Palme e Montagne: La primavera è venuta - 3/19/14

Hey everyone! I hope that your week has been as good as mine. I also hope you've been able to enjoy some sunshine. If not, we must've stolen it all from you. It is a beautiful day today! Right now the windows are open wide, the birds are singing, the trees are budding, the breeze is softly blowing... ahhh I love Bergamo right now. Spring has definitely arrived! I've also realized for the first time that there are palm trees in Bergamo! I never realized that snow-capped mountains and palm trees could exist in the same climate. Please forgive me. I am from Ohio after all. The tallest thing I'd ever seen before college was a cornstalk.

We wanted to go up to Città Alta again to see the duomo this time, but there was a public transportation strike today, so our plans were foiled. Go figure. Ah well. I'll include a few more pictures from last time anyway.

A few days ago, Anziano Green and I did a companion exchange. I went down to Brescia with him while his companion took my place in Bergamo for a day. Anz. Green and I were in the same MTC district, so it was a barrel of fun to spend a day with him and reminisce a little bit. Tomorrow makes one year in Italy for us you know! Anyway, Anz. Green and I arrived a little early in Bergamo to switch back with our companions, so we did a bit of street contacting and then sat down on a bench for a gelato break (Pres. Dibb approves gelato breaks, so don't call me lazy!).. As we were talking, a young woman came and sat down next to us. She was publicizing some seminar or other, but she was really excited when she found out that we were American. She'd been there a few times and she spoke English very well. We let her give her pitch, but suddenly she stopped and asked us what we were doing. It's not every day you see two nicely-dressed foreigners with nametags, is it? That opened the door for us to give her a quick overview of the Restoration. Anz. Green asked her if she had ever prayed. She said that she prayed often to what she believed was God. Her belief was that God is the universe, the overarching power that watches over us. We gave testimony that in a way, He was, but that we believed that He was much more: our Father in Heaven. She had never really thought about that before and she said to us "I feel good vibrations in my heart right now." We explained that it was the Holy Spirit bearing testimony of the truth and we promised her that this message was what she was looking for in her life. We were able to leave her with a pamphlet and some more information. Sadly, she said she wasn't quite ready to pursue lessons yet, but she was very touched by the encounter, as were we. She definitely moved up the conversion scale that day. Because we listened to her, she listened to us, and I believe that opened her heart to receive some truth. Moments like those make me love my mission even more.

Bit by bit, our investiagators are making progress at various levels. We had quite an experience on Saturday I believe it was. We were walking down the street and we met an investigator from another ward. He's been going through an extremely difficult time in his life and was grateful to have seen us, if only for a bit of confirmation that someone still cared about him. More importantly, he had been looking for a confirmation that God still cared about him. As he was talking to us about his various roadblocks, one of our most progressing investigators, whom I'll call Frank, appeared as if out of nowhere. Frank had stopped taking lessons because of work, but was and is still attending church just as much as any other active member. He appeared in just the right moment and bore testimony to this man about the power of the Book of Mormon and how itìs been helping him in his life in so many ways we were never aware of. He encourage this man to read, pray, come to church, and listen to the missionaries. For all intents and purposes, Frank was an angel who fell from heaven in that moment at just the right time. He was a tender mercy of the Lord to us and especially to this man. It strengthened my testimony that our work has much more power and influence than we ever know. As missionaries we only see the tip of the iceberg. 

In this life as members of the human race we only ever see the tip of the iceberg. We do not have the capacity to see the whole picture. Each one of us is allotted his or her portion. God is the one who sees the whole picture at once. He uses each of us and that portion that each of one of us has to accomplish the entire purpose. If we are in the right place at the right time and living the right way, we will be the right piece of the puzzle at the exact moment it's needed.

As always I send you my love. Keep being awesome. I love you! Love, Anziano Simcox.

I never was known to be very balanced was I?

Buon Mercoledì! - 3/12/14

Hey howdy hey my friends and family. Happy Wednesday.

