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Tràpani – Week 4

October 26, 2015 By Leave a Comment

Buongiorno!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful week and that all is well wherever you may be! We had a really good week week with some really good lessons. We are finding new work and have been able to see progress in one of our investigators. He is reading in the Book of Mormon and keeps coming to church each week and he is continuing to learn more and more. He is super awesome. We are excited to be able to continue to see him and meet with him. We have a lot of good work going and really are hoping to get a lot more going too. We are working hard to continue to push ourselves and to be better missionaries. We saw some really cool miracles this week. We went and visited a less active that we both never have seen and he is going to start coming back to church. He still reads the Book of Mormon every day from what we understood. He has three copies and one stays at work. He was super awesome to meet with and he has a family that aren’t members that haven’t been to church and we will make sure that we get them there too. We had amazing conversation with these two people while we were waiting for an appointment that fell through. I really enjoy having those conversations even though sometimes we never may see the results of where that conversation went.

I am really liking the Trapani area and enjoying working with Anziano LaPray, he is a really great missionary and he will do wonderful things here in Italy. Not sure at all if we will be going another one together or not. His uncle worked a lot on a movie coming out soon which is the story from the Mormon message Forgiveness: My Burden Was Made Light. Sounds like it will be pretty good so you guys should check it out it is called, Just Let It Go. Anziano LaPray wants to be here for Christmas to be with all the members.

The food is really good down here. Haven’t eaten a ton, but what I have eaten has been really good. I was hesitant to share last week what I ate in the fear of losing friends, but we ate horse last week. I didn’t know until the MTC that they eat horse down here. I can’t lie…. it was good. I love the brioche which is a nice big roll and then they slap three different flavors of gelato on them. They are amazing. I often think it is funny when we will be eating here and people will be talking about food for a good portion of the meal, but I honestly can’t laugh too much since my family does the exact same thing hahaha. We must have close Italian ancestry honestly. Trapani is awesome though.

If you have Meet the Mormons on DVD the bonus features have a lady that comes from Paceco which is just outside of Trapani. It has a lot of shots of the scenery around where I am at. It’s got an amazing story in it as well.  [The extra feature on the DVD is entitled “The Artist.”] [Read more…]

Filed Under: Companions, Food, Italy, Missionary Work, Trapani Tagged With: ,

Tràpani – Week 3

October 19, 2015 By Leave a Comment

Ciao tutti!

So last week we had some good lessons with a couple of our investigators. One is super awesome and he has such a big desire to follow God’s will and really wants to do what is right. He is super amazing and it is always a pleasure to get to talk to him and he has been coming to church for a while now. I really like getting to see him and meet with him.

We did some finding last week and switched up with what kind of style of finding. We had a good time doing one where we had the painting of Christ ordaining the Twelve Apostles and it was fun to do that and we look forward to trying it out with some other paintings.

We had Zone Conference last Wednesday and it was really nice. We had some great success finding in Palermo and then stayed the night there and had zone conference the next day. It was really an awesome time and I loved being able to hear from the assistants Anziano Pingree and Anziano Borden, President Waddoups, and Sorella Waddoups. It was really enjoyable and I learned a lot of what I can work on to become a better missionary. There is always something we can work on, but it was really nice to hear from our leaders and now we jus have to do our best to take away what we learned and apply it into our work and lives.

I don’t have too much else to report on right now. Really looking forward to this week and looking forward to everything that we have lined up and planned out.

So this week I picked my new scripture to ponderize. I chose 3 Nephi 13:34, which can also be referenced as Matthew 6:34 or D&C 84:84 (without the last sentence):

34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient is the day unto the evil thereof.

I really like this scripture because it helps remind me to just live today. Not saying it isn’t important to prepare or think about the past, but sometimes if we do that too much or have the “I will be happy when…” mentality it can be dangerous. I just want to be sure to live to make the most of my day. I have always liked the quote from Ferris Bueller, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you might miss it.”

I love you all and hope that you have an amazing week! Talk to you all soon!

