The Blog From ............Italy (the real one)

Transferred...again

2009-02-03T15:40:00.000-08:00

Dear Family, Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Well as the title says, I have been transferred once again.........and honestly I wasn’t expecting it. It’s interesting… I’ve notice that in Cagliari and also in Oristano that when I arrived I didn’t like it there very much, but as I stayed there longer I realized how great the members are and I’ve really grown to love them and then....I’m gone! Ya it’s just a little frustrating. I’m going up to Sassari (north western part of the island) so I figure that by the time that I make it off the island I will have finished over half my mission and know about all the members :) So far I haven’t been in the Rome Italy Mission, its the Sardegna Italy Mission!! lol

Anyways, so last night we invited Annalisa to be baptized on the 14 next month, she accepted baptism but, didn’t accept the date. She said that she needs to talk with her family, which is right, so pray for her. Hopefully President will give me permission to come down from Sassari for the baptism.

Lets see, what else… oh ya the pictures that I attached are my luggage before and after. As you know (well mabey not), but the sidewalks here are all horrible cobble stones, and so after a 20 minute walk the wheels on my luggage had somehow magically disappeared :( So I had 2 options: try and put new wheels on it or buy some Chinese luggage that would probably break after a little while anyways. So I opted for the first. I got some wheels for 8 Euro and melted some holes in the plastic.......and I would even say that it works a little better now than it did before the wheels broke! But ya, lol.

That’s awesome… 3 convert baptisms in 3 weeks! Dad I think you might have to re-evaluate your ward mission plan and the goal for 3 baptisms this year.

Hope you have a great week

Love Anziano Daniels

Lots and Lots of Rain

2009-02-03T15:39:00.000-08:00

Dear Family, Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Well things here are going well, other than that it has rained just about every day in the last month (there have been a few nice days). And yesterday it rained exceptionally hard for about 5 or 6 hours. The first 2 were during language study and lunch, thankfully. So we leave the apartment about 3:30, pass by an investigator (who wasn’t there), then we went to get a stamp to mail the tithing report to the District President or something like that. By this time my pants are soaked up to the bottom of my jacket (and I even had an umbrella), and my shoes are soaked (they stayed dry until my socks and pants got wet and then the water went down. Fun Stuff1! But then we are walking and the street is flooded and we have to cross it.....too much work to walk up and around the flooded street, and besides my feet are already soaked, so we walk through with water above my ankles. It was kinda fun, although the funny thing about water proof shoes is that not only do they keep water out, but once the water gets in it has a tendency to stay inside. (Funny how that works!) So now I'm walking around with a lake in my shoes…fun stuff. So that was fun! We went back to the apartment, changed pants and shoes and then went to English class, which went well. Then afterwards elder Pepperdine drew the plan of salvation on the board and one of the students (cool guy who we went with to play basketball last p-day) asked about it and so I explained it to him....so ya, hopefully we will be able to start teaching him. :)

Other than that the week has been kinda the same old same old stuff. Hope youre doing well.

Love Anziano Daniels

My Birthday

2009-02-03T15:38:00.000-08:00

Dear Family, Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Well first off, I got the package that you sent. It’s great…thanks! So this week has gone by quick. We had interviews last Thursday, shortly after which we had English class. Then on Sunday I had to teach gospel principles, and it was a great lesson if I do say so myself. Then, as you know, Monday was my birthday and I had to give the addestramento (training or lesson) in the district meeting that we have every Monday morning. I did it on a talk that one of the apostles gave to us while we were in the MTC. It was about the atonement. Then the other Elders made me a cake (pictures are on one of their camera's, so I’ll send some later) When I blew out the candles it was really funny…the numbers fell over and whip cream went flying everywhere. Yesterday we did some exchanges within the district, which were good and then last night we had an appointment with Annalisa, who is really starting to progress. She came to church again with Sister Lai (they are good friends now). That was basically our week.

Well not much else is new, and I’m just about out of time because we only get an hour and we showed up 25 minutes late :)

Love Anziano Daniels

New Years

2009-02-03T15:35:00.000-08:00

Dear Family, Wednesday, January 7, 2009

So, ya, the lunch appointment (on New Year’s Day) lasted until about 7. lol It was funny. Things were just about wrapping up and then Andrea pulls out Monopoly. so we ended up playing that with them. It was actually kind of interesting…they now have a monopoly game with "credit cards" so there is no cash to pass around you just stick your card into a little machine....and it transfers the money. And then we went home and finished cleaning. I actually got to clean the bathroom. It wasn’t too bad. I basically took the showerhead and sprayed everything down after I had scrubbed it. And then I cleaned up all the water off the floor and I was done! It really wasn’t that bad. And then we played a couple of games and went to bed.

So, that was my New Years. Sounds like yours was good as well :) Fun tracting stories?? Lately none. As you know my comp is the branch president and he apparently has a lot of stuff that has to be done in the church, so we have been spending a lot of time there and also visiting inactives. It is a little frustrating at times when I have basically nothing to do in the church, so I will read from the Book of Mormon. I helped Fratello Angius set up the genealogy center in the church and a couple of other random things. Then I found a set of dvds that are a documentary of the Presidents of the Church. Those are kind of interesting. But other than that, things are going well. :)

Thanks for the happy birthday and wish Brenda Happy Birthday for me.

Love Anziano Daniels

New Years Lunch

2009-02-03T15:34:00.001-08:00

Dear Family, December 31, 2008

Well it was good to talk to you all on Christmas. Things here are going good still. Tomorrow is one of the 2 days a year when we stay in and do a really deep cleaning of the apartment. It shouldn’t be too hard because the missionaries have been in the apartment for about 3 transfers, so it hasn’t been enough time for the apartment to get too trashed. Not that they ever really get trashed. But you know what I mean.

Funny story… an investigator family called us and invited us over for their New Year’s dinner that would have started at 9 tonight and we wouldn’t have been home till who knows what time. So we said that we would ask our leaders. So we call up the zone leaders and they say that we have to ask President. So we call up President and he actually tells us that it’s our choice. So we decided to not go and give them a call back. They were kinda upset about it ...and then 10 minutes later they call us again and ask if we can come over tomorrow for lunch. So they are moving their big New Year’s dinner for us so that we can come. So that is really nice of them.
And as an added bonus, we will get out of cleaning a little early :)

Anyways I’m out of time.

Love you all

Anziano Daniels

Christmas Eve

2009-02-03T15:33:00.001-08:00

Dear Family, December 24, 2008

Well its Christmas Eve!!!!

So things here in Oristano are going great. Saturdays was zone conference and it was really good and then we had a talent show /skit thing. It was fun.

But before that, the previous 2 days were packed. Friday morning we (Elder Burns and I) took a train to Oristano from Cagliari, arrived at 2ish and walked 20 minutes to the apartment (one of my pieces of luggage is now without wheels, thank you cobblestones). I quickly dumped out my bags and got the things that I needed for zone conference and put them in the suitcase with wheels. And then we walked back to the station and took another train for 3 hours and then did some work in Sassari. Then we had zone conference the next morning. It was all crazy. After zone conference there was a baptism. It was incredible :) Then we took another train home and got to Oristano at 9:30pm and then once again we had to walk 20 minutes from the station. So much fun :) not really. Sunday in church was good. It is a little different in a small branch with 7 active members.

So for calling I’m going to buy a 5 Euro calling card and depending on how long it lasts you can call me back. I will probably call around 11:30 or noonish. Sounds good!

Gotta run!

Love Anziano Daniels

PS… thanks for the money and no the Package didn’t come (I’ll receive it sometime next year, hopefully.)

Transferred

2009-02-03T15:30:00.000-08:00

Dear Family, Wednesday, December 17, 2008

So guess what??? I’ve been transferred to ....guess....Ok, you probably guessed wrong. but it is Oristano (oreestano). (Still on the island of Sardegna. Check out on Google:)

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&client=firefox-a&channel=s&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&q=Oristano,+Italy&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&resnum=1&ct=title

Its been kinda crazy going around and saying good bye to the members. But it should be good. Oristano is a smaller branch, in fact my new comp Anz Loritz is the Branch President. I think that there are about 10 active members there, so it should be a great opportunity to help the branch grow.

