Florence and Lindsay Sterling!

Ciao Famiglia!

Come state?  I'm doing well.  This past week was awesome because we got to go to Firenze (Florence) and I got to play at the mission tour which went well.  I'll see If I can send you guys a recording.  It's probably a really big file.  Beware though, during the performance I was so touched by the Spirit that I decided to pull a 'Lindsay Sterling' and I leaped around the chapel really awkwardly.  I'm kiiiiiiiding!  The week was good in terms of cite seeing around Firenze and stuff but in terms of missionary work è stata come si dice.... sucky.  We've had some trouble with Gators and stuff.  (Short for investigator ;)

Nobody would answer us when we called them, and if they did they would say I'm too busy right now to meet with you guys, maybe in the future.  But I've learned that when a Gator says later he really means not ever.  That rhymed.  I'm a poet and I didn't even know that I was one.  

We also heard from Fabrizio who hasn't been coming to church and he said he doesn't have time to think about spiritual things anymore and that he thinks it might have been a mistake to get baptized.  Man that was soooooooo sad.  We got the baptism though so that's the important thing.  I'm kiiiiiiding.  It's really a sad thing to see people gain a testimony and then have something in the world hold them back.   If only he knew the importance of putting Heavenly Father first.

Our English class is always good though.  The other day we were talking about Groundhog Day for some reason and we looked it up online and there was an article about it.  We learned that there is a secret inner circle for Puxsutawney Phil.  All the members take care of him all year round and they set everything up for the big day.  And then it said something like, "the president of the inner circle then adresses all of the Phaithful listeners."  And then I taught them the word 'cringe' because that has got to be the most cringey thing I've ever heard.  After that we talked about cringey things like Bronies, and larping.

To answer some of your questions Mom, there are about 20 days left in this transfer and then I will be done with my training (I can't believe it). Also, my trainer will be going home.  Also yeah we're moving our P-day to tomorrow and having Thanksgiving lunch.  It won't be the same as at home, but it'll be fun.

Anyways that's it for this week.  It's been a bit of a rough one but that doesn't mean I'm not still happy.  Thanks so much for the letters and for the Mario and Luigi pictures from Eliza. And Audrey getoutfromwayfromroundthemboys.

Ciao!

1-3. Some cool photos

4. Anziano Higham and me

5. Me

6. Me

7. Me

8. Me

9. MEEEEE

Are You Really There

Ciao Famiglia!  

How are you guys?  This week has been alright.  We had to be outside of Pesaro though because of combined district meeting, and scambio (exchanges) and other stuff.  Overall we were only in our city two days out of the entire week.  It was kinda dumb because all that other stuff prevented us from doing actual missionary work.  It's ok though. Other than that the week was pretty good.  We made pesto lasagna which was sooo good.  We also found out that we are going to FIRENZE (Florence) for stake conference which is going to be amazing!!!  Also I'm preparing a violin/piano/vocal piece for a mission conference on tomorrow.  Half the mission will be there and a seventy also so. Pretty cool!  Wish me luck!

The other day I had a pretty cool experience.  It wasn't angel appearances or anything, but I know it was something.  I was sitting on my bed saying a prayer and I don't know why but I started to question some things.  Really basic primary things that I've known for a while but never really knew knew fo sho yah know?  

At one point while I was praying I thought to myself,  "Am I even being heard right now?"  I didn't feel heard.  I continued praying and I remember saying a few other things and then I became aware of the song that I had stuck in my head which was A Child's Prayer.  As I thought of the words and the melody I started to tear up because I felt the Spirit.  I found myself thinking the same questions that I had asked moments earlier.  "Heavenly Father, are you really there?"  

When I got to the words "do you hear and answer every child's prayer"  I thought oh dang that doesn't apply to me because I'm a manly man, not a child!  But then I realized oh wait I am His child.  I looked up the lyrics to the next verse on gospel library so I could read them but I could barely see them.  "Pray, He is there; Speak, He is listening.  You are His child; His love now surrounds you.  He hears your prayer; He loves the children.  Of such is the kingdom, the kingdom of heaven."  Holy freak after that one, the room was about to flood I was crying so much.  I have a real soft spot for music.  I must not be a manly man.

