A Short Trip to Sicily

Tuesday. So today we had DDM and I led it like always. We talked about
"the trial of your faith" and how it relates to missionary work. How
you may be doing everything right but everything seems to be going
wrong. How God knows you and loves you and how we have these trials so
that we can grow and become a better person one day. It was really
cool. Then we had lunch and then after lunch me and Anziano Mercado
went to the airport, got on a plane and went to Sicily ha-ha surprise!
He had to go down for his permission of stay. So, we went down there and
we got there late but we stayed in Palermo is was so cool to see that
fit again.

Wednesday. So this morning we had to get up super early and go to my
companions first city which is "Agrigento". It was a long and slow
train ride but we made it. It was nice to see Sicily again. We got
some gelato and what not. It's a really beautiful city. The only problem
is that there are so many hills all over the place. Everywhere you go
is uphill. Crazy. Later in the afternoon we went back and we just so
happened to get off the train at BAGHERIA! I was so pumped to go back.
We had dinner at the Saccones and Lorenzo came with Marco! It was a
party but it was so awesome to see all of them again. They are so
great! Then we stayed the night in Bagheria.

Thursday. So this morning we had to wake up early again. Went to the
airport, got on a plane and came home. It's a fast flight too, only 50
min. It's like you get up in the air and then you just come right back
down. But we made it back. We came back to the church and my old
companion Anziano Ferrin was there!! He came up to Rome with all the
other people in Malta for a conference so I saw him. Then Thursday
night we went to go see Abraham to make sure everything was good for
his baptism. He is so ready and we are so pumped for him.

Friday. So this morning we had planning but after planning we had TACO
FRIDAY! The other Elders came over and we made tacos for lunch with a
homemade salsa. Man it was a good time. I miss good American food ;)
ha-ha Anyways after taco Friday we went to the church and made out the
programs for Abrahams baptism. We also starting working and doing a
lot of less active stuff and figuring out what we are going to do
after Abraham is baptized and stuff. So we worked on that, had English
course and then we went home.

Saturday. So this morning we went to the church for a lesson but our
homeboy didn't show up so to celebrate the baptism we are going to
have we went to Hard Rock Cafe again! Man it was so good. We walked in
and they were playing Taylor Swift so I wasn't going to complain. I
had a fiesta burger and it made me happy. Ha-ha Then we went back to
the church and started getting ready for the baptism. Everything was
set up. People started showing up and then Abraham showed up. We
started. I baptized him :) and it was so awesome! I feel so blessed to
be a part of all of it. It was great to see him and I'm so proud of
everything he has done. He is a really awesome guy. Anyways, so we had
a baptism today. Doesn't happen that often so that was good.

Sunday. Translated all three hours again. Abraham got confirmed in
church. Everything went smoothly and it was good. Later in the day we
tried to go see Bishop but the bus we take went a different way than
usual so then when we finally got to the connecting bus stop to go to
his house there was like tons of people and no busses. The stop we had
to go to is by the Rome stadium and a game had just got over. So no
busses came. It sucked. So instead of seeing Bishop we went and saw
Abraham. Well, we tried ha-ha he wasn't home so we just went home and
cleaned the house ha-ha but that's the week :)

Anziano Yskes

Abraham's Baptism

 

Trip to Sicily

 

 

 

Back in Rome Craziness

 

 

Visited an American Naval Base in Naples

Tuesday. Nothing super special happened today. We had district meeting
in the morning and I led it like usual. We talked about "no fear"
kinda based it on what President talked about last week at zone
conference. I thought it went really good. I love having gospel
library because it opens you up to so much more stuff to use for this
kinda stuff and it just makes it so much better. Anyways, later in the
day we had a lesson with a less active. He is American so we teach him
Italian but we had like a break though lesson at the end and he really
opened up to us. It took a while to get there but I'm really excited
for his potential.

Wednesday. This morning started off early, we went down to the train
station and hopped on a train and went op down to NAPOLI! Let's go. My
companion, Anziano Just, has to go get his permission of stay down
there so I got to go with him. The cool part is, is that we took one
of the fast trains. It goes 300km/h I don't know what that is in mph
but it's fast. Real fast. We got to Napoli in an hour and 10 min. The
distance is a little bit less than Zealand to Ann Arbor. So. Fast. So
we got to Napoli, met up with the missionaries and then me and Just
went to the American Navy Base. He was in the Navy so he got us on. We
went there because the store there sells American stuff. $200 and we had a
lot of treats. It was nice. But very heavy. That was our night.

Thursday. So we are still In Napoli. The appointment to get my
companions permission of stay is at 3 so we went out. He showed me the
city because he was in Napoli for 4 and a half months so we walked
around. Talked to people. Saw a castle. It was nice. Then we got his
permission of stay. Thankfully. Followed by pizza. Napoli pizza is the
best. It is where pizza was invented sooooo they do it real nice.
Literally heavenly. So perfect. After that mouthwatering delight we
had an activity at church and everyone was confused to see us but it
was fine.

Friday. So we got back from Napoli Friday morning. When we got home we
made tacos with all the stuff we bought at the base and man they were
good. We also did an exchange with the AP's (two Anziano assigned to
be assistants to the Mission President) and it went good. We had
English course Friday night and a miracle happened because 2 of our new
students are representatives of the Red Cross. At English course we
were talking about good health this week and they heard that we have
this "how to quit smoking" program so they want to look at it and have
us present it to the Red Cross as a service to help people quit
smoking. Huge opportunity to teach a lot of people so we are really
excited.

