February 18, 2014

So, I forgot to tell you guys last week but transfers was this week! And guess what?! Collega and I are together again for another six weeks in Brescia! He was kinda upset because he wanted to leave since he's been here since October but who knows what'll happen this next transfer?

This past transfer went by so fast!! On each of my planners I write the number of the transfer I'm in on the top and then my transfer scripture, which is pretty much my rallying cry for that transfer, on the cover and I'm about to start number 5! I just see this number getting bigger and bigger and it's such a weird feeling!! I sit there and think, "flip! Where has the time gone?" Because when you hit

your number 8 that's the year mark!! And then 16 is when you're done!! Finito! All I can think is, "I'm not young anymore...I'm becoming an old missionary!" My nightmare is that I'll have to train soon. I don't want to but collega keeps on telling me that I will. I'm trying to think different thoughts so that I can have another cool collega and not train. We'll see though. Vediamo.

This past week we taught 23 lessons! :) Then the sisters in our district taught 20, and then another group of sisters taught 33! Our zone

leaders were freaking out and saying, "This has never happened before in our zone! This is crazy!" Collega and I were just glad that we were examples to our zone. :)

Thanks Fam for all that you do!! Here is some more pics if you want! I don't know if thery're still blurry! One of them is collega and me. Another is, or could be, an album cover, but it's mostly of our district. We didn't plan it. Love, Anziano West

February 12, 2014

We're back down to four bap dates but that's okay. We found Briseda and had another lesson with her. We told her that she needed to pray and ask God if this is the right thing for her to do. She's pretty much been taught everything...sometimes twice, and she says that she knows that this is true...so, I really don't know what's up with her but we'll work with her. And, ya, we got...20 LESSONS!!!! I think that we were the highest-teaching companionship in our zone for that week!! Because we had zone training this past Monday and our zone leaders asked us to share a success story. So, of course, we shared our 20 lesson miracle!! It was funny because before the meeting one of our zone leaders went, "wow, you guys are setting things on fire over there in Brescia!" That's right we are. So for this week we also have another goal to reach 20 lessons! And then next week is transfers so I don't what our goal should be because we have no idea what's happening but that's cool.

Obviously, having the faith and asking for our Heavenly Father's help also goes a long way too!! Another cool thing that has helped us reach our goal is prayer lessons. Now this is a pretty cool thing that President Dibb said we could do, because I really believe that this thing is engineered to get new investigators. Which it does for us. So, when you're out doing finding work and stuff and you stop someone you can testify of a principle, share a scripture (it's recommended), testify, and then an invitation. And a prayer counts it as a lesson!! Our invitation is usually, "Can we meet with you on this day so that we can talk about these things and give you this book?" Or something like that. And they usually say yes because they feel good from the prayer!! How cool is that?!!!

So, I thought my Italian was coming along...last night, and this is pretty funny, but I just can't believe that this happened to me...collega was laughing so hard. So, we got some gelato and then we were heading home for the night when this one ragazzo, with his group of friends, stopped us and started asking us why we were here and why we wear shirts and ties and così. And then he asked us which kinds of girls were easier to kiss; Americans or Italians. Well, I thought he was asking about the language not the girls. So I said it depends on the day and that it's difficult here in Italia sometimes. And then the group of ragazzi were like, "oh, no! It's not difficult!" and then I went "ya, it is!". And collega didn't say anything during that whole time, and he understands better than I do...he later told me what happened, between gulps of laughter, and that he was trying SO HARD to not to laugh when I said that!! Haha!! Well, anyway, that's my embarrassing story of the week!

Man, they're taking a while to choose a new bishop. Sure, let me know soon!! And those Mozzarella cheese balls are amazing, aren't they?!! I'm telling you, your life changes when you have one of those! I'll try and get some pesto! That stuff is amazing with pasta!! And sandwiches! On anything!
I miss all of you too!! And Febbraio is already half-way over practically...time goes by really fast out here! You can tell Danielle that I have a little smurf toy that she can have when I get back...if she wants it. It makes nice decoration on my desk! Ha!

Love,
Anziano West

February 5, 2014

Missionary work is really big here. I guess it's really big all over the world!! In church, it's coming down like a hammer! Hey, and guess what is cool?! In March, it's super possible that they might split the ward in Brescia!! How cool is that?! So, then, there would be one ward and then one branch...I thought it was cool :)

I completely forgot it's the winter olympics already! That's crazy!! Ya, back in 2006 or something, it was held in Italy. In Torino. (I'll coach you guys on how to say the cities in Italian...because the english doesn't do it justice!!) On a seperate note, I always find it strange that the Italians just love english. Especially the ragazzi. They LOVE American teenage/pop culture. It's weird because their language sounds so much better than our language.

