I have some AWESOME news to share with you guys and some TERRIBLE news to share with you guys. The awesome news is about the Hydes... They got their new mission call and they'll be serving in the Rome mission! They are leaving Prato in a few months and will be in America for about 6 months before coming straight back to Italy. They are so stoked! As for the terrible news, I found out this week that a guy in my MTC group is going to be going home... Apparently he got dumped by his girlfriend and mission life was more than he could take. I also feel pretty bad for the guy because he told his (ex) girlfriend that he was going to be going home from the mission before he told his parents; and then his parents found out the news from his girlfriend!

As for me, I'll be leaving Pistoia tomorrow; however, I won't be going to America. I got my transfer call this week and I'm going to Bergamo! I haven't heard a ton about the area, but I was told that my companion has served as zone leader a few times and just finished training a new missionary. I'm pretty excited to be in a companionship with such a solid Elder! In fact, I'll get to hear how solid this guy is tonight. The new missionary that he just got done training is coming to Pistoia tonight and then I'm leaving tomorrow for Bergamo (apparently we are just switching places). So, tonight, I'll be able to interrogate the new missionary about my companion. ;)

However, with all this exciting news being said, I've been feeling pretty down since receiving my transfer call... It's going to be fun serving the Lord with different scenery around me and hearing people talk in a different accent, but I am really going to miss Pistoia! Pistoia is the only place I've ever lived in Italy and it really feels like my home. I really love our ward members and my work here doesn't feel finished.  Even though Pistoia may not have the same tourist appeal as some of the other places in the mission (Florence, Venice, Lake Como), it's always going to have a special place in my heart. It's been pretty sad saying goodbye to all the friends I've made here over the past few days knowing that I'll probably never see them again.

These are the Bani's (the woman Anziano Gibbons and I made cry when we
left her house before her husband got home)! It's awkward being a
missionary because there is never a good place to put your hands...

There's one man in Prato that I'm not sure if any of his will see again and I've been super worried. The man who thinks he is Jesus started his "mission" on Monday and hasn't been seen since. No one has been able to contact him and he hasn't returned to his home since Sunday night. I really hope he's okay.

On a less depressing note, we've been working a lot with Abel and Paul lately. Abel was starting to become a little flaky (Random side note: I taught Anziano Mastino the word flaky and now he uses it at least a few times per day! ;p) until we invited him to invite one of his friends to a lesson with us. Abel invited his friend, Paul, and now not only has Abel been keeping his commitments, Paul has been keeping all his commitments too! It's been really cool to hear Abel baring his sincere testimony to Paul regarding concepts that he was struggling to believe a month ago. We have an appointment scheduled with Abel and Paul tonight and I'm happy I'll get to say my goodbyes (and the new missionary will get to say his hellos) before I leave Pistoia! :D

All is well in paradise, family. I hope you're living the restored gospel to it's fullest. So many people I talk about the concept of happiness with think that happiness is derived from money. But, as we know from the good word of God, lasting happiness is found in righteous living. We have thousands of choices to make every day and as we righteously decide what paths we are going to take, happiness will come. And hey, God often has financial blessings for his righteous servants too. ;) 

Life has been a constant adventure with Anziano Mastino. ;) People have threatened to call the police on me a few different times in my life and earlier this week, I got to hear that threat in Italian. Anziano Mastino and I were visiting one of our African investigators for the first time at his house (normally we meet at the train station because he's a 40 minute bus ride from Pistoia). Not long after arriving at his house, some government workers came to make sure things were in order at the house for a routine, daily checkup. Unfortunately, the government workers didn't seem too happy that the Mormon missionaries were inside the house and told us to leave immediately (apparently, it's a rule that we can't preach inside some of the government owned African houses). Anziano Mastino and I readily complied and we left the house immediately. But, before we left the property, Anziano Mastino wanted to take a few pictures of the house (he likes taking pictures of places he's been). That's when all heck broke lose! The government workers came storming out of the house when they saw Anziano Mastino taking the pictures and started yelling at us! And since Anziano Mastino is a very by-the-law type of guy, he didn't want to leave until he could properly explain to the workers that he wasn't doing anything illegal. They weren't buying a word he said and were getting pretty riled up. Needless to say, I don't think they lied when they told us they were going to call the police on us. Fortunately, we took a bus within minutes and got out of there!!

