Here you go and some photos too

 Ciao people where ever you may be! I just want to share a few things from my week with you today. We are moving houses tomorrow and it's been very fun trying to pack up mid transfer, clean out a house that the church has owned for 15 years, that has seen its fair share of sisters and elders a during its time in servitude to the church.

     I'm starting to learn the area here a little better with a familiarity of the bus schedules and also the metro which we take very much seeing as how in Italy it's very unsafe for us to drive. I don't remember how many pizzas I've eaten I this week or how many gelati I've eaten or even how many books of mormon I've handed out. I do believe I've handed out 91 books of mormon in total in my entire year and one month in Italy, and it's kind of crazy to think that I will be home in less than a year! 

     I don't want to get ahead of myself but I do think it's pretty fun and crazy how fast time has flown. I remember writing an email a few months back, closer to the start of my mission just before half way, and explaining how fast the time had flown for me then. Well, I know that time has picked up tremendously for me since that day and every day since that transfer has gone by faster and faster. It honestly feels like it's only been a day since I last spoke to any and all of you, and so me writing in this email now it's a very interesting feeling that I have. I don't know how to explain it, so I will not attempt to. 

     Anziano Taylor and myself are getting along fantastically. The reason we do this, is because we are pretty much the same people but from different ends of the spectrum. By that I mean, he is small, sings wonderfully, dances, and speaks a little less at home because he's an introvert. But very, very, very, dedicated to the work. 

     Whereas, I am a very large boy, I'm very loud, but also very very dedicated to the work. And I know, our differences make us stronger in the fact that they work together, and support one another. He knows when to not speak, and I know when to start speaking. And it's funny to see how the Lord lines up his servants to do his work in a way that no human without divine revelation or guidance, could ever hope to do on their own. 

     There have been very many fun word activities here in Italy, and we had a departing lunch for a member named Martin. Martin is from Peru, he's been living here for 3 years, but is being sent back to Peru for at least 5 years by the country of Italy for reasons I don't need to explain, and so we had what he thinks is going to be the last lunch with that he'll have with the missionaries in Italy for at least another 5 years

     I was blessed to be a part of that lunch and also, to eat the wonderful taco salad that he made. Many Italians have told me and him that he cooks better than many Italians. And I can testify, that this is true. Other than that, the only other thing that happened this week that I really want to mention was on Sunday, yesterday. 

     President Smith and his wife showed up to church. President Smith, does not speak Italian very well anymore. He served here when he was young, but he never kept up his language. So, when he attends church at in Italian speaking Ward or branch, of which there are many here in Italy, he needs translation if he wants to understand everything. It just so happens that I was  volunteered myself to be the translator this last Sunday for the whole of church. The thing that's important to know about this ward, is that it is a very big tourist ward. So, just before church started about 10 minutes to spare, there are maybe 25-30 people here. By the time church started all of the tourists had arrived and we were sitting with about 80 people in church. The first lady to go up and give a talk spoke a combination of Spanish and Italian, of which I only understood about half. 

     A lot of the members, and native Italians, also said that they did not understand much of what she said as well, but what she did say was very much "break boxes." Halfway or near the end of her talk my broadcaster started to freak out and malfunction disabling me to translate for the sizeable number of tourists we had in attendance that day. 

     By the start of the second man's talk who spoke wonderful Italian calmly, clearly, And spiritually, my broadcaster started to freak out once more and refused to work entirely. I had to run downstairs, grab another broadcaster mid-talk, come in, and try to resume translating from whatever I could pick up as I ran back in the Room. Unfortunately, this broadcaster also decided it did not want to work either. So after about 2 minutes with 3 minutes of me translating the second speakers talk, the broadcaster failed entirely and I sat there for the last 3 to 4 minutes of this man's talk, unable to translate for anyone. 

