September 24, 2014

I GRANDI BOLOGNESI

 

Ciao!!!

Well I'm here in Bologna and i love it sooo much! It is such a beautiful city and is full of beautiful people. My companion's name is Anziano Warren and he is from Indiana! He is kind of a shy type but really smart and is a huge baseball player, we get along perfectly! He is just about to hit his year mark in the mission and he is a great missionary with some good experience which will really be of help since we are practically opening up a new area with no investigators ha. I say practically because there are already 4 missionaries here in Bologna... we live with the zone leaders and there is also a sister companionship here. They are all sooooo fun!! Living in this apartment is definitly the most fun i have had all mission haha dont worry though we are getting a lot of work done as well :) Fortunately there were missionaries serving in our part of Bologna in the past and they did a really good job with the area book so we have been making a TON of calls and trying to set up appointments that way as well as less active pass by's. The work here is starting out pretty slow but im sure it will soon pick up the pace. 

Well this Sunday after stake conference us 6 missionaries decided to go to the Centro (the center of the city where all the people are, including the 2 famous towers) and we did what's called a "mostra". In the past i have done 3 mostra's and usually what we do is set up a table and a stand with giant pictures of our church and the restoration and stuff like that and we just talk to all the people that walk by or stop to look at our stand. BUT, this time we decided to bring chalk and draw the Plan of Salvation on the street because they were doint a HUGE festival that day and all the streets were closed off to cars (dont worry it's not illegal ha). It was so much fun and we got a ton of people to stop and ask questions about our church, it was great! We handed out a couple books of mormon and a lot of pass along cards so hopefully we get some investigators from it! I took some pictures of centro and our plan of salvation drawing but i didnt bring my camera with me to do internet so ill send them to you next week and ill have even more pictures then anyway :) 

Well that is pretty much what has gone on. I love it here in Bologna and i really feel like i do need to be here and i know that someone here needs to here the message that i bring about our Lord and Savior and His church. I love you all very much and i cant wait to hear from you next week! Ciao!

ps- Barbara is doing great and i got her email address to continue writing her. She might even come down to Bologna, if she gets the chance, to see me haha i hope Pres. Dibb will be alright with that!

-Anziano Delgado

September 17, 2014

BOLOGNA!

Ciao cari,

Well this week was very surprising... im getting transferred to Bologna! To be honest it is really a bummer that i have to leave barbara (She is doing AMAZING by the way)... i mean i just got here :/ It's alright though, at least i got to be here to see her get baptized! We just went over to her house last night and had the "last supper" with her and her family which was really nice. she made me lasagna alla bolognese since i'm going to be going to the city where that lasagna comes from haha so that was pretty cool. 

Well this week we haven't really done a whole bunch other than say goodbye to everyone that we know here at Torino. It's really a bummer that i only got to stay here for 2 transfers... the members really started to warm up to us and we were doing a lot of good work. I am going to be opening up a new companionship in Bologna so at the start im sure the work is going to be pretty slow but i have faith that we will get some really good investigators and get some people in the water :)

Well I'm definitely going to miss this city... it has been very nice living here and i've had such a great time. Although, everyone tells me that Bologna is a BEAUTIFUL city and the food there is AMAZING so im pretty stoked for that haha. 

Ok well make sure not to send any mail to this Torino address! Im not sure what my new address is just yet but when i get it ill be sure to let you guys know :) Ciao! 

-Anziano Delgado

September 10, 2014

Baptism!!!

Ciao!

This saturday Barbara got baptized!!! I have been so happy this entire week it's just been amazing. Everything just seemed to work out perfectly this weekend and it was so great. There were so many members, missionaries and even investigators from other missionary companionships that came and brought refreshments as well it all played out so wonderfully. The coolest thing though was that Barbara's husband, who is atheist, ended up leaving his vacation in the mountains (he paraglides which is SO cool) and showed up to her baptism right in time before it started! So he was there holding her hand all the way through it. It couldn't have been any more perfect. she also brought her 8 year-old son alessandro, who is very funny and VERY energetic, to the baptism so they were all there as a family. Barbara also bore a very beautiful testimony after the baptism which really touched my heart. She is going to be such a strong member and i really look forward to seeing the progress and change in her now that she has the Holy Ghost as a helpful companion :) 

We plan on getting alessandro to be baptized soon as well, Barbara would just like that he has a little more of a base knowledge of our church's doctrine before he gets baptized. He really wants to though and loves coming to church to learn and mostly play with his new friends that he made here in the ward ha. 

