Christmas in Italy

This past week was really incredible! We obviously celebrated christmas and were able to meet and teach a lot of people last week. We're also super excited for Marco's baptism this friday and he is so ready. He came up and talked to me in church about how he really feels God in this church and how much he loves it. He is going to be a stud member for sure. We also started teaching a referral this week named Rosario and he is really cool. He's looking for guidance in life and seems really interested. We're really excited for him.

Giuseppe came to church again and he came to all 3 hours this time. He really likes our bishop and is coming to the ward christmas party on tuesday. We also made over 150 cookies for our english course party last week and it was crazy ha. Everyone loved them and kept asking us how to make them. For christmas we were told to not be out tracking unless we got invited to a party for the christmas eve, christmas, and the day after (it's a holiday in Italy) so we were at home a lot this week and we decided to make a christmas tree out of boxes and glow sticks. Not too shabby for a couple of teenagers.

On christmas we got to go eat with some members who had invited some less actives over for the holidays and it was a blast. We also got to Skype our families on christmas and it was pretty great. I realized how long I hadn't seen them when I heard one of my younger brothers start talking in a voice deeper than mine. (jamey) It was cool, and we also had a party at our friend Salvo's house and watched Inside Out with the Anziani from Gela. Anziano Rusch and I are super excited to get back into the swing of things this week. It was nice to have a break but we want to go get back at the work. 

The mission is great and I'm praying for you all!

Vi Voglio Bene!

Anziano Whiting

Here's the marvelous tree

Natale

We had an amazing week and I am super excited for everything that's going on! We had specialized training in catania and I love being with all the other missionaries from around our zone. We did a nativity with the waddoups and I had the pleasure of being a sheep =D Ha someone has to do it right? But it made me think a little bit about how christ always calls us his sheep and how we need to follow him. Sheep don't know where safety, food, and warmth are but the Shepard call lead them to all of those things if we just let him. It was fun and anziano Rusch was a sheep with me too.

Anziano Rusch and I have been working hard this past week, we have some solid investigators but we really want to find some more people during this christmas season. i love working with anz Rusch, I've learned a lot from him about the language and working with the spirit. We finally got giuseppe to come to church and he met a ton of the members and it sounds like he really liked it. During the sacrament he had a hard time paying attention because i translate for the africans every week and he wanted to sit in the back with me but it was fine. Were trying to get some members for him to sit with. I don't know if I told you guys last week but marco had work so his baptism is on the 2nd of janurary. He is pretty excited and it's cool to see him taking the first steps as a member. 

We had a fun divotional/dinner with our ward mission leader. Everyone bore a spiritual thought and the missionaries sang a song. Then santa came haha, it was super funny and mom don't read the rest of this to lizzy because santa was our ward mission leader who is this short skinny italian ha. It was really funny. We got presents for there family and the best one was probably this life sized minion we bought his 4 year old daughter. It was bigger then her and she loved it. 

But anyway, I'm super excited to be celebrating the birth of our savior this week and hope everyone can take a little time this christmas and thank god for the gift of his son to us.

Buon Natale!

Anziano Whiting

We went to the Puglisi house and they hadn't put up there tree and Sorella Puglisi said they didn't have enough time this year but we took it upon ourselves to help them set it up.

This is a video of the ward mission leader's daughter opening the gift:

Christmas is a comin

This week was another good one. So to start off, Marco passed his bap interview!!!! so we will finally have him baptized after like 5 years of investigating the church. It'll have to be on jan 2 though because he has work this week and then christmas next week. It's super cool to finally have him at this point though. We are going to work hard with him these next couple weeks so that he can stay worthy and be ready to be a member. Its really cool to see how the gospel has really changed his life, he used to want to leave his family and divorce his wife but we worked with him a lot and then he started saying he would wait tell the kids grow up then divorce his wife. And now he says he has totally lost the desire to leave his family which is super cool. The gospel has really blessed his family. 

A lot of our other simps aren't making as much progress like giuseppe and samuele. They haven't come to church so they don't receive those same blessings as they could just from coming to an hour of sacrament meeting. Will work on helping them get there though. We did a lot of finding this past week and have been showing christmas videos to people. Most of the time people don't want to watch the christmas videos or really talk with us for that matter haha. But that just means we don't have to give all our time to people who aren't ready for the gospel. Speaking only italian throughout the whole week was also really fun, we had a new sister come in and she thought that anziano rusch and I didn't know how to speak english which was kinda funny. 