We still haven't met with Briseda! She keeps on cancelling our meetings with us! We have another one set up for tomorrow morning, I think, but we'll see. But also, I just learned some new things about faith!! Because last week, my collega and I had a blast doing missionary work. And also this week too!! So, we had all of these potential calls we were doing and then tons of people to meet with but some of them didn't work out, but we kept trying to meet with people and stuff. Anyway, during our weekly planning, we wanted to shoot for the standard of excellence that our mission has, which is 15+ lessons. So we set our goal to 17 and that's the highest that I've ever done so I was kinda excited but also thinking, "I hope we can do this much". But the coolest thing happend throughout the week!! We started keeping track of how many lessons we've had everyday and both of us were constantly thinking about it. Always!! When someone didn't show up to a lesson, we usually go, "Okay, what are we supposed to do now? Collega, what's our back-up plan... great, it's strada. Love it." But during this past week we started saying, "Okay, where can we go find another lesson? Collega, make sure you smile SO BIG that your eyes just disappear!!" (a little inside joke that we have :) And then we found lessons and we almost reached our goal!! We got 16 instead of 17 but we felt so good!! Anyway, my point is that we started to LOOK for opportunites to teach rather than just going through the motions! And so many cool things just happen! When you do everything that you can and you feel like nothing else can happen- That's when miracles start to happen!! We also started handing out bap dates like candy! We got 5 bap dates now too! Yesterday, I asked this old guy out on the street while we were passing by this bar (bars are different in Italia rather than America...so, no worries) if he had faith in Jesus Christ and he said yes. Then I asked him if he would like to be baptized in the church of Jesus Christ. He said that he kinda believed and he didn't believe (which makes no sense) but he didn't say no! :) It's fun inviting people to baptism out on the street!! It's makes you feel really good inside!! I'm pretty sure that old guy will probably accept his baptism in the spirit world because I invited him to do it! Next time, I'll probably make the question a yes or no question and see what people say! :) (Old people are hard to talk to because they think they're the wisest people on the planet and that they're too old to change...so, I was happy to invite an old guy to baptism!) So, this week, we're shooting for 20 lessons and we already have 8 as of yesterday! :) I think we can do it!!

Our budhist friend is doing awesome!! In fact, he's one of our bap dates now :) It's kind of difficult to communicate with him because he doesn't speak Italian very well and he gets confused when he use the formal form of "you" so we had to think and dumb down our Italian which was fine. It made me realize how far I've come in my Italian. I still don't know a lot and I can barely speak but I just felt good when I thought of how much I spoke when I first came to Italia. He's reading the Book of Mormon in Hindi and he says that he's really loving it, so we'll see how it goes!

That's so cool that mom's physical therapist went to Italia for his mission!! Mom said he served in the south so that means he probably learned almost a different language. They speak differently down there! That's for sure! Maybe I can talk to him when I get back! That would be fun!

Tell Jacob hi for me! And good luck! He's going to have a lot of fun! He's serving in Virgina, right? When does Austin get his call?

And mom, I teach people from all different kinds of religions all the time. You name the religion and it's probably here!

I also got a recipe for pesto from an investigator!!! We're going to make some when I get back!!

Love you guys!!

Anziano West

January 29, 2014

I'm glad that you liked my pics!! (I didn't know that they were so blurry but thanks for the tip! I'll do that now!) In fatti, Brescia is one of the oldest cities in Italy. Apparently older than Roma. Not sure if that's true but it's OLD!! There are TONS of churches here!! In our white handy-dandy missionary handbook it says to not proselyte near other religion places but then my trainer once told me that there were some missionaries that taught a lesson on the steps of a Duomo! You don't hear that any day!! (No worries! I try to obey the rules!)

You can buy gnocchi here at a normal grocery store. It's just super heavy!! And have I told you guys how much I love the Mozzarella cheese balls?! They're so good!! I had three of them before I came to write you guys an e-mail! Not exactly the best idea but it was lunch time. Also, hint: When you make pasta next time for dinner- pour in olive oil into the water when you're waiting for it to boil. I'm not exactly sure what it does but all of the Italians do it. And they throw olive oil on everything. Also throw in some salt in there too. I think Dad already does that. That's all the hints I'm going to give you while I'm on my mission. When I come back I will teach you the ways of cooking pasta! I've even been practicing saiting or whatever you spell it. You know when you thow on oil and then onions and stuff. I've been doing it to tomatoes and it's really good!! I put it in with the pasta and it tastes super good!!

Ya, I love doing the missionary work here! I like it a lot better than Vicenza. I don't like the city as much but I do like being in the world of Italy. :) A lot of the missionaries wish they can go and serve in Vicenza because of little America but then I think, "I really don't miss America. I just miss my family and that's it. But I sure do like having to communicate in Italian!!" Sometimes I have to talk in English but not as much anymore! Meno Male. I like to go through the Area book too but it's a little tough to use the time because President told me that he wants the missionari to work with members. That's where the greatest success is to reach convert baptims. So, he told me to put that as first priority and then when it came down to doing strada or casa (street contacting or tracting) you can do that when you have nothing else to do. But it's a big push over here for the members to get more involved, because they know people!! And those people can get baptized!! It's great but it's a slow process. We haven't seen Briesda for three weeks so were going to have to push her bap date back a bit, because she hasn't been coming to church. But we'll see. We've got tons of new investigators but a lot of them we're not sure about. But we got a buddhist investigator! :) He's from India too!

Sorry about the cold down there. Whenever the people found out where we are from they go, "oh, it's freezing down there!" And then they tell us in degrees celsius and I'm not exactly sure how cold it is but I'm guessing it's pretty cold! Tell Lindsay good job on the piano! Tell her to keep it up!

I liked your play of words, dad!! :) You can run but you can't hide! God knows where you are! Ha!

