Welllllllllllll. Another week! I'm feeling old lately.
Bergamo is so great. It's been a great week in my opinion.
Cool story. Sunday is obviously a missionary's most important day. The Sabbath is normally a day of rest, but I think I work more. Hah. The work of the Lord never ends! Anyway, it's always a big push to get investigators (and members of course) to church. If they don't come to church, they don't experience all the things we're teaching them. There is a major difference in comprehension between the investigators that attend church and the ones that don't. Plus, you can't get baptized if you're not coming to church. This Sunday, there was some sort of bike rally in Bergamo, so most of the streets were blocked off and traffic was a huge problem. Most people that live inside of the city don't own cars and just use the public transportation instead. Well, with this big rally, conveniently happening at the same time as church, it was a little more difficult than usual to get to church. One of our investigators however, a great man from Nigeria, lives just outside of Bergamo where the buses are infrequent, especially on Sunday. The past few weeks he's got the schedule down and has been attending church consistently. This Sunday though the bus simply wasn't running because of the rally. So, he decided he would just take the hour walk to the tram which brought him to church. Sure he was about an hour late, but he was happy to be there and the members were happy to see him. He speaks Italian very well, so he's been able to bond well with the members. He's also very intelligent and very involved in Sunday School discussions. He's loving the church and the progress he's making.
Our investigator John, Frank's son, had surgery on his leg this week and the physical therapy is going well. He should be back in Bergamo in three weeks. We called him and he was very excited to hear from us. He's already made a bunch of friends there in the community he's living in. He has such a good heart. He said that ever since he had his car accident he's realized what a blessing life is and just makes it his goal to be as happy as he can.
Arthur is still looking for work. Poor guy. The thing is, he has a good job, especially for a foreigner who hasn't been here that long. Even an Italian citizen would be happy to have the job he does. He's determined though that he will not work on Sunday. That's hard to do being a restaurant chef because in Italy, Sunday is the busiest day for food service workers. He is looking hard though and he will be blessed. As one member told to him a few weeks ago, "God didn't bring you this far only to turn His back on you. He will provide a way for you to follow His commandments."
I think i wrote last week, or maybe the week before, about family mission plans. Last night at our branch council (where all the leaders of the branch meet together) we proposed a branch mission plan. From the exasperated looks a few people I could tell that it was something that has been proposed before. However, we explained that it wasn't a list of numbers from the missionaries, it was a specific plan based on the needs of the branch. When we presented it this way, they were much more willing to be involved in it. By the end of the night they were very enthusiastic about it and came away with specific goals to ratify a branch mission plan in the next branch council. I saw especially the love our branch president has for our members. I learned that every Sunday he counts exactly how many people are at church, makes a note of every one who isn't, and then follows up on each person. His number one concern last night was the welfare of his members and then of our investigators. Also last night as we discussed specific needs of each person, I felt that each investigator was the branch's investigator.
I love serving in Bergamo. I'm hoping I don't leave any time soon. I've met so many good people here and I feel like I've been able to make a difference in this little branch. Although we're not so little anymore. Last Sunday we had 60 people in church. That's hardly not a branch. That's a small ward! I love seeing the progress the branch as a whole is making and I love every person I have the opportunity to work with to make that progress even higher.
TTFN. Ta ta for now! Love, Anziano Simcox
Picture: Apparently, there were once mammoths in Italy. Who knew? We went to a natural history museum last P-day and this is the first thing we saw upon walking in. I thought it might come alive and eat me.
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