This week has been quite the busy week. Now that the sun is out I think everyone is in a much better mood. We've been teaching a lot lately and we've been able to see many miracles.

We've been able to find some great new investigators. Two of them came to church a few weeks ago. They're a young couple from Bolivia. He's been here for a while, but she's only been here about a year. We had been trying to meet with them forever but we eventually stopped trying. Out of the blue, they came to church so we were finally able to set an appointment with them. They are a beautiful young couple who are truly interested in what we have to say and truly interested in growing their faith in Christ. Over homemade apple juice, probably one of the most delicious things I've ever drunk, we taught them about the restoration. It was an awesome lesson. The next day, he wasn't able to come to church, so she just went by herself! The members adored her and basically adopted her.

Our investigator David moved to Holland to look for work. It was really sad to see him go, but we're hooking him up with the missionaries there as well. Hopefully we'll stay in contact every now and then.

Oooh oooh. Other fun story. I taught a man named Joseph Smith. I'm not kidding. We were actually teaching his brother, but when we started talking about Joseph Smith he was in the other room and he said "I hear my name in there! What are you sayin'?" He came in and joined in the lesson. It was a funny moment, but it ended up being a good spiritual lesson and he listened because that was his name and in the end agreed to another appointment. Sadly, he lives outside of our area, so we had to refer him to the other Bergamo Elders. Last time I checked they're still teaching him.

I attached some pictures of the view from Città Alta. We went up there last week for P-Day. It's so beautiful. Everything is very old, but well-preserved. It was neat to step back in time for a little bit. 

Sorry to cut this email short, but time's up for now. Thanks for being awesome. I love you all! TTFN. Love, Anziano Simcox.

March 5, 2014

Happpppppyyyyy Wednesday everyone. Hopefully your week was a good one.

Today there's finally sun. FINALLY! Mamma mia... We're taking advantage of the sunny day and going up to Città Alta to take some pictures. Next week I'll finally send you pictures of these great scenes I keep telling you about. I'm happy that Spring is coming around.

I'd like to share an experience we've been having lately with  bringing members to lessons. As missionaries, we are generally encouraged to bring members of our congregation to lessons with those who are investigating the church. Missionaries are generally only in one place for several months and then they leave. Members are much more permanent and are able to help these investigators and new members in ways that the missionaries never would be able to do. Usually throughout my mission, I've brought similar members to similar investigators. Ex: Young people to other young people, Bolivians to Bolivians, Italians to Italians, etc. Two weeks ago in ward council, one of the members brought up the fact that our congregation seems to be divided by race. The Bolivians usually sit with the Bolivians, the Africans usually sit with the Africans, and so on. She said that it made her sad to see such division and that this also creates a problem for new converts, especially those new converts who belong to a minority group. "Just as they come with the missionaries, so also they leave with the missionaries" she said. We decided we would do what we could to break up this division. We've been teaching a Bolivian family. Usually we had been bringing Bolivian members with us, which was working well. We thought we'd do something a little differently though. This week we invited an older Italian brother to come with us. Not only did the lesson go way better than expected, this member was really able to bond with this family and he even got the children involved. (As a side note, their eleven year old daughter is now an investigator and is progressing just as well, if not better, than the parents!) Because they live in Città Alta and the public transportation doesn't run very frequently up there, one of our biggest challenges has been getting them to church. The member we brought with us was more than happy to offer them a ride. The mother of this family was able to come to church this Sunday, and next Sunday the daughters will be able to come too. This experience made me think outside of the box a little bit. It was good for the investigators and it was very good for the member as well. He bore testimony in church about how grateful he was to have accompanied us on our teaching visits and he invited the other members to make themselves available to the missionaries as well.

Church this week was great! Between us and the sisters in our branch, we counted ten non-members in church. For our area, that's pretty extraordinary. One family that we had stopped teaching decided to show up in church. That was very exciting. A few were people who have been coming for a while. Some of our investigators have basically become members, they just haven't been baptized yet. Hah! All in all, it was a great Sunday and we hope to be able to repeat it.

