All of you mothers are so special and play such an important part of God's plan for us!

May 17, 2018

  First off happy late mothers day to my beautiful mom! All of the Italians say you're so young and beautiful!  Also happy mothers day to all of the wonderful moms out there!

  Wow its been a fast week and a fast transfer! It's a lot different here because we live with two other missionaries so time seems to fly even more! This week we did a scambio with the Anziani from Sassari which was good! Anziano Oswald and I did some good work together. We wanted to stop by some investigators who work at this place in Centro, they weren't there but we started talking to Massimo, a guy who was on shift. He was kinda complaining about different churches and wasn't really interested in what we had to say.  We explained about how things have been changed since after the death of Christ and that's why there was a need for a restoration. He was super interested and wanted us to meet with his family! We we are excited. 

  The other cool thing was that Massimo told us when  Franco and Simone (the two guys we originally were looking for) were working, so we stopped by them the next day. This time I was with Anziano Christensen, we stopped by and there already were a couple of people there just kinda hanging out. Once we got there and they saw that we were missionaries it almost turned in to a big argument of believers vs non believers. We were calm and shared our beliefs and in the end Franco was bearing testimony about how there was a need for a restoration to some random guy and it was pretty sweet! 

  I really like a quote from President Gordon B. Hinckley "I remind mothers everywhere of the sanctity of your calling. No other can adequately take your place. No responsibility is greater, no obligation more binding than that you rear in love and peace and integrity those whom you have brought into the world." I love my mom so much and I'm so proud of my sister Italia who is now a mom! As President Hinckley said no one can adequately take your place! I can't imagine my life with out my mom, being away and on my mission has given me an opportunity to take a peek of all she has done for me. All of you mothers are so special and play such an important part of God's plan for us!

Vi voglio bene!

Love Anziano Ruiz 

A picture with some flowers for my mom for mother's day!

 Here is good ol' Anziano Christensen and me.

Here is a sweet looking door from house to house.

This is our church. It's the first time

 I've had an actual building! 

Some more of my area!

As we grow our faith we become more and are able to do more though Christ.

May 7, 2018

  This week was really short! It's kinda crazy too because this transfer is also coming to an end here soon. This week was good I feel like we really connected with the City and the people in it. We had some great opportunities to teach the restoration in the street and we are hoping to be able to see some people again.

  So here in Cagliari there are quite a lot refugee members from Africa so that is pretty cool. Sunday after church we did a really big pranzo with the ward and it was like a get to know you. So after we ate there were some members that told their story of how that got here in Italy from Africa and it really made you realize how blessed you are. These members are so humble and have an amazing positive and great full attitude. They are such amazing examples in everything. Another cool thing on Sunday was that a woman who has been meeting with the sister missionaries for a long time was in church and told the sisters that she had a vision that I was baptizing her, pretty sweet!

  I was reading in 3 Nephi chapter 26 this week and I really liked a verse that said "11 Behold, I was about to write them, all which were engraven upon the plates of Nephi, but the Lord forbade it, saying: I will try the faith of my people." There may questions that we have now, and will have. Jesus Christ knows that and he has the answers. We go though this life facing lots of trials of our faith. It's all part of a plan. When we over come a trial by enduring faith our faith grows. In Moroni 7 Christ said "33. ...If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me." As we grow our faith we become more and are able to do more though Christ. We have trials in this life to become perfect even as he is perfect. I know that he lives, and is there to love us, help us!

Vi vogliamo bene!

Love Anziano Ruiz 

April 30, 2018 

 This week was pretty good, felt super long because P day was postponed. 

  So there is this place called Piazza Giovanni in Cagliari and we always seem to talk to big groups of ragazzi (teenagers) there, it's funny. Tuesday night we were walking in the park and this group of ragazzi walked passed us and were yelling Mormoni, probably to mock us. We stopped them and started talking to them and they were super excited that we were American and they really liked my sports pictures. They weren't really interested in the Gospel but they now really like the Mormons so that is awesome! We met them the next day and beat them pretty good in foosball haha it was funny we are getting pretty good. The next day same place basically the same thing happened after we saw some kids skating and I asked if I could give it a try, they were pretty surprised that a church boy could skate haha.

  I did a scambio with Anziano Bacon this week and that was sweet he is a new missionary and is really bravo! He was number 12 in the nation for mountain biking I'm not sure what category but that's sweet. We stopped by a bike shop to see a guy he had met on the street, sadly he wasn't there but we did get to share out message with someone else and that was awesome.

  Saturday we did some some service again and that was super awesome. That night we did some finding so we went to centro and walked up to this view over the city that was super pretty, we were  talking to a big group of people in their mid 20's and ended up teaching them the restoration as we watched the sun set in to the sea. It was pretty sweet, these guys should be coming to our English course and were super interested in the restoration so that was sweet!

