Captains Log 26

Hi President Kelly!

This week has been rather, uh, interesting, at least at the beginning. On Thursday we went to Pescara the whole day to do our district meeting then and then have a baptismal interview afterward, and in the meantime, me and Anziano Waters did a bit of a scambio around there. The lady that Anziano Hoover interviewed invited us to her baptism, so we went on Saturday afternoon. It was absolutely beautiful, and she seemed really happy.

Other than that, we finally saw the Melone's friend, named Andra, 12 years old. We met her officially last Wednesday at an FHE with the Melone family, and her mom came as well. We also had a little lesson after church on Sunday, with Naomi (Fratello Melone's daughter and Andra's friend). Andra already has a strong testimony that the church is true, and really does want to get baptized, saying that she couldn't wait! The only thing is, her parents agree, but think that she should wait until August. We invited her to pray about it and talk with her parents.

Other than that, we've just been trying to find other people to see. Me and Anziano Hoover have had a few times these past few weeks where we've been a little irritated with how the other one works, but we've learned how to work things out, and we're really enjoying being companions right now. I'm definitely learning a lot this transfer.

Thanks for being such an amazing and loving president!

 

Anziano Walker

Hi family!

I was going to "reply" to your email, but this new way of composing a message is so convenient. And then I got to choose the subject....... I couldn't help but take the opportunity to be random, hahaha!

Ok, Andra is a freakin' boss. We explained the Restoration in the lesson on Sunday, and said that she can build a testimony that the church is the restored church. Then we invited her to say the prayer. In her prayer, she ........ oh my gosh, it was so great, I can't even think of words really. She was, like, actually talking to her Heavenly Father, and she said "I know this is the true church." Yeah, if that's not ready for baptism, I dunno what is. I've never heard an investigator pray like that before. Me and Anziano Hoover are kind of annoyed that the parents want to wait until August..... Gah! But the Mom is really nice. :)

I'm glad y'all like the letters to the President included, I'm rather proud of thinking of that! Or, being inspired to, like I'm sure it was. And Dad, no, he doesn't respond to every one. So far, I've received one return email, which was kind of surprising, haha! But then again, he DOES have about 100 missionaries to hear about, in all of southern Italy. I'm impressed with how much he knows about each one, and really cares.

What the heck, Tyler got to home teach ELDER BEDNAR?!?!?!? Not that I'm JEALOUS, but....... I'm jealous. And that is fantastic advice, that's something that I've been thinking about a lot. I've also come to realize that the mission for the COMPANION, much like the mission for the people, is not about changing them, but helping them. I've noticed if I go in with the idea, even unthought, of trying to change something about THEM, then we both get irritated. I'm learning, bit by bit, how to do this right, haha!

Mom, I loved the thought you put in from Joseph's mother, that was EXACTLY what I needed to hear (uh, read). I've been poring through Liahone like none other, especially at lunch (while Anziano Hoover naps), and that was good, but lately I've been thinking that something was off. I've also noticed my mind has been turning to the fact that I read the scriptures quite a bit, but I probably don't ponder them as much as I should. For some unknown reason, I didn't put two and two together until I read that Joseph would read less and ponder more. New goal! Lunch time= Ponder time, after a bit of language study. I like it!

Oh, and we have continued to run every other day. On the day that we missed it last week (we went to Pescara), we made it up by running through half of Pescara to try to get to the bus on time after the baptism. We missed it by maybe a minute and a half. Dang..... But we got the next one!

Other than that: Shoes are holding up (I had to get a new pair last transfer, and they're doing good), the family we talked to last week wasn't there on Sunday, English Course is going well (we've been putting up a bunch of bigliettini all over, and getting lot's of calls for information), and yeah, you can give Hailey's mom my email address.

Ok, that's about it! Have fun!

Ciao ciao!

Anziano Walker

P.S. Trey says hi to Cole

P.P.S. He also says "Cole, duck!"

You Make Me Smile

Dear President Kelly

    This week, we tried to visit more of the members, but all the appointments we had fixed got moved or cancelled altoghether. Including that one we had with the Melone's and their daughters' friend. That got moved to Monday, but then THAT got moved to tonight. But that is for sure now (we called this morning), so that will hopefully end up well. We are very excited to meet with this friend, as we've seen her at church the past few weeks, the Melone's have been telling us that she wants to get baptized, and she even asked Anziano Hoover interesting questions after Sacrament Meeting on Sunday. So yeah, that's gonna be pretty awesome.

Also, while doing house in one of the insediamenti here, we happened upon a family that had met with the missionaries before, and we got to visit with them on Sunday. The father's name is Fillipo, and is very, uh... studioso. He knows a lot about different religions, and is rather opinionated. But the wife (whose name I unfortunately forgot) had a lot of really good questions for us, and seemed really open to the parts of the Restoration that we talked about.