But here is the crazy part of it......they have to do zone conference before Christmas, otherwise no one gets their Christmas packages. So they were going to do it on Friday, the day after transfers, but here on the island, thanks to the 14 hour boat ride for those that are coming to the island, transfers happen on Friday. So that doesn’t work ....and then plan B was to have it on Saturday here in Cagliari. But Sassari has a baptism on Saturday at 4:30, so that wouldn’t work. So Zone Conference will be up in Sassari and then the baptism right after. As for us that are in Cagliari, I have to take a train Friday morning to Oristano and then drop my stuff off and then take a train to Sassari because there isn’t one that leaves in the morning that would get us there on time.....So its been a big headache for the Zone Leaders, compounded by the fact that it was taking President too long to decide what to do. Big sigh… but that’s all figured out and ya good times :)

Lets see what else has happened? It was really funny last night. Some random guy came up and started talking to us in English (fairly common), but he was high or something and then he tried to offer us a beer....and it was just funny and ridiculous There are so many crazy people here its insane (no pun intended).

Oh ya, the weather, as Sarah asked, is mostly rainy and cloudy and cold with occasional sunshine.. but the worst part is that the heating in our apartment wasn’t working until yesterday morning, so we have been freezing.

So funny story… we made a 12 days of Christmas song with the English class. It was ridiculous, but fun. Here is how it went

1 hat of the New York Yankees
2 of Armstrong's bikes
3 sports cars
4
5 shining stars
6 widescreens
7
8
9 pairs of shoes
10 pairs of socks
11 apple imacs
12 christmastrees
I forgot a couple of them but ....it was really funny to see them singing that. Anyways…

Oh ya, and for Christmas calling I believe I can get a calling card. And about what time will you be getting home from picking up Jared?? Because remember I am 8 hours ahead of you so if you get back at 12.....You get the picture! So let me know. I think the easiest way to do it will be for me to get a calling card. Anyways, gotta run!

Elder Daniels

Spicy contest

2009-02-03T15:27:00.000-08:00

Dear Family, Wednesday, December 10, 2008

So today we went to the church and did bitter shots and made sushi. It was all really good until Sister Ferry asked who wanted to do a spicy eating contest, and I volunteered. So we took sushi, a big blob of wasabe and then some spicy ginger. It wasn’t that bad although I did shed a few tears (first time in my life from something like that). And then we went for round 2 with even more wasabe and more ginger......bad plan. I got it down just fine with a few more tears, but Sister Ferry looked like she was going to die. It was actually pretty funny. lol :) So that was today.

Last night at English class we taught the advanced students the 12 days of Christmas....che divertente, and then we made our own. It was funny because they all have funny accents when they speak English. (But then I probably have a really funny accent when I speak Italian!)

And then branch council was fun....and kinda ridiculous. The Branch Mission Leader wasn’t there, which is ironic because there is a new missionary program (I think it’s just for the Europe area). But they were asked to keep branch council more focused around missionary work and also we aren’t supposed to go back to investigators and teach a 2nd lesson without a member.....which is very difficult because the ones that are available are the ones who have a tendency to say things that aren’t very helpful to the church.....(as in there are many gods but our god is a jealous god so you can’t pray to the others.....or I’m still Catholic… I go to church with them, but I’m Catholic..............you get the picture,, and now I’m just complaining.

Anyways, gotta go ttyl

Love, Elder Daniels

Finger Prints

2009-02-03T15:25:00.000-08:00

Dear Family, Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Well things here are going pretty good. So yesterday and the day before we did a scambi (splits, exchanges or whatever you want to call them) with the zone leaders. It was pretty good and sad at the same time. We went by an investigator, and last week the missionaries had invited him to read and pray to know. He says he doesn’t like reading at all, but when we got there he said he tried and couldn’t. So we decided to teach him a 2nd, for practice mostly, and then at the end we invited him to read and pray again. He basically flat out refused to. He said he was ready to die when the Lord calls him he is ready to go (only 62 … isn’t that sad). But he is set in his ways and refuses to change, so they dropped him. Kind of sad, but each one of us has agency.

Then we went by 2 inactives, both of whom said that the person we were looking for wasn’t
there. But we think that it was them that we talked to… what can you do?

And... um lets see… then we passed by Fratello Caravagna's house because he was like 2 blocks away. We had a short family home evening with him. He is such an amazing member. And that was basically the scambi.

Our Thanksgiving that we did was really good. We had turkey stuffing, etc… the whole works! It was good.

Friday, bright and early, we had to go to the Questura (Emigration Services) for my permesso di sogiorno. We waited in line for about 4 hours and then were told to come back on Monday. But...what can you do? So we go back on Monday, wait in line for 3 or 4 hours, and then they start doing my paper work and such. She sees that I was there on Friday and tells me that I wasn’t that unfortunate to have to come back because I would have had to come back on Monday anyways because the guy who does the fingerprints is only there on Monday and Thursday (why in the world would they make me an appointment to do something on a day that you cant do it ?? ) So they went and took my fingerprints. Thankfully they used the digital scanner so my hands weren’t covered in ink, which Elder Burns was surprised about. When he did his, they covered his hands in ink!

But ya, things are going good. Interviews are on Friday and we have 2 appointments tonight. It should be a good week!

Love, Anziano Daniels

Carrot Pie

2009-02-03T15:24:00.001-08:00

Dear Family, Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Lets see where to start?

Well last Thursday we had Zone Conference and President Oaks (Europe area president) and his First Counselor came and talked to us, it was way good. One of the major points that they talked to us about is planning by the spirit. And how basically if you aren’t going through every step in Preach My Gospel in relation to planning, and if you aren’t planning lessons with the teaching record and the progress record, you are basically wasting your time. So needless to say, planning on Friday was long and....

So Friday night after planning we had an appointment with a potential investigator Samuele. It went really well. We taught him a good 2nd lesson and then he readily accepted to be baptized on the 20th of next month. It will be awesome. He has a lot to change because right now he drinks and smokes, both small problems. I’m so excited!

Saturday night we had an appointment with a contact from zone singing on Wednesday (which went really well), and we taught them an awesome 1st and invited them to church. (They weren’t able to portropo) and then on Monday we had another appointment with them and brought Simone (who got baptized a month ago) with us. It was awesome. He is going to be such an amazing missionary! (He doesn’t believe us when we tell him.)
It was funny. We were planning on teaching him the plan of salvation last week and so we asked what it was and what it meant to him. So he basically taught it to us up until about the paradise prison, where he was a little confused, so we helped him out ... it was way cool

Last night for English class, with tomorrow being Thanksgiving, we made a bunch of pumpkin pies. Although what we didn’t tell them was that we didn’t use pumpkin. (If you boil carrots until they are soft enough to mash… mash them up and make it the exact same way as you would a normal pumpkin pie....don’t believe me??? try it :) And then one of the students brought me some chili peppers and so I ate one. Then Sister Ferry ate one and Sister Mandalà asked if they were hot and we both lied and said no.......not for the first taste. So she eats one and then she ran screaming down the hall to the bathroom yelling about fire and flames in her mouth. I really shouldn’t have laughed, but it was just soo funny. (Yess I am kinda evil)

Anyways…gotta go!

Love, Anziano Daniels

Zone Conference with Area President

2008-11-20T07:26:00.000-08:00

Dear Family, November 19, 2008

Tomorrow is zone conference and President Oaks (Area President) will be there. So all the Elders in the zone are going to be at our house tonight. That’s going to be a little crazy! And then I’m way excited to have all my boxes broken by him and his first counselor. Should be way good. (This is Mom…I have no idea what that means?)

Since all the missionaries are going to be here tonight, we are going to do "zone singing" :) on via Roma. It should be sweet and we should get a bunch of sweet new contacts! What else?? This morning we went to the local breadmaker in the branch to get a cake for one of the Elder’s birthday. It had a picture of him on there and then we drew a mustache and goatee on there…. pretty dang funny

And then there’s my companion who doesn’t know anything about computers and keeps asking me stupid questions! Ha! Ha! (And I thought they would stop when I quit Superior… speaking of which is the computer working well??) So ya its kinda entertaining and ridiculous at the same time :)

And he's just sitting over there laughing to himself! lol

Crazy isn’t it that its already been almost a year since they split the wards??

As for Thanksgiving, we are planning our own little one. But since you can’t find whole turkeys here, we are going to get some legs and breasts....etc yummy!

Well, talk to you later!

Love
Anziano Daniels

So I was thinking....about the Christmas package thing .....ya I could do without the seasonings and stuff...etc although a cook book would be nice :) but ya

I hate old computers!

2008-11-20T07:25:00.000-08:00

Dear Family, . November 12, 2008

So, ya, I was typing along and then I backspaced and the button got stuck and before I realized it half the letter was gone! So I thought I would be smart and undo what had just happened...well that didn’t work so (thank you myldsmail you are sub par) instead of undoing the erasing it finished the job! And so here I am… starting over!