  God has blessed all of us with strengths; I like 1 Timothy 4:14-15. "14 Neglect not the gift that is in thee...15 Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all." There is a quote by Thomas S. Monson that says "the greatest force In the world today is the power of God as it works through man." A great way that God works through us is by giving us strength and blessing other people through them. As it says in 1st Timothy we should not neglect these gifts, we should use our strengths and what makes us unique in this world to serve others. The first GREAT commandment is to love God and the second is to love our neighbors. When we serve others we fulfill both of these commandments because "when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God."(Mosiah 2:17). I know that God lives and that because of him we can bless those around us.

Vi vogliamo bene!

Love Anziano Ruiz 

It seems like once you talk about love, everything goes better.

April 23, 2018

  Weeks just keep flying by! This week was pretty good, it's interesting being back in Sardegna because the finding here is a little different. We do more house to house stuff which isn't something you do much in Italy. Anyway it's pretty good.
  We passed by a guy that had been seeing the missionaries for a while now. His name is Fabio, he has a sweet  ceramics shop in down town Cagliari so its a really cool location. Anyway he hasn't seen the missionaries for about 3 weeks because we have been so busy but he is still reading the book if Mormon! So that is awesome!

  Saturday was super good we had a couple of people that were moving so we got to do service and help carry stuff up 5 flights of stairs! It was a nice workout haha we were pretty dead tired. To make it better there was an elders Quorum soccer activity so we went and played soccer with some of the guys from the ward so that was cool. I was pretty dead after that day.
  Sunday after church we ate then did our studies and only had about 30 minutes till we had to head back to the church for choir practice.  We weren't really sure what to do so we all just hopped in the car end stopped and parked at the first park we saw that had people in it and started talking to people. It was super good. Anziano Christensen and I just started knocking some doors that were near by and some one answered who wants to know more so we are going to make our way there first thing after p day. It's pretty fun being in a city where there are more than just 2 missionaries. 

  Last second someone told us that we had to teach Gospel principles and that was pretty fun! We had some non members there that just wanted to bash and that was upsetting so we ended up reading a scripture from the Book of Mormon that really brought the spirit. Alma 9: 17 "for the Lord will be merciful unto all who call on his name." God loves us and it will show his love to all of us, sadly some people in this life don't have the opportunity to know who God is. That will never stop him from loving us. It seems like once you talk about love, everything goes better. The message we share is a message of love, God is our loving Heavenly father, Jesus Christ loves us, they both live and because of that we can always feel love in our lives; regardless of our circumstances. We are all children of God. I know these things are true.

Vi vogliamo bene!

Love Anziano Ruiz

I know that when we seek first the kingdom of God that he will help us in every other aspect of our lives!

April 16, 2018

  This week was pretty crazy! We had interviews on Tuesday and zone conference on Wednesday.  That was the least amount of time that I have ever had to plan a zone conference and it was probably one of the best ones I've done! So that was pretty sweet! It was awesome to see President Pickerd and Sorella Pickerd again. The talked about faith and it was pretty good! We talked about the quote from President Russell M. Nelson's talk that he gave Sunday morning for conference. "Nothing opens the heavens quite like the combination of increased purity, exact obedience, earnest seeking, daily feasting on the words of Christ in the Book of Mormon, and regular time committed to temple and family history work."  It was pretty good I leaned a lot from Preparing.

  Getting to know Cagliari was fun this week we had some good finding and got to teach some lessons too, that was fun! It's going to be a fun transfer! 

  We were finding one day and we had some people offer us coffee again so we went with them and got orzo and ended having an awesome conversation with them about the Book of Mormon and restoration! They randomly had to leave super fast because they forgot about an appointment or something so I hope we see them again! We will pass by again for sure.

  Sunday was awesome! I was sitting there in church then some people walked in late and I looked to see who it was and it was Santo and Barbara! They are both from Olbia and I baptized Santo about a year ago! It turns out that he's gone a couple of time with this other member to Switzerland to go to the temple, the word on the street is that they are going to get married in the temple. So that is awesome! I was so happy to see them!

  I don't have much time for a spiritual thought but I really like a quote in a new section of preach my gospel by Elder Ballard "A key to happiness lies in understanding what destinations truly matter—and then spending our time, effort, and attention on the things that constitute a sure way to arrive there.” I love this because  it is part of what we help people do as missionaries, understanding what destinations truly matter. 3rd Nephi 13: 33 says  "seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you" the greatest destination that we can shoot for is the kingdom of God. I know that when we seek first the kingdom of God that he will help us in every other aspect of our lives! 

