Monday, March 28, 2016

Mar 28, 2016

New Transfer new comp new area


This week was awesome. So I got Transferred to Montgomery with Elder Lemieux (la-moe). He is from Queen Creek, AZ! He is so funny. He has been out for 20 months, so way longer than me. lol. He is a really great missionary. I've had such a great time so far. I love this area a lot too. The work is going great. We have someone on date for baptism for the 23rd and I'm way pumped about that. We put her on date on Saturday. And the ward is amazing! I love it so much. I feel at home here it's so great. Not that I didn't in my last areas because I did. It's just awesome and I love where I am. The zone is great too. We have fantastic missionaries. They lost an area right when I came in. So now we have more Sisters than Elders in our zone. We call it the Relief Society. hahaha.

I am doing so good. Easter was a lot of fun. Church was filled with tons of music. A lot of people showed up. We average over 200 people a week so big change from Maysville. A returned missionary from Romania gave her homecoming talk and bore really amazing testimony about the Gospel. It was a great day for investigators to come. 

And don't worry. I was taken care of on Easter. A family had us over for dinner. It is their tradition to have the missionaries over on Easter. And it's a big family. 7 kids. all under 14. Young big family. And cousins were there too. They gave us Easter baskets and we went on an Easter egg hunt with the kids haha. I felt like I was at home. It was great. Then some neighbor kids from the ward TP'd our car haha.

I am loving life right now. We have a lot of things to change though. A lot. We are tightening up on little things. Many good things are to come. Love you!
Love
Elder Verdoni



Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Mar 21, 2016

Transfers


This week was great! It was way fast. It was awesome though. On Thursday we had a workshop in Montgomery. That was fun! really good. We went down to the basics. I really needed that. I think I've been over complicating things. It was very needed. Friday was fun too. We did some good work. The sisters were supposed to have a baptism the next day so the district leader and his companion got dropped off at the church and were just going to stay the night at our place. So we get to the church around 8:30 pm to pick them up. He still isn't done with one of the interviews. The wife however was extremely sick. very sick. We actually had to give her a blessing. In the women's bathroom. It was an interesting experience. But very cool. After I gave the blessing she looked a lot better and was more coherent. My testimony of the power of the priesthood increased a lot right there.

Saturday though was awesome. The whole entire mission went to Montgomery to hear Elder Anderson! There was 6 total Elders in our truck lol. It was crammed. It was so fun seeing the mission. I love it so much. We first heard from Bishop Waddell the presiding Bishop of the church. My testimony of Joseph Smith and The First Vision increased a ton. I am here, and we have had all our blessings because Joseph had a vision. So powerful. Then Elder Garret Gong of the presidency of the 70 spoke. I learned to love others and see them as Heavenly Father does. He then had us all sing happy birthday to sister Porter. Elder St Clair of the 70 was there as well. And then we heard from Elder Anderson. He is so darn funny. He was cracking jokes the whole time. I really loved hearing him speak. Being at the feet of an Apostle of the Lord was humbling and an honor. Hearing His witness of The Savior was so powerful. So powerful. He is such an amazing man. 

I am leaving Maysville. I am sad but happy. I'm way nervous. I've had such an amazing time here. Elder Broderick has been an amazing companion. We have both grown a lot. I will never forget this transfer. But I am always open to new opportunities.
Also, I am going to be a Zone Leader.
Love Elder Verdoni











Monday, March 14, 2016

Mar 14, 2016

Fun week


If I had to describe this week in one word, it would be Fun. I had a great week. We got so much work done and we were ourselves. I think sometimes I can get caught up in being "that missionary" you know like a robot, but when I am myself, I enjoy life a lot more. 
This was one of the greatest weeks I've had, like a lot of work got done. 

I got a new camera, that has a screen on the front for selfies. So that was like the best thing ever. But I have just been super happy lately. I know for a surety That Heavenly Father created us and that He loves us. We are His children. We have our personalities and we are all different and that is who we are supposed to be. Ourselves. We do not have to be like anyone else. We are to strive to be like our Savior. No one else. I am Elder Verdoni, not a robot. I'm awkward and weird and sometimes that makes people laugh. I love everyone. I really do. Making people smile is like my favorite thing to do. Know yourself. Trust me it will be an awesome moment when you realize that you can love who you are and be happy. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior, He has become a very close friend. I know He loves me.
Elder Verdoni

Also Transfers are next week!! :D

Letter to Mom
Thank you for the package! I loved it. The camera is so cool!!! It has a front screen and detects when I'm smiling and will just take the pic. It's soo much fun. I loved all the sweets and clovers! They are so much fun too. 

This week was really good. On Monday we drove up to Cherrygrove (where the zone leaders are, it right outside of Cincy) to have a zone sports day. We all chilled at the Eastgate Sisters' backyard and played sports and had a pot luck! I made grandma's chicken enchilada. It was gone in seconds. Anyway but that was way fun. I really love this transfer. I cant believe it's almost over. 

We went on exchanges with the zone leaders right after. I went with Elder Bluth in Cherrygrove. It was the best exchange I've ever been on. We got a lot of work done, I learned so much, and I haven't laughed as much as I did on that exchange than I have for the past three months. It was great. Elder Broderick had an amazing exchange too! So we love our zone leaders. 

We went on splits with the young men on Wednesday and that was really cool. Friday we had district meeting and we went on another exchange with the district leader. That was really fun. And Saturday we found a lot of new people to teach. Sunday we had Branch conference. There was 110 people there! If we keep that up we will be a ward in no time. We had a linger longer afterwards where everyone made food and we ate it! there was tons of food. I love this Branch!


Elder Cromar
with Elder Broderick
St Patrick's Day package


Monday, March 7, 2016

May 7, 2016
Its been a fast week. We had a lot of meetings lately. But it was good. On Wednesday we had a Zone Conference. It was amazing. It was about The Prophet Jospeh Smith, The Book of Mormon and other attacks people use against the Church. It was powerful. I sang in a Special musical number. We sang Savior, Redeemer of my Soul. The 17 miracles version. It went well but I had flash backs of about a year ago when I sang at Big Man and I got nervous haha. But It went great.

Some thing else was really cool and rare. We won first place for cleanest car! Elders won. IT was surprising. But we did spend all of last Monday cleaning. Is it still clean? No. It's covered in mud now. Welcome to Maysville. 

On Friday we had a zone meeting and that was really cool. We have been falling behind so we had like a family council of what's going on and how we can fix it. It went super good! We all came a lot closer together as a zone. It was amazing. The next day on Saturday we went up to Oxford Ohio (3 hours away) for a baptism. One of Elder Brodericks investigators got baptized. Yesterday (Sunday) was good. We saw a lot of part-member families and got a lot of lessons. 

Other than that the week wasn't too eventful but I leave you with this... I do know The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, to be true. It is. I cannot deny it. Heavenly Father has told me through the power of the Hole Ghost. My desire to serve Christ and do good increase every time I read it. I know that's evidence of the Holy Ghost manifesting truth. (Gal. 5:22-23, John14:26, Moroni 10:5-6, D&C 9:8). I know that Joseph Smith was of Prophet of the Lord Jesus Christ. I know that Jesus Christ is my savior and Redeemer. His Atonement is real. And will strengthen you and change you.
Elder Verdoni

Most of our Zone
Cool North Pole Bridge