My Comp And I Are Just Having Fun Seeing All The Blessings That Are Taking Place In Pavia

Hello again...
Well, I'm in Milano right now. Anziano Bolnick and I decided to come to Milano for our P DAY with Anziano Poulson and his comp. Anziano Poulson is going home next week, crazy huh? Don't worry, he is happy because he just found out his parents put a $1000 in his account, "just in case he wants to buy a couple things" haha He is such a nerd. It has been super fun having district meeting with him and the assistants in the mission office. We get to see President every week and everyone else in the office. I also just found out that one of the sisters in my MTC district got transferred into the office to do office work. Lucky her eh?..haha. So yeah, today I think we are going to go see the Duomo here so it should be super fun.

This week we had some really cool stuff happen and some really annoying stuff. The annoying stuff we have already gotten over because really it just isn't a big deal BUT I will tell you. So last week we told our ward mission leader about all the preparation for the baptism, like who would speak, pray, ya know, stuff to make a program. We come to find out on like Friday that he wont even be there for the baptism. We were like, well ok that's fine I guess. On Saturday we call him to see if he has called the people who are going to speak, pray and if he has made the baptismal program. He basically says, "no, you guys should just think amongst yourselves what to do". haha We were so mad. We were like seriously?...You have to know too that this guy got home from his mission about 3 months ago and doesn't do anything but sit at home all day. So we ended up making a program out of scratch and made copies and stuff.

The baptism was awesome. Gianluca was super super nervous though. We got pictures with him before he was baptized and his face is just white. The water was freezing! and Gianluca's legs were all over the place haha. We got it the second try though and it was sweet. He bore an awesome testimony and everything. On Monday he kept telling us that like he doesn't have a desire to smoke and that it just feels like all the weight has been lifted of his shoulders. It was pretty sweet. We were also able to get Domingo to come to church although he missed the baptism by about 5 minutes. He was still able to talk with Gianluca though and it was really cool. Gianluca was asking him, "have you been baptized yet? when are you getting baptized?". Domingo had such a good experience at church and the members were awesome at greeting him and talking with him.

Yesterday we were able to have lunch with Domingo after our lesson and it was so good. Basically it was just rice and chicken but it was so awesome to have something out of the norm. Pasta is good but after awhile its just whatev. On Sunday though we were able to go to dinner at a members house, the Carbone's. The dad is the 2nd counselor in the bishopric and is super funny. His wife made such a good pasta though. It was basically a salmon pasta but was awesome. They also had a ton of gelato so we were very content.

Tucker and Elder Glowa (MTC Companion) in Torino.

Well, right quick I will answer some of the questions you guys asked. On Saturday we will be going to Milano later in the day to watch conference. We will also be going on Sunday as well. I think we will probably only miss one session though. We will also get a conference ensign so you don't need to send anything about conference; just your thoughts, likes, dislikes (better not be any of those). Here in Pavia we are riding the bus a good amount but we get a good amount of walking in, too. It all kinda depends on where we are going though, obviously. I read the Lorenzo Snow excerpts and they were really cool. I haven't finished them yet though. My comp and I are just having fun seeing all the blessings that are taking place here in Pavia.

Monday night we had something really cool happen. We had an appointment set up with this man, Daniel, from Togo. We had seen him the other day in centro (downtown) and he was kinda looking at us so we walked up and talked to him. We got his number and then had this appointment set up with him for Monday. So we go to his house where he then proceeds to tell us how a year ago he had met with the missionaries. He had two copies of the book of Mormon, in Italian and French. He really liked our message but he had gotten sick and had to go back to Togo. When he got back he was too scared to talk with us when he'd see us. He knew that the books were special though so he kept them. During our lesson though he kept saying how he wants to follow Christ and follow the 'strada giusta' (the right path). My comp and I were just smiling the whole time, in our heads just thinking, YES YES. We invited him to be baptized and set the date while we were there.

