Dear family and friends,
What's this going to cost us? Huh. Cavallo.
I have arrived in the city of beauty.. And of sketchiness.. And of maleducato people. Finishing the time with Anziano Galli the train ride to Milano was good we both talked to some people.. He bought a bigger coat at the station.. Which was pretty funny.. Because it's kind of a big purchase and he just makes it very quickly and randomly.. He and Anziano Sanchez are doing good in vercelli.. Isabella and Godstime are still progressing well. I then got to ride a train more or less by myself to Verona.. Next to my home Trento. I talked to a lady that is involved in horses. She is Italian.. Lives in England... Believes in spiritual stuff.. She didn't go super in depth with me.. She was quite thin and over forty and not married.. We meet lots of different people. When I got in Verona talked to some people from Sydney Australia.. I have a feeling one of the members of our family served there I just can't remember who.. That's awkward. (Sto scherzando). They live near one of our churches.. Small world. Anyways..
We talked to a lady from Kiev Ukraine.. She is back in Ukraine now. She came to Venice to talk about conditions in Ukraine.. She was so sad. I felt really bad.. We tried to help her feel better.. I definitely felt sad afterwords for a little while. I guess things in Ukraine are really bad. Thought of grandma and grandpa low..
I got to meet my new companions. Anziano Keller and Anziano Olsen. Anziano Keller is kind of like crimson chin if you've ever watched fairly odd parents. He's got glasses and an incredible double chin. He's like Anziano Thomas... He's way to nice of a guy. I will be find with him. Anziano Olsen is a new Anziano he just got finished being trained. He is a small guy. He stayed an extra day to get his permesso the next day. Ok to kind of explain this once so it's not just an under toning thing. I definitely got sick of being inside the apartment with Anziano Galli. I was probably only 30% here and giving a 20% effort with finding new people. These aren't solid numbers they fluctuated. Anyways right now I'm giving it 100%.. Trying to talk to lots of people.. And trying to make up for some lost time.. Going home is not a good thing. So I'm talking to lots of people.
Here in Vicenza.. They are a little more cold.. I ask them if they have interest in Jesus Christ... They walk away or say no.. We got to go at it at other angles or we will be trying that kind of an approach all day and get nothing done. Some things we have been trying. Finding on the street is a lot harder than when people are waiting for something.. A train.. A bus.. They are sitting on a bus.. They have time to talk to us.. So we try to find in those scenarios.. If on the street we ask a lot of groups of people if they are interested in English class.. I ask Africans in Italian if they know a man named Marcus.. (Marcus from vercelli) (I don't have Marcus's # right now..) They usually don't know him.. I then ask them where they are from etc. we have asked some people to be baptized by someone holding the proper authority. They usually stop for that one... That's right you be interested now and stop and listen to us. We tried questora finding yesterday.. A questora is where foreigners go for documents.. You have to wait forever.. We decided to just go sit down.. Or wait in line and talk to people.. (We don't need documents).. Worked pretty well.. We had a lesson with a guy and got his number.. Definitely extremely hilarious to me. Something different and funny. Anyways the guns are blazing.. Anziano Keller has been out almost a year and a half.. So we both know what we are doing and going hardcore.
We had one legit investigator when I got here. Two others who are semi legit who we have each met with once. Friso is an older man who is super love able and kind.. He liked to paint as a hobby and he bikes to nearby cities traveling long distances. He is retired and is super humble.. He should be baptized within a few weeks. We don't have a ton of investigators so we are changing that and making our own work.. Definitely what I wanted after being stuck inside for a while.
There is an American base here so there is an American ward. We ate with the Zitermans Thursday evening when I got here. They moved into a nicer Italian looking apartment recently. We helped them move some furniture. We had some pizza afterwords. Sister Z then interviewed me.. The one question I remember was she asked me what three things I wanted in my wife. I said spirituality.. A mutual unconditional love which included a willingness to adapt.. And chemistry. Mike the husband is not a member.. They said they have the missionaries often.. They had already heard about the story of Anziano Gallis legs so that's really funny. The legend of Anziano Galli continues.
At night Vicenza is decently sketchy.. We were stopped by a guy asking for money which we can't as missionaries give.. He pulled out a knife and told us he didn't want to use this on one someone that night.. I told him I'd bring him food the next day.. He didn't like that and walked off.. Some cookies are waiting in my backpack to save our lives. There are some parks with some drug deals going on.. Etc.
This city makes up for all of it with how beautiful it is.. This city is Italy.. I will send some pictures etc. We are having a ball. Having some extremely good success. The guns are out and there are no prisoners in custody.
We are trying our best and I like to think our best can do really good when we are talking to people.. That my best can do it. It's a nice thought.. Well dang my best can do that. A mentality like that might help ya out.
I really liked conference.. It's scary how every talk is so good. It could be a bad omen. Don't procrastinate your repentance.. If only for the bad omens sake. When I talk to people I try to bring up how we have our church.. The restoration etc. about James 1:5 if any of ye lack wisdom let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not and it shall be given unto him. If we have a question we should ask God and he will answer us. If we need something we can ask him. I try to leave people regardless of how they take the lesson with that promise. I would invite you this week if you got a question or you are having a hard time etc
Use the promise.. As emperor Palpatine says.. You could tap into OMNIPOTENT POWER.
Do not go calmly into the night.
I hailo,
Anziano Gridley
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