July 23, 2014

Ciao tutti!

Just plugging along still here in Trieste. It's been kinda rainy and kinda sunny.  The weather can't really make up it's mind

Our baptismal date, Mario, is still doing good.  This week when we met with him to talk about tithing, he had already read the pamphlet and was teaching us about it.  We have decided to move his baptism to a sooner date.  August 10th.  He liked the idea, but he told us that we need to inform the bishop and he told us he really needs to meet with him soon so that he can get to know him better.  Things are good!  He's going to make it!

Last P-Day we had an unexpected interruption.  While we were doing our emails, we got a call from a less-active member who needed help moving a some furniture.  We thought about it a minute and accepted.  When we met up with him, he told us that it would only take about 2 and a half hours to complete the job.  Ok sounds good.  We went to work hauling lots of big cabinets and stuff down from the fourth floor.  Luckily most of it fit in the elevator.  Then we stuffed it into a van.  It barely all fit inside that little Italian furgone.  We kept plugging.  When 2 and a half hours arrived,  we weren't even close to being done.  Kept plugging and finally we get it all finished....5 and a half hours later.  Whew!  There goes P Day!  It's all good though.  We were happy to help.  I think we saw the blessings of our sacrifice too the next day when we gave out to copies of The Book of Mormon and received two phone numbers.

Well that was pretty much my week!  Love you all!  Buona Settimana!  Ciao!

-Anziano Cody Petterborg

July 16, 2014

Ciao cari,
Just another week in paradise!  Life is good!  What can I say more?  We're into what should be the hot summer months, but it's been going from hot to cold here in Trieste.  Just the other day, it poured on us and really cooled things off.  Today, however, was really hot!!  But that's ok because I just got me pair of khaki slacks that help keep things cool :)

This week we were able to see a man that we met for the first time several weeks ago.  On scambio with Anziano Vojka from Gorizia, we taught him the plan of salvation and invited him to be baptized.  He accepted by saying, "Come no?!"  We set a baptismal date with him for the 30th of August.  We have recently met with him since and every time we meet with him, he tells us that he wants to change his life.  He wants to life a clean life.

On sunday, we did splits with some of the young single adults in the ward.  I was paired up with a priest who will one day be a great missionary.  It's funny to think about how confortable we become as missionaries talking to people on the street.  The first time this poor priest went to stop somebody, nothing came out of his mouth.  It kind of left an awkard silence until I piped in an helped him out. He got good at it after the first time and we did good work together.  It's cool to see the youth getting involved in missionary work.  Hope all of the youth at home are trying to hang out with the missionaries as much as possible, it's a great way to learn if you plan on serving a mission some day.

Well gotta go!  Vi voglio bene!  Buona settimana!  Ciao!

-Anziano Cody Petterborg

July 9, 2014

Ciao tutti!
Well another week come and gone here in Trieste.  How was the 4th of July?  Mine was pretty fun.  We mentioned to a member that the 4th of July was coming up and he put plans into action to put together a party for us.  For the party, we made hamburgers and played foozball and ping pong.  We had a couple of investigators there and lots of young single adults.  It was a blast!

When Anziano Gardiner got to Trieste, he said hi to a less active who had come to church.  From that point on, we have been doing stuff with this less active and trying to see him.  Recently he has been coming to church and making changes in his life.  This passed sunday, this less active passed the sacrament for the first time.  It was really a miracle.  I think that's my favorite part of serving a mission is watching people make changes for the gospel.  I don't even feel like we had to do very much, but I feel like it was a personal choice of this young man with a little help from a loving Heavenly Father.

Well that's all I have to say this week!  Love you all!  Have a great week!  Ciao!

-Anziano Cody Petterborg

July 2, 2014

Ciao tutti!!
Well another week runs on by.  Kinda crazy how time is flying.  I've only got 10 more months to work my heart out.  Happy 4th of July!!  I don't know what I'll do to celebrate...maybe make hamburgers or something American.

The other day, we didn't have much to do.  In the morning, we called some people.  We were able to contact a less active that we have been wanting to see and he told us that we could come that afternoon to see him.  When we got to his house, you could tell that times were rough.  His house was very scarce of furniture.  He has one daughter who is disabled and can't do anything for herself.  Her lifeline is her dad.  It really touched me.  You could tell just looking at his house that he gave everything he had to make sure his daughter was taken care of.

