From May 10

Hehe, hi everyone! Tutto bene? It's been a really crazy week here in Rimini. I've learned a lot of new Italian words, the English word mollycoddle, and have taught my companion to say Molly Mormon and Peter Priesthood! 😂 A very desirable quality Anziano Montalto has is his touchiness. That boy can't keep his hands off me! And hey, I'm not going to complain if I get a free back pat or should rub every once in a while.

Random funny story: the Rimini sisters called us yesterday needing help and were freaking out. They were at the home of a less-active family trying to help one of the primary aged children with their math homework. The only problem was they forgot how to do long division! Haha, I got to feel like Kahn for a second and I broke it down for them and pretty much saved they day! 😏💁🏻

As for missionary work, we are baptizing a Nigerian man named Daniel this Friday. He is a spiritual giant and I got to interview him for baptism a few days ago. The interview was in the mid-afternoon before we had eaten lunch and let me tell you, by the end of the interview, I was ready for lunch. That man can talk! One thing is for sure, he has a testimony of this church!! At church on Sunday, I scared Daniel pretty bad. I was translating for him in gospel principles and after the closing prayer was said, I pretended like I was still translating what the teacher was saying and said, "Ok everyone, now stand up and start dancing!" Hahaha, the look of terror on his face was priceless. ;)

Other than Daniel, the Rimini investigator pool is pretty scarce.... Luckily, we're working to change that. Yesterday, we were meeting with an Ghanaian man named Nana that we met from calling old potential investigators from the phone records. We showed up at Nana's house and it was a zoo in there! He's living with a ton of other men. Most of the men were Arabic and thought the Mormon missionaries were pretty cool. Then, there was another African man in the room who was listening to music at the time and didn't give us the light of day. Anziano Montalto and I started the lesson and tried to get as many people to participate as we could; by the end of the lesson, all of our Arabian friends had departed and Samuel (the uninterested African) was taking notes of everything we were saying. It's funny how sometimes the most unlikely person becomes the new golden contact. Nana's comprehension wasn't the greatest, but Daniel totally understood the significance of Joseph Smith and has a sincere desire to read in the Book of Mormon.

An enlightening principle I'm learning more and more out here in the mission field is the importance of interpersonal relationships. If you're reading the Book of Mormon everyday, going to church every Sunday, but aren't trying to create friendships with others, I think you're failing. Verbal communication isn't always fun and it's sure as heck is tiring, but it's generally a lot more important than other things we set as our priorities! So, let's read the Book of Mormon more, go to church every week, and create stronger friendships with the people around us. :)

Random funny story number 2 that just popped into my head: some other missionaries were calling me selfish and Anziano Montalto asked me what they were calling me. Instead of giving him the definition for the word selfish, I told him the definition of handsome. He got a kick out of it when he learned what selfish actually meant. 😂

I love you guys! Show your moms a love of love this Sunday; they deserve it! ❤️

It's May 3rd! How are things going? Don't forget to post that super
punny Facebook status tomorrow... You know the one... May the fourth
be with you! This week was goooood, but it's been weird. We set a
baptismal date with Ursula on Saturday and I got my haircut my a
member in Rimini on Monday that told me that I didn't have to worry
about going bald (apparently he has the ability to foresee if a person
will go bald or not). So, yay!

Remember how I said I got my haircut by a member on Monday in Rimini?
Yeah, that's because that's my new city! I'm leaving my greenie and
favorite city behind and going to the neighboring city of Rimini. It
was a weird transfer call, but I'm content. Anziano Leavitt and I have
been in a trio with my new Rimini companion, Anziano Montalto, for the
past few day. Anziano Montalto's companion left Rimini on Sunday
afternoon to Milan because he's our new AP which created our trio.
We've been switching back and forth between our two cities to see our
friends!

