Happy October

Caro Presidente,
This week we managed to see one of our investigators, named Efisio Fadda, and we have a baptismal date set with him! He has been wanting to get baptized for a long time, I remember my first week in church here and I asked him if he met with the missionaries before, he said yes, for 5 years. I was thinking he was another "eternal investigator", and so I decided to ask him if he wanted to be baptized and he said yes, for sure. But then the past 5 or so months have just been nuts for him, with difficulties with his house, with family, and lots of things like that. But just recently, after being gone from church for about 2 months, he's been able to come back, and he seems to have figured everything out, so we set a date for him on the 13th of October. But he's super ready and really excited for that.
Other investigators have been difficult to see, but with less active work, we're starting to work together better as missionaries in the city, talking about which members we are visiting and also being more united in our spiritual thoughts with them. We're planning on going almost entirely through the members to set up friendships and appointments with the less actives, and it's great to see some of their reactions to the recent conferences and so on. There's definitely a fire being built here, and we're trying to direct it as best we can. We're trying to work with the Elder's Quorum President as well to help us get ideas for where to go with this, to be more united like that. We've been trying to set up an appointment with him for the past few weeks, but we finally got one in a few days.

Ciao ciao!
Anziano Walker

 

 

 

Ha ha, oh yeah! I heard from Anziano Woolsey that Sorella Waddoups started taking pictures when I started shaking hands, super awesome! He was kind of bummed because he was right before me, buuuuut... :)

 

Anyway, this week has been slow again. Yeah, we are doing a ton about less active work here. In Cagliari, there's about 50 people who regularly come to church, but on the ward list there's about I think 200 names. The last active baptism was from 4 years ago, but now he's even getting to the point of slowing down church attendance (but still has a bomb testimony). The new anziani and sorelle that came in let us know that President specifically told a few of them that a main reason there are 8 missionaries in Cagliari is for the less-active work. Plus, Elder Ballard used that as a huge part of his talk at the stake dividing, and the new stake president came this past weekend and had that as a huge part of his talk as well, saying that in the topical guide in english, there are 98 references to missionary work, while only 3 say "baptism". Pretty cool. Cool side note, the new stake president in the Rome West Stake is the guy who translates for President Monson. So basically, the Italians here got the prophet as their stake president, if you think about it very quickly. :)

 

That's funny, Mom, that you mention finding joy in your calling is a way we show love to the Lord. That's actually something I realized I should work on a little more here. There's a ton of great things that happen in missionary work, and a ton of wonderful experiences and learning opportunities and growth, but for some reason enjoying it takes work. So bit by bit, I'm trying to fix that. My mind sometimes doesn't like working with me, though. I'll get there, though!

 

That's all I have to say at the mo'. Oh, wait:

Love you!

Anziano Walker

Hi!!

Ciao President!
This week was tough on lessons again, and on seeing investigators. Antonio and Fabiana are busy with work and preparing for his english test, Agostino is getting set for his Chemotherapy this week, Cristiano is busy with work (said we should call back in a bit, though), and Salvatore Ibba we've kind of let be for a little bit, and the family of Sorella Pistidda we gave to the Sorelle, in the hopes that they could get appointments set up and actually done easier than we could, on account of difficulties of the husband being home. We're trying to work with less-actives almost completely through members, since many of them have a very difficult time, it seems, wanting to meet with us. We're mainly focusing on fostering member help a bit.
Anyway, thanks for caring President.

Ciao!
Anziano Walker

 

 

 

 

Hi Fam!!!

 

Man, slightly disappointing week, but working through it. Oh, we also met with Gianni and Sara last night. He's recovering from his eye surgery nicely, but now he has another one on October 11 for his other eye. But they were super nice again, and talkative. My gosh, we had a spiritual thought about Joseph Smith planned, just explaining the Restoration, but man, they kept going on and on. It didn't help that I tried to bring a picture book to try to focus the conversation to Joseph Smith, Gianni just took it and went through literally all the pictures, asking about everything. Which wouldn't have been so bad, except that it had everything from Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, Church History, Ordinances, Prophets...... man. That took a while. But they're super nice!

 

Not a heck of a lot after that to say. Sorry I don't have pictures this week, I forgot to load them onto my flash drive last night and this morning. I'll try to get a better system of that. :) I like sending pictures back, I just never knew how I could before, and I stopped trying to figure out for a few months. But the past few weeks have been fun with that.

 

Cool spiritual thought: I was looking through the scriptures this morning, and came upon 1 Timothy 4. In there, I was reading, and reading, and decided to try to divide out the entire Epistle, to understand what Paul says. Like, "this section is about teaching doctrine and staying in those bounds" "this section on the qualifications for a bishop" "this is his personal testimony", and so on. I eventually found several points that related very specifically to my patriarchal blessing, and was amazed at the connection. So now I can see what people mean when they say a Patriarchal blessing is like personal scripture. As I read in Timothy those parts, it really was like Heavenly Father picked out those parts just for me.

 

So anyway, bye! Have a good week! Love you all!

Ciao Ciao!

Anziano Walker

First Email of Second Year

Hi President!
This week we didn't see a lot of lessons with investigators, unfortunately. However, we did have another lesson with Antonio and Fabiana, and after the english part, we got to talking about Elder Ballard coming to Rome the next day, and they wanted to come see the transmission at the church, but they and their family are currently remodeling the house, so they said if they could finish up early enough that day, they would come. However, they said they would like to come to General Conference.
From what we heard from our ward mission leader at correlation yesterday, the father of the missionary in the ward, who we met with him once (Salvatore Ibba) came to the transmission with his companion. We haven't heard from them, but Fratello Locci met with them afterwards and talked a bit. So that's pretty cool.
This past week with studying, I've continued studying by searching for the Lord being referred to in the scriptures, and then looking into other things. Recently, I've put more emphasis into memorizing the Missionary Handbook. [President had given this as an assignment last conference, but was really cryptic about how much to memorize. Gulp.] At this point I'm mainly focusing on memorizing the sections and the scriptures that go with them, and then seeing how the scripture relates to the section. It's cool to see some correlations that I've never noticed before, how the scriptures apply directly to the mission rules. I feel like it's helping me be able to see more in my personal study from the scriptures.

Thanks President!

Anziano Walker

 

 

Ho dang, there's a lot of stuff to write about here, from questions alone. Where do I start?

 

Let's see, Elder Ballard was really inspirational. He had a meeting with the missionaries at 8 in the morning, and talked about the work specifically in the mission here. One thing he said that the thing that would be best for the work would be to work with the youth, cause we can relate to them easier. I kind of sighed with relief at that one. Sometimes old people here are really,....... angry, let's say. Or just flat out rude. Or they talk a lot but conversation goes nowhere. Oh, old people.

 

But ok, Sunday was nuts. The assistants had bought our tickets to Rome early in the week, but then later in the week they learned Elder Ballard wanted to meet with the missionaries at 8. The tickets they had bought worked, however, because our flight left at 6:30. Arrived at 7:30. Which means we had to get to the airport 5:30. All 18 missionaries on the island. Which meant we start moving people with the 2 cars on the island at 4:00. Which meant we woke up at 3:00. I'm amazed I stayed up the whole day. But then we had a flight back to Sardegna at 4:00 and 5:30 (two different groups). And the planes were delayed by a lot. It was a looooooong day. But really good,  and I'm trying to apply a lot of what I learned.

 

But yeah, we're doing good over here. It's dang hard setting up appointments with people, so basically the only people we're consistently meeting with are Antonio and Fabiana. But they're tight, and really great people! Fabiana even gave a closing prayer last time, so they really are trying too!

 

Sorry, having a hard time thinking about what to write right now. Didn't think about it beforehand. But this week has been good, and we did a lot. Oh! This morning, I found something that I really want to look at in studies. I have never figured out the organization of the 70, or the Area 70's. So I've started looking into that a lot more. D&C 107 is great for that.

 

Well, love you all!

Ciao ciao!

