What's that? A letter from Anziano Kelley?!

The Catania Conference was the big highlight of the week! We all were expecting him to start calling us to repentance (that’s what he did last year) but it was a different guy and he was SWEET! He was from the UK and talked literally about everything we need to know as a missionary but nobody actually taught us! I took a whole bunch a notes and hopefully can put this stuff into practice.

The revelation that we received from the conference though was to... DROP EVERYBODY. Yes. We got back and decided to drop all our investigators and just start from scratch. It’s sad.... But we are looking for the people who are prepared. We have started doing a lot of finding and have not yet found any golden potentials... But all in good time.

District from the MTC. Missing a few...

OH! This week during church the Branch President announced that he was engaged to a member of the branch! It was sweet, and whole branch wigged out! They are both 65ish and have lost their spouses. But nobody expected it! They are gonna make a sweet couple that will help out the missionary work here. Well... That was random but it was a highlight of my week.

Sciacca is slowly turning into a tourist town. Every day we see more Swedes, Germans, and British people... I cannot imagine what this town will be like in 3 months. 

This week is transfer calls. I hope I stay really badly. I have not seen a lot of success here and I feel like a still have work to do! Especially after we dropped all of our investigators... I really want to help this branch in some way! They haven’t seen success in 6 years and I am working my hardest to see some success here. Really want to stay in Sciacca.

Questions from Kris:

Can you tell us more about your new companion? It seems like you are getting along well. How long has he been out? Where is he from?

Ol’ Anziano Brown is from Utah/California... He is like 8 feet tall and good at basketball. He is nice and likes to joke around. He has been out about 6 weeks longer than I have.

How did you find the house of refugee children that you have been visiting? Why are they in Italy?

We met some of the Africans in street because they speak English. They invited us over to their house. Most of them are in Italy as refugees from Libya. Most of the Africans here came through there because Libya is just a swim away. But these guys don’t really have families in their home countries so they just wandered around the continent looking for jobs and what have you. They got caught in the civil war and were deported to Italy.

The thing is there is no potential with this house anymore. There is one kid who wants to learn about us but... It is a very awkward environment because everybody is Muslim and the Moms watch us like hawks to make sure we are not brain washing the kids... So... We are going to have to drop them. Sad. But it’s probably for the best.

I'm excited that you get to go to a mission conference in Rome! Will all of the missionaries in your mission be there? Does this happen every year? 

Just the missionaries in the Southern part of the mission (Calabria, Puglia, Sicily). This happens every year to give the missionaries a pump up and to prevent apostasy and corruption. It was a good conference though!

How long will it take for you to travel to Rome?

We are actually the farthest city in the mission from Rome (travel time). It would take about 18 hours to get there assuming there is little to no waiting time for trains. Rome is very far away. There is also a huge culture difference between Sciacca and Rome… It’s kind of weird to think that this is the Rome Italy mission because it is two worlds apart!

You probably already knew that Quaresima means Lent, which I didn't know much about until my mission when I encountered many people who celebrated it. Do Italians fast during Lent, or give up worldly things for the 40 days leading up to Easter? A lot of traditions do that in commemoration of the 40 days that Christ fasted and was tempted before he began his earthly ministry. I'm just curious about what they do in Italy.

People talk about fasting... But I don’t think anybody actually does it. However, every Friday leading up to Easter people do not eat meat. That is one fast that I have noticed people actually do. It’s super interesting. There are tons of Pasqua decorations in the city and a few churches put up Pasqua Christmas lights. It’s fun! I am excited for the actual Easter celebrations!