5/26/13

  This week has gone by SO fast, and so much has happened!  But a lot of it feels like stuff that happens everyday. haha So the things that were different about this week....... Monday mornings we "do numbers" which consists of collecting all the numbers missionaries got during the week (like how many lessons taught, or investigators in church) and it takes almost all morning.  We had a really good 4 hour meeting with President Kelly this week and talked about transfers and how this next week Anziano Stewart and I will be taking a road trip!

     We will leave Friday morning and go down to Napoli (which is the coolest city in the mission, and also the birthplace of pizza and it is SO good and different from everywhere else) and we will do exchanges there.  Then head down to Sicily and do exchanges all the way to Catania.  Then we will do Zone Conference there, then drive to Bari and do exchanges on the way, then do a Zone Conference there, then come back home!!! WOW! It is going to be so fun!  We will be gone about a week so I don't think I will be emailing next Sunday, but I am not sure.

     About our only glimpse at real missionary work every week is a new convert we teach, her name is Teresa.  She is Filipino and speaks very little Italian, very little English, and a lot of Tagalog!  And every time we eat there, she makes you eat until you never want to eat again in your entire life!!  But she is awesome!!

     Today, I gave my first talk in a ward in Italy!  A member of the bishop rick called me yesterday and asked if I would give a talk today, so of course I said yes! And asked him what my topic was, and he thought for a second and said "how about missionary work" so that is easy enough!  It is strange thought, before the mission is was hard to fill up a 5 minute talk, now when they limit you to 10 to 15 minutes its super hard to keep it so short!

     It was also cool today because a good friend of mine who finished the mission a few transfers ago came for a surprise visit!  Another fun event this week was we got to go grocery shopping with the mission presidents wife at a store that is kinda like Costco or Sam's club!  It was so cool!  They just don't normally have cool stores like that here.  And it didn't hurt that she bought us some stuff!  Also the other day a new senior couple arrived and so we got to go pick them up.  They are super awesome and both served their missions in Italy!  She is from Idaho Falls (imagine that!) maiden name Rigby.  So we got to go to lunch with them and President and Sister Kelly, and she made enchilada casserole! With American salsa.... WOW!!

     It is really fun to get to do those things because we get to see all of them as normal people and you really learn a lot.  Oh yea, finally got a chance to stop and take a picture at the temple site, drive by it almost everyday but never have time!  Well I love ya'll so much and hope this next week is just great!!

Love,

                   Anziano Bird

First week in Rome!!!

Ciao da Roma!

     Okay, this has easily been the craziest week of my mission, and it hasn't even been a whole week!  Started out early Wednesday morning when we had to catch a bus to Catania, then got on the train that heads up to Rome.  It was sweet this time because it was light outside so when we were on the boat crossing over to Italy, you could see everything.

     We got to Rome pretty late and got straight to the house where we were staying the night (my new house) where 22 of us missionaries slept that night!!!  So Thursday was spent getting everyone on the right buses and trains to get to their new cities.  Then we had an interview/meeting with our mission president.  And I received the call to be the new assistant to the president! WOW!  I am only starting my 6th transfer and so that will make me the youngest assistant ever in the mission!

     So the keys to the mission van were handed over to me and my Rome driving experience started there!  It is WAY different driving here, a lot of fun too!  Then Thursday night they had all the "dying" missionaries at the mission home "the villa" for their final night and dinner, and we got to go to that which was way fun!  Then we got to spend the night there too!  Friday we had to wake up at 4a.m. so that we could take them all to the airport, it was crazy but everyone got home, there was actually a kid from Idaho Falls that I went to Hillcrest with in that group.  Pretty interesting.

     Then the past couple days have just been crazy between taking reports for end of the month stuff and trying to change everything for transfers, and preparing for the new mission president in a couple months, and since our mission is growing, working out where everyone is going and all that fun stuff!!  We spend a lot time in the office, on the computer, or on the phone, and in the car.  Today in church was of course my first day and it was crazy!  It is probably the biggest ward in the mission and has a lot of American members, and is also the ward all the tourists come to.  My companion said on average they have about 20 tourists in church every week, today was no exception!  Today one of then was actually a General Authority! 

     Then we ran home and ate, came back to church to see a baptism that another Rome ward was having!  So it has been a way awesome week and a way awesome day!  And we really don't take p-days so I will be emailing on Sunday nights from now on.  I hope everyone is doing awesome, and know I love yall all a ton!!

vi voglio bene,

                   Anziano Bird

HEY!

