Insert Witty Title Here

 Hellllllooooooo dwellers of America! (and anyone who happens to not be in America right now due to missionary service or for any other reason, I salute you as well) This was quite the week! Many an adventure, but not quite as hectic as last week to say a little bit. Not that this week wasn't interesting, I just didn't happen to snap any toe bones against unsuspecting bathtubs in the middle of the day. 

The Stats!! 

Pizzas devoured and digested: 71 (That's a lot of dough) 

Gelati coned and consumed: 54 (That's a lot of brain freeze) 

Books of Mormon beautiful and blue: 95 (That's a lot of truth) 

     Monday was an absolutely awesome start to the week because we were told that we were to start effective today a brand new missionary proselyting schedule that would dictate us rising an hour earlier and then going on to studying an hour sooner in the morning and overall giving us that extra hour to be outside and sharing the gospel in the form of proselyting and service to the Italian people. I love the new schedule and can testify of the miracles that just a little more time in the day can bring if you actually apply yourself in that time. Something about obedience brings blessings but exact obedience brings miracles and the like. Other than that, the normal pday activities occurred, and then the day ended. 

     Tuesday! District council to start us off and also a scambio with the Zone leaders. The start of this scambio was marked with a lunch at a Japanese sushi place where we ate until we nearly burst and then waddled down to the bus stop where we rode home and then had language study. It was fun because we live together, so we just switched desks for the hour and then we left to go and do our different things. Anziano Smartt and I went to the house of a member who will be living in Italy with us for the next two months while she works at the temple and we dedicated her apartment so that she could feel the love of the Lord for her there. We then saw where Ceasar was stabbed and then we made it to the church to plan Ricardo's baptism with Ricardo. 

     We came up with a program and then we told him we would have some paperwork for him on Thursday along with a chance to really meet the bishop for more than just three minutes at a church function. He was OK with this, and so we created the program and then we taught English course to finish off the night. But, because we were still on scambio, we all decided to have a big ol' sleepover in one room of the house where we the piled mattresses on the floor and promptly fell asleep. 

     Wednesday the scambio continued and we went about the new schedule as one would do any other day of the week and we did so by studies and then clearing out some of our paper area book. When lunch rolled around, Anziano Taylor and I were back together after a harrowing journey down the hall that only one of us had to make. Sometime in the morning however, I and Anziano Taylor were asked to help a sister in the ward with some window repairs, but we didn't know how to get there, so the Sorelle took us to her house and we showed up in a group of Anziani and Sorelle. 

     The sister that we helped used to be a Muslim, and she told us her conversion story shortly after our arrival. It was long, but she told it relatively quick and it was also full of heartache and sadness but that was canceled out by the joy of finding her savior (her words not mine) and having us as her adopted family. So, we are considered to be her children according to her. She's an old Italian lady though so it's expected. What she ended up needing repaired was some mosquito netting that she couldn't reach due to her short stature, and so that's why she wanted the anziani to come over. 

     Dad, you'll love this because the system they use here to apply the netting in the windows is exactly the same one we used to apply the insulating plastic in our windows for the winter cold. A piece of very long, double-sided sticky tape that adheres to the mesh and the window frame as well. Although, it was velcro more than sticky tape, the principle is the same. Because I've done this before, I had it fixed in about ten minutes in the entirety of the house. Then, I fixed her cordless land-line and showed her how to work it all the while she made us lemonade and Egyptian dessert (seeing as that was where she was born and hence why she was Muslim at the start of her life) before we left to teach a man who speaks only Spanish at the church about the plan of salvation. 

     Two hours after we arrived at the church, we finished teaching the whole plan of salvation, and that was only thanks to the sorella who could speak Spanish and translated everything we taught, along with bearing her own powerful testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel. The man we taught is also very elect and nearing baptism, seeing as he quoted a few Doctrine and Covenants verses from memory to us that were pertinent to the lesson. Great guy overall. 

     Thursday was simple and consisted mostly of Baptismal planning and our meeting with Ricardo and the bishop. Neither of them could make it tonight, so we just taught English course instead and then told our English class to bring some food that hils from their home countries, along with the recipes for those dishes in English, and we would do the same for them. So, we are expecting to have some food at English course and then a chance to talk with one another about said food. That's always a good way to learn! 

     Friday was interesting only because we spent a majority of the day at Termini which is a little outside of my current area, but it's fine because we had a missionary purpose to be there today. A week or two ago my companions cellphone was stolen and he has been skating off of mine for that time. Today, we met a man after much trial and error to buy another phone for my companion at termini because it was a halfway point fr the both of us. 