Anziano Garrett

Trapani, Oct., 2015

Trapani, Oct., 2015

Trapani, Oct., 2015

Trapani, Oct., 2015

Trapani, Oct., 2015

Trapani, Oct., 2015

Trapani, Oct., 2015

Trapani, Oct., 2015

Trapani, Oct., 2015

Trapani, Oct., 2015

Anziano LaPray, October, 2015, Tràpani, Sicily

Anziano LaPray, October, 2015, Tràpani, Sicily

Canoli right from the source. This is true Sicilian food.

Canoli right from the source. This is true Sicilian food.

[Here are some pictures of zone conference from the mission blog]

Palermo Zone, October, 2015

Palermo Zone, October, 2015

Zone conference singing, Palermo Zone, October, 2015

Zone conference singing, Palermo Zone, October, 2015

The two BYU basketball players in our mission, Anziano Mika and Anziano Pingree.

The two BYU basketball players in our mission, Anziano Mika and Anziano Pingree.

Zone conference singing, Palermo Zone, October, 2015

Zone conference singing, Palermo Zone, October, 2015

My companion, Anziano LaPray, Anziano Trejo, and me with Sorella Waddoups at zone conference, Palermo Zone, October, 2015

My companion, Anziano LaPray, Anziano Trejo, and me with Sorella Waddoups at zone conference, Palermo Zone, October, 2015

Sorella Argyle and Sorella McFarland are studying hard at zone conference

Sorella Argyle and Sorella McFarland are studying hard at zone conference

Anziano Kennedy and Anziano LaPray with me at zone conference, Palermo Zone, October, 2015

Anziano Kennedy and Anziano LaPray with me at zone conference, Palermo Zone, October, 2015

With Anziano Pingree at zone conference, Palermo Zone, October, 2015

With Anziano Pingree at zone conference, Palermo Zone, October, 2015

Palermo Zone conference, October, 2015

Palermo Zone conference, October, 2015

Sorella Argyle and Sorella McFarland, members of my district working in Palermo.

Sorella Argyle and Sorella McFarland, members of my district working in Palermo.

Filed Under: Conferences, Food, Trapani

Tràpani – Week 2

October 12, 2015 By Leave a Comment

Buongiorno!

I hope that everyone had an amazing week! This week was great for us!

I want to start out with one of my miracles of the week. So we were doing finding one morning and we were going around sharing a video and talking to people. We were near a hospital at this point. This one family looked like they were in a hurry so I tried to hand the mom a pass along card but she didn’t take it. It did look like they possibly weren’t from here and so we kept walking along the side of the hospital building. All of sudden I just felt something wet land on me in different places on my body. I just asked Anziano LaPray, “What was that?” I asked a few times and looked around myself. I finally noticed that a bird had managed to poop on me. The iPad case took most of the hit thank goodness, but needless to say it was on my hands, iPad, head, pants, and shirt. So I was like we are going to go clean up in this hospital. We walked to the side door that was just behind us where that family was. They asked if we spoke English and they were needing help getting in. We took them around to the front after finding out that side door wasn’t open. They were needing help getting medicine for the little girl since she had a ton of mosquito bites. We offered to translate for them and went to ask for help. They directed us to the pharmacy to get them where they had just come from so we told them we would help them out but I needed to clean up first. Went and cleaned up then we went to the pharmacy and helped them get the medicine they needed. While I was cleaning up I was just thinking that the bird really did poop on me for a reason. I was so thankful to be able to have a small service opportunity.

I didn’t get to tell much about Anziano LaPray at all last week. He is from Idaho Falls, Idaho. He graduated in the same class as me, but I am still older. He is really awesome though. We have the same taste of music, movies, books, tv shows, video games, etc. We do have a lot in common. He is super funny too which keeps things fun for sure. We are getting along just great and I am excited to be working with him. He is a really hard worker and is an awesome missionary. He is really good at Italian too which helps and both of us are learning from each other. He is super fun to work with and is just super cool.

This week though we got to meet with a good amount of investigators.

