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