      Once we bought the phone, we came back to our church and attempted to install the governing app that the church uses on a ll it's devices called Maas360 which basically gives administrator access and privileges to our president and there's nothing we can do about it. However, it wasn't downloading on this phone for some reason, so we called it a night because we tried to get this phone to work for a while and it wouldn't. The whole event took the day, and we ran into quite a few members from Utah whilst at termini,as well as from Italy. One of these families bought us breakfast, and then lunch at McDonald's. I love the member attitude towards the missionaries here! Lot's of support and the like. 

     The only thing that we really didn't feel too good about was how Ricardo started to text us about some doubts that he had about his baptism tomorrow, and said he wasn't sure he was ready for that so we sent him some texts and bore testimony to him about the correctness of his choice, and we were mostly left on read but we did get him to promise that he would pray again. That's how we ended our day. 

     Saturday. Was. Interesting. 

     Mostly this was because we decided that the phone we bought yesterday wasn't the one we actually wanted, so we listed it on marketplace and it sold within the first two hours of it's listing. We listed it just before lunch, and as soon as someone told us they would meet us to buy it, Ricardo texted us and said that he wanted to call off the baptism for today. He didn't feel prepared yet, but didn't say that he didn't want to get baptised at all. So we told him that was OK, we can meet during the week that follows because he's tied up with college stuff at the moment. It would've been super cool had he been baptised today, because that is to the day the anniversary of my first baptism in the mission. Exact same day, one year apart. It didn't happen, but that's fine because I'm not worried about it just yet. We're still praying for him, so we'll see whare that leads us. 

     We met the people by the metro station, they bought the phone and we then got on that same metro to head to termini to buy the second phone in just as many days. We ended up buying it and then installing Maas360 on it before the people who bought the phone from us felt buyers remorse and then asked if they could have their money back. We explained ot them that we didn't have it anymore and because they are Italian, we had to block a lot of angry Italian numbers randomly calling and texting us for the remainder of the day. Anziano Taylor and I then bought a metre pizza so that we could comfort ourselves e to the canceled baptism. 

     That's a week in the life of a missionary! if you have any other questions, please do ask! I love to hear them! 

P. S. Pictures to follow in a sperate email. 

Gypsies, Hospitals and Baptisms

I forgot to mention that we have a baptism this Saturday for someone that we've been teaching for a while now. Other than that, photos!

In no particular order :

- My companion watching me take a photo of him and my Mug

- This awesome sticker that'll drive you ocd people nuts

- 16 euro for a pound peanut butter

- my broken toe

- A salad from a lunch we had on Sunday with a member

On Mon, Sep 9, 2019, 11:58 Mayson Anderson <mayson.anderson@missionary.org> wrote:

This was one of the more packed weeks in the entirety of my mission. I've said that a few times in the start of my mission, but back then the bar was rather low. Nowadays it's a little harder for me to say stuff like that, but still possible! 

Pizzas: 65

Gelati: 53

Books of Mormon: 95

     Monday was the start of the title above, we were blessed with an experienced pick-pocketer that stole my companions phone from out of his pocket while we were on the bus from the front of our house to the church stop. That was an exciting start to the pday, and it was just the issue we dealt with all day before the phone stopped showing up on the computer while we were attempting to track it. That night ended with a storm and some awesome lightning shows. 

     Tuesday was a blast because we had district council, and immediately afterwards we went to a Chinese store so that we could buy some furnishings for the house, like an ice cube tray because ice isn't really a big thing here. However, we found rootbeer! Mug Rootbeer! it tasted a little different, but it's very cheap and frankly a welcome change of pace from the Fanta and Coca-Cola that dominate the shelves here. We were blessed with two new people off of the street for English course that night, and they were very fun. Our English course is steadily growing and I love the progress that the students are making in their language skills! 

     Wednesday was a day that was spent mostly just calling people from our paper area book to be in line with data privacy laws by the end of this coming week, and then recuperating a boatload of lost contacts from the phone and adding them into the replacement phone that we got from the mission office. Fun stuff! 

     Thursday I awoke to the smell of banana pancakes because one of the anziani was super awesome and decided to cook breakfast for the house. This was much appreciated because I love pancakes! aside from that, I went to the ER after breakfast because I fractured my toe a few days before but we were busy and I wanted to make sure the pain was more than just bruising. When the purple left, and the foot still hurt, I thought that a good indicator that maybe something was broken. I was correct, and I have officially broken a bone in my life. Although the story is this: I walked into the bathroom and stubbed my pinky toe on the corner of the bathtub in the dark. After a popping noise, I could feel my foot and it felt very not good. 

