Ciao!! It was so great to talk to the you all Sunday! It was nice to see that everyone is doing good and that the Larsen family is still chugging along! It made my Christmas seeing you all!  The Magnianti family was very nice to let us use their computer and to feed us! Haha I don't know what that Italian guy was doing the whole time behind me. He started yelling right in my ear "Smile!!!!!!!" and "Cheese!!!" when you were making that video. We had to explain that you weren't taking a picture haha! Wow I can't believe that Tayler and Jared are really getting married! Seeing them made it seem all the more real! That is super exciting! It was good to see each of you and I'm grateful that we were given an hour to talk to our families! How was seeing everyone? It sure seemed like you all had a good morning of present opening! I'm glad to hear that Colton won the mink throw! That's awesome! I will have to get one when I get home! I love how over the years our family has just grown! First with Miguel and Mimi and now we are getting that Jared guy! I love having a big family and wouldn't have it any other way! I can't believe that next time I call Tayler will be married! Time is flying by. That whole weekend we ate so much food! And yesterday we had a lady in our ward call us that made tons of food for Christmas and she just doesn't know what to do with all of it so she needs us to come get all of it! And we hear that she is an amazing cook! So you could say we are excited! What did you all do for Christmas Eve?  Even though I am away from home this Chrismas was one of the best! It really shows you what is most important in this life when you are away from home! Well I better run! Thanks for everything! The Presents were great! But it was best to talk to you! Hey Dad! It was great seeing you! That truly made my Christmas! Although we did get to watch 2 movies and we decided to watch Cars 2 and Megamind, if you haven't seen them I suggest you do! It was cool with Cars 2 that we could understand all of the little things they said in Italian! But It was great seeing you! I'm glad to hear that the breakfast went good! How is Jared getting along with the family? I can't believe that things change so fast!  I'm guessing that we call packages care packages now.  Me and Anziano Bunker sometimes talk about the food we want to get right off the plane and we have talked about, Morelias, Cafe Rio, Some steak restaurant, Milts, and JCWs!  The food here is so good but you get missing that food in America! I guess it will make it all the more better when we havent eaten it for 2 years! I cant wait to just go to a restaraunt with the family when I get home! A mission really helps you realize the important things in life! It looked like you have lost a lot of weight! Thats awesome! Did you say you stopped drinking soda? If so that is awesome if not your still awesome! You have to try the juice here!! It is so good! It is strangely good!  That is awesome with work and all! Sounds like you are tearing it up! You can't go wrong with hiring a Matt Larsen into a job!  I loved seeing you and Thank you for the wonderful Christmas! Love you tons!!!

The Baptism this week was Amazing



I can't believe Christmas is just 4 days away! I'm really excited to see you all! Its going to be really great! And yes, I will try to skype at 8 am your time and if anything changes we have been given permission to give you a short call to set things up. The week has been really good! Yesterday we taught a great lesson to a guy that was a referall from his friend and we set a baptismal date with him! He is a really good guy. This year has gone by so fast and I'm already rolling up on my year mark, which is pretty scary! Thank you for that package and all of the great gifts! They have been great and I can't wait to open the rest of them! How is everything going at home with Christmas around the corner! How was temple square? Me and Anziano Bunker were just talking about how we miss going to temple square with the fam! And I can't believe that everyone is getting married! Haha President Monson really helped the guys step it up. Haha The baptism this week was amazing! It was spiritual and everything went perfect. After 25 years of investigating the church he is very happy with his choice and said that it was the best day of his life! So we were all excited for that! After the Baptism we ate tons of food! Pasta, Gnocchi and Torte! It was so good! There is nothing better than Italian food! Aside from that it has been a pretty normal week. It is getting pretty cold here but it is fun doing finding work in the cold cause the Italian people are so nice and will always ask us why we aren't wearing jackets and we explain to them that we are from Utah and it can strike up a good conversation leading into why we are here, so it has been pretty fun! Well I better run! Thanks for writing! I can't wait to see you on Sunday!! Love you tons!! Ciao!!

Ready For Christmas in Rome

Transfer news is in! I will be in Roma 3 again for Christmas and New years with Anziano Bunker! Anziano Bunker will be the new district leader and he will do a great job! And the Sorelle will be in 3, so we are all excited! Yesterday we had Zone conference and it was combined with Napoli zone. It was really good to see all of the missionaries and we had a great Christmas meal at the mission home, which was delicious! We are all anticipating the Baptism of the investigator of the Sorelle this sunday! I can't remember if I told you about him.. haha (I feel like I repeat a lot of things) anyway he has been looking for his testimony for 25 years and we are super excited for him! The week went by really fast and seems to be getting faster as Christmas is coming. The city of Rome is very prepared for Chrismas, the city is coverd with lights! It's nice to be in a country that loves Christmas so much! Thanks for setting up the Skype account! I don't know when we can plan on doing skype. We could probably do it on Chrismas Eve or Chrismas night. Which in Utah would be in the morning on Chrismas or the morning of Chrismas Eve. Just let me know when you want me to. That is awesome that Miguel got that award! What a good kid! Tell him that he is the man for me! That is so nice of the grandparents! We are wanting to make some Christmas Card with our district so I will have to send one to them with a letter. Oh yeah this week we went to see this sweet 18 year old kid from Argentina who was baptized like 3 years ago and he was less active because he moved to France to play soccer and now is in Rome and Romes soccer team is looking at him. He contacted us and wants to renew his baptismal covenants and get the Melchizedek Priesthood so that he can be a stronger member and help his family out in the gospel! So he is way sweet and is learning Italian and we are way excited to help him out. Anyway better let you run love you all tons!!! Thanks for everything!

