Verona

Nestled along the banks of the Adige River, Verona has long been a desirable city. The Romans favored its location, colonizing it in 89 B.C. Even today the Roman heart of the city is easy to find. The Arena is still at its center, and there are bronze maps literally embedded in the side-walks that show that old city within modern Verona.




















Later on, Verona became the site of the free-for-all turf wars that characterized much of Italian (and European) history. These tug-of-war power struggles led to a series of rivalries culminating in the late 1200s with the ascendancy of the della Scalas (also known as the Scaligeri) who added a love of art to their pursuit of power. Their names, after the founding father's Bartolomeo della Scala, had a canine theme. Cangrande I (Big Dog) was the patron of Dante (of Dante's Inferno fame).

Not a family to sit idly, under Cangrande's watch Verona captured several smaller cities. The dynasty was continued by the heirs, Mastino II (the Mastiff) and Cansignorio (Lord Dog). Eventually, fearing the end of their reign, the Castelvecchio was built, perhaps a monument to the family's might and power. The buildings today are among Verona's priceless architectural heritage.

Eventually Verona decided to join the tiny empire of Venice, although that relationship was not without strife. From that point, rulers came and rulers went, including both Napoleon and Austria, until finally Verona become one of the Kingdom of Italy in the mid 1800s.

From http://www.offbeattravel.com/verona.html

The most famous love story in the English language, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet was set in Verona. Whether Romeo or Juliet ever existed, Veronese entrepreneurs have dreamed up Capulet and Montague sites to snare tourists. The so-called Juliet's House, has no proven connection to any family named Capulet (locals claim that in the 19th century it was a bordello), but this small, sparely furnished home, with its stone balcony and tidy courtyard, fits the image—you can just imagine Romeo saying, "But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks?" The right breast on a bronze statue of Juliet is brightly polished from visitors giving it a traditional good-luck rub, and a blizzard of hopeful love letters are posted outside.

"The Work Here Has Really Exploded" but "I'm Going to ... Verona"

Hello hello!

It sounds like all of you are doing really great! As I read mom's e-mail about Sawyer I could only help but think "Poor Sawyer". He's a trooper. Well, it's been a really interesting this past week.



Anziani Neff and Scheurn at the Trexler's Taco Night (the Trexlers take great care of the missionaries in Pisa -- Thanksgiving Dinner, Christmas, American food from the PX, teaching help, etc. )




The work is going really great and we are so excited for the people we have found. During a scambio last week in which I went to Livorno, Anziano Scheurn and Wilkens found an Italian couple. They are both probably about between 35 and 40 years old and are amazing! Elder Scheurn and I saw them on Saturday and had a really powerful lesson with them. The wife, Giusi(short for Giuseppina) doesn't really believe in God so much but she's is very open and humble. Her husband does believe in God and he too is very open with us and sincere with the things he says. We were able to teach them about the Restoration and they really like it. Like I said, we learned that Giusi doesn't really believe in God. She said she kind of lost her belief as she grew up even though her mom would go to church.

Well as we got to the end of the lesson we were talking about praying to know the truth. I felt impressed to ask her if she'd ever prayed, and she said yes a long time ago. I sort of pried into that and I asked how it made her feel. She responded by saying it brought her comfort. From that we sort of transitioned to how baptism is something that allows us to feel that comfort every day. We talked about how the Holy Ghost makes that possible. You could see the excitement and peace the lesson really brought and we owe it to the Spirit.

Yesterday when we called them we followed up to see if they'd read the Book of Mormon chapter we left them. They said they had and that they had also prayed about it!!! Before I could give them something else to read they said they wanted to read it again to understand it better. They also told us that on Friday that would not be able to see us because Gregorio(husband) has to work. They already knew about the baptism on Saturday though so they asked "Well could we see you on Saturday at your church?" Of course we said yes and so now they are coming to the baptism, too! Companion exchanges are just a breeding ground for miracles.

