Gela???

So I've been transferred. It was crazy. I really loved the trip down here. I wish I could say that I loved the city though! hahaha.

(Gela is on the bottom/middle on the coast)

On Wednesday night it was pouring rain, and I went down to Taranto. I rode with two sister missionaries on the bus ride down (i know, it was weird). In Taranto I stayed the night, and Anziano Garcia was there!That was awesome. He had had lunch appointments and dinner appointments every day since he got his transfer call, so he still hadn't packed!! I wasn't very tired, so I decided to keep him company and help him pack. Needless to say, I only had a couple hours of sleep that night. It was a blast! Anziano Garcia is totally hilarious.

The big joke is that Anziano Garvin got transferred to MALTA. They say he'll only be there for a few transfers, but before they were planning to send missionaries over there to stay more than a year. Anziano Garcia thought it was pretty funny.

President calls, "Hello, Anziano Garvin?
"Yes?"
"You've been transferred to...Alcatraz."
*click*
"What? Where's that? There's no Alcatraz in our mission....wait...no!!!!!!"
hahaha. And other things like that. I'm sure Anziano Garvin will completely love it there though.

The next day I rode the bus to Catania. It was a beautiful ride. It was also a very long (9 hour) ride. I slept a bit, and then arrived in Catania. There I ran into:
Anziano Rowland!!
We rode the same bus to Agrigento. That was probably the best bus ride I've had in my life. I love Anziano Rowland. He's been in Crotone, and now he's in Trapani. We had a great time sharing different experiences. We stayed the night in Agrigento. That house is pretty famous in the mission. It's well-known for being one of the worst houses. hahaha. It didn't seem too bad...but I hear that they frequently have water problems. There was a pump that seemed to always be working there.
After spending the night there, it was finally time to go to Gela. We have a car, so we started loading it up. . . My companion locked the keys in the trunk . . . so we got a ride from the Zone Leaders over to Gela to get the spare, and then came back to get the car.

I had to drive. Why did I have to drive? Because my companion doesn't even have a license!! So I'm always going to have to drive. I told him I think we should start riding the bus. haha. Driving in Italy...what an experience. I think it's something like Taiwan. They say that it's just Sicily that's like this, but there are pretty much no rules. The good news is that it is also like Taiwan in the sense that I think there are few serious accidents. I wish I could ride a scooter instead of a car. Way less stressful. (Seriously though, I've been avoiding using the car as much as possible).

My companion is Anziano Destefanis. He's from a city named "Bra." It's somewhere in northern Italy. He kind of reminds me of my cousin Mark.
Speaking of Mark, is he going on a mission yet? Also, my companion doesn't speak a word of English! I'm trying to help him learn, but he doesn't really want to.

Anyway, the city of Gela is crazy. I don't like it. Don't misunderstand me though, it's not the people, it's the actual city. The layout is horrible. When I was in St. George we had very well organized streets. A nice grid system. Bari was more or less like that. I could find my way anywhere. Gela is basically the opposite. The map of Gela just looks silly because it's so random. On top of that, we have a car because there are lots of nearby cities that we visit. To make it worse, all the cities are on different hills in the area. The car is a stick, and all I do is drive up and down hills all the time....it's crazy. I like walking.

My last district had ten people. When I found out I was coming here, I quickly discovered that our district is only four people, us and the sisters. Then I realized that Sorella Miller (from my MTC district) was in our district!! She was in Ragusa!! I was totally stoked to be in the same district because we would see each other every week at district meeting and it would awesome! (I also haven't seen her since the beginning of this year). Well. Sorella Miller got transferred. TO BARI.
haha. So she's not in my district. Our district is still pretty cool though. We have Sorella Jenkins who was actually in my district in Bari, and then there's Sorella Foote. She's pretty funny. She's from Reno. A really happy person.

Anyway, I guess it's pretty cool that I get to experience Sicily at last. I have to admit, it was really hard to leave Bari. One thing that helped was the last talk given by Elder Wirthlin. It was given in one of the conferences of 2008. I read it in Italian, but I think in English it's called "Come what may, and love it."I'm not 100% sure about the name. But it's an awesome talk. I love it.

Another thing about Gela is they have a funny accent here. When they ask questions they dramatically raise their voices. It's not a Sicilian thing, just something they do in Gela. I hope I don't pick it up.
Example: Are you from GelA?
It's funny. The house here is alright. It's a total mess though. The Bari house was a lot cleaner. I think that within a week I'll have this house looking really clean. I can't stand how messy it is. I know...doesn't sound like me, haha.

Anyway, I hope that you're all doing well. I keep you in my prayers.

Love,
Anziano Banks

P.S. Unfortunately I don't have time today to send more. Sorry. No pictures...