Patriarchal Blessings

Well, once again we don't have much time to email here in Sciacca. Our fellow missionaries got robbed in Caltenisetta (I don't know how to spell it). But it is about 2 hours away and they now don't have any money. So we have to go reseue them. Hehehe.

But anyhoos, life is good here in Sciacca. The work is not like anything I would have imagined though. Finding is not like it is in any other city. Our success comes from slow, slow, slow friendships with people. It’s different, that is for sure. 

This week about 80% of the branch got patriarchal blessings. That was cool. The Stake Patriarch came and we did church. Then ate lunch together. Then had a lesson. Then joked around for like 2 hours eating and laughing (Sicilians...)... Then after all that the Patriarch called them in one by one and did their blessings. It was great for the branch. They are gonna be a lot stronger now.

That’s all for now.

Maybe a list of questions in case we don’t have time next week. 

Sorry for not writing much.

Ciao!

Post Video Chat Email

I talked with the fam today. I think a short email will do.

I bought a new suit this week. It is sweet. 40 euros complete with tie and shirt. Super good deal. Super nice suit.

This week we went to Palermo. Palermo is a really, really big city. I was there 3 days while Zito went to Rome for a Conference. It is always fun doing finding is a new city though. I enjoyed myself.

Ummm…what else. Gave a talk in church about the Bible. Talked about William Tyndale a lot. I studied his life a couple years ago so I gave some interesting facts and applied it to the gospel. 

Other than that nothing really new. 

Thanks for your love and your patience.

Ciao.

Extension to the Short Letter

Here are some questions from Mom that I will respond to.

How did you get to Sciacca? Train, bus? Did you travel alone?
Bus Rides for sure. There are no trains going to Sciacca and the further south and west you get the less reliable the trains. So. I met my new companion in Catania (there was chaos there as always with transfers) and we left on the bus. 

How did you meet up with Elder Zito?
Anziano Zito... Met him in Catania along with his grin and glasses. 

What is your new apartment like? What is this quiet little seaside town like?
The apartment is actually super nice. The town itself is super duper old. Everybody lives in these 300 years pueblos but our building looks like 5 years old. Really nice and new. The town is super small and quiet though. Everybody knows everybody and everybody has pretty much the same last name. It is definitely a sea side town. Most people work in little family owned shops and a lot of people work on little fishing boats. And everybody knows the missionaries already so it’s really interesting the work we do here is interesting.

Are you now in the Palermo district or Catania?
Palermo Zone. Agrigento district.. The two towns are pretty similar. Agrigento has got some sweet Greek temples I want to go see one of these days. 

It looks like Elder Stewart is still in the middle of the island. Will you see him ever?
Anziano Stewart is actually in my district. I will see him every week. They always change where he though because that city is so close to other cities to be in a district with.

Do you love the new area? Is it pretty? Are the people nice to you?
Yes. Yes. And Yes.

What do you have in common with Elder Zito? Are you picking up more Italian?
Zito is practically American. I always joke with him and ask where he learned so much Italian. But Zito really just has a sarcastic sense of humor and knows a ton of English (he always mixes us him and her a lot so I get confused sometimes). But he is great. AN AMAZING COOK.

I taught Zito "You can say that again!" But a few hours later he said to me.. "Repeat that". So I did... Then about 10 minutes later I realized what he meant to say. 

Are you getting along? What do you eat? Clean apartment?
Yes. We eat like kings. And as Zito said when I first walked into the apartment. "Yeahhh... Sorry for the mess... We kind of live like Gypsies here." 

Did you lose anything in the move? Retainer?????
Not sure yet. Haven’t really been in Sciacca that long.

Are things different on the other side of the island?
Boy howdy. 

Do you have a mailing address?
Yes. But no. Send stuff to Rome. Sciacca is a Moff town. Mail will get stolen. 

Are you and Elder Ziti the only missionaries in Sciacca?
Yes. I think I am also the only English speaker within like 2 hours of here. 

I pulled up some You Tube videos from the travel bureau in Sciacca. So beautiful! So many fishing boats and the Cathedral. Can you send pictures?
Not today.

Ciao.

Short Letter

He listen. We don't have time to email this week because a guy in our district is sick and has been for the last two weeks. They haven't been able to do any work. So we are doing a thing where somebody stays home with him and the other goes to work.

Zito is great. He speaks like perfect English. However.... I feel really, really dumb being with an Italian because he is teaching telling stories and I really can just give a little 30 second testimony at the end. People here speak wayyyy more Siciliano than the people in Messina to. It’s really hard to understand them. The branch is super small and great. They are strong though. We did karaoke night with them. It was fun. The branch has 7 to 11 people in it.

