December 17, 2014 - Baptism on the 20th!

Hey everyone!

Well this week went by super fast! My new companion is Anziano Shepard and he is from Duchesne Utah. He is a really great missionary and we get along VERY well! He played high school football and his team won state championship 3 times in a row! crazy right?! We also moved back into the apartment with the zone leaders Anziano Jensen from Idaho Falls, Idaho and Anziano Peterborg from Idaho as well but i'm not sure what city ha. We have are having a great time and are doing a lot of good work here in Bologna!

Well I have some CRAZY news to tell you guys but you might have already heard... Sister D'ambrosio (Madeline's really good friend) is serving here in Bologna and is in my district!!! How insane/weird is that?! We talked over the phone since she and her companion took over the apartment and area in which i just served in last transfer and so i was helping them out get around and what not and when i told her my name she asked if i remembered who she was and said that she was good friends with madeline from back home. I had no idea which one she was because madeline has a ton of friends but then later that night when we all went to teach English class she ran up to us and was all excited and said, "STEV... i mean Anziano Delgado!!". haha i totally recognized her and was SOOO thrown off haha it was crazy for me. And then she was like, "i just saw your mom like 3 months ago!! She is so sweet!!!" hahaha i was pretty caught off guard to say the least. So yea she is serving here in Bologna and we are having a good time. 

Yesterday we just had the baptismal interview for Sara and everything went great! She will be baptized this Saturday right before the Christmas party so there should be a lot of people there :) Also, she asked if i could be the one to baptize her! I'm so excited for her and her mom they are so great! Even though she is so little she has such a feel for spiritual things whereas when i was her age i just went through the motions. She is such a funny girl and i am so happy for her and her mom :) I'll send you guys some pictures of the baptism next Wednesday :)

So everything is going great here in Bologna as you can see. We did have to give up some of the people we were meeting and teaching to the sisters since they are females but that's alright the sisters are already doing such a great job here in the first week! Also one of the ladies that we passed a few days ago came to church this Sunday and brought her non-member husband!! It was so good to see her and him together in sacrament, the husband said he had a really good time and looks forward to coming next week :)

Okay well X-mas is coming up soon and i can't wait to see you guys! i am pretty sure i will be at the house of our ward mission leader and his wife who is American. I am still unsure of what time we will be there but im guessing it will be around 3ish our time. I will let you know more details next Wednesday just to confirm. 

I absolutely love this work and i know that i could never do it without the help of the lord. I love Christmas time because it helps everyone remember their savior and redeemer Christ and helps them think a little bit less about themselves and a little more about others. Christ really was and is the perfect example of love and my Christmas wish this year is that i and you all can really show our love for Christ by loving and giving charity to the ones around us. "When we are in the service of our fellow beings we are only in the service of our God" :) I love you all very much and can't wait to see your wonderful faces next week!!! Ciao!

 -Anziano Delgado

December 10, 2014

TRANSFER CALLS! 

I am staying for another!!! YESSSSS! :)))

Okay so the most unexpected thing happened to us. Remember last transfer how i lived with the other anziani and we were in 4 in the other apartment? Yea, well 2 more sisters are coming to bologna and kicking us out of the apartment that we just moved into and we are moving BACK in with the other 2 anziani hahaha. I have packed my bags 3 times now and i haven't left bologna xp

No i am actually super excited for this transfer i like living in 4 it has god perks and it is much more exciting and fun :) HOWEVER, my companion Anziano Bingham is getting TRANSFERED! Crazy right?! This will be my third companion in 3 transfers! crazy! His name is anziano Shepherd... i don't really know him but he is about 2 or 3 transfers under me and apparently he is a really cool guy so that is good!

So if you still have the address of my last apartment then perfect, if not then here it is just to make sure...

Via Giovanni Brugnoli, 11

40122 BO
Italia

So yea very crazy transfers this time around, i was not expecting that ha. The only down part is that all but one of our contacts are females which will have to be passed to the sisters when they get here thursday. Little Sara will still be ours to teach though since she only needs two more lessons before she can be interviewed for her baptism which as of now will take place on the 20th!

 Ok so today for pday a less-active member, Fratello Mantovani, took us to a place called "The Motor Show". IT WAS AWESOME!!!! We got to see so many different kind of cars it was amazing. We got to ride in a race car simulator which was really fun haha almost like a rollercoaster, we road in some cool test driving cars that took us drifting around some obsticles which was SWEET, we ate at a VERY good but VERY expensive restaurant and then we got to watch a bunch of souped up cars race each other around a drifting course and we were right next to the action! I took some really cool pictures and even cooler videos that i will have to send to you next week when i bring the cable to hook up to the computer! Unfortunately this computer wont let me send you the videos (I have already tried a bunch of times in the past) so i'll just send you the photos. And then tonight after i finish writing you guys Sara and her mom are taking me and Anziano Bingham to get some pizza which will be super fun, i love them so much they are hilarious :)

 Well i have already moved into the new apartment (i guess old apartment ha) so feel free to send the package whenever you guys want. It should arrive this time since we have a really nice lady in the lobby of our apartment that makes sure all the mail gets delivered right. Also, thanks for all of the pictures that you guys sent me! HOLY CRUD DAVIS IS BIG! I can't believe how tall he is!!! Man it just blows my mind haha. Wow kelsea and wess's baby is very cute! Can't wait to see you guys for Christmas! Talk to you later, ciao!

