February 19, 2014

Ciao tutti!

Well another great week here in Livorno.  Transfers have come!  Anziano Scott is going to Udine and I am left here to take care of Livorno.  I am receiving a companion named Anziano Pinnock.  I'm headed into my 7th transfer!  Whew...time sure flies.

Today for P Day we went to Cinque Terre!  It was beautiful!!  Amazing!  One of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.  Unfortunately we only saw two of the five cities, because it began to rain on us big time.  It hit us in mid-hike.  Within minutes, the trails were being flowed over with water!  We got out of there as fast as we could, but we got drenched anyway.  We rode the train back to Pisa really wet.  But it was a great P Day!

This week, our branch mission leader went with us again to do finding.  This time however we were also accompanied by one of the branch missionaries.  So we were able to do splits. The miracles that we saw were amazing!  The number of people that stopped to talk to us was staggering. We got 3 new investigators and several new contacts just in one evening.  I think that Anziano Scott and I were kind of stuck in a rut and Heavenly Father showed us a new way to do this work.  He blesses you when you exercise some faith and try somthing new. I'm grateful for great members who are so willing to help us out.

Well I better be on my way.  Sorry I didn't get a picture...my USB has been acting funny.  Love you all!  Ciao!

-Anziano Cody Petterborg

February 12, 2014

Woo...I'm old now!  Yep today is my birthday.  I spent the day moving stuff out of our old apartment...but I had pizza for lunch and I will have brownies tonight to celebrate.  It's been a good birthday.

Well we're still traveling back and forth between Pisa and Livorno.  It sounds like we'll be doing it for the next couple of weeks until they can find us a new apartment in Livorno.  Guess I'll just have to brush up on my train contacting.  Haha in fact, the other day we gave it a try.  Just being nice, my companion asked a lady where she was going.  Bluntly she asked, "Why are you asking?"  Then she got up and changed seats.  Well that didn't go so well haha.  We'll have to give it another try I guess.

In the past couple of weeks, our branch mission leader and ward missionaries have been planning to do a fast for the missionaries so that we could find new investigators.  They also planned to go out with us a couple of times to do finding work.  Last sunday, we did this fast.  While we were out working that afternoon, our branch mission leader gave us a call and asked if he could go out and work with us on whatever it was that we were doing.  We were just doing street finding, but he accepted to come with us.  Usually we never find anybody that will listen to us, but this time, we got the number of a young woman who wants to come a take a look at our church!  We also found a man who talked to us for a long time and agreed to see us again next week.  The way to finding new investigators is through the members.  If all members were to help us out just a little like our branch mission leader did, the work would really pick up the pace.  We are considering a new strategy to finding here in Livorno.

Well I better be on my way!  Love you all!  Vi voglio tanto bene!  Ciao!

-Anziano Cody Petterborg

So the members in Livorno go to the temple in Switzerland.  Apparently, they go for a a couple days at a time and they have places to sleep up there.  Kind of interesting.  It will be super convenient when they get Rome finished up.  When they need books, usually the branch orders in bulk and passes them out that way.  If they need something specific, they can go online or they can talk to the ward librarian who can order it for them.  That's how we get members scriptures and stuff.

They haven't found us an appartment yet but I had an interview with President Dibb the other day and he told me that I really shouln't expect a new apartment for a while...probably not until next transfer.  So I'm going to be traveling back and forth for a little while.

Unfortunately we haven't seen our less active deaf member for a while...we've had a mixture of some bad weather and difficult circumstaces with traveling back and forth...but it's always cool to meet with her.

February 5, 2014

Ciao tutti!

Guess what?  The first of this month, I reached 9 months!  That's pretty crazy!  Only 3 more until a year.  Time goes by so fast.

Last P day we spent cleaning out the apartment in Livorno...it sounds like they're going to be finding us a new one before long.  Sounds like we'll be moving again then soon.

Last week was our first full week living in Pisa and working in Livorno.  It was a week full of frustrations trying to work around delayed trains and the rain.  However, this week was the best week that Anziano Scott and I have seen as a companionship.  We taught 12 lessons.  We've never taught that many since we've been together.  Maybe it's because we had to plan really carefully, but I consider it a miracle.

Sorry it was kind of a short one this week.  I hope for better stuff to talk about next week!  Love you all!  Ciao!

-Anziano Cody Petterborg

I am adding a little bit more from my email for this week that he shared with me (Sandi):

So in the Livorno branch, there is probably almost 200 members.  But we have a lot of less actives.  There's not much holding us back from becoming a ward except we need more Melchezidec Priesthood holders and more fultime tithe payers.  And actually our whole district (the Firenze District) has to become a stake before we can become a ward.  So right now we really focus on reactivation and finding new potetial priesthood holders.  Our branch has a goal of 10 baptisms this year and like 3 temple sealings.  Pretty high goals but I think it's good to shoot for the moon and land among the stars.  Most of the members are Italian here in Livorno.  There are just a few members that speak English.  There are some American men who married Italian women who are members here and their wives speak a little English.  There are also just a couple of members that speak really good English just because they have put in the effort to learn it.  They help us teach English Class on tuesday nights.  The branch president is Italian but he's not from Livorno.  I think he's from Brescia.  He's a really cool guy and he's been a good help to us.  He's really awesome.  He wants us to start up the scouting program with the young men, so that's cool.

Well traveling back and forth from Pisa to Livorno isn't real fun.  This past week we ended up spending a lot of time in train stations waiting for trains.  That's not fun because then homeless people start to take notice of you and they think that you're their friend.  We have this one homeless dude who talks to us everytime we're there...he doesn't speak Italian very well and he always talks about weird random stuff.  Like how he talks to pigeons or how he talked to President Obama on the train the other night.  It's weird...he's crazy.  One night it was raining really hard and our train got delayed by an hour and half!  It was terrible!  But I think we're starting to get the timing down.  A member talked to President Dibb the other day and apparently they are looking for a new appartment for us...guess we just sit tight for a bit.

We haven't been able to see Saverio for a while.  We used to see him in the late evenings, but now that we have to be catching a train at that time, it makes things a little difficult.  We're going to try and maybe do lunch with him sometime.  New investigators are something have been a little hard to come by...I don't know why but it's been really hard to find anybody who will talk to us.  Anziano Scott and I have been working on developing faith to find.

The deaf member is cool.  I'm learning Italian sign language little by little.  There are some similarities between LIS and ASL.  It's been fun.