Anziano Walker

 

P.S. - I FINALLY got the package with the ipod. Thank you so much Kaden! You did fantastic! =D

Happy PDay

Ciao Presidente!
This week has been interesting. To start off, the 2 new investigators we got are Antonio Melis and his sister Fabiana, the guy who we were meeting at his house for english and I mentioned that I was feeling iffy about going for too much longer. But, We've had some solid lessons with them, and they realize that we're not teachers of english, just practice. And they both really do have good questions about the church and our spiritual thoughts we give, which always end up with us staying at least a half hour longer to talk some more. They even said they would try to come to church (but not this past week because they already had something planned with someone else). But they are super great!
Also, we are trying really hard to continue to see our investigators we have. Yesterday, we saw Agostino at the hospital (his wife is a less-active, he asked for a blessing for a tumor a while ago), and he was really appreciative of the visit, and we're planning on going back tomorrow. We heard from Gianni that his eye surgery went well, but his eye is bugging him, and we can't come for a bit. He was happy to see we left a note for him though, and a Restoration film. We heard that Gino is also in the hospital, but we don't know which one. But we are giving him to the other Anziani here to teach, so they can have some ground to start on possibly. Monday night we were able to see William and Cristina again (the children of S.lla Pistidda), and had a nice little lesson with them, even though babies were crying and so on. Other ones that we have not been able to see are Salvatore Ibba, Vanessa, and Carlo.
And yesterday was full of miracles as well, a lesson with Efisio (an investigator of 5 years who wants to get baptized but can't due to problems with family and his rest home), which was great because he hasn't been allowed out of his house the past like 2 months, and then we have this lesson (on tithing because of some comments he made in Sunday School), and he tells us that he thinks the Spirit finally found a way into his brain to tell him that tithing is from God. And then we got another investigator, Cristiano, who seems golden. He is really searching for the right path, he has studied a bit about various religions, he's curious to learn more about us, and he was able to recognize the feelings he had as the Spirit when we expained that. It's great!
I'm also in a good mood right now because I recently started a new way of studying the scriptures that is helping me learn a ton. I'm highlighting all the times in the scriptures where it names Christ, whether as a name, pronoun, or title. This is really helping me see a lot of things I didn't expect, like different prophecies and promises, just how much the Book of Mormon and Bible testify of Him, and even how sacred his name is kept in the scriptures. Also, I'm learning a lot of questions I have too, like how to make sense of Mosiah 15, which really confuses me a bit. But I'm thinking a lot about it, and really trying to understand in a way I've never seen before.
Thanks President!

Anziano Walker

 

 

Hey guys!

 

Man, this week has been crazy, and fun! It was cool to be in 8 at church on Sunday, and in 10 at District Meeting Monday. Nuts! Oh, to answer Dad's question about the wards/branches: there are 3 other branches on the island, where each of the missionaries are (Oristano, Sassari, and Olbia), but as far as I know, Cagliari will be the only one that becomes a ward. The others are just way too small to sustain all the callings that come. But we're flying to Rome Sunday morning, and then flying back Sunday evening. All 18 missionaries on the island. Nuts.

 

Let's see, what did I not mention in my letter to President? I took a bit of time to write that because I was so excited about the week and all the work we did, and I knew I was gonna copy that part to you. But yeah, this past week has been nuts. Oh, and that Cristiano guy? We found him Sunday evening, after the Mostra. We had 10 minutes left when we dropped off the Mostra at the appartment, so we decided to do a little bit of finding before planning. We went out, and within 5 minutes we found him, and had a decent conversation with him, and set up an appointment for yesterday. And he was SUPER great in the lesson, even giving a really meaningful prayer at the end. Sweet!

 

But yeah, that's kind of my week. The new Anziani and Sorelle are fun. There's one Italian Sorella, Sorella Caramia, who's fun because she hardly speaks any english, and it's so rewarding to be able to have a full on conversation with a missionary like that. The new Anziani are both really funny and great workers, with an Anziano Davids being an especially good example for myself, I feel. He's one transfer ahead of me (we knew each other briefly in the MTC, which no new groups can say anymore (there's no overlapping time in the MTC)).

 

Well have fun this week, and I love hearing about all that's going on! Cameron, way to go on going to that Order of the Arrow thing, that's super cool! Kaden: I can tell you from experience: you will have less hard conversations with Mom and Dad if you make a goal to finish your eagle project in 2 months, and then focus on beating that goal. Cole: YOU'RE GONNA BE A DEACON, OH MAN THAT'S SO COOL! HAPPY ALMOST BIRTHDAY IN A FEW WEEKS!!!!! =D Mom and Dad: I love you! =D

 

I love you!

Anziano Walker

My First Letter As a 45 yr old

Ciao Presidente!

This week has been hard to meet with investigators (the appointments that we had had to be moved or cancelled), but to make up for that we wrote each family a note with a spiritual thought and letting them know we're thinking about them. It was fun to do, but I might have preferred meeting with them.

With what time we've had free last week, we went around to try to see less-actives in the area, to see if they still live there and/or what's holding them back from coming to church. Unfortunately, not a lot are home when we go, but some have at least responded. And then generally said they're not interested. One, however, I think not this past week but the one before, named Gianluca Picci, said he wants to get back in touch, and will come to english course tonight, so we'll see about that, and then follow up a bit.

A couple cool little things from this week: we have a guy that asked us to help him with his english at his house, to be able to understand better for a test he has coming up. We probably won't keep up these house visits for too long, since he seems to want to learn more of the grammar, but he is ok with us giving a spiritual thought at the end. Ok, thinking about this just now, I'm seeing that it may be turning a little more into an english class than a course, these visits, and not being understood that it's so much a missionary tool. Next time, we'll make sure to try to clear that up.

Last night, we were working in Capoterra (after dropping off a letter to Gianni and Sara), and ended up trying to drive back home after about 8:15 to try to make it in time. But we got going the wrong way on a road, and it was going into countryside, with no way of making a u turn. But anyway, we keep driving, and Anziano Woolsey says jokingly "Ok, next house we see, we stop there and there's gonna be someone ready to hear the Gospel." I decide to do that, and eventually we see a house, I park the car, and we go up. The owners were just walking up to the door, and we stopped them to talk real quick. Turns out, they had met with the missionaries like 3 years ago. And had heard all the lessons. And were super nice. And we have an appointment for next Thursday. So, yeah, that was really cool.

Ciao President!
Anziano Walker

HIYA!

Man I'm in a good mood right now. I love writing family! And friends, but it's always special with family. I love you guys, and love hearing about what's going on at home. Even if it is "same old same old". :)

So those new investigators? Yeah, not a heck of a lot from this week. But we do have an appointment with the William, Cristina, Carlo, Vanessa, and S.lla Pistidda this week, which we have high hopes for. We'll see!

I totally planned to send pictures this week, I got them all set on my flash drive and everything, but then I went and forgot my flash drive on my desk. Yeah, my bad....

We had transfer calls on Saturday, and guess what happened: I'm staying here! 4 in one city, what the heck? And my companion is....... Anziano Loertscher! Yep, 3 transfers in a row with the same companion, which is longer than I stayed in any other city, haha! But then Cagliari is gonna be changing after the new people arrive on the island tomorrow (hopefully): there's gonna be a new companionship of Anziani here! And, not only that, but a new companionship of Sorelle! So yep, we're gonna have 8 missionaries over here in one city, each of which is officially out of greenie stage (except for one that will be trained by a Sorella coming in). Apparently, they want this place to boom in a bit.

Although, I think I know a part of the reason. Last week, I totally forgot to mention this, but Sardegna is no longer gonna be by itself. On the 15th of September, it will be a part of the Rome West Stake, along with the Napoli area, and part of Rome. And Cagliari is gonna be a Ward.

Funnily enough, we haven't been able to talk about this with our Branch Mission Leader. He is currently in America, and has been for the past 2 months. We have been kind of floundering trying to work with the Branch here. It's tough. But ho dang, we've got a lot of news for him when he gets back this week!

******And one last thought: I've been learning a lot this past little bit about how I think and what I need to do to deal with hard times. I'm learning a lot that I just never learned how to deal with anxiety well. But recently, especially after talking with that counselor a few times, I'm seeing that a super easy way I've always had to get over it is to connect with somebody. Whether it's companion, Heavenly Father, or someone in a letter, that's almost always how I've gotten over that. So I'm deciding to put that more into practice, and work on making that a full on help for me. I know that Heavenly Father helps me, cause He helped me see that! :)

Bye everyone, and I love you!

Ciao!

