All I want for Christmas is...

Buon natale to everyone! Christmas in Rome is everything we had hoped for and we saw some amazing miracles this past week. It's a little sad because Anziano Toronto goes home to America tomorrow and we have transfer calls tonight but we just worked really hard this past week and saw tons of success! Our boy joe that we helped out last week made it to the GANS center with his girlfriend and little daughter and they are so prepared! We taught the plan of salvation and the lesson went really well, Martin the member that helped find them was able to participate as well.

We had a party at the GANS center for Christmas and a lot of our investigators were able to make it out. We actually had more investigators show up then members so that made the party all the more exciting. Nick made it out and we had one of the best lessons ever! He has grown his faith in Christ so much just from reading the Book of Mormon and he now wants to give it to the rest of his family members.

He also gave me a really beautiful Christmas present that he drew himself. He's such a nice kid!

For Christmas we got to visit some members and we actually taught a lot of lessons which was a major high light. Church went really well, Anziano Toronto gave a talk on being baptized and aureola from Albania was really touched by the whole thing. We also went and sang carols to some orphans and gave them cookies for Christmas. We had a zone wide gesso followed by a secret santa. Do to a lack of communication and a switch of zones, my name was absent from the white elephant but I did come prepared with chocolate for myself haha. Everything is going really well and I hope y'all had a wonderful Christmas!

Vi voglio bene!

Anziano Whiting

Our Christmas Tree

Col capo sul fieno...

The Christmas spirit is definitely prevalent out her in Rome and it's showing in our work. We got to see lots of really cool people last week and get some work done. Serving with anziano Toronto and Jensen is a blast! A major highlight was definitely all the chances we had to do splits with the members out here. I had a chance to go out with our boy kaden all Saturday morning. We put in some work and I really hope it was a good experience for him because he should be leaving on a mission himself this next year.

I also got to go out with another ward member named Martin and we had quiet the experience haha. We got invited to this party, that turned out to be not the most spiritually conducive environment lol so we got out fast after sharing a bit of the restoration with everyone. We also met this kid named joe who was drunk out of his mind and totally lost.

We tried to help him get home and hope he made it alright. It just shows how much of a blessing the teachings of the gospel can be in our lives if we decide to follow them. Emanuel was another really cool guy we found that night. People are just so much more open now it's incredible.

Being at the GANS center is really awesome. Our most progressing investigator is probably Stefania, she study's here and she wants to be baptized so bad. She was able to make it out to our ward party on Saturday and really enjoyed it. We also had the chance to sing in a missionary choir that performed a concert in a ginormous cathedral. We sang really well and hope it gave the church some good exposure out here in Rome. I feel like I'm forgetting most of the stuff that went on this week but it was really fun and this next week leading up to Christmas should be just as good!

Vi voglio bene

Anziano Whiting

Here's most of the choir

We also got to go ice skating

Three Times the Fun!

Thunder has struck twice! Back to a trio haha Rome just can't get anymore exciting! Anziano cagnacci has been suffering from severe anxiety and panic attacks, and after talking with president this week has decided to go home and hopefully work at coming back out after having gone through treatment. He's such an incredible missionary and I hope he makes it back out. I've been moved to the companionship over the young single adults of Rome with Anziano taronto and Jensen.

Before we got to that point though, we had some really cool miracles.

We met with nick at the GANS center (institute center) and the girl who happened to be there studying speaks Chinese. That was the hand of God in our work without a doubt ha. Nick really wants to learn more about Christ since he comes from a non religious background. It's different teaching him but it's still fun. Will be able to still teach him as well.

There was also a baptism last week in Rome 2. A girl named yoxelyn from Cuba got baptized. She participated in English course and wanted to learn more. She leaves for cub here before Christmas so we hope the saints can help her out. We also had a good lesson with James before getting switched over to Rome 1. Our specific area is the Rome 1 ward and then all of the single young adults of Rome. It's going to be a blast!

