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Catania – Week 19
Transfer 14, Mission Week 84

Ciao Tutti!

I hope that everyone had a great week and that all is well with everyone! We had a super week over here and we have just been all over the place. So to begin my email we received our transfer calls Monday night and I am staying in Catania for a fourth transfer! I have received Anziano Ponce from Lima, Peru. He is a great missionary and is super dedicated to the work and really gives it all that he has. I am super excited to be staying and able to work with everyone down here for another 6 weeks. We have a lot of great plans and good work going on that is starting to grow as well! We are excited to be here and look forward to working together and seeing a ton of miracles.

So this past week we had to take missionaries to the airport Monday and that went well! I received an email from Anziano Nielsen and he has safely made it back home to Salt Lake City. He was super fun to work with and really taught me a lot. I hope to be able to continue to apply all those things that I have learned from each of my respective companions here in the mission. We proceeded to play paintball with almost the whole zone after that and it was a ton of fun! We had some members there as well which was really nice. A lot of people came out with some bruises and welts, but I didn’t seem to get any for some odd reason. It was good though!

For half the week I was on scambio with Anziano Cox because Anziano Clasby also went home. We had a great time together and were able to have a really cool lesson with two of our investigators who accepted baptismal dates that we will continue to help them towards and all that they need to do in preparation for that. I am thankful for the sweet spirit that we feel with them and all that we can truly learn together as we are all edified during those lessons. They are super special and the daughter of this member is working hard at reading the Book of Mormon and praying. It is super awesome! We also had a some great less active work done as well.

Transfer day was crazy and started off super well with all the departures and what not! Sorella Gleave and Sorella McKenzie were in opposite companionships here in Catania and headed off to Cosenza. I thought that was such a super cool transfer call! I was able to make dedicas for all the members with photos that we had taken together. I was super excited for them to go there. We had some crazy traffic all day here in Catania so that didn’t help with getting everyone where they needed to go! Driving here is insane. It is just an organized mess if that makes sense. It is a good life skill though! We were able to eventually get everyone to where they needed to all go and help out everyone with all the bags and what not! It was super fun at the end of the day and we accomplished a lot!

Other things that we did this week were the fact that we were able to translate for a member with President Jarvis of Sigonella, the American military base. It was super fun to help out with that. We also had to go and find some spray for the cockroach infestation that the sisters have at their house. We were able to plan a lot and do all that we could to get ready for everything that we need to do. We have zone conference this week and it will be really great as well as the mission conference next week in Rome on the 20th! We will be driving up there so that we can switch out the cars. It will be a beautiful drive and will take roughly 9 hours. We will be headed to stay at the Villa that night so it will be great!

I had a great study this morning and it connected super well with everything that I was touching on. It was revolved around the atonement and I really love this quote from Bruce R. McConkie:

All things center in, revolve around, are anchored to, and are built upon the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no language given to men or angels to proclaim these truths with the power and verity and dignity that should attend them. Let it be blazoned in burning  fire  through all the sidereal heavens that salvation is in Christ and comes because of his atoning sacrifice.

I think that is so true and such a powerful statement on the Atonement. It is impossible to even imagine fully all that he did for us. I am so thankful for that sacrifice and that I have an older brother that did that for each and every one of us. I am so thankful for the knowledge of from the Book of Mormon and modern day revelation through prophets and apostles that continually testify of the divinity of Christ and his mission. It is something amazing to think that we have that. Those special witnesses just like in days of old. I love you all and hope that you all have an amazing week!

Anziano Garrett

Catania – Week 14
Transfer 13, Mission Week 79

Ciao Tutti!

I hope that everyone had a great week! This week flew by again and it seems like we are always having something to do and getting busier and busier. We were able to have some cool lessons this week and it went really well. We also had a scambio mixed in there with Ragusa where Anziano Clasby and Anziano Cox are serving. I went with Anziano Cox and he is one transfer younger than I am. We were able to do some good less active work and it was a really fun time to work with him and have the lessons that we had. He is really good at teaching directly and simply where he puts the ball in their court and leaves it up to them to decide if they want to do it or not. I really enjoyed seeing that simplicity with directness.

