Austin's Homecoming

Hey

Hey Ciao.

So some things that have been happening. The Brazilian family has been doing really good. The mom has read the Book of Mormon up to second Nephi and she will be getting baptized very soon. We've only been able to see them a couple of times and it was surprising when we found out how much progress she has made. It's a really happy thing cause their family is super cute.

I don't know if I said but there was a rule change about 8 months ago that we can't baptize refugees in camps anymore. That rule is changing soon hopefully and Stanley and frank will hopefully get baptized soon after that. Stanley is super ready. Clement got work for a couple weeks but still has been coming to church and reading the Book of Mormon and what not. But we haven't been able to see him. He'll hopefully make progress pretty soon here. He still really likes us so that's great. We got some new potentials on Sunday and are going to see them hopefully this week. We got three appointments today after we get back from Milan. AnzianoYounce is doing his documents.

Is there anything I shouldn't bother to bring home? You know how I try to be frugal when possible. Packing is going to be great. Heaven knows I need to come home. Haha. I'm excited to see the family. Thank you mom and grandma and grandpa and those that helped with that package. I appreciate it.

Love y'all,
Anziano Gridley

Letters from Siblings

Dear Austin,

Hi!  We had a great weekend this past few days.  We went up to Logan for the Top of Utah Marathon.  Dad, Sam, and the scouts were at mile 15 to volunteer.  Also Jacob came and Grandma and Grandpa Low.  It felt so good to have all of that support there.  Dad got some good pictures.  I hope he sends them to you.  Sam was so cute.  He had a big water sign and would twirl it around like the guys who hold the pizza signs on the street corner.  He's got a future in that.  Also Jacob coached him that when guy with no shirt on came through the aid station, Sam would say, "Nice abs!"  He is too funny!  I ran with my friend Suzi.  We stayed together about 17 miles so that was really nice.  She got a little quicker then me but I got a 4:02 which is my fastest time so far this year.  It was nice weather and just a good day to run. I am all kinds of sore today though.  Jacob was also cute with Grandpa after.  Grandpa couldn't get a cot to fold up and Jacob said, "Aren't you an eagle scout, Grandpa?"  It's nice that someone can think of some funny way to tease Grandpa since he's always teasing everyone else so good.  I was so happy Jacob came too.  Grandma and Grandpa came and cheered every couple miles.  What fun cheerleaders I had!

We had stake conference this week and there were some really good thoughts shared.

Isaac, Lucy and Jonas doing baptisms at Ogden temple

There was a theme of rescue.  The most famous rescue in our church history was in 1856 when Brigham Young sent back a rescue party to get the Willy and Martin Handcart company.  In fact, he cancelled conference and sent people to prepare and leave to help.  

“‘The sweetest experience I know in life is to feel a prompting and act upon it, and later find out that it was the fulfillment of someone’s prayer or someone’s need. And I always want the Lord to know that if He needs an errand run, Tom Monson will run that errand for Him.’ That is a pattern that each of us should want to follow.”

That was partly a quote from President Monson.  For a successful rescue, just like the pioneers it must be an

**Immediate response

**Persistent effort

I know you are on the Lord's errand and I try to be as well.  People are in a parched, desolate wilderness.  It is our job to rescue them.  As Lindsey said, when you are trying to share a microwave with people who have never seen one before, they are content with their oven.  But you have so much more to offer them.  Read her letter this week.

I am teaching 4th grade today at Bluffridge.  That is Oliver's grade so I get to see him and Sam at lunch.  I love that.  It is a pretty chill day.  

Looking forward to seeing your bright cheery face!  

Love You Aust!

xoMOMxo

hey austin i won my game on saturday it was 6 to 26  we crushed if we did not win we would only have 2 more games now there is a good chance that we will have atleast 3 more games im excited i hope we win alot of games im gonna sign up for hockey next year we think i hope. Isaac

from oliver

Hi austin umm i had a football game yesterday we lost sadly we versed kaysville I played alot 

From Jonas

Dear Austin I have started soccer and i am ok at it. i have scored 1 goal out of 2 games. i have won both games so far. My team is nice. I have been doing good on my scriptures. In seminary we did an alms. So a good deed. i gave a big treat to my person. everyone was assigned a person. LOVE YOU. 

From sam booya booya the world is mine to take hows life is it fn or boring? WHAT are u doing right now try to write that on your letter.

Verona

Some of the people we have been seeing.

We saw "A" last night. we have seen him a number of times I think I did email about him. but he is this older man who is super funny. He used to bike a lot as a younger guy and still bikes. he has a problem keeping commitments. He thinks he is a devil (he's joking). but I told him if he comes to church we will go on a bike riding trip with him. he told me he didn't want to do that anyways. haha.

"S" is a Nigerian who is super awesome and is ready to be baptized by the earlier missionaries. he just needs to wait to leave a camp. but yeah the first five weeks I was here we weren't able to see him or really get a hold of him. and then I called and he answered and everything was cool and we were friends. He said he was having document problems and was busy. He is doing great again, though.

"J"is a Nigerian that is super stubborn and his dad was a big leader thing in Nigeria back in the day. his dad died and yeah he hasn't been to our church for many many years. it stinks he used to be a member cause he thinks he knows things about the church he doesn't. for example, he was telling us in Africa the leaders of the church are paid. I didn't think so. we checked with a member that was baptized over 15 years ago in Nigeria and he confirmed no one is paid. but he is sure. He doesn't believe in the sabbath day. he believes Jesus not only spoke out against the pharmacist about the sabbath. he abolished the sabbath. There are soo many arguments against that. I told him that as Christians we generally follow the ten commandments as well as many other things. but if he doesn't want to follow the sabbath he is not following ten commandments but nine. and then he started telling me that that wasn't one of the ten commandments. It's super important he understands the importance of Sunday because if not he doesn't have a church. and his won't have a motivation to find a church. and hence will still not try super hard to find the true church of god.