One other neat experience was seeing David really fall in love with the Book of Mormon. At first he wouldn't read it. We were trying to think of ways we could help him understand. Every Saturday, we have a "family night" for the branch. It was our turn to give the lesson this week. What we did was we gave everyone a piece of paper and asked them to write a letter to their loved ones. It was meant to be a "final words" kind of thing, but they were only allowed 25 words in total. We collected the letters and set them aside in a box labeled "trash." Obviously, this caused some negative reactions. We said, "Imagine that your loved ones receive this letter, but they decide they don't have time to read it and set it aside. How does this make you feel?" We wrote down some reactions and then told them that this is how God feels when we do not read our scriptures. You see, the scriptures are letters that God has written to us through his servants the prophets. They are meant to be personal revelation for us. When we set them aside and let the less important things in our life take control, we miss out on the blessings that God could have given us. God is always waiting to bless us and He's given us everything we need, but if we do not act, we cannot receive blessings. Food for thought.

I love you all. Have a great week. -Anziano Simcox

Cercare, suonare, e bussare per insegnare! - February 26, 2014

[Insert generic Italian greeting and blip about how time fast goes... err... how fast time goes].

Day 24601,

Italy is still beautiful, missionary work continues, the sky never ceases to mercilessly open the acquaducts of heaven upon Earth's helpless inhabitants, I continue down a steep slope of exhaustion punctuated by brief eight-hour periods of respite, and I still love my mission! That's the missionary spirit. Things that would've bothered me a lot before my mission just don't seem to have as much effect as they do now. Patience really is a virtue.

Now that things have settled down after transfer week (always a strange week, even if neither of us are getting transferred) it's back to the old grind, a.k.a. the street and peoples front doors! Actually we don't usually make it to the front door. Most houses in Italy are apartments. Even though they're all packed together, each one is gated and locked. So, to get into the apartment you have to ring the intercom outside. A missionary door approach is way less effective over the intercom, so usually we hope that someone is nice enough to let us in to actually knock on the front doors. It's like Seinfeld. Remember how Jerry always had to press the button next to his front door whenever people wanted to come in? George and Elaine always rang, but Kramer somehow always just made it in by himself. Just think of missionaries as Kramer. Although, if we used his door approach we'd probably get deported.

I've still seen some miracles ringing intercoms though! The week before I got here, they were ringing intercoms and someone let them in. He opened the front door and they were just soaked, so he had enough pity to invite them in for a minute. He invited them to come back to his house to explain a bit more to his family. Those are like the magic words in missionary work: "Come back and teach my family." Well, transfers happened and I came here. We went over to his house on the day we planned and they were a beautiful Italian family. They fed us a great dinner, with foods straight from Lombardia (which is the region we're in) and they let us teach them too. In the end they were practicing Catholics and were happy to stay that way, but the mere act of them listening made all the difference. They were happy with their beliefs and their way of life, but they opened their door anyway and gave us so much love. That's true Christianity.

Our investigators are doing pretty well. Our friend Johnathan (it's hard to remember these names I make up) is progressing very nicely. He came to church again and he's loving it. He is an interesting character. He's in his early twenties, but he's some sort of preacher. People call him from all over the world so that he can preach to them and give them advice over the phone. It's kind of neat. Most of the time he does it in Twi, so I haven't really understood anything he preaches over the phone, but it looks pretty interesting! Every person we teach has such an interesting story and I love being a part of all of them.

Well that's it for now. Keep on keeping on everyone. Love, Anziano Simcox.

February 19, 2014

It's already Wednesday... I feel like I just finished writing the last letter. Let's see what I can come up with this week.

