Monday, October 28, 2013

Lessons & English Course

So we managed to kick out all those other Anziani this week and they made their way to their cities. Apparently their new apartment is the same size as the church in Messina! They have to do church in their apartment but it is huge! They said that the place where they study and eat is the size of 2 5v5 soccer fields. Massive. We are going to do exchanges there in a few weeks to help them out with the work because they have no members.

We were able to have a few lessons this week as well with our investigators! We met with Valentina. We were able to have a nice lesson in the park about why she was meeting with us and she said she didn’t really know. So we were able to get things straight and point her towards the gates of baptism. It was a good lesson and she cried a little bit and we explained to her taking steps of faith.

We also met with our African investigator Cristian. We don’t really know what to do with him but he is just so spiritual and prepared to drop. He is 24 and loves God. He lives about an hour from the church and cannot speak Italian. He lives in a super small house with about 20 other Africans. He is from Nigeria. We love teaching him because he just has not doubts about God and Christ and faith. However, he cannot read, which is a problem. He expresses sorrows about why God has never given him the ability to read but he has so much faith that it never bothers him. He is awesome but there are no English speakers in the ward... We love him.

Tomorrow we are having a Halloween Party with English class! There is a lady from Columbia who has been coming to English course about 5 years who is planning it for us. She is great and loves Halloween. I said before that nobody here likes it but there are a few people who do and the English class said they wanted a party!

I felt really foolish this week... I was trying to say don’t be discouraged to somebody... but I said don’t... toot... The two words are scoregare and scoragare. I don’t know how to spell it but it is one letter different and I felt super foolish but I eventually got my point across. Oh boy... There was no going back after that one.

Today we are going fishing with a few students from English Course! There is a good shore fishing spot here close and then we are carving pumpkins for the party tomorrow and playing volleyball. It should be fun!

That’s about my week. We are working pretty well together when we teach and do finding as well. We have a lot of goals for the transfer.

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Nate's First Package Home

Visitors from Canada

This Canadian family sent us a picture of Nate during their visit to Messina.

Monday, October 21, 2013

Pictures from last Zone Conference

These are from Nate's mission president's blog:




Full House

It was the week of lasts…kind of... So me and Anziano Stewart got the calls about transfers and he had to leave. So we found ourselves doing a lot of member visits, which means a lot of lunch and dinner appointments. We had like 7 this week! And the Italians eat soo much food because they really only eat one meal a day. Needless to say we ate well this week. Anziano Stewart made a lot of friends here. He is a good missionary and I learned a lot from him.

Transfer day comes and we get the call that the apartment in Caltan is not ready so they have to stay in Messina another week. (The apartment really is not that big). The next morning we get a call from the Anziani going to Enna (the other city that is opening up on Sicily) and their apartment is not ready. Because Messina is close to their city, they are staying with us another week as well. So we have 4 extra Anziani staying with us this week. They find themselves doing a lot of finding. Also! Both of these sets of Elders are training. Anziano Stewart’s greenie is called Anziano Stephens. He is just a country boy from Spanish Fork, Utah. And the other greenie is called Lazarte. He is from Argentina but has lived in Italy 8 years so he speaks fluent Italian. I feel bad for them because we don’t have enough beds, blankets, or pillows...

So I met my new companion, Anziano Cicon. He seems like a good man. Does things differently than I have seen them done but certainly knows his purpose as a missionary. He is a little serious but that is probably good. I think I could learn to be more serious. He is a good teacher and uses Preach My Gospel to a T. 

So with 6 Anziani in the house it has been pretty dirty because it’s small and eveybody is living out of their suitcases. The kitchen is not really built for 6 people but we a getting by. It is very hard to concentrate with 6 people and 4 of them not knowing what they can do though. They have done a lot of Area Book and finding. Also! Anziano Stewart doesn’t have a phone so it has been hard to organize things. 

We had a little Miracle Moment though. We were doing street finding and we worked our way up into a canyon so we decided to knock an apartment building. So we go into it and we do 7 stories and nobody is home so we  are about to give up but we do one last door. The guy opens up and says he has been waiting for us. (Naturally we thought he was excepting somebody else but we went in anyways). Turns out we had called him that morning doing area book but he didn’t answer. So we go in and he sits us down and says to start from the beginning. So we gave a patchy version of the Restoration and now he is an investigator. Pretty cool man.

So we just heard that the Enna Anziani may stay up to 3 weeks. We will see. 

President just made a rule that we cannot play soccer with members or investigators. That’s a big deal. Lots of people are sad. Transfers were chaos because an AP stopped being an AP 2 weeks ago because he couldn’t handle it so the Rome ZL stepped in. Crazy times. Crazy times.

Ciao Ciao Ciao Ciao.

