Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Hey Mom!

 

This week was good! I think it was the first week this whole transfer that I got to stay in lovely Florence. It was SO NICE. The weather has been great too except for Monday. We're still working alot with our investigator Giulio. He's the man. Like I said he's the head chef of a restaurant here and he said in like a couple weeks or so he's going to have us over for a 'bella cena.' That means beautiful dinner. Oh yeah. Can you say free Bistecca Fiorentina???? I love him so much. Not just for that either. He's making so much progress! He's learned everything and is just itching to get baptized. Haha the only problem is that he's living with somebody and he has to get married. Looks like its going to be a waiting game. PLEASE pray for him if you get the chance. He's super awesome and all he wants to do is follow Christ. He's super cool. He's a super stud.

 

Anziano Bullock is the man. Did I mention he has 9 kids in his family? Haha I've been completely oblivious to the fact that a ton of LDS people have a TON of kids. Its super foreign to italians because the max they normally have is like 2. Super funny though. Whenever he shows a picture of his family you can just see their eyes widen suddenly.

 

Anything else that happened...Oh there was a HUGE activity for all the single adults members in Italy in our chapel this weekend. From Bolzano to Sicily ages 18 to 34. IT was crazy. It was also cool because I got to see some members from Bolzano and they remembered me. They where like, 'Anziano Dell'Oso what the heck? You speak italian now!' Haha I completely forgot that they knew me when I didn't know how to speak. It was pretty funny.

 

Well I have to go now. I hope everybody is doing well. I'm super sorry that this email is so short. Thanks again for everything!

 

Love,

Joey

Joey's Recent Letter Home, March 23, 2011

Hey Mom!

 

Okay this week has been great! Very tiring! First we went to Pistoia and I got to do a little scambio with a certain Anziano Wilkey. He's awesome. He's from Great Britian. Haha I was trying to copy his accent but he said I just couldn't do it. Anyway we were there all Thursday and then on Sunday we had District Conference! That was super fun. President and Sorella Wolfgramm gave talks. Sorella Wolfgramm's was hilarious! Haha she has this 'war cry' that she implemented into the mission when she first got here called G.E.M. or just gem! haha it stands for Grow every missionary. The point is to just love your companion and try to serve him to make him better. Anyway it was funny because you can't translate it into italian. Like grow every missionary in italian doesn't make the word gem. Anyway so she was using the word gem with her talk and her translator was super confused. It was awesome, you had to have been there. It was a good talk though.

 

That believe it or not was the first district/zone conference I'd ever been to as well. I seem to get transfered just before one happens, and then I get transfered into a city where I just miss it. Anyway, I did not miss it this time! We held it at a sherriott hotel and we felt like high rollers. My buddy who's serving in Siena walked in and was like 'I feel like we're going to the Grammys'  It was cool too our investigator Giulio came and brought his Uncle.

 

Have I told you about Giulio yet? He is the MAN. Honestly I've never met anybody so cool. When we first met him he was like,' Yeah I love Christ, he's my hero.' Then he continued to show us his picture of christ that he had on the background of his phone. Also he's a man of strong faith. In 2 weeks he's already committed to live every comandment and loves church. He said its something he used to think was boring but coming to our church he says he looks forward to it every week. Ha he's too cool. We have a date to baptize him during general conference so we're praying for that.

 

We have other people we're working with but none as cool as him. Oh and you asked about our chapels. I personally have never served in a city with a chapel for the members. Bolzano was above a pizza place. Ravenna used to be a car garage and Firenze is just the bottom floor of a apartment complex. Its pretty spacious though. I can't really explain it to you, you'd just have to go there. You could probably ask any member who's visited Florence and they'd be able to describe it for you. The cool thing is that we're getting a chapel built by the church in a couple years. both are very cool. A chapel is a big enough deal but to have it built by the church is golden. That  makes it legit. There's only a handful of church built chapels in Italy so Florence is going to be pretty lucky.

 

Oh and you asked where I got the grey suit. My last companion gave it to me. He never wore it so he thought I might. I wear it. I'm wearing it right now. Its super comfy. He got it at some market in Verona. I think he paid like 30 euros or something cheap like that.

 

Okay dearest mommy. That's about all the time I have for you today. I'm doing just fine. Thank you so much for your love and support. You're doing great! haha give Rick my love and tell him the heart of Italy goes to his comrades in Japan. Literally everybody we talked to is just stressed about it. Its kind of interesting. Like when we ask if we can do any type of service they just ask us to pray for their spouse and then Japan. Long story short, Japan is most definitely in my prayers.

 

You guys are the best! Thank you for everything!

 

Much love,

Joey

Joey's Recent Letter Home, March 15, 2011

Dearest Mommy,

Howdy! Thank you for your wonderful email! I'm oh so grateful for them. I will repeat...I never liked ash wednesday. It was not a fun time of the year for me. A little weird actually. As for little old italian ladies walking the streets with little ash marks on their foreheads...I actually never saw any. Weird huh? Well I was also in Siena and not really paying attention so that could be why as well. 

So here are some more pictures! I hope you like them! I would like to say that so far I have 2 favorites cities in Italy. Bolzano and Siena. Why? They are both small, BEAUTIFUL, and really clean. The clean part is the one that does it for me. When I got to Bolzano I thought all cities were super clean but now I realize that it was just Bolzano and now Siena. Bummer but what are you gonna do? 

I hope you get the one of Anthony's name on the door in the apartment in Siena. I thought that was pretty cool. You should tell him that I love that apartment. Its super clean a spacious. I was impressed. The other couple pictures of of me and my companion in centro, and then me and other missionaries on top of a tower overlooking piazza del campo and the rest of Siena. It was definitely a magical P day. The final picture is of our investigator Deng Xin who got baptized 2 weeks ago. He's awesome. He knows a ton about the NBA and keeps me pretty up to date. He's also super solid. After his baptism he went up to bear his testimony and just talked about how happy he was to follow christ. Last week he just got the priesthood. His favorite part about it is how he can only use it to serve others. He's 24 so we're going to start talk about his plans for serving a mission. He would tear china up. They wouldn't even recognize what hit him. I love that kid.

Other than that this week has been pretty hetic. I've been in siena, prato (Haha I decided to do a Consentino family mission tour), Milano for a conference, and tomorrow we're going to Pistoia. Last week I spent about 3 days in Firenze. It was definitely a crazy week of traveling. Super fun though. Super fun. I've gotten to work with some amazing missionaries. The work in Italy is on the verge to explode. Literally, we have some amazing missionaries in this mission doing some amazing things. I feel super grateful to be apart of it. 

Our work is going good. We found somebody who his really cool. His name is Giulio. He's super funny. He wants to be baptized so we're helping him out. He asks really funny questions. The other day he was like, ' So like with funerals...Do we have our own cemeteries or like do just bury everybody with everybody else?' Haha he also asked if he had to stop being a volunteer ambulance driver because its a catholic service, and we told him no. He's really cool. Somebody that just wants to follow christ. When we told him about our church and our message he stopped us, took out his cellphone and showed us his wallpaper. It was a picture of christ. He was like, 'I love christ.' It was a really strong testimony to me. I know that this is the only way to follow him. He is the shepard and his sheep do hear his voice. I'm so thankful to be apart of this work. 

I think I'll leave on that note. I love you so much and thanks again for the email. I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Joey