Ciao tutti, di nuovo!

     Okay it is alittle different since I am sending this email on Tuesday instead of Wednesday because I am actually getting transferred   I Know! Crazy!  I have only spent 2 transfers down here in Palermo and I love it SO much I never really wanted to leave.  I have spent enough time here to where I have build great relationships with the members and our investigators.  But thats the mission life!  And when the Lord needs you somewhere else, you go!

     And my new city is........ Rome!  But it is not exactly a normal call, its actually something I have ever heard of.  So normally in the mission there is 2 missionaries who are assistants to the mission president.  They are normally older and experienced and they help president with everything he needs help with, then they do some missionary work on top of that.  At the end of this transfer (3 days) one of the assistants dies (goes home), and I have been called to fill his spot!  As of now I am not officially the new AP, because they are not calling one this transfer, there will only be one.... it is super strange because then after next transfer the new mission president will be here!

     And my new companion, the assistant, does not have a drivers licence! So starting this Thursday  I will be driving a ton, in Rome! It is going to be crazy!!  It will be cool because we will be working closely with the mission president preparing everything for the new one.  It was a call I defiantly wasn't expecting but it will be a good experience!

     So last week we went to Erice, outside of Trapani, where they where filming the church movie.  It is an old old town up on a mountain that overlooks Trapani and the ocean, and we got to hang out on set with a bunch of the actors and producers, it was way sweet!  There were also alot of our members there doing extra parts so it was a way fun p-day!  We had a bunch of lessons this last week, and found some way sweet people!

     Saturday we got the call and I thought I was for sure staying here!  Sunday I had to give my going away testimony, and it feels weird because I will be starting my 6th transfer pretty soon and already be in my 3rd city!  At this rate I will see the whole mission!  Sunday night we had a way sweet lesson with an awesome family we are teaching, and they drove us home and the dad started to cry when he was telling me goodbye, telling me to never forget them!  Its crazy how fast you can get attached to people!

     We have been so busy seeing people that I havent had time to pack yet, and we leave tom morning!  To do that 14 or 15 hour trip again! haha  I love yall a ton and wish me luck driving up in crazy Rome!!! 

Vi voglio bene,

                      Anziano Bird

No Jackets

Hey! So as everyone know conference was this past weekend, and that means that now more suit jackets for 6 months! And it was just in time because it is starting to get to the point where it is not fun to be outside for a long time. haha So last pday we went out to this giant mall things, it had some cool stuff, but the best part was afterward there was a restaurant there that is call "fratelli di bufala" and it is a place where you can get the closest thing to Napoli pizza, outside of Napoli. And it was way good! And I think there is one in Miami, so if anyone is in Miami, you will have to try it. That night we had a lesson with a less active member named Geatano, and we ended up taking the wrong bus and we ended up outside of Palermo at a spot called Mondello. It is the nicest beach Palermo has and it is a super pretty place, so while we waited for the bus to go back, we talked to some people but almost everyone was a tourist. So we got to the appointment late but he is a super awesome guy and collects everything! And he has a Mazerati! haha Because of the time difference, we started watching conference here at 6 p.m. on Saturday night, and got to watch it in English this time which was AWESOME! haha Also on Friday during we made our first lasagna and it turned out way good! We lost one of our better investigators this week so we have been trying to see more members and focusing more on the other good investigators that we have. Then Sunday was a super awesome day! Started off with a baptism! His name is Peter and he is from Ghana and so he speaks English. He was technically Palermo 2's investigator, but since there were 2 Italians in that zone and he speaks English, I taught him every single lesson. Everything went really well and he is super awesome! Then we had 3 sessions of confrence to watch that day, it was super awesome, but we had to stay at the church all day because our house is too far away to go home in between, and we made the mistake of assuming there would be food in the chuch or a member would bring us food, but we were sadly mistaken.... and so we got desperate and found an Easter cake they had and ate that. Conference of course was way awesome, and ended up watching one session in Italian and it was a lot easier to understand this time! And another random event from this week that was interesting! So our schedule is different from most missions and so we don't take a dinner break, so after we get home and plan for the next day we are always looking for something to eat. So it was about 10 and we were all in the kitchen and we just heard a really loud crash. And so we rean out and saw that someone had thrown a really hard lemon through one of our windows! haha It was weird, don't know why, but we will be getting a new window soon. Everything is going great here and hope everything back home is good too! Love all ya'll a a lot! Love, Anziano Bird