Chapter Four: The 13th Epistle of Anziano Stewart to the Calabrians/Messinites

"Kindness is the essence of greatness" Anziano Wirthlin

Buon Mercoledì a tutti!!! Today it's not too hot, there's at least some wind.  This morning we played tennis with the Branch President and his wife, it was a lot of fun.  This week either it wasn't as hot as it's been in the past or we're so burnt we can't feel it anymore.  

We were able to meet with a sister who was baptized 18 months ago and sadly is less active.  She and her husband were investigating the church but he couldn't get over the requirements of the word of wisdom.  So she is the only member in her family, then recently, she also had a baby girl and seeing as she lives kind of far away, it's a hassle for her to get everything in order so that she and the baby can come to church, but every once and a while she does come.  

Anyway, we met at her house (sadly her husband was working) and she might be the most normal member that I've met in Italy (normal in the sense of lifestyle and social class.)  Plus she has a very strong testimony.  We now are trying to meet her husband and to start helping him make progress because if their whole family were members it would be a huge help and hope to the branch to have an entire family that's relatively young.

Also, Tamara came back from vacation and we were able to see her yesterday.  She's finished the Book of Mormon again, this time in Russian. That's twice in less than 5 months.  She is absolutely in love with the book.  We tried to set a baptismal date with her but she said that she is still confused and is not ready.  However, her comments and answers say otherwise.  So our goal is to help her recognize that she is ready.  She is also worried about what her friends will say/think and we feel she isn't 100% on board for the lifestyle changes required, however, she knows it's true.

My talk went well which I based it off of this one by Heber C. Kimball  http://www.lds.org/ensign/2011/01/the-potter-and-the-clay?lang=eng  it's called the Potter and the Clay.  I'm assuming that he used Isaiah 64:8 for inspiration.  Both the talk and the verse are a great analogy for putting our trust in the Lord and being humble.  It's nice giving talks in Italian because you take more time to say the same thing you would say in English. ;)  Anyways, the talk went well, it's the putting it into practice that is the hard part. But the closer we come to the Lord the more weaknesses he shows us. Fact.  Take it how you want to.

President Pipolo said something in his talk that I really liked.  He talked about how no matter how much we like something we can never substitute it for what the Lord has already established.  I'm not sure if that makes sense.  He used this analogy.  That even if we like Cola drinks so much that we drink 2 liters a day, if we try to use it as fuel in our cars it will never work.  It doesn't matter how happy it makes us cars require gas.  Similarly, the Lord has made it so that for us to know his will for us, we need to pray daily, and to read the scriptures daily.  Only in this way can he give us the knowledge that we seek. 

I guess this morning at like 1 o’clock; there was an earthquake at Scilla.  It's like 20 kilometers away.  Thankfully no one got hurt and there wasn't any damage done but it was 4.6 on the Richter scale! We slept through the whole thing. 

So Mattie is a secret world cup level goalie, huh? 9 attempts out of 10 aren’t bad!  Why didn’t you ever want to play with us?!  That's great about the 200 people in church! How is it going with that German family of 4 who were baptized recently?  Well I'm out of time and things to say.  Mom, I hope it's long enough for you.  Remember to take plenty of pictures at the Bern Kastel wine fest.  But not too many, I really miss those German festivals.

I love you all, and I hope that all is well with you, ciao. =)

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"Look inside yourself, you're more than what you've become.  Remember who you are."  The Lion King 

Anziano Stewart

Chapter Four: The 12th Epistle of Anziano Stewart to the Calabrians/Messinites

First of all... mom, don't worry if the letters I write aren't novels, we have work to do. I can't be at the computer all day. =P  

So Ferragosto wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be.  In fact, it was the missions record for most baptisms in 2012! Yeah Boy!  As far as transfers go, we'll both be staying in Reggio for another 6 weeks.  Which is really good because we both know the city and branch really well, I'm looking forward to taking advantage of this.  Another plus is that we both (still) want to wake up early and workout. 

Your camping trip to the Netherlands sounds like a blast!  I'm glad you had fun and everyone got sun burnt. =P  I'm also glad to hear that Abby got to Utah safely. Then you are going to go to the Mandersheid festival, man! What a summer.  I'm jealous that for Stake Conference you're going to have Anziano Kearon as the visiting general authority.  I remember the talk he gave in general conference Oct. 2010, I was at the Smith's house.  Anyways, the church ended up making this video from the talk. https://www.lds.org/youth/video/sting-of-the-scorpion?lang=eng  It's good stuff.  Tell him hi for me =P  So school starts this next week huh? Are you guys excited?! If not, why not?!  You are all going to have to let me know what classes you're taking and stuff.

