And so, another one bites the bust

     Buongiorno tutti! Don't worry, I'm talking about the week in my title, not my companion. He's still up and kicking, although he goes home in less than one hundred days. Good times are had here sometimes solely for that reason. This can be good and bad, but usually it just means that it's at least entertaining. Photos below.

     I don't remember what the stats are for this email and I don't have access to my journal right now where I wrote them down, so stats will come next week I suppose. 

     Tuesday was a scambio (exchange) where we switched off with the Zone leaders and I stayed here with Anziano Trickett. We enjoyed some metro finding and an English course where the participants learned about tongue twisters and they couldn't believe that I could say them at all, let alone with the speed that I was going. The twister I used is one I got from Anziano Belnap in agrigento: "Betty bought some butter, but the butter betty bought was bitter. Betty bought some better butter to make the bitter butter better." English is fun

    Wednesday was a whole bunch of travel where after we taught a member who is preparing to receive the melchezidek priesthood at the church that morning, we immediately went to the temple so that we could have district council with the sorelle and end our scambio with the Zone leaders. We then had a grand old time riding the metro home and just spending an hour and a half on the metro before lunch. Woo hoo.

     Thursday we decided to burn some old clothing during lunch because why not? Things got a little heated, and the fire extinguisher was used a little prematurely. But the fire was put out 🔥😅

     Friday, surgery. The whole story is long, so the shortened one is en route. I arrive on time. I am seen half an hour after my appointment time. Ok.

     When I was taken back, the doctor made my companion leave to go and pay the bill downstairs of what ended up being 352 euro, 440 dollars. Cool, but back to the room where I'm on a check up mattress thing. Doctor just starts to circle my cyst with pen. OK, cool.

     Doctor grabs needle and just sticks it into my arm without sanitizing it. Cool, that's totally standard procedure I think. Uses all the anesthetic and then grabs another needle, repeats the process. OK, awesome. 

     I insert my arm into a piece of surgical paper that allows for easy clean up after the surgery, ha senso. While I'm doing this, assistant hands doctor a scalpel, things start immediately after my hand is resting under my head, anesthesia has yet to kick in.

     I feel knife for a good twenty seconds before I don't. Sweet. Doctor gets distracted by assistant talking about California because they think I live there because I was born there and Italian culture states that you always live where you were born and then you die there, sometimes never leaving that area. They believe California to be cold and rainy. I correct them as doctor pulls cyst out of arm with a chunk of skin. (If you want photos of that, email me and I'll send them to you as they are gnarly)

     I get sautered shut inside my arm with electricity somehow, and watch smoke emenate from my arm. Awesome!

     Stitches happen, don't feel the first four, but I feel all the other eight. Halfway through the eight, I'm asked if I feel pain. I sarcastically say "not a lot" but I forget that Italians don't do sarcasm so he believes me and then yanks very hard to tighten my stitches. I probably deserved that one.

    We end up having to call the office, and Anziano willey comes down to pay for my surgery. He then takes us out for Gelato, dinner, and he buys us groceries for the rest of the week because he feels bad for us. Absolute legend, love the man to death.

    Saturday, we end up not doing a lot because my arm region was in a lot of pain. I have no painkillers, and was given instructions on how to care for it but none of the supplies. Luckily, mission nurse sorella millet has made sure that all apartments with missionaries have a decent first aid kit, so I had the materials at home. We then interview two people for baptism, and we have some people on the line up for baptismal interviews in the near future.

That's my week, here are some photos:

This is a little late, Here's why

Ciao tutti! ciao ciao ciao, 

     Excuse me for the late email, it's been a crazy week and this is the first time I've had a chance to write a weekly or any emails at all this week. No one received any emails last Monday because I was in Napoli trying to pick up my permesso. If that story sounds old to you, it's because it is. I started this whole journey my first three days in country almost an whole year ago. It will be a year in three weeks. And so, because the card has existed for this whole time but because I didn't have it, it expires in 6 weeks from today. So, I'll have to start over on this whole process sometime soon. 