Never be afraid to ask the simple questions simply cuz they're simple.  Are you there? Do you hear me?  Do you love me?  Can you help me? These are the important things to ask.  Not "how far is Kolob from the earth?"  The answer to all of those questions is yes.  Including the last one.  I knew that already.  But I don't know there's just something scary about actually asking and waiting for an answer.  What if I don't get an answer?  Will my faith be shaken?  It's scary.  But I learned this week just like I have learned over and over again on the mission that through faith, an answer will come.  It could come through a song, or through a person, or through a thought,  but it will come. 

Anyways I'll step off my spiritual soap box which is SO FREAKING SPIRITUAL.

Here are some pictures

1: a literal cow's nose that the bologna capi had

2: Simone :)

Week 7

Ciao Famiglia!

Holy heck!  Week seven has flown by.  Only like 650 days to go!  This week has been good.  It's had ups and downs but overall good.  

We have a new investigator and two really probable new investigators.  On Sunday we saw C... again after a while not seeing him and he came to church with us!  Then we taught a lesson too him Monday that went really well.  He seems really open and spiritually in tune.  Then there's Ed... who seems really excited and really excited and really interested.  The only problem is he lives kinda far away in a place called Gallo and Marco (the person who he gets a ride to English class from) is not too interested in coming a little early for lessons.  But I'm excited to see if we could go there are teach Ed... There's also Luigi from our English class who seems interested too.  He's a good jumper ; )

L... has been really sick this week so we haven't seen her.  Also, I'm a little worried about Fabrizio because he has not come to church since he was baptized.  He works outside of Pesaro a lot and has to miss sometimes.  

Anyways, how did the week go for you guys?  Did Audrey kiss any boys?  Getoufromwayfromroundemboys Audrey!  

I got your tree which is really cool!  I laughed when I saw that.  So Mom, one thing I do need is more of that Benzoyl Peroxide stuff that was prescribed for me for my red face lumps, because I am out and it works.  Maybe just in the next package you send me.  Don't stress about it.  

Ok well I seriously love you guys a ton.  I love you guys more than the amount of J-Dubs in this town.  

That's all I can think of for this week.  Ciao!

Pics:

1-Card game P-day (we also played volleyball).

2-FHE with la Famiglia Falchi.

3-Some Pasta I made. (It's not that special, I have pasta like everyday).

Week 6

Ciao Famiglia!
How is everything!?  Haha I'm glad you got the recordings.  Sorella Leon messaged us and asked me to say hi to her in Italian and not to ask why.  Haha she is so funny.  I figured it was to send it to you though because she told me that you messaged her.  How did you find her?  You sneaky little Facebook stalker.  

Thanks for making me practice all those years Mahm.  It's paying off.  Which hymn was I playing in the video?  It's good to hear that it made dad cry.  He's goin' soft!  Haha I bet he tears up in movies now too.  

So how's Audrey doing?  Does she like that orchestra she's in?  How are the AP classes going?  She should start the ping pong club that I never got around to starting.  Also tell her to do XC (cross country) and to please
getoutfromwayfromroundthemboys.  

Wow Eliza is doing trick or treating by herself this year?  I'm pretty sure that's not allowed.  You can't just send preschoolers out on the street in the middle of the night like that.  It's dangerous.  But let me know how it goes.  I wanna know how she handles the big bad streets of Olney.  

Dang Evan's new job sounds sweet.  Did he get it through Uncle Matt?  Or all by hims lonesome?  Is he still thinking about doing fire fighting in the Summer?

Nathan and I have been talking a little bit too.  We've been playing chess back and forth over email.  He doesn't know it yet but he has 6 moves until check mate.  

Well let's see this week has been really good.  Right now we're headed to Ravenna which is a really cool city.  It's got churches that were built in 400 AD and all that really old dusty ancient spiderwebby jazz.  There's this one church that apparently has some strange paintings.  Maybe I'll send you some pictures of it in a separate email.  

