pretty much explain themselves... but I should explain WHY we did this.  At the beginning of this transfer 5 weeks ago, this being mine and Anziano Wilkins third transfer together, we decided to rethink "companionship unity."  So each week we've done some sort of challenge together.  Week 1 was to eat an entire habanero pepper each.  Week 2 was to eat 2 entire oranges, peel and all.  Week 3 was to eat 200g of Nutella.  And week 4 was to eat 1 kilo of spaghetti between the 2 of us (500g each).  We're coming together as a companionship :) (and getting more fat too).

 

Anyways, apart from that the mission is great.  We have 4 baptismal dates, 2 for November 5th, and 2 for November 26th.  I'll be transfered by then but it'll be great to see the pictrures!

 

Love you all tons!

 

-Anziano Proctor

5 Months in Italy

Hello there everyone!

 

I hit my 7 month mark in the mission this last sunday.  Boy does it fly by!  I still feel like I'm in my 1st transfer...  Although, I think back to how much italian I spoke in May and it kind of makes me laugh.  It'd be great to get the voice recorder back from you all so that I could record on it. 

 

Going to the Kraegels for Thanksgiving sounds like a lot of fun.  It's fun celebrating holidays on the mission because you kind of have to find your own way to celebrate them.  It's the beginning of our own holiday traditions!

 

As for all of the questions you were asked, Mom:  There are only us two, my companion Anziano Wilkins and me, in Piacenza and we live in an apartment building.  For the most part we cook for ourselves because 1) most of the members live a pretty good distance away and 2) in the Milano Mission we don't have an hour set apart in the evening for dinner like other missions do.  For Christmas calls, a majority of missionaries video chat on Skype instead of using calling cards.  If you want you could set up a Skype account for me so that we can do it that way on Christmas.

 

This last week was a little bit of a challenge, but blessing at the same time.  There were a couple days that were just plain difficult.  Between less-than-spiritual encounters with people on the street and a few no-shows by investigators, it was hard to see the blessings.  As we saw a couple of our best investigators drop off the map, it was a little discouraging.  But the Lord has blessed us immensly(?).  As of this moment, 2 of our investigators are making solid progress towards their baptism on November 5th.  Their names are Chris and Victor and they both come from Nigeria.  It's super exciting to see them change their lives in a way that will bring them so much happiness.

 

Anyways, I included 3 photos with this email.  One of them is me with Anziano Gray; the other is Anziano Wilkins and I with Marco, our Gelataio friend ("gelataio" means "ice cream man") and the last is us getting fat, eating pizza :)

 

Love you all lots!

 

-Anziano Proctor

 

P.S. Mom, tell Cash he needs to write me, will ya?  Thanks!

 

Some Pictures from Italy

From Anziano to Lindsay

 Hey, y'all this is Lindsay.  This is a letter I got from Andrew last week that I want to share...

Ciao!

   That is correct my dear Sister Missionary.  Ciao is "hello" and "goodbye" in italian, and "goodbye" in portuguese ("hello" is "hoy").  We learned that a couple weeks ago from this really energetic door contact ha. 

   That's awesome that you and Pat got called to be ward missionaries.  You guys will be a great help to the missionaries in your area.  You don't know how grateful the missionaries are when the ward is ready and available to help!  The leaders of the Church (and Preach My Gospel) say that the ideal way to do missionary work is 100% with the members.  Don't be timid in your calling to aid in the Gathering of Israel!

   Speaking of the Gathering of Israel, we made a small list of the countries from which we've invited people to the Gospel:

1.Italy

2. France

3. England

4. Romania

5. Albania

6. India

7. Nigeria

8. Ghana

9. Nepal

10. Ecuador

11. Peru

12. Mexico

13. Argentina

14. Brazil

15. Canada

16. Australia

17. New Zealand

18. The Philippines

19. Congo

20. Senegal

21. Portugal

22. Ivory Coast

23. Morroco

24. Ukraine

25. Russia

26. Iran

27. Iraq

28. Korea

29. Japan

30. Macedonia

31. Estonia

32. Libya

33. Bangladesh

34. Thailand

35. Bosnia

36. Eritrea

37. Ethiopia

38. Tunisia

39. Pakistan

40. China

41. USA :)

42. Cuba

That's about as much as I remember, but there are more.  How's that for gathering huh?  Right you are, it is a wonderful thing to be part of the true Church of Jesus Christ and to do the Lord's work here on the earth. 

  In the Spirit of your new calling, read Alma 29: 9-10 for me will ya?  It's one of my favorites :)

   Sorry I forgot to write you last week before Pat's birthday and your anniversary . . . I had even written it down!  But hey, you both know I love ya.

Ci sentiamo presto.  Ciao!

- Anziano Proctor

September 7, 2011

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!