I love all of you! Thank you for all the prayers!
Anziano West

January 22, 2014

Hey, Dad!! Ya,I've gotten pretty used to my area now...pretty much. Flip! My collega and I get lost all the time and he's been in Brescia for three months!! It's pretty fun though! We'll be walking around trying to find a house or something and then I'll go, "where are we?" and then he'll go, "I don't know." "You've been here for three months!! How do you not know where you are?!" And then we have to pull out the map and find out what street we're on. We get pretty good navigating by maps! :)

This past week has been a little tough for me. One, apparently in Brescia, it's illegal to do publicity of any kind while you're on some transportation device of the city...which means we can't really proselyte when we take the buses and stuff. Lame. I was trying to work on my contacting skills!! And we can't ask "interrogating questions" or something like that. I was upset. Missionaries have been here forever doing that stuff and we can't do it anymore! Our district leader told President and then President said, "well, go find out what the law says and then get back to me." Okay. We'll find out today what it says but who knows? We'll see what happens!

So, Marco is doing pretty well. He's a nice guy! He makes gnocchi for a job (that stuff is super heavy!! Once you eat some...Buona Notte!! You're a goner! And the worst thing is, you don't feel it until after 10 minutes or something when you eat it! You can have a little bit and then think, "oh, that wasn't too bad. I'll take some more". Ya, you better take a nap after) and he's just really happy! Also, he decided to hang out with the youth and went bowling with them for their activity! How cool is that! The youth here are really cool too!! They love to try and speak the little english that they know and it's usually, "Hey! Sup', dude!" and that's about it. There are two returned missionaries that served in Roma and they're super cool also!! Also a lot of fun! Anyway, I only taught Marco once and he has a concern about whether or not you can have a family after this life...so, we get to teach him about temples and eternal marriages next time! Good thing too because he's 32!

So these past few weeks I've been here, we've been trying to clean up the records and the such here. Since missionaries have been here for a long time, there are tons and tons of people that have been taught at least once but then dropped for some reason a few years ago. Well, if they had interest before then they probably still have some interest somehow. So, we've been making tons of calls and we've set up a lot of appointments but some fell through. But we still have a lot of calls to make still because under our contacts list there are people that have been found on the street but never taught!! In fact, there was one lady that I called and she said she didn't remember who what the missionaries were. But then I asked her if she remembered the "Mormoni" and then she said that she remembered and that it was two years ago that the missionaries got her number! And she's never been taught! We got a lot of potentials to cover! :)

So, the work is progressing forward here in Brescia! We have one Bap date and her name is Briseda! She's from Peru. Hopefully, we have another baptism soon! Also, just pray that our teaching pool EXPLODES from all of these potentials that we have from, who knows how long, but I'm excited!!

Love ya!
Anziano West

January 15, 2014 -- Another Baptism

Hey fam!!!

The new area...it's not as pretty as Vicenza. It's not pretty really. But it's a new area!! The city is dirty and kind-of...sketch. Ya, dad, it's the right place. Also, this city is crazy wierd. But it's a lot bigger than Vicenza and a lot of people don't know english! We take the buses and the metro for our transportation! No bikes because I guess they broke down a long time ago...they're just sitting outside on our balcony. I don't know what to do with them. Absolutely, no American food! I'm in the Italian world for good now! So, it's coming around pretty well. My collega is Anziano Heaton from St. George and he's one of those guys who loves to go hunting for elk. He's a fun guy. He doesn't really take the senior comp. thing really seriously, which is fine because my last collega did and what he said kinda went, but my collega now is laid back but he works. He's been here for two transfers. So it's all good!!

The work here is different. One, the companionship here has been here for a long, long time. I found some records back in 2001-2003. I don't even know if those people still live here! In fact, I've found some teaching records with Stew's name on them :) I guess he served here too. Ask him how weird the city is because it's super crazy/weird!! There's a ward here and the members are really nice! I like them. We stay with another companionship and one of them is Italian! He's trying to learn English, and we've done some exchanges since I've been here, and he's a pretty cool guy!! He helps me with my Italian and then I help him with his english! It's fun because he doesn't know the American idioms and the slang, and I don't know the Italian ones, but it's fun to learn together! Two, since we're on buses and stuff, we have to do more contacting. I'm not used to that. I'm always used to jumping on the bike and cruising to whatever we needed to go. So, it's been a new learning experience for me. I feel like Vicenza was kinda of a second home to me and that I knew the people. I didn't really have a problem stopping people randomly, after a while, because I felt like they were part of my home. And the ward members were cool too. It's just weird moving to a new city because you don't know anything about it!! And Brescia is wierd...the investigators are super weird. We have one invest. who just dabbles in deep doctrine. That's it. She reads doctrine and covenants and loves Joesph Smith but she doesn't have a testimony of modern prophets today. And the lesson that I had last night was appalling. Before I got here she wanted to know how to become an angel or something like that and then the missionary that was last here, said that angels don't progress. Bad mistake. YOU DON'T MENTION/TALK DEEP DOCTRINE. YOU ONLY TALK ABOUT WHAT'S IN PMG. I was upset when my collega told me this, because one, we're not supposed to talk about this stuff, and two, the last missionary loved talking about deep doctrine with this investigator!! So, she wanted to know where in the scriptures it said that angels don't progress so we had to go find it in D&C and then show it to her. My collega marked the verses and told her to read ONLY the marked verses but then she goes, "aspetta. Leggo questi", and I went in my head, "oh flip. We're done for." and she read about becoming gods and stuff...it was bad. We didn't know what to do. Tonight we're going to call President and see what he says because she's nuts.

I'm working on being bold and it's a work in process! I think it'll always be a work in progress...

Oh, ya, we got a baptism this past Sunday. I never even met the guy until the baptism! It's weird to see the reaping because I wasn't there for the planting and growing process. My collega was there the whole time though. His name is Marco Ucchedu and he's from Sicilia!! He's a great guy! Never really talked to him though. I'll let you know how he is when we start teaching him the new convert lessons.