First, thank you for the pictures (of his pottery) they are exactly what I wanted. As for the picture of the little pot....no idea… you could try looking through my folder but I have no idea as to where it would be. in fact I’m surprised that you found those pictures!

And second for Christmas. I’d be fine either way.. although if you do send me a package make sure that you don’t over insure it because I have to pay a 20%ish import fee. also some spice packets would be nice i.e. taco seasoning slo (the backspace key just got stuck again) sloppy joes, enchiladas etc...and a cook book would be nice :)

Ya as far as the work goes the last two days have been bummers. My comp has been sick, so I slept, studied and studied, then played Risk by myself. (I think I’m going crazy). But ya, fun times! And then on Sunday Simone passed the sacrament so cool!

Threesome’s aren’t any fun and the time kinda drags... and it getting dark at 5 doesn’t help either. So ya… kinda a boring week. Although we do have water now!! It was incredible to take a shower again!

Sorry this letter is so lame.

Love Anziano Daniels

No Water and a Crazy Boat Ride!

2008-11-20T07:06:00.000-08:00

Dear Family, Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Well that’s a bummer that Obama won...does that mean that the democrats have the house the senate and the presidency (or whatever the other 2 are)? If so ..............need I say more but...

Ya, the last 3 days have been kinda sad and crazy. Elder Ethington left for home on Monday and we also received transfer calls Monday morning. I am staying here in Cagliari for at least one more (hopefully 2…the next transfer falls on the 17 of December and it wouldn’t be too fun to move the week before Christmas, but it is very possible), and the sisters got split up. Sister Benion has been moved to Rome

On Tuesday we (the three elders left in Cagliari) went out to the airport to find out information about the sisters’ transfers. Sister Favero has to go to Rome for her "permesso di sogiorno" (permission to stay ??), so she and Sister Benion took a plane this morning to Rome. So ya, it’s been kinda crazy.

We have been without water for the last week (luckily I was in Rome until Saturday morning) so ya not too much fun taking sponge baths. They are doing some construction at the bottom of the apartment building and I guess that they broke our pipe. So we are the only ones in the apartment building without water. It was really funny yesterday… we were leaving the house in the morning and the manager of the apartment building was talking to one of the workers giving him an earful. We walked by and he asked us if we have water. We answered no and so he started going off more.....apparently Fratello Floris (the one responsible for the apartments in Cagliari) has been chewing him out. So hopefully soon we will have some water. :)

On the boat both times it was way rocky. We were on the blasted thing for so long on the way home… it was like 19 hours. So crazy and just up and down up and down side to side........repeat.......So when we finally got off the boat the ground started moving and, ya, not too much fun. But other than that the trip was pretty fun.

This morning I also bought an amazing Italian dictionary. It’s a "zingarelli" basically a giant Webster’s dictionary but in Italian. I bought it for 3 Euro. The deal is that you get 4 books for 10 Euro, and then within a year you have to buy 4 more books cd's dvd's etc. So with the three of us we are going to go buy that stuff. Pretty much an awesome deal since the dictionary alone is normally 30 Euro. So I’m probably going to get a grammar book.

Simone is doing great! We have an appointment with him this afternoon (H e was relieved that I wasn’t being transferred as well. On Sunday he told me to call him as soon as I knew.)

Love ya, Anziano Daniels

Mom, could you send me a couple of pictures of the pots I made.....the foot one (the big platter with my footprints) and the teapot (it was up on top of the shelf) and then a picture of the little teapot I gave grandma with a penny or something like that next to it for size :) thanks

Hey these are some pictures:

--The first is of me and Anziano Taylor at the train station before he leaves:

--Anziano Ethington and I made the heart cheesecake because the heart pan was the only thing we had.

--Camera shots…It was 10:15 and I didn’t want to do anything else....need I say more

--The pescone… mmmmm… yummy giant pastries the size of your head (don’t worry I didn’t eat both!

--P-day a couple weeks ago we made sushi and did yoga as a district... that was a lot of sushi

Working Hard!

2008-11-20T07:05:00.000-08:00

Dear Family, Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Well first and foremost, the baptism on Saturday went very well. The spirit was way strong and it was just incredible. I don’t really know what else to say about it other than it was incredible. Simone is such an amazing person and a great sense of humor. Right after he was baptized he turned to Marco (who baptized him… this is while they were still in the water) and asked if it was done or something like that. I’m not sure because I didn’t hear, but Marco nodded his head in the affirmative and Simone said "aiuto" which means help. Such a funny guy and so amazing. He is going to be a big help to the branch here.

This week has flown by as have the last 4 months. Can you believe that I’ve been in Italy for 4 months and out on my mission for 6??? So crazy how time flies. This afternoon we are taking a boat to Civitavecchia and then on to Rome where I have a "3 month conference", which is a conference for all the missionaries that have been out for three weeks. Um… ya what else is going on.

This transfer has absolutely flown by. We receive transfer calls next Monday and it is very possible for me to either stay here or to be transferred to another city.

Fun stuff… not a whole lot else going on just working hard!

Love, Anziano Daniels

Simone is ready for Baptism!

2008-11-20T07:03:00.000-08:00

Dear Family, Wednesday, October 22, 2008

So this morning the alarm went off a 6:10 because we had planned to go for a run over to Monte Urpino and then BOOM!!! thunder and lightning… so fun!. But my companion heard that and then wouldn’t get out of bed to run (he doesn’t really like running in the rain, where I, on the other hand love running in the rain) so I was kinda bummed about that but ....ya

This week has been good. Nothing as exciting as worm cheese or stuff like that, although Sunday was district conference and Elder Paio ( I think ) came and it was really good. And then there was a huge luncheon for just about everyone, and it was so good. They had turkey and mashed potatoes …so good (although we were dragging all the rest of the day thanks to the wonderful side-effects of the turkey) but ya so yummy.

Also something random on a depressing side note… at the beginning of the month an ATM ate 50 Euro (Took it out of my account and didn’t give me any money. I should get the money back eventually but...) and reimbursements for travel (40 Euro) haven’t come yet so I’m down 90 Euro altogether. So I’m probably going to have to use personal money to buy food and then pay myself back. Unless reimbursements came through last night. But ya, we shall see.

Simone is way ready for his baptism. We have an appointment with him tonight so ya :) good times! And then after that we have an appointment with a less active member (Silvio) who has cancer (but they can’t do much to treat him because he is too fat for the operation) so... I don’t know how all that works. I guess that’s kinda depressing but...

So random question… how many cats, rabbits, dogs etc. do you have in total? Should I just say how many animals do you have??

Can’t thing of anything else to write so Ciao

Love,
Anziano Daniels

Yummy Cheese ?!?!?

2008-10-16T07:39:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, Wednesday, October 15, 2008

So zone conference was this week and it was really good. And then after, we had an experience to remember! So there is this type of cheese that is "illegal" to manufacture and sell, but most cheese venders have it anyways. The reason that it is illegal is because its infested with worms, yup basically fly maggots. And its 18 euro a kilo, so its pretty expensive stuff. So just about everyone in the zone went in and bought a half a wheel (about a kilo and a half). So after zone conference we take a table outside on the front lawn of the church and open up the bag and first thing (oh my gosh… so gross) 3 flies fly out! So after that we pull the cheese out and there are just massive amounts of maggots just jumping around (literally jumping around). (And yes, President and Sister Acerson were still there. In fact Sister Acerson was taking pictures.) So ridiculous and nasty… but the cheese is actually really good! And if you put the maggots on your tongue they kinda feel like pop rocks just jumping around inside of you mouth. lol

But ya, so that was pretty much the most exciting thing that has happened this week. And as we were eating it President was there in the background saying this probably isn’t the most sanitary thing in the world and one of the assistants replied, "But President this is a cultural experience. Aren’t we encouraged to have cultural experiences?" To which President just shook his head and laughed. Also, the funnier part is that they took some home for their son to try.

But ya, on another note Simone had his baptismal interview and Anziano Ethington said it was incredible. And we finished the program and, ya, don’t know what else to tell you. Oh ya, so the ATM stole 50 euro from me (church card) so this month I’m 50 euro short, but I should get that money back within 120 days, but who knows? And also I am supposed to have a 100 euro what do you call it emergency fund ( I have $100 but that’s not very useful, so sometime this next week I will be pulling that out) I did also pull out 20 euro a couple of weeks ago which I thought I was going to need but ended up not. It was to pay for soccer when we went and played with a member. But ya, fun times! Gotta go! Bye

Love Anziano Daniels

A Temple in Rome!!!