Anziano Walker

Happy Birthday to Alyssa

Caro Presidente,

This week we were able to get a ton of new investigators, and that was really thanks to the members of the branch here. First off, right after Zone Conference on Thursday, we had a lesson with Sorella Pistidda (that we had been trying to set up all last transfer after calling her son-in-law from the Area Book), and her daughter (Cristina), the daughter's husband (William), and S.lla Pistidda's son (Carlo) and his companion (Vanessa, they are not married yet) all became new investigators, 3 of which is for a second time (the companion is new). They were all super receptive, asked good questions, and understood what we were going for. We had an appointment set for Monday, but they had trouble with that, so they said to call for this next Monday, but we just learned that we might be able to see them this Friday, so hopefully that works out.
The next 2 new investigators were referrals from Simone Ibba, a member on a mission right now, who apparently emailed the Sorelle, and they passed on the information to us. The referral was for his dad (Salvatore), and then the companion (we forgot the name) decided to listen too. They're able to see us Sundays, so they told us to call ahead to make sure. They weren't quite as receptive, but that may be because we were beat (we had just got out of a long member lunch literally 1 minute before he took us to his house), and he talked a lot. We're hoping to plan well for this week, though.
The last 3 came from a referral from the Elder's Quorum President on Sunday, who said a less-active member (the wife, Sabrina Leone) had requested a visit for a blessing for her husband (Agostino), who we learned at the visit that night has a tumor, and went in for chemotherapy Monday. After that, we were able to give a spiritual thought to the whole family (which includes two daughters, Francesca and Martina) that the Elder's Quorum President suggested on the Spirit, and how they could feel that more powerfully and consistently in their lives. They were all open to it, and responded they would like to have that, and said they would try to come to church Sunday, although it would be difficult after the therapy. But Sabrina said she wants to get back to reading the Book of Mormon, so we gave that as another commitment as well, and we said we would call to see when we could see eachother again later in the week, and see how the therapy went.
[Rest of letter, didn't copy]

Thanks President!

Anziano Walker

 

 

Hi!

 

Man, last week was full and busy. I loved that. It's so great to have purpose to the day. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see Gianni and Sara this past week (we didn't have the car), but we invited them to the activity. They understood it, however, to be the day AFTER it was, which was kind of a bummer. But they wanted to come. We're looking to see if we can find some space this week to go see them and then keep working in Capoterra, which would be good. However, President at Zone Conference emphasized that we should keep work centered in the cities where we're serving, because lately missionaries have been spending too much time driving to and from outlying cities, where they could be finding investigators close to members. So, we'll visit them occasionally, but seeing as they weren't making huge progress, and the other potentials we had dropped us cold a bit ago, we are probably gonna leave Capoterra be somewhat. Maybe have a day or two every time we have the car.

But thanks for letting me know I'm learning something enough to be said in Sacrament meeting! Or at least making it shown in letters. I've been kind of wondering about my letters lately, and how they sometimes make things probably seem worse than they are. I don't like that, and that is a part of my personality I feel like I need to adjust. (****And I'm taking the steps to do that, that counselor has called a few times, and each time I've learned something new and worked on applying it. And felt a lot better. I hope I haven't cast kind of a dark shadow on the mission thus far, I just get so stressed and expect so much of myself a lot that it drives me nuts. But I'm kind of glad it is. When I get back, it'll (hopefully) be cakewalk, the stress that I dealt with in the past! :) )

I'm glad to hear that you're all having fun, and I'm still jealous of the canoe. Oh, and we officially start the English lessons in September (although you guys could check out the site for kicks, www.missioneitaliana.info), although we're gonna do a kind of a practice one this week, to just get started with it. And I have not seen Sorella Rossell or Anziano Cicon in the mission yet, although I've met people who've met them. Anziano Ostler laughed when he said I knew her, last transfer. He thought she was hysterical.

 

Thanks guys, love you!

Anziano Walker

We Are Home

Ciao Presidente!

This week has been pretty good, we've just been making sure to work the best we can. After that call yesterday for Anziano Loertscher, he was doing a lot better, and we got right back out once we learned he would be fine. Although, we made sure to be a little more reliant on buses for the next little bit. He's doing great now.

We had a scambio between us and Oristano last Friday, I went with Anziano Rasmussen, and Anziano Loertscher went with Anziano Adams. They seem to be working very well together, and Anziano Rasmussen is doing very well for his 2nd transfer. He is doing well with his Italian, and is working hard to improve, he bears meaningful and simple testimony in lessons, and is able to work and enjoy himself at the same time. It looks like they're doing a good job in Oristano as well, which is good. 

This week, at church, Gino Mura came, who we haven't seen for a while. Evidently, he was in the hospital for a few weeks, but now that he's out, he's completely willing to meet with us whenever it works out, and he said he's gonna come every week to church. It may be slow going with him (he had a few ideas against the Word of Wisdom lesson in Gospel Principles), but he seems to be willing to try this out for sure. He's also going to be coming to a Branch Activity this Friday, a sort of barbecue, it sounds like. And Gianni and Sara said they would come as well, with their daughter who's visiting, so we're gonna do our best to have members help out with them, make friendships and such.

I can't think of anything else at the moment. Looking forward to Zone Conference tomorrow!

Ciao!

Anziano Walker

Hey, sorry this is late, and it won't be a long letter at all, the place is about to close. The computer place closed on us last time, and our schedule was completely messed up with Zone Conference yesterday. But that went well, and it was a very powerful Zone Conference for me. Pres. Waddoups is an AMAZING mission president, and I learn a lot from him, not just when he teaches, too.

I'm working a lot on trying to be more consistent with good habits I'm trying to make, like excercising every morning (which I got a full 30 minutes almost every day this week!), and how to teach better.

Fun fact, I WOULD have written back yesterday after Zone Conference, but that would have taken us away from a member lesson we had scheduled and had tried to get all last transfer. As a result of that one lesson, we got 4 new investigators here. 2 young families. And the member is the Mom. Super great! We have an appointment this upcoming Monday, too, so they are pretty dang solid, it looks like!

Well, love you all, and hope you have a great week! And yes, Italians DO love Americans. I especially love saying I'm from California, because when that comes out, almost without fail, they say "BELLA California!" (beautiful). Really fun. :)

Ciao, love you!

Anziano Walker

P.S. - We got the new english course, and we're probably gonna start it next week! =D

Oh man, the internet lady here is super nice, and let us stay an extra bit of time so we could finish writing our families. Oh man, I love the little miracles!

One thing that prompted that little bit for Pres. Waddoups was on Wednesday, at English Course. He had just got out of a meeting they had at the church, and we were just finishing up too. So he decides to drop in on our classes real quick, because (he told us later) he had never been to see an english course yet in the mission. He had seen the presentation for the new course several times already from past Zone Conferences, so he wanted to put that into effect with us. He walked into the class Anziano Prete and I were teaching (we were doing a mini scambio because he had the car from Olbia, and I knew where we needed to drive to. We had 10 Anziani in Cagliari that night, at our apartment)(by the way, "Prete" pronounced prehtey, means "priest" in Italian), the intermediate/advanced for the night. He walks in, and the 7 students see him (he's tall, easily Jared height, maybe taller), and you could just feel his presence. He made sure to make the entire exchange in english, and pushed them to say their names in a sentence as he shook their hands. It was crazy, you could just feel the respect they had for him, it was kind of funny! And as I was giving the spiritual thought, I mentioned "prophet", and he stopped me, and asked them if they knew what a prophet was. And then, he taught them a phrase in Italian that he got them to translate to english, one by one (a prophet is a man who talks with God). Great example, AND a wonderful teacher.

And then, I had a personal interview with him right before he got taken back to the airport for his flight, and to open up, he asked me to say the prayer. Realizing the time crunch, I gave a quick prayer, and we got started. Then he gave the closing prayer, and it was exactly like a conversation with some other person. Taking time, not only going through saying thankful's and asking's, but giving thoughts and understanding. That in and of itself was a huge example to me.

Ok, I'm probably gonna go now. We just had weekly planning this morning, and this week is looking to be a solid week, with purpose every day, and I really enjoy that. It's hard to want to get up and out without that kind of goal in mind. We do it, but maybe not as eagerly as possible. Just something I'm learning here. By the way, Dad, in training and talking with Anziano Loertscher, I've been learning a lot how to teach, what to teach towards. I've narrowed it down to what we want them to know, feel and do. Thanks for teaching me that, and I'm just bummed that it took me this long to get it right! -ish. :)

Thanks guys, I'll write on time next week!

Anziano Trey Walker

First P Day Being 20

Ciao Presidente!