Anziano Montalto is a total stud and because he's only done one
transfer in Rimini, I'm probably going to finish my mission with him!
He's Italian and has a very pure, laid back personality. It's been fun
speaking Italian with him. Sometimes he starts speaking his Sicilian
dialect at me and makes me feel like I'm a greenie again. 😂 He used
to DJ for the Mormon dances and is dating a 32 year-old woman (he's
25, but dang). I'm pretty stoked to learn some cooking skills from
him. He used to work at a restaurant and knows the Italian kitchen
pretty well, including how to make arancini (my all time favorite
food). I'm going to make sure I take advantage of companion's ability
and make my future wife a lucky gal'. ;)

I wanted to visit Stefano and Lydia's church before leaving Pesaro, so
that's where we spent our Sunday evening. I know that sounds weird,
but I think it's important we know where our investigators are coming
from when we teach them. They are Protestant and their church was a
blast! Their church has a band, a lot of amens being screamed from the
congregation, and a pastor that screams at you. The doctrine they
taught was hundred percent accurate and could've totally been preached
in a Mormon church! All the women had on prayer head-shawls and the
men and women sat on opposite sides of the room... One could say that
there were a lot of things that felt very familiar. The only thing
that made me feel a little uncomfortable were the prayers when all of
us got on our knees and said a prayer allowed (everyone was praying,
but it felt rather chaotic). However, I was really glad that we went
and thought it was a positive and learning experience. In fact, at one
point, the pastor had Anziano Montalto come up to bare his
testimony.... It was legendary (he straight up bore testimony of the
Book of Mormon)! Afterward, we ate dinner with Stefano's family and
talked more about the Book of Mormon. When we asked Lydia about her
experience with it and she told us she didn't want to comment on the
book until after she's read it all. Brava!

Before entering into the Rimini/Pesaro trio, Anziano Leavitt and I
experienced a fantastic lesson and the worst lesson of my mission.
I'll start with the good. Anziano Leavitt and I met with Bruno and the
day before, he had read five hours in the Book of Mormon. He brought a
stack of notes to our lesson that he took while reading and we spent
40 minutes discussing all the questions he said. It was incredible
because his desire to know the truth is so genuine! It's clear that he
doesn't completely grasp the grandness of what it entails if the Book
of Mormon was written by ancient prophets called of God, but with time
and testimony that will be changed. :)

Ok, now to the hardest lesson of my mission... We met with a young
evangelical couple earlier is week in our church building. We met them
while doing street finding a couple weeks ago and were really excited
to teach them because they were very cool and very set on following
Jesus Christ. When we met each other for our appointment, they opened
up and shared their conversion stories and their experiences with God.
I was so excited to share the restoration with them! Unfortunately, as
we taught them, things went downhill fast... They questioned some of
the doctrine we taught them and were much more familiar with the Bible
than me or my companion.

I thought things would get better after baring testimony about Joseph
Smith. Unfortunately, it's at that moment we were absolutely
obliterated. They started telling us we were on our way to Hell and
that we needed to go back to "the word" (Jesus Christ/The Bible). They
said that exaltation came through Jesus Christ and that pain and
suffering was in store for us Joseph Smithians. When we invited them
to experiment on the word, Diego asked us, "If there was a naked woman
in front of us and I wanted you to look, would you? I'm not going to
read something I know will bring me down to hell." They told us they
didn't believe we've ever had the Spirit manifest to us, we don't have
a relationship with God, and that the only reason we believe in these
things is because our parents raised us with these beliefs. That
night, I left the church building absolutely destroyed. I was in
spiritual pain that crushed my spirit.

Fortunately, I woke up the next morning and I felt incredible! There
wasn't a negative sentiment in my body. I was able to reflect on the
previous night's experience with clarity and realized that one, I
still had a testimony of this church. And two, I had a greater desire
to study the Bible to be more familiar with the stick of Judah. Two
good things!

I know that Jesus Christ is our savior and I DO have a spiritual
witness of that testimony.

1. Father and son
2. Saying goodbye to the Pesaro church
3. Stefano's family minus the daughter taking the photograph
4. Rimini's finest barber
5. Goodbye party with the Pesaro ward, Bruno, and Jesus
6. Sister Leon was a little bit furba after the party ;)
7. Chilling with Manù at the hospital today (this player only has one leg)

from 4/26

Ciao tutti!

I hope you all had a stellar week! My week was dandy. I love Pesaro so, so much! Pesaro isn't super gorgeous or anything, but the people are the greatest. When I make it back to Italy one day after my mission, I'm going to be chilling here in Pesaro (and of course make a detour to Rome eventually). ;)

Earlier this week I was sitting in a lesson thinking to myself, "I do NOT want to be here!"   We were meeting with a man named Elio for the first time (we met him doing street finding) and this guy would not shut up. Every time we tried to say something, he would jump in and start recounting another story. After letting myself become fairly agitated (no doubt not having the spirit with me), I said a little prayer asking Heavenly Father to help me feel some love for this guy. A few minutes later I got the answer to my prayer! Elvio, Marta's son who was helping us out with the lesson, was able to cut in and bare his testimony. It was beautiful. He talked about the help he's received in the past as he's relied on Jesus Christ and then shared the difference he's seen in the past couple month as he's started reading the Book of Mormon and praying again. Hearing his testimony really hit me and it reminded me why I was on a mission.

