I know that Christ lives and loves us and that we can always rely on him for help.

March 26. 2018 

 Time is flying! This week was good and fast. I say that like every week but it's true. This week I had a scambio in Crotone with Anziano Castro, he is awesome! We got up and ran like 4 miles in the morning along the beach it was pretty sweet. It wasn't too bad though so I was surprised. We talked to a lot of people and that was good. Crotone is a pretty cool little city. The next day when Anzaino Daniels and I got home we made some brownies and headed to a dinner appointment with the college kids that we found that other week and that was sweet, they are really cool. It was late so we didn't really have time to teach anything special at the end but we were pretty much talking about religion and out church the whole time. They're pretty interested and even told us that they want to come to church. So that was sweet. We want to sit down with them this week. We also got to sit down with a guy named Siemer, he is our age and is from Spain but lived in France and he's now living here. He is a really humble guy who loves the Gospel but his Italian isn't super good, so it's hard to teach him. So we are going to teach him with a member returned missionary who speaks Spanish, so that should be good! 

  We got to do some service for a member taking apart and putting together bed frames. So that was fun. We had a good pranzo after. It's rained a lot this week so we tried stopping by people we haven't seen in a while and we went up to the castle to see if we could catch Carlo on a break and we did! That was a cool little miracle. He's been sick so we haven't been able to see him lately so we were really happy to see him and he was happy to see us! We want to  continue to help him grow his faith in Jesus Christ.

  I gave a little talk in church on Jesus Christ in church that was sweet. With Easter coming up I decided to talk about his resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus Christ completes his Atonement. In Alma 7: 12 we learn that Jesus suffered for us so "that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities." How could a deceased being succor his people? In Luke 24: 1-6 when Mary Magdalene went to search for Jesus at his tomb waiting for her there was an angle that said, "Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen:"  Because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ he can support us in all of our trials. It doesn't matter who we are or what we have done in the past, Jesus Christ will always be there. I know that Christ lives and loves us and that we can always rely on him for help.

Vi vogliamo bene!

Love Anziano Ruiz

Pictures from last week's Zone Conference. The Taranto Zone

 Another picture of the Castle we ate at from last week that my Companion took.

We went out for for panzerotti after English course!

 This is our neighbor, I had to take a picture with him just to show you all what old Italian men dress like, haha, I love it!

Rome, Italy Temple under construction

When you read the book of Mormon your faith in Jesus Christ grows so much and I know that that is true because I have experienced it myself.

March 19, 2018 

  This week has been crazy and just flew! There is a huge fair thing going on here in Cosenza right now it's over a mile long. So there are a lot more people here than usual so that is pretty cool! Today we took a nice little drive down to Paola to pick up some missionaries for more permesso work. There were some awesome crashing waves. 

 We were in a trio with Anziano Bohn (who I know from the beginning of my mission) for almost half of the week and that was sweet but interesting to work in 3. His companion got stuck in a city doing permesso. Wednesday was pretty crazy we made our way over to Taranto for interviews but stopped half way through to have some lunch in a castle on a beach! We had some really good food. We made it to Taranto and that was good. It just happened to be that Anziano Parker (primo figlio) was there too because his companion had to pick up his permesso in Taranto. So it was really good to see him! Unfortunately we didn't get a picture. The next day we had a good  zone conference, we had 2 trainings to do so that was pretty stressful!

  After conference I did a scambio with Anziano Tucker who is in Anzaino Wagstaff's (second figlio) group.  That was fun, we had a sweet session with this guy names Mimo who has been investigating  the church for quite a while now. We read the book of Mormon together then had a lesson on how you receive power from the Book of Mormon. I always knew that there was power from the Book of Mormon but I never really fully understood how that was possible until the spirit was teaching through me, it was an awesome experience. All power comes from Jesus Christ, and we access that power by our faith in him. The reason why the book of Mormon gives such power is because it is a powerful testament of Jesus Christ. When you read the book of Mormon your faith in Jesus Christ grows so much and I know that that is true because I have experienced it myself. I know without a doubt that Jesus Christ lives, and I don't know if I would be able to say that if it wasn't for the Book of Mormon.

Vi vogliamo bene!

Love Anziano Ruiz

This is where we stopped to eat on the way to Taranto.