2008-10-08T19:07:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Yup, it was incredible when President Monson announced the news about the Rome, Italy Temple. It seemed like he paused for a second, but that may have been me. All the missionaries were in one room watching it in English and all of us all basically shouted for joy. Then President Espis came and said, "What happened?" So I replied, "There will be a temple in Italy!" He was like, "For real? You must be joking, I don’t believe it." (I guess he was in his office doing something) Then I reassured him that it was true. But ya, so incredible!! General Conference was really good, although I wasn’t able to watch the last session (it plays from 10-midnight). By the way, thanks for sending me the article

That’s sweet that you got a green house thingymagigger. Out of curiosity, how hot does it get in there? And was that your trailer that you used or did you barrow it?

Um ya this week.... What happened this week…

Monday and Tuesday we were in Oristano on exchanges, so that was fun. And then when we were back in the train station in Cagliari, Anziano Burns was like, "It’s really weird seeing you sleep with your eyes open." So ya, Jared, you’re not alone. (I told him to take a picture next time.)

We were doing house last week and we knocked into an inactive member (who is the daughter of an active member whose son-in-law runs a bakery and gives us free bread). When she opened the door she was like "Anziani venite entrate" which is always weird when that happens. She asked if we could do a family home evening with them on Monday, which we did and it went really good. The cool thing was that there weren’t going to be any men there, so we invited another less active to come with us, and it was really good

Also with Silvio, he called us Thursday night and asked if we could have an appointment with us. That was really cool. We started teaching the plan of salvation and we read in 2 Nephi 2:19-27ish where it talks about the fall and stuff and that just really hit him. There is where we stopped talking about the plan of salvation and trying to help him with his problems....but ya where was I going.....ummmmummmmmmmmmmoh ya so ya it was good

Tonight we are doing the baptismal interview with Simone, so that should be really sweet. It was really funny we were just going over the interview questions last week and we got the question where it asks if you have ever killed someone and he replied, " Ya last week I killed 3 people, no well, actually 4. Three with the gun and one with a hammer." It was really funny. He is soo kool. (Yes, I know it’s spelled with a “c” but I spell it with a “k”)

Ya, what else… and then the pictures that I’m going to send you from my google account are from this morning when we went up to Devils Saddle again (myldsmail is really really slow).

Anyways…checking out

Love, Anziano Daniels

Pictures at Devil's Saddle:

Excited for General Conference

2008-10-08T19:05:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Well things are going good…ya things are good

But ya, I’m way excited for General Conference (although I might have to watch it in Italian, which would make for 10 hours of concentration=not fun) but we shall see. It’s kinda weird the hours for it. We get the Saturday morning session a 6 pm on Saturday night, then they record the Saturday afternoon and Priesthood sessions and play them Sunday morning at 11 and 2, then we get Sunday morning at 6pm, and then the Sunday afternoon... maybe we will watch next week....but I don’t know.

So that will be our Saturday and Sunday.

So Anziano Burns arrived Friday morning and ya things are going great.

I decided what I want for Christmas.... I want a cookbook of some kind (if you could rob that one from Sister Grenko and send it to me that would be sweet. (Or if she would be willing to give you a digital version, I could print it)

Um, ya, that was random,

That’s awesome that BYU is doing so well in the rankings.

Um ya, this week has been good. I don’t know what else to write really.. Simone is doing well and preparing for his baptism. :)

Thanks for everything

Love Anziano Daniels

A New Companion

2008-09-24T11:17:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Where to begin? How about starting at the end and then work backwards.

We just barely got back from the train station where the sisters and Anziano Taylor, my old companion (yes old companion), just left to go to Olbia to take a boat to Civitavechia and from there to Rome.....and this morning we went to the panificio (bread store) of a member here to say good bye and then he just starts giving us stuff. A kilo and a half of sard pasta for Anziano Taylor to take with him (you can only get it in Sardegna and it is way good) some candy and a bunch of bread (they always give us bread).

Yesterday we had English class and all of the students were sad to see him go. And before that we met Simone and Andrea to talk a little bit and say goodbye. And then we went to see the famiglia sanna (district president and family). And that’s all that really happened Tuesday.

As for Monday afternoon, we sent Anziano Bruno he lives in Sicilia but ya...and then Monday morning we were in ddm(district d... meeting) when President called with transfers and Anziano Taylor is going to Ostia which is about half an hour from Rome. My new companion is Anziono Burns, don’t know anything about him. then....blady blady blah

And now its Sunday night and we are with the famiglia Sanna having dinner for the last time with Anziano Bruno. (clams muscles whatever they are and really really good.) It was really funny. We were all going to meet in the park and then go over to the famiglia Sanna and we were there waiting. Anziano Bruno went crazy.. he was like "that lady that I just talked to could be my last contact in the park... then he stole all the Book of Mormon’s that we had and placed them all in like 10 minutes ... it was really funny. Also during church Simone and Andrea came it was really good.

Which now brings us to Saturday......

Saturday was incredible. Saturday night was the district priesthood conference. so all the missionaries went down that morning to do a "zone blitz" where all the missionaries go to one city to help out the work there. That was really fun and then for priesthood conference, Presidente Sanna has had this idea for a while, but all the members and missionaries (I can’t spell anymore) went on scambies (exchanges) and went out and did missionary work. Presidente Sanna said, "Now we are going to stop talking about missionary work and go do it..." It was really good and then we ended in a big piazza and we all sang hymns and then as we walked back to the church were all in a line singing different hymns. It was really cool.

Which now brings us to Friday and nothing too exciting happened. And then on Thursday we had an appointment with Simone and Andrea. Mostly it was about the pre-earth life, and then afterwards we set a baptismal date with Simone for the 25 of October (the week after district conference). So we are going to have it announced then (actually we were going to have it announce the week earlier but Presidente Sanna told us that it would be fine to do it in district conference.

poi Wednesday.....was p-day we went over to the Famiglia Maltese for dinner and they had these tomatoes with the middle dug out and filled with this tuna stuff....so gooood mmmmm

Ya.. so that’s pretty much my week... as for where we do email...there are 2 places where we go...one is free and paid for by the community called "centro giovane" and the other on is called pinochio where its like 5 cents a minutes or 3 Euro an hour. So not too bad, so where we go just depends on where we are and if we want to print anything because we can’t print anything from the free place.

Thanks for everything

Love Anziano Daniels

P.S. Wow that was a long email.

It’s already September 17?????? When did that happen?

2008-09-24T11:15:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, Wednesday, September 17, 2008

No joke! Where did the last couple of months go...? Its incredible how fast time flies!

Well this week has been kinda crazy. Last Wednesday, as you know (I think), we went and helped brother Duplano paint and move some furniture. And then on Saturday we went and helped him move some more and throw away some junk. And then on Sunday he came to church (he is less active), which was really good. Oh ya …then on Sunday we re-did the musical and it went really good although there weren’t as many people as there were last time. But it went well

That’s crazy that BYU killed UCLA so bad!

So last Friday we went over to the famiglia Locci for lunch (he is half American and half Italian) and for lunch we had pasta (of course) and them caniglio (rabbit) and pecore(sheep). Rabbit is incredibly yummy. The funniest part is that he had some root beer, which is just about impossible it find here in Italy (the only place that you can get it is at the American military bases). He got like 60ish cans about a year ago, when the base near here closed down. My companion and Anziano Ethington just about got drunk on it...it was hilarious. Speaking of rabbits, how is the rabbit growing going??

Also, when we redid the musical Simone's parents were able to come, which was good. He should be getting baptized really soon. He keeps saying that he will get baptized in October but that he doesn’t want to set a specific date. As of now so we are working with him.

la lingua sta venendo benissimo. posso capire quasi tutti che le persone dicono, e sta diventando piu facile parlare.

Wouldn’t you like to know what that says?? (Ask Brenda… she will probably be able to understand it)

Sorry this letter is so short and lame, but I can’t really think today :)
and thanks for looking into the absentee ballot

Love, Anziano Daniels

A Normal Sunday

2008-09-17T10:52:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Well all is well here. sounds like you all (voi=you plural) had a great time last week at the fair, That’s funny about the pottery. I did tell you that last year I almost sent a couple of pots to the state fair, but it was too much work :) so I didn’t send them.