Other than the rough beginning with Elio, we've met with a lot of great people this week and I've loved teaching every single one of them! It was a huge blessing finding out that Mario, an investigator who never keeps his reading in the Book of Mormon commitment, sheepishly confided in us during the last lesson that he's dyslexic. It's really difficult for him to concentrate while he's reading unless there is total silence and he is completely focused. But, the dude works in a noisy dry cleaner for 13 hours a day, so it's no wonder it's been hard finding the chance to delve into the Book of Mormon! Side note: I dropped off my suit with Mario last week and am about to pick it up. When you teach someone about how they can obtain eternal life is that payment enough for all dry cleaning services? I sure hope so. ;)

Another huge blessing was making contact with Jesus (that's He-soos, a 15 year old Peruvian boy). We found his name in our records and invited him to our sports day this past Saturday. He brought his cousin and they helped us ALMOST beat a team of Italian potheads who challenged us. I still don't know how we lost because half of their team was literally high, but oh, thanks to the sports day we made contact with Jesus! 😂 After the soccer game, we were able to set a teaching appointment up with him. At this said teaching appointment, we found out he was meeting with the missionaries a year and a half ago, even receiving a baptismal date! He told us he prayed about Joseph Smith and the validity of this church and had felt peace. But, it sounds like his mom wasn't a big supporter of the church and he kind of slipped through the cracks... Fortunately, his devoutly Catholic mom, seems less anti-Mormon in these days and Jesus said he would come to church on Sunday! When he was saying the closing prayer he prayed that he would be able to meet with the missionaries more frequently... I think we can make that happen, little guy. ;)

Also, I'm not sure if you guys remember Michael but he's a total stud! We met him on our megafinding day and then he came to our Meet the Mormons and Pasquetta activities. This week, we had our first two lessons with him and he's so sincere! He doesn't have much of a religious background, but says that he likes being with us because we make him want to be better. He is very determined to read the Book of Mormon and originally objected to us reading Moroni 10: 3-5 at the end of our restoration lesson because he didn't want us to spoil the ending! 😂 He said that the Pasquetta activity (we went up into the mountains with the branch the day after Easter and had a big grill-out) was one of the best days of his life! I am really excited to see where things go with him.

And remember last week how I told you we were going over to eat dinner with Stefano's family? Well, we did and it was super great.  Before the dinner, one of Stefano's daughters serenaded us with some guitar playing. Then, we ate some really delicious food while conversing about humanitarian work in Africa. After eating a highly attractive strawberry dessert, we shared an Easter thought about Christ and bore our testimonies of the Book of Mormon. FAST FORWARD 24 HOURS TO OUR ENGLISH CLASS: Paula (an English class student) walks into the church building with a big smile on her face. "Anziano Anderson, I know where you were last night. I was walking in the park today and I saw a woman reading in the Book of Mormon. When I asked her if she was Mormon she said no and explained that two Mormon missionaries had eaten dinner with her the night before." AHHHH, it was so cool hearing that Lydia was reading in the Book of Mormon! :D

Stefano's family has helped reaffirm my testimony of Christlike people in this world! I think as Mormons it's really easy to think that we are the greatest and the only people that do good in this world. However, I feel like that view is very cynical and naive. It's disgusting hearing the crude remarks about certain religious, social, or political organizations. Stefano and Lydia aren't Mormon and therefore don't have the fulness of the Gospel yet, but that doesn't change the fact that they are striving to follow Christ in the best way they know how. I think as we eliminate our haughtiness and strive to serve our neighbor in Christlike service, our example will speak much louder than our words will ever be able to. Self-righteousness isn't going to buy us a ticket into the Celestial Kingdom no matter how superior we feel we are. This is the true church of Jesus Christ on the earth that's being lead by Him and I'm so grateful I get to help people come unto Him through my service.