It is truly awesome to see how the Lord places people directly in our paths and how when we are obedient and faithful that we will be blessed. With everything that is happening in our mission it is really keeping us pumped up. It just makes it easier to have such great faith because we almost expect that we will find some. We expect that we will see the blessing when we put in the effort. Obviously it all happens in the Lord's time but with the faith you can do anything. (Moroni 7:33).

President Wolfgramm about a month ago gave us a start chart which basically is a study plan in which we memorize gospel principles and scriptures that go with them. It has been a really good help and has helped me improve a lot as a missionary. Well I hope you are all doing awesome! It is awesome to hear from you all. Love ya. Tuck

"Neff ... Guess What? ... I'm Getting Baptized on Sunday!"

Ciao tutti! It's good to hear from you all. Mom, could kinda get a picture in my head of the story with Ty. haha that kid is such a stud. Being able to hang out with the family and cousins is something I miss a lot but I cant dwell on that stuff too much. The mission is awesome but of course it is natural to miss family members. I'd be lying if I said I didn't.

It is good to hear that the weather is heating up in good old SLC. The weather here in Pavia has also really warmed up a lot this week. It has been very cool in the mornings and evenings, but just about perfect during the afternoons. Last Saturday was an exception though. So we were at an appointment with this African from Ivory Coast(spoke Italian) and it just started pouring. Like it was raining super hard and there was lightning all over the place. At the end of the lesson the guy kept telling us that we needed to call someone for a ride. He didn't want us walking home. We were actually somewhat close to our house, Pavia being a small city, but it was just raining way too much. We called Fratello Almarante to come pick us up(as he always does when we need a hand). He flashed us(called and hung up to save on money) like 3 times. We could not see him anywhere though. Finally, we got got a hold of him and he was saying he went to the wrong palazzo (building), but was super close. The only thing was is that he said his car had broken down. We had suspected as much, his car always sounded like the motor was about to drop out from it. So we had to run through this rainstorm looking for him. We put our jackets in our backpacks and ran like the wind. Finally we found him and we were pretty soaked. We waited in his busted car for like an hour for another member to pick us up. haha it was a sweet experience.

Other than that, this week was pretty sweet. We had to wait an extra week for Gian Luca's baptism because our bishop wanted to have him become familiar with the ward. There were also concerns because he hasn't stopped smoking completely yet. We just got a call from him though like 5 minutes ago saying he had stopped...finito...basta. So that was pretty cool. During our Consiglo di Rione (Ward Council) this week we all knelt down in prayer and prayed that he could stop. It was super cool. There were a lot of members that were saying he should wait longer to be baptized(members who don't even know him or know of his desire to be baptized). It was frustrating at first to convince them that as missionaries we have the gift of discernment for our investigators to know if they are ready or not. So yeah Gian Luca is getting baptized this Sunday!

I got a funny call this Friday. Biyao from Torino 2 called me up and was like....."NEFF...guess what?...(I kinda already knew about it though)...haha what Biyao?....I'm getting baptized on Sunday!"....It was so funny. I was so excited for him though. The zone leaders in Torino who baptized him were telling me that when they set his date, they asked if he would like to invite anyone. The first person that he told them was me haha. It was super cool though. He told me on the phone "NEFF I'm am so excited right now that I'm actually talking to you"..That guy is such a stud. They Capi Zona (Zone Leaders) said that the members just love him.



Baptism of Helen (she was baptized the week Tucker left Torino)

On another note, we had to drop one of our baptismal dates because she just wasn't answering our phone calls. She was basically avoiding us and we were spending way too much time trying to contact her. It was super cool though because in the next two days we set two more baptismal dates. Domingo, from Santo Domingo, and Lourdes. Domingo is such a stud and literally understands everything we are teaching him. He is working two jobs right now, one as a DJ at a discotecca(dance place). Just yesterday though, he told us he is going to quit because he doesn't think he can work in that environment while preparing to be baptized and follow the commandments. HOW AWESOME IS THAT? We didn't even have a problem with him working there. It was just something he feels he needs to do. We are working right now to get his wife involved in the lessons as well. As of now though he will be baptized in about two weeks!