There was a couple from english course who I have been wanting to start teaching and we actually found their house going around doing casa a casa ha and now they are interested in learning a little bit more about the gospel so that should be wonderful. Christmas is right around the corner here and everyone is excited. In Italy they have parties like every week for different people so there should be no shortage of fun here until the new year. I hope everyone is doing well and remember christ is the reason for the season. Have a very merry christmas!

Vi Voglio bene! Buon Natale!

Anziano Whiting

This is our district.  We bought matching sweaters and then Anziano Rusch and I bought matching scarves.

This is some dude from Gela dressed as a minion and I thought it was super funny.

Transfer 4

We had transfer calls this week and I get to stay in Ragusa!! I'll still be with Anziano Rusch which is super great. This next transfer is extra long because we have christmas and the whole country shuts down around christmas time because it's such a big holiday here. Marco has also accepted to be baptized on december 19th which is super cool since I just heard byu has their bowl game then against utah. But he has progressed a lot and now we are just hoping his wife opens up to the gospel. Giuseppe is also a really cool guy. We found him going house to house and he is super interested in the church. If we can get him to come to church on sunday that would help our a lot too.

One of the greatest examples I've seen out here on my mission has been Timoti. He had a baptism scheduled about a month ago but because he's a refugee he has to wait to get baptized. Even with all of that he still comes to church every single week all because he knows the church is true. I really hope I'm here when he gets all his legal stuff sorted out to see him get baptized. He also has a swag friend named hilary clinton who wants to get baptized too but they both have to wait. I also got to do a scambio with the new district leader anziano wog and it was pretty fun.

We found this nice old couple by our house the other day and have been teaching them a little bit. They seem interested and we hope that they really do have a sincere desire to learn. We found them going house to house as well. I've always heard that going house to house doesn't work super well but we have found a lot of success with it in Ragusa. I think it's because people don't go outside of their houses much but either way, I enjoy it. But yeah, the work is good here and I'm excited to get to serve in Ragusa for another 2 months. Anziano rusch and I decided to only speak in italian this week. Should be great lol. 

Vi amo

Anziano Whiting

Here's Fritello Pulisi.  He said he was cold so I gave him some of my clothes.

Here's a gesso we did with the sisters.

Here's Anziano Wog with $100 napkins

Thanksgiving

We had another incredible week and I am really thankful for all the blessings we have had. First off, we got a working phone!!! Haha it makes missionary work so much easier it's not even funny. And then we also had a huge thanksgiving lunch with the sisters on thursday. It was really yummy, we made a turkey (it was really a chicken) and mashed potatoes and all the stuff I would have for thanksgiving at home. And the house didn't burn down when we made the turkey, that was a miracle in itself. We had no clue on how to cook it so we just kind of seasoned it and throw it in the oven. We're still alive so I'm guessing we didn't do too bad. Oh and we did get marco to agree to a bap date, it has to be on the 19th of december since he has work on the other saturdays but he is a stud.

We also have seen a ton of success finding these past couple days. We go to houses and push the buttons and ask people if they want to talk about Jesus and I love it lol. We found this guy named giuseppe and he is super interested in the book of mormon and we are teaching him now and gave him a bap date for janurary. And even last night we found an elderly couple that wants to read the book of mormon and pray about it to. When you can tell someone to not take our word for it and to go ask god, it really changes how people think about things. Because if god really is there, and he really does love us, he will respond. I know that because I have done it and recieved answers to my prayers. I have also seen what a blessing the book of mormon is in our lives over the past couple days and I love it so much. I know it is the word of god and I get to tell people that every single day. 

One problem a lot of people have here is thinking you just have to have your own religion and then you're fine. Just believe in christ and you will be saved. But all throughout the bible there was one church and christ always condemeded the people that weren't preaching his gospel. That doesn't means they are all necessarily bad people, just that they don't have all the truth. With the book of mormon we can have all the truth and I challenge everyone to read it and ask god if it is true, because if we do have a heavenly father who loves us, he will not lie to us. I know that and I hope you all have a wonderful week,

vi amo

Anziano Whiting

Here's the lunch

and the turkey

and us freezing because sometimes there's crazy rain storms every once in awhile.