The Fruits of the Spirit are Peace, Happiness, Joy and Charity

Salve! This week has been great! Yesterday we got an old investigator back and are looking to get a baptismal date with her on Friday! Another man we were teaching (the Sorelle are teaching now) is getting baptized on the 18th and we are very excited for him! He has been looking for his testimony for 25 years and found it! The work seems to be picking up a little bit and we are happy to be working together with the members here in Roma 3! I can't believe we are getting transfer calls already! This Saturday! We heard that pretty much everyone will stay together for Christmas but who knows! My trip was nice to Palermo and me and Anziano Bunker enjoyed the Cannoli Siciliani!! Me and Anziano Bunker try to make new pastas from time to time to see if we can create an amazing pasta. I hope they have red pesto in America that comes in a jar! It's amazing! Thanks Dad for the sermon! I truly appreciate it and I love to hear those great thoughts! It seems like here in Rome there have been a lot of people coming up to us with a lot of anti literature towards the Church. It is interesting to listen to what they are saying and paying attention to how you truly feel inside. We learn the fruits of the spirit are peace, happiness, joy and charity. None of these have been felt in one of these presentations of anti literature. It's nice to think of the testimony that I have developed and to know that no one in this world can take this testimony away from me but myself. I have felt these fruits of the spirit from The Book of Mormon and from The teachings of the Prophets and Apostles and I cant deny it! But there will always be attacks on the true church of Christ. It has happened from the beginning and will not stop until the end. It's sad to see but all you can do is just keep smiling and bearing testimony of the truth of this message. Well I better run but I love you all and hope you have a great week!!! Tell Colt congrats for me!! He is a beast!!

Pics of Caleb in Rome

Good Progress with Investigators

Hey! Sorry I didn't email yesterday! I was gone to PALERMO!! They flew me down to get my permesso (document you need to stay in the country) so mine just finished and it was really nice to go down there and see the missionaries and eat some good food! Last week we had a pretty good week we got 3 new investigators and have been making good progress with our investigators. We also had a really good activity with the members of the ward and gave out a lot of Book of Mormons. So we hope that will give the members a bit of a fire to share the gospel. We also went out to Frosinone to teach a family and that went really good and on the way back we met a really nice guy from Nigeria who has been living here for 6 months and wants to meet with us on Saturday! I'm excited that Mimi is doing her report on Italy! That is great! I don't know much about the traditions right now in Italy but they are very festive with the lights and decorations. They call Santa "Babbo Natale." I guess that they have another holiday bigger than Christmas on January 6th. And that's pretty much all I know for now but I will send pictures! It's always best to send everything to the office because everything seems to get lost everywhere else. Yeah so I'll just send you pictures now and more throughout the month! Love you tons!!! Vi Voglio Bene!

Three Great Lessons

Ciao tutti! This week has been great! Especially Yesterday. We had three great lessons, one with a new investigator who is very Catholic and whenever he thinks of God he thinks of our Church and Eternal Families! So he is great and we told him to pray for a baptismal date and he said that he would! We are really excited for him and know that he wants to become a member. Then we had another great lesson about the importance of The Book of Mormon and then we finished that at about 3:30 and then we got a call from the Dornys and they asked us when we could meet and so we met them at 4 at Termini and it was so good to see some familiar faces! They were so nice and it was good to talk to them for a bit! Then we had to run and get our late late lunch at five. Then we rushed over to the house of the Sorelle missionaries to give Sorella Laws a blessing because she is sick. Then we had to run over to the Church for our last lesson which went really good as well! Then it was time to head home. So it was a fun day! Anziano Bunker is still a champ missionary. It is good to hear about the kids Thanksgiving party! Sounds fun! And that story about Jaren! That was awesome! Could you get his information so that I can write him? I'm glad to hear that Nan and Pop are enjoying staying at the house of  Lindsay and Travis! And glad to hear that the pictures got through! The bottle picture is a big wine bottle from when we were picking grapes and stuff. And the fountain one is just in the streets of Rome. You can just drink the water out of the fountains like that, it's really nice cause you don't have to carry around a water bottle all day. Thank you so much for the package! I almost ripped open all of the presents but decided to give this whole waiting thing a try. It looks very nice, thanks a ton!  Hope you all have a great Thanksgiving and eat some sweet potato pie for me. Love you tons!!!

Latest Pics from Rome

Caleb sent home a couple of pictures last week I thought we would post and share...

Letter about Calebs new calling

I Forgot to include this great letter we received from Caleb's mission President about his call as District Leader there.  We are so appreciative of a good mission President who is always mindful of the mission and the missionaries he serves with there! President and Sister Kelly have been wonderful.

Dear Brother and Sister Larsen,

We are pleased to inform you that your son has been called as a District Leader here in the Italy Rome Mission.  As a District Leader he will be responsible for all of the missionaries in his district.  He will meet with and teach them weekly in a district meeting.  He will also encourage them in their own areas, supervise their service, and be a mentor to them.  He will interview all baptismal candidates and supervise the baptismal services.

He has been called to this new assignment based upon his outstanding service and dedication as a missionary.

Sister Kelly and I thank you for your faith and prayers on behalf of our mission and for all you have done to prepare such an outstanding missionary.

Sincerely,

           

Thomas E. Kelly

President

Italy Rome Mission

"Proclamation to the World on Family" ...nothing to run from

Hey! Another week in the bag and things are going great! We are really excited about how things are going with contacts the past few days and are hoping that they will turn out as investigators in the end! This week we did exchanges with the assistants who are going home soon. That was a lot of fun and we really learned a lot! Haha funny story! Anziano Bunker and Anziano Banks were together for this exchange while I was with Anziano Garvin. Anziano Bunker and Anziano Banks were on a train and talking to people about the gospel when all of a sudden some lady stands up and starts yelling for everyone on the bus to repent and come unto Christ. The Anziani thought it was a Jehovahs Witness and wanted to talk to her as fast as possible. As they got over to her the train stopped at the big train station and they all got off. Anziano Banks chased her down and talked to her about the family, and gave her the Proclamation to the World on the Family. The lady took it and went to the elevator. So the two Anziani walked up the stairs and saw her standing there reading the pamphlet and then she just starts to rip it up and throws it in the trash! Then she walks over to her friends and family ( a group of like 10) and Anziano Banks decided to walk up to her and ask her why she threw it away. She said that it was all from the devil and Anziano Banks pulls out another pamphlet and said," The family is from the devil?!" and they all stood there in silence for a few seconds and then the lady screamed "RUN!" and the group of 10 with their strollers all just started sprinting away!  Anziano Bunker and Banks were just standing there holding their pamphlets in shock and confusion at what just happened. Hahaha It's great being a missionary! Thanks for the congrats. It has been a lot of fun and I love our district they are really great! We get to go over to help the Sorelle teach a lesson this next week to a guy who knows the Bible really good and wants us to come over to discuss the Bible and stuff. So I am excited about that! We will try to help him understand the importance of The Book of Mormon. The week has been another fun one and we are excited to be able to meet with the new contacts we got two days ago, 10 of them! So that should be good! Yes Anziano Bunker is a stud! He played football for American Fork and then for Snow College. He is a really good missionary! That is awesome to hear about the Utes game! GO UTES! And great to hear about Colt and Miguel wrestling!! That is awesome! You will have to send me pictures of both of them! And congrats on the weight, that is awesome! Anziano Cox sent me a picture of you and mom with him and I was  like"WOW My DAD has lost a lot of weight and is looking fresh!" That is way great!  Well I better run thanks for all you do! I love you tons!! CIAO!!!!!!!!!