 

This week, we've been working hard. We managed to see Gianni and Sara again, this time with some members that live nearby their house, to try to explain the Restoration. The members, the Floris family, did wonderful. The hard part was Sara, who tried to contradict what we believed. With things that didn't relate at all. However, there was evidence of the spirit being felt at times, and especially with Gianni. We tried to invite them to baptism in the lesson, but it somehow just didn't get understood, and then the Floris' kind of took over from there. Oh well. But Gianni specifically said at one point "You guys are planting seeds with me right now", which I thought was kind of cool. He seems to really want to understand us, and helps us explain to his wife what we mean when she doesn't get it. And he explains it well.

 

There was also a new investigator from last week, Gino Mura, who came to church. He's progressing in that he follows through on commitments really well, but we're kind of wondering where understanding of lessons and importance of the doctrine is. He has said he wants to make improvements in his life, and we try to help with that, but he kind of explains his own thoughts and then doesn't allow for any intervention, unfortunately.

 

Other than that, we have (these past few days especially) really made a push to find appointments, especially from the Area Book. We've been calling people from there and visiting their houses a ton. We have, if nothing else, been able to talk to people on the street and get them thinking about the Church a bit.

  

Thanks Presidente!

Anziano Walker

 

 

 

HIYA!

 

Ok, so you DO know about the blog. I heard about that all of a sudden from all the Anziani at Zone Conference, saying that their parents have all commented on that and how good of a job Sorella Waddoups is doing keeping it up. I had no idea if you guys knew about it. But now I do. So...... yeah.

 

Comunque, I'm 20!!! We didn't do a heck of a lot special, but Sorella Waddoups called in the morning to say Happy Birthday, and the Sorelle here made me a cake. Funny, I just realized that the only people involved in celebrating were sorelle...... Oh well. Va bene. I did, however, wear a fantastic tie, one of my favorite power ties that I bought here. Hot pink. Oh yeah. Conservative? Probably not. But it's a birthday tie! :) We also had a mostra again, we have one or two planned here for every weekend this transfer. It's different here than in Messina, cause here it's only a 2 1/2 hour thing in the evening. I feel like that's a little nicer on Anziano Loertscher, who is still having a lot of difficulties with the language. But we're still making sure to do language study together to try to address that.

 

And to address your last question: no, they haven't distributed it out yet, although they're pretty sure we'll have it by this Zone Conference, as all the materials are already in Rome. And they explained it in Capi Conference, and we are all SUPER PSYCHED for it! It's got consistent lesson plans, super simple and effective at teaching (geared more toward conversation than grammar), and is COMPLETELY a finding tool, with a lesson being about 20-30 minutes (they found that works better than an hour), and having the option to talk with people more in depth about the spiritual thought. And what's cool, if people can't come, it's easy enough (and maybe even better for learning) to go to their house to teach them english on any other day. They've been trying it in Rome the past few months, and they said one time they had a 20 minute english lesson, and a 2 hour discussion of the Gospel! It's so freakin awesome, and what makes it even cooler, we're the first non-english mission to put it into practice, so people at church headquarters want to see how this goes. Sweet!

 

Ok, but enough about advertising. If you can't tell, I really love doing English Course. And I'm psyched for this program. But this week, after being inspired to work better and more diligently from Capi Conference, me and Anziano Loertscher have decided to use the ex-investigator section of the Area Book to have a little more direction to our work here. These past few days have been long and tiring, but really good, because we felt like we had a more substantial goal than "knock on this many houses, and hope for the best." We've also decided to stop complaining that there's no work in the summer, and if nothing else, get referrals for other countries (what with the tourists). I even met some people from Denmark that were pretty cool.

 

So that's what's going on over here right now. Really trying hard to find those people that are looking for the Gospel. One thing people have been saying to us over and over while looking for those ready is really annoying, when they almost all say "Well, there's one God for everyone, so we're all good." This morning, I decided to look up how to respond to that. While talking with Anziano Loertscher about it, I realized a few things: 1. Those people probably wouldn't be the ones we're looking for anyways, and 2. A way to respond may be "Yes, there is one God, yet no one says the exact same thing about Him. Obviously, very few people really know Him as He is. We go around to help people understand how to know that for themselves." I haven't had a chance to try that yet, but that sounds like it would make people think a little bit. Funny, this helps me to clarify my purpose here for myself. Funny how that works, huh?

 

Anyway, gotta go. A few things before I do: I would like to suggest a fun little thing for later: a Book of Mormon in Braille. We found one in the appartment, and I spent the past few days (only my absolutely free time, though, like before bed or a few minutes after lunch) learning it, and I literally cracked the code for it. It's awesome! :) Let's see, what else... oh, I may or may not be using that birthday money to buy a new suit (it may require more than that, even with the sales), seeing as I'm down to one. The blue one had a fight with the corner of a chalkboard, and the chalkboard won. Unfortunately. ****Also parents (I'm gonna put asterisks before things I'd want you to take out before blog), a counsellor for missionaries called last week, and he helped me out a ton, to figure out how to prevent bad moods, instead of focusing on getting out. It's been super helpful already, and I'm hoping to keep improving.

 

Ciao! I love you guys!

Anziano Walker

Happy Almost Birthday

Hi!

 

No time. I'm in Rome (again), this time for a conference for Zone Leaders and Sorella Training Leaders, and we only have about 20 minutes right now. Life is going on as normal (ish) as possible, and we got to tour Rome today a bit. You know, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Colosseum (again). Good stuff. And gelato. Pretty good.

 

Anyway, love you all, and have fun!

Anziano Walker

Hi

Ciao Presidente!

 

This week was pretty good. We started off with a scambio in Sassari, this past Thursday and Friday. Me and Anziano Woolsey got to talk a bit and give our thoughts about our scambi with the other cities, and it sounds like the Anziani in Olbia are doing great. But for the scambio in Sassari, I went with Anziano Eads, and Anziano Woolsey took my companion. There doing good in Sassari, and the work is plugging along. And they work really well together, I'm impressed.

 

In Cagliari, we've been working on trying to briefly see members and really help them boost their faith in their own personal missionary work. That's one idea that we've gotten from 12 Weeks, making sure that in our visits, we're helping them with their missionary work. It's something a little hard, because they seem to expect us to only come over to eat with them. We definitely want to work closer with them, because our doing finding in this time of year is yielding little fruit. But we're still doing it, whenever we can.

 

Thanks President!

Anziano Walker

 

 

Hey Mom and Dad!

 

I am so sorry that I hurt you guys from that letter. That was written right at the end of that rough time, and that was tough. I really really really don't like when I get down, and the only way I've seen to get out of it is to acknowledge it to someone, and explain exactly how I'm feeling. It's funny, each time I've written one of those kinds of letters, or emails, my day or week picks up really quickly. I'm just sorry that it comes with that kind of cost. But I'm thankful for parents who try super hard to make me feel better, even though we're several continents and oceans away. Thank you so much. But this week has been great. I don't know how, but I've really been doing good with attitude and everything. I think exercising every day is really helping. I'm working on being more and more consistent with that. Now just to work on how to look outward... I'll let you know how that goes. But I just want to be sure that you both know that as tough as those hard times are on me, especially that weekend, I have been loving the past week and a half, and that has been kind of the pattern I've seen for me on the mission.

 

I'm betting you can guess that that paragraph probably doesn't need to go on the blog. :)

 

Man, this week seems to have both flown by AND gone pretty slow. Weird. Sunday, we had a lunch at a member's house, to which he also invited a family over who has been in Cagliari for 5 weeks, but they're heading back to America on Thursday. Apparently the wife was baptized in this branch, and then got married and moved to Missouri. They come back every summer. They were super nice, and the dad gave us some good ideas to work with members a bit more. Mainly, we're thinking geneology. Asking people if we can do a bit for them, take their names to the Center here, and then bring them back about 4 generations. We're meeting with a guy tonight to see if he would be cool with that, and how exactly we'd do it. I'm psyched!

 

Let's see, not much else to say. We got transfer calls this past Saturday, and me and Anziano Loertscher are staying here together. I'm staying in a city for more than 3 months! Yay! We're helping out a lot with transfers, though, and hopefully it finishes up smoother than last time. There are 3 people coming in, even though only 1 left the island (another one also left, but they were in 3, so we're not getting them a replacement). There are gonna be 2 new Anziani in Sassari, and I'm psyched 'cause one of them is Anziano Birberg, a Swedish missionary I met in the Rome Zone. He's tight!

 

But yeah, that's kind of all that's new right now. Oh, since I didn't get transferred, feel free to write letters to the Cagliari address on the letter, but only for the next 5 weeks, at most. I miss getting mail in my own mailbox. But you know, however y'all would like.

 

Ciao ciao, and have fun!