Monday, October 14, 2013

Staying in Messina

So P-Day got changed to Monday. Here I am. All of the internet points are closed on Mondays until like 4! So we searched around for like 2 hours for one and found this Sri Lankan internet point. There are no English or Italian words on anything written here. It is all Sinhala. Nobody is speaking Italian and there are Hindu statues and incense burning. Crazy place man. I have never felt so white.

This week was transfer calls and.... I am staying in Messina! Not really a surprise because Stewart has been here 6 months. He is actually opening up a city to missionary work next transfer. It is a city in the middle of Sicily. That would be a really interesting experience starting with nothing, just one member family who lives in that city. They will most likely do church in their apartment. He is also training again. Hehe. I hope I never have to train.

My new companion is... I actually forgot his name... But he is half Filipino, has served about 7 transfers, and just finished training somebody. Little does he know that he is actually going to be training again.

Along with this transfer, they are also opening up another city in Sicily. But the house is not ready for them yet so they will be living in the Messina house for 4 weeks until it is ready. So Messina will have 3 new Elders in the city and I am the only one that has been here before. Stress. I really don’t know the city or really talked much with the members, soo… I guess we will figure it out.

We had a Baptismal service this week! It was really great. Stewart was able to baptize both of them and it was a really great service. We had one investigator named Pino come and he seemed to enjoy himself. He is great and we are hoping to meet with him more often but he is kind of old and doesn’t keep his cell phone on so it hard to contact him. On Sunday he came to church for about 30 minutes and midway through sacrament he had to leave somewhere but HE CAME! Woot!

So that pretty much sums up the week. I have honestly been super stressed these past 6 weeks with the language and it just really is not coming for me. I can almost bear a testimony in a lesson... When I should be able to teach all the lesson by now... Makes me sad and I have been getting down on myself a lot. I really want to teach people, but I just honestly can’t say seem to express myself. It just comes out in unconjugated verbs and hand gestures. It’s really frustrating and makes me sad when all the other greenies in my district are doing street contacting and I’m still trying to pick out words they are saying. Rough stuff.

Ciao Ciao Ciao.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Answers to Questions

Hey listen. So we don't have much time today to write because we did a tour of a Cathedral/Castle/Roman Temple, which was all built on top of each other. It was pretty cool. We also went to a Botanical/Cactus Garden! Which was way awesome and reminded me of that one in Monaco we went to! That Monaco one was my favorite museum I have ever been to.

There was grass in the museum we went to!!! I have not seen grass in 3 months!!
So...I got a letter from Mom and Kristen/Hailey with a bunch of questions that I will respond to:

1. The Weather
The Weather here is changing really fast. It is starting to rain almost every other day and the weather is getting cooler. It is still supa hot though. President said that Sicily does not have to wear jackets until next week. So that was a little miracle!

2. The Work Here
It’s…Going pretty well compared to Anziano Stewarts first two transfers here? We find ourselves doing a lot of finding and less active work. Right now we have 3 investigators but we have more and more potentials every day. Our Investigators are named Valentina, Christian (He the African one we saw on the bus), and Pino (He is missing an eye and we just barely got his phone number yesterday! Woot!). We couldn’t get an appointment with any of them last week though which made us a little sad but we have stuff scheduled this week for them!

3. Conference General (I wrote this like I say it in Italian and I am too lazy to go back and fix it)
We did an exchange with Reggio the first day of Conference and we were running around Messina and Reggio trying to hop a boat over to one to switch back again so we missed conference. But the next day, Sunday, we were able to watch the Sunday Morning Session! Which was really good! Then again on Monday we had district meeting and watched Saturday Afternoon and a few other talks. So we saw about 2.5/6? I was a little bummed that we didn’t get to see them but it’ all right. Reggio had a conference marathon on Sunday were the ward was invited. 10 hours of Conference. Nobody came but they made 14 pizzas and ate them all!
I liked the one talk about the Provo Tabernacle and how it got burned and they related it to trails. That one was good for me. I also loved Uchtdorf’s from Priesthood Session. I can’t wait in two months when we can get a copy in English!

4. Bikes
Messina is actually one of like 3 cities in the mission that has bikes! However... We don’t use them because…Well, we have never really had to? Everything is pretty close. Personally I am very happy because the bikes are pretty goofy when everybody drives mopeds or takes the tram. 

5. Gelato
Gelato is sold everywhere. Every 100 yards there is a Gelateria. There is the best one in town about 10 minutes from our house and we ate it about 3 times a week last transfer. They made us a personal punch card! But... I made a goal that I wouldn’t do that and I have not had it in 4 weeks! Stewart eats one about 1 or twice a week. Gelato and Granita. They don’t have granita in America but it is a huge deal here. Everyone gets them. It’s like a slushy ice cream deal that you eat with a piece of sweet bread brioche.

6. Market
There are about 4 fresh markets in Messina. One is 10 minutes from our house. It is huge and sells everything seasonal. The Market is classic. Everybody sets up shop and yells at each other over prices. They sell fruit, cheese, sausage, fish (especially Sword Fish last month), squids, clams, horse, vegetables, and other goodies. So many fruits. So good. So cheap.

