Foggia

So things are going pretty well here in Foggia. It's a HUGE city. At least it sure seems like it because we walk a ton more than Cosenza. They used to have bikes here, but then one got stolen and no one ever replaced it. It's a real shame because all this walking is crazy.

This week I attended church here! It was pretty crazy. It's going to take me awhile to get to know all the members because there are so many! It also means that we're going to be able to get a lot more referrals and help with the work.

It's definitely a different experience. We also have a bigger English Course and that started back up this week. I'm going to be teaching the advanced course, which basically means that I'm just going to be chatting with people. I think I'm going to bring some Liahonas or something to give them something to read. Right now I have about 5 students in my class, but my students want to invite more. Anyway, the other classes have a ton more students. Intermediate has about 15 and Basic has around 10.

This city has a lot of things established. For example, we actually go and do service! We go to the mensa (it's like a soup kitchen) and help them serve food and clean up once a week. It's alright.

There are a lot of things that are established as far as missionary work that seem to be more of a hindrance than a help. For example, we have a housing zone, but it's about a half an hour walk away! Which seems like a really ineffective use of time to me, so I probably won't be doing a lot of house here. Basically it's a little bit harder to be creative and stuff when there are lots of things already established. But I think I should be able to make things work. I know, you'd think it'd be a good idea to keep things how they are, but not if it's not very effective. There are definitely some things that could be improved on. We'll see.

My companion also loves to go "Chinese Hunting" where we go around to Chinese stores proselyting. He wants to do it every day, but we decided we'll just do it a couple times a week. It actually seems to be really effective, except it also means a lot more work for me because I have to do all the teaching with the Chinese. I also need to improve my Chinese, so now I do a half hour of Chinese language study every day. I already do an hour of Italian, and this is in addition to that. Most missionaries take a nap in the afternoon during our lunch time, and instead of that I just study. It works out pretty well.

Anyway, so we met someone yesterday that told us his day off from work is Wednesday (our P-day) and that he wants to take us to historical sites around Foggia, so we'll probably go do that next week or something, which will be awesome.

Everything's good here. I love you. I'm praying for you. I'm learning a lot and growing, and have a great week!

Love,

Anziano Banks!