New Companion

This week I have continued my study on love and charity. I am reading the whole Book of Mormon all the way through looking for references that talk about either of them. It’s crazy! Everything single page has something to teach us. Easily one of the best studies that I have done on my mission. I usually read about 30 minutes of the Book of Mormon a day looking for stuff like that. 

We also did a fun Helping Hands activity! We went to an old folks’ home (The Retirement Castle I called it) and we sang them songs, told them jokes and were friends with them. I personally sang "Somewhere beyond the Sea." I think that it was a success. We had quite a few members come! It’s the old folks home where one of our members works. 

I was super proud of our new convert member, Kevin, this week. He is 13 years old and all of his friends invited him to go the beach. But...he decided to come to church instead! (Haha... This week in church we had about 40% of the people who normally come because it was super hot all week and everybody went to the beach. It is the last week of June... I can’t imagine what is going to happen during the months of July and August. We will see. Also Kevin paid his tithing this week. His father gave him 3 euros for a Kebab… So I helped him fill out his slip for 30 cents. Good kid.

Anziano Peterson is gone. Transferred. We now have Anz Kennedy. His father is American. Mother is Italian. He has lived here all his life and speaks both languages perfectly. He also has a very nice clear accent from Tuscany which is refreshing. He is a really good guy. I like him.

This week we have continued our quest for new investigators. We have tried all our techniques. As we come into the summer there are less and less people on the streets every day and more and more people on the busses headed to the beach about 20 minutes away. Sadly, last week we were planning on going to the beach but Anz Lewis had some indigestion problems and we could not go... 

This week we also found a Napoli Pizzeria that is really good right near the house! Maybe one of the best finds of the week. 3 bucks a pizza (usually Napoli Pizzas are 5 bucks or so). But we have gotten a few of those this week. 

We are continuing to work with our members and less actives. They are doing well.

Ciao ciao ciao!

Working Hard in the Heat

This week we are trying to go to the beach near Lecce. We have never gone out there before so we don’t have all that much time to email today but this week we worked very, very hard.

We had planned to do Chalk Finding this week 3 times! But every single time that we planned to do it rained super hard! That is super strange because it is super sunny all day long and very hot. But for some very when we planned to do Chalk it didn’t work. We ended up knocking houses instead.

This week we met with a man named Giuseppe. He is a super nice guy... But... I am a little skeptical of his motives for meeting with us. His girlfriend (who recently dumped him) is a faithful member of our branch and whenever we go over to his house he always shares scriptures that have the word Grazia (Grace in English) in it which also happens to be his girlfriend name. He also keeps pictures of her in his Book of Mormon. She wants nothing to do with him. He is a super nice guys though and is really trying to get closer to God, so we will see what happens with him!

I personally I really lost as to what to do here in Lecce. We are visiting all of our members regularly and we do finding for at least 8 hours every day... But it’s really hard for me and Anziano Lewis to find investigators? It’s a little frustrating because the other Elders in this city are pulling in tons of new contacts every day... but.... they are not the most obedient and or hard-working of missionaries, which is the hard thing for me. In any case. I am doing my best. And for that I am happy. I don’t have to compare my efforts to anybody but myself.

We got transfer calls today. The one guy in our house got the boot and a new one is coming named Anziano Kennedy! He is super rad. His parents are American but he is raised in Italy. It’s the best of both worlds.

Well... Got to go.

World Cup and Saving a Cat

WORLD CUP! WOOT WOOT! The city is on fire right and I am super excited for it! Today I actually made a huge bracket and chart with all the teams on the wall of our house. I made an agreement with the new convert boy in our branch Kevin that I would call him every night to see if he read the scriptures and he would tell me the scores. Italy played at midnight the other day and the city seriously exploded! It’s gonna be crazy when they actually play at a good time of the day and in a Semi Final match. Lots of cars honking horns and hooligans running around the streets.

Our new bunk beds.

My world cup bracket.

Well. I have had world cup on my mind all day. It is on in every shop window and bar in town.

This week we had two lesson with the new convert Kevin. He needs a little help. The summer has started and he just plays video games all day. We have been trying to get him to do activities and stuff outside. We will see what he does. He did go to the beach this week with his friends though which made me happy. We are also the Young Men’s Presidents for the Branch so we have thought of some good activities we could do with the boys and their friends these upcoming weeks to get them out in the fresh air. Wednesday Night from 6:30 to 8:30. We have 4 boys in the branch.

This week I also was able to save a kitten from a tree. It took about an hour and a crowd of people, a couple cans of cat food, and a few old, Italian Women yelling at me to get it out. But! We got it out and we were able to give it to a nice crazy cat lady we lived on the street. She opened up her garage and it was filled with about 20 cats (that I could see that is). This story probably didn’t make all that much sense but just know it was noteworthy enough to make it in my letter home.

