Goodbye to Rome

Pictures

Duke

Hey guys! I just emailed a few days ago so this email might be a little shorter. Today we went to a beautiful little island called La Maddalena. It is in our area just to the north and just south of Corsica. It was really cool. We went hiking along the coastline of the island. The water was soo blue! The island is also very, very laid back. There used to be a branch of the church on that island when it was an American military base. There is an Anziano in our mission who was baptized there. But the Americans closed it and the branch got consolidated into Olbia. I believe we have a few less actives there. It was an awesome P-Day. This area is an absolute playground. Soo many tourists!

This week we found a family and were able to teach them a lesson. They called us actually to get lessons. It turns out one of the 8,500 pass along cards I have given out this transfer actually worked! They are awesome. Mom, dad, 26-year-old son, 22-year-old daughter, and a 16-year-old daughter. It was a good first lesson as well. I hope we can see them again soon. I want to do service at their home. It was destroyed in a flood that happened here about 1.5 years ago.

The branch here is great. Small, small. They do their best. One of the most incredible men I have ever met is here. His name is Duke Tanner. He served a mission in Korea and owns a Bed and Breakfast on Costa Smeralda. He is awesome. Right now he is working to put his life in order so he can be baptized. It takes a lot of humility to do what he is doing. We go do service for him once a week and help him out. His B and B is the most beautiful place I have ever seen. His parents live in Utah and his brothers live in Salt Lake City. He really makes me feel like I’ve done something as a missionary.

As things are winding down I can't help but wonder if I helped anybody these last two years and not just stopped 10,000 people on the street and annoyed them. Duke gives me hope for missionary work here. He will be so clutch for this branch.

Well that's about it for me this week. I will see y'all Sunday at 4. My time. Ciao.

Mission Conference with Elder Bednar

Hey guys! I am doing really well here in Olbia. For the past 3.5 days we were in Rome for a big conference with all of the missionaries in our mission. It was chaos but the conference part was really instructive. Elder Bednar came and gave us a training about many different things. It was interesting because he didn’t come with a prepared theme. He just asked us questions and we asked him questions. We talked for about 30 minutes about the use of technology in our mission but mostly we talked about life. It was really good. Elder Teixera the Area President came, as well as the head of the missionary department. I think this new technology thing will be a big change in how we do missionary work. It was really fun to have this as my last zone conference. 

We are working with a lot with kids here in Olbia. This week we were introduced to 3, 20ish-year old kids who want to learn more by their 16-year old friend. I love working with kids because they are way more open to learning and they are really curious. But it’s hard to find kids because they think they are to cool most of the time or are scared of us. But I love teaching kids. Sometimes I don’t understand why they are afraid us when we are usually younger than them or the same age and have literally the same interests. Patience I guess. They will get their chance. 

We also met this man who is part of group of people who searches for truth in all religions, especially manifestations of Melchizedek. They believe that Christ is the savior and the prophet of prophets. The guy we met loved the Book of Mormon and I am excited to teach him more about the Priesthood. 

I love Oblia. It is a cute little town. I love the cheeses here as well.

Well that about it for me this week!

Beautiful New Area

Is there a reason you were transferred?

I got transferred because I told President I wanted to work hard my last transfer. So he sent me to this little tiny city to shape it up. I am really happy to be back in a small city. I have missed serving in branches. The missionaries are kings. The surrounding area is super beautiful. Koby Bryant and the former Steve jobs have their yachts parked to the north of us. The water and beaches here are incredible. The people are super funny and speak like nothing I have heard before (Not like Italian at all, or French.). The people are all farmers or boat workers. There are a million sheep on the island as well. We can see Corsica from the north part of our area. It is a fun little town though. The branch is very small and it is going to take some hard work to get it moving but I am ready.

Tell us about travel to your new area.

The city we are in is small and it feels a lot like California. Modern. Palm trees. Beaches and what not. There is not a lot of old here (unlike Sicily or Rome). There are old walls and towers everywhere though.

What are your impressions of Sardenia?

The people are funny. They speak strange and the dialect is unreal. They are more closed and cold than normal. The island is super green and the beaches are awesome. We are actually going hiking today to a place called Golfo Aranci. Should be really cool. 

Describe the area where you live and work.

The church is literally next door to the house which makes things really nice. The branch is about 7-10 people. More elderly people. We are going to baptize some young people though. There are a lot of youth here in the city. 

