April 30, 2014

Ciao cari!!
Guess what?  I have been on this mission for a year!!  That's pretty crazy stuff right there! I still feel like a new missionary though.  Lots to learn still!

This week has started off really well.  After district meeting Monday, we felt really motivated to do better.  When we began finding work for the first time after district meeting, we began with a prayer.  The whole time we were super focused on our goals.  We have been lacking on new investigators this month and we decided that it is still possible to reach our goal for the month of 7 new investigators.  So we started are finding work with this goal in mind.  We used the pamphlet, we were bold, and we actually found a new investigator with in 30 minutes of finding.  We also were able to teach about 3 street lessons within the time period of an hour.  It's amazing what happens when you show your desires to the Lord.  He is willing to help you out when your desires are righteous.

Well I hope you all have a good week!  Love you all!  Ciao!

-Anziano Cody Petterborg

April 23, 2014

Allora?  Com'è?  

How is everybody?  I hope you had a great Easter.  Italians love Easter!  In fact, they add another day on to lengthen out the party!  They call in Pasquetta.  It makes it a little harder to do missionary work when everybody is partying but we tried anyway.

The past two weeks, things have been going pretty well in English class.  We have been making sure to teach a spiritual thought when we get to the end of the english lesson.  Last week we had a man come and ask for a Book of Mormon in Italian and English.  Last night we had a young man and his sister come and ask for a couple copies of the Book of Mormon.  I hope we can have a chance to talk to these people about the Book of Mormon a little more.

Well I love you all!  I would just like to ask you...how is your missionary work going?  We can reach out to everyone!  Not just non members!  Be a light to everyone!  Gotta go!  Ciao!

-Anziano Cody Petterborg

April 16, 2014

Ciao tutti!

So I am going to be in Toscana on one of the most historic days of Italian Church History!  May 11, our district is becoming a stake!  We're going to have an apostle here!  It does mean that Livorno will become a ward and that is really cool.  In my interview with the mission president, he told me to spread this news and work hard to get some baptisms so that we can be ready for this new stake.

Our miracle came from a scambio with the zone leaders this week.  They really blessed our area while they were here on scambio.  Yesterday while Anziano Pinnock was with Anziano Giles they set a baptismal date with an investigator that we've really been working hard with.  We might just have a baptism here soon.  The capi also helped us teach our english class here in Livorno.  At the end, one of our zone leaders shared a great spiritual thought and everyone really liked it.  We had people asking us questions at the end of the thought.  One man asked me to bring him a Book of Mormon in English and in Italian because he wants to read it.  We'll see if we can't get him to let us explain more about our church and where The Book of Mormon comes from.

Last week for P-Day we went to a little town called Calci.  There wasn't really anything to see there.  We did see this cool building that had a museum, and church, and some other apartments attached.  It was kinda cool.

Well I love you all and I appreciate each and every one of your prayers!  We'll keep plugging!  Ciao!

-Anziano Cody Petterborg

April 9, 2014

Ciao tutti!

Come state?  Well it was another good week!  Anziano Pinnock and I are focusing on becoming the best missionaries we can be this transfer!  We are speaking in Italian more often, we are being more obedient, and being more diligent!  There's always room for improvement and lots of time to do it.  We got really pumped up on the talks from General Conference.  They were great!  My favorite talk is from Elder Bednar about getting the new truck stuck, but being able to get out with a load.  It's amazing how we can learn the most amazing principles from the simple things from the world around us.  I learned from that talk that no matter how heavy our load, the Savior can make it lighter and will be there to help us bear it.  When things get tough, the weight we carry around is just giving us more traction, and the ability to move forward.

This week as we were going to get on a train to Pisa for General Conference, a man stopped us in the train station and asked us if we smoked.  I guess he was looking for a cigarette.  We told him no, of course, but then he preceded to ask who we were and what we do.  We explained and we led into the Restoration.  He turned out to be a strong believer in Christ.  We exchanged numbers and we hope to work with him more in the near future.

So last week we went to Lucca for P-Day.  It is a pretty city!  My favorite part of the city is a tower with trees on top!  We snapped some cool pictures from the top!

Well I love you all!  Thank you for your prayers and your love!  This is the work of the Lord!  Can't be stopped and every effort counts!  Ciao!

-Anziano Cody Petterborg

April 2, 2014

Ciao tutti!

So I have some disappointing news and some really cool news.  I'll give you the disappointing news first and the cool news after so that I can end on a good note.  The disappointing news is that we spent all day setting up the new apartment in Livorno.  It is super nice!  I was soo excited!  Then that afternoon, we got transfer calls.  As President Dibb was talking to Anziano Ostergar, he told Anziano Ostergar to ask me if I thought that apartment was mine.  I said "Ummm yeah".  President Dibb then said, "Well it's not!"  He got a good kick out of that!  I guess they are sending another companionship of Elders to Livorno and one of them is a greeny.  I guess maybe President didn't want the greeny to have to go back and forth in his first city.  There are a couple of other good reasons.  It's alright.  I'm a little bummed that I have to wait for them to find another apartment...but oh well.

So the cool news is that I have been called to serve as the District Leader of the Pisa District!!  That's cool huh?  I will be the DL of the Sister Training Leaders, the Pisa elders, and the new Livorno elders.  It will be fun!  I'm excited for a new experience!

Love you all!  Thank you for your prayers and fasts!  I know that I will start to see some more miracles soon! Ciao!

-Anziano Cody Petterborg