Merry P Day

Ciao famiglia!

Gosh, this week just FLEW by! It's crazy to think how much we've done this past week, 'cause it doesn't always seem like we're doing a heck of a lot in the days. I never knew how often appointments fall through, but at least we've had several back-ups on hand, just in case! So far, we've had ABSOLUTELY no meetings possible only twice, so those times we've proselyted on the street. Both last week. Anz. Stewart is fantastic at street contacting, me........... I need practice, haha! But (thankfully or not) it doesn't look like I'm gonna get a lot here!

And Dad, you weren't kidding about the sneaky tricks to get the Sri Lankans to miss their baptism: last Friday Dilhani called us and said she was offered a job that payed 200 a week, for a month, which would have been awesome. The catch? Not just work on Sundays, but work ONLY Sundays, from guess what times? 9-12, when church goes from 9:30-12:30. Can you say, "Satan"? She called around, including us, to ask what she should do. 200 a week is NOT a small amount, and they are in a really tough situation. But if she took the job, she wouldn't be able to be baptized the 22nd. But Anz. Stewart didn't tell her that, he just said "pray about it and study the scriptures, you'll recognize the answer." Or something to that effect. But everyone she called had that same sort of answer (you know it, you can find it, etc.) We were worrying our heads off until we saw them Saturday evening! But she was smiling and said she didn't take it. Gosh, they are the BEST! Heavenly Father really did prepare them SO DANG WELL!

Yesterday, I had my first Zone Conference! We had to take a bus to Catania, at 7:30 in the morning, but it was so fun and so refreshing! All the missionaries in Sicily came, amounting to about 25ish. Maybe 30ish. But I understood just about everything that was said in Italian, which was about three-fourths of it. Talk about an ego-booster! But yeah, it was great, and there were a lot of good things we heard and learned. As a bonus Pres. Kelly got all the missionaries matching, silk, Italian ties as a Christmas present. It is so SWEET! My FIRST Italian tie! But yeah, it was a great Zone Conference.

Anyway, Mom had some questions about here: yes, I can see the ocean from just about anywhere between buildings. In fact, I can see several cities on the coast of mainland Italy. There are some dang amazing hills that they're on, their pretty! But Messina itself? My companion best describes it whenever we see something strange: "Well, this is Africa." But we talked with a missionary who lived in Africa (Anziano Bandiaky, he came in with us. He's lived in Italy for a while, though), and he responded, "No, Africa isn't this bad." Haha! Basically, the streets are crazy, sidewalks sometimes don't exist, and buildings look a little shabby. I think the correct word is "ghetto". What makes the city beautiful, though, is the people, especially the ward. Everybody here is just so dang animated and fun! Oh, and instead of basketball courts for the churches, here they do foosball (they call it billiardino). They are astonishing with it. I've seen one person dance around the ball, no joke. They kick it when it's in the air. And they ALWAYS hit it SUPER hard and fast, without spinning the players (cause that's against the rules). It's so fun to do!

I'm so glad to hear from you! I'm (slowly) working on that letter that I promised, but I have almost no time on P-days to write. Dang. And that Christmas money, I decided to use some on a coin purse (coins are used a lot here), and then I'll see what's up later. Sales get big around February according to my companion, so I'll probably be a while letting you know. Thank you so much, though! And I'm psyched to hear that everything at home is going so great, and love you all!

Tante belle cose!
Anziano Walker