Well there isn't a WHOLE lot else going on other than Barbara's baptism. We are working with a couple people right now who are making progress but at a very slow pace. I love them to death though, especially one man named Lorenzo who is the sweetest guy EVER. 

Ok well that is pretty much it for this week. Most of it was just getting things ready for the baptism and making sure everything went smoothly which really paid off! Thanks for the emails guys and the photos as well, love you and hope to hear from you soon! Ciao!

-Anziano Delgado

September 3, 2014

Baptism this Saturday!

ciao ciao!

Well this week has been really great but pretty crazy at the same time. sunday we found out that Barbara actually lives right on the border of the Torino ward zone and the Vercelli ward zone but moreso on the Vercelli side by literally about 50 meters. So we were a little worried about this because being in that zone means that obviously she would have to go to the Vercelli ward and not ours. So we called our Bishop and explained to him the situation and he was a little worried as well because we all love barbara so much and we want her to stay here! So bishop pulled some strings by calling the stake president and now barbara is going to get baptized here in torino this saturday and will stay a part of this ward :) MIRACLES!

yesterday we also had a zone conference in Alessandria which was very nice. I got to see a lot of familiar faces, some people from my mtc group and we at mexican food!!! It was so good ha. It really did end up being a great zone conference and gave me some more motivation and new ideas for teaching. 

So this Saturday is going to be the baptism for Barbara and i am soooo excited! She has made so much progress and has really come a long way. She is just so humble and willing to accept God's will for her. We NEVER had any truble teaching her, she would always keep our commitments and even when we got to the word of wisdom she was all for giving up her coffee and wine! I just feel like she truly has been prepared to recieve and accept this gospel in her life. she will make an amazing member and im sure that she will help others as well by her wonderful example. 

I absolutely love this gospel. The mission can be pretty difficult at times and it has definitely been the biggest trial of my faith, but i have learned so much and I have never had such a strong testimony of this gospel than i do now. As long as we continue in the faith and hold fast to the iron rod when times get hard, all will be well in the end :) As italians say, "quando il gioco si fa duro, i duri cominciano a giocare". 

I love you guys so much and i am so thankful for all of your thoughts and prayers towards me, my companion and our investigators. Love you guys and ill talk to you next week and hopefully i will have some baptismal pictures to send to you :) Ciao!

 

-Anziano Delgado

 

 

August 27, 2014

GREAT WEEK~

ciao tutti! well this week has been fantastico! We have really been blessed lately and i am so grateful for all of your prayers and thoughts because i can definitly feel the extra support. This week we had a few lessons with barbara and they all went extremely well. she asked the most perfect questions about our church and has a VERY strong desire to continue with her investigation. Last week after the lesson she told us that she recieved and answer that the book of mormon is true, that joseph smith was a true prophet and did really see Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and she knows that our church is the true church and she stopped drinking wine and coffee! So we asked her if she will be ready on her baptismal date that we set as a goal for the 6th of september. Her answer was that she really wants too, but that she doesnt feel like she is worthy enough to be baptised. We of course told her that none of us are perfect and we all make mistakes but that if she continued to not drink wine or coffee that all would be well and God would give her the confirmation that she is indeed ready to make that promise with god and be baptised. I also told her that sometimes when i have a question i open the book of mormon to a random page and start reading and that SOMETIMES i find the answer that i am actually looking for and said that she could try the same if she wanted to. This happened last Friday. Then Saturday night around 10 we got a message saying that she opened the BoM to a random page, which was 1Nephi 17:55 and the first words that she read were"We know of a surety that the Lord is with thee." And she continued the message by saying, "now i know that i am ready for the baptism because i know that the Lord is with me... i am very happy, thank you :)"  it was the happiest moment of my entire mission when i read that. I felt sooo extremely happy for Babara and i knew that Heavenly Father is watching over her and guiding her every step of the way.

