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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…]

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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: , , , ,

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 17

August 10, 2015 By Leave a Comment

Ciao!

I hope everyone had an amazing week and that everyone is enjoying the end of their summers!

So I really don’t have much to report on from last week. Last p-day we saw some really neat things. We went to this place called the keyhole where they say you can technically see 3 different countries because you look in this keyhole at the Malta Embassy and then you see Vatican City and then of course Italy as well. It was pretty sweet! We then had a nice view of Rome nearby which was really cool. We then went and saw Circus Maximus which was really big but nothing too spectacular at all either. We then finished up with La Bocca Della Verita (the mouth of truth). It was pretty cool, but I don’t really know the history behind that at all. We of course finished up the day with some gelato too which always hits the spot especially when it is this hot. We finished up the proselyting day with some finding in the park. We had some good conversations but unfortunately they didn’t pan out beyond that.

Tuesday we had our district meeting and it went really well and then the Memmotts had us for lunch and that was a lot of fun. They are so nice and I really enjoy getting to know them and talk to them. They are so sweet and are truly disciples of the Lord. Tuesday evening we finished up with our English course and I really started to not feel too good that afternoon. By the time we got home I really wasn’t feeling to hot at all. So Anziano Rasband and I ended up getting food poisoning and we have had to stay home for the past 4 days. It’s definitely been hard but that’s ok I think we are finally getting through it. I feel better today and I hope that just lasts. So sorry I really didn’t have much to report on this week at all!

I really enjoyed reading 3 Nephi in the Book of Mormon when Christ makes his appearance to the Nephites. It really would have been amazing to be there and experience that. He manifested himself to the people because he loves them too and I am so thankful for the Book of Mormon and the ever flowing knowledge we can gain from it. It truly testifies of Christ and shows that Jesus is the Christ and that he lives. It stands as another witness of Him and the things that He did in the Holy Land truly occurred. I am so thankful for our Savior Jesus Christ and the infinite love that he has for every single one of us. I am thankful for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the faith I was raised in. I am no where near perfect at all, but I try to be like my Savior and I have to just keep on working to be like him everyday. I know we all can have a place for Christ in our lives and that he will become the center of our lives as we live by his teachings and live in the manner that he did.

Love you all and I hope that you all have an awesome week!

Love,

Anziano Garrett

Sorella Gates sharing with some tourists

Sorella Gates sharing with some tourists

View of our area in Rome

View of our area in Rome

Roma 1 District selfie, plus Sorella Nagliati and Sorella Gates from Roma 5

Roma 1 District selfie, plus Sorella Nagliati and Sorella Gates from Roma 5

Roma 1 District selfie, plus Sorella Nagliati and Sorella Gates from Roma 5

Roma 1 District selfie, plus Sorella Nagliati and Sorella Gates from Roma 5

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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: ,

Roma 1 – Week 15

July 27, 2015 By Leave a Comment

Ciao Tutti!

This past week has been super exciting and it has been a really awesome week. We had a chance to see a lot of new people is week and we had another chance to meet with our new investigator from last week. We played zone soccer last week but I didn’t get any pictures from it. It was so hot though. It was really hot and I never thought I would miss swimming all that much while on my mission, but that sure sounded super nice right then. And it so happened we were on the field right next to the swimming pool… It was a fun time though! We had a scambio that night so I got to have two less active lessons with Anziano Calvagna and it was a good time to be with him. It is truly amazing how wonderful it is following the spirit when preparing lessons and really considering what that person needs and what Heavenly Father needs them to hear. I saw that evening that when we act on the promptings to prepare for them and be bold when sharing lessons it can really have a positive effect in their lives knowing that message was personalized through the spirit for them. The promptings of the spirit can be so subtle and we just have to do what we can to learn how they come for us individually and act upon them.

So this week I really saw how success is truly a gift from God and that everything is in accordance with his timing. We had a lot of really good lessons this week and they were with people that I am so excited to keep meeting with. They seem so ready for the gospel and I just really want to share this gospel with them because I know that it can bring so many blessings to anyone’s life as they choose to obey and follow the commandments. I think of a talk that I read this past week that explains why we as Latter-day Saints are sometimes so eager to share this message with others. It’s a talk from General Conference of October 2014 by Elder David A. Bednar entitled “Come and See.” I love the story that he tells in there about his two sons. I always thought that story was super funny and really does give a wonderful analogy of why we want to share this gospel with others. This is a quote from the talk, but I would really encourage you guys to read it.

“The invitations we extend to you to learn about and test our message grow out of the positive effects the gospel of Jesus Christ has had in our lives. Sometimes we may be awkward or abrupt or even relentless in our attempts. Our simple desire is to share with you the truths that are of greatest worth to us.”

It is true that when we share this gospel it does stem out of genuine love that we have for others. It truly is something that we to help people see and have the same blessings that we have received. I know that these things can truly bring so much happiness into everyone’s lives.

We saw a lot of amazing people this week and I look forward to being able to continue to meet with the them. They are all super nice and seem so fit for this gospel. I just hope that they will commit to the things we ask them to do so they may know for themselves that these things are true. In my study this week I am still in Alma and I actually wanted to share something that I thought about regarding Captain Moroni again. This is in Alma 50. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Recreation, Roma 1 Tagged With:
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