Italia

What a great week it has been! So we have seen a lot of progress in Marco and in Samuele over this past week. We have really been stressing with marco that he needs to take the next steps in life and be baptized. We gave him a bap date for december 5th and he has been praying and praying about it and Anziano Rosch and I both think he has been ready to be baptized for a long time he just hasn't realized his answer but we think he might have finally found it. Samuele is a bro and he loves meeting with us. We teach him a commandment and he just agrees to follow it and asks when he can come learn with us again. He just has to come to church and he'll be ready. We have been dropping a lot of investigators recently and looking for new ones to change up the investigator pool we have. 

This last week our phone sim card broke on tuesday so we have been without a phone for almost a week which makes getting lessons set up and finding members to go to lessons a lot harder but we were able to work through it. We also went to the questura today so I should get my documents pretty quick and not be illegal anymore lol. There was specialized training with the zone on friday and it was really good. I love seeing all the missionaries from around the mission and getting to hear about the work all throughout Sicily. 

Stake Conference was on Yesterday in Siracusa, so we went down with a member family and literally everyone talked about keeping the sabbath day holy. It is a major problem in italy since work is so hard for everyone to find and you don't get to choose the hours you work very often. We heard cool stories about how different people have been blessed by observing the sabbath day and I have seen these blessings in my own life. All throughout the week you get bombarded with the strains of the world and then to have one day where you just think about Christ and all he did for us has always been a nice recharge for me. And now it's like everyday is sunday lol. But thats just being a missionary.

Thanksgiving is this week and Italy doesn't really celebrate that but Anziano Rusch and I bought a little turkey that we will make to stay patriotic!

I love and pray for all of you!

Vi amo 

Anziano Whiting

Here's us with the fax machine at the church that we call people with.

My family sent me a birthday package and a Christmas package and the Christmas package got here first, so I decided to open the Christmas package for my birthday and save the birthday package for Christmas.  Sorry Mom!

The Start of Transfer 3

This week was super great and I'm excited for what is happening in Ragusa. So with Timoti's baptism, an area presidency said this week that we have to wait to baptize refugees until they have a permanent residence so we can't baptize timoti until he can find a job and buy a house. But he is super solid and knows the church is true, It's just sad that he couldn't get baptized this week and that he has to wait a while now to be ready. He is still going to come to church with all his friends we just have to wait for them to get settled to teach them. We also finally got to teach Davide, I don't know if you guys remember Davide but he is the boyfriend of a member and he wouldn't meet with us for a long time but we finally taught him a lesson right before anziano martin left. It was sad to see him go but there's just more people he has to help in other places. 

I also got a new comp, Anziano Rosch. He's from Roy Utah which is right by Ogden. He has served for 3 transfers and I have served for 2. So we are officially the youngest companionship in the mission :D but we are going to get work done. He speaks really well and I feel totally comfortable talking to people but I am going to try super hard these next couple weeks with him to get really good at the language, Anziano rosch has 1 older brother who is married with a baby boy and 2 younger sisters about my sisters age. He came straight out of high school and did drama in high school and acrobatics. 

I'm not legal yet but we do have a new appointment to get me legal so I shouldn't be deported. We are working hard on the investigators we have and will find some new ones in the coming weeks. Thanks for all your prayers and I pray for you all everyday!

Vi amo

Anziano Whiting

Elder Rusch at a dinner appointment

The Mission

WE had an incredible week this week but anziano martin is getting transfered to Foggia :( My new companion will be Anziano Rosch. I don't know anything about him yet but will try and keep the work up. And Timoti also has his baptism this upcoming weekend! He passed the interview and so will have the service on saturday. This past week we taught a ton of lessons. It was really crazy and we saw a lot of progress in our different investigators. We have been praying to have a lot of success and god has been blessing us with it. We know that its really him doing all the work. 

