AND -- I've discovered that I have to gather information from multiple letters to multiple people -- (insert some fun Italian slang for sheesh - oh boy - goodness -- or something like that). :-)
So the following is my attempt to extract important info -- from all sorts of letters -- and let you know how Anziano Cox is doing. He's doing great by the way!
This might be long -- but it's a pretty fast read -- and Anziano Cox is so clever -- laughter will ensue.
And in the future -- I will NOT wait as long to update -- my bad. But you'll only get about 5-7 sentences. :-)
The email address for Anziano Cox is ncox@myldsmail.net.
June 1, 2015
So we woke up at about 2:30 in the morning to head out on a plane at 8:30. Somehow, we used up all that time and had about 30 minutes before boarding to call our families. I didn't have any time. My bad.
The flight was without problems, but the part while we were not flying, aka our layover in Atlanta, took about 2 hours longer than it should have due to a mild thunderstorm in our way. After that, everything was smooth.
We got into Rome at about 9:30-10:30 (which was more like 2:00 in the morning to our bodies), and met President Waddoups. He's a very tall man. He's also very kind and a great mission president.
We went to the temple site, took a quick photo, and went to the mission home, aka the villa. This villa was built by Mussolini's son. Interesting stuff. We then met Sister Waddoups, who made us lunch.
Then we went into Rome to do some sight seeing. We saw the Spanish Steps (eh?), the Colosseum (pretty cool), and the Vitoriosa (a palace with a bunch of statues on it. It was more impressive than the Colosseum to me).
After we got back, it started pouring. Later in the evening, we had dinner and met lots of senior couples. One couple was in the MTC with us. I can't remember their names, but they are super cool and are in Rome right now.
After that, we had interviews, and then the exciting reveal. Where will we be spending the next 3 months of our lives. And with who. I'm currently in...... Catanzaro! It's this city really south in Italy. We can take a train for half an hour and get to the beach. This is the part where I really regret not having pictures on this. It's pretty impressive. Our branch is 15-20 members strong, and they are the coolest members I've seen. They are all so kind, and often slow down when I look at them with a confused look. My trainer is.... Anziano Kawai! He's 21, has been in the mission for a year, and is super cool.
So far, it's been lots of adjusting to everything. Lots of paperwork so I'm not thrown in jail or kicked out of the country. Much more exercise that what I did in the MTC. Much more learning too. I really am enjoying myself. I'm learning a ton, my companion's great, and Catanzaro is pretty good so far.
June 8, 2015
Italy is treating me well. In the words of my trainer, my goal is "to get swole." Aka, ripped. Toned. Muscular. So far, I haven't moved in that, but I haven't gotten fat either. Stuck in this body. That just
means I need to be more diligent.
There's a bit of Italian culture I think you would really enjoy. Every day, the entire country takes a lunch break at the same time. From 1-3, stores close, people go home from work, and the city stops so people can eat and nap. Even stores that sell food close. It's a really weird thing that happens every day. But I have to get used to it.
SPEAKING of diligence, I have starting reading the Book of Mormon looking specifically for Christlike attributes. This go around is Diligence. I'm marking it all up, and I'm hoping that by the time I'm done with all of them, my Book of Mormon will be fantastic. And I too will be...fantastic. As well as humble.
This is so real now! In the words of many Italians," WOW!" I'm not sure what to say happened this week, so it will be lots of tangents and stuff like that.
Let's work backwards.
Yesterday, I taught Gospel Principles in church. By myself. Anziano Kawai was teaching another investigator with a member, so I was teaching with a member who didn't know English. It's a difficult path I tread. It was about Faith in Jesus Christ, and I think it went well. I tried to let the member and investigator talk as much as possible, since my comprehension is much better than my speaking. I think that they felt the Spirit when I gave my testimony, and they said I did a good job. Granted, they were also being very nice, but it was still a confidence booster.
I went finding for the first time this week! And I can see why we don't do it that often. It is lots of work with very poor results. Walking the streets hoping to find someone that is willing to stop and talk is hard, especially when you know that your time could be used in other ways, like teaching or meeting with members or basically anything else.
What's funny is that at the beginning of his mission, my trainer did finding almost every day. He would go out and do that because that's what the mission did. Later on, he realized how working with members works so much better. They live here, so if they invite their friends to church, they already have a friend in the ward. And converts who come to us through members are much more likely to stay in the church. It's interesting.
On Wednesday, (I know I just skipped three days. I'm low on time. Highlights people.) I had my first DDM, or District Development Meeting. It was great, because my district is baller. We have us, two sisters in Cratone, two eldesr in Cratone - one of which was in my MTC group - and a senior couple in Cratone. Everyone except for us in there. Va beh.
The sister missionaries are some of the best missionaries in the mission, and I know half of the elders already, so they are pretty cool. And I haven't met the senior couple yet, but I've only heard good things about them.
Slightly awkward missionary moment: There was one guy we found while walking around that stopped us because he said that we were two cute men. Yikes. Then, we ran into him again in the store. Double yikes. I'm pretty sure he followed us to the store too, so that's a triple YIKES. Luckily, we lost him on our relentless search for BBQ sauce. That actually was definitely an awkward missionary moment.
I miss the simple things in life, like BBQ sauce, or tortillas. BUT -- We are going to try and make them tonight, and if everything succeeds, I will have an endless supply of tortillas, aka, manna from heaven.
June 15, 2015
The branch I'm in right now has about 14 members in it. 6 of these members are one family, the Ranieri's. They are super cool, and have us over for dinner every Sunday.
This Sunday, we shared the Restoration after dinner, and my companion made me take the wheel, aka, I'm the one giving the lesson. It went better than expected. I know a lot of Italian, considering that I have known the language for two months. I just think that they are baller people and are so fun and kind.
