Elder Ray Banks, Italy

La Fine

2011-11-17T10:48:00.001-08:00

Well, this is it! The last e-mail you're going to be getting from me on the mission. There's not too much to say. I've really loved my mission, and I still have a lot of things to do. Tomorrow we have breakfast, lunch and dinner meal appointments, so I'm staying pretty busy.

In a couple of hours we're going to go play calcio!

Pretty much, things don't get much better than this.

The other day I was walking around talking to people on the street, and I was thinking about how I am a representative of Jesus Christ. It's fantastic! I just walk around, preaching the gospel, making people happy, while enjoying myself. It's really awesome. It's like, how do you get any better than that?

Last week we were going to do family home evening with a South American family from the ward, and on our way to their house there was a lady and a guy moving a washing machine. I offered to help. Usually, it's hard to get people to accept offers to help. Most of the time you see an old Italian woman carrying a fridge on her back, and you offer to help and she says "no no, I can do it". You keep insisting and she says, "no, no, it's okay, I have help", then you see her 80 yr old husband, hunched over coming over to help. Hahaha. Anyway, this lady actually accepted the help! So I take the other side of the washing machine and me and this guy started carrying it down the stairs. We went down three flights of stairs! Then we walked around to another palazzo, took a couple more flights of stairs and put her washing machine in her house.

Was it pretty tiring? Yes.

Was it pretty awesome? Yes.

She's from Peru. She asked us about who we were, and said she would want to meet with us to talk about religion. We told her about how we have a sister missionary from Peru and she was excited to meet her.

Okay, I need to go because I have a lot to do to get ready to go.

^That half of the email was written yesterday. The rest is from today:

Hey!

So this morning we went and had breakfast with ex-Anziano Scotchi and Sorella Misseri. It was great. In a couple hours I have to go eat lunch with the Iaconianni family, and then tonight we have to eat dinner at six!!

Let's just say, I'm going to be coming home very full.

We also played calcio yesterday. It was a total blast. I got some pretty good photos. I'll just tell you more about it when I get home.

I'm really glad that we're going to be coming back here in May. We have to eat with quite a few people. I hope you like Italian food!

I should go finish up a bunch of things that I need to get taken care of.

I love you tons! I know that the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is true. I'm really excited for the temple here in Rome!!

Lots to do. There are tons of people that are joining the church here and will be able to go to the temple all the time! (There are also soccer fields right below the temple!!)

Love,

Anziano Banks

Wow

2011-11-15T18:45:00.001-08:00

It's crazy how much there is to do. I think I should probably extend another week or two. Haha. I wish.

There are seriously a ridiculous number of things that I need to get done in the next few days. Tomorrow I'm on splits with Roma 3, Monday morning we're booked, Monday evening we have three appointments, Tuesday is zone leader council, Wednesday we need to do some other things besides playing soccer that afternoon, and then Thursday we have breakfast, lunch, and dinner meal appointments. Hahaha. It's really nuts. haha. Basically, what I'm trying to say is that I can't promise that I'll be e-mailing you again before I’m back, sorry.

Sardegna was incredible. Besides our preparation day it was really incredible too. I love going on splits. Miracles always happen. We met some really awesome people in Oristano, Sassari, and Olbia. Especially in Olbia though.

I love it so much here! Walking around sharing the gospel with everyone is the best thing in the world. While I was in Olbia we talked with a lot of people, and really connected with them even though they chose not to accept our message. I thought it was kind of weird that things were going so well, yet so poorly, but I was still really enjoying it. Anziano Lacey is great. Then when the evening came we started meeting person after person who was interested in meeting with us and we saw a lot of success that night. I think that sometimes the Lord just likes to make us wait before he blesses us.

I’m able to send you a bunch of photos this time because I’m kind of multitasking. President and Sister Kelly asked us to help them put together a slideshow for Christmas. It's going to be pretty awesome. I'll bring a copy home to show you, but it probably won't be as cool for you because you don't know all the missionaries like I do.

Anyway, I'm happy that you're doing well. I'm doing really well myself. I should probably catch up on a little sleep, but besides that everything is going good. I've been going out of my way to not be "trunky" at all, so don't be surprised if I experience quite a bit of culture shock when I first get home. Haha. Anyway, the work here is going really well and we're really happy about that.

I love you all a bunch. See ya soon.

Love,

Anziano Banks

Eccomi!

2011-11-13T19:30:00.001-08:00

Sorry. Things have been really hectic. We had the biggest craziest transfer last week that we've had since I've been here. I don't think it was the most people moved around, but it was definitely the most interesting moves going on. For example we had three companionships that got blown into cities. We also had a couple of hiccups because of delays and things that made it really interesting. I didn't take any photos when the missionaries finished because I figure they'll be on facebook before me, so they can just take the photos with their cameras, which we took quite a few.

So I need to tell you about the new missionaries that came in! There were six sisters and only one anziano!! It was pretty crazy. They are AWESOME. The mission is so lucky. We had a really great time welcoming them into the mission. Me and Anziano Garvin took them all in the furgone (van) and drove them back to the office from the airport. We drove them right by the colosseum.

I think one thing that makes someone a great missionary is how happy and outgoing they are. Which, this was a pretty happy and outgoing group. You could really tell that they loved each other and they were excited to be serving here in Italy. Of course, who wouldn't be excited? It's the best mission in the world!

They also all really loved the pizza that we brought them at the airport. A couple of them were like .. this is the best pizza I have ever eaten! And I was thinking to myself...yikes. Rome pizza is some of the worst pizza I've had in the mission! hahahaha. Wait until they get down south...especially if they make it to Napoli. I guess the only one that really could is Anziano Jones since there aren't any sisters in the Napoli Zone. I know that Sorella Ivory really wants to get down there though. When we were at the train station there were a couple of ladies from Napoli that came over and talked to us.

It was pretty funny because I would look over at Sorella Ivory to see if she was understanding, and it was hilarious because half the time they were speaking Napoletano. hahaha. I could hardly even understand it. It seems kind of similar to Siciliano though. Let's see. One of the sisters in that group that seemed really cool was also Sorella Miles. She played soccer in High School and I think she's going to come play with us not this wednesday, but the next.

Anyway, this is where we have our furgoni parked right now.

On top of all that, I got sick. : ( I think that might actually be a good thing though because if I would've come home two days ago I would've come and gotten all of you sick! Instead, by staying here, I'm already almost totally recovered, and when I come home I'll be doing fine! Isn't that great!?

Anyway, what are some great things that happened this last week? Well, I think that one great thing is that we met another great family! There's Angelica who just lost her husband a few weeks ago, her four daughters (17, 19, 21, 23), and the grandma. They're really great. We had a really incredible lesson with them in the park. We had to do it there because there weren't any men in the house. We couldn't find more than one bench near each other, so we just sat down on the ground with a couple of them on the bench and on the ground. I wish I had taken a photo. One thing that was really cool is how well they understood everything. We talked to them about the plan of salvation, and they totally got it. One of us asked them (when talking about Paradise and the Spirit World), what would it be like to have a life full of peace and happiness where you can relax. One of the daughters responded that if life were like that, we wouldn't really learn anything. Yes!! So true. What a great response.

Hey, I should probably tell you who the new assistant is: Anziano Gatchell. He's actually from St. George! Cool, huh? So for now there are four of us. I have a bad feeling these last couple weeks are going to fly by though.

Listen, I just want you to know that I love you, I'm grateful for all you do for me, and I hope that you still have the futon because I'm going to be beat when I come home because I'm going to work so hard these last couple of weeks (not to imply that I'm not totally beat right at this very moment. hahaha).

Love,

Anziano Banks

P.S. I've always loved cannoli siciliani. I’ve also always been told they were the best in Sicily. My problem is that I realized that I had never had them outside of Sicily!!! So I decided I should eat one here in Rome just to check it out... They're way better in Sicily.

Alright? Inhob Malta

2011-10-30T18:18:00.001-07:00

Wow.

I had the most amazing weekend.

Yeah. At this point I'm sure Lia is going crazy because she must have figured out where I went: MALTA.

It was incredible. I flew over on Saturday. As soon as we were flying in you could tell it was a whole other world. On our way up to the house I felt like I had arrived in Jerusalem, or somewhere in the middle east.

I spent Saturday afternoon and evening with Anziano McMullen (he's from England). We had a great time. We taught a lesson to Raffaele (new convert) and his girlfriend about the restoration and the law of chastity (they had just moved in together). You could tell that Raffaele wasn't anxious to talk about it because the missionaries had brought it up already the time before.

It started out a little rough. Raffaele had the attitude “if we're in love then it doesn't really matter”.

“Raffaele, I see that you have a lot of faith. Do you love Jesus Christ?”

“Yes, of course!”

“He taught, ‘If you love me, keep my commandments’”.

It pretty much went something like that. Raffaele knew the right thing to do, and it turns out that he was just holding back because he thought he didn't have enough money to pay for the wedding. We told him, it doesn't cost anything to get married in the church! In the end they were excited to set a date, and there was a strong spirit there.

Then we went over to Brother Borg's house and had some rabbit ... yum!

That was pretty much it for that night. On Sunday I was with Anziano Wester. Church in Malta was really great. It was cool because Anziano McMullen and Anziano Garvin actually both gave talks. Anziano McMullen spoke of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He quoted the book "Jesus the Christ" quite a bit, and it was really graphic for me. It's painful to imagine what he went through. Not just the physical pain, or even psychological pain, but even pain that goes to the soul. It's strong motivation to live a better life. Anziano Garvin gave a great talk. He shared some of the experiences that we've had together here in Rome, and he also expressed his love for the maltese people. He really loves that branch.
Heck, I really love that branch, they're great!

I went to the Maltese Sunday School class. I don't speak much Maltese, hahaha. But I was able to follow a couple things in the lesson because there are quite a few words that are similar to either Italian or English. In fact, when they asked who gave the Aaronic Priesthood to Joseph Smith I proudly responded, John the Baptist! : )

I'll admit, I didn't learn a lot of Maltese in the few days I was there, but I did get a chance to use the stuff I did learn.

K finti?

-tajeb

Ina ta membru tal kinisia ta gesu cristu

numeru?

hahaha. That was the extent of a conversation I had with a Maltese guy who didn't speak any English.

Basically:

How are you?

-good

I'm a member of the church of Jesus Christ

number?

hahaha. I gave him a pamphlet in Maltese with the address of the church, and then I tried to get his phone number, but I didn't have any luck.

With Anziano Wester we passed by a Chinese family that they had found. It was really cool because the dad actually only spoke Mandarin, so it was great that I was able to teach him. One cool thing is that as soon as they answered the door and I started talking they asked me if I was from Taiwan!!! He said he could tell because of the accent. : )

We also talked to a lot of people on buses, and on the streets there in Malta. They really are great people. They are very open and friendly. After spending just a few days there, I didn't want to leave. The branch isn't huge. I would say an average week probably has over 30 members, but I know that they've had over 50 on church attendance.

One weird thing about serving out there for a few days was speaking so much English. 95% of the people there speak English. I've pretty much forgotten how to pray efficiently in English, and I also had to get used to teaching in English. One thing that still came naturally was talking to people on the bus and on the street. I remember in the MTC I always said that it would be so much easier if I went out English speaking. It's totally true. Haha. Although I think I'm at the point with Italian that it comes just about as naturally (not to say that I'm not always looking to improve).

On Monday we had correlation, District Meeting, and Family Home Evening. They were all three really great. They have an amazing Branch Mission Leader - Brother Foster. He's a stud. He really knows what he's doing and he's got a lot of fire. I heard that he's like 70, but he's full of energy. The four missionaries out there are outstanding. They are all very obedient and they are doing great things. There was a good spirit in their home.

Tuesday I came back home to Italy. I wish I could've spent more time on Malta, but there are many things that we need to take care of here, so it's good to be back. Transfer calls are this Saturday. I have a feeling I'm staying. Hahaha

Well, I love you a lot. I'm really grateful for everything that you're doing for me. I hope that some good missionary work is going on in our ward at home.

I look forward to seeing you...but it's going to be really really hard to leave Italy. I mean really hard. I'm just loving everything that is going on. We are finding and teaching a lot of people lately, and the work is just going to continue to grow. I really wish I could stay here for it. I just figure that if that right now I'm blessed to be able to do so much good that it just makes sense to do as much as possible. But, I know that my life will continue to be blessed like this after the mission too, so I'm thankful for that.

