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