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