Nothing too special this week. Its been a difficult one with lots of set backs. One of our progressing investigator has dropped his baptismal date because he wants to wait until he has a job and can lose some weight. He was a little depressed about not having nice clothing to wear to church because he has gained weight. So we haven't taught him for the last week because he doesn't respond to our calls. We are just gonna give him some space.
We met a really cool African woman who is about 60 years old. One of the African members in our ward brought her to church a few weeks back and she saw Kingsley's baptism. It really got to her and now we have a baptismal date with her.
So yeah this week we have just had many cancellations. We set up multiple appointments with three Italian families and some how they all cancelled. We were able to set up appointments with all three for the next day...but the next day all three cancelled. It is pretty tough because we kinda have to pick and choose who we want to teach each day, so when we have a cancellation, the only thing we can do is more finding work(which isn't bad but its always better to be teaching.
I have definitely struggled a lot this week. Part of this is because we have spent a lot of time not teaching and looking for people to teach, but I have thought a lot about home and stuff. So yeah hopefully next week, things will be a little more cheerful.
It is good to hear from you all. I love you all so so much and I know you are always here to support me through everything. I am so blessed to have such an awesome family, all you at home and all my grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins. Again, you're awesome and I love you all.
Tuck
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
"So I Found Ya Dad"
CRAZY. Guess what happened this last Sunday? So, I'm just chillin' in our apartment during lunch about ready to start some language study. I look next to the chair I'm sitting in and there is this old wooden clip board. Of course I pick it up and I notice there are a bunch of names on it. I keep looking and there are just a bunch of sister missionaries names on it because our apartment used to be the sisters. Then I notice the dates start getting older...and WOAH....there it is....in green ink....ELDER NEFF....9/6/79.....to Milano.....I was like....NOOOO WAAAYY...haha super crazy. So I found ya Dad...crazy. I took some pictures of it and with me with the clipboard. Pretty sweet huh?..
I have yet to get an email from Connor, you should try tell him that I have emailed him and have him email me( that troutsniffer). The address of our apartment is Corso Grosseto 59 Torino 10154.
The transfer has been going awesome. Basically, I went to the train station with all the others who were leaving Torino and then me and Anziano Dean left the train station to our side of Torino. It would have taken like 20 minutes but we got on the train going the opposite direction. Anziano Dean has been here in Torino for only one transfer as well. We hit the ground running though. This last week their copia had found a ton of investigators. So between last Thursday and today, we have taught almost 20 lessons(which is a ton compared to last transfer). We had a baptism this last Sunday with a Nigerian named Kinglsey. His girfriend is a member and now he is, so it's pretty sweet. He will be confirmed next Sunday. We also have a baptism set for February 5 with a 30 year old Giuseppe. He had been pretty crazy and actually tried to kill himself. He got put into a special community place and is pretty normal now. I actually thought he seemed very normal when I first met him. I didn't know anything about him until after I had met him. He is super cool though, and is a very solid investigator.
Tucker, Kingsley, Elder Dean, Marco Botalla
I will probably be able to go to Obeng's baptism, which should be this week. The capi zona we were living with got all of our investigators after my copia was closed. They were also able to get a baptismal date with Biyaho, our Chinese investigator which I was surprised to hear.
I am already loving the new change this transfer has brought. We have been teaching like crazy and have already seen a few mini miracles. We were walking back to the apartment and this Nigerian was changing the name on the citofono(doorbell on the apartment building). We set up an appointment and have taught him again since. We found out that his brother is the father of one of the families we are already teaching. The Lord blesses us in so so many ways; it's incredible.
I'm a little jealous you will get to have Elder Scott at stake conference. It must be a little exciting to see who the next stake president will be. President Pingree was such a stud. I don't think I have met a more loving guy.
My new ward is pretty sweet. The mission leader is such a cool guy; he is like 26 years old and is pretty funny. Anziano Dean has been a big help in the work though. He has only been here like 4 months and he speaks very, very fluently. I think he got like a 34 on the ACT and spoke a lot of French before the mission so it wasn't too hard to switch, I guess. He also has a lot more drive than my past comp had. We do a very precise daily planning which really helps with the work and our effectiveness throughout each day. It is something I really like and hope I can develop and use the rest of the mission.
I am going to try and get my pictures on a CD today and send them home. Hope everything is going well. That's great that work's keeping ya busy, dad. Mom that is awesome that Relief Society is keeping ya busy(haha, it's for the best). Keep up the great attitudes.
Another highlight of the week was when we were teaching this Italian. He is kinda poor so he switched over from buying already made cigarettes to the ones where you need to put it together. So, we are totally teaching the lesson and right in the middle of the lesson he starts making one, right in the middle of 2 Nephi haha. It was pretty funny. I think there might be a little tobacco in the crease of the page. haha
"Big Gulps huh?....well cya later"
Love ya.........Ciao
I have yet to get an email from Connor, you should try tell him that I have emailed him and have him email me( that troutsniffer). The address of our apartment is Corso Grosseto 59 Torino 10154.
The transfer has been going awesome. Basically, I went to the train station with all the others who were leaving Torino and then me and Anziano Dean left the train station to our side of Torino. It would have taken like 20 minutes but we got on the train going the opposite direction. Anziano Dean has been here in Torino for only one transfer as well. We hit the ground running though. This last week their copia had found a ton of investigators. So between last Thursday and today, we have taught almost 20 lessons(which is a ton compared to last transfer). We had a baptism this last Sunday with a Nigerian named Kinglsey. His girfriend is a member and now he is, so it's pretty sweet. He will be confirmed next Sunday. We also have a baptism set for February 5 with a 30 year old Giuseppe. He had been pretty crazy and actually tried to kill himself. He got put into a special community place and is pretty normal now. I actually thought he seemed very normal when I first met him. I didn't know anything about him until after I had met him. He is super cool though, and is a very solid investigator.
Tucker, Kingsley, Elder Dean, Marco Botalla
I will probably be able to go to Obeng's baptism, which should be this week. The capi zona we were living with got all of our investigators after my copia was closed. They were also able to get a baptismal date with Biyaho, our Chinese investigator which I was surprised to hear.
I am already loving the new change this transfer has brought. We have been teaching like crazy and have already seen a few mini miracles. We were walking back to the apartment and this Nigerian was changing the name on the citofono(doorbell on the apartment building). We set up an appointment and have taught him again since. We found out that his brother is the father of one of the families we are already teaching. The Lord blesses us in so so many ways; it's incredible.
I'm a little jealous you will get to have Elder Scott at stake conference. It must be a little exciting to see who the next stake president will be. President Pingree was such a stud. I don't think I have met a more loving guy.
My new ward is pretty sweet. The mission leader is such a cool guy; he is like 26 years old and is pretty funny. Anziano Dean has been a big help in the work though. He has only been here like 4 months and he speaks very, very fluently. I think he got like a 34 on the ACT and spoke a lot of French before the mission so it wasn't too hard to switch, I guess. He also has a lot more drive than my past comp had. We do a very precise daily planning which really helps with the work and our effectiveness throughout each day. It is something I really like and hope I can develop and use the rest of the mission.
I am going to try and get my pictures on a CD today and send them home. Hope everything is going well. That's great that work's keeping ya busy, dad. Mom that is awesome that Relief Society is keeping ya busy(haha, it's for the best). Keep up the great attitudes.
Another highlight of the week was when we were teaching this Italian. He is kinda poor so he switched over from buying already made cigarettes to the ones where you need to put it together. So, we are totally teaching the lesson and right in the middle of the lesson he starts making one, right in the middle of 2 Nephi haha. It was pretty funny. I think there might be a little tobacco in the crease of the page. haha
"Big Gulps huh?....well cya later"
Love ya.........Ciao
"Dear God, I Am From China..."
January 12, 2011 email:
HELLO HELLO.....whats up everyone? It's has been a fun week. Well, first I gotta say. I got a personal email from President saying...it is allowed to write friends and family.
Mom i am just kicking butt and taking names..at least I'm trying to. My Italian is crap but guess what? That's OK. I know it, the Italians know it. haha. I will learn though, I'm just "gonna fight, fight, fight until I get across that goal line"-RUDY
So who is Hillary going on a date with? haha.
I have been doing very well. We got transfer call yesterday and it was pretty crazy. I'm being transferred!.......to Torino 1. haha. My companion is going to Milano 3 and I'm going to the north side of Torino. They are making the missions smaller and smaller. Our copia has been closed so its just Zone Leaders in our apartment now. My companion found out pretty early in the morning that he will be going to Milano. I wasn't sure if I would be staying in Torino 2 and someone else would be coming here or if I would be leaving. I got a call from Torino 1 during the afternoon and they said that I was going there. We were hearing all sorts of rumors, but this seemed pretty legit. Sure enough around 10pm last night, the assistants called and confirmed. I will be in Torino 1 with Anziano Dean. He has been out for 4 transfers, I think. He speaks pretty fluently already so I'm excited about that. I have already met him before and he seems pretty chill. From what I already know, he is from Cincinnati, took ballroom dancing haha, and likes Disney music? It should be fun, he is a pretty good missionary from what I have heard. I want to try and do an SYL (speak your language) for the whole transfer because it would definitely increase my Italian a lot.
This transfer we just did not speak any Italian. We had so many African and Chinese investigators that spoke English that I just never really had a chance to even practice. Everything is going sweet though. We have a baptism set for the 22nd of January with Obeng, our African investigator. He is super stoked, at least I am and I hope he keeps progressing. His father is getting a little more interested which is also good because he can help him understand English better.
We called Eduardo this week and he is back from vacation. He told us right as we called that he had gotten all his documents(visa,permesso etc.) stolen and he was just stressing out a lot. We were able to teach him though and I think we will be able to keep teaching him (well the other copia will be able to). He said he hadn't read a lot since we had last met with him which was a bummer, but I think it is because he was on vacation and what not. We are pretty sure he will get baptized though, we just know haha....
On that same note...our other investigator Biyao, also from China, is progressing a lot. We have already taught him like 4 lessons. He really loved the plan of salvation and that we can live again. At the end of the lesson he prayed and it was super awesome. I almost laughed at the beginning but it turned out to be so cool. He basically said...Dear God, I am from China.........................where I'm from, the government doesn't allow us to learn about you. He prayed that the missionaries could be able to enter and teach there. It was so sweet and the spirit was very strong. He even said he wants to basically serve a mission there and tell them all about what he knows. He is just starting school and its pretty hectic so we cant meet that often with him anymore but..........but but.....he says after the next semester he cant meet more often. haha. He is such a stud. He is gonna be baptized I just know it. I know it's not about the numbers but.....we get excited when we know certain people will be baptized....I mean...baptisms are the bees knees....they're sweet.
Monday was cool. Our apartment used our Culture Day. President Wolfgramme lets us take one day, every other transfer to go on Culture Day. Basically we can travel to another city, see an Opera, or go to famous places that are close to our area. We used it because Anziano Brannon is leaving this week and we thought it'd be sweet. We went to Genova which was so awesome. It is a lot more italianesque than Torino. We were able to get around relatively easily because Anziano Pilcher(Anziano Brannon's companion) served there. I will try sending some pictures.
Sorry, I haven't sent any pictures; I just keep forgetting. Ya gotta remember that I'm a missionary and we have lots of things going on. haha. I'm not sure how many pictures the email attachments hold, but I will try sending some. If I don't do it this week then I will try next week.
By the way...haha the CD you sent for Christmas, I already have. I got it from Jenn and Nick the day all the aunts and uncles gave me the mission presents. haha sorry. Thanks for everything though, I loved each gift...seriously. By the way....who are the WHEATS? I totally spaced on which family they are....try and help me remember?
Love you all....TUCK
HELLO HELLO.....whats up everyone? It's has been a fun week. Well, first I gotta say. I got a personal email from President saying...it is allowed to write friends and family.
Mom i am just kicking butt and taking names..at least I'm trying to. My Italian is crap but guess what? That's OK. I know it, the Italians know it. haha. I will learn though, I'm just "gonna fight, fight, fight until I get across that goal line"-RUDY
So who is Hillary going on a date with? haha.
I have been doing very well. We got transfer call yesterday and it was pretty crazy. I'm being transferred!.......to Torino 1. haha. My companion is going to Milano 3 and I'm going to the north side of Torino. They are making the missions smaller and smaller. Our copia has been closed so its just Zone Leaders in our apartment now. My companion found out pretty early in the morning that he will be going to Milano. I wasn't sure if I would be staying in Torino 2 and someone else would be coming here or if I would be leaving. I got a call from Torino 1 during the afternoon and they said that I was going there. We were hearing all sorts of rumors, but this seemed pretty legit. Sure enough around 10pm last night, the assistants called and confirmed. I will be in Torino 1 with Anziano Dean. He has been out for 4 transfers, I think. He speaks pretty fluently already so I'm excited about that. I have already met him before and he seems pretty chill. From what I already know, he is from Cincinnati, took ballroom dancing haha, and likes Disney music? It should be fun, he is a pretty good missionary from what I have heard. I want to try and do an SYL (speak your language) for the whole transfer because it would definitely increase my Italian a lot.
