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!!

Love the Italian Members

Hey! How are you all? Things here are pretty good. Nothing too new. Tomorrow is zone leader conference! So we will be having a fun road trip with the zone leaders of Taranto. Zone leader conference is always a lot of fun. It is nice to get that spiritual boost to become a stronger, harder working missionary. No I haven't done any exchanges yet but after zone leader council we will start doing exchanges with the zone. I love working around other missionaries. You grow from every missionary you do an exchange with. So I'm really looking forward to that. This week we had a family home evening with the Diciolla family. They are great! It is amazing hearing the conversion stories of members. They have such incredibly strong testimonies! I love the Italian members so much. They have worked hard for this temple. They are so excited for it. So is everyone getting ready for Christmas back home? The Italians are. A few neighbors of ours have put Christmas lights out on their balconies. We are planning a sweet activity here for the ward. Santa Clause is going to come and everything! Should be fun. I'm so glad you got to go to the homecoming of Anziano Miller! Haha what a guy! I miss that kid. We will definitely hang out after the mission! He was a great missionary. Yeah for Christmas you can do whatever. I won't be sad about not getting a package. Don't worry about it. Which reminds me. I need to know something that you all want from Italy that I can bring home for you, so that I can start looking out right now. Also I don't know about the whole shopping situation with me for new clothes when I get back but sales go on here in January and you can get clothes for cheap here. A pair of jeans here costs like 20 euro or less and in America they usually cost around 40 dollars. Well I really miss you all a ton. Thanks for writing every week! Love you!!

Lot's of Finding

Hello! So things around here haven't been too exciting. We did a lot of finding this last week! That was cool. We found a few potential investigators. The work seems to be slowing down a bit with the cold weather. No one wants to talk to missionaries when it's cold on the street. It's been raining a lot lately. But we won't let that get us down. The craziest miracles happen when you push through rough times. So we hope that we can keep it up. Tomorrow we are having a Thanksgiving activity with our english course. We are going to make lots of food and our students are bringing food as well! On Sunday a sister missionary came to church with her family, Sorella Heiner. So we had a huge lunch in church together with them and the members. It was sweet. Her Dad is a Scientist and is a straight up genius! It was fun talking to him. Her parents are sweet! Then in a few weeks my MTC teacher is coming with his wife to visit. So it will be good to see him again. That's cool Tate learned sign language. I wish I could learn it. I can't wait for you to meet Anziano Miller! haha What a guy! ha You have to tell him to write me! I love that guy. Glad to hear things are going good back home. Everything is going good here. Be sure to send my love to everyone at Thanksgiving! Love you tons! Ciao!

Zone Leader Again

Salve! I'll just cut straight to the transfer news, just to get it out of the way. I am staying another transfer here in Bari with Anziano Hurlburt and I am going to be zone leader again with Anziano Periera. So that will be a lot of fun. I'm really looking forward to working a lot more with other missionaries and doing exchanges with them. That was probably the biggest event of the week. Other than that we have just been finding a lot, as usual. It has been fun. The sisters in our district are staying the same as well and Anziano Nelson is going home and so Anziano Jones will be with Anziano Green. I talked to Anziano Miller the other day. I told him that you and Dad might go to his home coming and he said he is excited to meet you and wants to go out to dinner with you and Dad and his parents to talk about the mission experiences that we had. I love Anziano Miller. He is great. It will be fun hanging out with him after the mission. I feel like we are going to be good freinds for life. I can't believe Tate is home! You will have to say hi to him for me. Yeah even a job like that would be great! Oh yeah this week I had to fix my glasses which cost like 20 euro so I had to use the American express but you can just take it from the money grandpa gave me. Well Dad sounds like you had a crazy fun work trip! haha How was St. George? Did you have a good time? I hope so. Well yeah nothing really new this week other than transfer calls. Oh yeah for English course this week our students wanted us to teach them slang! haha It was pretty funny hearing all of the old italian ladies say the slang that the youth of America say. Well got to go! Love you tons!!!