Easter

This week was really fun! We started out with a zone conference all the way in Catania with all the missionaries from Sicily. We spent the night and it was a packed house ha. The conference went really well and I enjoyed all the things that we learned. I also liked being able to see Catania again, I've pretty much done every conference in Catania so I really know the city now. There was a bunch of anziani who bore their testimonies because they are going home this next transfer and they were incredible. We also had the senior couple who is leaving bare their testimonies and it was just amazing to see how two years of a mission and even a life time in the gospel can impact who you are. 

We got back to Palermo and we got to meet with the bishops from both wards and spend time with their families which was really cool. I love both of the bishops and their families. Instead of dropping us off, one of the bishops drove us to one of his friends houses and we taught him a lesson. He's a pretty swag member missionary. An amazing miracle also happened with another one of our investigators. Boatang was the guy who was waiting to get married and he found a job! We had prayed a lot for him and he found one! It's in Venice which means we won't be able to see him but I trust the missionaries there and am glad that God blessed him even if it wasn't how we had wanted it to happen. 

We had another deep cleaning day today so that was a blast. Our house looks pretty nice and I feel like I might even be comfortable having my mother come in it ha. For easter we got to eat with a single sister and her mom with Alzheimers who always asked us where her daughter was ha. She did make us some really nice food and I love the members here. I'll definitely miss our boy boatang but we have a lot of other really good investigators that Anziano Chilvers and I are excited for. My mission has been really rewarding and I'm loving every second of it. I would caution anyone who is considering going on a mission to definitely choose to serve.

Vi voglio bene

Anziano Whiting

Matching Family Ties

My boy Boatang and his wife and kid

Some tasty bacon things we had at a ward party

Ballin it up in P-Town

This week was pretty exciting. To start things off, we had a really cool activity with a local school where they used our parking lot to play different sports in front of their parents and city officials. There was a lot of kids and the mayor even came. Our bishop being the stud he is even gave the mayor a book of mormon so will see how that goes. But anyway, they had us missionaries help set up everything and even though we were american, they had us help raise the italian flag ha. I guess we have been acceppted into the culture. Then they had anziano chilvers and I do a demenstration in basketball which was super funny because we just shot the ball and did dunks on their little hoops haha but they loved it. 

We also had a lot of success this week with all of our investigators. We are working really hard on helping all of them progress and be baptized. We had some fun lessons with Hillary and really just all of our investigators for Palermo 3. I love that ward a ton and it makes me excited to be here. We met with a less active sister who hasn't been to church in 20 years but she is the nicest lady ever. We really want to start teaching her two boys but will see what happens. 

In other news, it looks like we will be getting some african clothes haha, they have some pretty nice stuff so I'll have to send pics when we get them. I also had to play the piano in church this week and it was an experience. Sorella holiday usually plays but she got transferred. I honestly probably played the best I ever have for the opening hymns and then just crashed and burned during the last two haha. The lesson is to listen to your mom when she wants you to practice playing those church hymns. I'll get better though, the mission is incredible and I can't wait to see the miracles that we have this next week!

Vi voglio bene

Anziano Whiting

Here's us at the activity

Our district before transfers

Zone Calcio

A Week in Paradise

We had a crazy week filled with miracles over the last seven days.

First off, Anziano chilvers and I will get to serve another transfer together in Palermo! I've done two transfers with every comp so far so we figured it would happen. We also went to corleone on Monday which is where some of the god father was filmed. It's supposed to be the mafia capital of the world and it was a nice little town. I'll put pictures at the bottom.

This week we had my old investigator Hillary Clinton call us and say he's been moved from Ragusa to Palermo and wanted to come to church.

He also got documents so it looks like we will be able to teach him!

We had good success finding people to teach this week. We met a guy named Morris that was so excited to meet he called us the next day and said we needed to go with him one day and teach all of his friends who live in traponi. We told him we can't go but that we have some missionary friends there who can go visit them ha.

The Italian people are so funny. They all think I'm Japanese and 15 years old but I can live with it haha. We're teaching this really cool guy named Samuele. He's funny and seems really interested. Anyway, the work is amazing and we are super duper excited for all the work that lays ahead with the members and the investigators. We have a lot of people to work with and we're going to look for even more.

Vi voglio bene!