Well now we have this amazing family. There is also the Mendoza family that is coming along slowly but surely and then there is Mirta. Mirta just found work as a nurse for an old lady and is struggling to find time to see us. She is so elect but we gotta get around this work problem. She is coming to church on Sunday so that is good. Then there is still this other family we found a few weeks ago and we are finally able to see them. We passed by last night for our appointment but she said her husband wasn't home!! Agh....We rescheduled for Friday when the husband is home. They are both super nice and have two awesome kids. Well Davide is on track for his baptism this Saturday having passed his interview! How amazing is that! The work here has really exploded. Catherine(the Chinese girl) just got back from China and we are working towards setting a baptismal date with her. The work over the last week has sky rocketed!

It sucks that my companion is being transferred to Bolzano in the upper northeastern part of Italy. He's going from warm to freezing cold just like that. I'm going from Pisa to Verona just like that......yeah. Monday we found out that we are being whitewashed. We are both being taken out. Are you surprised? Because I still am. I trust President Wolfgramm though with all my heart. Even if our work is going better than most of the other companionships. The good news is that Anziano Hardy is coming to take our spot. He will be training, too. When President told me it would be him coming to replace us my heart was immediately at ease(he's a stud). So yeah, I will be going to be Zone Leader with Anziano Mesarosh(can't remember how to spell it but he's American/Canadian). So basically the least expected thing happened(at least according to me). I'm pretty nervous just because there are a lot of missionaries to look after. Again it comes back to the trust though I have in President Wolfgramm. I didn't think I had the necessary skills to do it, but obviously he thinks I do so I will just have to discover it and use it to help our Zone.

We have been scampering all week to get everything perfect for Anziano Hardy and his greenie. He's walking into best case scenario though so I'm not too worried about it. We've been having to say goodbye to everyone while trying to teach all these awesome families and other investigators. I am super sad about leaving Chen though. I didn't get a proper good bye with Lin because I thought for sure I would be staying. Agh.....it kind sucks but oh well it's not about me. I was going to be baptizing David, but our Ward Mission Leader will most likely do it now.

I will keep an eye out for those presents.....21 holy smokes.....not cool guys not cool...... Oh yeah Anziano Barnes will be Assistant this transfer so that's kind of cool. Well....I'm terribly sorry again about pictures but I'm ill-prepared again. I blame it on having to be transferred tomorrow morning. We have been all over the place.

I love you guys so much and i hope you enjoyed the success story. My love for this work is growing every day and my desire to do it is growing right along side it. I get frustrated when I don't give my all and actually it just annoys the CRAP out of me. It annoys me even more when I wasted little seconds on my cleaning habits. At first I though that being a good cleaner was a good gift, haha and it probably is, but I need to loosen up a bit and let things go. Verona should be fun and I will get to stretch myself a lot.

You guys are great! Thanks for the thoughts and love you put into your emails. It means a lot!

Ciao.

"The Lord Is So Evident in Our Work Right Now"

I know you've been wanting pictures really badly lately. You're going to hate me again this week because I am in Firenze and I don't have the cord for my camera to send you pics. I wanted to last week but I was in La Spezia and all the computers froze and we ran out of time...wah wah. I didn't email yesterday because we were all in Verona for a conference. We had a wonderful opportunity to listen to Elder Causse of the Seventy. He's from France and I think he's in the presidency of the European Area. Anyway, he gave us a lot of great tips, knowledge and things we can do better at. One of the biggest was just inviting people to baptism in the first lesson. We've talked about it before, but he really just hit home on it and blew us out of the water.

Well Davide will be getting baptized next week instead of Saturday. We are a little behind on teaching with him so we felt it'd be best to wait another week so we didn't have to rush things. He's just quit drinking coffee but I don't think it was too hard for him. He's a stud and is really coming to be close with some of the members here. We are thinking that Anziano Scheurn probably won't be here for the baptism seeing how this is his 5th transfer here. Yesterday as we talked with Presidente Wolfgramm he said "Oh hey, Anziano Scheurn! So how long you been in Pisa now, about a year?". It's safe to say things will be changing a bit. We will get the transfer calls probably on Monday.