Transfers happened again! I'm still here! Hah. My companion is still Elder Hansen. We were really surprised that he stayed here because he's been here already for six months! Who says another six weeks won't hurt right? A couple of missionaries from our zone left, so we'll see a few new faces around Bergamo. One of them is a new missionary, so that'll be exciting. I remember when I was a greenie and I thought my zone leaders were the two best missionaries on the planet. Now that I'm a zone leader, I think the new missionaries are way more bravi than I am. Oh, how the tables turn.

With another transfer down, that means I'm now in my ninth transfer. One more until the double digits! This transfer we've got a lot of things planned. Next week we have a training meeting in Milano. Then we have to run a zone meeting about that meeting. Then a meeting in Verona. I feel like I've been doing that a lot lately. Meeting, finding work, teach lessons, sleep a bit, repeat. No I love missionary work though.

We've been seeing some good results from the whiteboard I talked about last week. That's been a good way to spice up our finding work. This week too we also made a companionship goal to talk to at least one person on each bus/tram we get on. I don't know why, but it's always hard for me to talk on public transportation. I already don't like public transportation to begin with: lots of people, tight spaces, people who aren't wearing deodorant. But they're children of God, so I've been really pushing myself to open my mouth. It's actually much easier than I thought. Anz. Hansen calls them proselyting machines because they can't escape. Cue evil laugh. But no really, I've been pushing myself and it's been working. I can do hard things.

In church we've been seeing new people. There's one man we've been teaching; I'll call him David (I'll have to start writing down these fake names). A few of our sisters found him on the street a few weeks ago so we gave him a call and had a wonderful lesson at his house. He's going through a rough time and so he's been trusting a lot in God. His Bible is almost torn to pieces. I've never seen a Bible more used. He came to church, which made us extremely happy because we didn't think he'd be able to make it. One of the greatest joys as a missionary is seeing people actually come to church. It's so refreshing and hopeful. He came, loved church, and was rocking an awesome purple suit. Another man whom I'll call Johnathan just walked into church off the street! He said he was passing by and "felt the Spirit tell him to enter," and so he entered. He is a refugee from Ghana. He doesn't speak much Italian, but there was a member who speaks Twi, so they got along really well. He also speaks English too. He loved church. He calls himself a "born-again Christian," but he's very open to other ideas and churches. I like him because he's very sincere.

Thus it goes in Bergamo. I love this city and I love all of the people we're teaching. Here in Bergamo especially, I've been able to teach a variety of different people from different backgrounds. Here in Bergamo, aside from Italians of course, there are quite a few Bolivians, Ghanaians, Nigerians, and Tunisians. I've been able to experience different cultures and even learn some phrases in a few other languages too! I love being a missionary because of all the people we get to meet. Every day I get to talk to random people! Who knows what will happen?!? Hah!

Until next week. Love, Anziano Simcox.

February 12, 2014

These weeks are disappearing faster than my gelato... and that says something. Ooooh I'm funny.

This week I've been travelling a bit. On Friday we went to Milano for mission council, where leaders from each zone meet together and we talk about ways to improve the mission and we talk about problems in each of our zones. And we eat food. Yay pizza. :) I saw a few missionaries that I haven't seen in a while so that was nice. It's always a nice morale-booster to see mission friends from the past and see that they're still doing the same thing you're doing. Then last night we went to Verona (Romeo and Juliet anyone?) for another similar meeting just with Italians this time. Italians can really talk fast when they want to! It was good though. Now I can say I've been to Verona, even though I just saw a couple old buildings and the autostrada (freeway). 

The weather is beautiful. Nothing like Ohio from what I hear. The sun is shining. The birds are singing. We go out in the day without jackets. This has been the least scariest winter of my life. 