Love,

Anziano Banks!

Aloha!!!

2011-10-26T16:30:00.001-07:00

Well, it's pretty hard for me to remember what happened this last week. hahaha. So I'm going to start with yesterday.

Yesterday a new senior couple arrived: The Kruegers. They're going to be here to help with GANS (Giovani Adulti Non Sposati), and I think they're going to do a great job. Anziano Krueger served here in Italy when he was younger, and he somehow managed to keep up with the language. We also gave the Kruegers our car, so now we're only driving the furgone (van). It's pretty sweet. It's a lot more powerful than the meriva (our old car), and people just move out of your way more. haha. it's great.

Let's see... if we continue going back through the week. . .On Sunday we had Ward Conference...and then on Saturday we had...Calcetto!! That was awesome. As a ward we went and played calcetto (it's like soccer but on a smaller field that has a big net that surrounds it all, and you play 5 on 5. There were about...60 people there! haha. We played on the fields that are just below the temple site.

We played on a couple different fields. It worked out perfectly for our team because right now there are five of us Anziani serving here in Roma 2 so we made a perfect team! I was pretty concerned seeing as we're five Americans, but we played against the High Priests, and we worked ‘em. Haha. We may not have that great of calcio skills (except Anziano Garvin), but I think just being young made it so we could come out ahead. Bishop Celestini actually played semi-professionally when he was younger, and he was on the opposing team. He didn't stay in too long though because I think he got injured (not very bad though).

Let's see, on Friday we ... had just gotten back from the big trip we went on, so we were pretty tired and had to catch up on a lot of things around here.

Another thing we did is we had to go pick up the Ostia sisters, so we took a quick photo with them.

That's about it. Things are going well. We're super busy. Tomorrow we have Zone Conference here in Rome.

I think that a couple of the biggest things that make a difference on the mission are your thoughts, and planning. I feel like I have to think things through and think about what I want to do, and then I have to plan out how to do them. After that it's like: Just do it. It becomes so simple. I'm a big fan of planning now.

Anyway, I better go play some ping pong or something before the day's over.

Haha.

Love,

Anziano Banks

WOOHOO!!!!

2011-10-17T20:38:00.001-07:00

So the obvious thing that I would write you about is the baptism that was last Thursday. It was incredible. It was spectacular! It was AMAZING! It is definitely one of the most beautiful baptisms I’ve ever seen.

One of the big highlights was Anziano Packer played "O Divine Redeemer" on his cello. We had that right before the baptisms. Then Anziano Garvin baptized Fiammetta, and I had the privilege of baptizing Fabio. Both went very smoothly. It was a beautiful night. Those two are amazing. They can't wait to go get sealed in the temple a year from now, and I totally think they'll end up being temple workers one day because they live pretty close to where the temple is being built. They truly are an amazing couple. There kids are really lucky too, because now it's going to be almost as if they grew up in the church. They've been able to make lots of friends in Primary, and they have really opened up a lot. I remember when Demetra wouldn't even give me a high five!! Haha. (She's really shy at first, but now she and Wolfgang are both crazy around us).

One really cool thing about the baptism is that we got matching ties for us and Fabio, and then we signed it and gave it to him. We chose the color based on his and Fiammetta's favorites. Another great thing about the baptism is that Fabio's mom came. She's pretty stuck in her ways, but she is willing to listen to us. She's pretty curious.

Since the baptism we've been all over the place. We had Zone Conference in Napoli on Tuesday, and then we had Zone Conference in Bari on Thursday.

Which means we spent our Wednesday…in Napoli!!

I think we should definitely go there after the mission. It’s worth it just for the pizza. It’s about a 2 hr train ride, and I think it costs something like 13 euro. Obviously, we went to Da Michele's and ate pizza. I loved it.

We also got suits. We got really lucky because instead of going to this place called "Chewing Gum" where lots of missionaries like to go, we went to another place. We actually went by Chewing Gum first to check it out, and they were actually kind of rude it seemed like. They kind of rushed us, and it's almost like they were pressuring us to buy a suit. Then we didn't feel too good about them, and told them we would think about it during lunch. After lunch we decided we wouldn't get suits after all (the ones we found there cost 85, 75, and 60).

So then we were walking through this market, and at the end of the market we found this other suit shop. There was an old friendly Italian man who let us look at his suits. He didn't bother us, and let us take our time. He was really friendly, and his suits only cost 35 euro!!! The exact same suit that cost 60 at Chewing Gum!!! He was really awesome. So I decided to get a suit, and Anziano Packer and Garvin each got two! Haha. He was great, and before we left he bought us some cold water, and we gave him a pamphlet about the restoration. He really admires that we go around talking to people about Jesus Christ. It was a great experience.

At the Zone Conferences we've been teaching about finding families, and how to find families. In the end, that's what we're all about. Heavenly Father's plan is centered on the family. We told them about what we did, what worked for us, and we had a some good discussion and a practice. It was great.

Anyway, I've got a lot of things to do. I just want you to know that I love you, that things are going great here, and I hope that things keep going well for you too.

Love,

Anziano Banks!

Wow.

2011-10-08T19:01:00.001-07:00

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

Expect a Miracle

2011-10-07T15:20:00.001-07:00

Missionary work is incredible. Check this out: I'm on splits with Anziano Shipton and Anziano Decker. We get on the bus, and of course I don't sit by them, because I sat by someone else so I could talk to him. Just by the way he was sitting I could tell he didn't want to talk to me, and I looked over to my left and I saw a couple guys that looked over. So, I got up and talked to them.

It turns out that one of them had been living in England, he was about to get baptized there and then he moved to Italy and couldn't find the church!! His son actually got baptized a month ago or something. To make a long story short, he and his brother are both getting baptized at the end of this month, and there are four of them that we haven't met yet that will also be coming to General Conference this weekend!

Woohoo!

We've been doing a lot of splits lately and that's been a real blast. I just barely did them in Rome 3. That's a pretty interesting part of Rome. It's pretty much considered the ghetto, and there are tons of foreigners that live in that area. I met a lot of Chinese people. One in particular was pretty funny. To start a conversation I asked her (also because I was really really curious) if there were any Chinese food stores nearby. She looked at me like I was a little crazy, and said, yes, there are lots of them. Then she started pointing them out (we were on the train) as we went by, and within 30 seconds she had already pointed out 4 of them. Hahaha.

I love splits because miracles always happen on splits. We met a lot of really great people in Rome 3, and I think that they're going to have success with them. When I was on splits with Anziano Shipton and Anziano Decker we also met some really awesome people.

Picture this: It's 8:30 at night, there's hardly anyone on the street, and we're walking near our house. A man with a blue/white striped dress shirt, slacks, a briefcase, and an earpiece briskly walks towards us. Anziano Decker stopped him and it seemed that he was about to say "Ho fretta" (I'm in a hurry), and instead he stopped and started talking to us. He said, “You know what I like about you guys? When you walk by you say hi to everybody. Some people don't give you the time of day, but when you say hi to me, that makes me happy.” We talked to him a little more, and then he goes, “Hey, do you want my number? Do you want my number? Should I give you my number?” Hahaha. It was awesome. He also gave us his address, and told us that he's free on Thursday and Monday afternoons.

At that point we were feeling pretty good, and we continued walking. After a couple minutes we saw a lady walking towards us and I asked Anziano Shipton, “What do you think we should talk to her about?” he replied, “Baptism”. So he asked her, what does baptism mean? She explained what she believed we talked a little more, and then we got her number so we could go teach her. It was great.

Okay, that's about all I have for you this week. Sorry I'm getting to you so late, but if it makes you feel better, you're going to have a couple more weeks to get e-mails from me now!! Hahaha.

Love,

Anziano Banks

Whew!

2011-09-28T17:58:00.001-07:00

Transfer week is crazy. We got all of the new missionaries to the station, and the we had to wait for all the departing missionaries. It's pretty intense. This morning we were up at 5:30 because we had to get missionaries that were coming in on a bus from Sicily, and ever since we've pretty much been driving people around and stuff. It's pretty great, but it will be nice to get back to normal.

The good news is that we actually ran into a member that was on a date with a non-member that knows the church really well. haha. It was pretty cool. I think he's going to start meeting with the missionaries now.

To make sure you understood what happened with transfers: Me and Anziano Garvin were already Assistants together, and we both stayed here, and then Anziano Packer came here, so there are three of us now. I don't know Anziano Packer really well yet, but I know that he's from Layton, Utah. He went to Weber State before coming on the mission, and he's a cello player. He had just come up from being a Zone Leader in...COSENZA! Pretty awesome, huh?

The new missionaries showed up! They're really great. I actually kind of wish I was training this transfer. haha. We tried something that the old Rome mission used to do, which is taking them by St. Paul's basilica, and also passing by the colosseo. Sorry that we're a little bit blurry, but the background looks great, doesn't it? We're going to talk with President and see if we can take them out and do some proselyting when they first come in. Next transfer might be a little weird because there is only one Anziano and 5 Sorelle, but maybe it could work. I think that would be really cool.

So this Sunday we got a really really great call from our Bishop. He goes, Anziani, I talked to Fiammetta and Fabio after church today, I invited them to come to Family Home Evening and they're really excited to come. Would you like to come as well?

Yeah, pretty amazing.

So we went over there on Monday and had an awesome Family Home Evening! Fabio and Fiammetta brought their two kids, and then Bishop had his 6 kids and we all had a great time. I think we can really learn a lot from Italians and how they have a family home evening: Instead of just a refreshment, we had a full meal at the end!

Che buono!

Tomorrow morning we have a lesson with Fiammetta and Fabio. They're doing great. They're going to be awesome members. Fiammetta and Fabio should be getting baptized on October 6th, which coincides with Fabio's birthday. I think they're both really prepared and I'm really excited for them. Fabio was talking to us about how his mom sort of sees him as being an anti-religious person, and he wants to bring her to church and tell her, this is who I am now, I am a part of this. But he said that he will do it after he really is a part of this, and is baptized and confirmed a member. Haha. They really love coming to church and they get along really well with all of the members. It's pretty awesome.

Lately I've been thinking about how every day I have a lot of cool experiences, but I then I forget most of them. haha. I try to write the best ones in my journal, or remember to tell you about them, and I think I do pretty good that way.

So this thing is pretty cool: It's a model of what the temple grounds will look like!

We just had a big press conference at the mission home, and so they brought out this model. I think the Rome, Italy Temple is going to awesome. I know that we're planning on coming back next summer, but I sure hope you like it here because I think that we're going to have to come back again not too long after when the temple gets done (if you want to come with me). The temple is supposed to be finished at the end of 2013. In other words, it will definitely be finished by 2014. Haha.

Love,

Anziano Banks

Ciao Famiglia!

2011-09-26T20:32:00.001-07:00

Hey!

So this week was pretty awesome. Just today there was a press conference for the Temple, and it went really well. We're all really excited about the progress that is being made there. I think that the Lord is preparing a lot of people in our area so that there will be tons of people to go to the temple once it's built.

I'm really grateful that we have a beautiful temple so close to our house in St. George. Almost everyone in the Rome 2nd ward is going to have a temple that's just as close as ours is for us!

What a blessing!

Last week the Sorelle decided to make a birthday meal for the district to celebrate for me and Anziano Garvin (mine's the 11th, his is the 15th).

This weekend are transfer calls! That means that we get to meet with President to help him with transfers. I love being there because it's really amazing to see what transpires. You can really feel how inspired the transfers are. My favorites are the ones that seem really out of the ordinary, and then work out really well.

Here we are with the Kelly’s eating some ice cream bars. Check this out: Sorella Kelly is not only really into tennis, but she's also really into ping pong! That means that when we come and visit next year, mom can totally take her on! Mom, I hope that you've been practicing because I think that she's probably pretty good. I haven't actually played with her yet, but I get that kind of impression.

As a mission we've all been reading the Book of Mormon. What I've realized is: A) I'm a slow reader B) I don't have a lot of time to read (we have an hour of personal study, but I have to study for lessons and stuff!) and C) I don't always feel like reading. So...check this out: I decided to make a cover for my Book of Mormon!! Now that I have a sweet cover, it makes me feel like reading way more. Instead of just looking like a boring blue book that everyone has, it has now become a custom, personalized book that makes you want to read it!

