Laundry, Baptism, and Teaching English

The Palmyra trip sounds like it was a lot of fun.

INSPIRATIONAL MESSAGES I HAVE LIKED.  A comment Elder Bednar made was along the lines of revealed truth.  Everything that people have invented has been inspired, to further the Lord's work.  Computers, microwaves, rockets...byproducts of God poking here and there to encourage the creation of things, to bring to pass the exaltation of man.  That was brought up in the Roots and Branches talk by Elder Cook about computers and family history, but it also applies to other things.

P-DAY ACTIVITIES. Wow, 8 days is a long time between Preparation days! (We had an early P-day last week, because of our conference.)  It felt like it ought to have been Preparation Day yesterday, but it wasn't.  Now I am back on schedule.

This morning we woke up at 4:45 (reminiscent of early-morning drives to the airport) and biked over to a hill that looks out over the city.  We watched the sunrise.  It was such a nice view, one of those awesome moments where a bit of extra effort pays off in an extraordinary experience.

BAPTISM.  This past Saturday was Henry's baptismal interview.  A senior missionary asks questions to make sure they are prepared to make the commitment to be baptized, and are willing to be a disciple of Christ.  He was found ready, so his baptismal date is July 18 (yes, this Saturday!).  That will be a nice finish to the week.

The Zone Leaders slept over on Sunday evening, on their way up to mission council meeting, and one of them taught me a different way to solve a Rubik's cube.  So I've worked with that the past several days, seeing if it's any better than the other way.  If nothing else, it's nice to know a different way to solve the cube.

And, this week we did a lot of finding work, where we go out looking for people to talk to.  It reminded me of Ferrara; it seems to be a necessary evil, ha!  (Not an overly productive use of time.)  We ran into a lot of nice people, some of whom were willing to meet again: a Filipino woman, an Egyptian man, and a Romanian man.  I don't think all that many Italians get baptized, since I have mostly taught foreigners.  And, you can see that in the ward (congregation), too.  There are a lot of Peruvians, some Ukrainians, and quite a few Americans, and a respectable number of Italians.  But the majority are not Italian.

ENGLISH CLASS.  The group that attends our English is different here, too.  The three people who come regularly are all middle-aged.  One from Southern Italy, one from a town near Firenze, and the third from somewhere near Firenze, but lived in Sweden for awhile.  So we have sort of a cultural class, hearing about their lives, day-to-day activities, searching for work, where they've gone, etc.

HOW HAS IT BEEN EASY OR HARD FOR YOU TO LIVE WITH COMPANIONS IN YOUR MISSION?  Good companions are good when they want to do work, be engaging, and do things.  They talk about things that interest both of us, or can make their preferred subject interesting.  And while they may list things they want to do after the mission, that's not the main focus.  Bad companions are lazy.  only talk about one thing, and complain.

CLEANING OUR CLOTHES.  We have a washing machine at the apartment.  We just buy detergent and bleach, so about every 3 weeks.

P-DAYS.   We have done a variety of activities on our P-Days.  Here, we have gone to a museum called the Uffizi, climbed the Duomo and various buildings, or we went to Ponte Veccio and looked at expensive stores there.

Our ward (congregation) here in Florence is a mix of tourists and church members right now.  There is a solid base of members, and maybe 150 people come to church each week.

Love, Anziano Whitesell

Eagles, Hard Work, American Holidays

Hello!

Hmmm, I don’t know if I’ve seen the Mormon Tabernacle Choir live before.  The Hill Cumorah trip sounds fun.  It would definitely be different now, taking that trip, rather than being a high-schooler going on the stake activity again.

NEW PEOPLE IN CHURCH.  We have had a couple of investigators in church each of the past two Sundays, and one was the Peruvian man who brought his family last Sunday.  What you say about keeping your own testimony strong is true, but it’s different for every person.  Our Albanian investigator is fairly high-maintenance, in the sense that we have to visit him regularly for him to keep to his commitments.  Wheras with Henry, we meet with twice a week, and teach a new principle each time, and he takes that new principle and internalizes it.

