Buon Natale! (Merry Christmas)                              December 23, 2013

 Okay, this week will be really short!  It was a great week!  Especially because yesterday at church we had our Christmas sacrament meeting and one of our investigators got his baptismal interview done and will now be baptized shortly!!  Then after church we went to a south American ladies house to eat and it was incredible!!  

     This past week we also had zone conference and it was cool, crazy because one of my friends here finished the mission this week, so that was weird! haha  It was a different zone conference as well because we were in charge of the whole thing!

     This week I also had the pleasure of working on getting my permesso di sorgiorno, so that was fun!  Also had some pretty cool miracles this week, when we would just be walking down the road and have somebody run up to us and ask us for bibles!  Remind me to tell you that story on Thursday! haha

     We got to finally visit a member (Fratello Tang) who is awesome and made us Chinese food, he also lives in the nicest part of Napoli with a private beach! Wish we could use it! haha Since Christmas is coming up we have been seeing a lot of members and have quite a few investigators progressing towards baptism so that is awesome!!!

     And today for P day all we have done is gone caroling at a Catholic church, and I got the chance to teach the whole Restoration to a Priest there, so that was fun!  Love ya'll a ton and hope everyone has a very merry Christmas!

Love,

                  Anziano Bird

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!                               December 17,2013


Hey everybody!!

     First off, Merry week before Christmas!!!! This time of year is just incredible!!  Sorry I didn't email yesterday, our p day was moved for a conference.  Monday, we had p day and one of my good friends goes home soon s o we were doing as many "Italy things" as possible, then we went to see Fratello Di Orio, who is about 85ish and just the coolest guy ever, he has stories for days!

      Tuesday we had ddm, then lunch with Sorella Cozzi, who is another older member, and we got to give her a blessing because she had an operation recently so that was cool.  And afterwards we had English course.  Wednesday morning we spent all morning at the questura trying to do my fingerprinting for my permesso di sorgiorno, and since we are here on religious purposes, we waited with all the Catholic nuns and priests, for about 2 hours, had some really fun conversations!! haha  We then went out to see our investigator Samuel, who had a baptismal date, and we went out and found out he had just went to the hospital, but will be out soon.

     Thursday morning we helped a family move in Pozzuoli, then right after we had a lesson with Sunday in church.  And we also had time to go see the Lamagna family before English course.  Friday was a funny day, we had 3 people ditch out on our lessons, but all of them showed up to the Christmas party that night!!  It was awesome and everyone had a super great time!!  We all ate so much lasagna and mozzerella di bufala!!  And the Americans brought the desert!! yea!!

     Saturday was a travel day!  We were in the northern most part of the zone at coordination with the branch mission leader, and got a call from our branch president that said the stake president from Rome need you down in Napoli in 3 hours, and so we sprinted out to the bus stop and headed down and barely got there in time!  Turned out he just wanted to give us something for church on Sunday, but he remembered me from Rome and said he has a sweet picture of Elder Ballard and I, so he is going to send it to me! 

     And that night we went and taught Rita and her family, and of course they fed us!  It was awesome!  Sunday was church and the Christmas devotional and setting up and planning out the conference we had yesterday.  It was specialized training meeting and it was all planned by us and went super well and we had a secret Santa and it was a ton of fun!!  Hope everyone is getting into the Christmas spirit!  Love y'all a ton!!

Anziano Bird

     

December 9, 2103

Hey family!! So I have some time today, so I promise to make this email more interesting!! Last Monday. For p-day we really didn't do anything special, but that night we had a member appointment with an American family, the Wards. They are super awesome, and they made us Cafe Rio for dinner!! They have a little adopted black baby who is 3, made me kinda miss being around little kids!! Kinda.... haha Tuesday we had District Meeting in Napoli in the morning, and decided since we were there, for lunch we would get the best pizza on the planet, it was incredible. That evening before English course we taught Fidellio. Who we thought was just super golden, but we found out he is in it for the wrong reasons, so we are going to do our best with him, but it was a little bit of a let down. It is just hard when people know it is true but don't want to act on it. Wednesday morning we met with Sunday, he is one of our investigators from Africa. He is doing super well and wants to be baptized but doesn't have electricity, so this week we are going to buy him a head lamp so he can read the Book of Mormon at his house. We then had lunch with Sorella Tempesta who is the sweetest old lady ever!!! And she invited one of her friends to lunch so we were able to share a message with him as well. And that night we went to see some members that live out in Mondragone which for us by bus takes 2 hours!! But nobody else goes and sees them so it was a really good experience because they were so happy to see the missionaries out there again! Thursday we went out to see Samuel, he is also from Ghana and is super awesome. And we took Evans with us who is a member and just lays it all out there, so it was a really fun lesson, and then we had English course. Friday we had to translate for seminary and institute, and while we were there they got us to help set up the tree in the church, mostly because they couldn't reach the top! Then we went to a member families house, the Esposito family. And they are super cool, she drives out every day to churches in the area and goes through their records doing genealogy work! Saturday morning we met with a man who was a member referral, he is super super prepared and was so fun to teach, but we found out he might not live in our area so we with probably have to pass him on, but it was cool. And then we caught that same long bus, but only went out halfway to teach Samuel again. He is really wanting to get baptized this month, so we are hoping and praying for that! Yesterday we had church and coordination with our branch mission leader, and that is always fun because he is a super wise guy! I love y'all a ton and hope everyone is getting into the Christmas spirit, we have started a tradition of reading one story from Christ's life every day so we can always remember why we celebrate Christmas. I love y'all soooo much and hope everyone has a good week!! vi voglio bene, Anziano Bird

December!!        12-2-13   



  So I know I say the same thing every week, but I don't have a lot of time so just a quick rundown!!  Monday, we met with Rita and her family, she is a member, and when we got over there we realized we left our house keys in the house.  So her husband, a police officer, and us tried breaking into our house for a while, until we realized another member had an extra set of keys! haha

     Tuesday and Wednesday were normal, we met with members and investigators, we had a super crazy lesson with our branch president and Fidellio, they just argued the whole time, it was fun! haha  Thursday we had Thanksgiving dinner with the Voelker family, Americans!!  It was incredible and we had a ton of fun!!  Friday and Saturday were pretty normal, our investigators are doing awesome and everything is super good, love y'all!!

Love,

             Anziano Bird