Christmas Here was Great!

Hey It was so great to talk to you! I loved seeing you and the whole family! It was really nice seeing aunts,uncles and cousins. I hope you all had an incredible Christmas. Christmas here was great! We had a wonderful day and watched over the hedge and Mega mind. It was great. I really am going to miss Bari but am excited for the new experiences that await me in Cosenza! I love you all a ton and you made my week. As for schooling, work and living. I was wondering if you could keep an eye out for me for a job. And if you could sign me up for schooling at UVU for the summer. I think It would be nice to take like a math class and an english class and then maybe two easier ones. Make sure you put me in the right ones because I did one math class there already and I just need to continue with the next one and then English there are a lot of different ones so I don't know if you should talk with a counselor to get that all figured out. And if you could kind of look in to housing down by the campus and prices and just let me know, because Anziano Green talked to his parents and they were way excited about us rooming together and are going to start signing him up and everything. Sorry I'm throwing this all on you. I know that it is a quick desicion but I feel really good about it and I know the Lord will provide the way for it to happen.  I was reading my patriarchal blessing and I really feel like I will just be guided into schooling and friends through my mission. So I really feel good about this. I don't know how the money thing will work out but with grants, scholarships, work, and even if I have to - loans I know it will all work out fine. Thank you so much and Love you tons!!

P.S. I will also email you the email address of Anziano Greens parents so that you can work out the details.

Incredible Lasagna

Ciao! It has been really cold here in Bari the past few days with the humidity and wind. It has been fun seeing the Italians freak out because we are walking around outside all day and trying to talk to people. We have started doing more house contacting. We found a few really good contacts. We are excited for Christmas. It is a really special time of year and it is fun to see how excited the little kids get when you talk to them about Christmas. They all are convinced that they have been perfect little angels and expect the best of what Santa has to offer. The parents usually think exactly the opposite. Ha There is a special cookie that they make here in Bari during Christmas. They are called Cartellate. They are pretty good. Oh yeah, my MTC teacher Brother Tate came to Bari this week to visit. We had a lunch in Church after our meetings. It was really good to see him. He was a great teacher. Now he is married and just working on school. He couldnt believe that I am at the tail end of my mission. Anyway, the members made some incredible Lasagna!! It was sooo good! My favorite. Zone conference was good. We learned a lot and I feel like our training went pretty good. We talked about why we do finding, more than how you do it and just tried to inspire the missionaries and get them excited about finding people. We felt that it is easier for missionaries to get a little lazy in the cold weather so we felt it would be good to remind them why they are here. Let's hope it helped.That is awesome you did that sub for Santa! That is what Christmas is all about. I love doing stuff like that! I'm really excited to see you all on Skype! I will probably call from here at about 5 but maybe 4 but plan on five on Christmas day. Sorry for the confusion. Well I better run! Love you all tons!! Talk to you Christmas!!

Fun place to be for Christmas

This week has been pretty busy. We have done a lot of finding and been preparing for zone conference tomorrow. Anziano Pedriera and I planned our training on Monday and hope that it will turn out alright. We then went to to Foggia for an exchange with Anziano Green and Anziano Jones. They are great missionaries and we had a lot of success. We found a lot of potential investigators and had lunch at a members house. She made us an amazing lasagna! I love Lasagna! These members were hilarious. The Italians all remind me of the family off of my big fat Greek wedding. It is just how people act in the Mediterranean area ha ha I love them and their culture. Oh yeah we had to drop one of our best investigators this week because her boyfriend threatened us and threw a basketball at me. Ha ha. It was too bad cause she was really cool. It wasn't anything too serious but we decided to not mess with it. We were really calm as well. You really feel protected as a missionary. Oh yeah we got amazing news! Our old investigator, who had to move to northern Italy, called us and told us that she is getting baptized this week! That really boosted our spirits. We found her doing finding close to the sea and she saw us on the other side of the street and said that she was praying that we would come back down the other side of the street to come talk to her. So we came down the other side of the street and saw her sitting on a bench, looking over the sea with a cigarette and beer in hand. We decided to talk to her about the plan of salvation and now she has quit drinking and smoking and is getting baptized!! So things are going good here. Oh yes St. Nicholas is buried here in Bari! It's awesome. There have been a lot of parties here for him. Fun place to be for Christmas. NO there isn't Mexican food her in Italy. Occasionally you will find a Peruvian restaurant but it costs a lot. I don't know when we will be doing Skpe so I will let you know next week with either an email or maybe President will let us call really quick to set it up. They will let us know tomorrow at zone conference. Well I've got to run! Love you tons!!!

Zone Leader Conference

Ciao, This last week was great! Zone leader conference was great! You really walk away from those conferences with a new fire and desire to be better. President and Sorella Kelly are inspired people. We learned a lot and are looking forward to our zone conference in Bari on the 13th. We talked alot about how we can work harder in the month of December. I think it can be harder for missionaries in the cold. It is easy to get a little lazy and down thinking about home in the Christmas season. But we need to just try harder to focus on our purpose and why we came out here. On the way back we had to take supplies down to Napoli (Naples). So we got a pizza there!! WOW Best Pizza in the world!! It was good. Plus I got to see Anziano Bunker again! What a good missionary! He is training right now and seems to be really enjoying it. He really wants to finish the mission in Napoli but I guess we will see what happens. Our ward is excited about this week. We are doing a Chrismas traditions party! We will have food from America, Sier Lione, Italy and Holland! That will be on friday. Also we got an invite to dinner on Christmas Eve! Sorella Virgillio invited us to spend Chrismas eve with their family, which is good news on our part because she is an Incredible cook! On Sunday we went to lunch at the Bishops house. They are an incredible family! This ward is really great, they have really felt like a family to me. Well I've got to run! Love you all tons! Ciao!!