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Tràpani – Week 10

December 7, 2015 By Leave a Comment

Ciao Tutti!

I hope everyone had a wonderful week! We had to email in a cafe today because the Internet is out at the church. Hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas season back home! It is different here for sure. They have a festa tomorrow so a lot of the shops will be closed because that is the day that they put out their Christmas tree. It’s from the tradition that the Angel Gabriel visited Mary to announce that she would bear Jesus Christ. So tomorrow hopefully will be a good time for finding for us.

This week we were able to see 2 of our investigators and they have been reading in the Book of Mormon which is great. We want to help them progress and really be excited about how much blessings are in store for us as we embrace the gospel. I really know that with the gospel we will be able to have the most joy and happiness not only in this life, but in the life to come.

We were able to have some other really good lessons with some less actives as well as members. It is so nice and amazing to be able to follow promptings on spiritual thoughts and see that it was fit and really needed by the people that we share it with. I am thankful for the people I have the opportunity to know here and the friendships I have made with them. I hope that I will continue to get to meet amazing people and helping them to the best of my abilities.

We got our transfer calls this past Saturday and I will be staying here in Tràpani and Anziano LaPray will be heading up to Terni. It has been awesome to be able to work with him and I am thankful for all that I learned from him. He has showed wonderful examples of love, charity, awareness, and boldness. He is an awesome missionary and he speaks really awesome Italian. He is going to do amazing things. I look forward to being able to see him again later down the road in the mission. My new companion is going to be Anziano Spencer and he is coming down from Terni. We are just switching companions hahaha. It will be awesome though. Anziano Spencer is awesome and this will be his second city. Excited to start work with him Thursday! [Read more…]

Filed Under: Culture, Italy, Missionary Work, Transfers, Trapani Tagged With: , ,

Tràpani – Week 9

November 30, 2015 By Leave a Comment

Buongiorno!

Hey everybody! Hope that everyone had an amazing week! Anziano LaPray and I just did spesa [shopping] and we bought some of the oranges since it is getting into orange season and they are fantastic. The weather has been getting chillier here. Nothing absolutely awful by any means, but it’s been cold, rainy, and windy. We have been handling it just fine though. This week we were able to get back to our city and we were able to see a lot of miracles this week. We were able to gain 4 new investigators this week and they all went really well! The first one seemed a little distracted during the lesson, but that is ok! We will see where he goes.

Friday night we had to go out finding in the rain and decided that we would have much better success in going “casa a casa.” One of the last houses that we went to the door was open and the gate was slightly open but we couldn’t decide if it was a one person building or multiple apartments. So as we are deciding whether or not to go in all of sudden out of the darkness walks a old lady. It was so unexpected and there were no lights on inside whatsoever. It was a little creepy because she didn’t say anything. We asked if we could share the video but we got the wave of disapproval. It was just really random hahaha. The next is a couple that we met street contacting doing a survey and they were hesitant to leave us their number. They said they only wanted to meet for 5 minutes to leave the Book of Mormon. Well we called them and to our surprise she all of a sudden changed her demeanor. She said she was expecting our call which was super cool. We went over and taught the first lesson and it went super well! It was really awesome.

They are super cool and were so very nice. They have two kids and they are really tall for Italians which is cool. They were all super nice.

We unfortunately won’t be able to see them this week, but we are going to contact them at the end of the week to set up a time for the following week. They gave us a recipe for Trapenese Pesto and some of the ingredients which was too nice of them. Then their older son gave us a ride to centro for our appointment with a less active. It was super awesome and such a big miracle. On the way home that night we were walking along Lungomare and the waves of the sea were just huge and there were big puddles in the street that cars were driving in. We almost got splashed on multiple occasions but it was really a small miracle that they never hit us at all. It was really sweet. We finished the night off after daily planning by setting up the Christmas tree!

We got a new investigator Sunday that we have met on the street twice and he is an evangelist pastor and really wanted the Book of Mormon.

We met with him and shared the message of the restoration and he was super excited to be able get a Book of Mormon. It was really awesome and he is super ready to receive the Book of Mormon. He too will be out of town so we will be able to meet with him in a couple of weeks.

This week went really well and the new Christmas video is out which we will start using now. It is really cool and brings a strong spirit as children talk about our Savior being born. It is really cool and the mormon.org sight is nice and decked out with a lot of cool things.