I think that I would like a Book of Mormon that was printed in the style of a novel. Then it would just be more appealing.Don't get me wrong: I love the Book of Mormon, I love reading it. I just don't always love reading it straight through because it can get hard to follow the story and some parts are AMAZING, but other parts are not as interesting. I usually just like to flip it open and read something instead of going straight through, but I'm going to make it all the way (because I'm trying to finish it all the way through for the first time in Italian).

Anyway, I hope that you are all doing well. Know that I'm great, I'm happy, healthy, and excited to be on a mission.

LOVE,

Anziano Banks

We went and played beach volleyball (a total blast).

Aloha!

2011-09-18T17:35:00.001-07:00

Ciao famiglia mia,

La settimana scorsa è andata molto bene!

Well, I've been on vacation a little bit. Hahaha.

These photos are up at the Waterfalls of Marmore (near Terni).

Also, I finally saw the Vatican! Wow. It is seriously huge. It's crazy. It's pretty nice. I think that Lia would probably like it a lot more than I do, but I still was happy to finally see it.

I know, I know, I've been really spoiled with my whole mission. Coolest call possible, and then I got to see almost the entire mission. I actually figured out that out of the 39 cities in the mission, I've been to 29 of them.

So check this out: On Monday morning we had to come to the office so that we could get numbers for the mission. Around 9am this lady rings the bell, and wants to talk with us. She is AWESOME! She told us that she had a dream where she saw Jesus Christ, and then she saw a book that said Mormon on it, and then woke up and felt a peace and serenity that she had never felt before. So then she found where we were at on the internet, and wanted to join the church!!

She has a husband, and a 6-yr-old boy, and a 3-yr-old girl. They all met with us yesterday, and it turns out that the husband is totally prepared too!! When we read Moroni’s Promise together he said that he didn’t necessarily listen to all the words, but he felt that he is starting to find the answer to a question that he had never asked himself.

Yeah, I know. What a blessing! We’ve been praying and looking for a family for weeks, and then they just came to us! How awesome is that!

Anyway, I also played some volleyball today! BEACH VOLLEY!! It was a blast. I just really wish I could’ve taken my shirt off. You want to know what I love about America? We have free places to play tennis, soccer, volleyball, and it’s just awesome. Basketball too! (the church). That’s so great.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that things are going great. We have been really blessed. I really love my savior Jesus Christ because He has brought a lot of joy into my life. I know that He restored His church, and that has really blessed us a lot.

Love,

Anziano Banks

Roma 2

2011-09-15T16:37:00.001-07:00

Ciao famiglia mia!! Okay, so I know you probably get tired of hearing this...but we’re really busy. Hahaha. And ...we’re having a blast. Haha.

Every time we pass through Napoli we stop and get a pizza!

Tomorrow we are going to SARDEGNA! We have a Specialized Training meeting there. We are going to be in Sassari.

Here’s a picture of us visiting the ward in Gela.

This last week was a lot of fun. We didn’t go to the Specialized Training meeting in Bari this time, that way we could do some work here, and that was really great. We met a lot of cool people. There was one apartment that I had felt we needed to go to, and we went there to look for a family. We met a really cool kid named Giovanni that said we can come back and talk to him and his family, so hopefully that works out well. I'll let you know.

One thing that we had to do this last week was take a Baptismal Font from Terni to L'Aquila because they had a baptism there. We took the font back to Terni yesterday, and we spent some time with them. We saw the Marmore waterfalls, which are the tallest in Europe!

They were really beautiful. I have to say though, the waterfalls at Havasu are even more beautiful. They are both beautiful though. I think that nature is a lot more beautiful than man-made things. For example, I think that the waterfalls are more beautiful than the Colosseum. Another example, I've seen the great wall, but I still haven't seen Huang Shan. I really need to get over there.

So this is at an awesome place in Sicily called Mazzarò (it's right below Taormina, which we also visited)

Floriana Misseri (new convert), told us that when she retires she wants to move to America. (She's been telling us that since before she was baptized). I think she'd be happy wherever, but I'm guessing that Utah is going to end up high on her list. That doesn't necessarily mean St. George, but what I'm getting at is that you should work on your Italian.

This Monday we went to visit a couple families here in the ward. We did a multi-family, family home evening. It was great. We all talked about what touches us the most about the restoration. For me it was personal prayer. God knows each of us personally, and listens to all of our prayers. We then left an invite to watch the 20-minute film of the Restoration with someone who hasn't seen it before.

I really love the mission. I'm glad that things are going so well. Last week we hit an all-time high for new investigators (as a mission). There was once in 2009 that they had just one less.

Love!

Anziano Banks!

Last picture with my MTC group. The only ones left will be me and Anziano Garvin.

I made it!

2011-09-06T19:16:00.001-07:00

Wow, what a crazy crazy trip. We went down to Catania, over to Gela, down to Siracusa, and stopped by all kinds of other places. What a trip! We had a great Specialized Training Meeting. It was a huge success. Tomorrow we have one here in Rome. I'm pretty excited.

A Specialized Training Meeting is kind of like a Zone Conference. The one in Catania had the Catania and Palermo Zones. In the morning President and Sister Kelly talked to us, and then in the afternoon everyone was split into 3 groups and there were three different classrooms: The Palermo Zone Leaders, The Catania Zone Leaders, and then us. We did our training on Lesson Zero. My favorite thing about lesson zero is that right in the beginning we ask the person what they expect from us. Then we basically explain what we expect, and it's great because then everyone's on the same page.

One of the highlights of the trip was that I got to go on exchanges in Gela. That was really great. I totally know that place like I had lived there for years. It was really great to be back in that little branch and bear my testimony to them. Basically I just told them how much the Gospel brings happiness, and that's why I like it so much, and that's what makes it so awesome. It was cool to bless the sacrament with Cristian because he had just received the Priesthood the week before and so it was his first time blessing it.

We got Anziano Garvin's permesso (green card type thing) from Catania!! That was exciting.

Anyway, I'm sorry that I can't stay and talk (type), but just know that I love you, I find time for you in my prayers, and I've taken hundreds of photos so don't think that you're missing anything, you just will have to see it when I'm home.

LOVE!

Anziano Banks

Ciao Famiglia!

2011-08-29T17:49:00.001-07:00

This last week went really well. What am I saying? All my weeks go really well! The fifteenth was Ferragosto, which means...CLEANING DAY!! Woohoo! Our house got super clean. We made it a lot nicer now, and I feel like my quality of life has really improved. Haha. Who knew how good a clean house could make you feel?

The big news this week is that next week I'm going to be down in Sicily! I'm really looking forward to that. We're going to take the furgone (van) down to bring everyone supplies, and we're also going to be doing some exchanges down there.

August is a really funny time to be a missionary in Italy. Pretty much everyone goes on vacation this month, so things really slow down. A couple days ago we knocked on lady's door and she started yelling at us and said that we can't do that in the month of August because everyone is gone and people get scared.... I was like... yeah....

So then I asked her what we could do to find families that need the Gospel, and we started talking, and in the end she told us that we can come back in September!! Haha. It was pretty sweet. I think that September is going to be a really great month for the entire mission.

I guess the other big thing is that all over the world missionaries are getting little portable DVD players. It's pretty cool. Me and Anziano Garvin used ours today during study, and we really enjoyed it. There are different missionary DVDs that we can watch, and it was nice because it's a lot easier to focus on than the scriptures (don't worry though, I still study the scriptures too!). It's kind of funny that the DVD players are portable, because we actually just leave them in the apartment (we're not supposed to bring them out).

Anyway, I've gtg. I need to get a bunch of things done. I love you a lot and I hope that you're safe and that you're reading the scriptures every day.

Love,

Anziano Banks

VI VOGLIO BENE!!

Carissima bellissima famiglia mia

2011-08-20T17:55:00.001-07:00

So, we're just finishing some stuff up for transfers. It's INTENSE!!! We stay super busy. I think you can count on me wanting some down time right after my mission (at least for the first couple of days).

Tomorrow is when the 9 new missionaries show up. 7 Anziani and 2 Sorelle. I love new missionaries. I just wish that there were going to be some Italians (this group is all from the Provo MTC).

I know I haven't shared much about my personal study since the MTC (because that was pretty much the only thing I had to talk about when I was there), but I thought that I would tell you about an AWESOME scripture that I read this morning.

Lately I've been really busy and it's kind of tiring (but I love it), but sometimes things just work out that we have a lot less time than we would like to have (our problem is that we wish we had as much time to do proselyting as normal missionaries, but we just don't). So anyways, I was looking to figure out what I can do so that I won't feel stressed.

2 Nephi 9:3

Behold, my beloved brethren, I speak unto you these things that ye may rejoice, and lift up your heads forever, because of the blessings which the Lord God shall bestow upon your children.

I was actually reading it in Italian, and the part that hit me is when it says "I speak unto you these things that ye may rejoice", and I thought to myself, that's all I have to do! I just have to rejoice (In italian: gioire). Which says to me, Don't worry, be happy.

hahaha.

That was pretty great.

So this last week we’ve been meeting with President a lot so that we can give him suggestions on transfers. Then we helped him make some of the transfer calls. The coolest things that happened are: we're staying together, Anziano Shipton is becoming District Leader, Anziano Destefanis is going with Anziano Marzolla, and Anziano Vitali is training in his fourth transfer. Anziano Rowland is still the Zone Leader for Napoli, Anziano Mercado is still a Rome Zone Leader, Anziano Cox is coming up to Rome to be a Zone Leader. . . . and that's about all the news. Things are going well.

Lately we've been getting a ton of referrals. It's kind of like a snowball effect. Right now we have 7 that we need to contact (we just got three yesterday), so if you know anyone in Rome that you think could be interested in meeting us, just let me know. =)

I can't remember what all we did this last week, so I'm just going to send you some photos now. Alright?

Love,

Anziano Banks

So this photo is me just chillin in the doctor's office (we go with missionaries when they have health issues).

This is us with our district, and Fratello Malara (it was for the baptism of Irene, one of the sister's investigators).

So this last one is our district lunch which was SWEEET. Anziano Mercado made pasta al forno and it was super delicious, plus he made cobbler (which I didn't get to try because everyone else finished it (read: my companion) because they thought that I had already had some.

Yo yo yo.

2011-08-19T19:59:00.001-07:00

So, here's the dealio. I'm really busy. It's transfer week. I'm going to send you some e-mails when I get the chance. I can't promise they'll be on Wednesday. I can pretty much promise that they won't be. Ha!

The good thing is that I will be e-mailing you. I will maybe do it tomorrow, maybe I will do it on Friday.

HELLO this is ELDER GARVIN!

Elder Banks.... or should i say Anziano Banks, is busy proofreading a letter that needs to go to a bishop!

I love your Son and we get along Great, I’m sure he will be the first to tell you how much patience he has to have with me some times.....lets just say my Italian isn’t at a level comparable to his. But we manage and we find and teach and baptize. I will tell you that a lot of people were kind of surprised when they found out we were both staying together..... come to find out not lots of people knew that we would be blessed to serve here in Italy a bit longer!

Brother Banks Thank you SO SO SO MUCH for those .... healthy snacks ;) we are really enjoying them.

Lia wow I think that my little brother has found his match in someone who likes Harry Potter as much if not more than he does.

Sister Banks you have inspired me and Anziano Banks to eat healthier food and drink more water. Must say you look very "HIP" in your big sunglasses.

Well I know that this Work is true I love the Gospel and I love the simple truths that have been restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith! THIS GOSPEL IS TRUE!! LOVE YA!

Your son(s companion),

Anziano Garvin

As I was saying…

...I'll be getting back to you. Things are always exciting here in Rome. Like Anziano Garvin mentioned, we'll be staying together another transfer. Most people didn't know that we both extended, so they thought that we wouldn't be together, but we are, and it's TOTALLY AWESOME!

Love,

Anziano Banks : )

Hey!

2011-08-14T15:06:00.001-07:00

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

:D

2011-08-05T21:38:00.001-07:00

You probably won’t be surprised to hear I had an awesome week. : )

Last Saturday was Floriana’s baptism. It was really great. There were tons of people there and the Spirit was really strong. I love baptisms! It was really incredible because Floriana is actually deathly scared of going under water like that, but when she got into the baptismal font she was totally at peace. When she came out of the water she had a smile from ear to ear and she told me later that she can’t even describe how great she felt.

