Called to Serve Italy, Rome 2015-2017

Mamma mia....

I'm so sorry guys haha. I'm horrible at emailing. Oh well, I'll tell you all you wanna hear once I get home in December so don't worry 😉 I don't have time to write much, but I'm gonna write a little bit. Hope it's enough!

Where do I start? Well, idk where I left off haha. I'm not in Rome anymore...I got transferred to Caltanissetta, Sicily like 3.5 weeks ago. I love Sicily, but I miss Rome so much. Missionary work is way rougher out here, that's for sure. We have about 4-5 active church members here in our "group" at Caltanissetta. I say group because we're too small to be a branch and WAY ago small to be a ward. So we're a group, and I'm a "group leader"....lol. And we do church in a room next to our bedroom in our apartment. Yeah, it's an experience.

But in all reality, I've learned something. It doesn't matter how many people come or where you do church...it never changes the fact that this church is true, and can't keep the Spirit from being there. After all...where there are two or three gathered together in His name, here He will be also, right?

This city is hard, but we have seen some absolute miracles out here that I can't describe. I really hope they keep coming and we see these miracles follow thru all the way to the end. We have a baptism this Friday, we're gonna have to go to Agrigento and do it in the Mediterranean, it'll be awesome. We hope to have a couple others in October as well. We may even double the size of the "group"!! Haha

I really can't express in words what these experiences are doing to me. I just wanna beg all of you to please take advantage of every opportunity you have to serve someone. Not to get recognition or to be a good person, but because you love the person you're serving and you love your God as well. I can tell you from experience that this is the secret to changing your heart to be more like Christ's heart. I have such a long way to go, but through service, God has wrought miracles within me. Miracles that no human being could cause to happen. God is real and He exists, I know this because I feel it every day. I love my life and I love trying to help others love their life. I really hope I don't have to stop once I take the name tag off in December.

I love you all and I miss you. Just know I'm doing good and I'm seeing God's hand daily.

Love,

Anziano Carter Blaise

Agrigento

Indian figs are so sweet and grow on cacti

Agrigento

These other two Anziani come up every other Sunday to help with church

My comp

Sorry guys!!

It's been a while since I've written. And tbh I'm not about to write a lot right now. But so many amazing things have happened to me the last month, I'd feel ungrateful if I didn't share some experiences with you all.

Being here in Rome as a missionary is a once in a lifetime opportunity...for real. I see and do things I'd never thought possible. And being in such a historical place, I see lots of history repeat itself. Mainly prophecies coming true.

We just had transfers on Thursday and a huge leadership conference for all the zone leaders and sister training leaders in Rome!! So yeah we had to deal with that as well as transfers and there were over 100 total moves done. We had to wake up at 4:45 and get to the main train station by 6:20am for the first departure of greenies. Needless to say it was a long day since we didn't even step foot back in our apartment until 9:45 that night. However, it was all worth it cuz we had a huge miracle come out of it.

As we were getting off the last metro hauling some suitcases to our apartment, some random guy came up to us as we were waiting to cross the street. But starts speaking English. He wasn't American though, he was from India. The first thing he said was, "sorry to bother, but I felt like I should ask you something...you guys teach English for free, right?" And then the convo took off from there. After a bit, we told him why we're really here—to talk about Christ and invite others to come unto Him. Honestly you could tell that's the real reason he stopped us; not for English course. But he didn't admit it, probably because he didn't know exactly why he stopped us. Anyway, we exchanged numbers and said we should meet up sometime.