What else.. oh ya, Sundays are..... Sundays. Depending on the day and the time of day, it takes anywhere from 30-45 minutes to get to church on the bus. So on Sunday we have to leave at around 8 to get there.....church starts at 9 (Priesthood first) then gospel principles or gospel doctrine and then Sacrament Meeting.. so pretty much the same here as it is there and all over the world. (Although it is interesting how the Italian standard time is even farther off than the Mormon standard time.) And then if the members don’t make us lunch (which they do quite often after church) we go home and eat lunch and then do language study. And then Sunday night we usually do the "mostra" just this thing with a bunch of posters about the church that we go and set up in a park and sing and talk to people. Its a great way to get the members involved in missionary work. (Although there are a few members who are a little crazy, but we don’t have to go into that). But that is a typical Sunday

This branch is really strong the district president is actually from the Cagliari branch (the district is the whole of Sardegna) The branch is amazing, although that’s not the way it is on the whole island...there are 2 branches on the island where missionaries are branch presidents.

New foods....nothing really after the pig that I sent you a picture of.

Also could you ask Brother Sullivan how long ago he was here and if he knows Antonio Sanna or Gionni Secci (Johny Sechy is how you say the name)

On Monday it was really funny. We went of the Famiglia Secci to help them move some furniture and then family home evening. It was really good, but really funny. While we were moving the furniture Brother and Sister Secci were bickering back and forth a little bit....and then what does he does the lesson on....unity. It was pretty funny.

Also this morning we got to go and help a less active member do some painting and move some furniture. Fun stuff.

Well just about out of time got to go...

Love Anziano Daniels

Zone Conference was great!

2008-09-17T10:49:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Well this week has been absolutely insane. Zone Conference was last Friday and it was really good. Some the elders from Olbia and Sassari (the northern part of the island) came down on Thursday night and we played a game of soccer with them, some members and Simone and Andrea. It was fun, but I re-learned why I don’t play soccer very much. During the game Anziano Bruno sprained his ankle pretty bad. He ended up going to the emergency room Saturday morning to see if there was anything really wrong, They told him to come back on Monday morning. So he went back and they put a cast on his ankle, which I think they did just to get rid of him. They wouldn’t give him crutches or even let him use a wheel chair to get out of the hospital (yay for nationalized health care). They told him that he has to have it on for 20 days... the interesting part is that he talked to the mission doctor who said that he should probably take it off, which he can’t do. A doctor has to do it, because if he does it, apparently it makes the church liable. (It’s a plaster cast, but is only hard on the back and under the foot the rest is just soft) anyways.

Things are going pretty good. This Sunday we are re-doing the musical in Sassari and then the week after that we are re-doing it here in Cagliari. And I thought that I was finished with it.

Oh ya, and this morning was wasted as well. We were supposed to go to the church with a member this morning to help him load some "stuff" on a truck to take away (old kitchen cabinets and chairs because they just got a bunch of new chairs for the chapel). He was supposed to pick us up at 7 and then we were going to take the bus home at 9. We wait like 10 minutes in the morning and he doesn’t show up, so we call him. He tells us that he can’t make it and so we have to take the bus to the church. (It takes 10 minutes to get there in a car, but 30-60 minutes in a bus). So we get to the church 10 minutes before 8 and the guy was supposed to be there around 8-8:15, so we are waiting and waiting. At 9 we call Fretello Carravagna and he says wait a half hour then go ahead and leave... so this morning we basically wasted 3 hours sitting around at the church,.........................but what can you do????

Oh ya and we started an English class last night. It was good. I heard two things that are interesting from the students (we teach the advanced students) and so we were just talking about things. One was about the hurricane that you mentioned in the letter and that it was heading for New Orleans again??? and the other was that McCain chose a woman from Alaska as his running mate?? is that true or...and while we are on the subject of the election could you find out about my absentee ballot and who do you think I should vote for....maybe President Monson...no Elder Oaks would be a better candidate because he was a judge wasn’t he??
Anyways, gotta go the pictures you sent me are great thanks.

Love Anziano Daniels

"My Turn on Earth" went great

2008-09-17T10:39:00.000-07:00

Hi! Wednesday, August 27, 2008

First off, this week has been great! Although, it is starting to get darker earlier, which is weird, but on the bright side it is cooling down more at night (I actually kinda need the top sheet now). No, we aren’t in a threesome anymore. I guess I wasn’t very clear about that.

The musical (My Turn on Earth) went great. The chapel was mostly full and not many members showed up, which means most of the people there weren’t members. (duh) So that was really good. (I need to send you some pictures).

Also, if I didn’t tell you, Simone actually played a part in the musical and one of his friends came to 2 or 3 practices and then the "show" and he asked Simone about the plan of salvation. I think he explained a little bit to him and then came to us and was like "what do I do ....I don’t know" so we invited his friend (I want to say that his name was Andrea but I’m not 100% sure) to our next lesson.

Simone also said that he wants to get baptized around the beginning of October, after school starts. So we are going to set a for sure date with him this week. Also, we are playing soccer (calcio) tomorrow with a couple of members and Simone and Andrea are coming to play also.

This week has been/will continue to be crazy. There was the musical last Saturday and we spent a lot of time on that last week and then Monday morning after ddm(district somthing somthing) we went to Oristano to go on scambies with the elders there and didn’t get back until last night around 9. And then today for pretty much all of p-day and the rest of the night we are going to be in Capoterra with members...so this should be fun/interesting.

And then tomorrow we have programming (planning but the word to plan is programmare so it just gets called programming) so that will take up the whole morning. And then on Friday we have zone conference all day. Another thing is that Anziani Chadwick and Wheeler are coming up on Thursday to do scambies with the Zone Leaders (for some reason that I don’t understand, the Zone leaders have to do scambies with every missionary in the zone.) But that should be fun cause I know Anziano Chadwick from school (he did cross country for a summer and track for half a season and then we did the unicycle thing together.) But yua, that’s pretty much what’s going to happen the rest of the week. Crazy.

Hope you are doing good

Love Anziano Daniels

Working in a Threesome

2008-09-17T10:37:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Well, since its 3 in the morning there I figure that iI probably won’t get your letter until next week....ma va bene...anyways

Last week was really long for some reason, I’m not sure why. Probably cause we were in a threesome and threesome's are weird. Anziano Bruno's new companion, Anziano Ethington arrived Friday morning without problems so that was good. And then we spent the rest of Friday cleaning the house.

Oh ya, really funny story: So Friday night we were all in Quartu (a little town about 20 minutes away from Cagliari) and we were all on a street singing. When people walk by we go and talk to them. So Anziano Bruno goes to talk the this older lady. She sees him coming toward her so she walks into the street on the other side of the parked cars, and so he walks into the street to cut her off....and then she ran away from him...it was one of the funniest things that I have ever seen,

What else… well Simone is doing good. He hasn’t come to church for the last 2 weeks because the bus he takes to come hasn’t passed....its pretty funny here in Italy. If someone doesn’t want to go to work they don’t! So some of the busses are unpredictable. The other day we (Anziano Taylor and I) waited for an hour for a bus that is supposed to pass every 10-15 minutes. But what can you do?

Well, gotta go. Hopefully I will here from you next week ;)

Love Anziano Daniels

Holiday in Italy means we Clean!

2008-09-17T10:35:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, August 13, 2008

Well I’m doing good. It is incredibly hot and humid here today. It is 37 degrees (around 98) with way too much humidity. This week has/will continue to be crazy. Right now we are in a threesome because Monday Anziano Zitzman took the boat to go to Rome because he is headed home. And Anziano Bruno’s (I hate European keyboards.. the apostrophe is by the backspace key) new companion won’t arrive until Friday morning. As I assume that you have gathered, I am staying here in Cagliari with Anziano Taylor for at least one more transfer.

And also the crazy part is that Friday is a huge holiday in Italy. So instead of going out and working, we have to stay in and clean everything in the apartment. They do it mission wide because it’s not very effective to go out and work because everyone is at the beach (where we can’t go) and all the stores are closed.......

With Simone we haven’t been able to set a baptismal date with him yet, but hopefully we will be able to this week or the next. He is also participating in the musical we are doing...(did I tell you about that) so his family will come to that to see him in it.

The musical is called "Il Mio Turno Sulla Terra" or “My Turn on Earth.” It is similar to “Saturday’s Warriors” or “It’s a Miracle” that someone translated into Italian. We have been spending a lot of time practicing that with the members etc. and doing publicity for it as well

What else? Oh ya, today we went to a cemetery with some potential investigators who's son served a mission in Catania and died in a car crash a few years back. It was really good. It is also interesting how the cemeteries are. They don’t bury many people, most everyone is in the walls. It’s insane how big it is....

