Boolin' in Roma

     Ciao tutti! It has been brought to my attention that some of you have to scroll though a super long list when I send these emails and while I really am sorry about that, it seems the "cut and paste" option on my phone doesn't want to work and because I don't want to spend half of one whole hour clicking and adding each individual name, you all will have to scroll for a second or two until you make it to this introduction. Once again, I'm sorry if you have to scroll through the list, but I'd rather be efficient with my time and not spend half an hour making my emails look a little prettier. I'll try to troubleshoot the problem during this week so maybe the next one will be prettier. But, enough of that! let's get down to the meat in this week! 

Pizzas! 55

Gelato: 43

Books of Mormon! 76

     This was a sad and also happy seven days. When we started we were a four man house, which is not very common in the great Italy Rome Mission. But, as the days wore on, two of the anziani that I was serving with were convicted by their consciences and so they started the process of repentance. However, this meant that they needed to return home. This are wonderful men whom I respect greatly due to their character and their desire to have "gone and returned (not) in vain". One of them sent me a message a few days ago that said he was able to come back out in a few months and so we would see him once again in the great Italy Rome Mission in my lifetime as a missionary!

     Aside from this, we saw some awesome things this week and have just been boolin' aroundseeing the colosseum and then the rainstorms as they come. We did that last Monday. Come Tuesday, we attempted to make sushi and it was not so good because we are American white bois and so we used butter in our dice to make it sticky. Nope. Not good. Then, because we are cheap and salmon is not, we bought beef for the meat and then used cucumber but we had no seaweed so we ended up not using that. We did have a roller though, so that was a plus. The result was a buttery, beefy and reesty result of no thanks. 

     Wednesday and Thursday were more or less the same, but we had a lesson and a dinner at the church where we taught the restauration of the gospel of Jesus christ and had dinner there as well because all the people that were there lived in small houses so the church was big enough for all of us to meet. Friday morning we dropped off the second Anziano and then only my companion Anziano Inkley and I were left. But hey, now I have had 9 companions and 6 completed transfers under my belt, working on the seventh. It's actually very litty and fairly weird to think that I've come this far. But, I still have time in the mission and so I will act like it! 

     Saturday was fun because Anziano Inkley and I worked out hard and then went to district council to tell the sorelle that since we last saw each other on Sunday, we were down two. They thought we were joking, but then they realized that we were, in fact, very serious. Hey we're upset by it, but they also understand that repentance is a process and so they were glad to hear that they chose to wait a little longer and then return worthily. The members at church were also very sad to hear it, but once again very glad to hear that it was their own choices and desire to repent which caused it. 

     I invite all of you to repent. If you are not sure how because you are not a religious person, or a member of my faith, you simply start with prayer, addressing God by saying "dear Heavenly Father" and then speaking your heart unto him and asking for forgiveness and strength before closing with "in the name of Jesus Christ, amen". There is no rule as to what you can say or how long the prayer needs to be, but just make sure that everything you say is something that you mean. 

     If you are a member and have just decided to wait and see how long you can go before it eats you alive, I invite you to not procrastinate the day of your repentance and to start today, immediately. You will thank yourself as you do so. It's certainly painful to admit one's own follies, but it does not overtake the sweetness of relief and the feeling of being forgiven by the only one who can give you those feelings of relief peace. Even Jesus Christ. 

Anyhow, I love you all! have some photos to come in the next email! 

Some people just can't seem to decide when they want to meet.

Ciao tutti! 

     Voi siete bravi personi! This week was full of awesome things! and some not so awesome, like me falling up a down escalator for reasons that elude me at this time. I might explain in my email later on why I attempted such a feat as to go up a down escalator. As for the time being, statistics!! 

Pizza eaten: 55!

Gelato: 43 (plan to make that number go up sometime soon, but not sure exactly when) 

Books of Mormon: 75!

    I'm not too sure why, but I'm very happy today. So, there will be lots of fun things included in this email and just stuff that occurs in missionary work and life. I'll start with Tuesday and then we'll go on from there, explaining a fun story every day that occured if there is one worth talking about. Andiamo! 