We said goodbye to Lin last Monday because he went back to China. Luckily he's only going for about a month but Anziano Scheurn won't see him for a long time. It got me thinking about how I will miss Chen a ton! He's like my little brother...seriously. He is such an awesome kid. The Young Women did a program during sacrament meeting on Sunday. Well Sunday night when we were teaching Chen and Lin I joked with Chen saying, "So Chen, during the program I saw you staring at Alishe(daughter of the young men's leader)" He responds by saying "No, I wasn't, I was staring at Francesca" haha (daughter of the 1st counselor). It surprised us all and we all laughed a bit. He's just a funny kid. Right now he's living by himself because his roomates all went back to China for a month. We are having to check up on him often just to make sure he's doing OK.

Well we taught the Mendoza family last week finally. We had an awesome lesson in which Andrew Trexler came and helped. By the end of the lesson Charlie(husband) was saying how he determined to really know more and to start coming to church. He didn't accept the baptismal invite because he wants to take it slowly, but he wants to learn more. On Sunday he came to church with his 6 years old kid and it was awesome! He even volunteered after church to take the Peruvian member Yolanda to the station. We will see them tonight!

We were able to see Yolanda last week and she's incredible. I was just amazed with how kind and humble she was. She was just full of joy when she saw us at her house. She had come late so we were waiting outside and she was just so excited. Last Sunday she came for the second time. Like I said, she hadn't known where the church was so it'd been like six months since she's come to church. We are excited to try and get here brothers and sisters involved in the church too(she's about 40ish?)

Mirta the woman from Santo Domingo also came to church on Sunday! She sat with Yolanda in Relief Society then an elderly lady, Sorella Massoni during the other two hours. After church we taught her and discovered that she's searching for the true church. She was baptized in the Evangelical church but she didn't feel right in it. We taught to her needs and really testified of the truth of our message, and how she, too, could know the truth. It was AWESOME! She said she would come to church again next week!

We are being blessed so much right now and seeing so many miracles. The Lord is so evident in our work right now. We are excited and just ready to help these people. We have really learned the last week or two how much better we can do and be. Our biggest focus is just teaching by the spirit. As we do the work will just keep rising and we will see more miracles.

Thanks for the awesome updates about everyone! It's going to be weird coming back and not recognizing anyone. I'm kinda stressing out a bit because I'm turning 21 next week...crazy huh? Nah I'm not stressed, but it's weird. I'm just so excited about the work and we are just going to keep going forward.

Go Alex Smith! That's cool the Jazz are kicking butt. The clips that Aunt Carol sent me made it seem like they just suck.

Anyways....I will honestly try getting you the pictures very soon. I just filled up on of my memory cards and the other one is already like 25% full so there are plenty of pictures. I just need to send them. Soon! it will be Soon!

Love you all...Vi do un bachio

"We Are Hoping ... to Get Them in the 'Followers of Christ' Mix"

Mom, this is an answer in response to your question "why do you respond to Dad's emails?". Well because I read yours first and then dad's so it's just easier to respond because I'm already viewing the respond button. So really if you think about it, I'm favoring your emails.

That's sad about Kelly Astle, but yeah like you said they are a strong family. How recently was she diagnosed with cancer? Are there any predictions about how bad it will be? I'm clueless about the cancer stuff. It's always a great blessing to know that as long as we hold firm to the iron rod that everything will be OK. I've really gained comfort in the Plan of Salvation because we know that death is not something to fear. It's sad, but at the same time it's wonderful. Many people don't understand this, and it's great to bring them this comfort about the Plan of Happiness.

This week has been a week that's brought us lots of happiness and hope. We passed by the Mendoza's last week and totally caught them by surprise. They hadn't responded to our phone calls for about a week and a half so we decided to take matters into our own hands. Charlie (husband) was kind of like "oh hey...." while the wife came to the door and said "why did you call us?". They weren't mad in any way, maybe just caught off guard and surprised. We told them we had brought the Restoration DVD (we knew they wanted to see it) so we left it with them. We called them a few days after and they said we could come over tomorrow! We are really praying they will be able to see us more often and come to church.