I was feeling like a frustrated dad earlier this week as I took care of some "house maintenance". The office wanted all the mission apartments to get their hot water tank inspected, so Anziano Mastino and I had a repair man come take a look at our tank a few days ago. I used the terminology "frustrated dad" because the repairmen was in our house for less than 20 minutes and charged €110 for his services! I should also mention during the short time span the repairman was in our house, he was able to send TWO text messages... Hmmm! I felt like a frustrated dad because even though I'll be getting reimbursed for the money I payed the man (out of YOUR tithing money- thank you very much), it was ridiculous! I payed a man over 100 bucks to take off the cover of our hot water tank and spray some windex on the dusty inside. If you really want to put things into perspective, consider this: The Mormon missionaries teach people how they can obtain EXALTATION for FREE (a service infinitely greater for a price infinitely less).  

Besides from feeling like a frustrated dad this week, I also was able to feel like Elder Holland for a minute. During companionship inventory this week, Anziano Mastino told me I need to stop using so many dramatic hand motions when stopping people on the street. He told me that I was being too bold and might be scaring some people. And considering a man born in Italy (the hand motion capitol of the world) is telling me that... Maybe I better switch my boldness from Elder Holland to Elder Eyring status during my street contacting efforts. ;p 

Life is good family, life is good! As a missionary, I haven't felt a ton of stress. But, as of lately, I've been worried about the man in my ward who thinks he is Jesus. It's getting really bad and he keeps on talking about an event that's going to occur THIS Monday. Considering last time we met with the man, he showed us the "nail prints" in his hand, I have a lot of anxiety of what the event is going to entail on Monday. 

Leaning Tower of Pisa

I have some sad news and some happy news to share with you guys this week. I don't know what type of news you guys like hearing first, so I'll start by getting the depressing news out of the way. Abel isn't going to be getting baptized anytime soon. His baptism was scheduled for the 9th and then pushed to the 24th, but he's got a ways to go before he can enter the waters of baptism. He has been a major blessing in my life over the past couple months because of his deep love for the Book of Mormon. He loves that book with a passion and it's been incredible getting to witness his testimony of the book grow! Unfortunately, Abel wasn't baptized on the 9th and won't be baptized on the 24th. Only God can say when Abel's real baptismal date will be. But as for now, Anziano Mastino and I will be like Alma the younger and continue to bare powerful testimony against him (take a gander at Alma 4:19 ;)). We've been teaching Abel a little bit with Solomon and it's been incredible to hear our new convert's powerful testimony. 

Now for the happy news... Anziano Mastino and I have been having a lot of success tracting this week! I'm not sure why we've been so successful lately (although I have been wearing a pretty rad beanie lately that may or may not have something to do with it), but it's been glorious. I don't have time to tell you guys about all the awesome people we met this week, but I'll tell you a about a woman we met yesterday. Anziano Mastino was talking on the phone to a member on our ward when I stopped a lady on the street and started talking to her. Our conversation was centered a lot on why faith is important and how faith can bring true happiness if you have faith in the right things. She talked about how she used to have that faith, but has since lost it. After about three minutes, I asked the big question: "Can we make a return appointment to talking about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ?" She happily agreed! I know this story doesn't sound like anything special, but I was so excited. For one, she seemed really prepared to hear our message. For two, she is ITALIAN! And for three, I didn't have any help in conversing with her and getting her contact information. B-)

In other tracting news, we met a 16 year-old girl the other day while tracting and she seemed super interested in the gospel. We set up a follow appointment for a few days later and thought we were about to start teaching a golden investigator. So, when she wasn't at the designated meeting location at the time our appointment was supposed to start, we were a little surprised. Luckily, our fears quickly subsided when we called her and found out that she was running a little late and would be there soon. Unfortunately, she never came. And even more unfortunately, she has yet to pick up another call from the Pistoia Anziani.

Comunque, Anziano Mastino and I had a pretty cool experience this past week when we decided to stop by the Hydes's house after we had visited one of our I investigators who lives pretty close to them. We didn't have much of a reason to stop by the Hydes, we just felt like we should. Upon arriving at their house, we found out that Anziano Hyde was really sick! So, we were able to give him a priesthood blessing! It was really cool to feel like an instrument in the Lord's hands. As our investigator Abel always says, "The Lord works through others to bless your life."