Anziano Whiting

Horse Meat Sandwiches

We had another fantastic week and I'm super stoked for the future! To start things off, we went back to Ragusa this week to get my permesso so I'm finally legal! Ha now I don't have to worry about getting deported. It was cool to go back and see some of the friends I made there and hopefully I will be able to return after my mission as well. Anziano Chilvers is also now a fan of horse meat sandwiches. We also did zone calcio last week and it was a blast! I haven't played soccer in forever and it was fun to play with all the other missionaries. 

This week we focused a lot on the less active members and have made a real effort to find some part member families. We went and taught this named named brother rappa ha and anziano Chilvers thinks he's a part of the mafia. He has a pretty nice house and some weird ideas about religion but will work on that. We also made a ton of sugar cookies and were thinking about handing them out to a bunch of different less actives but the bishops family literally ate all of them during our visit. I figured it was only fair because my family would do something like that. 

We are excited for all our investigators. Boatang finally has his wedding situation figured out. We got some homies to church on sunday. One of them is named Harry and he fell asleep on me in church so will work on that. Anziano Chilvers is a really funny kid and I enjoy working with him. We have transfer calls this week and hopefully we get to serve together for another transfer. We are excited for the upcoming weeks and I hope everyone is doing fantastic!

Vi voglio bene

Anziano Whiting

The balcony where I do runs

My permesso

Rita's Baptism

So this week was super great and we got a lot done. Rita's baptism went really well, literally everyone came 30 minutes late (even Rita :) but it went well. Anziano Chilvers baptized her and she had me give a talk on baptism so that was cool. It was my first talk in Italy and it was in english ha. She bore her testimony after and it was really lively lol. I love africans so much. I feel so blessed to have been a part of there families conversion story and am glad to see them coming closer to God. Boatang O'Neal is another investigator we have who is really close to baptism, he has to get married to his wife but it looks like he will be able to do that in maybe the next month. He's funny because he looks exactly like a smaller version of Shaquille O'Neal who played in the NBA.

We had a scambio in Mistretta this week and it was really fun. I was with Anziano Dunn who just barely started his mission and we had some great lessons. Mistretta is a tiny town on top of a mountain. So a lot like Ragusa just a lot smaller than Ragusa. We got to eat with a blind member who was a chef and it was pretty good. There's also a senior couple in Mistretta named the Wartles and they are just the coolest. I totally want to come back to Italy as a senior missionary.

In priesthood there was a funny point when the elders quorum leader wrote on the board that satan is a big liar and everyone started laughing. I just have to say that I love P3 sacrament meetings ha. Today we have zone calcio so I'm pretty excited. I get to break out that hot pink palermo jersey, but anyway, I'm doing incredible and hope everyone is noticing God's hand in their lives!

Vi voglio bene!

Anziano Whiting

Here's Rita and her family (except for the baby girl)

Anziano Chilvers and I

Mistretta

Palermo Zone

This week was just incredible. Ha we put in a lot of work and saw a lot of results. We met this kid named salvo on the bus and he's really interested in the gospel and even being a missionary. He's really expressed his desire to join the church which is pretty cool. He still has a long way but it's the first solid Italian investigator the elders in Palermo 2 have had for years ha. Just shows what hard work can do. We also have Rita's baptism this Friday which should be really cool. Her whole family is excited and will be blessed.

We had zone conference this week and it was really good. There was 10 elders in our house during zone conference which was a ball. Two elders came home late one night and while they were walking they got robbed by some kids it I figure as long as I follow the rules I'll be fine so don't worry mom :) I actually got to see a lot of the other missionaries from my group too which was really great as well. It's fun to see all of us growing together.

This pday we went out with a bunch of other missionaries and played laser tag. It was actually pretty fun. My team got crushed in the end and it was so bad I was the leading scorer ha. Palermo does have a lot more stuff to do which is really fun. We have zone calico next week and I'm excited. Anziano chilvers and I are also really excited for all of our simps. Their such great people and I admire them all.

Vi voglio bene

Anziano whiting

Right outside Bishop's house

Homemade ravioli

Palermo, Italia

This week was really crazy but also lots of fun. So yesterday really had all the drama ha we have an investigator named Rita who needed to do a baptismal interview with the stake president who lives in Siracusa which is on the other side of Sicily but he was going to be in Palermo for 2 days to set a missionary apart from our ward. The missionaries name is Lorenzo and he's going to France. And so we had to go on an adventure throughout Palermo trying to get Rita from work all the way to the church to do the interview. Ha I had the cool experience of being able to translate for the interview and Rita is a wonderful person. Her sons were baptized the week before I got here and now it's her turn and she's really excited. 