The town is super super small. Everybody knows everybody.

Cool.

See you guys next week. I am with Anziano Prete right now an exchange. He is the man. He says hi.

Transfers Calls!

Well, the Holiday Fest is still not over here in Italy. Today is another big holiday. All the people were in the town square dressed in old fashioned clothes and lighting off cannons. Got some great video of it. Classic. People yelling in Siciliano and gun powder smoke everywhere. Tonight there is a huge festivity and a Nativity! Also... There is a city holiday today as well and in the night they have a bunch of witches come and give gifts to the little children. (I wish I could explain more but here in Messina these withes are more like the Santa Claus in America... They don't really do Santa much.) But we are going to try to do some English Course finding and enjoy the festivities until the holidays are over.

But because the holiday hasn’t really end yet it is hard to meet with people. Members included. We did however meet with Pino again (Our friend with one eye... He was on the scene about 4 months ago but then disappeared. But he is back and has a baptism date.) He is cool. He is also a doctor. Smart guy. 

Oh! Also. New Year’s here was crazy. It was too dangerous to be on the streets because on New Year’s everybody sits on their roofs and throws fireworks and these bombs (seriously...bombs…they cause damage) from their roofs for like 7 hours straight. Nobody was in the streets but the whole city all day was just the sounds of bombs! Also some great videos. At midnight everybody switched from bombs to aerial fireworks and the city was craaazzzy. Honestly I have never seen such a city. It was way cool because we are right next to Italy and you can see everybody shooting off fireworks on the mainland and also a whole bunch of boats where on the Straight shooting off fireworks. Seriously way cool. We also managed to teach a lesson that day with a swell guy named Maurizio! He knows he should get baptized but is afraid of his family.

Also... Ciccio has not come to church the past 3 weeks. He is officially a less active member... Made us sad… But at least he was baptized!

TRANSFER CALLS.

Well Sir. The day has come that I am leaving Messina.

SCIACCA! (pronounced Shockah)

Still on the Island of Sicily!

Sciacca is on the opposite side of Sicily and is the smallest city in the mission in population. Classic little city. Really it is just a small little town in the country side of Sicily. It is one of 3 cities that are famous in the mission for just being really small and quiet.

The branch there has a whopping 6 members.

I am actually really excited. It will be fun to be in just a little tiny town in the countryside. My new companion is named Anziano Zito. He is Italian from Alessandria, Italy (North Italy). He is known for being the best cook in the mission because he worked at his mom’s restaurant pretty much all his life. 

Super excited for the food. Super nervous about the language because now I have to speak only Italian....24 hours a day. 7 days a week. I guess I got what was coming to me though. I am not gonna lie I kinda of really dislike Italian and it really is super hard for me. My Italian is super duper stinky and I really am like 6 months behind in my language abilities. Anzaino Zito is super cool though and will help me out. 

Anziano Cicon is staying in Messina and he will be training. I guess I just prepare my companions for training?

Bye bye. Have a nice and happy new year.

Enjoying the Holidays

Well, it was Christmas here in Messina. Needless to say, we tried to make the most of our 4 days of Christmas fun!

23^rd: Pday. Bowling. Testimony/District Meeting/Bonfire on the beach for friends and family... Sadly nobody came except the missionaries and Maria Pia...but it was fun building a fire and eating cake!

24^th: That morning we got a note in our mailbox saying that Anziano Cicon had a package waiting for him at this place near the outskirts of Messina. Needless to say... In Italy if your package is waiting for more than 5 hours it is probably going to get stolen. So we had to go to this place (ENDED UP BEING A 2 HOUR WALK!!!) way out in the middle of nowhere. We were practically in Taormina by the time we found the place. But we found the package and were able to salvage all the Christmas Goodies.

Afterwards we went Caroling to a few friends and neighbors. At 1 o’clock we got to stop Missionary Work. So we had a big American Feast in the Church. Once again, invited all our friends and neighbors but only our friend Mimmo showed up. But it was really fun. Listening to Christmas Music. Cooking Mashed Potatoes and Steaks. That night we Skyped, played games, and went to Midnight Mass.

Midnight Mass was incredible. I really, really enjoyed myself. We went to the Duomo. The Biggest, Baddest Cathedral in town, and they went all out for Midnight Mass. They had a huge choir, a cardinal, a nativity scene, the sacrament! It was all there! It was a super good memory. We also saw a lot of our friends and one investigator that we have named Enzo.

Midnight Mass

Didn't get home till 2:30 in the morning.