The next day she received the Holy Ghost and was confirmed a member of the church. I love new converts because they really have the Spirit with them. There are a lot of members that are like that too, but there are also many members that let it get away from them by not keeping all the commandments, or continuing to pray and read the scriptures like new converts do.

For lunch on Sunday we went over to Floriana’s to eat. Me, Anziano Garvin, and Anziano Shipton. It was incredible. The first thing we had was lasagna. It was a HUGE portion, and it was incredibly delicious. She even slightly burned the cheese, and you know I love that. After finishing the lasagna I was completely full. Next she brought out the Parmigiana, which is basically a lasagna made with Eggplant (mom would love it). The portion was just as big!

I only made it about halfway through that. Anziano Garvin finished it, and so did Anziano Shipton. THEN, she brought out peppers that had a bunch of things on top. Anziano Shipton actually finished one of those too!! Anziano Garvin got about halfway through one, and I didn’t even dare touch it.

Then she brought out a lemon pie that we were able to handle. We each ate a piece.

That lunch was INTENSE.

I was really happy that she wasn’t mad I couldn’t finish everything. I told her it was totally delicious, but I was just too full.

Which is completely true. By the end we were all exploding. Haha. It was really great.

Anziano Mercado wasn’t there because he went with President to the Napoli branch. Normally one of us would go, but we had Floriana’s confirmation.

I got to go on some pretty great splits yesterday day. Guess who my companion was: President Kelly. Haha. We went down to Palermo to do Zone Conference. Sorella Kelly didn’t make it either. Somebody asked me, so is your companion on splits with Sorella Kelly? Hahaha.Anyway, it was a blast. I really love Sicily.

Did I even tell you about Zone Conference in Rome? We had that too. It went really well. We had Anziano Canuzzen and Anziano Marengo arm wrestle. Then we read the scripture in Alma 8:10. It went really well.

Anyway, I’ve gtg. We’re always keepin busy.

One more thing: we brought up Anziano Larsen from Palermo to serve with us here in Rome. It’s pretty awesome. He’s great. We’re Team Rome 2.

LOVE!!
Anziano Banks (aka Banche)

Whew.

2011-08-02T19:59:00.001-07:00

I had an awesome week. I also had a very tiring week. Often President Kelly gives us permission to sleep in or to take a nap when we have crazy schedules. For example, yesterday. We got up at around 5 AM. We went and picked up President and Sister Kelly to bring them to the airport. Afterwards we came home, took a quick nap, and then we headed down to Napoli. We got some pizza in Napoli. (Yes, it was crazy delicious). Then we continued going down to Battipaglia. (It should be a little less than a three hour drive but it takes a little more with light traffic). We dropped off a car in Battipaglia, went up to Caserta to drop off some missionaries there, and then back up to Rome (Caserta is right on the way to Rome).

Okay, so I know it's not the best photo. But you're looking at some of the best pizza in the world. I LOVE NAPOLI!!!

Then that night we went to get President and Sister Kelly from the airport again. hahaha. Needless to say, it was a pretty tiring day. It was really fun though too. : )

This week we are very excited that Floriana is going to be getting baptized. She is really incredible. On Saturday she did her baptismal interview, Sunday she came to church, and then we met with her on Monday. When we met with her Monday she had read another 100 pages in the Book of Mormon and told us that she is going to finish it before her baptism!!

The work here is going great. We have really met a lot of awesome people.

I was just thinking about that Napoli Pizza some more. It really is incredible. What makes it so good? Napoli water, Buffalo mozzarella, fresh basil, and a wood oven.

Wow. I'm starting to feel really hungry. The good thing is that on Monday we went and picked up a mini-missionary named Sorella Spensierato. She is going to be serving for 6 weeks. Anyway, she is from Napoli, and she totally brought us up some pizza that she put into containers and we can just heat it up in the oven.

Yeah, I know, my life rocks.

I'm trying to think if there are any other big events that happened this last week that I should mention to you. Things are just great. I'm healthy. I'm busy. I'm happy. That's about all you need to know, right? haha.

Love,

Anziano Banks

I love ROME!!

2011-07-19T16:24:00.001-07:00

So I still think that Cosenza is my favorite city in the mission, but I think that Rome is my second favorite. This place is SWEET. The members are all spiritual giants, our investigator Floriana is going to be baptized next weekend, and everything about this place is just great!

I had a pretty good experience last Sunday. Well, it actually started on Friday or something. I get on the bus and walk by a lady that sort of smiles at us. I sit down, and try to share the gospel with a lady sitting across from me and she totally shuts me down. While she was totally shutting me down, I noticed that the lady that smiled earlier looked back at me, so I got up and started talking to her. She told me that she had actually heard of the church before, and that she has a 19-yr-old son that she is really concerned about and wants to be around people like us. So anyway, we talk a little bit about the life of Jesus Christ, and she agreed that we could go teach her more at her house. She's from Ecuador, so she spoke to me quite a bit in Spanish mixed with Italian.

So on Sunday afternoon we went over with a Spanish-speaking member to teach her. We start to teach her what is called lesson "Zero." We asked her what she expects from us, we told her that we want to teach her and meet with her three times a week, etc. Then I invited her to baptism. Her response was that she has already been baptized (pretty common answer) .....in the Mormon church!!! I was like, "come?" (pronounced: KO-MAY? translation: what?) So then she repeats herself (speaking in Spanish, of course) and I turn to the member for verification, and he goes, yeah, she says she's already been baptized. Hahaha. So it turns out that she's a member and was baptized when she was 14 or something. haha. I think she'll come to church this Sunday.

I've got everyone in the house wearing those mormon.org shirts now. haha. We decided we all want to wear them when we play soccer as a Zone. We already call ourselves Team Rome 2. We also got team Rome 2 ties. They were only a euro because the sales have started!

I love Italy!!!

I love the mission!

In my life I have been blessed a ridiculous amount. There's this missionary in our mission that baptizes all the time, and one of my companion's told me that he has a theory on it. This missionary had a really crazy life before the mission as far as the crowd he hung out with and things, and he thinks that it's like God decided to make a deal with him that if he goes on a mission he would baptize a ton of people. Hahaha.

I feel like in my life I could've done a lot more spiritually and that I still can, but what the Lord has blessed me with has been crazy great. Today when we were teaching Floriana I told her how no matter how much we try to do to help the Lord, or things we do for him, the return is always greater!

I feel like the gospel is such a 'no-brainer'. It's so obvious that it's the way to go. I'm so happy! : )

Quick story. So today I wanted to get a pair of shoes, but I didn't want to pay much and I saw a Chinese shoe store so I decided to peek in. There were a bunch of Chinese ladies and this Chinese girl in the store. So then I hear these Chinese ladies start talking and they say (in Chinese, of course) "I think there's finally someone who speaks English!" "Go talk to him!" "Yeah, go talk to him" So this Chinese girl comes up to me and says "English".

So I say "Yeah, I speak English too." (I had originally said hi in Italian)

So then all of the ladies are like "Whoa! It's really someone who speaks English"

"He speaks English, and he's cute too! Go talk to him"

So then I say (in Chinese) "I can speak Chinese too."

hahahha. They all busted up laughing. It was pretty good.

Anyway, I've gtg.
Love,

Anziano Banks

Ciao!

2011-07-10T18:29:00.001-07:00

So this week it probably seems like I'm e-mailing really early, even though it's just on time. : )

Tomorrow is Zone Leader Council. That's always really awesome. We're probably not going to be having one next transfer due to the holidays (people traveling) so this one has got to be good.

Guess what I ate for lunch today! A kebab! Do you remember how many times I've told you I was called to the perfect mission? Well, here in Rome they actually have really good kebabs, because I've been to some other places in Italy that have them and they aren't as good, but here they're great!

We also have a great district here. I really liked an e-mail that I sent in the MTC describing everyone in my district, so I decided I should do that again. In my district here we all serve in the Rome 2 ward.

Anziano Mercado: He was in the MTC with me. He's from Michigan, but he also lived in Washington and Oregon (I think) and was born in Florida. He used to be a vegetarian and he still doesn't eat a ton of meat. I've been on splits with him in Catania and he's a great finder because he talks with everyone. One thing I love about him is that he is always looking to improve and use time wisely.

Anziano Shipton: He is in his second transfer. He's from Utah. He used to play football and basketball. He really loves Italy and realizes how awesome it is that he is serving in Rome.

Anziano Garvin: He's my companion now and was my companion in the MTC. He's great. He hasn't really changed: He's still extremely self-motivated, he still loves the scriptures, and I still love being his companion. He just came off Malta so he's working on getting all his Italian back, but he still speaks fine.

Sorella Jones: She went to BYU before the mission. She was a linguistics major so she speaks Arabic, French, and some Spanish. She also did the BYU-Jerusalem study for a semester so she knows the Bible really well. She's actually in her last transfer right now, but she's doing really great and is actually training...

Sorella Perez: She's really awesome. She is from Peru, but she's lived most of her life in Milan. I don't know her very well because she just got here, but I know that she has a really strong testimony and that she is really friendly. She doesn't speak much English, but she's working on it. I think she plays soccer which will be cool if we play soccer as a zone this transfer.

Oh, then there is also our office couple:

Anziano and Sorella Valentine: They are from Denver!!! They've only been here one transfer. They are really happy all the time even though they have to do a ton of work in the office. Sorella Valentine is an AMAZING cook. I really admire them. They totally love their mission and are learning a lot.

I better go because we have a lot of things to do. I know, we always do.

Love,

Anziano Banks

I LOVE ROME! AMO ROMA!

2011-07-06T18:01:00.001-07:00

The new AP is Anziano Garvin!!!!!! I'm so stoked.

So things are going really great. Sorry that I've been so busy but with transfers and everything I just haven't had any time at all. We have been also doing a lot to find new investigators because right now we don't really have anyone. I love to find!
Yesterday we were decided to go to this area of Rome that is known for having lots of Chinese, although it's not technically a Chinatown. Me and Anziano Garvin had prayed that we could find a young Chinese guy around 26 yrs old that could come to church the next day because Elder Perkins was supposed to be here. Anyway, we went around there looking for this Chinese guy, and we were just talking to everyone we could. So then I'm down to my last Chinese pamphlet and a Chinese guy walks by us and I knew that I needed to stop him. It turns out that he was Christian, he was 27, and he wanted to come to church!!! It was awesome! Unfortunately he didn't make it today because a bunch of his friends were going to the beach, but Elder Perkins didn't make it either, so whatever.

While we went to find this Chinese guy we also met a lot of other really cool people. I love talking to people. Just in the afternoon yesterday we got 11 people's phone numbers and a lot of addresses. Then today in church two random ladies showed up and we're actually going to teach one of them today!

Anyway, I know I haven't e-mailed you too much lately. So, Anziano Garvin was my MTC companion. Being companions here in Rome sure was unexpected, especially considering that we were both called to the Italy Catania Mission. haha. It's a total blast.

Let me tell you a little about what my schedule was this last week. So we had missionaries that were coming to the mission from the MTC. 3 from the Madrid MTC, and 12 from the Provo MTC. Well, out of the Provo MTC 3 made the flight they were supposed to, and NINE missed their connection in Chicago.

I guess that they were supposed to go to gate L8 but they were actually in the wrong terminal. So they missed their flight, but then got a later one that put them in London. To come to Italy they had to take three different flights, which means we had to pick them up at three different times. Remember that we already had the first two times with the group of three from Madrid and the other group of three from Provo.

It was a fun and exciting day. The last group didn't get in until after 10pm. President Kelly asked me to be his companion to go out to the airport with him, and so Anziano Rappleye actually stayed at the Villa and went to sleep with the other missionaries. So President and I went out together to get the last three missionaries that were coming in, and on the way home we hit a ton of traffic. We actually didn't get back to the Villa (mission home) until 1 AM!!! hahaha. Then they were really hungry so I got to bed around 2am.

The next morning I got up at 5am because it was transfer day and we had to go pick some people up from the bus station. Needless to say, President and Sister Kelly often tell us to take naps. But I'm not the napping type.