Staying Busy

CIAO!! This week has been great! We found a really cool family from the Phillipines and we are excited to teach them!! Anziano Bunker is really great and we have been getting along and teach really well together. We have found a few other new investigators, so we will see how those turn out. Yes it has been getting colder here we are starting to wear our jackets. This means that we are doing a lot more house finding, cause there aren't as many people on the streets. Sweet I'm excited about those notes from the young women!! Haha  Which reminds me thanks a ton for the package!! I loved everything in it! That book looks Great! I loved his talk in conference! We are staying busy. Haha I loved Tafts letter about how they talked to 3 people and got 2 numbers! I wish that we could do that here! Last night we went tracking and got a stack of pass along cards of about 100 and gave all of those out and we got 0 numbers :(   almost always the response to us is," No grazie, sono catolico!" (No thanks I'm catholic) and walk away, but it's fun! I love trying to help them understand the importance of this message! Yes, I did meet Sorella Askew she is very nice! I can't believe she is home now! I haven't met Anziano Russell but I will have to look out for him! Yes I will try to send pictures soon! Anyway, I better run! Love you tons!! CIAO CIAO!!!!

I am the new District Leader

Transfer news is in! I'm staying in Roma 3 and I will be serving with Anziano Bunker from Alpine! Anziano Bunker is really great! He was in the MTC with me and has been in Sicily his whole mission! He is a good hard worker so it will be a lot of fun! And I am the new district leader so I hope that I can pull it off alright! Haha the mission is very hard but I'm loving it so much! Everyone says missions are hard but I always thought that they were talking about physically hard, which it is that to, but it is much more mentally hard. Constantly trying to fight off those thoughts of home and being lazy. I am glad to hear that Chase is going out! That is really great! He will be a killer missionary! He definitely has a strong leadership quality to him!  I haven't gotten the package yet but I will go to the office tomorrow when I go to pick up Anziano Bunker. Sorry this week is a bit short but we have to go fast because we want to get pictures from everyone in our district! Love you tons and thanks for everything!!!

I Want for Every Young Man to Serve a Mission

Hey! This week has been another good one! We set another baptismal date with a kid from Romania. He is really great and we are excited for him to see the blessings of the restored gospel in his life! He is very excited about baptism and can't stop asking questions about it. Other than that we have just continued to teach our investigators and overall it has been a pretty average week. Although I did get my first interview with President Kelly! He is so great! He invited us to come to the villa to do the interview because he didn't have time to get us at zone conference and since we live pretty close we just took the bus to the villa for a great interview and then some amazing tomato soup and gelato! So those are probably the highlights of the week. I can't believe that our transfer calls are coming in next week! This transfer feels like it just started! So we will see what happens on Saturday! Oh yeah I forgot to ask you if you heard about the riots the week before this one. It was pretty crazy we could hear alot of crazy stuff happening and we weren't allowed to go in the center of Roma. I guess people were lighting the carbinieri cars on fire and things got pretty out of hand. Italians are very lively and sometimes don't have very much patience. Last week after zone conference we did scambi and I went to Ostia with Anziano Larcher! It is really pretty there and the people are very nice! Then we got to go over to the house of the Sorelle and help them clean up their basement that flooded because of a big rainstorm that came through the night before. Later that night we went to an investigators house from the Philipines and they cooked us some really good Philipino cibo! I would call it an overall good successful scambi! !Thank you for your tesimony! I am so greatful to be able to serve a mission! It has been the Best, Worst, Happiest, Saddest, Funnest, Boringest thing I have ever done in my life but I have never felt the Saviors love for me stronger and carrying me through these hard times. I have felt through those hard times even a stronger desire that others come unto Christ and I want for every young man to serve a mission. It is a blessing commanded by God! How great is our Heavenly Father that he would command us to recieve blessings! I love this Church and am so grateful that I have had the opportunity to serve in a country that has so much of the gospel of Jesus Christ in it, But you can just tell there are things missing. The Spirit isn't the same in those big cathedrals. There is a huge difference between a huge nice building that makes you feel good inside and a temple that has been set apart as the house of the Lord and always has the Spirit present! I am so greatful for all of the things I have seen and learned here! I am glad to hear about all the fun Halloween and Birthday parties that are happening back home! Hope everything is going good with everyone! How is all the planning going for the wedding? What day are they planning on? Anyway I think that this week we are going to take it easy and just walk through Rome a bit. I hope that you all have a great week! Thank you so much for everything and love you tons!!!  You're always in my prayers. Vi voglio bene!!

Lunch with Americans

Hey! I'm sad to hear that the pictures were stolen! Luckily I haven't deleted any of them yet! But the other missionaries do the same thing as me and send them home in a envelope but alot of them buy a hard drive out here, for like 40 euro and it has space to save all of your pictures through out your whole mission so maybe I should buy one of those. If you put a little of that money on my card I could buy one but whatever you think is best. I hope that I can get them to you some how. Maybe I will just have to put pictures of Jesus and Mary on the next one and they wont touch it. I'm glad to here that your talk went good! We have such a great ward! I love all the members back home! I'm glad to hear you heard from that family! They were so nice! We were talking to this guy from Russia and they walked buy and said "Hey Elders!", and then we finished and it was time for lunch so we ran across the street and talked to them and they were so kind they bought us suppli and gelato! They were really fun to talk to and hang out with for a bit! The work this week has been nice and things are starting to pick up a bit so we are teaching more and doing less finding. I hope that It continues to pick up. The ward is still great here! They are always inviting us over for dinner! Oh yeah last Saturday the bishop called us and asked if we could give a ten minute talk in sacrament meeting about The Book of Mormon the next day. That was terrifying but I survived and deliverd my first church talk in Italian with out passing out! So things here are going good! That is cool that the Dornys are coming out! They are such a nice family! Thanks for all that you do and I hope we can find a better way to get pictures back and forth without having some one steal them! LoVe YoU tOnS CiAo!!!

