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
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