Thursday, June 30, 2011

Moving to Modena

Modena is located on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. It's only about 30 km from Bologna. The territory around Modena was inhabited by the Villanovans in the Iron Age, and later by Ligurian tribes, Etruscans, and the Gaulish Boii. Although the exact date of its foundation is unknown, it is known that it was already in existence in the 3rd century BC during Hannibal's invasion of Italy.



Modena is well known in culinary circles for its production of meats and balsamic vinegar, and in the music world as the birthplace of Luciano Pavarotti.

Like most Italian cities, one of the main tourist sights is the cathedral. It was finished in 1184, and a bell tower which took nearly a hundred years to complete was added in 1319. Modena's Duomo inspired campaigns of cathedral and abbey building in emulation through the valley of the Po.



The Piazza Grande

Modena is now best known as "the capital of engines", since the factories of the famous Italian sports car makers Ferrari, De Tomaso, Lamborghini, Pagani and Maserati are, or were, located here and all, except Lamborghini, have headquarters in the city or nearby. Lamborghini is headquartered not far away in Sant'Agata Bolognese, in the adjacent Province of Bologna. One of Ferrari's cars, the 360 Modena, was named after the town itself. Also, one of the colors for Ferraris is Modena yellow.



In 2007, there were 179,937 people residing in Modena. Motor racing is obviously a big sport in this city. The city's football club, Modena F.C., plays in Serie B, the Italian second division.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Baptism Isn't Everything, It's the Only Thing

Yes dad, you were right, transfers are coming up. I'm leaving Pavia!....Don't think I'm excited to leave though. I've just spent about half my mission in Pavia and it has been AWESOME!.....I really saw myself change dramatically as a missionary both spiritually and physically. Physically in the sense that I can speak relatively well. There are still many phrases, words and things I need to learn and perfect. Many, many things but....I can at least speak the things I want to say so that others understand. You are probably thinking..."yeah yeah yeah....who cares about the language, I just want to know where he's going." Alright geez...I will tell yeah take a chill pill. I'm heading to MODENA!

I will be leaving my nice little shell, which I loved oh so much, as junior companion and will be senior companion to Anziano Hutchinson. He is a group below me and I was actually his zone leader in the MTC so I know him fairly well. Anziano Barnes actually trained him so that's kinda interesting. I will also be put into a position in which I will have to really stretch and grow my faith as President asked me to be the district leader.....YIKES!.....as he says in Rookie of the Year...."Oh boy..OH boy....". Don't worry I'm only a little nervous. I'm actually really excited because not only will I be able to help grow other missionaries with this calling, but I will grow too. I think i will probably do more growing because I will have rely on the Lord a lot,lot,lot more than I have in the past. Before if I couldn't speak or teach something I just let it slide to the senior comp haha. Now iIkinda just have to dig down deep and kick butt with my partner in crime, Anziano Hutchinson.

From what I have heard so far from some of the members here in Pavia, I will eat super well in Modena. The Ferrari and Lamborghini(not spelled right) factories are also in this area so that should be cool. That is all I know about Modena so far(dad is already looking up all the facts as he's reading this...I just know it).

So yeah we have been kicking butt here in Pavia the last couple weeks. We finished up last week with 23 lessons, beating our previous record which was fun. Obviously numbers aren't everything but we are called to teach the gospel and that's what we plan to do. Already we have taught about 11 or 12 lessons this week which is super fun. We just got done doing a scambio with the traveling assistants and I learned a crap load about a bunch of stuff I can do better to be better. One miracle that we saw was Monday morning with Anziano Newton(traveling assistant). We got let into the first door of the first palazzo we did. We exited that door having two baptismal dates set. haha it was super cool. One of the things I learned was that we can and we should be inviting people to be baptized the first time we meet them. Baptism isn't everything...IT'S THE ONLY THING...(something we learned in Zone conference a few weeks ago.) Without baptism nobody can enter into the kingdom of God. We should be letting people know what our purpose is right from the very beginning and we need to invite them to follow Christ. Obviously it may not go like that every time where they accept but they need to know what we expect. The entire scambio was very very fun and an awesome learning experience.


