Baby Brynlee and Good Stories

Ciao! 

I love the new baby!!!! haha it makes me happy cause she is just like Brooklynn! make sure you keep her and your baby chunky for when I get back! I like the babies chunky! so yes to answer your question, I think I’m getting all the pictures. I haven’t been getting any from Keri so maybe not all of yours. but I have seen the baby! and you just sent me 2 of the shower! so I think that’s everything important! 

Baby Brynlee

I love the story of the couch!!! haha it pretty much wraps up you and Aaron and our family shopping and buying things in general! I love Keri and CJ’s couch, so if yours is bigger... I will love it! haha now I can come sleep their for a weekend to play with baby! speaking of baby, I say bring baby to Italy haha but it is pretty far! and don’t worry if you cant make here to Italy, its expensive I hear haha so if you can Great! if not va bene! 

So cool stories here in Italy! We have a baptism this Saturday! Its a pretty cool story. About a month ago this sister and her aunt were baptized. more like 2 months ago. so the sisters taught them and they are great and really awesome members now, but they wanted to thank us the elders too so about a month ago they invited us over for dinner. So when we were over there we got to meet the family, and the sisters only speak English and Pilipino, but the brother of them were born here in Italy so they only speak Italian. So we were talking to the brothers a lot that night, they are 15 and 10 years old. After dinner we told them about the book of Mormon and invited them to church. And before this the sisters were always trying to see the brothers but they never wanted to, cause they are kinda shy with the sisters, but with us they seemed really open. So after we did the lesson and invited them to church, we didn’t think to much of it! We prayed they would. But i guess like an hour after we left, the brothers asked their mom if they could change religions if they wanted. She said yes and the following day they called us and said they wanted to be baptized. Since then they come to every English class, they come to family home evening in church and come to church every week! They are so excited to be baptized! It’s really cool to see their excitement. It made me realize again that even though i love being here in Italy and seeing the history and eating and doing all that stuff. The thing i love most of all on the mission is seeing this gospel change peoples lives and having the opportunity to help someone do baptism! I love it more than anything on my mission! Other cool small story, we recently got a new ward mission leader. And he is so great! a return missionary and so happy!  But with this new calling he told me he had a lot of fear because he cant speak Italian, but we all encouraged him to just bring his great energy and spirit to the ward and he will have success. So he has been doing that, and been leading by example. He is constantly telling us of stories and people he has met at work or on the street where he has been trying to share the gospel. He also says he has been praying for a particular family he knows and been looking for an opportunity to share the gospel with him. Finally one came when they came into his work, so he bravely asked them to meet us on Sunday. So Sunday we went to this meeting. this family just had a kid and their entire family belongs to the church. So we went through the restoration with them and had a good spirit with us the whole time. the husband seemed especially interested, but the wife did not respond to much the entire lesson. But then at the end of the lesson we asked for the wife to say the prayer, and of course she said no at first, but the family and us supported her and told her she can do it. So she finally submitted to pray. It was in her language, but me and my companion both felt a powerful spirit in her voice and prayer. It was a lengthy prayer, but seemed very heart felt. then when she finished we looked up and she was crying. It was such a tender mercy to see the spirit touch some one through prayer. She said she did not understand why she was crying, but felt something powerful in her. After the prayer, like all Phillipinos, the med us something. And the spirit and attitude of the wife had done a 180. She had a smile and was talking and happy with everyone. I know they are ready for the gospel, and I know this message will help them and in their new family!

OK sorry I didn’t write much! i have to go teach the boys pretty soon! Send more pictures! ill keep praying for you and new baby in these coming weeks! keep me updated! 

love you! 

Ciao

Ty Baptizes Mark Antony

Ciao tutti!

