Update from Italy

September 18, 2013

We have had a really good week. This week. We have seen the love of God a lot and we have been blessed by him exceedingly. Anziano D. is doing  pretty well. He is being a trooper even though for him, this is probably pretty difficult.

On Thursday we were in Modena for a zone meeting. It was really good. We met with Jerry from English class. He seems to really be searching for truth and meaning in this big old crazy world. Please pray for him. We had English class and it was fun. We played Taboo and they had a ball. I remembered how much fun the family has playing that game, especially mom and grandma ;)

We taught Revindar and Stive on Friday (They are both growing a lot and it is really good to see) and planned our week. We realized that thing will be picking up a ton here in Bologna. We are excited.

On Saturday, our investigator, Prince introduced us to his friend, Joshua from England. That was a really good lesson. We explained the Restoration of the Gospel and I feel like both of them are so prepared and ready for the truth!

Sunday was good! Four people came to church on Sunday! Three of them for the first time! Yay!

On Monday, we had district meeting. I love my district! After that, we met with Jerry, Revindar and Lucky. All of those lessons were really good. I am especially excited for Revindar because he seems close to the goal we made together for his baptism which should be on the 28th of the month!

Yesterday, We had a lesson with Stive and it went well. We talked about priesthood and baptism and serving others. We learned a lot together and I also feel like Stive is close to baptism.

I love you all a lot and I am looking forward to hearing from you! Stay well!

September 25, 2013

This has been a good week. A lot has happened. It has been fun.

Well on Thursday, I went to Ferrara for Scambi. We taught an investigator of theirs who ended up getting baptized the next day in Catania. I gave him a baptismal interview and it went really well. I was excited. We did a ton of finding work which was actually really refreshing. We had a bunch of really stimulating conversations mostly with non-Italian European tourists. A piece of somewhat disheartening news... Anziano D. called me that night and told me that President Dibb had been in contact with Anziano D. family and Stake President and they had together reached the conclusion that Anziano D. should go home to rest up. He left in the morning of the next day before I was back in Bologna. Pray for him. 

On Friday, we went to Modena for interviews. And I joined the companionship with Anziano T. and E. until Monday. (Its was like February of earlier this year!) That was pretty good. Sorella Dibb fed us some really delicious soup. It is always a pleasure to talk with President and Sorella Dibb. We taught Stive again that day which was good and also a new convert named Elizabeth. Both lessons were great.

Anziano T. has this project going where he is recording Moroni 10:4-5 in the native languages of all of our investigators, members, and new converts! It is cool to listen to it! I found out about that on Friday.

On Saturday, we did a lot of work with the Cappi's investigators. We had a lunch appointment with some members which was nice. That day I weekly planned by myself. Weirdest. thing. ever. It was good though.

On Sunday we had a super good day at Church. We all moved into our new building. An English School through out the week. We taught Revindar and that was great. I love that guy.

On Monday, I went to Reggio Emilia for their district meeting with the cappi. Our Zone is so small now since it was split two transfers ago, that with mine and the cappi's presence it was one coppia short of a zone meeting. That got a few laughs from the other missionaries. After that, i made lunch and then ran around the train station in Bologna like a chicken with its head cut off looking for my new cellphonless companion....

Speaking of that, Introducing Anziano H. from Idaho Falls! He is great. He is my new companion and he is in his 4th transfer.

Well together, we taught Stive and then got him all unpacked

Yesterday was a good day, We had district meeting after which I made a good old southern style home cooked meal of biscuits and gravy, eggs and taco potatoes. It was good and surprisingly low in price. Between lunch and bedtime we were running around the city between lessons. We contacted a referral which turned out to be an American Family from North Carolina here fir an extended (several years) business stay who invited us back on Wednesday! I am SO excited to FINALLY teach a family! They were super nice. We also met with some less active members and had an impromptu lesson in the park. It was a good day. 

Today, I showed Anziano H. around town. I also got my whole weeks groceries for 8.26 euro. I can hardly believe it myself. It gets sparse towards the end of the month out on the mission. We have three lessons planned this evening.