Yesterday in particular was a really great day.  I spoke Italian goodly,  we bought some desperately needed groceries, and we had like 6 new people come to English class.  All our work trying to make our English class poppin' as heck is finally paying off because we were ready with our sneaky little sneaky sneak surveys to pass out.  They ask things like "what do you want to get out of this class?" and, "how can we improve our teaching?"  and then at the bottom there's the sneaky little fineprint that asks, "are you interested in learning more about our church?"  That's the only question that we care about .....muahahah!  Ahh, it feels good to do missionary work through secret combinations.  So yeah we passed those out and surprisingly most of the people said yes they did want to learn more.  I can't remember what we were talking about but once during the class Ed.... said he wanted to know what happens after this life.  So yeah I think that the English class especially Ed... has a lot of potential.  

Sadly, we got bidoned, which means stood up, by El... who we were supposed to give a Romanian Book of Mormon to.  She hasn't answered our calls since.  It's kinda sad because we ordered that book, I marked it up and labeled it with different passages that answer different questions about life.  (We do that to all our books it's called la sfida dei 21 giorni)  And then she just disapears.  Che triste.  Everytime we get bidoned we get a gelato though so that's good.  We're still meeting with L..., who is progressing well, Fabrizio who is a new convert, and P..., who has no job, no hope for the future, but also doesn't want to do anything about it.  I think we're gonna really stress with him the importance of action.  You have to do something to get something in return.   


Well I think that's it for this week,  I hope you all have an awesome day!  


Ciao!
PS  what is Audrey's email 

PPS I still can't open the pictures.  They just appear as a little square that I can't click on.

Here are some pictures

1. A jacked baby
2. A butiful church
3. The baptism of Jesus.  According to catholics (aparently the holy ghost descended and spit the water on top of jesus' head and john the baptist didn't do anything and also that random guy chillin there is the jordan river)

Week 5

Ciao Fam Diddly Diglia, 

Well gee golly, I cannot believe it's already been a whole month that I've been out here in this awesome country.  It has gone by so fast.  

I wanna thank you guys for your advice about L...  There were some really good suggestions.  We've been sending her scriptures to read and conference talks to listen to.  Some of the conference talks were spot on what she needed to hear.  I think they helped.  However, our original goal of October 27th for her baptism is gonna be too soon.  We still need to teach her a couple things, and she hasn't come to church at all.  The first few Sundays she had other things going on but this last Sunday we don't know why she didn't come.  She's still molto brava though and loves meeting with us and loves reading the Book of Mormon.  I think we'll shoot for baptism in maybe in mid November or a little later.

Right now she is our main person that we're teaching, (the term "investigator" is out and the term "people we are teaching" is in).  We also have this new lady named El... that we met on the street who is from Moldova.  But the closest language that they have a Book of Mormon for is Romanian.  She said that was fine though.  We're gonna meet with her this week so-fingers crossed.  

A little funny happened the other day.  We went to the member's house for crepes and we taught them about charity.  I was saying something about having charity even when it's hard because the people you serve are ungrateful and rude.  I used the word bruti which can mean like bad or hard or  rude (at least I thought).  Turns out when used to describe people it means ugly.  So I said "yeah we need to serve them and have love for them even when they're ugly" I want to point out that I was totally right.  Ugly people need love too.  

Anyways how are the little tykes doing?  Brynbo the mad scientist!  Haha I think I was a mad scientist one year for Halloween, but I don't remember.  I remember being Elvis, a Ninja Turtle, a guy with really long wavy red hair, and a dinosaur back when I was little baby Drew.  Are you being a mad scientist for real Halloween too? Or just for trunk or treat?  It sounds like you guys have some cool costumes this year.  What's Bruno gonna be?

Audrey good job fending off them boys.  Just keep elbowing them in the face okay?  Also good luck with your violin playing.  I actually just played that same hymn last sunday.  And then right afterwards I gave a talk and for my opening line I said,  "Grazie anziano Tagg, per quel numero musicale era bellissimo!"  And then everybody laughed, it was good.  The branch wants me to play every other Sunday so I'm gonna be playing a boat load of hymns about the Gospel.  

Ok I think that's it for this week! Ciao!

PS Mom which emails are you posting to the blog the group or the family or both? Just curious.

Some pictures

1. Some banana bread I made (thanks for those recipes Mom)

2. A district chair pic where we stack chairs up as high as the number of transfers we've done on the mission.

3. A butiful picture

Anziano Tagg's arm is on the far right : )