We also had Zone Conference yesterday which of course was a real energizer. It always seems like they come at just the right time. They really focused a lot on asking lots of question to our investigators. Using questions to open them up and using them to teach them. We also talked a lot about our purpose. What are we willing to do as missionaries and why we will do it. It was just a balling conference, like all of them.

We have had a lot of stuff thrown at us by the adversary this week. This last week while seeing lots of success with the investigators we have, we have seen zero success in finding new ones. We took this as our sign of how Satan is working against us. For every good thing there is a bad thing. Just like how without sadness we cannot know happiness. We really pushed ourselves to not dwell on it. I took it to mean that we are just really supposed to focus on our seven investigators that are just super super solid. As long as we are focusing on the good things of this life, we will continue to move forward. We will continue progressing in every aspect of our lives. The adversary throws opposition at us for a reason. Our Heavenly Father allows him to throw these 'fiery darts' at us because without them, how can we progress? We learn through our mistakes and through the decisions we make. After all this is why we have our free agency, right? It is as simple as getting down on myself because I can't speak the language. If I allow that simple things to get me depressed then Satan has won the battle. If we allow ourselves to get down because we haven't found a single person after 3 hours of casa(happened plenty of times this week haha) then Satan has won the battle.

Well I managed to write another chapter to the never ending novel of my life as a missionary. Hope you enjoy it and are doing great. I also managed to write it in half of the time of what I used to do it(I gave myself a pat on the back for that one). I also realized this week that I'm just adding on the pounds, at least by my standards. And another thing, General Conference next week! Yahoo....!...It is like the 6 month mark of my mission, HOLY SMOKES...Don't worry I'm thinking of it in terms that I only have 1 1/2 years left, not 1 1/2 years to go. Crazy crazy crazy.

Love you all...thanks for writing me this week mom. You managed to totally to redeem yourself.

Good News: Gianluca Wants Me to Baptize Him; Bad News: He's 6'3"

Ciao....Good to hear from ya. Mom what happened? You really dropped the ball this week, didnt even send a letter. I'm just messing, I know ya get busy with work, church calling and running the house. I'm just glad I don't have to face what my companion goes through. Apparently last week his mom was just getting super annoyed with the church and wrote him a super long email about why she doesn't like our church. He responded about all the stuff she thought was wrong about it(kinda Bible bashed a little) but bore strong testimony why he converted. So know he just forwarded me her response this week. Basically, she is just too stubborn. She said to him something like, "I'm hurt that you would even think that I would convert someday". A lot of the stuff she says is pretty ridiculous and comes copied right off of the Internet, seriously. Anziano Bolnick is really awesome at handling it though. He has already dealt with the hardest part of being converted which was when he got kicked out of his house. Oh well. I think mom should totally go out to lunch with her sometime. haha I don't know how that would go down but yeah. His mom just thinks all LDS members are super fake and put on a face that we are all super righteous. Think about it though mom. haha


Well, I'm glad that my postcard really hit home for you, dad. It is a pretty sweet picture of the saints. I should have kept it and taped it onto my scriptures. Oh well, you got more out of it then I would have if I had kept it. By the way, I received Grandpa's letter last week even with the wrong address. I will also be sure to throw in a few prayers for you this week about getting another job. Dad I'm always praying for you all, "come on"(Job voice). As we PUSH(not just lally gag) forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having "perfetto fulgore di speranza e amore verso Dio e tutti gli uomini". Push forward feasting upon the words of Christ and persevere until the end, you will have eternal life( 2 Nephi 31:20). This is one of my favorites. I didn't quote it exactly but I really know it's true, along with the rest of the Book of Mormon. When we push forward with faith and hope, our Heavenly Father will bless us, and our Savior, Jesus Christ, will help us to endure. I'm praying for you though, even crossing my fingers.