Pizza: 56

Gelato: 44

Books of Mormon: 77

     This whole week was nuts, and I ended up seeing many things that I never thought I would. But, I suppose that's what a mission does to people. I just never expected to see anything like this. last week on Monday, it was rather chill. I studied colleges for after the mission a little bit, and then we made some food and found one of those "mark the children's height on the wall when something big happens" places in this house. It starts in the year of 1982 and goes all the way until 1992. There are things written on there like "moved to Milan" and "Finally passed his brother up" and I thought that was so cool!

     When Tuesday rolled around the day after Monday (as it usually does) we received a referral from the Sorelle (sister missionaries) to go and visit an older man cause he wanted a book of Mormon and  visit with us about our beliefs. The visit was THE most interesting visit I've had my whole mission. We started of with our names, found out he was legally blind, and we asked if we could say a prayer. He said he'd never prayed a day in his life and then started to talk about the holocaust immediately after that statement. 

     Weird, but ok. 

     Immediately after this, he pulled a whole bunch of photo albums out of nowhere and showed us photos of the holocaust that were photos of his ancestors, and he asked us why God would allow things like this to happen. When he said "this" he pointed to some very gruesome photos. I didn't have the chance to say "oh, because it was prophesied by the prophets after the jews crucified our lord and savior Jesus christ" before he said that he believes in Jesus christ and not God. 

     Stranger than weird, but ok? 

     He then listed a few of his other beliefs like how Adam and eve only had Cain and Able, and if they are the parents of every person who lives today, how could this be if their kids were both male? And if one killed the other? We pointed him to the 6th chapter in Genesis where it states the posterity of Adam and Eve, and where they had many sons and daughters. This led to a pause in the lesson because he wanted to check his version of the Bible to make sure we were reading the same book. We were. He thought it strange, and then we continued. No moral agency. Every is doing exactly what Jesus (because he doesn't believe in God) wants us to do, and we only feel as though we have choices. 

     OK, I'm lost at this point. I don't know what he's been reading. But, I do know that's not true. 

     After another twenty minutes explaining why moral agency is actually something we have and why it's important to the plan of salvation and our personal salvation (moral agency Is the ability to shoose right or wrong, to follow Jesus or the Devil) we were an hour and fifteen minutes in, and we had other places we needed to be. So, we left a Book of Mormon with his man, our testimonies of God and his son, Jesus christ, and we walked home just buzzing with the weird factor that came from those beliefs. He was a smart man, not crazy, just very unbiblically educated and he used very big words to prove his points, which we shut down with very simple phrases. 

     Moving on to Wednesday, seeing as it follows Tuesday, we had district council, and the Sorelle who sent us the referall that we met with yesterday asked us how it went. We showed them, by doing a "finding role-play" where they were given minimal information about what I believed (as I was playing the man from yesterday) and then told to prepare for two minutes to teach for five. The role-play was very similar to how it was yesterday, and the sorelle were baffled by the things I was saying. I was parroting, but it sounded weird overall. 

     When Anziano Inkley and I made it home that night, we made Brownies to give to the senior couple who would be coming over in the next day or two for an apartment inspection. But, our oven is old and someone who designed it needs to have their license revoked because te heat gauge goes from 1 to 10. I don't know what that means, but it acts like a giant toaster. Anything after the "3" setting burns and it goes way too far by going all the way to "10". We burned the Brownies, tries to eat them, they made us sick, and we puked as a companionship off and on throughout the night. Never doing that again. 

     Thursday morning was full of travel and a doctor's appointment for me. He poked me, prodded me, and said to come back in a week and a day on the Friday after tomorrow because of the bump I have in my arm, and one in my leg. Pretty sure that they are cysts, but he wants them out, so I'll be getting those cut out soon enough (seeing how I'm writing this a week to the day after this visit, I go in tomorrow) and then we'll see what they are. On the way home, we say a jazz band performing live in a metro underground stop, and when we entered the metro itself, we were flash mobbed by a chamber coir who just started to belt out music in a metal pill that was the metro we were riding to our home. We spoke with them a bit, translated the questions for an agnostic who wanted to know why they were singing about God when "God doesn't exist and they're wasting their time". We didn't translate that part for them but I distracted them with other questions while my companion spoke to Mr. Agnostic about what we do as missionaries. He still doesn't believe in God, but he couldn't put up a better argument than "because He doesn't!" after we were finished. Italians are such strange people. 