It been a great week and a great time to be a missionary! :)

October 2, 2013

Hello Everyone!

What a great week it has been! Anziano H. and I are growing together and we are seeing so many miracles! I am loving it! It has been a lot of fun.

On Thursday, We had a lesson with a potential investigator. It didn't really go anywhere and he said that he showed up just to be polite, and that he wasn't totally interested in anything of the religious sort. But he listened politely and thanked us when he left. We had English class that night and I gave them a Spiritual thought (something that I had been trying to test the waters on for a while) from Romans Chapter 8 (the last few verses that talk about how God loves us and that nothing can separate us from that love) That was a really nice and I am pretty sure that they liked it.

We taught Stive on Friday and did a lot of pass-by's and finding work. It was still a good day.

On Saturday, we taught Revindar. That went really well. We are trying to get him to come to church which he said he would happily do if he didn't work. We are trying to get him to ask his boss to give him the time off. Also that day, we taught Elena and Givanni our Family from Romania that Anziano H. and I taught at the beginning of our time in Bologna. That was awesome! They all accepted invitations to be Baptized on the 5th of November! Yay!

On Sunday, we had church and Anziano H. and I did a ton of Pass-bys and a trip to the hospital to visit a member.

Monday was fun, we had District meeting and I hosted Anziano R. who is serving in Ferrara for Scambio. That was fun. We taught Stive again and then we taught the Romanian family again.

Yesterday, we got stood up, so we went finding and taught an impromptu lesson to a girl from Bangladesh. She was awesome! Super Prepared. We gave her an invitation to be baptized on the 5th of November as well. We then taught Revindar and then you guessed it, The Romanian Family :)

Today we will see Stive and the American Family. I am super excited!!

I love you guys and I am so thankful for you all! I hope that you all are feeling close to God and knowing that he loves you. I have felt this love as I have been here in His service and I know that all we need to do is repent and come unto Him and he will bless our lives!

October 9, 2013

The title sums it up. It has pretty much rained every day of this week but it has been fantastic. Every little bit of it!

Well this week had a lot happen.

We met with that American family, and they wanted to take us out to dinner, so we did. We answered a lot of their questions and ate some pretty good food. We are returning today and we will teach them about the Restoration of the Gospel. I am excited. They are way nice.

On Thursday, We taught Stive, our Romanian Family and Had English Class. All of it was really good. I love my English class! They are awesome. We talked about food that brings us memories. Also that day, we dropped off some Books of Mormon in the only room left open in our Chapel. That place is totally wrecked because of all the construction. But they are going to make it a lot better, so I am glad.

On Friday, we talked to Stive, the Romanians, and Revindar.

On Saturday and Sunday, We went to Modena for General Conference. Rocking! Whoever hasn't seen this round of General Conference need to go see it now. You won't regret it. I especially like the talks that President Uchtdorf gave.

On Monday, We had district meeting, and then we taught Stive and the Romanians.

On Tuesday, it rained a lot and we were in the middle of a park and got totally soaked! We still managed to teach the Romanians and Aiuni, (an investigator who was given to us as a referral from the Capi from Palestine) 

Today, we are going to go take a bunch of pictures from high points in Bologna and then teach Stive and the American Family.

I am going to Ferrara on Saturday to give a baptismal interview.

That's been my week!

I love you  all!

October 16, 2013

Well I actually have news for you all! The Lord has called me to Trieste. Trieste is really far away from Milano  pretty much a stone's throw from Slovenia. so the joke is that I am being "exiled" My companion will be called Elder Poole (I actually have no Idea if I spelled that right) I am super excited! Leaving Bologna will of course be a little bitter sweet as leaving a city always is for me. I have learned a lot from my service here in Bologna. I feel like I have grown a lot and have felt the Lord shape me and help me grow. Well That is cool.

This has been a really good week! We have had alot of fun this week.

Wednesday night after P-day we went to see Stive and Also the Kernan family! They invited four friends over. Two of which came form Portland. One of which works at Lewis and Clark College and has offered to help me get in to L&CC! that will be super great! We had fun and we talked and we gave them a spiritual thought. Super nice!

