Anziano Orso Letter April 23, 2014

HAPPY EASTER!!

Buona Pasqua! (Happy Easter)

ciao tutti this week went really good!!! we did a lot of member finding, this ward is huge! there are about 600 members, but only 200 come to church, so either they moved or are less active, so we have the job of hunting them down. its pretty crazy because italy is insane and the street make no sense, so we get lost a couple times haha. because italy doesnt have a grid system. so the streets are everywhere haha. anyway this is how my week went!

thur. we went to the family Giavazzi! and you wouldnt guess what they made us for dinner......you probly will guess haha, because i mentioned it before they made us Ossobuco!  with polenta! it was so good!! i have to ask the him for the recipe! hes from around torino too so its a dish from that part of italy. so good! then we had a very spiritual message with their sister who isnt  a member, we watched the restoration and had a good discussion why faith is important.

fri. we did a lot of member pass bys, it was raining too, and the worst part was the streets werent accurate.....so we were pretty irritated, and we were in just a ghetto area (i mean dirty) which is actually pretty much all of italy haha. but later in the day we had an appointment with this guy named Gian Pierre, hes so elect and prepared! he met the missionaries about 5 years ago, he came to church once, and english class, but then stopped. he was 15 at the time. so now hes about 21 and said that his mom wants him to join the church, and his dad said he will support him. he still needs to learn a few things, but hes open to the gospel! it was just a cool miracle!

sat. we got stood up all day! it was lame :( but we still had pass-bys that we could do, so we did that for the night! could find anyone like usual, but it was good because we talked to a lot of people.

sun. BUONA PASQUA (happy easter) it was good! we ate at a families house for lunch, and then did pass-bys again! we thought for sure that everyone would be home, its easter! but there was no one, and in fact! everyone was in the streets partying......wierd for a christian holiday.

mon. rained.....rained.....rained....and there was suppose to be an activity in the park but there was rain.....so we invited everyone to the church, only the flipino members came haha, but it was really fun! then we did more pass-bys! im telling you! our list has over 100 people on it! and we have to take a bus and metro everywhere.

tue. we had serata familiare! and corso d'inglese! it was really awesome! one of my favorite days of the week!!! and we are starting to get so any more people coming to class!!! its awesome! when i got here we had about 3 now we have atleast 10 and FHE we have over 15-20 its so awesome!! one of my favorite wards in the mission, i hope i get to stay another transfer here to be honest! i would be okay with that!!

anyway i love you thanks for everything!!! im so thankful for my savior jesus christ and everything that he did for me! im thankful for the guidence he gives me in my life! and im thankful for the chance i have to share this gospel in italy. and im thankful for all the support that you all give me. vi voglio bene! ciao! 

 

pics me at the bone church

 

Anziano Orso Letter April 16, 2014

so this week has gone by so quick!! i cant believe it!! its already wed. what the heck? haha. that just means im losing myself in the work, which is good because it helps me be more open to the spirit. the weather is really bipolar here! today its chilly, but all weekend it was really hot.....and to be honest i miss the arizona heat, only because its a dry heat and not humid! it SUCKS here!! haha. and maybe you forgot, italians dont have AC in their houses.....its crazy but its true, so everyone always had their windows or doors open, which is good for finding, because we just yell in the house threw the window haha. they usually shut the window and ignore us, but we try haha. but ill give you a run down on my week.

Giovedi (thur) we did a lot of finding, we made a couple of pass bys where we got stood up, but good news is we had a family that we went to go see, her daughter is less active and their sister is not a member, they are the coolest family!! they are so funny and we had a really good time, my comps birthday is in a couple weeks, so everyone is inviting us to their houses for their birthdays. we have a lot of parties for this kid haha. 

venerdi (fri) we did weekly planning and did more finding, its starting to get hotter so more people are out in the parks, which is good, we have tlked to so many people! its insane i lost count after 1,000,000 haha. we found this one park never to go to again, its a camp of hobos....at first we were confused where we were, but then realized that everyone in this park are hobos... its sad, but they dont want to listen, they alway want the church to give them money.

sabato (sat) nothing really big happened, we did a lot of finding, and spent the afternoon tracking down less active members that have disappeared in the church records.

domenica (sun) we had church, made appointments for the next week with the members, and then later that day we had dinner at a families!! it was really good!! this family is really awesome too!! this is a really good ward with really amazing and big hearted members. 

lunedi (mon) we did a lot more finding, found a lady in the park taught a nice lesson, but she said she wasnt really interested. its sad, but we gave her our number.

martedi (tue) it was such an awesome night!!! we had inglish class, we taught the english class while the sisters taught family home evening that we do every tuesday. we played two truths and a lie, about everyone, helped them learn new words and sentence structure, because italian and english are way different in grammer. for FHE we played a game called fruits or something, every person had a fruit and when that fruit was called you had to switch seats. if you were in the middle three times you had to dance, sing, or have everyone in room tell you to do something. i didnt lose but everyone wanted me to dance, so at the end they made me do Gangnam Style for 30 sec.....it was really funny! missionaires have to have fun everyone once and a while haha. especially with members.

miracle: so a random guy came into english class 30 min. early, his name is gian pierre, he met witht he missionaries 5 years ago, and decided to come to english class and serata familiare. it was really cool. we got his number and we're planning a day to meet up with him. awesome miracle!!

funny story: so at FHE i showed everyone the family picture we have of all of us on christmas, but its without brittny. well i told them "ci e' mancata lei" which means we were missing her. but the translation in that sense made everyone think she died. so for a while everyone thought brittny died, but i had to explain she stills lives haha. i was laughing really hard.

vi voglio bene!! ci sentiamo!! ciao!!