This transfer we just did not speak any Italian. We had so many African and Chinese investigators that spoke English that I just never really had a chance to even practice. Everything is going sweet though. We have a baptism set for the 22nd of January with Obeng, our African investigator. He is super stoked, at least I am and I hope he keeps progressing. His father is getting a little more interested which is also good because he can help him understand English better.
We called Eduardo this week and he is back from vacation. He told us right as we called that he had gotten all his documents(visa,permesso etc.) stolen and he was just stressing out a lot. We were able to teach him though and I think we will be able to keep teaching him (well the other copia will be able to). He said he hadn't read a lot since we had last met with him which was a bummer, but I think it is because he was on vacation and what not. We are pretty sure he will get baptized though, we just know haha....
On that same note...our other investigator Biyao, also from China, is progressing a lot. We have already taught him like 4 lessons. He really loved the plan of salvation and that we can live again. At the end of the lesson he prayed and it was super awesome. I almost laughed at the beginning but it turned out to be so cool. He basically said...Dear God, I am from China.........................where I'm from, the government doesn't allow us to learn about you. He prayed that the missionaries could be able to enter and teach there. It was so sweet and the spirit was very strong. He even said he wants to basically serve a mission there and tell them all about what he knows. He is just starting school and its pretty hectic so we cant meet that often with him anymore but..........but but.....he says after the next semester he cant meet more often. haha. He is such a stud. He is gonna be baptized I just know it. I know it's not about the numbers but.....we get excited when we know certain people will be baptized....I mean...baptisms are the bees knees....they're sweet.
Monday was cool. Our apartment used our Culture Day. President Wolfgramme lets us take one day, every other transfer to go on Culture Day. Basically we can travel to another city, see an Opera, or go to famous places that are close to our area. We used it because Anziano Brannon is leaving this week and we thought it'd be sweet. We went to Genova which was so awesome. It is a lot more italianesque than Torino. We were able to get around relatively easily because Anziano Pilcher(Anziano Brannon's companion) served there. I will try sending some pictures.
Sorry, I haven't sent any pictures; I just keep forgetting. Ya gotta remember that I'm a missionary and we have lots of things going on. haha. I'm not sure how many pictures the email attachments hold, but I will try sending some. If I don't do it this week then I will try next week.
By the way...haha the CD you sent for Christmas, I already have. I got it from Jenn and Nick the day all the aunts and uncles gave me the mission presents. haha sorry. Thanks for everything though, I loved each gift...seriously. By the way....who are the WHEATS? I totally spaced on which family they are....try and help me remember?
Love you all....TUCK
Thursday, January 13, 2011
The Torino 2 Titans
January 5, 2011 Email:
It seems like your lives are just busy these days. Dad, I gotta admit I was a little homesick when you wrote about ward ball starting up(not too bad though). I definitely miss the physical activaties of sports and what not...a lot. We have a basketball court near our house but it's cold outside and we aren't allowed to play competitively at all. I guess a bunch of missionaries got hurt from sports this summer so they changed the rule. We are allowed to shoot and that's about it. We are allowed to get our ping pong on though; there is a table across from our apartment in the old church that is now the young single adults center. Of course, we only do this on P-day.
I wasn't homesick at all when you talked about the fisherman's stew on New Years. While it is a fun event, the smell of fish and other fishy stuff is too strong. I always left the party smelling terrible, but I did enjoy the lobster.
That was pretty interesting about the Taggarts being in Italy. Knowing you Dad, I'm willing to bet that you sent him message on facebook saying something like, yeah I served my mission there. haha just kidding...but really you did, didn't you?. I wonder if their son, Connor is going to go on a mission. buh...
The work is going great with us, The Torino 2 Titans. Last week however it was looking kinda rough. We started off with a bunch of investigators but we've slowly had to drop a lot. A lot of them we have had to drop because they don't progress and cancel on us when we set up lessons. But....( I know I cant start a sentence with but)...we found a few this week. We found this really sweet Chinese guy named Biyao. We have already taught him 3 lessons and we've been able to create the basic belief in God and Jesus Christ. Most Asians we teach just know nothing about this. He has been sweet though and came to church last week. Yesterday we had a way sweet lesson that we just focused on Christ and we watched the movie, Finding Faith in Christ. He had some question but I really think he understood it(we watched it in Chinese, which obviously helps even though he can speak some English). He was a little freaked out at the beginning though. He asked us if we knew about Chinese government and their laws. We kinda already knew that they can't have religion in China but he proceeded to tell us that their government will kill people if they find out they are apart of certain religions. He said like in 1999 that some of his relatives were killed for being apart of a group that is a break off from Buddhism. Maybe you can research some specifics about religion in china and stuff and enligthen me???? He basically told us to not give any of his information to others. It was a bit awkward but you could see he really wanted to learn more from us. This discussion was before we watch the movie and talked about Christ. Sorry if that was confusing. Anyways..Biyao is a super sweet investigator and I really think our lessons with him have helped him to feel the spirit.
Obeng is probably our best progressing investigator. His baptism was set for the January 11 but he was sick last week and couldn't go to church. We will probably have to change it because he has to come to church 2 more times. He has been super awesome though and we meet with him twice a week. It has been a little rough because he can't read and doesn't always understand everything we said. We were able to teach his dad yesterday. Apparently, Obeng forgot about our lesson, but his dad was home. It will be really awesome if we can get his dad to read with Obeng because he can read and understand English a lot better.
I think one of the most surprising things about missionary work is how much we must use the spirit in our lessons. If the spirit isn't there in the lesson then it's almost pointless. The spirit is what is going to convert our investigators, not us as missionaries. I think the hardest thing is trying to communicate with people(for me anyways). I can kinda say what I want to say(in basic Italian) it's just sucky trying to understand people. I definitely rely a lot on my companion to help with that.
Well, this is my 5 week mark. Holy smokes as Andy would say. Our transfer is basically over. I think my companion is a little ready to leave the city, mainly because he has been here since the summer. There is a possibility that it could happen. I'm excited to see what will go down...I'm fine with whatever. I don't want to say my preference because I know that opposite will happen. Sorry if I didn't get to answer all the question.
Good luck with ward ball Dad. Mom keep tuckin' along(sorry to steal that phrase dad, but it is my name), and everyone else...I know its hard not having the favorite sibling around, but I'm needed here. haha
Ciao
It seems like your lives are just busy these days. Dad, I gotta admit I was a little homesick when you wrote about ward ball starting up(not too bad though). I definitely miss the physical activaties of sports and what not...a lot. We have a basketball court near our house but it's cold outside and we aren't allowed to play competitively at all. I guess a bunch of missionaries got hurt from sports this summer so they changed the rule. We are allowed to shoot and that's about it. We are allowed to get our ping pong on though; there is a table across from our apartment in the old church that is now the young single adults center. Of course, we only do this on P-day.
I wasn't homesick at all when you talked about the fisherman's stew on New Years. While it is a fun event, the smell of fish and other fishy stuff is too strong. I always left the party smelling terrible, but I did enjoy the lobster.
That was pretty interesting about the Taggarts being in Italy. Knowing you Dad, I'm willing to bet that you sent him message on facebook saying something like, yeah I served my mission there. haha just kidding...but really you did, didn't you?. I wonder if their son, Connor is going to go on a mission. buh...
The work is going great with us, The Torino 2 Titans. Last week however it was looking kinda rough. We started off with a bunch of investigators but we've slowly had to drop a lot. A lot of them we have had to drop because they don't progress and cancel on us when we set up lessons. But....( I know I cant start a sentence with but)...we found a few this week. We found this really sweet Chinese guy named Biyao. We have already taught him 3 lessons and we've been able to create the basic belief in God and Jesus Christ. Most Asians we teach just know nothing about this. He has been sweet though and came to church last week. Yesterday we had a way sweet lesson that we just focused on Christ and we watched the movie, Finding Faith in Christ. He had some question but I really think he understood it(we watched it in Chinese, which obviously helps even though he can speak some English). He was a little freaked out at the beginning though. He asked us if we knew about Chinese government and their laws. We kinda already knew that they can't have religion in China but he proceeded to tell us that their government will kill people if they find out they are apart of certain religions. He said like in 1999 that some of his relatives were killed for being apart of a group that is a break off from Buddhism. Maybe you can research some specifics about religion in china and stuff and enligthen me???? He basically told us to not give any of his information to others. It was a bit awkward but you could see he really wanted to learn more from us. This discussion was before we watch the movie and talked about Christ. Sorry if that was confusing. Anyways..Biyao is a super sweet investigator and I really think our lessons with him have helped him to feel the spirit.
Obeng is probably our best progressing investigator. His baptism was set for the January 11 but he was sick last week and couldn't go to church. We will probably have to change it because he has to come to church 2 more times. He has been super awesome though and we meet with him twice a week. It has been a little rough because he can't read and doesn't always understand everything we said. We were able to teach his dad yesterday. Apparently, Obeng forgot about our lesson, but his dad was home. It will be really awesome if we can get his dad to read with Obeng because he can read and understand English a lot better.
I think one of the most surprising things about missionary work is how much we must use the spirit in our lessons. If the spirit isn't there in the lesson then it's almost pointless. The spirit is what is going to convert our investigators, not us as missionaries. I think the hardest thing is trying to communicate with people(for me anyways). I can kinda say what I want to say(in basic Italian) it's just sucky trying to understand people. I definitely rely a lot on my companion to help with that.
Well, this is my 5 week mark. Holy smokes as Andy would say. Our transfer is basically over. I think my companion is a little ready to leave the city, mainly because he has been here since the summer. There is a possibility that it could happen. I'm excited to see what will go down...I'm fine with whatever. I don't want to say my preference because I know that opposite will happen. Sorry if I didn't get to answer all the question.
Good luck with ward ball Dad. Mom keep tuckin' along(sorry to steal that phrase dad, but it is my name), and everyone else...I know its hard not having the favorite sibling around, but I'm needed here. haha
Ciao
That's Sweet That Andy Got Sick on Christmas, Too
December 29, 2010 Email:
What up fam? How is everything since we last talked?. Its good to hear the Brent is doing well. That's sweet that Andy got sick on Christmas, too. At least I wasn't the only one. I think our apartment is slowly getting better. We all have literally just felt like crap the last week. I am better though which is good. We had some sweet finding work the other day. We found this apartment full of Chinese students and were are returning to teach them more this week. Hopefully, we can prepare a sweet lesson and get them hooked on the gospel of Jesus Christ...it's addicting. We (or I) are getting excited for New Years because we are staying inside all day and cleaning the apartment. We aren't allowed outside on this day because it can be dangerous. Plus our apartment looks like a mess and needs the cleaning. I will show everyone what's up.
We also had two really awesome lessons with our progressing investigator Obeng. He is about 22 and is from Ghana. I talked a little bit about him on the phone the other day. Its funny because every time we go and teach him he says he hasn't read because he has given his book of Mormon to a friend. We have given him like 3 already. This time we told him to keep it and read it. The problem was that he can't really read English very well. He lives with his dad so we are trying to get his dad to read with him, but he isn't a member either. This kid really wants to be baptized though, it's awesome. Whenever we teach he just embraces what we have to offer/teach and wants to teach it to others. It would be really sweet ...well the Internet place is closing early...sorry. I gotta go....haha love y'all.
What up fam? How is everything since we last talked?. Its good to hear the Brent is doing well. That's sweet that Andy got sick on Christmas, too. At least I wasn't the only one. I think our apartment is slowly getting better. We all have literally just felt like crap the last week. I am better though which is good. We had some sweet finding work the other day. We found this apartment full of Chinese students and were are returning to teach them more this week. Hopefully, we can prepare a sweet lesson and get them hooked on the gospel of Jesus Christ...it's addicting. We (or I) are getting excited for New Years because we are staying inside all day and cleaning the apartment. We aren't allowed outside on this day because it can be dangerous. Plus our apartment looks like a mess and needs the cleaning. I will show everyone what's up.
We also had two really awesome lessons with our progressing investigator Obeng. He is about 22 and is from Ghana. I talked a little bit about him on the phone the other day. Its funny because every time we go and teach him he says he hasn't read because he has given his book of Mormon to a friend. We have given him like 3 already. This time we told him to keep it and read it. The problem was that he can't really read English very well. He lives with his dad so we are trying to get his dad to read with him, but he isn't a member either. This kid really wants to be baptized though, it's awesome. Whenever we teach he just embraces what we have to offer/teach and wants to teach it to others. It would be really sweet ...well the Internet place is closing early...sorry. I gotta go....haha love y'all.
My Companion Is Sick, and It Sucks to Not Do Missionary Work
December 22, 2010 Email
Alrighty... well thanks for the emails and sports articles. This week has gone by super super fast but hasn't been all that exciting. Last Friday was pretty fun. We met this guy on the street a couple of weeks ago who taught at a high school. He asked us to come and teach his class about our church. So we went and taught this class, but there were only like seven girls in the class. I guess all the boys are on strike, literally. The other companionship came as well. I kinda stayed out of the discussion, partially because they wouldn't understand anything I say and also when they had questions I couldn't understand what the question was. I did get to introduce myself and talk for a bit, but for the most part I let the others take the lead. That night there was a young single adult party so we called some of the younger investigators to come. My companion thought to call Eduardo, the Chinese guy who was taking a break from lessons, and he said he would come. He brought one of his roommates, Simone, who also came to church the other week with him. I talked with them for a while and it was a sweet party. We will probably teach them again once they get back from their vacation.
