Conference was really sweet this week!

So conference was really sweet this week! I really enjoyed it! We got to see all of them but the Sunday night session. The spirit was really strong and we are really hoping that our investigators, who came, received answers to their prayers. I know that I did! I really liked the one talk given by Elder Hallstrom where he said you can be active in the church but less active in the gospel. It is so important that we don't just go through the motions without putting in the effort to strengthen ourselves and others in the gospel. All the talks were great and answers to prayers were received. Conference really is just a huge spiritual boast that helps people recognize that this isn't just some ordinary church. This church has more. I am grateful for the great spirit that I felt from the inspired leaders  of the church, that truly receive revelation from God, to guide his church. I can't believe that Tayler got to go through the temple! That is awesome! I miss going to the temple! It's such a great blessing to go to the temple. There is no greater spirit that I have felt than the spirit I have felt in the temple. I hope she had a good experience. I still can't believe that the wedding is this Saturday!!!! Wow, So wierd! I can't wait to hear about it. I hope everything goes perfect!  Yesterday we had Zone conference. We had a lot of trainings from President and Sorella Kelly and from our zone leaders and one of the Assistants. All of it went very well. I received answers to prayers there as well. It is awesome that we have an inspired President and also inspired leaders that give us great council and advice to direct the work of the Lord here in Italy. Anyway I love you all! Hope you have a great week and that everything goes well with the wedding!! Ciao!!

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!!

Anziano Bunker is getting Transferred

Hello! Wow kinda crazy week. Everything has been pretty normal other than Sunday morning. We got a call from President Kelly saying that Anziano Bunker is getting transfered down to Crotone this Friday! I guess that some missionaries Mom is sick so he received permission to go home. So yesterday we received a third companion from Malta! We will be in a companionship of three until Friday when Anziano Bunker leaves. His name is Anziano Dugdale, he is from Joplan, Missouri. He is really great and I've already learned a lot from him! He has two transfers left and is really good at Italian even though he served in Malta for like 6 transfers. So that was news that really caught us off guard. Then at Church President and Sorella Kelly came and it was our missionary sacrament meeting, so I gave a talk and some new converts bore their testimonies. It was really great! We are also excited for Zone conference tomorrow! We will have 9 Anziani staying in our apartment tonight! Us three, Anziani from Napoli 1 and 2 and then Caserta. So we will be a little cramped on space but it will be nice to see everyone! So thats all the crazy news for the week. Oh yes I did recieve the package! Thank you so much!! Mac and Cheese is the best! Haha I miss that kind of food! So thanks a ton for everything! That is great that you went to Moab! Sounds like you had a blast! I love Arches national park. That is so awesome for Colton! What a champ! I can't believe that he will graduate this May as well! Time is flying!! So I'm pretty sure that I will stay here next transfer as well to show Anziano Dugdale the area but I guess we will see!  Well I hope you have a good week! Ci sentiamo! Love you tons!!!Hey Dad! Sounds like you had a good time at moab! That is awesome! Sounds like some intense hiking took place! Here has been pretty eventful with the news about Anziano Bunker getting transfered and all! Crazy huh! I'm pretty surprised that I have been here for so long. That was the last thing I expected but whatever happens, happens for a reason. I guess I will find out why I'm staying here even though I don't know why right now. Our investigators are good. I feel like we have been kind of battling with them lately! I'm kind of ready to drop them all, but we should still give them time to find an answer. I guess I just don't like it when they bring up things that they don't believe are true and we will show them in the Bible and the Book of Mormon where it says it and then they will still argue it and I am like "Bro, I didn't make the rules around here! You take it up with Luke or Paul, they are the guys who wrote it not me!" So it's been pretty wild but I am learning the Bible a lot and love it! So yeah. Wow Colton is a stud! I wish I could have seen him! That is really cool! Oh man I am missing church ball! That is some fun stuff! Thank you for doing that! With out church ball people just aren't happy! Legit I love church ball! I can't wait to play when I get back! Has it been hard to find people to help out with reffing and all that? I'll help when I get back if you are still doing it! Anyway I better run. Thanks for writing! Love you tons have a great week!!!

