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Vatican and Colosseum Pictures

July 19, 2015 By Leave a Comment

[A few weeks ago, Taylor took some photos during their visit to the Vatican.  He was unable to send them at the time because they had just received their iPads and he didn’t have a mechanism in place yet to send the photos.  We finally received them, so here are the photos from the visit of the Rome 1 District to the Vatican back in June.]

Visiting the Vatican Vatican Selfie Vatican Museum Vatican Mummy Vatican Mummy 2 Vatican Art6 Vatican Art Vatican Art 13 Vatican Art 12 Vatican Art 11 Vatican Art 10 Vatican Art 9 Vatican Art 8 Vatican Art 7 Vatican Art 5 Vatican Art 4 Vatican Art 3 Vatican Art 2 Vatican Architecture Vatican Architecture 5 Vatican Architecture 4 Vatican Architecture 3 Vatican Architecture 2 Rome 1 District at the Vatican Into the Vatican Anziani in the Vatican

[The week before they visited the Vatican, they were able to visit the Colosseum.  Here are some pictures from that excursion]

Colloseum with Elder Rasband Colloseum Inside 6 Colloseum Inside 5 Colloseum Inside 4 Colloseum Inside 3 Colloseum Inside 2 Colloseum Inside 1

Filed Under: Italy, Places, Tourist Sites, Vatican Tagged With: ,

Roma 1 – Week 10
Transfer 2, Mission Week 16

June 22, 2015 By Leave a Comment

Ciao tutti!

This week went well!  I forgot to mention for last p-day we went to the Colosseum and it was really awesome!  I have always wanted to go inside so that was super cool to be able to do that.  If I do it again I would love to have more time to read and learn more about it.  We had a good time there, but didn’t have time to go to the Roman Forum afterwards, unfortunately.

Today was really awesome too because we just got back to the church from the Vatican and there is so much to see there and to learn about.  I got a lot of good pictures I will be able to send later.  It was really neat though.  Tons of really cool art, and I especially liked the rooms done by Raphael and in Michelangelo in St.Peters Cathedral.  It was super awesome.

So my grandpa had a few questions and I will answer some of them on here so others can no know.

So for food we usually eat at home everyday.  We will eat out occasionally, and then we also will get invited over sometimes for meals.  We usually make just simple things like pasta, meat, and what not.  We will get fruit from fruit stands that I still haven’t got a ton of luck with on the fruit I pick.  We will make pizza sometimes as well for dinner to make when we get home.  When we go out to eat it will be pizza and other things here and there.  There is this french fry place that started in Amsterdam, I think, and it is super good and cheap as well.  The food the members make is super delicious.  We had lunch yesterday with a member family and it was super good.  We had a little sandwich platter, then some fish and rice dish, then Sicilian pasta, sword fish, watermelon, pineapple, gelato, and flan with some fruit.  Needless to say it was a good meal.  The members are super awesome here and I am really getting to love them more and more every week.

Anziano Rasband and I have started to run.  He ran track and cross in high school so that’s what we do in the mornings.  We usually go just 4 but today only 3.  It’s been nice.

Well back to last week.  After the p-day was over we went on a scambio (companion exchange) with our zone leaders.  So Anziano Calvagna and I were together again for that night and the next day.  It was super fun to be back together again.  We had 3 appointments that day and so we were busy after our District Meeting and pranzo [lunch time] hours.  It was a great scambio. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Food, Roma 1, Tourist Sites Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Roma 1 – Week 9
Transfer 2, Mission Week 15

June 15, 2015 By Leave a Comment

Buongiorno!

Hope everyone is having a good week!  Definitely pumped to hear the Blackhawks are doing well.  One more game and we got it.  Sorry, but I had to start with that.

This week has been a little slow with the work, but it is all looking good and we are really working hard.  We are trying our best to work with the members to find referrals and people to teach.  We were really having trouble having investigators keep commitments and it is a little hard knowing that this can bless their lives more than they may realize or know.  It is hard, too, when you see someone and get to know them, but sometimes not seeing them for a little can help change their desires and help them to get working.

