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Tràpani – Week 2
Transfer 5, Mission Week 32

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
Transfer 5, Mission Week 31

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
Transfer 4, Mission Week 30

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: , ,
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