Mail can be sent to:

Mission Office:
Anziano Randon LaFaye
Italy Rome Mission
Piazza Carnaro, 20
00141 Rome RM
Italy

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Experiences with food and language


Buongiorno famiglia!
   My first experience with sea food was interesting. Here's my motto for sea food: the nastier it looks, the better it tastes. For example the octopus was very delicious haha just looking at the tentacles made me question it but I liked it! Then the more appealing foods didn't taste as good. I found myself making a sour face when I would eat some of the foods. Next topic, gelato. The ice cream is something I look forward to everyday. Every family we visit likes to give us ice cream and I gladly accept! Then we visited someone who went to the Switzerland temple and brought back Swiss Chocolate! I savoured that chocolate so much that they thought I didn't like it oops. Ok enough of food.
   The language is slowly coming along but then again it's only been two weeks, I have 2 years to share the gospel! I'm learning almost a whole new vocab here in Crotone and people here in the south aren't very proper so while talking, they spit a lot and we tend to be very close when talking haha so endurance is key! Now we have this guy Victor who is going to be baptized in the Sea this Saturday! This is very special since our numbers aren't necessarily like what Elder LaFaye in Paraguay is experiencing! We aim for 20 baptisms a month as a mission while Ryan is in the hundreds. And Victor speaks English since he's from Africa so I love teaching him! Our other lessons I speak very little but we're striving for 50/50 participation with my language. Our branch is very little so we get to check up on all the members very frequently and I'm already very close with all of them! Italians are so kind! Even those who want nothing to do with our gospel are incredibly kind to us missionaries.
   Okay Reece those are some awesome camps you're going to! My advice: take a scholarship anywhere because that will help narrow your choice of studies. Unless you already know what you want to do but I didn't know until I went through some college. Plus you don't have to pay for education and you get to keep exercising for fun! Robby I hope you're out hanging with friends, you only get 3 more summers in high school so have fun! (But preferable with lds friends haha) OK Ti voglio bene :) Ci vediamo

Elder LaFaye

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

I have arrived in Italy

Ciao,
   OK it's been too long since I've been on the computer. And the Italian keyboard is odd so excuse the errors please.
   So last Tuesday I flew to Chicago then to London then to Rome! I went 32 hours without sleep besides the little uncomfortable naps on the planes. I met Pres. Kelly and his wife, super nice people who made us our first Italian dinner. Super good lasagna. That night we were all bobbing our heads trying to stay awake to receive our "golden ticket" of our first assignment! But we didn't even get it so we found out the following morning and now I'm serving in Crotone! It's a super poor area
covered in graffiti but people are super friendly and patient with my lack of language skill. Then again, they're speaking Crotonese, super sloppy so I find myself squinting my eyes, focusing on what they're saying. In the end I don't have a clue of what they are saying. My companion is native from Milan. So I hear northern accents and southern accents. I sure hope I'm a champ at the language after this transfer. It's been a week and I can only pick out words from what people are saying. Italians speak so fast it's unreal. Then they throw in hand gestures like crazy and I feel like they're practically yelling at me, haha.
   So the first member I taught was a man named Vincenso who is comparable to the Rocky Balboa of English. I didn't understand a single word he said to me except for when he said "no capito?" I understood him asking me if I didn't understand haha, not fair. For Sundays, we have about 30 members who come every week and some of meno active. Our chapel is so little! Hopefully I can help these numbers go up! Our branch mostly consists of women and one single guy. This guy was so close to becoming a priest for the catholic church that he just needed to say his vows or whatever but instead he heard what the missionaries said and was baptized. So a big part of his life was thrown out the window that day, I don't know how he did that but I'm so thankful for him, he helps us out a bunch!
    One last thing I forgot to mention, we teach an Ingles class 3 times a week which is how we get most of our investigators and I for once felt comfortable speaking since people wanted to hear me speak! My companion speaks inglese pero it's very limited. On a side note he looks like Luigi. Fun fact for you all. OK I'm going to try to send some pictures, love you mom love you dad and love you Reece, Robby and Caitlyn! (sorry I never called in England mom) Ci-ciao!
Alright It's 11am right now as I'm writing this but I think it's like a 9 hr difference between us? Our apartment is SO nice, it's one of the nicest in the mission from what I've heard. I look out the balcony and I see the sea, so nice. Then everything is white, white nice tile, white walls, makes me think of being in the temple actually. So last night was pretty cool, Anziano Sorgiacomo's father came to town to visit us. not quite sure if that was allowed. But he took us out for pizza and a walk along the beach. First off, the Italian girls were way too distracting so I don't think I'll be going back to the beach anytime soon haha. Felt like I was sinning just seeing them walk past me so I spent a lot of time looking at the ground while my companion and his dad talked. THEN the pizza was so so delicious, I wish you could have tasted that pizza...I remember what Fratello Gubler said about pepperonis in Italy so I figured I would ask to see if it was true so I asked my collega if they had pepperonis and he said of course! so he ordered it for me and they brought out a whole pizza with red peppers on it ha I forgot I asked a native. Nonetheless, I ate the whole thing and it was superb. My stomach felt odd but my taste buds were certainly satisfied :)