What did I do this week you may ask? More or less the same as usual, but hey! We did try a new way to make talking with people more effective. To be honest, going out in the street attempt to show people a book they've never seen/don't care about doesn't usually yield a whole lot of results. We decided that we would try to make it a little more exciting. How often do you see two nicely dressed young men with a whiteboard strapped around their necks walking down the street? Not too often I would venture to say. [see attached picture.] We took a big whiteboard we had hanging on our wall, strapped it around my neck, and wrote on it "Dio ci parla oggi?" which means "Does God speak to us today?" Then, we walked down to centro (the old part of town where the streets are wide and there are lots of shops) and started talking to people. It turned out to be much more effective than normal. It was a good way to talk to the younger generation too, because usually they don't want to listen to us. We had over a hundred people that day at least give us a tally and we were able to stop and have a few good conversations along the way. We have a few people with whom we working to set up a return appointment with. Cool huh? I like it a lot.

Well that was my week. Nothing too crazy, but I'm trying to keep the spice in life! Next week are transfers, so I might be getting a new companion. Anz. Hansen has been in Bergamo for six months now.

Here's your daily dose of spirituality. I've been looking for this scripture forever and my companion showed me last night. You Mormons have probably heard this before, but hey. I got excited. "Remember, to be carnally-minded is death, and to be Spiritually-Minded Is Life Eternal" (2 Nephi 9:39). Look at the letters I capitalized. Hehe. Scripture gem. It's true though. If we focus on the things of least importance, we get nowhere in the end.

Lots of love from Italy, Anziano Simcox.

A Year in Review

Hello everyone! This week I thought I'd do something a little different. Instead of writing about my week, I thought y'all would enjoy a little review of my year. Tomorrow makes ONE YEAR as a missionary. Crazy huh?

One year ago I entered the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah. It was nice to get back to the dry Utah air and those beautiful Wasatch mountains. I spent six weeks there while learning Italian, meeting new people, and figuring out what it means to be a missionary. I'd be a liar if I said I wasn't scared. Thankfully my district there (the nine other missionaries I went to class with) was amazing and each one of them touched my life and helped me to truly become a missionary. My companion, Anz. Mata'u, became a good friend of mine as we both struggled, learned, and succeeded together.

Then it was off to Milano. That plane ride took forever. In reality it was only about 20ish hours, but I got off the plane already feeling like I'd served two years. I remember that first day in Italy as clear as I remember my own name. It was cold and rainy (e.g. exactly how it is as I'm writing this). Our first stop was the church where we unloaded our stuff and then we headed off to an Italian restaurant where I had my first Italian lasagna. Che buona! Then it was off to the hotel. To this day, I think that was the best night's sleep I've ever had. The next day I was paired with my trainer Anz. Miller and then it was off to my first city: Pesaro.

Pesaro was everything I imagined when I thought of Italy. It was old, green, and a bit eclectic. The streets in the center of the city were made of cobblestone, there was usually a man in the piazza playing an accordion, and around lunch time the city smelled amazing! In the morning we woke to the smell of sea-side air and the markets were filled with freshly caught fish and merchants spitting non-sensical Italian phrases back and forth. On a good day, the sun hit that sea just right and the water dazzled as it crashed up against the face of the hills. The branch of the church there was composed of only fifteen members, but I loved seeing their faith despite the difficulties they may have had. My first few weeks as a missionary, to be honest, were incredibly hard. I was surrounded by a language I didn't really understand or speak. I missed my family and my friends and adjusting to the missionary schedule took quite an effort. I spent a lot of time on my knees praying for help and a lot of time on my feet working as hard as I could. I learned soon that it all depends on me. If I work hard and put my whole soul into what I'm doing, I'm happy doing it, no matter what the outcome may be. "Piano piano" as the Italians say, step by step, I learned how to communicate what I needed to say and do what I needed to do. About three months into my stay in Pesaro, my trainer was transferred away and I in turn was asked to train a new missionary, Anz. Valentine. Being as young as I was, it was as much of a learning experience for me as it was for him. At many points it came down to "sink or swim." I learned how to communicate, I learned how to talk to random strangers, and I learned how to be a missionary who cares. Anz. Valentine was very good at all of those things. I miss him a lot. Together we did a lot of finding, a lot of teaching, and near the end of our companionship we saw a wonderful Italian man step into the waters of baptism and change his life for the better.

