December 17, 2014

Ciao tutti!
Well I am here in Bologna now, but because of an exchange I had to do with the district leader in Vicenza, I've only spent two days actually in Bologna...but it's been fun!

Yesterday, on an exchange, we climbed on a bus.  Anziano Duclos asked the driver for directions.  He must have recognized the accent because he asked us where we were from and what music we liked in English.  He told us that his favorite kind of music was country.  I listened to a lot of country music before the mission and so it was easy to have a conversation with him.  I never thought country music would get me very far on my mission.  He was super excited about the English class that is taught in Vicenza and told us he would come.

Are you all ready for Christmas? I am! Well I better be on my way! Love you all! Ciao!

-Anziano Cody Petterborg

December 10, 2014

Ciao tutti!
Well it happened. I have finally been transfered....noooooo!! I feel more like I'm leaving home again.  I'm going to a city called Bologna.  President Dibb has asked me to be a zone leader there.  I'm pretty nervous! But I know Heavenly Father will help me out.

This weekend we had another baptism! It was a beautiful service. Matteo informed me afterwards that he felt like he was in a completely different world.  And someone else told me that Matteo had told them that going down into the water, he saw his life flash before his eyes.  When he came up, he literally felt like he had been reborn.  His baptism was really a miracle and he made some amazing changes.  Then on sunday, we had his confirmation.  I got to be the voice for that...interesting experience in Italian.  The three others that got baptized last sunday were also confirmed.  Four confirmations in church! It was amazing. Many members told me that they had never seen four confirmations take place in one sacrament meeting.  There almost wasn't time for the bearing of testimonies haha.

Well I love you all! Buon natale! Ciao!!

-Anziano Cody Petterborg

December 3, 2014

Buon giorno tutti!
Well we have jumped into December!  Christmas is just around the corner.  What gift are you giving to Christ this year?

On sunday we had three baptisms!  That in itself is a miracle.  However, I think that just as important as the baptisms are the people that baptized them.  My companion baptized one of them, but we had two different members baptize the other two.  One of them has been recently reactivated.  It was great to see him in the water for the first time and exercise that priesthood authority that he is considered worthy to hold.  It was a special moment for a lot of members in the ward especially this once-less-active member's mom who came up and thanked us after the baptism.

Saturday Matteo is getting baptized! And on sunday we'll have four confirmations! Crazy miracles!  I'll let you all know how it goes.

Have a great week! Love you all! Ciao!

-Anziano Cody Petterborg

November 26, 2014

Ciao tutti!!
Happy Thanksgiving!!!  I hope your holiday is happy and that you eat lots of turkey, potatoes, stuffing and whatever else gets placed in front of you:)

Matteo and Alice are married!!  The ceremony went really well.  I've seen an Italian wedding now.  It's nothing too special if that's what you're wondering.  Next step, baptism.

This week we were given a cool referral from one of the GANS in our ward.  She told us that she got a friend request from someone she didn't know and usually she woudn't have accepted it, but for some reason this time she did.  After she had accepted this young man that had sent the invited started talking to her and almost immediately the subject turned to religion.  This young man is from Nigeria and has recently come to Italy.  He wants to start attending a church and make some big changes in his life.  We're excited to start working with him especially since we have three Nigerian investigators that are getting baptized this sunday.

Well I don't have much else to say!  I hope you have a great week and a wonderful beginning to your holiday season!  Ciao!

-Anziano Cody Petterborg

November 20, 2014

Ciao tutti!

Still working hard in Trieste!  We have a few great things happening in the next couple of weeks!  Sunday, our Nigerian investigators are getting baptized, monday Matteo and Alice are getting married, then Matteo is getting baptized on the 6th of December!!  Fun stuff!
So you may have noticed that my email arrived on thursday rather than on wednesday.  Well that's because yesterday, we had a multi-zone conference in Verona with Elder Fingerle of the seventy!!  He gave us lots of great council and trained us in several different areas.  It was a great conference!!

