New Companion

So listen up! Anziano Brown got here about 4 days ago and it's been awesome! OUr fist 20 minutes in Sciacca we saw like 20 people we know and we also got a phone number! We were walking home with all his bags and stuff and it took us like 2 hours because people we knew kept stopping us and then we also talked to a guy and got his number (an old investigator or something like that).

Anziano Brown is a great guy. About 6 foot 4 and from California. It’s gonna be a good transfer! I will send some photos next week.

We have been working with this woman named Marianna and she is absolutely destroyed that Zito left, so me and Brown have been there to console her. She is the key to getting the city of Sciacca rolling again. We have planned a ton of stuff to do for her and she is soo ready to be baptized. She has been an investigator for like 3 years, dropped like 5 times. But this last transfer we have gotten soooo close with her. She is the key because everybody in town loves and respects her because she taught school for 40 plus years. This week we are going to build her the Rome Temple out of cardboard. She wants to go the temple but doesn’t want to accept tithing or be baptized. 

So this last transfer I literally was in Sciacca like 10 days because we were always gone for Zone Leader stuff. So this past week I really haven’t known were stuff is. We have been really lost but we are working on it.

Carnivale next week is literally going to kill any sort of missionary work... Even now the streets are full of tourists. Last year they said that all the roads leading into Sciacca had cars parked on them for up to 10km! That is a lot of people... And considering everybody rides busses and trains in Italy, there are going to be a tooonnn of people here! The member here told me to send this website home: www.sciaccarnevale.it. It’s got all the pics of Carnivale! Its super duper cool!

So I said a couple weeks ago we played soccer. We can play soccer, but only with other missionaries. Ecco perche we were in Palermo were there are a ton of missionaries!

Questions from Mom:

Have you heard of a city called Cefalu?

I think I have... But there are a ton of spots way more famous than that. The whole island is super pretty. I’ll bet if you look on Google Maps and turn on the image search thing and go along the coast you will see some super pretty images of where I live. There are a ton of Greek Temples everywhere and miles and miles and miles of olive and orange trees!

You have seen rain, frost, fog? 

Not really much fog. Noooo frost. Lots of rain! Not so much anymore but during the months of December and Feb it rained pretty much every day. But the temp is almost always really nice!

Is that a rare occurrence to serve on the island of Malta?

Kind of. There are 4 people on Malta and they are usually there for 4 transfers or so. I really want to go super bad. Speak English. It’s super beautiful and the weather is really nice. It’s my dream to go there but I don’t think it’s gonna happen. 

So, how does it feel to be the leader in time spent on Sicily?

Feels good. I actually wouldn’t mind doing the whole mission here in Sciacca. It’s awesome!

San Valentino

Alright. This week's letter is gonna be powerful quick because once again we don't get much time to email. This week we are going to go hiking and take some pictures because it is Zito's last P-day in Sciacca.

So this week we went up into the mountains for a quick trip to see if we could find any of Zito’s relatives. His mother’s father is from this town called Chiusa Sclafani out in the middle of who knows where. We found one guy who may or may not have been Zito’s relative? The mountain towns near Sciacca are super pretty and they all smell like a campfire because they use wood stoves and all the houses are made from stones. It’s pretty neat. This town felt like 1000 people at max lived there. I am pretty sure I was the first American to ever set foot in that city and definitely the first missionaries to ever go there.

This week we went to this town about 30 minutes from Sciacca looking for Zito's relatives (his 2nd cousins and what not). We could not find them sadly. We found one man that did know Zito's mom though!

This week we had to do exchanges in the Palermo City of Bagheria. It was nice and a good San Valentino.

This week we had Marianna come to church to see Zito give his goodbye testimony. I could write a book about Marianna but for now I will just say that we were very very happy she came to church. After Zito gave his testimony the whole branch was very very sad to see him go. He really has done a lot for the branch. He also left some pretty big shoes to fill.

Oh! Transfers. A missionary named Anziano Brown is coming to Sciacca. I don’t know why Mission President is sticking the two biggest goofballs in the mission together in Sciacca of all places but we will see how it goes. But seriously... Anyhoos. Anziano Brown served in Agrigento about 3 months ago so he knows a few of the people in Sciacca. We are expecting some big things this transfer!

Zito is leaving to Taranto (he is Zonelord again for the 6th transfer in a row) and also, my father in the mission, Anziano Stewart, is leaving the Island! Which makes me the oldest consecutive missionary on the Island of Sicily. People joke around that I don’t speak Italian only Siciliano. There may be truth to that. 

Carnival is in two weeks. It is literally just a week worth of everybody partying in the streets all day and all night. Not quite sure what we are going to do that week. It seriously is HUGE! That is all anybody has talked about for the past 2 months.

Well gotta go!

Also! Manda’s call is pretty crazy!!!

Zone Conference and High School

Today we are in Palermo. We did a good game of Soccer. We pretty much had the whole Zone here and after Zonelord Zito needs to talk with the missionaries here in Palermo about the work and other issues. 

So this week was good ol’ fashioned Zone Conference. It was a good time had by all. The theme of the conference was revelation and how to get said revelation. This is the Lord’s work and we should let him to some of it. This week was also chaos as always. We went to Agrigento for a scambio and then I came back to Sciacca with another companion. English Course and finding and all that fun stuff that we do every week, but with a new companion! I came in with him. His name is Stout.

Oh! Highlight of my week...karaoke night in Sciacca. We are few in number but that doesn’t stop them from belting out Siciliano songs and drinking coca cola like there is no tomorrow. They seriously love Karaoke here. Zito just shakes his head and says "Southern Italians." But I myself think it is soo funny. Everybody dances around and claps and sings at the top of their lungs even when it’s not your turn. Chaos.

