03 Sep 14

Hey again! Well we finished the week really well last week, even if it was weird with the move. We didnt have a lot of time to set things up so we ended up doing lots and lots and lots of finding work.

So this Sunday was exciting because President Dibb decided to come to Piacenza! Good thing Anziano Jacob and I were both giving talks, and Jacob was teaching Gospel Principles on the Second Coming. Pressure's on. Everything went really well though! It was exciting also because the girl in Muggio who got baptized came down to Piacenza and is staying here for a few weeks. It was good to see her again, she's doing really well! She also brought me a tie, which was really nice of her.

Lately we've had encounter after encounter with missionaries from other churches. There are some really good people that we meet, and unfortunately some silly people as well. For example, apparently we put Mormon over Jesus because the word "Mormon" is bigger than the word "Jesus" on the cover of the Book of Mormon. That comment rivals with the whole "I read on the internet that your church isn’t true" thing I heard in Muggio. We started talking about prophets. Here is how our conversation went:

"When Christopher Columbus went to America, he found a people there, right?"

"Yes." 

"God loves all of His children, correct?"

"Yes, of course."

"Would God give His word to only some of His children?"

"No, the Word of God is for everyone."

"Perfect. God gives us His word through prophets, right?"

"Yes."

"Ok. So God, loving His children in the ancient Americas, would call prophets from that people as well, so that they could have the word of God, just like the people in Jerusalem. Correct?"

"No, because its not in the Bible."

We kept talking for a little bit longer and it ended with her saying "If I was speaking my native language I would make you understand. But you're too young to understand the word of God anyways" and stormed off with her comp. That has been the most frustrating thing for me out here. We're just asking you to try. If you wont give up cigarettes of alcohol, won't pay tithing, fine. I just want you to think for five seconds about what we're saying, because you'll see that it makes sense, and then try.  

Buuuut here's the good part about it. Like I said at Christmas, it's our job as missionaries to go out and do our best. We'll make mistakes, but nobody will be lost because of our mistakes. Having faith in Jesus Christ is realizing that even though I will make mistakes (and my comp brings testimony that I do 100x a day) these people are going to get a full chance to accept Him and His gospel. So I just need to go out and try and limit my mistakes and do my best to become like my Saviour. Which includes not getting frustrated, so 'I’ve still got a lot to work on.

Anyways, moving on. We were going door to door the other day, and we pushed the doorbell and the button got stuck. So it sat there and buzzed like an alarm clock for a minute before we could get it unstuck. We couldn’t hear what she was yelling at us because the buzz was so loud, but when it finally got unstuck she yelled "WHAT DO YOU WANT?" Being completely honest I almost said we were door-to-door salesmen trying to sell vacuums or something so she wouldn’t hate missionaries, but I told her the truth and said we were bringing a message about Jesus. She didn't let us in.

Other news, because there are no longer sisters in Piacenza, we went to Reggio Emilia for district meeting yesterday, where my MTC comp Anziano Burton is district leader. So we're hanging out with them until we have more missionaries in our district. Then, on Friday we have a big zone conference in Verona! So I get to go back and see Anziano Lopez who is still a ZL up there. I’m really excited to get back to Verona. Only problem is that Piacenza is in the middle of nowhere so we have to take 3 trains to get there, even though it’s not super far. So Thursday night we're going to stay with our Zone Leaders so we don’t have to catch a train at 6am.

As you know, BYU football started last Friday. Ill be honest, that was a sad day for me. Luckily for me though, I was sick that night and got to stay up laying in bed thinking all about the game! It started at 1am my time and thanks to the butterflies in my stomach I was awake then, and at 4 when the game probably ended. So its not like I missed anything at all! I was with ya'll in Spirit, even though I was half praying that I would die that night. But it’s all good now.

That’s all I’ve got for this week. I hope you all have a good week, and feel free to send whatever information you want about the BYU games (past and future). Keep on CTRing and making good choices! I love you!

Anziano Christian Fife McKinnon