Hola

Well HI there!

I hit the keys really hard for that "hi", but it didn't make the word that much bigger. Dang.

Just want to start off saying sorry about the brief letter and sudden close to the email last week: I was in Pescara for P-day, cause the Anziani there found a soccer field, and we went to play with them (there's 4 in Pescara). We did email first, but Anziano Fossa and I came in later than them, and so we had a later start, and I'm a slow typer, and they were all waiting, and I thought I was taking forever...... I felt rushed again. Back to the MTC days! Woohoo! But in actuality, I only took 45 min. Dang. could have made it better. Sorry. But soccer was fun!

This week had a bunch of ups and downs. It was hard. We haven't seen the college guys for a while. We'll see next transfer what happens. Which reminds me, transfer calls are this Saturday! Anziano Esplin leaves next week (which maybe he reminds me of a little much, but oh well), which means I am for sure getting a new companion. Speriamo bene!

But anyway, this week we've been doing a little bit more of house than we have the past few weeks, because the people we keep finding say to come back in a few weeks. Managia (That means dang!). But we've found several families that could be really good and seem somewhat interested, especially this one lady who was super curious to know how our church works and whatnot. A funny thing about Italians, is that quite a number of them realize something is messed up about the Catholic church, they recognize the greed and that is so often shown. However, they never care enough to try to find something right. But this lady was REALLY interested, so we'll see what happens (again, in a few weeks).

Last Sunday, I gave my first talk in Italy, woohoo!!! It was on "Perche abbiamo bisogno del sacerdozio sulla terra?" (why do we need the Priesthood on the earth?) That was fun to write, and I really hope it made sense, haha! And THEN, the next day for district meeting in Pescara, I had to give my first Addestramento (training), which is like a lesson for missionaries. The catch, it was also in Italian! We have two natives in our district (Anziano Fossa and his companion Anziano Alessandro), so to make things "easier" on everyone we do it all in Italian. I put the quotation marks because I may have gotten my point across better in English, but I feel like I did pretty well!

Funny story from this week: we were calling old investigators in the Area Book to see if any of them wanted to meet with us again, and the LAST lady, I called. She picked up, and I started to ask, but then she started talking and said that her husband would come pick us up at our house to drive us there! That night at 7! I remembered, however, that we had a dinner appointment with a family in the branch then, so asked for another day. She said Wednesday would be fine, then. So we hung up, and I quickly looked at the phone for some reason. It was the member that we had the appointment with. That night. I had told her Wednesday. Crap... For some reason, THEIR number was written on the paper where the INVESTIGATOR'S number should go. So we called her back real quick to explain the situation and fix it up, haha! But they're great, the Melone family. By the way, their last name means big apple. Just saying. There's also a guy in the branch named Fratello Panone, which means big bread. Hehe, fun names! :)

That's cool to see that you guys are feeling so good about emergency preparedness! That definitely would have helped people here... The earthquake hit everybody super hard. The members are more or less good now, though. But downtown (Centro) is really sad to walk through now, with everything messed up so bad, and so..... empty.

But I digress... Anywho, that's fun for all of you! By the way, Dad, that's an interesting insight about the apostles. I don't know if they would completely leave everybody else be and go to work on the Jews, but that is definitely a valid idea. I dunno, we'll see how it all turns out, right? I love your spiritual thoughts that you throw into each email!

Mom, those are great insights into forgiveness, I hadn't quite thought before that we have to forgive before we love, especially. But that reminded me of one thing I've heard from President Kelly, which I feel is related somewhat. Whenever we're irritated with someone or something, it's because something didn't turn out how we expected or wanted it to turn out. That has helped me a TON while I've been here to avoid some negative situations. Or at least, several of them. :)

Oh, and we got an email from President Kelly last week, and he said there was a change in policy recently: that we can now email friends and leaders from home as well as family! Not that you guys aren't great, but do you think you could put my email address on Facebook? I haven't heard from anybody else in MONTHS.

Love you all, and I'll work my best here, for sure! Oh, and Kaden, don't go against the grain. It gets a closer shave, yes, but you also cut yourself a LOT more often. Other than that, have at it. :)

Ciao ciao!

Anziano Walker