L'amore perfetto scaccia ogni timore

Ciao ciao ciao. What can I say about this week? It's been a long one.

This past week was a huge holiday in Italy. It's called Ferragosto.

Nobody really knows why it's a holiday, but they celebrate it anyway.

A lot of people get work off for a week or two and they go on

vacation. Pesaro has been flooded with tourists. Thursday was the

actual holiday. EVERYTHING shut down--even the grocery stores.

Proselyting has been difficult lately because everyone's brains are

shut off for the holidays. Here's one real conversation I had:

"Ciao! We're missionaries from the Church..."

"Oh no. I'm on vacation right now."

"Oh cool! Where are you from?"

"Pesaro."

"But you said..."

"I'm on vacation."

I've had that conversation more than once. If people haven't

physically gone on vacation, they're at least mentally on vacation.

From what I've heard, everything will get back to normal by

September... Mamma mia...

Story time. We have a new member named David. He is from Nigeria and

he has been here in Italy for a little over a year. He doesn't speak

much Italian, but he loves the members and the members have genuine

love for him. They have been trying to help him improve his language

skills by talking with him, inviting him over for lunch, and being his

friends. This past Sunday they asked him to give a short talk in

church. He was very worried, but he knew that the Lord would help him.

We met with him a few times last week. He wrote a talk in English and

then we helped him translate it. We also assigned him to write his

testimony in Italian on his own. On Sunday he got up and gave a

powerful talk in almost flawless Italian. We could feel how much he

was relying on the Spirit to bear his testimony.

The weather has been a little crazy here... The 40° heat is gone thank

goodness, but it's still hot. Yesterday it randomly decided to be

cold... We actually had to wear sweaters yesterday. Also, it poured

cats and dogs yesterday. Pesaro has random monsoons every couple

weeks. They only last for ten minutes or so, but they do a bunch of

damage. We saw a motorcycle flying down the street once. It was scary.

Luckily that time we were safe inside the church. This time we got

caught in the thick of it. Anz. Valentine's bike is broken again. Go

figure. We were walking to a member's house and it started coming down

hard... It was bad... Ah well! It makes for fun memories. Now I can

look back at my crinkled planner and remember the time I was stuck in

the monsoon... It won't be the last time either! I love Italy!

Ok. There's my life for now. Italian holidays and freak monsoons. I

found a great scripture a few days ago. This is Moroni 8:16, "Perfect

love casteth out all fear."  It's so simple, but it's a great motto.

If we do things out of love, we have no fear. If I love the people I

see all around me, I have no fear to talk to them about the Gospel. It

works in everyone's life. Be not afraid. Love instead.

Con tanto amore, Anziano Simcox

Affinché possano provare gioia

Buon giorno! How are you today? There are miracles in Pesaro my friends. It's been a hard week, but a rewarding week as well.

I'll start with a funny story first. It was Friday morning and we were getting ready for our weekly planning session. About five minutes in, our carbon monoxide detector went off. We called the mission office and they told us to go outside and call the fire department. For all the flack I give Italians, their fire department had a pretty quick response. About five minutes later we hear sirens off in the distance.

The firemen sweep the house and say that there's nothing there. This whole time the alarm has still been going off. Four of the firemen huddled in a circle all taking turns trying to disable it. Eventually one of them just pulled out the wire. Hah. Who needs an off switch when you can just pull the wires out? One new CO detector later and we are back in business.

Now back to missionary work. Carmine got baptized! It was a wonderful ceremony. Anz. Valentine and I were standing behind the font as witnesses and we pretty much got baptized too as he went under. Hah! The next day in church was just as amazing, if not more so. The branch president, the district president, Anz. Valentine, and I put our hands on his head and confirmed him as a member of the church and gave him the gift of the Holy Ghost. After we had finished, Carmine looked up with tears in his eyes and just said, "Wow." For a man of many words as he, it was beautiful to hear him just simply say, "Wow." I'm so happy for him and look forward to seeing his testimony continue to grow.

The weather is getting a bit cooler now. It's no longer 100 degrees at least. Thank goodness. I was slowly melting there for a little bit. I'm grateful to be here in Pesaro, however much I might complain about the heat. I love the people here and it's been such a pleasure to interact with them and help them grow closer to Christ. I've had two scriptures on my mind lately that I'd like to share. The first is from the Bible in Psalm 118:24. "This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." The second is from the Book of Mormon in 2 Nephi 2:25. "Adam fell that men might be; and men are that they might have joy." Our entire purpose of this existence is to have joy. Not just temporal joy that comes and goes, but everlasting joy. So that we can have this joy, God has shown us the way, which is through His Son Jesus Christ. Following His example, we find that eternal joy. Life may come with its challenges and difficulties, but if we walk in the Savior's footprints we will always be able to find peace--come what may. Keep walking and keep following His example and you will find the way.

Vi voglio bene, Anziano Simcox

Sei mesi

Buon giorno da Pesaro! Beautiful, sunshiney, extremely hot and humid

Pesaro... It's really hot here. Even at night. There's no rest from

the heat. Our poor fans are dying. One of them actually collapsed last

week. Partly because we dropped the bunk bed frame on her but hey...

We named her Betty. She's a trooper, and our number one fan... ... ...

Pity laugh anyone?

Aside from the heat though, we're doing okay. We're still adjusting to

working in four, but things are starting to settle down. It's a weird

change and our apartment is a little cramped, but andiamo avanti.

We're getting a new kitchen here soon so that should be exciting. Just

in time for me to leave right? Figures. Our kitchen is really old and

nasty so they're ripping out everything and putting in an Ikea

kitchen, whatever that means. We're excited. That's one of those

simple joys of missionary life.