We walked to a little town about 8km away and it was a beautiful walk.

We had a referral over there that we were going to meet and it ended up being a wonderful lesson. On the way back we found there was a bus we could take and we decided to wait for it. Thank goodness too because it just started to pour. It reminded us of the Rock Bottom episode of Sponge Bob. We had two good lessons yesterday that we thought went well. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Companions, Missionary Work, Trapani Tagged With:

Tràpani – Week 1

October 5, 2015 By Leave a Comment

Buongiorno!

I made it down to Sicilia safely and made it to Tràpani. We found out Wednesday night I had to be staying in Rome 2 [for the night]so President and Sister Waddoups came and picked us up. We stayed the night there with some others that were parting to different areas. We got picked up by a senior missionary that took us to the airport early in the morning and our flight was supposed to take off at 8:25 but was delayed just a little. The flight didn’t take too long at all, but I was surprised they flew us down instead of putting us on a train. Tràpani is really nice and is a lot different than Roma. It is less busy with people on the streets for sure. When we landed the other missionaries were waiting for us and we got on the bus to go to Palermo and then caught a bus to Tràpani. The ride was very pretty on the way to Tràpani.

Adjusting to a different area is weird. I feel like I was in Rome for so long I just knew my way around everywhere and knew the members super well. It will be an adjustment, but one that will be great for sure. I haven’t had a chance to meet too many members at all. Just a handful of them. Still getting used to the area and how to get around.

I haven’t run into a ton of difficulty with the language down here.  The two languages of the bilinguals are Italian and Sicilian, which sound so much different hahaha. I did hear two people speaking it one day while doing some finding and it sounded so much different. I couldn’t really make anything out at all.

So we are in the Palermo 1 district which consists of me, Anziano LaPray, Anziano Kennedy, Anziano Trejo, Sorella McFarland, and Sorella Argyle. So we are going to be doing district meetings in Palermo.

Since it was conference weekend we were able to watch every session except the last one. I really enjoyed conference and look forward to being able to study the talks more here soon. It was really good and the talks given were really good. I especially liked Elder Holland’s, President Eyring’s in priesthood session, President Nelson’s, and President Uchtdorf’s from the general women’s session. It was a really enjoyable conference. One of the most important things with conference is taking the things that we learned and applying them in our lives. We can set goals that will help us be able to do this and I need to sit down and set some goals for how I can improve on the path of discipleship. There are always things that we can work on in our life and like President Eyering said our faith is either increasing or decreasing. There is no middle ground. And we can always look to progress in our lives.

It was also very awesome to see the 3 new apostles called to the Quorum of the Twelve. I look forward to getting to know them more and hear from them in the future conferences. I will miss Elder L. Tom Perry, Elder Richard G. Scott, and President Boyd K. Packer and the beautiful messages they always gave. They have left us with wonderful teachings and things we can still continue to learn from. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Transfers, Trapani, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , ,

Roma 1 – Week 24

September 28, 2015 By Leave a Comment

Ciao!

OK, sorry this email will be pretty short this week but I don’t have much time! I hope that everyone is doing well!

OK, so this past week we didn’t see a ton of people, unfortunately. We only got to see one of our investigators, but he brought a friend which was super cool! He hadn’t been answering the phone because he was sick, but then we got ahold of him and were able to meet with him once. He is doing well but hasn’t been answering the phone again. I hope that everything is going well with him though.

We got to see 3 of our less actives which went really well and they are doing well. We are still trying to find new work right now.

Anziano Rasband is doing better now. He had a doctor’s appointment but had been feeling better a little before we went. He is finally eating normally again, which is great.

So today I had no clue what we were doing for pday but the whole district did. We had to go somewhere, but the metro was broken for a fair amount of the A line and we had to take a bus from one stop all the way across Rome which took forever. It was crazy hahaha. We went to this place called Escape Rome where they put you in a room and you have to find clues and try to get out. It was really neat. Definitely made me feel a little dumb for sure. They gave us a lot of help sometimes hahaha. I don’t know if I wasn’t in the right mind set and not knowing how this all was set up or anything. I was a little confused and they didn’t even let me know what the place was when we went in hahaha. It was neat but I wonder if they didn’t help us if would have got out. They only give you an hour to do it. There was like a Vatican themed room and a CSI themed one.