Love ya,
Anziano West

January 8th, 2014 -- Move Day!

Thank you for everything!! It was great talking with you guys too! I loved it!

No, mom, I didn't get the baking soda paste thing. For one, I haven't really been thinking about it and two...I GOT TRANSFERRED!!! I'm leaving America Jr! Finally!! See ya, little America!! I'm leaving tonight and I'm going to Brescia! It's not far but it's somewhere. I really wanted to go to another region. Somewhere to Genova or Firenze (I really want to serve there. Really, really bad!) Or maybe even Milano. I would also like to go to Como. But I'm going to Brescia!! So excited to go! It's on the other side of Verona which isn't far. But whatever. My collega is training again. He'll be a good trainer. He likes to run the companionship in a trainer way, I guess you could say. All I know about my new collega is that he's been out over a year. I'm not even sure what he's name is. I'll find out tonight though! And my apron is awesome!  And I'm keeping it! It says "Italia Milano di missione" or something like that. But it's cool!


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Ya, the Italian is slow but it's coming. My collega says that I sould like Elder Caulhoon when I talk. It's hard to sound like italian. And to speak grammaticaly correct. I'm always thinking about how the words and stuff match up or not. My thought process always go like this: "Okay, he said this...so...imperfect tense...that means it would be 'pensavo' and then 'che'...which means it would go to imperfect subjunctive because it's hypothetical...oh flip. How do you say that word again? Man, how come this always happen to me?!" But, ya, I really hope I become bilingual. I'm becoming fluent but I'm not there yet. I know I'll become fluent but I really want to be bilingual. Maybe I'll get an Italian collega because I noticed that most missionaries that speak Italian really well had an Italian collega. So, maybe I'll have that chance. Hopefully.

Tell Aubrey congrats!! I've been thinking about what I'm going to do when I get home-health wise. I'm so glad I'm leaving Vicenza. The food habits here kill me. Not only that but pasta is the main food group for missionaries. And I can't tell you how happy and glad I was to see that chocolate and that licorice you sent me! I felt so good eating that stuff!! I just kept on thinking, "oh, I miss this so much! So much! I miss mom's cooking! What am I going to do?" All that I'm saying is, I may become a health freak, but I really want to have your cooking! I've also been thinking, "should I go to the gym or something when I get back? Because I'm not sure if I'm getting fat or something but my body is in so many different proportions..." All I know is that after these next two years I really need to do something!! Another thing you have to sacrifice as a missionary is your health standards. Not fun.

Love ya, mom!! I also sent you another e-mail regarding some things! Make sure you look at it!

Hey Dad!!

Thanks for praying for Peter! I know what you mean when you feel like he's part of the family. I told him that I was leaving Vicenza and he told me that he would miss me! What a good guy!!

Funny you should bring up about the hen gathering in the chicks. This past transfer I've learned a lot. Especially about using our time wisely. And most effectively. This past transfer my collega wanted to do a lot of things but then I asked him, "does this do anything for our missionary work?" And then he'll think for a moment and go, "no, not really. You're right, let's do this instead." Everything that I learned from my trainer helped out a lot but it was kinda hard because I couldn't really apply it with my new collega, because he does things differently! But we both learned together about what to do that matters and what not to do or to do later. Doing stuff like this allows us to have that revelation that we need to further the work here in Vicenza, because we're really doing what the Lord wants us to do! I really liked your analogy, dad!!  

I'm still learning how to follow the spirit. More so, having the courage to follow it. I asked President how to have confidence and he told me to pray and then be bold. No one will get hurt from you boldness. So, I'm working on that. Remember, the righteous are as bold as a lion!!

Alright, I miss you guys! Have fun!

Anziano West

December 31, 2013

Happy New Year!! Auguri!

So...thanks for talking to me over skype!! Super fun! Dad, did you enjoy the old cheese? Better let me know how it tasted...I gotta learn my names for the cheese :)

This past week and the past transfer have been abnormal. I suppose. We haven't done any finding work except of three hours total because the rest of the time we're in meetings (kinda boring because I don't do anything) and visiting members...and more meetings...teach a lesson or two...visit some more members...the sorelle need to correlate with us on which members are already visitied or who need to visit (supposed to take 30 minutes. Went for almost 2 hours. Again, I didn't do anything)...visited another member...I don't feel like a missionary. Everyone tells me what we're doing is missionary work. Okay. Anyway, I just wanted to say I felt bored this transfer. A few things have happend though! We passed by this one member and her husband isn't a member but we wanted to stop by and give her a little christmas gift. Tell her she's awesome and to keep on hangin' in there. Anyway, one of her old and best friends was outside when we stopped by and he started telling us, when he found out we were missionaries, that he was catholic and that everyone that believes in God will be saved, etc. But then he found out we were American (not that hard to guess) and he said that there was an American family and an American man that lived right around the corner and he wanted to show us. We just went "okay, cool." and followed him behind. He showed us where the American family lived, which is a young family too, just had a child, so we're planning to stop by (hopefully) and introduce ourselves and share our message! And the American man just happened to be...our atheist friend!! It was super funny! I was thinking, "wow. Heavenly Father sure does want this man to know the truth! Because even though he didn't want to talk to us anymore and wanted to reafirm himself in his atheist religion...we know where he lives!!!!" Good news is, after talking to him for a little bit, (he seemed contentious and suprised when he saw us because he was outside), he's kinda leaning on the more agnostic side. So now we just call him our agnostic friend. It's progress, right?