TUCKER and ANZIANO BARNES in PAVIA














The Africans are all doing very well. We are teaching them almost every day and they are all progressing. Some are progressing more than others, partly because of the language barrier(some only speak twi). We have others though that translate for them and they are progressing slower than the others. We feel that most of them will be ready for baptism though, the 10th of July. It is too bad I won't be around to see them get baptized. They are awesome though.

It is awesome to hear that you are all doing great. From Andy's email it sounds like he is doing just great with life and that he's loving it. That is great that Ash did well in her recital and that Hill is having fun with soccer.

We have still been riding the bikes quite a bit, last week we logged over a 100 miles again. We actually don't get too much gelato though. Anziano Barnes is a super healthy eater(doesn't even eat egg yokes haha rookie). He's teaching me a thing or two though about what is good and whats not. Sometimes I just could care less and I eat whatever. We run for about 20 minutes every morning though so I'm keeping my weight in check....for now.

Dad I do have PMG in Italian. And yes we teach the Restoration often. It is the first lesson in PMG and we are basically commanded to teach it. After all, it is the most important thing we have to teach and share with others. It is why we are different from any other religion in the world. The principles of this lesson are

God is our Loving Heavenly Father
The gospel blesses families
The gospel is revealed in every dispensation
Christ's earthly ministry and atonement
Great Apostasy
Restoration(Joseph Smith story)
Book of Mormon
Praying to know the truth

This is the Restoration lesson and we are taught to teach it to everyone in any situation. Pretty sweet huh?

That is very shocking the jazz drafted a 7 ft European, did see that coming....hm.......Kosta Koufas...Fezenko....?.....that will complement other big white guys, Curtis Borchardt, Rafael Araujo, Mehmet Okur, Ostertag....haha come on....just kidding....maybe it will work out this time.

Well haha...pray for me...I certainly am, well at least for those in my district. Haha hopefully I can keep it from falling apart. Just kidding. But really, you can pray for me.

I love you all

Ciao Tutti

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

"Come On, We're Going to Church"

Well first off I will answer some of the question and other stuff before i give an account of the week. I did receive your package this week and I loved it! I pounded the candy super fast haha and I was playing the music first thing when I got back from district meeting. Thanks so much!

Domingo and Gianluca are both doing really well. I think Domingo gets the whole "what it means to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" thing. Gianluca is solid but he is a bit weird sometimes haha. I dont know how to explain it haha. Both are doing great though, and it has been cool to see them bless the sacrament and everything. Domingo is still trying to get his wife to find find the same light that he has but she doesn't have much interest just yet.

I will have to say Dad, HAPPY FATHERS DAY!...you will like the little present I sent. I sent off a CD of pictures last week but I realized that hardly any of them actually have pictures of me in them...oops. I just haven't had too much time for picture taking in the last little while. Missionary work is time-consuming but awesome! We really had a great example of this "awesomeness" this past week. Here is a question, could the girls really not think of anything better to buy than garments?.....I bet dad was super excited about that gift haha!...just kidding. I'm still not sure what type of camera I have...NEXT week I will let you know. Sorry I will tell you that I do really like Mineral Water...although now it is called FRIZZANTE. It was so so at first but now I love it.

Alright, so this is a long story.... all last week we just kept pushing ourselves to teach 20 lessons. We had been challenged last month to teach 20 lessons a week. We had been promised but some of the general authorities(through the mission leaders) that the number of baptisms would increase. After Zone Conference we were super pumped and ready to teach 20 lessons. We had only taught 7 lessons the week before and we were not happy about it even though it had been rather successful in other ways. It seemed like everything had gone all wrong though because we had many member lessons scheduled and almost every single one fell through.