Vi voglio bene

Anziano Whiting

Yoxelyn's Baptism

The Rome Temple!

Back in Rome

We got transfer calls this week and I'm now in Rome 2 with Anziano Campbell! We get to be in a house with 2 other elders and will spend Christmas in Rome!! The ward here is the biggest in Italy active member wise with about 50 American members who either are working on the temple or at the embassy. They are all incredible and we've been able to work with a couple families already which is great. It's nice to be with the people who know how the ward should work.

Before leaving L'Aquila though we were able to say goodbyes to lots of people. And everyone wants to come visit us in Rome so that should be fun. We ate with the custodes one last time and they referred us a family that we were able to teach and it was a really great lesson.

Andrea was also doing really good and wants to find his answer and he will. L'Aquila is in good hands with Anziano gunnell and anziano houseman.

This man called us this week wanting to find the church and become a member and he is so cool. His name is James and he made it out to church and already has some swag fellow shoppers. Abraham, who is a convert from his same church, just homied up with our boy James. We also met Ricardo on the bus and I'm going to be honest and say that my favorite finding technique of all time is commenting on sports memorabilia people are wearing, and so Ricardo with his Minnesota Vikings hat became a quick target. But anyways, it was really sad to leave L'Aquila but we're excited for Rome!

Vi voglio bene

Anziano Whiting

Last night in English course

This was in our back yard...

The Lord Giveth and the Lord Taketh Away

We had a very eventful last few days to say the least. After getting put in our trio we had Anziano Campbell get emergency transferred to Sciacca because another elder went home so that was sad to see. He'll do some good work down there though. So now it's just Anziano cagnacci and I and thankfully it's still a lot of fun. We had the chance to see lots of members and get them pumped for missionary work.

Probably the best lesson from last week was after English course with this couple named Davide and Valentina. We were able to teach them the restoration and at least Valentina really enjoyed it. Will have to work more on Davide but they have lots of potential. We also found 3 Chinese homies that are here for college. We were able to teach them and they really loved the concept of prayer. We also ate some Chinese food with them and it was to die for. I've missed Chinese food.

We had a special stake conference yesterday where we had a new stake president put in. He's from our ward so we're excited to meet with him. It was also really nice to see lots of old friends from laquila and Pescara. We had the chance to do a scambio with the elders from ascoli before the conference and they were lots of fun. We spent a lot of time helping Anziano Campbell get ready to move and so hopefully we can get back to seeing all of the miracles of Rome!

Vi voglio bene

Anziano Whiting

The Trio

Piazza del popolo

Then There Were Three

We got transfer calls this week and I'm now in Rome 2 with Anziano Campbell! We get to be in a house with 2 other elders and will spend Christmas in Rome!! The ward here is the biggest in Italy active member wise with about 50 American members who either are working on the temple or at the embassy. They are all incredible and we've been able to work with a couple families already which is great. It's nice to be with the people who know how the ward should work.

Before leaving L'Aquila though we were able to say goodbyes to lots of people. And everyone wants to come visit us in Rome so that should be fun. We ate with the custodes one last time and they referred us a family that we were able to teach and it was a really great lesson.

Andrea was also doing really good and wants to find his answer and he will. L'Aquila is in good hands with Anziano gunnell and anziano houseman.

This man called us this week wanting to find the church and become a member and he is so cool. His name is James and he made it out to church and already has some swag fellow shoppers. Abraham, who is a convert from his same church, just homied up with our boy James. We also met Ricardo on the bus and I'm going to be honest and say that my favorite finding technique of all time is commenting on sports memorabilia people are wearing, and so Ricardo with his Minnesota Vikings hat became a quick target. But anyways, it was really sad to leave L'Aquila but we're excited for Rome!

Vi voglio bene

Anziano Whiting

And we did find an American sports store!

Baby it's cold outside!

