Merry Christmas from the Rome West Zone!

Merry Christmas!

Midnight Mass?

President turned the Midnight Mass down this year. :( Needless to say we are all a little sad... Bernie, the book store nun, asked for our address because she said she is sending a letter with something very special inside. I hope it is not those tickets we asked for :(... We should get the letter today.

This week we did go caroling at Piazza Del Popolo right on Viale Del Corse (the shop with all the super nice shops like Armani, Max Mara, Gucci, and what have you). We did it with a bunch of missionaries and young people. It was a super good Christmas memory, especially because the streets there are super decorated with lights and many people are shopping.

Caroling at Piazza Del Popolo

What was coolest thing you saw this week? 

This week we visited a member who was excommunicated about ten years ago and dropped off the face of the earth. But a bunch of things have happened in his life that have made him want to find God again. So he called us up. He was a really good guy and really seemed sincere in all his questions. But the cool thing about this guy was his home. Wow. It was a very nice home that was on in the penthouse of a building right next to Aqueduct Park (A large park... Very large, nice park... That has this huge aqueduct running through it). I have not had that good a view of Rome since maybe climbing Castel Sant Angelo. It was incredible. We are going to try to meet with him regularly to help him come back to the faith.

What was the best thing you ate this week? 

Yesterday, my goodness, we ate lunch at a member’s home. This member loves to cook and she had been preparing for 3 days because a former missionary from Austria and his family was coming to visit as well. So all of us went over there and it was such good food! Pasta alla Bolognese, some super good meat, parmigiana, spinach roll things, mozzarella di bufala from Campana, and many other good things. Then we went caroling with a member to a few houses and at every house they gave us more to eat and at the last house they made us stay for dinner. It was another huge meal with pasta, meat, salad, potatoes, and mozz. 

What was the hardest thing you did this week? 

So we had to send a package home for Anziano Budd and we had to wait at the Post Office for hours. The Post Office here is pretty much a joke anyways, but during Christmas it was terrible. We eventually get to the counter and try to send this package (It was super small that had a few letters in there) and he said that it was too heavy to send and that the system would not accept the weight. It was super, super light! Then we complained a bit and he reentered the info and then said it should cost about 17 bucks to send. Ridiculous. So we chose a different package much bigger than the previous one and sent it for like 4 bucks. I think the post man was trying to hustle us if you ask me. We left right after that. 

What was your miracle of the week?

This week we went with a member named Billy to go visit the Young Men. Billy is from Nigeria and is the Young Men’s president. He is awesome. Does not speak much Italian. He is very scatter brained, but he loves the young men that he serves and he always tries to help them. I have seriously learned a lot from Billy. But we went to go visit the young men this week and I really saw how much of a difference a good Young Men’s leader can make. Billy lives way outside of Rome but still comes in to see his young men very frequently. He can’t communicate with them but you can tell how much he loves them. I don’t think the YM really appreciate him now but his example is going to stick with them all their lives. Billy.

Merry Christmas!

Created by Aliens?

Who was the most interesting person you talked to this week?

We met a man who had a very strong belief that we are all created by aliens but at the same time believed that the aliens were created by God. In the end the aliens govern us, however, we can all be saved if we talk with God. He also believed that Mormons were of the devil (assuming now that he believes in devils) and that their whole purpose was to destroy the family. Classic. Meet these kind of people every day. He was classic. He was trying to carry this huge dresser up a flight of stairs (he being about 4 feet tall) so we offered to help him.

What was church like yesterday?

It was a normal day of church for the most part. Nothing really interesting. Oh! The other Anziani had a baptism this week so they confirmed them in Sacrament meeting. They had been stressing about that all week long because they didn’t speak Italian very well and had to give the blessing in Italian. They did a good job.

What was your best experience this week?

This week we had a meeting for all of the Zone Leaders. President is a good teacher and he talked about how Zone Leaders need to be confident in receiving revelation for their zones and what not. This week we also had a combined Zone Conference with Napoli and I was able to see Anziano Lewis. I served with him in Lecce. He is such a champ. I really love him a lot. He gave his dying testimony and I was super happy to be there for it. He is such a goofball. Awesome missionary too. I also was able to hear Anziano Zito’s death testimony. So I saw 2 companions.

What was your miracle of the week?

