losing and gaining

Cari Miei,                                        10/3
 
I hope this letter finds you well,
 
Anziano Frustaci goes home tomorrow! It is really weird to be sitting next to a dying missionary with so little time left. As Anz. Frustaci dies, there is also birth! I received a call from the assistants on
President Wolfgramms behalf. They told me that the Lord and President have called me to be a Trainer this next transfer. So as they say in the mission. I will be having a Son. He will be "Born" in Prato. It should be a fun experience, I go from killing a missionary to Training one. One at the end and one at the beginning. So this Thursday I will go up to Milano and go to the meeting and find out who it will be and we will try together to do missionary work. I am very excited but also very nervous. I don't know if I would trust me to train another person on how to be a missionary....but we will see how it goes.  Pray I don't mess him up...poverino verdino....

This week I learned a lesson about attitude. Earlier this week my A few spokes on my bike tire broke down so we took it to the bike shop and he told me it wouldn't be fixed until Thursday. I was a bit
distressed at this news seeing as Anziano Frustaci had only 1 day of full missionary work left. We had appointments one after another all across town from lunch until the end of the night. One of the busiest days I've had here in Prato. We luckily had another bike that we borrowed from a member last time our bike broke down and we had yet to return it. However, this bike was not built for a man of my stature.
It was very small and as I pedaled the bike, my knees came up to my chest. My knees are not by any means broken down or injured, but I have had a few knee problems in the past so it did cause me very notable irritation. The gears on the bike were somewhat broken and it required of me a significant effort to travel anywhere. The seat of the bike...well that was just as problematic as the rest of the machine. I took it gladly though knowing that having this extra bike was a blessing from heaven, to have my good bike fixed and also have a means of transportation for our very busy day. As we rode to our first appointment it gave my knee's considerable irritation as well as my
own "Seat" from sitting on the bikes seat. By the time I was in a profound sweat from the extra effort needed to propel the bike to keep pace with Anziano Frustaci. By the time we reached our second to last appointment I didn't think I could handle another bike ride. The pain in my knees, the exhaustion, the pain in my tailbone, it was just all very unwelcome. As we began the travel to the last appointment, I thought to myself, "This is absolutely terrible; I wish that we would have just stayed at home today. My body is in pain and I am unhappy." I was instantly in shock of what I had just thought to myself. What a terrible attitude! Then came, as often does in circumstances such as
these, the moment of teaching from our Heavenly Father. I felt the Spirit telling me, "No, this bike ride isn't pleasant! You could not control your bike breaking down. You can't control the availability of your investigators and the members; you can't control having no other option other than this less than sufficient bike. So why don't you stop worry about what you can't control. If you live your life in constant fret about situations and circumstances outside of your control you will live a life of frustration and misery. So control your attitude and choose to make the best of the worst." I knew that the only way I would get to the other side of town on that bike was with a positive attitude. So I simply began to sing. And as I started to sing a funny thing happened. The pain in my knees began to dull. The agony caused by the seat of the bike, began to dull, and I found a reservoir of strength that I had seemingly overlooked. I learned a very important lesson about choosing to be happy and make the best of the worst. That night as I kneeled at the side of my bed, I thanked my Heavenly Father for the improv lesson I had learned that day. I know that the Lord watches over us and will teach us through everything that we do, if we will but listen for the Spirit to whisper to us,  even in those moments when the rain is pounding in our face, as the thunder shakes the heavens, when the enemy is screaming as loud as he can do drown out the still small voice that will teach us all things.
Listen for it even in the worst.

Cari Miei,                            10/10
 
I hope that this letter finds you well.
 
I hope that you all Enjoyed Conference as much as I did. We had the
chance to watch it here in Prato. We had a room for all the English
speakers so I was able to enjoy the full affect of President Monson's
Announcement about Missionary work! It is ridiculous to think that
there will, in the not too far away future, be 18 year old missionaries
here in the mission. I could be comps with one....wow.
 This Thursday I went to Milano to pick up my Trainee. The group of
Trainers consisted of Anziano Money, Anziano Fiorentino, Anziano
Moore, Me, And Anziano Wilkey. You will notice that Money, Moore, Me,
and Fiorentino are all from the same MTC group!  There are a lot of
Young Trainers this time! It was really cool to see all of them and
have a little reunion. It was strange to be back  in that Chapel in
Milano and be sitting on the OTHER side of the new missionaries while
we waited to get paired up with our new comps. Actually the whole day
after that was one big flashback, except this time it was ME who knew
what was going on while my Trainee was the one getting dragged through
the Metro and Train station in Milano.
 
My new companion is Anziano Dowling. He is from Boston and is as tall
as me. He is really eager to work and excited to be here. It is really
strange because he wants to know all about Italy and our Investigators
and all we talk about is Missionary work. Whereas only a week ago all
we talked about was home and airplanes rides and Cafe Rio....a bit of
a change for me. But it is very nice. I do however have a
responsibility to work very hard and be a good example. I am a little
stressed out with the responsibility I have been given. This is my
first time being the companion in charge and so it is a little heavy
dealing with not only leading the companionship but also shaping the
future of this new missionary. Whatever I do, he will do. If I am
obedient he will learn to be obedient, if I am disobedient he will
think it is okay to disobey certain rules. It follows the same pattern
with everything. He learns what is wrong and right from ME! It is a
very heavy responsibility.
To anyone who is 18 years old and now feels the pressure of the call
that has been extended to them. I ask and plead with you to rise to
that call and serve a mission. You will NEVER in your whole life do
something that will cause more personal growth than this, short of
serving as an Apostle, and maybe not even that. There is no pursuit so
publicly available and personally advancing than that of serving a
mission.