Letter from Members Vacationing in Rome

We received this letter yesterday from some members who were visiting Rome.  We were so grateful that they took not only the time to take Caleb and his companion to lunch but also that they would send such a sweet message to us.  It made me cry (happy tears) when we read it!!!!

Dear Brother and Sister Larsen,

My family was travelling through Italy last week and made a stop in Rome.  While walking on the Piazza, we stumbled across your son with his companion, Elder Wright.  We were excited to see missionaries and spent time with them for lunch and later gelato.  We were able to meet the sister missionaries as well.  Your son was very thoughtful as he had invited the sisters for gelato because it was one of their birthdays.  Your son is a great missionary and works hard.  We had some good conversations about the work in Italy and it rolls along with the help of these fine boys.  Our oldest son just returned from Barranquilla, Colombia and our second currently serves in Asuncion, Paraguay, so our family loves seeing missionaries.  My wife and I just wanted to say that we enjoyed meeting your son and from the looks of his shoes, he is working hard.  You should be very proud of him

Sincerely,

Brother David J. Barazoto

Gilbert, Arizona Val Vista Stake

Lot's of Finding

Ciao!! How is everything going back at home? Things are good here! It's starting to get colder so it's been kind of a nice change. We also lost some investigators :( One is moving back to Romania and another one won't answer her phone after we gave her the baptismal invite, and then a bunch of them are just really busy with work and can't meet with us for awhile... So this week we have just been doing finding. It is so much fun but very tiring and hard. Romans are great but it is really hard to get them to stop and talk to you. So we have been trying lots of different approaches and questions but the silver bullet just doesn't exist. We did get a few new investigators from talking to them on the bus so we are hoping things will turn out good with them. Other than that things have been great. The ward is still great and very nice. Next week in church we are going to try to get 20 referalls from the members. We are hoping that the ward will be our way out of all this finding. It's good to hear about all the catching up on friends stuff. I met the Anziano going to Milan in the mtc that is from Edwin and Karens ward. He is really nice! The pizza here is great, but they say it's the best in Napoli. We have this pastry shop below our church and it is so good! The sell cornetti for 50 cents and they are filled with chocolate and they are amazing! Wow Dad that's awesome! Keep up the good work! As hard as I try, I can't seem to put on weight! But I guess Italians eat heavier in the winter so hopefully I can too! Anyways thanks for all you guys do! I love you tons!! Did you guys get the pictures I sent?! Hope you did! CIAO!!!

Picking Grapes in the Vineyard

Ciao!! This week has been great!! Conference was great and there were so many good talks! I really liked the talk given by Elder Eyring as well. It is sometimes hard for me to decide to continue talking to everyone on the bus and on the metro after a whole day of talking to everyone you walk past on the street and avoid the pressing thoughts of justifing not doing it because of your efforts throughout the day, but it is just better to push through the justification and know that there is someone on the bus or metro that is going to give a listening ear to this great message. At first it was really hard, seeing that everyone stares at you and some people laugh, but Hey I only have two years of my life to have fun experiences like this. It is always just better to stand up for what you believe in and share it with everyone. We have been doing a lot of finding and have found a lot of great people! Every day has been really great but yesterday was probably one of the best! We got to go over to a families house with the Sorrelle and teach there daughter, who is getting ready for baptism, and eat with them! Then we got to make wine! haha It was pretty cool! Who would ever guess that I would do that on my mission! We spent almost all day picking the grapes in the vineyard which were Delicious! Then we hauled them back to the house put them in big buckets and had to throw them into a bunch of crazy, wine making machines and the wine was ready to be bottled and aged or whatever you do with wine. But it was so much fun and we took a lot of pictures so I will try to send those off today. This ward is so great and they are really good at working together with us and helping us with everything. They are really great! Last preparation day we went around and saw a lot of the old churches in Rome. Some were up to a hundred years after Christs death. It is great stuff to see and you can see that simple doctrines have been lost in the changing of time. Today we are going to a cool place called Tivoli where there are lots of cool fountains and other things I guess. Well I better run so I can hurry and download the pictures on to the USB drive! Love you tons!!!

This New Area Is Great!

Hey! It's totally fine that you got this off late cause we did email later today anyway! How is everything at home going? Sounds like you are busy busy! Is there anything I can do for you? There is only one Mom That I know that could do all that, and it is Mia Madre! It sounds like just craziness with all of that and the wedding planning and what not! Good thing I'm not there cause I'm sure I would just be another person in the way! I love the mission anyway, This new area is great! It is still in the Rome Zone! So we are only a 15 minute ride on the metro away from the coloseum and all that fun stuff! Our district is great and it is a small one. It's Anziano Wright from Alpine Utah, Sorella Pearson from Northern California and Sorella Camp from Southern California and they are all great! I really like our district! I love the people we are teaching so much.  There are some really great investigators and I love the ward too!! I have already eaten at two members houses! It's sometimes hard eating at members houses. They give you the best food but just way too much of it and you feel like you are going to explode because they will get offended if you don't eat it all. Haha they always say," ANZIANO Do  you not like the food?" and you try to explain that there just isn't any room in your stomach to eat it but it is delicious! And for some strange reason they don't care and want you to eat it all! Haha But it is so good! I love it! One of the houses we ate at was the house of a recent convert and his family aren't members so we are working with them. But he has a really cool conversion story! His friend is a Jehovah Witness and he came across missionaries and wanted to read The Book of Mormon but couldn't because in their church you can't read any religous books that are not of their church.  He gave it to his friend to see what he thought of it. So his friend started to read it and got a huge testimony of the Church and started meeting with the missionaries and a month later was baptized! He is such a great member and his family is really great to and I can't wait to teach them more! It is really great here I really love it! Oh yeah our new apartment is cool inside! Haha it looks like an old grandmas apartment and there are tons of old photos on the wall haha it's pretty funny! I'll have to send pictures soon. I have played soccer but only like twice I wish I could play more. Like 4 preparation days back, we played volleyball with a bunch of missionaries in our zone and that was a lot of fun! Anyways I better run! Love you tons!! CIAO!!

