August 21, 2013

Hello again from Italy!

Well the work is having a slow start from last week's holiday, but we're excited to hit it hard this next week!  Everyone should be coming back to town and be ready to hear our message.

So in the Utah/Idaho area we have what is called "Temple Hopping". It's where you go and try to see a bunch of different temples in Utah within a single area.  However there are not any temples in Italy (yet) but there are lots of old Catholic churches! Especially here in Verona!  So last week for P Day we did some "Church Hopping".  We went and saw about four different churches here in Verona.  All of them are very ornate and beautiful...and kinda creepy at the same time.  One of the churches that we went to was the Duomo of Verona.  They were having some sort of mass going on there.  We watched for a bit out of curiosity but we decided it would better if we just left...

I mentioned how this week kinda slowed down as far as finding people because of the holiday.  However, it was our best week for getting new investigators! We got four new investigators this week!  Pretty stinkin cool!  I would like to tell you about 3 of them...because they're a family.  A couple of weeks ago we met a boy in a park. He stopped us and asked us if we were American in English. We told him we were and we stopped to talk to him for a bit. He told us that he was born in the United States and that he had been living here in Italy for most of his life with his grandma, his mom, and his two sisters. About a week later, we saw him walking down the street and we stopped to talk to him. He invited us to his house for a drink of water. We visited with the whole family for a bit and set up a time when we could come back and talk about our message. Our first lesson was so awesome and the whole family has a desire to read The Book of Mormon and learn more about our church. Because there is not a man in the house, we will have to pass them to the Sorelle but they are such an awesome Italian/American family and we're excited to see their progress.

Well gotta get back to work! Love you all as always! Ciao!

-Anziano Cody Petterborg

Homemade Apple Pie yummy!  Thank You Elder and Sister Mann!

It isn't very Often that you see pictures of Christ in Gethsemane in Italy

We made it in the newspaper!  A new bike path in Verona.  The members were excited to share this with us!

August 14, 2013

Hello everyone again!  Everything is really good here in Verona.  It gets pretty hot some days but it rained today and I hope that cools things down a bit.  The work is acually moving kinda slow in Verona right now.  This week there is a big holiday here in Italy called Feria Agosto.  All the stores close down and everybody leaves town for a week!  It is difficult to find people to teach.  It narrows things down to Africans and Sri Lankans but va bene we can't keep the gospel from them!

For P Day last week we went to the Resurrecturis.  It is a big cemetery here in Verona with lots of old statues and pictures.  It was really big! My favorite part of the cemetery was the entrance.  It had some really cool statues on it.  One of the statues looked strangely a lot like the Angel Moroni.  Kinda cool. 

So like I said before, the work has kind of slowed down for this week.  But that doesn't stop the miracles!  One of the less actives we have been working with finally came to church!!  It was soo cool to see hime there.  I don't know if I've told you his story so I'll go ahead and tell you about him.  About a year ago he had a stroke.  It made it really difficult for him to get to church because half of his body was paralyzed.  He has been going to therapy and has actually made a huge recovery! That is a miracle in itself!  He takes really long walks everyday to keep the muscles loose.  For the past couple of months, we have been inviting him to come to church.  He is hard to catch at home because he's always walking and he never answers his phone.  But we try to meet with him as often as we can.  We have had some awesome lessons with him.  I was so excited to see him at church! And he was able to sit by some of our African investigators and explain to them what was going on.  We hope that he continues to come.

I hope everyone is helping the missionaries wherever you live! It sure helps when we have the help of our members.  Our lessons are so much more spiritual when we have the testimony of a member.

Well I gotta get back to work! Ciao tutti!

-Anziano Cody Petterborg

This picture is actually from last week, but it's of Cody and his companion after a big rainstorm!

August 7th, 2013

Well another week come and gone here in Verona. It's getting so hot here! We've been told that August is the hottest time of the year. I'm pretty sure that it gets up above 100° F at least once a day here and humidity makes things very sweaty. But! All is well here! The work is still moving along!

Last week for P-Day, we went to the Basilica of San Zeno here in Verona. It was a really cool building! Lots of old paintings on the walls and the doors had brass or bronze images of a bunch of different Bible scenes. I was really surprised to see how big and spacious it was inside. There are lots of old buildings and churches like that here.

So a few weeks ago, my companion and I were passing by a less active member. While we were waiting for an answer to the door, I noticed a man in his car, stopped at a stoplight, looking at us kinda funny. I waved at him and he shouted back, "Siete Mormoni (Are you guys Mormons)?" I answered back, "Sì!" By then, Anziano Lovett turned around to see who I was talking to. The man asked if we had an English class and we told him that we did. Anziano Lovett then ran across the street and gave him the information about our English class. The next week at English class, he showed up with his fiance. They are super nice! The following week after English class (we always share a spiritual thought at the end) the woman came up to us and expressed that they would like to learn more about our church and that they would like to attend church. They were talking to the right people! We didn't see them for a couple of weeks, but they came last night. We were able to talk to them some more about setting up an appointment and we will be seeing them tonight! We are super excited! English class miracles!!

Well that's all folks! Love you all!

Ciao!!

-Anziano Petterborg

 

 

July 31st, 2013

Well I just started the first week of my second transfer! I'm not the newest anymore! In fact, the zone leaders told me that I'm not even a trainee anymore!  I'm a junior companion! Woohoo moving up in the world!

So last week for P Day we didn't really do anything fun.  We just bought tools for our bikes and stuff.  So I'd just like to talk a little about the cars I've seen here in Italy.  Most of them are very small.  The most frequent brands are Fiat and Opel and really they aren't that impressive.  But! I have seen Lamborghini and a Ferrari! Both of them were soooo cool! It was the first time I had seen a Ferrari in my life! But I must say the most impressive vehicle I have seen here is a Ford F-150 pickup truck...oh yeah.  You don't see pickup trucks here very often and I was super thrilled! I wanted to run up to it and give it a big kiss! But I didn't...that would have been weird.

So last week we had a baptism! It was a 9 year old boy.  His dad joined the church a couple of months ago and now we are working on the family! It's been so awesome!  Shortly after this boy was baptized, his little sister who just turned 8 told us that she wanted to be baptized next week! Haha we told her that we needed to meet with her some more so that we could teach her, but she will be baptized in the up coming weeks.  It's so cool to have so many baptisms in a short period of time.
So I do have a cool story that I'd like to share that happened this past week.  Anziano Lovett and I were just finishing up door to door work in an area and we were headed to another area.  We realized by the time we got to the next area, we would have to turn around and come back to the park that was nearby.  So we decided to just go straight to the park rather that waste our time.  It was a good thing! As we were coming into the park, we saw one of our investigators coming in as well.  It was strange to see him there because we usually meet with him at a spot 10 minutes away. But we waved him down and he told us that he was coming to the park for a break, because he had been looking for a job all day.  It's strange how the Lord puts the people that he wants you to talk to, right in your path.  We taught him the Plan of Salvation and we set up a baptismal date.  When I began to invite him to be baptized I said, "Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ..." and then I didn't get to finish! He said, "Yeah! Yeah! That's what I want to do!" Haha it was soo cool. But I did finish the question and he accepted enthusiastically. 

Well that was my week! Love you all and I'm grateful for all of your support! Talk to you next week! Ciao!

-Anziano Cody Petterborg

   Zone meeting with the new mission president