Little miracles

The Hosford Family,

I can’t believe October is already finished. It’s crazy that one year ago I was about to leave Pozzuoli for Caserta and it’s even weirder to think that in 10 days we receive transfer calls.  My 12^th transfer has flown by fast.

This last week went very well for us. We were only able to work Monday to Thursday, but we had a very good week. On Friday we had zone conference and I was stuck in Church all day. Then I had my interview Saturday morning. Some things from the interview – I will be staying and I will probably have a younger companion than me.  I asked to extend my mission and I pleaded a good case and by January 1^st I will know. It would mean that I would be home mid-June instead of early-May.  And I will probably be driving next transfer.  Zone conference went well.  We spent all day Saturday cleaning our apartment then we were completely booked Sunday with meetings. We did a good amount of work in the few days we worked. Sunday was awesome. We had 7 investigators in Church. We hope to have more this Sunday.

Our work is going well.  We have a baptismal date for Marco.  He just needs to come to Church one more time, have an interview, and he will be ready to get baptized on November 10^th. He has made a lot of progress.  We almost dropped him several times.  His parents and girlfriend were huge obstacles for him. However, we did a fast and his girlfriend left him and his parents said they are okay with him getting baptized. Go Miracles!

After him we have Veronica who had a bit of a down week this week. However, she came to Church on Sunday and we had a lesson with her after and she got a spiritual boost. Which was nice. We are going to see her on Saturday then her and her family right after just because their needs are different.

Next we have Alberto who we will see on Saturday 3^rd.  There are things going on here with his work, so he hasn’t been able to see us.  However, all that ends Saturday so we will see him then.  He is a pretty new investigator but he is really great.

We have Francesca from Brazil. She has been out of town, but we want to see her tomorrow. It’s hard to get her to act, but we have been trying. We just hope she starts reading, praying, and coming to church more often.

Then we have a new investigator named Aladia. She is 17 and she is really nice and smart. We just started teaching her. She is hard to teach because she doesn’t open up a lot during the lessons and we are trying to find out what she reall needs. The lessons have been a bit disorganized and sloppy with her which drives me nuts. We are trying though. We are also trying to work with her sister.

We have other that we are also working with that we will see later this week.  One is the member dad or a nonmember boy who wants to get baptized. They are both great, but we are just waiting on Dad. Then we are picking up Valeria and Salvo again. They were having some housing problems; they got kicked out. Well the ward came together and they didn’t go homeless.  We are hoping to see them tomorrow as well.  We also have some sweet contacts. One found the church through the genealogy site (Antonio) and asked for a Book of Mormon. We want to see him again we just need to call.  Then last night we were having correlation and a less-active member from Peru showed up with her boyfriend who is a big curious.  We him we did a starter lesson (lesson zero) and we gave him a copy of the book of Mormon. 

Those were just two little miracles.  Another was after our first appointment with Nadia last Thursday, we took the bus home.  Nadia left her Book of Mormon on one of the seats and we went and talked somewhere else on the bus. While we were talking this lady got on the bus and sat down right next to the book and after a couple minutes she started reading and flipping through the book.  After some time I went to her and told her that she could have the book and that I would like to explain why the book is important.  I left her with a passalong card and the invite.  Then I went back and started talking to Nadia again.  However, before the lady got off the bus she came to me and asked if I was serious.  I told her that I was and I gave her a chapter to read.  She made some comment about a light around me and then got off the bus.  Her name is Angela.  I hope she calls.  It was really an incredible experience and everyone was looking at me while we spoke.

I truly love the mission and the unique things that happen.  I really don’t want to come home.  I don’t want to leave Catania either. I like it too much here.  Letters aren’t getting to me from home very much.  We are never at home either.  Well I love you all very much and talk to you all next week.  – Anziano Hosford

No idea where this year went

Hosford Family,

I just realized that October is about to end.  I have no idea where this year went. We did planning for the third week of the transfer and soon even my 12^th transfer will be over.  Things are flying here. Its really weird. Stuff that’s been going on here.  Honestly, a lot has happened in a week.  Two weeks ago we had a lot of growth then it kind of stopped last week.  Well it’s back this week. Our teaching pool is big, but still has space to grown.

We are still teaching Veronica who is making a lot of progress.  I learned that she really lives in the boundaries of another ward, but they came to our ward and they know lots of people in our ward. They live pretty much right on the line. I say they because we are also teaching her parents and brother. If all goes well she will be baptized the first week of December. The other became new investigators this week so we will wait and see. 

Next is something interesting.  We had an investigator return. Marco called us like 3 days after dropping us.  His girlfriend left him, and so he called us. He has only two problems. He smokes, but now has pretty much quit and he has a hard time coming to church. As soon as he comes to church 3 times, he can get baptized.  We are hoping for the 10^th of November if everything goes well. We don’t have lots to teach.  Just need to finish the plan of salvation and the commandments and he will be ready.

Then we have Francesca who is from Brazil. We really just started teaching her this week. We have known her for awhile because she comes to English course. We have taught the restoration and had a long talk about the Book of Mormon. She is very nice, but we don’t know where it will go. We set a date with her for December 1 as a goal. The nice thing is that she is very open. We just need to work a bit more with her living mate.

We are still trying to see that older guy named Paolo. Even though he has a date, we haven’t been able to see him these weeks.  However, we are going to pass by him this morning. He just never picks up because he doesn’t hear well.  We will keep trying.