Vi vogliamo bene!

Love Anziano Ruiz 

 Barbara and Santo!

Zone Conference 

Everything that happens in life has an eternal purpose and perspective!

April 9, 2018

  

   This was a crazy week!! First off transfer calls, the call came last Monday night that I was getting transferred! I was pretty sad to leave but when I found out where I was going it made everything better! I'm going back to the island of Sardegna!! I'm now a zone leader in Cagliari and I'm really excited to be here! It been good to see old members that I know and I hope to be able to visit Olbia some how. My new companion is Anziano Christensen he is awesome, we get along super well and are excited to have an awesome transfer. We have zone conference in two days so that is just chaotic.. Sardegna is always the first one of the transfer so it's pretty stressing haha.

It was pretty sad leaving Cosenza, I was happy that I got to say goodbye to people tho! So Ricardo was in Sicilia all this week but we did a Facebook messenger video call lesson with him and that was pretty sweet, we taught him the Plan of Salvation and he already knew everything, so that was great, the spirit was strong. We had English course and I told people that I was leaving so some of them decided that we should do a pizza night the next night, that was fun! It's been awesome serving with Anziano Daniels, we both grew a lot! Cosenza was an awesome city, I will always remember it!

From thursday till sunday morning was just crazy. I had about 14+ hours of travel including trains, plans and car rides. If I were including layovers and all that good stuff it would almost double that number. So the reason why it was so crazy was because the day after transfers we had MLC in Rome, then when we got back to Sardegna we had to drive some missionaries to Sassari(just over 2 hours away) because they didn't make the last train there and the next morning we got up way early to make it to church. So a lot of back and forth. MLC was awesome! And Anziano Parker(who I trained) was there so that was super awesome!! We also got smart phones so that is weird but pretty cool! Church was great, I am just super excited for this transfer!!

  I've been going back and looking through some General conference talks. I loved the talk by Elder Bednar about Meakness And loneliness of heart.  "...[A] distinguishing characteristic of meekness is a particular spiritual receptivity to learning both from the Holy Ghost and from people who may seem less capable, experienced, or educated, who may not hold important positions, or who otherwise may not appear to have much to contribute." When we learn to be meek there is so much growth to be obtained. The more I learn about Jesus Christ the more I am amazed of how perfect he is! I know he lives and loves us perfectly and that everything that happens in life has an eternal purpose and perspective!

Vi voglio bene!!

Love Anziano Ruiz 

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/?lang=eng

Rome Italy Temple Scheduled to be open March 2019!

infohttps://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/public-invited-to-tour-rome-italy-temple

The best foundation of a family is a fountain of love.

April 2, 2018 

  We had an miraculous week! Transfer calls are today so we'll see what happens. It would be pretty sad to leave, I've really grown to love Cosenza! 

   First big miracle is that the Italy Rome temple finally has a finishing date! Marco of 2019! We are all so excited and have been working so hard for the temple. I can't wait to see it done.

  We went to the university this week and that was sweet, it's the second highest university in Italy so we are pretty lucky to have that so close. We talked to a lot of awesome people and even had people stop us. It's pretty interesting lately, is seems like more and more people have been stopping us lately. Pretty awesome. 

  Another day we had one guy wave us down and ask if we were the Mormons and then asked us to explain to him our church.

  While we were at the University we tried to get hold of Ricardo (one of the college kids we are with last week, he's our age) to see if we could meet up. He texted back telling us that he wouldn't be there but that he could be at the church at 5, already a miracle! We met at the church and man he is so awesome! He already started reading the BOM on his own and is finishing first Nephi now,(it's been less than a week!) he watched Meet the Mormons and read a lot on lds.org. He is so prepared it's crazy and awesome! He believes that the BOM is true and wants to be baptized and prepare to receive the priesthood! Just awesome, he has texted us a number of times saying that he is reading and praying and how he feels so good and happy! The lords hand is in his work!

  There are some members who live like an hour hour of town and the Grandpa had been sick so he hasn't seen anyone from the church in over 3 months. They invited us over because they were celebrating both of their kids birthdays, we went and on the way contacted a bunch of people on the phone so that was good. They live in a tiny town called Saracena, the drive was breathtaking! We're so lucky to be in this mission! Italy is beautiful. 

  General conference was also great! I really liked the talk by Elder Devin D. Durant when he talks about family, he taught simple truths that can change a family. He said "we can't ever pray too much as a family... ‎there is no other better time to communicate love to a child than when praying with them" the best foundation of a family is a fountain of love. As we pray as a family there will be more love, peace and happiness in the home.

Vi vogliamo bene!

Love Anziano Ruiz