On a brighter note, I'm speaking Italian!! We went and did an hour finding work down in centro by the basillica and I started talking to this old man and, lo and behold, Italian kinda came out of my mouth. It wasn't perfect but it came out more smoothly that usual. And then he spoke and I understood him!! And the best part of it is (my mouth wanted to drop when I felt this) I could respond to him! Which I did in a sense because I had comprenhension of Italian! I also started using my PMG in Italian for studies and I can understand a lot of it too! I also started reading the BOM in Italian now for when I read the scriptures! It's a little bit tougher because the Italian is older and more formal than what people speak (PMG has super formal italian words which no one uses but I guess I can become the literate italian man) but it's working out. The Italian is coming!! Today, we went and did our shopping and I haded the cashier 20 euro and I was waiting to get some change when she said in Italian, "hey, do you have an euro?" I said, "yes" but in my head I was going, "uh...ya, I have an euro." And I was doing some awesome dance moves in my head kinda like what Chris Brown would do on a stage that's back lit with lights and on a lonely street and singing some awesome harmonies that concided with the poppy melody. Or R&B beat. But I was going, "Man, I do have the gift of tongues! It's real!" I just want everyone to know that the gift of tongues is real and that God answers the desires of our heart! It's awesome! I speak Italian! There's room for improvement but it's coming! Who would've thought that I could speak italian in an Italian town of english speaking italians? I'm telling you it's the gift of tongues!! I have a testimony of it!

Alright, I'm sending in some pics. There's one with Peter, collega, and me at the baptism. I forgot to send some of those a few weeks ago. Peter is doing awesome by the way. He's having it a little tough because he doesn't have a job but he's happy! There's another pic of me with my christmas sweater and our tree with the coniglio on top :) And me in the kitchen with my christmas apron given by our amazing President Dibb and his wife.

Until next time!

Anziano West

December 18th, 2013

Whad up, Family?!!!!

I'm glad you got my pics. I might be sending more. Anyway, there's my proof! I'm alive!

So, President Dibb talked about going to Midnight Mass (tell mom thanks for the letter that she sent and, no, I didn't get her package) and he said he won't send us home or anything but he really doesn't see any need for us to go, unless we have that burning desire, but he said you could just go anywhere else in the world and it would be the same thing. So, I don't know. I don't think so. 

Peter got baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I got to confirm him as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!!!!!!!!!! And it was amazing! I can't explain what I've felt. It was amazing! 

Tell Aubrey "Happy Birthday!" and that I'm sorry for missing her birthday. I was going to tell her that last week but then I forgot. My bad.

Well, shucks. Humility is always a good thing though. Hopefully, BYU does play better. 

Tell Mom that I'm super glad she got to go sing. I feel like my musical abilities are slowly decaying. I'm going to hit the music hard when I get back. I don't like the feeling of not being able to play.

For Skype. Okay, it's going to be 4 PM here. And I'll call you before so that you know it's me or whatever. I only have 30-40 minutes to talk so let's keep it hopping! Thanks for you're log-in. The other Anziani told me to to tell you that I'll call you so that's why I typed it. Just plan at 4 PM. 

For next week, I may be e-mailing either on Tuesday or Thursday. Probably Tuesday so send in those e-mails on Monday Night. The Italians just do parties all week it seems. They have another holiday the day after Christmas so we won't be able to use the Internet Cafè.

Tell the family that I love them so much!! Danielle, I miss you too!!

Love,

Anziano West

Some Pictures From Italy... Finally!

Ethan and his new Companion, Elder Pagano.

Ethan and his trainer, Elder Collins.  Not sure what the cool lips are for.....

Scenery from Vicenza, Italy.

One big Christmas tree in Vicenza, Italy.

A cool building in Vicenza, Italy

December 11th

Hey, dad!!

Ya, it's a little different with a new collega but it's all good. Part of the growing process. We're having fun though! It's Christmas time!!! I never thought that I would enjoy listening to Christmas music but I actually enjoy it. It's weird.

The atonement is just one of the things that I think about a lot. As a missionary, you have tons of time to think when you're out walking or moving from appointment to appointment. I get the idea of the doctor. It's kind of the same for everything. It's like me and what I want to do (which is a lot) but I need to learn tons of stuff for music, practice like none-other, and then throughout career, gain experience and try to begin to become a great music producer! I would like to be the best, but you have to work with other people to reach new heights and rely on God. He's the one that knows all the melodies anyway. I like that analogy though. It makes sense. Sad news though!! I feel like it's getting harder and harder to play the piano! I've been trying to read the hymns and I struggle to do it. I don't know why!! I'm not liking it.

Ya, I would build my own funeral casket if it got that cold.

Good news about BYU! If it means that they'll be good in three years- sweet! I'll be there to read about it or see it or whatever.

Peter is doing amazing!! He's getting ready to be baptized this Saturday! The next day, I get to do the confirmation. Never done that before so...we'll see how that goes.

We skype for Christmas. You better give me your skype name. I'll let you know about the time. I'm assuming it'll be towards the evening over here but I'll let you know.

Tell mom I love her too!! And the family!

Love,

Anziano West

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!! 

November 27th

Hey fam!!!

Some great news!! And some crazy news! I get a new collega tomorrow morning. He's name is Anziano Pugano or something like that. He's been out for about 8 or 9 months. Some good news is that we actually have one of our African Brudahs being baptized on Dec. 14! Fully committed and ready to go! We also have an Italian family to teach (for the first time...ever) on Friday morning. With my new collega. So, we'll see how that goes.