Other than that, work is going like normal. Me and Anziano Hoover are working at being more open with each other, which got a little difficult last week for some reason. But the past few days have been great, and we're working hard here!

Ciao!
Anziano Walker



Hi fam!

Yep, that's kind of our work this past week. We also did a lot of pubblicità (pubblicity) for English Course, since we haven't had any new people there for a while, but the thing is: we walked. And walked. And walked. And then continued walking. And then...... walked some more. Yeah, on Monday we added it up: about 15 kilometers on foot, not including the buses. Just this past MONDAY. Ho dang, we were tired. Especially since me and Anziano Hoover had just decided to go running in the morning every other day, starting: Monday. Hmmmm, coincidence? Probably. But still tiring, haha!

But we have seen fruits from that already. We have already been called by a few people asking for more information, and some people have been bringing their friends to English Course, too! And with our little spiritual thoughts and whatnot..... BATTIZED! (Nacho Libre quote). But we also started giving people a type of survey (mostly to get numbers to call them when we have to cancel), but some people have said they want to hear about activities in the church, and one even marked down he would like to try our stop-smoking "course" (for lack of a better word)!

Mattia's mom... we haven't been able to see her again. We called her this morning (and several times this past week), and she said she would call us when she's free. Um...... yeah.......

  But that family I wrote President about, they were so great! Coming out of that lesson, me and Anziano Hoover said to each other that we could easily see the Mom getting baptized. Then, after time, the Dad. I dunno. We can only meet Sunday's, according to them, so we are somewhat limited in information at this point.  Speriamo bene! (Let's hope well!)

For the little boys: I am super jealous you guys got to race go-karts. PLEASE tell me one of you made the motion to throw a banana behind them or a shell ahead, hahaha!

Cam: You'll be fine with swimming! Yes, the locker room is...... strange, but remember, it only lasts like 3 minutes total! :D

Kaden: convenient thing with cleaning the room: Mom never checks between the bed mattresses! Extra stuff fits nicely there! ........ Of course, she reads this before you............................... yep, you're sunk. Sorry! ;)

That's awesome that the ward is gonna have 12 missionaries out at one time! They're gonna need to put something like an insert for the program for all of us, hahaha! Speaking of which, when do they start getting back? Matt has got to be getting close now, right?

Other than that, I just want to share an idea that President Kelly reiterated with me at Zone Conference. A little bit before my group came in, Elder Holland and his family came to take a vacation in Rome. They spent some time with the Kelly's, and Sister Kelly asked him if he had any advice for the missionaries here. He said (roughly) "You let them know to love everything, even the rejections." That has been helping me out a lot the past few weeks, because there are a LOT of rejections here. Not only for missionary work. But that just helps me to see that yep, it's ok to go from door to door to unopening (or strongly catholic) door with a smile. After all, if I can't get my message out, they don't know what they're missing! =D

 Anywho, siete bravi, vi amo, e io sto bene. La chiesa è vera, lo prometto!

Ciao ciao!
Anziano Walker

Happy P-Day After Conference

Ciao President!

This week has been interesting for the work here in L'Aquila! We met with the mother of the missionary of one of the missionaries here, Mattia, I don't remember if I told you in our interview. But, the daughter (I think her name is Rene) seems to be open to the Gospel, and has come to church with some members before. The mother is a little shocked that her son felt the need to go on a mission, and seems to want to fill the hole he left. In our next visit (hopefully tonight), we'll get that straightened out. 

We got a referral from the Melone family on Sunday. Their 11-year-old daughter, Naomi, has been bringing a friend to church the past month or so, and they said she has expressed the desire to be baptized! We have an appointment to meet with her and her family at a type of family night at the Melone's house on Friday, so that seems like it could go really well! The parents are willing, and one came to conference with the Melone's at Rome and enjoyed it.

Other than that, we're doing good here. We had a scambio with Pescara starting Monday after DDM and ending today (I stayed in L'Aquila with Anziano Waters). It went well, and we met some interesting people. I'm not entirely sure about interest level, though. We'll see.

Thanks!

Anziano Walker

Hi family!

I decided to implement Jeremy's idea of writing President first, and then use that to explain what I did this week, and then I can address every thing else like this. So much better on me, I feel like!

This past Thursday, we had Zone Conference in Rome again. I also had an interview with President Kelly (man, I love him, and am really REALLY sad that next transfer is his last! :( ) That was just awesome. One big thing is that the assistants to the President challenged everyone to invite all their investigators to baptism within 2 weeks, so (even with L'Aquila's shortage of investigators) we're trying to do that! Hopefully, that'll help Paola (Mattia's Mom in the President's letter) understand what's up.