Another funny story from this week is I'm an illegal citizen right now ha. I did all the stuff to get my permesso to stay in the country but I read the appointment like we were in america so I thought  that 11-9-15 was november 9th but in italy its the other way around. So we missed it. We did get another appointment scheduled and it looks like I should be fine and not get deported. One of our investigators is a lady whose husband has been a member forever and we just go over to her house and read the book of mormon. She loves it so much and it really brings the spirit. Over time she will get a testimony of the book of mormon and it has really been something that has strengthened my testimony of the book of mormon. Were super excited for everyone.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful time and I love and pray for all of you everyday,

Vi amo

Anziano Whiting

Our English course

Halloween in Italia

So this week was crazy! We had a lot of stuff happen and I don't even know where to start. With our investigators with bap dates, we decided to hold off on marco for a little while and let him prepare more. He did come to church sunday dressed in a nice suit and he likes doing all the mormon things. He just has to take that final step. And then Timoti is going to interview tuesday and hopefully be baptised on the 14th. We have transfers this weekend so we don't know if Anziano Martin or I will be here but Timonti is finally ready. Their both studs and will help a lot of other people come unto christ. We had an amazing lesson with marco this week about christ and the book of mormon and he is so ready to be baptized we just have to help him see it. Timoti asked us on sunday what time he would be baptized on saturday and we were speechless and told him we'd do the interview first then talk about the details after. Their both great.

I also got hit by a car this week... Ha don't worry mom, I'm not hurt and the guy was super sorry. I laughed when it happened. We also did a scambio in gela again. I went with anziano jorgenson and he is super young in the mission. Only like one transfer ahead but we were able to get work done together. We locked the keys in the house at gela so a bunch of my stuff has been there all week and I'll get it all on tuesday. Fabio had another soccer game this week and he scored! It was with no time left off a free kick 40 yards our and he kicked it in upper 90! If you don't understand soccer, it was like imposible to block. His team was able to tie 1/1 since he made that shot.

We also found a new investigator named samule who is golden and we are going to focus a lot on him this upcoming week so we can help the ward in ragusa grow. The halloween party we did was really fun, I scared people in our haunted house and was jacob from twighlight ha. My comp was edward and a lot of people here in italy don't know about twighlight which made it even better. 

Anyways, I'm loving the mission and pray for all of you guys everyday. I have seen my testimoney grow so much of the book of mormon and its teachings. I know that as we diligentlly read it, we will see our lives improve and feel gods love for us.

Vi amo 

Anziano Whiting

Our Halloween Costumes:  Edward & Jacob from Twilight

An investigator named Lewis

Italy

This week has been incredible and I don't even know where to start. We had a lesson with Marco (the man who has been investigating the church for 5 years) and straight up asked him why he has been waiting to get baptized for so long. He told us he had not received a solid answer that the book of mormon is true and that when he reads the book he feels the same as when he reads the bible. We told him he feels that way because they're both the word of god and that if this next week he reads the book of mormon and prays everyday to know if it is true, he will receive his answer. So we have been praying super hard for him everyday as well as fasting for him. Will have the zone leaders coming down saturday to interview him hopefully. 

We also made some great progress with our africans and will have one of them interview this saturday as well. We did another scambio and I was with anziano bellows again. He is a great guy and I really learned a lot from him and how he teaches. We taught some other good lessons this week and are looking forward to this upcoming week. We have a Halloween party on thursday and are going to be looking for a lot of new people to teach. We ate some baby octopus this week, the brain was super weird but the legs were fine ha. We don't plan on making it a common thing. The weather is getting a little bit colder and were hoping that we can get some people ready for baptism before transfers.

I love all you guys and are praying for you all.

Vi amo Anziano Whiting

The district

A member named Francesco who loves the missionaries

Calcio

We went to zone conference this last week and it was a blast. We did zone calcio (soccer) with all the elders in the district and it was super fun. After we did interviews and met meetings and it was lots of fun.. One of our new investigators is on the ragusa soccer team and he invited us to go watch him play. So we went and it was super cool. He started and played really well the whole game. It would be cool to start teaching more of his teammates coming up here soon. Other then that, life has been pretty normal it seems like. I'm still loving the work and praying for everyone everyday. 

Vi amo Anziano Whiting

The marina

Ragusa

Blessings

This week was really exciting and it definitely feels like it just flows by now. We gave two blessings this week and it was amazing. They were both to less active members that we want to start teaching to try and reactivate them. We gave them in Italian and it really strengthened my testimony of the power of the priesthood. I prepared a lot before and when the time came I was able to say the right words.