We had a jam packed week once gain! We had another blitz in pescara with the other missionaries and it was really cool to do a scambio with Anziano Martin who flies home tomorrow. We were able to teach a couple lessons and it was really cool to see how great of a missionary he's become. I'm gonna miss that kid. We also went and ate those huge sandwiches again and you better belief we ate 3 this time ha we all wanted to die after we did it.

We saw palmir again and he is so nice. We ended up having quite the adventure with our boy in sulmona that involved a trip to the radiologist, warm milk, an old lady kissing us...., some amazing seafood, and chocolate haha. Needless to say palmir loves the message of the restoration. Unfortunately Anziano gunnell hates seafood and ended up vomiting all Friday night. He's quite the fireball.

Andrea and chino are both progressing immensely! Andrea in a lesson this week after reading 2 nephi 32 said that the Book of Mormon just tells you exactly what we need to do in life and it's so clear. We had stake conference and lots of our investigators made it out which was really nice. Most everyone talked about the family and they had some incredible testimonies. I really love all members of Italy and how strong there testimonies are. It helps me see that you can live the gospel no matter where you live because it was made for everyone!

The last pic with Martin

And for all of you who are sad about the US election, Hillary Clinton got baptized last week in Palermo!

Surprise!

This last week was truly incredible! One of the real miracles we had was Andrea. He hadn't really been progressing for the past couple weeks and then he texted us this week asking if we could come over to read the scriptures we him. And we've had some amazing lessons with him now and he's actually started to keep commitments and progress. He even came to church which was a real blessing since he also brought his mom. I love that he wants his mother to have the blessings of the gospel as well.

We also had a surprise scambio with the zone leaders and I got to serve with Anziano segura. We went to one of the greatest meal appointments of my mission and not just because of the food haha. We did have some incredible chicken though. We were with the custodes who we had invited to try and have a gospel conversation with a non member every week and we should actually start teaching a family their friends with this next week. We love swag member missionaries!

We have been going to the castle by our house a lot recently to look for investigators and it's magical. I don't know if people just feel bad and listen to us haha but we almost always come back with a new investigator or potential from there ha. If we didn't have any lessons we'd probably go to that park every day. We also had a really good lesson with James on the plan of salvation. I love how simple this plan god has created for us. All we have to do is follow the commandments and will be blessed.

Vi voglio bene!

Anziano Whiting

Here's James and a swag picture he drew

Anziano Gunnell leading us into the unknown

And the earth shook

We had a very eventful action packed last couple days here in the vineyard of Italy! From the sounds of it we had at least 3 major earthquakes in the past 5 days but thankfully everyone's safe. We were on a bus for the first 2 and consequently did not feel them. The third one happened Sunday morning right before we were going to leave the house for church. It was pretty exciting and we only ended up doing sacrament meeting after that.

We also had a ward Halloween party last Thursday that went really well! We had most of the members show up and then lots of nonmembers came as well. The food and the games were all really exciting. We also had a scambio this week and I was able to spend a day with Anziano Olsen in pescara. It went really well and we had lots of fun. We also got to do a couple more lessons with chino and it looks like our boys back on track finally.

On Saturday we got to go on an adventure with the branch president and his son out to a city called sulmona. We were able to see some less actives and one of our investigators named palmir whose a really nice guy. He's retired and really interested in the Book of Mormon. There was also a really wonderful part member family we got to visit and they are awesome. Will have to figure some way to get us back there.

L'Aquila is incredible!

Vi voglio bene

Anziano Whiting

And yes, we were Mario and Luigi

Sulmona

President Nelson

We had the marvelous opportunity to hear from a lot of the church leaders this past week including the President of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles, Russel M Nelson and it was incredible ha. To start off we heard from President Kieron from the Europe Area Presidency and Donald A Hallstrum from the 70 along with their wives. All of the wives did really well and it was a nice build up for President Nelson who later spoke extensively on the abrahamic covenant. No joke haha the abrahamic covenant.