Transfer News is In



Transfer news is in! I will be serving with Anziano Wright this transfer in the Rome 3 area!! Rome 3 is the southern part of Rome but still in the big city so I won't be moving very far but I am very excited to serve in this area with Anziano  Wright! He has been out for a little over a year, so I will be able to learn the language better. I was talking to Anziano Wright today and he said that the ward in Rome 3 is great so I'll be looking forward to that! This week was Great! Lodi got baptized! She asked Anziano Shipton to baptize her and she asked me to do the confirmation. So everything went good with that until I told her that I was getting transferred. Haha Then she chewed me out and said that I can't leave her cause she hasn't learned everything yet and was pretty upset but we explained that I would be able to come teach her again this transfer and she understood that it wasn't my choice to go. So yesterday we went to teach her and she got me 2 ties and some t-shirts as a parting gift. She is too nice! This week we got a sweet referral from the church about this Italian guy that wanted a copy of a movie about finding happiness and we met with him and he is a great investigator and seems very interested in the church. He asked really good questions and was wondering the other day why no churches (other than our church) practice baptisms for the dead, when it talks about it in the Bible. We are really excited and think things will turn out well with him. So other than that we have just been teaching lessons and getting ready for English class which starts tonight. Last week we went to the Sistine chapel! It was incredible!! And yes I did take lots of pictures. Preparation day in Rome is so much fun and there are so many things to see but today we just decided to take it easy and pack things and get ready for me to leave tomorrow. But I have managed to see the vatican, colosseo, trevi fountain, spanish steps, the pantheon, and the sistine chapel. I think one week we are going to rent bikes and go biking through Rome which would be pretty fun. I also have a lot of photos that I could send if you want them now. Just let me know when and I'll send them. Vi Voglio Bene!! Ciao!

Time Is Going By Way too Fast!

Hey! This week has been another pretty good week! Unfortunatly the ward mission leader decided to postpone the baptism of Lodi to this week so we are still looking forward to that! On Sunday we were on the bus heading towards the temple sight to teach a member in our ward and we ran into a group of girls from BYU going to see the temple sight. What are the chances of that? And today at the mission home, a bunch of Italian news papers are coming by to interview President Kelly and some other Church officials about the temple.They have a huge model in the mission home of the temple ground and what everything will look like that the architects made. It's really cool looking and they took a  bunch of pictures of it. So the temple is getting a lot of attention. Which reminds me. When should I send more pictures home? I can't believe in two days it will be my quarter mark!!! Time is going by way too fast! I wish it was going slower! We haven't received transfer calls yet, but we will get them this Saturday! I hope I stay too but I'll be fine with going anywhere. Oh yeah yesterday we had this lady come up to us and start trying to bash our church and talked about how the Book of Mormon isn't a Book of God. I probably should have walked away but we talked to her and showed her a bunch of scriptures in the Bible that referred to our teachings and I think we got her thinking a bit. It seems like we have a lot of people trying to destroy our faith but you just have to explain the truth and testify of it. I think a lot of them are just really confused and don't fully understand our church. . Sounds like some really good fun football games! Wow really close! Today we are going to go see the Sistine Chapel, so I am really excited for that. I'll be sure to take lots of  pictures! I also really loved those quotes thanks for sharing! The work is still going really good here! We are teaching a lot and just getting ready for English course so that should be fun!  I have to run so we can spend a lot of time at the Sistine! Love you tons and thanks for writing!!!

Good Things Happening in Rome Right Now

Hey thanks for writing! This week has been a really good week! Earlier this week we were walking back home from passing out advertisements for our English course and we ran into this long haired college guy who totally looked like he wasn't going to listen to us but he ended up being very interested in the church and we have taught two lessons to him and the second lesson he brought his friend. We had a great lesson with both of them and on Sunday they showed up to church so we are really excited about them! This week we got 8 investigators to come to church so bishop was really excited and told us that he wants to give us a referral of a family that is friends with his family (the last family referral he gave, the family ended up getting baptized last month). So we are really excited about the busy work right now!  The other day the assistants had an amazing thing happen! They were sitting in the church and heard the doorbell ring and they ran outside to answer it. When they opened the door a lady was standing there looking very happy to see that someone was at the church. She explained that the night before she had a dream that Jesus brought her a Book of Mormon! So she wants to learn more about the church and her and her husband have a baptismal date and they have two younger kids who are 7 and I think 4! So a lot of good things are happening in Rome right now! It has been so much fun serving here and this transfer is almost over! It felt like it started last week. Today we had a lot of fun playing volleyball for Preparation Day but I still need to see the Sistine chapel so hopefully I can do that next week! Anyways thanks for everything and I'll be sure to write grandma and grandpa! Love you tons CIAO!!!

A White Flower

Hey! This week has been good but has kind of had its ups and downs. First off the baptism for Lorenzo didn't happen. He started getting doubts and confusion and said that he wanted to pray about it for another week and see how he feels. We tried to explain to him that confusion doesn't come from God, but I'm sure he will be baptized soon enough. Other news, we are teaching a lady from the Philippines and she has been great. She follows every commitment we give her and is flying through The Book of Mormon. Earlier this week we challenged her to pray about Baptism and she said that she would do it. Later that week we met her and she said that she asked God to show her a white flower on the bus and this would be her sign to get baptized. We immediately explained that sometimes God doesn't answer the way we want him to, but that we know he will answer her prayer. But she was very set on the white flower thing. So the whole week we prayed that Lodi would see a white flower on the bus. We met her on Saturday and she said that she wanted to get Baptized because she talked to her cousin, who is a member, and she told her that she loves the church and that she will receive so many blessings from baptism if she is baptized. So we were very happy for her and her choice to get baptized. Then on Sunday she told us that later that day when she was thinking about baptism on the bus, a lady jumped on the bus with a whole bouquet of white flowers and that she felt the spirit and received a second answer to her prayers. Haha so we were really excited about that happening and her baptismal date is on the 11th of September! Other than that we have been doing a lot of street contacting and finding work which has paid off! We have met so many great people and I can't wait to teach them this week!  Hey Dad! I'm glad to hear about all the good things happening at work and stuff! That is so great! I also loved hearing about the story from your mission it sounds like a great experience and really makes me want to try to find investigators through other people. Sometimes you really feel like you are going nowhere with someone and then you meet someone through them and it feels like your work wasn't for nothing Haha. This whole transfer we have been working with a family who doesn't read the scriptures or have prayer and it has felt kind of pointless. But just last night we met with them and they had a friend over that seemed really interested in the church and so we gave him a Book of Mormon and will teach him again this week! It really felt nice to see something come of that situation. Wow I can't believe that Bingham beat Alta! I really thought Alta was going to do really good this year. Hopefully they will get them next time! I am really excited to hear about Tayler and Jared! That is really exciting! I'm so happy for them! Well I have to run but thanks for writing! Thank you for everything you do! Love you tons!! CIAO!!