We were in the CSI room with Sorelle Rossi and Nagliati. It was fun and I think that we all felt a little dumb from getting the help and finished with 5 minutes left hahaha. We then went and ate a really nice meal. I had a a mozzarella di bufalo pizza it was super good.

They then gave me some cream puffs with a candle and then we got gelato to finish it all off. It was a super fun day and the whole district had a great time. It was cool to see Sorella Nagliati before she goes home tomorrow.

I am really excited about General Conference and really looking forward to hearing from the prophets, apostles, and other general authorities. I really enjoy hearing the messages that we need to hear in this life. I am really excited to hear from them all.

I like this scripture in D&C 1:38

What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.

We are hearing these messages from the Lord and they are all specifically for us and I am really excited to hear the messages and hope to be prepared to receive them. I was sad to hear about Richard G. Scott. Having three vacancies in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will be really interesting to see if they will all be filled and who the Lord will call to fill them. I am really pumped for this weekend.

Ok and last, but not least transfer news. I am going to be leaving Rome 1 and I am heading down to Trapani in Sicilia! That will be a lot of fun! Anziano LaPray will be my new companion. I am excited to be going down there but also a little sad to be leaving some people here.

I will leave this Thursday and I am excited to head down there. I will be taking a plane so it won’t take as long, but I will have to watch my weight limit which is going to take some skillful packing I think hahaha. I received all the birthday cards and am really thankful for them! I haven’t gotten to read them all, but will be sure to do so tonight! Thank you all! I hope that everyone has an amazing week, and I am sorry I won’t be able to get back to everyone today! Take care!

Vi voglio bene!!

Love,

Anziano Garrett

[Taylor’s new companion in Trapani will be Anziano Lapray.  He is just completing his 12 weeks of training.  This photo is from Sister Waddoups’ blog]

Anziano Lapray

Anziano Lapray

Filed Under: Recreation, Roma 1, Transfers, Trapani Tagged With: , ,

Roma 1 – Week 23

September 21, 2015 By Leave a Comment

Ciao!

I hope that everyone is doing well and you guys all had an excellent week.

This week we don’t have a ton to report on. We had a family home evening last Monday night and we invited one of our investigators and a less active we have been working with. They both came, which was super cool, but then before we got started our investigator had to leave to go talk to a guy about work. We called him to set up another appointment but the next day it fell through during study and we haven’t been able to get a hold of him since which worries me a little. I just hope that everything is ok with him.

We got to go see a different less active that we have been working with since I have been here and I always enjoy going to see him and he really appreciates us coming over and visiting with him.

In preparation for General Conference we watched On The Lords Errand, the documentary on the life of President Thomas S. Monson. It was really good and he really enjoyed it and I really love our Prophet. He is truly a disciple of Christ. I have read a lot of talks by him recently and I think of all the stories he has and how many lives that the Lord has touched through him. He responds to those promptings with loyalty and he truly is amazing. I am looking forward to hearing from the Prophet, the apostles, and the other leaders of the church this conference. I am looking forward to the guidance and counsel they offer and give.

Wednesday Anziano Rasband got sick again and we aren’t sure how so we have been at home a lot this week. We made it out enough for English course Thursday, specialized training Friday, and then a church activity Saturday. The specialized training (a zone conference without interviews) was really good and I really loved all the counsel we received from our leaders. It was really good and I felt encouraged by it. A lot of it was on fear and we were able to watch a talk that President Uchtdorf gave to the new mission presidents not too long ago and it was excellent. I was really glad we were able to receive this counsel and I am trying to make sure that I don’t fear anything in this work. This past conference Elder David A. Bednar taught that fear is the opposite of faith and gave this counsel.