Anziano Walker

P-Day

Buon giorno Presidente!

This week, we made it a goal to if not fully accomplish, then give our best shot at seeing all the referrals and assignments we've been given in the past. So over the weekend, we kept going by and calling our referrals at various times, and doing a bit of finding in the area. One especially, which we learned was actually out of the area until September, so that was a little disappointing. But we did it! We have seen, and/or called each of the people we have been given from referrals and assignments, and we have a prospective ex-investigator who seems like he would like to meet with us again, but we have to wait till he gets back from Rome for some sort of political thing. We'll keep talking with everyone that we didn't manage to meet, though.

One of the people we managed to see was a Marco Perra, who's inactive solely because he can't come to church on Sunday due to work. He works at a car-rental service at the airport, and summer is their busiest time, as well as weekends. But he still has a strong testimony, reads and prays consistently, and is trying to bring up his kid in the gospel as much as he can. I'm kind of wondering what might be the best thing to do to help, or if we should just have the branch president help a little more, or what. He has come to church when he can manage it, though, which is cool.

We've also been finding a lot, and have been trying to think of new ways to do that, to find the things that are most effective.

I am totally converted to the 12 Weeks thing, by the way. I love how it teaches, and how it's layed out. I'm learning a ton, especially simplicity and how to teach more by the spirit, as I help Anziano Loertscher learn a bit. We are being really diligent with that, and are starting to now refocus on Language study as well, putting more effort into that to make it more effective for both of us.

Thanks President!

Anziano Walker

Holy snap, a CANOE! =D

I'm pretty excited to come back to that, especially after it's been broken in. :) And before I get to writing about my week, I want to give my thoughts on Mom's question on parties: We're weird. Basta. Although, that's awesome that Cameron is un-weirding. Just do exactly what you did with me last year, and force him to have the best freakin' party of his life, and then he'll open up to it. :)

Anywho, what I wrote to President has kind of been our week. On those times without the car, not a heck of a lot happens. We kind of re-did our whiteboard that has all our investigators and contacts on it, and looking at the redone version........... we realized that we only have contacts, and that old couple in Capoterra are our only investigators. And we won't be able to see them this week, except they promised they would come to church on this Sunday, so hopefully they do! But other than that, the only real "teaching" we've done is finding people. People always say the work slows down to nothing in the summer, but dang........... However, we are working to come up with different finding techniques to get good conversation in, so that the people we talk with feel more comfortable with us and will maybe listen more.

One idea we've tried is a survey. A quick, 2ish question survey, which is perfect (I've found) to get people comfortably talking about religion. Questions like "If you could talk to God and ask Him a question, what would it be?" "If there were a book that was inspired by him that could answer this question, would you read it?" Or on various other subjects. So far, that's the only full survey I've got, but I'm working on one about Family History and Eternal Families. But then, the key I've found with this: go in calm places, like a park.

We found one place to do that, and man, the FIRST day we did it, we found these two people that said they actually WOULD read that book, and sounded like they actually wanted to know the answer to their questions, and they promised to read the Book of Mormon that we gave to them! YES! That was such a good conversation, and I really felt the Spirit guiding the conversation and helping them understand what we said. It was the perfect street contact. Except, they don't live around here. But oh well, they are definitely ready for the gospel, I was psyched after that little conversation!

Other than that, I've really been working hard to help Anziano Loertscher feel comfortable teaching and everything. I sometimes feel, though, like I'm expecting so dang much from him, and maybe get a little irritated when he can't contribute as much as I thought he could. I'm definitely trying to apply patience. It's just so weird, because I have no idea what they took out of his MTC experience of 6 weeks as opposed to my 9 weeks, we're both learning a lot. But we're enjoying working with each other! He's fun!

Love you all!

Ciao!

Anziano Walker

Happy P-Day

Ciao Presidente Waddoups!

This week was pretty good, and I'm happy about that! We've done a lot of finding so far, and have several prospective people in new areas around Cagliari. We're wanting to follow up with them the next few days, so we'll get on that for sure. The couple we found last week, Gianni and Sara, we managed to get another appointment with them yesterday, while we had a scambio with Oristano. Anziano Adams and Loertscher went to that, and said that they are actually pretty good, they just need a repass over the Restoration. But they are reading, and love seeing us, and may even have referrals for us. They also committed to come to church the 21st, so that will be cool!

In Oristano, I went with Anziano Ostler, and we did good work there. It's very different than Cagliari, for sure. But Anziano Ostler kept us working hard with appointments and pass-backs to see, and is a great missionary, showing a ton of love for the people there. They're doing good work in Oristano, the only hardship is the lack of a number of people, apparently. It's a small town. But we found some good contacts for them to see. Even at the train station on the way back to Cagliari.

We're also trying to use our time a little more wisely than we did in the past, and be sure to stay out those extra five to fifteen minutes. Last night, doing that, we even randomly came in contact with a less-active member, and talked with him a good while. Hopefully it helped!

Just to report, we have been completely consistent with the 12 Weeks program since Zone Conference, and that is more helpful than I realized. I'm learning a ton myself, and I hope I'm doing good for Anziano Loertscher. I've also been excercising every day again, and that's doing a lot, I feel like. I'm definitely trying to apply the counsel I received!

Thanks, Presidente!

Anziano Walker

Ciao famiglia!

Man, nutsy week. No, I'm not the only Zone Leader in the Zone, but with organizing rides to get everyone to the house or the church, or from the airport, and then organizing food, and giving an addestramento, and having to work with the Zone Leader across the island on that addestramento AND the Sorelle Training Leaders, AND having to organize District Meeting on Monday,........ it's a lot. But I like it when I'm busy. And it's even better when I look to see how much I've grown to be able to do all that, where 2 transfers ago, I probably would have frozen up trying to organize just the rides and everything. Now I cranked out decent plans in a matter of seconds, and listened to input from others to improve them. I have learned that I am a very good person for thinking logistically. Spiritually, I've been working harder on that end, this week.

But yeah, I'm doing a lot better. I've been drinking more water, like Mom said, really pushing to get 8 hours of sleep a night, and after an interview with President, getting exercise each morning. So far, it's good. Now I just want to work on consistency. I'm hoping well, though!

One thing I want to say about that scambio with Oristano, I learned a LOT from Anziano Ostler. I realize that the District/Zone leader's job is to make sure the missionary is doing well and becoming a good missionary, but MAN, he's awesome! I was thoroughly impressed with how genuine and loving he was. We would occasionally ring on someone's citofono just to compliment them on their garden. Turns out, that's actually pretty effective for starting up conversation. :) And one time, we went into a Pizzer to say we loved their name, "80 fame". I busted up when I read that, because in Italian, that would be "ottanta fame", which sounds exactly like "ho tanta fame", which means "I'm really hungry". Oh man, genius!

But I've been really trying to think lately about two things, almost completely seperate: 1. how to teach more with the Spirit as a third companion (which is where my logistics side of my mind comes as a difficulty). The first one, I've been trying to teach a lot more simply and plainly. Especially after that English Course with that cute little girl a few weeks ago. That really opened my mind to the idea of teaching to THEIR understanding. Also, a "check your progress" self-evaluation from that "First 12 Weeks" program I've been doing with my greeny helped me realize that's something I've been lacking in teaching. If THEY don't understand what's being said, the point of the lesson is lost. All my words are nothing. It may be repetitive to me, but that may mean I just need to keep explaining and re-explaining a certain principle. I feel like this will really help my whole mission.

#2, Regrets. In my interview with President (who is a super amazing man, by the way), he said that he felt I need to think a little more about how to get rid of those, because he saw I have some right now. That kind of shocked me, because everybody always says "Go home with no regrets," and so forth. I thought it was something that you could only avoid, not get rid of entirely. So that's where my studies have been taking me, these past few days. It seems to me very similar to the process of repentance. So much so, that in many cases, it seems to be inseperable. That struck me as somewhat strange, but makes sense. But I'll let you know how that comes out!

Anyway, I love you all, and I'm so glad I got to hear from you! Ciao ciao!

Anziano Walker

Happy P-Day

Buon giorno Presidente Waddoups!

Hi! We've been working really hard over here in Cagliari, me and Anziano Loertscher. We've found a few families this past week that have shown promise, although, they're in a paesino outside of Cagliari called Capoterra, so we can only really see them either with the car every other week, or with very thorough planning. But one family in particular was very accepting of us, Gianni and Sara Murtas. They're an old couple that loved talking with us, and showed some genuine interest in hearing about the Gospel and who we are. He had apparently met missionaries like 40 years ago, and they made a huge impression on him. We're hoping to see them again tomorrow.