Here's my address if you want to google image me :)
Via Scopelliti, 5
88900 Crotone, Italia
my pdays are on wednesdays just so you know.
Ciao! Elder LaFaye

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

The Tower Challenge

Ciao mom and dad!
   First I wanted to share this quick story of our district getting in trouble at the MTC. For lunch one day there wasn't really any appealing food so our district decided to eat this whole tower of cereal. In total it was 55 bowls of cereal to finish with a district of 10 people. I ate the least since we were eating coco puffs, so I only had two bowls while others ate like 8 or 10 bowls! haha it was crazy gross, two elders were in the bathroom throwing up that night and two sisters were so sick they didn't come to class the next day! And to cap it off, the cafeteria saw us doing the "tower challenge" so they called the MTC president who called our branch president who called our zone leaders who called our district leader. We were given a lecture on how we're wasting church funds and I felt so bad even though I only ate two bowls of cereal! You really feel guilty when you feel you wasted someone's fast offerings.
   Now the other day we received our flight plans! We fly to Chicago then to London then off to Rome to receive our assigned areas! Then following that we skyped a church member and shared a lesson with him. Since he goes to church every Sunday we shared how to receive revelation at church so we committed him to go to church with a question in mind for the Spirit to answer.
   Sunday night we had a devotional by Joseph A. Jenkins who discussed our relationship with Christ. He stated how we've become too casual in our appearance and language which really hit me hard. It's really easy to speak how others in high school speak but I challenge you (Reece & Robby) to avoid using language that you wouldn't use in front of Mom! Another thing is in our prayers, try not to use "you/your" in place of thee & thine because we really need to show respect to our Savior. Christ isn't just a man, He's a God! I encourage you all to use your modern day Leahona's: Apostolic council, prayer, scriptures. I finally finished the Book of Mormon here! There are too many great scriptures so take Ryan's advice and read that book as oft as you can! Then use the New testament to back up everything you find! We had another devotional where Tad R. Callister talked about the NT as the blueprint of the true church.
So today was the last time I get to go to the Temple for forever since I hear the Rome Temple is delayed. Hopefully it finishes while I'm still serving. Two years is a long time without a temple session! Also today we received a change of plans notice where we have to leave 5:50 in the morning for the airport. Non buono. But I get to call you at the Salt Lake airport so I'll give dad's cell a call if he's not too busy working since his is the only number I remember. Mom I'll call your cell as well but I don't remember your classroom number so hopefully I can catch you at a good time. I bought a $5 card for the airport which has like 500 minutes so I have plenty of time to talk but don't know how long they want us talking for so we'll see how it goes.

Love, Anziano LaFaye