New Years!

We've had a busy week here of course. New Years!!

The pictures I sent are of New Years Eve. Of course we could only stay out until nine, and at that point the streets were completely dead, so we decided it was the only opportunity we would have to take photos on that street.

I'm on that street about every day. haha.

We woke up that night at midnight because it sounded like someone was bombing the city! I guess they don't have very many restrictions here as far as fireworks so pretty big ones were being shot up throughout the whole city for about half an hour. It was pretty.

The next day, New Years, was one of three big cleaning days we have every year here in the mission. So we spent the entire day cleaning the apartment!! I'm gaining a lot more of an appreciation for mom. We always get tons of little dust balls everywhere that are horrible to clean up.

We have been eating some awesome pasta lately. Pretty soon I'll start learning how to make some things. I could probably make a basic pasta now if I had to.

This week I went to Castrovillari on splits with Anziano Rogers. He's from Lindon, Utah. That was the second time we've been on splits together, and we're doing them again today!! haha. So, obviously I had the chance to go up to Castrovillari. It's a pretty small town, but it's pretty nice. We did a lot of advertising for their English course. Ours starts tonight!! I'm stoked.

Anyway, we had a sweet lunch appointment with a lady that has been investigating the church for almost a year. haha. She was really nice and we read about the Liahona with her. Hey, that reminds me!! Guess what! I totally met a girl named Lia the other day, and she spells it the same! That was sweet. She didn't have any interest in the church though. haha.

While I was in Castro we also met an awesome potential investigator named Maria. And get this: She's from Cosenza!! So I might get to teach her tonight, and she also wants to come to English course.

I had a sweet Kebab here the other day. It's the second one I've had here. The first one was horrible. Couldn't even compare to Australia's, but the one I had the other day was really good. I love Kebabs. We really need to get those in St George!

Anyway, things are all going great here in Italy. I've been trying something with my prayers that has been really cool. Whenever you ask for a blessing, give the reason why you want that blessing. For example, please bless me with health so that I can be as effective as possible in my missionary work. It helps you think about why you really desire something to happen, and then you can know if it's really a righteous desire.

So far my biggest struggle has been exercising in the morning. But I've been able to kind of make up for it by exercising in the afternoon.

I don't think I ever told you about our schedule! So we have study from 8-10 in the morning. Personal one hour, and companion one hour.

Then we come home from 1:30-4pm. We eat lunch an hour, study an hour, and have half an hour to take a nap.

Then we go out again until 9, come home and plan, eat, and go to sleep at 10:30.

When we're home in the afternoon all the shops are closed and no one is out anyway. At first it may seem that we get an extra half hour than other missions, for that nap time. As it turns out though, we actually work for half an hour MORE!! haha. Because they get an hour for dinner that we don't. haha. So that was an interesting realization.

Now me and my companion are replacing that half hour of napping with working out though, because he goes home in April so he has to get buff. haha.

Thank you for your support, your prayers, and for your e-mails and letters. It takes mail forever to get here!

Love,

Anziano Banks.