Good week of just Finding

Caroling on the Spanish Steps

A Castle

Making pizza at the church with the Sorelle and our investigator Luca

A Church

This week has been good. The mission has been preparing for zone conference next week, Elder Teixeira will tour our mission again! So we are all excited about that! President Kelly said that this will probably be the last mission tour for our group. That is crazy! I hope everyone at home had a great valentines day! What did you all do? I think Anziano Bunker and I forgot that it was valentines day until we were going to an appointment half way through the day and saw some guy with heart ballons. Haha The Mission! Anyway, the snow has been great but we are ready for it to go. It was pretty hard on the work and Church the last two weeks has only been one hour because of it, so we are excited to get back on a normal schedule. Yesterday night we had a great night! We went to a members house and taught her mom, who is not a member, The Plan of Salvation! She said that she felt like she had heard this plan before and she knew it was true! So that was awesome! She said she will be baptized when she knows these things are true, which confused us because she said she knew it was true already, So we will just have to work with her some more. After that we had a great Romanian dish. I don't remember the name of it but they were big red peppers stuffed with rice and meat in a delicous soup! It was a great night! This week has been a pretty good week of just finding. And no, the weather hasn't been too bad. The jacket is doing great at keeping me warm. I haven't gotten the package yet but I'm sure that I will get it soon.  Yes it is true our Sister missionaries do rock!  They just bake us goodies and are always bringing them to us and to district meeting! They are awesome! The other day when we were going to an appointment we stumbled upon a few cool looking churches so today for preperation day we want to go check them out. Should be fun! Hopefully we will find someone elect on the way! Well Love you and thank you for all you do for me!! Have a great week! Ciao!!!Hey Dad! How is everything? Did you have a good valentines day? I hope so! This week has been good! Kinda long but good! I'm excited for Zone conference this week! Should be fun! The missionaries from Napoli (Napels) and Sardegnia are coming to this Zone conference as well so we will have 6 other Anziani staying with us in our appartment. Should be quite the party! haha I'm glad to hear that the car didn't blow up! That's scary! Anyway! I can't wait to hear about Coltons wrestling match!! That will be awesome! I'm sure he will kick some butt! Let me know how he does! Also another thing next week zone conference is on Wednesday so our Preperation Day will be on Tuesday. So if you and Mom could write me before Tuesday that would be very appreciated! How is work? how are things for the wedding coming along? I hope all is good!  We keep running into this priest in termini and we want to have a lesson with him soon so we are hoping we will run into him even today. He is really nice just doesn't understand some things in the Bible very clear, Behold why we have need of the Book of Mormon! Hopefully he will find the truth! Well I sure Love you and am so grateful for you!! Have a great week!! Ciao!!

IT SNOWED!!!!

Thank you for all the birthday wishes! I had a great birthday! Kind of a long one but it was still great. First off we had church for only one hour because IT SNOWED!!!! It was awesome!!! Made me feel right at home! Anyway, after that we made a good long 2 hour trek to a members house for a good lunch/dinner appointment, where we ate more food than I have ever eaten in my life and then we had to head home for some finding. Oh yeah, the Sorelle made me a great cake! That was in the shape of 20! So that was really nice of them! It was a nice day! Other than that it has been awesome to see the Italians with the snow! They all busted out the brooms and dust pans to clear the snow off of drive ways and sidewalks and are all pretty scared to walk on the ice or snow in fear that they will slip to their death. Our ward mission leader walked with us to church and kept hanging on to me and Anziano Bunker as we were walking on it like it was grass cause we are so used to the snow. Haha I don't think that the Italians understand that they probably shouldn't drive their scooters around in this weather as well! The kids didn't really know what to do at first and finally started having snowball fights! Anziano Bunker and I were excited and ready to jump in a few of them but then we remembered that we are missionaries haha! Also this week a member of our ward passed away :(  We were going to go visit him this week but because of the weather none of the buses were working, so we felt bad about that but he is in a better place now. That is awesome news about Colt! What a champ!! I wish I could have seen it! That is a great goal that Tayler and Jared made together! Sounds like they are going to be good together! Thanks for writing and hope you have a good week!! Ciao!!! Love you!!!Hey Dad!! Thanks for the Birthday wishes! I had an excellent birthday! And Thanks for filling me in on the wrestling!! Wow!! That is insane! What a stud!! When does state start? Also thanks for the pictures of the wrestling! I love the one of Colton on that kid shoving his nose in the ground Haha! Priceless! How was your week?! Heard the Super bowl was great!! How was the Party? I miss football haha! Me and Anziano Bunker are always just walking down the street and want to tackle random people who are walking by us fast haha! We miss hitting! That is awesome you got the nintendo 64 back!  I'll play it when I get back Haha! How did they find it?? Did they find anything else of ours? Yeah it is crazy how fast things are happening and its true, before you know it I'll be home again! Mamma Mia!! This transfer has been good! It is kind of going slower, just because there hasn't been that much change for a while. But its all good. I think today for Preperation Day we are going to  Body Worlds  with an Investigator of ours! So that should be a lot of fun! We have seen pretty much everything there is to see in Rome. So I better get running but thanks for writing and I love you tons!!! Ciao!! Buona Settimana!!!