Just about every week, we go and get pizza from this little pizza shop below us. They always give us a ridiculous discount, as in 2.50 euro for a 5 euro pizza. We wanted to see how much and how good this giant pizza would be, and it was the same thing. Half off. 5 bucks for a huge delicious pizza. Italy is beautiful.
Transportation? We mainly take the train around town. It runs from Catanzaro città to Catanzaro Lido. Lido (it's the beach, but that's not the word for beach.) has another train station that runs to other cities, such as beach, but that's not the word for beach.) has another train station that runs to other cities, such as Crotone or Soverato. We go to Crotone for District meeting, and to Soverato for Sundays. The train that runs through Catanzaro doesn't run on Sunday, so we take the bus. Mainly, we use the public transportation, like most Italians. They use it over here much more than "The America".
Living Situation? We live in an apartment about 30 minutes from the church. It's pretty decent. Second floor, two bathrooms, but only one toilet seat. Stove, but no oven. It's pretty good.
Hilly Land? Arizona can't really compare to the scenery. Once I get an iPad, I can send pictures to express this, but Arizona is terribly flat. Italy is hilly, and it makes it look good.
Food? Come on. It's Italian food mom.
Area? Do we stay in Catanzaro area? So Catanzaro is a pretty big city. There's a train that runs from Catanzaro città (the city) to Catanzaro lido (the beach). From Lido, we can ride the train to other towns, but we only do that on Sunday to go to members houses because it's very time consuming.
Church building? It's a rented office space. About as big as our apartment. It's quaint. Again, pictures share more than my words.
Language? I've been told I'm doing very good. I can understand a good amount of the time. Most of the time, unless they are old, speaking painfully quick, or using dialect. Speaking, I just need to do it more.
We have an investigator whose about to be baptized! She's a super cool mom whose has completely accepted the gospel. Her baptism is probably gonna be on July 4th. Woo Hoo! We are also probably gonna have a BBQ then too, since it's the Fourth of July and we are big headed Americans.
I've been doing lots of reading. Of Gospel Principles (In Italian), Book of Mormon (both English and Italian), and ltos of General conference talks (mostly English.) So much gospel. It's pretty good so far.
Remember that this church is true, and that it's incredibly important that we let others know that. Remember the importance of this gospel and its glory.
June 22, 2015
Eating? Every Sunday night we go over to the Ranieri's house (the big family in our branch) and have lunch. Then we go around Soverato and visit less actives.
Branch Area? It's the Catanzaro branch, but it covers a lot of land. It covers a smaller city called Soverato, and I think it's about a 30-40 minute train ride. And other cities that don't have any members in them.
E-mail Plan? This situation changes a lot. Usually we go to the church building and take turns of the slowest computer in Europe. BUT, we will have email on our iPads soon, and we can check our email throughout the week. We just can't email back. We can only email on P-day.
For crazy stories, I don't know if this is crazy, but it's humorous. On Wednesday, we needed to go to the Questura (police headquarters) for my permesso stuff (fingerprints, signing, the works). We thought we knew where the Questura was, but when we got there, it turns out that it was the wrong one.
When we asked where it was, they told us "that direction," pointing to the right. So we trekked around the city for ten minutes asking people where this Questura was. It turns out that it was on the other side of the bridge that divides Catanzaro in half and is the second largest bridge in Europe. So after we ran across that and hiked for another 20 minutes, we finally got to the correct Questura.
We were about 30 minutes late for my original appointment. However, when we got there, they instantly called my name. Tiny miracles.
Another interesting thing is that when we were doing that, people wanted to talk to us. When we asked for directions, they freely gave them and then asked us about our church. It's amazing how different the results can be if you change your approach just a bit.
Story! This is by no means a reality yet, but it's still an exciting thing. So the missionaries of Catanzaro recently moved apartments about 3 transfers ago -- aka, 4 1/2 months. The neighbors above us adore us - for what reason I have no idea - and are probably the kindest people I've ever met. The father was talking to us yesterday and wanted to put together a conference of sorts so that we could explain our beliefs to a bunch of people. The crazy thing is, is that it's totally within the realm of possibility. His daughter's job is to put together things like that. Preach my Gospel encourages us to take opportunities like that. He even said he would pay for a bunch of stuff. Granted, this isn't real yet. But it is a super cool thing to think about.
Another crazy thing that happened (different kind of crazy) is that I gave a talk in church. It was on keeping the Sabbath day holy. It was supposed to be 10 minutes, but I ran out of material in 5, so we got our slightly early. My bad.
I feel like I'm getting better at Italian every day. I can understand lots. However, as the day goes on, translating becomes more and more difficult. I go from understanding 70-80% to about 40%. And that means I have no idea of what's going on.
Speaking is also very different. There's a reason there's a gift of tongues and a gift of interpretation of tongues. Two separate and distinct challenges. And I'm progressing differently in both of them. I finally understand conversational past vs imperfect past, but there is still much more that I need to learn. Give it a week. I'll be fluent. Ha Ha!
**This is the family letter we got today** :-)
Sorry, this will not be nearly as long as I would like.
Actually. I have no time.
We are getting iPads tomorrow, so that will be exciting.
This last week was lots of stuff.
Monday, We met with a less active and got a new investigator out of that.
Tuesday, DDM. I really like my district.
Wednesday, Questura. I hope I sent a story to one of you. Share it.
Thursday, Finding. we had more success on Wednesday asking people where the police station is than that day.
Friday, I honestly don't remember what happened. Saturday, met with the investigator who will soon be baptized. She's awesome.
Sunday, met with our neighbors upstairs. They are cool.
Today is Monday. Zone soccer. Woo hoo.
Love you all and miss you all!