Then monday night we decided to have a family home evening over at the bishops house with barbara and her 8 year old son and us. We had homemade pizza and soda and it was just a GREAt time, our bishop is a really funny guy, in fact he reminds me a lot about you dad haha. We talked about her baptism and she shared her feelings about at first not feeling pure enough but now feeling certain that she wants to be baptise on the 6th of september. She also wants to buy her own baptismal dress to keep as a memory and she wants to also take it to the temple when she goes to do baptisms for the dead! When i say she is the golden investigator i mean she is THE GOLDEN INVESTIGATOR :)

Well that is pretty much the highlight of the week. we are setting up all of the baptismal preperations and getting everyting ready for who gives the talks and all that good stuff :) im so excited for Barbara i know she will be blessed so much and i cant wait to see her in her white baptismal dress it will make me the happiest person on the planet. well i love you guys and again i thank you all for your thoughts and prayers i couldnt have done it without you! Talk to you next week! Ciao!

August 20, 2014

Ciao Cari!

Okay well this week went by extremely fast! My companion and I are having a great time here in torino! This week we met with barbara and she told us that she read the scriptures, prayed and received an answer that she needs to be baptized! We planned for the 6th of September since we have already taught most of the lessons to her and she accepted it without a problem! We are so excited for her! Out of all of the baptismal dates that i have set with our investigators in the past this one is the most solid and promising :) 

Our new convert, the 14 year old girl and i are actually great friends now so that is also very great ha. She was just upset for the longest time that her first missionary who baptized her right before i got here had to get transferred and she took it out on me since i was the one who took his spot lol but she is over it and she actually made me a braclet with my name on it so that was very sweet :) 

So the work is going great here in Torino. it is definitely the most progressing city that i have served in so far and we are having a great time moving the work forward. The members still need a little bit up a push to get going on the member missionary side of the work but we are slowly getting better and better each week :) 

Well that is pretty much it. My companion and i are doing great and we are totally kickin it at his place after the mission in california (caugh caugh... BEVERLY HILLS... caugh ;) ). He is a very easy guy to get a long with and is a convert at 16. he is the only member in his family but is very strong willed and has a great head on his shoulders. 

Ok well i love you guys so much and cant wait to talk to you next week! hope you have a great week, ciao!

 

-Anziano Delgado 

August 13, 2014

Ciao tutti!

Well this week has been really good! We have been extremely blessed here at torino with the work and i am absolutely loving it! A lot of people are coming back from vacation (its funny because entire italy is pretty much a vacation) and we are super excited to see what we can make from it! Recently we are still teaching barbara, our most progressing investigator who found the church from a friend on facebook and she is making outstanding progress! She came to church again last sunday and this time she stayed all three hours, as well as her son who is 8, and she really enjoyed it. We also had another one of our investigators in church, Lorenzo. He is catholic but knows how corrupt the catholic church is and ALWAYS says that our church, the mormon church, is the true church... its just that the catholic church is also true... according to him ha. so that is a little tough to get past. we have been trying so hard to help him realize that only one can be the true church but its just not getting through. I love him to death though he is the sweetest most loving guy ever and i know he would make a very strong convert. 

Well this week one of our very progressive investigators, yuliya should be returning from her vacation to the Ukraine and we will set a new baptismal date with her. its just a matter of if she will have enough time to meet with us since she will have to get right back to work when she returns... i hope she will find the time though. pray for us please :)

well that is pretty much it here. we haven't found any real new investigators this week but we are working hard with the ones we do have! hope that everything goes the way Heavenly Father wants it to.

Thanks for the emails, hope to hear from you all soon! love you, ciao ciao!

-anziano delgado

August 6, 2014

Another Good Week!

