Brad to Dad - 1/16/13

To: Jacob Accorso

From: Bradley Accorso

Subject: RE: Getting Acclimated?

Date: January 16, 2013 - 9:45

                                                                                               

Hey Dad! As I read your email I thought about how you’ve been there for me in the past and how you’re continuing to be there for me. I miss you and all of the family a lot and it’s only been THREE DAYS! I’m glad that we can at least communicate with each other. Otherwise I wouldn’t know what to do. What’s up with the family? Has Nathaniel complained about being all alone with his sisters yet?            

                                                                                     

I’ve also been thinking about that General Conference morning. I was weaving in and out of focus until I heard those words. “Now young men who are 18 years of age can go on a mission.” Suddenly I jolted upright. Before I knew it I was asking you and Mom to allow me to go on a mission.                                                                                                                                

I know that as much as you wanted me to go, it was tough for it all to happen so quickly for you and Mom. When you waved goodbye to me as I headed to the security line at the airport, I could tell you were…probably still are…wondering in the back of your mind if I was really ready to go. To be honest, I have wondered that a lot and sometimes worry about not being prepared. I’ve never really been on my own. I only know how to cook pancakes and eggs and throw stuff in a microwave. And it’s hard to think of myself as an equal with adults. I still feel like I’m just a kid.

Don’t get me wrong, I know how to explain our beliefs and all the Bible and Book of Mormon stories from everything I learned at home, in church, and during our seminary classes before each day at high school. But can I really convince someone thousands of miles away in another language that what I was raised with is something they need and should want for themselves? Especially those whose lives are already pretty good? It’s a little intimidating. Can I really say that I know that these things are true? I’m not sure.

Today in my scripture study I was reading the part in the Book of Mosiah from the Book of Mormon when the sons of King Mosiah wanted to go to a dangerous nation on their border to share the gospel. Mosiah was concerned but eventually let them go when the Lord answered his prayer with reassurance that his sons would be protected and many would believe on their words. I think it’s very similar with how you reacted when I told you I was going on a mission.

You asked about my daily routine. Physical discipline’s not a problem because of experience with early, long and rigorous days with my swimming and crew experience in high school. But it’s the intensity and the concentration that’s the real challenge. Wake up at 6 every morning. Study the scriptures. Exercise and work out. Shower and get ready. Have a little breakfast. Then go to my classes. At least my Latin from high school has given me some preparation for Italian. But it’s one thing to know a few vocabulary words. Completely another to listen and respond in real time while doing role play as a missionary with my instructor and classmates. I have to think hard about the right thing to say to the person and how to say it, and then translate in my head from Italian to English. On the street, if you can’t do that quickly, a busy person walking by is not gonna give you the time of day. And the instructors actually do that—just walk away—if we can’t do a good enough job keeping their attention. It helps that they had us buy the missionary manual Predicare il mio Vangelo (Preach My Gospel) and bring it with us. That gives us some foundation for what we’re doing.

In some ways, without the peer pressure, it’d be a lot harder. But everyone motivates everyone else, and it somehow gets me through. Or at least has these first three days. The first day was pure adrenaline. The second day was much harder not to hit the snooze button. But I have a companion from Arizona who is super pumped and he seems like he has enough energy for both of us. His name is Elder Johnson. His language skills are terrible but he doesn’t care. He just wants to share the gospel with everybody. That makes me feel like I don’t have to worry. I can push ahead even if I make a lot of mistakes. Elder Johnson’s openness has helped me be a little less guarded.

After the morning classes, we have lunch. Even at lunch everyone from my group tries to sit together and role play in Italian. The sisters seem to be way ahead of us elders. Maybe they don’t know the language any better, but they know how to use what they know with the Spirit. The food is pretty good (chocolate milk every day!!) but we’re all really fired up about how good the pizza and pasta and gelato are gonna be in Milano.

I think I have a little better understanding of how the Holy Spirit works. Every now and then I feel this powerful feeling that what someone has said must be correct, or to say something myself that just seems right. I remember a little of that from home and church, but it seems easier to recognize here. I don’t know if that has to do with me or this place.

Anyway, we have the same kind of language and role play classes through the afternoon. At night, after dinner, we come together and have some kind of fireside or inspirational speaker. Then a little time for individual study, prepare for bed, and lights out at 10. That’s my life for the next 6 weeks. Sundays of course are focused on church and a little break from our daily routine. And Saturdays are our preparation-days or P-days where we do our laundry and can take a little more time to write to family and friends, while we can play basketball and just visit.  

Brother Nassaloni is my main language instructor. He’s from Genoa originally, and is now going to business school at BYU. He tells us little stories about Italy’s history and culture, and says that we’re going to have an entire day devoted to learning about these things involving several other people who were on our mission or come from the area.