OK my cool stories for the week! First we had the 2 baptisms of the brothers! It was such a great day and event! I am so thankful for the opportunity I had to be apart of their conversion! Also apart of their baptism! So my companion and me baptized the brothers, each of us baptized one. I baptized the older brother Marc Antony Arojo! Sweet name I know haha. He is a very awesome kid! My comp baptized the younger brother Bryan! he as well is just so sweet sincere and just awesome! Then the next day in church the other anziani in our ward gave them the holy ghost and confirmed them! They are so happy and just have an amazing glow to them now! Its funny cause they both love to pray!! haha so every time we have a meeting in church or meet with them they both volunteer to say the prayer and give the most honest sincere prayers haha. Last night in Family home evening the younger brother prayed and thanked for everything he ate that day and everything we were about to eat and then asked God to forgive his brother because he coughed during the prayer haha it was funny but its really great to see how their relationship with their father in heaven has grown so much just even in this last month! Also they already have tons of new friends in church because they young kids all accepted them with open arms! so they love everything and are so happy! The other cool miracle from the baptism is that their mom came! Their mom is not a member, but now this year alone her daughter and her 2 sons and her niece have all been baptized!!! The father was unfortunately killed some years ago so she is alone and an amazing strong lady, so we are really hoping she was able to recognize the spirit that was at the baptism! I know with time she will see how this gospel will bless her life! But at least we know she was excited for the baptism because she cooked a ton of food for after wards to eat! haha it was so sweet! I love those kids so much and cant wait till their entire family can be sealed together! 

The other cool miracle I had this week was one that started last week! Me and my companion had 30 min before a lesson and decided to walk to a park, but unfortunately like happens often no one was interested to talk at all! haha but as we were walking to the next appointment, we saw a man on a bench a ways away and asked each other if we wanted to go talk to him, initially we said no and kept going, but as we walked away I had a strong feeling i should go back. SO to give you a seen we had just past by the guy a bit ago and he clearly saw us, then decided to go back soon after haha so it was a bit awkward but lets be honest, I don’t care about awkward! haha. We talked to him for a little bit and he was really interested! We were just happy he talked to us; we didn’t have much time so we exchanged numbers and left him with a prayer. Then this week we set up another appointment to see him! That in itself is a miracle because it never happens! But we got an appointment. So we met up with him in the same park at the same bench. We started to explain how the church of Jesus Christ has been restored today and he loved it all! But during the lesson he had to stop us and just vent on how he kept thinking about how he felt when we talked for the first time last week. He said he had this feeling of excitement and joy that he had never felt before! We explained that was the spirit talking to him and telling about the truthfulness of our message. So as we finished the lesson we asked him to pray, he had never really prayed before but did it anyways! Another miracle! when he finished we were saying our goodbyes and setting up when we can see each other again, but me and my comp could tell he had something on his mind. And as i stood up to leave he stopped me and looked me in the eyes and asked with the most sincerity I have ever heard in my life "Alla mia eta, si potrebbe entrare la vostra chiesa e farsi battezzare??" which translates to " at my age, could someone enter into your church and be baptized?" I looked him back in the eyes and said "ASSOLUTAMENTE!" haha which means absolutely! so we committed him to be baptized in the future! It was so cool to see the spirit work in me to guide me and the work in the man! I know the church is true! I know this Gospel is the true gospel for salvation! I am so thankful for this mission! 

Cool not related mission things, this week i went to a place in Switzerland called Bellinzona where there are these beautiful castles! Then the last week I went to Bellagio. Which is this beautiful area at lake Como where its a peninsula out in the middle of the lake! it is surrounded by the Swiss alps with snow caps and is definitely one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in my life! 

OK I love you all! I love the mission! ciao

Read the Book of Mormon

Ciao!!

So someone told me once that a prophet or an apostle once said that if you read the entire Book of Mormon in your mission language out loud you will be fluent in that language by the end! SO I took that to heart and have been reading it when I have free time out loud! And this week i finally finished it! So I guess that means i should be fluent haha I’m not sure about fluent, but I know it definitely helped me more than anything else! I will say I can speak Italian and understand every Italian... but I don’t know if I will ever speak our sound like an Italian when I speak Italian unfortunately... But more important I strengthened my testimony of the Book of Mormon! I know that like the Bible this book is another testament of our savior Jesus Christ! We are so blessed to have this sacred book to help us understand our purpose and the teachings of Jesus Christ! I know it is true! and I know that it is the proof that i belong and represent the true church on the earth! 

ok love you all!