Which was your favorite conference talk and why?

We didn’t get to watch all that much of conference and the session we did see was in Italian so it was a little hard to follow. I want to reread the conference talks. I will get back to you on this question in a couple of weeks. 

Yesterday I also got to meet on old investigator. His father lives here and he came here to visit his dad. I got a referral out of him that we are going to pass by soon. I am really excited to work. I was sad to leave Rome though. There were a lot of good friends there. I will go back for my last Sunday though.

I also did 2 baptismal interviews for two women in Sassari. They are super cool. One is 16 and was found through English course. Super cool.

Headed to Olbia

It has been a good week in Rome. This week we got our calls and I got transferred to a place called Olbia in Sardegnia. It is a really small town but very beautiful. I am really excited to go but sad to leave Rome. We had some good work going here. To get to Olbia I have to take a plane down to Cagliari and then a train to Sassari and then a bus to Olbia. It will take a long time. But it should be really fun. This city is super famous for its beaches and all the rich and famous park their boats there. You can also see Corsica from certain parts in our area. It is a really small branch.

Anziano Maxwell will be in my new district. It is us and Sassari. I am really excited to work hard ina small city again. I have missed it!

Trials of being a missionary. #35eurosaplate

Late & Short

Hey guys. Sorry my email is late, but we had our deep cleaning yesterday because it was Pasquetta (an Italian holiday). So today we are going to a place called Tivoli. It should be really cool.

Our work here kind of tanked last week and we dropped essentially everybody. We are hunting for new people!

Families

What are some the Roman Easter traditions? Anything you are looking forward to?

Rome is too big to really have any traditions, unfortunately. I loved Easter in the small town of Sciacca. That was seriously the most memorable experience I have had on my mission. There might be some Easter traditions that people do here but we don’t hear much about them. The people on this half of Rome are all from Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Bangladesh, China, Peru, Russia, Nigeria, and Ghana. It’s nutso. So this side of town has lots of different traditions. I am looking forward to conference more than anything. We are planning on making some Napoli Pizza and watching conference. We are inviting all the members who want to come to come. We will see.

What was the best thing you ate this week?

This week we had a lesson with a less active Peruvian family. They cooked a really good turkey and rice dish! We have been trying to meet with this family for about 2 months now and eventually one of our members was able to work some magic and convinced her to let us all come over. 

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

We did a lesson with a referral we got from Salt Lake City. From the office they said he has just been married and has met Mormons in the past and is looking for something more in his life. He is having some marriage troubles and wants to learn more about how Christ can help him.

We were super excited! So we get there and within 2 minutes he is screaming at us telling us everything that he thinks is wrong with our church (95% of which was the Catholic Church, which he must have thought we were or something). We eventually calmed him down enough to pray with him but right after the prayer he got super heated and started going off about nonsense. So for 30 minutes we tried to calm him down but he just kept yelling at us. We eventually had to tell him that we had to leave. Wow... 

What was your miracle of the week?

We were able to meet with a family! They have been coming to English course. They are really nice. The father however may be the coldest most Catholic man I have ever met in my life. Anyways... I will give an update on how that goes but it was really hard.

Baptismal Date!

Is Anziano Kenney still you companion? You never told us what happened last transfer.

Yeah, Anziano Kenney is still my companion. He is great. We are doing good work together. We both finish our missions together as well. I am wondering if I will stay here in Rome with Anziano Kenney next transfer or if I will go someplace else for 5 weeks. We will see. 

What was coolest thing you saw this week?

This week our homie, Mamun accepted a baptismal date. He is awesome. He was Muslim but we converted him. We have been working with him about 2 months. He is really cool. Unfortunately his family is not very happy about it. I hope so bad that he can make friends with the members here and get baptized. We went out to eat with him and our member who was Muslim as well this week. The member is from Egypt. It was really good.

What was your best lesson of the week and why?

We taught a less active who just moved here in from Afghanistan (He used to live in Sweden and was baptized there). He was also Muslim. But we started doing family history with him and it’s really cool because he comes from a land where there are no members of the church. He is currently living here as a refugee because he cannot return home or he will be killed. There is a pretty steep barrier language when we teach him though. He is really cool. 

What was the hardest thing you did this week?

Church was kind of stressful. We had some cool people in church and also some investigators and everything didn’t go as well as it could have. But I guess if the cool new people can make it through a day in church like that then they can make it through anything!