     Friday was the day of apartment inspections. The senior couple did not eat the poisoned Brownies, because we had either eaten them before we knew what they were going to do to us, or thrown them out when we figured out how much they hated their creators. We passed with flying colors, and they said we had a nicer house then they did. If that's true, I feel sorry for them because our house is liveable, but it's certainly not luxurious. Although with only two people here, it is roomy. I miss the other two anziani, but I understand and life goes on and they have both told me that they will be coming back out in six months or less! Love you both, because I know you're going to read this! 

      After the inspection, we cleaned out the "dead closet" which is basically the accumulation of clothes that are left behind by missionaries who are going home or who are unable to take them due to weight restrictions and so they leave them there for the next guy. It's basically a local thrift store where everything is free for the people who live there. But, I was all too big for my companion, way too small for me, or just ratty and not worth keeping. We broke a lot of clothing, not going to lie. But, now there are just a few, choice, articles of clothing for the following missionaries to take. 

     Saturday was the day before the festa della mamme (mothers day) so I was able to call my family and speak with them for a good hour before the mothers day dinner in the church building where I made my call was held. In this dinner, I had doctor pepper and doritos. I have not had either of those for a year, and while it was good, it tasted so fake. The soda was too salty, and the doritos were very strange as well. I ate them, but I don't think I will if I have the choice between them and a nice pasta. Call me Italian, but I'm starting to forsake American junk food. Peanut butter is the only thing that hasn't changed for me, but it's very hard to find here and expensive when you do find it.

     That morning, we also went and hour and a half one way to give a blessing to a lady who had fallen down the stairs a few days before, and while there we saw an American mustang. Boy, nothing sounds like American muscle when it's ripping down the street way faster than it needs to or is legal. She appreciated our willingness to come down, and once the blessing was given, we were attacked my a crazy goose. Luckily, there was a fence, but goose honks are something else lemme tell you what. A dog? sure. Bark bark, and you're n the look out. But, a goose? You hear this unearthly wheeze like noise that grows into tormented screams and I don't care who you are, when you see the teeth on the side of it's tongue coming at you, you will make yourself scarce. I'm sure of it. 

     Ah yes. Monday again. A whole week that came and went. This email is a tad longer than most, but I'm sure this will make up for it. I was alone, almost all day on Monday, from 9:00 to about 19:30 (7:30pm) an whole ten and a half hours. The train ride over was two hours, my time in Napoli was five hours and my train home was another three hours, but after I saw two people snort cocaine, one inject some sort of illicit substance and another smoking two joints at once, I had been there about an hour and managed to buy some food at Decò. The man there recognized me after six months away, and he quoted my order to me before I could. I was impressed, he made it for me and while I ate my sandwiches, I started to talk to a lady who sat next to me on a public bench. 

     She was nice, and asked me why I was eating a sandwich instead of a pizza. She then told me all about napoletano food and I nodded through bites as I told her stories about me eating those foods at the places she suggested and for half an hour we just talked about food and missionary work. The people here are so much more willing to speak to you about everything and I love them for it. 

     I received my permesso, made it onto the train, my phone died, and then I taught an old Italian couple for two hours on the way home about my church, why I'm a missionary and how much God loves them. They were the kind of people who thought that "as long as you're trying your best, and go to church, God doesn't care what church it is" and that lead to some interesting discussions as well. We wished each other the best and then went our own ways. 

     I'm ending this email on Monday, and I'll write about all the rest of the stuff as it occurs in my next (hopefully punctual) email. Photos to follow this email as a second email, I love all your faces! 

My invite for you all Is this: Read the Book of Mormon. It sounds like a simple thing, and indeed it is. Sit down, pull it down off the shelf or out of the case it has, or pull it up on your phone if you don't feel like reading. It will read itself to you digitally. In this way, the deaf can hear the words of the lord, the blind can see the light of Christ growing in themselves and the ones who doubt will feel their faith growing in them as it states in Alma chapter 32:27-28. The verses that spurred me to get my life together and serve a mission when the going got tough and I wasn't sure if I wanted to try. It says this:

But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.

