June 16 Email – A Baptism from the MTC!!!!!

Buona Sera! (Good Evening!)

Don't worry about the length [of your emails] right now!! I LOVE IT!!! In Italy I don't know, mostly because I’ve never been there lol!! But I’ll find out in less than a WEEK!!! WOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

OOOOH BISCOTTI*!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is sooooo awesome!!!!!!
I like the description on the box too!! those sound yummy!!!!!
Biscotti means cookie in Italian!! I love that you are having mission centered FHE treats!!! Shocking that you liked the crunch too!! It's ok though Alice didn't make them lol!! ;) (a reference to the always crunchy cookies Alice served to the Brady Bunch kids! LOL)

This week Anz. Kinzie got a package from a man that he knew in Italy, he sent our district authentic Italian pizza! It was soooo good! That and authentic Italian soda! It's actually real juice with carbonation! COOL!!

Speaking of Anz. Jones, he left this morning :( sad but really good!! I got his addy and some pics with him and the others. Like the Aussie, and the Elder that is the first from Finland to ever serve in Italy! So that was good! We had a good, good-bye with them!! They gave us their pillows too so that was totally nice!!!

I might start to do the final purge now and start sending some stuff [home]! :)

Ah the lawn mower fun!! How I miss it lol!!

Will you tell Big Red I miss her for me! Thank you! HAHA LOL!! :) (his car)

I will probably write you while I am on the plane and then mail it from Italy!! WOW I’M GOING TO ITALY!!!!!! WOOOOO HOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

That's cool too about the missionary that played for MIT (in a Church News article) and then shared the gospel that way! Sadly he comes in two days after I leave so I will miss him but I will let the others know!!

Holy cow! I have one week left in the MTC!! That is so crazy! I can't believe how fast it's going!! Thinking about the fact that officially in less that a week I will be in Italy talking with the AP's and my Mission Pres. is SOOO cool but at the same time freaky! This is something that I have never done before! but at the same time I am SOOOOOOOOOO excited!!!!!!!

So yeah about that whole sickness thing last week....I actually got really sick! Me and Anziano Kinzie were stuck in our room from Tuesday until Friday! It was pretty hard seeing the same four walls for that long but it was a good thing because I got better really quick and I got to study more! So it was all good! Anziano Mikesell was actually quarantined with the legit flu and had to spend many days in the quarantine building. And now our district has been provided with these respirator things (I will take pictures and send them) that pops this blister of preventative medication that we then inhale twice, once a day. It’s really weird! But it's from the Church (literally) so I will do what I'm told and it will make it so I can go to Italy on time! SO it's all good! :)

So this week has been REALLY COOL and REALLY INTERESTING!!!

First like I said before I was sick for those few days and had to say inside so that was weird but good. Lots of weird things....I don't know it was weird lol!

What else...Oh yeah sad news...the Elder from Japan is no longer going to serve in Italy :( we were all pretty disappointed about that. He was re-called to serve in Hawaii which is awesome and perfect for him! It would have been way too hard for him to learn Italian because he has to learn English first, so now he is just learning English. We are all sad he's gone but at the same time we are all REALLY happy that he is happier now! It's a good thing for him.

Ok what else....OH YEAH!!!!! Are you ready for this.....are you???

WE GOT OUR FIRST REAL, YEP I SAID REAL, BAPTISM!!! WOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOO HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HA HA WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Ok so here is the Story! Giuseppe, Remember him? Yep he's the one getting baptized!

It all started when he moved here from Milan (so yes this is our first real baptism and it's with a real ITALIAN MAN!) and he began to coach volleyball at BYU. He actually was the coach for the Italian national team so he's really good. Anyway he moved here and of course attending BYU [he] had to take at least one Religion class. In this class he began to learn about the LDS faith. He said at first he really liked it because we lived, actually lived what we believe. [I guess] Catholic Italians don't practice their religion really at all) so that was the first step.

Next was the fact that his roommates were returned missionaries.

And also the fact that he knew our teacher Fratello Garlik. F.llo G invited him to help the missionaries with their Italian at the TRC and he agreed. Which in the first place is really really cool because as the coach for a college team there isn't much time for things like that but somehow he found it. The cool thing is, he really liked it! He said "I really like to help the missionaries with language!" but we all knew what that really meant lol! (he was feeling the Spirit!!)

SO he kept coming back and learning more. But the really cool part is he was studying the gospel on his own! HE KNOWS SO MUCH ABOUT THE GOSPEL!! It's totally cool! He is actually enrolled in a mission prep class at BYU! HOW COOL HUH!?!?! Well through this and many other things he decided that he wanted to be baptized!!!! He called our teacher on Saturday saying that he had a question. So F.llo G went over and talked with him and Giuseppe was like "I want to be baptized!!"

Here is the funny part! This was on Saturday and Anz. Kinzie and I were going to teach him on Monday at the TRC! We'd been planning for the week for this. Well on Monday F.llo G didn't tell us about the baptism! He did tell us that he wanted us to extend the invitation to him! HOLY COW! Invite a real person who is really investigating the church to be baptized!!! That's intense!! Well we taught the Atonement and other things and then finally at the end I said:
(he'd just shared his testimony that the Church was true! SO COOL!)
Giuseppe, adeso lei sa questo I ho una domanda per lei riguardo batessemo. Si batesera?
(Giuseppe, now that you know this is true, I have a question for you about baptism. Will you be baptized?)