We also have this really cool investigator named Paulo we started teaching and he has this way nice house by the beach that he took us to and we had lunch. After we taught a lesson he even offered to let us stay the night, which we can't but it was still super nice. Our African homies are still waiting to receive an answer that the church is true but they want to be baptized so we're working with them on recognizing the spirit and getting answers.

On Sunday we had a ward activity after church were everyone brought food to share and we brought a huge thing of pasta salad. All the sisters came and kept giving us food because they wanted us to have a plate of everything. Ingrossare is the Italian verb for to fatten and that's what they did to us...... But after we did an activity where all the members got blind folded and followed a cord like the iron rod. There's a story in the Book of Mormon where you follow an iron rod to the tree of life representing the pure love of Christ. And so the members would follow the rope to the tree of life we made, and had the missionaries either be angels or Devils and tell people which way to go. Of course they had me be one of the Devils that led people astray. The members really liked it and it went well. Overall it was a good week and I'm grateful for all of my many blessings, Vi amo Anziano whiting

Catholic church right by our house

Transfer Number 2

So I turned 19 this week and got to watch general conference on my birthday! They set up a classroom in the church and had the missionaries watch it with our african homies. Four of them have made really good progress and we have a lot of hope for them. The talks were all so cool to hear and I felt I got something out of each one and found different things to help our investigators. Our main investigator also brought his whole family to watch a session! We have worked a lot with him and the ward really wants to get his whole family in the church (he has 5 kids) since you never can find families to teach in italy.

We also had transfers this week, anziano martin and I stayed together since I'm still being trained and we got a new sister named sorella holiday who is 6 foot tall. Anziano Martin and I are super good friends with this guy who owns a health shop and he gave us this protein that expires in 15 days for super cheap but it's pistachio flavored. Italians love pistachio flavoring in everything and this protein tastes so gross. But we have to eat it since its expiring. Ha and hopefully he will want to take the lessons some time soon. But the work is going really well in Sicily, Anziano Martin actually knew the family that Neil L. Anderson talked about that got in the plane wreck. It's super sad that something like that would happen to that family but with the plan of salvation we have the knowledge that we will live with our families again. 

I'm loving the mission and pray for all of you everyday,

Anziano Whiting

Olives from last week

Birthday cake

Vineyard

This week Anziano Martin and I got to go work in an actual vineyard! You read all these parables in the bible about laboring in the vineyard and now I actually got to see what it was like in person. One of the stake presidency members asked us if we could come help him work in his father in law's vineyard, and our appointments for that day fell through, so we went out to the vineyard. You literally just plug all the olives off the tree so its not very hard to do at all, it just takes forever. To grow these trees you have to prune and dung them and wait for them to grow. It is all the stuff that you find in the bible that people did to grow the trees.

The work here is going really well. We have 3 investigators from africa that have baptismal dates for october 17th but they have to make it to church for us to baptize them. We also have a father of a family that were still teaching and his family is now taking the discussions with the sisters so we're excited for them. There was another scambio this week and I went with Anziano Bellows. He's a stud missionary and has served for a long time. We mostly taught members together but I learned a lot from him. We had transfers this week and sorella reber is going to rome and sorella batezzatto is getting a new missionary like me. So know half of the Ragusa missionaries won't know italian ha just kidding, language is coming along just fine.

I love and miss you all and pray for you all everyday!

Vi Amo,

Anziano Whiting

Italy

Sorry for writing late this week, we went to the marina for P-Day. But anyway this week went by super fast. We actually had a lot of our investigators commit to get baptized this week, they're in an African Refuge Camp that we go teach in about once a week. They're all very humble and just need to come to church now. We also have been teaching this man who has been an investigator for over 5 years and his wife just started taking the lessons with the sisters and it is going really well with them. We are super excited.

This week we also met with a lot of member families and our ward mission leader wants us to meet with a lot of the members and teach them the missionary lessons so they can strengthen their testimonies and be more prepared to share the gospel with their friends. My companion and I have been working really hard to give the missionaries a good reputation here because the past missionaries did not work very hard at all. Ragusa hasn't had a baptism in a year and a half and hopefully we can have a couple in the next few weeks. But anyway, I love you all and Vi voligio bien!

