The Start of Somethin' New

It has been quite the adventure these past couple days. We ended up moving houses this week and the new house is pretty nice. It took a long time to get moved in but its in a good spot for the missionaries.

There was a triathlon with tons of people out watching yesterday and we were able to teach this cool kid named Baurzhan that should hopefully make it to church next Sunday. He really liked the idea of being able to find the truth from Christ.

We watched Roberto Pulina's volleyball team get rocked last week haha but now all his friends love the missionaries and it'll hopefully lead to some contacts. The members have been really good to us recently in giving us the chance to meet with them and work with us and investigators. Bishop even took us out today to see some ancient ruins called naragia. It was really cool and I'm going to miss everyone.

Unfortunately this will be the last group email of my mission because I'll be finishing next week. Anziano Chilvers and I will speak on Sunday and then get in a plane for Rome to meet with president we'll tour the Vatican and hope on the plane back to America. It's been such a wonderful blessing to serve among the Italian people and I'm most greatful for the days I can continue to labor among them this coming week. And don't worry mom, I'm very excited to see you as well. It doesn't feel like my time is finishing and I count that as a blessing.

Thank you all for all the prayers and support!

Vi voglio bene

A presto

Anziano Whiting

The ruins

Ask and Ye Shall Receive

A big week here in paradise, Patrizia got baptized and it was super spiritual. I don't remember if I've said anything about Patrizia but her story is good enough to tell again and it highlights the power of prayer. At the start of the transfer I was saying my nightly prayer and felt prompted to specifically ask to be directed to someone who we could help get baptized that transfer. The next day we were in church waiting for these two high schoolers to show up and patrizia walked in and asked if she could become a member of our church. We taught her and ended up passing her to the sisters but it was just an honor to be a part of her conversion story.

Home boy Luigi brought his friend Gianni to the baptism and they really liked it. Gianni has been really interested and likes our church a lot. Hopefully he can make some movement as well. We were supposed to move about 2 months ago into a new house but problems just keep coming up pushing the move further and further back. We should be moving this up coming week into the new house and finally be able to stop living out of our suit cases.

We got to see a lot of people this past week. Our boy Kelly got referred to us by a member who plays soccer with us. He's excited to learn about the church and should be getting baptized soon. The cincottis had us over and we had a nice time with them and Simone. We are excited for all of the new investigators that we're been finding and it seems like the summer time has been giving us lots more success. Everyone wants to be outside, right where we can find them ha.

Vi voglio bene

Anziano Whiting

Almost the last suit I bought in Italy

Cag City Highlights

We had a ton of fun this past week. Probably the main event was the sports activity put on by the elders quarom on Saturday. Lots of people came out and we played all different kinds of games together.

It was a wonderful fellowshipping activity and they also brought out lots of good food. Luigi came and actually brought a friend named Stefano that we got to teach before the party. Patrizia also came and should hopefully get baptized next Sunday.

Roberto Pulina is back on track and could be making some movement in the next couple weeks. He had us play volleyball with him and some friends and we also got him to bring some friends to calcio this weekend. We're working hard on getting him and some of his friends closer to baptism. The best lesson we had with him last week was on a scambio with Anziano Crook where we talked about faith and how to grow our own faith.

The Fisichella family had us over for dinner on Sunday night and it was divine! They are truly incredible and Roberto Fisichella even got the priesthood on Sunday so now he's fully fledged! The sannas also had us over again last week and they are such a great member family.

All of the members here have been really supportive of our missionary work which is great. We're finding a lot of good people but will keep sifting through until we find the elect!

Vi voglio bene!

Anziano Whiting

The Fisichella Crew

Live and Let Die

Things are popping still out here in Cagliari. We had an incredible zone conference this past week with The Pickerds. There was a big focus on repentance and the Book of Mormon which are two vital things out here on the mission ha. Anziano Chilvers gave a really good departing testimony on sports and unfortunately I also had to give my departing testimony but it was bound to happen sooner or later. At least there are still 5 weeks left!

A big miracle this past week was refunding Davide Boz after he was in the hospital for the past month. He was so willing to get back on track and it sounds like his heart problems aren't too bad now. We also visited a wonderful new convert named Ruth who hasn't been able to come to church because of work and so we're planning on seeing her more often. Giuseppe Trugo is also a guy we have a lot of hope for in these next couple weeks. He was in a park and super interested in meeting with us.

We had a scambio with sassari and I was off with Anziano Sellers who was straight out of the mtc. He's a fun kid who actually has lots of family from farson-eden which is close to lander. We saw lots of miracles and it was fun being with someone so new in the mission. He wouldn't let me trade him name tags though, sorry dad. Prince blessed the sacrament this week in Italian so that was cool and our boy Roberto is giving the lesson next week in gospel principles! We're pretty excited for this next week!