CHECK THIS OUT::: So I stopped typing this e-mail that I was getting around to because we had to teach a lesson to this lady that we met in church today. I'm pretty sure Anziano Acerson (who just finished his mission) invited her to come to church, and so I sat next to her today and then set up an appt for this afternoon. Anyway, her name is Floriana. When she was in church one of the sister's investigators got confirmed and she leaned over and asked me if she had to be baptized and confirmed to become a member of our church. I told her yes and that we would talk about it more later if we could meet with each other.

So this afternoon we started off with a prayer, and then right after the prayer she said, I just want to know how you have so much peace and serenity in your lives. When I came to church I really felt that. We explained to her a little and then invited her to get baptized and she's going to on the 30th of July!! We also have three appointments set up with her for next week. It's going to be awesome. You can really tell that she's had a hard life and I told her that I'm really excited for her because she is going to be really happy and have the peace she's looking for.

IT WAS AWESOME!!!

: )

This transfer is going to be really great. Lately I've been thinking about how selfish and prideful it is to not talk with and share the gospel with everyone. I was on the bus the other day and I wasn't sure about talking to some people because it seemed kind of awkward. Usually I have no problems, but for some reason that's just how it was that time. So I was sitting there, and I thought to myself, what is holding me back? I realized that the only thing holding me back was that I didn't want to make myself look bad or I thought maybe I'd be embarrassed or something. Anyway, I talked to them because I realized that I don't really care about being embarrassed, and it turns out that one of them had met the missionaries before, she gave me her number, and on top of that she gave me her sons number!

How awesome is that!

That's why we're having so much success: Because we talk to everyone. We have one car and two vans, but instead of driving we got bus passes and we take that as often as possible and the Lord is really blessing us.

I love my life. I love the gospel. I'm grateful for the testimony I have. I know that what President Monson said one time is true, that who selfishly keeps there testimony to themselves, loses it.

Thank you for all your support. Sorry I'm so busy, but I'm seriously crazy happy.

Love,

Anziano Banks

p.s. I love missionary work!

Also, I think my new getting home date is on the 4th of November or something.

I just wanted to let you know that things are going really well here in Rome. We're keeping really busy and we're doing great work. : )

Happy Father’s Day!

2011-06-24T20:27:00.001-07:00

What a week!

We had Anziano Texeira here from the 70 (as I mentioned last week), and it was crazy. We took him from his hotel to the church in Catania and then to the airport, so we had some good time to chat with him. It was nice.

After the conference in Catania we went over to Palermo to go on splits. Wow. Palermo is seriously awesome. I went with Anziano Larsen. He's only been out for about a month. We had a great time together. We met a lot of really cool people on the street, and we also did mostra that evening. If you don't remember, mostra is a big display that we use sometimes. I really love it because it's very effective. You can split up and talk to a lot of people around the mostra. We did it right by the sea, and so Anziano Larsen actually sat down and talked to a couple Italians that were looking out at the sea and talked to them himself for 20 minutes. That was really cool because it gave him the chance to use the language on his own, and he got their number and was really excited about that.

Did I tell you that we drove all the way to Catania? hahaha. That was a long trip. Thanks to traffic and construction it took over 10 hours! Then we went from Catania to Palermo, and then from Palermo to Cosenza, and the next day from Cosenza to Rome.

This week we're getting ready for transfers. Transfers are always fun. It's really cool because we get to help President when he does them. One thing that could be interesting this transfer is that we may be getting a couple of missionaries that have office responsibilities so that we can go out and do more work. I would feel bad for whoever has to do it, but one thing that Anziano Texeira said is that the Assistants are some of the best missionaries in the mission and that you basically can't have them in the office doing administrative work. I was really happy about that because that's the only downside to being an assistant. Everything else about being an assistant is totally awesome (serving all around the mission, helping train missionaries, being around President and Sister Kelly).

Anyway, we'll see what President decides.

We got a challenge from Sorella Texeira. I'd like to invite you to do it. It's to read the Book of Mormon in the time that it got translated, which was 60 days. If you read it, meditate it's message in your heart, and then pray to know of it's truth, you will know through the Holy Ghost that it is true. I'm going to read it and follow the promise so that I can receive a reconfirmation of it's truthfulness. Will you do it too? I'm reading it in Italian.

Have a great week!

Next week I'm not sure when I’ll email because we're going to be busy with transfers. I'm seriously going to have a blast. We get the new missionaries on Tuesday and Wednesday. Then on Thursday the old missionaries go home, and transfers happen.

It's great.

Love,

Anziano Banks

Incredibile! (that's not a misspelling, it's Italian)

2011-06-17T22:29:00.001-07:00

Today we had an amazing Zone Conference. Well, an amazing General Authority visit. Anziano Texeira. Wow.

It was really sweet. Our mission is going to be on fire after he finishes his mission tour. He taught a lot of great principles of how we can improve, and him and Sister Texeira basically called us all to repentance. haha. Right after the visit everyone just went straight to talking to people on the street. We went to. It went okay. We met a pretty cool lady that is atheist.

I realized that atheist people usually tell me that they worked out things in their head and that's what makes sense, but then when we get to talking I usually find out that they haven't really thought it through that much, even if they claim that they have. For example, everything this lady said that means God doesn't exist ended up not working. She said, well I prayed and got didn't do what I asked for. Then I said, an earthly father wouldn't give his kid whatever he wanted whenever he wanted either. Then she said something like, a loving God wouldn't make war. Then we got talking about freedom of choice. Parents can tell their kids, don't touch the oven, don't touch the oven, don't touch the oven, but if they touch it in the end, they probably learn for themselves.

I can kind of understand where people are coming from, but I know that God exists because I've tried for myself. I've prayed and I've felt His love and the happiness in my heart that comes through the Spirit and I cannot deny that it comes from God. I feel like spirituality can almost always be related to physical things. For example, I don't believe that I can run five miles. If I never try that I certainly never will!

Or if you go intellectually it's like at first calculus problems seem like magic and don't make any sense. If you don't ask someone to explain it to you (be it a teacher or a book) you will never figure it out. In the case of God you must study the book, and ask Him for help.

One thing that I am still trying to do every day is go to a room by myself, kneel down, and pray out loud. It's great. I've had many recent spiritual experiences doing so lately. Ask God what you need to have the Spirit with you, and he'll let you know! He may let you know immediately, or he may respond during you scripture study, or while you're out and about.

Those last couple lines are something that President Kelly taught during the conference, and I've totally been seeing that working for me already. I ask how I can improve, and I generally receive responses quickly. If I don't correct what I'm doing, instead of receiving new revelation, I'm usually just reminded of what I still need to improve.

Tomorrow I'm looking forward to going down to Sicily. We're going to be there through Monday. I'll be in Palermo on splits. It's going to a blast.

We're nearing transfers. This next week we'll be meeting with President a lot.

Love you tons,

Anziano Ray Banks

VI VOGLIO BENE!

2011-06-12T14:50:00.001-07:00

These last few days, or week, or however long it’s been has been incredible. I could probably write you pages about it if I only had the time, so I’ll just give you a little overview.

Scambi (splits) in Napoli were awesome. I went with another Anziano Andersen and we basically did finding work the whole day (which I love). He’s in his fourth transfer, so he’s really young in the mission. Anyway, we had a blast and a lot of success. We actually got 13 people’s phone numbers!

When we first showed up there we had pizzas for dinner. That was great. They were delicious. After we did our scambi, we stayed over and took our preparation day the next day. We went to piazza garibaldi in Napoli. That’s where I went to eat pizza from “Da Michele” which is rumored to be where pizza was invented, and is definitely the best place to get pizza in the world. You know how sometimes things get talked up so much that you get disappointed when you actually try it yourself? Well, this is definitely not the case. The pizza was amazing!! They only make Margheritas there and they are awesome. Secret ingredient? Well, it’s not that secret, they list it right on the list “aqua di Napoli” (Napoli water).

I love Napoli.

Today we just got back from a scambi that we did in Brindisi and Cosenza. That’s right, I already got to go back home again. I love that little city. Brindisi was great too.

Before dropping down to Brindisi we swung by Bari and I was really lucky that we showed up right at the end of Family Home Evening in church. We got to eat the refreshments and I saw some members that I knew. Here we are eating some panzerotti in Bari. ----------------------------------->

After that we went down to Brindisi. We had a good time there. I was with Anziano Luke. He’s moved around a ton in his life and now he’s in Virginia. We met a lot of great people there.

I wish I would have had more time in Cosenza, but the cool thing is that we got to teach Anna Filipelli. She is the mom of member that lives up north (but they’re from Cosenza), and we started teaching her when I was there. She is getting baptized in a couple weeks.

Speaking of which, I can’t remember if I told you about the last couple of baptisms in Foggia, but they were both people that I found and taught! I’m not sure if you remember Favour, but him and his sister both just got baptized!

Things are going great. I’m very very busy and tired, and extremely happy and satisfied. There’s really nothing more fun than being a missionary!

Traveling around was great, but being back in Rome is great too.

Love,

Anziano Banks

P.S. We had to buy some blow-up mattresses for the mission, and I talked one of the managers at the store into giving us a deal and he gave us 2 mattresses free! That was pretty sweet.

Bellissima famiglia mia!!!

2011-06-01T19:06:00.001-07:00

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

: )

Hey there!

2011-05-28T15:55:00.001-07:00

Whew, things have been pretty crazy. Do you remember how I'm always telling you that I'm really busy? Well, I'm a whole lot more busy now! That's for sure.

This week we had Zone Leader Council. That was a lot of fun. As far as people that you know I saw Anziano Rowland, Anziano Scotchi, Anziano Shaw (who met dad last time he was in Rome), and I think that's about it as far as people that you know.

It's pretty crazy being an assistant because we're pretty well-informed on everything that goes on in the mission. It's a lot of fun. We're in the office a fair bit, but it's not too bad. We're supposed to do about 50% our own work and then 50% responsibilities as assistants (including taking people to and from the airport, organizing travel things, going on exchanges, etc…). Unfortunately in the past it hasn't been this way, so we have no investigators right now. But that's okay, we're going to be doing a lot of finding, which should be pretty fun.

As of now I haven't seen any sites in Rome yet, but I figure if I don’t see them now it just gives me one more reason to come back after the mission.

One pretty cool thing is that President Kelly's son is here right now and he served a mission in Taipei a few years ago. He was there when they celebrated the 50th anniversary of the church in Taiwan (so were we). He speaks Chinese really well. That's actually what his major in college was.

Well, I don't have too much more to tell you. I'm doing well. I'm healthy. I'm tired, but I'm really happy about it. haha.

I think that the best way we can show our love for one another and for the Lord is through our service, and so I'm really happy that I'm able to show him some love right now (and of course for the rest of my life!)

I'm just so tired that I totally wasn't able to think of more things that we've done, but we've done a lot.

One is that we went and tried to find an inactive Chinese member that lives near the train station. That was pretty fun. We went there and found out that she's nowhere to be found. So I thought to myself, usually all Chinese people in a neighborhood know each other (for example, mom knows pretty much every Chinese in St. George). So we went to the nearest Chinese store and asked the lady there if she knew this member of our church. She told us that she had a friend that may know her, so she called her. Well, here's what happened: She passed the phone over to me, and I found out that her friend was a Jehovah's Witness! She thought that we were from that church. haha.

I can't really blame her though because I had forgotten my nametag, so I can see why she couldn't tell.

Anyway, lots of different cool things have been going on, and I definitely need to catch up on my journal writing.

That's about it. Rome is awesome.

Love,

Anziano Banks

The most beautiful city in the world . . .

2011-05-19T20:47:00.001-07:00

If you ask me, it's Rende. You remember how Greeley and Evans were right next to each other? Or St. George and Washington? That's how Cosenza and Rende are, but it turns out that Rende is better. The university is actually there in Rende, and so is the mall. I have to admit, the university is actually really ugly looking as far as buildings, but it has tons of students and they're all very open. We've been trying to go there every week, and we've met tons of awesome people.
Oh, but the most beautiful city in the world is actually supposed to be Rome. At least, that's what everyone has been telling me. I'll be going there tomorrow, because I GOT TRANSFERRED!

haha.

Pretty crazy, right? I'm totally stoked. I was really shocked, and I definitely am going to miss Cosenza a lot because in total I've lived 6 months here (only six weeks this time, but all together six months now).