I also got to do a scambio this week with Anziano Palazzo who trained my trainer. It was a pretty cool experience since I heard a lot about serving with Palazzo from Anz Martin. We went to Palermo 1 which is the nicer side of town and had a lot of fun. He also has a football so today for P-day we played football and it was crazy. My team was me and a bunch of Italians and we had a lot of fun. Maybe football will catch on over here eventually. My favorite play of the whole day was when this 4 foot nothing italian girl was wide open in the end zone and I just threw it across the field to here and she caught it like it was nothing. 

We have a good amount of other investigators that we are seeing a lot of progress with. Godfred had a great lesson about the law of chastity this week and he accepted it like it was nothing, but he really struggles with coming to church which is what we are working with everyone on doing. Our mission president challenged all the missionaries to read the book of mormon before the start of may and I've really enjoyed reading the book of mormon again. I've read it a couple times and even just barely finished it but am still excited to read it over again and invite you all to read it for yourselves. On of my favorite quotes comes from William Sheffield who was talking about the Joseph Smith story along with the book of mormon and said "It's more disney than disney". So if you're into disney at all, you'll love the book of mormon!

Vi voglio bene

Anziano Whiting

This is where we played football

The church --  there aren't very many stand alone churches in Italy and I've got to serve in two of them already

Palermo

So I made it to Palermo and it is suppeerrr awesome, but I'll start with the first half of the week. So in Rome we talked with a lot of cool people and helped a bunch of missionaries get ready for transfers last thursday. i stayed with Anziano Simmons (he served in Palermo 2 for awhile so we talked a lot) and Anziano Jacob who will stay in Rome and train new missionary. Getting ready for transfers was really crazy because we had to go pick up elders and transport luggage and everything. I've always just been hidden in Sicily which makes it a lot easier for me ha. We had some cool appointments and hopefully the work is booming with those guys. 

Then I took the train ride back down to Palermo and it was pretty cool for doing it twice in one week. Palermo is really cool and a lot hotter than Rome and Ragusa since it's right by the ocean. I'm with Anziano Chilvers whose from Rhode Island and my mtc group. We are in charge of two wards, palermo 2 and palermo 3. Palermo 2 is an italian ward that accounts for about half of palermo and then palermo 3 is the international branch that is for everyone who speaks english so really just all the africans. Both wards are super nice and we had a party after church for a missionary who is leaving to france this week.

The investigators here are all pretty swag. We have this guy named Godfred who is 20 and we taught him the word of wisdom last week. The lesson was super good and my comp bore a crazy strong testimony that about made me cry but I held it in. Church was fun and I've started to lose my ability to pray in english which is kinda funny since we only ever pray now in italian and then pidgeon english ha. That'll be fun when i get home. 

Anyway I love the work and everything is going wonderful here in Sicily!

Vi voglio bene!

Anziano Whiting

Here's a picture of Palermo 2.  I'm not in it cause I took it.

We went inside a famous opera house in Palermo with Lorenzo who is leaving on his mission and the two anziani from Bagheria. 

When in Rome...

Ha this last week was really crazy and I don't even know where to start. At the beginning of the week we had some nice lessons with Giuseppe and Samuele. Both of them are looking super solid and are going to get baptized in the next month. I'm super excited for both of them. And so about Thursday morning pres gives us a call and let's me know I need to get up to Catania that night and ride in a car with anz Toronto to Rome by Saturday morning. He said I was going to be serving in Rome and I was super stocked ha. So we ran home and got packed and I said as many goodbyes as I could. We got up to Catania and then Anziano Toronto and I drove up all Friday to get to Rome. It was really cool and all of Italy is beautiful.

Ha best part is, Saturday morning pres called and says my call is actually being switched to Palermo 2... So I get to go back to Sicily with all the other missionaries getting transferred on Thursday. But I get to stay in Rome for this week and see a lot of the sites which should be pretty cool. I probably won't be able to reply to too many people this week or send a lot of pictures but I can write in Palermo next week. We are running around and seeing different places in Rome.

I will serve with Anziano chilvers who is from my mtc group and its going to be a lot of fun.