We had gotten to the Thursday afternoon and we only had about 7 lesson taught. We weren't even close to 20. We kept pushing each other though and we were convinced we would teach 20 lessons by the end of the week; we knew that God would provide a way. Thursday night we met two Africans while doing strada and both of them could barely speak English. We were able to find out that they lived super close in a hotel and they told us we could pass by the next day.

So the next day we go over and we find both of these two guys, Frank and Immanuel outside of the hotel. They quickly tell us to sit down and that they would go get their brother to come and listen, too. Within the next five minutes there were about 10-15 other Africans surrounding us ready to listen to our message!!!!!! It was so funny because while they were coming outside to listen to us we could hear a few saying "come on, we're going to church!". We shared the Joseph Smith story and talked about the Book of Mormon. They were all super interested and they said we could come back again the next day! We felt like Christ giving the Sermon on the Mount, it was AWESOME!

The next day we taught them again and we brought Book of Mormons for all of them. The lesson went awesome and again they loved the lesson. We gave them a soft baptismal invite and they accepted. The day after that we came back to teach scripture study, prayer and obedience and invited them all to be baptized on the 10th of July and they all accepted. A few of them were not there but we set dates with them the following day. Sunday was amazing! On the way to church we stopped by their hotel and picked all of them up. We walked with them to church and when we got their the members were shocked(in a good way). We had to translate for them but after church they all told us that church was Amazing!

As of now there are about 7 Africans who have baptismal dates and are all really interested and want to be baptized. A few don't understand as much as the others but it is very evident that they feel the spirit and want to know more. The others translate for them after the lesson.

Anyways, the other awesome part of the story is that by Sunday we had only taught 14 lessons, which was already more than any other week of this transfer. We taught one to the Africans during church so we were at 15 lessons. There was a young men stake activity that we were invited to that was in the afternoon. We would be doing splits with the young men for about an hour. On the way to a stake youth activity in Milano we taught a lesson on the train, and I was able to teach a lesson during the splits with the young adult. On the way back to Pavia we taught another lesson on the train. We went directly to teach the Africans(Frank, Immanuel, Bismack, Wilfred, Austin, Larry, Richard, Kelly). We were teaching in groups of 2's with them so we could really get to know them better because in a big group it is super hard. We taught 4 lessons with them and each one was so spiritual. It was amazing!. By the end of the night we had taught 8 LESSONS!!!!. We finished the week with 22 lessons, we smashed our previous record of 12 during this transfer and I smashed my record so far in the mission(17). It was an awesome day and one of my favorites of the mission. It was full of fun, full of the spirit and bringing others closer to Christ. Heavenly Father truly does work miracles we just need to do our part and continue going forward with faith!

There is a Romanian we are teaching that also has lots of interest. We met him this week and had a lesson with him Monday that went awesome. He was asking us at the end of the lesson when we could come back. He said we could come Thursday, Friday, or Saturday or even all 3 days! haha. He is a sweet dude and i will talk more about him next week.

Our work is really going awesome right now and has just exploded. I felt like it was going to happen any day and it did. When we go forward with faith, being diligent, things will happen.

Thanks for the updates! Love you all...keep the sports coming. Facciamo Così (that's how we will do it) .....we will trade spirit for sports...sounds good. haha. You are awesome.

PS..I will try getting some pics with me actually in them....my bad. By the way did I tell you yet we have been on bikes this whole transfer? These last few weeks have been a doozy...over 200 miles combined...YIKES. Talk about going the extra mile...just kidding.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Small Miracles and Spiritual Experiences

Ciao Tutti!