Saturday we did a little bit of giro (street contacting) and casa (tracting), but couldn't really find anybody. We also had the ward Christmas party later that night which was way fun. They gave us a box of treats, some socks, and other stuff. They also made us take home all the left over food which was sweet.
Church was awesome this week. We had three investigators show up: Obeng, an African we met the night before; Oli, a Romanian guy that we can't understand; and, Cosimo. We were able to teach Obeng during church and committed him to baptism for January 15th. He had a very strong desire to follow Christ, and do whatever is necessary to be baptized. He also asked us for money so he could teach his other African friends. Of course, we couldn't give him any money.
The last two days I've pretty much just chilled int he apartment. My companion has been pretty sick. I've gotten to read a lot from the BOM, PMG, and Jesus the Christ. I'm in the Isaiah chapters of the scriptures so its been a little slow, but I actually understand it reasonably well. That's what I think any way, I probably know nothing. I have actually really enjoyed all the study time and because we don't get a whole lot of time with always doing casa and teaching invesigators. With that being said, it also sucks not being able to go around looking for people to teach and doing actual missionary work.
I was able to leave for a bit with one of the other missionaries in our apartment to teach Obeng yesterday. I'm pretty sure he understands a lot of what we are teaching and is learning a lot. It was an awesome lesson and we were able to bear testimony through the whole thing. From reading Jesus the Christ yesterday, I've already learned so much and given me a great love of Christ. None of us can truly comprehend what He did for us. It's pretty sweet, huh?
Luckily, Anziano Poulson felt good enough to get out of the apartment to come do email, shopping, and what not. Sounds a little fishy. That's sweet that Ash has finished up the Nutcracker. I bet it's a relief to have it over.
Well, thanks for the emails. Talk to you on Sunday! I hope you're excited.. probably more than me because it doesn't seem like I've been gone that long. I'm coming up on three months though... crazy.
Alrighty... well thanks for the emails and sports articles. This week has gone by super super fast but hasn't been all that exciting. Last Friday was pretty fun. We met this guy on the street a couple of weeks ago who taught at a high school. He asked us to come and teach his class about our church. So we went and taught this class, but there were only like seven girls in the class. I guess all the boys are on strike, literally. The other companionship came as well. I kinda stayed out of the discussion, partially because they wouldn't understand anything I say and also when they had questions I couldn't understand what the question was. I did get to introduce myself and talk for a bit, but for the most part I let the others take the lead. That night there was a young single adult party so we called some of the younger investigators to come. My companion thought to call Eduardo, the Chinese guy who was taking a break from lessons, and he said he would come. He brought one of his roommates, Simone, who also came to church the other week with him. I talked with them for a while and it was a sweet party. We will probably teach them again once they get back from their vacation.
Saturday we did a little bit of giro (street contacting) and casa (tracting), but couldn't really find anybody. We also had the ward Christmas party later that night which was way fun. They gave us a box of treats, some socks, and other stuff. They also made us take home all the left over food which was sweet.
Church was awesome this week. We had three investigators show up: Obeng, an African we met the night before; Oli, a Romanian guy that we can't understand; and, Cosimo. We were able to teach Obeng during church and committed him to baptism for January 15th. He had a very strong desire to follow Christ, and do whatever is necessary to be baptized. He also asked us for money so he could teach his other African friends. Of course, we couldn't give him any money.
The last two days I've pretty much just chilled int he apartment. My companion has been pretty sick. I've gotten to read a lot from the BOM, PMG, and Jesus the Christ. I'm in the Isaiah chapters of the scriptures so its been a little slow, but I actually understand it reasonably well. That's what I think any way, I probably know nothing. I have actually really enjoyed all the study time and because we don't get a whole lot of time with always doing casa and teaching invesigators. With that being said, it also sucks not being able to go around looking for people to teach and doing actual missionary work.
I was able to leave for a bit with one of the other missionaries in our apartment to teach Obeng yesterday. I'm pretty sure he understands a lot of what we are teaching and is learning a lot. It was an awesome lesson and we were able to bear testimony through the whole thing. From reading Jesus the Christ yesterday, I've already learned so much and given me a great love of Christ. None of us can truly comprehend what He did for us. It's pretty sweet, huh?
Luckily, Anziano Poulson felt good enough to get out of the apartment to come do email, shopping, and what not. Sounds a little fishy. That's sweet that Ash has finished up the Nutcracker. I bet it's a relief to have it over.
Well, thanks for the emails. Talk to you on Sunday! I hope you're excited.. probably more than me because it doesn't seem like I've been gone that long. I'm coming up on three months though... crazy.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
He Promised to Keep Reading Every Day
Email from December 16, 2010
What's up? This week was alright. Definitely has gone by pretty fast, its crazy it's my second week already! So, to answer some of the questions...
We have a washing machine that works well enough and we just dry our clothes in the apartment. The apartment is starting to get a little more clean now. We actually will be doing a yearly cleaning on January 1 which will shine it up a bit, too... hopefully.
There are two wards in Torino. We have about 100 active members each week which is pretty sweet (sorry my hands are freezing right now and I can't type, so this prolly won't be as long as last week). I cook about once a week. We each cook one meal for everyone for the week, and then we are on our own for 3 of the days. I usually just make sandwiches or something, nothing too special. We haven't had to ride bikes at all really except for Sundays on the way to church. We had one day this week when the bus drivers went on strike so we had to ride all day which sucked. My seat is tiny and by the end of he day I was so thankful for the buses.
So this week was okay, like I said. We didn't have a lot of success, but it's alright. Last Friday we got our awesome Chinese investigator Eduardo to commit to baptism. He loved church last week and we had set it up so we had a regular teaching schedule (3 times per week). We gave him 3 Nephi 11 to read the day after church and when we met with him two days later he had finished 3 Nephi. He said he loved it and that it answered a lot of his questions about sacrament meeting that he had from the previous Sunday meeting. We taught him about having faith in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ as well as baptism, repentance, and enduring to the end. He committed to being baptized on January 8, and we were so stoked. You could really tell that he was excited as well. The next day we called him to confirm our next teaching appointment and he said that he had talked to his mom (who lives in China), and she wants him to take it a little slower. Eduardo and his three roomies are going on vacation from school for like three week, and he told us that we can't meet for a while and he can't be baptized yet. He really want to be baptized, but feels it's best to listen to his mom and take it slow. He told us he promised to keep reading every day (we hadn't even said anything about it, this is what he told us). He also told us that we are his best friends which was sweet. He is the type of person who is sososososo nice and would never be mean to someone else. I'm pretty positive that we will continue teaching him when he gets back though. We were definitely so sad and depressed when he told us though.
We met this sweet African family. Collins, Jennifer, and their little girl Paris who we will teach tomorrow. I love teaching Africans because they are so humble and always love our message. It's just hard sometimes because they work on Sundays and just disappear for days at a time...buh...
We went to a park to do inviti the other day and found the sweetest castle ever. We are planning to go and visit it in the next couple of P-Days. They had some shops with the sickest swords ever, but we didn't go in and look. We might go today, but I'm not sure.
Zone conference was was fun yesterday, and I got to see a couple of Anziani from the MTC. The president and the APs had some really sweet lessons/discussions. They were all based on the Book of Mormon, and I really got some sweet insight (that I won't share because I'm running out of time to write)... sorry, but basically I need to testify of it a lot more than I'm currently doing and give out as many as possible.
Well, I love you all and hop you're doing great. Christmas should be really fun. We aren't quite sure what we are doing yet though. I'm sending a package of gifts today (I didn't put a whole lot of thought into it... haha..sorry)... I'm terrible with gifts.
Ciao...love you all...
Tuck
What's up? This week was alright. Definitely has gone by pretty fast, its crazy it's my second week already! So, to answer some of the questions...
We have a washing machine that works well enough and we just dry our clothes in the apartment. The apartment is starting to get a little more clean now. We actually will be doing a yearly cleaning on January 1 which will shine it up a bit, too... hopefully.
There are two wards in Torino. We have about 100 active members each week which is pretty sweet (sorry my hands are freezing right now and I can't type, so this prolly won't be as long as last week). I cook about once a week. We each cook one meal for everyone for the week, and then we are on our own for 3 of the days. I usually just make sandwiches or something, nothing too special. We haven't had to ride bikes at all really except for Sundays on the way to church. We had one day this week when the bus drivers went on strike so we had to ride all day which sucked. My seat is tiny and by the end of he day I was so thankful for the buses.
So this week was okay, like I said. We didn't have a lot of success, but it's alright. Last Friday we got our awesome Chinese investigator Eduardo to commit to baptism. He loved church last week and we had set it up so we had a regular teaching schedule (3 times per week). We gave him 3 Nephi 11 to read the day after church and when we met with him two days later he had finished 3 Nephi. He said he loved it and that it answered a lot of his questions about sacrament meeting that he had from the previous Sunday meeting. We taught him about having faith in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ as well as baptism, repentance, and enduring to the end. He committed to being baptized on January 8, and we were so stoked. You could really tell that he was excited as well. The next day we called him to confirm our next teaching appointment and he said that he had talked to his mom (who lives in China), and she wants him to take it a little slower. Eduardo and his three roomies are going on vacation from school for like three week, and he told us that we can't meet for a while and he can't be baptized yet. He really want to be baptized, but feels it's best to listen to his mom and take it slow. He told us he promised to keep reading every day (we hadn't even said anything about it, this is what he told us). He also told us that we are his best friends which was sweet. He is the type of person who is sososososo nice and would never be mean to someone else. I'm pretty positive that we will continue teaching him when he gets back though. We were definitely so sad and depressed when he told us though.
We met this sweet African family. Collins, Jennifer, and their little girl Paris who we will teach tomorrow. I love teaching Africans because they are so humble and always love our message. It's just hard sometimes because they work on Sundays and just disappear for days at a time...buh...
We went to a park to do inviti the other day and found the sweetest castle ever. We are planning to go and visit it in the next couple of P-Days. They had some shops with the sickest swords ever, but we didn't go in and look. We might go today, but I'm not sure.
Zone conference was was fun yesterday, and I got to see a couple of Anziani from the MTC. The president and the APs had some really sweet lessons/discussions. They were all based on the Book of Mormon, and I really got some sweet insight (that I won't share because I'm running out of time to write)... sorry, but basically I need to testify of it a lot more than I'm currently doing and give out as many as possible.
Well, I love you all and hop you're doing great. Christmas should be really fun. We aren't quite sure what we are doing yet though. I'm sending a package of gifts today (I didn't put a whole lot of thought into it... haha..sorry)... I'm terrible with gifts.
Ciao...love you all...
Tuck
Friday, January 7, 2011
Joy to the World ... I'm Serving in Torino!
Email from December 9, 2010
EASY..........I ain't going anywhere.......So yesterday is the usual P Day...but December 8 is an Italian holiday and most internet cafès are closed so we moved P DAY to today....as Clark Griswald puts it.....drum roll...drum roll....bbdbdbdbdbdbdbdbdbdbddbbdbdbdbdbdbdbdbdbdb Joy to the World.......TORINO!........so yeah. I'm serving in Torino, actually called the Torino 2 but we all know that 2 is better than 1. They did write a song about it so it must be true. Torino 2 is the southern part of Torino and is the nicer area, which is both good and bad. It's less scary lookin' but also has less humble people. It's already been a week since I got here and already so many awesome, kick butt things have happened.
They introduced us newbies last week at one of the milano churches to our trainers. My companion and trainer is Anziano Poulson. He's been here for about 19 month and has like 3 transfers left. He's a pretty chill guy, he's from Smithfield, Utah and we're just kicking butt and taking names so far. Well mostly him, I'd like to say I talk a lot but that'd be a lie.
Sister Wolfgramm, Elder Poulson, Tucker, President Wolfgramm
Yeah the Italian is killing me. I would guess I understand 10%...maybe....U'm probably being a little generous. The only thing I'm bummed about so far is that I don't speak a lot with my companion in Italian. We share an apartment with our Zone Leaders, who are actually somewhat laid back...not in a bad way, just not really really strict. They are Anziano Brannen and Anziano Pilcher. Anziano Brannen's trainer was Chase Naylor. Anziano Pilcher just became a ZL so it was his first day in Torino as well last week. Both are pretty cool and funny. Anz. Brannen is from Alabama and has the best southern accent, its so awesome.