“We can be blessed to conquer our fears and strengthen our faith as we follow the Lord’s instruction: “Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not” (D&C 6:36).

Godly fear is loving and trusting in Him. As we fear God more completely, we love Him more perfectly. And “perfect love casteth out all fear” (Moroni 8:16). I promise the bright light of godly fear will chase away the dark shadows of mortal fears (see D&C 50:25) as we look to the Savior, build upon Him as our foundation, and press forward on His covenant path with consecrated commitment.”

I really liked this talk a lot and would challenge you guys to read it. Here’s a link to the talk.  I think that we all are afraid of some things, but I learned that we really don’t have to be at all.  With the Lord’s help we will be able to fear not. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Conferences, Missionary Work, Roma 1 Tagged With:

Roma 1 – Week 22

September 14, 2015 By Leave a Comment

Ciao!

Buongiorno tutti! Speriamo che avete avuto buona settimana. I have a bit of writer’s block for this weeks email so bear with me.

We got to see our investigator that can meet a lot and he is doing so well! We saw him one day last week and he was reading the Book of Mormon which was super cool and we were excited. He was in 1 Nephi 2 and then we saw him two days later and he was in 1 Nephi 15! We were super excited for him. I really hope that he keeps reading and really comes to know that the Book of Mormon is true. We are super excited for him and we had such an amazing testimony brought by the member that came with us on the last lesson. He told a story that I think really helped our investigator understand what real intent is. If we read the Book of Mormon with the real intent of acting on the answer we receive. When Joseph Smith wanted to know what church was true he had the intent to act and join the church that Heavenly Father would give him in response to his prayer. With the real intent we can truly all come to know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God translated by the power and gift of him.

We had another lesson with another one of our investigators we didn’t have the chance to meet with for awhile and we are really seeking to establish a plan to get him to read every day and really help him to develop the wonderful habit of daily scripture study and then as well as easing him into church attendance.  He is doing well with it and the last lesson we had with him went really well!

We didn’t have a chance to see anyone else this past week. We had stake conference on Saturday but we had to go up to Terni so that Anziano Rasband could do a baptismal interview since both the zone leaders had taught her. We went up there and did that Saturday and came back down after helping them do a little finding up there. It is so wonderful to see the beautiful Italian countryside and Terni is such a cool city. It would probably be about the size of Champaign.  It is a little slower than Rome but still has foot traffic. It was a really good time to go up there. Getting to see Anziano Calvagna is always a good time too.

We had plans fall through here and there but we had a great week and we were able to see some new faces at English course which is really exciting. Three of the new students are super awesome and we had this one kid that we stopped for street finding the other day show up. We were sharing the “Grazie Lui” video with people on the street and he passed it up, but we gave him an English course pass along card and he was interested and he came! That was a super cool miracle we had last week!

We did some district singing finding on the metro the other day that went well! It was the first time we tried something like that and we want to try it again with some of the members. Should be fun to get to try it with them. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Roma 1 Tagged With: , , , , ,

Roma 1 – Week 21

September 7, 2015 By Leave a Comment

Ciao!

I don’t have a ton of time to email this week. We had a busy day and we have to head out a little early so we can get to a family home evening. We had a nice pday though. We went for some groceries this morning and then we headed to the church and downloaded our emails before heading out to centro. We wanted to go get some granita (shaved ice) that we had tried before, and I made sure I knew how to find that restaurant I went to about 4 months ago with Anziano Calvagna. Then we walked toward the forum and we were going to go to a church that has the chains that held St. Peter during his martyrdom. We found it by luck because the stairs and the building looked cool so I decided to walk up and it ended up being the right way. We got there and then it was closed for the pranzo hours so we couldn’t go in. We had a good walk through the forum though and got “Hey Eldered!” twice today which was cool. We went to a tie shop and got companionship ties which are Phoenix Suns colors (that’s for Wyatt). I got an orange one and he got a purple one, we are going to wear them to District meeting tomorrow to see if anyone notices.