We had an interesting week this week filled with small miracles and spiritual experiences from Zone Conference. There isn't really one thing from this week that just sticks out at me so I don't know where to start. Our apartment as of now is still in the process of coming together. We do for some reason have hot water, relatively hot water, but that is about it. We have just figured out that the hallways in our palazzo do have electricity so we have started running an extension cord from our washing machine to right outside our apartment door. I found out also this morning after testing our washing machine for the first time that the hose for the water to exit the washing machine wasn't attached properly. This led to water all over our bathroom floor and my clothes not being washed very well for some reason. Oh well. Last Thursday though we had to wash our clothes at a dry cleaner/place where you can manually wash your clothes in a washing machine. We spent far too long trying to find the place but we were out of clothes completely.

After backtracking and riding the bus we finally found a place. When we entered it was empty, but about 30 seconds after we entered, a young mom and her daugther came in. While we started doing our laundry we got talking and we got talking about families. After a couple minutes the owner of the store came over and started explaining how she knows us. She talked about what we do as missionaries and how she used to go to English class that the missionaries held. After another couple minutes the owner lady walked away but the mother, Simona, became more interested. The conversation very quickly led to the Restoration. We then had one of the most powerful recitations of the First Vision, at least that I've had. Throughout the entire time I was reciting it, the mother, Simona, and I were locked in. It was awesome to see her eyes just light up as I recounted the vision.

We went on to explain the Book of Mormon and how having this and the restored gospel can bless our lives. It was awesome! She agreed to read it and said it like she meant it. It really helped me to realize how the Lord places people in our paths, we just need to open our mouths and speak. There is power in the First Vision as well as in our personal testimonies. My faith in my own testimony grew from this experience and it taught me how this can happen with every experience we have when we bear testimony.

Simona and her daugther left the day after on vacation so we can't see them until the 20th but it will be interesting to see how it will go with them. Switching over to Benedetta, Paola and Francesca.....as of know we don't know a whole lot. We still don't have their phone number because we have met with them through the Virzo Family. The Virzos told us this week that they encouraged them to call us. Benedetta and Paolo didn't come to church this week because the Virzos couldn't and they usually come together. Hopefully this week we will be able to see them more often.

Zone Conference was super awesome yesterday! We learned a butt-load about the gospel. We really learned a lot though about how we can improve.

1)Putting more focus/attention in flooding the earth with Book of Mormons. I personally learned that I need to do better in discussing the importance of this book and then being able to place them.

2)Painting a better picture for our investigators about church. I need to explain and promise better the blessing of coming to church (you will feel love, peace, have guidance and 15 other promised blessing in PMG).

These are just a few of the things I learned about what I can do to become a better missionary. It was truly an awesome conference and we (both me and my collega) came away completely edified and ready to change. We had an interesting last half of the day in which we placed talked with a bunch of really awesome people and had a sweet lesson with the groundskeeper of our palazzo. He is from Lithuania and only speaks a little Italian but it was so awesome. We gave him a Book of Mormon in his language and taught him how to pray. He explained to us a really awesome story about how he came to really believe in God. In short, he was working on a ship and it capsized and he had to swim for like 8 hours before being rescued. He prayed at the end of the lesson, and it was just super spiritual even though we didn't understand each other 100 percent.

I hope you like the long letter. I am sending a package today right after I'm done writing to you all. You all sound like you're doing awesome.

I have yet to get your package so hopefully it comes soon or sometime.

So Andy really did have a "crappy" honeymoon....haha.....that's too bad.

Well I love you all....

Ciao.

"What Have You Done? He Is A Changed Person!"

Ciowdy!

Man, I just feel super awesome right now having read all about the wedding. That is just awesome that it was a great experience and that everything went perfectly! I guess doing the line is always a hassle and the bride, groom and family can never participate and have fun. Good thinking! I am excited to get the pictures and see all the fun. I got Andy and Clara's wedding invitation with the picture on Monday, and it was super cool. I had to laugh a little bit because I don't think I have ever seen Andy's hair so long. That guy can't go a week without getting a haircut. Then again, maybe I'm just used to seeing super short missionary haircuts. boh...