The past week has been crazy. We did a scambio with the Anziani here and the Sorelle were having a baptism. We usually do our baptisms in Padova but since there was a youth conference, the baptism was moved up to Mestre, which is near Venezia. Anyway, I was with Anziano Jaramillo and we were on our way to the train station when we saw one of our investigators, Fortune. He wasn't doing anything so Anziano Jaramillo invited him to the baptism. I was surprised that he did that but Fortune agreed and he came with us. Apparently, Anziano Jaramillo was also surprised that Fortune came with us also. So, we end up in Mestre, and one thing that I've learned while being here is that you don't receive directions from the Sorelle. Because they give you terrible directions! We were trying to find the church but then we got lost! In a city that wasn't even in our zone. We walked forever to find the church but it was super funny afterward. We were laughing about it because we made an odd sight. A missionary walking angrily out front trying to keep his temper cool while trying to get sane directions talking on the phone, then a few feet behind him another missionary (me) trying to keep up with him, and then about 10 feet behind, an African with a green umbrella just taking his time walking. Ha! The best thing about it is that we got lost in a whole other city! Super fun!

So, our investigator, Peter, is ready to be baptized. Literally. We taught him the Word of Wisdom and told him all the things he should avoid and then he repeated them back to us. I never saw that before. He also said he didn't like coffee and that he knew smoking was bad. We might need to go over what illegal drugs are because he didn't understand us but he's so happy that he found the church of Christ! I wanted to transfer out of Vicenza because little America is killing me but I'm glad to stay to see Peter. We also have other African Brudahs getting ready too. Soon. The work is coming together.

BYU lost? No! I wanted them to be ranked. And if you got bored watching the game with Notre Dame...must've been boring.

I sent an e-mail to Nick. Giving him the congrats and letting him know that he's loved. I also asked him how things were going so, hopefully, he answers back.

Keeping mom in my prayers. Also, I bought a side bag (it was kinda expensive but it's a cool side bag...It'll probably last me for the next two years. Speriamo.) I also bought a memory card! Sending some pics soon! It's not much but it's been busy over here.

I have to get off but I'll write you guys next week!

Love,

Anziano West

November 20th

Hey, Pops!

Thanks for your e-mail. It really helps. I just don't know what to do. I get so anxious and stressed out about trying to be obedient, trying to be prepared, and trying to stay focused on what I'm doing. Everyday, I hear collega freak out about how many days he has left (he's leaving next week) and I'm trying to scramble to get myself together because I get a new companion soon. I'm not sure how to enjoy the mission. I feel like so much is expected of me and I have to live up to that expectation. 

Anyway, I set two baptismal dates this past week with some of our African brudahs! Meaning I extended the invitations. And a miracle happened this past sunday. We literally dropped all of our investigators last week because they were not progressing. But we were still faithful in trying to contact people (strada) and doing some casa (tracting). However, we only taught three lessons total that whole week. On sunday, we gained two progressing investigators, one with a baptismal date for Dec 14. The numbers didn't add up. We also gained another investigator from the investigator with the bap. date, whom I extended the invitation to be baptized, for the 14th also. And all of this just fell into our lap. It happened during church too. The sorelle had these connections, and since it's the mission rule for sorelle to not teach single men and us anziani to not teach single women, the sorelle gave us their work. All of our investigators are Africans but hopefully their baptismal dates go through. 

I had a fun experience yesterday. We did exchanges with our zone leaders and so, I was with Anziano Garner, who's been out for about a year. Anyway we were trying to stop people out on the street and I wanted to try an idea that some other anziani were talking about. I stopped a guy and asked him, "Lei ha fede in Gesù Cristo?" (Do you have faith in Jesus Christ?) He answered, "sì, sì" (Yes). I then asked, "Perchè?" (Why?). He looked surprised that I would asked that question. "No lo so" (I don't know). I said to him, "Lei vorrebbe battazzarsi in la chiesa di Gesù Cristo?" (Literal trans: would you like to baptize yourself in the church of Jesus Christ?). He said that he was already baptized but I felt really good inviting someone to baptism to the true living church.

That's awesome that Nick received the priesthood! How did that happen anyway? Did it just pop out of the blue or what? How's the family doing down there too? I wouldn't mind shooting him an e-mail.

I hope mom is doing well. I'll pray for her. Tell her that I love her. I also got my card (finally) and I need to buy a memory card before I can send some pics. 

I'm excited for BYU!! You don't have to send the articles. I just want the updates. 

Thanks for everything!! Also, tell mom I got her letters that she sent. I enjoyed them immensly. 

Your son,

Anziano West

November 13th

Sup, sup!!

Well, I'm bumbling away. Yup, I got the camera but I have to buy a memory card. Can't do that until I get my card which should be comin' next week. I think the office is getting a little hedgy because of your e-mails, since they're super busy with trying to get apartments and stuff, so just lay off the pressure. Don't worry, I got it taken care of. The assistants had it the whole time. I made a new friend in the office though. I don't know how to spell his name but he lived in the same apartment with collega while he was down in Firenze. It's funny because the missionaries here are either American, Italian, or Austrialian. And the office elder is Australian so it was fun talking to him.

