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