Life's Lessons Learned - 4/16/14

Life's Lessons Learned:

-There's something in Bergamo that I'm really allergic too.

-Vietnam has its own language.

-People read their scriptures more than I think they do.

-Good things do come from Mormon.org

-It doesn't matter how much you dust something, it will just get dusty again and you'll learn to accept it.

-The people you would think wouldn't listen to you, could actually be the most interested.

-Italian flour is lighter than American flour, meaning that you need to use more of it. Swindlers...

-All of Germany goes to Bergamo in April for some reason, and they don't appreciate when I try to speak to them in German. They just look at me, think "Oh that's cute," and respond in English.

As you can tell, it's been an interesting week. Since Sunday night I've been somewhat dying from allergies that turned into a really bad cold. Luckily, I haven't had to stay inside yet, although it was really tempting. We looked like a sad pair yesterday. I kept blowing my nose and Anz. Johnson kept sneezing. We still worked hard though and had a great day yesterday.

One cool thing that happened yesterday was we met a great new investigator. I'll call him..... Antonio. A while ago, he went onto Mormon.org and requested a visit. Because of some scheduling problems on both ends, yesterday was the first time we've been able to meet with him. He took lessons from missionaries about four years ago. He went to church, had all the lessons, and almost got baptized. Something happened though, and he stopped investigating the church. He told us that since then he had been doing a lot of searching and reflecting and that he felt directed back to the church. He went online, requested a visit, and then we came! He was very ready. I don't know how he was in the past, but yesterday, he was ready. We commited him to read and pray every day, to come to church, and even to be baptized. He was ready in that moment to set a goal for baptism, so we were very excited to be able to be there to him. He accepted everything so well that we didn't even know quite how to react! I look forward to seeing him progress.

Second story, For my whole time in Bergamo, and some time before that, we've been teaching a wonderful Bolivian family. For a while, they haven't been making progress and we felt as if our visits were not yeilding any results. Their children love to see us though and the Spirit was still present when we taught, so we decided to keep teaching them. Due to some scheduling conflicts on both sides, we weren't able to see this family for almost a month. Yesterday, we finally were able to have a lesson at their house. They were so excited to see us and one of the members we usually bring with us. We began by talking about their reading and to our surprise we found that they have kept up reading even during our absence! In the past month that we haven't seen them, they've read all of First Nephi and part of Second Nephi! They were excited to tell us about the chapters they'd been reading. The eleven year-old daughter was quick to explain the concept of free agency and that there is always a choice between good and evil. Even the mother, who was progressing least, was excited to tell us about their reading. They have been reading almost every night, with their young children being the driving force. They remind them every night to read together, and so that's what they've been doing. It was so neat to see them getting excited together about the scriptures. I'm also glad that we have hung on to them, even when it could've been so easy to stop teaching them. This week, they're attending church as a family.

Easter is coming up! I'm so excited. If we don't have any one to feed us, we'll try to make a nice Easter lunch for ourselves just the same, coupled with Grandma's Easter bread (Thanks!). Easter is always a great time of year, especially here in the mission. The religious aspect of Easter is celebrated much more here than at home I think. Many people have been wishing us a Buona Pasqua, Happy Easter. I haven't seen so much as a single rabbit or jelly bean, although some jelly beans would be great (hint hint).

No really, Easter is all about Christ, and I'm grateful to have the mission to teach me about this. Holidays in the mission are so different. It's strange to not be around family and friends. It's strange to not have all of the usual traditions. It's nice though to focus my attention on the meaning behind the holiday. I love the words of this scripture, even though it's probably the most commonly quoted scripture in Christianity: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved" (St. John 3:16-17).

Buona Pasqua! -Anziano Simcox

The picture was taken from a bell tower in Città Alta. We could see the whole valley. Don't you love the classic European style against that beautiful mountain range?

4/2/14

Helloooo.

Transfers are happening. That's always a tad stressful. It's always nervewracking to get a new companion because you never know what he's gonna be like. It's easy to be afraid of getting the guy who, like, eats his boogers or something. Haha. No. I don't think we have any of those guys. My new companion's name is Anz. Johnson. I know him already and he's a good missionary from what I've seen. Tomorrow, I'll ship Anz. Hansen off to Milano, where he'll go to Livorno, which is all the way down south a bit after Florence, then I'll pick up Anz. Johnson. Anz. Hansen will be training, so he's excited about that. He only has two more transfers left, so he's been having a lot of reality checks lately. It's been good to serve with an older misisonary who already knows what's going on. In all my other companionships it's always just been the two of us trying to figure things out.

These past few weeks have been pretty busy in Bergamo. Now that Spring has arrived, people seem to be a tad happier. We've been able to see several new people come out of the woodwork.