It was really interesting and we learned a lot! He started by showing his scriptures that he had recently bought and been able to read all the way through in 2 weeks. He would then ask us questions and precede to teach us afterward. It was really intimidating standing up to answer the questions but a very exciting experience. We got to shake his hand and then he was off to visit the temple that's being constructed in Rome.

We had a fun pday this past week when we went to a midevil castle in the mountains. It was surprisingly intact and a really fun trip. We had a really good lesson with chino again, we hadn't been able to see him for awhile but now it looks like he's back on track. We also had the opportunity to teach this man named Franco after church with his member girlfriend Bruna. Franco has had the lessons before and bruna seems tired of his unwillingness to join the church so we're going to see if we can't help our boy out.

Vi voglio bene

Anziano Whiting

Us with Stefano in church, and yes, his tag says "future missionary."

Rocca Calascio

For behold...

What an eventful week we have had here in Italy! We have pday today on Tuesday because of zone conference yesterday. It was really inspiring and a nice build up for the mission wide conference that we have this Thursday with President Russell M. Nelson of the quorum of the 12. We are all pretty excited and it will be with the whole mission in Rome.

We were able to teach this lady named Laura with her family this past week and they are a bundle of fun haha. She has two toddlers who are the craziest kids ever! We are super excited to see them start progressing and coming to church. For this whole transfer Anziano gunnell and I are trying to speak only Italian and gunnell has improved so much over these past couple days it's incredible!

We were able to help Paula and Irene get moved in this past Sunday and so now hopefully we can focus more on teaching them the lessons so they can come closer to Christ. The members have been feeding us a lot recently and a side effect of that was we got horribly sick last Wednesday from some bad seafood. I was alright but Anziano gunnell may not have been so lucky..... we're making lots of progress in little old L'Aquila and thankfully the lord has prepared L'Aquila for the gospel.

Vi voglio bene!

Anziano Whiting

Gotta love gelato!

And it came to pass...

Life is full of miracles, we just have to know where to look. We had an incredible week here in the lofty roman mountains. Giovanna really agreed with the whole gospel of Jesus Christ lesson. She even had her nephew Mario drive us home after and marios a kid whose about our age and was really curious about our church's stand on chastity haha. So for the 40 minutes we were together, Mario and his friend fabritzio got to hear all about chastity. The good news is Mario will probably come next week when we teach Giovanna.

We also saw our less active friend Vincenzo and he gave us permission to teach his family. We took the opportunity to then have him explain the Book of Mormon to his 8 year old daughter Laura and it was really cool to see his testimony come out. Then we also went to our homie gaun Pierros house and talked with his parents. The missionaries have talked with them in the past but this was the first time gaun said his parents actually seemed to feel the spirit. I give all credit to guan because when he bore his testimony his mother started crying as she felt the spirit testify of the truthfulness of the message.

We also had another blitz just this time in pescara last Monday. We taught a lesson and it started raining super hard. We had planned to go to this restaurant and eat two of these huge sandwiches because it was our last week as an all elder district. The sandwich was really tasty and Anziano gunnell might have ate half of one. He eats a lot of food for a small guy ha. And we get to stay together this next transfer in L'Aquila which will be good to help all of our investigators come closer to Christ.

Vi volglio bene

Anziano Whiting

Gotta love rain

Outside our soccer stadium

The Church is True

First off I would just like to thank everyone for all of the birthday wishes, I'm certain it's going to be a wonderful day! We had the precious opportunity of listening to general conference over the past 2 days and learned a lot from the prophets and apostles of god. There were lots of marvelous teachings like how to have joy and the plan of salvation. Of course missionaries love when the apostles talk about missionary work as well ha. Lots of my questions were answered and it really strengthened my testimony of these men that represent Christ on the earth today. God has always worked through prophets and always will. 