Well transfers are this week and i am staying here with my companion anziano ferradini for another 6 weeks! He and I have been getting along great and i feel very blessed with the companions that i have recieved because they are all really nice, really hard working Elders and have helped me grow so much in so many different ways. I am also very excited that i get to stay and continue the work that we have started here with these wonderful investigators. Looks like the other companionship will be splitting up though and a greenie is going to be trained here hahaha.... this is going to be FUN! ;)

But yea everything is going great here. our investigators are doing good as always and one of our investiagators should be returning from the Ukraine so we are very excited to start meeting with her again!

Well thats about it, everything is going great and i am loving it, as always, here in beautiful Italy. Ci sentiamo la prossima settimana! Ciao!

-Anziano Delgado

July 30, 2014

5 New Investigators!

Ciao!!! 

This week was amazing! it started out very slow and there were 2 days were it just stormed the entire time but when it calmed down we decided to go out and look for some people to talk to. we ended up finding one man who is nigerian and very spiritual. we taught him in his store while it rained. The lesson went great and he really wants to see us again and said that he would come to church this sunday and to call him that morning so that he could remember. 

Then that evening we went to see a family that lives a little outside of torino because we had a dinner appointment with them. The husband is from Texas and we met him on a train a while ago and got his number then. His wife is 100% italian and they have a 9 year old daughter. they also had a family friend over who is a lady and she is SUPER funny! she reminds me A LOT of Sister Reese! way outgoing and fun! we had a blast to say the least and at the end of the night we had a great lesson with them and gave them the book of mormon in english and italian. they really want us to come back and the wife said she could teach me how to make some really good food which i am really looking forward to haha. 

So that was pretty much our week so far. it went really well and we are seeing a lot of blessings. I have to say the mission is definitely the hardest thing i have ever done in my life but it is by far the most enjoyable and spiritual experience that i have ever had. i love the mission.

well ill hear from you guys next week! talk to you soon, ciao!

-anziano delgado 

July 23, 2014

Good Week :)

Ciao cari miei :)

Well this week was a pretty average week but it was still really great :) We got lot of really good, spiritual lessons, and our investigator with the baptismal date for the 16th of August is making really good progress! We taught to her monday and she always asks REALLY good questions during the lessons which shows how interested she really is and the answers we give are always inspired and invite the spirit. unfortunately, she is going to Ukraine for 2-3 weeks to see family so we will have to postpone her bap date a little further back but we gave here the temple address there, which is right next to where she will be staying, and she asked us to constantly send her scriptures to read while she is gone :) she is AWESOME! 

We also got contact again with an old investigator that went on vacation and we just taught her yesterday! it went SO GREAT. We had a member present lesson with her with a 25 year old return missionary named Stefano who served in Tokyo Japan and finished his mission 2 years ago. I told him that Colton also served in Japan and he got really excited so he told me a little bit about what the mission is like over there :) So we had a great lesson and Stefano really did a great job in sharing his testimony and helping her feel the spirit which was so perfect. We are going to see her again tomorrow and share with the the Plan of Salvation :) Pray for us and her! :)

We are also really focusing on member pass-by's here just like the missionaries back at home are. We have created a family mission plan with about 6 families here. they are all great members but they just need a little push to get more into the work so thats what we are searching to do :)

Well thats about it, thanks for the emails and updates! hope to hear from you all soon! Statemi bene! Ciao!

-Anziano Delgado

July 16, 2014 - Pictures of Torino Alps

July 16, 2014

Mountains to Climb!

Ciao tutti!

Well this last week sorry for not being able to write we decided to hike up a mountain and it ended up taking all of the time for pday haha. fortunately i took a lot of good pictures and videos so send some of them to you today :) It was such a great hike, it was so relaxing to get out of the city and into the outdoors i really missed the relaxing smell and sound of the birds and animals it was perfect. 