7. Italian Meals
Italians actually eat a lot. Or at least Sicilians do. More food during every meal than I can handle. They don’t really do breakfast. Just a few cookies and a cappuccino. (I usually eat an egg and cookies and fruit for breakfast). But lunch is the big deal. They do a plate of pasta. Then a plate of meat. Then the Salad. Then some fruit. And then Gelato. Every lunch. 5 course meal in that order. Every day. For every course it is a new plate. We eat at members’ houses—about 1 every week—and it is soo good. The pasta is very simple with tomato, egg, peas and what not. Lasagna usually has ham in it. But hardly ever is there meat and pasta on the same plate. So yeah… Italian meals. Oh! Salads. The salad is always the same. Lettuce, Olive Oil (tooonnnnnsss), and vinegar. They eat the fruit with a knife in their hand.

Oh! The Siters have somebody getting baptized this week! It is the niece of a member! It’s gonna be awesome and we are inviting everybody!

Transfers are this week. I think I am staying in Messina and Stewart is going. Usually when you are in Sicily you stay on the Island for about a year (I have started calling it the Sicilian Shuffle. Those who serve a year on the island earn the title Sicilianaire)...

This is classic Messina. With the cathedral and the cruise ship.
Thanks for the letters! The ones with Jesus on them got through just fine! I got ones from Mom, Kristen, and Grandma B, and from Ty and Bri.

I have got to go! Ciao!

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

These are the Days of Miracles and Wonders

Quote of the Week: "These are the days of miracles and wonders." - Paul Simon

I realized what has been missing in my letters! The quotes! Well… I have forgotten all my American Pop Culture but I think that a quote of the week is the least I could do.

Hey listen. So Pa! If you have a few pictures of me doing the Cat in the Hat could you send them to me? When I tell people about things that I did before the mission they are always way into the story about how I was Cat in the Hat. I guess they do not have Cat in the Hat here. Sad. Also… They do not really have costume characters? So people love to hear that story and I would love to have a few pics to show them.

This week we had a little miracle moment. We decided to go visit a less active guy named Carlo. We could not get a hold on him on his cell phone so we decided to go to his apartment and see how he was doing. So we get to his house and, being the classic Sicilian guy that he is, he was sitting on his roof in his underwear painting. He was happy to see us and invited us downstairs where we had a little lesson. He never did manage to put his pants the whole time we were there... At the end of the lesson he had absolutely no interest in coming back to church but he said to drop by in a few days and he would have a surprise for us. So we did, and he had a big ol’ list of people that we should stop by and talk about the Gospel with! No pants… BUT HEY! He was a little instrument in the hands of the Lord.

So our investigator with a baptism date... We have not been able to contact him for the past 3 weeks. So... I don’t think he really wants to meet with us. That’s okay. We did our best. Also. There is this Italian Investigator named Valentina who is getting close to accepting a baptism date. She mostly meets with us because we are beautiful young American boys but she is keeping commitments and when she asks questions and explains things she honestly has a testimony! We have a lesson with her tomorrow and are hoping she will accept a baptism date in November!

So Mom. A Duomo is not just a Cathedral. The Duomo is the biggest cathedral in town. There usually is only one Duomo in every city. Also. EVERY CITY HAS A DOUMO. Even the small cities with only 100 people. There are cathedrals everywhere. But the Duomo are very big and very beautiful and every couple hours the Doumos play songs. It’s beautiful to hear walking down the street. Because there are cathedrals on like every block and there are always the sounds of bells being rung. On Sunday morning they all seem to go off at the same time. It is really hard to explain what I see every day because there are Churches and Statues and Monuments and Shrines every few yards. I really just want to show you what the city is like.

Also Mom. The apartment we live in is not a junker. It is pretty big actually. It used to house 4 missionaries until they combined the Catania and Rome missions. We get bugs every once in a while but that is normal for any Italian house. We clean really well. Some of the apartments with 4 or 6 missionaries get cockroaches and mice like every week. Nasty. But we live pretty good. "Good solid walls. Good solid floors"

Also Mom! We have to wear our church clothes on P-Day as well. Not just the missionaries in Utah. Every day on the week we are in a shirt in tie. And starting next week we have to wear jackets. It is still super-hot in the day though. It’s gonna be brutal for the few weeks.

Also Mom. So the other week I talked about the Madonna coming out on the mountain. That really is what happened. There is a big ol’ Madonna that they bring down into Reggio about once a year. It is solid gold and takes about 50 people to carry her. People see miracles and visions when she is in town. And people talk about it for months after she has left. Yeah.... Tell me about it...

I have decided who Anziano Stewart reminds of! He is Blake Peart! I have been trying to decide who he reminded me the past few weeks! I finally managed to figure out who it was this week.

We have transfer calls next week. I think I am staying in Messina.