And he said Saturday...at first I thought he was kidding! But nope he was totally being serious!! WOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOO HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And here is the EVEN COOLER PART!!! WE HAVE PERMISSION TO GO TO THE BAPTISM!!!! WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We're going this Saturday!!! We talked with F.llo G about it and he said if we asked the MTC Presidency and they said yes he was TOTALLY fine with it since we participated in his conversion!! There has been MIRACLE AFTER MIRACLE!!!! For instance we went to talk with the MTC Presidency about this and we ran into Pres. Clegg (he's the second counselor I believe) he used to be a Mission Pres. in Milan so who would be more willing to let this happen than him?!! And he immediately said yes! All we had to do was ask our Branch President!

But the story is not over. The really neat thing that helped me see how much the Lord prepares his missionaries to help his children investigating the Church happened to me this week.

But first. Even though Giuseppe said he wanted to be baptized already and F.llo G and he decided that they wanted us to do this (ask him to be baptized) we still helped him with his decision. Not only has our district taught him before but Anz. Kinzie and I helped solidify his decision though the things we taught. And this brings me to my experience that I shared with him that helped solidify his testimony.

So starting Friday I had been pretty sad/unhappy. I was struggling and things just weren't going that well. I still didn't feel 100% and well I was just unhappy. This had been going for a couple of days and it had led me to question my testimony. Did I know for sure this was true? Why was I here? I don't know...I just don't know! Well on Sunday we watched our last movie at the MTC it happened to be the Joseph Smith movie (MY FAVORITE!) and before it started I’d gotten to the point I couldn't stand it I NEEDED TO KNOW if this gospel was true for myself! I realized that I’d leaned on others for my testimony for too long so before it started I said a prayer in my heart, "please let me know, I need to, I want to know!" and then as we watched the movie I pondered it and thought and thought and then all of a sudden BAM!!! It hit me and now I KNOW I REALLY KNOW for myself!!!!!!!! that this is true!! Now here is the cool part! Giuseppe received his testimony the same way! So I shared my experience with him and he said that really helped!! SO it was cool for me to see how the Lord first gave me trial, to make me question, to help me know to help Giuseppe!!!!! THIS GOSPEL IS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO TRUE!!! I can't wait to go share that in ITALY!!! WOOO HOOO!!!!!! HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!!!!!!!!!!

So the other interesting thing that happened this week is our Branch Pres. finished his time here and was released! It was really sad to see him go but I got a good picture with him and his e-mail so that will be great! He really helped me a lot! I LOVE HIM!! But the new Pres. seems so awesome! We are excited to work with him even though it will be for less than a week. But to me this is good experience because our Mission Pres. who we will no doubt become very attached to is leaving half way through our missions. So we can lean on this [experience] when it gets hard!

We got our last session at the temple until we come home so that was awesome! I REALLY NEEDED IT!! It's totally cool hearing them pray for missionaries and then for missionaries in the room!! WOW!!! the session was awesome!! I LOVE THE TEMPLE!!!!!!!!

This is has been a great great week!!! And I can't wait for Saturday!!!! WOO HOOO!!! I'll take lots of pictures!!!!!

Ok so the Itinerary:

First on Monday we wake up at 3:00 am to be at the travel office at 4:30am

5:00 am we leave the MTC

at 8:45 our plane takes off for NY

(so anywhere in between there I will be calling! Sorry I don't really know for sure! It all depends on how long it takes to get there, traffic, check in at the airport and all of that.) I will for sure call at the NY airport

We arrive in NY at 3:25 (Utah time)
We leave NY 4:55

So again in between that I will call!

We arrive in Rome at 7:20 am (still Utah time)
We leave Rome at 10:00 am
and arrive in Catania at 11:15!!!!!!

and the cool thing is I don't know if you did this intentionally but the card you sent works from Italy! It says that on the front!! COOL HUH!?!?!

I won't be able to call from the Catania airport because we meet the AP's there and then go to the mission home! But everywhere else I will TOTALLY CALL!!! WOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOO!!!! I can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We fly Delta the whole way there so I will grab the copies of the itinerary and mail those so you have the flight numbers! I don't have the paper with me sorry! :) With Delta we get 50 lbs per bag that we check in and 40 lbs for our carry on so that will be really nice!!

Well this has been a great week and it's just going to get better!! I will talk to you next week!! Remember its all true!!!!! Love,

Anziano Nielsen!!

PS
Permacrease** is great! I Love it!! I'll send the other pants! they need it!! :) THANK YOU!!!!

CIAO!!!!

*Biscotti is a light, lemony Italian treat we found at Harmons in Roy!

**Permacrease is this really cool thing they do with suit pants at Men's Wearhouse for a small fee so there is a more permanent crease, we had it done on all but one pair of Elder Parker's and it works great!