Day 469

This week, we're trying to work more like a district of 6 people than 3 pairs. Every morning, we're doing short tours of the chapel and every Sunday, we're having an activity at the park with the help of the youth. Today, we did a test run at the park with some paintings and a giant Book of Mormon (apparently every house on the mission has one). It went really well, we taught 16 separate lessons in just a few hours and tons of addresses to visit this week.

Elder Gil joked as we were walking to the park, each one of us carrying a painting, that everyone was going to think we were trying to sell the artwork. And then on the street someone driving by stopped and asked if we were selling! And when we did start, it did feel a bit like hosting a tiny art gallery for sale.

Most interesting contact:

"Good night, we're missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ, what's your name?"

"I DON'T HAVE A NAME, FRIEND!"

And also, some people thought we were Jehovah's Witnesses. On that note, observing their missionary work, I've never seen them approaching people on the street/on the park, it's more like waiting for people to come to them. Which here, if we did, we'd end up talking to maybe 3 people per day.

Fatima went with us to church again yesterday, Maria (who will be baptized June 8th) too. This week we'll be teaching **everyone** about the Sabbath Day as a separate lesson on the first visit.

I've started reading the Book of Mormon in Italian regularly since the end of last month, with a little help from printing basic grammar+pronunciation guides. I'll see how much progress can be made without contact with native speakers over the next half-year.

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Brief thought, the central message of this transfer's Zone Conference as presented by President Louza (very compressed/paraphrased):

What's the central theme of the first 3 lessons (Restoration, Plan of Salvation, Gospel)?

Restoration: Revelation. The church that Jesus Christ established cannot exist without living revelation.

Plan of Salvation: Atonement. We won't survive spiritually during our life on earth without recognizing and using Jesus Christ's atoning sacrifice regularly. The entire plan, every single aspect, depends on the Atonement.

Gospel: The Way. This message explains in what way we can receive revelation and apply the atonement in our lives, through faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.

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Love,

Spencer