For example, we taught Fasting last Saturday, and he told us Sunday, “As I was pouring milk this morning, I remembered I was supposed to fast today.  So I stopped.”  I love his willingness to accept the gospel, and the progress he’s made.  But it’s definitely thanks to support of wonderful Peruvian church members.  Some cultures are more outgoing and loving than others – and it depends on the person too, but I’m finding that those character traits are much more common in the South Americans I’ve met.

SAME PLACE THIS TRANSFER.  The news for this transfer is: I’m actually staying.  YAY!  No big surprise there.  Anziano Kormylo is staying too.  YAY!  This is the first time I’ve stayed with the same companion twice in a row, since my trainer at the very beginning of my mission.  I was expecting to train, but I guess that will wait for a little bit.  No complaints here.

Last week I did yet another scambio (exchange – going with a different companion for a day), with an elder in my district who’s just one transfer behind me, Anziano Rojas.  It was good to talk with someone who is at about the same point I am, while also being nice to be slightly on top, tenure-wise.  We went around the other elders’ area, and met with a couple of people they are working with.  One man, Mauro, has a lot of conflicting ideas because he is Catholic, and has met with the Jehovah’s Witnesses for awhile now, and he’s also meeting with the Mormons.  But he was very pleasant and friendly, even if his dog was small and not declawed.

AMERICAN PARTY FRIENDS.  Happy 4^th of July!  There are actually enough Americans in the ward to throw an America party, so we went to an American gathering, with grilling things, and someone brought A&W root beer (we had to split them, but that’s okay).  We also had Keebler cookies and fireworks (which we didn’t touch, because we’re missionaries: one of those safety rules), and one of those fire-lantern things.  And I even learned a thing or two about throwing and catching a football.  Granted, probably everyone there had more experience with a football than I had, but I can throw an acceptable distance.  And I just catch it with my body.  But after the food, there was a spiritual thought about 4th of July and the promises about American in the Book of Mormon, and we sang the National Anthem and said the Pledge of Allegiance.  It was a nice moment, with about 25 Americans or Italo-Americans.

We went to a member's house for lunch yesterday.  It was nothing fancy, but it was nice to have that friendly invitation.  Pesto-farfalle, then fish and salad, then some gelato and apricots (separately).  They are the parents of the Bishop.  She has been a member for 50 years, he for about 30.

ITALIAN LANGUAGE.  I love being able to talk in Italian to people in conversations.  It's strange...during short, 1-2 sentence interactions I'm more awkward, since there's usually some shorthand I don't know, that real Italians would use.  But I'm understandable.  Even when Italians want to speak to me in English, it's more: "Hi, how are you?"  "I'm good, thanks.  Do you speak English?"  "No, just that phrase."  (All right, then don't start out in English.  You're not impressing anyone...ha!)

map of my last area, Ferrara

LEARNING THROUGH EXAMPLE.  What have I learned from our Bishop...I haven't worked directly with him much.  But each week in Ward Council meeting, I see a lot of organizational skills and delegating skills.  Since each group (youth, primary children, women's Relief Society, and the men in different Priesthood groups) has their own world of activities, if they don't know how to do something, they present it to the Bishop.  So if the Bishop doesn't delegate, he has to deal with everyone's problems, and ends up talking to everyone anyway.

BEST MESSAGES I REMEMBER.  What is a message I particularly liked...I liked Elder Bednar's message from a few weeks ago, when he focused on being an Agent rather than an Object.  Scriptures that stood out to me are Doctrine & Covenants 58: 26-29, about being anxiously engaged and acting for ourselves.  

Also 2 Nephi 2:14 in the Book of Mormon, about God creating things to act and to be acted upon.  If we want to reach our full potential, we need to be active and productive and do things of our own free will.