We've lost of a lot of investigators because of committment but we are trying to get a baptism with one of our African brudahs. He just has to come to church. Also, we've been trying to find new people but everyone always says they're Catholic. And then, in my mind, I get angry  and think, "I don't care if you're catholic, all I want to know if you've seen the Book of Mormon..." So, it's been fusturating for me to do finding work. I almost blew up in front of this old guy. Collega had to calm me down. Sounds embarrasing but it's true. He said he wasn't interested and I went "Perchè?! Comè mai?!" and he just walked on. Learning some new lessons, I guess.

Ya, I like being with the Italian branch even if I can't understand or speak. I can understand better than speaking. I just want to speak gramatically correct and my mind swirls to find the correct genders, adjectives, pronounciation, etc. Doesn't work all the way. Thanksgiving day is on transfer day so... a few things could happen. Collega will be gone and I'll be getting a new collega. Or I could get transferred and our copia gets "whitewashed" in Vicenza. Whatever works I guess. If I stay, then I'll be with an American family, probably. I kinda want to get away from little America though.

I'm excited to hear about everything that has been happening!! Singing on PBS! It's a start, mom! Tell DD I love her too and tell Aubrey to keep reading! I still learn new things from the scriptures still. And collega teaches me also from the scriptures. I just feel so young. I feel like in a way I've changed but I'm not sure in what ways. Anyway, until next week!

Peace out!

Anziano West

A couple of baptismal commitments. Very exciting!!

Whad up, Mama?

So...the week went by pretty fast. We're already almost half-way done with this transfer. Get out of the city!! I can't stand this anymore! Collega is leaving in 4 weeks and I'll be on my own...pops is leaving me. And then I'll be done with training! Time doesn't exist out here! I don't know what to do! It feels like yesterday that you guys dropped me off at the MTC.

I got your letters that you sent on Sep. 24. We had Zone Training last week and I also got the pin number. No card or camera. But next week we'll be having P-Day on Thursday because we have a Zone Conference when one of the Seventy is coming to talk to us. Hopefully, I get my stuff then. Thanks for all that you do!

Okay, coolest thing ever! We committed two of our African brudahs to baptism! Their names are Paul and John and one of them is from Nigeria and the other from Ghuana. I don't remember which one was which. But John is most likley to go through than Paul's because John is more committed. But we were just trying to accomplish our transfer vision because we didn't committ anyone last transfer, but you never know...we like to joke that we hit our quota for the transfer and we don't have to do anymore work. Just kidding! We're working! Collega taught me that work is the cure for having a good companionship and being happy because the other anziani that we're staying with haven't really been doing much and they're having some troubles. But we all learn from each other.

Love you, mama!!

Your lil' pup,

Anziano West

Epiphanies from a missionary

Hey, Pops!!

I feel way older. This transfer is already almost done. I don't know what to do with my life. It's been fun and crazy though!! I'm starting to love it!!

I hope our investigator pool continues to grow. We've come a long way from opening up but teaching is a lot more fun! Collega told me once about how he taught 30 lessons in a week while he was a Zone leader in Firenze. Crazy. 

Zone training was fun! There's a lot of us being trained so, yup, got to see a few guys. 

Sweet!! BYU takin' down Boise St! Keep the updates coming!! I'm excited to see how Basketball goes! 

Also, thanks for that article you sent about Hadley and his suspension. I don't know why but when I read about the inmates cheering, "BYU, BYU!" in the prison, it got me. Even though they lost to Utah, they were playing a better game. Doing something better for other people. I quickly realized the things of this world, like football, music, etc. aren't really that important. That's when I went, "Whoa!" because I never felt like that before. What matters is the people. Their well-being. Their souls. The gospel. I always said that it was important but I never saw it in other people's lives until now as a missionary because I'm doing it everyday! I definetly feel a lot happier doing this work!

Love ya, pops!

Anziano West

The missionary work is starting to pick up some steam.....

Hiya, mom!!!!

 

Thanks for the camera! I haven't gotten it yet. I might tomorrow because we have a Zone Training meeting. I know I should be getting my card. Thank you!! I can buy a shoulder bag here. No worries. I might also buy a jump-drive because that's how music is stowed around here with the missionaries.

 

Say congrats to Austin for me! The big 19! I would hang out with him if I was there. Tell him to study up on PMG (Preach My Gospel) before he heads out to the MTC. It'll help out a lot. Collega has been teaching me how to teach. The more you can learn before you leave on the mish is beneficale.  

 

So, we've begun a new transfer. I was surprised how fast the last transfer went. It just flew by. Weird. I'm half-way done with training. Collega is getting ready to register for classes at BYU. I think he's doing that right now. In five weeks he leaves and he's gone. Just gone. I'm supposed to take care of myself after that. And I hope I get a good companion. He told me that he's going to stay focused and work toward the end. I'm cool with that. He's also been making sure that I'll be a self-reliant missionary. In the missionary lingo, I'm his "son" and he's my "father" because he trained me. Apparently, I also have two "nephews" and an older "Brother". Never met them but they're somewhere in the mission. I'm part of a big posterity :)

 

We've been teaching like crazy!! A lot more than when we opened up the area. All of our investigators are Africans!! We've been meetin' with our brudahs! We also had a serious crazy experience happen to us yesterday. Some random African came up to us and wanted to meet with us. He said he wanted to meet our people. He kept on saying Halleujah and "Praise the Lord!". We think he might've been drunk because he kept on repeating things and not mentally there. We left him with a Book of Mormon and Collega told him that we'll meet with him when he's sober but we won't teach him if he's drunk. He agreed and kept on saying he wanted to quit drinking wine and smoking and that he wants to be with our people. He smokes a pipe! Anyway, we're not sure if it was a miracle that we met him or this is just a crazy thing, but the interesting thing is that we both felt really calm, even though my blood was pumping, and collega said that he had experiences where the Spirit really pushed him and his companion to get out of the situation, but that was rarely and apparently this wasn't one of those experiences. So that's my crazy experience of the week!

