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.