November 12, 2014

Ciao tutti!!

Well just another chill week here in Trieste.  Things are moving right along.  Man, all of the investigators we have are getting baptismal dates...I guess we'll have to go find some more to set with...

This week already we have been able to set two baptismal dates.  They are two of our investigators that we have been seeing for a while.  Both of them have a great desire to change their lives and live according to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We have lots to teach them still and the both have several things they need to change in their lives but their desire is pure and they are excited to make this step.  We set the dates for the 3rd of January so it will be a great way to start of the new year for them.

I have a thought for you all today.  I was reading in Matthew 7 today at the end of the chapter where it talks about the wise man and the foolish man who both built houses on different foundations.  And as we know, because of their different foundations they had different results when the rain finally came.  But the thing that stood out to me was that they had to build those houses. The wise man built his on the rock.  Building a house takes time and resources.  How much time and what resources do we use to build our "houses"?  And just as a house takes time to build, so does our testimony.  It doesn't come all at once but line upon line, precept upon precept.

Well that's all folks!  Ci sentiamo e vi voglio un mucchio di bene! Ciao! 

-Anziano Cody Petterborg

 

November 5, 2014

Ciao tutti!!

Hey it's my sister's birthday!!  Tell her Happy Birthday for me and give her a big hug if you see her :)

This week was kind of slow...except for sunday.  In sacrament we had an investigator in church for the second time.  It was fast and testimony meeting.  All of a sudden, he had the urge to get up and bear his testimony.  Well sort of...he got up and spoke about some really strange things.  One of them was that he believe in reincarnation...just like us!! What? Who's teaching this guy? Don't look at me! So needless to say, we got some funny looks from some members.  But that wasn't it.  After he had sat down, he stood back up and asked if he could say something else.  Well the bishop was telling him yes and the 1st counselor was telling him no so he just stood right there in the congregation and yelled over the crowd that he was willing to give massages to anyone that wants one.  Pretty exciting meeting.  Haha oh man the funny stories you acquire on your mission.

Well I better be on my way!  Love you all! Ciao!

-Anziano Cody Petterborg

 

October 29, 2014

Ciao tutti!

Transfer news is here and I am staying another one in Trieste!  Woohoo!

We now have a total of 4 baptismal dates! 3 of them are men from Nigeria. We had set a date with them for the 8th of November but we were kind of worried that it was too soon. They don't know any members yet and we don't know if they are completely commited yet. After consulting with our ward mission leader, we decided to move their baptsmal date so that they have an opportunity to create a relationship with the ward members here and have an opportunity "to manifest by their works that they have repented of their sins."

Sorry for the short email this week! But I gotta run! Happy Halloween!!

-Anziano Cody Petterborg
 

October 22, 2014

Ciao tutti!

Lots to report this week. So I'll just get started.

 

On sunday we had 5 investigators in church!  It was a miracle!  3 of them were some african investigators that we found a couple of weeks ago.  The other two were an investigator and his friend who I will talk about in a minute.

Also on sunday, I met a returned missionary who served in Sweden.  He was just visiting our ward because he has some family there.  He saw my name and recognized it right away as Scandinavian.  He told my how to pronounce it (way to difficult to repeat) and told me what it means.  He said that Petter means Peter...obviously...and Borg means city or town.  So my name would mean town of Peter.  What the?!  Like Peter the Apostle?  Legit!!  Another thing he told me was that there are lots of Petterborgs in Norway and Sweden and that almost everybody speaks English there.  Definetly will have to go there to do some Family History after the mission!!

Last week, one of our investigators talked about a friend that he had given our number to.  His friend, Max, called us the next day and we set up an appointment.  In the first lesson, he told us how he had been an alcoholic for most of his life.  In the last years, he has stopped with Alcoholics Anonymous and really tried looking for a religious track.  He has tried Evangelists and Jehova's Witnesses but says that neither one of them made him feel right.  We talked about The Book of Mormon and how one could understand more deeply the power of the Atonement by reading and studying it's pages.  Max came to church on sunday and really liked it.  This may be our next big investigator.

We spent another P Day in Venice...yeah no biggy.  Really fun!

-Anziano Cody Petterborg