I can just imagine Travis wearing that outfit on the temple grounds. I love that guy. I very well might try and get one of those myself, sometime during this lifetime. I just have to get the courage to actually buy it and then actually wear it. It will be done though; I testify of that. Trent's hair haha, nerd...the pictures I have seen so far, just the two, look awesome. The bridesmaid dresses were pretty awesome and Andy's suit is pretty cool.(I'm just saying)

This week went pretty well for us. During our leadership training last week Presdident Wolfgramme really encourage all of to try and teach 20 lessons every week. The 20 lesson mark here in Italy can be very difficult, but it is obtainable with effort, diligence, prayer and all the other tools we have as missionaries. We are really pushing to get this every week. I might have gotten it a couple times in my first transfer haha, but I cant remember. So far though the last couple weeks our copia hasn't done too good. We had a couple week last months of only teaching 6 lessons. One of those was when we had our move to the new apartment so there is a bit of excuse in that. We basically had 3 days of missionary work. We are increasing a lot though now, we just had 12 lessons last week. Obviously it isn't all about numbers but they also obviously have something in common with baptisms. If you teach more lessons you will have more baptisms. duh..... haha. We are trying as much as possible to see members as often as possible and its super fun teaching them and getting them excited to do the work with us.

On Sunday, Paolo(the father of this family) came to church! It was super awesome because at the beginning we thought he had no interest, but it's awesome to see how he is changing. We hear all about it from the Virzo family. This last week he went with his family to Milano for a Primary activity. Their whole family went and had a great time apparently! They even said he started helping the ward while they were doing yard work/service outside the ward building! We got to kinda sorta have a lesson with Paolo and other new converts during Gospel Principles class. Our ward mission leader didn't come so we had to teach the class and we kinda taught it around Paolo's needs. The lesson for that week was the Creation and it worked perfect. He started asking question about the Plan of Salvation and was super curious. It set us up perfect for our next lesson with him and his family. We also heard from the Virzo family that Paolo and Benedetta had been planning to get divorced. We don't know for if they are still planning to but we are constantly updated by Sorella Virzo about how Benedetta is just amazed by her husband. She keeps saying "what have you done, he is a changed person"! It super cool and we are super excited for them.

Well....I still haven't received your package but it could come any day I guess. I am planning to get another DVD of pictures this week and try and send it this week or the next depending on how much time we have. Our apartment is coming together but we still don't have electricity or gas. We are basically eating a lot with members and keeping stuff at the church haha. It is keeping it interesting.


Well I love you all

Tuck

Monday, June 6, 2011

"Whoa ... There Is Silence"

Ciao

Well, it was a very interesting week this week. It was definitely a little crazy moving our entire apartment to another one in just 2 days. Friday morning we had district meeting and then as soon as we got back from Milano we just starting packing everything. We packed our own stuff, all the kitchen supplies, food, Book of Mormons(we have them in over 20 languages), 10 years worth of Ensigns and Liahonas, pamphlets and everything else....haha it was...interesting. Saturday morning we then got up super early and we had members come and help us move everything to the new apartment. Doing that took about three and half hours, then we had to clean because the paint job was terrible and they dripped all over the new floors and running boards. We (me and my comp) then cleaned and got everything in order the rest of the day. It was like two days of doing nothing and I was kinda glad for it to be over. Oh yeah...we haven't had electricity since we moved in. So we don't have a fridge or stove that works haha..it kinda sucks but we have eaten with members a lot this week, so we haven't had to make anything anyway.

Sunday we had a fun experience though. The Virzo family set up a little picnic after church at this park that was close by. They brought some non-member friends to come as well. The daughter, Francesca, has been to church with the members quite a few times while the mom has come once. They have been looking to really improve their lives and basically just find happiness. The lunch went really well and the food was just awesome. I ate way too much but ya gotta to what ya gotta do(plus it pleases the members when we eat. We had planned to talk about the Restoration but the way the conversation was going you could tell they weren't going to be interested in talking about it. We were kinda thinking about how we wanted to initiate talking about the church and what not.