We really didn’t get to see too many people this week.  One of our investigators got a baptismal date for next month so we were really excited about that.  At district meeting Anziano Rasband shared on the power of prayer and we all picked about 3 investigators to pray specifically for as a district each morning and night.  It is really awesome seeing the miracles that come through prayer and how the Lord will bless us if we ask and continue to press forward in faith.  He is willing to grant us blessings all upon us asking. I love these two verses. From Matthew 7:

7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:

8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

It doesn’t rule out the fact that we also have to seek, and that sometimes seeking takes longer than we may want or think that it will.  But as we work diligently we will be able to find those things that we are looking for. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Assignments, Italy, Roma 1, Tourist Sites Tagged With: , , , , ,

Roma 1 – Week 5
Transfer 1, Mission Week 11

May 18, 2015 By Leave a Comment

Ciao!!

We didn’t have a ton happen this week and I don’t have a ton of time to respond today so I will try my hardest to just give a recap of the week and what all happened and share something I learned this week in studying.

We had a second lesson with someone from our English course and he ended up dropping us after the lesson.  He has different beliefs and just doesn’t want to continue, but that is ok.  It reinforced the fact that we aren’t here to force people to do anything at all.  We are here to invite and for people to ask God themselves if the things we teach and if the Book of Mormon is the word of God.  We are unable to convince people.  We have to allow the Holy Ghost to touch their hearts and do what we can do to create the best spiritual environment.

We met with Silvestro and Claudia again and we just seem to continue to run into the problem that they will not commit to the things we ask.  It’s hard when they tell us they will and they just continue to fall short, but I am trying to remember that everyone has their moral agency and they have the right to choose for themselves what they want to do.  That seems to be a main struggle is getting to meet with our investigators and getting commitments.

So the family that I had talked about that is here from Nigeria?  We haven’t heard from them and whenever we call it goes straight to voicemail, so we went to visit and see what was up and we ended up finding out the dad went back to Africa for work related purposes (we think) but one of the sons was there.  He had a priest over from the Catholic church and they said it would be fine to be able to share a message with them.  We did a quick lesson on the restoration and then left. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Assignments, Food, Italy, Missionary Work, Roma 1, Tourist Sites Tagged With:

Roma 1 – Week 4
Transfer 1, Mission Week 10

May 11, 2015 By 1 Comment

Ciao!

My first draft got deleted so I am trying again right now, so this might be shorter than the first one, unfortunately.

Last Tuesday we had a scambi [exchanges] and I went up north to Terni for the day and stayed the night up there one night.  We had two lessons on Tuesday and we taught this 8 year old, who is preparing to be baptized soon, and he just knew everything.  It was so awesome.  He was really educated and has a strong testimony.  I was happy to be able to teach him for sure.

We had another lesson that went well after that, but he talked a ton and so we had to go straight to English course.  It was a lot of fun and we taught the basic course about computers, but they knew so much that we just had a really complex conversation about technology.  It was a lot of fun and I had a blast on the scambi.

We did some finding the next day, Wednesday, and it’s crazy how many fewer people were walking the streets compared to Rome.  It was very different. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Culture, Food, Italy, Missionary Work, Recreation, Roma 1, Tourist Sites Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Roma 1 – Week 3
Transfer 1, Mission Week 9

May 4, 2015 By Leave a Comment

Buongiorno!!

Ciao tutti!!  Today was a fun P-day, but before I get to that I want to pick up a little where I left off last Thursday, so some other things i wanted to share about Elder Bednar’s conference.

He was super funny and definitely had some great jokes, don’t know why that popped into my mind, but I really wanted to share that.  He knows so well how to be guided by the spirit when he teaches.  He wants to be sure that he addresses people’s needs and I really like that.  Through the QandAs he is able to address what people need and give us answers and then I love that he makes the point not to write down everything he says but to write down the things that the spirit teaches us.  We can receive teaching from the spirit that no one else can receive.  It can be so very specific and personal to us.  This makes me think of how it is with investigators that we can’t always know exactly what they are learning if they may not be comfortable sharing everything, but as we teach through the spirit, and their hearts are softened, the spirit can touch their hearts.

