Wow.

Things are going incredibly well. I feel like I'm serving in South America or something! Hahaha. We have six people who are preparing to be baptized, and two are going to get baptized tomorrow!! So we're super busy making sure everything is going to be ready and will go well. 

Baptism is a really big event in people's lives. I think that it's up there with marriage. We're going to have a great baptismal service; I'm really excited. Do you remember how for Floriana's baptism we decided to get yellow ties because that's her favorite color? Well, we're going to get ties for Fabio and Fiammetta, but we're actually going to buy one for Fabio too, that way he can wear it to church on Sunday! It's going to be great.

Yesterday was Zone Leader Council. It went really well. The mission is going to just keep on breaking its own records. I think we're going to have the most baptisms in a month since President and Sorella Kelly got here.

I think that's what life is all about, doing more good, becoming better, and progressing. It reminds me of that saying that it's better to be a foot from hell and going towards heaven than a inch from heaven and going towards hell (or something like that). Haha. I like that because it shows that no matter where we are, the most important thing is where we're headed. I know that we can all resolve to do better, and that ce la possiamo fare!

I remember not a long time ago (maybe a few weeks ago) I was feeling off my groove. It's like, when I was a Zone Leader it was easy to do great work and feel on top of my game, but then as an Assistant it has been a lot harder (we have a schedule that varies a lot more, and lots of different responsibilities). So what I figured out is, I need to make sure that I'm doing all the things that make me feel on top of my game. Including waking up at 6:30 and getting good exercise, having a language study plan, and also having spiritually uplifting personal study.

I immediately started planning how I could do it. I started with things that aren't too difficult, but planned out everything I would do to make myself feel on top of my game. It worked! Just by following the plans and goals that I set in detail for myself, I was able to bring myself to the level I wanted to be at. I think it's important that we all do that quite often. Just the other day (actually, I think it was yesterday), I thought to myself that I need to look back over my language study plan because it has become less effective. I think it's great that we have new year's resolutions, but I think we should more frequently make resolutions so we can always make great improvements in our quality of life.

Anyway, this last week I went on a series of exchanges. It was great. I really believe that miracles happen on exchanges. I believe that at least part of that is because when we are with missionaries other than our normal companion, we tend to push ourselves more. It's great.

One thing I noticed while doing exchanges is the huge difference between native speakers, and non-native speakers, as far as missionaries go. Native speakers have a huge advantage. I think that they become more effective much more quickly than non-native speakers. I think that's why it's so important that missionaries study the language and really master it (myself included).

Well, I've got a lot of things to do, and if I don't do them I don't think anyone's going to do them for me!

Oh! I just remembered, what did you think of General Conference?? Pretty awesome, right? I really enjoyed it. There were some great speakers. I can't wait to get the Liahona and study the talks.

I love you!!!

ANZIANO BANKS