We found a wonderful new investigator. We were walking down the street and we stopped a 23 year old young man. At first we pinned him as just another punk kid, you know? I'm grateful we stopped him anyway. At first contact, he was a tad skeptical. It was apparent that he'd thought about religion quite a lot in his life, more than most other young men. After a minute or two he asked if we could sit down on a nearby bench and talk to him. That opened the door to a twenty minute lesson about the Book of Mormon and how we know that this Church is the Church of Jesus Christ. We prayed with him, took his information and set a return appointment to come and see the church. He actually came a few days later when he said he would! That doesn't always happen. He loved the church and the simplicity of it. We were able to talk a bit about family history work, temples, and baptism, and we taught him about the Restoration. He admitted that his interest was primarily curiosity, but he did say that he would read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. At the end we invited him to pray using the model in the Restoration pamphlet. He did so, and did it wonderfully. It's not often that an investigator says a heart-felt prayer in the correct format on the first try. He will try to make it to General Conference this weekend and he was very touched by our invitations and the things that we taught.

General Conference is this weekend. For a missionary, it's like the Super Bowl. In General Conference, which happens every six months, the Prophet, the twelve Apostles, and other Church leaders address the Church on topics that they have prayed about and prepared. I love General Conference because there always seems to be a talk or two that was meant just for me. If you'd like to know what it's all about, here's a link: https://www.lds.org/general-conference?lang=eng

It's a great relief to know that there is a prophet on the earth today. We believe in a Living Church. We know that the heavens are not closed, but that God speaks to us and loves us still. I read this great scriptures a few days during my daily studies. 1 John 4:7-11:

 7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.

 8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

 9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.

 10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

I love those verses. They contain the truth that I see in action every day. God is love. We worship the God of love. He is our Father and He loves us. He knows us personally. He wants to bless us. Of these things I bear my testimony.

-Anziano Simcox

Settimana 5, Trasferimento 9 - 3/26/14

 Week 5, Transfer 9.

Sorry. Mission life is lived six weeks at a time. Hah! The end of my second transfer in Bergamo is looming. It's already been almost three months. The clock runs on a different schedule in the mission. Speaking of clocks, Italian DST is this weekend. Thankfully, we were fore-warned this time. Last Spring, no one bothered telling us and we strolled into church an hour late. The members about had a heart attack. Missionaries late to church?? They must have gotten struck by lightning or something.

I apologize if I make any spelling mistakes. I feel like my capacity to use English is slowly diminishing... I have to think so much harder to spell things than I used to. Maybe I'm just getting old. Twenty years is almost over the hill right?

One of the computers at the church isn't working today for some reason, so we had to go to an internet point. I feel like I'm in Pesaro again in the back room of that sketchy Western Union shack.

We gained a great new investigator yesterday. Elders from another ward found this man on the street last week and referred him to us. He is from Nigeria and he has been here since 1997. He also speaks fluent Italian! He is very humble and very faithful. He was raised as a Jehovah's Witness, converted to being a Pentecostal, and then when he moved to Italy he stopped attending church because he believes that they are all run by men instead of God. Obviously that gave us a huge kick-start right into the Restoration. He told us during the lesson that for most of his time in Italy he was content with his life. He had a nice house, a nice car, expensive clothes, etc. A few years ago he lost it all and since then he's been able to realize that he's missing something and he came to realize that he won't be taking any of those things with him. Since then he's been looking for God. As it happens, he has a friend that is a new member in Bergamo 1 who has been encouraging him for a while to check out the Church. When he met the Anziani on the street a few days ago, he felt the Spirit tell him that this was his time. We believe that he will be a great strength to this branch and we are so happy to see his testimony grow.

Also, as a funny side note, our investigator Frank asked us on Sunday if he could see the baptismal font. He's been thinking about baptism for a while. For all intents and purposes, he's already a member anyway. We opened up the font for him and a bunch of dust bunnies flew out. There was a member standing nearby who laughed and said "it's been a while since we've baptized." Frank got a kick out of it though. It hasn't been that long, it just looked worse than it is. That font should be filled here pretty soon. There are several people in Bergamo who are overjoyed to be baptized, they're just waiting for the right time. 

Of course, as a missionary, I feel like it's always the right time, but it's always up to them. I have a favorite quote that says "It is contrary to the economy of heaven for the Lord to do for us that which we can do for ourselves." The choice is always ours, but it's up to us to align ourselves with God's will. That's the real test of this life. We do that through repenting of our sins and mistakes and doing all we can to make our will become the Lord's will. He is perfect and unchanging, so we must be willing to change ourselves and make our lives more in harmony with what He knows is best. After all, He always knows what's best.

I wish you all a pleasant week! I hope life is going well. It is always a pleasure to hear from all of you wonderful people.

I wish you a sack of love, Anziano Simcox