I would just like to bare my testimony that I know God knows exactly where I need to be. A lot of people could criticize how pres is had me come up to Rome and now go back to Sicily and have Ragusa lose a weeks worth of work, but I've already seen a lot of miracles here in Rome 6 (the elders I'm with for this week) they didn't really have any work and so I've been trying really hard to give all that I have with this little time here in Rome. And I also might not get to serve in Rome so it's nice to be here for at least a week. Thank you all for the gifts and stuff you guys sent in because I was finally able to get it this week ha that's something nice about Rome. And I can't wait to head down to Palermo this week! I'm going to miss Anziano Rusch and everyone from Ragusa but I feel like I did the work we needed in Ragusa and now it's time for Rome and Palermo!

Vi voglio bene,

Anziano Whiting

Sent from my iPad

Just Another Week in Italy

So this week was another amazing week in Italy! We taught a lot of lessons and have seen a lot of progress with all our investigators. We found a couple new investigators and even some families who want to take the lessons which is really rare out here. Hopefully they will keep feeling the spirit and want to hear more from us. We taught the plan of salvation a lot last week and I feel truly blessed to know that God cares for me individually. And to not only know that but to know that he created a plan so that I could find happiness in this life and in the life to come is truly incredible.

There was a world wide missionary broadcast last Wednesday and it was really cool. They had apostles and other leaders talk to us about hastening the work. I really liked the challenges we were given to help people feel the spirit and how they stressed working with members. That's really where you get the converts who stay with the church because they have that support system of members to back them up. We are going to work on involving the members here as much as we can and hope to continue to grow the ward here in Ragusa. The Gela Anziani spent the night at our house so we could watch the conference together.

Anziano Rusch and I are starting to teach really well together and hopefully the people we teach can feel the truthfulness of our message. The members are trying their best and it's nice to have people to back is up on our work. We have transfers this week so we should find out if I'm staying in little old Ragusa or moving off to somewhere else. I hope everyone is doing wonderful and I'm praying for God to bless you all.

Vi voglio bene!

Anziano Whiting

Us watching the conference

Ragusa Jungle

This week went really well. We had Samuele and Giuseppe both do baptismal interviews and they both passed! Giuseppe wants to wait a little bit though just to strengthen his testimony and bishop wants to hold off on Samuele and his baptism for a little while so will keep meeting with him. He has missed a bunch of church because he works but he loves us and wants to get baptized. This week he asked us if he can serve a mission and be my companion. It was the coolest thing ever to have an investigator say that and it makes me want to work even harder to stay worthy of friendships with people like Samuele.

Another cool thing this week was Marco getting the aaronic priesthood in church. He's going to bless his family so much now that he can act as a representative of Christ and pass the sacrament. Ha we went to teach Carmelo this week at his house (another one of our swag investigators) and he had a lady there house sitting and we had planned to teach the law of chastity and I wasn't sure if we were still going to teach the same lesson but anz Rusch just went right into it. Ha she liked it and he is really progressing and it's probably good his 10 year old son Matteo wasn't there.

Today we went exploring in the Ragusa jungle that's in the middle of our city and we found this random restaurant that's actually really nice. The jungle is really cool and has a bunch of cave dwellings that are pretty sweet. My camera has been getting fixed though so I wasn't able to get any cool pictures but will see what the iPad can do. Other then that we have been working hard and are excited for the new people we have been meeting.
Vi voglio bene!
Anziano Whiting

6 months

Its super crazy but this past week I hit my 6 month mark in the mission! So of course we had to burn a tie to celebrate ha. And don't worry mom, there was a big toothpaste stain on the tie anyway. Time really has just flown by though and I have loved each and every day of my mission. And another important date coming up is my parents anniversary this saturday! It took them 21 years but they finally have a kid on a mission. 

We also had our scambios this week and I got to go to Gela with anziano jorgenson. It was really fun and we did some cool work together. We found them 2 swag new investigators and hopefully they really start to progress. All our investigators in ragusa are doing great and working towards baptism. We got all our really progressing investigators to church this week which was really cool. Their starting to connect with the members and its really cool. 

I teach the gospel principles class with the africans since none of the members speak english and its always so cool. The africans have such strong testimonies in the gospel and always strengthen my faith and help me want to be me humble each and everyday. They have almost nothing in their lives but the gospel of jesus christ and because of that they know that they are rich and have the most important thing anyone could ever have. And samuele and giuseppe are both really close to getting baptized and we are excited for each of them.

I love you and wish you all the best,

Vi voglio bene

Anziano Whiting

We went to a restaurant and got a Texas and Mexican burger, but they gave us a Swiss and Russian flag.

The Six Month Burning of the Tie!