Bagheria - The Work is Picking Up!

Here is Zach's response to some questions I asked him in my most recent letter. He was attempting to write in some sort of Old English. I was laughing so hard!

So, in a coordinating response to the above email that was received 10 hours ago, I am doing well. I feel great happiness for the family that has been aforementioned in the above email. Verily, I say unto you, I am doing many things of great worth and of my own free will and choice in Bagheria. The length of my stay here at this moment is unknown. Hence, an educated guess would bring me to the conclusion that I will be here for the end of the current transfer and 2 more. The before mentioned transfers are of the length of 6 weeks. Today we are commencing with week 5 of this before mentioned transfer....

Okay, that’s too hard, I’m done. I was trying to write in like a formal or smart sounding kind of way but it was too hard cuz I’m dumb. Anyways.

 

When Zach refers to the family learning responsibility, this was in response to Joe being gone for 2 weeks and the kids all helping out to cook, clean, etc. 

Sounds like the family is doing well! It’s good to hear that y’all are finally learning responsibility ;) jk, lol. I love you all. But it’s so nice to hear that even though I’m gone you can survive without me, which is really nice to hear! I hope you can understand all the stuff I said in the first paragraph because I don’t want to try to explain it so good luck!!! But things here in Bagheria are going great! Every week we get more and more work and we get more and more done and we have less finding which is always nice. (Not that I don’t love finding but lessons are better tbh) I’m super excited for the future here! I’ve really come to learn to love the people here. The culture here is obviously really different than in America. So, it’s been tough to adjust to the way people think, because they think different than us and I get frustrated with them. But, it’s okay! I’m really learning to love the people here. We have been doing more service and all that good stuff so that’s really helped a lot!  

It still rains here which is lame. I lost my umbrella, also lame. But, it’s okay, maybe someone else needed that umbrella more than I did.  

I have been talking to Derrick. We email each other every week! It’s so fun and he makes me laugh all the time. I love him though and he is doing some awesome work in AZ. 

Well, that’s pretty much it for now! I hope I answered all you questions! Thanks so much for all your love and support and your prayers! They mean a lot! And keep sending the world news updates! They are way nice to read! I love you all so much and hope you have an awesome week! Let me know how the swimmers are doing too! Love y’all! 

Peace Out, 

Anziano Yskes

 

Okay, so the sandwich is called "panino di bomba" which means "the bomb sandwich". The word bomb does not mean like "da bomb" but like the explosive bomb because... look at it. You buy it at this food truck in the middle of nowhere. Only guys eat here because this sandwich is a true man’s meal. It’s this huge bun with sausage, chicken, beef, lettuce, tomato, and this delicious red sauce. Its soo good and the best part is that it’s only 3 euro. So, it’s like the perfect meal!

 

This picture is me and my Companion and Lorenzo because I love Lorenzo and my comp! hahahaa

 

 

 

 

 

Bagheria: Still Lovin' it Here

Thanks for the email card! Very thoughtful! I’m glad you got the letter for Elisabeth! I was worried you weren’t going to get it! If you’re wondering why a picture of Mary was on the outside of the envelope, well it’s because Italians are superstitious. So, they won’t go through your mail if you have a Mary or Jesus or something on it! So, if you’re sending something of value, do that. Dad told me about the weather, crazy. Sorry. The weather here is getting better. It rains less and less and the sun is coming out more so in the near future it will start getting warm and then ridiculously hot. I’m happy though. Work has started to pick up in Bagheria and I’m excited for this week because I think we are going to be getting a lot of good work done! The language is coming along great, it gets better and better every day. I am able to say and understand more! I just need to stay confident and faithful and I can speak. If I start doubting well then I can’t speak. It’s a fact and the gift of tongues is real. I can say that for a fact! And yeah, tender mercies. We get them all the time and it’s such a blessing. If you look in every day you can find at least one miracle whether it’s big or small. You can find one and it helps strengthen your faith and makes even a bad day a good day. I promise. Thanks for all the prayers! Keep them coming! I pray for you all like every day so don’t worry! I won’t forget about you! But I miss you tons and love you too! Talk to you in a week! 