Anziano Orso Letter April 9, 2014

Penso che L'estate e' arrivata (i think summer has arrived)

ciao tutti!!! this week is a lot different then most of the weeks! and i think this transfer is going to be a lot different too! 1. this is the longest i have stayed in a city. 2. im the oldest person in the city of the missionaries. 3. my comp is going home in six weeks, so hes really excited and it makes  a little home sick. 4. its starting to get hot! which means humidity and BUGS!! but other than that im really excited about this transfer! im getting older in the mission which is weird, because i can remember when i first got here in italy! ive changed and so has my ideas and thought about how to be a missionary.

this week i got my new companion, his name is anziano warnock! hes really cool, hes from Bountiful Utah! and he goes home at the end of the transfer (6 weeks) which makes me kind of jealous haha. but hes really cool, hes only a little taller than me, which makes me happy because all of my comps have been giants haha. ( yes i know im small) so the first couple days i was just showing him around the area, told him all about our investigators. this is all new for me because my first two cities i was new, so my comps had to do all this for me, its weird being the other person ahaha. its definitely making me grow, and i have to do a lot of the talking right now to because he doesnt know the simps, i do, so i have to help break the ice haha. 

 New Comp! Anziano Warnock

Baptism! Sanndy

 

anyway how it works in italy for conference! sat evening they show a recorded sat. morning session. then sun. at 10, we watch priesthood 2 we watch sat. evening, and 6 we watch sun. morning live from utah! its a long day because we have to stay at the church the entire time, but it was fun because there were about 16 missionaries there. of course we're the only ones in the inglish room too haha. we all loved conference!! priesthood was so good! i got good notes and i cant wait to put them into practice for the work here. 

monday was good!! but while we were studying we heard a huge BANG! then we heard "AIUTO (HELP)" we looked outside and a car nailed a dude on a motorcycle! that is the third one i have seen in the city in the same intersecion, everyone was okay!! i will never drive a motorcycle here in italy haha. but later that day we went to a lesson with a family!! theyre so awesome! i love getting a new comp, because you take them around to all the members and simps and we get fed a lot! which is good and bad, good: because they cook amazing!! bad: because all we do is eat and we get fat haha.

tuesday we had inglish class and family home evening!! its was FUN!!! we played games, and i had to teach the lesson, which is pretty easy now because i can speak italian, not very well, i can comunicate and have a conversation, but one can always do better. 

im so thankful for this opportunity i have to serve a mission, as im coming up on my year mark i think of how my mission has changed me so far, all the changes i have seen with my life, my investigators, and my friends and family at home. i love this chance i have to serve the lord and be his tool in blessing the lives of his children. im so thankful for the knowledge and blessings i have from this church, the bible and the book of mormon. which i know without a doubt that when one reads that book, will gain a testimony that it is true, that jesus is our savior, and that god loves us. im thankful for the testimony that i have of the book of mormon. and i know that i can continue to grow my faith in god and jesus through it. 

vi voglio bene!! ci sentiamo!!  ciao!

 

my crazy District! Anz. Miller, Sorella Egbert, Sorella Gillette

Anziano Orso Letter March 2, 2014

ciao tutti!!

this week has been really good!! friday the sisters had a baptism! this girl named sanndy, shes so awesome, shes from south america, her parents are members of the church, and she randomly came into the church one day. well during church and family home evenings we have had good talks and talking about how i joined the church and why she wants to join the church. well she asked me if i could baptize her! it was really nice that i was asked, but of course shes south american, so i had to practice all four of her names, they were easier than some that i have heard haha. we give a lot of blessings in the ward and there are a lot of people from the filipines, south america, so their names are pretty crazy sometimes haha. but i love helping the people and using the priesthood.

so this monday we found out im staying here in milano for another transfer (6 weeks) but my comp is going to leave, so tomorrow im going to get another comp, his name is Anz. Warnock, hes going to be in his last transfer, so a term we say in the mission, is when a mission finishes his missions, that means he "dies", and his last comp in the mission is the person who "kills" him. so this is the first missionary that im going to "kill" haha. im excited, because this means he has been in the mission for a long time and im excited to learn new things from him. but this means i have to say by to my comp right now, anz. miller, im going to miss that guy! hes really awesome and we have some good memories!

im really excited for general conference next week, one of the best times to be on a mission is during general conference! im so excited to hear from the prophet and apostles. 

the weather is starting to get hot....im not going to like it because it gets really humid, and italy has HUGE bugs!! its crazy! but good news is that means more people are out in the city which makes it easier to do finding work! our invest. pool kinda slowed down, but we have good goals for this next transfer!! we're going to baptize!! 

i love my mission so much! im am learning so many things, about myself, heavenly father and others. im making friends and helping others come closer to heavenly father. i know that this is the true church, i feel it confirmed through the holy ghost. i know that my savior loves me and all his children. being a missionary is a way of life for me right now, i couldnt go back to the real world haha, i love this opportunity i have help others. im feeling amazing! 

vi voglio bene!! ciao!!