Hey!

How are you doing?

 

I'm really enjoying serving in Rome. Today we went to the Colosseum, and walked around downtown looking at some different things. It was a blast. We were with a little group of us missionaries, and we actually ran into a bunch of others that we took some quick photos with before they went off to do their thing. There was a member from Ostia that was showing us around just a little bit. He was a great tour guide, but I realized that I'm just not really the type of person who enjoys tour guides. I was mostly just happy to be hanging out with so many other missionaries.

 

You may notice from the photos that I have a pretty silly looking short hair cut. Well, we went over to help this less active member move some furniture and he also happens to be a hair stylist. He ended up insisting that we let him cut our hair. So next thing I know he had already cut all the way up the side, and it was too late to say anything. Haha. Yikes. That guy is a real character. He told me that I have the kind of personality that I could be President someday, or a CEO. He also told me that he thinks that if someone is in good shape then a 60-yr-old can date a 40-yr-old. hahaha, and the 60-yr-old has too much energy for the 40-yr-old. haha. He's crazy.

Anyway, I guess the most exciting thing going on right now is transfer calls are on SATURDAY!! I think I'll be staying here. I think my odds are something around 90% that I'm staying. That's my guess.

So in this last week I've started getting really good about taking photos. I mean REALLY good. I think I took almost 200 photos. hahaha. But obviously they're not all good, so I'm going to try to send you only the best.

I'm going to try and give you decent explanations of each photo.

 

This is when we went to get the Sisters because the rain was so intense. We were driving home (very very slowly), and we thought to ourselves, I wonder if the Sisters are home yet? At the time I was actually driving, and I had the wipers going as fast as they possibly could and they still weren't doing the job. So anyway, Anziano Garvin called them and it turns out that they had just rung someone's intercom to see if they could go in because they were getting drenched. We went and picked them up, and just in the 3 seconds or so that we were out of the car it was raining so hard that it was as if someone had dumped a bucket of water on each of us! IT WAS NUTS. That was pretty exciting.

 

 

On Thursday we went to Napoli for Zone Conference. It was totally awesome. It was actually held in Flegreo, which is right next to Napoli. It was really beautiful, and the pizza was still most excellent.

 

 

 

 

I really enjoyed Anziano Rowland's training. It was mostly centered on what we had learned the Zone Conference before when Anziano Texeira (of the seventy) came. We talked about how we applied what he taught us to our work, and how we can do that effectively. Anziano Rowland is a really great teacher.

 

 

 

President Kelly's training was also really interesting and I enjoyed it. Napoli typically comes up to Rome for Zone Conference, but since this one was held in Napoli we had a pretty small group and it gave it a more personal feel. I think everyone liked that. It pretty much felt like Zone Leader Council, which is probably the best thing there is about being a Zone Leader.

 

The best thing about being an Assistant is that you get Zone Leader Council, but on top of that you get to work closely with President and Sorella Kelly all the time. I can’t remember if I had ever gotten this photo of us with Sorella Kelly to you.  Sorella Kelly is so awesome.

 

 

 

 

I really love Roma 2. Check this out: This Saturday there is going to be another baptism!! Third week in a row here. As a district (us, the other Anziani, and the Sorelle) I think are going to try to have weekly baptisms here. It's going to be really awesome.

Love,

Anziano Banks