Love,  

Anziano Yskes 

 

Piazza in Palermo

 

 

Anziano Moraes (We saw each other at Zone Conference)

This is one of the members of my ward (picture below). He is a convert and
was baptized in July! the 19th actually ha-ha!. He is so strong in the
church though and he’s super amazing! He is the only member in his
family and when he decided to get baptized his mom almost kicked him
out! But now we are probably going to be teaching his family real
soon! He is an amazing person and will probably go on a mission soon.
He just got the Melchizedek priesthood and he comes with us
all the time to lessons. His name is Lorenzo and he is so awesome.

 



Bagheria Week 3 - A Hike Up the Mountain

So, it’s been a good week here in Bagheria! It rains literally every
day but its okay. That’s why I have an umbrella and I use it all the
time! I’m loving it here though! The work is tough but I’m making a lot
of progress. We do a lot of finding so I have a lot of practice
learning Italian! I’m starting to get pretty good at it! I had a full
20 min conversation with this guy at the bus station, by myself, in
full Italian and it went good. I gave him a pass along card and stuff.
It was so awesome! I don’t know if anything will come off it but it was
a tender mercy from the lord that I needed. I’ve noticed that even if
the times are tough you can look into your daily life and find those
tender mercies from the Lord. I’ve learned that if I try to do that
every day, even on the hard days when it rains for 10 hours, I can
look back on the day and see the little things God blessed me with
that day to help me out! But, I’m glad to be here and I’m so blessed to
be here! Today, for p-day we climbed a mountain that overlooked Palermo
and it was so much fun! When we got near the top it started snowing,
which was a lovely change from the rain, but the view was amazing! It
was so much fun and I plan on doing it again once it starts getting
warmer here! This week was a good week though and I’m excited for what
the future holds!

Anziano Yskes

A View from the Mountain

A Trail up the Mountain

The Beach in Palermo

A Rainbow over our Street in Bagheria

The Train Station in the Center of Palermo

 

Second Letter from Bagheria

Hi Everyone!

 

I’m doing well here in Italy! But, yeah, keep sending letters

and stuff to the mission home because we don’t get letters

at our apartment. I’ll get the letters during transfers or

during zone conference or something. My companion is great,

Anziano Ferrin.  He is from Utah. He is a great guy. We have

both taught each other a lot and we learn more every day. He

helps me a ton with the language which is really good. It’s

tough because everyone in Sicily speaks dialect and some

don’t even speak Italian. So, it’s hard when you talk to

someone in Italian and they talk back in Sicilian. It’s tough,

ha-ha, but I’m getting better and I’m good down here. It

rains like every day because its rainy season and I guess

that’s just what happens. Hopefully it stops in the coming

weeks and starts to warm up. I love it here, it’s so much fun!

The members here are awesome and they treat us well.

We went to a members house yesterday and they live in
the mountains. They made us "pumpkin pasta".  It’s like

mashed up squash (it’s different than American squash)

and they cook it and mix it with pasta! It was way good!

Yeah, so the train ride down from Rome tooklike 13 hours.

It was a long day. When you get to Sicily the train breaks

up into the smaller cars and you put the train in the hull

of this big boat and then the boat takes you across. It’s super

inefficient but pretty cool. They don’t have a bridge because

the mafia can’t have an easy escape off theisland. Blood

oranges are soooo good. I had one on the train ride down.

They are a regular orange but the inside is like red, like
blood, hence the name. They are soooo so so good though.

The blood orange season is over though so I don’t think I’ll

be having any more which is sad. Yo, so get this, this week

I tried a new food. It’s called "panino di milza" which

literally means "sandwich of spleen" and it’s exactly

how it sounds. It’s thinly sliced pig or cow spleen and then

they slow cook it in a big tub of lard. They then take it and

put it on a sandwich with cheese and lemon juice. And

totally honest, it wasn’t that gross. Like I don’t think I

would ever order it again but it wasn’t like super nasty.

I’m glad is tried it though. It was a cultural experience.

Love you all and miss you tons! Have a good week!
Ciao

Anziano Yskes

 

A cool piazza next to the Palermo capital building

 

 

The street we live on in Bagheria

 

 

 

Teatro Massimo (The Theater)

 

 

The historic district of Palermo