     All of the Americans were understanding, saw what I was doing, and congratulated me on my efforts. They all claimed they felt the spirit and that was the important part. Other than this, if there is anything else you would like to know about my week or maybe If there is anything else you want to know about missionary work exactly, or of certain experiences I might have had, feel free to send me an email at any time, because I can read them during the week, I just cannot respond until Monday. But what if I receive an email from you, I will respond. I hope you all have a wonderful day and I apologize for the rushed email 😅😅

Anziano Anderson 

- My very empty closet after a bit of packing

- a patch of grass in the middle of the street

- a panoramic view of Italy

- Anziano Taylor and myself posing at the colosseum

- Colosseum

Hey, sorry it's been a hot minute since we spoke last!

      There are a few things that I've picked up during my time here in Italy. The first and foremost is the ability to speak Italian and to translate better than I did with my Hat/chapel blunder mishap a few months ago. The second would be the need to have to shave every day. I remember in the MTC when I could get away with just over twice a week and then how a few months ago it became every other day. This transfer past however, it's been every single day because you can see it if I don't. Guess this means I got some hairy genes from you after all!

      I don't really have a super big reason for writing this letter. I just realized that I have less than a year left and that my Sorelle are going home in five months from two days ago. Is that fair in my book? Not really. But, it just means I'll be that much better at the language when I make it home. I do have a few questions for you about your mission because as I go about my time here, I realize how much you haven't  told me about the logistics of your time in the Philippines. 

     For example, did you ever train? How did you get along with companions who really didn't mesh well with your personality? How often did your AP's get switched out? Did you ever serve as an AP? Were you ever emergency transferred?  What was the big talk or preferred apostle/general authority going around your mission? I realize that you didn' t exactly serve with technology the way I am, and you certainly were not in the same part of the world, but I want to know more about how your mission worked as a missionary in the field. 

      One thing that we have in common now about the way that our missions work is how our mission presidents don't speak the language. President Smith served here forty (?) years ago and told us he's done nothing to keep up the language. This is evidenced by the fact that I've translated for him twice since I've seen him. Both times for about a hour, but he speaks enough to get by. Sort of like a missionary in their third transfer, mid fourth. 

     I'm doing what I can on my own whenever I have a companion that really doesn' t want to work. Last transfer was rough with that, because I didn't know how to help a missionary who was being very apostate and it didn't help that he was my companion. I feel as though I wasted the six weeks that made up my last transfer because we rarely left the house barely taught, and just had opposing ideas on everything. I saw the way the justification can be used to attempt to make apostasy ok. No matter what you say, infinity war clips are not missionary appropriate. This was something we disagreed on hotly. I can go on, but I was trying to be the one to advance the work.

     We met with a man who had interest fairly often, and these teaching visits were usually the only reason we would leave the house. In our second lesson, I felt overwhelmed while bearing testimony to extend a baptismal invite. I knew we hadn't talked much about baptism up until this point, but we had just taught the plan of salvation, and as I was testifying I invited him to be baptized. At first, he was a little confused because Italian is also his second language, so he asked for me to repeat the invite, but slower. My companion was glaring at me and shaking his head at me while sitting just behind our friend and tried to talk over me to cut out the invite. But, the man asked e to repeat myself a third time, so I did. He accepted the invite, and all the other things we asked him to do before he left. 

     Once he left earshot and was down the stairs of the church entryway, my companion started to swear at me and just tell me how horrible a missionary I was, and how we both needed to feel prompted to extend the invite because he heard it in some non-canonized BYU talk. While I realize I stepped on some toes there, I know a prompting when I feel one. Immediately after I said that, he pushed me out of the way and got on the church computer to look up some marvel music or something, so he could "de-stress". This lead to an intense discussion that I don't want to type out in which we called each other out on the things we weren't doing and those which we were. Happy to say I was in the right in most everything I said, but I had to convince my past companion that the way he was acting was not becoming of a missionary. I just don't know if there was something else I could have done, or should have done. 

     And while those six weeks sucked, I will never allow them to happen again. Patience was tested, I never resorted to physical violence or threats, and I used a lot of cold anger whenever he would blow up to remind him that he shouldn't be here for himself. That's something else I learned from last transfer. I'm not here for myself. If I was, I would be a much worse person. Thanks to the close proximity I had with someone who right now, is only here for themself. It reminded me of myself at the start of my mission honestly, and I hate that it does. I'm doing better now, and my current companion and I actually have history together in the mission. It's awesome stuff. 