"C" is super awesome he is from Nigeria. He moved to Verona to live with his aunt and uncle. He has come to church these last few weeks and we have met with him a few times. He's reading from the book of Mormon and he is definitely a baptism waiting to happen. He's blooming awesome.

A family from Brazil came to church a few weeks ago. the husband is friends with a member of the church that also speaks Portuguese and they all came to church. his wife is catholic. and the husband hasn't been to church since he was a teenager. we are hoping to help this family. we went and saw them once and it was awesome. They have two cute younger daughters. and the husband and wife are super nice.

Pics of Verona

A nickel for every time someone has to go to the hospital. Instead of seeing us. I've got roughly a dollar. Which is worthless in Italy. :)

This week was pretty good... I've been shipped off to Verona for good behavior. My companion is Anziano once. He's an awesome guy. He's got a good heart. He's a youngster in the mission. He's from North Carolina... He's kind of a quiet guy. This with lots of other things means I've got to come out retirement for just a little while. The first few days here went ok. One funny guy was called Chris. He's from Germany. He's had a really hard life. He went on a vacation to Rome. He slept out in a tent and essentially he got robbed by ten guys. Losing some of his valuables. A funny thing he said was he asked how do bees talk? They dance. He's got some interesting beliefs about dancing. And things like that. But he's a nice guy and took the Book of Mormon. Also, we set up six appointments four for two specific times. Anziano once was a bit worried about that. I was just hoping to see two of the four. And they all fell through. It would be way too predictable and easy if they did not. 


Anziano Thomas and Harbin are the Capi here I know both of them and I've sent pictures home of both. They are both super awesome and two of the nicest guys I know.. I'll send pictures here sometime. I'm hoping to go back to Trento and Bolzano and also see an opera in the arena... Oh, last super funny thing. After talking to someone I switched spots in the train... And two Nigerian women started talking to me. They were so funny. I didn't sit by them and they talked to me. But we got their numbers and gave them to the sisters. They were super funny I should have taken a video. I'll hopefully have more to write about next week.

We day flow..
Anziano Gridley

Austin's last transfer?

Jean Luca Teresa's son and then her with me. President di Nuzzo is one of the kindest men.. We played basketball with Jean Luca a couple times.. I said goodbye to Abraham today. We went by his house in Lucrezia about an hour and a half away from Pesaro. For the first time, he wasn't home and didn't answer our calls. So we started to come back to Pesaro. At the stop in fano, he was there. His phone was having some trouble. President di Nuzzo took us to the sunset yesterday and then we had dinner with him. We saw Kennedy a few times as well. He accepted a Book of Mormon and I have high hopes for him... Celestina is a sweet lady. She and I got along really well and I wish I could get that kind of relationship and care for more of the people here. A funny thing. She was like brother Gridley I don't know how to thank you enough and I don't want to lose contact with you so I'm going to try to set you up with my sister in Nigeria. A compliment if I've ever received one. 

Kennedy and Celestina

Eating Free Pizza In the Rimini Church With the Zone.. Why Not.

Dear family and friends,

Sith spit.

There hasn't been much that's been happening. But we always seem busy. We got a few investigators who are sticking around so that's really nice.

Celestina has been doing pretty good. We have met with her a few recently and she's making small progress. She knows the Book of Mormon is true etc. She just wants to know if she needs to be baptized again etc. She is from Nigeria but she's married to an Italian. Her husband really loves her. If she wants to get baptized I'm betting he'd follow her as he loves her that much.

Pietro is an older Italian that lives with his mom that's an evangelist. We've met with him a couple of times. He's pretty cool. He just doesn't seem to really want to commit himself.

We then got the three musketeers. Abraham is from Nigeria and is one of the nicest Nigerians ever. He's like the cute frank from back in the day but he's reliable. He lives about twenty-five minutes from Fano. When we came the first time the directions to come weren't the best so it took me calling him 8ish times. And he always would answer. If just for that. He's a special guy. Maybe this week we'll try to get him a bike so he can bike to Fano and then take the train to Pesaro.

Evans is from Ghana. We've met with him a couple of times. He likes to party a bit but he's been meeting with us and doing pretty good. He brought a Muslim Ghanaian the first lesson we did with him with president Di Nuzzo. He goes to a different church. We just need someone to find out this is true enough so they will pretty much change big things in their lives. Like the church , hey go to. Coming closer to God. Etc. So we're trying to get that for someone.

Kennedy is the Nigerian who plays the guitar. We ran into him again and we met with him the next day. We met with him yesterday and it wasn't perfect. But at the end he told us some personal things. He said we were really nice and he wants us to tell him about Joseph smith and stuff. This is coming from the guy who wouldn't give us his number when we first met him. And really does not like the Book of Mormon. I've met much worse. I believe in this guy.

So last p day we went to a small country in Italy called San Marino. It's near Rimini. I'm not sure why there is a random small country in Italy. But yeah we went and saw everything and we missed our bus coming back. there are about 30,000 people in the country and only one family is a member of the church.

You were the chosen one.

We day try,
Anziano Gridley