Other than finding and a few lessons, we have been trying to think about how to work with the members a little bit more. We've started off making more appointments to meet with them, but we're hoping to also talk with the Branch Mission Leader about it too. We've noticed we've been a little lacking in that area, lessons with members, recently.

That's kind of our work in a nutshell this week. I am really looking forward to Zone Conference this week!

By the way, is there any sort of form you want us to follow in our letters to you?

Ciao!

Anziano Walker

BABIES EVERYWHERE!!!!!

Yeah, I just heard this week, cause videos don't usually work on the computers here, so I've kind of given up trying. I'll see if I can watch them after the mission.

And we FINALLY saw that broadcast on Sunday, after lunch. Yeah, it was inspirational and everything. I'm just surprised no one commented on the fact that we can use Facebook now. Cause you know, that's not a huge change or anything. :) But yeah, I loved the broadcast. It got me thinking, and I realized that I've been thinking about this mission wrong this entire time. I've been worried about how not to look like a salesman or anything, but still feel like it. I mean, that's what this sort of is, right? Wrong, I learned. I really felt the Spirit testify to me that I need to work on it being an act of love, not a way to "do my job" or anything. I've come to think of it as if I'm offering people English Course, if they want it, hey, that's great! If they don't, that stinks, but that doesn't affect my view of it. And talking in lessons, I've thought about a bit as well. I really DO need to feel a little bit more strongly that this is what people need, and that this will help them. I KNOW it can, I just need to feel it a little more. So that's my new focus. At least, the past few days.

Now I want to say, I'm sorry about my last email. I know now that I'm not only subject to mood swings, but for some reason they seem to hit me harder than anybody else I've seen on the mission, on a cycle of a few weeks, sometimes even days, almost regardless of circumstances. Every once in a while, it lands on a P-day, and I'm sorry for when that happens. I just want you to know that I know every single time, the Lord provides a way to get myself out of it. Last week was that very night, at English Course, a family of four came to my Basic course, with 2 little daughters. One of which was trying very hard to learn, and as the lesson progressed, I began, very literally, to imagine I was just teaching to HER level of understanding. And play around while teaching. That did 2 things: The rest of the basic course students understood better as well, and I ended up feeling MUCH MUCH happier. Another blessing on Thursday, we've been having concerts at the church the past 2 weeks on Thursday, and also these next two. These are for very very VERY good music students of one of our less-active members. Last week was one for the organ. Oh my goodness, I have NEVER heard something so....... I don't know how to say it, all-encompassing? Complete? Powerful? from a single instrument. The student apparently also plays for Cathedrals here. But then, after all of his songs on the program, he grabbed one of OUR hymnbooks, and said "I decided to leave you guys with a special treat, and make something of one of your hymns. One that you all know, Sono un figlio di Dio (I am a child of God). I'll take the melody, and add a little, extra." He played that, and oh my gosh. Words cannot describe that. I was thinking, the entire time "I wish Dad could hear this!" Absolutely awe-inspiring.

Kaden, learn the organ. Like a boss.

 

But yeah, various blessings throughout the week. I'm sorry about mood swings, but I'm trying really hard to work on that. Meanwhile, trying to be a good example and good trainer for Anziano Loertscher. And plan for Zone Conference on Friday. Oh yeah, that's on Friday, so that means letters are coming! Yaaaay! Everything since last Zone Conference has built up in Rome. Gosh....

Anyway, ciao ciao!

Anziano Walker

Happy 1st PDay of Summer

Ciao Presidente!

Man, this week has been interesting. It's been strange trying to get into the "training mode", especially a week later than normal. But it's all working out, Anziano Loertscher is a very good and hard-working missionary, and in many ways reminds me of myself. It's interesting to see. This week we didn't have as much as usual in the way of lessons (that could be for several reasons, 1 summer is starting and people leaving, and 2 I'm still learning how to try to fix appointments more solid.), the only one being with a new investigator found the week before by Anziano Prete and Anziano Adams here. Her name is Hayley Oyewo, from Africa, with a family, and she seemed somewhat interested in the church. But that was just an awkward lesson in a lot of ways, so unfortunately I don't know so much about their desire for us to come back. Other than that, we also had a Mostra this past Sunday, and that was interesting and fun this time. Although, I think it would be more beneficial if more members come to the next ones we have planned. We'll work on that.

Ciao!
Anziano Walker

First P-Day of Summer........................................................ Not exactly the most looked forward to thing over here. Not so much the "P-day" part, but the "summer" part. Apart from being hot, there is NOBODY, so we've heard. And so far....... it's coming true. Crap. Everybody leaves, nobody wants to make appointments, ugh. Which is why we never see consistent progress from investigators, even when we call every single week. Hopefully we find something to do all day besides knocking on empty houses.

That leadership meeting or whatever, we haven't seen yet. We'll get an opportunity Sunday. The thing is, it aired at 2:00 in the morning here. Not exactly "Italian friendly". But we'll be able to see it, at some point.

I'm sorry, but I don't have a lot of time left this week as well. I have that timer again, and I had to read your other emails to see if I missed anything. Which I'm glad I did, because JEREMY HAS A BABY!!!! OH MY GOODNESS!!! Of course, you already know that, but HOLY COW!!!

Singing in church, Mom: no. Playing piano: when there's no one else who can play better. Last transfer, it was Sorella Cojan, but she went back to France now, and the branch is stuck with my not quite as good skills. I have no time to go work on that, so I've gotten a bit worse at piano, I feel. I maybe get to go play for 10 minutes once a week. And the branch has a lady who chooses the songs, who gave me a list for the month, but I lost it, and now I'm just reduced to sight reading the melody and maybe playing a note with the left hand every measure.

I'm sorry, but this email is getting me kind of mad. I've had a hard week. I am so dang TIRED of my huge mood swings, and this week had a massive one. I started off super incredibly happy to work with a new companion, but now I've crashed, and worked myself to the ground. I'm tired.

Sorry, no time left. Bye.

Anziano Walker

Hi!

Hi President!

Ok, finally got my permesso. And I worked with Anziano Loertscher's as much as I could before heading down here to Messina. This past week has been nuts, but hopefully after this trip, it'll all get back to normal. We have plenty of people to contact from having two companionships working in Cagliari all last week, so we're gonna be working hard. Plus, we had lunch with that family from last week, and it seems that the daughter Laura is pretty interested to try out what we say. Speriamo bene!

Anziano Walker

Ok, no time to write really. I have a plane to catch from Reggio back to Cagliari. This week has been absolutely freakin' unbelievably nuts, and I really wish I had time to write to you guys. But my new companion, Anziano Loertscher (pronounced "Lurcher") is cool. At least, as far as I can tell. I only was with him for 1 full day so far. Did I say this week was nuts?

Ciao!

Anziano Walker

P-Day Is A Great Day

Ciao President!

This week we've gotten a lot of new people to visit with, and quite a few new investigators! We found two families, both of which are super nice and listen well (for Italians), and one of which is a hard-core Catholic, but warmed up to us as we visited with him. The families though are really nice, one of them (Carlo, Adrianna, with two daughters Laura and Beatrice) invited us to lunch this Sunday (over in Capoterra, so we're also taking the opportunity to see some other contacts around there too, like Massimo), and the other family, which is a little more heavily Catholic, (Roberto, Giulianna, and two daughters as well) live next to a strong member, and said she could come over sometime too. Sweet!

This week was hard working for Less-Actives, but we had a dinner last night with the Relief Society President, and we are planning on working together more to help focus the members on working with them a little more. Mainly, connecting ideas between church and personal visits, so that "church" isn't just a once-a-day thing. We are mainly thinking about how to work up a desire in the members to take a more prominent role.

Thanks for everything you do President Kelly, and I'm excited for this transfer! It's definitely gonna be different, like you said.

Ciao!

Anziano Walker

Hiya family!

Ok, with the Zone Leader and District Leader thing, we don't always stay District or Zone Leader, we find that out every 6 weeks, after Transfer Calls. Which just happened this Saturday. I'm staying in Cagliari, but Anziano McIntyre went to Palermo (everybody that left from the island left yesterday). Now we're just waiting for the new companions to fly in on Thursday. Who is my companion? Well, his name is.......... actually, I don't even know yet, because I'm TRAINING! Holy snap, District Leader, Zone Leader, AND Training. AND next week I have to go down to Messina again to (finally) pick up my Permesso. So my new (in every sense of the word) companion will meet me, we'll start up HIS Permesso work, and then basically right after I'm leaving him for probably about 3 days. Crap.