      I hope you have a wonderful day and that the weight loss is still ongoing! I don't know where you're sitting with that right now, but I'm excited to see you and the family in just under a year when you come to get me! I also want you to know that I love you, I respect you and I didn't show that enough or at all in the year or so before I left on my mission. I know we don't always see eye to eye, but I'm glad we don't. Because sometimes, different ways of looking at the same thing can be a blessing in disguise. May we learn this blessing together! 

     Your faithful son and servant of the Lord, 

Anziano Anderson

I've been a missionary for exactly a year now!

Ciao tutti! 

     I wish to speak of the growth that I've accumulated on my mission, in all the various forms that I feel comfortable talking about. As many of you know, a mission usually lasts for two years for all male participants, and I'm happy to say that I've completed one whole year of my life as a dedicated missionary. The 27th of June, 2018, I entered the MTC at 12:17 pm and started classes at 12:45 until 8 pm where I was then taken back to my room after a dinner of fried chicken and mashed potatoes, and fell asleep pretty quick. I couldn't speak the language, I weighed 260 pounds, understandably I was very insecure of myself and the new surroundings didn't help me at all with these feelings, and I had a very limited knowledge of the gospel seeing how I didn't have the greatest study habits before the mission for either school, or the gospel and because of this I was sorely under prepared to face life outside of home and the testimonies of my parents. 

     As time went on, as it always has and always will, I began to realize just how badly I needed to grow and how hard it was to do so. There's a difference in growing for yourself because you want to, and growing yourself because you need to. Serving a mission in a place where the predominant religion is catholicism and the people are Italian can and does, test my mettle every day. In order to teach, I needed to talk. In order to talk, I needed to learn. In order to learn, I needed the spirit, to have the spirit, I need to pray. That's why I pray every morning, and why we are asked to do so every day, so God can bless us with his power and strengthen us as we go throughout our day that we may come out the Victor. 

     After a year in Italy, I consider myself fluent in Italian (not enough so that I could just bust out a ten minute talk in sacrament meeting without warning if needed, but I can translate those talks pretty good) and seeing how the whole month of July last year I was struggling to put the words together to ask how your day went. Whereas now, I can tell you how Joseph Smith was called of God and received the priesthood to guide the restored church on the earth, with no difficulty. I'm just saying, if you don't think you need to grow, serve a mission. That attitude will change in the course of 30 minutes after you arrive in the MTC and realize how little you can do on your own. 

The Week as it stands:

     Monday: We had zone calcio with President Pickerd. It was his first, and also last zone calcio before he goes home. He left this Saturday, and was replaced by President Smith from Idaho. Good stuff! I was super burned as I believe I mentioned last week, but anyhow, that's still a thing that happened and I'm pretty recovered from it now. The trek home from the temple that day was a nightmare because our first of two busses "broke down" on the way to the station. I'm pretty sure the dude just wanted to take a break because we were driving fine and when we got to a stop we pulled over and he kicked us off while the bus was running. He closed the doors, and then just sat on his phone for twenty minutes until the next bus arrived. 

     From that bus we took it to a stop close to a metro station, and walked ourselves to the metro. (side note, metro is the best way to travel around Italy because they're on time and frequent. Busses are faster, sure. But they never show up when the schedule says they should.) once on the metro, we rode it all the way to the last line we needed to take in order to get home. Well, someone fell onto the tracks half an hour before and so that stop was closed, but a quick ten minute walk down the street to the next stop on that same line allowed us to get home before 21:30 and then to sleep. Fun stuff. 