I just realized that I forgot my journal at the apartment, but I will share something that he said that I really liked.  An elder asked the question pertaining to how we can best prepare now for being fathers and mothers.  Then he asked if he could add to the question.  His response was that we first have to make sure that we are good husbands and wives and that really struck me.  I really loved what he said.  We have to make sure that we are good husbands and wives and then the fathers and mothers part will follow.  I love that.  He talked about how we have the responsibility to raise our children and raise them knowing the Gospel, and I thought that was really cool.  It reminds me of this past general conference, with the focus on families.  Family is so important to me.  I love my family so much and I am so grateful to know that through God’s plan I can be with my family for eternity.  That is so powerful.  God has ordained marriage.  The important bonds we make here can be bound and sealed for eternity.  I love that.  That is such an amazing part of God’s plan for us. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Assignments, Food, Italy, Missionary Work, Roma 1, Tourist Sites Tagged With: , , , ,

Roma 1 – Week 2
Transfer 1, Mission Week 8

April 30, 2015 By 5 Comments

Ciao!!

This week has been really busy.  We are so busy every day!!  I rarely have time to write in my journal most nights!!

Let’s see, I have a lot to tell you guys this week and I may not be able to get to it all.  I had a fun first p-day here in Rome.  We got some lunch after emailing and we had some pizza and it was pretty good.  The pizza here is all sold by weight and you can get filled up for a really nice price.  But the pizza here, I have heard, is nowhere near as good as it is the further south you go.

We then went to the Trevi Fountain which was really sweet, but they are doing construction on it so there is a bunch of junk all around it, and no water, so that really stunk.  Maybe it will be done by the end of my mission but who knows.  Walking around Rome, though, was so much fun.  The part of the city where our apartment is isn’t like what you would think of in Rome.  It’s more just a ton of apartments with houses mixed around.  It’s still really nice, but p-days are a a blast to be able to go further into the City. We went to a castle today and I think it is the one that has something to do with Marcus Aurelius, but I am not totally sure.  The view from the top of the castle was amazing. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Assignments, Italy, Roma 1, Tourist Sites Tagged With: , ,

Roma 1 – Week 1
Transfer 1, Mission Week 7

April 20, 2015 By 1 Comment

Buongiorno!!

I finally made it here in Rome!!  The last days at the MTC flew by so fast.  They were really just all a blur together honestly.  We had a really good Monday, though, and we just got to talk about Italy with our teachers and learn more about the investigators that they taught and such.  It was a lot of fun and we saw some really awesome pictures and some funny videos.  It really got me excited to be able to meet the people.  We also shared about what we learned the most or what aspect did we feel like we gained a stronger testimony of.  I really learned how to teach people and not lessons.  I was able to really learn we have to teach the people and fit the Gospel to their needs and make sure they are hearing what the Lord would want them to hear and have the Holy Ghost testify of that truth to them.

Fratello Gessel, Sorella Ansted, and Sorella Preston were super awesome.  I am so thankful for my teachers and all the help that they gave me and they really did help me learn the language as well as grow spiritually.

I woke at 2:00 the next morning to get ready to go and we went to the airport.  On the first flight to Chicago I talked to a member the whole 3 hours and it was really nice and we shared some stuff that we both liked to do, but we mainly talked about the Gospel.  He made a good point on how when we have the Book of Mormon we really are better able to understand the Bible.  He shared Isaiah 53:6 (“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”) and it is kind of hard to understand fully what that means.  Then when you cross reference that with Mosiah Chapter 14 we can really see more clearly what the Savior would do for us.  The Book of Mormon compliments the Bible so well and I have thought somewhat regarding to the two and how they both give us so much.  I think of the scripture in 2 Nephi 29:8 and it really shows that they are both testifying of Christ and I just really like that they both stand as witnesses to him.  It was a really great conversation and he also said that this wasn’t going to be easy and he said you probably won’t be doing it right if it is easy all the time. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Assignments, Companions, Italy, Missionary Work, Roma 1, Tourist Sites, Transfers Tagged With: , , , ,
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