One of the things that Elder Fingerle talked about was improving in every field by 1% in order to hasten the work of salvation and he made a comparison to an English cyclist team that one the Tour de France a couple of years ago.  I had a memory pop into my head as he was talking to us.  When I was in high school and trying out for the soccer team, I remember my dad telling me, "When the coach tells you to jump..." And then I interrupted him, thinking I knew the answer, "I ask how high" And then my kind, gentle, and wise father said, "You ask him that on the way up".  All of us at some point or another have been called by the Lord to fulfill an assignment and we obeyed.  But do we ask "the coach" how high he wants us to go?  Only He can tell us how high, how far, in what way and where we need to carry it out.  I invite you all to ask our Heavenly Father where you can improve and how you can carry out your individual assignments better this week.

This week, one of our investigators that will be baptized on sunday, told me, "I wanted to bear my testimony in [family home evening] but I was scared." After I told him he should share the good feelings he had he told me that since he met the church, his life has been changed. He told me that since he has been coming to church on sunday and the various activities his faith in Jesus Christ has been stregthened a lot and that he never wants to leave.
Well I love you all!  Ciao!
-Anziano Cody Petterborg

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

 

October 15, 2014

Ciao tutti!

Lots to report this week.  I'm excited to tell you about my past week.  But first I wanted to let you all know that today marks my 6 months left...scary stuff.  But lots of time left and lots of people to baptize still!

Drum roll please!  Last week we were able to teach 21 lessons!!  It took a lot of focus and hard work.  Because we weren't able set appointments with many of our investigators, we ended up teaching many of our lessons on the street with people we would stop.  Our hard work lead us to find 6 new investigators!!

Our hard work and focus lead to other miracles as well.  Perhaps the biggest miracle was that we set a baptismal date with our investigator Matteo.  In our lesson with him on wednesday, I told him how he's got a lot of beautiful things coming up.  He is having a baby in December and they want to get married before that.  I told him him that it would be amazing to add to those events a baptism.  He accepted.  The only problem we have now is that he has to find a way to come to church.  He always has to work.  We invited him to pray for a miracle that he would be able to come to church.  We told him that if he has the true desire to come to church, God would open up the way for a miracle.  So this week we prayed really hard for this miracle.  This sunday I was talking to his girlfriend and she said he has been praying hard.  Guess what?  He can't come to church next week but the week after that, he's going to be completely free to come to church!  Miracle!  She also told me that they are planning to be married on the 24th of November...his baptism will follow shortly after on the 29th.

Well that's a lot.  Needless to say, things are going well here.  I love you all!  Ciao!

-Anziano Cody Petterborg

October 8, 2014

Ciao tutti!

Just keeping it real in Trieste!  On monday we had a really great Zone Training Meeting.  The words that the zone leaders shared were truely inspiring.  One quote that I like was "A rising tide lifts all ships".  When we do our best and are concentrated on what's important, other people see that example and automatically start being better themselves without knowing.  My challenge to you this week, be the rising tide! Lift those ships around you!

This week we are trying hard for 21 lessons. We have been struggling to get appointments with people so we have had to resort to our own efforts to teach lessons on the street.  Monday we had a goal of 3 lessons.  We got to the end of the day and we only had two.  We were just getting off the bus and we had a bel pezzo di strada before we got home so me and Anziano Santiago decided to say a prayer to ask Heavenly Father to help us find someone to teach before we got home.  We began stopping people and no one would listen at first but eventually we stopped a woman who let us talk about Jesus Christ and read a scripture from The Book of Mormon.  We said a prayer with her and we reached our goal!  So that was great but then last night we were in the same situation.  But we needed two more lessons to reach our goal of four lessons.  On our walk home we were able to stop and teach 3 people within a time period of 15 minutes.  Two of them gave us their number.  When you set goals, ask the Lord for help, and go to work, the Lord will always help.

Well that email is long enough!  Gotta run!  Love you all!  Ciao!

-Anziano Cody Petterborg

October 1, 2014

Ciao tutti!

October 1st!!  Wow!  That's another month mark for a total of 17 months.  I'm getting old as a missionary.  But I still feel young and full of energy!  Gotta hold onto that until the end.

This week has been pretty rough.  I felt bad because it was Anziano Santiago's first full week in the mission and we had nothing going.  All of our investigators were out of town or sick.  A lot of our appointments fell through.  So saturday night I prayed that we would get some member visits on sunday.  The next day, we felt the love of the members and we got a couple of member visits set up.  We are going to make sure that they are doing their missionary work and we are doing ours. 