This guy is so sick, he's 22 and speaks like perfect English. He is here studying for his masters in mechanical engineering and was raised in the Hindu religion, and knows it well, but doesn't really believe in it. He believes there are many good things about it, but he said that there are so many religions and churches out there that he finds it really hard to pick which one is the one, aka God's "church." Let alone say that it's the Hindu religion. Anyway, we met up Sunday early evening and honestly it was one of the greatest lessons ever. He had so many questions and was so interested and is thinking he wants to convert to Christianity, but doesn't know enough about it to decide. It's weird teaching someone with zero Christian background, but it's refreshing, and I love it. Anyway, after having discussed for over an hour, we decided it was time to wrap it up until next time, so we closed with a prayer (like always). After I prayed, he stood there bewildered/perplexed. He said, "I don't understand why, or what it is, but when you prayed right there I just felt good and at peace. And the whole time being here in the church and talking about these things just brings me peace and makes me happy. I don't know what it is but I wanna find out." Needless to say, we're gonna help him out with that 😉 we brought him a Book of Mormon in Hindi but he said English is better for reading so we're bringing him one in English when we see him Thursday. He's a miracle and he has been prepared by God to receive His gospel. So excited for this.

Speaking of non-Christians, we have another person we teach, and she's 100% full-blood Egyptian, but her parents moved to Italy before her birth. But she does speak fluent Arabic so that's dope...and Russian, and English...but we teach her in Italian because that's her best language and more comfortable for us to teach in Italian lol. Anyway, she's Muslim, which isn't a Christian religion, but she's different. She doesn't agree with all the Muslim doctrine. In fact, she thinks that Jesus Christ may be the Son of God, and that He is our way to salvation. Therefore, she's meeting with us to learn more. The sister missionaries taught her in the past, but nothing was happening. The sisters got emergency transferred out half way through last transfer and we were without sisters for 2+ weeks haha so we slid right on in and picked her up for ourselves :)) best decision ever. We found out she honestly wasn't taught critical points of the gospel in a thorough enough manner. So we addressed these things and patched up some huge holes, and now she's making more progress than ever before. She's literally a miracle and a half, and probably the sweetest girl I've ever met in this country. She's genuine and has amazing morals and values. She's ready. We can't wait for this!!!

Another miracle was this 50 year old Rita from Romania. She's lived in Italy since she was 25 and so she speaks perfect Italian. She's a single lady that is literally the sweetest, just like our Egyptian friend 🙂 after teaching her once, we knew right off the bat she had been prepared by God to meet us. She's searched and searched all her life for he truth. She's been a part of 4 different churches and has found parts of God in every one, but some more than others, and has never felt that God has been completely in a single church. However, she hasn't given up and believes there's gotta be somewhere out there that has it all. Where God is 100% there.

as a young teenager, she read the entire Book of Mormon a friend gave her, and loved it so much and thought it was greatest book ever. But she thinks she was too young back then to make an honest judgement on something like that. But here she is, she found us again, and she's reading it again, and she wants to know if it's all true or not. If this is the biggest scam ever, or if it's the greatest and most important truth the world could ever know. She's very contemplative and rational and isn't impulsive in her decisions, so it may take some time. But she's been prepared and I know she'll accept this all one day. So amazing.

I've seen so many other miracles I wanna share with you all, but I don't have time. Just know that these things are real, I'm not making up stories to entertain you. Miracles happen, and God makes sure of that. This is His gospel and His only gospel; therefore He will not let it cease to grow. I know the message I share every day is true, and I wouldn't be out here if it wasn't. It makes me a little sad to know I finish this and go home in December, but makes me happy at the same time because that just means I'll be able to share this with everyone back home that doesn't know it yet. I've learned countless and priceless things out here—plain and precious truths, and my life has literally been saved because of it. This Gospel saves lives. I love every minute I have to be able to share this with people. And once I've proved to God I'm ready to open my mouth and share it, He has given me people to share it with. It's good news guys, it really is. And if it seems like it isn't, then try to understand it more, because if you do understand, you'll know it's nothing but great.

Well sorry for the abrupt ending but I gotta go! Gotta send this off before 6 and we gotta go teach someone!

Alla prossima,

Anziano Carter Blaise
Via Francesco Beggiato, 2
00169 Roma, RM
Italia

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