A good story about that, is from Gospel Principles Sunday School class last week: the young eagle.  The eagle falls and gets injured, and the man brings it home while it heals.  He keeps it with his chickens, so it thinks it is a chicken.  The man tells the eagle it is not a chicken, and teaches it to be an eagle.  He shows it other eagles and finally takes it to the top of a mountain and lets it go, saying, "You are an eagle. Now fly!"  Another story like that is "Born to be a King," and another story I really like is 'The Egg,' about our eternal potential.  The last one isn't doctrine, but it carries a powerful point.

I have a Box account now, and I've uploaded a few Firenze pictures, and a video of me golfing.  I'm not very good, oh well :)

Love you!  Anziano Whitesell

People, Pizza and Pass-Along Cards

Hello!

This past Thursday was neat because there was a training in Bologna for the District Leaders and Sister Training Leaders in my area, around the south of the mission.  So I ran into several other missionaries who are DL's (District Leaders), and Sister Welch from my group is an STL in this zone.

TRAINING TIPS.  The training was about how to conduct effective companion exchanges, how to run district meetings, how to do baptismal interviews, and some advice for leading others.  It was good training, with many things I can put into practice.

FOCUS ON THE POSITIVE. One thing I can work on is scheduling further in advance those things that I can plan pretty far out, like exchanges.  And as a leader, I could definitely spend more time giving positive, constructive feedback -- rather than noticing something nice but not mentioning it, letting the person know I liked something they did.  And I could put more thought into setting goals.  Lots of things to work on of course, but if you work on too many at once, it becomes overwhelming.

Sunday was exciting because several of the people we're working with came to church!  The purpose of teaching is to help people come closer to Christ, eventually through baptism, and part of being a member is coming to church regularly -- each Sunday.  So when people come for the first time it's exciting, because they can meet members and see how church meetings work.

Tuesday, we ran into a strange man who said he knew Joseph Smith was a prophet because he had read the Pearl of Great Price (another book of scripture we have).  He said there was a place where it says God is not pleased when people eat meat.  We asked if he was a vegetarian, and he said yes...and fish.

"But fish is a meat," we said.  "No," he said, "it's not mineral, and it's not animal, so it's vegetable, like a fruit."  Now we know: fish are fruit.


We couln't find his scripture reference.  Maybe it was Doctrine and Covenants (another book of scripture).  He claimed to be from a really old religion in Chaldea...the priests who tried to sacrifice Abraham?  He offered us a copy of their holy book, the Bhagavad Gita, but now is not the time for us to be studying that.

HOMEMADE LASAGNA. I made a couple of "Italian" things this week: a pizza, again.  Kormylo is pretty straight-to-business, so it didn't take that long.  I also made lasagna for the first time.  It wasn't difficult, but I did half pesto, and half meat/tomato sauce.  The pesto half was too strong, and the meat half wasn't flavored enough.  So I know for next time.

I learned (ok, RE-learned) that there are some people who just won't be placated and who insist on being angry at God, so you have to just let them be.  It's sad, and a little annoying when they vent at you, but all you can do is say that God loves them, give them a pass-along card (with our info on it in case they want to talk later), and leave.

I also got the package from you, of the notes from the 5-year-olds from church.  Very cute--thanks!

Love, Anziano Whitesell

Father's Day, Mazes and Good Changes

Hi!

Happy Father's Day, Dad!  It's a few days behind us, but I have had it in mind the last week or two.  I just didn't know which Sunday it was.

NEW COMPANION FOR A DAY. This week has been pretty different, since I did two exchanges (going out to work with a different companion) in the past several days.  Each transfer, the District Leader (myself) does an exchange with each elder in the district, and the Zone Leaders with each District Leader.  So I did an exchange with a greenie (brand-new missionary) in my district Friday-Saturday, showing him around my area, teaching people, being a good example, etc.  Several times in Ferrara I also took a new missionary around my area, so it was similar to that.  We talked, and had a pretty good day, but it was good to have my companion back again.

Then Monday-Tuesday I went with one of the Zone Leaders to Montevarchi.  That was a lot of fun.  We started off visiting a family who has known the missionaries for awhile.  I was able to show off my (crumbling) piano skills, talk to this nice family, and share a spiritual thought.