On Thursday, we taught a less active member and we had English class. That was really great. The bread and cinnamon rolls that Anziano H. and I made for them turned out great! I love my English Class!

On Friday, I went to Ferrara to do a Scambio with them and pass by a lot of their members with Anziano C.

On Saturday morning, I gave a baptismal interview for their investigator who will be getting baptized this Saturday!! We taught the Romanian family after I got back to Bologna which was about 5 that evening.

Sunday was a good day. Church was definitely nice. I had a scambio with the Cappi. That was good. I went with Anziano E. and passed by a bunch of less actives and former investigators.

On Monday we very thoroughly cleaned our house and taught our Palestinian Investigator, Aiuni. He is so amazing!

Yesterday, we taught Stive and a man named Aftab.

That was essentially the week! I love you all. Next week from Trieste!

Love Always,

Anziano John Colin Cook

September in Italy

Well It has been a crazy week! Anzaino De Angelis and I are getting over the companionship-of-three-becoming-a-companionship-of-two blues. Anziano Horrocks I am sure is doing great in Bergamo 3rd Ward training (and as President neglected to mention in the transfer calls...being a district leader!)

Well, Anziano Horrocks at 4:00 am on Thursday left. We had said our goodbyes the night before. Anziano De Angelis and I waited with one of the missionaries from Modena while he waited for his new companion to come from across the mission to Bologna. That took most of the day. I kept on forgetting that it was my birthday. We had English class and all of my students made a huge deal out of it! That was really good. I love my English class!

On Friday we had a couple of lessons. One with Stive and the other With Revindar and Kaor. Revindar and Kaor are going to get baptized on the 28th of September! How exciting!

Saturday was a good day. We did some finding and me some pretty nice people none of whom wanted a return appointment, but we planted some seeds.  That night, thinking that the electricity was still sketchy, I washed all of my laundry by hand in our bathroom sink. I turn out that just did that for the experience because I found out later that day that the power was back. Well it was fun at least.

Church on Sunday was really great! I feel like I am growing with this ward! They are really nice and supportive of us. It is good to feel among family and friends. We had a bunch of really cool visitors in our ward that Sunday.  In our ward, there are always visitors and that is a huge perk. They all seem to show up at the same time. It's really interesting. They become a part of the ward even for just that small amount of time. A guy came into the chapel at the end with a pass along card asking for a copy of the Book of Mormon and that was certainly interesting. Anziano Horrocks and I last transfer had prayed that something would happen from the pass along cards that we give out by the hundreds every day. Well so far two Sundays in a row that has happened!

We met Stive again on Monday. He is doing well. We read from the Book of Mormon together. He has promised to come to Church on Sunday. That will be good.

Yesterday we met with a man named Wisdom who has seen us out and about and stopped us a few days earlier. That was really good. We also met with a guy named Malik from Senegal. Both of those lessons were interrupted, one by an evangelical bus driver and the other by some drugged up teenagers. That is what you get for having lessons in the park.

Today we have three more lessons planned, one with a less active and the other two with Stive and Prince (the man who came to church because of the pass along card)

Tomorrow, we are going to Modena for a zone meeting and the ENGLISH CLASS!

I love you guys! I hope all is well! I cant wait to hear back from you!

Anziano John Colin Cook

DISTRICT LEADER!

Well it has been a really great week. Kind of surreal. I don't know what it is supposed to feel like to be a district leader, but I hope I am doing a good job. This week has been a really good week. We had a lot of blessings from the Lord and a lot of his guidance for us. I feel like I have grown a lot and am becoming more like who God wants me to be.

I will start with Thursday. We had a couple things planned, but they fell through. It happens. So we did finding work. We had English class. (with the amount of trouble that I just had trying to type the words English Class I am beginning to doubt my qualification to teach the class.) It was really fun. We wrote a story together about a guy named Paul in a boat on a River that had a shark in it. The funny thing was that Paul, an investigator of the cappi's came by to say Hi to us. He looked at what was on the board and gave a chuckle and a little bit of a shake to his head and walked away. I said "Bye Paul!" and my class busted up laughing, because of the story we were making that was completely unrelated.

