Trasferimenti #3 ed altre storie da Pesaro

Hello everyone! It's me again.

So first, how about an update on transfers? It's that time of year again already. I found out that I will be spending six more weeks in Pesaro. I love Pesaro, so I'm not too upset about it. Anz. Valentine will be staying with me. Here's the crazy news: we're getting two extra missionaries! There will be four Anziani in Pesaro. Whew. Our apartment has enough room. We spent most of our P-Day today trying to organize the apartment. It doesn't look to bad. We look like a missionary apartment now with the way everything is crammed in. We'll be a little cozy, but it'll be ok. We're excited. It will definitely be a blessing for the work here in Pesaro, and I'm sure the members will love it too.

Let's start off with crazy miracle time. We have an eternal investigator named Carmine. He has been investigating the church for over a year and he's been coming to church for a while. In every way except baptism, he is a part of the branch. He's super awesome. He has a great testimony and great humor. He loves my last name too. Every time he sees me he says it as loud as he can and says "un nome forte!" Hah! He's never had anything against getting baptized, but he's always told the Anziani he wasn't ready to pick a date. He wanted to wait until the time is right. So, we just treat him like a member of the branch knowing that when the time is right he'll come to us.Well, on Sunday he had us over at his house and told us that he is ready. He wants to be baptized on August 10th! There will be a baptism in Pesaro! We are excited and he is very content. He's planned out the whole ceremony. It's kind of funny to watch. It's almost as if he's planning a wedding. We're glad to see that he's ready and so happy about it.

We've been trying to put more emphasis on member missionary work lately. A few weeks ago, the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles did a conference about missionary work called the "Work of Salvation." If you haven't watched it, go watch it now. It is awesome and does a wonderful job talking about the members' responsibility in missionary work. When we have such a great gift as the Gospel, we should have the desire to share it! Imagine that you found the cure to cancer. Would you hide it, or would you share it with as many people as possible? Of course you'd share it with everyone you saw! That's the same way we should treat our testimonies. Our testimonies are precious. Just as that cure to cancer is a cure to physical disease, even more are our testimonies cures to spiritual disease. If you have a testimony, regardless of the shape or size, you have the responsibility to share it with those who have not yet realized their own and even with those who already have one. The Savior Himself said, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen." (Matthew 28:19-20). If you have a testimony (and I know that all of you reading this have a testimony of SOMETHING in some way or other) go share it!

There's my discourse for this week. I hope you learned something. I love all of you. As always, thank you so much for your emails, letters, prayers, and thoughts. I'm grateful to know that I have so many wonderful people supporting me.

Vi voglio bene,

Anziano Simcox

Prega. Ama. Credi.

Hello everyone! How is summer going? It's already halfway through! Crazy! Time flies when you're a missionary. My summer is going great. I'm still living and loving Pesaro, the city of dreams. The picture this week is a little taste of Italy. It's from one of the back alleys in Pesaro. Cool huh? What a beautiful country.

This week is the fifth week of the transfer, which means that my new missionary is the senior companion for this week! He's the head honcho and I'm the junior companion again. It's cool to see him stepping up. He's a bravo missionary who is working hard.

What can I tell you about this week? I'll tell two stories. (As usual,I made up the names. I'm not too creative, but hey.)

First, I want to tell you about Pietro. We met him last week. It was cool that we found him in the first place. We were definitely in the right place at the right time. Anz. Valentine's bike was broken (story of our lives), so we were on foot for the day. As we were walking across town we decided to take a different way just for fun. It turns out that was divinely inspired because we found Pietro! He said he had been looking around for a church for some time now, but couldn't seem to find what he was looking for. We of course told him that this is what he was looking for. A few days later we ran into him in Centro and he asked us why we hadn't set up an appointment with him yet! We had a lesson with him then and there and gave him the Book of Mormon. A sickness stopped him from coming to church on Sunday, but we had a lesson with him the next day. It was the best first lesson that I've ever been a part of (not that I've been around the mission long, but hey).

Second, I'll talk more about Matteo. He's awesome. I love getting to know him. He's become like a brother almost. He is having difficulties, but he's trying so hard. He won't be ready to be baptized when we originally planned, but it is a goal that he wants to work for still. He's awesome. We meet with him almost every day and we pray every day.