Oh ya, Rachel I don’t have much pity for you…I was working 16 hour days :)

Yup gotta run!

Love Anziano Daniels

Something interesting to eat!

2008-09-17T10:30:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, August 6, 2008

Well snap! That’s no fun. I was just about done and the window closed on me for some strange reason, don’t know why. (I hate computers!)

So as I was saying, this morning we got up and first thing went to the Devils Saddle and did our studies up there. Then we hiked around for a bit and now we are here at the internet cafe. I will send you pictures later. I can’t do it from here on these computers.

Um…lets see..right now we really have only one progressing investigator. His name is Simone. He just barely turned 18 and he wants to get baptized. He asked his parents in the past, but his mom said that he has to wait until he is 18 (his dad is disillusioned with the Catholic church and doesn’t have a problem with it). We have an appointment with the whole family on Saturday, so hopefully we can help his mom understand why he wants to be baptized.

We also have a couple of less active members we are working with (inactivity is really high in Italy. There are about 250 members on the records and about 80 are active, although here is not as bad as in Nopoly where there are about 1000 members and only a branch of about 60 active members.)

We have been spending a lot of time doing finding work casa in casa or street or park, but ya, one thing that makes it a little hard right now is that during August almost everyone goes on vacation so not many people are around. And also there are a lot of people who are here on vacation.

Oh ya, I had horse for the first and second time this week and it is actually pretty good. Yummy...

Well gotta go,

Anziano Daniels

Sicilian pizza is incredible!

2008-07-30T13:10:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Well, things are going great. In answer to your questions, my favorite thing to eat this week was last night we went to a Sicilian pizzeria. It was incredible! It isn’t anything like American pizza, the crust is really thin and it is a lot better. And the worst thing wasn’t bad, but Fratello Carravagna (I don’t think I spelled that right (Fratello is brother)) made us a surprise lunch on Sunday. One of the courses was an octopus potato salad thing. It wasn’t bad, but it was definitely different. It’s interesting as the suckers just fall off in your mouth. yummy

Yesterday we were on the bus coming back from Quartu (a town that is about 30 minutes away and where a good portion of the branch lives). I was in the front of the bus sitting facing the back and in the back there was an old couple and then a man probably in his 30's or 40's sitting in the seat behind them. Anyways, the old couple stands up and closes the window because "lei sente male" she doesn’t feel good. You have to remember that it’s around 30-33 degrees (86-92 Fahrenheit) and way humid. So it escalated into a huge argument. It was just about all I could do to not bust up laughing. It was just so ridiculous - 3 people arguing and yelling at each other over a window. So after we get off the bus we both looked at each other and start laughing.

P-days we haven’t done anything really exciting. There aren’t tons of sights in Cagliari but two weeks ago I think it was we went over to the Vicidomoni's for a barbecue that we thought was going to be for a few hours .....it ended up being 5-6 hours although the food was really good. um lets see what else

Today we are going to play Risk and other games at the church as a district. Next week we are going to go to the Devils Saddle where the Sards believe that is where Satan landed when he was cast out of heaven (have I also told you that they believe that Sardegna is the first land that God created "la prima tera dio ha creato".)

Oh ya, one other thing we are doing - we are putting on a musical called "Il Mio Turno" or My Turn On Earth." It’s a musical comparable to Saturday’s Warriors or Its a Miracle. But it’s funny. The member that fed us lunch on Sunday, is intensely involved in making sure we do it perfectly because he was basically converted by the musical. Before he saw it he was actually anti church - he disliked everything about it, so hopefully the same thing will happen for some of our investigators .(Can you imagine me singing in a duet? Bad plan… especially when I can’t even say the words fast enough to go along with the music. At least it is for only one verse)

But ya, everything is going good

Love Anziano Daniels

Working hard in Cagliari (and getting sunburned)

2008-07-23T11:03:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Well things are going good; and yes, it is becoming easier to understand the language. As far as members of the church here, I’m not sure but as of now there are 18 missionaries on the whole island with 6 in Cagliari. The Cagliari branch has about 80ish active members and a lot of inactives.. Lets see… some of the people we are teaching-- Last Sunday we found Massimo, who I think is really prepared. After we taught him the 1st lesson (about the restoration) he said that he would like to believe it. So hopefully. Also we are teaching Simone, who is almost 18. He knows that it is true, but he isn’t sure how his family will react if he joins. So we are trying to work with them. Yesterday we went on exchanges and Anziano Taylor and Bruno stopped by their bar (Simone’s) (here a bar is comparable to a gas station store) and they lost the lease to the building. So they are closing down, but hopefully, sometime next week we can meet with the whole family.

Also during the exchanges I went with Anziano Zitzman and we went and talked to a lady who was sitting on a bench in the park all alone. When we first said hi she said that she didn’t want to talk (what she meant was that she didn’t want to be talked to about religion) so we asked if we asked how she was doing. Then we sat down and she just started to talk. We were talking to her for about 3 hours. She is just lonely because she is divorced and doesn’t really have any friends. She is really catholic, but she said that she was going to come to church with us on Sunday. In fact, she even asked if she could come before we had the chance to invite her. She said that all churches should be open to anybody and we said that ours is always happy to have guests.

Also, another side note from that - after sitting on the park bench for 3 hours my left arm and left side of my face are sunburnt Its kinda funny looking.

Before I forget, could you send me pictures of the family just doing stuff ( 4x6) because the members love to see pictures of our families. Or you could email me some pictures and I could get them printed here.

hmm lets see what else…Matthew, yes you can have the rock collection (as long as you don’t throw them:).

Well, gotta go!
Anziano Daniels

The work is good...the language is hard...the food is good!

2008-07-23T10:58:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, Wednesday, July 16, 2008

So its preparation day again and ya the work is good. The language is hard and the food is good. What else to say?

Well, my companion is the district leader so the last 2 days we have been doing exchanges with 2 of the elders in another city that is an hour train ride away. It was fun to see a little more of the island. The people in the ward are really nice and patient because it’s hard for me to understand what they are saying. It’s always hot and humid, although here in Cagliari there is almost always a wind so that does help out a lot. Last week I think it was 34 degrees (around 93 Fahrenheit), but what can you do?

Um… so wait, Sarah already has her braces off??? I thought she just barely got them on. Crazy!

Alan, Happy birthday (you’re getting old!) and a quick question. What years were you on your mission and did you know an Elder Bruno? His younger brother is in our apartment and we were curious..........

Random question… what happened to the last Indiana Jones movie why didn’t you buy that one as well. And that’s sweet that you got a couple of suits. On that subject..clothes here are so cheep its insane (not on Sardegna but the rest of Italy). In Pizza there is a place that you can get 5 ties for €20 (about 6-7 dollars a tie) and they are nice Italian ties. And my companion has a nice suite that he got for €60, so I think that I’m going to have to come home with a few (meaning a lot) nice ties and a suit or 2… but we will see.

Well, gotta go. Love you,

Anziano Daniels

Grandma,

That’s really funny about grandpa, but actually the Vatican wasn’t a part of the trip. I think we drove by but it was closed to the public. Hopefully I will get the opportunity to serve in Rome so I can go see it.

Love Anziano Daniels

First Letter from Italy!

2008-07-10T09:53:00.001-07:00

Dear Family, Wednesday, July 9, 2008

So sounds like you already know what’s up. Yes our bags were lost. They got left in London when we went to Rome... but what can you do other than not fly on British Air? But we had to wait in line for 3-4 hours (there were 25 or 30 Italian foreign exchange students who figured out what to do before we did so they were all in front of us in line) but ya so ....

It is maddeningly hot and humid here at night. I just sleep on top of the sheets not using any covers and unfortunately we aren’t supposed to use fans during the night che triste. There are 4 missionaries in our apartment and one of them (Anziano Bruno) is Italian and he is a way good cook! We all take turns making lunch and he always volunteers to help cause he likes to eat good.

Yes, we have taught a couple of lessons. One of them was to Simone, who has been taking the lessons for 2 years but his mother has been against him getting baptized. But he turns 18 in a month and we challenged him to pick a date for baptism. We shall see.

All this morning we have been running all around Cagliari trying to start the process to obtain my promesso di sogiorno (permission to stay), and we still aren’t done. If we don’t get it done by tomorrow… well I’m not sure what would happen if we don’t.

The Italian is hard to understand because they talk so fast, and then here on Sardegna they have their own dialect called Sard, which is absolutely impossible to understand. But they all know Italian, so no biggie.