     After that, my companion sang at the visitors center at the temple grounds and made a few people cry because he's a very talented man and very good at singing. Also, the acoustics were amazing in the room where he performed so that might have something to do with it.

     Friday was the day of studies and weekly planning, and the day that we discovered just how much Italians care about their privacy. We are doing this thing where we collect Italian testimonies and then post them onto a mission wide Facebook page called (and feel free to like and share this page with all of your friends because we would love the publicity!!!!!) "Uno in Cristo" and nobody would allow us to take a photo of them, let alone a video. We had some fun conversations out of it though, and that was a blessing in and of itself. 

     That's all the fun stuff of this week! if you have any questions or comments, lemme know! 

Invite: "Like and share" the Uno in Cristo page on Facebook. Share it with all of your friends. Literally all of them. Do it!! Love you all, can't wait to see you soon! 

Meetings for Miles and Miles

Ciao my golden friends! 

     This week was exactly what the title said it was! We had the planed and regulated seven days in the week that is custom throughout the world. However we had four of those days full of meetings for different and various reasons, and they were all back to back. For Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we were given normal days to just work and do what it was that we desired. From Thursday to Sunday we had a meeting to prepare for another meeting to epare for yet another meeting. More on the way in the words to follow these below! 

Pizza: 65

Gelati: 53

Books of Mormon: 95

     Monday was a fun and laid back day of storms and just a few calls made to my family. Well, my sister. The rest of my family happened to be in Mexico at that time. I saw some videos though, and it looked like they wer heaving a blast, so rest assured that they are doing absolutely okay right now and not at all in the least bit stressed about anything in the slightest! Otherwise, we had a ball finding new people that night and then we turned in for the next day of fun and wholesome activities. 

     Tuesday was a sweet reminder of my childhood as we had district council and then went to our ward mission leaders house where we had a nice little council with him and lunch. The thing that reminds me of my childhood is the food that was served while we were there. As most of you know, my Father served in the Phillipines and so he learned how to cook the four good dishes that they have, and I like to think that I know how to cook one of them, but I suppose I'll have to ask one of the Philippino members that we have here. Anyhow, this member is phillipino and he cooked adobo with rice, and some fried fish that you could eat entirely, bones and all. It was better if you did not ingest the skeletal system and head, but some of us tried a nibble just to say that we did. So, I had some food that I didn't realize I would miss and it was just a good day overall. We spent a good chunk of this day doing some area book flushing to meet with the standards of the new privacy laws, and I made a new tie for myself out of an old pillowcase because I didn't want to buy a new tie and also because I wanted to try making a tie anyhow. 

     Wednesday was fun because we spoke solely in Italian from 09:00 until 21:00 and that helped me realize just what I can't actually say in Italian and what I need to work on. Mostly subjunctive (I wish/think/would like, etc) and some other just ridiculous things that you wouldn't use in a normal gospel lesson. We liked it so much that we plan to keep doing that at least once a week for the rest of the transfer and then just see where our Italian skills are by the end of the six weeks we have together. 

     Thursday started our chain of meetings, and where better to start than with the president of the mission? We spoke with President Smith and had a ball there before we ran back to the church and arrived just in time to teach English course before we headed home for the night. It was fun, I taught the people in attendance how to ask for haircuts, and showed them some pretty radical 'dos as well. Thanks Facebook! 

      Friday was an early start and donut delivery run from Battistini to via dei settebagni 46 in Roma if you want to map that out. Overall it took about an hour and forty-five minutes because busses and metro were the only way we could get from point A to point B. It was fun, and when we made it to the temple, we dropped the donuts off and then went to practice a musical number that my companion was to be a participant in. We practiced, and enjoyed a wonderful time at the temple for the next four hours as we were taught by our president at zone conference, his assistants and then some awesome zone leaders that we have. we received much wise council that we have since applied in our work. 

     Saturday was a hoot because we had all our studies in the morning, so there goes four hours because we also had weekly planning as well. We met with two sisters from our ward, the ward chorister and her very good and musically gifted friend. Both of them are from Peru and speka Spanish, but also very good Italian, and they asked us to show them how to get to the temple so we took them there on the metro and on the way up we did a bunch of finding while still keeping them informed on how to get where we were going and the number of stops and other things to look for so they wouldn't feel abandoned. They told us how impressive anziano Taylor and I are as a companionship and that we work very well together. 