 

-Anziano Delgado

December 3, 2014

Ciao ciao, 

This week went by super fast!! Our investigators are all doing well, especially little sara :) She is CRAZY fun haha a little difficult at times to teach because she just wants to play haha so at the beginning and end of each lesson we make a little chaos in the church playing games haha :) 

Well this Christmas is going to be kind of weird for us missionaries. I am actually pretty bummed out. This year we aren't going to have any Christmas Conference... i guess our mission president doesn't feel that it is necessary... :((( kinda lame. Tomorrow we will be having a small Zone training though so i'll be able to say hi to some of my friends there :) 

So this week we didn't find any new investigators unfortunately. The weather and Christmas season isn't really favoring us right now. It has been raining every day non-stop this week and since it is Christmas a lot of people are out of town or just don't want to talk to us, but it's okay because the members are starting to invite us over to see them more often! 

So this week we weren't held up by a drunk guy BUT i did get hit by one! haha We were walking down the city center where all the people go and as we were walking down the street there was a group of drunk kids about our age walking toward us. The "ring leader" that was also the most drunk looking one tried to spit on my shoes but i moved and as we walked past him he swung at me and hit me in the back (im not sure exactly where he was aiming but it hit my upper back ha). I probably would have been more upset if he hit me somewhere else but i didn't really care in the end. There are so many weird people here in bologna though, everywhere we go we see the strangest sorts of people. We have had many people tell us that the streets of Bologna at night are not the safest places to be haha go figure. 

Well other than that things are going pretty well here in Bologna! My companion and i are getting along alright, kinda so-so but i got some good advise from President Dibb on how to help out the situation. I just hope that this last week of the transfer we can really get along like best friends and look past the dumb little imperfections that we each have.  

Okay well Saturday we get the transfer calls so next Wednesday i will let you guys know what is going to go down here in Bologna :) ciao cari miei!

-Anziano Delgado

 Also, this Saturday we find out about transfers so next Wednesday i will let you guys know what is going to happen here in Bologna. 

November 26, 2014

HELOOO!

Ciao, 

This week was a pretty normal week, nothing too crazy happened. It was still a very good week though:) We met with a couple of our investigators and less-active members that we are teaching and had really good lessons with each one! We also watched the new "He is the Gift" video on Lds.Org which is pretty cool :) I got to teach the training for District meeting this week which was pretty cool! Our district is actually a pretty old district in the sense that we are all nearing the end of our mission and so i decided to teach about "Diligence". It went really well and we had a really good district meeting! (I learned that the best way to do district meeting is by bringing candy to give to the people who answer questions and participate haha it worked like a charm). 

Well we are still working with Sara, the little 8 year-old girl who is getting baptized the 20th of December. She is soooo funny!!! Her and her mom are from the South of italy and totally talk like southerners with all their slang and sass and just all around crazy personality haha we have a good time to say the least :) Sara is so great though, she already knows so much and every night she reads the BoM and Bibble... FOR FUN! I never would have guessed it because she isn't like an anti-social girl or anything at all, more like the opposite but she just LOVES to read the scriptures haha pretty cool!

Well we are working with a couple other people right now, one lady and one man but niether of the two are making a whole lot of progress... we'll keep working hard with them though and hopefully God will soften their hearts :9

Ok well tomorrow is Thanksgiving and unfortunately here in Bologna none of the members are american except for one family but they are going to be busy i suppose.... so we are just going to celebrate thanksgiving by ourselves by making mashed potatoes and eating chicken since turkey here is wayyy too expensive. It'll be fun :)

Ok well that is pretty much it! Hopefully next week i'll have a good story to tell you :) Talk to ya then, ciao cari!

-Anziano Delgado

PICTURES from Torino and Bologna

with Anziano Ferradini and an Investigator in Torino

Tower of Bologna

Ducati Factory

Views from Tower over Bologna

with Anziano Oz

with group from MTC at Zone Conference

November 20, 2014

CIAO!

Well yesterday we had an AMAZING combined zone conference with a member of the 70 Elder Fingerle. He and his wife came to give us a little instruction on how we can better improve the success in our mission. His entire lesson was all about 1% improvements on all that we do and how even little changes can make a huge difference. It is so true! It was also great because i got to see some people that i havent really seen since the mtc and got to catch up with them which was REALLY nice :)

 So this week we met with our new investigators and so far only one of them seems to want to make good progress but that is better than nothing :) We taught another couple lessons to the little girl who is going to be baptized the 20th of December and had a great time with that! We taught her about obedience to God and the prophets and then we taught her the 10 commandments and why they are so important. We did a really cool visual lesson with an empty tea pack and a lighter. We folded the tea pack open and stood it on top of her hand and then lit the top of it on fire. We told her to have faith in us and not to move her hand because when the flame would reach her hand it wouldn't burn her. When the flame got down right about to touch her hand all of a sudden it flew up into the air and she never got burnt :) It was really cool hahaha she made us do it like 5 more times :p

Fortunately we didn't have any encounters with any drunk dudes with handguns this week but we DID get to go to VERONA! It is sooo beautiful. We went there for the conference and so we didn't really have time to tour the city or the colosseum but we did see them as we drove by it in the bus on the way to the church :) It was awesome!