1. Our branch's Pasquetta activity (Michael is the stud in the camo shirt and Elvio is taking the picture)
2. Ancona (we did a companionship exchange with the Ancona boys earlier this week)
3. Ursula (she came to church on Sunday and our branch smothered here with love)
4. Pretty view in Pesaro
5. Posing with Presidente Di Nuzzo (I swear his face isn't representative of his mood from when this photo was taken)
6. I'm taking bae down a walk on this little path... 😘
7. What a sunset!
8. Can you find Waldo?
9. Locked in prison... Help!
10. 3 studly Anziani x 3 studly poses = new Facebook cover photo
11. After escaping all the naked people statues, we had to pose with this lovely guy...

Hi,

I hope you all had an eggcellent Easter and our egger for an
eggceptional week! Despite not having an Easter egg hunt, this past
week has been incredible. I have a huge breakout on my face (meaning
there was adequate chocolate eaten this past weekend), wasn't featured
in the Pesaro newspaper and my companion, but am very happy with this
week nonetheless. Backstory on that newspaper business: Anziano
Leavitt and I attended a community service event last Saturday and
helped clean the beach... There were photographers there, I was
looking super photogenic that morning, but somehow didn't make it into
the newspaper with my companion! 💁🏻

I have a dismal story to recount about Marina. For those of you that
don't remember, Marina is that super sweet Russian lady with the
alcohol problem. Yesterday, we went over to her house and found out
she has more than an alcohol problem-she's not going to have a place
to live in two week! Apparently her and her roommate are being kicked
out of their house in a couple weeks due to them not paying their
bills. Marina has no idea where she's going to go. She is going to be
a homeless alcoholic, not a very good combination. I'm not sure how
much is the alcohol and how much is the psychiatric pressure, but
Marina was out of it yesterday! When Anziano Leavitt and I were saying
goodbye to her yesterday, she kissed my shoulder and kept calling me
Andrei! Please remember her in your prayers.

On a happier note, Ursula is doing awesome. I've always kind of joked
around with my companions that one day I want a wife that graciously
accepts my sweaty hands... But, I've here in Italy, I've find
something almost as good as an eternal companion that accepts my gross
hands- an investigator that does! Ursula loves my sweaty hands,
doesn't mind being seen with the Mormons in public (even when we are
being laughed at), and is the most humble person ever. I was a little
bummed she couldn't come to church on Sunday because she was up in the
mountains with her boyfriend. However, she's been reading the Book of
Mormon and has agreed to be baptized when she receives an answer from
God that it's true. This woman knew very little about Christianity
before meeting with us and now she's literally reading a book that
testifies of him on every page. I love her! She eats up every word
that comes out of our mouth and respects us so much. She literally
calls us in between appointments to check up on us! I don't think I've
ever been better friends with an investigator.

Can I tell you about another group of people I love? Marta's family!
We went over to their house earlier this week and made some banana
bread with the kids while their parents were out shopping. Then, the
parents came home and we had a killer lesson where Corrado (Marta's
husband) really opened up to us. I'm super excited because he's found
a better job and will now have weekends free.... Meaning Sunday
mornings free.... Meaning that he can attend church! I really do think
that their family is going to be the future of the Pesaro ward (I say
WARD instead of branch because we aren't going to be a branch for long
;)). All of them definitely have different problems that they need to
overcome and areas of their testimony that they need to build, but
they all have so much potential. I'm grateful they are all committed
to reading the Book of Mormon; I truly believe regular Book of Mormon
reading is the key to overcoming a lot of seemingly unrelated life
difficulties. I don't think it was by chance that the few words our
prophet spoke to us were about the Book of Mormon!

Last night, Anziano Leavitt and I got to bare a fat testimony of the
Book of Mormon to a few Evangelists. We had our first appointment with
a lady named Maria last night and when we showed up we realized it was
a trap! Maria and her husband Fabio had invited their minister to the
appointment too. After some small talk, we jumped into the  message of
the restoration and it went extremely well. They were all very
respectful and never talked over us. By the end, they were trying to
throw some Bible verses at us to try and disprove the validity of our
message, but we bore our testimonies of the validity of the message
and the Spirit was so strong! The cool thing about our message is that
we aren't pushy about it. We don't need to be. One could say that the
proof is in the pudding. We bore our testimonies, brought the Spirit
unto their hearts, and left Moroni's challenge with them. I walked out
of their house last night feeling pleased. Tonight, we are eating
dinner with Stefano and I am excited to see if him and his wife have
read in the Book of Mormon since our first visit!