Prayer is one huge lesson I've learned. It's such a wonderful thing. Prayer = literal communication with God. What a concept! I used to always think "oh it'd be so much easier if we could just pick up the phone and call God." Guess what? We can, and there is no charge for long distance. We can take any problem to God and trust that we can find resolution. It's not that God is some magic problem-fixer who

will make everything disappear, but He IS our Father and he is waiting to bless us. As Howard W. Hunter said, "If prayer is only a spasmodic cry at the time of crisis, then it is utterly selfish, and we come to think of God as a repairman or a service agency to help us only in our emergencies. We should remember the Most High day and night —always—not only at times when all other assistance has failed and we desperately need help. If there is any element in human life on which we have a record of miraculous success and inestimable worth to the human soul, it is prayerful, reverential, devout communication with our Heavenly Father." I feel especially strong about prayer right now. Prayer is a miracle and prayer brings miracles. "A man never stands taller than when upon his knees." (Thomas S. Monson).

Keep praying. Keep loving. Keep believing.

I love all of you! 'Til next time, Anziano Simcox.

Egli sta bussando alla porta

Hello everyone! Another day, another... oh wait I don't get paid. In

money at least, although the spiritual bank account is overflowing.

How was everyone's Fourth of July? Mine was awesome. We had a Festa

Americana in the church. I know we live in Italy, but hey. It was

great. We had a good amount of people, lots of fun, and lots of food.

Anz. Valentine and I brought lemonade, s'mores, and brownies. Our

members are obsessed with brownies. Some anziano made them brownies a

while back and ever since then they constantly ask us to make

brownies. They were intrigued by the s'mores. JetPuff not existing in

Italy, we had to resort to Haribo strawberry-flavored marshmallows.

They didn't turn out too bad though. The members weren't sure what to

think at first, but they ended up really liking them.

I had a great birthday too! Two families in the branch made me a cake

and we had a little party in the park. The cake had a golf course on

it. I think they just wanted to make it American. Hah! It was a

reaaaaaly good cake. Anz. Valentine bought me an awesome red skinny

tie. It makes me happy.

The greatest birthday present for me though was the awesome lesson

that night. We met a woman from Nigeria in the piazza a few weeks ago.

She doesn't speak Italian and she only speaks a little English. It

made it hard to teach because we weren't sure how much she

understands. We were worried about what to do, until we talked to one

of our Nigerian members, David. By some miracle, they happen to speak

the same language and dialect, which is a huge miracle because

apparently there are a lot of different languages and dialects in

Nigeria. We set up an appointment to meet with them. On the night of

the appointment, David wasn't there. We were worried about being able

to communicate. We walked away from the piazza to find a quieter

place. As we sat down, we were praying for some miracle. Out of the

blue comes David on his bicycle. He had arrived late to the piazza. He

was about to go home, but then he heard a voice telling him to turn.

So he turned, followed the path, and there we were! He did a wonderful

job translating for us. Although we couldn't understand anything they

said to each other, the Spirit was fortissimo.

Another miracle is an investigator we've been working with. I'll call

him Matteo for now. During week six of last transfer, he called us and

said that he wanted to meet with us and come to church. He had met

with the Anziani about a year ago, but now he said he knew the church

was true. To be honest, we were a little put off at first because we

weren't sure how genuine he was. As we've been working with him for

the past couple weeks, we've really started to see how genuine he is.

He has a very good heart. He has a history of drugs and has had a lot

of problems in the past with his depression, but he's ready to start a

new leaf. He wants to stop smoking and drinking coffee and alcohol. As

we've been meeting with him, it's been amazing to see his progress. He

used to smoke twenty cigarettes a day. He's down to ten now, and his

goal for today is eight. On Saturday he said he was about to smoke

number eleven, but then he remembered the promise he made to only do

ten, so he threw it away. We were thrilled. He used to drink six to

seven cups of coffee a day and now he's down to four. He hasn't drank

alcohol for two days now. He wants to start a new life. We set a

baptismal date for July 27th and he is working very hard to reach this

date. We are meeting with him every day until his baptism because he

says that he feels stronger whenever he meets with us. We are working

hard and praying for more miracles in his life.