That is good to hear that Hill and Lisa are working hard. It will be sweet to see how good Hill is when I get back(not to sound trunky or anything). Hopefully everyone else on the team can put in the same effort. Are the Jazz just stinking it up now after losing D Will?

Alright so this week was pretty sweet. We were able to find a couple people we have high hopes for(we have high hopes for everyone but sometimes it is evident who is more ready for the gospel. We found a man from Peru and one from Santo Domingo(if that's how you spell it). The man from Peru is Oscar and the other is named Domingo(what a coinkadink). Domingo has already started reading the scriptures and really likes them. He understands everything about our message so far and seems to really have a desire to know the truth.


Sunday we had stake conference in Milano. It was super, super far and was actually at a Hotel. It was pretty cool though and we got to see a ton of other misisonaries. It was really sweet to see so many members in Italy all gathered together. I think there were about 15 wards all together. We were also able to have a bunch of member present lessons. Fratello Almarante(converted couple years back) is a stud. He is like 40 years old and helps us out a ton. He is a little weird but is super funny and such a good member. He came with us to a lesson with a new convert and her non-member husband. We taught the restoration and it went really well. We were able to bear really strong testimonies. The husband is super busy all the time but he said he would continue reading the Bok of Mormon.

On Monday we went to district meeting in Milano. President Wolfgramm and Sorella Wolfgramm joined the meeting and it was really fun. We even got cookies that the office sisters made for us. Quick story, Anziano Poulson just got a new companion. Anziano Poulson is in Milano 3, which is the same ward as President Wolfgramm. When missionaries are struggling or almost go home, they usually get transferred to Milano 3 to be near President. So a missionary that got here 2 weeks ago wanted to go home, but his family talked him into staying. President decided to move him up to Milano 3 from Sienna. So Monday, I got to scambio with this super new greenie. Anziano Cluff. The best part about it was that we were going to Milano. It was like this because Ive already scambiod (done exchange) with Anziano Poulson and he had to go to Pavia. He had to go to Pavia because we were having our baptismal interview with Gian Luca and the interview is done by the district leader. So...long story short...me and Anziano Cluff went to Milano for our scambio. I have no clue where anything is in Milano; Anziano Cluff doesn't have a clue where anything is in Milano. I don't speak very good italian, Anziano Cluff doesn't speak any Italian. haha get the picture?...Well after about 2 hours of riding the bus we finally made it back to the Milano 3 apartment. The only thing Anziano Cluff knew was the our apartment was next to some huge spire. He kept saying, well if we can get there, i know how to get to the apartment. haha I was like well ok....It ended up being pretty fun. We had been invited by a Peruvian family for family home evening that night too so we had to find that. It wasn't too hard though and we had a really sweet time. I was able to lead the lesson, which I'm terrible at usually, but it was really good and Anziano Cluff was able to bear a short, very short testimony haha. The kid is super nice, and we really bonded during the scambio. I was surprised with how much advice I had to offer. I really have learned a lot since being out here. I also realized how much better my Italian has gotten haha. Being around a brand new missionary helps to realize the difference in how well you know the language. I guess it also depends on the missionary as well. So maybe I'm still pretty bad..haha just kidding.

Well other good news, Gian Luca passed his baptismal interview. He also wants me to baptize him haha, bad news is, Gian Luca is like 6'3 haha. When he asked me I was like "uh......well......if you want me to then yeah of course I will". haha so maybe you can all pray that I can literally have the strength to perform his baptism haha. The baptism was going to be this week but the bishop felt we should wait one week so that he can come to church and become more familiar with the members. Boh (Italian for "I dunno")...I guess if he thinks that is best then that is what we will do. We think he is prepared now and that the longer he waits, the more time that Satan has to act against him. Other than that we are stoked for Gian Luca.