We had a blitz in ascoli this past week with the boys and it was really fun. We figured we have to utilize our time as a sister less district and so we went down for pday and then did missionary work after. We got to meet this really nice less active member whose working on quitting smoking. We also got to see Giovanna again and she is just the sweetest lady ever! We're just working through her doubts on the need to get baptized again. 

The highlight of finding this past week was this old dude we met on a bus; he asked me if I had a girlfriend and I told him I still had to find her, so this kind gentlemen then proceeded to ask every girl who came on the bus if she wanted to be my girlfriend haha. Needless to say, I'm still single haha but we have lots of new potential investigators now. (Their not all just teenage girls so don't worry mom ;). Andrea came to conference and really loved it. The work is going great!

Vi voglio bene!

Anziano Whiting 

A nice picture Palmir took of us.

The boys

Healing Toes

We had another wonderful week and it feels like time is just going faster and faster. We went to Rome last Monday for another doctor appointment. They said my toes are doing a lot better and they should be healed pretty soon. Anziano gunnell also made us cinnamon rolls and they were so good! Anziano gunnell really didn't like the fufu our friend Austin fed us ha it's just flour and water mixed together but the Africans love it.

We had some more really swag lessons with chino this past week. We taught chastity and he just loved the whole lesson. He's also really recovering from his surgery which is a miracle. We taught this lady named Giovanna with our ward mission leader and she's such a nice lady. She values the family so much and it's nice to see that our values match up on that. We had lots of people show up to church on Sunday and hope they can make it for conference this weekend.

We got to see valerio again and he introduced us to his friend giacomo. They are pretty cool guys and we got to eat dinner with them and Andrea. Ha they say they plan on coming to visit the family in America so I hope your ready mom! I never thought I'd say this but we finally had some time to go finding and it was super exciting ha. I didn't really appreciate our finding time until we didn't have lots of time to do it. I guess I've just really come to love sharing the message of the restoration with the people of Italy.

Vi voglio bene

Anziano Whiting

The district at Chicken Hut.  Whiting, Olsen, Gunnell, Anderson, Hansen, Campbell, and Martin

Emoji Pillows in Lander & Italy!

Anziano Carroll with our boy Papon who we taught together in Palermo!

Mission-wide Conference

We had another jam packed week and it looks like the work is really progressing forward. One of the highlights has to be the mission wide conference we had with President Kearon from the area presidency of Europe and his councilor Elder Sabin. They had almost all the missionaries meet together in Rome and we had the privilege of being taught by these marvelous leaders. There was a major focus on 'being the message' and not stressing. It was really helpful and it was a blast to see a lot of the old missionaries I've served with.

Our boy chino had to go to the hospital this past week to have an operation done. We were able to visit him a couple times and thankfully he's out now. We had an incredible lesson with him yesterday on the gospel of Jesus Christ and he's really searching for the truth. Andrea is still coming up clutch with referrals ha, he hasn't made lots of progress but he keeps introducing us to different people who want to learn. He introduced us to this guy named Valentino who we can hopefully start teaching this up coming week.

The cooking adventures have also continued here in L'Aquila. We got a huge thing of turkey last week from the Mensa and decided to deep fry it haha. The entire outside just turned black and burned but the inside was amazingly good, so remember that for thanksgiving this year. Something really incredible has been the power I've been able to feel recently in my prayers. It's very humbling to think that God gives us a chance to speak with him and if we really listen we are able to receive the answers to our problems. It's something incredibly simple yet highly underutilized. So say your prayers :) Vi voglio bene Anziano Whiting

Nice picture of the sun setting in L'Aquila by the hospital

MTC Group from the Conference

It's L'Aquila

We had a really busy, fun filled, exhilarating week! One of the highlights definitely had to be our meal appointment with stefano and his family, they just kept feeding Anziano gunnell haha. I felt so bad for him and I guess I just haven't taught him how to say no in Italian. He gained over 2 pounds after that one meal appointment....and we did scambio this week and I got to be with Anziano Martin again! It was really cool to be able to do a scambio with him before he leaves for America in a month or so.

