Anziano Ruiz in the Italy Rome Mission: I know that God listens to out prayers and that he is always there.

December 4, 2017

Every week keeps getting faster I'm not sure how it's possible! Anyway the first couple of days were pretty sad; I found out that I am leaving Napoli so they were filled of goodbyes and packing and eating my last pizzas haha. There are these guys that has their car shop under where we live, we pass them everyday and always stop to talk a bit. We have grown close, when I told them I was leaving they were super sad and gave me a huge hug haha. There is a grandpa his son and grandson and they call Anziano Wagstaff and I as if we are part of the family!

We stopped by Marco and his family for a little lesson and to say bye, that went really good. It had been awesome getting close to them and watching them grow! The hand of the lord has definitely been visible in that family. It has been super awesome serving with Anziano Wagstaff we can't wait to see each other in college for sports! He is an awesome missionary and we have a lot of awesome memories from Napoli!

So you're probably wondering, I'm now in Cosenza with Anziano Bellucci! Anzaino Bellucci was my Zone Leader while I was in Napoli so now it's cool to be working with him as a Zone Leader over the Taranto/Calabria zone. He also went to Utah State for a year so that's sweet! Friday morning we had a Mission leadership council, that was really cool, we talked about making goals and Stepping up as leaders. It was really cool to see the trust that President Pickerd has for us. He loves us so much.

Cosenza is an awesome area to serve in! It's in the foot part of Italy and there are lots of pretty valleys and mountains. We have a car and most of the members live out of town so we find ourselves driving up curvy Italian mountain roads. It sweet and reminds me a lot of Ascoli Piceno where I was last Christmas. The members here are awesome, we've already been fed twice! I'm super excited for this transfer and Christmas here.

My first Sunday here after church we went and visited this huge family who is going through a hard time being able to stay in their apartment. The mom and dad are doing their best and things aren't looking really good for them. While we were their visiting I felt prompted for all of us to say a kneeling prayer together. The mom pulled out a blanket and put in on the floor for all of us to kneel on and we all went in a circle and offered our prayer to God. And wow, the spirit was so strong, we all felt the presence of God in that room. The power of prayer is so real. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, as I said unto my disciples, where two or three are gathered together in my name, ... behold, there will I be in the midst of them—even so am I in the midst of you." D&C 6:32. I have gained a stonger witness that this scripture is true this week. I know that God listens to out prayers and that he is always there.

Vi voglio bene!!

Love Anziano Ruiz

These are the guys that work under our apartment. The girl just jumped in the picture randomly haha #WelcomeToNapoli