Anziano Whiting

A church in Modica we went to teach a referral in.

The Marina

Italy Week 4

This week was really exciting! We got a bunch of new investigators and have some potentials we've been trying to reach this past week and we're having success. Because of that, we have some crazy important lessons this coming week and we are preparing super hard to be ready to teach these people. Will keep praying that the lord will open these peoples hearts and miracles will start to happen. We've met with the members a lot to try and get them excited about the missionary work in the area.

After district meeting last week we had a 'scambio' which is where the district leader switches the companionships around for a day, so I went to Gela which is right by the sea. I was with a Swedish anziano named anziano Saffer. He's super cool and we just did tracking in Gela and found some really nice potential investigators. Gela has 7 people in their ward and we found a mom with a family that is really interested in the work. Hopefully they end up doubling the ward.

The mission is great and the food is still incredible. I'm working hard and looking for the blessings in my life.

Good luck and I miss you all!

Anziano Whiting

Anziano Martin at the Marina

Gela festival for the Madonna

Week 3 in Italy

This week was pretty exciting and it seems like the days are going faster. We had specialized training at the start of the week with the whole zone and I got to see Ibla which is this ancient city right by Ragusa this week too. We passed off another lady to the sisters and she is just a golden investigator. The whole time we taught her we just felt like she was ready and now the sisters will hopefully help her reach baptism. We also had some good lessons with an investigator that has been investigating for like 5 years. He just has to take the last step and we think he is really close.

This week a lot of investigators didn't show up for lessons so that was kinda sad but we think we can get them next week. There are a lot of potentials that we are looking into and trying to teach and we are preparing for miracles so hopefully we can have more people progressing next week. On sundays we eat with the members and it is soooo good. I could probably go on and on about the food haha but we ate chicken with bacon in the middle with these italians sauces yesterday and I about died from how good it was. But anyway, I miss you guys and wish you all the best!

Anziano Whiting

The ancient city Ibla

One of our potentials is an artist and we went to an art show and this was my favorite one.

Italy

My first full week in Ragusa is officially over and now the work has finally started! We had to do a bunch of permesso stuff this week so I could be legal in this country and it took forever but oh well. We teach an English course to a lot of people every Tuesday and Thursday and it's pretty exciting since the people don't know how to speak English and I don't know how to speak Italian ha. But the language is coming pretty well. I can do all the lessons and am working on being able to have normal conversations which I can do with missionaries because they speak clear and correct but the locals don't always do that so I'm working on it. We taught a couple different lessons this week and I thought they went pretty well. We have one girl on for a bap date but she has to show up for church and another mother and daughter who are super ready and exempting all the lessons that we passed off to the sisters. We're working and praying for all the others and hopefully they have progress.
My companion gave a really good talk at church on Sunday about member missionary work. His mom was converted by missionaries so he has a close tie to the work were doing. Anziano Martin is really cool and I'm glad he is my trainer. He has 7 kids in his family and he's number 5. He is short and really buff so hopefully we eat healthy. Anziano Martin loves motorcycles and soccer. He went to BYU for a semester and then left on the mission. He has only been on the mission for 8 and a half months and served in rome before ragusa. He had a really great trainer and then 2 super hard companions after that. He hasn't had a ton of success on the mission but we seem to be doing really great here. We are going to try and focus this next week on member missionary work and getting them excited to participate and share the gospel.

After he gave his talk a lady came up to us and said she has had this nonmember boy friend for 10 years and they want to get married but she wants to get married in the temple. So she has been praying for the right time and the right missionaries to help teach here fiancé and after hearing my companions talk and my testimony last week, she wants us to do it which is an honor. Were going to fast and pray a lot to be able to teach him the way the lord wants us to.

But yeah the mission is great and our other investigators are doing fine. We had a San Giovanni festival in Ragusa (the catholics holiday for John the Baptist) and handed out tons of pass along and english course cards. Everyone in Ragusa came out so hopefully we get some new contacts.

