Thank God for the Small Blessings

Caleb in Agrigento

Greek temples in Agrigento

Hello! Hope you all had a good week. Here, it has been pretty good. We have been working with some old investigators and found 5 new investigators. So we are excited about that. Hopefully we can continue to find more. We have been doing mostra every Sunday and I feel like it has really helped the work. Plus alot of the members have been coming to help out so it really helps us friendship the members. The work has been going pretty good down here but we are hoping to get the work going a little faster. The members have been really great so far. Hopefully we can start working with them more. The other day we met with a less acitve who seemed really confused about the church and we talked to him about some of those concerns and invited him to pray and he really changed throughout the lesson and at the end was very grateful that we came by. So we are excited to work with him some more. It is great to see the gospel changing peoples lives. I love how it slowly changes people day to day until they are a person who walks by faith and recognizes the importance of the Savior in their lives. It is one of the greatest things to talk to our investigators who feel like they aren't progressing in the gospel but then you point out all of the small changes in their lives and they notice that these blessings, although small, have really added up and made a huge change in their lives. I know that even days that we feel like we aren't making a difference, that we are not recognizing, not only the eternal perspective of things but we also aren't recognizing the little tiny blessings that we are receiving every day from these experiences that add up to make a huge difference. The members here have really helped me realize this and I hope that I can better recognize and thank God for the small blessings I recieve every day. WOW that sounds great with Tayler and Jared! Sure is sneaking up! Make sure you take tons of pictures! How is the rest of the family doing? I hope all is well! As for the language it is coming along pretty good. I feel good about it. I can understand everything for the most part unless they are using medical words or a few other weird things. It is easy to pick out words that you don't know and then I just write them down and study them. And I feel like I can explain anything that I need to explain, If you don't know a word it's pretty easy to work your way around it and then look up the word later. Yes, the language and  accent is way different here than Rome. Plus down here a lot of the time they speak Siciliano A different  dialect of Italian  but they dont speak the dialect to us. It's just a different accent. Anyway better run! Love you tons!  Hey Dad! How are you? Are you ready to have a married daughter! Mamma mia!!! That's crazy! Sounds super exciting! I am loving Sicily! It is the coolest place in the world! Other than Utah. I really love it tho. I didn't get the wedding invitation :( I hope it comes soon tho! How did the video thing go?! Sounds sweet! I'm excited to hear all about how it goes! I hope you take tons of pictures of family and freinds and then send me a bunch! It is great to hear that tayler is saving her money as well! Wow! She must really like this Jared guy! The work down here is going good. It is a little slow but I feel like  it is changing. It is kind of hard but it is picking up a bit. We have done a good amount of finding and it is paying off. The Sicilians are a lot more open to listening to you  than the Romans are so that is a nice change! Also the members here are great! Last night we went to the family Gerraci's house for a family night. He and his wife are 85 years old and served as temple workers in the Swizerland temple. They are pretty lonely but they are amazing! Wow what testimonies! He is extremely hard to undestand but gets teared up everytime he talks about missionary work. He is a stud! He always comes to mostra with us and talks to everyone! He wrote on a ton of sheets of papers the address of the church for us to give to people (even tho we have   a million pass along cards with churches address on them) He just always is trying to  help. He has changed me a lot being down here and has lit a new fire in me. I love them! They are great! I sure miss you guys a ton and am so grateful for your testimonies! So happy to hear George is doing good! Well I sure love you a ton and thanks for writing!!! Ciao!

Another Pic. from Rome

The Rome Zone

Anziano Parry has taught me A Lot!

Hey! Sorry this email is late. We had to leave early this morning to go see some Greek temples in Agrigento so we didn't have time so this will be pretty short, but I will explain more and send pictures next week. So glad to hear that everything is going good with George! He is great! I hope everything continues to go well! This week has been a pretty good week of finding and working with less actives. Palermo is so great! I really love it here! The people seem to be a lot more open with talking! This last week when we did mostra, we found this really sweet new investigator who seems pretty golden!  He really likes our message and we are hoping next lesson he will set a baptismal date. Anziano Parry is a great missionary, he really has taught me a lot! This last week I went on an exchange with Anziano Nelson, from my group of 20. It was fun to see him and do a good days work while Anziano Parry went to zone leader council. Then tomorrow I am going to go on an exchange with Anziano Davis ( An Anziano in Palermo 1) so that will be a lot of fun. You really learn a lot from exchanges and it's funny to see how different everyone is at going about things. Can't believe how fast the wedding is sneaking up! But sure sounds exciting! Are you guys ready to have a married daughter! Ha Time is flying!  Anyway sorry but dont have a lot of time but I love you a ton!! Buona settimana!