We have quite a few investigators. First off I need to explain that Torino has a little under a million people(I think). It's a close guess though. It's all just apartment buildings because everyone lives in apartment buildings,and like they are never ending. Our apartment has the southern half and 4 other missionaries have the other half. So yeah, we were doing casa(walking up to the top of the apartment building and knocking on every door). We switch off every other door; I can pretty much give our whole spill but once they start speaking back in Italian my companion has to intervene. It's pretty pathetic but oh well....it'll come. I've also realized I speak English Italian. I'm saying Italian words but it's in the format you would speak English(if that makes sense). Like in Italian you don't say, "Can I Ask A You a Question", you say "Can I Make You a Question"....stuff like that, that just goes right over my head....BUHHHH. So, anyway back to the story. We were doing casa while waiting for our next lesson appointment and we knock on the door of this Chinese guy. He told us he was just leaving but to come back at 8. So we kept knocking doors and at 8 we went back. He answered the door(he's like 21) and we went inside. He had 3 other Chinese roommates. They are all students at the Politechnico...an Italian college. There are quite a few foreigners who attend it. So yeah, the Chinese people are Eduardo, Simmone, Thomaso, and Andrea. We taught them a little bit of the Restoration and asked if we could come back the next day, so Saturday. By the way, they all have Italian names because it's just easier to say. So on Saturday we taught the the Restoration and gave them Chinese Books of Mormon. It was awesome. Eduardo said the closing prayer and afterward he said he really felt different. He said he'd never felt that way before and that it was an awesome feeling. He asked if our church had an activities we did and we said yeah...church on Sunday. We invited them all to come and 3 of the 4 came on Sunday. Eduardo just loved it..oh yeah...they all speak pretty good English and a little of Italian. They didn't understand everything in church but they liked it. I didn't understand a whole lot either in church. Eduardo is so money......haha. We are gonna challenge him next time we meet and probably his friends too. None of them have a religious background so it's in a way easy to teach because they don't have objections but they also don't know a lot about Jesus and everything else.
Church was sweet. It was Fast Sunday which wasn't too hard to do, and I bore my testimony which wasn't too hard..haha just kidding. I hope they understood it...I got a lot of grazies afterward....(fist pump)...The meetings were fun though. I got the gist of it kinda...I sat a lot with the Chinese investigators and tried to answer their questions.
We teach a lot of Africans, especially because they are very humble and will let us come and teach them. We have 4 really awesome African investigators. Bernard, Evans, Joice, and Sunday. Bernard and Evans are brothers and are so so so awesome. Bernard is 15 and says he knows everything we've taught him is true and wants to be baptized. He's coming to church this Sunday and we just set a baptismal date for Jan 8. His brother Evans,(20 yrs) was just baptized in some other church so he's kinda confused why he needs to be baptized again but he loves our church and everything we've taught...he is just so close. Joice has a baptismal date for January, too, and we've taught him the Restoration, Plan of Salvation and other lessons. He's a student as well at the Politecnico and is about 27 yrs old. He's super super nice and just so humble as well. Sunday is a little different. Sunday is kinda lazy and doesn't have a job. He lives in an apartment with a couple others and kinda mooches off the girl that lives in the apartment with him and another dude. He has been to church and wants to be baptized. I guess he was really close but then he like disappeared to some other city for a couple weeks. Anyways, we had the funniest lesson with him the other day. We got there and he was just chillin' in bed watching some music videos. We asked him to turn it off so we could teach and he said yeah no problem. Hahaha so he turns it off and puts on Rambo.....We were like, Sunday ahah can you turn off Rambo? And he's like OK...I will off it. By the way...most of these Africans speak English, except Joice....and we have to change the way we speak...its hard to explain...we only speak in sentences of like 3 or 4 words). My African English is pretty sweet ahaha. So yeah, we taught Sunday and at the very end he says..."Do you want to stay, you can watch Rambo with me". We laughed and said no thanks. He's a cool guy though.
I'm super excited for Christmas. We get to stay out until 12 for midnight mass and we can also watch a movie with a family. I will most likely get to call home on Christmas. By the way, President Wolfgramme and his wife are awesome. We had so much fun the night we flew in and had dinner with them. She made such a good lasagna. As you know I had been feeling sick that day but I still ate so much when he had dinner......I about died later that night when we got to the apartments.
We taught the Chinese again about the life of Christ and they loved it. It was only Eduardo and Tomaso. They other two were out shopping. We watched the movie Finding Faith in Christ. Eduardo didn't blink throughout the whole movie. He's been progressing so much and we've only known him for 6 days. Its so so so awesome. I'm positive he knows its all true, he's just a bit confused about some stuff but he knows he needs to pray and read to figure it all out. The last couple days some of our other investigators have cancelled but we've had mini miracles happen because of this. Last night an investigator cancelled so while we were talking to people on the street, some random lady was riding her bike and I said "Buona Sera" as she rode by...5 seconds later she come back and asks if we are Mormon missionaries..we say yes..of course.....and she starts telling us some story about how she was adopted and has always wanted to find her real parents(she's like 50 years old). She asks us for the directions to our church and we then give her some pass along cards with information about Family Genealogy. Alsomsome guy rides up to us a bike and tells us that he teaches a religion class and wants us to come and give a presentation. So were are going to teach a class of 30 Italian teenagers about our church...hm....mini miracle. Also, last night we were waiting for an investigator to show up...he kept saying I'm on my way...he first told us he'd be here in 5 minutes....that 5 minutes took 2 hours. haha. We were kinda mad....but anyway... we met this huge African that told us he was baptized in our church like forever ago. We invited him to church this Sunday....I'm not sure if he'll come but there is a pretty good chance. It was crazy. We had like 3 lessons cancelled yesterday but if they hadn't been cancelled none of those other things would've happened. It's so awesome how Heavenly Father just has this all planned out and how he blesses us.
Also....the food has been killing me. I've eaten so much chocolate since Ive been here. I've practically eaten an entire jar of Nutella(its a chocolate-vanilla)..its so so good though. We had pizza a couple nights ago, that was pretty good, nothing too special. I've only had one gelato which is hard to believe. I definitely need to be better though. We've gone running a few times and do a little other stuff in the mornings though. Its not too bad going without dinner though because we usually eat a big lunch and eat a little around 9:30.
That's pretty sweet with the sports though.. so whats the JAZZ's overall record? That's sweet about Utah and Boise State....one of the elders in our apartment got the bowl schedule so I got to see all the bowl match ups.....kinda surprising that Viginia Tech climbed back up and is in a BCS bowl, where did Connecticut come from?. This keyboard sucks; I cant find the quotations, and everything is rearranged.. stupid Italian keyboard.....haha sorry......nice try on Albert Pujols and the Yankees...Dad....this is me you're talking to...I dont fall for that kind of stuff. I figure the Utes will get destroyed though...it woulda been a good game if Jordan Wynn was playing though, at least i think so...Cain is too much of a wuss.
We do like 15-20 inviti per day...(inviti is just talking to people on the street). I usually do like 5 per day and my comp does a lot more. I'm still getting over the confidence thing but I've gotten a lot better. Just so you know, Torino isn't just all foreigners. We just happen to have all foreign investigators...about 2-3 are Italian though.
I will try and get you the address next time...sorry I don't have it at the moment...I forgot to bring all my other addresses so I could email other people...whoopsy daisy.
I played winter ball down in Venezuela, hey got kids half his age, everyone of them speaking Spanish.....They speak Spanish in Venezuela!....I know, that's my point.....-Little Big League
EASY..........I ain't going anywhere.......So yesterday is the usual P Day...but December 8 is an Italian holiday and most internet cafès are closed so we moved P DAY to today....as Clark Griswald puts it.....drum roll...drum roll....bbdbdbdbdbdbdbdbdbdbddbbdbdbdbdbdbdbdbdbdb Joy to the World.......TORINO!........so yeah. I'm serving in Torino, actually called the Torino 2 but we all know that 2 is better than 1. They did write a song about it so it must be true. Torino 2 is the southern part of Torino and is the nicer area, which is both good and bad. It's less scary lookin' but also has less humble people. It's already been a week since I got here and already so many awesome, kick butt things have happened.
They introduced us newbies last week at one of the milano churches to our trainers. My companion and trainer is Anziano Poulson. He's been here for about 19 month and has like 3 transfers left. He's a pretty chill guy, he's from Smithfield, Utah and we're just kicking butt and taking names so far. Well mostly him, I'd like to say I talk a lot but that'd be a lie.
Sister Wolfgramm, Elder Poulson, Tucker, President Wolfgramm
Yeah the Italian is killing me. I would guess I understand 10%...maybe....U'm probably being a little generous. The only thing I'm bummed about so far is that I don't speak a lot with my companion in Italian. We share an apartment with our Zone Leaders, who are actually somewhat laid back...not in a bad way, just not really really strict. They are Anziano Brannen and Anziano Pilcher. Anziano Brannen's trainer was Chase Naylor. Anziano Pilcher just became a ZL so it was his first day in Torino as well last week. Both are pretty cool and funny. Anz. Brannen is from Alabama and has the best southern accent, its so awesome.
We have quite a few investigators. First off I need to explain that Torino has a little under a million people(I think). It's a close guess though. It's all just apartment buildings because everyone lives in apartment buildings,and like they are never ending. Our apartment has the southern half and 4 other missionaries have the other half. So yeah, we were doing casa(walking up to the top of the apartment building and knocking on every door). We switch off every other door; I can pretty much give our whole spill but once they start speaking back in Italian my companion has to intervene. It's pretty pathetic but oh well....it'll come. I've also realized I speak English Italian. I'm saying Italian words but it's in the format you would speak English(if that makes sense). Like in Italian you don't say, "Can I Ask A You a Question", you say "Can I Make You a Question"....stuff like that, that just goes right over my head....BUHHHH. So, anyway back to the story. We were doing casa while waiting for our next lesson appointment and we knock on the door of this Chinese guy. He told us he was just leaving but to come back at 8. So we kept knocking doors and at 8 we went back. He answered the door(he's like 21) and we went inside. He had 3 other Chinese roommates. They are all students at the Politechnico...an Italian college. There are quite a few foreigners who attend it. So yeah, the Chinese people are Eduardo, Simmone, Thomaso, and Andrea. We taught them a little bit of the Restoration and asked if we could come back the next day, so Saturday. By the way, they all have Italian names because it's just easier to say. So on Saturday we taught the the Restoration and gave them Chinese Books of Mormon. It was awesome. Eduardo said the closing prayer and afterward he said he really felt different. He said he'd never felt that way before and that it was an awesome feeling. He asked if our church had an activities we did and we said yeah...church on Sunday. We invited them all to come and 3 of the 4 came on Sunday. Eduardo just loved it..oh yeah...they all speak pretty good English and a little of Italian. They didn't understand everything in church but they liked it. I didn't understand a whole lot either in church. Eduardo is so money......haha. We are gonna challenge him next time we meet and probably his friends too. None of them have a religious background so it's in a way easy to teach because they don't have objections but they also don't know a lot about Jesus and everything else.
Church was sweet. It was Fast Sunday which wasn't too hard to do, and I bore my testimony which wasn't too hard..haha just kidding. I hope they understood it...I got a lot of grazies afterward....(fist pump)...The meetings were fun though. I got the gist of it kinda...I sat a lot with the Chinese investigators and tried to answer their questions.
We teach a lot of Africans, especially because they are very humble and will let us come and teach them. We have 4 really awesome African investigators. Bernard, Evans, Joice, and Sunday. Bernard and Evans are brothers and are so so so awesome. Bernard is 15 and says he knows everything we've taught him is true and wants to be baptized. He's coming to church this Sunday and we just set a baptismal date for Jan 8. His brother Evans,(20 yrs) was just baptized in some other church so he's kinda confused why he needs to be baptized again but he loves our church and everything we've taught...he is just so close. Joice has a baptismal date for January, too, and we've taught him the Restoration, Plan of Salvation and other lessons. He's a student as well at the Politecnico and is about 27 yrs old. He's super super nice and just so humble as well. Sunday is a little different. Sunday is kinda lazy and doesn't have a job. He lives in an apartment with a couple others and kinda mooches off the girl that lives in the apartment with him and another dude. He has been to church and wants to be baptized. I guess he was really close but then he like disappeared to some other city for a couple weeks. Anyways, we had the funniest lesson with him the other day. We got there and he was just chillin' in bed watching some music videos. We asked him to turn it off so we could teach and he said yeah no problem. Hahaha so he turns it off and puts on Rambo.....We were like, Sunday ahah can you turn off Rambo? And he's like OK...I will off it. By the way...most of these Africans speak English, except Joice....and we have to change the way we speak...its hard to explain...we only speak in sentences of like 3 or 4 words). My African English is pretty sweet ahaha. So yeah, we taught Sunday and at the very end he says..."Do you want to stay, you can watch Rambo with me". We laughed and said no thanks. He's a cool guy though.
I'm super excited for Christmas. We get to stay out until 12 for midnight mass and we can also watch a movie with a family. I will most likely get to call home on Christmas. By the way, President Wolfgramme and his wife are awesome. We had so much fun the night we flew in and had dinner with them. She made such a good lasagna. As you know I had been feeling sick that day but I still ate so much when he had dinner......I about died later that night when we got to the apartments.