 

Riding bikes here is out of this world! Italy is a biking country, everyone rides bikes, but I almost died last Friday. We were trying to find some former investigators. So we were riding our bikes out in the road, because that's what you do, and Italy uses round-abouts to move traffic quickly. Anyway, we were going through and I accidently hit a side-view mirror on a car. I didn't know what to do! I was trying to follow collega and not die in traffic! I hope the people in the car don't hate me. You would think it would be more simple to ride a bike...

 

Tell Dad good job for navigating the Italian Amazon. Google translator isn't really the best tool. Our Ward Missionary Leader in the American branch uses it to text us in Italian and collega cracks up everytime he reads a text because it doesn't make sense. But I'm proud of dad for doing it!

 

Thanks for the Scriptures! Collega and I actually took some Old Testament study guides that the American branch didn't want anymore. Super interesting to study!

 

Until next time!

 

Peace out!!

 

Anziano West

Now that all of that is over....on to missionary work! :-)

Whad up, Momma?

Ya, my watch is still wearable. Still ticking! I'll need a new camera. The train we were on headed up to Venezia (Venice) and since Italy is weird and other government issues, we would have to go up to the station in Venezia to see if they have my camera. They didn't even have a number to call. President didn't want us to go to Venezia since it's out of our zone (Collega is trying to find ways to get there) and he said there wasn't any real chance that it would even be there...so I need a new camera. 

We gained to new investigators this past week!! Abrahim, whom I've already mentioned, and John!! Both of them are sincere in learning the gospel so it's going to be sweet!! Abrahim has been reading the Book of Mormon and he said that he knew it came from God. He hasn't prayed yet though. I invited him to baptism in my terrible American accent Italian (everyone in the apartment makes fun of me. They said I sound like Bugs Bunny or something. Punks.) Anyway, he avoided the question and started talking about prophets. Collega said he avoided the question. All I recognized from the Italian was Mosè and Noè (Moses and Noah). But we're working with him. We've only met with John once. 

Yup, I make most of the calls now. To set up appointments anyway. Collega said that there were a lot of missionaries who don't know how to make calls after they're done training. So, he's been putting me in the grinder. Chastising me about things I do and stuff. He's adamant about me being an experienced missionary once he leaves. I'm still suriving. Even learning a lot. So, we'll see what happens. 

I'm still waiting for my card to come through. I stil have another pair of slacks for my suit, remember? And what about Christmas? What's happening there? And guess what happened to me yesterday? I put on my jeans because we were going to do some service and it felt tight around my thighs...I guess from the walking and biking. It's all we do everyday.

Tell Grandpa and Dad thank you for their e-mails! Peace out!

Until next time!

Anziano West!

The explanation of the storm before the calm

Thanks, mom! 

Yesterday was tough but I got through it. My back tire also went flat too. I read that talk that dad sent me and there were a few things that really helped me a lot. When the pioneers were leaving to go to Utah, they didn't know what they were doing, they were just doing it because they were asked to do it. I figured as long as I'm trying to teach I'll be okay. Also, the quote from Elder Holland about not living in the past but having faith in the future caused me to think a lot.... I'm just going to put that behind me, as well as yesterday, and keep on looking forward. 

Verona is super pretty!! Much bigger than Vicenza. Vicenza is so small! I never really realized it. I would show you pics but...yup. You can tell the girls that I saw the balcony where Juliet came out to see Romeo hittin' on her. I was at the place where it all went it down! Yup, I was there. The place is also in that movie, "Letters to Juliet". Aubs and Linds will know. I also had this amazing gelato and they put cioccolato in the cone with the gelato on top of it. So good!!

We got a new investigator this week!! It was actually a miracle! His name is Abrahim and ...he really likes Jesus and he was my first actual Italian phone call!! It was really cool because when I called him he was sitting at his table and then he got this feeling to get up and move to the next room. When he did he saw my call!! Really cool, right?! Not only that he wanted to read the Book of Mormon because we told him to read it and then ask of God if it's true. When he heard that he said that he really liked that. We weren't trying to sell it to him or anything but that he should ask of God and not just take our word for it. So he decided to read the Book of Mormon because we told him to ask God! Super cool!

On Conference weekend I flipped over my bike. I hit the brake too hard and I was committed.  The band on my watch broke and I was so sad!! It was such a good watch!! Still ticking! Collega was concerned for me but after finding out that I was alright, he just laughed all the way to the church (that's where we watched Conference) and he still finds it funny. I fixed my watch, so hopefully, it still keeps ticking. 

I have to play the piano again this Saturday for another baptism. And on Sunday I have to play for a musical number we missionaries are doing in the Italian branch. I've been learning some new hymns! Kinda have too. 

I called the office to see how I'm going to get my card (since I know people in high places:) ) and I should be getting it soon. Thanks for sending it over!! 

I am proud to say that my slacks have a small hole that goes with my gray slacks. Just wanted you to know! I'm doing missionary work!

Tell Dad thanks for his note! Well, for both of your notes! We're still going to try and find my camera but if I can't then maybe I can get a new one. I just had some pics I wanted to send!!

I gotta go! I love you!

Anziano West!