I hope you all have a fantastic week. If you have some free time and
your daily Book of Mormon reading is complete, I'd highly recommend
delving into Church History in the Fulness of Times. It's so much fun
reading about Joseph Smith and the other latter day studs. A lot of
early saints sacrificed a lot, but they were also blessed to see a lot
of magnificent miracles thanks to their unwavering faith.

I loved the way Jeffery R. Holland put it when he said, "Faith is for
the future. Faith builds on the past but never longs to stay there.
Faith trusts that God has great things in store for each of us and
that Christ truly is the 'high priest of good things to come' (Hebrews
9:11)."

As we put our faith in Christ, we can augment our capabilities more
than we thought possible while still being uniquely us. I love it!

Vi voglio un sacco di bene,
Anziano Anderson

1. Banana bread selfie!
2. Easter picture with my Peruvian homie!
3. I'm not sure if the doctor gave us these masks for our protection
or for our patient's protections, but we took advantage of the
situation.

Hey raga!

Happy Easter!

I think the craziest day this week was this past Friday. Our zone
leaders led us in a "megafinding" day! It was so sweet. After morning
studies, we spent the rest of the day on the street talking to people.
Our zone is relatively small compared to the other zones in the
mission, but that didn't stop us from aiming high. We have 6
companionships in our zone and had the goal of stopping 10,000 people.
On Friday morning I was a little anxious knowing that I had 11
straight hours of tracting ahead of me, but everything ended up
working out really well. We had our members fasting with us and we
definitely saw a ton of miracles! Unfortunately, our zone missed our
goal... We ended up with 9,742 people at the end of the day.
Fortunately, Anziano Leavitt and I had some killer conversations and
ended up with 8 new phones numbers at the end of the day. Weirdly
enough, one of those phone numbers is the phone number of a Mormon. We
met this Peruvian woman named Katrin and she told us she was a member!
She spoke fluent English because she was living in Salt Lake City 17
years ago and was engaged to a returned missionary. Now, she is living
in Pesaro, married to an Italian, and hasn't told anyone that she's a
member (hence why her records weren't in our branch). Side note: Can I
just say I LOVE making people feel super awkward? If I see anyone
kissing or laughing at us, you better believe I'm going to try and
share the gospel with them!

We had a big Meet the Mormons event at our church.
Leading up to this event, Anziano Leavitt and I had handed our 1,000
fliers in our city center and invited all of our less-active members
and investigators. To our dismay, not one person that received a flier
came to the event and we only had one less active there! Fortunately,
it still ended up being a great night. We made a mountain of cookies
and all the members brought goodies to share (including a licorice
soda that I have become addicted to). I was most excited when our new
contact Michael walked in the door to the church building wearing a
bow tie and fedora. We met Michael on the megafinding day and he's a
total champ! He's 23 years old, does martial arts, speaks impressively
proficient English, and is a dead body picker upper (I don't know the
official name for the job, but he collects dead bodies for a funeral
home). Michael really enjoyed the film! Heck, he developed such a
fondness for Mormons during the film that afterward, he told me that
he wanted to introduce his "American Mormon friends" to all the girls
he knows. ....I think I'm going to like this guy. 😉 Haha no, but real
though. Michael definitely doesn't completely understand what the heck
Anziano Leavitt and I are doing with our lives right now, but I'm
excited to see where things go with him!

Another little blessing thanks to our Meet the Mormons showing was
getting to meet the bodyguard of Michael Jordan! We were walking to
our bikes after the movie and a man shouted out to us, "Hey guys,
what's up?!" That phrase is a direct quote... age shouted English to
us! It was then that we met Pippi. Pippi has apparently been a long
time friend of the church because when he was playing college football
in the eighties for some American school, his coach was Mormon. After
his football stint, he became Michael Jordan's bodyguard (we saw
plenty of picture (we saw lots of picture proof). Then, he returned
and played football in the European league until his wife made him
retire. Currently, he owns a fresh fruit and vegetable store in Pesaro
and coaches a professional football team in Ancona (a nearby city).
Anziano Leavitt and I hope to create more than a friendship with this
guy... We want to baptize him! If we're lucky, maybe MJ will come to
the baptism and sign my copy of Space Jam. ;)