We were also able to set another baptismal date with this Pervusian lady, Lourdes. I think once she receives her answer to the Book of Mormon that she will be so awesome. She already is awesome but she will just be (hmmm, come si dice?)....super awesome!
Well I hope all is going well at home. Everything here in Italy is just swell. Don't be jealous that I get to be serving the Lord, in one of the sweetest places on earth. That is super cool the Jordan Davis is going to Rome. I also heard that one of Jake's other friends, Derek Hollands, is also going there too. Italy is the best. Too bad they aren't in the best place within Italy, which is the Missione di Milano.

"Well, How Great Is Your Faith?" ... He Walked to the Trash And Threw His Cigarettes Away

Come state? (How are you doing?)

Well to answer some of the questions real quick. We haven't moved apartments yet but I think we will in the next couple weeks. We went just yesterday to check it out but I still don't think anything will be finalized for a little while. It was really nice though and will have air conditioning. Anziano Poulson served here in Pavia his first two transfers and said the summers here are pretty hot and have lots of mosquitoes. My companion hit his year mark just last week. He is actually only like a week older than I am.

I have definitely been cooking a lot more this transfer. We switch off cooking each day and make a variety of stuff. This week we even made hamburgers that were very good. We have had a lot of pasta, gnocchi and other stuff though. I have definitely struggled though this transfer with food. I think I have been full for like a week straight now, haha it sucks. This week we're gonna try and start buying lots of fruit and stuff and stay clear of pasta as much as we can. On Sunday we actually brought one of our investigators from Togo to a members house, along with a new convert also from Togo, and had dinner. We made African food which was so awesome but killed me. It is called foo foo(fu fu?) and is sort of like mash potatoes but with a more soft, smooth texture. It was really fun and we kinda helped build a relationship between our investigator and the other members.

That really is such a cool story about the Talbots. I remember when he was my Sunday school teacher for a little bit and he was super nice. It is awesome to hear that he is alright though and how much Heavenly Father blesses us when we exercise faith in him. It definitely hard to always believe that He can truly help us through anything. We teach, preach and hear about faith so much but we don't always understand how much we really need it. When you have 'abbastanza' (enough) you can overcome anything. Heavenly Father is just waiting for people to have that faith. When they finally do have that faith, he blesses them. It is also true that he doesn't always bless us immediately or when we think we need it. Heavenly Father will bless us in his own time when he knows it will help us the most. That is really cool though how the whole ward came and fasted together.

Well this week was pretty fun. Last Friday we had a ward party for Carnevale which is an Italian holiday. We were able to bring like 3 investigators. One of them was Gian Luca and the other two are two girls we met last week. They all had a pretty fun time which was surprising because we thought the party was gonna be super lame. The kids and some adults even dressed up in costumes. I was able to get some really fun pictures. I even saw one girl in the ward wearing an East High cheerleader costume. That movie really has spread over the entire world.

On Monday we had our district meeting so we bussed all the way to the mission office. We had a really sweet district meeting and me and my comp got to talk with President Wolfgramm for a bit. After district meeting I went back with District Leader Anziano Poulson haha to Pavia for our scambio (exchange). Uh oh Pavia, watch out. It was really fun and we actually got in a few times and taught some lessons. It was cool because we had been doing casa (tracting) for a while and had just zero success. It was around 8:15 to 8:30. Anziano Poulson was like "well, lets go get a pizza for our scambio" (its usually tradition on scambios to get either ice cream or pizza). I was like, dang, we have only taught one lesson today, this isn't a good way to start off the week. We then stopped, and Anziano Poulson said, alright well lets go to some more casa. We went back to a palazzo and got in twice, teaching two lessons. We got a return appointment with these 4 ragazzi that are studying here in Pavia.

We also got in with this super old guy. It was kinda funny when we met him. When we knocked on the door, this lady opened and motioned us right away to follow her in. (she was basically this guys nurse.) Right as she leads us into the room, we see this 80 something year old guy, in a wheel chair that is basically on his death bed. Right as we see him though I hear Anziano Poulson say "Oh No....."...haha I about dyed laughing, just the way he said it. It was like, crap what are we gonna do. We ended up talking a lot about Christ and bearing some really good testimonies to this old guy, who could barely talk. He told us that he actually worked a lot with Padre Pio who is really famous here in Italia. It was just really cool how when we persevere and keep working hard that the Lord will bless us. So often I've seen in missionaries that want to give up early on the night and go back to the apartment. I think every missionary at times wants to go back early because they aren't seeing success. It is awesome to see the blessing of hard work and diligence.