After about six months, my time there came to an end and I was transferred to Milano. Our chapel was in a part of the city called Cimiano. When I walked into church that first day, I was shocked by the amount of people. 150+ members was quite a contrast compared to those fifteen in Pesaro. I spent a few weeks working with Anz. Polson and Stewart, and then my new companion arrived fresh off the plane from Utah. I had the blessing of training Anz. Parker and helping him get his start. I realized very quickly that he had a good heart and a growing testimony. We served together for just about four months. At the start of our companionship, we started off with pretty much nothing in an area neither of us knew very well. We decided to hit the pavement and talk to as many people as we could. Though the language was difficult for Anz. Parker at first, he pushed ahead and didn't let that stop him. We taught a lot of different people from a lot of different backgrounds. We worked a lot with the members of the ward and gained good relationships with them. Anz. Parker was very good at letting people know how much he cared. He taught me a lot about that. Together I feel that we accomplished a great deal, even if the outward results may not immediately show it. That's one thing about missionary work: the fruits of our efforts are rarely visible. It's so rewarding though. In November, we were able to see a wonderful man from Nepal be baptized. This man has become a very dear friend of mine and I'm so grateful to have played a little part in his conversion to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Anz. Parker and I also spent Christmas together. Christmas in Italy was amazing, however different it may have been. We went caroling with our district quite often near the Duomo and we took it upon ourselves to spread as much Christmas cheer as we could. In Milano, I developed many good friendships that I miss already.

Then it was off to Bergamo with Anz. Hansen. Being a zone leader comes with extra responsibilities and an even higher standard of perfection. I'm grateful for it though because it pushes me to work even harder and care a lot more about the work I'm doing and the people in my care. I love the city of Bergamo, even though I've only been here a few short weeks. It is a beautiful city with a faithful branch of about 40 members. Much of the city has been preserved in it's original design and so I enjoy the old style of architecture and just the older "feel" of the city in general. Part of the city, named Città Alta, is built up in the mountain. From the top, you can see the entire valley spread out below. We are again teaching many people from many different backgrounds, mainly Bolivian, Ghanian, and Italian. I love the work here and there's always something to keep us busy. With Anz. Hansen I've learned how to "spice up" my work a little bit, for lack of a better term. We've been doing our best to think out of the box and come up with new ways to find and teach God's children.

Thanks for sticking through this ridiculously long, slightly sappily-written email. I hope this will give you at least a taste of the work I've been doing and the things I've been experiencing. I look forward to another year in Italy working for the Lord. It's not easy, that's for sure. It's definitely worth it though.

I think one of the most common questions I get in letters/emails is "How is your Italian coming?" So I figured I'd end by writing a bit in Italian, just for kicks.

Sto molto felice di poter servire come missionario della Chiesa di Gesù Cristo dei Santi degli Ultimi Giorni. Ho imparato un sacco di cose in merito alla vita, alla religione, a Dio, all'essere cristiano, e all'essere una persona in generale. Ringrazio ognuno di voi per il vostro sostegno. Questa missione sarebbe impossibile senza di voi. La mia testimonianza è cresciuta straordinariamente in quest'anno e spero di poterla vedere crescere anche di più nel prossimo anno. La mia testimonianza più grande è che Dio è il nostro Padre. Egli ci ama in un modo che non capiremo mai in questa vita, ma con un'amore che è vero. Questa chiesa di cui io sono un rappresentante è veramente la chiesa di Gesù Cristo nuovamente stabilito sulla terra. Contenute in essa sono tutte le cose di cui abbiamo bisogno per avere la felicità per sempre come una famiglia. So con tutto il mio cuore che Dio è mio Padre e che lui vuole che ognuno di noi ritorni a Lui.

I love you all. Thank you again for your support and encouragement. Love, Anziano Simcox