Hot and Humid in Bologna, Italy!

I am tempted to make further comment about the time flying, but I will refrain.

Dear Family and friends,

Greetings from a very humid and hot Bologna, Italy. We have had a very good week and we have been working hard to help as many people as possible come close to God. I love it here and I am feeling the Spirit witness to me time and time again that this is the place that I need to be. I can finally say with complete sincerity that I don't miss Piacenza anymore. I haven't for weeks which is good. It's good to bloom where you are planted. It's a life lesson that I am learning here.

Well lets see about the week...

Thursday was the day that we had transfers. That was vaguely exciting. Our apartment was involved in coordinating all of the transfers happening at the Bologna station. We saw off Anziani Hill and Strong on their fast train to Milano. It is weird to think that they are at home right now and it is also weird to think that every week that passes by is bringing me closer to a transfer, which is bringing me closer to going home. Weird. As it stands right now, I am only at my 8 months mark, so maybe I shouldn't worry about it. After Anziano Hill and Strong left, we picked up some of the missionaries form Modena who were waiting for their companions and then I made lunch. After lunch Anziano Thompson arrived at the station and then we had a little reunion. After that, we went to go do a ton of finding work. We had English class with two people one of them kept speaking to us in German. That was fun.

On Friday, I took my trainee, Anziano Horrocks to the Questura to get his fingerprints done. That was really fun. Well, not really. But it was quick. We met with Jane, an investigator from Nigeria and she brought her friend Juliet who didn't seem extremely interested. We asked Juliet if she wanted to meet again and she said something like "I don't really think so..." and Jane said "Juliet, Honey, come to Jesus!" that was awesome. Jane has been reading so much from the Book of Mormon and always has such great questions. She is super sweet. We met with Antonio later in the evening and he is pretty sure that he wants to move to Belgium but he wants us to teach him up until he leaves. He is really awesome and he wants to change his life. I hope everything works for him.

On Saturday, we went out into the countryside to help some members move a giant pile of wood that they have that will last them through the winter. We found out that there are like 4 member families all living next to each other. So we got to bond over sunburns and splinters. It was actually a really positive experience. Italians put the party into work party. They were laughing and joking and singing literally the entire time. We had a giant Italian lunch afterwards and Anziano Horrocks took his first real Italian meal like a trooper! He learned that these things come in courses (Like 4).

We had church on Sunday which was really good. We visited Samir who is really worried about his family back in Afghanistan their town has recently experienced the rough end of the armed conflict lately. (Please pray for him!) We comforted him and talked to him about God's plan. He is super eager to learn and understand and I hope that his family stays safe. We then passed by a less active sister and visited and member of the ward while he was in the hospital.

On Monday, I took Anziano Horrocks to the Questura again to get a second copy of his fingerprints. The lady there was super nice and seemed interested to know what we were all about. We had plans for several lessons but they fell through, so we found a bunch of people to talk to. At the end of the day we were feeling a little down because we didn't have any lessons taught, we were going towards our house when Anziano Horrocks said "Let's go to the park near our house and find a lesson!" I went along with it, a little skeptical... and the first person we talked to, A lady from Moldova talked with us and we had a lesson with her. She was super sweet. We are seeing her again tonight!

Yesterday we met with Karim again after a bit of a hiatus. He is doing well and still reading from the Book of Mormon. We did some finding and talked to a pair of Jehovah's Witnesses. They were pretty nice but only wanted to talk about their beliefs and talked about having an appointment to get to when we tried to share our beliefs. Well... I learned some things from that though.

Well that has been my week. Tomorrow, we go to Rimini again to have a Zone meeting! That will be good.

I hope everyone is doing well. I pray for you all and think about you. I know that God is watching over us. I hope you are all enjoying the sun!

Love,

Anziano John Colin Cook

PS: I have decided that instead of sending things directly to where I am in Bologna, it would be better that letters and all came to the mission office. That way, If I get transferred, the letters will still arrive instead of waiting with the missionaries there until they get the chance to get them to me.