We had some concerns with Gian Luca this week. He didn't come to church last week because of work. Yesterday we really stressed the importance of church and that if he wants to be baptized on his date that he has to come the next two times. Next Sunday is stake conference in Milano and we really didn't think he could come. We then asked him "well, how great is your faith". You have to know that this guy, read the BOM and received an answer it was true before meeting any of the missionaries or coming to church. After we asked him the question, we sat in silence for what seemed like an eternity. He then walked to the trash and threw his cigarettes in the trash. He said I'm quitting now. Gian Luca had been trying to quit for the last couple weeks. It was really cool to see him do that. He then said he would pray for some way to get to church this week and that he wouldn't have to work. It was awesome, especially because we know how much he wants to be baptized. I don't think before we asked him the question about his faith, that he had realized what it really meant. It was really sweet.

Thanks for the sports articles. Utes are gonna kick butt.

Tell Benny the Jet, congratulation on making the the baseball team and to just work his butt off.

Well thanks for the emails and the updates. So yeah, for now just send stuff to the mission office. I think that will be best because I'm not sure when or even if we are moving apartments yet. Nothing is set and final.

Love you all and hope your doing well.

Gianluca Just Showed Up At Church

How in the heck are ya?......Well I am in Pavia! So long my Nigerian African brothas, hello old cranky Italians!. Alright, so like I said last week, Pavia is about a twenty minute train ride from Milano. It is definitely a lot lot lot lot lot different than Torino. Pavia is pretty small and there are zero Africans. When we do see Africans they are usually from Togo, Cameroon and don't speak English. This is a wonderful thing! haha. There are definitely a lot of old people here in Pavia. At least they aren't flaky like the African people we taught. Don't get me wrong, I loved the Africans so much but sometimes...sometimes...aghh...I think it was just last week in Torino that we set an appointment up with this guy named Ritchie from Nigeria. Ricthie told us we could come over at 5, so we did. He wasn't home so we called him and he told us he was outside doing something but that we could come back at 7. We come back at 7 and he then tells us that he won't be back until midnight??? haha. Oh well.

Quick update on mission rules before I forget.....We can no longer email anybody but our immediate family. So if you could make that clear to people then that would be great. It will be sweet because now I don't have to worry about taking so much time to write everyone. Letters are better and more sincere anyway. We also got our email time cut in half. We were a little bummed at first but it will just be so much better.

My new companion is just a stud. Anziano Bolnick went to Jordan High School for his junior and senior year after moving from Colorado. He was converted about two years ago and guess who converted him?....Ryan and Colby Fletcher (their family lived in our ward and Tucker played soccer with them). Yeah, so I was going through my memory and just throwing out every name I could remember from Sandy and he knew quite a few of them. He is like best friends with the Fletchers and I think it was Ryan that baptized him. He played hockey with both of them and actually lived with them for a bit. His parents are not supportive of him at all so it's kinda tough. They kicked him out after they found out he was baptized. He is awesome though and just "knows a butt load about the gospel". He speaks really well and I am learning a lot.

The ward here is pretty cool and is medium sized. It definitely isn't as big as the Torino wards but it's really cool. A lot of the ward is related, the Caliò family being the main family. Our bishop, Vescovo Caliò, has 3 brothers in the ward that all have their own families. Our ward mission leader Rubin is pretty cool. He just got back from his mission in England about 3 months ago. Haha. He's always super stressed though because his girlfriend lives in England and he can't talk to her very often. He went back to England to baptize his girlfriend like a week after he got home. haha His mood swings are a direct result of having a long distance relationship.