And this week has been freakin' nuts too, because we're dealing with moving everybody off and getting people here. Every companionship on the island is getting changed somehow. All four Anziani companionships are losing one and getting one (the one's who are staying on the island are staying here in Cagliari until Thursday), the Sorelle in Cagliari lost one (they were a trio, and the oldest one, Sorella Cojan, just finished her mission and is heading back to France), and the Sorelle in Sassari are coming down Thursday to pick up a brand new Sorella. It's really weird to see how young everybody is. I'm now the oldest Anziano on the island, and the second oldest missionary (mission age wise). The Sorelle in Cagliari are now starting their 3rd and 2nd transfers, and everybody is is about the same age. There will be one missionary coming in to Sassari who is one transfer below me, and is the other Zone Leader. I was a little stressed about logistics about getting everyone around where they need to be, but it's working out so far, and at the end of next week it'll be relatively normal.

So with Anziano McIntyre leaving, I GET TO DRIVE THE CAR! When we have it every other week! I've been practicing, and it's so fun. Two words: Stick-shift. It. Is. AMAZING. I am so thankful I learned how to work the gears on a motorcycle, because that helped out a ton. The only thing I'm working on now is to not stall in 1st gear. I'm getting a lot better, already. After a day. Awesome!

Anyway, with these families I told President about, I'm super excited. They seem really cool. We haven't seen Francesco's dad again (that was the one I said warmed up to us), and Gianluca was cool. We saw him yesterday so Anz. McIntyre could say goodbye. It seems like he sees us as just friends, but we left a teeny spiritual thought about prayer at the end, maybe in time with him. And Enrico..... well, he still wants to get baptized, but he is nowhere near ready. He's got a mental handicap, and so some stuff we say doesn't register, and he still thinks SUPER evangelical, and quotes the Apocrypha in lessons, which got one of the members we were working with a little worried. Us too, when he explained it. But the good news is, Enrico even realizes he's not quite ready. Plus, he doesn't come to church. Kind of impossible to get baptized without 3 weeks in a row in church.

But yeah, that's what's up right now. I'M GONNA BE TRAINING!!! Anyway, I love hearing about what's going on at home. Kaden: DO IT. Go to Australia. Pay for every-freakin'-body. DO IT. That's so sweet! And for all of you, good to hear you guys are getting active! And Mom and Dad, good luck with your race in a little bit, I'm super impressed hearing what you guys have done!

Ciao ciao!

Anziano Walker

P-Day Is Here Again

Ciao President

 

This week has been slow in lessons, but we've been looking all over to see if we can find out if the less-actives on our list want to come, or if they've moved, or whatever. And we've been trying to see our investigators. Enrico wants to get baptized, but neither of us feel as if he understands the Church, the teachings, and the Book of Mormon yet. And he even says so. Although, we've seen some people these past few days that seem to have some curiosity in knowing more about us. They live out in Capoterra, though, so it will be a little difficult to see them on the weeks without the car. However, we've figured out the bus schedules out there, and we'll see how that goes.

 

Thanks for everything, President!

Anziano Walker

 

 

Hi fam!

 

Ok, Mom, before I forget: that money was spent on tires for the car. And the huge amount before that you asked about but I never said what it was, in L'Aquila? I had run out of mission money, and was using personal money for the bus and groceries. Nothing interesting.

 

And, 2 requests for the email next week: the Branch President's wife here requested a recipe for your chocolate chip cookies and rolls. What can I say, I enjoy them so much, I can't help talking them up here as well. :) And I would also love an opportunity to make them here, so..... cookies and rolls, ok? Don't worry about translating, I'll work on that (Google translate stinks)

 

We met a few people finding in that Capoterra these past few days, which is 30 min. by car. One of them, we saw the son on Monday, and he said his parents weren't home, so we could come back the next day, and we set up an appointment for 6 the next day. Unfortunately, we had forgotten that we had set up with a member to go to a few houses with him in the afternoon. But Tuesday, at lunch, the member called in sick, so we took the opportunity to go see this kid, Francesco. He let us in, saying his dad was on the way home. We talked a bit, and then the dad walked in. To be honest, I don't think HE would have let us in if HE had answered when we knocked. However, after talking a bit, he was totally down to revisit with us another time, muahaha! I think the main problem we have here is that people think we're Jehovah's Witnesses, which is HUGE here. But they have a bad rep here as being overly agressive against Catholic beliefs, or..... anyone's beliefs. I dunno. All I know about them is that one gave me chocolate when we knocked on her door in L'Aquila. :) But once he learned we weren't them, we talked a bit, and this guy is super strong in his beliefs, but is ok to talk to us. Sweet!

 

The next guy, we found Tuesday, before that. We had gotten to the area a little early for our appointment, so we continued doing house in the area. We found a guy working at a dolcerìa (sweet shop), he came out to talk to us, and we learned he was actually an EX- Jehovah's Witness, but was actually very curious to get to know us. He said we could come by and chat Friday morning. AWESOME!

 

The next guy, we found last Friday, while looking for less actives in a city called Quartu Sant'Elena. This guy, Gianluca, saw us on the Street, stopped US, and talked a bunch. A lot of, "Hey, I want to become Mormon, how do you become Mormon?," and so on. He even answered his phone right there and said, "Hi mom, I'm here talking to Walker, and he just gave me a Book of Mormon, you want to become Mormon?" At this point, I was busting up, almost. His girlfriend was just kinda off to the side. We're not entirely sure if he was joking or not. BUT, he passed us 2 times in the car after that, same day, and said hi, still funny. I dunno, I think I explained that bad, but it was really funny. He does haircuts, so we went to his house to get a haircut and talk with him about the Church. Still a little confused, but he's awesome, and super talkative. It's fun!

 

Other than that, just pluggin along. It's funny you guys mention an "Always positive attitude", or something, I don't have that. I try, but it doesn't happen. I think something may be wrong with me, but I'm trying. I'm trying to get rid of my stinkin' perfectionist attitude, but it's hard. I'm trying to cheerfully go down the Street, all the time, and WANT to do work, but it's hard. Sometimes, I feel like I'm just doing work just to stay out until 9, to avoid having to really think or something. I don't like that. I'm not perfect, in the slightest. And I especially have hard times getting along with each of my companions. Every. Single. One. The one it was best with was Anziano Stewart, but I just had a huge perfectionist attitude, again. Man, unloading a lot, here. I feel bad right now.....................

 

But today was fun! We went up to a place nearby called the Devil's Saddle, with a student from English Course from forever, a fun member, and a friend of their's, and the Sorelle. It was a nice little 30 min. hike, and with an absolutely GORGEOUS view. I've learned that that's my kind of tourism. Museums and such are nice, but getting out and having a nice little day hike is my PERFECT idea of a P-day. Along with writing letters. Fun stuff!

 

Well, have fun.

Ciao!

Anziano Walker

Happy Wednesday

Caro Presidente Kelly,

 

This week has been strange, especially with the trip to Messina. But I got back safe and sound, and we're keeping up the work here in Cagliari as best we can. We had the opportunity to at least see Massimo and his family (the friend of one of the members here that we've been working with to help out the member, Fratello Vicedomini) on Saturday, and he is well. We didn't quite have time to give a super spiritual thought (we got there later than we had hoped), but we left a bit about prayer, and they are really willing to have us over again sometime. Sweet!

 

Working with less-actives, the past few days we've kind of been seeing if they live in the same areas on the Branch's list, which apparently hasn't been updated for years, unfortunately. We've had the opportunity to see a few, but many have moved or just don't let us come in for one reason or another. We're trying to help the members really want to work with them, though.

 

In thinking how to work with the members, we are trying out a few different things: giving members thank-you cards for dinners or helping out with appointments or anything, really looking for acts of service we can do for them, and just trying to show them extra amounts of love so that they feel a stronger desire to either help us out or work with friends on their own.

 

This past week, I've been really working on and studying and thinking about not letting little things get to me, and how I can get along better with my companions. I've found two things that can really help me with that: 1 looking for "light" every day, little positive things about what happens or events in the past, and 2 avoiding criticism in what others may do, especially little things, and instead praising anything I see good. So far, since I've come up with and worked on those, I've been feeling much better about and during the mission.

 

Thanks for everything President!