Baptism This Sunday

Hey Mom!! I Hope you have an amazing Birthday!!! I love you so much and am so greatful for all of the great things you have done for me! You have helped me through so much in my life and have been an incredible example to me! I hope you have a great time in St. George with Dad! I'm not sure if I know the stories of Shakespeare either but it sounds like it will be a lot of fun! Love you tons and can't wait to mail you! It might take awhile to get to you though. Is there anything I can do for you? I know that it seems like I can't do anything for you from the otherside of the world but if there is please let me know! I heard you got a new digital book thing. That is so great! I think those look so cool! Hope you enjoy it all! Anyways I can't believe my sister is getting married.... That is just the weirdest thing in the world but I am very happy for her and Jared!! The news just can't get much better! You will have to fill me in on details! I can't believe the kids are starting another year of school! Everyone is changing so fast while I am out here! It's my Moms Birthday!! My brothers and sister are starting school up again and my sister is getting Married!! Haha its crazy! The people here are different from Palermo. The people here seem like they have a lot more northern european ancestery because there skin is lighter and in Palermo they have really tan skin but both cities have extremely nice people! Yes we pass the temple site every now and then. They have started on it and are moving fairly fast on it. We have members in our ward that are from the United States who are here as architects on the temple and their families as well and from what they have told us, the temple won't be finished for 3 years :(  so thats kind of sad but just gives me a reason to come back! Our convert is great! His baptism is this Sunday and he is very excited! He was born in Palermo but grew up in Rome and he is around 50 years old. He isn't married but he is one of the nicest people I have met here. He ran into the missionaries on the street like 6 times in the exact same place, on random days so he figured that it was an important message and  God wanted him to know it. So we are very excited for him! Elder Shipton is great! We are having a really good time as new missionaries and we are constantly learning from each other. Being new has really forced us to learn the language a lot faster so It has been a great blessing!  Anyways I have to run. Thank you for all that you do and Love you Tons!!

Two Greenies

I love working with Anziano Shipton! I am still in shock that President Kelly would put me and Anziano Shipton over the biggest ward in the mission, but it has been a lot of fun! There are still a few times where we have no idea what someone said to us but those moments are getting smaller. We are both trying to learn as much of the language as we can by writing down words we hear and memorizing them later, so it has been a blessing to have 2 greenies serving together. We are working with a lot of great people right now, a lot of them are previous investigators. We set a baptismal date with a man named Lorenzo and he is really great and is really excited to get baptized. We contact a lot of people doing street or house contacting. We want to do mostra soon (where we set up a big posters that say things about the Church and we talk to everyone in the area) in a busy area, but we haven't gotten to it yet. It is really nice serving close to President and Sorella Kelly. It's really nice to see them and talk to them when we see them. They do a lot and are always busy trying to run this huge mission and do a really good job at it! I love Rome there are so many amazing things to see. Today we are going to St. Peters, a huge cathedral in the Vatican. That is great to hear all of the good things about alta and how they are doing! I hope they win state. Tell Shad good luck for me!  I did receive your package! Thank you so much for everything! I loved it all! I loved seeing all the pictures and  how everyone is doing. Haha and the little puzzle thing is great we all mess around with it and love getting frustrated with it.  So thank you so much!  I love you all tons and have a great week!!!

Transfer News

Hey Thanks for writing! This week has been pretty crazy. My second appointment with the Doctor was this week and once I got off of the one antibiotic my head started to get tight and hurt and my ears started to pop again so he put me on another and for longer but it doesn't seem like this one is as helpful.  Just want this to pass. We got transfer news! I will be serving in Rome for this next transfer with just me and Anziano Shipton! Haha two new missionaries starting their third transfer. It will be hard but I'm excited! No I haven't gotten the package yet but I'm sure I'll get it soon! Thanks a ton! It's exciting to hear about Diane and them staying out for so long. I'm sure that was exciting! I read in Dads email about Colton getting in a crash! Is he and the other guy alright? How is the car and is insurance going to cover it? I hope everything is ok!  This is the Last preparation day for Anziano Mercado in Rome so we are trying to hurry so we can do all the things he wants to do. But love you tons and thank you for everything!

I Am Loving Rome

I am loving Rome! It is beautiful here! There are so many great people and things to see! I am usually with Anziano Marcado, from Michigan, and Anziano Shipton, who I was roomed with at the MTC, and they are both great to serve with but I am also with the assistants a lot Anziano Banks and Anziano Garvin and they are also really great missionaries! Today we went and saw all of these cool things in Rome like the coliseum and the big fountain and all of those big Rome things which are unreal to see! You run into a lot of tourists there! But the whole city is amazing not just that part. Oh and we went to a Church today that had the chains inside that were used to incarcerate Peter before he was killed and I got a picture, it was really eye opening. I do miss Palermo which has better food and has all the great Africans there but Rome is great to and the work is moving fast up here too! We don't play basketball but a lot of the Anziani play soccer here. We have a soccer field right outside of our apartment and its really cool! Haha I do need to start to do magic tricks for the little kids! That would be a good idea!  As for my mailing address, right now you can just put it at the mission home because we go to the church a lot and then that way I will get the letters for sure. That is great to hear about Tanner Cortez he will be a great missionary! And wow that is really crazy to here about Tyler haha! Down in Palermo the Mafia is really  big and a lot of missionaries have pictures of blown up cars. That is exciting to here about Jansen, I'm sure he is just loving it. How is the work going there? And last off wow! MY SISTER cant be getting serious!! Wow that is really great for her. I am really excited to hear about all the great news with that situation. Its so weird! Ha I hope that it wasn't me that was making him not come over or anything haha. Just kidding. Well I have to go Thanks for all that you do! Love you tons!!!!  I hope I can play soon!