We have a couple other investigators and some contacts. We just need to contact them. Other than that work is going well.  We are very busy and its nice.  For some reason letters aren’t arriving to me here. I hope everyone is still writing me.  Either ways Love you all lots and talk to everyone on Wednesday.  Mitchell

I LOVE to teach

Hosford Family,

I forgot how nice it is to not be a leader here in the mission.  I don’t have to take numbers, plan district meetings, or even do training sessions.  I can just simply be me and find and teach people.  Things are going well here.  Yesterday we went and saw old Greek temples.  We traveled all the way to Agrigento to do it. It’s pretty much on the other side of the mission.  I will send photos home next Wednesday. These old temples are incredibly built and are really, really old.

Work here is going well. The sisters are having two baptisms on Saturday. It’s nice to see this family getting baptized.  We found this family but Anz. Hansen gave them to the sisters to teach.  We have several dates.

We technically have 5 dates but only 2 of them do I really consider as dates. We still have two dates with the kids from Egypt, but we haven’t seen them lately. Then we have adate with Salvo, but his mom is against it.

However, we do have two good dates.  One is for this investigator names Mario. We did a fast with him so that his parents would lighten up.  I don’t know them, but he is 26 years old.  They are very against the church because they think we brain wash.  However, we did the fast and he even fasted from smoking.  We will see him today and see if he hasn’t smoked.  He is making progress, just slowly.

After him we have Paolo.  His is an older energetic guy.  We have had a couple lessons with him and he even came to General Conference. We hope to see him again this week.  He has a date for November 10^th.

Some people that we saw last week aren’t completely ready yet.  That one family of the sisters that I told you about in the last letter aren’t completely out of the picture.  We are always trying to find new people to replace the ones we lost.  We found two 17-year-old girls who are willing to listen to us.  We would have more people but Anz. Hansen likes to share our people with the Sisters.  Which for me is a bit discouraging.  I LOVE to teach.  Everything is well here.  Look forward to getting letters.  Love you all lots.  -- Mitchell

The rock formations might have been old homes.
We found them in Agrigento and they look like a lot of fun.

The guy in the red is Andrea. We are pretty much with him everyday. 

The one on the far right is Sorella Rosato...from Como, Italia. It's up north. 
Her comp is Sorella Techiert, then Anziano Hansen...then me.

One of my favorite things here...it's a drink call a Granita. Its like a slushee...
but a lot better. it has the consistency of a slushee but you eat it like ice cream.
Do you remember that Italian ice we used to buy for Megan?...
that is what this is...but a lot better and softer. 

t’s really neat to read the Book of Mormon fast

Family,

I just took a look at the date and realized 3 things. 1) Its October … where did September go?  2) I will be home in exactly seven months. 3) I will be 22 in a month.  Where did being 21 go?  I made a decision that I will be 21 when I get home. Stuff here is going well.  I am staying in Catania for another 6 weeks with Anz. Hansen. I am excited for it, we are doing well together. It’s interesting to see how quickly work turn here.  All the investigators that we had 6 weeks ago we pretty much don’t have any more.  However in this last week and even more this week we have picked up a lot of work. There was on unmarried couple that came with a baby to church a couple weeks ago.  The daughter is the daughter of a member.  We finally saw them and had a pretty good opening lesson.  We are hoping to see them next week.  Also at the lesson there were two boys and the mother of the dad of the baby.  She was really nice, but wasn’t interested as well as one of the boys.  The other boy I had already met and said that he would like to talk to me about the chapter we left for them to read after church.  He is a lot shyer and so we are going to try to see him alone.  He is kind of seeing a member’s daughter.  Either ways .

(Francesca and Angelo) Then we met this girl from Brazil and her “friend” yesterday and had another good lesson with them.  We didn’t have very much time to explain a lot. However we gave out 2 Books of Mormon and new we just need to call them to set up another appointment.  We have those 5 which are borderline investigators.  We just need another appointment and we will have 5 new investigators. We have a list of contacts, but only these have we been able to see.

We have one girl that wants to get baptized. Her name is Veronica. We are going to meet her tonight at a member’s home finally and teach the restoration. We are hoping to set a date, but first she needs to marry her live-in mater (we might be able to work with him as well.) and we want to see her family again which might be a bit harder.

(Marcos and Armondos) Then we met two boys from Egypt like 5 days ago. We gave them a Book of Mormon in Arabic (they are Christians) and we are trying the best we can to teach them because they don’t know English and they speak little Italian. We don’t speak Arabic, but we get by.  We seem to understand each other and as of now they have a date for 3^rd of November.  We don’t know how set it is, but we are going to try.  They have a friend that speaks Italian well that’s going to help us out.  These boys are 16 and 17 years old.  We need to find more teaching materials for them. We are just trying to keep everything simple and have them read.  Hope it goes well.

Last investigator, Marco. He is progressing very slowly.  We have only left him three invites.  Pray daily, read a chapter of the Book of Mormon every day, and to repent of his sins.  He is feeling guilty for something and everyone at his house is against him and the Church.  However, he is making progress.

At the last zone conference the mission president’s wife gave us the 90 day Book of Mormon challenge.  The only problem for me was that I was in 3 Nephi 5.  So I decided to read from 3 Nephi to 3 Nephi (Italian).  After 2 weeks or so I am in 2 Nephi almost.  It’s really neat to read the Book of Mormon fast.

Ok, Mom asked some questions.  Yes we cover the whole city as missionaries.  There are two sisters, but we both cover the city.  We not only cover the whole city but also the whole province. I don’t know how many people live here and the transportation is bad and for that we have a car.  Siracusa is prettier by far, but Catania is a lot bigger and there is more work to do here.

Other than that things are going well here.  Pretty much told you all everything that is happening here.  Look forward to your letters.  Love you all.  Mitchell