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

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Ferragosto

 
I was asked if I use a lot of post it notes.. . the answer is YES!
Buon Giorno mamma e pappa!
So the most amazing thing I've seen out here is probably the Castles. But its hard to choose because even the scenery here in little old Calabria is incredible! My pictures don't serve it justice...The ice cream, gelato, is scruptious of course, I never knew how much I was missing out on chocolate icecream! The Gelateria have soooo many types of gelato it's insane. I don't really eat dinner here, we eat a huge lunch (pranzo) then I'll have a pb&j for dinner. It's amazing when people invite us out for pranzo but it rarely happens so we make a lot of pasta at home. I haven't been going to open markets like Ryan has but they certainly are all over the place. We go to this cheap grocery store called Lidl...I don't know why, I can't tell if they are trying to be english or what. But we shop for a 2 week period so we buy un saco di cibo! Hopefully it cools off here real soon but I heard end of Sept. Believe it or not but I'm finally starting to understand the language haha Italians speak so fast but I can finally understand them! certainly not 100% but I hold my own conversations :) it's a difficult language ha well I mean every language is difficult but I thought it'd be easier, but NOPE God decided to humble me some more haha.
Anywho this week was pretty great! we went to the mountains again but for the district activity. District is equivalent to the Stake. So of course good food, good company and Great Weather! Then we had our deep cleaning day on FerrAgosto. This catholic holiday is weird, it's just a tradition really. But there is literally no one outside and every single shop is closed. This is what I was told about the holiday. STORY TIME. The pope was curious about what happened to the mother of Christ since the scriptures don't mention it, so he sent some cardinals to Jerusalem to do some discovering. They came back to Italy without any news so they held a meeting with all the cardinals to discuss. The pope presented 3 hypothesis: 1. Mary died a good life as a saint. 2. She was martyred for testifying of Christ or 3. She ascended into heaven being translated for her righteousness. So of course all the cardinals voted for the 3rd option...and this story turned into a belief of the catholic church. Anyways, its a good holiday to eat a lot of food :) which is exactly what we did!
The work in Crotone is coming along. We're still working with an investigator to quit smoking. And we are doing a mass publicity for our english course so we're stopping everyone! We've literally seen people cross the street while walking towards us to avoid us, ha, somehow we have a bad reputation I guess?
I love you all! Have a great week at school!
Love,
Anziano LaFaye

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Recognize, Remember, and Be Thankful

 

Ciao fam, how's the busy life goin? I hope everything is going good at home.
So this week was great for me! I think I'm finally picking up the language but its still crazy difficult to speak fluidly for me ha such a greenie! But ever since I read the home teaching message for this month, I've been having a great week! The message Recognize, Remember and Be Thankful or something, not sure how it's translated, by Pres. Eyring was great! it challenged me to write the blessings I received in my journal everyday. Now that I'm doing this, I'm recognizing things that I take for granted too much. So I know ya'll don't keep a journal but you should...ha if not, take 5 minutes before your nighttime prayer and think about the blessings you saw throughout the day! it's incredible what reflecting at the end of the day can do for us. Anyhow, our week with investigators was pretty average. We average 1.5 lessons a day exactly haha some days we have 2 lessons and other days we have 1 lesson with investigators. The summer isn't the best time for lessons ha. THEN yesterday, we got 2 new investigators!!!! awesome day! A great way to end my week.
So BIG question! How is Dallin Wengert doing??? Hopefully their family is fine.
Next question, mom or dad, what's a blessing you've received from obeying the law of tithing? I wanted to share an experience with an investigator but I realized I haven't really noticed the blessings in my life from paying tithing...and lastly, I don't know if you've seen it but Sorella Waddoups has a blog for the mission so you should check that out, I'm not sure what it says but I heard its good stuff on there.
Thanks for everything! :)
Robby I was reading in Alma the other day about Captain Moroni and he led the Nephite Armies at the age of 25!!! You know what this means? No one is too young to be a leader! So even though your a sophomore, be a leader out there! Reece, your a senior so you should already be a leader ya stud! Crazy, senior year...anyways, don't coast through school and sports as a follower like I did, speak up and be a leader! Love you guys, talk to you next week, Ciao!
Anz. LaFaye

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Lots of things made this week great!


This week was soo much better than last week ha I know I complained quite a bit last letter. So recap of the week: we ate with Pasquale, our only progressing investigator, who is also that international chef, and boy that food was tasty. It makes me think of your cooking mom, because it looks so good! I keep eating more and more while burning my tongue because I can't resist haha. I played some more soccer against some legit footballers and yet my team won :) (my branch pres, my comp, an investigator, a member and I) we play 5v5 all the time here. The popular music here is Pink, the crazy American chick. I committed a member to show me how to make some awesome dessert and had another awesome Conferenza di Zona! So lots of things made this week great! We found a family to teach! They're Catecumeni who have completed a 30 year challenge sort of thing to become SAINTS. It'll be difficult teaching them because they're sooo faithful to their own religion. And they didn't like it when I said "we're saints too" Latter day saints. But they love us talking with them so hopefully something comes from this. Then there was fast sunday which was awesome! When you truly fast for a purpose, you don't feel the hunger! Sadly I never realized that at home because I already had so many blessing from living with an awesome family!!! Poi, we had zone conference which was great to learn more about accountability. My poor zone leaders shouldn't be waiting for us to get home at 10 pm! they need sleep too and shouldn't have to worry about us, hopefully Ryan has a great zone because I didn't realize how much work it takes to be a zone leader! and I still don't haha!
Anyways, I'm with my same companion, Anziano Sorgiacomo. I was told that if you wanted to send anything like a package, you can send stuff over amazon.uk or something like that. There's less charges for those than packages sent from U.S. I believe but I don't really know.
Ok Reece and Robby committment time: Watch this video "Origin" in the LDS youth section on lds.org AND get a friend to watch it with you!! it perfectly applies Joseph Smiths experience into our day! Second thing, read D&C 60;2, 13 I think? Use your talents! Pray before your football game, plan fun mutual activities for non members to come to! Overall, be an example.
Last thing, I forgot to wish you all a happy birthday...So Reece, Robby and Caitlyn, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! Buon Compleano! Dad, your next I won't forget haha. Thanks for raising me well! Have a great week of school and work, ci sentiamo prosima settimana!
Con amore,
Anziano LaFaye