More Pictures from Cefalu

Pictures from Palermo




An incredible cathedral in Palermo

 



The Catholic line of Authority

 

Hey! I am glad to hear you got all of the letters yesterday! I loved taking all of the pictures and am trying to get better at using the camera! And yes that picture with Anziano Banks was in our apartment which is really nice and spacious even with 6 people now. Last transfer there were only 4 but I still love it. Yes Anziano Longhurst is from Springville and he is funny and easy to get along with, I love everyone in our apartment. We attend church in a ward about 15 minutes away from our house and there are probably around 70 members in our ward so its pretty big. The roll with gelato in it is called a brioches and they are amazing! The other one is a cannolo it's this hollow shell thing that is filled through the middle with ricotta cheese inside and they are amazing. And in Italian when you want to make something plural you change the endings from o to i and from a to e. So Anziano goes to Anziani and Sorella goes to Sorelle and more than one pizza here is changed to pizze. Kinda weird haha. That's great to hear about all this fun you have had the last week in St. George. I love to hear about all of the cousins and everyone getting along! Grandma and Grandpa are so great! They and the rest of our family are so great! On a side note this week has been really hard. I have continued to have those crazy attacks where I feel terrible and my head gets really tight.  I told the mission doctor about it and they might fly me up to Rome on Friday to check me out but they aren't sure. He said it could be my nasal cavity but I really just don't know. If you want to try to look up stuff on it that would be helpful to. The symptoms are my head gets really tight and I feel like I can't breathe and my ears pop a little but I just can't figure it out.  Don't get worried it's just something I want you to know and that's why the doctor wants to check up on this. But I'm sure I'll be fine and just can't wait to get back to working 100 percent! LOVE YOU TONS!!!!!

Miracles



My  District



Elder Banks (an AP in our mission) came to Palermo and we went on splits since Elder Tinoco is a Zone Leader



Hey! Yes I am happy to be in Palermo! We have two new Anziani in here now so our house is full with six missionaries which makes it alot of fun. Anziano Scotschi (from Italy) and a new missionary Anziano Longhurst (from Springville Utah), they are great and fun to be around! Then we saw a miracle yesterday! The sons of the man we baptized, who at first didn't want to even say hi to us,  but then we did a family home evening with them and it opened their hearts up and the two sons and their friend decided to ask us some basic religious questions about the purpose of this life and what sets our Church apart from others. We taught the Plan of Salvation and the Restoration of The Church of Jesus Christ. The friend of the sons said he got chills from the Spirit when he prays and that he felt it throughout this lesson and wants this in his life. So now all three of them have a baptismal date! I'm so happy to see that through a simple thing, such as family home evening, the hearts of these three young men were opened up to the word of God and now it is leading them to come unto Christ through Baptism. I know that Family Home Evening is inspired by God and helps build strong testimonies and that it brings Families closer together. This change I saw in the hearts of these young men was a promise that I received and It is great to see that promise come to life. The new Anziano from Rome has an Ipod with tons of The Mormon messages on it and I have been watching them and they are great! I saw a few that really stood out that I think you should watch them. The first is called, Hope ya know, we had a hard time. Then watch voice of the spirit and last watch My new life. They are great and you can go on google and type in Mormon messages and watch them. Yes it has been getting hotter here and the humidity is bad but we just try to stay on the side of the streets with shade, because no one wants to talk to the missionaries in the heat so it's not to bad. I also have really missed our good long talks! It is so nice to just sit and talk about things to get it out of your system. That has probably been the hardest thing to leave behind. But I'm so grateful for you and being able to at least communicate through email. Oh and I heard that on Christmas we can Skype! So that's good news!  Anziano Banks was great to go on splits with! He really taught me alot! He is a machine with work and the best advice I got from him was that we need to talk to everyone and put fear behind us because it is either your fear or someone elses salvation and he said that has helped him feel more comfortable talking to people. He is a great missionary! I loved talking to the people by myself, it really makes you stretch yourself in the language and that was the best time I think I have ever spoken Italian. The Gift of tongues is real because when you need it The Lord helps you and it was like I was talking so fast and not over thinking the conjugations and it just flowed and they understood everything I said. It was a miracle, I know The Lord was helping me out! I hope you all had a great time in St.George and hope everyone is having a good time! Love you tons !!

First Baptism

Samuel's Baptism Day



Hey! This week has been a little slower, maybe because of the heat, but things are still great. It was nice getting the first Zone Conference under my belt and after this week my first transfer! We received our transfer call and I will be in Palermo for another transfer with Anziano Tinoco! So that was good news and they are sending two more Anziani down here to Palermo 2 so we will have 4 Missionaries in our Zone and we are really excited to have 6 of us in the apartment! Our first Baptism was great! Everything went perfect and you can truly see the change in him. He just seems happier! I am so happy for him and I think this has given us a good opening with his family and they are slowly opening up to us and asking questions, so I'm praying that we can teach them more. That is too nice of Grandma and Grandpa to do! They really didn't have too! But that was so nice of them! I have been thinking about buying a few more socks so I don't have to wash socks every week, plus they are very cheap here so I might buy a few! Be sure to tell them thanks for me! I can't wait to write them and thank them! Thanks for the referrals as well! We really will look them up! I'm so glad to hear that you all are going down to St. George be sure to tell everyone Hi for me!  I hope you all have a blast and I will be thinking of you all! Yes down here they are supposed to have Zone leaders  together but I guess they have to have them train because our mission is very young.  Elder Texiera of the 70 told the junior companions of the Zone leaders that we are assistant Zone leaders haha I'm not sure what that means but I think he just wanted us to feel better! I will always be ok with just being a Missionary, Invite everyone to come unto Christ and don't look for anything in return for yourself. I felt a little bit in the MTC some feelings of, Why am I not a leader, but that really is far from important and you will save yourself alot of stress if you put those bad thoughts away. I'm just happy with the great label of Anziano! I will try to send off a flash drive of pictures today so I hope it gets to you soon! DAD! Thanks for writing! I hope you had a great Fathers Day! The work is great here still the only bad thing is that it is getting hotter and hotter but it just makes you feel more like a missionary when things get hard and you just push through them! Wow that is great to hear about Tayler already getting Clients calling for her! Not a huge suprise, she is an amazing hairstylist! I just hope she can always fit her family in for haircuts! And Colt is just a stud worker! I'm glad that he is working hard and saving money! And You and Mom have always been hard workers so it shouldn't be a very big suprise to you that Tay and Colt are crazy little workers haha! Wow That is great to hear about the Jazz! I really hope that these young guys build the Jazz up this year and make a killer team! Thanks for everything you have done for me and I hope that you all have an incredible time in St. George and that you have a fun time hiking and being with the family! Tell everyone that I love them and that they are always in my prayers! Love you tons!!!!!!!!