Well these past two weeks have been really great here in torino. Anziano Ferradini and i get along so great and we are really working hard to teach lessons to our new converts, less active members and member families and so far we are doing a really good job of it. the work in Italy is actually much easier and less demanding than that of switzerland which is actually pretty nice. Torino is a fairly large city though so it was a little hard for me to get used to at first but now im getting the hang of it pretty well :) We have a few investigators that are making pretty good progress and have came to church last week so that was very nice! We also have a new convert, Whitney (13 yrs old) who is actually really starting to scare me. She was baptized right before i got here and really loved the elder that i replaced so when he left she got super depressed and didnt/still doesnt want to warm up to me just yet. We have seen her quite a few times but idk we'll see. I really hope we can create a better relationship, its probably one of the hardest things ive had to do on the mission, especially since i really dont want this new convert to already go inactive...

Well we are teaching another girl, Yuliya (18 years old) who we set a baptismal date with for the 16th of August and she just came to church this last sunday and said that she enjoyed it so im really excited for her and the progress that she has made. Its kinda unfortunate that we had to set the bap date with her so far away but she works two jobs and only has time to meet with us once a week. But she really loved the last lesson that we taught her which was the plan of salvation and friday we will teach her the gospel of christ so im super excited for that :)

Well i should get going so i can send those pictures to you, thanks for all of the pictures and im super glad that you had a great week in california with Matt and the Reese's! Hope to hear from you soon, ciao!

 

-Anziano Delgado

July 2, 2014

FIRST WEEK IN TORINO

GREAT WEEK!

Well i got here thursday and i got to do a nice little exchange with Anziano Osmotherly and we got to catch up and we had a really great time and an amazing lesson together. Then i met my companion that night after we got back home and i have to say he SOO LEGIT! he is hilarious and we get along great. His name is Anziano Ferradini and he is from Beverly Hills. He has been in the mission for almost 4 months and he is loving it and he's working hard! I don't have any good pictures yet but today we are going to walk around the streets of Torino and take some really good pictures so next week ill have those for you :)

Well saturday we had a baptism! Even though i didn't really do much to help this man, Johnfranco,  to decide to be baptized but i feel really fortunate that i get to teach him now after his baptism and really help him feel the Holy Ghost now that he has Him as a constant companion :) Well here we are working with another recent convert named Whitney, 13 years old, and she is really cool but SUCH a punk ha. She is really great though the only problem is that she really loved the missionary that i replaced and its really hard for her to warm up to me :/ but she is great and i love teaching her!

The ward here is really cool! there are about 100 members and they are all super nice and hard working. the bishop is a really funny and outgoing guy and hard working. I am very excited to serve here and i can already feel how strong this ward is and how much of a help they will be.

Well i gotta go im out of time. Im glad the funeral went well and i am glad to hear that all of you are doing well. i love you guys and cant wait to hear from you soon! Ciao cari miei!

-Anziano Delgado

June 25, 2014

TORINO!

Ciao Belli,

Well this week was a little rough and im sure it was a little rough for you guys as well. Im really going to miss Grandma and her loving, energetic, goofy, sweet personality. She really is the best example of kindness and love and I am so grateful for her. I know that she is in a wonderful place now and is surrounded by loved ones and Grandpa and just thinking about that really made me feel at peace.

Well I am being transfered to TORINO!! I've wanted to serve there since the beginning of the mission and now i actually get to go there, im so excited! It's definitly a bitter sweet though becuase this ward at Lugano truly is the best and i love each and every member to death.

I already got some numbers and emails so that after the mission i can stay in contact because i really would love to visit them again i love them so much! I am super excited to go to torino though for 2 reasons;  1) i can go make new friendships there and i love that about the mission, and 2) I am going to be living in the same apartment as my last companion Anziano Ozmotherly! haha it is going to be the best! My companion will be in his 3rd transfer so i will be "bottle-breaking"

him and i am actually very excited for that :)

Well this week the work was good! Actually it was the best out of this entire transfer! we had many lessons and they were all very spiritual and great! we got 5 new investigators and some new less actives to work with so Anziano Salvatori and his new companion will have some good work to work with :)

ok well i need to get going, thanks for all of the emails and updates.

I wish i could be there at the funeral but i know that the mission is where i need to be now. I love grandma so so so much and i will miss her a lot as im sure all of you will, and i cant wait till the day where we can reunite together but this time forever. I love you guys and next time i hear from you ill be back in italy!

-Anziano Delgado