      The reason we were headed to the temple was to be part of and to sing in the Stake conference that was to be broadcasted to Puglia and other parts of Italy that were too far away to feasibly make it to Rome anytime soon. We sang an opening him (number 36 in Italian, all creatures of our God and king whicg was originally Italian to begin with just so you know) and then we stayed because we wanted to learn and also because we needed to take these sisters home when all was done. We grew our relationships with them, and we had a fun little jazz session where one of the sisters made some sort of flute with her hand and my knuckles popped while we were waiting for the train. I'm slightly broken, but it sounds good when put to music apparently. We had one more great conversation with some teenagers on the way back home where the whole metro car was participating and we invited them all to attend English course among other things. The people here are very open and warm when you approach them in the right way. The right way is any way that isn't "ciao! have you seen missionaries like us before?" because the answer is always no, and then they refuse to acknowledge your existence. Fun fact. 

     Sunday was a day of memories and crossroads for me. I ran into members from Napoli and Agrigento that I haven't seen in over a year, and it was such a strange experience but also really satisfying that they all remembered me and were actually lining up take photos in front of the temple with me because it was just an awesome chance that I probably will not have until I come back in a few years from now. Photos will be attached with some explanations. They all agreed that I was a lot skinnier now than I was a year ago, and I'm glad that's the case because quite honestly I was a chunky monkey when I arrived a year and three months ago. I have less than ten months left and that's tripping me out. I'll be home sooner than I thought, and I can already say that I'm going to miss this place more than I think I know. 

     The only thing I want to invite you all to do this email around is read a few chapters of scripture and then compare them to one another because it's so important to understand that what you find in the comparison of these chapters are things that we believe in this church that no one else does. The chapters are first in the Bible:

Matthew 5-7 the sermon on the mount

Compared with:

3 Nephi 12-14

And as always, show love one to another through service. The lord says to love thy neighbor as thyself, and in Italian the word for "neighbor" is "prossima" which means "next" or the person who is physically the closest to you in any given moment. So, with that context, love thy Neighbor as thyself this week as often as you can! 

Anziano Anderson

Another Week, Another Experience

Buongiorno tutti! 

     I have had a week, and it's fixing to be memorable I the week to come or just a quick blur. I say this because from Thursday through Sunday  have a meeting every day with either the mission president thanks to zone conference and interviews, stake conference and a musical I somehow got roped into singing with a bunch of Italians and my companion, and just the lessons that are in between those lessons. I feel like me email next week will start with the phrase "that week flew by" or something to that affect. I won't remember writing this email, so if that is what happens then alright! Numbers! 

Pizza: 64

Gelati: 52

Books of Mormon: 95

     Let's start with Monday the 19th. I and my housemates awoke and we all decided to go to the Zone volleyball that was at the temple grounds at 10 am. The thing is, we all live about an hour and a half away, and the metro is broken until the 26th so we had to take some weird line of support busses because that was the only was to make it home. We had a wonderful few hours of Volleyball and there was much friendly competition in trying to spike on one another. This was all fun and good, but on the attempt to make it back home, Anziano Taylor and myself were very lost in Rome and no one knows how to get anywhere when the metro IS working so we ended up following around a wonderfully kind African lady who showed us where to go and then told us how we are all "one love" and should treat each other as such. She told us we were like her babies, and that she wanted Anziano Taylor to have success after his time as a missionary in finding a wonderful black girl to marry. Africans here speak from the heart and don't hold reservations so they will tell you what they are thinking all the time, and it's funny to see what comes out of their mouths because they always mean those things when they say them. 

     Tuesday was full of much time proselyting in the morning and then English course in the evening where we taught a great group of three people. The funny thing with our English course group is, out of everyone who attends, there is not a single Italian. We all speak Italian, but no one is actually from Italy. The course is composed of Africans, Egyptians, Brazilians and Romanians but no Italians to speak of. And ust about everyone that shows up, I've never seen before. I've handed out a number of English course bigliettini (cards) in my time here in Rome 1 and as a missionary, and almost never do the people who accept a card actually show up. They usually give it to a friend who then shows up and then continues to do so. Wonderful, but funny how that works. 