This week, we had to say goodbye to Anziano Errante.  From what I understand he's doing well, getting back to normal life.  We miss his Italian-ness, but I am glad to be back in just two.  I think we'll see better results this week.  We were able to do a split with Catania on Thursday.  I stayed in Reggio and was with Anziano Hanson.  He's a great person and bomb missionary.  Federico is still coming to English course regularly but it's becoming harder and harder to fix an appointment with him... however he did come to family night on Monday.  He really enjoyed it, even made some comments.  We also played "do you love your neighbor" but there was one member (58ish) who had some difficulty in understanding how to play, which in the end just made things more fun.

Mom, you talked about how this mission is more for me than it is for those I teach.  That might be true, but I can't allow myself to think that because it's too selfish.  Just thinking about all the time, effort and money that is put into just me as a missionary and then to think of it as something that is for my benefit is just too selfish, it's too hard to accept. I'm supposed to be dedicating 2 years to the Lord and his work, not my self-betterment.  My purpose was pounded into my head in the MTC, it's to "Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end." I'm only the messenger; I'm just supposed to invite as many people as I can to apply this gospel to their lives.

Sorry, maybe that's a little heavy.  I'm studying pride and humility this week for a talk on Sunday and I'm doing my best to apply it.  I feel particularly lacking in this area since I've started focusing on it.  It's funny how that works huh? We think we're going great until we take a little closer or longer look and then we see that maybe the windows weren't as clean as we thought they were. 

Anyways, enjoy this last little bit of summer before everything starts back up, and remember to take pictures!! I want to see pictures!!  and as far as mail goes feel free to send everything to "Via Filipini 85/c  /  89125 Reggio Calabria, Italia"  everything arrives even packages (our neighbor takes them).  Well I need to get going.  I hope everyone is healthy and well. Ciao.

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"Look inside yourself, you're more than what you've become.  Remember who you are."  The Lion King

Anziano Stewart

P.S. oh by the way, I did get the package, I even have a picture to send you but at this Internet point it's not possible, hopefully next week.

I'm off now. love you!!!!! Say hello to everyone for me!!
Ciao!

Chapter Four: The 11th Epistle of Anziano Stewart to the Calabrians/Messinites

Buon Ferragosto!

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Hello dear family! I hope everything is well.  Things here aren't bad.  Sadly, Anziano Errante is leaving us tomorrow evening. He's a good missionary, I've really enjoyed serving with him, he's a lot of fun and he gets work done really well.  He's gained a nice bit of weight on his mission and he's doing his best to take me and Anziano Malan down with him, thankfully he's failing! =)  And then once he leaves, for at least another week me and Anziano Malan will be together. (transfer calls are this Saturday) but I'm almost positive that we'll stay together for at least another 6 weeks.  

This week flew by!  Between helping Anziano Erante getting ready to go home and missionary work we barely had time to sleep!  However, Sunday evening we were invited to an Evangelist church.  It was a very interesting experience.  Things started off more or less "normal".  They started to sing but instead of singing they were just yelling.  Then once the songs (shouting) was over, they all started whispering and the pastor started to "prophesy". They were waving their hands in the air yelling "gloria a dio!" "alleluia!".  

Then, the pastor gave the "word" but instead of a structured discourse, it was more or less stand up comedy.  It was very hard to feel the spirit during the service.  As I was thinking about everything, it just makes me sad that these people who at one point were looking for the truth (because everyone who's not Catholic in Italy has a conversion story) and they have been deceived.   They are now convinced that this is the truth.  But, the Lord knows what he's doing, it's his work not ours. 

This Monday, we watched 17 Miracles and made pizza in church for family night.  It was a great turn out, we even had 3 investigators come!  The movie was so good.  I really liked the messages that it portrayed.  Especially that through the gospel, we can, even in dire circumstances, maintain our dignity and humanity.  Then afterwards it caused me to reflect on the pioneers, and I remembered our great, great, great grandma and the stories from her diary. I'm really grateful for their dedication and commitment, it's a great example for me.

Well, sorry it's short, I love you can't wait to hear from you.

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Mai arrendersi,

Anziano Stewart

Chapter Four: The 10th Epistle of Anziano Stewart to the Calabrians/Messinites

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As I Have Loved You, Love One Another

Today we were able to go to Gambarie.  It's this town in the mountains that is beautiful! We went hiking and were able to be in the fresh air away from the city for a couple hours.  It was really nice to talk with the Branch President and his wife about the branch and to strengthen our relationship with them.  It's been a little frustrating with him just because, more or less, we are his councilors and pretty frequently we inform him of something that needs to be changed or done, however he does not take our council or even listen to what we say.  So hopefully by becoming a little closer we can be more effective.