     Tuesday: The Zone Leaders came over for a scambio and we cooked up a solid amatriciana. Well over a kilo of pasta and sauce, with 650-700 grams of pancetta as well because everybody loves a bit of meat with their pasta, and two whole pots that normally would feed my family pre-mission. Funny how much more a group of six missionaries can eat than a family of that same size, plus one. Once food was eaten and everyone satisfied, the other four anziani went to termini to teach a piano course but couldn't get there thanks to the strike (sciopero) that was going on. There are tons of these all the time and I don't know why, but they're always annoying and always when we actually need to take public transport somewhere. The zone leaders ended up driving them. 

     Anziano Bellazetin and myself went to teach English course but couldn't get in to the church because the only key that we have only works on one door out of the four. All the other doors work, but no one saw fit to give the missionaries keys to the other doors while this one was broken. So, English course occurred on the grass outside. It's ok though, a change of pace is always nice. Once course was over, we all mad eit home and that was the day. I was feeling pretty sick, so I went to bed at 21:00 not 22:30 as usual. 

     Wednesday: After mostly recovering my voice, we all attempted to make it to the temple for district council. Because we have a car that seats five thanks to the presence of the zone leaders, only four of us could get a ride to the temple. This meant that my companion and I were given the privilege of walking to the bus stop. The first bus came, but the second one never did so we were picked up by the zone leaders and then driven to the temple just in time for us to run into President Pickerd and his wife. We ended up having to move council because the sorelle had a different meeting they needed to attend with other church members. 

     We all made it home eventually and did our studies, followed with some food and then we sat around talking for a while because that's one thing we like about the Italian culture. They talk to one another all the time about everything, everywhere. And they're passionate. Even if they hate Americans! Especially then, but it's always older Italian men that hate us and I couldn't tell you why exactly. Probably a grudge that was passed down from father to son, but it's not too important. Point is, they have passion. 

     Thursday: We were planning on going to the post office today in order to start the renewal process for my permesso but the other anziani forgot to bring some baptismal clothes with them when they started the hour long trek to the place where they needed to be by today. So, we were called and then we brought the clothes with us so that the baptism this Saturday could go without a hitch.

     Then, we were greeted with one of the first unfamiliar faces that we've had in a while at English course. It's a lady from Egypt who learned English years ago but forgot it due to neglect of usage and wants to learn more about that and also the gospel because she accepted a book of Mormon and all four of us taught her the restoration in what was actually a very impressive improvisational lesson. When we made it home, we were called by the Zone leaders and asked if we could do a scambio tomorrow. We could, so we accepted the invite.

     Friday: The Zone leaders picked us up at around 10 am and we drive to their house to start off with a little bit of finding and just some sight seeing because I've never seen their house or area before. The area is so big that they can't get around without a car, so they have one that they use often. I went with Anziano Hansen while my companion went with Anziano Payne from my mtc group. It was a fun time, and I went finding at a castle! We also did door to door and were invited inside to talk with a bunch of people. One of them believed in nature, another was some unnamed religion and the third was an atheist who studied psychology as a hobby.

     We spoke about the book of Mormon and the atheist was trying to tell me that all the feelings I feel whenever I speak of God are just my mind and that God isn't real because science. So I bore testimony of the truthfulness of the book and challenged him to do what Alma 32:27 states and "experiment upon the word" but he wasn't having it. We left the book with them, and we were invited to a party next door in the same breath. We declined and then walked ourselves to where the gelato was. I didn't eat any because they don't accept card, but I'm sure that I can get some somewhere else.

     Saturday: President Pickerd was replaced and we now have President Smith as the head of the mission. We meet him on Monday as part of a mission wide conference. Aside from that, Saturday was pretty average but there was a baptism so we went and saw that, while lending support as well. When the baptism finished, there was a concert and that didn't end until about 21:30 and so we were donned to be home at around eleven. With that knowledge on our minds and also with how "precise" the bus systems are, we struck our way home.

     On the way home, nearly at our stop, we looked out the window to get our bearings and saw seven scantily clad reasons for why we have a curfew and are not normally out at 23:18. Ladies of the night are not the kind of people we should be talking to, and so shortly after that we made it home, safe and unharmed. A little shook, but otherwise fine. It was a wild week, I'll tell you what. 

Anziano Anderson