We taught the Chinese again about the life of Christ and they loved it. It was only Eduardo and Tomaso. They other two were out shopping. We watched the movie Finding Faith in Christ. Eduardo didn't blink throughout the whole movie. He's been progressing so much and we've only known him for 6 days. Its so so so awesome. I'm positive he knows its all true, he's just a bit confused about some stuff but he knows he needs to pray and read to figure it all out. The last couple days some of our other investigators have cancelled but we've had mini miracles happen because of this. Last night an investigator cancelled so while we were talking to people on the street, some random lady was riding her bike and I said "Buona Sera" as she rode by...5 seconds later she come back and asks if we are Mormon missionaries..we say yes..of course.....and she starts telling us some story about how she was adopted and has always wanted to find her real parents(she's like 50 years old). She asks us for the directions to our church and we then give her some pass along cards with information about Family Genealogy. Alsomsome guy rides up to us a bike and tells us that he teaches a religion class and wants us to come and give a presentation. So were are going to teach a class of 30 Italian teenagers about our church...hm....mini miracle. Also, last night we were waiting for an investigator to show up...he kept saying I'm on my way...he first told us he'd be here in 5 minutes....that 5 minutes took 2 hours. haha. We were kinda mad....but anyway... we met this huge African that told us he was baptized in our church like forever ago. We invited him to church this Sunday....I'm not sure if he'll come but there is a pretty good chance. It was crazy. We had like 3 lessons cancelled yesterday but if they hadn't been cancelled none of those other things would've happened. It's so awesome how Heavenly Father just has this all planned out and how he blesses us.
Also....the food has been killing me. I've eaten so much chocolate since Ive been here. I've practically eaten an entire jar of Nutella(its a chocolate-vanilla)..its so so good though. We had pizza a couple nights ago, that was pretty good, nothing too special. I've only had one gelato which is hard to believe. I definitely need to be better though. We've gone running a few times and do a little other stuff in the mornings though. Its not too bad going without dinner though because we usually eat a big lunch and eat a little around 9:30.
That's pretty sweet with the sports though.. so whats the JAZZ's overall record? That's sweet about Utah and Boise State....one of the elders in our apartment got the bowl schedule so I got to see all the bowl match ups.....kinda surprising that Viginia Tech climbed back up and is in a BCS bowl, where did Connecticut come from?. This keyboard sucks; I cant find the quotations, and everything is rearranged.. stupid Italian keyboard.....haha sorry......nice try on Albert Pujols and the Yankees...Dad....this is me you're talking to...I dont fall for that kind of stuff. I figure the Utes will get destroyed though...it woulda been a good game if Jordan Wynn was playing though, at least i think so...Cain is too much of a wuss.
We do like 15-20 inviti per day...(inviti is just talking to people on the street). I usually do like 5 per day and my comp does a lot more. I'm still getting over the confidence thing but I've gotten a lot better. Just so you know, Torino isn't just all foreigners. We just happen to have all foreign investigators...about 2-3 are Italian though.
I will try and get you the address next time...sorry I don't have it at the moment...I forgot to bring all my other addresses so I could email other people...whoopsy daisy.
I played winter ball down in Venezuela, hey got kids half his age, everyone of them speaking Spanish.....They speak Spanish in Venezuela!....I know, that's my point.....-Little Big League
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Only the Holy Ghost Can Unlock the Spiritual Power Within Us
November 23, 2010 Email
Hello Hello......
Alright so I'm gonna answer all the questions first....
We got our travel plans this week..which was awesome, we were all so excited! We leave the MTC at 10am and we leave SLC airport at 1:36PM
Arrive at Denver @ 3:02pm
Depart Denver @5:40pm
Arrive at Frankfurt @ 11:35 am.....next day
Depart Frankfurt @ 3:45 pm
Arrive in Milan 4:55pm!!!!!!
So yeah....I will most likely call you in Denver...so that would be from around 3-5pm on Tuesday...I'm pretty sure. Do you think I should call you again in Frankfurt? We can always discuss that during the first phone call.
The only thing I can think I would need would be an electric razor. I'm still not used to having to shave every other day...I'm just glad it's not every day. If you do get one for me, it doesn't have to be too expensive. I remembered the name to that song I wanted from my itunes...."I will be ready" ....its sweet.
How much is on my debit card?..I have about $90 in cash right now and I know I have a lot on my debit but I'm not sure the exact amount.
Who won the CY young? haha not real important but I'm curious.
Alright.....this week was fun. On Tuesday our string of apostles ended but we still had a sweet devotional. Kevin Peahrson from the Seventy spoke. It was a great talk. He spoke about us as missionaries becoming disciples of Christ. So yeah..as we become better disciples of Jesus Christ the more we will become who we really are. Our mission is our future and the future of our family. We can become better disciples by being 100% obedient(which I am...or trying to be), diligent, faithful and earnestly studying. The Lord will help us but only if we are trying our best everyday. We must become a disciple and have the faith to receive spiritual power. Only through the Holy Ghost can we unlock this spiritual power within us....it was awesome...plus he looked like Ray Romano.
I'm positive we will either get a member from the First Presidency today or on Thursday. Thanksgiving should be fun, we get to have a humanitarian project and a devotional thing/meeting.
How did everyone like the new Harry Potter? I found an awesome scipture in D&C that proves Harry Potter is real...ya ready for this?......D&C 38:28....haha read it.
So the past couple weeks we've had the opportunity to have a progressing investigator. Our teacher Fratello Calder would assume the role of one of his investigators in his mission. His name is Giacomo, he's 14yrs old. His mother is Catholic and his father is an inactive member of our church. They are divorced and the dad is remarried. The first lesson we had went terrible. Anz. Glowa thought we were teaching about one thing and I thought we were teaching about something else. It led to a lot of confusion. The next appointment was way better. It's funny to see our teacher change from investigator to teacher. His mother found out we were teaching him and was very upset. We taught him about having faith and telling his mom how he feels about our discussions. Our teacher (Giacomo) actually dropped 2/4 companionships in our class. Only me and my companion, and another companionship were able to obtain another appointment. We were excited because we had to try hard to get another appointment....but we got it.
Our TRC went well too this week. It's getting easier to teach the lessons in Italian but I still can improve soooooo so much.
Dang....you are leaving on Thursday to CALI...ahhah....lucky.....Will you be sure to let everyone know that I'm gonna be in Italy next week. So don't write letter to the MTC...let them know that from now on it will mostly be EMAILS...wink wink, tell the people you think I write...also...try and get Connor's email for me! I don't have it. We don't get mail for the next couple days because of Thanksgiving so yeah....thanks again I love you all.....oh yeah, I laughed so hard about the funny moments with TY and SAM...haha seriously...I love those guys....Ciao
Ci Vediamo(but not really)
Hello Hello......
Alright so I'm gonna answer all the questions first....
We got our travel plans this week..which was awesome, we were all so excited! We leave the MTC at 10am and we leave SLC airport at 1:36PM
Arrive at Denver @ 3:02pm
Depart Denver @5:40pm
Arrive at Frankfurt @ 11:35 am.....next day
Depart Frankfurt @ 3:45 pm
Arrive in Milan 4:55pm!!!!!!
So yeah....I will most likely call you in Denver...so that would be from around 3-5pm on Tuesday...I'm pretty sure. Do you think I should call you again in Frankfurt? We can always discuss that during the first phone call.
The only thing I can think I would need would be an electric razor. I'm still not used to having to shave every other day...I'm just glad it's not every day. If you do get one for me, it doesn't have to be too expensive. I remembered the name to that song I wanted from my itunes...."I will be ready" ....its sweet.
How much is on my debit card?..I have about $90 in cash right now and I know I have a lot on my debit but I'm not sure the exact amount.
Who won the CY young? haha not real important but I'm curious.
Alright.....this week was fun. On Tuesday our string of apostles ended but we still had a sweet devotional. Kevin Peahrson from the Seventy spoke. It was a great talk. He spoke about us as missionaries becoming disciples of Christ. So yeah..as we become better disciples of Jesus Christ the more we will become who we really are. Our mission is our future and the future of our family. We can become better disciples by being 100% obedient(which I am...or trying to be), diligent, faithful and earnestly studying. The Lord will help us but only if we are trying our best everyday. We must become a disciple and have the faith to receive spiritual power. Only through the Holy Ghost can we unlock this spiritual power within us....it was awesome...plus he looked like Ray Romano.
I'm positive we will either get a member from the First Presidency today or on Thursday. Thanksgiving should be fun, we get to have a humanitarian project and a devotional thing/meeting.
How did everyone like the new Harry Potter? I found an awesome scipture in D&C that proves Harry Potter is real...ya ready for this?......D&C 38:28....haha read it.
So the past couple weeks we've had the opportunity to have a progressing investigator. Our teacher Fratello Calder would assume the role of one of his investigators in his mission. His name is Giacomo, he's 14yrs old. His mother is Catholic and his father is an inactive member of our church. They are divorced and the dad is remarried. The first lesson we had went terrible. Anz. Glowa thought we were teaching about one thing and I thought we were teaching about something else. It led to a lot of confusion. The next appointment was way better. It's funny to see our teacher change from investigator to teacher. His mother found out we were teaching him and was very upset. We taught him about having faith and telling his mom how he feels about our discussions. Our teacher (Giacomo) actually dropped 2/4 companionships in our class. Only me and my companion, and another companionship were able to obtain another appointment. We were excited because we had to try hard to get another appointment....but we got it.
Our TRC went well too this week. It's getting easier to teach the lessons in Italian but I still can improve soooooo so much.
Dang....you are leaving on Thursday to CALI...ahhah....lucky.....Will you be sure to let everyone know that I'm gonna be in Italy next week. So don't write letter to the MTC...let them know that from now on it will mostly be EMAILS...wink wink, tell the people you think I write...also...try and get Connor's email for me! I don't have it. We don't get mail for the next couple days because of Thanksgiving so yeah....thanks again I love you all.....oh yeah, I laughed so hard about the funny moments with TY and SAM...haha seriously...I love those guys....Ciao
Ci Vediamo(but not really)
Monday, January 3, 2011
I Don't Think the MTC Has Had Four Apostles in a Row Before
November 16, 2010 Email
Ciao!....
What's up everyone....So I think the last two emails I've wrote about being super super lucky with the speakers. Elder Nelson, Elder Scott and Elder Ballard....haha you'll definitely be jealous with who we listened to last week. DAVID A. BEDNAR!...it was awesome. When we were finding our seats for choir, he was just standing at the pulpit, working with the tech guys on something...not really sure what. I was so sooo stoked. Basically we do the choir because it guarantees us seats in the main seating area. It also gives us the opportunity to be shown on the big screens when we sing, haha. The last couple weeks the camera has focused on about 4 of us for like 10 seconds. Every time I look up I just start laughing, the conductor(who's been here forever), probably hates me though. It's actually pretty fun though, even though like half the MTC participates, we usually get there on time and get sweet seats.
Anyways, Elder Bednar's talk was awesome. In short.....he repeated..."The answer is in the doctrine"...We must build our foundation on the doctrine. The doctrine is the scriptures and is defined as "truth revealed to us by our Heavenly Father". He told us to study it diligently he also read a scripture that applied perfectly and one that I'd been reading the day before. D&C 11:21...its a well known scripture..."First seek to obtain my word, then seek to declare it"..something like that. It was so sweet and so true. The doctrines of the church should be taught simply and fundamentally because they are simple and fundamental. If understood it can change our investigators attitude and behavior, and help them overcome their problems. I will guide and help us, and our investigators to then find answers. AS we study diligently, the doctrine will distill in our minds and bless us, along with those we teach and our family members. whew...he successfully blew our minds...I exaggerate a little but really it was so awesome. I don't think the MTC has had 4 apostles in a row before...at least in this dispensation...haha just kidding dad. I'm excited for tonight though, I'm willing to bet a member from the First Presidency will speak....
Today will also be a unique experience..So as you know, we just got 15 new Italian missionaries last Wednesday. Two of them are from England and one from Romania. The Romanian is 1/6 missionaries in the world from Romania...crazy..anyways, he has not been through the temple yet. So me, being the zone leader, I get to be his escort as he goes through for the first time...haha i don't know why me but it should be very fun, I think.....The new missionaries are pretty cool, they definitely struggle being quiet and "acting like missionaries" but I think that happens with everyone the first week.
On Friday, all the international missionaries get to go to Temple Square and do endowments in the temple. So my companion gets to do that, being from Canada....even though he's been there many times...but it'll give me a good break from him for awhile...not that were struggling but I could use a break.
Me and my comp also got to speak for about an hour in the introduction meeting with our new missionaries. Basically we explained how to do daily planning, comp inventory and how to use study time...it went really well.
Our TRC was awesome this week and I think personally it was my best one yet. The stuff I memorized was so flowing through me and actually it seemed like I was just speaking it rather than reciting from memory...it was sweet. I'm trying to think in Italian, but its not working just yet...hahaha. oh well, it'll come if I keep working at it.
So yeah...I think we all have our visas but we don't have travel plans, we will prolly get them this week though. For Christmas I would like some music!...if that's OK, try and get some of Mike Dowdles stuff, doesnt he have some cds with him playing the guitar in them?...I knew about his company but I had no clue he actually played in stuff...haha I'm retarded. There are some EFY music on my itunes that I would really like to have...You remember the Hurrah for Israel song, and the other Israel song...and then some other missionary one..sorry I cant remember the exact title..Todd Swartzmen?....look on my itunes, you'll find it.