My companion and I had quite an exciting experience this week.  We were down the road in the mountains.  On one side there were houses and on the other a thick forest of trees.  All was quite when all of a sudden we heard what we thought to be a lion's roar!!  My companion stuck around to fight but I was out of there running at top speed.  When I got ahold of myselft, we looked a little closer.  There was a wild boar and her baby milling around in the bushes.  We stuck around to see what they'd do.  The eventually decided we weren't worth eating and took off in the other direction.  Whew...that woke us up!  Cinghiale...that's how you say wild boar in Italian...

Love you all and have a great 4th of July!  Ciao!

-Anziano Cody Petterborg

June 25, 2014

Ciao tutti!!
Well transfers have come and gone again.  I received the news yesterday that I will be staying here in Trieste for the next transfer.  And so is the rest of my district!!  So not too many changes, but were excited to keep plugging on!

This week we went to find a couple of investigators we havn't seen in a while.  We got lost a couple of times finding one and ended up getting closer to the other.  When we finally got to where we wanted to go, we knocked on the door and what do you know, one of our less-actives was also in visit to this particular investigators of ours.  We got to sit down with the less-active and the investigator.  We were able to set a return appointment.  Hopefully this will be a double-whammy.  Less-active reactivation and a baptism.

I ended up doing two scambi this week.  My first one was with our zone leaders.  I was paired up with Anziano Lovett who also happens to be my trainer.  It was a good scambio and we worked hard to find people.  One particular miracle was a woman we found on a park bench who wanted nothing to do with us.  We talked about her concerns and tried to confort her with personal stories and scriptures.  My other scambio was with Anziano Christensen.  We ended up teaching an investigator that we haven't seen in a while.  We taught him about the importance of the Book of Mormon.  We even invited him to be baptized.  He couldn't commit to a date because he's going out of town.  But he told us that he would do it when he received his answer.

So today for P-Day, we finally made it to Venice!!!  I've been there!  It was really cool.  The only downer was that it rained the whole time we were there.  But we bought some umbrellas and ponchos to stay dry.  Yep!  Venice is as pretty as they say it is!!

Well gotta go!  Love you all!  Ciao!

-Anziano Cody Petterborg

June 18, 2014

Ciao tutti!!

Just another week in paradise.  Our miracle man has gone back to the United States for a month...but he has promised to meet the missionaries in New York and continue his progress.  He has a baptismal date for the 2 of August when he comes back to Trieste.  We are super excited!!

On monday, you'll never guess where I got to go back to.  Verona!!  I went there for a zone conference.  It was great to walk around my old city.  The conference was really good too.  They talked about Family History and how we can put that into our individual work.

This week we went to find our Mexican friends.  They live with a member of the church and are here studying at the University of Trieste for the summer.  We went to their house this week and ate pizza before jumping into a great lesson about the Restoration.  The spirit was strong and we promised blessings about how the gospel will bless the family.  The members that we taught the lesson with were great!!  They were able to bear strong testimony about how they joined the church and the blessings that they have seen

One day as we were out and about doing contacting down a trail in a beautiful grove, we heard a huge crack of thunder!!!  Next thing you know, we were getting drenched!!  We tried to stand underneath a tree...but it didn't do anything.  When you're a missionary, you get blessings for being out in the rain.Anziano Gardiner and I have come up with a scale for the rain.  The heavier it is, the better your wife is!!  After that day, I think I'll have a really good one...I sure wish it would rain some more...

Well gotta go!!  Love you all!  Ciao!

-Anziano Cody Petterborg

June 11, 2014

Ciao tutti!

Well I'm about to hit another important mark on my mission.  Tomorrow marks a year in Italy!!  Time is going by so fast.  It's hard to hold on as time slips by.

This week we had to people come to church after severaly weeks of nothing.  The first one was our miracle man that we found a couple of weeks ago.  The other was a man that some members brought to church who we plan to begin teaching this week.  Both of them enjoyed it.  It was, however, stake conference.  They liked it anyway!

Things are going really well in Trieste.  We had a really good week last week and we're shooting for another good one this week.  Trieste is full of miracles and I love working here!

Vi voglio bene tutti!  Buona settimana!  Ciao!

-Anziano Cody Petterborg