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!