Also, I had my first interview with President Dibb this week and it was so scary! I thought mission interviews were just to make sure life was running smoothly and that there was no obedience or companion problems. However, during my interview, President Dibb asked me to pretend like he was an investigator and to teach him the restoration lesson! It felt very similar to 10th grade Olympia High School French class with Mrs. Soubois; I felt like he was grading my Italian skills Luckily, I think I walked out of the interview with at least a letter B grade. ;)

I want to start off by sharing a hilariously sad experience that happened to the Pistoia Anziani this week... After arriving at the train station to meet a man named Friday for our second lesson with him, we were happily greeted by a man who we assumed was Friday. After a little small talk, we started the lesson. It wasn't until 5 minutes into the lesson that the real Friday showed up to the train station! It turns out, we had been teaching Henry, a man who we had had a lesson with a long time ago, but never answered our calls for a second appointment. Anziano Mastino and I felt like fools! I still am a little confused why Henry didn't object when I asked if we could start the lesson considering we didn't have a lesson scheduled!! ;p Nonetheless, we finished our lesson with the fake Friday and had an even better lesson with the real one. ;) 

In less hilariously sad news, we had another family home at Solomon's house on Sunday night and it was a HUGE success! I don't want to knock the family home evenings I had at home, but I don't think I've ever had a more fun family home evening than the one I had with Solomon and the 10 other Nigerians that were there! ;p The Hydes came with us and brought a ton of food (hence the huge number of people that decided to take part in the fun). And after we ate, Anziano Mastino and I shared a message on faith and got a lot of our little makeshift-family baring their testimonies. :Then, we played a crazy game of Uno! I use the word crazy because that house got LOUD when we were playing. Hahaha, it was also quite fun watching my Italian companion trying to compete with the rest of us in Uno because he never quite caught onto the rules and was always a little lost at what was happening! All in all, I think the family home evening opened a lot of potential doors; everyone was begging us to come back soon for another family home evening soon! :D

Also, Anziano Mastino and I had a scambio with Anziano Kenney and Vasquez from Monday to Tuesday this past week and it was incredible! The church has started a new way of doing companionship exchanges, called blitzes. So, instead of Anziano Kenney coming down to Pistoia to work with Anziano Mastino, Anziano Mastino and I both went up to San Giovanni to work with them (while no one was working in Pistoia for 24 hours). It was basically like a big, stinky, spiritual sleep-over with the four Anziani sleeping in one apartment! ;p I worked with Anziano Vasquez during the scambio and we killed it. We had some really powerful lessons with investigators, handed out a lot of English class fliers, and even walked across the bridge that is featured in the background of the Mona Lisa painting! 

See if you can find this bridge in the Mona Lisa painting!  

I look up to Anziano Vasquez so much as a missionary because of his hard, effective, work ethic. You will never be a good missionary if you don't exert work! Anziano Vasquez has helped me realize that I've been carrying way to much about my day's numbers. It doesn't make me a good missionary if I teach 4 lessons during a day and I'm not a bad missionary if I don't teach any. What separates the good missionaries from the bad is their dedication to the missionary purpose, which is to bring souls to Christ. Am I really bringing souls to Christ if my day is filled with flaky investigators that will listen to our message, but not act? In my opinion, I think not. The hard reality is that for missionaries serving in the Milan mission is that long hours of tracting need to be put in. I didn't come here to Italy to share weekly spiritual thoughts, I came here to baptize new ward members and strengthen the current ones! When I become senior companion and have control over how my day is spent, I am going to be an Elder Vasquez missionary. This is the Lord's true church and for the next two years, it's my duty to let others know that. As a missionary for the church in these days, I don't need to seal the validity of my words with death like Abinadi or Joseph Smith. I seal my words through hard work as I courageously share this gospel. 

