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

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

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