Bellissima famiglia mia!!!

Vi voglio un mondo di bene!! I'm just loving my life so much. I'm going to tell you a little about what I've been up to lately.

 

 

 

Well, my life has gotten pretty crazy. We definitely don't get a normal sleep schedule, but we have permission to find nap time or to sleep in whenever we can (which isn't too often!!) haha.

 

 

 

Check this out: I went to Sardegna!!! It was totally awesome and beautiful. We took the 10:30pm - 6:00am ferry that runs from Civitavecchia (near Rome) to Olbia. Unfortunately on the ride over we got stuck riding these big chairs. It got pretty cold around 4am so I had to put on my jacket.

We arrived in Olbia on Sunday morning and we went to church there. After church we went to eat with......Anziano Branca!!! Well, ex-Anziano Branca, now he's just Alessio Branca. That was awesome. I felt like I was meeting up with him after the mission or something because we talked about the mission as a thing in the past, haha. We both served in Bari and in Gela, so we had a lot to talk about. I don't know if you remember this, but he was my Zone Leader while I was in Foggia, and then I took his spot in Bari.

So anyway, then I went on splits with Anziano Andersen. He’s a total stud. He’s in his first transfer, so he’s been in Italy about 2 weeks and he speaks Italian really well for how long he’s been here, and he has no fear at all. No fear in the sense that I was really impressed with how he talks to everyone because usually new people, and actually just a lot of missionaries in general don’t put themselves out there a lot, but he was totally talking to tons of people. We had a great time together, and we had a lot of success finding like 8 people in a just a couple hours that told us they want to meet with us again.

The next day we had District Meeting and they asked us to talk to them a little about finding people and power approaches. I just love talking to people and finding people to teach. It was the perfect topic. Anyway, then I was on splits with Anziano Canuzzen. He has it written like that on his nametag because that way Italians can read it! Ha! It’s actually Knuteson (I think).

Then after our great trip to Sardegna, on the train ride back I had a cool experience. I was sitting there (around 7 morning, or 6-something) and I had the opportunity to share the gospel with a lady that sat down next to me. So I start talking with her, bore her my testimony, and gave her a pass-a-long card (I wanted to start teaching her or get her number, but it didn't work out). So then I see this guy that keeps looking over, and I go ahead and hand him a pass-a-long card too, and then he gets off.  Next, I glance behind me and there's this African lady from Congo named Jenny sitting behind me, so I decided to strike up a conversation with her. She turned out to be interested, and I passed her phone number onto the Sister missionaries in Ladispoli! How awesome is that?? I love travelling because it’s a great opportunity to meet new people. I also love pass-a-long cards. They're great.

Today in Rome was great too. I love the Kelly family. We went by there today to grab some mattresses that we're bringing down to Napoli with us, and then we'll be on splits there. Yeah, you read that right, I have to go soon because unfortunately I have to go to NAPOLI!!! (hahaha, unfortunately, yeah right ... I'm going to be eating the best pizza in the world tonight).

Sorry I don’t have time to tell you more, but I have to train people on how to drive right now. HA! Then we’re off to Napoli!

I love you a ton. I love Rome!!

Love,

Anziano Banks

: )