Vi voglio bene

Anziano Whiting

Calling Down Fire

The next six weeks of my mission will be sent in Cagliari and then I'll finally get transferred up to Milan! This past week has been really good with lots of miracles. Roberto Fisichella got the Holy Ghost this sunday and bore an incredible testimony. He is now a fully fledged member of the church and his wife has also finally agreed to take the lessons from the sisters so she should hopefully get baptized as well. Will have to work more with his son Federico who has shown the least amount of interest.

We got to go to another conference in Rome this past week and it was really exciting! There are a lot of really great young missionaries in this mission, we've definitely been blessed. Helping missionaries get transferred this past week was also a party ha but we got through it.

There was also the finish of a Tour di Italy bike race in Cagliari on Sunday that was pretty cool. We got to see Roberto Pulina again since he finally made it through his examination period. Hopefully we can start seeing him more often again.

We met some cool kids this past week that we hope to be able to meet with this upcoming week. We've still been focusing on the youth and we've even been able to get some referrals this past week. We finally got to play basketball again for pday and it was along time coming ha.

All of the elders stayed the same so we're pretty excited for this upcoming transfer. Cagliari is going to be seeing some miracles!

Vi voglio bene

Anziano Whiting

Mission Leadership Conference in Rome

Il tuffo di Roberto

Roberto got baptized last night and it was a super great ceremony.

Lots of the members were able to make it out and we got to spend more time with his son Federico who we hope to finally start teaching this upcoming week. Roberto really enjoyed the whole thing and he was super happy to have Claudio baptize him. It's been a blessing to have taken part in his conversion process and to have seen all of the progress he has made.

One of the biggest miracles I've ever seen happened last Wednesday.

Anziano Silver and I were at the church waiting for some high school kids we were going to teach and a lady walks in. She was curious about the church and wanted to know how she could become a part of it and be baptized. We taught her a lesson and now the sisters have seen her a couple times already and she made it to church and Roberto's baptism.

Her names patrizia and it just goes to show that God is going to put us in the right place at the right time.

It was fun to sit with Alessio at church, we turned it on at calcio this past week. We also had one of our new convert lesson with him robbed by his home teachers which actually turned out for the better because fellowshiping is what he needs. We went up to this cool mountain thing this past Monday with the sisters and it was pretty fun. We have transfer calls tonight and so everyone is getting pretty anxious. Most of our simps are progressing pretty well and we're hoping to see some more miracles here on the rock!

Vi voglio bene!

Families Can Be Together Forever

Roberto is officially a married man! The wedding was super cool and they had lots of nonmember friends there. The talks by the Sanna's were fantastic and we talked with a lot of people. Roberto and Mariella have already been such great missionaries with all of their friends already and it was a blessing to get to meet all of their friends and family. Roberto also passed his baptism interview on Sunday and should get baptized this next Sunday.

We had some great lessons in Cagliari this last week. Fabio loved the plan of salvation, he's still working on finding a way to church on sundays since his town is so far away. Sandro did alright this week.

We went with him and Alessio to a tomb of a giant on Monday and that was pretty cool. We're still working on helping Sandro see the need for acting now and getting baptized instead of waiting. We also finally saw this dude named Luigi randomly on the street that we've been wanting to see which was a miracle.

We met with the guardian angels again to help them with English and showed them the 'because of him' video. It was pretty funny hearing them try to translate and hopefully it'll lead to some new investigators next week. We ended up giving a couple of blessings this past week and it's an honor to be able to help people through priesthood service. The big invite from this last weeks lesson with Roberto and Mariella was to work towards getting sealed in the Rome temple next year. That's the greatest blessing someone can have in this life and in the next life.

Vi voglio bene

Anziano Whiting

The Missionaries with Roberto and Mariella

A Cagliari boat

Easter Feast

What a wonderful Holy Week we've had in the service of the Lord! It was really nice to get to focus more on our Savior this past week. We had a good lesson with Roberto about the resurrection and he's so baller. His wedding is this Saturday and then he'll get baptized on the 30th. The whole ward is really excited for both events and we are pretty stocked as well. Lots of investigators should make it out to both of he events.

Fabio is this new guy we found and he is the nicest guy ever. He took the lesson in the past and really wants to work towards getting baptized. The only real issue is he lives super far away. Will have to see what we can do about that. Sandro is still doing fine, we had a lesson with a member that got sidetracked when they started talking about bus driving haha but it's ok because the Member was a new convert and hadn't helped in very many lessons before.

We met with Adriano again and he loved the restoration. Will have to see if we can't get him out to church more. The sisters gave us huge chocolate eggs so that was how we celebrated Easter haha. We're supposed to move from our house soon so that's been a hot topic between us and the members. I had a heart attack going with Anziano Chilvers to look for classes this fall online. I'll take any suggestions for classes that have a high girl to boy ratio. Edoardo got a calling and we met some really cool people this past week that will hopefully start progressing.

Vi voglio bene!

Anziano Whiting

The Boys with a Lasagna

April Showers Bring May... Baptisms!!