We had a nice stake activity at la sorgente die fiumi in popoli. It was to introduce a genealogy program and we got our boy Andrea to come and now he's actually really interested in doing his genealogy. So it looks like will be brushing up our family history skills. Matthew is a stud muffin! He's already read over 40% of the Book of Mormon and watched multiple general conference talks. We hope he just really listens to the spirit because that's what's really going to convert him.

The members in L'Aquila are pretty incredible. There's a family from Ecuador named the custodes that loves inviting over the missionaries and they are just the nicest people ever. Our branch president is also a homie, his family comes to corso every week and helps with the gospel lessons we teach after. They have a son named Marco whose mentally handicapped but he's the nicest kid ever and loves talking with the missionaries. It looks like my toes are going to be fine as well, I mean they still look bad but they don't hurt at all.

Vi voglio bene

Anziano Whiting

Nicol, Tomarra, Io, and Stefano

The cool lake thing

The Balm of Gilead

We had another fantastic last couple days and the lord continues to bless us. My toes have been doing a lot better and it looks like I'll make a full recovery here pretty soon. There is a balm in gilead! I was given permission to walk to the church (which is thankfully right by our house) in my flip flops ha for English course and lessons. We actually had a really good lesson with a lady named Monica and her 3 children after corso and are excited for all of their progress.

Our boys chino and Laurence both made it out to church and they loved it! Translating is always a blast as well. I've gotten a lot better at it than I was at the start of the mission. The members at the Mensa keep giving us all the leftover food and it's wonderful! Ha they gave us this huge hunk of lamb this past week and it was super good. It's wonderful to have the chance to serve and give back to these people who do so much for us.

One of the miracles from last week was this guy named Matthew. He's 20 from France but is moving here and wants to take the lessons with us over Skype. He comes from a part member family but he and his parents are jehovahs witnesses. Usually we can't do much with the witnesses but Matthew really wants to learn more about our church and is opening to praying and finding out for himself about the truth. It's probably the best situation you could ask for in teaching one of the witnesses and I hope we're up for it.

Vi voglio bene!

Anziano Whiting

This is what they did to my toes.

Here's us going to English course.

Immortal

To start off I would just like to thank everyone for all the prayers that have been given in our behalf. There was an earthquake that hit a small town called amatrice which is about 40 miles north of L'Aquila.

It's actually in our ward boundaries but we have never been there. The quake did not disrupt us here in L'Aquila very much at all. We only felt the first 2 and they did not destroy the city in the slightest thankfully. Anziano gunnell and I were never worried for our safety and thankfully we didn't have to be.

This week was also filled with lots of other experiences to help us and especially me remember we are not immortal. I got s nice black eye this week playing basketball and then we actually got to go on a trip to Rome last Friday to have my feet looked at and I was diagnosed with two ingrown toenails. At least they both happened at the same time right? We had surgery this morning and everything went really smoothly so you don't have to worry mom. It sounds like I must have cut them wrong and then all the walking did me in.

Missionary work wise everything is fantastic ha! At least we're staying immortal in that realm. We had a wonderful lesson with a man named John that Anziano gunnell actually contacted which was pretty cool. We also had a nice ward party on Saturday were we got to play some ultimate frisbee. We are going to dive into our area book this week (I'm not supposed to walk the next 3 days): and also see if we can't bring back some of those former investigators. Andrea actually volunteered to tutor Anziano gunnell with some Italian and we hope to tutor him more about the atonement this week.

Thank you all again for all the concern and prayers!

Vi voglio bene

Anziano Whiting

This is a famous place called the keyhole in Rome.  You look through on Italian soil into a Maltese garden that has the Vatican in the background.

Surgery of ingrown toenails

All Missionaries Safe

To the Dear Families of the Great Italy Rome Mission;

Last night a significant earthquake struck an area of central Italy by the town of Norcia. We can report that all our missionaries have been contacted and are safe and accounted for.

