December 4th

Sup, sup!

Well, I'm saying hello from Vicenza...again. Last week was crazy!! Old collega gone and new collega came in. And all of this happend on Thanksgiving day!! We also had a Thanksgiving dinner, obviously, with a few member families. Let me say this though about the members' house because it was such a cool house! It was set against this hill/mountain and it was kinda built in a cave. Super cool!!

Well, my new collega. He's name is Anziano Pagano and he's from New Mexico. He's been out for almost a year and he has a few different ideas to go about doing work. Which is fine because I'm open for new ideas. I actually felt like I was opening up the copia again because we were putting plans together and now we have a new district leader (one of the other Anziani) with a different vision, so the whole ship is being turned to a new direction! Which I'm cool with because I don't what I'm doing.

I'm speaking more Italian but it's coming slowly. I realized that throughout my life I've always wanted to present myself as a "perfect" being or something. Obviously, that's not possible but I don't like making mistakes. Which means I'm more narrowed in my choices, which is good if it's a morale dilemma and I know what I'm supposed to do, but when it comes to making desicions to try out something new, or to take a different life path...never really done that. Never been opened up to making mistakes. Anyway, it hit me this morning that if I'm going to learn this language, if I want to enjoy a good life by trying out new things and to be successful in life, I'm going to have to make mistakes! I want to speak the language in a correct grammatical way but that won't be learned if I don't make mistakes! I want to learn how to sing, how to produce music, how to write, but mistakes will come! I'm not saying I have to look to make mistakes but I have to just take action. I have to do. I have to sieze the opportunites that I have and just go out with a smile on my face. I always think about where people are in life and how successful they are but they would've had to have made mistakes. And then that got me thinking about the Atonement and how we progress... well, ya, we make mistakes and then we recover and move forward! I wish I connected the dots when I was in High School because I would've been a very different person...I would've had more fun.

Peter is great! Though I'm a little worried. He noticed that Anziano Collins left and I got a new collega. He then asked me if I was staying because he said he would miss me if I left. I don't know if he is truly converted to the gospel. We're best buds but we need to find him a new friend in the branch. The last thing I want is someone that I baptized to go in-active. He's getting ready to be baptized on the 14th!

No snow I am happy to report. It has been getting colder. I think the rainy season has passed already. Um...I'm not sure how Christmas works. I know we get to Skype. On Mother's Day we do the phone call. I'll get more info on that. But plan on the Skype. I can't wait to see you guys!!