We had another jam packed fun filled missionary week! Zone conference was good with some good teachings on using the Book of Mormon in teaching and using our time wisely. We hope it transitions well into our missionary work. I got to go on a scambio with Anziano Spencer and we had a blast. Quartu flooded from the rain and so we went on a raft ride with the car haha. But we still made it to the appointment so everything was all right.

Another highlight was teaching this couple named Camilla and Mattia at the piazza this past week. They started out like most kids, just alittle closed to the idea of religion, but by the end they really wanted to know more and Mattia even wants to play soccer with us. We had zone calcio and The Cagliari squad had a lot of team chemistry going. We taught Sandro and had a good lesson on the gospel of Jesus Christ. He didn't make it out to church because he went out hunting boars. That was probably one of the best excuses I've ever heard ha.

Roberto has his wedding pretty much set and it'll be the week after Easter. Edoardo has started planning his trip to the temple which is really incredible. He's truly got himself centered on Christ. We had a sweet finding opportunity with these guys we played basketball with.

We were out helping less actives and felt that we should go talk with these guys and we did. We should be able to meet with two of them this next week and so that just goes to show that we need to always follow the spirit. Cagliari is about to explode again and we're excited!

Vi voglio bene

Anziano Whiting

GC For the Win!

General conference week was a classic. There were some really good inspirational talks that our investigators made it out to. Roberto watched a lot of the conferences live even though they were super late at night. Letizia watched with Maurizio and our boy Adriano made it out to watch The prophet himself Sunday morning and he really loved it. It was also really cool to see all of the new converts come and enjoy conference as well.

We got to paint some of Roberto's house this week and it came along really nicely. We went on a split with the elders from Sassari this week and it was fun to go out with Anziano Cutler again. We met some cool college kids that have some potential. And then a major highlight of this week was going to Samazai haha we had an appointment with a kid and he couldn't make it so we talked with this group of college kids who had never seen mormons before and they actually had a lot of questions about the restoration.

The Drago family had us over this week and they were super nice. They have four kids that all love to play baseball and so they love the missionaries since they think we are all professional baseball players haha. Last pday was the final week of sand volleyball and it went pretty well. We've been trying to focus a lot on Sandro these past couple days and he's made some good strides. He's another one of the guys that plays soccer with us and he really wants to get his answer about the church and we're excited for him.

Vi voglio bene

Anziano Whiting

Conference!

Chillin at the Field

The Silver Lining

We had an exciting week of transfers, Anziano Bourne was sent to Rome and Anziano Silver is now my companion. He's from salt lake and we're super excited for all of the work will do together. And to celebrate all the guys leaving this past week we bought some lobsters and cooked them with steaks haha! We've become quite the grill masters these past couple weeks. Or we've ate least ate a lot of steaks ha.

We had Anziano Raimondi with us this week so we did a lot of splits with members again. We had a good lesson with Letizia again and they have a big trip coming up so we hope she reads he Book of Mormon with her husband. Edoardo is such a stud and he has changed so much since his baptism it's incredible to see. He's so much happier and so much more enthusiastic. Prince lucky was also a stud passing the sacrament this past week! I'm so grateful they've been so faithful since their baptisms.

Their was a chocolate festival here in Cagliari which means the streets have been flooded and not just with chocolate! We met a lot of new people and are excited for all of them! We had a fun lesson in Oristano with the guy named Stefano and he is super ready to be baptized! They had me give a talk last week on why people should serve a mission and he kids seemed to like it. The GANS I wanted to have hear it didn't seem to pay much attention but oh well. Special shout out to dad for turning 25! It's about time a man with 8 children got that old. ;) Vi voglio bene Anziano Whiting

The chocolate stands

Spring Fever

I've had a pretty exciting past couple days here on the island.

Roberto and his wife Mariella both made tons of progress and all of the sisters in the relief society have gotten super excited for their wedding. It's in about a month and it should be a party. We also got to see Letizia again after not seeing her for a couple weeks and she is still doing great. Super nice still they just struggle because they work on sundays so will have to see if we can't come up with a way for her to come to church.

We got some incredible referrals from the Ancis family and they all came to church! All four of them loved it and want to meet with us this week. Lots of other investigators came and it was great for all of the members to see so many non members come to church. Probably one of the greatest moments of my mission was getting to teach our friend Davide last week. He's from Brazil and I just have to say that all the rumors are true, Brazilians are chosen.

We had a fun pday out at the beach playing volleyball. It was a nice throw back to the mtc days. We've been blessed with lots of success finding and are pretty stocked for this next week. We did get dropped by some kids which was kinda sad but we found some guys to fill there spots thankfully. We saw Andrea Boi, the old investigator of President Pickerd and we're working with him on a baptismal date now so will have to see how he progresses. Spring is coming and so are the miracles!

Vi voglio bene

Anziano Whiting

The District

Us chilling with the boys