Have fun in CALI.....not....but really have fun...I'm jealous..but I will be in Italy, so take that!
tell everyone hi....OH yeah...I need the Seagles address and other family addresses that you think I might want....I wanna congratulate BEN on winning the Ship...
Well...my time is about up....thanks in advance for sending the Italian bread, haven't gotten it yet though....
Ciao...
love ya all
Tucker
Ciao!....
What's up everyone....So I think the last two emails I've wrote about being super super lucky with the speakers. Elder Nelson, Elder Scott and Elder Ballard....haha you'll definitely be jealous with who we listened to last week. DAVID A. BEDNAR!...it was awesome. When we were finding our seats for choir, he was just standing at the pulpit, working with the tech guys on something...not really sure what. I was so sooo stoked. Basically we do the choir because it guarantees us seats in the main seating area. It also gives us the opportunity to be shown on the big screens when we sing, haha. The last couple weeks the camera has focused on about 4 of us for like 10 seconds. Every time I look up I just start laughing, the conductor(who's been here forever), probably hates me though. It's actually pretty fun though, even though like half the MTC participates, we usually get there on time and get sweet seats.
Anyways, Elder Bednar's talk was awesome. In short.....he repeated..."The answer is in the doctrine"...We must build our foundation on the doctrine. The doctrine is the scriptures and is defined as "truth revealed to us by our Heavenly Father". He told us to study it diligently he also read a scripture that applied perfectly and one that I'd been reading the day before. D&C 11:21...its a well known scripture..."First seek to obtain my word, then seek to declare it"..something like that. It was so sweet and so true. The doctrines of the church should be taught simply and fundamentally because they are simple and fundamental. If understood it can change our investigators attitude and behavior, and help them overcome their problems. I will guide and help us, and our investigators to then find answers. AS we study diligently, the doctrine will distill in our minds and bless us, along with those we teach and our family members. whew...he successfully blew our minds...I exaggerate a little but really it was so awesome. I don't think the MTC has had 4 apostles in a row before...at least in this dispensation...haha just kidding dad. I'm excited for tonight though, I'm willing to bet a member from the First Presidency will speak....
Today will also be a unique experience..So as you know, we just got 15 new Italian missionaries last Wednesday. Two of them are from England and one from Romania. The Romanian is 1/6 missionaries in the world from Romania...crazy..anyways, he has not been through the temple yet. So me, being the zone leader, I get to be his escort as he goes through for the first time...haha i don't know why me but it should be very fun, I think.....The new missionaries are pretty cool, they definitely struggle being quiet and "acting like missionaries" but I think that happens with everyone the first week.
On Friday, all the international missionaries get to go to Temple Square and do endowments in the temple. So my companion gets to do that, being from Canada....even though he's been there many times...but it'll give me a good break from him for awhile...not that were struggling but I could use a break.
Me and my comp also got to speak for about an hour in the introduction meeting with our new missionaries. Basically we explained how to do daily planning, comp inventory and how to use study time...it went really well.
Our TRC was awesome this week and I think personally it was my best one yet. The stuff I memorized was so flowing through me and actually it seemed like I was just speaking it rather than reciting from memory...it was sweet. I'm trying to think in Italian, but its not working just yet...hahaha. oh well, it'll come if I keep working at it.
So yeah...I think we all have our visas but we don't have travel plans, we will prolly get them this week though. For Christmas I would like some music!...if that's OK, try and get some of Mike Dowdles stuff, doesnt he have some cds with him playing the guitar in them?...I knew about his company but I had no clue he actually played in stuff...haha I'm retarded. There are some EFY music on my itunes that I would really like to have...You remember the Hurrah for Israel song, and the other Israel song...and then some other missionary one..sorry I cant remember the exact title..Todd Swartzmen?....look on my itunes, you'll find it.
Have fun in CALI.....not....but really have fun...I'm jealous..but I will be in Italy, so take that!
tell everyone hi....OH yeah...I need the Seagles address and other family addresses that you think I might want....I wanna congratulate BEN on winning the Ship...
Well...my time is about up....thanks in advance for sending the Italian bread, haven't gotten it yet though....
Ciao...
love ya all
Tucker
Only Three Weeks Left!
November 9, 2010 Email
All right... quotes of the week....."My dad always said, having dreams is what makes life tolerable"(rudy)....."Squints was perving a dish..I was not, so shut up....Ya ya you were, your tongue was sticking out of your head and you was swooning."(do i even need to say what this is from?..Sandlot)
This week has been super, super sweet. So last week I talked about how lucky we were about having the opportunity to listen to two apostles in a row, right? We got to listen to Elder M. Russel Ballard later that night....haha my bad...well anyways, it was so awesome. He talked a lot about being able to communicate as missionaries with the people in our missions. We must develop those skills now and further throughout our missions. He also gave a story about, two missionaries in England who baptized this really poor family. The family looked very poor and had very dirty/old clothes. They family was eventually baptized and at the baptism the bishop of their ward was worried about their physical appearance. Elder Ballard, told the bishop to make them "look like saints". The bishop then told the missionaries the same thing and the following Sunday, the family walked into church and sure enough they looked like saints. The father was wearing a clean white shirt, obviously too small for him, the top button was undone. The two young boys were also wearing clean white shirts but with the sleeves rolled many times to fit them. The missionaries had given their own shirts the family. The sister misisonaries had cleaned up the girls in the family. Everyone of the family members had the biggest smiles on their faces that day. The missionaries had made saints out of them.
I thought that story was awesome, it was given right at the end of his talk. The thing that impressed me the most though was the prayer given at the end of the meeting. She kept emphasizing that the people we are serving are our brothers and sisters and how we must love them and do all we can for them. It was awesome. During our district testimony meeting of the devotional I mainly talked about how much I loved the prayer, along with my testimony.
We also got to listen to Sheri Dew on Sunday and it rocked. A quick summary....."God knows our mission and exactly what we need to succeed. HIS way to accomplish this is most likely different then our way but its the right way."
1) Know who we are (I am a child of God), seek revelation about myself
2)Have personal witness that Jesus is the Christ
3)Increased purity increases the ability to receive inspiration and guidance from our Heavenly Father.
Whew...so money...."Now is a perfect time to learn how to listen and hear our Heavenly Father
It was such an awesome talk and applied to just about everyone.
I had a great conversation with my teacher this week. Basically I discussed some of the frustrations I've had w/ my comp. Nothing too bad but you know me, I get impatient really easily. He's probably the type of person, where at home I could not stand at all, but we're fine.
We learned a lot this week about recognizing the spirit. We had our LGM about it and several classes on it. The spirit will almost always come subtly and gently. We must take the time to listen to it and pray to receive it. Sometimes it is difficult to discern whether its the spirit or something else. Like Elder Bednar said "STOP worrying about it...if its good then its of God, Press forward and always stay moving".
ZL has been fun/interesting. The floor above ours has been so ridiculous this week. I caught a couple guys from their floor having nerf gun fights, of course I told them it was inappropriate and they said I was just being a robot misisonary...I kinda laughed it off later. We have a short meeting every Sunday with the ZL's in our building. When we brought up the nerf gun fights, they seemed to not know anything about it..haha so ridiculous because I know they knew what was going on. They have also been listening to music(no music allowed at the MTC period), doing the HAKA(very very loud) and dancing/wrestling. It's totally ridiculous....seriously. So of course the second floor zone leaders were lying or just totally oblivious to it all and on Monday they were doing it all again. Next Sunday I'm busting out all the stops...no more Mr. Nice Guy...well maybe a litte nice haha.
Well....I hope all is going well at home...I'm gonna write a short letter again in a bit...everything here is awesome...Only 3 weeks left!.....then we're in ITALY...we get new missionaries tomorrow which should be awesome. I'm excited for our devotional tonight because I think another prophet will be speaking(at least i hope there will be). I'm definitely jealous about the trip to California....
welll Ciao.....
TUCK
All right... quotes of the week....."My dad always said, having dreams is what makes life tolerable"(rudy)....."Squints was perving a dish..I was not, so shut up....Ya ya you were, your tongue was sticking out of your head and you was swooning."(do i even need to say what this is from?..Sandlot)
This week has been super, super sweet. So last week I talked about how lucky we were about having the opportunity to listen to two apostles in a row, right? We got to listen to Elder M. Russel Ballard later that night....haha my bad...well anyways, it was so awesome. He talked a lot about being able to communicate as missionaries with the people in our missions. We must develop those skills now and further throughout our missions. He also gave a story about, two missionaries in England who baptized this really poor family. The family looked very poor and had very dirty/old clothes. They family was eventually baptized and at the baptism the bishop of their ward was worried about their physical appearance. Elder Ballard, told the bishop to make them "look like saints". The bishop then told the missionaries the same thing and the following Sunday, the family walked into church and sure enough they looked like saints. The father was wearing a clean white shirt, obviously too small for him, the top button was undone. The two young boys were also wearing clean white shirts but with the sleeves rolled many times to fit them. The missionaries had given their own shirts the family. The sister misisonaries had cleaned up the girls in the family. Everyone of the family members had the biggest smiles on their faces that day. The missionaries had made saints out of them.
I thought that story was awesome, it was given right at the end of his talk. The thing that impressed me the most though was the prayer given at the end of the meeting. She kept emphasizing that the people we are serving are our brothers and sisters and how we must love them and do all we can for them. It was awesome. During our district testimony meeting of the devotional I mainly talked about how much I loved the prayer, along with my testimony.
We also got to listen to Sheri Dew on Sunday and it rocked. A quick summary....."God knows our mission and exactly what we need to succeed. HIS way to accomplish this is most likely different then our way but its the right way."
1) Know who we are (I am a child of God), seek revelation about myself
2)Have personal witness that Jesus is the Christ
3)Increased purity increases the ability to receive inspiration and guidance from our Heavenly Father.
Whew...so money...."Now is a perfect time to learn how to listen and hear our Heavenly Father
It was such an awesome talk and applied to just about everyone.
I had a great conversation with my teacher this week. Basically I discussed some of the frustrations I've had w/ my comp. Nothing too bad but you know me, I get impatient really easily. He's probably the type of person, where at home I could not stand at all, but we're fine.
We learned a lot this week about recognizing the spirit. We had our LGM about it and several classes on it. The spirit will almost always come subtly and gently. We must take the time to listen to it and pray to receive it. Sometimes it is difficult to discern whether its the spirit or something else. Like Elder Bednar said "STOP worrying about it...if its good then its of God, Press forward and always stay moving".
ZL has been fun/interesting. The floor above ours has been so ridiculous this week. I caught a couple guys from their floor having nerf gun fights, of course I told them it was inappropriate and they said I was just being a robot misisonary...I kinda laughed it off later. We have a short meeting every Sunday with the ZL's in our building. When we brought up the nerf gun fights, they seemed to not know anything about it..haha so ridiculous because I know they knew what was going on. They have also been listening to music(no music allowed at the MTC period), doing the HAKA(very very loud) and dancing/wrestling. It's totally ridiculous....seriously. So of course the second floor zone leaders were lying or just totally oblivious to it all and on Monday they were doing it all again. Next Sunday I'm busting out all the stops...no more Mr. Nice Guy...well maybe a litte nice haha.
Well....I hope all is going well at home...I'm gonna write a short letter again in a bit...everything here is awesome...Only 3 weeks left!.....then we're in ITALY...we get new missionaries tomorrow which should be awesome. I'm excited for our devotional tonight because I think another prophet will be speaking(at least i hope there will be). I'm definitely jealous about the trip to California....
welll Ciao.....
TUCK
Sunday, January 2, 2011
"Success In the Mission Field Is a Gift From God"
November 2, 2010 Email
Hello Hello...or How in the heck are ya? (as Grandpa Bob would say)
I got some good quotes for the day:
"She better be a babe if you want me to say yes. I get dozens of offers for Friday nights, she better be really cute and have.....nice teeth". --cousin Wiley
"Como Estan ladies"....(Mitchell Goosen)......"yeah..Stan Ladies".....(cousin Wiley)
-Airborne
Everything is good in MTC town. I got to too hear some cheers from LaVell Edwards Stadium last week....not so good. I was a little disappointed I couldn't write during the night on my last P day....So last week I wrote about the opportunity to listen to Elder Nelson....Well....last Tuesday Elder Richard G. Scott came and spoke. I know you're jealous. TWO weeks in a row we have been able to listen to apostles. I feel very spoiled. It was an awesome talk and we even got a copy of it. We can't really share it with you because it's supposed to be for us. We also aren't able to discuss it with our comps because it's supposed to be important to us and for our personal use...if that makes sense. I can discuss a 'lil what he talked about which was spiritual guidance and how we can receive it. We just gotta be humble enough to receive it and be able to find time to be open to it. It was so money.
To answer your question Dad, we had SYL all day Saturday and Monday(speak your language). Saturday we got through like half the day before most of us gave up. Monday was a little better but still most gave up around dinner. I'm definitely improving though. Yesterday we also had TRC. Me and my companion taught a 40ish year old lady from Rome.
We also got to watch a cool talk in class this week by Elder Bednar that he gave at the MTC a couple years ago. Basically he stressed that we need to continue being missionaries after the mission. "When its time to be released as missionaries, return to your home but don't ever leave the mission field"-Elder Bednar. Success in the mission field is a gift from God. It was a sweet talk as always. Elder Bednar is by far my favorite apostle and I think he will be the prophet someday.