When I opened that letter from our Twelve Apostles saying that I was called to go to Italy Milan, I was pretty amazed. The idea that I would go to the very place where our ancestors came from is really cool. I wonder if there’s a special reason for it happening the way it did.

How’s Mr. Cey from next door? He’s probably much less grouchy now that I’m not there making noise and accidentally running the mower over his flowers. I didn’t exactly have the most neighborly attitude toward him, but it was difficult when he always seemed to find new ways to find fault with me. Maybe if I keep him in my prayers, things will be a little easier between him and me when I get back.

Wow, I’ve written a lot more than I usually do. Don’t expect all of my emails to be this long. I wish you, Mom, and the children all the best at work, school, and taking care of everybody.                                                                                                                                                                                                                  I love you all,                                                                                                                                       Brad                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

(P.S. Don’t worry, I’m in safe hands)

Dad to Brad - 1/15/13

To: bradley.accorso@myldsmail.net

From: jacobaccorso@gmail.com

Subject: Getting Acclimated?

Date: January 15, 2013 - 10:58 pm

Hey Brad,

I hope this finds you adjusting to life at the Missionary Training Center. Of course, as a convert, I don’t know nearly as much as you already do about how it all works! Glad they set you up on email. I know it’s only been 2 days since you boarded that plane, but we’re missing you already because we know how long you’ll be gone, and typing this out and sending is much easier than having to do the snail mail route.

Two whole years in Milan. Or 22 months after your two-month language training at the MTC. Seems like just yesterday that the announcement came that changed your life. I still remember everyone’s faces while we were watching General Conference in front of the TV that Sunday morning last October. Most of us half-awake, still in pajamas. The president of our Church telling us about how the Lord is hastening His work, and that we all need to get on board. And then the bombshell. Young men who are 18 can go on missions. They don’t have to wait until 19. And young women can go at 19 without waiting until they’re 21.

As I tried to come to terms with the full import of what President Monson had just said, I scanned our family room to see if your reactions would give me a clue about how I should react. Sara’s eyes were wide open and she was furiously scribbling notes. Clearly, she was excited. Mom was still finishing up in the kitchen after breakfast, and called out, “Did he say something about missionary ages changing?” Nathaniel, with hair all askew from the previous night’s sleep, had a complete TV zombie face. Either he was concentrating really hard, or it was washing over him, just as a mindless action scene from the Avengers might. As for Andorra, she was much more curious about the bendability of paper clips than anything being said by our prophet.

But the one who surprised the most was you. Instead of the half-distracted person I had seen just a minute before, your posture and manner were completely transformed. You were engaged with the action on the TV in a way I had only seen in the ninth inning of a particularly close Angels game. I could tell you were responding to what he had said.

I was even more bowled over after the session when you immediately asked your mom and me about whether that meant you could go on a mission. I guess there was something that clicked for you, and I remember going to bed that night wondering what it was, but extremely grateful for how the Lord’s influence comes. We had to scramble a little after that, but it wasn’t too hard to get BYU to defer your entrance into college for a couple of years. Had it been another school, forget it. And then just the overall adjustment of expectations for how life will proceed for the next two years for our family.

Anyway, this email thing will make it much easier to stay in touch with you over the next two years. Hopefully it will be a nice outlet for you to process your experiences, but not too much of a burden. If it gets too burdensome, let me know.

I know you’re still struggling to understand some things about yourself, who you want to be, and how you can share the gospel with others when you’re still trying to come to terms with how to apply it in your life. I can only say that in my experience, when I have focused on serving others, the problems that I have a hard time figuring out seem to work themselves out or seem to be less of a problem. And don’t forget to “tune in” every day to the Lord. He’s given us the scriptures and the direct line of prayer. I know your companions and trainers will help keep you straight J Remember what President Gordon B. Hinckley’s father wrote to him when he expressed despondency on his mission in England? “Gordon, I received your letter and have one thing to say. Forget yourself and get to work.”

That brings up something the bishop mentioned today in Church just after the other speakers finished. He said that truly preparing ourselves to be disciples of Jesus Christ involves what he called “becoming unconquerable.” He said the ancient Chinese writer Sun Tzu talked about this in the Art of War. But in our case, instead of fighting a physical war, we’re fighting a spiritual one against temptation and sin. He talked about the 2,070 teenage “stripling warriors” from the Book of Mormon. Why, when they fought in the hottest battle, where every last one of them received a wound of some kind, did none suffer death? Because they remembered the words of their mothers with strict obedience, and the Lord blessed them.

So I guess the counsel there is for you to pay attention to what Mom has taught you, and you’ll have this mission thing wired.

Well, let me know how things are in the MTC, maybe a little about your daily routine. Then I can share with the rest of the family.

Know how much I love you and believe you are doing exactly what you should be doing.

Take care,

Dad