And Conference works much the same as Kalyn's, it seems. Saturday morning session at 18:00 Saturday (they often use military time in Italy), Priesthood session Sunday at 11:00, Saturday afternoon session Sunday 14:00, and Sunday morning session at 18:00 again on Sunday. Still haven't seen the Sunday afternoon session. Although, we get the Liahona just about every Zone Conference, so we'll probably be set with that. Y'all don't need to worry your heads off mailing an Ensign out.

One theme that seemed to stick out to me was that "YES, we'll make mistakes, but Heavenly Father allows improvement OVER TIME." I've been working on being more patient and positive with myself, so that really stuck out to me. I've also learned, in an in-depth companionship inventory with Anziano Hoover, that I had developed the habit of joking negatively at myself, which was a major factor in causing my mood to worsen over time. I hardly would ever notice it, even! But I've been working hard these past few weeks to avoid degrading myself, and only say and think things that I would be willing to say to others. Funny, the Golden Rule didn't exactly help me out in that regard. I was doing to myself EXACTLY what I would NEVER do to others! Dang, I'm super grateful SOMEONE pointed that out! I've been feeling so much better and happier this past while, and it was surprisingly easy to basically change that. Heavenly Father really helped me out, I'm sure of it.

Wow, totally didn't plan on writing all that. Anywho, lets see if I can address some questions you posed: Yes, there's a sort of "siesta", but that's the name in spanish. Here, it's just lunch. And it lasts from about 12ish, 1ish, to about 3ish, 4ish. Some missionaries try to keep lunch just to 2 1/2 hours, others are a little more..... liberal with their time. I get antsy whenever we're in the house past 3:30. It kind of irritates. But then, sometimes we've knocked on people's houses at 5, and they were angry because we woke them up from their nap! What the heck?

Anziano Hoover plays piano a lot better than me (he can sight-read almost any hymn), so he plays in church. But we're still doing classes, as best we can. Still trying to figure out everything a bit.

Anywho, another P-day at Pescara. Gotta go!

Ciao ciao!

Anziano Walker

P.S. - The picture is of Anziano Stewart and Nicole Crupi at her baptism at Messina, my 2nd week in. I'm still working out how to get pictures onto the flash drive nicely, it's a little weird that it doesn't let me do all of them at once. Oh well! :)

Happy Easter

Hey everyone!

Man, this week has been full of ups and downs. Easter was great, though. We got to eat at the house of one of the members here, the Melone's. They are freakin' awesome, and super strong in the Gospel. By the way, last week, basically the entire branch took a trip to the Swiss Temple, so everyone on Sunday was super excited about that, and loved to talk about it! Man, I really miss being able to go to the temple. It's weird, it's only been a year, not even, and I'm not even sure what life was like before going. I absolutely love it, and I know for sure that it's the house of the Lord!

But Easter, we didn't do a heck of a lot besides church, and visit the Melone's, and we saw this one other family that aren't members. They're gonna need some time, it seems like, to come to accept the Gospel. But they are super fun!

Oh, there's a GREAT tradition for Easter here! They don't do Easter Egg Hunts, but what they DO have are these GIANT CHOCOLATE EGGS that they give to people! We didn't get any, but we ate some pieces (they are rather large, about as big as Cole's head (but hollow, unfortunately)) at the people's houses. Delish!

We haven't seen Paola, yet, but we called her last Wednesday, and she said that USUALLY the best day for her is Wednesday, except for that one. She already had plans. But we DO have an appointment with her tonight, so we'll see how that goes! As far as I know, she was always kind of against the church when her son was listening to the missionaries, and against him going on a mission. You totally wouldn't have been able to tell from the way she greeted us on the street, and when we called last night to set up an appointment, though! She just asked when we were coming, and then if we were planning on staying for dinner. I said we didn't want to be a burden, and she just follows up with "Ok, so I'll plan for a few more at dinner then." Oh, Italians! It's almost a personal offence if you don't accept food and a drink from someone whenever you go into their house. If you say no, they keep asking and asking and asking for whatever they can give you. But yeah, that's about all I know with her. I don't know if there's a Dad at the house. Boh.

Oh gosh, Ken's a Bishop! That's gonna rock! You know, it's kinda weird now thinking of wards that are bigger than 100 people. It's gonna be interesting. Man, that's great!

Ok, pictures are gonna be coming next time. I just bought a flash drive to try to download them easier (and get stuff from you guys printed), and I'm gonna see if I can transfer from my memory card to that today, using this one thing we have at the appartment. Wish me luck! :)

I love you guys, and have a great week!
Anziano Walker