So my companion and I are convinced that sister missionaries need to learn how to do simple around-the-house things. So when we got to our apartment there were so many things that needed to be fixed. 1)the shower head was busted and water squirted EVERYWHERE when you turned it on. so we had to buy a new one... 2) The shower curtain was half torn/a couple loops were not attached (simplest fix ever)... 3) ALL the handles on the cooking pots were way loose and about to fall off (screw driver...done).... 4) the legs on the bed frames were supposedly "broken" but all they needed to do was flip it over and tighten some screws... 5) this doesn't have to do with the others but there is GIRL HAIR EVERYWHERE!!!!!!! hahaha i feel like instead of putting laundry detergent inside the washing machine the sisters just decided to scrub a cat with soap and throw him in there as a sponge or something! SUPER NASTY! 

So yea, my companion and I have been making a lot of sister jokes lately because of all of the "broken" things around our house haha (of course we still love the sisters though :) ). 

Well ill send you guys some pictures now since i did bring my camera this time, yayyyyy ;) ciao, talk to you next week!

-Anziano Delgado

 

November 12, 2014

CRAZY WEEK!

Ciaooo!

Ok well this week has been very good and VERY interesting ha. So to start off ill tell you about the work and how much it is improving. This week we got 3 new potentials and numbers, 1 new investigator, 2 new less active members that we are teaching, and 1 baptismal date! We are having such a better week than the past ones it is great :) We are doing a lot more pass by's and proselyting along the way and Heavenly father keeps putting us in the right place at the right time. So that is going really well, my companion and i are getting a long much better now and all is looking up!

Ok so last thursday an interesting thing happened to my companion and me. After teaching english class at the church we got on a bus to head to the center of the city so that we could take another bus there that takes us to our apartment on the other side of the city. We got on the bus and there was a man standing on the inside of the door who smelled like beer and was talking to the driver. We walked passed him and sat down behind to other ladies. At a certain point i felt a tap on my shoulder from one of the ladies. When i turned around i saw that her face was VERY preoccupied and nervous. She told me that the man up front talking to the bus driver had a PISTOL in his jacket and that she and her friend by her both saw it with their own eyes! They were freaking out and shaking from nerves. I was very caught off guard and didn't know how to react so i tried to get them to calm down a little and that we would get off at the next stop and that if they wanted to they could get off with us. they agreed. All of a sudden, almost as if the drunk man with the pistol (very tall and very large statured) turned around and walks up to where we are and yells to us and the rest of the 6 or 7 people that were on the bus saying (in a very drunk italian) "Ok from now on I am your guys conference and if you do what i say then everything will be fine." Then the stop came and me, my companion and the two younger ladies got up to leave the bus. The man however decided to leave his "conference" and follow us off the bus! When we got off he started talking to my companion and i asking us where we were going. We told him that we were just going to the center of the city. I then asked him where he was going... he said,I'm going wherever you go." by this time the two younger ladies had already gone their own way. It was obvious that he was VERY drunk and as we were walking down the streets he was yelling out loud the most random things and cussing out people as they walked by us. My companion and i were trying to think how in the world we would get rid of this guy because if we just ran we feared he would just pull out the gun and shoot so we had to do it while he wasn't looking somehow. When we got to the bus stop that we had to take to get home i told him "okay we are going to visit a friend that lives a little far away and we can go by ourselves seeing as how we aren't little kids and don't need help getting there". He said, " no no you guys are of the church and i want to "make sure you get there safe" so i'll go there with you. I insisted that we didn't need help and he started to understand that we thought he would do something to us so he gets close to me and looks me in the eyes and says, "what are you going to punch me in the face?" I didn't want to make a drunk man get mad or anything so i said no, he also said then that nor would he punch me so all is well. Of course that didn't really make us feel at ease however. Then all of a sudden, as if it were God sent, a street vender came up to the man and tried to sell us things. the drunk man was distracted while playing with the laser pen that the vender sold so we took advantage of the opportunity and BOOKED IT! We ran and ran until we were farrr from being found from him. 

CRAZY RIGHT?!?!?!?!?!?!

that one went in the journal hahahaha. 

Well all is well and Heavenly Father really looked out for us on that one. Okay I have no more time to write haha but don't worry mom im fine and if we see him again im sure heavenly father will help us out again :)

Love you guys and cant wait to hear from you next week! Yes i will have pictures next week :) Ciao!

-Anziano Delgado