     Now, we will compare the word unto a seed. Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me.

     Don't make excuses, because someday soon your time will be up and you will be as one of the five foolish virgins who were not prepared for Christ's coming.

Ciao for now! 

Anziano Anderson

Zone Conference and Three Days of Waking Up Way Too Early!!

Buongiorno tutti! 

     As it seems that yet another week has passed in this experience that we call a mission, allow for me to explain a few things that went down and why they helped me become a better person. But first, the ever growing statistics:

Pizza: 56

Gelato: 43

BoM: 76

     With that out of the way, onward we go! Last Monday was very chill, and we spent it mostly hanging out at a kebaberia where they indeed, make kebab for us missionaries to eat. I was Abe to make it to some place with decent wifi where I called my family (don't you love it when the church announces changes?) and then went home to begin my evening of proselyting in the rain. Not a whole lot worth mentioning happened there. 

     Tuesday was a day with a little more going on. Recently, Anziano Inkley and I have been getting really big into the exercise world. It seems that when all you do is walk all day for 16 hours a day, your legs and lower body gets slimmed down a bit but the rest of you doesn't really follow suit. We decided to try to keep up with the weight loss/muscle gain and so we headed to porta di Roma (a very, very big shopping mall) where we could buy some protein powder and long the way we spoke to people and saw some pretty awesome things. We bought our powders and then began the return trip home, but it was about lunchtime so we decided to go to a Chinese place near our house for the heck of it. 

     It was not as easy as just hopping on a bus. It was supposed to be, and it should have been, but in the end we just barely missed the bus that would take us there, so we walked, got lost, got found, and then got disappointed when te resteraunt was closed for lunch. As funny as that sounds, it happens all the time. We bought some reesty pizza from the store next door that I ended up violently ejecting from my body that night just before English course, but it was all good. 

     Wednesday was a day for milk. When it comes to the work, nothing overly strange happened there, but Anziano Inkley and I, the "Sendy" companionship that we are, decided that it was only logical and made sense to run next door to the store when they were having a sale on boxed, partially skimmed milk, and to buy 24 litres of the stuff. Totalled out to about 12 euro overall, but that's enough milk for the next transfer and a half, so we're sitting fat. 

     I know what some of you are thinking. "Anziano Anderson, why only 24 boxes of partially skimmed boxed milk? why not 48?" or "what on earth are you going to do with 24 boxes of partially skimmed boxed milk?" the answers are simple and are as follows: 48 boxes of partially skimmed boxed milk is excessive, and so we want to be prepared and not oversaturated in the stuff. And for the second question: we plan to drink it. It's not that hard to understand when explained in this way, no?

     Thursday was a day of interviews with Presidente Pickerd! I don't have many left with him. Maybe one more after this one because he goes home in May, and then we will receive President Smith. This is funny to me because the mission presidents change in my halfway point in the mission so I will have exactly half of my mission with President Pickerd and half with President Smith. I'm sure there is a reason for this, but I'm just excited to see what changes come to the mission culture with the new president. I've been here long enough to see what the mission was like before, and I want to see how the Lord has prepared this man to lead and guide the great Italy Rome Mission! 

     Friday is weekly planning. As Anziani, and because we like to encourage one another to do silly things that are actually kinda awesome (being "sendy" as I said a few paragraphs before when concerning boxed milk) we decided to fet 21 sticks of jasmine incense and hot box the bathroom. It has been four days since that happened and it still smells of jasmine whenever you go to that end of the house. Strong stuff, permanent air freshener. 10/10 would recommend again. 

     Saturday was zone conference and in this almost 8 hour meeting we discussed what it was we need to do better as missionaries and we role-played the restoration and the plan of salvation with President Pickerd. I'm happy to say that when they asked for a companionship to volunteer, I and my companion immediately raised our hands and taught them a wonderful five minute lesson in Italian with very little difficulty because we practiced many times before in the days prior, as one should practice in missionary work. 

     Because zone conference is so long, we are always fed, or given extra money to feed ourselves. However, this day we were fed hamburgers, with BACON!!! It was actual bacon as well, not the "almost bacon" pancetta they use normally. It was very delicious, and I enjoyed every juivy bite of my American reminiscence patty on white buns. 

