"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...