I'm sorry I don't have a spiritual thought for you all this week.  I am short on time.  But next week I will try to make it mind blowing!  Gotta run!  Vi voglio bene!

-Anziano Cody Petterborg

September 24, 2014

Ciao tutti!
Come state?  Everything is still great in Trieste.  I picked up Anziano Santiago on thursday and we are doing great work!  We are already seeing lots of greenie miracles.

The other day, just as we had got on a bus, we heard some kids talking about how they thought we were "Testimoni di Geova".  We quickly corrected them and explained who we were.  One of the boys told us that he used to say prayers but he doesn't go to church.  We explained that we bring a book that is another testiment of Jesus Christ.  He told us that his mom would be interested and he gave us her address.  As this was going on, another woman started talking to my companion and he invited her to English class.  Then another woman started looking at my name tag and I asked if she knew who we were.  I left her with a pass along card and also invited her to English class.  I was super happy afterwards because bus finding is something that I have really been working on.

A spiritual thought that stood out to me this week was about self efficience.  Not in the sense of gathering and storing food.  But in the sense of happiness.  I am fully convinced that in life one of the greatest lessons we need to learn in this life is how to be happy.  We have an eternity to live and we will be eternally happy if we make the right choices in this life.  But I think that in order to be eternally happy, we have to learn in this life to pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off when we fall. We all face hard times in this life and they make us sad sometimes, but it's important to remember to be grateful, to know that we are children of a loving Heavenly Father, and that our good choices will bring us a lasting happiness in the future.

Love you all!  Have a good week!

-Anziano Cody Petterborg

September 17, 2014

Ciao tutti!

Well I have transfer news!!  Are you ready?  Drum roll please!  I am staying another two transfers in Trieste!!  And you know why?  Because I am training!!  Woohoo!  I'm kind of excited and nervous at the same time.  I'm a little bummed that I have to stay in the same city for so long...however I do love this city and there's nowhere else I would rather do it.  I'm going to miss Anziano Gardiner too.  So will the rest of the ward here.  We have so many friends.  We really did good work together.  Guess I will have to make another companion work...a greenie...un verdino.  This will be fun. 

Last week on our way home from zone conference, we talked to a girl on the train.  We spoke in English because she really wanted to practice.  The conversation eventually led into if she was a religious person.  She told us a little about her background.  We talked to her about The Book of Mormon and she was really interested.  This past monday, we had a lesson with Martina.  We brought one of the girls who is preparing to go on a mission.  The lesson went really well.  She told us that she likes that she can express herself and that she is discovering new things that she never knew before.

Gotta go!  Love you all!  Ciao!

-Anziano Cody Petterborg

September 10, 2014

Ciao tutti!

Another great week in Trieste!  Transfers are just around the corner...but I don't think I'm going any where.  We're a little worried about Anziano Gardiner...we will miss him.

We are still having amazing lessons with Matteo.  He told us that since we have been coming to see them, he has noticed a change.  We asked him how he was feeling and he told us it's a lot like the salt metaphor that we explained to him.  It's hard to explain.  We took our recently activated member Max to the lesson and he bore powerful testimony of the blessins that come when we obey the commandments.

Sorry for the brief email.  I'm about out of time!  Love you all!  Ciao!

-Anziano Cody Petterborg

September 3, 2014

Ciao carissimi,

Hope you're all doing well.  Another great week here in Trieste!  We have started into september.  That's so crazy.  Time is just cruising.

This week, we saw our new investigator Matteo a couple of times. He's doing really well. He's reading The Book of Mormon and asking his girlfriend questions. On sunday, his girlfriend, Alice came up to us and thanked us for the work we are doing. She told us how much it means to her. She told us that many missionaries have tried in the past without success. She told us that now he wants to invite us over for dinner, ask us questions, and be our friend. We have really made a good connection. I don't think it was because we are just good missionaries (even though we are ;) ) but I believe that the Lord knows when it's the right time for everyone.

My mom asked me to share a thought in my email from my studies.  I was reading in the Liahona this week and I found an article that I really like about the different ways we can do missionary work and how it was done in the Book of Mormon.  I'll share the link

The Work of Salvation: Then and Now BY ELDER L. WHITNEY CLAYTON Of the Presidency of the Seventy

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

-Anziano Cody Petterborg

August 27, 2014

Ciao tutti!