Panorama of the view from our apartment

CHANGE OF HEART. Then on Tuesday, I did the baptismal interview for two people the elders have been teaching for a couple of months.  They were both Africans, and it was neat to talk to them, and hear some of how the Gospel had changed their lives, and see "that their hearts had been changed; that they had no more desire to do evil."  The baptismal interview questions may just be 6 points, but it means a lot of change for some people, and watching a testimony grow is a rewarding experience.  So I'm happy for them.

The Zone Leader I was with was the person whose place I took in Ferrara, and he had been there for four months, so we could reminisce about that.  And we have a lot of overlapping interests, and he's going to BYU when he gets back in a couple of months.  I enjoyed talking with him during our down time.

TEACHING METHODS. Maybe I'll try using stories in my district meetings.  I used a maze for the last one, drew it up on the board, and it went over pretty well.  The maze then tied in to how we teach the Restoration, and what we can do during studies to teach more effectively.

Regular camera...yes it has pictures on it, but I don't have the connector cable anymore, and most computers don't have SD ports.  Also Dropbox got nixed by President Dibb.  But I do take some photos on the iPad.

This week we had a good lesson on tithing with Henry, assisted by the 2nd Counselor, Fratello Borjas (also Peruvian). That went well, and it's nice to have member involvement.

Love you!  Anziano Whitesell

Dictionaries, Humidity, and Crystal Light

Ciao, tutti! (Hello, Everyone!)

SUMMERTIME WEATHER.  This has been another good week in the beautiful city of Firenze (Florence). For the past week, the days have taken turns being hot and sticky, or just plain rainy.  I didn't think I would have to break out the rain jacket again before fall, but I used it a couple of days ago (and still got soaked). But when the sun is out, it has been a comfortable, if humid, 85 degrees or so.  So in biking and walking around every day, it is necessary to drink a lot of fluids.  Example: last week during grocery shopping, I bought 8.5 liters of drink...milk, juice, and some Fanta.  It's all gone now.  And that doesn't include the water I drink throughout the day.

MAIL. Mom, thank you for the letter, I got it yesterday.  I appreciate the picture.  Now I can stop using the leftover pictures on the camera to explain my family (there were some on the SD card of when we went mini-golfing, with the grandparents, last summer).  I was thinking about American food (I don't know, maybe someone mentioned it, or a type of food in particular or something), and I figured since I'm in a new city, I might as well build a new stash of American food.  That pile from a couple of months ago dwindled to just a Payday, a SweetandSalty bar, 2 packages of Keebler crackers, and some mints.  Also 2 jars of peanut butter, but I brought that with me!

The items that came to mind were Crystal Light flavoring packs, Kraft Mac N Cheese, Cinnamon Graham Crackers, and Wildberry pop-tarts. But even without specific American food, I am enjoying Italian food.

We contacted a referral yesterday, from mormon.org or from elsewhere in the mission.  When we get someone's number who doesn't live in our proselyting area, we pass it along to the office, who sends it to the right missionaries, the closest to them.  He was about a 25-minute bike ride away, and this was the third time we had passed by him.  It turned out he was a Jehovah's Witness who wanted to tell us we were wrong.  He had previously had a paper with a list of problems in the Book of Mormon, and would have shown it to us, but he misplaced it.  It's exasperating, talking with them, because Bible-bashing never gets anywhere, and it just brings contention.

WEEKLY TRAININGS. As district leader, I'm still working on the "presentations" part of the job.  I'm in charge of encouraging and inspiring my district and looking after their well-being, as well as keeping them in line and effective.  Part of that includes a weekly District Meeting, where I do a 40-minute training, usually on a topic from Preach My Gospel.  I can plan for it just fine.  It's easier than a talk because I can ask questions and draw on the whiteboard, and include role plays, but it still feels dry.  I'm not the most engaging speaker.  But, I've done 2 so far, and I think they'll just get better from here.