What was your miracle of the week?

We had a conference with Elder Teixeira this week. He will speak in general conference in a few weeks. It was a really neat conference. He talked about leaving behind the culture that our mission has had for the last 20 years (He has been working for the area for a very long time. 20 years. Wow.). It was cool.

Indian Party

What was your best experience this week?
This week we were able to teach Mamun the restoration lesson! It was super cool because he is from a Muslim background!

What was the best thing you ate this week?
We ate some Indian food at our English course student's house at his birthday party. It was super fun. Everyone was in their traditional Indian clothes and everyone was speaking in Punjabi. It was really cool to be there. They are very very Hindu.

We have the mission conference coming this next week! That should be really awesome!

Swagger

Hey Family!

I am doing good here in Rome. Our work is kind of slowing down a bit. But we are praying for finding new people to teach! The transfers went well this week. There was a bit of confusion because some zones put people on trains one day early (without telling anybody) and we had to figure out some of those problems. Other than that it was a good week. Yesterday in church we had Ward Conference. So all of the Stake leaders came and taught the classes and what not. It was really awesome. We have some good leaders for the stake. Sadly we didn't have investigators come. We were supposed to have like four! The weather is starting to heat up though!

This is My Mission

What was most impressive thing you saw this week? 

This week for P-day we went to Centro with all the missionaries who are about to finish. It was really fun seeing the Coliseum (for the 50th time) and all the other sights here in Rome. It was really relaxing and really fun to reminisce with all of my mission friends about exchanges and transfers and all the other awesome things in the mission. For the last 2 days the missionaries come up here to kind of hang out until they report to the mission home for their final night. This group of missionaries has been really awesome to me. Lots of good friends. I have essentially done my whole mission with these guys so it’s sad to see them go. But I will see them on the other side in a few months.

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

We did finding this week and found our way into this ghetto with tons of Indian and Bangladesh people. Not a soul there spoke Italian, but I can tell you there were a lot of interesting things to see and smell there. Fishes and curry. Children running amuck, burning down trash cans and the lot. We met some really nice people and we actually found a lady from Peru who was a member there but moved here and did not know the church existed here in Rome. So that was actually really cool!

We also met with a Nigerian Family this week. They live in this housing complex of Iranians, Pakinstani, Ivory Coast, and Palestine peoples. We started doing a lesson in the big community dining room but soon after we started we got bombarded by all the kids from their different countries. They thought we were so cool because we were from America. Man... We really are super lucky to live where we do. 

What was your best lesson of the week and why? 

We taught a lesson to our homie named Marco. We taught Word of Wisdom and he didn’t even question anything. It felt way too easy... I was a super junky teacher but he accepted everything without a question. I hope it will be that easy for the rest of the commandments. This will be really cool if he gets baptized.

What are your overall feelings about your mission so far?

I was a little frustrated this week because I have worked so hard to see baptisms and see people change. Missionary work is really frustrating because you never see the results of your efforts. I was really sad because that guy that was baptized here a few weeks ago hasn’t really come to church or quit smoking. I was just really frustrated because all I want to do on my mission is see people change. I was sad because I feel like all of the people I have worked with have not really done that. Va be. I try at the end of every day to say that I have done my best and it is really all up to them. I really just want to form some personal relationships with people and see them change. I also really want to leave these areas better than how I have found them. These past 2 years have been very hard. I have learned a lot. I still have a lot of work to do.

I was also thinking a lot about the city of Sciacca. I have never worked so hard in my whole life as I did in that city and never saw anything really come from it. I want to go back there to Sciacca and do something. That branch needs some help. I felt like I was so young and didn’t know what I was doing there. I want to go back and make a difference. I don’t know why I was there when we both couldn’t speak Italian or teach. We worked sooo hard though! Man we tried soo hard! They just barely saw a baptism there a few weeks ago. The first one in almost 7 years. Man... I love that city.

I guess my overall feelings are that I have worked soo hard… I really want to form some personal relationships with people and in the end see people change. Time is running out and I am doing my best. #swag

Ups & Downs

What was the best thing you ate this week? 

We have a South American investigator and all this week we have been trying to duplicate the rice he makes. The trick is frying the rice in oil before boiling it. Makes it super good. You have to fry it to the point that it is well cooked but not burned. That is what I have found. However the real trick is having good rice in the first place.