      Tuesday! we had very much in the way of meetings today. Six whole hours of zone conference. That's a normal zone conference for us, because president is very God at scheduling these, and because they happen once a transfer and also due to the fact that the mission is so big, it takes about three weeks for all the many and widespread zones to gather. 

     After about three hours, the Rotisserie chicken (one of my favorites) showed up with the pasta from some local diner and so we ate much in the way of chicken, pasta and roasted potatoes. After lunch, we talked much about how to give invites and then how to follow up on them. I was very glad for this lesson, because I realized that I was doing most of the right things, but then I also had some things that I was able to correct to make my invites go from good, to Great. Then, we took many zone and companionship photos (of which I will actually include in this email) and then we were able to take all of the mail that we received this conference. 

     If any of you have sent me a package in the past few months, I'm sorry to say that it has yet to arrive, but there is always a month and a half from now! We received a ride home from the zone leaders and then we were able to watch all these dunny videos called "Safety Zone" which is the only show dedicated to keeping missionaries safe, and healthy through video replay and analysis. It's on the gospel library app if you want to see what I have to watch every day in order to keep myself nice and not hospitalized. 

     Wednesday! Literally just a bunch of walking and talking with no super awesome stories. Just some cookies for dinner and a game before bed with the other anziani. Aways good to have a chill evening every once and again. 

     Thursday. We found a wallet on Sunday and tried to return it today. It really didn't turn out well, because the doctors office we went to (because that was the only address or phone number we had as the persons wallet was actually devoid of any helpful details other than her medicinal prescriptions receipt) closed after an hour and a half of being open. They are open from  nine to ten thirty every day. Except weekends. Literally an hour and a half for five days in the week. That's barely a whole working day in a week. I hope the man is a successful doctor, but I'm not sure I'll be seeing him anytime soon. I'm in good health, thanks to Safety Zone! 

     After the Doctors visit, we went to the metro, but only made it a little ways before it started to rain, buckets. We took refuge in a Chinese store and discovered a completely real, one hundred percent WOODEN KNIFE that was meant to be part of a COMPLETE WOODEN AND THREFORE GOOD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT SET. That's how it was scribbled on the packaging. Makes me love this world just a little more. Much like the little staircase that I found shortly after we left the store that descended into a room that was also out of the rain. But, all I found in there were used condoms and heroin needles and other such litter. We left shortly after that for an appointment closer to Rome. In closer to center Italy. 

     When we arrived there, we went to Alì Babà kebaberia (which is illegal in the states because it's just a pole of meat sitting out in the open) and I ordered an whole Maxi for myself. There are four sizes. That one ranges in the "how are you able to consume all that and not have to immediately go to the hospital" category. Well, I ate it all, and then went to an appointment we had with a man named Diego. This man moved our appointment to Friday, and so we then went to the temple for our second appointment with a security gaurd who works there but is not a member. We taught him, and his friend, a recent convert also accompanied us. They work together as guards and so we stood in the booth with them for a while as we taught him for forty five minutes. 

     In that lesson, we hit the word of wisdom, Tithing and the question of Polygamy that always comes up when we speak to anyone for more than five minutes. They don't know the church's real name, but they know about the polygamy and think that we are Amish. But, the lesson went well. He accepted all that we taught and then we set up a follow up appointment for this coming week. It was the wildest first lesson that I've had on the mission.

     Shortly after this, in order to get to the church in time for English course, we tried to take a bus. Well, we left waiting for the bus and were barely down the escalator when the bus showed up. I tired to run up, but the rain was so strong and there was so much water that in my initial jump back up, I slipped and hit the metal corners very hard. Bloody hands, knee and an ankle, all while getting a mouthful of delicious sreet rainwater. The escalator descend from the street into the metro. We missed the bus and I hobbled back to the metro with my companion. We then missed English course and barely made it home before the other anziani. We had an hour head start. That night, there was lightning and stormingswhich made it hard to sleep. But, it was an awesome day for sure. 