Zone Conference Week



Cefalu

Anziano Tinnoco

Hey thanks for writing! This week has been a really great week! I got to go teach in the city of Gela with another companion because my companion is zone leader so we are always going to different cities! It was really nice in Gela, it isn't as crazy as Palermo, but beautiful! We also had zone conference this week  in Catania and Elder Texiera of the 70 came and gave us really great advice on how to find more people. So that was a great blessing. When we returned we got busy with teaching again and it was nice to be back in Palermo. Two days ago we were walking down the street to go vist a contact we had an appointment with. We knocked on the door and no one answered so we turned around and started heading down the street and we heard someone yell from across the street,"LATTER-DAY SAINTS!!" in english and we looked up and it was an African guy waving his hands in the air. So we hurried across the street to talk to him. We introduced ourselves and started to talk about our message and he told us that he knows all about our Church from Ghana and he wanted a Book of Mormon and to become a member as soon as possible! He explained that he fell and hurt himself and had a lot of time at home to think about his life and how prayer made him think of our Church. It was an incredible experience! So we were happy about that. The African man we are baptizing this Saturday is great and ready. On Monday we did family night with him and his family and we think his 12 year old daughter is ready for baptism so we are preparing our next lesson to try to lead into baptism. His sons didn't want to listen at first, who are 20 and16, but then we started to talk to them and be a friend and they started listening so things are going in a good direction with them as well. Thank you for sending the letters! They are so nice to receive and always make my day! I'm looking forward to getting it in the mail!  Unfortunatly I haven't gained any weight.. I wish I could but we just walk so much that it is hard to put on weight. We haven't played many sports, I have only played soccer once. For the most part our only excercise is walking around and any excercise we do in the morning. My favorite P-Day activity so far was when we went to Cefalù. It is really pretty there! WOW a new dog! That would be great! How do you like her? Does Coco get along with her? I'm glad to hear Tayler isn't going to have to wake up that early! Haha She was probably killing lots of Brain cells with how little sleep she got before. She's just a good little worker! It nice to hear everyone got together! I miss them all and hope they are all doing alright! How have the missionaries been? It is good to hear you meet with them! Miguel is playing basketball!? Thats great! Tell him good job for me and wish him the best of luck! Thanks for everything! LOVE YOU TONS!!!!

Two More Baptismal Dates!!!

More Pictures from Cefalu



Hey! Thanks for writing! I received your letter! Thanks a ton it was really great to hear from you! I loved that story that you attached as well! It makes me want to become a better missionary. And Thank you a ton for your testimony! It is really great to have such a supportive family with strong testimonies! In the MTC one of the speakers at the devotionals called up a few of the converts who have only been members for less than 2 years. One of them was a boy and he bore his testimony about The Book of Mormon and said that he was reading The Book of Mormon to try to find flaws with it and he prayed to God and asked Him to tell him The Book of Mormon wasn't true and he said that he didn't receive the answer that he was looking for and now, a year later, he is serving a mission. Another girl talked about how her family was a very anti mormon family and always preached against The LDS Church reading alot of anti mormon literature. She read The Book of Mormon and prayed and she knew it was true and her family disowned her and said that they would never talk to her again. The last thing she heard from her mom was at the airport going from California to Utah to serve a mission and her Mom was begging her to not  do this and she went anyways because she said she could not deny the power of the Holy Ghost! That would take a lot but I know she will be blessed! So I am very grateful that I have a very supportive family! Thanks! This week has been great! We have been teaching a lot and this week we got two more Baptismal dates! One is another young man from Ghana! He is so great! Two weeks ago we bought a pizza and all four of us missionaries were extremely happy that we would be stuffing our faces with pizza in a matter of minutes, so of course we had smiles on our faces and we walked passed this African guy and I said Hi to him and he smiled and walked by. Then he yelled back to us," Are you from the LDS Church?" and we said yeah and he explained how his uncle and his friend are Stake Presidents in Ghana. We were all excited and got his information and we have been teaching him the past week and he is great! We got a Baptismal date for him on the 9th of next month and he came to Church and said that he wants to bring his friends to Church! He is awesome! Then the next day we went to teach a family of 4 that we have taught for quite awhile now and the son who is 21 accepted the Baptismal invite! He is also very great and I know he is being a great example for his family! The work is moving along down here in Sicily and I love it! The People are so Great!! I'm so happy to hear everyone is doing good! I'm glad you got to look up the prices of hotels and stuff! It is great here! The food is the best! I Love the Canoli, Gelato, Pizza, and Pasta! You will love it too! My favorite pasta has big chunks of salami and bacon in it!!! You will have to try it! Wow I'm so glad to hear the Heat lost! I hate it too how teams think they can just buy a championship DIRK Is a beast! That is so cool for Austin Lee! He is such a stud! He will do good there! I'm really happy for him! I hope that the Jazz pick up Jimmer how cool would that be! GO UTES AND GO JAZZ!  I love to hear about all of the great things happening at home! LOVE YOU ALL TONS!! THANKS!! P.S. I will try to send those pictures again, there are only two and you might have to download them from the email but I can send a flash drive home sometime soon!

Counting Pizzas, Canoli and Gelato!

My first Pizza!

American Pasta

My first Cannolo

My first Briocches- Gelato in a Roll

Hey Dad! Thanks for writing! Everything is still going great here! I'm loving it and this week we taught a lot so that was good! Believe me I'm keeping track of all the best places to eat! It's the best! You will love it!! I heard that some Anziani in the past have made a count of how many pizzas, canoli and gelato they have eaten on their mission so I'm doing that too haha! One Anziano took a belt at the end of his mission and made stamps into it for every pizza he has eaten, like it's a trophy or something! Haha pretty funny! Our Baptism is scheduled for the 25th of this month and things seem to be going good! This week we taught him about obedience and fasting and he just loved it especially fasting he already fasts and did it for three days when he was going through a hard time! He is the man! I'm so excited for him! He is great and I know the gospel will bless his life so much!  The other people we are teaching are great they are all moving in a really good direction! Some faster, some slower but they are all making an effort, so thats what is important!  That is great news! Tell Tayler Congrats for me and that I love her!  Tell the kids Congrats for surviving another year of school and that I love them and Colton that I'm proud of his hard work and that it will help prepare him for a mission and that I love him! And Thanks to You and Mom for being such a Great example to me with all your hard work and that I Love You and Love Mom a ton!!!!