The mission is great and I love the work,

Anziano Whiting

Fesival

Buddhist temple we visited with ward mission leader Salvo

Italy

So I made it safely to Italy and it's incredible! But first on Sunday
I gave a talk with the other writings and then sang with the Nashville
tribute band for devotional. It was super spiritual.
Then we got up early on Monday and took the train to the airport and
flew all the way until Tuesday. We stopped in New York and I talked
with this really cool guy from India. And after we went and saw the
temple Tuesday night. It's not done yet but there working on it. We
stayed at the villa with the mission president and his wife that
night. They had to do interviews and give us iPads the next day so we
spent time at the church and the colosseum. We then got our golden
envelopes with our areas and trainers and I was assigned to serve with
anziano Martin in ragussa which is this older city in the southern
half of Sicily. So I went on a train all Thursday down through Italy
and I got zero sleep for 4 days but it was fun. I made a lot of
friends with the missionaries.
I got to Catania,which is my zone headquarters and it was really late
so my trainer and I stayed with the zone leader in Catania. I did get
to hand out my first Book of Mormon that night and eat some real
Italian food. They say that Sicily has the best food so I got lucky
with that. We came to ragussa the next day and got everything in our
apartment which took like another day. We have an investigator whose
moving to Canada but we went and had horse burgers with him that night
and he's excited and sad to leave. He's super intelligent and I'm sad
he's taking off so soon.  He has little questions that aren't so
important that he gets caught up in.
Saturday we went to the hospital because one of the sisters converts
husband died and we helped her with that. We actually went to the
funeral today too and I just felt so sorry for all the people. We
talked to some guys there and they might want to take the missionary
discussions so that part was good. They have these houses for everyone
when people die which is really different from America. It must be
super hard for these people to have to pay for the funeral.
The church here is kinda big, we have one of the few stand alone
chapels in Italy and it looks like a doll house haha. :) I like it
though. I bore my testimony in Italian on Sunday and that was an
adventure with my limited vocabulary.  I did fine though and
understood most of what people said. The people down here have a nice
accent that I get to deal with.
My comp is super sweet, he's from Provo and went to byu for a year. He
learned the language really fast so hopefully I can replicate it. We
get to eat dinners at members houses on Sunday's and it's super good
and super huge. We ate yesterday with these old people that are super
funny. It'll be better when I can communicate more and let my
personality show but I know the lord will bless me as I use what I
have to communicate with his children.
I love and miss you all
Anziano Whiting

Since we got Ipads in our area we can have use the cloud albums to upload pictures throughout the week. So the pictures I take with my ipad will be uploaded whenever I get wifi. I won't be able to comment to anyone unless its pday but you would be able to see more pictures. So let me know if anyone else wants to be in the photo group and you would need an apple device.

Thanks love Anziano Whiting

The mainland

Arrival in Rome!

Hey mom, i made it safe. Here are some of the pictures we got from today. Sister Waddoups is also going to post a lot of the pics on the blog.

The Rome Italy temple site

Me and President and Sister Waddoups

Final Week at the MTC

The branch president gave us a short P-Day today to do laundry and write emails so here goes. I taught my last lessons on Thursday and it was really cool because we taught Concetta who got 'baptized' about getting sealed in the temple to her dead spouse so they could live together for ever. It was really spiritual and something I hope I get to do in the mission field. On friday we had in field training all day and I had a blast. We did different workshops and scenarios to practice for when were actually in the field next week. It was weird teaching in English for the first time in forever. I feel like I would have done a better good in Italian which is a good sign. Today we just have culture day which is where our teachers will talk about Italy and then will have to say good bye. I'll send the last pictures from today later tonight. Then tomorrow will be the final church before Rome and I'm almost certain I'm going to speak just because I haven't yet and Brother Whiting is in the Branch Presidency. They choose randomly every week and I've just dodged the bullet so far.

The flight will be all day on monday and I'll show up in Italy Tuesday and then get assigned to an area and head right out to it. I'm trying not to want to serve in certain areas but it sounds like there's a spot in Sicily and that would be an amazing first area. I'd be happy with anywhere in Italy.

Ciao and I'll write again whenever I have P-Day and I'll have a ton of pictures ha.

Anziano Whiting

Our MTC teacher

Our MTC district with our MTC teachers

Our MTC teacher

Una Settimana Piu alla MTC!!!!