Somehow we just started talking about us as missionaries, some of the sacrifices we make to come and serve but also about how much we are blessed. By the end of the luncheon, she was just amazed at what we do. Later that night we called to thank the Virzo family for the food and Sorella Virzo told us that Benedetta had texted her and said that she really felt good inside while we had been talking. She felt something "new" and that she wants to know more about our message. We then set up another appointment for Tuesday which was crazy but such a cool experience.

On Tuesday we went with the Virzos and their kids(they have 4 girls and a baby boy) to see Benedetta(don't know their last name yet, but she is the mom), Paolo(husband who was kinda standoffish during the luncheon on Sunday, Francesca and their two other kids(Georgia 8 yrs, Riccardo 4 yrs and is the biggest cry baby ever!!!!! ). So we got there and we sat down all together. We planned to teach the Restoration and just try to have a really really spiritual experience. Right off the bat I knew we were in for a struggle. It was so loud and the kids were just running around, screaming, crying, dog barking. We started off teaching and kinda asking the Paolo and Benedetta why they want to meet with us. They had some awesome answers and we bore testimony. It was super loud though and was difficult for everyone to pay attention. The Virzo parents were going back and forth from us to their kids. Sorella Virzo started bearing testimony about the Trinity, Plan of Salvation, Fast Sunday, missions and everything else we didn't want to talk about haha. I was thinking inside,"Alright Tucker, how am I going to transition from Fast Sunday to the Restoration." I waited to see where her testimony was going, I was looking at my companion to see what he was going to say. We finally just continued to listen. After a little bit, I again said to myself, "Alright Tuck(I didn't actually think, "Alright Tuck", the Restoration is out the window, how can we turn this into a spiritual experience?".

So after overcoming our own plans we gave heed to the spirit. Something important I have known all along, but never really contemplated is how we teach through the spirit. We need to teach what the Holy Ghost wants us to teach. Without the Holy Ghost we can do nothing. Yes, we have been called and given the authority to teach the gospel to others, but without the POWER to teach we cannot do anything.

We listened and listened to the Virzos bear awesome sincere testimonies and to Paolo's (who actually amazed us with his interest in finding the truth) responses. We then went on to teach the main part of the Restoration, we skipped the first 3 principles of the lesson and started right with the Joseph Smith story. The spirit we felt when I recited the First Vision was awesome. We went on to answer their question about the Book of Mormon and prayer. The concern that they raised is that to this point they don't feel God has really showed his love for them in their lives, and they don't know if he will answer their prayers. We went on to promise them the blessings of praying to know and reading the Book of Mormon.

Towards the end of the lesson, Benedetta paused and said, "whoa...there is silence". For about the last 15 to 20 minutes, there had been hardly any noise. The situation I saw at the beginning where I thought..."oh boy, this is gonna be a struggle", and now there was peace and calm. It was awesome! We had talked about so, so many things, most of which we hadn't planned to talk about and didn't want to at the beginning but by the end it was such a cool spiritual experience. They expressed their desire to learn more and how they want the happiness and joy in their own family that they see in the Virzo family.

On the ride home Sorella Virzo was just so excited and kept asking us, So how do you think it went?!. It was funny and cool at the same time. Member work is so great, especially when the people we are teaching are close friends of members. It brings joy to us, the members, and the people we teach. It gets members excited to do this great work. PMG says that the" ideal situation" is when members are the ones finding people to teach. We are super excited for this family and I would ask that you keep them in your prayers!

It was awesome to hear all of you are excited for the wedding. I was disappointed that there wont be a cardboard cut out of me(very disappointed). haha. Well, I'm in Italy right now....that tops anything. I have not received the package yet, but I will let you know when I get it.

