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