Miracles are everywhere. I love it. They don't come without sacrifice

and our own efforts. Miracles are wrought through, and only after, the

trial of our faith. The road gets bumpy, but always remember that God

is aware of your trials. "And my Father sent me that I might be lifted

up upon the cross; and after that I had been lifted up upon the cross,

that I might draw all men unto me, that as I have been lifted up by

men even so should men be lifted up by the Father, to stand before me,

to be judged of their works, whether they be good or whether they be

evil— And for this cause have I been lifted up; therefore, according

to the power of the Father I will draw all men unto me, that they may

be judged according to their works... Therefore, ask, and ye shall

receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you; for he that asketh,

receiveth; and unto him that knocketh, it shall be opened." (3 Nephi

27:14-15, 29). He's at the door knocking. Are you opening the door?

Vi voglio bene, Anziano Simcox

Il Giorno d'Indipendenza!

Happy Fourth of July everyone! Did you know that they have the fourth of July in Italy too? It's the day after the third and the day before the fifth. Ararararar. For those who are concerned that I'm emailing on Thursday and not Wednesday, don't panic. We changed our P-Day this week. The woman who runs the internet cafe was in shock when we came in a day late. Seriously though, Happy Independence Day. Tonight, we are having a Festa Americana in our church. Yes, I know we're in Italy, but the members wanted to have an American party anyway! I'm excited. We're having brownies, taco salad, lemonade, pizza, and games. It should be great, and we're hoping that some of our investigators come and meet the members!

Attached is a picture of my shoe, if you can still call it a shoe. That should give an idea of how much walking/biking we do. I wouldn't trade it for anything. It could also just be an indication of how cheap the shoes were. I bought them on clearance... I like the first explanation better. I went shopping today and found a nice, durable pair of Italian shoes. I'm hoping they'll last me for at least a little while.

Despite the jokes about the shoes, we have done a lot of walking this week. Lessons have been scarce, so we've been in proselyting mode quite a lot. We've been trying to think of ways to make our street contacting more productive than just going up to people and telling them that God loves them; which, despite how true it may be, doesn't yield much results. We tried something new that is working much better for us. We took a small whiteboard we have in our study room and wrote questions like "Crede che Dio ci ama? (Do you believe that God loves us?)" and "Crede che Dio ci parla? (Do you believe that God speaks to us?)" Then we walked through Centro (downtown) asking people and tallying the results. When we ask just a yes or no question like that, people are much more willing to stop and give us an answer. After every tally we would ask "Perché? (Why?)" This way has been working much better for us in crowded areas and we've been able to have many thought-provoking questions with people that normally would not have happened. Even though the questions seem simple, it's amazing to hear the responses. Many times, people have to stop and think because they realize that they've never actually thought about it before. Of course, that's one of our jobs: to make people think about these things. I'd encourage you to take time to ask these questions to yourself. Does God really love us? Does God talk to us personally? Even if you think you know the answer, you'd still benefit from a little self-inventory.

We officially have a new mission president now! We met President and Sorella Dibb yesterday. They seem bravi and I'm excited to see how they will lead the mission. After the meeting, President interviewed every missionary in the zone. It took forever, but it was nice for him to give everyone the time of day.

On Sunday, we had the opportunity to hear a broadcast from Utah. It was the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles giving a broadcast about missionary work. Many exciting changes are coming soon in missionary work. Soon missionaries will be branching out to online proselyting and using more technology. Our mission is usually one of the later ones to receive the updates, so I'll let you know next year when we get iPads. That should be exciting though. Missionary work is on a dramatic uphill climb though. They're calling it the Hastening. We currently have 70,000 full time missionaries in the field with thousands more in the queue. The church recently opened 58 new missions. Last week they set apart 173 new mission presidents. It's an historic time to be a missionary and I'm grateful to be a part of this work. I know this is where I need to be.

Well that's all I have for today. Five months later, and I'm still grateful every day to be a missionary. I love meeting all kinds of people from all kinds of walks of life. I want so badly for everyone to feel the joy that the Gospel has brought me. Even just bringing an extra smile to someone's day makes my day so much more worth it.

Happy Fourth y'all (I had to throw a little American in there).

Love, Anziano Simcox