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