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

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

Vineyard

This week Anziano Martin and I got to go work in an actual vineyard! You read all these parables in the bible about laboring in the vineyard and now I actually got to see what it was like in person. One of the stake presidency members asked us if we could come help him work in his father in law's vineyard, and our appointments for that day fell through, so we went out to the vineyard. You literally just plug all the olives off the tree so its not very hard to do at all, it just takes forever. To grow these trees you have to prune and dung them and wait for them to grow. It is all the stuff that you find in the bible that people did to grow the trees.

The work here is going really well. We have 3 investigators from africa that have baptismal dates for october 17th but they have to make it to church for us to baptize them. We also have a father of a family that were still teaching and his family is now taking the discussions with the sisters so we're excited for them. There was another scambio this week and I went with Anziano Bellows. He's a stud missionary and has served for a long time. We mostly taught members together but I learned a lot from him. We had transfers this week and sorella reber is going to rome and sorella batezzatto is getting a new missionary like me. So know half of the Ragusa missionaries won't know italian ha just kidding, language is coming along just fine.

I love and miss you all and pray for you all everyday!

Vi Amo,

Anziano Whiting

Italy

Sorry for writing late this week, we went to the marina for P-Day. But anyway this week went by super fast. We actually had a lot of our investigators commit to get baptized this week, they're in an African Refuge Camp that we go teach in about once a week. They're all very humble and just need to come to church now. We also have been teaching this man who has been an investigator for over 5 years and his wife just started taking the lessons with the sisters and it is going really well with them. We are super excited.

This week we also met with a lot of member families and our ward mission leader wants us to meet with a lot of the members and teach them the missionary lessons so they can strengthen their testimonies and be more prepared to share the gospel with their friends. My companion and I have been working really hard to give the missionaries a good reputation here because the past missionaries did not work very hard at all. Ragusa hasn't had a baptism in a year and a half and hopefully we can have a couple in the next few weeks. But anyway, I love you all and Vi voligio bien!

Anziano Whiting

A church in Modica we went to teach a referral in.

The Marina

Italy Week 4

This week was really exciting! We got a bunch of new investigators and have some potentials we've been trying to reach this past week and we're having success. Because of that, we have some crazy important lessons this coming week and we are preparing super hard to be ready to teach these people. Will keep praying that the lord will open these peoples hearts and miracles will start to happen. We've met with the members a lot to try and get them excited about the missionary work in the area.

After district meeting last week we had a 'scambio' which is where the district leader switches the companionships around for a day, so I went to Gela which is right by the sea. I was with a Swedish anziano named anziano Saffer. He's super cool and we just did tracking in Gela and found some really nice potential investigators. Gela has 7 people in their ward and we found a mom with a family that is really interested in the work. Hopefully they end up doubling the ward.

The mission is great and the food is still incredible. I'm working hard and looking for the blessings in my life.

Good luck and I miss you all!

Anziano Whiting

Anziano Martin at the Marina

Gela festival for the Madonna

Week 3 in Italy

This week was pretty exciting and it seems like the days are going faster. We had specialized training at the start of the week with the whole zone and I got to see Ibla which is this ancient city right by Ragusa this week too. We passed off another lady to the sisters and she is just a golden investigator. The whole time we taught her we just felt like she was ready and now the sisters will hopefully help her reach baptism. We also had some good lessons with an investigator that has been investigating for like 5 years. He just has to take the last step and we think he is really close.

This week a lot of investigators didn't show up for lessons so that was kinda sad but we think we can get them next week. There are a lot of potentials that we are looking into and trying to teach and we are preparing for miracles so hopefully we can have more people progressing next week. On sundays we eat with the members and it is soooo good. I could probably go on and on about the food haha but we ate chicken with bacon in the middle with these italians sauces yesterday and I about died from how good it was. But anyway, I miss you guys and wish you all the best!

Anziano Whiting

The ancient city Ibla

One of our potentials is an artist and we went to an art show and this was my favorite one.