I'm reading the Book of Mormon of course. I started over once I got here and right now I'm in Alma around chapter 30. I'm getting pretty excited because it's the war chapters!, which of course are the best. I really do like them the best, especially because its awesome to see how the Lord continually blesses them in battle. They never lose...well except for the end of the BOM, then they lose pretty bad.
Good news....I'm on the downside of the MTC!...I'm less than a month from being in Italy....I know you're all jealous...just kidding...but I know dad is. I'm now the senior companion, even though I already pretty much was(but now I have the actual title)....just kidding...but really. haha. My comp knows what I'm talking about.
Since the older districts have left, there are like 4 teachers that don't have anyone to teach. They have now become our progressing investigators. During missionary directed time we get to plan lessons (we act like they are real investigators) and teach to their needs. It's really fun and is very good practice. We are currently teaching a 14 year old girl, Jlenia(played by sister Swenson). She is so awesome.
To answer your other questions Dad. We study a lot of of Preach My Gospel. We study during MDT, class and whenever we have time. There is so much we have to learn from it and I will continue studying it for the next two years. There really is just so much stuff we have to learn from it.
Sundays are really fun. We have zone leader meeting with the zone leaders in our building at 6:45, then we have branch council with the zone leaders and districts leaders in our branch. Then we have priesthood at like 10 and then lunch. Then we have study time for like an hour and then around 1:00 we have sacrament meeting. After sacrament meeting we have district meeting till like 2:30. Then we have temple walk which rocks. Then dinner, then study time, then Sunday Fireside then we have movie time. We watched the Legacy last week.
Well I hope you're all doing well. Hill got home at 2:45? I never even got home that late! Crazy. Well I might write a letter today to cover some stuff I missed...love ya all.
If Batman went through the drive through at McDonald's and would flames came out?...you guys are both retarded, the cape crusader doesn't eat fast food....what do you mean, Billy knows everything, he's the owner of the Twins, the coolest guy in the world..just ask him.
-Little Big League
Ciao everyone
Hello Hello...or How in the heck are ya? (as Grandpa Bob would say)
I got some good quotes for the day:
"She better be a babe if you want me to say yes. I get dozens of offers for Friday nights, she better be really cute and have.....nice teeth". --cousin Wiley
"Como Estan ladies"....(Mitchell Goosen)......"yeah..Stan Ladies".....(cousin Wiley)
-Airborne
Everything is good in MTC town. I got to too hear some cheers from LaVell Edwards Stadium last week....not so good. I was a little disappointed I couldn't write during the night on my last P day....So last week I wrote about the opportunity to listen to Elder Nelson....Well....last Tuesday Elder Richard G. Scott came and spoke. I know you're jealous. TWO weeks in a row we have been able to listen to apostles. I feel very spoiled. It was an awesome talk and we even got a copy of it. We can't really share it with you because it's supposed to be for us. We also aren't able to discuss it with our comps because it's supposed to be important to us and for our personal use...if that makes sense. I can discuss a 'lil what he talked about which was spiritual guidance and how we can receive it. We just gotta be humble enough to receive it and be able to find time to be open to it. It was so money.
To answer your question Dad, we had SYL all day Saturday and Monday(speak your language). Saturday we got through like half the day before most of us gave up. Monday was a little better but still most gave up around dinner. I'm definitely improving though. Yesterday we also had TRC. Me and my companion taught a 40ish year old lady from Rome.
We also got to watch a cool talk in class this week by Elder Bednar that he gave at the MTC a couple years ago. Basically he stressed that we need to continue being missionaries after the mission. "When its time to be released as missionaries, return to your home but don't ever leave the mission field"-Elder Bednar. Success in the mission field is a gift from God. It was a sweet talk as always. Elder Bednar is by far my favorite apostle and I think he will be the prophet someday.
I'm reading the Book of Mormon of course. I started over once I got here and right now I'm in Alma around chapter 30. I'm getting pretty excited because it's the war chapters!, which of course are the best. I really do like them the best, especially because its awesome to see how the Lord continually blesses them in battle. They never lose...well except for the end of the BOM, then they lose pretty bad.
Good news....I'm on the downside of the MTC!...I'm less than a month from being in Italy....I know you're all jealous...just kidding...but I know dad is. I'm now the senior companion, even though I already pretty much was(but now I have the actual title)....just kidding...but really. haha. My comp knows what I'm talking about.
Since the older districts have left, there are like 4 teachers that don't have anyone to teach. They have now become our progressing investigators. During missionary directed time we get to plan lessons (we act like they are real investigators) and teach to their needs. It's really fun and is very good practice. We are currently teaching a 14 year old girl, Jlenia(played by sister Swenson). She is so awesome.
To answer your other questions Dad. We study a lot of of Preach My Gospel. We study during MDT, class and whenever we have time. There is so much we have to learn from it and I will continue studying it for the next two years. There really is just so much stuff we have to learn from it.
Sundays are really fun. We have zone leader meeting with the zone leaders in our building at 6:45, then we have branch council with the zone leaders and districts leaders in our branch. Then we have priesthood at like 10 and then lunch. Then we have study time for like an hour and then around 1:00 we have sacrament meeting. After sacrament meeting we have district meeting till like 2:30. Then we have temple walk which rocks. Then dinner, then study time, then Sunday Fireside then we have movie time. We watched the Legacy last week.
Well I hope you're all doing well. Hill got home at 2:45? I never even got home that late! Crazy. Well I might write a letter today to cover some stuff I missed...love ya all.
If Batman went through the drive through at McDonald's and would flames came out?...you guys are both retarded, the cape crusader doesn't eat fast food....what do you mean, Billy knows everything, he's the owner of the Twins, the coolest guy in the world..just ask him.
-Little Big League
Ciao everyone
"Have Character, Don't Be One"
October 26, 2010 Email
This week has been crazy. First off, my last Pday was awesome. It's too bad I couldn't write you all later in the day. We always have a Devotional on Tuesday nights. Of course we had the luxury of having Elder Russell M. Nelson speak to us!!!!ha ha ha...I know you're all jealous but really it was freaking awesome. Most of our district had decided before that we'd sing in the choir(pretty much everyone can sing in it if they want, but not a lot do). We had awesome seats though and Elder Nelson was sweet. He spoke to us about serving God 'til the end. Investment in the mission now, will pay dividends later in life. Blessings will come to those we baptize along with their posterity and we must remember them always. He also spoke a lot about having character rather than being one (it sounded so funny when he said it). As missionaries we are sent to teach people and not lessons and we must always be alert and pay attention to the peoples needs. Our time at the MTC can be compared to a car battery, we are here to charge our batteries....and we need to just keep running. It really was awesome, he actually didn't speak that long but part of his message is that a brief one is usually best.
I also got to see Pat this week, it was awesome. He seemed to be doing awesome and is just loving teaching the Fijian missionaries. Hopefully I can see him a bit more before I leave. I also see Dustin Higginson here whenever I have my TRC. Me and my comp got to teach Nick Blair again yesterday for our TRC this week. It is the last time we will teach in English. I'm pretty nervous about next Monday's TRC now. I haven't mentioned the language a whole lot yet, but its alright I guess. My district is very advanced compared to most in the language. I would say I'm probably in the middle..? maybe..there are 3 or 4 people who I would say I'm better than but our district has like 11 misisonaries so that's not saying a lot. The other new district is struggling quite a bit though. The older Anziani just left this morning so now it's just us two districts(about 20 missionaries). We will get about 20 new Italian missionaries in like 2 weeks though and we're all excited about that.
Dad, we did now about the groundbreaking for the Rome Temple. We were all soooo pumped about it and our teachers are so jealous. I saw the Jensens this week, I had no clue that they were going on a mission so I was surprised when I saw them here. It was fun talking with them though.
On Sunday we had our weekly Fireside for the MTC and Stephan B. Allen spoke. Probably the funniest guy ever, his talk was so fun to listen to. About half our district wasn't able to make it into the main building to watch him speak so we had to watch in the overflow area. It was actually kinda lucky because he spoke about the Rome Temple and had all the Italian missionaries stand up. Since most of us were in the overflow, they had the cameras in that room show us all(so in the main meeting area, where they have huge projectors, so people far back can see, I was just dead center, fist pumping for like 20 seconds. It was pretty sweet. I'm so popular now, but not really.
During our large group meeting(not that large of a group....only like our branch)....a Brother Murphy spoke to us about not delaying a prompting. "the field is white and already to harvest"....sometimes it takes more faith to drop an investigator then to keep teaching them. Elder Oaks "We need to keep our fishing line in the water". There are so many ways to find people, we just need to work hard to find them and to talk to everyone and everywhere.
About the language again Dad...I really don't know a whole lot about teaching the lessons yet in Italian..I mean I know a lot of verbs and how to put some simple sentences together but I'm like that good yet. I'm struggling like everyone, to put it all together in my head and be able to speak the language. It'll come though I'm not worring at all.
Mom, my laundry is going fine and thanks for the clothes you sent. I really don't need anything now, I'm all set. I hope school is going good for the girls. That would suck if Hills team cant go to Cali...last year was fun.
Oh yeah....so I guess Johvan Davis(he lives in the 5th ward, his dad is the guy with one arm and the other one is mangled kinda)...is companions with Chase Gerber..I played football with him when we lived in Sandy.....small world I guess.
Zone Leader is fun...I'm running out of time but I'll write a letter about it and tell you more about it....
By the way....I look like such a loser...I'm the only one who doesn't get Dear Elders.....maybe send a few so I can build up my rep.......(just kidding but really).
Thanks for the emails, I hope Andy is doing well...send me the Seagles address or anyone else you think I might need.
Ciao........
This week has been crazy. First off, my last Pday was awesome. It's too bad I couldn't write you all later in the day. We always have a Devotional on Tuesday nights. Of course we had the luxury of having Elder Russell M. Nelson speak to us!!!!ha ha ha...I know you're all jealous but really it was freaking awesome. Most of our district had decided before that we'd sing in the choir(pretty much everyone can sing in it if they want, but not a lot do). We had awesome seats though and Elder Nelson was sweet. He spoke to us about serving God 'til the end. Investment in the mission now, will pay dividends later in life. Blessings will come to those we baptize along with their posterity and we must remember them always. He also spoke a lot about having character rather than being one (it sounded so funny when he said it). As missionaries we are sent to teach people and not lessons and we must always be alert and pay attention to the peoples needs. Our time at the MTC can be compared to a car battery, we are here to charge our batteries....and we need to just keep running. It really was awesome, he actually didn't speak that long but part of his message is that a brief one is usually best.
I also got to see Pat this week, it was awesome. He seemed to be doing awesome and is just loving teaching the Fijian missionaries. Hopefully I can see him a bit more before I leave. I also see Dustin Higginson here whenever I have my TRC. Me and my comp got to teach Nick Blair again yesterday for our TRC this week. It is the last time we will teach in English. I'm pretty nervous about next Monday's TRC now. I haven't mentioned the language a whole lot yet, but its alright I guess. My district is very advanced compared to most in the language. I would say I'm probably in the middle..? maybe..there are 3 or 4 people who I would say I'm better than but our district has like 11 misisonaries so that's not saying a lot. The other new district is struggling quite a bit though. The older Anziani just left this morning so now it's just us two districts(about 20 missionaries). We will get about 20 new Italian missionaries in like 2 weeks though and we're all excited about that.
Dad, we did now about the groundbreaking for the Rome Temple. We were all soooo pumped about it and our teachers are so jealous. I saw the Jensens this week, I had no clue that they were going on a mission so I was surprised when I saw them here. It was fun talking with them though.
On Sunday we had our weekly Fireside for the MTC and Stephan B. Allen spoke. Probably the funniest guy ever, his talk was so fun to listen to. About half our district wasn't able to make it into the main building to watch him speak so we had to watch in the overflow area. It was actually kinda lucky because he spoke about the Rome Temple and had all the Italian missionaries stand up. Since most of us were in the overflow, they had the cameras in that room show us all(so in the main meeting area, where they have huge projectors, so people far back can see, I was just dead center, fist pumping for like 20 seconds. It was pretty sweet. I'm so popular now, but not really.
During our large group meeting(not that large of a group....only like our branch)....a Brother Murphy spoke to us about not delaying a prompting. "the field is white and already to harvest"....sometimes it takes more faith to drop an investigator then to keep teaching them. Elder Oaks "We need to keep our fishing line in the water". There are so many ways to find people, we just need to work hard to find them and to talk to everyone and everywhere.
About the language again Dad...I really don't know a whole lot about teaching the lessons yet in Italian..I mean I know a lot of verbs and how to put some simple sentences together but I'm like that good yet. I'm struggling like everyone, to put it all together in my head and be able to speak the language. It'll come though I'm not worring at all.
Mom, my laundry is going fine and thanks for the clothes you sent. I really don't need anything now, I'm all set. I hope school is going good for the girls. That would suck if Hills team cant go to Cali...last year was fun.