Um… lets see what else. Oh ya, we arrived here on boat, but we almost missed it because it wasn’t planned very well. The original plan was to take a train from Rome to Citavecchia, but we didn’t have time so President Acerson drove us. It looks like he is learning to drive like an Italian… lets just say that it was crazy.

There are lots of incredible buildings here. but they are all covered in graffiti. One big culture difference is that the Italians have no concept of personal space. It’s kinda weird. anywho

Don’t know what else to say. I’m doing great! Love you all

Anziano Daniels

Anz. Daniels is in ITALY!!!

2008-07-06T06:26:00.000-07:00

New about Anziano Daniels

July 6, 2008

Hello all! Well, Greg has arrived safely in Italy! We were able to talk to him on Tuesday while he was in the Chicago Airport. (He had a 5 ½ hour layover) He sounded great and was so excited to be on his way to Italy. He did say that he had gained 10 lbs in the MTC!

I received some emails and pictures from Sister Acerson (Mission President’s wife) which you can read below.

Dear Parents, Thursday, July 3, 2008

We just wanted to send a quick note to let you know that your missionary arrived safely yesterday afternoon -- with no luggage. However, we're grateful to say that it all came just an hour before they were sent off to their new cities!

After arriving at the mission home, they had an interview with President Acerson and then we had our traditional lasagna and tiramisu dinner. We then took them on a short driving tour of some of the sights of Rome. Today they received a bit of training, met their trainers, and were sent off to their new cities to serve.

I will send another email within the next couple of days with pictures and mailing instructions, but wanted to just use this opportunity to let you know that all is well. They should be settled in their new cities as we speak.

Thank you for your love and support and especially your prayers. May God bless you for your sacrifice as you entrust your son or daughter to His care.

Con affetto,
President and Sister Acerson

Dear Parents, July 5, 2008

Here are some pictures of your missionary with President Acerson and I, with his new companion, and a picture of their group that will hang on our refrigerator for the next two years. As you can see, his companion is
Anz. Taylor and his first city is Cagliari.

Also, when sending letters and packages, please send them to the mission office at:

Missionary's name
Italy Rome Mission
Piazza Carnaro, 20
00141 Roma, ITALY

Mail will be delivered to the missionaries twice during the six-week transfer period: at zone conference and during interviews with the Mission President. It is not advisable to send mail or packages directly to their individual address because they may be transferred, making it necessary to forward their mail. Also, packages must be signed for and the missionaries are not usually home during the day when they are delivered.

Sending packages to Italy can be a costly procedure. The sender is usually required to make a declaration of the total cost of items contained. We ask you to be very cautious when writing in this amount, as the government may charge a 25% importing fee. The missionaries will then be charged for this cost. Anything valued at $0 or above $50 or a package that is insured is likely to be stopped at customs and additional customs charges may be applied before the package can be delivered.

If you have any questions, please let us know. Thank you for your efforts and sacrifice in sending your son to serve the Lord and the people of Italy with us.

Con affetto,
Sister Acerson

My Last Letter from the MTC!

2008-06-24T18:58:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, June 24, 2008

First off Last Thursday I received my travel Itinerary. So exciting! So I have to wake up at 3:00 in the morning next Tuesday and report to the travel office at 4:00am where we get on a bus to the airport and fly to Chicago O’Hare Airport landing at 11:30am. I have a 6 hour layover there and I fly from Chicago to London Heathrow leaving at 5:30 pm and arriving at 7:05 am. From there on to Rome, arriving at 12:40 pm there. Total travel time without time zones is ~22 hours, but I could be wrong. Anyways, it will be a long day.

So last week I think that I mentioned that this week is the seminar for the new mission presidents. The members of the Quorum of the Twelve are around to speak and teach them, and so tonight we are almost guaranteed to have an Apostle as the speaker for the general authority devotional tonight. But this morning as we were doing our laundry (we went outside to read cause it is really hot in the Laundromat) and Elder Perry and Elder Holland walked by. As they walked by Elder Holland said, "Hit it hard Elders." And Elder Perry said, "Looks like you’re studying the right stuff." to me and my companion. So that was the exciting moment of the day.

Lets see.....Wait… Brian is 26!?! Wow he is getting old! Just kidding! Happy Birthday Brian. (if you even read this).

So apparently Europeans don’t care too much about having good breath or smelling good, so toothpaste and deodorant are really expensive. Fratello Fife (one of our teachers) said that for the little half size sticks they are like 5 Euros or about $10 American. Crazy expensive…so if you could send me a bunch of that it would be awesome. (For the deodorant I like the Speed Stick Cool Fusion. Get half and half of antiperspirant and deodorant. That would be awesome. Also my watch broke, so if you could get me a cheap $5-10 one at Wal-Mart that would be awesome. I like Velcro.

What else to tell you. um...lets see what else to tell you all about. Today I get to go to the temple for the last time for the next 2 years. So that is kinda sad.

The Preparation Day in Rome is on Wednesdays, so I should be able to write you next Wednesday. But we shall see.

Love, Anziano Daniels

I will probably call you from the airport in Chicago because I have a 6-hour layover there. So I guess I’ll talk to you soon!

Buongiorno

2008-06-24T18:56:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, June 17, 2007

Yup, well things here are pretty much the same. I went and saw the doctor about my nose yesterday, and he gave me some saline solution nasal spray and some antibiotic ointment to rub up my nose. (I’m sure that will be enjoyable.) Hopefully that will solve the problems, but if not then I will have to go to an ENT to get it cauterized (lets hope not). Cumonque (anyways in Italian).. oh ha really funny…there is a word in Italian that is 27 letters long and means....swiftly. I can’t remember how to spell it, but I will go find where I wrote it down.

So far we have learned 7 of the 9 tenses we need to speak correct Italian, so we are almost there. One thing that is weird is that the written language is different from the spoken. The scriptures are written in what is called the "past remote" which is a tense that I will never use in daily conversation. And also the subjects (you, I, he, she, etc) are different, i.e. egli versus lui. But it’s definitely fascinating.

That is awesome that you have an exchange student coming. How did you sign up for that or how does that work?

Lets see, on Friday I get my flight plans or itinerary or whatever you want to call them, and 2 weeks from today I will be on my way to Italy! Finally after all this time I get to go and actually do some good.

Last Night we had to go to a "safety meeting" and some old guy talked for an hour and 15 minutes about how to sanitize food and other random stuff. The information he covered could have been done in 15 minutes and ... ya, I think that my time would have been better spent studying.

Lets see what else is going on at the MTC? So next week is the training session or whatever they call it for the new mission presidents. So for the devotional on Tuesday we are pretty much guaranteed to have a member of the Quorum of the Twelve speak to us because for that week they have them coming and going all week for the training of the new mission presidents. (At least that’s what I’ve heard from my teachers.)

Well I’m not sure what else to say so....have fun and enjoy the sun.

Love, Anziano Daniels

Another epistle from the MTC

2008-06-12T06:42:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, Tuesday, June 10, 2008

You are correct, not much new on my end. And yes, I do do the same thing every day. Well I ran into Joe Brinton the other day. I’m not sure if I told you or not. But ya he is going to the Ukraine Russian speaking. And I keep running into people that I know from high school.

As you know, we do have a gym period every day, and they do have a track up top that goes around the building, I tried running, but after a couple of days my hip started to hurt because the retarded gym instructors don’t bother changing the directions that you run every day, so I stopped running. But what I mostly do is play four-square because of 2 reasons, all of the uncoordinated people (I’m not necessarily excusing myself from that group) play and second, I don’t have to exert very much effort to play. It is the dirtiest cheapest game I have ever played, but it is entertaining.

Callie, Happy Birthday! Sorry I forgot about it, but being at the MTC is like a time warp. It’s so crazy that I’ve been here for 6 weeks already.

So yesterday the "Oldest" district left, and we get 2 new ones tomorrow. So now we are the oldest district. It’s so crazy! It seems like I just got here yesterday.

Oh ya, what are you planning on doing with all the rabbit cages? I would assume that you are planning on raising rabbits, but for what purpose?

I did figure out what my favorite scripture is but I’m pretty sure that it won’t fit on the little plaque. I decided that the whole Book of Mormon should be engraved on it, then I could have my own set of "Gold Plates" But really, I haven’t decided on which one I want.

My nose is really weird. Last week I think it bled once or twice not nearly as much as the week before. So I don’t know. But while we are on the issue of health care, I have to get a shot sometime this month. I guess that I will just pay for it ($50 I think) and send you the receipt so you can bill the insurance. (I think it works that way)

Time's a ticking (literally it is counting down in red numbers) lol anyways got to go!