One of the cool blessing about having the sacred calling as a missionary is the outpouring of blessings I receive. This was made crystal clear to me last night when Anziano Mastino and I were headed back to Pistoia after the scambio. We were at the San Giovanni train station waiting for our train, and two minutes before it was supposed to arrive, Anziano Mastino looked down at his ticket and realized he had purchased the wrong ticket. My mind was instantly overcome with negative thoughts. There was no time to buy another ticket before the train came and the next train back to Pistoia wasn't for a few hours (meaning we would be arriving at our apartment at about 10:30 pm). With a heavy heart, we walked back to the ticket machine in front of the station to purchase a new ticket. When we arrived at the machine, my wallet was laying on the ground right next to the cash machine. It must have slipped out of my pocket after I had purchased my ticket 20 minutes earlier. That wallet had €60 cash, Pistoia and Prato bus and train passes, my driver's license, my mission and personal debit cards, and my Italian documents. You can argue that it was a coincidence that Anziano Mastino accidentally bought the wrong ticket on the same night that I left my wallet at the ticket machine. You can argue that it was super lucky that a ton of people walked passed my wallet without picking it up. But, I know that it wasn't a coincidence or luck. No one can argue the strong spirit I felt when I saw my wallet laying there on the ground. There's not a doubt in my mind that we are all being watched after by a God of miracles.

As the Christmas season is winding down and we embark on a new year,
it looks like the Pistoia Anziani are done handing out Christmas
pass-a-long cards! It's a little discouraging that we haven't even
gotten one referral from our hours of work, but hopefully we were able
to plant some seeds in the hearts of some people. During the last few
days, we've gone back to doing our normal street contacting (firing
questions and baring testimony to people in an attempt to get them to
stop and listen) and have had a little success! :) We've been able to
stop some really well-rounded, intellectual and have gotten a few of
their phone numbers. Yesterday, we even taught someone a lesson in
Italian that we met earlier this week! Granted, the man was from
Pakistan and Italian wasn't his first language, but it was still
pretty awesome. :D

New Year's Eve was a little different for me this year... No staying
up to midnight, no New Year's kisses! ;) Anziano Mastino and I
went to our ward's Capodanno party and it was a ton of fun! 
We brought Abel with us and he
LOVED it (especially the Italian desserts). It was also really cool
being able to have some legitimate Italian conversations with people.
I don't know this language perfectly, but that doesn't stop me from
having a 5 minute conversation with one of the young woman in the
world about Harry Styles. ;p

In other news, I hope two of my January 1st experiences aren't
an indicator of how the rest of my year is going to go... On the
first, Anziano Mastino and I left our apartment at around 10 a.m. to do
some tracting until lunch (we were appointment-less for the morning).
Not long into our tracting session, a man started approaching us while
waving his arms and screaming. Anziano Mastino got off the sidewalk
and started walking the other direction, while I approached the man to
give him a pass-a-long card (I wanted to show up my senior companion
;p). I should've followed the lead of my more-intelligent companion
because I was literally an inch a way from getting kissed on the lips
by the man (he was obviously a little intoxicated)!! THEN, if that
weren't enough excitement for the morning, I had another encounter
with a drunkard. I was getting a little hungry about an hour later, so
I started eating an apple I had brought with me... I was two bites
into my apple when I started hearing groaning from behind me. I turned
around just in time to see a man barfing all over the street! Needless
to say, my appetite for that apple quickly disappeared.

On a more serious note, I have some really sad news regarding a man in
our ward... This particular man is someone who I have grown very close
with over the past three months and as of this past week, he's gone
crazy. He thinks he is Jesus Christ. I know this may sound a little
strange and humorous, but it's far from it. The man literally thinks
he is Jesus Christ and has come back to the world to "save the
righteous and present them to his father." As of right now, I don't
think a lot of people are taking this situation as seriously as it
needs to be dealt with. But, I am very scared for this man. He has
also developed a slight tick, almost like he has turrets. I don't know
if a traumatic thing brought this on or if the constant stress he's
been dealing with has done this to him, but things aren't looking
good. We've visited him a couple times this week in his house, which
in his words, "Reminds him of the tomb that he arose from after being
dead for three days." Please keep this man in your prayers. As
missionaries, apart from praying and continuing to show him love,
there isn't much we can do.