Our prayers are with those affected by this tragedy.

With love and gratitude,

President & Sister Pickerd

Alle care famiglie dei missionari della grande missione di Roma;

La notte scorsa un terremoto ha colpito l'Italia centrale nella zona intorno a Norcia. Possiamo confermare che tutti i nostri missionari sono stati contattati e tutti stanno bene.

Le nostre preghiere vanno con tutti quelli colpiti da questa disgrazia.

Con amore e gratitudine,

Presidente & Sorella Pickerd

New Beginnings

We had quiet the eventful week! We had deep cleaning day last Monday so our house looks a lot cleaner now. We also got transfer calls that night and they shipped Anziano Burgos off to Rome and sent Anziano Gunnell in his place. Anziano Gunnell comes from Orem Utah and is straight out of the mtc so we should have some exciting learning experiences together! He's a really nice kid and willing to work hard.

We started teaching this really cool family this past week from English course. The parents are stefano and tomola (I think) and then there daughter Nicole and they are incredible. They even brought us treats one day! We are super ecstatic and hope they continue to progress. Our boy chino also made it to church again and he brought a friend! He called that morning saying he hurt his leg and wasn't going to be able to come but then he changed his mind and came anyway. It's wonderful to see how he already treasures the sabbath day.

The members here are amazing as well. Before Anziano Burgos left we went to say goodbye to a member at her work and then started to wait at the bus stop. We waited for 30 minutes and then the member came back out and offered to have us over for dinner so we went with her.

She made probably the best ragu (spaghetti sauce) I've had in my life.

Sister Nancy is a saint :) and her daughters family has been visiting from England and will maybe decide to stay here in L'Aquila again but we will see.

Vi voglio bene

Anziano Whiting

Anziano Gunnell and the treat Nicole gave us.

The All Elder District Photo we took for the girls back home

Eng Trainer Parent Position Letter

16 August 2016

To the Family of Elder Whiting,

Your missionary, Elder Whiting,  has recently been assigned to be a "New Missionary Trainer".  In this assignment he will be the companion of a newly arrived missionary. This is a very important responsibility.  Trainers have a profound and lasting influence on the development of a new missionary's attitude and habits.

I am confident that Elder Whiting will do an excellent job in this new assignment.

Sister Pickerd and I thank you for your faith and prayers on behalf of our mission and for all you have done to prepare such an outstanding missionary.

Sincerely,

Michael D. Pickerd

President

Italy Rome Mission

Ferragosto

This last week was really exciting. We were able to teach Andrea and valerio a couple times this past week and valerio is definitely progressing a lot more than Andrea but we still love both of them.

They even came to play ball with us in the morning so that was cool.

We had a nice miracle with our new friend Angelo. He's from Peru and showed up at the church when we were teaching Andrea and valerio.

Angelo was fine with just sitting down for the lesson wi us as well when we asked him. He really loved the plan of salvation though.

Something really cool about laquila is that we get to do service at the Mensa every week. It's a refugee camp that serves food to homeless people. A lot of members volunteer there and they've invited us to participate as well. So we go and usually wash dishes for a couple hours ha but it's a really cool experience. Because it's run by the Catholic Church we are not allowed to proselytize there but people still ask us questions all the time which is really cool. They know that somethings different but they can't pinpoint what it is and we're happy to explain what it is!

A big buy this past week was some tennis racquets because our ward mission leader is big into tennis and wants to play us on a pday. So will see how that goes. We had a fun experience Sunday with our boy chino. Buses don't run on Sunday's in Italy so he just barely made it on time to church and then stayed the whole time, said he loved it, and then waited at the bus stop for a couple hours. If anybody got blessings for coming to church, it was chino. He was telling us how he knows that God gave us 6 days for ourselves and 1 for him. He doesn't want to disrespect God after he gave such an honor as that to us. For the missionaries it feels like everyday is Sunday which has really helped me to come to appreciate the sabbath day and the time we get to give service to God.

