Well Another Week Gone By

Well another week gone by and another good week at that. A few big things happened that were great, not really BIG, but great. One not so great, actually. Anyway, let's get it started:

1. In church on Sunday, the bishopric announced that the area seventy has given them permisison to look for a place to build a church in Ostia or close to there, because all of our members without cars have to travel one hour or more to get to church. We have to travel and hour and 15 minutes. But they announced that in 104 days they want to have a place to build a chapel or to rent someplace that won't kick them out because of noise. If you are wondering why 104 days, well that is double the time it took Nehemiah to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, which was what the lesson was on...

2. During the lesson I was thinking about these chapters which I had just read - the story of Nehemiah - in the MTC after reading one of President Uchtdorf's most recent talks. I read the part in chapter four where it talks about - we are few on the line, but we build with one hand and in the other we hold our swords. I started thinking how much that is like Italy right now. The time has come where the church is pushing for higher membership in the United States, calling more missionaries to those missions - as is apparent with all of my friends being called stateside. So certain less productive missions (such as those with low baptismal rates) suffer in the number of missionaries. My mission is one of those missions. The area presidency is trying to get just two man apartments for the meantime here in all of the mission, so that more missionaries can be used somewhere else. We have seen, my companion and I, that in a two man apartment, it is much like Nehemiah. We are few on the wall and we build with one hand and defend with the other. Some of our duties have started to fall on going with members to recover the less actives and teach a lesson to them or to an investigator. But most of our time is still spent building the kingdom, doing finding work. And it is hard, but worth it. Monday we were doing house, and it was pouring rain and we didn't have umbrellas or raincoats cause it was sunny, no clouds when we left. We were wet and tired and finally we buzzed someone on the intercom and...they said, "Ya, ok, I'll listen." First time that has happened since I have been here. We taught a first, and she seems interested but she lives in Rome and only nannies in Ostia, so I don't know if much will come from that.

3. Now for the sad news. Our investigator hasn't been coming to church and hasn't been keeping appointments, and therefore, we had to cancel the baptism for this week. Sad, but it is for the better, cause I feel now that she just isn't as ready as we originally had thought. But we have another investigator that we are going to extend a baptismal invite to tonight. He is awesome and super humble. He just doesn't have a lot of worldly possessions, money being one of those things. Transportation and what not is really hard for him, but with a closer church, that would help. So pray for that.

Other than that, it is just been finding work and member work this week. It was a good week, although I don't think I have any pictures for this week. I can't remember. I'll check and send some if there are some.

Give both Chandler and Jon my wishes of good luck. Tell them to dig in, enjoy being with their companion and talking to people about what is the real source of their joy in this life. They will both be great missionaries. Enjoy it. It is fun.

Well, that is about it for this week. Love you all and always enjoy your letters. And Jalayne, I forgot for like four weeks, but yes, I get your letters! Love you all!

Anziano Hatch