Oh yeah....so I guess Johvan Davis(he lives in the 5th ward, his dad is the guy with one arm and the other one is mangled kinda)...is companions with Chase Gerber..I played football with him when we lived in Sandy.....small world I guess.
Zone Leader is fun...I'm running out of time but I'll write a letter about it and tell you more about it....
By the way....I look like such a loser...I'm the only one who doesn't get Dear Elders.....maybe send a few so I can build up my rep.......(just kidding but really).
Thanks for the emails, I hope Andy is doing well...send me the Seagles address or anyone else you think I might need.
Ciao........
"Stop Worrying; Press Forward"
October 19, 2010 Email
Alright, well I'm still just gonna write one big email to everyone. This last week has definitely been filled with a lot of excitement. The other new Italian district just had another anziano go home. This is their 3rd so far since we got here. It was prettty sad because he was one of my favorites. It was Anziano Jones, who me and my comp "chilled" with.
Last Tuesday we had Richard C. Edgley come and speak to us(in the Presiding Bishopric). He was pretty awesome and gave a wonderful talk. I wish I had my notebook with me so I could tell you all more about it, but I forgot it in my room and I'm not gonna give up the computer.
Pretty much we wake up in the mornings, shower up and go to breakfast. We usually have like a 15 minute breakfast and go straight to our classroom. We only have class like once a week in the morning though. The rest of the time we just do our MDT in the class which is personal study, comp study and language study. We usually have class in 2-3 hour increments, after lunch which is from 11:30 to 12:15 and then after dinner(dinner is from 5:30 6:15). We usually have class after dinner from 6:30 to 8:30....Then me and my comp have daily planning for like 15 minutes and then head back to our rooms.
We had TRC yesterday, which went very well. We talked to a fake investigator for like 10 minutes, all in Italian(at least we tried. We actually did pretty well. It was pretty sweet though, the investigator was Nick Blair.....Peter Blair's brother. I thought I had kinda recognized him, since I'd actually talked to him at our ward a couple months ago. I didn't find out he was his brother till after we had taught him the second lesson, in English. The lesson went very well. I thought but we need to learn to ask better question that get the investigator involved in the lesson. It was pretty cool talking to Nick though.
At dinner last night I saw Gary Jensen and his wife, Luann. I had no clue they are going on a mission to Germany. That is pretty sweet though, i talked to them for like 10 minutes in the cafeteria. They leave in like two weeks. When did they decide to go on a mission?
During class this week we got to watch a talk by Elder Bednar that he gave in the MTC last year. We are lucky to see it because they dont let anyone watch these talks. It was probably the most interesting/best talk I've listened to. Its about recognizing the spirit. Sometimes we wonder too much about if the spirit is directing us or if its just our self. He advised us to Stop Worrying about it.(he repeatedly emphasized this) Stop Worrying about it. Press forward, press forward...."Anything good is of God". We need to have faith/trust in your heavenly father. He gave some awesome stories. I guess when he was a missionary in Germany, the newly called apostle Elder Packer, came to the mission with his wife. He got them on a train at midnight to go somewhere else and before they left he gave them 20 Marks(thinking that they might need some money for food). While Elder Packer and his wife were on the train( this is around the 1970's) the train was stopped in Eastern Germany. Elder Packer had a 5 year passport and his wife only a 3 year passport but with a 2 year extension. I guess the government had been cracking down on the 3 year passports with extensions. Officers came onto the train and threatened to take her off the train. Elder Packer slipped the 20 marks into the passport and gave it to the officer. The Officer let them go. Elder Bednar related this experience and told us that it was the spirit that guided his actions to give Elder Packer the 20 marks. We don't need to feel the spirit in the moment. He told us that later in an apostle meeting. Pres Hinckley joked to Elder Packer that that 20 marks must be worth a whole lot more and that he owed Elder Bednar.
Anyways, the talk was awesome. He gave another story but I'm running out of time. I hope the family is all doing well. Andy, Hill and Ashley. Thanks for the package I really appreciate it. I really don't need any snacks or candy though. We have so much and can't even eat any of it. That's sweet the Jazz are doing well. Go Cards even though the season is over. Who won the World Series?
Try and figure out what building Pat teaches in; I want to go see him. Also, I'm getting a picture with Harry Potter today, apparently he is a missionary in the room across from me. I will send the pic sometime soon. I love you all, you're the best. Tell all the Neffs and Talyors I say hi.
Oh Crap, I almost forgot....(big chief...the best).....Me and my companion got called as Zone Leaders of our branch.....seriously though, no joke....it should be fun!
Ciao......Tucker
Alright, well I'm still just gonna write one big email to everyone. This last week has definitely been filled with a lot of excitement. The other new Italian district just had another anziano go home. This is their 3rd so far since we got here. It was prettty sad because he was one of my favorites. It was Anziano Jones, who me and my comp "chilled" with.
Last Tuesday we had Richard C. Edgley come and speak to us(in the Presiding Bishopric). He was pretty awesome and gave a wonderful talk. I wish I had my notebook with me so I could tell you all more about it, but I forgot it in my room and I'm not gonna give up the computer.
Pretty much we wake up in the mornings, shower up and go to breakfast. We usually have like a 15 minute breakfast and go straight to our classroom. We only have class like once a week in the morning though. The rest of the time we just do our MDT in the class which is personal study, comp study and language study. We usually have class in 2-3 hour increments, after lunch which is from 11:30 to 12:15 and then after dinner(dinner is from 5:30 6:15). We usually have class after dinner from 6:30 to 8:30....Then me and my comp have daily planning for like 15 minutes and then head back to our rooms.
We had TRC yesterday, which went very well. We talked to a fake investigator for like 10 minutes, all in Italian(at least we tried. We actually did pretty well. It was pretty sweet though, the investigator was Nick Blair.....Peter Blair's brother. I thought I had kinda recognized him, since I'd actually talked to him at our ward a couple months ago. I didn't find out he was his brother till after we had taught him the second lesson, in English. The lesson went very well. I thought but we need to learn to ask better question that get the investigator involved in the lesson. It was pretty cool talking to Nick though.
At dinner last night I saw Gary Jensen and his wife, Luann. I had no clue they are going on a mission to Germany. That is pretty sweet though, i talked to them for like 10 minutes in the cafeteria. They leave in like two weeks. When did they decide to go on a mission?
During class this week we got to watch a talk by Elder Bednar that he gave in the MTC last year. We are lucky to see it because they dont let anyone watch these talks. It was probably the most interesting/best talk I've listened to. Its about recognizing the spirit. Sometimes we wonder too much about if the spirit is directing us or if its just our self. He advised us to Stop Worrying about it.(he repeatedly emphasized this) Stop Worrying about it. Press forward, press forward...."Anything good is of God". We need to have faith/trust in your heavenly father. He gave some awesome stories. I guess when he was a missionary in Germany, the newly called apostle Elder Packer, came to the mission with his wife. He got them on a train at midnight to go somewhere else and before they left he gave them 20 Marks(thinking that they might need some money for food). While Elder Packer and his wife were on the train( this is around the 1970's) the train was stopped in Eastern Germany. Elder Packer had a 5 year passport and his wife only a 3 year passport but with a 2 year extension. I guess the government had been cracking down on the 3 year passports with extensions. Officers came onto the train and threatened to take her off the train. Elder Packer slipped the 20 marks into the passport and gave it to the officer. The Officer let them go. Elder Bednar related this experience and told us that it was the spirit that guided his actions to give Elder Packer the 20 marks. We don't need to feel the spirit in the moment. He told us that later in an apostle meeting. Pres Hinckley joked to Elder Packer that that 20 marks must be worth a whole lot more and that he owed Elder Bednar.
Anyways, the talk was awesome. He gave another story but I'm running out of time. I hope the family is all doing well. Andy, Hill and Ashley. Thanks for the package I really appreciate it. I really don't need any snacks or candy though. We have so much and can't even eat any of it. That's sweet the Jazz are doing well. Go Cards even though the season is over. Who won the World Series?
Try and figure out what building Pat teaches in; I want to go see him. Also, I'm getting a picture with Harry Potter today, apparently he is a missionary in the room across from me. I will send the pic sometime soon. I love you all, you're the best. Tell all the Neffs and Talyors I say hi.
Oh Crap, I almost forgot....(big chief...the best).....Me and my companion got called as Zone Leaders of our branch.....seriously though, no joke....it should be fun!
Ciao......Tucker
The First Week
OCTOBER 12, 2010 E-mail
Salve! Come Va?
Well I just wrote a lengthy letter so I probably won't write a long email. Plus, I only have 13 minutes because I forgot my user name and password and about gave up on even trying to do an email this week. The first week has been pretty fun getting used to our schedule and such. I let my companion take the bottom bunk; I could care less either way. My classes have been very fun and I'm enjoying them a lot. Like I said in the letter, TRC(training recreation center ... I think that's what it stands for) went pretty good. There is always room for improvement though and for us there is definitely room for that. I have seen quite a few friends since I've been here...Spencer Hille, John Hansen, Casey Elton, Scot Liton, David Pinnock, Paul Bradshaw, Jace Petersen and Will Gochnour. It's been fun getting to see them all. I think the only thing I need right now is some mouthwash and maybe my basketball shoes(if its too inconvenient then don't worry about it). Brian Neff and family sent some chips and salsa, they're too nice. My companion is pretty awesome. Elder Glowa is from Canada Quebec, English as first language so no worries. Our district is so awesome though as well as the other three Italian districts. Elder Schwing, from Black Forest, Germany is so freaking money...he speaks like perfect English and is awesome at Italian. Elder Glowa is very spiritual and knows a lot. Elder Sanders is kinda lazy and a little more laid back. Elder Anderson is one of the those kids who really surprises you and just knows so much. Elder Hopper is a mix of Ellis and Cameron...and is taking the designated Senior Companion role a little too seriously and gets upset when the other two in his companionship don't listen to him, even though they do. He's broken down and cried a few times, but he'll be ok. Elder Glowa is the district leader and has done a good job of working with him. So basically our district is me and Elder Glowa as companions, Elder Sanders and Anderson, Elder Hopper, Scwing and McAffee are a trio(McAfee is from Cali and is laid back but knows a lot)...and then we have three sisters: Sorelle Williams, Burgouyne and Stebare(Boise, Taylorsville and Georgia)...they are all very mature and intelligent. It's been awesome and all 10 of us stick together a lot and just have fun learning.
I only have two minutes so I'll rap up...(When the time runs out it just logs out, in case it happens in the future). I love you all and thanks so much for the candy and letters. Keep me posted with sports. I enjoyed the last letter. That's awesome that Andy finished in the top 150...that's so sweet. Sucks that Hill lost to Woods Cross. I hope Ali and Savannah are OK. Everyone else good luck this week.
"don't ya wanna a little taste just to see what it tastes like? just a little taste.....Nacho
Salve! Come Va?
Well I just wrote a lengthy letter so I probably won't write a long email. Plus, I only have 13 minutes because I forgot my user name and password and about gave up on even trying to do an email this week. The first week has been pretty fun getting used to our schedule and such. I let my companion take the bottom bunk; I could care less either way. My classes have been very fun and I'm enjoying them a lot. Like I said in the letter, TRC(training recreation center ... I think that's what it stands for) went pretty good. There is always room for improvement though and for us there is definitely room for that. I have seen quite a few friends since I've been here...Spencer Hille, John Hansen, Casey Elton, Scot Liton, David Pinnock, Paul Bradshaw, Jace Petersen and Will Gochnour. It's been fun getting to see them all. I think the only thing I need right now is some mouthwash and maybe my basketball shoes(if its too inconvenient then don't worry about it). Brian Neff and family sent some chips and salsa, they're too nice. My companion is pretty awesome. Elder Glowa is from Canada Quebec, English as first language so no worries. Our district is so awesome though as well as the other three Italian districts. Elder Schwing, from Black Forest, Germany is so freaking money...he speaks like perfect English and is awesome at Italian. Elder Glowa is very spiritual and knows a lot. Elder Sanders is kinda lazy and a little more laid back. Elder Anderson is one of the those kids who really surprises you and just knows so much. Elder Hopper is a mix of Ellis and Cameron...and is taking the designated Senior Companion role a little too seriously and gets upset when the other two in his companionship don't listen to him, even though they do. He's broken down and cried a few times, but he'll be ok. Elder Glowa is the district leader and has done a good job of working with him. So basically our district is me and Elder Glowa as companions, Elder Sanders and Anderson, Elder Hopper, Scwing and McAffee are a trio(McAfee is from Cali and is laid back but knows a lot)...and then we have three sisters: Sorelle Williams, Burgouyne and Stebare(Boise, Taylorsville and Georgia)...they are all very mature and intelligent. It's been awesome and all 10 of us stick together a lot and just have fun learning.
I only have two minutes so I'll rap up...(When the time runs out it just logs out, in case it happens in the future). I love you all and thanks so much for the candy and letters. Keep me posted with sports. I enjoyed the last letter. That's awesome that Andy finished in the top 150...that's so sweet. Sucks that Hill lost to Woods Cross. I hope Ali and Savannah are OK. Everyone else good luck this week.
"don't ya wanna a little taste just to see what it tastes like? just a little taste.....Nacho
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