Embrace the darkness

Dear family and friends,

I don't think that we met today by chance. (Juliet)




Yesterday I talked to a girl on the train. I was very open and pretty blunt with her. As I could tell from her body language she could handle me doing that. She was really nice. She was going to take an exam where out of five hundred people who take the exam two people would get a job.

After we went to see Francesca who is the sister of a guy who got baptized a couple years ago as his girlfriend was a member. Francesca right now needs to gain a testimony so these things can become important to her and she can make the decisions especially since her mom isn't a member etc. Every other day I text a chapter for a few people to read so they can piano piano(slowly) build a testimony. When we met with Francesca that went really good. On the bus back I met a guy who speaks Croatian, Spanish, Italian, and English. He was super cool. He just isn't super religious. Which isn't uncommon. We gave him a pamphlet and an English class card and we got his number. When we asked for his number. He was like hey why not. Which is a great answer.

Then Anziano Diego talked to a guy from Russia who is a singer. They had a good talk. I talked to a girl who was sitting close by where I talked to the first girl on the train. She was super awesome. She was extremely open. And her parents aren't very religious but she started to read the bible with a friend and she started to really like it etc. Which is not common. We got her number. She was awesome. Kind of funny I technically ran into her twice that day. Maybe I was supposed to talk to her the first time and not the other girl who knows. And then I talked to a guy from Moldavia. He was awesome. He believes in God quite a bit but he doesn't super act on it. He told me haha that every night he prays and he asks for forgiveness for the same things he does every day haha. I could tell he had a good heart, though. And I let him know that. We'll hopefully see him again as we got his number. The thing would be more converting the belief he has into some actions.

Celestina was someone who met with the missionaries about a year ago. She was really awesome they said. But she worked a lot. Also, when we have church. But that in the future she'd make more progress. She went to Nigeria for more than three months (she is from Nigeria but is married to an Italian). We have met with her a hand full of times this last month. Her work is maybe about to finish so she will not have a reason to not come to church that would legitly stop her from being able to come. She mainly needs to gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon and receive an answer to her prayers. I just got off the phone with her and she is still working and is busy right now. But hopefully, soon she will make the necessary progress. She is a very spiritual lady and is super nice to us. We have gone back to the cursed internet point with her to help her with her email after we teach her. She doesn't have the computer hacking skills. When we went we ran into Kennedy the last time.

Kennedy is my guitar playing Nigerian friend. I sent the video of him playing. I knew from that first time I saw him I wanted him to make progress and get baptized etc. We then saw him at the African concert. We then ran into him at the station and I talked to him for a while. He does not like the Book of Mormon because it's not in the bible. We are making small progress with him as we run into him and talk. We then ran into him on the bus last week and I just said hi as we had to get off. Then we ran into him at the Internet point last week. I talked to him for about an hour as Anziano Diego helped Celestina. Piano piano. We got his number this last time. And he's going to pray about the Book of Mormon. He's a really spiritual guy. He just has this block on his mind of the bible being the only possible scripture. I told him that it wasn't by chance we had run into him so many times. Normally we don't run into people this many times. And we don't go to Internet points that often. And I imagine he doesn't either. Anyways I'm supposed to call him soon to see if he got an answer to his prayers about the Book of Mormon. We'll see how it goes.

I met Kelly on the bus to Urbino. He lives about five minutes from us in Pesaro. He is from Nigeria. He was really reliable on Tuesday. Anziano Dohms and I met him at the coop and walked to his house where there is a park right next to his house. We met with him and about five of his friends. It went really pretty good. Hopefully, Vicenza will be repeated. Kelly was pretty impressive.

Cico is my sinigal friend (I spelt sinigal wrong). Most guys from sinigal are Muslim as is my friend. He sells books on the street here in Pesaro. He is super nice. Every time we see him we say hi. And one time we started talking to him. This guy is super open and we gave him a pamphlet and now he really wants a Book of Mormon. He specifically told me that he would like and wouldn't mind at all meeting with us talking about religion that we shouldn't worry about basically offending him. Telling us to bring in on in trying to see him. As a missionary, you should never be afraid to try what seems like a suicide no chance operation of a mission. Often first appearances can be overcome. Hopefully, good things will happen with Cico.

Shout out to Oliver and dad. Oliver is one year older and he's gained another foot. Dads one year older and the kids have given him a few more grey hairs. Eat lots of cake. Next birthday y'all celebrate we'll be celebrating right. Everybody will be dancing and be doing it right.

You are such a jimmy. (That's Anziano Dohms saying).

My day try,
Anziano Gridley