Rome. wow.

I'm also going to be one of the assistants to the President, which means I'm going to keep pretty busy. I'm really looking forward to that, but more than that I'm just looking forward to serving in Rome. Thank goodness that I came back here to Cosenza because I was able to brush up on my Chinese, because I'm sure there are tons of Chinese there in Rome. This last week we really put forth a great effort and we were able to meet a lot of great people. I'm really happy. I guess next week I'll have a lot more to tell you. For now I'm just really busy getting packed, making sure transfers go smoothly for everyone in the zone, and trying to get pictures and say goodbye to everyone here. Man I love Cosenza. I love the Calabria. But I'm sure I'll love Rome because I love big cities.

How often do you pray for charity? I think that I'm going to start focusing on that more in my prayers. We need to love everyone and know how to express that love. One thing I love about Italy is that they have the Ti Voglio Bene form, which you can use for everyone (or Le Voglio bene).

Love,
Anziano Banks

Cosenza 2011

2011-05-18T12:50:00.001-07:00

So this last week was pretty exciting. I can't remember who said it, but there was someone that said you need to be very emotionally involved in you missionary work. Well, I sure felt that this last week. We had some pretty awesome, powerful experiences. It's a shame that I already called, because it all happened after the phone call! haha.

Anyway, I'll just tell you a little, and the rest you'll have to ask me about after the mission. One thing that was awesome is that on Saturday night we decided that we need to pray specifically for three people who are ready to baptized. We prayed for them each specifically every prayer after we decided that (we're still doing so).

Prayer with faith is powerful.

The next day, after church, we got a call from Fernando. He's one of the three we had been praying for. He told us that he wanted to change his life, and he was hoping we could help him somehow. We set goals, and one of them is that he will be baptized on the fourth of June. That's about as little detail as I could possibly give you, but I'll tell you about it in more detail after the mission. Another great experience was with lesson "0". I can't remember if I ever told you what that is, but it's the first lesson we do (I know, you would think we would do the first lesson, but we do that the second time, haha). I think it's very appropriate seeing as here in Italy you start with "piano terra" before the first floor that is really on the second floor.Anyway, last night we did one and it went horribly. This morning we did taught one to Enzo and it was almost perfect. He's awesome. He actually called us on Monday to set the appointment. When we talked to him this morning he told us that when he had talked to him we had opened his eyes. A little bit before meeting us (we met him on the street last week) he had thrown away everything he had of Jesus Christ in his house, and he didn't really believe in God anymore. So when we met with him we told him that we want to teach him about the restoration, the plan of salvation, and the gospel of Jesus Christ, but we need to meet with each other often so that we can teach him everything. We also told him that he needs to pray, he needs to read the scriptures, and he needs to come to church so he can receive a testimony. Then we told him, once you have a testimony, will you be baptized by someone who has the correct authority? He was nodding his head before the question was even finished. He's awesome. He is around 45 yrs old, and he is a soccer coach. He's a stud.

Sorella Ziccarelli taught with us. She's totally awesome too. During the lesson she bore her testimony and I thought that Enzo was going to cry because the Spirit was so strong. She has a really powerful testimony. After the lesson she apologized for interrupting but said that she felt she should bear her testimony. We were like, are you kidding! You did awesome! It was perfect! haha. We were so stoked. She wants there to be a temple in Calabria and she's willing to act to make it happen. She's like...60 years old. I don't know if there's any other news. Well, I'm sure there is, but I just can't think of it! I'm doing well. I like what mom says that as long as I'm on a mission she doesn't have to worry about me. haha. That's totally true. There's really nothing better that I could be doing right now.

I think what makes the mission so great is that it requires a lot of self-control and discipline. In the sense that while I was in Gela we taught and baptized Nicola who used to be a Catholic monk, and we also taught Antonio who was about to become a Catholic monk. They go into the convent and they don't have anything to worry about. They just chill, study the scriptures, and they're protected from the world. It's not like that at all in the mission field! Sometimes when people here things like we can't have a girlfriend here, or that we have to go home at a certain time, they're shocked. I always say, it's not like somebody comes to check on us and if we follow these rules, but we follow them because we want to. I'm obedient because I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true, and I know that the restoration really happened.

It's like all the commandments. If people want to know why we follow them, they just have to try it and receive a testimony and they'll understand.

Love,

Anziano Banks

Whew!

2011-05-17T19:22:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was pretty intense. We went up to Zone Conference in Bari. It went pretty well. It also went a little long (they normally end at 4 but this ended after 5).

Me and Anziano Marzolla talked about how we can use our time wisely and be more effective. We talked about a lot of things specific to missionaries, but at the same time I think it applies to everyone. For example, we talked about being focused, what to focus on, and how we should be constantly thinking about our purpose. I think that in life it's important that we have goals and we are constantly trying to reach them. We also taught that you should break down your goals into smaller fractions of time. You have mission goals, transfer goals, weekly goals, daily goals, and you can even set mini-goals throughout the day. For example, me and my companion generally set goals before taking a half hour bus ride to talk to meet two new people and teach them about the gospel. Things like that.

In life our purpose is to have joy and return to our Heavenly Father. It's pretty simple: We need to focus on being obedient to the commandments and always improving to become more like Jesus Christ. There are a few other things that I would like to share from the conference.

President Kelly told us about the mists of darkness, and I really like how he pointed out that temptation gets described in that way. He told us a story about a guy that was in jail that he was sitting there staring at his a stuffed animal of Clifford. He had been sentenced to three years in jail because he had done shifty accounting things. What had happened is first the guy above him started having him do little dishonest things, and then he just got used to doing a poor job in his accounting. He couldn't believe that it had happened.

We all need to be careful. Even this guy who had never had trouble with the law, had a family and everything started doing little things and next thing he knew he didn't even realize what he was doing. Basically the mists of darkness slowly come to us, and then we fall into sin.

He also told us another example that I really liked which was how following the spirit is like a guided missile. For example, I took from it that when we plan and stuff we set the missile in the right direction, but then to hit the target we have to follow the spirit throughout the day so that it can guide us.

Love,
Anziano Banks

p.s. I'm happy, healthy, and so is my companion.

Buona Pasqua!

2011-04-30T17:14:00.001-07:00

HAPPY EASTER!!

I had an awesome Easter. Well, even better than my Easter was my “little easter”. It’s a special holiday that they have here in Italy. It’s on the Monday after Easter and basically everyone just goes to the mountains or the beach and has a barbeque. In Italian it’s called “Pasquetta”.

I had decided to go on exchanges that day, so we had to go to Crotone so I could serve with Anziano Cox there for a day. Well, Pasquetta is definitely the wrong day to travel, because everything is closed! Haha. There were hardly any buses or trains, and we ended up taking a train to Sibari and we had a 3-hours to chill there.

We decided to walk around and see Sibari….it’s pretty small. We didn’t find anything that was open (literally nothing was open), and the only people we saw was a family that was outside eating next to their house (in a little garden-type area). I figured…we can go back to the station and be bored there for the next few hours, or we can try and talk to this family. So I said to them “Excuse me! Is there anything open around here?!”

Response “What are you looking for?”

“Something to eat!”

“Come here and eat some of this fruit we’re eating!”

“No, that’s alright, thanks”

“C’mon! I’ll give you some”

“Alright, awesome.”

Hahaha.

So we started eating some fruit, then they gave us some frittata (egg and asparagus thing) and some dry, cut-up spicy sausage. Then Hans (the father) pulls out a huge bowl full of meat, and asks if we eat meat.

“Yes!”

He ended up grilling a bunch of meat for us, and we couldn’t finish what he gave us because it was so much (although we were totally starving because we showed up at like two-something), and then he kept grilling more and more and came out with a big tray of meat. We were pretty scared, but it turned out it wasn’t just for us, it was for everyone.

Haha. It was awesome.

Then we of course talked to them about the church, we taught them about the restoration, gave them a Book of Mormon and we each wrote thank you notes and testimonies in the cover page. Hans is the guy in the blue standing next to me.

I don’t remember what I did for Pasquetta last year, but whatever it was, this year was better. It was sweet because Hans (he was born in Switzerland, but he’s Italian) had just bought a new grill, and so he was really stoked on it.

Then we went to Crotone and met up with the other Elders to go on splits. It was raining quite a bit, but we still talked to people on the street. We actually had quite a bit of success too. We were looking for a 26-yr-old girl because we thought that would be good so that the new convert there can have a girlfriend. Hahaha. Anyway, we ended up finding a 36-yr-old girl instead, and she was really awesome. It’s funny because a lot of people just don’t really understand the restoration, especially when we teach it on the street, but she got everything right away. So we got her phone number and the missionaries there will start meeting with her.

On the way back from Crotone we actually took the bus, and my companion met a 26-yr-old girl from Crotone there! Haha. Who knows.

Now I have to tell you about something that happened a little bit earlier this last week. Last Friday. That’s when I met Pietro Paolo Audia. He’s a total stud. He had ordered a Book of Mormon and the Finding Faith in Christ DVD from the church website, and so we called him so we could go out and talk to him. Well, he lives about an hour from Cosenza, he’s only 18, and he wants to know more about the church. By the end he understood the restoration pretty well, and he was already asking us what needs to be done to open a branch where he lives!! Hahaha. We told him that we think you have to have two families, and then he goes “We’re two families!”

When we met with him he was there with a friend, his dad, another friend, and I think his little brother or something. It was pretty cool.

We also met this guy who is pretty sure that President Kelly taught him.

Love,

Anziano Banks

No time!

2011-04-23T12:12:00.001-07:00

My life is so busy, and wonderful.

This week we had a seventy here. His name was Elder Olsson. He is from Switzerland. I really enjoyed his talks. During all the meetings I translated from Italian to English for him, and then when he spoke there was an Italian RM that translated for him. Then we had a meeting for all the new converts, and I translated from English to Italian for him. I think I actually prefer doing that. It was really cool because I realized that I'm actually pretty good at translating.

Other news this week is that we are teaching the daughter of Giuseppe Belsito. If you remember he was basically the first investigator I ever had, and he got baptized last year. Now he is the Branch secretary and he has the Melchizedek Preisthood. He's a stud. I really hope that his daughter joins the church. She should in about a month.

I love being back in Cosenza.

I guess that's about it, because I have to go do some other things. I just want to bear you my testimony that I know that God loves each one of us. He wants to bless us, but He can't do it unless we obey the commandments. Just like any good father that gives good advice to his son, He knows what is best, but in the end we can choose what we do.
It's pretty awesome.

Thanks for all your support. I really appreciate it. I know that I have been really blessed to have a good family and good friends in my life. I hope that I can be a good help for you too.

Love,

Anziano Banks

P.S. My companion is awesome. He is from Argentina and he is in his third transfer. He laughs like crazy. haha. We're having a lot of fun together, and we're having a lot of success finding people to teach.

P.P.S. I’m finally able to start sending photos again! Here are some old ones from Gela.

Anziano Garvin is still on Malta. Poor guy.

At least they have a sweet candy bar there! hahaha.

Elder Banks

2011-04-17T22:16:00.001-07:00

Dear Brother and Sister Banks,

We are pleased to inform you that your son has been called to serve as a Zone Leader in the Italy Rome Mission. He will have the responsibility to preside over two or more districts in one of our zones here in the mission. He will be responsible for his zone both spiritually and temporally. He will teach them once a month in a combined district meeting and will help with the planning and training at Zone Conference. He will go on exchanges with all of the missionaries in his zone to help them with teaching or language skills. He will also serve as a member of the Zone Leader Council which helps direct and plan initiatives for the entire mission.

We love your son and are excited for the opportunity to work closely with him. He is an outstanding missionary.

With best regards,

Thomas E. Kelly

President

Italy Rome Mission

Going back home . . .

2011-04-15T18:52:00.001-07:00

Wow, I've got some crazy news! I'm being sent to Cosenza!!! (Where I started my mission). President Kelly said that normally he wouldn't think to do that, but he felt really strongly from the spirit to send me there. This time is going to be even more fun than last time because I'll be Zone Leader for the Taranto Zone. That's going to be a blast!