Another lesson that stuck out to me this week was from our part member family that we are visiting. The member is so amazing and ever since she found the church she has made a complete turn around in a ton of things. She is just coming back full strength and it is inspiring to see and witness. Her husband is very nice and their daughter, who is our age, is very inquisitive and they both ask great questions and desire to understand. They both kept their commitments to read and it was great to go and visit them again. We were able to start off our visit helping them with a little bit of service. We helped take off the outer shells of almonds and then throw them in a crate to allow the sun to dry them later. It was a very interesting service and was a ton of fun. We had great conversation with them and got to them a lot better and they kept asking questions and we were able to discuss the gospel a lot throughout that time too. They are wonderful people and have a special place in my heart. I really hope that we will really help answer their questions and that they will trust in the Lord and the plan that he has prepared for each one of us. I know that the plan is perfect and sometimes we may not understand every small detail of it or every answer to the questions we have but if we have faith and trust that is all it takes to feel the comfort, hope, and peace that plan brings into our lives.

We have had a great time being able to work with these members here and we are seeing our work starting to grow now and we really hope to see that continue as well. The members are awesome and are super supportive of the missionaries here. This week we will have many members out of town because they are taking their yearly trip up to the temple. I am super excited for all the youth and members that get to go up there. It will really be an amazing experience for them and a time always to remember. This verse from Isaiah 2 comes to my mind where he is prophesying of the temples in the latter days.

2 And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.

3 And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

I think that this is such a wonderful scripture and we see that the early saints did truly flow unto Zion where the temple was be constructed in the Salt Lake Valley. I think that is just so neat and that we see that now the Lord has blessed us with temples all over the world for people to go to and to perform the ordinances for the living and the dead. It is such an amazing work and we are truly blessed immensely with temples. The only place that we can go to be sealed in marriage with our families for not only this time on earth, but also for eternity. I love these excerpts from the talk given by Thomas S. Monson in April 2015:

“As I think of temples, my thoughts turn to the many blessings we receive therein. As we enter through the doors of the temple, we leave behind us the distractions and confusion of the world. Inside this sacred sanctuary, we find beauty and order. There is rest for our souls and a respite from the cares of our lives.”

“As we attend the temple, there can come to us a dimension of spirituality and a feeling of peace which will transcend any other feeling which could come into the human heart. We will grasp the true meaning of the words of the Savior when He said: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. … Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

“Such peace can permeate any heart–hearts that are troubled, hearts that are burdened down with grief, hearts that feel confusion, hearts that plead for help.”

“The blessings of the temple are priceless. One for which I am grateful every day of my life is that which my beloved wife, Frances, and I received as we knelt at a sacred altar and made covenants binding us together for all eternity. There is no blessing more precious to me than the peace and comfort I receive from the knowledge I have that she and I will be together again.”

“May our Heavenly Father bless us that we may have the spirit of temple worship, that we may be obedient to His commandments, and that we may follow carefully the steps of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.”

I love the temple and am so very thankful for the steps that are clearly laid out for us to achieve that happiness in our lives personally as well as in our families. I am so very thankful for the blessings we receive as we go there and know that the sacrifices to build these great and wonderful houses of the Lord do not go unnoticed. The early saints knew that the sacrifices were worth it because the blessings that they would receive therein would be priceless. I know that His temples have been established in our day for our own benefit. I know that he lives and love us beyond comprehension.

I love you guys and hope that you have a wonderful week!

Con tanto amore!

Anziano Garrett

Preparing an American breakfast for a ward party in Catania

Preparing an American breakfast for a ward party in Catania

Catania at night

Catania at night

Catania at night

Catania at night

Catania District (Anziano LaPray is taking photo), August, 2016

Catania District (Anziano LaPray is taking photo), August, 2016

Eating gelato selfie with Anziano Nielsen

Eating gelato selfie with Anziano Nielsen