We also had a Peruvian lady show up during sacrament meeting this week. At the end I introduced myself and started finding a little bit about her. She didn't speak super well but enough to communicate well enough. I come to find that she is a member but didn't know the church was here. She is living in a city where there used to be a branch(Lucca) and lives with her non-member siblings. Her name is Yolanda and she's probably about 40ish. It was awesome though to see how church just brought a glow into her. You could see that it was something she was missing. In fact, she told us that she had passed by last Friday to see if it was open but nobody was there so she left a note. Hopefully we can start visiting her and teach some of her family!

Davide is doing great! The lessons are going great and he's had no problems with what we've been teaching. He's just "feasting upon the words of Christ" and letting it enter into his heart. We recently taught him the Word of Wisdom and he was so in line with it. Of course he was a little confused about the coffee but he accepted it none the less. We are still working to his date of the 21st of this month!

We've found some other potentials this past week so we are hoping to see them and get them into the "followers of Christ" mix. We've recently started trying to jump-start the member work here in Pisa. It's a bit different because many of the young...well not old people live outside of Pisa. We want really start trying to get investigators through them though and see the blessings that we've been promised.

Our training meeting yesterday in Milano was super fun and we learned a "butt load about the gospel". We learned about how to better our studies, invites and member work so we are excited to start improving in those areas. The district is doing really well and I'm hoping that they are learning from me.....haha I'm trying to be a good example that they can follow. I ain't perfect but hopefully they can learn a thing or two. I know I am. It's kind of weird being the oldest in the district. It feels like not too long ago I was the youngest in all my districts.

Dang..I want to go to the West Indies!....Guess what? I finally got a letter from my friend....what's his name....uh....oh yeah Connor. It was funny because he starts the letter saying "dude I'm so sorry I haven't written I'm sorry bro"...haha then halfway through the letter you can tell that he stopped for awhile and again it says..."dude I'm sorry I've taken so long I'm sorry" haha....oh well....it was good to hear that he's doing well.

I'm reading in Helaman right now and i recently read a great chapter. The number isn't coming to mind while I'm typing but it talks about how Helaman had been a righteous person who followed Christ. About one verse later it talks about his children Nephi and Lehi and how they grew up unto the Lord. I felt very impressed while reading that this was because they had an awesome example in their father. I applied this first to me and how I would want to raise my future kids and it brought peace to me. I then thought well this can be applied to missionary work as well. I had a great couple minutes pondering about how much my example for younger missionaries can do for them. It again brought a great peace to my heart and to my spirit.

As I continued reading it went onto speak about the power with which these two brothers had in preaching the gospel. I again applied to us as missionaries. I have a renewed sense of duty to those in my district and in the mission, and how important it is that I try to be as perfectly obedient as possible but also that I must be diligent and hardworking. It was a great 10-15 mintues of study that day.

Well...I love you all a lot and I will sign off now.

Ciao!....Tuck

"People This Prepared Are Just Awesome And I've Been Blessed To Have Found So Many"

From January 4, 2012 E-mail

Happy New Year!...

Well...This certainly will be a wonderful year. I agree with what you said dad about having an awesome last half of the mission. I can hardly believe the success I had in the first half of the mission. I also believe the next nine months will be even better and more rewarding as I do my best. I have felt like I worked hard the first 12 months but I could have done much better. I studied the language pretty well then it dropped off a lot. With becoming senior companion and district leader I often found myself very occupied and too busy to really focus on the language. One of my goals is to diligently study the language every single day. I have a long way to go 'til I come within being fluent.

The bigger goals though are exactly those three things you mentioned in your email, 1. obedience, 2. faith, and 3. loving my companions and those I teach. I've made huge strides at trying to be exactly obedient and working hard. I'm so excited to keep getting better and setting a trend for the rest of my life. After all the things we learn as missionaries are applied directly to our lives after the mission.