Firenze (Florence) from high up

Also, on the teaching note, I was asked the night before church to teach Gospel Principles (a Sunday School class the next day).  That felt a lot like District Meeting.  But seriously? "Gifts of the Spirit?"  The lesson plan in the manual is to talk in detail about several of the gifts mentioned in Doctrine and Covenants 46.  No help.  So I talked and asked questions about the parable of the talents, and how we can grow our talents.

Anzianos Kormylo, Jensen, Rojas, me

LEARNING MORE ITALIAN. For language study each day, I have several options.  Now that we have iPads, we can use DuoLingo.  I can read out loud to myself from the Book of Mormon in Italian.  I sometimes take the same Liahona (church magazine) issue in Italian and English, and translate from English to Italian, and compare translations.  Or I can focus on a section of the visual dictionary, like animals or bicycles.

I think I don't need you to send the New Testament guide here.  In Ferrara I was reading more in the evenings, but here it's more alive and moving.  I feel more engaged in the evenings, talking with my companion, writing in my journal, etc.  I do have an Old Testament guide and a Book of Mormon guide when I do want to read something (and endless conferences on Gospel Library).

RELAX. I think from my companion now, Anziano Kormylo, I'm learning to be more relaxed.  My past 2 companions were relaxed, but in an "I don't want to work and these rules are restrictive" way, so we clashed.  Here, I feel like even if things go off schedule, I'll be alright.

Broken Keys, Vespas and People from Peru

MY NEW COMPANION.  I'll start with Anziano Kormylo.  He's pretty cool, still 18 yrs old, and he was enrolled a semester at BYU before coming here.  He likes outdoor activities and DIY (Do It Yourself) projects, especially motorcycles.  There's an old Vespa in the garage, whose owner we don't know, but he always comments on how easy it would be to fix up.

 He's played a lot of the same video games as me, and was able to fill me in on "the good movies" of up to 5 months ago.  He's from San Diego, likes Ultimate (although his main sport is water polo), and has three younger sisters.  And he's a Mormon. :D

I've enjoyed having him as my companion thus far; these two weeks have flown by.  He was trained by another elder in my group.  He cooks pretty well, and he wants to go and do things, take advantage of the city, and be anxiously engaged in exciting activities.  All good things.

OUR WARD.  For finding here, we usually go to a park pretty close to our apartment.  I haven't spoken in this ward (congregation) yet, except for the initial introduction/testimony.  And I don't expect to, since there are about 150 people in church, not including tourist groups and BYU study groups.  It's great.

iPad is fine as is...I can still type about as fast as I can think of things to write.  And the big secret of writing multiple people is...I'll tell you later.  But in any case, I can do some writing throughout the week and then send it Wednesday.

It's neat that you could go to the temple with family, to do work for family members.  We figure they're about out of baptism names unless people bring their own, but for other ordinances there is always more work to be done.

THE IMPORTANCE of BAPTISM. So an interesting encounter we  had last week was with a man named Greg.  We met him in the park, and had contacted him by phone, so we didn't know what he looked like.  As we were looking, the nearby homeless man called us over.  He said he wanted to be baptized, and had read the whole Book of Mormon.  So we started to explain all the standards and prerequisites and he says, "No, no, I just want to get baptized."

(He was smoking as he said this.)  Apparently he understood that baptism is important, but not that the purpose is to commit to repentance.  And apparently he's reading the Doctrine and Covenants too (revelation given to the prophet Joseph Smith as the church was being restored in the 1800's).  I don't know where he got the Doctrine & Covenants.  Maybe he'll realize the other requirements later.  Then he asked us if we knew the 3 Nephites.  Then he asked us for money, and when we said no, he left.

REUNION OF SORTS.  Also, we had a church conference last Saturday, with members from about 10 cities in this area.  This meant that the missionaries from those cities also came, and I got to talk to a lot of friends I've made here.  Some people I've met during layovers when we're going to different cities.  Some people have been in my zone before.  Others are friends of other missionaries, so I got to know them.  But it was nice seeing about 40 missionaries (out of about 220 in the mission), and being able to chat/recognize about 15-20 of them.  It was also weird to realize that, of the people there, I've been out longer than most of them.  I will hit my halfway point next Wednesday.  I'll have been gone a year on June 25th.  I know I have almost a year left, but it feels like it's flown by, in retrospect.

