October 17, 2012

Hey hey everyone! This letter will be a little backwards because the last couple of days have been so cool I have to tell you about them now! So yesterday we got on a bus in the morning and headed to Rome for zone conference! Zone conference was amazing and really gets you pumped up to do work! Got to bear my testimony because I am a greeny, only get to bear my testimony there one more time and that is when I leave....seems weird. The food was amazing and it was good to finally get to Rome to get my package from Jess and also a letter from her and Dad. I haven't opened them yet, I am waiting to get home. For packages (which don't feel obligated so send, I could always use the money instead) are better to be sent to the Rome piazza address which is the mission home, but letter are best if sent to my city, I can get them sooner that way. just make sure it isn't right before a transfer haha. So we left the church and did splits with Anziano Kearl and Cassalis. I went with Anziano Kearl and they are in Rome 5 which is almost brand new so they dont have an apartment in their area so we had to drive like 30 minutes to English course, which went awesome!! President Kelly also promised them a baptism from that English course and the lady I talked to for a while was awesome! This is Anziano Kearls first transfer so he had no idea how to get home, and it was already 930, which is when you are supposed be home, but they have permission to be out later cause they have to drive so far. good thing we had a gps right? wrong! we typed in home, thinking it would take us home, it ended up taking us to this totally different part of Rome, but I loved it because this part was Really Really nice and we drove past the Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Maserati dealerships! haha We ended up getting home about 11! there were 6 of us in the apartment and was nice to switch it up from just being alone, the other 2 are the APs and they are awesome. So we will be hanging out in Rome today seeing the Colosseum and possibly the Vatican, pretty lucky to see all this so early in the mission! The week in L Aquila has been awesome as well. On Friday mornings we do service and we go to the homeless shelter and help out with preparing, serving, and cleaning up with lunch. We don't have a ton of investigators (2) right now, so we do a lot of finding, which I love! Talking to Italians is fun! I talked a little about Roberto last week, he believes a lot of things about our church but doesn't feel he is receiving an answer to his prayers. Elizabetta is our other investigator and she loves when we come over, she makes like 3 pizzas and it is awesome. It is hard because she has a daughter that is completely aithist and yells and argues with everything we say. We went over Sunday and the daughter is about 20 and we brought one of our members who is about to go on his mission, and they argued most of the time, then it was super cool because when they were arguing the spirit wasn't there, but when they stopped to take a breath i boldly started in with my testimony, and everyone got completely silent, he son hung up the phone and all eyes were on me, and they were hanging on every word, it also helps that they have to listen super closely to understand what I am saying haha but then my companion bore testimony and it was super spiritual and the daughter couldn't say anything after that, so that made me happy cause she was scary! haha So much goes on every week there is just too much to say, but just know that I couldn't be happier, and to wake up in Italy every day.... there is no feeling like it, and to know we are doing the Lords work, and representing him is just an amazing experience. I love yall so much and hope yall have a great week! oh also ate at a members house and she was pourtorican or something so she made enchiladas and they were soooooo good! The food here is amazing, but that craving for a microwavable burrito just wont go away! haha also they figured it out, and statistically, we had a 1 in 500 chance of being called to Rome, Italy on our mission.... jackpot! love, Anziano Bird