That is my invite this week is to check out the mormon.org sight.

Sorry I didn’t have a ton of time this week! I hope that everyone will have a wonderful week. I love you all and hear from you all soon!

Love,

Anziano Garrett

Filed Under: Food, Italy Tagged With:

Tràpani – Week 6

November 9, 2015 By Leave a Comment

Ciao tutti!

I hope that everyone had an amazing week and that all is well back home wherever that may be for you! We had a good week this week and we were able to have some really great lessons. The weather is treating us well here in Tràpani. It is really pretty with all the sunsets and just the beauty of the city. We found USA food in a grocery store.  [see photo below] We also got 2 meters of pizza within 24 hours. We did not eat the entire 2nd one thank goodness. That one was shared with 3 others. We had gnocchi yesterday too, which was the first time since home. And more horse.

Tràpani is an amazing city with amazing people and I really look forward to being able to meet more and more of them. We are really having some good success in talking with a ton of people, but are still searching for those that are willing to listen to the message that we bring them.

This week we had an awesome first lesson with a member’s friend and we are really looking forward to continue to meet with her and her family very soon. She has a strong desire to learn more and to grow. She will be super awesome to meet with. We were also able to have two really good lessons with our investigators and last night we watched Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration. It was super cool and I always love watching that film. The spirit you can feel when talking about Joseph Smith. I am so grateful for everything he did. I know Jesus Christ truly restored his Church through Joseph Smith. It is amazing to know that God still talks to us today and provided the evidence necessary to know spiritually that this is Christ’s church on the earth once more.

This week for my ponderizing scripture I chose Hebrews 9:11

11 But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;

With Christ even through times of difficulties there will always be good things to come. I love the Mormon Message with the same title. Good Things to Come. I love this quote that from the talk it is based around by Elder Jeffery R. Holland.

Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don’t come until heaven; but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come.

I would invite you all to watch the Mormon Message. It is really good as all of Elder Holland’s talks are.

Anziano LaPray and I will be staying another transfer together here in Tràpani. It will only be 4 weeks long because the Church doesn’t want to be having missionaries travel during the Christmas season. So the transfer after that will be 8 weeks long. I think I will be here for that one as well. We love working together and we are really growing together. We are really hoping to see a lot more investigators as we continue to try our best to talk with everyone we can. I love working with Anziano LaPray. He is super awesome. He is really funny and we are having a great time working with each other.

Everyone else in the district is remaining here other than Sorella Argyle, who is being transferred to Ostia for her last transfer.

Sorry I don’t have much else to report on this week. We are really looking forward to these next 4 weeks. I am loving Italy. It is wonderful getting to meet and love people here. It is an amazing place. I’m so very thankful for the opportunity to be here. I hope that everyone is enjoying life and soon Thanksgiving, which I don’t think exists here… But you all will enjoy it! Hope everyone has a wonderful week and I will hear from you all very soon!

Love,

Anziano Garrett

USA Food in a local Tràpani grocery store. Anziano LaPray has already picked out some pancake syrup.

USA Food in a local Tràpani grocery store. Anziano LaPray has already picked out some pancake syrup.

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

Tràpani – Week 5

November 2, 2015 By Leave a Comment

Ciao!

I hope that everyone had an amazing week! This week was weird for us, but we made it through and were able to really see a lot of good things happen this week.

So Monday night we had a family home evening and had a new investigator that night. We talked about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It started out really well and then went kind of crazy (not in a bad way. Just got a little off topic and such) and we got it reeled back in. We went off topic after a few minutes more and we just needed to get it reeled back in. We went from talking about the Great Apostasy and went straight into Joseph Smith and the First Vision. It was really amazing because everything just got quiet and we could feel the spirit really strongly as we shared about Joseph Smith and the first vision. It was really amazing to just feel the spirt as we talk about that event that changed everybody’s lives. It was a really cool experience.

Tuesday we went to Palermo for our DDM [district meeting] and then we had to stay there because we went to the airport to go pick up Anziano Goode, who had to come back down to Tràpani to pick up his permesso (papers to stay in Italy). So it was a long day but it was really good. We got the permesso, no problem, and sent him back to Palermo and then we went and had some lessons.