The Ward here is so Great!!!

Ciao Tutti! Another overall good week! We have been staying very busy
this week with member work. We have traveled all over our zone working
with members and doing some service. The ward here is so great and I
love working with them! They all have such strong testimonies and
sacrifice so much for the Church. On Monday we went to a members house
and we got to cut up a lot of fire wood and stack it in their shed. It
is alot of fun to mix things up with some service. It has been a lot
of fun being in a bigger district. This week the Rome 2 missionaries
came to our church and next week we will go to their church. Thank you
for the early birthday wish! I can't believe that I will be turning 20
also! Im growin up! Ha My birthday lands on Sunday so that's a plus!
Time is just flying out here! It feels like 4 months ago I was getting
ready to leave for the mission! Haha and in someways I still feel kind
of like a greenie, even though I have been out for almost 11 months. It
is nice that I'll be serving another one with Anziano Bunker, He is a
good guy. We pretty much never get sick of talking about football. As
for the weather, it is pretty cold here. It hasn't snowed but it is
raining right now and we get that cold humidity here. I think I'm
starting to love the pasta here even more! This week we went to a few
members houses and ate some amazing pasta! I don't know how they do it
but they just have the Italian touch! I love the food here! Also this
week we have been really trying to work with our investigators who
arent progressing and we have found out that we need to teach the
Priesthood. So It has been a lot of fun studying about the Priesthood
this last week. I have loved studying the Bible out here and want to
read the whole Bible in Italian as well. I'm honestly not sure about
the temple... the last I heard was that they had dug the holes, but
that was a while back. We got some really cool cards with the temple
on it and they talk about eternal marriage and how the Priesthood can
bless families in Italian so those have been nice to have. Talking
about the Temple is a good way to stop people and it has really been
raising some interest here! Hopefully when it is almost finished
everyone will know about it and want to talk to missionaires more.
Hey Dad! How was the Birthday?! I hope it was good!! What did you do?
Thank you for the Birthday wishes! I can't believe im turning 20! Mamma
Mia!!! It is fun learning the language. A lot of the missionaries try
to work around the vocabulary they know to say things but I have
really tried to study out all the words so I can word things just how
I want. At times it is very frustrating cause I get so sick of looking
up words and pounding them in my head but I feel in the end it will
pay off. I'm glad to hear that your talk went good! And yes it made
sense! In Italian you say (It has sense) kinda wierd. But that's
great! It sounds like it was a great talk! And don't worry about the
package! Italian mail service is terrible so every missionary here
gets their packages later than planned! That Priest that tried to
prove us wrong with the Bible was wishing that he didn't talk to us..
Haha I think he thought we were just two 19 year old kids who don't
know the Bible and couldn't speak the language but we kind of left him
with out words. We are going to give him a Book of Mormon and want to
set up a lesson with him soon! The sorelle are teaching a lady who
works in the Vatican as a chef and she tells the sorelle all about
what goes on behind the scenes. So this lady is looking for the truth
 and loves our church! I just wish that more people could recognize the
 importance of the PRIESTHOOD!!! Ha but all we can do is try! Well I better take off!
We are going to go see some big old Cathedrals here. Love you tons!!!
Ciao!!