On Friday we had a lesson with our Investigator from Tunisia. He invited us to come and break his Ramamdan fast with him that night and we did. He made SO MUCH FOOD! There was soup, and bread, and pasta, and dates, and salad and juice, and these things called brik and he served us these huge heaping servings. It was amazing! And he kept on apologizing saying things like "I am just a humble bachelor, I don't know how to cook" "It's not much, but please, eat!" We brought fruit because it is polite in Italy to bring some kind of thing to share when you are invited to someones house, but in Tunisia it isn't and we didn't know that so he wasn't super offended. He had the Tunisian news on that was playing a bunch of religious broadcasting and vidoes that Anziano Horrocks thought were a little bit strange. It was fun though. We were trying to pay attention to him and not the broadcast, but he kept on saying "Do you know what that guy said?" and we would say "Um...no we don't speak Arabic" and then he would say "Oh" and then explain whatever it is was going on.  

On Saturday, we finally has a lesson with Ali! After forever. We taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Chirst (the lesson with the 5 steps...Faith, Reoentance, Baptism, the Holy Ghosr and Enduring to the end). We got stuck on repentance because he thought that the whole thing was so cool and he wanted to come up with a bunch of different ways to describe it. He lost some steam after that and so we decided to put a hold on that lesson.

Sunday was fantastic, Ravindar and Kaor, our couple from India came to Church and they had a good time! Our members totally embraced them and made them feel welcome. Later we asked if Ravindar liked Church and in his broken italian he said "Oh si! Piaciuto, Piaciuto, Piaciuto! Tanti amici!" the equvolent of "Oh yes! Liked, Liked, Liked! Many firends." It was good. Ravindar and Kaor are reading the Book of Morrmon daily and they are starting to pray to God in the name of Jesus Christ! It is so exciting!

On Monday we had our District meeting, in the church this time and not in the kitchen of the Bologna apartment. Before that we pulled weeds at the church and made sure it was all nice looking. Fratello Palmieri bought some peaches for us to thank us for pulling the weeds. They were good. It rained that day which was an answer to my prayers. Literally. I have spent all of last week praying for rain. It cooled us down a lot and made all of our appointments fall through but I was glad for the rain!

Yesterday was great! We had Three really great lessons! We talked to a Latvian Traveller named Chris who has been through a lot in his life and has a lot of questions, but is totally willing to listen to us. It was really good. He is a great guy and he made me miss home a little bit because he reminds me of people that you could find in downtown Olympia or Evergreen. We taught Jane again. She will be coming to church in a few weeks after everything settles down with the summer. We also had a really good lesson wiht Ravindar that was so great! The spirit was so strong! He said "I am so glad that God has sent you into my life to learn about him! I love His book and I love you guys!" I felt great about that!

Today we had an early morning lesson with an investigator from the Philipines! He was super nice and the Spirit was super strong in that meeting too!

I love you guys! I have to go now!

Anziano John Colin Cook

Summer in Bologna!

It has been a good week. We have had a lot of fun and grown a lot. Bologna is certainly quite hot but nothing new there. 

On Thursday, we did a ton of Finding work! But it was good we ended up teaching a lesson in the park to a girl in her 20's she was super open and accepted a baptismal invite with a date but then she told us that she was going on ferry (Around august all of the Italians go to the sea or the mountains and stay there for like a month) We had English class where we made another  story to do more verb work. They were excited about it. This time it was about Mickey and Minnie mouse...

We met with Ravindar again on Friday. It was really nice. I love that guy. It is always so good when we can see that he is understanding everything, because sometimes when people don't speak Italian or English, super well, it is hard to gauge their understanding.