This week has gone relatively well. It wasn't full of great miracles but it was successful. Our apartment is finally looking really good. It was painted and fixed up last week and after our whole day of cleaning on Saturday it's looking good....Real good. Saturday we just had to throw out old junk and rearrange the place. Other missionaries are going to be jealous that they can't live here. They won't be jealous of the bathroom because it still stinks. The pipes are old and probably coated in poopy. We stayed inside all day Saturday because we aren't allowed to go outside(too dangerous on New Year's). I even had enough time to make a new table which we needed a lot. We had an old closet thing that we were gonna throw away and some old wooden chairs. I put the bases of the two chairs together with the legs of one pointing in the air, did the same to two other chairs, and put the closet door on top of the legs of the chairs. I also put other pieces of the closet around the structure and it now looks like a legit table....just though I'd tell you

Davide is doing GREAT! We have been able to to see him twice since we last talked and taught him the Plan of Salvation. It is just amazing to be able to teach someone who already understands it(having read the Plan of Salvation pamphlet we left him). His desire to learn and know is incredible. Talk about finding someone already prepared by the Lord. It makes my life so easy haha. I kid, but really people this prepared are just awesome and I've been blessed to have found so many(Domingo, Gianluca, Chen, Antonio, Ettore...etc) They are all amazing. David though is loving the kindness of all the members. We've taught him with multiple members and he's really finding a home in the church(not literally, he's doing OK financially haha). He was divorced and recently just left his girlfriend, but he's finding warmth in the church. He's loving church and has come the last three weeks.

We've been struggling with his friend Fabio he seems less and less capable of holding commitments or at least understanding them. We aren't sure if he has the mental capacity to be baptized. We will try our best though and keep praying about him. We are sure that it was the right thing to start teaching him because through him we met Davide.

We passed by the Mendoza family last night but they were busy and seemed surprised to see us(obviously because we didn't call). They haven't answered our calls but we saw them last night and left them the Restoration DVD so we hope it will soften their hearts and help them.

My teeth are doing a little better. I'm trying to not brush as hard even though I thought I was already doing it softly. I have only done the salt water thing once....I should do it more than that though, I just haven't remembered to do it.

Thanks so much for everything!

I'd love those soft toothbrushes....I guess i could just buy a children's toothbrush here, they are soft right?. Plus they have them with Spiderman, Superman, Batman designs/ stickers.....can't beat that.

I will try finding the time to get more pics to you all. The district is doing great. They are all such hard workers but you need to pray to help me be better so I can help them.


Ciao tutti

"We Will Be Inviting Him to Be Baptized Tonight ...."

December 28th e-mail

Happy Christmas everyone!

It was sure great getting to see all of you Sunday! I had a lot of fun talking and hearing from you all. I'm sure the next skype session will come very quickly so non vi preoccupate! The Xbox kinect better still be working by the time I get back because I'm gonna live in front of that thing(when I'm not living at Connor's house, doing possibly the same thing). Alright I kid just a little, but let's hope I don't find myself doing that a lot when I get back. I still have lots of time to grow and increase my ugly Italian skills.

I'm glad the rest of your Christmas went well. After the phone call we were with the Trexler family for awhile eating more food. They made a really good apple strudel and some sweet potato pie that I thought was pumpkin pie. They loved my sugar cookies....what can I say? I'm a good baker? Or maybe that Val has a great recipe for sugar cookies. We watched a Disney movie with their family and then went home(Kung Fu Panda 2). Oh yeah and we got all the leftover food as well as two big brown paper sacks of food from the army base. There was fruity pebbles, white bread, root beer, Dr. Pepper, peanut butter, rolls, chocolate. Coolest family ever! They are so awesome.

Well you asked a little bit about what I learned in Zone Conference this last week. I had a really good experience with the Book of Mormon. I've had many great experiences with it during Zone Conferences and this one just adds to the list. I really realized though how much more I need to use it in my teaching, and preaching of the gospel. We are going to start using it more and more in our teachings so others can receive the numerous blessings within. Yesterday in district meeting we did some practices of using it while doing strada and other finding settings. I'm really hoping though to start reading it with more of a focus on how particular stories and passages can help others.

Pisa is holding together but barely. There is a tower here that is so old that it's actually starting to lean. Pisa is really small and there really isn't a lot of casa to do here. There are some outside the city, but we don't travel too far out of the city. We use mostly bikes but right now they are stuck inside our broken garage. We've been on foot for the last week or so. We don't use the bus much because Pisa is so small. We just stop those in our path on our way to our destinations.