Vi voglio bene

Anziano Whiting

Just Chillin in L'A

And it's August

We had another good week filled with blessings! We met with Andrea this week and he brought his friend whose also named valerio and he's a homie! Andrea introduced him to Buddhism and h converted about a year ago and now Andrea introduced valerio to the missionaries so we hope he gets the same result as last time. The branch president and his family also happened to be at church then so we were able to introduce them to the diodato's as well.

Our ward missionary activity got rained out this week. We have really hot days here and then days when it just pours rain and freezes you to the bone. But anyway, we had the ward members that came do some minute to win it games at the church and the Italians loved it ha. I guess all those pep rallies in high school are finally paying off. And then basketball has been going well ha there's a court right by our house and if our appointments fall through we go talk with the people who are sitting watching people play or if there's only a couple people we shoot around with them and talk about the gospel.

We also had scambio this past week and I got to chill with Anziano Hansen in pescara. We had a little miracle that morning as we did personal study, Anziano Hansen said that he felt we needed to go outside and do something and we ended up getting called by the sisters who needed a blessing for one of the sisters that has been having health issues and was leaving that morning for Rome. So that was nice to have been guided by the spirt. The work is growing step by step and Anziano Burgos and I are looking forward to this up coming week.

Vi voglio bene!

Anziano Whiting

Us waiting for the bus

Donkeys by our house

Soarin' Like an Eagle

We had a blast this last week ha. We met this part member family on monday night with a missionary that came to visit L'Aquila from america. It was really cool and we got to bond with them and will hopefully be able to see them again and continue to help them move closer to christ. The ex missionary was named elder beans and he was really cool guy. Most of our members went to the temple this past week though so he spent a lot of time with us instead.

We showed our boy Laurance the restoration video and he absolutly loved it. He works for a tv station and wasn't able to make it to church on sunday but he's determined to make it next week. We had a really good conversation with a kid named valerio last week and what's really cool is he's the kind of kid I think I would be had I not had the gospel. He was playing basketball and wants to have us come play with him. We think he has a lot of potential.

Probably one of the mission highlights will be one of the lessons we had this last week. We taught a catholic priest and even though he didn't accept the message it'll be something to remember. At the start of the lesson he asked if we thought he needed to learn more about the bible after going to school and studying from it his whole life. We of course told him yes haha because we can always learn something new from the scriptures whether it be the bible or the book of mormon, there is always a new revelation we can recieve from them if we search them diligently.

Vi voglio bene

Anziano Whiting

Here's us with beans and the la vignas

Tag photo with Elder Burgos

Zone Conference with the Pickerds

We had another great week and it feels like it all just flew by. We watched how rare a possesion with our investigator Andrea and he really liked it. We think he might have some real potential he just gets hung up on trying to find the physical and scientifical evidence of the book of mormon. Their are scientific proofs for the book of mormon but what really matters is if someone develops a testimony through asking God if the book is true. A spiritual witness is really what were hoping he'll be able to receive.

We had a really great conference with the Pickerd's this last week. It was totally different from all of the other conferences we had with the Waddups and I loved it! We had a pretty cool group discussion about repentance and then walking with God (Moses 6-7) Probably the biggest highlight though was when my companion had his interview with President Pickerd I got to sit and talk with Sister Pickerd about byu sports haha and she knows her stuff. I love them.

Anziano Burgos is also an amazing cook and has been treating me well this past week. He makes asain food all the time and it is divine. Last week we got to go see the castle that their remodeling in the city and also walk through some abandoned buildings from the earthquake. We've been seeing the members a lot this past week and the people here are wonderful! I hope that we can continue to help them grow and flourish!

Vi voglio bene

Anziano Whiting

Some fish soupy thing

L'Aquila means "the eagle"

Homemade spring rolls