We met Kris on Saturday, our Latvian Traveller. He has decided to go to Spain for a while. His goal is to get to South Africa before returning to England where he has been for a while and where his friends and job are. We made him promise to stop missionaries wherever he goes because our message is really important. We also went to a park that we frequent and the first people that we talked to, an Italian couple invited us to sit down and have a lesson with them. We accepted and had a really good lesson with them and at the end they gave us their contact information and a return appointment. That was really awesome. We didn't have an Italian Book of Mormon to give at the time so we gave them the Restoration film which they watched later. That was really great!

On Sunday, we had a lesson with a man from Cameroon who loves American Football. He a few days previous had stopped us on the bus and said "You are missionaries right? Take my number. I want to know more about your message". The Golden opportunity for a missionary. We taught him and he is so prepared. His father is an evangelical preacher and has apparently taught his son well about the Bible. We answered some of his questions and we talked about the Restoration. It was a good lesson.

On Monday we were in a park tracting after a lesson that fell through, and we met first Jehovah's Witness man who to me seemed a bit misinformed. His entire premise was that we live in a world full of oppression and therefore it is entirely impossible to be happy in this world as well as that Man has no power over the devil. I thought all of those things were ridiculous because, A) We have agency and we can be happy even when there are terrible things happening in the world, because happiness is something that we can choose to have and B) Man will always have more power than the devil because, God has given us a body and the devil doesn't have one. Men can be weak minded and weak willed and choose the wrong thing but in reality the devil isn't the one with any power. But after him, we met a guy from Tanzinia, who accepted a Baptismal date and a copy of the Book of Mormon. That was really nice. Later that night we taught a lesson in Family Home evening. That was really good.

Yesterday we had a scambio with Anziani Hess and Thompson. I was iwth Anziano Thompson. It was like a few months ago in Piacenza! We taught three lessons that day. One was in the morning with the husband from the couple that we ran into on Saturday. It went really well! Then we taught the guy from Cameroon. We watched the Restoration Film with Him and his friend in French. It was really good. At the end he said "That's the third time I have seen that movie. I watched it twice on your website last night." Also I read the chapter that you left me. He then proceeded to give a detailed account of Alma 32 and how much it helped him understand the parable of the sower that Jesus gave in the Bible. That was really cool!

After that we taught Ravindar and Kaor and that was a really good lesson! It is always good to hear from them!

Today, we are going to do a pass by of a less active member and then go to another park to talk to people. 

Tomorrow we are going to Zone meeting in Modena and then I will be doing a scambio with Ferrara!

It has been a good week. I am excited for the week to come.

 

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.

June 12, 2013

What a great week we have had! It has gone by fast. By tomorrow I will have started my fifth transfer meaning that I will have finished a quarter of my field time. It's crazy. The clock is ticking. I already feel like I don't have enough time left. Well I am sure that you want to know the transfer news.

Well, not much will be changing in our apartment in Bologna except for the fact that Anziano Hill is finishing his mission and going home and Anziano Thompson, my trainer is moving in to be our other zone leader. Totally trippy if you ask me. It will be fun to have that little reunion and Anziano Horrocks is pretty excited to meet his "grandfather"

On Thursday we went to Rimini for the Zone meeting and did a scambio with the Anziani in Ferrara and taught English class. English class was really fun. We taught them a bunch of verbs and then we made a cooperative interactive story about a guy who set off to Belieze to find a wife and ended up starting a really cool tourist resort, but got bought out by competitors and became a national geographic correspondent. It was really fun!

On Friday, all of our lessons fell through so we looked for some lessons and it was fun. The people all listened and were polite. We had a bunch of really uplifting conversations.

Saturday was an incredible busy day! There was a wedding reception of to members and they had us come and fed us and we were weaving in and out of the socializing to teach some lessons with people. We ended up getting home kind of late but I felt like we were able to help people learn about the gospel and we also go to know the members of our ward better. I loved it.

Sunday was also busy. We had church and then a lesson with Samir, and one of his friends which went pretty well. They had a lot of questions that kept turning into more questions. We tried to answer most of them. Then we had to return home because we had to drive to Padova to see Russell M Nelson of the Twelve and Elder Kieron of the Europe Area Presidency. It was really good! It was amazing to see all of these people and listen to testimonies of the Savior and His Gospel. I felt the love of God very strongly in that conference. Also Anziano Nelson started his talk in Italian it blew everyone away, even the translator, you should have seen his face when Anziano Nelson started busting out the Italian!!

