TRANSFERS!!

Whew.

Well this was a ridiculously eventful week. hahaha. So, we got a surprise call on Thursday night, and found out that Anziano Connell was being transferred to Bari!!! We really thought he would stay here because he has relatives and he only has two more transfers in the mission.

My new companion is....Anziano Wood! and....Anziano Sadler!! haha. I'm now in a threesome. It's a little different. Anziano Sadler is the one I've been on splits with. He'll only be our companion for three weeks until his companion comes in, because he is getting an Anziano from Italy. Anziano Wood is from Birmingham, England. I think he has a very strong accent, or at least it's a lot stronger than Anziano Connell's Australian accent was. The Australian couple is still in our city and they have a pretty strong accent as well. haha.

Good news: Missionary work in Consenza is moving forward! We found out what is holding back Carlo from baptism, all we need to do for Gina is set a baptismal date, and we have some other investigators that we just need to teach a lot more and they have been making progress. The other day a man on a bicycle actually stopped us and said he wanted to meet with us because he wants to find the truth and so he wants to learn about our church.

That was sweet.

Also, for the next three weeks I'm serving in Castrovillari half of the time because they have work up there that we need to do. haha. It's really crazy. This next transfer is going to fly by.

And then...I'm probably going to be moved to another city after this next transfer!! Vediamo.

Weather hasn't been too horrible. It was quite sunny today, but it gets really cold at night. I think we'll return to the strategy that me and Anziano Connell had. We would just try and have lots of lessons in the evenings so we wouldn't have to be out on the streets.

Everything in Italy is going great. I'm enjoying myself, I'm developing, and at least the next 3 months are going to fly by. Although I get the feeling the rest of the mission might be like that.

Anziano Connell will be greatly missed here in Cosenza. We had meal appointments just at least every lunch and dinner before we left, and we even got a breakfast appointment!! It was really crazy.

Being here really makes you appreciate America.

For example, showers. I have to rinse, turn it off, shampoo, turn it on, rinse, off, soap, on, rinse...It's a hassle. We have limited hot water.

We also have to carry six packs of big bottles of water for drinking. So that's pretty crazy.

Water in America is awesome! I also don't have any McDonalds around here! All we eat is noodles all the time!! haha. Okay, so that really isn't so bad.

But I also miss cheap stuff. It's hard to find cheap stuff here. Unless you go to the chinese stores.

Speaking of which, I have some Chinese pamphlets on order and on the way! So that's exciting.

Have a great week!

Con Affetto,

Anziano Banks

P.S. We've been doing a lot of SYL. It's going really well I think. I don't always speak perfectly, but I feel like I can express myself pretty well. I really miss Anziano Connell's Italian accent now.