P 3 Glory Days

We had another amazing week and the best news is that anziano chilvers and I will be staying together for another transfer! We are really excited and are ready for the miracles. This past week we got some nice work done and hope to build off of it. We had a really good lesson with a less active lady and her two non member sons. The family is really opening to us and we hope to be able to start teaching the family. It's really fun going over to see them and spending time with them. We also had some fun lessons with our boy mike who really wants to improve his knowledge of what we teach.

We had a fun sabbath because two of the past elders came to visit Palermo and the members really showed how much they appreciated everything the missionaries had done for them. It was a good example for the impact I want to leave in the cities I serve in. We also had a bit of a sad week because we had to say goodbye to the senior couple and anziano rasband who all took off for home. They were great missionaries and I'm going to miss them and all the wonderful times we had together.

Last week we got to play some frisbee with the missionaries and it was a blast. Palermo has some really nice places that we can go see. Most of them are on the other side of the town but i really love our side of Palermo. Anywho, we are working hard on meeting with new people and trying to find the people out there that are going to have interest in the message that we are sharing. We're also hanging in a trio for the next couple days with anziano Lancaster so will be working out our three man finding ha.

Vi voglio bene!

Anziano whiting

My boys teaching Hillary Clinton

Here's Rasband right before he left

Palermo Paradise

We had another incredible week of missionary work and everything is spectacular. We had some fun lessons and saw a lot of progress out of our investigators. Sammyjo showed some real progress this week and he asks really deep questions which makes the lessons fun. He works out of town of Sunday's so hopefully we can figure something out for him.

One miracle that we had this week was our boy Lawrence from English course just showing up at church on Sunday. The members were super nice to all of them which was cool. He likes the talk a lot but his son and wife really liked primary and relief society so will have to see what happens.

Anziano chilvers turned 20 this past week which was pretty cool. We had a scambio that day so he was actually in misttretta while I was in Palermo with Anziano Dunn. We did get to celebrate his bday with the district though so that was fun. Anziano Dunn and I worked really hard on our scambio and we had a lot of appointments fall through but at the end Anziano Dunn couldn't stop talking about how packed our day was. It really helped me feel gratitude for all the investigators we have and that they are willing to meet with lots of people in Palermo.

I'm been blessed thus far with lots of work to do and I know it's all God's doing.

Anywho, the highlight of the week probably came in Palermo 3 sacrament meeting when we sang 'my country tis of thee'. It was so funny ha! A bunch of Africans singing one of Americas hymns is the greatest, and probably the best perk having to play the piano. We have transfer calls this week and it should be fun to see what ends up happening.

The work is going really well and I'm loving Palermo!

Vi voglio bene

Anziano whiting

Here's us laser tagging

Adventures in Italy

We had another good week and things are looking up. We had some more great lessons with prince jyan and we think that he will be a nice addition to Palermo. Hillary is also working on his testimony and it was fun to have a member of the stake presidency from Ragusa come to church Sunday because he remembered Hillary and I. We have done a lot of work with some cool less actives and are hoping we can snag some investigators off of them.

This week we also went to bagheria which is a suburb of Palermo and tried to help out the missionaries there with a blitz. We met some cool people and some dude ever cursed me haha. I talked to him about the Book of Mormon and then he talked about how he did miracles when he was in America and started drawing on my chest lol but no satanic experiences to report from that encounter. We did get rained on a lot this week though.

We had a duel between the other Palermo district in soccer and we demolished them. Ha and they finished our African suits but they made mine super huge so now their slimming it down. I'll send pictures when we finish it. Anyway, things are going really well and Anziano chilvers and I are giving it are all, Vi voglio bene!

Anziano whiting

Just chillin with all these naked statues

Samuele and his Twilight hat

General Conference

This week was really amazing and we saw lots of miracles. The highlight definetly had to be general conference where the prophets and apostles talked to the world through a broadcast. We got to watch conference with the english speakers from Palermo 3 and some of the members who wanted to watch it without translators. I really enjoyed Elder Christofferson talk where he talked about being a father. It was also really incredible to see our prophet Thomas S Monson get up there and bare his witness of our father in heaven. It really strengthened my testimoney of him as our living prophet on the earth today. 

This week we also had a really fun BBQ with the ward and we played volleyball with all the african and italian members haha... It was so bad. They would both get so fired up at each other and nobody knew how to play at all. It was fun though. We also had a scambio in Mistretta this week and it was really good. I was with Anziano Nessen and we saw a lot of miracles up in the mounatins. I also really like the senior couple that lives up there named the Wartels. They are super nice people. 

We had some fun lessons this week and met some cool new people. Our boy Guglio actually came to conference! We've been working with him forever (he's a less active guy that loves playing pingpong with us). It was really amazing. We also had some fun lessons with all of our investigators and most of them really enjoyed conference. Some of our favorite lessons this week we had with Prince Jyan. He is super interested and really smart. He asked super deep questions which is really fun. Anyway, the work is going great and I am loving Palermo.

Vi voglio bene

Anziano Whiting

Lorenzo who left on a mission a bit ago

Us watching conference

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.