This week has flown by, it's been really incredible. I can't believe that I've been living the last 6 months in Sicily! I can't believe I'm going to back to Calabria where I'm going to eat spicy salami every day! haha. I seriously love the mission.
The other really cool thing is that in ten days I'm going to Rome for Zone Leader Council! That's going to be incredible.
Unfortunately I'm going to be missing Cristian's baptism by just a few days, and he's being baptized in the sea!!! My companion promised he'll take lots of photos, that way after the mission I can photoshop myself in. hahaha.

I'm really excited for this next transfer. My new companion is from Argentina. He's only been on the mission for a few months. One thing that I really love about being transferred is that it gives more motivation to improve. It gives you a fresh start. I feel really happy about what I've done in Gela, and I'm satisfied with the work I did in Cosenza a year ago, but this time it's going to be totally different. Now I'm comfortable with the language, I have a lot more experience, and I really think that things are going to go well there. I probably will only stay for a couple of transfers (3 months) because I already served there once before, but we'll see.

What did you think of General Conference? I thought that it was totally amazing! In the end I managed to see all of the sessions, but unfortunately I had to watch them in Italian (except Priesthood). It's definitely not the same: I much prefer hearing their real voices.

One thing that I thought was that I'm sure glad that I'm going home in 6 months and that I'm not home now or else I sure would feel pressured to get married! haha.

It's incredible how inspired General Conference is. It's just like the talk that Elder Holland gave; we really find the responses to all our questions there (if we look) and there is always some talk that is specifically for us. While I watched conference I also thought about how some of those talks were specifically for our investigators, or specifically for Nicola. Speaking of him, he's doing a lot better now. He's been really happy these last few days. I think that conference really lifted his spirits.
Then there was the talk that President Uchtdorf gave that was amazing, and Cristian and Antonella showed up to that session of conference right after his talk! I couldn't believe it!! I told them that they need to go on the internet and look it up because it is perfect for them (the one from the Sunday Morning Session).

Anyway, I just want to say that I am really grateful for you and your faith and your support for my mission. I know that going back to Cosenza is going to be amazing, and that with your faith and prayers I'll also be able to learn a lot as a Zone Leader there. I don't know who the other Zone Leader is going to be, but I think that it's going to be someone that you know, so I'll let you know next week.

Thank you for all your support. If you need me to do anything for you here, just let me know.

Love,
Anziano Banks

p.s. Wish me luck!

Whew.

2011-04-12T10:04:00.001-07:00

I am totally beat. Missionary work is really tiring! haha. Especially when you have to run to and from appointments.

Yesterday I went on splits with Anziano Acerson. It was fantastic. In the morning we went to the beach to teach Cristian. Even though it's warm out, it's still too cold for Sicilians to go swimming, so the beach is fairly empty. We went on top of a hill of sand that looks over the sea, and we read a talk from the last General Conference. Nature is a great place to feel the Spirit. Sitting on the sand, listening to the crash of the waves while reading the words of an Apostle is incredible. I felt very edified from the lesson we had, and that same Spirit stayed with us the entire day. One thing that we did at the end of the lesson (Anziano Acerson's idea) is we each made a list of what we can do to serve God this week. It was great. I hope that I can put into practice all the things I wrote because that will help me stay a lot closer to the Lord. I recommend that you do the same activity.

In the afternoon we went to teach Nicola. We taught him about the Holy Ghost. Once again, we had a great lesson. Right after we sat down Nicola got up to go grab something in his room, and I noticed a hymnbook on his bookshelf. I thought to myself, what better way is there to invite the Holy Ghost than sing a hymn! I grabbed the hymnbook and flipped open to "Let the Holy Spirit Guide" I hummed the tune to him, and then we all sang the hymn together. It was great. We used the new Gospel Principles manual (which I love) and there we read a great quote from President Joseph Fielding Smith about the Holy Ghost. Basically it says that if someone has a visitation from an Angel, or even sees God, over time that experience will fade away from his mind, but if he feels the Holy Ghost that pierces his soul, it's very hard to forget. I love remembering all the times that I've really felt the Holy Ghost because reflecting on your testimony makes it stronger.
That night we had English Course which was also a blast. I taught advanced course. It's so chill. This time I had them practice translating questions because Italians get really confused when they ask questions in English (rearranging words like "you will" and "will you" and also using "do"). Then we just did some conversation.

The reason my day was so tiring is besides the fact that Anziano Acerson is a fast walker, we also had to run around a little bit. Right before English Course we decided to go by a lady we had met in the past, and even though she wasn't home, her family was and they invited us in. We taught them about the restoration, and then we had to run to English Course because it was already time to start.

Anziano Acerson and Anziano Alvarado (from Peru) slept over, and then the next day (today) we were able to do P day together. That was really a blast. We took lots of awesome photos. We also played some soccer, and that was a lot of fun. After the mission I definitely need to play more soccer. It was really great playing for the couple months that I did right before. I love sports. I really like playing almost all sports.

This week is going to be crazy. This Saturday we are going to be cleaning the beach again and there are going to be tons of people. Saturday night is when we get our first session of General Conference here at 6 pm. On Sunday we have priesthood session at 11am, then at 2pm we have a session, and at 6 pm we have another!

I know what you're probably thinking, isn't there another session of conference?

The answer is yes. There is another session of General Conference, the Sunday Afternoon Session. Here in Italy the wards and branches are supposed to record it and then show it at another time, but almost nobody does it. In other words: We're not going to see the Sunday Afternoon Session (which is usually the best).

The good news is that it makes reading the Liahona afterwards a lot more interesting.

We've been inviting everyone to come to conference. We tell people, guess what, there's a living prophet called of God on the earth today. Everyone goes, who is it? Thomas S. Monson. Then they usually say, I've never heard of him. Well surprise! If you come this weekend you can here what he has to say! He receives revelation from God that we need to help us nowadays.
I'm incredibly excited for conference this weekend. I loved the last conference. I think I'm more excited for this conference than any conference before. This is going to be my last conference on my mission! The next one hopefully I can be there in the conference center!

To get pumped for conference we've been reading a lot of talks from past conferences and like I said, talking to everyone about it. I'm also trying to think of a good question I can go to conference with. I definitely recommend that you do the same. Go there looking to get an answer about something. Pray that you'll receive it, and you will.

Have a great week! (How could you not? It's conference weekend!)

Love,
Anziano Banks

This week in Gela . . .

2011-03-31T17:42:00.001-07:00

On Saturday morning we had a great service project. We went to clean the local beach! We ended up filling more than 60 bags of trash, not including the stroller, tire, door, and other good finds that were there. The local TV came and filmed a little bit. I haven't actually seen it, but we're hoping to get a copy on DVD. Unfortunately, right before I was going to be given a short interview it started raining so they had to pack up. It was still pretty cool though. It was actually a regional TV channel, so I guess it goes to Gela, Ragusa, Caltannisetta, and maybe some other cities.

We really had a blast. It was just 6 missionaries and Cristian, but we're going to do it again in a few weeks and the city of Gela should be participating. Pretty sweet how much we cleaned up, huh? After we got done cleaning we decided to take some sweet jump photos because there was a good staircase to jump off of into the sand. : )

I'm seriously becoming a part of this city now. I've been here for five months, I know tons of people really well, and it's just crazy. I feel like I'm actually living here. haha. (In the sense that I moved here or something, not that I'm just serving a mission here.) If I were to move to Italy I definitely wouldn't ever have chosen Gela! But I really love it here.

This week we went to the market again. I was really lucky. Do you remember that gray suit that I brought on my mission? Well, the pants of that suit got a big hole in the knee, so I decided to cut a piece of the pants off to bring it to compare with other pants at the market. I ended up finding a pair that fits me well, is almost identical to the suit, and it only cost me 8 Euro!! Score!

On another note, one thing that frequently stupefies me is how much people can misinterpret the scriptures. It really blows my mind sometimes that people can misunderstand them so much. This morning, as I was reading Joseph Smith History, I read how after he and Oliver Cowdery were baptized they were able to understand scriptures that they weren't able to understand before. I think that the gift of the Holy Ghost is essential to understand the scriptures, so maybe that's why people get so confused sometimes.

There really isn't too much other news this week, we've just been keeping busy and loving what we're doing. I just see a lot of joy in my life, and I see that a lot of people here don't have it. It's really just a pretty simple choice. We were talking with this lady that was complaining about how help is being sent to Libya or something and how they need help here. She said, we don't have any food, what can we do, we're the ones who need help. She told us this right after we had talked about what she would eat for lunch, which was salad, pasta, steak, and I'm sure she had fruit in the end. This is what she eats every day! We need to all wake up and appreciate the blessings that we have. I'll admit it, I eat really well. I'm incredibly blessed. My life is awesome.

Well, I'm happy.

Love,
Anziano Banks

;)

2011-03-24T14:50:00.001-07:00

Wow, I feel like I was just here (at the internet point). This week went by so quickly! I've realized that my life is always like that. I completely love my mission, but I also completely loved college, I completely loved high school, and everything before that I don't even remember that well because it was so long ago! haha.

Time just keeps on flying.

This week I was really happy because we taught a lady named Letizia (her name means the same thing as felicità - happiness!) She is really elect. I met her awhile ago when we did a "Helping Hands" project and she came to help us. She told us to come by her work, but one time when we passed by she wasn't there, another time we could see that she was crazy busy, and another time they were closed. Finally, after months of not being able to get into contact with her, we finally went and saw her and she was really excited to see us. She's like a super-woman. I'm really excited to teach her the gospel.
I'm don't completely understand what her job is, but I know that she does a lot of volunteer work and helps people. She also feels like the church is true, she's read the Book of Mormon but didn't really understand it, and she knows that we're servants of Jesus Christ. She is a little afraid to change, but I think she's excited to start meeting with us (she's never actually been an investigator).

I think I forgot to tell you about another really great success! haha. So, we taught Elisa and Ishan about fasting, and we decided to fast so that she could give up smoking. She smoked about 10 or 20 cigarettes a day. So we all fasted. She fasted from Friday night until Monday morning!! We told her on Sunday that she had already been fasting too long and that she didn't need to keep fasting, but she wanted to do it! She also didn't smoke the whole time she was fasting. After she finished, she smoked again, but she only smokes like one cigarette every day or two. We're helping her stop completely, but I think it's a total miracle that she has gotten to this point because she has been smoking since she was about 8 years old!! Here is a picture of most of their family.
I really like the way things are going. It's weird that I'm staying here longer than any other city, but I like it here, so that's good.

We recently bought a new pan. It's ceramic. It's nice and makes good food, but not as good as these pizzas! Or this lunch we had with our district. Somehow food is always better when you don’t have to make it yourself. haha.

On Sunday we celebrated the 150th anniversary of Italy. I kind of wish I was in a bigger city right now, but I heard that tonight there are going to be fireworks here. I gave a talk in church about supporting the government. I shared my experience at BYU-Hawaii when I had to take the bus all the way to another city to vote. That was crazy, but I did it because I know it's important to vote.

This week I also bought a sweet new Bible. They came out with a new, economic Bible here so I decided to buy one. It's pretty cool. I was looking through it, and I realized that it has some books from the Apocrypha. haha. Anyway, it's a lot easier to read than the one the church uses here in Italy. I'm so glad that in English we have the King James version. Here in Italy everyone has a different translation of the Bible. My companion likes to use the Evangelist version, because he says it's more accurate than the Catholic version.

Anyway, I guess that's about it for today. I hope that you're doing great and that you're happy and healthy. It's sounds like you are by your e-mails.

Love,
Anziano Banks

Hello!!!

2011-03-13T17:28:00.001-07:00

Wow, what a tiring week. hahaha. I meant to say, what a fantastic week. We went to a (more-or-less) Zone Conference in Catania yesterday. It was awesome. What I learned was this:

Love the Gospel and Love the Members
Express your love

So, I definitely have the first one down, so now I just need to show them my love more, bear my testimony more, and help them feel the love. I think that's the same thing that we need to do with just everyone: Help them feel God's love. I feel it. Do you? If not it's probably because you're not looking for it.

Other than that, this week we postponed Cristian's baptism, but we also set another baptismal date! Things are really picking up here in Gela. I think it's good because our city is generally viewed as a city that doesn't really do a lot, but I think that it's going to start doing tons, and everyone's view of Gela is going to change. I hope that Gela can become like Cosenza. The thing that I loved about Cosenza is that even we had just a little branch, we had the blessing of great members that loved to help us. We have good members here, we could just use a few more of them. haha.

