After another week in Italy......

Thanks so much for the e-mails!! I love it!

So, ya, Milano is pretty weird. Italy is weird. But I'm getting used to it. The hard thing for me right now is not being able to communicate. My  trainer and I have gotten used to speaking English a lot during the day because he finds it hard to communicate with me in Italian and also because we spend time with the English branch. But we're working on it. Everyday I'm trying to find new ways to learn but it's tough. 

Alright! I have another adventure for the week. Last week on Saturday, we got to eat on the American Base!!! I felt like I was in America!!! I can't tell you how bad I miss America!!! Collega was flipping out because he hasn't seen anything that resembles America for the past two years, but I just want to tell you, that I'm proud to be an American!! I'm an American!! Okay, then later, sometime after lunch, we get a call from President saying, "Hey, are you coming?". And then we said, "Going where?". Come to find out, President wants us to attend Stake Conference on Saturday and Sunday sessions, where in the past apparently, the missionaries only attended the Sunday conference. So we dropped everything, immeaditely went to the train station, bought tickets and were on our way to Perdonone, which is up north from Vicenza. So we get there, have no idea where the church is because all of this happened last minute, and we end up spending an half an hour getting to church practically running the whole time. After the Stake Conference President wanted to meet with our trainers (there's another copia staying with us) and since it was getting late, Anziano Castagno and I went back with a Senior Couple from the English branch. We get a call from our trainers around 10 that night that their train got cancelled and that they had to stay up in Perdonone! Now, up in Italy, strikes happen all the time, trains and buses get cancelled...it's just Italy. Anyway both of us trainees were together for almost a 24 hour period without our trainers. It was a fun experience.

I guess doing missionary work here in Vicenza is tough. We've had a hard time finding people to teach because they just reject us for some reason or they just don't care. To them, it's another religion. According to collega, there's a lot of people that hate being catholic, but it's just a label for them to make it look like they're religious and that they're saved or something and I wonder if we're just another "label" for them too. It's tough. On the bright side we actually found someone to teach in a park! And we taught a lesson on a park bench! How cool is that! We found a guy named, Franc, who's from Nigeria. And he is totally wants listen to us! He even had some of the same questions that Joesph Smith had! We asked him, when we found out he believed in Christ, why he believes and he said that he doesn't get why there were so many churchs and so much confusion about the doctrine, but he came to the conclusion to follow Christ, etc. He speaks English too! So we taught him two lessons already and have another one set up for today! He even asked us yesterday if he could see us again. It was awesome!!

It's hard to judge the food here, mom. Since we leave next to the base everyone wants American food. And for lunch, and this is what I'm kinda sketch about, we have pasta. Everyday. The reason why is because it's dirt cheap and food is kinda expensive up in Italy. I've learned a few different ways to prepare pasta with different spices and stuff but I'm not a big fan of eating it everyday. Italians have really small breakfasts and massive lunchs and small dinners. In the mission we don't have dinners but since we're in an American branch, we sometimes have dinner appointments. In fact, we don't proselyte mid-day because all the Italians are eating away. All I have for breakfast is yogurt and sometimes cookies (Italian style; they eat cookies for breakfast) and fruit taste amazing here but not cheap. I also have the junk peanut butter and jam with white Italian bread- not the best thing to eat. You just get plugged up because of the pasta. It's difficult to eat healthy when you're a missionary and live next to America. I also get the feeling it's hard to eat healthy because of our money situation.

I want to e-mail dad so tell the family that I love them!!!

Anziano West