First Assignment - Bagheria, Sicily

This is our first letter from Italy and Zach's response to our worry over
the many delays he encountered on his journey to Rome.

Don’t worry about me, it only took like an extra 6 hours to
get here, ha ha, but I’m here and I love it. My first city is a little
town called Bagheria. It’s in Sicily and it’s just outside of Palermo. I
love it here. The weather is like southern Florida. It’s sunny and warm
and there are palm trees and oranges and the food, the food is so
good. Even the stuff I make is good which tells ya something. But I
love it here. Our apartment is right on the main downtown road in
Bagheria which makes street contacting easy, except for the fact that
I can’t talk to anyone. Everyone here has a weird accent and it makes
it really hard to understand but I’ll get there. I’m not too worried
about it. Oh, and get this, I met Elder Mika, the BYU bballer. He was
on the same train as us when we were all headed south to Sicily. He is
so tall, but he’s way chill. I talked to him for a bit, plus I met
Anziano Godoy too. He’s the son of the 70 guy (one of the quorum of the 70).
He talked to my old companion Anziano Moraes because they both speak
Portuguese. So I didn’t really talk to him but I met him. Everything is
going great here though. I love it! I’ll be sending y’all a letter soon.
Idk when it will get there but it will get there eventually. It has a present
in it for Elisabeth! So, make sure she gets it! Love you all!

Ciao belli!!!

Anziano Yskes

He's off to Italy

It was a long trip to Italy that began Tuesday morning at 2:30 am. Zach, along with about 17 other missionaries began their journey to Rome at the Salt Lake City airport. The first leg of their journey took them to Dallas. Here they were anticipating a 5 hour layover. This turned into nearly an 8 hour layover. We were fortunate to talk to Zach on the phone while he waited. Macee Morey and Tristen Martinie (2 of Zach's good friends from high school) came over to share in our conversation on the speakerphone. At one point Zach spoke to us in Italian and it sounded absolutely amazing. After finally making it to London, their connecting flight had already departed so they waited for the next available flight to Rome. After nearly 36 hours of travel, Zach arrived in Rome around 4pm Rome time on Wednesday. We did get a nice picture of him at the Mission Home letting us know he arrived safe and sound. We are looking forward to getting his first email sometime this next week and getting his thoughts on his first impressions.

All the new missionaries in the Mission Home with President and Sister Waddoups

Fifth Week at the MTC

So this week in the MTC has been awesome! While we were here, we made a
ton of friends going to the Germany mission. They got here a week
before us so they left early yesterday morning, which was sad but it’s
so exciting to see your new friends leave. I know they will be
blessed. Oh, and the MTC presidency got released this week so Russell M
Nelson came to the MTC AGAIN and gave us another devotional and it was
so good. I loved it. Other than that not much has happened. We are all
preparing to leave for Italy! We leave early Tuesday morning and
everyone is so beyond excited to get out of here and to go to Italy!
We have worked so hard and learned so much here over the past 6 weeks.
It’s been a truly amazing experience and I’m so glad that I am out here.
But I can’t wait to do "real" missionary work! I want to get out and
teach people, real people! I want to have real discussions and
everything. I can’t wait. I’m super nervous but even more excited. Ugh.
Anyway ciao for this week! Love you tons!

Anziano Yskes

The "Staches"

 

My companions

 

Check out my new ride!

 

The Beautiful Temple

 

Me and the Germans

Fourth Week at the MTC

Hey,

So, it’s the end of week 4 here in the MTC.  Made it through a whole month
and it’s gone by so quick. I’m learning so much and I love it. Italian
gets better and better every day, I might even be the best in my
district but that's not due to my knowledge. God has helped me so much
I can’t even explain. I will go and teach lessons to people and I will
say words I didn't even know how to say before the lesson and the
words seem to just fly out of my mouth.

Other than the general improvement in Italian there isn't anything to
really update you on. They days here seem to start to blend together.
You do the same thing every week so by now each day is routine and it
gets boring but we do all we can to try and make it fun. Missionaries
are easily entertained, that’s something I learned this week. Dollar
store toys here are like gold. Everyone wants them haha.

Yesterday for our Tuesday night devotional the general YW president
came and talked to us. Her talk was so amazing. She talked about how
God knows best. Like we get trials and they may be difficult for us to
handle at one point in time but if we come back we can become stronger
than before. We can become the person He wants and knows we can be. He is
the gardener and He knows best. That’s something I need to keep in my
heart while I’m out serving. It might not always be easy but Heavenly
Father knows best and in the end everything will work out.

Well, that's it for this week! Till next week!

Anziano Yskes

 

My district on New Years Eve. We party hard!

 

 

Me and my Bro. Anziano Eldridge at the Temple

 

Me and my many faces

 

My many faces

Third Week at the MTC

 

Well, the MTC is going amazing. I’m loving it here. I’ve finally hit a
good grove and everything seems to be coming along very well. My
Italian is better than I ever could have expected it to be. The help
of the spirit and the amazing teachers they have here is probably why
I’m doing so well. Christmas here at the MTC was a riot! Russell M.
Nelson came and spoke to us! I sat in the 3rd row and it was a
blessing being that close to an apostle. We also had a talent show and
watched the movie "Ephraim’s Rescue" (mind the spelling) and it was so
spiritual. Spending a whole day focusing on our savior Jesus Christ
and what he has done for us was truly a blessing.

I can’t ask for a better zone, a better district, or better companions
here at the MTC! Everyone here is so amazing and I’ve become so close
with so many of the Anziani here. The people here I think is what
makes this experience so memorable. They are so kind a loving and
nice. I don't know how I got so lucky.

Till next week,

Anziano Yskes

 

My District

 

 

Walking to the Temple

 

 

Temple Pics - My photo skills are so good

 

A White Christmas at the MTC

 

My Bro. Elder Nessen - He is a Packer Fan!!