I now want to leave with you guys a little homework! Recently, in my
morning personal study, I've been reading old articles out of the
Ensign (after first studying the Book of Mormon and Our Heritage). I
came across a talk given in 1981 at a BYU devotional and it really hit
me. It's titled Selfishness vs. Selflessness and was given by Elder
William R. Bradford. I would really love for you all to read it. And
to get you excited about this homework assignment, I'll give you guys
a little appetizer to the spiritual feast that awaits you:

"Our eternal destiny is welded to our service to others. At the very
foundation of our existence is interdependence upon one another.
Happiness can be obtained only by establishing the proffer balance
between serving and being served. We are social beings; we cannot live
in happiness if we attempt to live alone. Self-imposed celibacy and
isolationism are extreme expressions of selfishness and an
unwillingness to serve or be served.

A mother serves by giving birth to a child and continues her service
throughout the child’s life. For life to continue, the process must
repeat itself. When one is serving, another is being served. Faith,
love of God and fellowman, patriotism, and self-esteem all depend on
how we practice serving and being served."

https://www.lds.org/ensign/1983/04/selfishness-vs-selflessness?lang=eng

We don't have a lot of time for email today because we had lunch with
a widow in our ward and we were there for waaay too long! We brought
Solomon with us to the lunch appointment and he loved it. She fed us
South American food that she made us eat with our hands (Solomon and I
were grateful for this). And surprisingly, Solomon and the widow
seemed to really click! :D 

Lunch with Solomon

I got a haircut from Solomon
this week after we taught him a lesson! It definitely wasn't the best
haircut I ever received, but I was pleasantly surprised with the final
outcome. Unfortunately, when I got back to our apartment the night
after getting the haircut, I wanted to do a little finessing. So, with
scissors in hand, I started to do a little cutting... And then a
little more... Then some more... And well, my hair is now a disaster!
The hair on top of my head is not the least bit even and I have two
big bald spots (it's harder cutting hair than Solomon made it look).
And to make matters worse, our sink is now having issues from all the
hair that I washed down the drain... Oops! After my little hair
incident, I was debating shaving my head down to a really low number,
but I decided I better just leave it. Needless to say, the youth in my
ward thought it was pretty funny seeing Anziano Anderson on Sunday!
...Hopefully President Dibb will find the same humor with my hair
incident next week during our interview.

I also want to share a random thing regarding my companion that you
guys might be interested in knowing... He HATES smoking! I'm pretty
sure we all hate smoking, but his hatred for smoking is on another
level. ;p He'll hold his breathe for 10-20 seconds when we pass
smokers on the street and always lets out big groans when someone next
to us lights up a cigarette. But, the thing that I've been finding
hilarious is the encounters he's been having with smokers in the train
station. The Prato and Pistoia train stations have big buildings for
people to wait for their train in. The buildings have big doors
connected to the outside, so even though you have a roof over your
head, it still feels like you're waiting outside. Nonetheless, there
are signs in the buildings that prohibit smoking and unfortunately,
there's a lot of people that disregard these signs... That's where the
funniness comes in. Anziano Mastino goes up to people smoking in these
buildings and basically says the equivalent of, "Hey! Read the sign:
It says no smoking! If you want to do that, you have to go outside."
And since most adults don't like being commanded by a 28 year old kid,
there have been some pretty funny exchanging of words I've witnessed
this week. ;p I think even if any of my future companions hate smoking
as much as Anziano Mastino, none of them are going to have the Italian
boldness to do what he's been doing.

Regarding missionary work, this is going to be an exciting week! First
of all, we still have a couple thousand A Savior Is Born pass-a-long
cards left, so we are going to be passing those out like mad (I'm
still not quite sure why we were given so many). And also, we'll get
to see our two most promising investigators again this week, Abel and
Kevin! Unfortunately, we haven't been able to see either one of them
for the past 10ish days (due to a variety of reasons), so I'm looking
forward to seeing where both their testimonies currently stand.

Before I sign off for this, I'll leave you guys with a quick reminder
to not forget how blessed you are. You were all given a basic
education! This week, a couple ladies in our ward started teaching
Nosa Italian and Anziano Mastino went this first week to make sure
everything went smoothly (the ladies don't know English and Nosa
doesn't understand any Italian). It was a humbling experience watching
a man in his 20's learn the alphabet. During the next two years, I
don't think I have a rite ever to feel discouraged about my
progression in the Italian language. We've all been given so much;
let's not forget to use these great gifts we've been given for good! 