     Wednesday was the day we held district council! For the majority of my mission I have under-esteemed these gathering, but in this council we were all asked a question that made me consider my mission this far and if I would be happy with what I had done if my mission needed tomorrow. I realized that I would not be, and so that pushed me to do much better, and led to a self reflection in which I found some things that I needed to change in order to achieve my goal of a satisfactory mission. Once that was figured out, the Zone leaders came into our room and basically told us that we needed to re-arrange our room so our desks were next to each other on the same wall. That took two hours and when all was done, we had a much nicer and cleaner room (which we intend to keep that way) and a more open floor plan. Because transfers are the next day, we celebrated the last day of the transfer together with 2 meters of pizza (roughly six feet) between the four of us, and we managed to dump a chunk of it on the sorelle ecause they stopped by our apartment to give us dedicas (notes that tell you how awesome the transfer was because of what you did sort of like a postcard that we give one another but only if you are being transferred out) and that was a good way to end the transfer. 

     Thursday! Transfer day! while the day itself was very normal for Anziano Taylor and I without a whole lot of super memorable things, we did have some very pleasant conversations with some Italians, and we even tried some door to door finding for about five minutes before we got every single citofono buzz answered with a "mumble mumble *click*" and then silence. We found a single mother member and shared the information of English course with her and she was super glad to find out that she could bring her son as well, because he is still just a small human at two-ish years of age. When our new zone leader arrived, I welcomed him with a hug and then a quick tour of the house. It's fun for me because this man, Anziano Oliver, was my zone leader in Sicilia, and now we live in the same house which just so happens to be his first four man experience in the entirety of his mission whereas I've been in a four man for exactly half of my mission. Strange how that whole thing works. 

     Friday, the Zone leaders had Mission leadership conference at the temple from very early in the morning until very late at night, so between those hours we were outside for a big chunk just doing some park finding. We fund a wonderful family that is from Peru, but mostly female at the moment, and all the boys they do have are under the age of eight so they don't exactly count as legal adults. We exchanged numbers and sent them off to the sorelle, but it was a wonderful time talking with them. Other than that, the streets were fairly bare when we were outside the only people we saw were busy shopkeepers who were busy either preparing for tomorrow or closing down for today. Not exactly prime finding, but we got by with some conversations here and there. Nothing that was super spiritual happened today, but it was a solid day to do some work. 

     Saturday had a weird twist to it because while we were at the church syncing our area books after our weekly planning session (updating them to one another to make the data they have uniform and not contradictory) è were called by a woman we didn't know who said she was still waiting for the sorelle at the metro stop. She wanted to meet with them, so we called the sorelle and told them what was going on there, and the sorelle went and made sure to be on their way as fast as they could. However, that didn't work out because about ten minutes later that same woman called us and said that she was on a bus because the sorelle weren't there fast enough. Keep in mind, none of us had her saved as a contact and she just called and said she was there, with no warning at all. So that was fun. I also archived all my photos that I had on my phone somewhere in my Google drive account because I had a phone at near maximum capacity with photos and videos of my first years and some odd months. For those of you who want to go through those with me after I return home, there are many to see and no shortage of stories to go along with them. 

     We also met with some Jehovahs witnesses today (or TJ's as they are called in Italian) and we explained how the book of Mormon and the Bible support and speak of one another and do not contradict one another. They tried to argue this point with nothing but fact, but when we started reading from the book of Mormon and cross referencing with the Bible, and all that was said was supportive of one another, they were left grasping at straws. The bok of Mormon testified to them of its truthfulness to an extent that all they could say was "I have never read that book, but I know it's not true" but they could not back it up. We ended our lesson with them in testimony of the book of Mormon and the spirit we had there confirmed so strongly what we were saying that when we ended our lesson with a prayer, all they could do was walk away as they told us they still didn't believe in the book. Told them that I could not tell them what they should believe, nor could they tell me what I should believe, but I could tell them what I know to be true. We ended the lesson on that note and we have yet to reschedule, but I don't think it will be hard to do that. 

     Sunday was filled with food and fun, and we had quite a bit of both. Statistically, we are fed after church on Sunday by a member from Peru who has been feeding the missionaries wherever he was residing for the past 22 years. He is a wonderful cook and even more wonderful person. He cooks peruvian food for us and it's something distinctly different from Italian food, in a very good way. Otherwise, we were blessed with a few new additions to the ward today in the form of a transfer student who will be living here for the next few years and then in a member family who moved to Italy but just found the church here after a year or two of inactivity thanks to a lack of a knowledge of a church building. All of this was good for us, and fun getting to know them. While we were waiting for a bus, we spoke to an old Italian man, and exchanged our number and a book of Mormon for his number. He is also in someone else's district so we sent his information that way, but it was fun to see someone act on faith and take the book anyhow! 

Vi voglio bene! 

Anziano Anderson

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