Still working good in Trieste!  Fall is coming on fast!

This week we baptized Guido!  Everything is going great with him.  However, I was a little worried about not having any other investigators to work with.  But the Lord blessed us with a miracle sunday night.  We went to visit a less active member and her non member husband sunday night.  We had a really good discussion about God and how he cares for us and answers our prayers.  He shows a lot of potential and we set a return appointment.  We're excited to see where he goes.

Well I gotta run!  Sorry for the short email!  Love you all and Buona Settimana|

-Anziano Cody Petterborg

August 20, 2014

Ciao tutti!!

Whew!  I cannot believe how fast time is just flying by!  Middle of August already.  Everyone is back in school?  Fun stuff!!

Yesterday, we had an apppointment with Guido to discuss the interview questions before the real interview. We discovered a problem that needed to be solved by someone with a little more experience. We talked to the Zone Leaders. They talked to the mission president. Everything was taken care of within the space of 10 minutes. Guido is right on track for saturday!

 

So a couple of weeks ago, I lost my camera.  I was sad for a while, but I finally got over it and moved on thinking the Lord was trying to teach me something.  You'll never believe the miracle that happened just yesterday.  We were at Max's house for lunch, when I got a phonecall.  It was one of the members who was at the church.  He told me that a woman had called the church and told him that they had found a camera of an Anziano Petterborg.  He wrote down the number and called me.  When he told me, I couldn't believe it!!  So last night I called this lady.  She told me that her dad found the camera somewhere.  I didn't understand if he found it where I left it, or if he found it somewhere else.  But they looked through the pictures and found out who's it was.  This morning, I met that woman and she brought my camera to me.  I have it right here with me.  Everything still intact.  Memory cards, thumbdrive, pictures.  Everything.  I can't explain how I feel inside.  I have prayed so much that I could find it.  On monday in Family Home Evening, I told the story about how I lost it.  The subject of the night was faith.  I told every one that I had lost it but that I hadn't lost my trust in the Lord, thinking maybe there was something he was trying to teach me.  He was trying to teach me something indeed.  Finding this camera has answered a lot of prayers.  Not just the prayers to find it, but others I had about various other things.  It blows my mind that there is someone up there who is very aware of me and my concerns.  Miracles!!!

I copied and pasted that story from an email I sent my mom...hopefully it made sense.

I know that Heavenly Father is aware of every single one of us.  He wants to hear from us and he wants to help us.  

Gotta go!  Love you all!  Ciao!

-Anziano Cody Petterborg

August 13, 2014

Ciao tutti,

This is going to be a brief email, so I apologize in advance.

 Our buddy Max has been set apart as a ward missionary!  We are super excited to being working with him.  We had correlation with him and our ward mission leader and we already have many things planned for this coming week.

This next week, our mission is doing a "Consecrated Week".  We are all going to reconsecrate ourselves to the Lord and the mission.  Maybe you could all pray for us this week as we try to do our best to consecrate our efforts for our gain.

I love you all!  Have a great week!  Ciao!

-Anziano Cody Petterborg

August 6, 2014

Ciao tutti,

Well transfers have come and gone again.  I'm staying another one in Trieste.  And another one with Anziano Gardiner.  This is the first time that I've done three transfers with a companion.  Guess there's still something that I need to learn from him!

Guido bore his testimony in church!  He's not even a member.  He said in his testimony (that reminded me of the way Elder Holland talks, kinda fiery) that he's studied a lot of religions in his life.  Not just christianity, but Bushism, Islam, and whatever else there is.  He says that none of them follow more correctly the laws and commandments of God more closely than The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints does.  It was powerful.  All the members looked at us and gave us thumbs up haha.  His baptism is coming up on the 23 of August.  He's doing good.

Our less active buddy that I talked about a couple of weeks ago, Max, is doing really well.  He was just informed that he will be receiving the Melchezidik priesthood in the spring!  And he just got a calling to be a ward missionary.  We're so excited to work with him.  Last week for P-Day, we went with Max and we bought a bunch of ties that were on sale.  Pretty fancy.  He's more than just someone that we're working with, he has become a really close friend.

Well gotta be on my way!  Love you all!  Buona settimana!  Ciao!

-Anziano Cody Petterborg