Transfers!

I got transferred!!! Of course, it always seems to work that way -- right when you start to really like a city you get transferred. But, I'm still really happy because I'm going to an awesome ward of about 70 members. They also just had a few baptisms, and so I've heard that the members are excited about missionary work. It's only about an hour or so away by car - Bari!! There are actually two wards there. I'm in Bari - Libertà

This week has been pretty awesome. If I had to choose a highlight it would definitely be Sunday night. First, we gave the sacrament to Fratello Manzo at 5 pm (he can't come in the morning because of health problems). Then we went with him to talk to a couple of his friends about the Gospel. On the way over some man stopped to talk with us. He kept rambling on about what the Bible says, and then we asked him if he knew anyone who would be interested in hearing about the Plan of Salvation.

He reluctantly brought us to talk to a lady that he takes care of that was sitting on a park bench. He told us she probably wouldn't want to talk to us. We walked over, and she was thrilled to meet us!! She used to have a pen pal in Germany who had served a mission here. She told us to come over to her house to teach her next week, and she had another friend sitting next to her that wanted to know more as well. So we left them and headed to go talk with Fratello Manzo's friends (after giving each other high fives of course)!

When we met the first lady she was about 80 years old and told us that she didn't have interest. Then we decided to explain more about our message to her, and she decided that we could come back and tell her more! As we were leaving her sister pulled up, and we were on a roll, and shared the gospel with her too! It turns out that she used to feed the missionaries lasagna every week!!! (years ago)

After giving each other high fives, we went to talk to Fratello Manzo's next friend.

She was very sad because she has a 45 year old son that doesn't do anything but give her trouble. We told her about the gospel, and she started crying, and in the end she said we could come back! It was a night totally full of success! There are times of disappointment in missionary work as well, but not this week! It was awesome.

On Monday we did FHE at Sorella Corvino's house. She's totally awesome, and she has a great house. We had a pretty good turnout at that activity. It's great to get members and investigators together to have some fun.

Last week we also went to Sorella Corvino's neighbor to help do some yard work. It went really well. I hate to admit this - but I miss doing yard work!! It's nice every once in awhile. (don't worry though dad, you can feel free to finish the yard up before I come home) It was really funny. All of us used dish-washing gloves!!! hahaha. It was a little bit crazy. We were basically just clearing weeds. We also ended up moving about 20 stepping stones!! I felt like I was just at home again.

Transfer calls were really crazy. We didn't know when president was going to do them, and he ended up calling Sunday morning at 7:30 am!! haha. Thankfully we do a good job getting up at 6:30 every day. But there's no way I'm going to maintain that after my mission! It's crazy!

Overall, I've had a great experience here in Foggia. I was really surprised to have the same companion the whole time, and then to get transferred before him, but I'm content. I feel like I was able to help a lot of people here, I love this ward, and it's close enough to Rome that if I visit there I could visit here easily.

I'm slowly moving to bigger and bigger cities. First I served in Cosenza and Castrovillari with 15 members and 1 or 2 members, respectively. Then here in Foggia with 40-50 every sunday. Next is Bari with around 70 (as far as I've heard). Maybe after that I'll be ready for a big ward like Rome!!  (who knows!)

Thank you for all the support that you give me.

I know that this church is true, I know that Jesus Christ lives, and I know that he is the leader of His church, the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Love,

Anziano Banks

p.s. Have a great week!