25^th: That morning we only had to do an hour of studies. So we did. Then we took a nap, and then hopped a train to Milazzo where we had a huge lunch with the Buonanotte family. They invited all their family over and the missionaries. Also 3 Catholic Priests (the family is catholic but the mom is Mormon)! Father Alessandro, Father Emeri (from the Congo--he only spoke French), and Father Mario. It was super fun and I got to sit at their table. We sang songs and danced around. Father Alessandro had a little too much wine and started singing and teaching us these little primary songs. I have got the videos. They are the best. It was a huge, 4 hour dinner and we ate a ton. It was honestly the best memory I have had so far on my mission. It WAS SOO FUN! Christmas Dinner with the Priests. I seriously can’t describe how fun it was.

That night we went to a Sri Lankan Member’s house and ate some more. But this time Sri Lankan Food. Sri Lankan food is the best food I have had on my mission. Super good. Then we watched Monster’s University (we had permission for 2 movies).

26^th: An Italian Holiday and President gave us another day off. We spent the day doing a ping pong tournament, playing games, and then we watched La Vita e Bella (Life is Beautiful). Fantastic Film. Highly recommend.

27^th and 28^th: We got sucked into painting a member’s home for them... It was fun. But this week was not a good week for missionary work here in Messina.

THANKS FOR THE PACKAGES AND LETTERS! 

I will try to write back as soon as I can!

Also this week is transfer call... And New Years Eve... President gave us another free day... But don’t send letters to this address! Because... I might move... That is to say... I need to move... I am going a little crazy here in Messina. 

Also... Skype. I am talking to Pres today about it. I will get back to you on what he says.

Ciao Ciao Ciao.

Visit to Napoli

Well... It was a really weird week this week. Fun! But weird...

This week we had our Zone Conference which was really good. It was all the missionaries from the Catania Zone. They said we couldn’t sleep over the night before so us and the Reggio Elders had to wake up at 4:40 in the morning to hop a bus down to Catania to be there on time. It was a good conference and President had all the missionaries do a Nativity scene. I was a sheep! Also... It was a little bit sad at the end because they forgot to bring down our Christmas packages... I think they felt bad so they are coming down with the van this week to deliver them. The theme of the conference was about charity and love.

The next day we got a phone call from the office saying that we had to get on a train to Italy within 2 hours because Anziano Cicon had to get his Visa stuff there. It was super short notice for some super expensive tickets! So we purchased some tickets to Napoli (where his Visa place is). We got to Napoli that night at like 9pm because the train was delayed crossing over to Italy from Sicily. We then rode the Napoli Metro and walked the big bad streets at Napoli late at night trying to find where the Anziani live.

Napoli is BIG.

The next day we did some finding in Napoli Centro. That city is sooo beautiful! It is super, super big and super, super old. You can see Mt. Vesuvius (the big one that blew up Pompeii). It is right across the bay from Napoli. We did that and then went to the Visa place and did all that stuff. After that we got a Napoli Pizza with the other Elders who are serving in Napoli. You must know that Napoli Pizza is super, super famous in Italy. The world. It is the birth place of Pizza. People always talk about the pizza there—that it is super gooood. I personally thought it was just an exaggeration, but it is true. That was the best pizza I have ever had. Messina Pizza is nothing compared to Napoli Pizza. I don’t know how it could be soo different but it is! It was sooooo good! The Pizza in Napoli is only like 2-3 euros as well. Super cheap. The Nap Anziani eat it at least 2 times a week.

Anyhoos. We had to spend 2 nights in Napoli so we got to walk a good chunk of the city. It honestly is such a magical city. I seriously cannot say that enough. Napoli is awesome. Dangerous. Yes. But it is just soo big and old. The people there speak entirely different than on Sicily. But, just like Sicily most people don’t speak Italian. They speak Napolitano. Just riding the metro lines and listening to people. They really only speak Italian when we talk to them. Kind a fun.

But yes. The Napoli trip was a super good experience (and a little refreshing to be out of Messina for 3 days). I am in love with Napoli. The people. The food. The language. It was really, really cool. Hope that I can make it there someday.

But... There was like no work that was done in Messina because we were gone so many days. But at least Cicon has his Permesso.

So like I said about Ciccio. He is doing good now. He had some problems this week though... Apparently the first counselor in the ward and another member saw Ciccio smoking this week. They said they didn’t want to believe it but it definitely was him. There was a big scuffle about it on Sunday morning before he could get the Holy Ghost. First of all... He was 2 hours late for church (Sacrament Meeting is last). Then we had to have a private meeting with Ciccio and talk about the Word of Wisdom. I personally don’t believe that he smokes. He said he didn’t so we went on with the gift on the Holy Ghost. So he is now a member of the Church. That’s good!

That is what happened this week!

Ciao Ciao Ciao.