I wish you guys could all meet President Allen! He is so inspired. It
seems like he always knows exactly what to say and when to say it. He
knows when to be goofy and he also knows how to be serious. I can't
say that I'm the best orator and feel like the most socially awkward
socially inept person ever; in those moments, I literally find myself
asking the internal Noah during the day, "What would President Allen
say right now if he was me??" Yesterday at zone conference, he talked
about using our "strategem" to find new investigators (refer to Alma
43:30). On Saturday, Anziano Leavitt and I are going to use our
stratagem and play soccer in a local park to find some new
investigators! Playing soccer on a non p-day?? You heard right. ;)


Ending tidbit sparkle: Today I went to a different country... San
Marino! It was super pretty. I thought I saw a lot of nakedness statues in
Florence a few months ago, but San Marino takes the cake. The only
difference is that the naked statues in San Marino are all women! The
highlight of the whole day was when I was waiting in a line to get a
drink from a water fountain and a little girl came up and held my
hand. The handhold didn't last long (I'm pretty sure the little girl
was scared off because of my sweaty hands), but it was an unexpected
treat! 😂

Love you guys!
Anziano Anderson

p.s. I've been writing down all the fancy words I read/hear people say
so I can augment my vocabulary. So, don't be surprised if I come home
sounding sophisticated as crap.

1. Book of Mormon challenge for Marta's kids.
2. Dinner with David.
3. Forza Rimini!
4. 14th transfer cheer.
5. 14th transfer squad.
6. Plank.
7. Father and son.

Ciao tutti,

I hope you guys all enjoyed listening to our prophets this past
weekend! I remember back in O-town, the general conference weekends
when Momma Anderson made cinnamon rolls were there greatest. ;) I have
to say that my MVS (most valuable speaker) was Elder Rasband. He is
such a stud! I loved his mission story of him sticking his foot in the
door. It just shows that a small, kind of weird prompting, can have
monumental effects! I remember when Steven Wood and I were filming a
YouTube video; we were going door to door and I was asking people if
they've seen my pants anywhere (I was just wearing my boxers). When we
got to a certain house, the woman that answered the door ripped the
videocamera out of Steven's hands and tried to close the door on us-
Steven wouldn't let her! Steven stuck his foot in her door and
wouldn't let her close it until she gave us back the camera! 😂

Leading up to general conference, Anziano Leavitt and I were STOKED.
We were meeting with Bruno on Saturday morning and we were talking
about prophets. He literally cut us off and said, "I don't see any
reason where there wouldn't be prophets on the earth anymore. I'm
waiting for you guys to tell me there is a prophet in America....
RIGHT NOW. In 2017." "Well Bruno, you're in luck... As a matter of
fact, we do have a prophet on the earth right now. He's going to speak
to us tomorrow!" Bruno came to the priesthood session of general
conference and it couldn't have been more perfect. The whole first
presidency spoke to us! Unfortunately, when we called Bruno later to
see what he thought of conference, it didn't seem like he was
powerfully hit by anything. He seemed more interested to talk about a
cycling competition he watched on TV after conference than conference
itself!

I was also very happy that Marta and her kids came. They are the
less-active family from Paraguay and are so great! Unfortunately,
Marta's non-member husband couldn't come because of work. They were
able to come for the branch lunch and they brought some wicked
Paraguayan food. If anyone can make an edible piece of food with
boiled egg chunks in it, it's Marta! Giuseppe was at the branch lunch
too and they were so nice too him! If Giuseppe wasn't moving to Turkey
tomorrow, I'm sure their friendship would continue to blossom.

Every time I'm around Marta's 20 year-old daughter, I think of Johnny
Lingo. Joahana is really cool but has no confidence whatsoever. In
Paraguay, their native language isn't Spanish and so although she
speaks Spanish, it's not perfect... Her Italian is even worse! So,
considering her lack of language fluency and shyness, she has no
friends. She didn't finish high school in Paraguay and because of
that, she can't find work. From what I can gather, her life is
basically watching Naruto all day in her pajamas! She also seems to be
quite preoccupied with her weight and thinks she's become too fat
since arriving in Italy. I want some studly Johnny Lingo to pop into
her life and make her feel like an 8-cow girl.