What was the hardest thing you did this week? 

This week I felt super bad. We messed up big time. We had planned a dinner at our member’s home and we were bringing our investigators to come eat at her house. We were in a lesson and we got the news that our investigator couldn’t come and we forgot to tell the member we could not come. We got a call that night from the member who was super sad and tore a strip off us, and for good reason. They had been cooking all day for this family to come and on top of that they said that took out a loan to buy groceries (yeah... seriously...). I felt super bad. We got home super late because we went to drop a note off at their house.

What were your duties at church yesterday and did you have any investigators? 

We had one young man named Marco come to church yesterday. He is... different. He is the son of a member in Sardegnia who has never met missionaries before and his dad gave us the referral. He is a good lad and is always down to meet with us. He has a baptismal date for next month.

What was your miracle of the week?

This is the miracle and also one of the saddest things that happened this week. We were doing street contacting (like we always do) and we started talking with a family. They were super cool and in the end we exchanged numbers (I think this is the first time I have exchanged phone numbers with a family on my mission. Crazy.), but after we exchanged numbers and started walking away the phone started freaking out and in the end it turned off and the number was not there anymore.... :( So the miracle was that we exchanged numbers. Hopefully we see them again! Rome is really big so it will take another miracle.

Volleyball with the district.

Preaching & Translating

What was coolest thing you saw this week? 

This week we organized a party for English course. It was super fun! It was a pancake party. Literally all we did was made pancakes, play games, and had country music playing in the background. But they all loved it! They also really enjoyed the pancakes. We made syrup and had bananas and all the other fixins. It was good.

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

Well... We got invited to come "preach," as he put it, to this house full of Bangladeshi men. It was pretty fun. We got to the house and it was in this weird little back alley where the street was literally 3 feet wide and smelled heavily of curry. But we go into the house and there were 4 men living in an area about 6 feet by 10 feet with twin size beds on both sides of the walls and a small, 2 foot pathway between the beds. We sat on their beds and talked about God. These 4 guys are living here in Italy alone, with their families still in Bangladesh. They had awesome Indian accents (we spoke in English). But after the lesson they invited us to come again next week to "preach to their 8 friends.” So the next time to see them we will be preaching to the masses. It’s gonna be sweet. 

What was the hardest thing you did this week? 

This Sunday we both were super ill and we didn’t have any appointments planned. But we worked our best that night for 5 hours. Didn’t really get any numbers. Got yelled at a lot. Got harassed by a lot of gypsies and wandered our way into this Arab ghetto where nobody spoke Italian. Super scary. But we survived the night. We also met this pretty cool man and had an awesome conversation, but in the end he gave us the "I will call you" answer. Meh...

What was church like yesterday? 

This was like the first time in church that it was somewhat relaxing. I had to translate. Haha. I really enjoy translating because I can really only hear about 40% of what they are saying so I have to make up the rest. Telling random stories and citing random scriptures. It is impossible to follow the lessons. But I really enjoy translating. I hope the other people enjoy my translations. 

What was your most spiritual experience this week?

This week we taught this old man from Peru whose grandson was baptized a month ago. He doesn't speak like any Italian so I just brushed up on a few Spanish words before doing the lesson. The only words I really know are Jesus Christ, People, Fasting, and God. But all we did was bear testimony and watch the Restoration film in Spanish. He loved it. It was really funny but also super cool because we had 0 clue what each other was saying but in the end it was a good experience.

Made this card for the members here. They loved it.

Lots of Lessons

This week we had our P-day cut short because we have to meet this Filipino woman at a town very far away. However, we talked with Bernie, the Book Store nun, and got to go inside the Vatican museums and all sorts of awesome stuff. (She saved us over 300 Euros in free tickets and backstage passes. She is super awesome!) However, I am sorry that this email is going to be super short.

It has been an awesome week. We are teaching a lot of people. Especially Filipinos. I love working with Filipinos. Also, our Zone is doing super well. The most number of lessons I have seen my whole time here in Italy. Granted Rome always teaches a lot of lessons, but still!

Ciao.

Lots of Work to Do

Tell us about Fabrizio, his baptism and his son.