Buona fortuna con tutti le cose che fate.

Con tutti dei mia ama

Anziono Daniels

Still learning and speaking Italian

2008-06-09T06:24:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Happy birthday Jared! Hope its a good one.

It was great to hear all about the fam and what everyone is doing.

Yesterday when we taught the first lesson. It was really good, although it is hard to get the "investigator" more involved in the lesson when I can barely speak their language. But other than that it was really good. Funny story… after we were done teaching and Sorella Dahl (our teacher) was giving us some feedback, she said that something must have gotten lost in translation (just using it as a saying). But literally, some things did get lost in translation! (I guess you would have had to been there.)

Last week for the General Authority devotional we had Ann M Dibbs who is in the General Primary Presidency, and is also President Monson's Daughter. It was really neat to hear about the prophet from the perspective of his daughter. He really does have a great sense of humor. I don’t know if you remember, but a while back in one of the conferences he said something about how smart red heads were or something to that effect. Well she showed us a picture that he received shortly after that comment. It was of Pres. Monson that someone had photoshopped and given him a full head of bright red hair. It was one of the funniest things that I have ever seen.

Well lets see what else has happened this week.

Oh ya the other day I ran into Elder Brinton (Joseph) during lunch or dinner, I cant remember. But it was really cool. He is headed to Ukraine Russian speaking, so he is going to be here for 3 months (poor kid).

Last week I finished the Book of Mormon, and it is amazing how many new things that you get out of it every time you read it. Now I am focusing on the New Testament and taking a page out of Rick’s book and marking all of the JST's in a different color from all of the other markings so that they stand out. It really is amazing how many of the "plain and precious things" have been taken out of the Bible.

Well time is counting down and I have to go.

Love you lots,
Anziano Daniels

(The pictures you tried to send didn’t work because the computers here at the MTC are locked down so that you can’t do anything on them but specifically what they want you to do. (naughty me.. yes I have tried a little bit to get around this but nothing too in depth) So, yes, you are correct, I can’t get to the family blog.)

Still Learning Italian!

2008-05-29T06:26:00.001-07:00

Dear Family, Tuesday, May 28, 2008

So first off the Italian is coming along pretty good. So far we have learned 4 of the 15 tenses for conjugating verbs, but we learn 13 of them and will only use about 9. If you want to speak grammatically correct, you have to use 13. But the Italians only use 9 so ... we shall see.

The elders in my district - well most of them are from Utah and Idaho, one is from California and one of the sisters is from Nova Scotia, Canada. Four of us are going to Rome and the other 6 are going to Milan.

Preparation day is more of a day to do laundry than anything else (at least it is for us) because the General Authority Devotional is on Tuesday nights. so that cuts out of our time a little bit (I think. but I’m not sure, I would have more time if we had p-day on a different day)

So last Tuesday the oldest district left and we got a new district of 14 Elders and Sisters, who are all going to Catanya (i really don’t know how to spell that) Its all the way down at the south end of Italy. But they can’t mix them with missionaries from Milan and Rome because they speak in a tense called "Past Remote" which is almost never used up in the other missions.

Congrats to Robin and Alan on the new baby boy. And if I can make a suggestion to the name I think that he should be named after me… So maybe Benjamin Gregory.....lol JK

That really sucks about your root canal, but at least you’re doing better and the problem is taken care of.

18 Rabbit Cages. WOW What are you going to do with all those rabbits. Are you going to make rabbit jerky or maybe rabbit skin gloves. (sorry for suggesting that Sarah)

I understand about the weather, its been exactly the same here, but I rather enjoy it cause it cools the classrooms down a good bit and at the large meetings it is a lot cooler. um,

Well lets see what else is there to tell you about. um oh ya mom if there is room in that box could you send me a jump rope or something I can use as a jump rope.

Oh ya, every Monday we go to the TRC and teach an "Investigator" (volunteer who speaks Italian) one of the lessons. Up until now we have been teaching in English, but next week we have to do the whole thing in Italian. Crazy Right! Anyways I’m out of time so… (remember the 30 minute thing)

Love you all, And thanks for the prayers

Anziano Daniels

2008-05-20T16:47:00.000-07:00

Hi all, Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Well lets see what has happened in the last week that’s new. I am still spending 10 hours a day in that same little classroom. There are 3 Sets of Italian missionaries, one comes in every 3 weeks, so the older district left last night. It was kinda sad and I am way jealous, but I get to leave in 6 more weeks. We get a new district tomorrow. So it will be nice to not be the noobs any longer. Incredible that it has already been 3 weeks! Crazy how time flies.

As far as what else I need sent to me in that box, how about some real food? JK The food here isn’t great, but it isn’t that bad. Breakfast is usually not palatable so I just eat a bagel with cream cheese and a bowl of cold cereal.

So crazy story last week… after a fireside I ran into an elder who I did "Who's on first" with at EFY four years ago. It was really weird, but it was kinda cool.

Gli italiano è venendo, poco a poco.

Too much work to try and write too much Italian when I have a timer counting down how much time I have left to write.. Well what else is there to write........... um la chiesa è vero e gesù cristo e il mio salvator

Con amore,
Anziano Daniels

PS Sorry the letters are so short but there isn’t a whole lot that happens in the MTC. All I do is eat and read, eat and read, eat and read then sleep and start over. Once I get to Italy they should get better:)

May 13th Letter

2008-05-16T09:00:00.000-07:00

Dear Family, May 13, 2008

That’s good that you had a good time in Texas. Its crazy that I have been here 2 weeks already, but its been really good. The Italian is coming. They just keep throwing stuff at you and I hope that I catch enough of it to survive. The weather is so crazy. Yesterday it was pouring in the morning and in the afternoon it was a bright sunny day. Um, yes, I got you letter from the other week, I just don’t have time to reply during the week. They keep you so busy here its crazy. That quote on the Holy Ghost is really good. I like it, thank you. As for my favorite scripture, I still haven’t figured it out but...I will eventually. Tell Steven that that is awesome that he is doing so well. That’s good that you got cats, but why did you have to let Sarah name them? Jk!

Anyways, um well I got the top bunk and its sweet cause it is. I don’t know, I just like having the top bunk. And for the record, I have not and will not try the orange juice here. Everybody keeps saying that people have gotten sick from it, but I don’t know if I believe them. But I don’t like orange juice enough to care to test out the rumors.

Um… lets see what else to say? Its interesting how nobody told me that you spend most of your time in a classroom with a bunch of other missionaries. Way too much time in a little classroom!!

Sorry this letter is so short, but you know me…not a big talker. Oh ya also did you go to Superior and get my last check and don’t forget to pay that tithing. (Also ask Blain if Chad had ever decided to give me that bonus he promised me.)

The church is true,
Love
Anziano Daniels

First email from the MTC

2008-05-16T08:56:00.000-07:00

Hi Family, May 6, 2008

Well week one at the MTC is over and I finally have a preparation day (they want us to stop calling it p-day for some reason I’m not really sure) So I am writing this while I do my laundry. . . so I only have half an hour to do this, then the computer kicks me off. Its kinda weird having a timer count down while I write this.

This week was amazing. I have started learning Italian, and a lot of the concepts with the verbs and such are really similar to Spanish. As well as the Italian, we have been working on lesson one in Preach My Gospel, which centers around the restoration. Last night my companion and I went to the TEC (teaching evaluation center) where you give the lesson to one of the teachers, then they give you feedback on how you did and the ways you could improve. Anyway, so we went in without our notes because Sunday night in the fireside we had the opportunity to listen to brother. . . I cant remember his name, but he was on the committee who wrote preach my gospel. He talked about how as missionaries we should let the spirit guide us let us be "Used" by the Lord and then the spirit will direct us with what to say and what scriptures to share. Well last night my companion and I took that step of faith and went into the lesson without our notes. It was amazing how strong the spirit was last night. The teacher, Brother Luke, didn’t have much feedback as to what to give us because we had the spirit with us, and that is the key point to teaching successfully.

The rules concerning email at the MTC are that I am allowed to receive email from anyone, but I am only allowed to reply through email to Family members. And I only have time on Tuesday mornings to read and write emails. So if you could have them in my inbox Monday night, that way I can log on in the morning and print them off and read them without wasting my half hour that I have to write emails.

Real letters are still appreciated but not necessary. Anyway, times up.
The Church is true.

Love,
Anziano Daniels

THE First Post

2008-04-28T21:20:00.000-07:00

Well. . . .this is the real blog from Italy. I am officially turning this blog over to my Mom so that she can use it to post my letters for the world to see.