Staying another one in Rome 3

It seems like 2 weeks ago I emailed you about transfers and they are already here again! I am staying another one in Rome 3! Haha who would have guessed?! I thought I was a goner for sure, but I'm really excited to stay another one! I am the district leader again and they are combining the district of Rome 3 and Rome 2, so we will have the 2 assistants, 2 Anziani from Rome 2, 2 Sorelle from Rome 2, 2 Sorelle from Rome 3 and Anziano Bunker and I. So it will be a lot of fun having a bigger district! The Sorelle in our district will be Sorella Stebar and Sorella Turley. Sorella Laws is finished with the mission and Sorella Camp is going to Bari. So that's transfer news! That is great that you went to dinner with Anziano Bunkers family! They are really nice, even though I only talked to them for a few seconds on skype! That is crazy all of the new stuff that is going on. I can't believe how fast things change! We had a new family move into our ward! The Dad is Italian and the Mom is American and they were living in Taylorsville but they moved here to work for the Church and stuff. They have 5 kids and they are all really young and they are great! They totally remind me of our family. They had us over for lunch after church and cooked us a great meal and had a good talk about the mission and the Dad gave us some great advice about jumping into institute right after the mission. They are awesome and we are really happy to have them in the Ward here. Wow I can't believe Steven got his call! Tell him congrats for me. He will be a great missionary. This week should go really good! We are looking forward to seeing a guy that came to church with his girlfriend, who is a member, he seems really interested and we feel good about him. We also got a referral from Rome 1 and this guy seems really interested as well! So we have some good leads and are excited to teach them this week. Why is Tayler looking for a job for those days of the week. I hope she finds one! When are they planning on starting the house? How are Miguel and Mimi doing? I sure miss them. The other day I was looking at the letters sent me. Which reminds me, I hope the grandparents got the letters I sent. Please let me know if they made it because I am not always sure if the mail system here is very reliable. Thanks for writing! Love you Tons!!! CIAO! Tanti Auguri a Te! Tanti Auguri a Te! Tanti Auguri Dad! Tanti Auguri A Te!!!  Buon Complianno! Happy Birthday Dad! I hope you Have a wonderful Birthday week! I love you tons and am so greatful I have the best Dad in the world!! I miss you so much and wish that I was there to give you a big hug! I hope that someone will give you a big hug in my behalf! This week I have been studying the Atonement and how Important it is! Tad R. Callister talks in that book about how returning to our Father in Heaven will be such a great reunion. I can't wait until the day comes when I get home and can give you a big hug! But I know this is the right thing to be doing at this time in my life! Thank you for all of the great things you have taught me in my life, even when I have been a bit of a punk and didn't know what was best for me! Thank you! I hope that you know that you are always in my prayers and I'm always telling everyone how awesome my Dad is, and showing pictures of us hiking angels landing together! I hope when I get back we can go to moab or st. george and go hiking again. It is something that I miss a ton! Love you and I hope that you know that even though I am far away I always feel close to you and the family! Love you!!! That is great to hear that you are giving a talk! You will do great! You are a really good speaker! I'm still terrified of speaking but doing it in Italian is really fun because I love the language and how it flows and everything. I sent the Dorneys a letter I hope they got it. Wow sounds like work is going great! That is awesome! Keep up the good work! I Really miss church ball!!! I want to play basketball so bad! Maybe we will set up a preperation day with the zone where we all go play basketball! That would be fun! I probably will struggle because it has been so long! Whatever! You are good at basketball, especially defense! You can shut people down! You play good aggresive D! And the D is where its at! Sounds like a crazy game the 49ers had! Wow! Wish I could have seen it!  Well thanks for writing Dad! I love you tons!!!!! Buona settimana e Buon complianno!!!!

Ping Pong and Foosball Tournament

   Hey!  Transfers calls haven't come in yet they come in this Saturday. We are excited to see what happens. I'm not really sure what will happen, vediamo! First off It seems like I have some explaining to do about the whole rose situation. That was on our Preperation day and we were at the Spanish steps when some British ladies gave them to us.. So we carried them around all day and got some pretty good pictures of us in random places holding them. Don't worry, I can send plenty more rose pictures. That is exciting to hear that Jansen is out of the Bush but also sad. I'm sure he had some crazy, cool experiences!  The ward here has been really great with our investigators in Church. They have done really good at friendshiping them and making them feel a part of the family. It is incredible to see how much the members really sacrifice to come to church and to make sure that others can come to church as well. We have had a lot of activities in church lately. Especially this week. We are doing a family night tonight, on Thursday we will have english course and then Friday is going to be awesome! We are having a ping pong and foosball tournament! Anziano Bunker and I are on a team together and we are planning on winning the whole thing. We will try to make the games close so that people feel like they have a chance at beating us. Haha.  Then friday is the big day of transfer calls where every missionary is always keeping the phone within sight and sound and is scared to talk too long on the phone, having fear that they will recieve the call while they are on the phone. Haha Anyway we feel like we are making really good progress with our investigators and that they are moving in a good direction. One of our investigators has been kind of worried about his family and how they will react if he gets baptized, so we had a great lesson with him and with a member who had similar problems. It was really nice to have a member there to bear testimony about how grateful he is for his choice of joining the Church. Member lessons are so powerful and I hope that I can go to lessons with the missionaries when I get home. This week I have started to do language study a little bit different. I have started reading the Liahona in Italian and writing down all the words I dont know and memorizing them. It is a nice change and has helped my language grow a lot! I love the Italian language. The more you learn the more you love it and the more you can help investigators understand this great message! I hope to hang on to the language for my whole life. Well, Thanks for writing! Oh yeah today we are going Bowling with some missionaries in our zone! Should be fun! Love you tons!!! Have a great week! Hey Dad! Thanks for writing! I'm glad to hear you survived through your early drive last week! I am excited for transfers this week! Part of me wants to get transfered cause I am kind of sick of Rome but the other part of me wants to stay for our investigators and Anziano Bunker is pretty cool. So I guess we will see what happens! I would love to serve in Napels! I hear it is amazing there! It is called Napoli in Italian.The pizza is supposed to be unreal there. But sicilians say that their pizza is better so I have to give it a try. Last night I had a dream that I got transfered to Sardenia with Colton Haha That would be pretty sweet! I am confused about the shoe shining thing. Are my shoes dirty? haha I guess I need to clean them. How are you? How is work going? Are you excited for the wedding! I'm sure it's creeping up on you!  Anything new happening in Utah? Has it snowed yet? Here it is really cold lately! I am ready for the summer. I can't believe that I have one more transfer and the start of the one after that will be my year mark! Time is flying!!! In my presidents interview, President told me that not a lot of the missionaries in our group will become trainers because there aren't that many new missionaries coming in, in the next year! :( so thats kind of sad! I hope I get to train.. It is like one of the only things that I want to do on the mission. But I guess we will see. How is the extended family doing?  I am glad that our family is so united! Thanks to you and mom! Well I love you tons Dad!!! Hope  you have una bella settimana!! ( a beautiful week) Ciao!!!

