Tràpani – Week 13 (Christmas Week)

Ciao Tutti!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas week and a good time celebrating with friends and especially family. The week was really weird. I was in Palermo from Tuesday until Thursday doing a scambio with Anziano Palazzo. We had a really good scambio and I definitely learned a lot from him. We were able to see this new investigator that they received. Months ago the Sorelle met this younger guy on the bus and they were talking to him and he was asking questions and they said it was a really good conversation, but he wasn’t interested to meet and learn more. They felt they needed to leave him with the Book of Mormon so they did. Then just about 2 weeks ago he showed up to English course and he had read the introduction and something really hit him about the Book of Mormon (the spirit). He is now super interested and wants to learn more so we met with him and had a really awesome lesson on the restoration. He is very intelligent and understands things really well. He is such a humble guy and super nice. We then had English course there and talked about Christmas for the lesson which was a good time.

Wednesday we did finding in the morning for English course and then switched it to a Christmas survey before lunch. We handed a ton of English Course bigliettini [cards] out. Then, disgustingly, I somehow ate 425 grams [15 ounces] of pasta in a sitting and was still hungry afterwards. That was really gross. In the evening we went to this Palace in Palermo and sung for the employees there. It was super cool! A member had set it up and invited the missionaries. We then did finding on the way back to Palermo 1’s church. Anziano DaPonte and I went out and did Christmas Survey finding together which was a lot of fun. We were then able to finish up the night with another lesson with that super sick guy. The plan of salvation really went well and he is such a good guy.

So for the holidays it worked a little different than a normal week.

We had somewhat of Pdays you could say starting at 1:00pm on the 24th and going until 6:00am on the 26th. And we had permission during this time to skype our families, go to members for meals, watch 2 animated movies, and other pday appropriate activities. Thursday we had our zone blitz where we sang Christmas carols with all the missionaries in the zone. It was a really good time, and my voice definitely hurt afterwards. We had some members and investigators there with us singing as well. We sang at the two big piazzas where the opera houses are in Palermo. They are really cool. So we had a really nice backdrop for our caroling. We were talking to people that were walking by and listening to the caroling. We shared the Christmas video with them and tried to receive potentials for the Palermo areas.

We all walked together as a zone to the Chinese restaurant and did our gift exchange before eating. I had Anziano Mika and he didn’t want anything basketball related, but I wanted to wrap up the basketball we had at our house as a joke. I forgot it unfortunately. I got an Italian Soccer Gillette razor which is pretty sick. We then preceded to eat a ton of food. Some of us then went to this park in Palermo where we went ice skating. It was super fun, but they don’t clean the ice ever so it was pretty hard to get turning and stuff because there were so many divots. Definitely ate it a time or two. Anziano Vrska and I then went and tried to find gifts for our companions. I knew what I wanted to get Anziano Spencer, but holy cow I couldn’t find it anywhere. We literately looked around for so long with no luck from either of us. It took so much longer than first anticipated. We swapped back, bought our movies, and then headed back to Tràpani.

We woke up Christmas Day and made some German pancakes that turned out pretty good (nothing like French toast casserole back home though). We then opened presents together! I got a super sweet calendar from my Grandma and Grandpa Garrett as well as a journal. They were really neat and had some awesome pictures of home. I also received a Roma soccer jersey which is really cool. I got a jersey from every city of my mission so far which is really cool. Also got some really good American candies (which I ate over half of them in one day). Jones soda as well! Anziano Spencer got me some sweet socks, a old man Sicilian hat, and then a new iPad case which was sweet. Then I also got some caramel from Sister Cloward to make caramel apples. I got little ornaments from my dad’s side of the family with messages from aunts, uncles, and cousins. It was really neat to just have those tastes from home.

We did a nice hour of study and it was a good chance to be able to read Luke 2 and study about the Savior’s birth. We went and watched half of Treasure Planet before heading to a members house for lunch. There we had a nice big lunch together, which consisted of fried broccoli, gattò, some small panini, artichoke casserole, some delicious chicken with some sort of cool gravy on it, and then finished up with cakes, assorted dolce, and some small candies. It was a lot of fun to spend time with the family and talk about all sorts of different things. We then headed to the church and were able to skype our families for an hour. After solving the connection issues it worked out just well. We chatted about all sorts of different things about home, Italy, food, operations the whole family decided to undergo and all sorts of fun stuff. Copper even was able to stare at the screen at me probably wondering what the heck was going on. The hour just flew by and saying bye is always hard but man the time has just been flying by here. It is really crazy. Talking with the the family was awesome though and I was thankful for the opportunity to be able to do that. Definitely the thing I miss about home the most. We finished treasure planet and then went back home to relax and write in our journals, study, and reflect on the Savior.

Saturday we were able to go and do a little shopping for Anziano Spencer to get some sweaters. We then went up to Erice to go visit the castle and such. It was a good time and we were able to enjoy seeing an amazing view from there. It was a lot of fun and we ran into a member family up there too! We then went back to the church to finish the day with Toy Story 3. For some reason it didn’t want to work at all no matter what I tried so we had to watch Treasure Planet over again haha. Oh well we got to watch a movie. We then planned for the rest of the night after a lesson and a blessing. It is so amazing to know that we have the priesthood on the earth and what a great trust the Lord has given priesthood holders to be able to do the ordinances necessary for salvation as well as minister and serve others. I am so thankful for this priesthood power and to know that through this power and authority given to those worthy to hold it, it can truly bless the lives of everyone. Especially those who embrace the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

Sunday we had a nice day at church and a counselor from the Stake Presidency came and gave a lesson on self reliance which was really good. Something he said that really struck me was the definition of charity. We talked on how the definition of charity is “love in action.” And how Jesus Christ everything he did was out of love for us and through all his actions we can see charity the pure love of Christ in action. As we are spiritually self reliant everything else will fall into place for us. With the gospel at our hands ready to use we can truly move forward with faith and have the hope that everything will be just fine with the Lord on our side. It was a really awesome lesson and I really enjoyed it. We finished up the day with a lesson with a member and her nonmember family members as well as another investigator with his family. It was a really amazing evening and I really enjoyed this week a lot.

Thank you for all the Christmas messages! I really enjoyed this week a lot and sorry about the longer email this week. I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and that you all will continue to find those acts of charity that will pop up in your lives, especially as we pray for the opportunity to serve others in any way we can. I hope that you all will have a fun new year celebration! I really love this parable that Presdient Uchtdorf shared a couple years back.

The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second-best time is now.

I really like that a lot especially with the new year coming in and the resolutions that we can make to improve ourselves. We can start now. We can start to improve and progress wherever we are along the path of life now. Here is the link if you wanted to read the short article on it. https://www.lds.org/ensign/2014/01/the-best-time-to-plant-a-tree?lang=eng

Thanks for all you guys do! Talk to you soon!

Love,

Anziano Garrett