We are working super hard and doing our best to find people! The summer is coming and it is getting very hot and everybody seems to be headed to their beach homes.

Zone Conference Pictures

These are all from Elder Kelley's mission president's blog:

Boats & Miracles

Well this week was actually pretty good. I was able to go to Brindisi on an exchange this week. Made me super grateful to be in Lecce. Brindisi is kind of a sad place. Lots of high rise buildings, graffiti, crime, and funny smells. But I got to meet some super good folk over there! Also I was on the scambio with Anziano Wulzl. He is from Austria. Funny guy. Very European. Here are a few pics from the day in Brindisi. 

The man with the boat. His name is Eddie. He is currently on a trip around Italy in his Sailboat (shown in the picture). Complete with his dog, he has managed to sail from Venice to Brindisi. He has been staying in that city about 2 months just enjoying the sun and the fishing. The missionaries met him while walking along the coast one day. He is rad! Within one month he has read the whole Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Cov, Pearl of Great Price, and all the materials the missionaries have given him. He is very, very intelligent actually and has literally memorized all three of the books. Very smart man. This week he said he was going to sail out and kneel in a prayer. Eddie. He is super cool. We taught the lesson on his boat (don’t know if that’s okay but we were tied to the shore the whole time and it was super relaxing).

This week I also ate two Kebab.

We also has a Talent Show on Friday! The attendance was fair but it was fun for all who attended. Our one youth did a free style rap about Pokemon, another played a hymn, some people told jokes, sang songs, told poems, it was actually really, really fun! After the talents night we had Karoke. I don’t know what it is about Southern Italian and Karoke but they love it! I personally song a jazzy rendition of "Our Song" by Taylor Swift. Country Music. Italians love cowboys and Indians. They still watch spaghetti western movies. Good stuff.

This week we also went to Taranto for Stake Conference which was actually Area Conference. It was broadcast from Switzerland to all West Europe I think. In any case. They sang one hymn in German, Spanish, French, English, and Italian. I really enjoyed it. Our ward mission leader also told us he got accepted to BYU. He will be getting out of Italy as fast as possible. He is 35, married, 2 kids and has been trying to get to the US or Australia about 10 years. I am happy for him. He deserves it. It’s very sad though because all of the leaders of the branch are the ones who get the opportunities to leave Italy and get a life in America. Brain Drain. It’s a very real thing for the church here in Italy. About 5 leaders of the branch have moved out of Lecce in the past while... Sad... Italy is not much of a place to grow up, work, live, etc. Fantastic place for vacations and tourism! But... It’s rough. At least in Southern Italy. Good on him for leaving. (P.S. He does not want the branch to know yet.)

Miracle Moment. The miracles with our youth. I personally was not here for the event because I was on scambio with Anziano Wulzl (Great experience by the way. It is always a great experience to see how other people work). But it turns out that one of our youth, Kevin, gave his friend a Plan of Salvation opuscolo which lead into a lesson with this youths friend about the Book of Mormon. It was not awkward at all and his friend took the lesson very seriously. He went home read the chapter of the Book of Mormon and the next day at school the youth member (13 years old) invited the friend to read the next chapter and to pray. The friend received an answer to a prayer and wants to meet with us again. Miracles.

Well. That’s all Folks.

Zone Conference and More

This week we had Zone Conference! Thanks for the letters (I also got the package from Mom and Dad and was able to a share a cosmic brownie with a nice girl I met on the train ride back to Lecce). Zone Conference was good. They talked about using Family History in finding. It’s a tricky thing but it is different! Italians love their families but family history doesn’t really seem to interest them. However! In this Zone Conference we talked about ideas of what things we could try. 

So the night of Zone Conference was rough because we had an English Course Party that we had to make and we had to leave the Conference early to make it in time. However. There was a big protest on trains and nobody went in or out of the station for 2 hours. We eventually had to buy a really expensive fast train to even go to Lecce before like 10 o clock at night. But it all worked out in the end. We had some members open up the church and try to get the party started. We showed up at about 8 and everything went okay. I had fun at least? We also talked with some nice people on the trains.

This week we have done a lot of street contacting. Seeing miracles and having fun. OH! Also. We have had problems with birds being stuck in the vent above the stove. They climb in the hole on the roof in the night and fall down in there. This week we pulled out the 5th bird from the vent in my 2 weeks here. It is getting super old and the landlord doesn’t seem to want to do anything about it. So I am going to take matters into my own hands and put some chicken wire over the hole in the roof. Also this week we got approved to buy bunk beds. Also very exciting. 

President received revelation that we have to do tracting around "a quarry that is in Lecce.” So that is exactly what we are going to do.