Our apartment seems to be in good shape. Anziano Bolnick said that when he arrived in Pavia 3 transfers ago that it was the craps. He said literally everything was broken and it was just a mess. They even had to move out into the assistants apartment for a week or so while the church cleaned the place up. Right now it is in pretty good shape though. The church is looking for a new apartment for us to move to though. I don't know when we would move though.

I haven't been able to read the Lorenzo Snow article yet, Ive been a bit preoccupied with missionary work haha. Just kidding, but really. I was actually thinking about reading it though sometime soon. This week has been really fun though, a lot of funny and cool experiences.

So we have this lady Simona that has been investigating for a long time and they finally got a baptismal date with her right before I arrived. She has Schizophrenia though and is a little out there(more towards, really out there). She is always super nice though, she just ask us for our help all the time. The other day we spent our entire morning helping her out. She called us asking if we could do her shopping for her because it has to be done at a certain store. We asked why she couldn't do it and she said because the people that worked there are just bad people. So we go to the store and she isn't there. We call her and she says she is at a different one so we go to that one. She isn't there and so we finally get to the right store and get everything. We were a little annoyed because we wasted a lot of finding working time but we thought, its OK, we will be blessed for this.

Previously in the week we had found 3 college students(all girls) that said we could come in and teach but we couldn't because there was no man. They then invited us to dinner two days later and said they would bring a guy friend so we could come. So now, it's the day we helped Simona with her shopping. Before we went to the dinner appointment we found a really cool guy and got a return appointment. Now he is an investigator. We then went to the dinner and found that the girls had brought other friends. It was pretty cool and we got to teach a sweet Restoration lesson with them all. So we ended up getting like 10 new investigators that day. I don't think all were super interested or anything but we will see. It is just super cool how the Lord blesses us for certain things. Like helping Simona, we knew something good would come out of it.

We also have this really cool guy named Gian Luca. Gian Luca just showed up at church the Sunday before I arrived. We started teaching him and he had already read the Book of Mormon, looked up tons of info on the church websites. He is so ELECT its not even funny. He has a small problem with smoking but he is already making great strides in overcoming it. We had a really cool Plan of Salvation lesson the other day. He has a bum leg and limps a lot so at the end of the lesson we read the scripture about how "every hair on our head shall not be lost" and he loved it.

This area is really growing and making big progress regarding missionary work. I really am super excited to be here. It sucked to miss Helen's baptism but its not about me. Obviously, the Lord has his own plans. He knows what is best for me better than what I think is best for me. I know I am supposed to be here at this time and I couldn't be happier.

Yesterday I couldn't write because we had Leadership Training. Our whole zone and a few other went and it was super cool. We learned a "butt load about the gospel." Our new "Teaching to Find" way of teaching is exploding. The mission is already seeing tons of progress and the effects of it are amazing. The use of principles, testimony and question(and simplicity)in EVERY aspect of our teaching is changing the mission. The misisonaries, including me, have more confidence and faith in what we are teaching.

During the conference we were told about Nehemiah and when he was rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem. Many people told him while he was starting to build it that he was wasting his time They told him to come down from the wall and give up. His response is awesome. (Nehemiah 6:3). He says something like, "Why shall I come down while this Great Work stops?". The new rules that have been set in the mission are for our benefit. Why should we stop this great work by emailing all our friends, taking Culture Days, calling other missionaries. President Wolfgramme has really been inspired with this and with Teaching to Find. Everyone is excited and just pumped. Yeah it could be hard to give up some stuff but if we remember in our call letter, something like.... "as you set aside all other personal affairs and focus on the work, you will find success."

The conferences we have are so money. Every time we have them, whether it's interviews, zone conference, leadership training, I get spiritually recharged. We always come away just being wowed.(wowed?). Anways...Thank you all for the emails. Sorry, I can't write back anymore, but it's for the best. Keep on trucking with ward ball Dad. Mom sorry about the cold. Andy come on dude.....seriously. haha. Hill, keep playing hard in soccer, I keep hearing good things, keep it up. Ashley....good luck with dance. Supercallofredulisticexpealodocious....Sawyer...what the heck dude? Write me sometime ya lazy dog!

