Letter to President

The missionaries just started using the newly designed English program, Daily Dose, the first of September.  

I have been Learning a lot about success this week. I guess what I have learned is that success has nothing to do with what an investigator does or doesn't do, but rather what I have done. If I have succeeded to do my best, that is success. If both of these families drop us this week, and I know I did my best to help them come unto Christ, I will have been successful. Sad, but successful.

ALSO, we had our first English course last night.

We had our first Huddle last night, and I just want to tell you of the miracles we are already seeing. We threw a party last Martedì to introduce the course and invite members and their friends. We also gave out about 300 biglietini and put up flyers. We had a great turn out and it was really fun and many people signed up. Then last night, we had people come that hadn't even come to the party! We had a full class, for basic, and advanced. It was incredible. We had members come, who helped us to make it fun and exciting. We did have to explain that it was new for us too and so it did feel a little unorganized, but that was all us, our weaknesses as humans. The Spirit however, was perfect. At the very beginning, one man said rather bluntly, 'Where can I write that I only want to learn English and I don't want any of the religion?' Well, that was a little sad, but I stayed positive and did my best to make him feel included and loved, and at the end of the lesson, he made a point to stay after most everyone had left and he thanked me several times for the lesson and used his new english to say it was a pleasure to meet me and that he 'loved to study theology' as he said. The Spirit truly can work miracles. Also, at the end of the lesson, my companion gave a great spiritual thought on prayer and then we prayed and opened it up to questions and one woman asked when we meet on Sundays! After everyone had left, a member told us all that the woman beside her had asked all kinds of questions about the Church and that she was very interested and will come next week. I think she also would like to learn more about the Church now.

The key so far really has been having the members there. The huddles don't work here exactly how they worked in the training video, and a lot of Italian is used. At first, this bugged me a bit, but then I saw that some of the italian being used was to answer questions about the Church! The members here know that this is a finding tool, first and foremost, and I can tell you that while it wasn't a perfect Huddle, it was a perfect experience for some of the non-members who came and were fellowshipped. This course is going to change a lot here in Pescara. I am so excited!"