So the baptism went really well. However... Me and Anziano Kenney smelled cigs on him a few minutes before the service and saw him sucking on tons of mints so we pulled him aside and asked him if he had been smoking. He said no. There were about 60 people at his baptism and there was a lot of pressure on him... Woof. So we went on with the service. However, a few days later we talked with him and he is still smoking. :( He is meeting the Bishop pretty regularly to see if he can get the Priesthood. It is a little sad because he is holding back his family back a bit. We are going to work with them a lot because we set the date for one of the boys for the 21st. We hope that he can make it.

What was the best thing you ate this week?

This week we went to a less active’s named Peter. He is Filipino. He is the head chef at a restaurant and we ate there. SUPER GOOD! He gave us lots of food and every single person in there was from the Philippines. So essentially everybody knew us in there as missionaries. His restaurant is right in Centro so we are going to eat there like every PDAY.

What was the hardest thing you did this week?

We were super busy this week with Zone Conferences/Zone Leader Conferences/Interviews and I also did a baptism interview. We were busy running around Rome like all week long. It is nice that we can finally start to do missionary work again. We have a lot of people that we are working with. There is a lot of stuff to do here in Rome. There is such a big difference between Rome and South of Italy. It is crazy. I don’t know what it is. Whether it is the culture, the people, religion. But missionary work is just so much easier here. The south is super awesome. I miss it a lot. But things are super different here. It is a completely different world than Lecce or Sciacca. The mentality of the people is so different. In the south people were really content with how things were. They didn’t want to better their lives, they just wanted to be happy and eat and sleep (not a bad life) but the further north the more work there is to do. 

What was your miracle of the week?

We met a man on the train this week from Bangladesh (the east side of Rome is where all the immigrants live. Sooo many immigrants.). We exchanged numbers with him and tried to meet him but he said he was busy. He then suggested we come over tonight because his whole family would be home and we could come "preach to them." So that should be fun. He spoke a little English. A little Italian. We will see how it goes.

Well that is about it for me this week!

  

Fabrizio is baptized!

We are having a busy P-day today. We had to do service helping a member move this week, so we don't have all that much time to email. But it was a good week. I am really liking Anziano Kenney. He is awesome. 

Fabrizio got baptized. The service went by really nicely and a lot of people came. We got a phone call from his son saying he wants to be baptized soon as well. So we will be working with him a lot. I am doing well here in Rome.

Sorry for my super junky emails...

Potential baptism! And transfers.

This week we received a text message from our one investigator, who said he is wanting to be baptized. He is the husband of a new convert. It was super out of the blue, especially since we were about to give up on the man. But he just felt that his wife was happy in her choice, so he wants to now follow her. So he is quitting smoking and will be baptized..... Pretty neat!

Also, this next week will be transfers and I will be getting a new companion. Also, the whole house will be getting changed up. Not really sure why, but President is moving around a lot of people this transfer. It will be good because it feels like the missionaries are starting to slow down.

I am really excited for my new companion. He is from my group and is super cool.

Well, that is about all for me this week! Ciao!

Runs, Scuffles and Splits

How was New Year’s and your run? Did you get the exposure you hoped for? 

The New Year’s run was awesome! I ran about 58 minutes. I was actually surprised at how well I did. I did not win. There were people that ran the 10k in like 28 minutes. Pretty crazy. It was fun handing out some pass along cards and what not along the way. Super beautiful run as well!

What was the hardest thing you did this week? 

We have been trying to meet with this one investigator for 4 weeks now... But this week he gave us 3 dropped appointments. It made me sad. But...it happens I guess. We have a lot of other people we can pass by in the meantime, but he actually has potential to progress. 

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

Well this wasn’t this week but last week I got into a little scuffle with a Gypsy kid. He got onto the metro and immediately all his Gyspy friends started making a distraction to steal stuff. This happens all the time so people don’t really pay attention, but this one kid start putting his hands all over my bag and coat trying to rip stuff off and it took everything in me to stay calm. We just pushed him away and gave him a stink eye. The thing about those Gypsy kids is if you push them they will bite you and scratch you and spit on you. There are lots of anziani he have had blood drawn from them.

What was your miracle of the week?

I went a scambio this week with Anziano Zito and Anziano Eads. I was with Anziano Eads. They did not really have anything for us to do while we were there, but me and Anziano Eads found a really awesome family and another man that they can start teaching. I hope they do something about them because they really were pretty awesome!

This is a pic of Bernie, the Book Store nun.

Shortest Letter Yet...

I am doing well. I am happy that the Feste are finaly over and things can get back to normal.