Christmas in Italy

In our last lesson, Abel described the spirit this week during a
lesson as, "The same feeling I would get if I just found out I won a
car." So, you know it had to be a good week for me because I got to
feel like I had just won a car during my WHOLE week. ;) To start off
with, I've got some funny news, sad news, some hilariously sad news,
and some unknown news. 

For the funny news, this week during a lesson, Anziano Mastino told the 
man we were teaching that we had another
appointment to go to and we'd have to end the lesson. The man then
preceded to antagonize Anziano Mastino by claiming that the only
reason we were leaving him after a "short 40 minute lesson" was
because he was black. IT WAS HILARIOUS! 

As for the sad news, I had my first investigator give back his Book of Mormon
 this week... I guess now the book can go to someone that will treasure it, 
but it was still a little sad. :( 

And regarding the hilariously sad news, we called a
random potential from our phone this week and tried to set-up an
appointment with him. It got a little awkward when I told him we had a
message about God we wanted to share with him because he kept on
thinking I was saying "job"... Needless to say, he was pretty
disappointed when he realized I didn't have a job for him. 

And finally, onto the unknown news: Dad, what did you email my bishop?? At
church this Sunday, my bishop came up to me and told me that you had
sent him an email! ;p

I was on cloud 9 earlier this week when Anziano Mastino and I were
waiting for a bus. A lady approached me and was VERY happy to see me,
but I had no idea who she was. After a little conversing, I realized
that she was a lady I talked to a couple months ago on a bus! I
remembered her because when I met her, I was alone. Anziano Gibbons
was talking to another person on the bus and I remember making such a
fool out of myself stumbling through my sub-par Italian. I remember
our conversation being awkward, but I remember that she really liked
me (although she wasn't interested in the gospel). But, now, when we
talked, she could understand me and was impressed with how much my
Italian has improved! She even commended me on my Tuscany accent. It
felt SO good!

Speaking of Tuscan accents, I want to let you guys know that I'm going
to come home speaking the most beautiful Italian, Italy has to offer.
Here in Tuscany, people change the c sound to an h sound and it's
something that makes understanding people very difficult! For example,
instead of going to the store "Coop", people here go to "Hoop". I've
been trying to practice speaking with the accent because I think
although the Italian is harder for me to understand, it's a lot more
soothing to the ear. My goal by the end of the mission is to talk to
someone and make them think that I'm originally from Tuscany (I might
have to cover up my super non-Italian surname on my missionary tag).
;) It was kind of funny a few days ago when I was reading a general
conference talk in English and didn't understand a word ... I read it
over and over again, but didn't know what it was! FINALLY, my brain
read it how it's pronounced in English (I was reading the word as if
it was Italian) and realized it said "capacity".

In other news, I saw the coolest thing commencing a couple days ago...
While Anziano Mastino and I were doing some tracting, we found two of
our investigators Bible bashing each other on the street! One of the
men is a Jehovah's Witness and the other goes to a Pentecostal church.
Each of the men had their Bible in hand and were ferociously flipping
to different scriptures to try and prove the other's argument wrong.
Anziano Mastino and I didn't join in, but hopefully with the help of
the Book of Mormon, we can lay out the gospel of Christ how it truly
is in a future lesson with them- separately. ;)

It's a magical time of year, family. Yesterday was especially glorious
because in addition to some awesome missionary work that took place, I
got to drink homemade eggnog and see a couple of the Anziani from my
MTC group at zone conference! And then last night, during a ward
caroling activity in Pistoia, I literally had the most fun I've had my
whole mission! While the ward members sang, me and Anziano Mastino
were handing out A Savior Is Born pass-a-long cards. What made this
activity so fun was the fact that Anziano Mastino and I got a little
help passing out the cards... A man in our ward brought three of his
little kids with him to the activity and his kids wanted to be
missionaries too! So, the three little kids and I (all under age 10)
had a little competition to see who could pass out more cards. I think
I probably handed out a few hundred pass-a-long cards during the 90
minute activity and they handed out less than 50 altogether, but it
was AMAZING having them working with me! When one of the kids got a
stranger to take a pass-a-long he would always SUPER excited and came
running back to the other two brothers for hugs and high-fives.