It’s getting pretty hot in Sciacca... Jacket Season should be over soon. 

The man Marco (who came to church and bore a testimony) pretty much taught us the Plan of Salvation when we passed by his store on Scambio. He doesn’t even know about the Book of Mormon but seriously just explained in full detail the plan of salvation. That was pretty rad. He is prepared. We need to go to his house this week.

Umm... Sorry if this letter is super scatter brained. I forgot my planner and all my stuff because we played soccer so I am just kinda wingin’ some of the things on my mind. 

Random responses to letters and what have you:

The thing about Zito’s cooking is he makes different stuff every day. Also, most of the stuff he uses I have never seen in the Land of the Brave. However... The other day I cooked him an AMERICAN FEAST. Complete with steaks (with all the fixins I got for XMAS), mashed potatoes and the like. I think he enjoyed… At least I enjoyed it!

WINTER OLYMPICS! My favorite events are super pipe, alpine snowboarding, moguls, bobsled, speed skating, figure skating, decathlon, hockey... Pretty much anything but curling. Sadly though...I have been waiting for the Olympics but... Nobody here in Sicily seems to know they are going on!! Nobody is watching them or caring about them! Winter Olympics are my favorite too! I was hoping people would be talking about them but...nothing...

Yeah the Caltanissetta thing is not ever a big deal. There really is nothing in missionary houses to rob. I would actually like somebody to break into our apartment... Just a couple a boxes of pasta and pass along cards... Maybe some shampoo, but I think we are out of that too.

Yeah that is my new suit and tie. Ties in Italy are only 3 euros. Fashion is seriously super duper cheap. I bought a whole bunch of white shirts for 2.50 apiece. Good quality. Super slim fit. It’s nice.

At Zone Conference I got the Package from Kris and the Scarf and Wellington the Aristocrat from Ty! Thanks so much Kris for the Fast Break Bars! THEY ARE MY FAVORITE. I am saving them for a good day.

OH! This week we got invited to come teach English at the local high school. Little did we know it was pretty much an all-girls high school... It was the weirdest experience ever. WE went around to all the classrooms and gave little presentations in English about America... I was the only American though. So I answered questions and pretty much just got paraded around like some zoo animal while Italian girls just giggles and laughed and blushed when I would ask them questions.

Needless to say it was a very interesting experience but everybody loved us! Maybe too much... We are hoping some of these kids will come out to English course or go on mormon.org!

Here is a quick pic to document the occasion. (I am sad and tagless in this pic because we had to take of our suit coats.)

Anziano Kelley. Over and out.

Answers to Mom & Dad's Questions

What is your physical address in Sciacca? We would like to look up where you live on Google and send you letters.

Via Lanza 45

Sciacca (AG)

Italia

We don’t live in the city of Sciacca though. We live out in who knows where. They threw up a bunch of new Apartment Buildings outside the city that is where we live. We work and do church in Centro.

Can you tell us more about the missionaries who were robbed? When, where and how? What was taken?

Anziano Stewart and Stephens. Hehe. Stewart was my trainer. They never lock the door of their apartment and they do church in their apartment, so their address is everywhere. Luckily it was only 40 Euro that was swiped. But that was all the money that they had. Classic.

You said your finding comes from “slow friendships with people.” What does that mean? How do you go about it?

Well... Pretty much we have a ton of friends in the city that own shops and what not. All the shops are small and family owned so it is usually just them working there all day and not many people coming in and out. So for the past 5 years missionaries have literally just wandered the streets talking with people but that hasn't really worked.

Funny Story. We did finding one day and got a bunch of numbers... However... All of their names were already in the phone. Classic Sciacca.

So we are trying to just make friends with the people as we visit their shops and talk with them and try to teach a simple principle at first (Our most successful thus far: "Using time wisely," "Budgeting," and "Improving Family Relationships"). For the most part nobody wants to talk about religion, so that has been our way in to most of these people’s shops. In this way people at least will get a lesson from us and invite us back! With some of the people we are to the point where we can share Bible verses about the principle we are teaching. Needless to say... It is not the easiest city to work in... But the people here really are super friendly and classic Sicialian People. They are not mean or anything. In fact, quite the opposite! People invite us to dinner all the time 5 minutes after meeting us and laugh and joke with us! Great people.  

Sciacca is not like any town I have ever seen. I am pretty sure it is the one city in the mission without a train station and I am not kidding when I say everybody knows everybody! Kind of cool in that way. But also really hard because the town is super traditional. 

So. Like I said. Slow friendships and friendly livin’.

Oh! Slow friendship paid off this week! One of our friends who owns a shop came to church for fast and testimony meeting. Boom. He also bore a testimony and it so happened to be the best one of the day. He talked about love and accepting other people and faiths. He is a super cool guy. His name is Marco. We are going to start going to his house hopefully this week!

Hey! This week there was the big Patron Saint holiday in Sciacca. Sciacca’s patron saint is the Madonna (She just keeps following me everywhere. First Messina now Sciacca.). But it was cool! The whole town came out and walked around bare footed and chanted prayers and lit candles all day long. It was really neat to see. Then... They had a big parade where they brought the Madonna herself out. But this year was special because they had a special Maria...FROM BOSTON! Do you guys remember that Maria we saw on the North End? Well they brought her here to be in Sciacca where she started. The last time they did it was like 20 years ago. There was also a big group of people from Boston that I got to talk to! It was super fun speaking in English with them. All of them had roots in Sciacca... Grandparents, Great Grandparents and what not.

My friends from Boston.

This week we also went to Palermo because Zito had to plan Zone Conference. I got to do some sweet, sweet finding there. Big city finding. Classic.

This week we had Zone Conference.

Well that’s about it.

Zito is a super good cook. I am taking notes from him.

Yeah.

Ciao Ciao!