Another Good Week

Ciao! Another good week. We have been getting our investigators back from the Holidays! A lot of good things happened this week. First off we had a nice dinner with a wonderful family! Second we have gotten a lot of contacts this last week and our investigators are progressing! Third we got "hey eldered" a lot this week, so it was nice to talk to some Americans. Fourth we have zone conference tomorrow, so we have been looking forward to that. Overall a pretty good week! Yesterday we saw an Italian lady freak out at a guy who was parked on the street blocking traffic. She decided to handle the situation by getting out of her car and punching the car and elbowing it... So that was funny. Then later that night we had some Catholic preists come up to us and try to prove our Church wrong... Lets just say they did not succeed, and we are giving them a copy of The Book of Mormon tonight, so we are looking forward to that. The Zone is playing soccer today up  in  the northern part of Rome! Anziano Bunker and I decided that we are going to bring a football so that we can bring back some good memories of high school. Hopefully we can get a little game started. I can't believe that transfer calls are already so close! Next Saturday we will get them. You never know what will happen on transfer call day! I'm glad you got to watch those videos! I really like those and they are nice to show to investigators who speak english. Well, since we are playing soccer today I don't have much time. But I Love You tons!!! Have a great week!

Happy New Year!

Hey! Happy New Year! How was new years? Here, it was insane! There were so many fire works going off it was imposible to sleep! I love how crazy Italy is sometimes! I guess huge fireworks here aren't illegal because everyone had them! We looked out the window and someone shot a huge one across the street at another building and it exploded on the building. It was just insane! Then on Monday we got to clean our appartment so that it is nice and clean! Other than that we have just been getting back into the normal missionary schedule. How is getting back into the swing of things back home? Yesterday we went to a members house to help them remodel, which was overall pretty good except the lady stepped on a board that had a nail in it, that swung up and hit her in the face about a half an inch away from her eye. It was pretty scary because she started bleeding pretty bad and almost passed out. So us and the Bishop gave her a blessing and she went to the hospital to get stitches. A little further down and she would have lost the eye. So she is doing better now, but it was pretty scary. I Loved the pictures of Taylers wedding stuff with her wedding ring and all! That's really exciting! I don't think I like the idea of coming home to a house where Colton and Tayler are gone!! That will be weird! Luckly I will still have Miguel and Mimi! Today we are going to have family night at the church with some members so that should be fun! Hey Dad, how is work?  I have loved doing service the past few days! Some good hard work just makes me feel stronger. Missionary work is hard and all but I really like to dig into some crazy service project for a change. It reminds me of yard work and all. That sounds fun with new years week! I miss football! That is awesome the Utes won! It's nice to have a companion that I can talk to about these things! Haha I love Italy more and more everyday! It is crazy here I hope that we can all come back together! It is awesome! And I was thinking about it, If you want you could pick me up here in Italy or I could come home and we could just all go back out together it is up to you! For me it's fine either way! Which reminds me on the card you wrote a hundred dollars for my present and I didnt even think about the conversion rate from dollars to euros so I spent to much! So sorry! Just don't send me packages for some months until it equals its way out! I felt bad! Sorry! But thank you for the presents they were great! I loved that blanket! And the electronic translater has helped my language so much! That is awesome news about President Wright! Wow! That will be an amazing experience for him! Well Thanks for writing and I hope you have a great week! Love you tons!!!! Buon anno!!

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...