Besides general conference, one of my highlights this past week was
our appointment with Stefano. Stefano was a man in past area book
records and upon calling him, he said we could come over for an
appointment. It was a DREAM appointment. We were sitting at the
kitchen table of Stefano and his wife, Lydia, and taught them the
restoration. They had three adorable kids running around the house. As
we taught, the Spirit was undoubtedly present! The fairytale lesson
came to a halt when we presented the Book of Mormon. They confidently
discredited the Book of Mormon with my arch nemesis scripture,
Revelation 22:18:

"For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy
of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add
unto him the plagues that are written in this book."

I don't get why this argument is presented to us so much. Even if you
did believe that there weren't more Bible verses written after that
(which there was), the Bible wasn't even a book when that verse was
written and therefore can't be the "book" that is referred to in the
scripture. We concluded the lesson with Stefano and his wife by
leaving our testimonies with the invite to experiment on the words of
Moroni. I really hope they'll do so.

You guys, I know this church is true! I know that Jesus Christ is
literally our Savior. As crazy as the story of Joseph Smith seeing God
the Father and Jesus Christ sounds, I know it actually happened like
that. Sometimes my actions make me feel like an idiot because I'm
living far less than I know I'm capable of. But, this is all true and
I'm glad I am baptized, hold the priesthood, and am going to marry a
very attractive daughter of God in the temple one day!

Vi voglio bene,
Anziano Anderson

1. This is Anziano Koch! He's from Switzerland and keeps our wild
district meetings under control. ;)
2. I put some flowers in a cup this week. Then, I put curry powder in
the cup and the flowers died very fast.
3. We ate lunch with Ursula today! She is the greatest and really
enjoyed General Conference this past weekend. Side note: When she used
to go to the discotecas, she used to tell people her name was Julia
because she doesn't like her name! 😂

It's been a really swell week for me. The greatness
of this past week has little to do with the fact that I stuck my
companion's "magic pen" in a gelatin blob (Jim from the Office has nothing on me), the
fact that I met a man on a train with a "Hard Rock Caffè - Seattle"
shirt, or the fact that we found a geleteria here in Pesaro that sells
Oreo milkshakes that taste like America. Although, those were all
things that made Anziano Anderson a happy boy. :)

I felt pretty cool yesterday when an Italian boy was SO excited to see
us. Why? Well, when we were doing some street contacting, we walked up
to the bench and introduced ourselves. His body language was screaming
"I'm not interested" until he heard we were Mormon. Then, he
exclaimed, "I'm reading a book about you guys right now!" He pulled a
book titled "The 19 Wives." He was a little disappointed to hear that
we weren't polygamists anymore... That made two of us! Jk. 😂

This past week I experienced a moment that made me really
enjoy the Italian culture. We went to a less-active member's house and
when we got there, he was engaged in an intense argument with his
roommate. After a few minutes of listening to them yell, I finally
gave Anziano Leavitt the let's-get-out-of-here look. When we asked the
less-active if we could come back a different time, he stopped yelling
at his roommate and asked us why. When we told him that it seemed like
there were some problems to resolve and we thought it would be better
if we came back a different time, he put on a big smile and agreed. He
spent 10 seconds quickly recounting a miracle in his life from the
previous week, politely said goodbye, then was back into his fight! Oh
Italy... ;)

I think the biggest disappointment of the week is Marina. She's
slipped back into her alcoholic ways and has been drinking everyday!
The biggest bitter/sweet situation of the week is Giuseppe. He's very
interested in learning the truth and is already making plans to unite
with our Mormon community! Unfortunately, it looks like he'll be
uniting with the Mormons in Turkey because he's going there next week
for an indefinite period of time. The biggest highlight of our week is
Ursula. In an old potential investigator record from a few years ago,
we found her number under the name "Ursun." We called her and she was
really opened to meet with us. It totally felt like a blind date as we
were waiting for her on our first appointment. Luckily, the blind date
was a success, she is such a great woman! She's 43 years old and moved
to Italy 17 years ago from Sri Lanka. We've already met with her twice
and at the end of our last lesson, she wanted to buy us gelato... I
told her, "In America, the men buy for the women. WE are buying YOU a
gelato." She refused to go into the gelateria after that. She is
stubborn, but so sweet. We are having a branch lunch before we watch
general conference on Sunday and she is bringing some Sri Lankan food!

1. This ball is really famous here in Pesaro.
2. I'm holding an Oreo milkshake.
3. Soup kitchen selfie!
4. Midivil model shot before the zone volleyball game today.