Here is another novel to the collection...Enjoy!

How is Utah handling the DWILL news?...I'm thinking not to good. Aunt Carrol sent another letter to my first apartment. Maybe you should tell her i have changed locations.

Transferred to Pavia -- "Tell Them You Will Go Next Week"

No, the light switch has not clicked yet (thinking in Italian), but hopefully it will soon. My Italian is improving little by little though.

Oh yeah....don't send anymore letters to Torino. I'm heading to the big leagues. Pavia!!!! Pavia is just below Milano. I will be having district meeting in the mission office every week so I'm really close. My companion will be Anziano Bulnick, i think, and he went to Jordan High School apparently. I will be leaving tomorrow morning at like 6:30 AM haha.

Today was super fun though. We went to a really cool city up north about 2 hours away called Aosta. We basically walked around for a few hours and got some cool pictures. It was super fun. This week has been really fun though. I was a bit sad I won't get to stick around to see Helen's baptism, but it is alright. Hahah 3 cities, 3 companions in 3 transfers. Either I am just a terrible missionary or an awesome missionary, I haven't decided which one yet haha, just kidding.

On Friday we had the traveling assistants come to our apartment and we did a big scambio (exchange). The traveling assistants were called for just this transfer and they went around to young copias (companionships) teaching them how to improve, better ways to teach. It was so much fun and I really learned a lot. We now have a totally different door approach that we will also use when contacting on the streets. Basically, we teach a principle, ask a question and bear testimony. A lot of the time our time at the door is so short that we don't ever have time to teach anything. This insures that the person can at least feel the spirit because there are so many missionaries out in the world, but of course we are different.

Yesterday was really funny because we had a lesson with Helen. We sat down and I told her that I would be leaving to a new city. haha. She had the angriest look on her face. She immediately said, "tell them that you will go next week". haha I explained that I couldn't and she seemed to get over it. After the lesson I was able to get a picture with her, she is so funny. After the picture as I was shaking her hand to say goodbye, she totally tried to sneak a hug on me.

So with the traveling assistants basically how it worked is this....I went with one of the assistants, Anziano Kober and we went out and taught, did casa (tracting), etc. Anziano Dean went with the other assistant Anziano Grey. It was really really fun and we taught a bunch. The new approach worked so well, it was sweet. I was also able to get some really good points on how to study the language better. The traveling assistants will be dissolved after this transfer though. Anziano Grey actually just became the other assistant along with Anziano Mangram. They will be pretty sweet. Our assistants thus far have really done a kick butt job.

The sisters in Torino 2 asked me to play the piano for their baptism this week. I also got to play for the musical number, Sister Nasland sang. Haha it was kinda funny because she wanted to have it played a certain way. Like after the first verse she wanted me to play half way through and then skip the chorus and start the 3rd verse(kinda confusing huh?)...Well we started out fine and then apparently she forgot what she wanted to do. So she kept singing the chorus during the second verse while I started over on the 3rd verse, like I was supposed to do....oops.

So yeah DON'T SEND ANYMORE LETTERS TO TORINO!!!!!....I don't know my new address but I will send it next week. Mom, I have my retainer. I dont think it will last through the mission though. There is always hope though haha. My teeth are doing alright I guess. They move back after awhile if I take my retainer out though. It ain't too bad though.

That is sweet that Hill and her team played well, too bad they couldn't win. That is cool Hillary got to play a lot and is getting better and better. I finally got an email from my lame friend Connor. haha nerd.

That is so cool that Eden is going to Rome, maybe she will be companions with the girl from my district, Sorella Stebar.

Did I tell you Taylor Swift is playing in Milano, MARCH 15th. haha.....................don't worry I wont be going.

Well that is sweet all is going well at home. I will be sure to give ya the details on my address next week.