We had Zone Conference this week and it was a little of a hassle to get there and back but it might have been the best one I've ever had.  President and the assistant’s trainings were really well done.  The assistants talked about the baptismal invite and want us to invite as many people as we can to baptism, even by stopping people on the street!  It's something that I've always thought was important to talk about early on so they know your purpose, but rarely during the 1st lesson.  I'm excited to have the chance to put in into practice and to see how it goes!!

OH!! Tamara came to church!!!! She came from 9-12.  And seeing as we don't have young women, she went to the Relief Society, then she went to gospel principals, and the fast and testimony meeting, she loved all three hours especially fast and testimony meeting.  The last 2 lessons we've done with her were alone (without her Muslim friend) and they have gone wonderfully!! In fact, I think that as we apply the challenge the AP's gave us that she'll accept a baptism date.

Fortunato’s baptism went well, notwithstanding, him being 88 he didn't have any problems.  Well he did throw a little fit when we asked him to put his hearing aids in so that he could hear the talks before the baptism, but other that that everything went just as planned.  It's really amazing to see something like this happen, especially here because people are a product of their environment and the traditions in Italy are sooooo Catholic and sooooooo common/accepted that to go against how your wife feels and how your  parents think and what your neighbor does and what your best friend eats, etc. it takes a saint.  It's near impossible to do without a testimony, and if they don't have a testimony, 99% of the time they get offended in the 1st six months.  This is why we all need to have a strong testimony built on Christ. Because that is the only sure thing in the end (other than death and taxes :P )

Well this is the last week that we will have Anziano Errante with us...  I'm sad to see him go, he's a light and a big help in many ways.  Also, most likely we will have p-day on Tuesday next week (because on Wednesday it's the biggest holiday in Italy and EVERYTHING will be closed and the mission has asked us to take the day to do profound cleaning. WHOOO!!!  

I love you all, I'm glad that girl’s camp was a great success, I can't wait to hear from you next week.  Stay safe. =)

--

Mai a rendersi,

Anziano Stewart

Chapter Four: The 9th Epistle of Anziano Stewart to the Calabrians/Messinites

                                                             The Dreaded August

This week flew by again.  To be honest I'm kind of getting used to it.  Things here are good.  I really love my 2 companions and we all work really well together. On the 17th, Anziano Errante finishes his mission sadly; he's such a great guy.  We’ll be talking (in Italian because he doesn't speak English) and he'll just throw something out like "the bible belt" or "what's up dude".  Last night he was trying to have Anziano Malan get him a bag but Anziano Malan wasn't understanding so Errante yelled "give me a bag!" in his high pitched, almost childlike accent.  Too funny.
             
This Saturday there will be a baptism at Messina.   I'm not sure if you remember him but his name is Fortunato.  He's 88!  I'm really excited for him, but at that age, I just hope that all goes well.  He's really nervous.

On Monday's we do Family Night for those who are single or don't have the opportunity to have it in their homes.  This week we watched "On the Lord's Errand" about Thomas S. Monson.  We had a less active there with her 3 year old daughter which was very nice.  She is actually Mexican but married to an Italian (also inactive) I hope she will start coming to church.  In total there were 9 people who came, it was a nice little group.  Next week we are going to watch 17 miracles. Hopefully, we'll have a good turnout.

Federico is an investigator, and as far as his progress goes I'm not sure but I feel like he's really prepared.  We just need to help him connect the dots and he'll be set.  Tamara is still having some trouble; the problem is her friend Ahlem who’s Muslim and does not want to talk about the church at all and when we do she does all she can to drive the Spirit away which makes things difficult for us and Tamara.
             
Something really cool, the other day Elder Holland stopped by the mission home (he's on vacation) and while he was there he gave the mission an Apostolic Blessing.  He blessed the mission that the work will grow.  It will be interesting to see how things go during the next couple months or so.

This morning I read a talk from General Conference "Was It Worth It" while I was reading I had two thoughts.
1.      That the gospel of Jesus Christ focuses on the individual.
2.      The importance of being worthy to have the spirit with us in order that we can be instruments in his hands.

Well, that's about all, this afternoon we're going to Taormina! I'll take some pictures.  Today is the 1st day of the month that all missionaries dread because all the Italians get the entire month (many take 2 months) off of work and leave on vacation.  Hopefully it won’t be too bad for us.

Mattie, Abby tell me about girls camp!

I love you all!
             
D&C 50:25
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Mai a rendersi,
Anziano Stewart