The first Mormon he met

Hosford Family & Friends,

So this is the last May that I may be in the mission. It would depend on if I choose to extend or not, which as of now I have no ideas. Right now, all I know is that I will be in Siracusa for at least another 6 more weeks. I will be with Anz. Furia again which is a good thing. I like working with him.  However, when we felt things were starting to get on track here with the work, we got screwed again.  Our investigator that were about to have a baptismal date, had some problems and they were deep.  So we sent her to Torino and lost her an an investigator. I also gave her my middle-sized bag (suitcase) So I am down to two for now. It's fine with me casue one of the wheels was ready to give out. With her loss we are back to finding again and have some great contacts ... as good as they could be.

We are also teaching an American exchange student named Austin who is a pretty smart kid.  Has a lot of great questions and outside the Church is really fun to talk to.  He is reading the Book of Mormon pretty often.  He is also helping us with our English course and is coming to Family Nights.  He is a pretty cool kid.  Reminds me a lot of Graham.  In the sense of being the most interested its him. I do have the pleasure of being the first Mormon he met.

Other than Austin we have Marysela who hasn't been able to see us for a couple weeks.  If she doesn't come to her appointment on Thursday, we will probably drop her.  Then we have a few other contacts that we are trying to get an appointment with.

A thing very important that happened here is that Napoli won the Italian cup. Its one of the two cups here in Italy. The third is between the 2 teams who win those cups. Its like the Super Bowl.  Then there are two European tournaments.  The good thing with winning the Italian cup was that we beat the #1 seed team Juventus and we are ranked #4.

Either way.  Thats about whats going on here.  Not a whole lot.  Hope everyone is doing well at home and can't wait to receive letters.  Love everyone.  Anziano Hosford

Fratello Maranci

On Fri, May 18, 2012 at 10:55 AM, Mitchell Hosford <mitchell.hosford@myldsmail.net> wrote:

Fratello maranci. that old guy you guys meet over skype on sunday, died this morning.

he was admitted to the hospital wednesday with a stomach pain or something and the doctors waited another day to operate but by then...things had gotten alot worse and they messed up in the operation. and yesterday he was on life support and in a coma. then he died this morning.

Mitchell, I'm stunned. Was it his appendix? How is his wife and family taking it? How are you and your companion doing?

it was his intestine. they removed 2 meters of it. his wife and family seem to be taking it alright. i havent seen the water works from them. but i am sure i will see it tomorrow at the funeral...which i was asked to speak at. my companion is taking it well. i am taking it a little harder just because i had served alot with f.llo maranci and he was one of my best member friends here and also the first sicilian that i met. but its just weird because on monday he came over to our apartment while my comp was sick and we were joking around for a while...and seems like over night just things went down hill very quickly. pretty much like a grandmother situation.

I know it is a shock, especially when it is someone you know well and you were very close to them. One of my great sources of comfort is the scriptures, especially the plan of salvation. Like Alma 41 and other cross reference sources. As I watched my mother in her last moments of mortality, the principles of the plan of salvation were a great source of comfort for me. I strongly felt that she had progressed as far as she could go and it was time for her to enter into the Lord's rest and continue her progression in the spirit world. The Lord had a work for her to do and it is probably the same with Fratello Maranci. It may seem strange to think about right now because of the initial shock, but time bears that out.

ya. right now i just need the shock to be over. i just know that he wanted to go to the temple sooo bad and he wanted to serve a temple mission in rome. now he gets the spiritual prison south mission

Not true. He may not be in spirit prison. We don't know. Good luck tomorrow. God be with you. Love you.  

Difficult time finding people

Hosford Family --- Mother's Day

Okay, so I just called Mom and Dad. It was really nice to see and talk to everyone. Seems like the only person that has really changed is Hayden. Then again I didn't see Amy or Megan.

Things are the same here.  We have the same problems with the ward and we still have a difficult time finding people on the streets. However, we are still working with the ward but we aren't seeing much improvement. Hopefully with time.

A couple weeks ago I told you about this lady that we met who speaks ten languages, we we haven't heard from her since.

We dropped Salvatore cause he just wants money it seems and just wants to absorb our beliefs instead of acting. So we are done with him until he gives us a call and its the same with Fabio and some others.

We met this lady from the Philippines that is nice and bring friends with her to our appointments which is very interesting. We had to order supplies for them because we don't have much stuff in Tagalog, but the good news is that zone conference is today and we will get everything we need for them.

We are also about to start working with the wife of a less active member. He always tried to convert her and then he went inactive. Then after a couple years, he came with his wife to church (yesterday) and we get invited to their house. 

Right now, we are still doing a lot of street cause its really the only thing that we can do. We meet a lot of people and invite.  Even though many people don't accept the invitation, we are fulfilling our calling and its something that brings me happiness.  Even though I would rather teach than find.  But hey, gotta start somewhere and it will come with time.

Sorry there isn't a lot to talk about this week, but I hope you enjoy the letter anyways.  Love everyone at home and I hope to hear from everyone soon.  -- Anziano Hosford

Oxford not Hosford

Hosford Family and Friends,

Did I ever tell anyone that our last name is really hard to say here? The H is pretty much silent here and serves a purpose in the language. So many people say Hosford like Oxford and because of that they think I am British.

So things we have been doing here: This week I have been sick mostly with headaches, neck aches, and stomach aches.  Still we go outside to do work. We have been doing lots of finding lately. Not that we don't have any investigators its that all of them are busy. So we just keep finding and adding to our contact list.

Our major problem right now is the members were are working on ways to strengthen them and to bring them into activity again or being more involved in the ward. First thing we are doing is the 21 Day Promise which is just a referral program written by a Seventy in which the member writes down all the the people that they know (come to mind). Everyday they read a scripture and pray for each of these individuals. They can add more over the course of the 21 days.  At the end the members turns the list over to the missionaries and they go to work (hopefully with the member). We have started this with about 10 individuals and families. Its our biggest hope right now. We have done a lot of street, but we just want the members to be involved. I believe we have reached a couple of them.

So we dropped one investigator ... Fabio.  He never shows up to his appointments and I am a bit tired of it. So we stopped calling him. Then there is Salvatore who has come to church four times, but constantly asks for money (which makes me mad) and during our appointments, he talks nonstop about pointless experiences.  We have no idea what to do with him.

We still have our various other contacts that we need to call. Its just been a long week. That and I haven't received a letter from anyone in about two weeks.  Just worn out here. When we aren't battling members for support we have to battle rejection on the street to find people. This city is soooo hard. I hope my next city after this is just on fire. It would be nice to go to that type of city in the future.  Either ways love everyone at home.  Hope all is well. -- Anziano Hosford