Anziano Walker

Ciao famiglia!

 

First off, before I forget, Mom asked me to tell y'all about the investigators here. The truth is, we have none. Solid, anyway. Nobody answers their phone. So this week Anziano McIntyre and I decided to change that, start over, and get a whole new list of contacts. While looking for Less-Actives. I call it "Meno-Attivo Hunting". :)

 

But that Massimo I mentioned, he's awesome! He's not quite an investigator, but we've done service with him a few times, and this Saturday was my first time seeing his family and his house. They. Are. AWESOME. They have two daughters (I only saw one, though), a son, and his wife. They're super close, and really good people. And the HOUSE! It's out in the country area, so it's actually big for any Italian house I've seen so far. And they have so many animals, it's great! Cats, dogs, chickens, pigs, fish, oh my gosh! And Massimo had added on to the house they had originally bought (he's a huge do-it-yourself kind of guy), and it's so cozy. Awesome! And he really enjoys hearing from us, whenever we call him. There's a switch, haha!

 

Ok, not quite an investigator (yet!), but we met this one guy on the street last night who was super nice. He stopped us as we were Meno Attivo Hunting, and started talking with us about where we were from, and our beliefs, and so on. He was very appreciative of the work we do, and we exchanged numbers so we could meet up sometime and see what else our beliefs have in common. The kicker: he's a Catholic Priest! Oh man, I was super happy after that little encounter, just because it was so composed, so nice, and he still wanted to talk with us about religion, which isn't normal with the Priests I've seen. Oh yeah, totally gonna start the ball rolling for this Priest here! =D

 

One thing I wanted to share with you guys from this week was something I've been studying, and it has to do with that "light" that I mentioned in my letter to the President. I've ocassionally had times in my mission where I literally felt filled with light (I even wrote it in my journal with those exact words), and I've been trying to see how to have that always happen. Useful study material: 1 This past Conference issue Ensign (which we got from one of the Sorelle's parents), especially Pres. Uchtdorf's talk on light, one from the Sunday afternoon session called "Beautiful Mornings", and the first one in the Young Women session, 2 little problems I've had with companions, about which I could think and see what I did right or wrong, 3 the Topical Guide on light, and 4 Ether chapter 2 (the last like 5 verses) and the beginning of chapter 3. I've come to draw as much from that story as I did from Abraham with his son.

 

A major thing from that story that I love is that the Brother of Jared took those rocks out of the mountain, and made them clear (I'm pretty sure the word it uses is "molten"), and then takes them to the Lord. In the verses before, he was asking how to cross the stormy sees with light (go through life with hope, Christ, the Gospel, basically, whatever light symbolizes). I find it significant that he has the solution to take the rocks from the mountain (from the world, past experiences, current experiences), work with them a bit, and then take it to the Lord. This is where the Young women's conference talk came in, looking for those holy places in life. Oh man, I feel like this is so scatter-brained, but I have no time left. Think about it, I love it! :)

 

OH MY GOSH I LOVE MY FAMILY! I miss you guys, and everyone else too! AND WHAT THE SNAP, KIMMY'S GETTING MARRIED!!!! Tell her "Auguri" for me! (It means "wishes", "congrats", etc.)

 

Ciao ciao!

Anziano Walker

Happy P-Day

Ciao President!

This week has been weird, especially with the travel. But at Cagliari, we did what we could together there. We talked with Gaetano (if you don't remember or if I never said, he's a referral we contacted my first Saturday there), and apparently he's been talking to a Priest from some other church, and doesn't really want to meet with us unless he doesn't like this guy. Evidently, a major problem that he has with us is that we are so young. He hasn't come out and said it, but he kept saying stuff that hinted to it, and that was a surprise to him, we learned from Sorella Safina (his friend in the church) after our first meeting. So, maybe with time he'll be ok with it, hopefully.

We've also been working a lot with less actives here, and trying to see members to get them to talk to and help less active people they know. We have some ideas that we would like to try to work out, like having consistent weekly activities (sorta like mutual), or doing large scambi with the members in the branch every month. Those were some ideas we got from an ex-branch mission leader, and he said those kinds of things really helped the branch get involved with missionary work, and helped less-actives come back. I'm excited to try!

With my permesso here in Messina, it was a quick fix. But unfortunately, it looks like I'm gonna have to come back in a few weeks to pick it up and to do that course on the laws and stuff. I feel kinda bad that this is eating up so much money and time for the mission. But thanks for helping me out with that, making it run smoothly!

Thanks for everything!

Anziano Walker

Ciao Famiglia!

Ok, you're never gonna guess where I'm writing this from! Go ahead, guess!

Wrong! (Probably)

I'm back in Messina, haha! Apparently, there were some problems with my permesso (an appointment in April that no one knew about), so the office bought me plane tickets to come down here and see what I could do to figure everything out. They got return tickets for Friday (I left Monday), just to give me time in case I could just pick it up in a few days. But, it looks like I'm actually gonna have to come back near the end of this transfer, cause I have an appointment at a government building here on June 17th. AND, I need to still pick it up, which they said would probably be in about 3 weeks as well. But it's SUPER WEIRD being here in Messina again, I still remember almost exactly where everything is, and the house is just about the same, English Course was super fun, I appreciate the food a MILLION times more, and it's like I haven't left. It is so.........WEIRD. But I'm basically doing a big ol' scambio with the Anziani here, so we're in 3 everywhere. Crazy! But not as crazy as me travelling alone from Cagliari to Rome, and then Rome to Reggio Calabria, and the Anziani there taking me across on a boat to Messina. How many rules did I break? I think 5. But all with permission. :)

And it's so cool to hear about all the people I know again! Sanjay moved to France, because of some problems. Dilhani and Isuri are still super active in the church, and Sahtmi is still wanting to get baptized in October! And Dilhani has a steady job now! Maria Pia is still...... Maria Pia. There were 2 guys at English course who I taught every week in the advanced class that were super excited to see me (two brothers named Giovanni and Domenico), and we're gonna go get a pizza together tomorrow night after English Course again, I think. They're moving to Ireland in a bit, for work as nurses. Fratello Impollonia is still rockin' it as the Ward Mission Leader, .... aw, man, this is so fun!

And the Anziani here are really cool. Their names are Anziano Stewart and Hurlburt. Although, It's impossible for Italians to say Hurlburt, so he got it re written on his nametag, now to "Albart". Boh. He's a little quiet, and reserved. Plus, he's a group above me in the MTC, so we knew eachother a bit before as well. But me and Anziano Stewart (Not my trainer, this guy was in the group below me at the MTC) hit it off really quickly! We never really had a chance to get to know eachother well in the MTC, but man, this guy's awesome, and super happy! I'm kinda sad I'm going back in a few days. Anziano McIntyre is great, but quiet. I'm still trying to learn how to get along with super quiet. In time. But hopefully it comes quickly.

In Cagliari, We have been really working and thinking about that goal. But just meeting Less-actives one at a time won't work, because many of them need time and multiple visits. So like I said in my letter to President, I really would like to try some of those ideas we got from the old Branch Mission Leader. I haven't really had an opportunity to talk with Anziano McIntyre about it, though, and hopefully they come up with something in Correlation with the current Branch Mission Leader while I'm out.

Oh man, this is great! Here I don't have a time limit of an hour! I can EXPOUND and RESPOND! =D I love hearing about the gardening you guys did, and a few suggestions for herbs I use consistently (if you can find them): Rosemary (It is FANTASTIC with potatoes, especially french fries. That and olive oil can replace ketchup), Basil, Origano, and if possible, pepperoncino (little red peppers). Also onions and garlic are really good too. I really want to learn specific recipes, too. So far for that, all I've got is my Pizza cookbook and Carbonara. But I've got time! :)

That's freakin' awesome with the bear, haha! That's more exciting than any Fathers and Sons I remember! And good luck with your race in a bit, you'll do great! Have fun in Utah!

Ciao!

Anziano Walker

P.S. - I just got an email from Esli today, and she knows an Anziano that just got back that I met! His name is Anziano Lacey, and I stayed the night at his house for the Stake Conference there. Crazy!

Hey, family!

 

I almost forgot: I heard about Andrea Perdichizzi here in Messina (if you don't remember, he's that less-active that was super excited about tithing, started coming back on his own right before I left). Apparently, he's still strong, and he's gonna be getting the Melchisedec Priesthood soon! Oh my gosh, I was so psyched to hear that!

 

Ok, bye!

 

Anziano Walker