The sentence above just means I have one more week at the mtc and then I'll be in Italy! So this past week has actually been really fun. I watched a really cool devotional sunday night given by Holland almost 10 years ago. He talked a lot about how we need to be a missionary our whole lives and not just on the mission. And then also the importance of submitting ourselves to God's will which is really vital for someone like me who is trying to become a missionary everyday. We got to skype with an actual italian this last week for trc and it was sweet. He enjoyed our message and gave us some good tips. On monday, my zone also got to host the elderly couples that are coming in and get them ready to serve on their missions. I met a couple from Star Valley and even ate dinner with them when I saw them sitting by us in the cafeteria. They're going to the Brazil MTC to be the medical professionals so that'll be fun for them.

This week I also got as close to a girl as I've been in 6 weeks, ha we were playing volleyball and someone hit it long and I ran for the ball and hit it (perfect set) and just demolished the girl. I felt so bad since I did not see her at all. On well. I've been able to see a lot of close friends which has been really cool to see that my friends are making the same decision to serve the lord on missions. 

We got flight plans this week and my group takes off at 6 to go to the airport and then its a direct flight to italy. Its the first time they have had a direct flight to italy for the missionaries so I feel really blessed. My companion is also the travel leader so he gets to try and corral all of us onto a plane. We saw some baptisms in the ocean in areas of the rome mission so I am totally stocked.

Anyway love you guys 

Ciao

Com amore

Anziano Whiting

PS I might get an extra P-day saturday because I'll miss mine next week since I'll be on a plane. And in Italy the missionaries write home on mondays not wednesdays.

MTC Week 4

The mtc is starting to fly by and I can't believe it's already like 2 weeks until I get to go to Italy! I'm pretty stocked even though I've been enjoying my time more at the mtc. Last night we got to hear Russel M Nelson speech and it was soooo good. He is the President of the Quorom of the 12 Apostles who are divine witnesses of Jesus Christ. I sang in the choir for him and it was really spiritual. He talked about how we need to be epistles of the lord on our missions. President Nelson had some really cool analogies from surgery to the stripling warriors. And we also got to see the human side of him from his sense of humor.

Another interesting thing from this week was service. We do and hour and 15 minutes of service every week and this saturday we were doing it and the bathroom flooded. So anziano thompson, anziano lui (my Polynesian boy) and I all jumped in there and started getting all the water and other wonderful material draining. Then when we got it cleaned and bleached the bathroom flooded again so we cleaned it all over and made a channel for the water to flow right into the drain that I pried open with a screwdriver until someone could go turn the water off. We got it figured out though. 

Anyway, I love the mission and I love Italian. I can't wait to help people come unto Christ and hope everyone is doing well.

Love

Anziano Whiting

Italian flag made out of lights

MTC Week 3

This week has been pretty interesting. At the mtc they have us teach lessons in all italian and it's really hard to do with our limited vocabulary and usually I end up talking for most of the lesson because my companion isn't very comfortable with the language. These past couple lessons though, he's been adding really cool pieces of insight and information and I really like seeing how dedication and the gift of tongues works in missionaries lives. I think one of the keys is not being afraid of being wrong and messing up. I mess up so much when i try to speak italian haha. The teachers are the 'investigators" that we practice teaching and their names are Fritello Gessel and Serela Bucco. Serela Bucco texts her friends
​our mistakes from the lessons, so at least she gets comical relief from what we say. We like to tease them about how their going to get married even though Fritello Gessel is already engaged. Anyway, my italian is improving, the church is true, and I can't wait for Italy.

Ciao

Anziano Whiting

MTC Week Two

This week has been pretty interesting. At the mtc they have us teach lessons in all italian and it's really hard to do with our limited vocabulary and usually I end up talking for most of the lesson because my companion isn't very comfortable with the language. These past couple lessons though, he's been adding really cool pieces of insight and information and I really like seeing how dedication and the gift of tongues works in missionaries lives. I think one of the keys is not being afraid of being wrong and messing up. I mess up so much when i try to speak italian haha. The teachers are the 'investigators" that we practice teaching and their names are Fritello Gessel and Serela Bucco. Serela Bucco texts her friends
​our mistakes from the lessons, so at least she gets comical relief from what we say. We like to tease them about how their going to get married even though Fritello Gessel is already engaged. Anyway, my italian is improving, the church is true, and I can't wait for Italy.

Ciao

Anziano Whiting