Saturday. The scambio (Italiian for splits with the APs) continues. So we
went to go see Abraham again. We had his baptism interview and he
passed so we are planning to have his baptism this upcoming week.
The 19th. Hopefully everything goes good. After the scambio we made
brownies and took them to a couple members because we feel like the
members don't know us that well so we have to change that and everyone
here in Italy like seriously loves brownies!! So it was fun.

Sunday. Abraham came to church again today. I translated all 3 hours
again. Gave me a headache. After we went to go see some members and I
ate a lotta food there ha-ha.  She was happy that she finally had Elders
that ate food. I like that. Also it rained. It's starting to rain
again. Idk how I feel about that. But it was a good week!!

Anziano Yskes

Fast Train to Naples

 

 

Scenic and Beautiful Naples

 

 

 

Napoli Pizza

 

 

Castle in Naples

 

 





Look at that shopping receipt and our haul from the Naval Base

 

 

Can't Believe it is Already September

So it's September now and that's kinda weird to think about but this
week was a pretty good week we are working hard but the next two weeks
are going to be very busy.

Tuesday. So we didn't have district meeting today. So, this morning
instead we went to go see Abraham. We talked about prophets with him
but it got cut kinda short because the police came ha-ha. So he is a
refugee so he lives in a refugee camp and they were not getting the
things the government promised so they called the police to make it
better ha-ha. So we left cuz they had stuff to figure out. Then we went
back to Termini to do an exchange with the zone leaders. So my hommie
from Palermo, Anziano Holbrook, who is now here in Rome came with me.
We went to go do some work and stuff. We went and visited a member and
she gave us a ride closer to our house. She dropped us off near the
mall so obviously we went to Ikea. Bought some meatballs and €.50 ice
cream and then came home. We cooked those meatballs and they were dang
good.

Wednesday. We went to go see Abraham again this morning ha-ha. We went
over the baptismal interview questions and it went great. He is
getting closer to being ready for baptism and it was nice for Holbrook
to see him because Holbrook is actually the one who found Abraham so
that was neat. Then we went back to city center to get my old
companions. We had English course Wednesday night and a bunch of new
people came. So the class was more fun and at the end we did like an
introduction to the restoration and they loved it. Some of the new
people even asked us to do longer spiritual thoughts at the end which
was great.

Thursday. So we did some planning this morning for the week. We had to
figure out what we were going to do when me and Just go to Napoli and
how we are going to get all the work that we need to do, done. It will
be an exciting week. Then we went and helped an American member learn
Italian. He really needs it. Then we just went out and put up some
English course posters because it's working. Anyways, not the most
exciting day.

Friday. So today we had specialized training. It's like zone
conference but shorter. It was really good. I really liked Presidents
training about how to have no fear. He used a talk by president
Uchtdorf to new mission presidents about Peter. How he denied knowing
Christ three times because of fear and how he eventually changed all
that. It helped me to realize that I do have fear of talking to people
or maybe not being good enough or something like that. Idk. But I
really felt like the only way we can dispel that fear is through
faith. So I'm going to start studying that to dispel whatever fears I
may have. Also after conference we had some bomb sandwiches for lunch.
Wow they were good. Then we had correlation and then Abraham came to
church for his baptism interview. It went really good. He passes but
we just need to help him understand a couple things better but in the
end it was good. We are so excited for him.

Saturday. We went to go see Abraham again this morning.... We go and
see him a lot ha-ha but this morning it was raining soooooo hard. Like
it was just pouring out and I was like wow. That's a lot of rain. But
it didn't stop us from seeing Abraham. Thing about rain here in Rome
is, is that it doesn't stay around for a long time. When it rains, it
rains hard but only for like an hour then soon after you have clear
blue skies and a lot of humidity ha-ha but then for lunch we went to
chicken hut with our friends Gilbert and Antonella. Love going to
chicken hut cuz it's like friend chicken and I like that. Then we had
to go back to church to grab an Anziano from the AP's. I guess he is
leaving for medical problems but for now he is with us. He is so funny
though, I've met this guy before and I laugh so hard when I'm around
him. Anyways, Saturday night we had to go to Ikea because we are
looking for a new bed for my companion. Ikea is crazy. Like that place
is amazing but I don't want to take my future wife there because I
like not maxing out my credit card. Ha-ha swag.

Sunday. We had church. Translated. Met some tourists from Troy. Also
Abraham came to church and so did a crap ton of tourists. So many
tourists came this week, it was crazy. Sunday night we did a gesso,
which means chalk in Italian but we take a bed sheet, draw something
on it like the temple and then we lay it out for people to see and
then we talk to them. So Anziano Mercado, because he is a hommie at
drawing, drew then temple, we went to the mall near the temple and
talked to a ton of people. It was fun.

But yeah so that's the week. It wasn't like super exciting but I learned a lot.

Anziano Yskes

Basilica San Giovanni in Laterano

 

Some Stairs Jesus Walked up

 

 

Zone Soccer

 

Selfie Stick

 

 

And I saw a pillar of light...

 

 

Escalator Lifestyle

 

 

Specialized Training

 

 

A Street in Rome called Moroni

 

 

It's got a long name, we just call it the "Love Bridge"