     And finally, Sunday! we were able to enjoy Stake conference in which a member of the third quorum of the seventy came and spoke to us after some lovely singing from the choir and other local speakers. It was a blend of Italian and English, but it was cool not needing a translater because of my ability to speak the language now as opposed to the first few months of my mission life where everything was a challenge, and asking someone how they were doing took me about two minutes to accomplish. 

     As is usually the case after we leave the church in Rome, we were asked by all the English speakers how to get to the place that we were already headed, I.E, Termini. So, we felt like tour guides leading a gaggle of Americans to the trains. I never realized how fast we walk as missionaries until we had to slow down to make sure that the seniors and people in general could keep up with us.

     At this, the end of my email (which is kinda lame this week, I'll be the first to admit) I wish to extend another invite to all who read these emails and who have the slightest bit of interest in what it is that we do in this church. I know some of you are not members, but you have heard of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints before, if only in passing. I urge you to learn more about what it is that I am devoting two years of my life to share with others in a country that is not my own, in a language that is also not my own, but with a conviction that is entirely my own and a testimony as well. 

     If you have ever wondered who you are, who you really, truly are, then let me know. If you have ever wondered what happens after this life, or are curious to know if there is anything at all after this life, let me know. If you want to know what happened before this earthly life, let me know. There are people just like me, devoting anywhere from one and a half years of their life to two, in an effort to make sure that you might have the chance to hear, and to come, and to see why we are such a joyful and happy people. I promise you there are missionaries like me near you, and they want to speak with you about this glorious message if you just give them a chance. Five minutes is all we need to explain every single question I just brought up. Please, come unto Him, come unto Jesus Christ. 

In the following email, you will find pictures of almost everything that I described and a few extra things as well. Enjoy! And feel free to respond to these emails anytime during the week because I usually have time to read them but I do like to hear how all of you are doing back in the great United States of America, or wherever you may be posted! Ciao tutti! 

1. Stake conference

2. Incense aftermath

3. Almost 24 boxes of partially skimmed boxed milk

4. Kebaberia where they sell Kebab

5. Anziano Inkley looking pretty at a Chinese resteraunt 

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. 

Work in all it's forms

Ciao Padre! 

     I'm excited to be here in Italy as I'm sure I've told you before, but I'm also excited for general conference because there are tons of rumors floating around to keep your eyes open and your ears keen for many announcements that pertain to missionaries and their work while here on their missions. I'm just giddy because I know that changes are on the way, and that president Nelson is an inspired man. 

     Likewise, I love the members here in this ward and I'm attempting to love the people, even if some of them are kind of weird. There is one in particular that has some slight mental setbacks but loves the missionaries and just about stalks all of us. He knows my first name and birthday (which I've never told him and I've only been here in Rome where he is for almost three weeks) and also the names and birthdays of every single missionary in the mission I'm fairy sure. There are other things he does that I don't enjoy, but I'm trying to look past the awkward outer shell that he has and focus on the soul that's focused on the work which he he has. 

     Finding people to teach when you got blown in I a very hard thing to do, especially here in Italy where most people don't have interest in what you say as a general rule so I'm just curious to know if there was something you would do, or some suggestion that you have when it somes to finding that ight help me here and now? If not, hats fine. I have the Preach my Gospel but I just wanted to know if there was some sort of application for those methods that you knew of which I had not thought of at this present time. 

     I hope you found my last email well with you, and I hope you and the rest of the family are doing well. I heard that you are going to work and living life as normally as you can now, so good on you for the recovery! I've also got to say, my studies in the scriptures since I've been out on my mission have become much more sincere. My goal is to read all of the books one time through at least, starting with the Bible because that's what the people here all claim to know and love. Reading the Bible has given me a greater understanding of the phrase "the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Joseph" and just learning about the Israelite and the history that follows them which also pertains to what we believe and why we have all of our laws and the ordinances which we have. The mission is shaping me, and I'm trying to be as malleable in the Lord's hands as he needs me to be while still being rigid enough to maintain my composure with everyone else on this blessed continent. 

This is all I have for now, until next week, 

Anziano Anderson