We had the opportunity to do two scambios since Sunday. I did one with an Elder Wilkens on Monday here in Pisa. The kid is in his 6th or 7th transfer and man he speaks good Italian. He made my language skills seems very crappy. When I asked him what he does he said he reads the Book of Mormon in Italian...It helped me realized how terrible I am at doing that and fulfilling the promise it has. One of the prophets said if we read the BoM in our language we will speak fluently the language. Well I'm going to start trying to fulfill that promise more fully because my language is just so so right now.

The work is going alright. We haven't been able to see the Ecuadorian family for about a week. It sucks because we had an awesome lesson with them and now they just haven't answered our calls. It's too bad because they were really cool. Hopefully it was because its the holidays or something.

The others are progressing but slowly. Our main investigator right now is Davide. He's loving church and really wanting to know more about the church. We will be inviting him to be baptized tonight and so we are stoked!

Well thanks so much. It seems like you are all doing fantastic. Talk to you all next year!


Tuck

"My Force Powers Have Doubled"

From Tucker's December 21st e-mail:

Long time no talk! Alright, well I received your Christmas package yesterday at our Zone Conference in Modena. I also got Andy and Clara's package as well as the one from Grandma and Grandpa Taylor. Thanks so much; I am looking forward to shredding them open on Christmas day. I opened Andy and Clara's last night....Thanks guys I loved the Star Wars fruit snacks. My force powers have doubled now. I'm excited to listen to the Michael Bublè CD. I was actually walking through the Centro di Pisa the other day and I saw a poster with him and his new CD. I thought, dang I gotta get my hands on that. Quindì, ben fatto! (So there, it's done)

I also received a bunch of letters, many from the usual people like Dianna and Aunt Carol(which I'm so so so grateful for because I look forward to them every Zone Conference). I got a couple from famlies in the ward, the Gladstones, Wheats and Emerys. I was amazed with how much the Gladstones kids are growing up. Anyway, I was just really happy to see how awesome of a ward we have.

We are in fact eating on Christmas day with the Trexler family. We're gonna be going after church to eat with them and do SKYPE as well. I'm still planning on doing it during the 3-5 PM period. I can tell you're all get pumped for it, that's good because I am, too. It seems not so long ago that I was seeing you all while at Domingo's house in Pavia. It seems like no time has passed.

Anyways this week has gone really well for us. Our district is ready to just tear up the Northwest central coast of Italy. Livorno, Pisa and La Spezia.

I don't remember if I told you all but we found an Ecuadorian family a few weeks ago. We met with them for the third time Monday night and had an amazing lesson. We we're teaching the Restoration and at first it was going ok but then we kind of just started reciting the lesson. After awhile it just comes out sometimes without really even thinking about it or trying to teach to them and their needs. Anyways we kinda realized at a certain point that they were confused (also because they don't speak perfect Italian).

At that point we sort of stopped and just asked them some simple questions. We then started to go by the spirit. We shared an example with them about the Apostasy and it just clicked for them. It wasn't what we originally had planned to do but instead went with the spirit. After that the lesson was more sincere and the Mendoza family was more involved. We expressed our love for this message and the blessings it has brought us. They accepted a soft baptismal invite and said they would try their best to come to church. They were actually very excited when they heard it was Sunday mornings. It was a great walk home that night.

We had a really cool referral come to church as well this week. He wants to just become really involved in the church and learn a crap load about the gospel. His name is Davide and we are really excited to start teaching him. It was funny because he's a referral from an investigator who's just super weird. As much as we love this investigator, he is different. We weren't really sure what to expect of this referral but Davide's awesome.

Well, I am really excited to see you all on Sunday. Right now I am in Siena. We stayed the night after Zone Conference so we could spend a little of our preparation day here. I do not have my camera card...sorry. Next week I will send a bunch though. You will probably get some cool pics of Siena though.

Mom thanks so much for the Ruby stories; I about died from laughing.


Well see you all in a few...