     Friday: I required Crutches for the whole day because my ankle swelled overnight and I could not put so much weight on it. Eventually, we made it out the door with time to spare and when we made it to the metro, we got to watch an old Italian lady scream insults and curses at an innocent public transportation worker because she was slightly inconvenienced with some necessary maintenance that was being done to make sure the metro continued to work. it was just sad watching someone of that age act like a child who had been told "no" for the first time and understood what that meant. 

     While we waited at Diegos palazza where he worked, for him to finish, he rescheduled us to Monday (today) and today (Monday) he moved us to Friday of this week. Yay. Maybe eventually we will be able to meet with him. 

    Saturday, a great big service project where we helped a family move out of their house and then they fed us pizza before we left to watch the morning session of General Conference at six pm our time. Woo-hoo. 

All in all, a wonderfully spiritually nurturing and physically demanding week where we had the greatest lessons given over a pulpit and in acts of service as well. I love this mission so much, and I love all of you very much as well! 

Until next week, 

Anziano Anderson

1. My maxi kebab. Three pounds.

2. Service project photos

3. We all found the same sticker

4. This. Wooden. Knife. 

5. My beautiful companion and I 

6. The wonderful district we are

Honestly, This was quite a week.

     I don't have a whole lot of time today, and the wifi is not so great so the photos will have to wait until next week (sorry to all who enjoy those, but I'll see if I can't get one to send or something somehow.) because there were quite a few awesome things that occurred which I can share, but not take pictures of. 

Pizzas eaten: 53

Gelato: 43

Boooks of Mormon: 74

     This week was nuts. We started off with a headache and leg cramp on Tuesday, and then I had to find some out of the way little localized something or other store for us to pay the phone bill. We couldn't find it to save our lives, and then some dude just pulled out of traffic to give us the directions to that store while he was on his moped and then he drove off like he didn't just save our night. What a legend. 

     Wednesday was the start of a scambio for the other two anziani that live in our house with us, and they were trading companions for the day with the Zone leaders in Rome 5. That's about an hour from where we are, I'm not even sure exactly where they are at to be honest, just that they are a little ways away. I also had to give a lesson to all the members in my district, all eight of them for district council. That's basically where we meet once a week as a district to talk about how the work is going and what it is that we can do to help the others with their work. Then we had a group pizza eating session that some might call the meal of "lunch" and it was delicious. 

     Thursday, we went door to door or house to house really. You know, typical missionary stuff. Most all of the houses let us in, and they all met us at the door before gently telling us that they had no interest in our message. One couple let us in because they thought we were the catholic priests that they had called to bless their home. We are not catholic priests, but we still offered to dedicate the house. They graciously declined and wished us well. We found a few people who told us to come back tomorrow, and so we planned to do just that. 

     Friday, we did just that and we visited again. The lady who told us to come back, probably did not expect us to do so, because when we rang her through the citofono (intercom that apartments have) she started casting us out with Saint names and threats of police and other harsh words. I'm just glad that I was able to understand it all, and then we found Marco. He has interest in The Book of Mormon, so we gave him a copy, and got his number. Hopefully more to come there. 

     Saturday. We received an email to go to an very far away hospital and give a blessing there to someone who we had never met and who was in the ICU. After seven hours of searching through the hospital, we found him, unconscious on a bed. I had to give him a blessing on my own due to the hospital rules, and in Italian because that's how it works here in Italy. You speak the language or no one understands you. Te we made it to our other appointment just on time after getting lost in the wonderfully confusing place that is Italy and it's streets. 

     Sunday. I had to translate for a gaggle of Americans and I misunderstood the word for "chapel" as "hat" Capella, and Capello respectively. I had to make a metaphor in order for the hour long lesson to make sense and as soon as the lesson was over, every other missionary told me what I had done. Surely, this will not happen again with this word. That just goes to show that we are all human and that no one, besides Christ, is perfect who ever walked on this earth. 

That's all for now my peeps, 

Anziano Anderson

P. S. If some of you missionary folk that receive this email know the emails for anziano Griffeth and Bizzotto, please feel free to send those to me so I can include them as well. The rest of you, live a beautiful life.