On Monday, we cleaned the apartment and prepared for the transfer calls that normally happen on Mondays. We had a lesson in the park with and old lady that was feeling really down.  We helped to cheer her up a bit and prayed with her it was really awesome! In our lesson with Antonio, he told us that he finally realized that what we were saying was true and that he wanted to be baptized! We gave him a date for July 20th!

Yesterday was filled with finding work, but all of it positive. We met some really love people who all want to learn more so we will see how that goes!

I love you all and I wanted to bring my testimony of the work and this gospel. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and he loves us and that through his atonement, we can all be cleansed from our sins and our past mistakes! I know that people will be lead to the Lord as they seek him and they will be blessed.

Love,

Anziano John Colin Cook

Awesome Week

Well My 4th transfer is rapidly approaching an end and I am in total disbelief. I feel like I just barely picked up Anziano Horrocks for Milano, Cimiano. I feel like I just barely got picked up myself from Milano Cimiano.

This week has been one of those really awesome weeks. We have felt a lot of help and a huge turn around in our work. It's been amazing.

On Thursday, our zone and the Firenze zone met together in Modena for a conference with President. It was really awesome and I feel like what we learned in that conference will help us to be better missionaries. It was super uplifting and I walked out of the conference feeling liberated in some way. It was also really awesome because I got to reunite with some mission buddies. I was a joyful time. I also sang Israel, Israel, God is calling, by myself for them. I trembled the whole time, but I felt like I did a decent job.

On Friday there was an international soccer game in Bologna (Italian National Team and The republic of Sam Marino's Team) (San Marino is one of the 3 city-coutnries that we have here in Italy and I am told that I could go there if I wanted to.) The busses were still going, but they were completely useless, and it was rough especially since our church is right next to Bologna's stadium. We walked everywhere an got to experience Italian soccer culture a little bit. Our ward showed "Courageous" in Italian which the members liked a lot and they got a huge kick out of the parts that I find mildly amusing in the movie. On sister laughed so hard she cried at the part where The Police Sargent accidently said "I love you bye" to his police chief. That was really funny to see those reactions.

On Saturday, we got to go to the Park and do an informational display. We had a lot of really good conversations and a few people gave us their information so that we could contact them. We got to meet with Samir again and he is beginning to understand everything. We also found out that he taught himself English! The way that he speaks, I thought he studied it in School and University but he just learned it from reading and watching BBC...wow. I wish I could teach myself stuff that well.

Sunday was a really good day! After church, we had a lesson with a man that we had met in a Park earlier in the week and he was really attentive, I felt the Spirit a lot. We will be seeing him again this week. We went to the park again after that and had two on the spot lessons with some people. One of the lessons was with 2 Pakistani brothers who were really nice. The lesson was in English and as we were saying the closing prayer, an Italian man came up and said "You speak really good English!" and then went on for the next 10 minutes about how clearly he understood our English and how he found it hard to understand Americans normally. It was kind of weird. That's what you get for teaching lessons in a park. The next lesson was right after that with an older man who had been having a really bad day. He said that we were able to cheer him up and that he was interested to hear more of our message.

We taught three lessons on Monday which really rocked. One was with Antonio and the other with Samir and the third was an on the spot lesson in the park. That was a really good day.

Yesterday, we met some less actives in our ward whose son lives in Finland and if I understood correctly, lives in one of the Wards Caleb Anderton served in (Helsinki Espoo...?)! Small world! We planned to have a lesson later with one of the people from the display we did in the park with a member, but the person didn't show up, so the member took us to his nonmember friend's house and we taught him about the Restoration of the gospel. So that was really fun. After, the member bought us gelato which was delicious!

Today has been fun and tomorrow, I will go to Rimini and we will have a zone meeting there. No burger king this time!

I love you! I hope all is well,

Anziano John Colin Cook