Thursday we had a scambio and Anziano Trejo got to come back here to Tràpani. This was his first city in the mission and now he is back in Palermo as one of our zone leaders. He is super awesome. He is really funny, loving, kind, and is an amazing missionary. He was super fun to work with and I had a lot of good things to learn from him.

Friday we had some lessons planned but some of them fell through, but we had a good night. We made some caramel apples for some people and the first batch was a big learning curve. We are no Sister Cloward, but we tried our best.  The second batch looked and turned out much better. The third should be even better.  [Read more…]

Filed Under: Baptisms, Italy, Tourist Sites, Trapani, Trapani Sites Tagged With:

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

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 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: , , , ,

Roma 1 – Week 18

August 17, 2015 By Leave a Comment

Ciao!

We are alive and well and finally were able to return to working normally again. I really am excited to be back and at it. Well I will start with the big news since we received our transfer calls Saturday.

So here is what happened. Usually we get our call sometime during the study hours which are from 8:00-10:00 but this time we didn’t because we had a “deep cleaning” day in the house since it was a holiday and a ton of people leave to go on vacation the same day. So we got our call around 12:00 or so while we were cleaning. It was a super fast call because Anziano Rasband and I are both staying here in Rome 1! And the sisters are all staying here too and we will receive a new sister Thursday. Definitely crazy we are all staying here. I would never have guessed that to happen again. We are excited about the new transfer and really think we can improve on some things together and see some amazing things happen.

Last week we got back into the work and we were able to start seeing people again. A lot of our investigators have been out of town so we haven’t been able to see them for a while. We are really looking to get new investigators and keep pushing to find more, especially referrals. We saw some less actives that I always enjoy seeing and helping them with what the Lord needs us to do. I am excited to see some of the people getting back on vacation soon.

We had English Course as normal this week, which is going well, and we are seeing new faces pop up here and there, which is nice.

The weather has been nice here and I hope it will stay this way. We had a nice day today we went to St.Peter’s Basilica which was really neat and had an amazing view from the top. Before we went there we had an amazing conversation with a younger couple that is on vacation. We were just waiting for the order missionaries and the guy comes up to us and says he was trying to explain about the Mormon church to his girlfriend just earlier that day. Then he said I figured you guys could do it better. It was a really fun time and we shared the restoration with her and I really hope that they will have further exposure to the church down the road. I really really hope so because they were so nice and super awesome!

We had a good time at church yesterday and was great to see the members again. We are looking forward to this coming week and really looking to kill it! I am excited about it and just hope that we can keep pushing forward even when things always don’t work out the way that we expect.

I read in Ether 12 this past week and enjoyed reading about faith. I was feel like there is room to always look to improve our faith. I read this in True to the Faith and it can say it better than I can so I want to share this with you guys. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Roma 1, St. Peter's Basilica, Tourist Sites, Transfers Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Roma 1 – Week 16

August 3, 2015 By Leave a Comment

Buongiorno!!

I hope everyone had a really awesome week and that everyone is doing well! I hope that I can get this email in and it all make sense to everyone.

I forgot to mention that we got “Hey Elder!”ed (When someone sees us and yells for us or runs into us and we get to have a nice conversation) the other week and I am not sure if the family were members or not. They were from Charleston, South Carolina, but were just at Mattoon not too long ago for a funeral so they knew Charleston. I thought that was pretty cool. They were talking up Monicals pretty big.

Last P-day we had lunch with a member and it was really good. It was chicken, rice, and noodles. It was really good and a good time with the district and the members. After that we went and visited this church near the Baberini Metro station which would be close to Fontana di Trevi and this church is nicknamed The Church of Bones [It is actually called the Capuchin Crypt]. It was really interesting. I wasn’t allowed to take pictures so I didn’t get any at all. But it was a church that sometime in the 18th century, if I am not mistaken, they started to make art with bones. It was quite interesting and it was really weird all the same haha.

After that we had a family home evening in the park where we invited members, investigators, and English course students. I thought we were going to have a good turn out but only 2 members and an English course student came. I was glad that they showed up though. We had a good time, but we tried to get this English course student as an investigator and it didn’t work out like we had hoped. I was really hoping it would because he is super cool, nice, and funny. He really likes music too so I always love talking music with him. Maybe it just isn’t his time and we will have another chance in the future. [Read more…]

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