"They Truly Are Just Open-Hearted"

November 15, 2011 e-mail:

Man.....I'm missing out again on the soccer tournament...I remember how bummed I was last year. I think this year it's kinda just whatev though. haha it's been a back and forth week again but we are putting in our best effort. Luckily we are getting support from our branch. It's apparent already that this branch is very strong. Compared to others I've seen I think this is one of the best. They are really good at trying to know what's going on and getting things figured out, whatever it may be.

Pisa is really an interesting city. There is a huge river that runs right through the middle of it and it's really neat. There are lots of really interesting churches, but of course the tower, duomo, and baptistery are the coolest. My companion is pretty sick of it though seeing as how we pass by them almost every day. He has been here for about six months but I don't think I'll get sick of it. I still need to get a picture with it, but we have seriously not had any time do it.

Sunday was really fun because our new convert Wang Zany(Wong) brought a friend to church. She had actually participated in a lesson with Chen the other day through skype. Anyways she came to church and it was super cool talking with her before sacrament meeting. She talked about how she needs a change in her life. She explained how she feels like she lacks something and even doesn't sleep well at night because of it. I translated for her during the meeting(well for her and Chen) and it was amazing. I had to actually summarize because both I'm not a pro at translating but also because they don't have a Christian background. Anyways she kept commenting about how peaceful it was, how beautiful the hymns were.

It was kinda funny(kinda weird too) because there was a family behind us with a new born baby and Catherine(the Chinese friend of Wong) kept saying something about it. She said once, "oh I want to be married or that she wanted to have a kid someday". haha I didn't really know how to respond to the baby one but I just kinda said ya ya OK. It will be awesome though when we can teach her the Plan of Salvation. We are excited to start teaching her though. She is super elect though just like Chen. More than anything they are just super humble! They truly are just open hearted which is something you don't see a lot of here.

Chen is doing GREAT! He is accepting everything and really just soaking it in. At church he even felt really bad when we explained that the sacrament is something we do after baptism to remember Christ and our covenants at baptism. He said...."oh then I should not have eaten it last week?.... I broke the rules." haha I told him it was ok and he didn't need to worry about it. He is awesome though and we are shooting for the 26th of November.

We were in Modena yesterday for Leadership Training. I found out from Anziano Hardy that Antonio's baptism went really well and that he's doing great!.....I also saw an investigator who we'd been teaching at the end of the conference. He was at church to have his baptismal interview. He will be baptized in about two weeks! It was super fun. We watched an awesome movie during the conference. It was seriously so dang awesome. It's called 17 miracles and it's about the pioneers....watch it.

Anyways, everything is going great here. We don't know when we will be back in our apartment but for now we will just keep going forward. I was pumped to hear the Utes pummeled UCLA. Now they just need to "take out the trash", (Mighty Ducks 3)
and beat Colorado and Washington State. I got a bunch of articles from Aunt Carol. haha of course lots of Utes stuff and tons of Cardinals stuff.....agh.....next year....they will win it next year.....

again...anyways....that is crazy that Danny is basically married....I swear I was just writing him while he was still in the mission with 4 months left. Crazy...I still haven't heard a gosh darn thing from CONNOR...what's his deal? Dad maybe you need to give him a little squirrel tap and just tell him what's up. I got an email like 3 months ago but it was like a sentence long....


Allora.....Vi amo....alla prossima settimana (Well ... I love you ... until next week).