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Dear family and other people of the Fort Collins area,

I hear that you are all getting my letters. Sort of weird to think that a whole bunch of people are hearing/reading about me but I don't know who you are! (wow, the Italian keyboards are super annoying).

It's good to hear that you are all doing well and dandy out in Fort Collins. This is what has happened to me in the past week:

Wednesday, after emailing, we went and got groceries. It is extremely weird how America has basically taken over the entertainment industry throughout the entire world. I have yet to hear a song by an Italian band. But I have heard Pink!, Kesha, Blink-182, and The Fray since being out here. Music is very missed. But the rules are flexible enough to allow more than just MoTab (just has to be music that uplifts the Spirit), so needless to say I listen to a lot of Disney, Lord of the Rings, and The Prince of Egypt. If you can find any more music that is spiritually uplifting please send it out. We can only listen to the same 3 cds so many times. The rest of P-Day was spent cleaning the apartment because it was a mess. We found a sack of oranges that were dated from about 2 years ago. The death smell has finally been elimanted from the apartment. We then went out and did some proselyting. Got to meet some of the branch leaders in Branch Council. The members here are very close since there are so few of them. So the love can really be felt.

Thursday I got massive sunburns. It was super cool! I could literally feel the sun being absorbed into my skin. We also spent about 2 hours talking to some Jehovah's Witnesses. They are not very fun to talk to because they just downright refuse to read the Book of Mormon. We tell them that they can know all of this is true if they read and pray but they don't listen to that at all. Our new approach to JWs is to say "Will you read the Book of Mormon? If not we are not going to waste time on you." They are just super frustrating because it seems like contention appears every time we talk to them. Going to work on that more. We also went and taught Tony who is the guy that has a daughter with lukemia. We taught him and his daughter in the hospital. I definately feel good things with this guy.

Friday was good. Not a whole lot happened. A lot of casa in casa. But I try to keep a good attitude because each person slamming the door is one person closer to someone who needs the gospel.

Saturday was the baptism of A di C. That was super sweet. We had one of our investigators, M, come to that and he really felt the Spirit. Going to recommit him to baptism and hopefully get him baptized. Our goal is to get 4 baptisms which means we need to get all 4 committed by this next week! We can do it!

Sunday was really nice. Church is always a good thing. T came to Church and we taught him the first lesson. He is willing to pray and read the Book of Mormon. Going to meet with him again this week and hopefully get him as one of our committed to baptism. We also did a lot of member lessons that day. We are going around and teaching all the members how they can teach their friends about the gospel. I would encourage every family (even my own) to invite the missionairies over and have them help teach how you can share the gospel. Sister Leon was feeling really down though because we only have 3 sisters in Relief Society. Anziano Jolley and I are going to try our hardest to get more members and really get the work rolling here. The missionairies (before Jolley and his previous companion) seemed to have just slacked off and thought they couldn't do anything here. So we need to work extra hard to make up time lost with them. But that's ok because we are ready and willing. We later found right before we went home a woman who was super super interested and wanted to basically learn everything right there. But we didn't have time and already have a few return appointments with her. Awesome.

Monday was miracle day. Everyone wanted to learn the gospel. We found a lot of less-active members just by going around the city. One guy also walked right up to us and said he felt like he needed to talk with us. So we taught a short lesson and got a return appointment. Really super cool. Just crazy how some days the work just moves forward super fast adn we don't have time to do everything!

Tuesday was leadership training again. Those are awesome because we see all the other missionairies and we get to see President. Spirit is very very strong when multiple missionairies are together. These are also sweet because it seems like we always meet one or four or ten people on the trains or buses that will take a Book of Mormom and just eat the gospel up. Trains are the best place to find people!

Today we are just doing emails and shopping again. Probably will finish cleaning the apartment then next week start doing fun awesome things here in Italy. We also have a lot of appointments to meet with members and teach them how to share the gospel. I have learned that having a goal right before you go out usually ends with you doing a lot better than before. Like on Monday we wanted to find 2 less-actives, 2 other people, and place 3 Book of Mormons. We managed to get all of that because we were actively seeking for them. The Spirit will help accomplish goals as you desire to do them. Which is just super amazing.

 

I hope all of you are doing well and are having awesome times back in Colorado. Pretty much every Italian knows about Colorado which is really surprising.

 

Arivaderce alla possima sentimana,

 

Anziano Rockwood