Our Zone played Soccer

Us with President and Sister Kelly

Back in Palermo

It is great to be back in Palermo! It was really nice to see all of the members again. It seems like we have some really good investigators here who seem interested but we have still been looking for some new investigators. I love doing Mostra here. (Mostra is when we set up this stand with pictures of families and deep questions about life on them and then you go around and talk to everyone). We found some really great people through it and I guess we do it every other Sunday, hopefully we can try to do it more often. Anziano Parry is great! He is a really good missionary and is a hard worker. Anziano Parry says Hi back. Yes, I am back in the same apartment. The wedding planning sounds like it is going good! Where are you doing the reception? Heard the car died :( thats no good!)  This week we have been trying to meet with old investigators and work with less actives, which has been nice. I like working with less actives and helping them come back to church. It is also a really good opportunity to get referalls. On Friday we had a great activity with the young single adults of the ward. Two non members showed up and they really had a good time playing games and then we watched the restoration together. It was a fun way to do missionary work. Anyway, today I don't have a lot of time. Better run! Ciao and love you tons!! Hey Dad! Thanks for writing! It has been Great back here in Palermo I love the people here so much! They are so nice and Oh how I have missed the food! haha Just kidding. But really the Cannoli are amazing. We have been teaching some really cool investigators here and I am excited to go try and teach some old investigators that were here when I was here. I think we will have to break some boxes! ha anyway sounds like you are staying busy as usual. I'm sorry that the car broke! That is too bad! But it sounds like you got a nice new car! And new suits as well! Bet your looking sharp! Is everyone trying to stay stress free? I hope so. That is great that Jared comes over every Sunday to eat with you all! What a guy! Hope that they can continue the tradition. Wow I'm sad to hear about George! I hope all will be well! I will be praying for him and fasting for him! When does he go in? and please update me on everything as soon as you find out!! I really hope everything will be alright! How are Alesa and the kids? are they all ok? well I will definatly be praying and fasting for him!  My new companion is a champ! He is a really good missionary and just has a good heart. He only has two more transfers left but he is still a really good missionary. Sometimes a lot of missionaries when they are almost done with the mission just start to go half speed and that is hard for the companion. But he is a baller! We get along really well! Anyway better run! Thanks for the Pics! What a stud! Love you tons!!!

I'm GettingTransferred!

Hey! This week was great! We have seen a lot of members this week and it has been really fun working together with them. I will miss them a lot! It has been wierd with Anziano Bunker gone. But it has been a lot of fun with Anziano Dugdale! He is a really good missionary. We had some pretty cool miracles this week. First off this sunday at church, it was fast Sunday and we had a lot of appointments, so we didn't have any time to eat. We just decided to Missionary Mode it, and hoped that we wouldn't die. Right when we walk into church Sister Galle told us that she made us lunch cause she felt like she needed to! So that was great! She saved us. After that we went straight over to this referalls house for an appointment that we set up the day before, when we got there it was to our great suprise that he wasn't there!!! Nothing out of the ordinary. So we sat down and looked through the phone to see if there were any last people that I wanted to see before I leave Rome. As we were doing that a lady walks out of the apartment building carrying a ton of things. We asked her if we could help her and she accepted the invitation. So we started walking with her to help her take these things to her new house. She was really grateful for the help and asked us who we were and we explained that we are missionaries for our church. She then told us that she knew that we were sent to her and that she wants to hear about our message! So we exchanged numbers and went on our way. Too bad I wont be here to teach  her! :(  But Anziano Dugdale will do great! It was a good day tho! And yesterday night we went to the Delya Familys house to teach Fratello Delya's sons and wife! They are also great and we had a really great lesson. The spirit was very strong and we felt like we really connected with them. It has been weird saying bye to all of the members like him. Other than that it has been a pretty average week, filled with some fun finding work. Oh yeah I forgot to tell you about transfer news. Anziano Dugdale is staying here in Rome and he is the new zone leader and he will be training a new missionary that comes in tomorrow. He will be great and do some good work up here in Rome. As for me I'm getting transfered. I'm going back to Palermo!! I'm way excited!! It will be really cool to go back and see everyone again! Especially now because I will be able to speak the language this time. Haha Anyway, my new companion is Anziano Parry! He was the trainer of Anziano Bunker and we were in the same district at the begining of the mission! So I'm way excited! I leave Thursday morning so I have been trying to see all of our investigators and say bye to them. I am really sad to leave this ward because everyone is so great but it is nice to know that I am going back to a great ward in Palermo. Oh yeah and Anziano Dugdale is from Joplin, Missouri. We had to have our preperation day today because tomorrow we are going to pick up Anziano Dugdales new companion from the mission home. So sorry I emailed early. Anyway I better run! Love you tons and hope you have a great week!

Ri di Roma

Buon Giorno! This week has been good! Anziano Dugdale is a really good missionary! I have been in Rome for quite awhile, in fact I think that I am The Re di Roma (King of Rome) haha I have been in Rome longer than any of the Anziani in Rome right now. It has been fun tho. We live in the ring of Rome so it is modernized. They speak English and Maltese, so Anziano Dugdale speaks three languages now, But he is still very good at Italian. Zone conference was great! They talked about a lot of different things that we can do to better our work. We learned a lot! And already we have seen a great change in our work. Yes we had a bunch of Anziani sleeping on blow up matresses at our house, so those were fun to blow up without a machine... I can't believe my sister is 22! And getting married in 6 weeks mamma mia!! That is exciting! Sounds like you had a pretty good time! I hope that I will get a wedding invitation.. If that is at all possible. Haha I loved the story about the whole thing you guys did with Miguel. Wow! Sounds pretty crazy. Anyway how is the extended family doing? Everyone is doing good? This morning we got together with the zone to play basketball and now we are going to go play some soccer with our ward and some investigators. Should be fun! So I don't have a lot of time. But I love you tons and thanks for writing!!! Ciao!!