I actually don't have to go back to Torino for my Permesso di Soggiorno (Visa). Mine lasts for two years so lucky me. I guess it is different in different cities though. Some last for 1 year and some last for 2.

We were able to get back in contact with Daniel this week and we reset his baptismal date. I think he has overcome his period of stress, with the baby and work. I hope that he will be able to continue going forward and progressing.

Quick question...where are Andy and Clara going on their honeymoon (if they are even going anywhere)?

Is there any sorta of food you want that I can send you all? I was thinking I could get a few things and send a little package sometime.

Well I love you all...Mom, Dad, Andy, Hillary, and (r)Ashely....and Clara starting Saturday

I was thinking the other day....you could be grandparents by the time I get back....haha


Anyways....Love you all

Ciao

Am I Changing? I Sure Hope So!

Well, it sounds like you all are doing great and very excited that the wedding is almost done with. I can imagine how much effort and time has been put into it, trying to make it perfect. Hard work though is tough but you always get the sense of relief soon after. I think sometimes the hard part is trying to have the sense of relief or joy from the work while you are actually working. It is both the same in real life and missionary work. I'm always up to work hard, but it difficult at times to have that joy from doing it every minute of everyday. Mom, you asked the question, Am I changing? I sure hope so! We just had Leadership Training yesterday(for all missionaries, not just leaders). One of the main things that they focused on throughout the training is how we as missionaries need to change. It was something that really hit home for me because I had been thinking lately about how I can have more fun or joy in doing missionary work. Obviously I do get joy from doing missionary work but it is something I feel I need to improve dramatically. I was reading in Preach My Gospel this morning and I came across a sweet quote by President Boyd. K Packer, something like this...."True understanding of gospel doctrine helps change behavior. The study of doctrine will do more to improve or change behavior than a study of behavior will change behavior.". This is not the exact quote but it goes something like that. I found that to be really cool because I have definitely strived in the last couple transfers to build my Christlike attributes. I realized when I read that quote that I've been doing exactly what I shouldn't do. I think throughout the day..."how can I have more patience or what can I do to not become frustrated with certain things". The answer is as simple that we must read the scriptures. Reading about Christ and what he did for others or anything. It was pretty cool.

Well this week we have been kept super busy, unfortunately not with missionary work. We have been packing and getting stuff arranged for our move on Saturday. By Saturday we must be out of our apartment. As of now we have a long way to go until we are anywhere near being packed up. We have mostly arranged our own stuff and cleaned stuff up so it will be easier when we actually start packing. Yesterday we were basically in Milano all day for our Training, today is P-day and wow we have lots to do. Tomorrow we have district meeting and after that we are going to basically pack all day. Saturday we have to move all the furniture to the other apartment which will be fun. Luckily we have members coming to help us.

Anziano Barnes is a super cool kid. He speaks really well and is helping me a lot to keep speaking Italian as much as possible. He also came with just a brilliant idea that he started last transfer in Milano. It isn't like a brand new idea or anything but the emphasis of doing it and how we actually do it is what is awesome. Basically we are just teaching the members as much as possible about the Restoration and then after explaining how we want to start helping them to find others. We have always used members and asked for referrals but this is really to help members find people they know, talk with them about the gospel. It is less them just giving us referrals, but them doing more of the work until they are ready to hear the lessons from us. We are starting now to just go through the entire ward teaching them all the restoration and make it just a super, super powerful lesson. It was funny because he explained how he learned about this from Preach My Gospel and then yesterday in training we had a huge lesson about it.

It will be a fun transfer and like dad said I too feel that we are going to catch fire and go crazy. We are learning how we can better work with each other to help others. I think it is something I have lacked in the last couple transfers. Now that I can speak better and understand better it will be easier to work in unison with my companion.

I'm super excited for the wedding! Bummer I will miss it but oh well....I will pray for sun for you all. Right now Italy is just baking. It has been super, super hot the last week.

Love you all

Ciao Ciao

Tucker