I think my miracle of the week would be the Christmas party that we had. There was little to no planning on anybody’s part (the missionaries were not a part of the committee), however the party actually went pretty well. Lots of people showed up, maybe about 70, and there were a lot of good things to eat. I also dominated in Ping Pong if anybody is wondering. We had a lot of non-members come and it was pretty fun. I also wore my Christmas sweater.

Me and Michael, the arch angel.

Ward Missionaries

How did the missionaries ever get to know a nun at the Vatican?

So the week before I got here the Rome 3 missionaries met a nun named Bernie at the Vatican because she said half of her family is Mormon. She said she has a lot of nephews who served as missionaries and what not. My first week here we went back to talk with her and she said she would hook us up with free tours because she emailed her nephews saying she met some missionaries here and they told her to be nice to us. She is super awesome. She is going to try to get us tickets to the midnight mass at the

Vatican this Christmas eve. Super cool.

What was coolest thing you saw this week?

Yesterday in church a member from the stake came to teach all the ward missionaries (This is the first place I have been in that has actually had ward missionaries) how to be good missionaries. He was super energetic and made everybody there really excited about missionary work. He just talk about how ward missionaries have the calling to look for chances to bear testimony and to always be prepared.

What was the best thing you ate this week?

We ate this cake at a member’s house that was really good. She kept calling it Ploom Cake. Plum cake? Didn’t have any plums in it, but it was really good. It was just a simple yellow cake with a little glaze on top.

What was your miracle of the week?
We are teaching a member’s little boy who is ready to be baptized the missionaries lessons. He is awesome and this week we did a lesson with one of his friends about the ten commandments that was really fun. It reminded me of Lecce because there I was the young men’s advisor. I really like teaching the youth. It’s a lot of fun and does not have to be so serious.

Thanksgiving and Miracles

What did you do for Thanksgiving?

Well we moved around old furniture in the church Thursday morning because the church got a shipment of new furniture and we had to move all the old stuff into a pile. For lunch I cooked up 2 small chickens and made some mashed potatoes and veggies. My companion made us some gravy and it was actually a pretty good meal. That was really all the happened. Not really anything cool.

Thanksgiving

How is the work going for you and Anziano Budd? Tell us about your investigators.

All of our investigators are people that him and his previous companion found expect for Timmy who we met my first week here (She is Chinese and the referral of a member). All of the people we are teaching are referrals from members. We have Fabrizio (He is married to a member who wants to be baptized with his sons, Emanuele and Claudio, but they need to keep some commitments) We have Salvatore who is 75 and he is awesome. He is the friend of a member who heard about Family History work. Then we have Carlos who is essentially the only nonmember in his family but has recently taken interest because of hard stuff in his life. It’s pretty good. There are a lot of members to work with.

What are your assignments as a Zone leader and how many missionaries are in your Zone?

We have like 20 missionaries or so. Elder and Sisters. Essentially all I really do is take numbers from them and then they call us about problems they have and all we do is pass the word up to the assistants. Not really that much but we also do exchanges with the other missionaries. 

What was your miracle of the week?

I have never seen so many miracles than I have with Anziano Budd. Literally. There are a million things every single day. Things seriously just happen all day long with people that we meet, people calling us, and in like every lesson Anziano Budd always has the investigators crying because of the spirit. This week he received revelation to literally just cut snowflakes for the lesson with this one member and it brought him to tears. I... I just don’t have that kind of spirituality to do this kind of stuff. I am trying my best but I just haven’t ever reached that kind of level as a missionary. I am doing my best. I really am. I just get kind of frustrated because I have no clue how to do missionary work. I just feel like if I am not doing something the way my companions do it, it is probably wrong. Which, based on my experiences, is probably true--haha. Well, I am doing my best to do my part though. I am terrified that if Anziano Budd leaves next transfer our work is going to crash just like what happened in Sciacca when Anziano Zito left. Well... let’s hope not. In the meanwhile I will do what I can.

President gave us permission to go paint balling for P-Day last week.

Today for P-Day we got a hook up from our friend, Berny, the nun in the Vatican. She hooked us up again with one of her friends to get us in free. We did a small tour and we got to go behind the scenes to see a little bit about the life inside the Vatican for a nun.

These motorcycles are the motorcycles of the Swiss guards. They are pretty sweet.