Big cheese!

Cosenza vecchia

Paola

Sometimes we mistakenly may believe that happiness is the absence of a load.

March 12, 2018 

  This been another fast week! I don't have much time at all to write. We had a lot of random travel to do this week. There have been couple of missionaries that have came through and stayed at our house because they had to do some document stuff in town.  So that was fun to see some more missionaries.

  We saw a pretty sweet miracle this week. We wanted to work on being lead more by the hand of the lord in our finding so we started calling more revelation on what to do and where to go and praying before we started a finding block. We decided to do some house to house again which is something you don't do a lot in this mission, anyway, we were driving and decided that we needed to stop there and find instead of where we had planned. So we stopped said a prayer and started finding. We knocked some apartment complexes then we were about to go back to the city to find there and we got let into this apartment where there were like 5 college students. At first they weren't really interested but at the end we had talked about the restoration and plan of salvation and they want to learn more! So that was super sweet they are really cool! I want to try to meet with them this week so that should be good! 

  I studied an awesome talk by Elder Bednar this week and because I don't have much time I'll just use his words "Each of us also carries a load. Our individual load is comprised of demands and opportunities, obligations and privileges, afflictions and blessings, and options and constraints...  Sometimes we mistakenly may believe that happiness is the absence of a load. But bearing a load is a necessary and essential part of the plan of happiness... the unique burdens in each of our lives help us to rely upon the merits, mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah." We can find true happiness as we rely on the atonement of the Lord and that is why trials are a necessary part of the plan of salvation. We are here to be happy and that is why we have trials, because God loves us. I know that Jesus Christ is our savior and that he lives and loves us! I hope you all have a. Great week!

Vi vogliamo bene!

Love Anziano Ruiz

Our neighbor randomly brought us this pie. 

It was pretty good, I love Italians!

Thanks to this knowledge, questions don't make me doubt my faith.

March 5, 2018 

Fast week! Happy birthday to my little brother Elijah!!

  It was pretty hard to meet with people this week so we were out on the street quite a bit. It also rained a lot this week and even snowed one night so that was great! But also meant that there weren't a lot of people on the street. We got the impression to do some house to house and originally thought of a place to go, but every time I thought of doing house to house I had a different place pop into my head. So we went there and it was great, we ended up talking to a lot of people on the street and  teaching the restoration to someone who was pretty interested.  It was awesome. We also ran into some one who knew the missionaries from a while ago. 

  Another time this week we started talking to this guy -who knew the missionaries from long time ago- in front of his pizzeria.  We sat down with him and talked and he introduced us to almost every one that passed by haha it was sweet! That same thing happened like 3 times this week haha. Then Sunday we met some guys on the street that then took us to their Gelato shop/Italian bar. They introduced us to everyone and we explained who we are and what we do and they all really liked it. We got offered gelato and drinks by like 3 different people but we told them no thank you because it was Sunday. After that Carlo (the one we ate with a couple of weeks back) came in with his wife and saluted us and then he offered us gelato! Haha We told him the same thing and that "We're good thank you"  then he said "you'll be better with a gelato!:)" Then insisted that we let him get us one. We lost and ended up eating a delicious gelato, it was super good! As we were leaving they made us take pastries home for the breakfast the next morning haha man I love Italians!

  We had a couple meal appointments this week one with Francesco (the one who is planning on meeting us in Utah) it was good he is awesome! He offered to take me snowboarding.. man that was tempting haha I wish! Then we are with Sorella Spadafora and man is was so good I'm getting a lot of recipes from her so I should be able to make some good food by the end of my time here.

  I found a scripture that I really liked this week 1 Nephi 11:17, talking about God. Nephi says "... I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things." I like this because it shows that even a Prophet of God walks with faith and doesn't have perfect knowledge. Lots of people ask us questions  because maybe they understand something or don't have the whole picture.  The best thing that we can do is understand that God loves us and that he has a perfect knowledge. I know that God loves us so much, I know that because he sent his son Jesus Christ and has given us a plan to return to him and to have joy in this life. I know that God loves me and all of you. Thanks to this knowledge, questions don't make me doubt my faith. I know that Jesus Christ is our savior that he lives and has restored his church on the earth today.

Vi vogliamo bene!

Love Anziano Ruiz