As of yesterday I've been a missionary for six months! Crazy right? I

feel like I've been here forever, but at the same time no. I remind

myself sometimes that I'm still only in my first area. I feel really

old though. Hah. I love Pesaro, however hot it is.

Our friend Matteo broke his leg. That was a bit of a downer for all of

us. He was playing soccer and tripped... He's farther away now, so

it's harder to visit him, but we're trying to do the best we can. He's

keeping a positive outlook though! He actually thinks it's kind of

funny in retrospect. It's kind of like me when I tore my ACL. It's

hilarious now that I look back. Actually that was hilarious in the

moment... but hey.

Carmine is getting baptized on Saturday! He's really excited. He's

such an inspiration to me. He is a person who likes to take time to

make the right decision, hence why it took him a year and a half to

choose to be baptized. We were a little sad at church on Sunday

because Pietro didn't come again. Our investigators can't make

progress unless they come to church so we were sad that he will be

missing that step in his conversion. Carmine talked to us and gave us

a lot of encouragement. He told us that he's stood up the Anziani

plenty of times. He said that the first Anziano that found him never

had the pleasure to see him in church, but here he was in front of us

now. As missionaries we never know the seeds that we plant. I could

easily look back at my time here in Pesaro and at first glance it

would appear that I haven't seen much accomplished. Numbers help us to

quantify, but they can never measure a person's heart. We as

missionaries will never know the changes that we helped to bring about

in someone's heart. As Pres. Wolfgramm always said, "The greatest

miracle is the changing of a human heart." While at first glance the

physical results of our labors may be much, I know that a huge

spiritual harvest is in the future for whoever is willing to do all

that God may require. His purposes are much higher than ours and we

never know the miracles that He has in store, even if we may never

realize them.

That's my message for today. Sometimes in life we go about thinking

that we're not going anywhere, but I promise that if you are pushing,

you are going somewhere. Anz. Miller always loved to tell this story:

An old man once hired a young boy. The young boy's job was to move a

boulder from point A to point B. The young boy pushed, yet the boulder

did not move. Every day the young boy pushed with all his might, but

the boulder would not budge. This continued for a year with the

boulder making absolutely no progress. Finally the young boy went to

the old man and said, "What is the point of doing this? Every day for

a year I have pushed this boulder and it has not moved one inch! Why

don't you just move it yourself?" The old man replied, "Of course I

could move it myself, but what good would that do? Look at yourself!

Look at what you've become!" The young boy looked at himself and

realized the difference that pushing the boulder had made. His body

was stronger. His mind was stronger. He had a newfound determination

and willpower that he had lacked a year before. He had not moved the

boulder, but he had moved himself. The young boy had become a man.

Keep pushing that boulder. Don't give up. Love, Me.

Sto morendo di caldo

I'm really tired. I claim no liability for the following. We played

soccer today in Ancona with the other Anziani. It was nice. I haven't

played in so long! Then we went and did grocery shopping. There's this

really good cereal named Master Crumble, but it's only sold at a

specific grocery store chain here in Italy. Whenever we go to Ancona

we make it a point to go to Lidl and get Master Crumble. It's. So.

Good. Those are the simple pleasures of missionary life. The other

simple pleasure is when you try to carry all of your groceries while

biking. Usually I just attach it to the hook on the back of my bike,

but today it didn't work and my face ended up on the ground. It was

pretty epic. Sadly, one peach passed away in the catastrophe... I'm

totally fine---just mourning for the peach.

Pesaro is great, but REALLY HOT. This week it hit 41°C. For those who

don't have their temperature converter handy, that's 105°F. Mamma mia.

I had no idea that Italy ever gets this hot. Apparently it does. I've

been drinking LOTS of water. I already drank lots of water anyway, but

now I drink more. Hah!

The work in Pesaro goes along. We have four Anziani here in Pesaro

now! It's weird sharing our apartment with two others. Their names are

Anz. Anderson and Anz. Kekoolani. They're great missionaries though.

Anz. Kekoolani is fresh off the plane; another new missionary in

Pesaro! We've been trying to figure out how to make it work with four.

Pesaro isn't that big of a city, so we're learning how to share space.

It's fun though. The members love having four of us now and it's

getting them more excited about missionary work. We've seen a small

surge of member missionary work as members have been sharing their

testimonies with people around them. It's awesome!

Carmine is excited about his baptism next Saturday! We are too! The

members are really excited to see another baptism in Pesaro. They're

few and far between, so whenever there is one, you can feel the

excitement.

As I've said before, one of the blessings of being a missionary is

being able to talk to many different kinds of people throughout the

day. Everyone has a story that makes them who they are. I love hearing

these stories and being able to help these people understand what has

brought me so much joy. It's hard when people don't want to accept our

message or just blow us off immediately. Some people look outwardly

disgusted by us the moment they see us. There are always people who

will listen though. There are always people who are prepared to

listen. It's wonderful to find these people and be able to help them a

bit on their journey to eternal life. It's where we're all trying to

make it in one way or the other.

I don't have a big story to tell this week or a crazy miracle to

write. Of course my whole life is a story and every day is full of

miracles. Everyday I have the opportunity to share what, or who more

specifically, brings me joy: Jesus Christ. I bear my testimony that He

is our Savior. He lives. He loves us. He is waiting to bless us. The

purpose of the Bible and the Book of Mormon is to bear witness of

Christ as our Savior and Redeemer. I have no doubts about this. He is

real. He loves us. He loves you. Come unto Him and be saved.

Vi voglio un sacco di bene,

Anziano Simcox