SUNDAY JOBS. We're working with a Peruvian man named Henry.  There are a lot of Peruvians here, and many, when you talk to them, already know who Joseph Smith is and have had a couple of lessons with missionaries back in South America.
 He has been taught most of the lessons before I arrived, but he works on Sundays, like many people here, which prevents him from coming to church.  But we're hopeful for him, to be able to change his work schedule.

SMALL OBSTACLES.  We have had a couple of other bike problems, but nothing a patch couldn't fix (for me, anyway).  My companion's brake cable snapped, so he took one from another bike and re-wired it to his bike.  Our house key also broke, fortunately not IN the lock, so we went and got the spare from the other Elders' apartment, then had it copied.  So, nothing too bad.

Love, Anziano Whitesell

P.S.  Pictures next time.  For now, here is the cemetery across the street, viewed from our balcony.

Florence, New Accent and Mosquitoes

Hi, Mom! Hi, Dad!

FLORENCE.  It's super cool to be here in Firenze (in English it's "Florence") these past few days.  I've done some sightseeing as we walked around, so we ended up in the Centro area, by the Duomo once or twice, and from parts of the city I can see Tuscany countryside, which is beautiful.  We also have a great view from the apartment.

I'm going tie shopping today, but I'm sure I'll go again while I'm here.  What kind of tie should I get you, Dad?  Any particular colors?

Also, there's a place here in Firenze that binds books.  Most missionaries get their scriptures bound, but my companion and I were talking and we thought we could get The Inferno (in Italian, obviously...author Dante Alighieri is from Florence) bound in red leather.  And also Machiavelli's The Prince, bound in a cool way.

DIFFERENT DIALECT.  The people here speak with an accent, where they replace hard 'c' sounds with an 'h.'  So "Ciao" turns into "Shao," and "Come sta?" turns into "Home sta?"  It's fun to try and talk with that accent.

So I'm typing this on the iPad right now, and it's not horrible.  Once I found out how to type like texting, it's not so bad.  So I can work without a keyboard...the initial impression was not entirely accurate.  And I type well enough that the autocorrect is actually useful, rather than a hindrance.  And as it turns out, we may do some email sessions from the church, which has real computers, so that helps too.

WHAT WE CAN DO WITH THE iPAD.  We can use "Gospel Library," "Gospel Music App," "Duo Lingo," and a selection of other apps for missionary stuff and language stuff.  For a lot of it, it works better if we're connected to the Internet, but most of it is useful regardless.  I would recommend, though, just getting a laptop and a phone instead of a tablet, for home use.

UNWELCOME RESIDENTS. I have gotten a lot of sun these past few days.  It is pretty hot down here, especially because Firenze is in a little divot that apparently traps heat.  Some rain is coming next week, but other than that it's sunny.  Also lots of mosquitoes.  I probably have twenty or so bites.  They're annoying, but I'll survive.

Oh, and one thing my last companion commented on about me...he said when I talk about my parents, I just say "Mom..." or "Dad..." where most people say "My mom..." or "My dad..."  I say it in the way that people do when they are already talking to family, and don't need to specify whose parents.

My address: via degli Artisti 11/C
50132 Firenze (FI)
Italia

iPAD DETAILS. It's an iPad mini, but for now don't send a keyboard.  I'll see what it's like without one.  It's one iPad per person in the mission.  American keyboards would be better (less confusing) than Italian, but I could put up with whatever.  And yes, we have covers.

Love, Anziano Whitesell

P.S. About pictures...the second microSD, which I put into an adapter and then into the camera, got buggy.  Stupid Internet points.  So I lost a few pictures there.  I'll take pictures and video with that new SD card you sent, but only send them to you from the church, or just keep it in the camera.  Also, pictures on the iPad can be put directly into emails.  So I'll experiment with that, doing the whole iPad camera thing.