We didn’t get to see a lot of different people this past week but we had an investigator that was willing to meet with us 4 times which was super cool. He really has a desire to learn more and sincerely find the truth. I am really enjoying getting to meet with him and get to know him as well. We were able to have a few more people we hope to meet with more this week. We had a great week, though, and some awesome lessons with our new investigator. One that we had with a super cool member helped so much. He really answered the investigator’s question so well and he brought a testimony that was super good for our investigator. I have really high hopes for him. [Read more…]

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

Roma 1 – Week 20

August 31, 2015 By Leave a Comment

Ciao!

This week went really well and we are really excited about this transfer that we have in front of us. We really want to hit it really hard and really plan well and execute our plans so we are helping as many people as we can come unto Christ.

So Monday night we couldn’t get appointments set at all so we had some Book of Mormon finding planned. We were traveling to the area to start it and we walked by these people, and the language was just hard to catch, but at the end I could have sworn I caught some English and they just looked like they needed help and I felt like we should go ask them if we could help. We did, and we asked if we could do anything for them. They had British accents so that threw me off at first. The metro stop we were at has 4 exits and it is a pretty confusing metro stop and they explained they had lost their two friends and they couldn’t find the couple. We tried to help them look and we took them to the last entrance they hadn’t checked and they said if worse came to worse they knew to meet in the restaurant. We asked what they looked like and they described the lady as being very tall, pink shirt, and bright blonde hair. We immediately went searching for is lady while walking to our finding area. Not too far down the street we spotted them across the street and they were going to cross the street and this street is split up by two cross walks with a place in the middle. They walked across to us and I just went straight into saying, “You guys are looking for two friends right?” And she just says, “No thanks. We are all right,” and just kept on walking past. I was like no wait like for real you guys are looking for these two people (went into description) and they then had these confused looks on their face on how we knew all this. I think she kind of felt bad hahaha and I just said wasn’t trying to pull your guys’ leg. It was super funny, but then a few days later Anziano Rasband said that when thinking about what I said to start that conversation off was probably pretty weird since they may have thought we were talking about ourselves. Hahaha it was a super funny service opportunity.

Last Tuesday we had our scambio and I was able to stay in Rome 1 with Anziano Calvagna and we are always learning something new and we continue to try our best to learn and grow from each other.  It’s always great to see him and he is just fun to be around. His laugh is so contagious too hahaha. Once you get him rolling it is so funny. Our plans for the scambio didn’t go as we had originally wanted and they got a little swapped around, but we were able to see a less active that really loves Anziano Clavagna and vice versa as well. We had a good scambio though for sure! [Read more…]

Filed Under: Assignments, Companions, Missionary Work, Roma 1 Tagged With:

Roma 1 – Week 19

August 24, 2015 By Leave a Comment

Buongiorno tutti!

I hope that everyone had a nice week and that everyone is enjoying the rest of their summer as it winds down.

So this week I accidentally left my wallet in the house. I always carry it around in my bag because then I don’t have to worry about pickpockets. So I keep my abbonamento (metro/bus pass) in there. The day before we had walked to the store to get more water for the house and I forgot to put my wallet back into my bag. We leave the house and catch a bus the next day and about 5 or 6 stops down bus workers start to get on to check if people have there passes or a ticket. I then realized I had forgotten my wallet so I got written up for a nice little fine. So they said to go to this bus office and they will waive it. So we travel over there and the lady tells me I have to pay it at a post office. So I went from having a €1.50 fine to a nice €56 fine. Well then Sorella Cano explained that I have to go back there and show them the abbonamento and they will waive it. So we head back again the next day and then tell the lady that I have the abbonamento, and she says of great we can waive that but the office to do that is closed today so you will have to come back next week. So now we have to go and travel all the way back for a third time. Well I definitely learned not to forget my wallet anymore. So we will head back there Tuesday and then start a scambio after with Anziano Calvagna and Anziano Palazzo. I will stay here with Anziano Calvagna and Anziano Rasband and Anziano Palazzo will head up to Terni. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Italy, Roma 1 Tagged With: , , , ,
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