Did I tell you that I'm starting to eat really healthy now? I was already trying to eat more fruits and vegetables, but now I've stepped it up: I eat whole grain pasta! haha. I found out that white bread, white pasta, and white rice is all at the top of the food pyramid along with sugars, fats, and all the things that you should eat sparingly. Basically, if you want to be healthy you should also be eating whole grain. I actually really like it for certain pastas, although for others it still tastes better to use normal pasta.

About every transfer we get something called the Italy-Rome Forum. It's a couple pages about where people are serving, who's finishing the mission, who's coming in, and it has a message from President and Sister Kelly, and also from the Assistants. Well, the last one had Sorella Miller (from my MTC district) on the back as one of the people who was finishing the mission. I guess I didn't really think too much about it, until this time when I was looking where everyone was at (and I always look where the people from my MTC district are) and she wasn't on there! Wow. That was so weird. I'm now at the point that I've been on my mission longer than any Sister missionary. haha. weird. I miss Sorella Miller. Now our MTC district is incomplete.

At this conference the only one there was Anziano Garvin, and he flew in from Malta to do some things for his green card (type thing). He's been out on Malta for 5 months!! haha. Crazy.

This week I want to recommend that you all read Matthew. I also highly recommend Jesus the Christ by Talmage. Incredible book.
Jesus Christ lived a perfect life. He suffered for all the sins of the world (every one of our sins). He also overcame death through the resurrection. He organized His church. He called Twelve apostles. He performed many miracles. He is my personal savior, and He died for me. That actually makes me feel sad, but He did it so that I could repent of all my mistakes and be purified through His blood. I bear witness that I have felt the cleansing effect of the atonement when I have repented of my sins. It's incredible! I can think of one experience in particular where I would describe the feeling as a white light inside of me that is warm and comforting. I know that anyone can repent if they choose to.
God loves us so much that He gave us His son, Jesus Christ. I hope that we can all learn from His life.

John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

What a great blessing.

At the Conference in Catania President Kelly spoke a lot about our thoughts, and I really like an example he gave. He said that a bad thought is like this: You're looking outside of you kitchen window, and you see a nasty stray cat. You can sort of look away from it, and wait until it walks away. On the other hand, you can give it some milk, open you door and let it into your house.

Basically, if we have bad thoughts, we should ignore them and draw our attention to something else. The next thing is to fill our mind with good, productive, uplifting things.

Anyway, I hope that you were able to learn something too from the conference and everything.

Have a great week!
Love,
Anziano Banks

G is for Gela, G è per Giungla

2011-03-04T16:43:00.001-08:00

Wow, what a fantastic week. I was able to splits in Catania for a day while I waited for my companion, and that was a total blast. I really love that city. Just walking around there reminds of the start of my mission because that's where we flew into! It's a lot more fun now that I can talk to everyone without any problems.

Anziano Scotchi is my new companion. I think I told you a little about him last week, but I think now I'll tell you a little bit more. Anziano Scotchi is from Moldavia (it's between Romania and Ukraine). He has lived in Italy for about 8 years, and he speaks Italian perfectly (he went to high school here). He's a great missionary. We haven't had much time to do finding work, but I've seen that he's a really great teacher. I what makes him so good at teaching is that he's studied a lot and very well. I've decided to study more carefully so that I can become a better teacher.

One of my favorite quotes from the last conference was that "We become who we want to be by consistently being who we want to become". One thing that I was thinking about lately, is that we are in a constant state of change, and so it might as well be improvement. I think a good goal is to become a respectable person. I'm starting to work on that.

I don't think I told you how surprised I was when we got our phone call last week from President. Wow. When he got off the phone with Anziano Perez I thought we were getting blown out because the first thing he said to me was how good of a job I had done here in Gela. haha. Then he told me I would be staying here and Anziano Scotchi would come. I basically started shouting for joy! What a great missionary!

Antonella says hi! She said to say hi even though she doesn't know you. Haha. She's so awesome. She quit smoking, and she understands the importance of being baptized although we haven't set a date yet. She has an amazing testimony of the Book of Mormon. In fact, she tells us all the time about how she knows that it's true, about the things that she's learning and understanding, and how she wants to share it with everyone! She said that when she first heard about it she thought to herself, the Gospel, in the ancient Americas? That seems weird. Maybe they just made this religion up themselves (she thought to herself). Then she says, when I started reading it I thought, this is true. This book is a true book. I wish everyone would read it! The Gospel of Jesus Christ was taught to all of God's children. This book is true. It's so awesome. I really think that she's going to help her friends and the rest of her family read the Book of Mormon too! She's awesome. I'm so happy that when people actually read the Book of Mormon with the real intent to follow God, they always know that it's true.

I think that we're going to be seeing a lot of success these days. I'm also learning how to be a better cook because my companion's really good.

This week Dad sent me a little message that I really like about the greatest day ever. I think that it's so true that every day can be our greatest day ever. I seriously enjoy my mission because it's a blast. I love people. I love to help people. All day long I help people that I love come closer to Jesus Christ.

I also got an interesting letter from mom this week. I can't believe Verle is getting married! What a punk. I think everyone should just wait until this fall before they get married, that way I can come to everyone's weddings! (that includes Levi)

Love,
Anziano Banks

Recent Happenings

2011-03-02T17:08:00.001-08:00

I guess the big news is that I'm staying in Gela....and that my companion is being transferred! haha. He was only here 6 weeks! My new companion is going to be Anziano Scotchi!! He's a stud. I don't know if I've ever told you about him, but he was in Bari when I was in Foggia, and then he was in Bitonto when I was in Bari. In other words, we know each other. He's from Moldavia, but he's lived in Rome for years, so he's basically an Italian. It's interesting, but missionaries who have one Italian companion usually have two. I don't know why. I guess because the Italians just love us so much. haha.

Speaking of love. I bought my first suit here. I was in a tight situation because I completely destroyed my gray suit (I wore it out) and so I was stuck with only one suit. Seeing as it's winter, I've been wearing the same suit every day. So I finally bought a suit, and it is INCREDIBLE!! I love it. I also got a really good deal. It's about a 130 Euro suit, and I got it for 45 Euro. It's awesome. I've actually decided not to get rid of the gray suit either because Anziano Rowland gave me the idea that I can just buy another pair of pants that look the same, and use those. The suit jacket isn't totally destroyed yet, but the pants are. I figure I'll wear through the jacket, and then I can just keep using the pants. Seriously, this suit is awesome. Italians just know how to make good suits. They also know how to make good shirts, sweaters, coats, and about everything else. I love Italy.

The work here is going well. It pretty much always is though. The only problem is that I know too many people. It makes it a little bit hard to do street because I know so many people, and a lot of people like to talk. I love Italians. They're very friendly and open and talkative. Especially Sicilians. Seeing as I'm staying here, I think I'm going to end up learning a lot of Sicilian. It's pretty fun because people always get stoked when you start speaking Sicilian. If you want to make someone happy, all you have to do is say something in dialect. Then of course there are the people who don't even know how to speak Italian. It's incredible to me how many people are illiterate. I'm so thankful that I'm literate.

This week I also felt closer to Spencer. I've already been told that parts of Gela look like Peru (by Anziano Reyes – a Peruvian), and now we've been without water for two days!! haha. Fortunately we had bottles of water set apart because we had heard that this happens every once and awhile. The last couple days I have been showering with buckets. I have to admit though, I haven't gone completely third-world. Before showering I heat up some water with the stove, that way I don't have to take a cold shower. haha. Gela is so ghetto. One of our investigators told us that we don't have water sometimes because of the Mafia. I guess that they're just involved in everything here.

Oh man, I don't think I told you, but last week I went and saw the Temples in Agrigento. WOW. They are totally incredible. I would highly recommend them to anyone. At least if they're here in the area. We also played a little basketball with the Anziani in Agrigento, and I can definitely tell that I haven't been running enough on my mission . . . haha.

This last week I decided to start reading the New Testament again in English (because I finished the Book of Mormon again in English). It's pretty amazing. I love the book of St. Matthew. It's awesome. The things that Jesus Christ teaches just make so much sense. I really feel the Spirit when I read them.

I'm going to have an awesome week. Tonight I'm going to Catania, I'm staying there all day Thursday, and then I'm coming back here on Friday. I love Catania. It's a great city. I love Gela, too. But let's face it, Catania is way sweeter. They have a McDonalds! Yes!

Love,
Anziano Banks

Buon Giorno!

2011-02-28T19:57:00.001-08:00

This last week was pretty exciting. Due to various reasons we only had THREE members in church....and SEVEN investigators!!! hahaha. It was pretty awesome. I taught the gospel principles lesson about Fasting. My companion gave a talk in sacrament meeting. Speaking of which, I think I forgot to tell you, but I've started giving talks more regularly.

You would all be amazed how much I talk about you when I meet and teach people. I've realized that people really like when you get personal, and so I try to always be as real, sincere, and personal as possible. For example, the other day I was teaching a lesson and I used a quote from President Spencer W Kimball, and when I was explaining who he was I mentioned that he is actually the prophet from when my dad served a mission.

The other cool thing we did this week was we sent on splits with the missionaries from Agrigento. That was pretty fun. I went with Anziano Mikesell (he was companions with Anziano Rowland in Crotone). He also served with Grant Barlow (from Pine View High School). We had a good time. We had an awesome lesson with Christian and Antonella. They're both incredible. On Sunday during Gospel Principles class, we had an investigator that we hadn't really explained the Book of Mormon to yet (okay, so we had really only talked to him once and so we hadn't talked about that yet), and anyway, Antonella started responding to his questions and SHE bore testimony about the Book of Mormon! It was totally sweet.
Elisa wants to get baptized so bad, but she needs to get married first, and so we're waiting for Ishan's family to send some papers up from Egypt. Hopefully there won't be any problems with that because I've heard some crazy things about Egypt lately.

I guess that's about all the news for this week. On Saturday is when we'll receive transfer calls. I think it's about 50-50 for whether I'll stay here or go. I'm down either way. We're having tons of success here in Gela, but I think that for the rest of my mission things are going to keep going really well.

A principle I’ve been working on teaching lately is that the Gospel Blesses Families. It's also true that the family is the best place to put the gospel of Jesus Christ into practice. In our family I've seen that when we did family prayers together, we were more unified. Besides just the act of praying together, we also had a chance to talk about different things while we waited for everyone to get there. haha (even if there are only four of us). Anziano Destefanis loved to do an example like this, if you take one page of the book of mormon, how long would it take to tear in half? But if you take the whole book, how long would it take? When we're all unified in the gospel of Jesus Christ, we become a lot stronger. It's like the old commercial with the chopsticks! If you have one chopstick, it breaks right in two. If you have a fat wad of chopsticks, you can't break them!! Unity is Strength!!

Anyway, I'm really greatful that we're all members of the church and that we can help each other. We really are crazy blessed. Just look at how sweet our lives are!
I hope that I can continue to help other people have more faith and unity in their families because I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only real way to have lasting happiness, and that thanks we know that families can be sealed together forever to live in a state of happiness in the presence of God for all eternity.

It's totally incredible.
Thank you for being such a great family. Have a fantastic week!

Love,
Anziano Banks

What a week!

2011-02-21T18:34:00.001-08:00

CHINESE NEW YEARS!!! It was totally awesome. Why? I ate tons of chinese food, I talked to tons of chinese people, and a bunch of our Chinese friends gave me red pouches full of money!!

Just kidding!! None of that happened! I wish! hahaha. But what did happen is that we set a baptismal date with Christian!! (He's our 26-yr-old investigator from Gela). He'll get baptized on March 10th. I may or may not still be here. We'll see.
Besides that, his mom came to church on Sunday and she loved it!! This week we had tons of people in church. A member that was living up north moved back down, and she just loves doing missionary work. She said that up where she was at (Como) they had baptisms every week!! They also have 6 missionaries, but I guess we'll just have to learn to be more efficient. haha.

Cool story: Elisa is this lady that Anziano Destefanis and I found on the street about a week before Anziano Perez came. She's 32 and Croatian, but she was born in Italy. She has SEVEN kids!! We've been meeting with her and her family, and almost all of them came to church on Sunday! They actually all came to the activity that we had in church yesterday. It was sweet. She is a very very spiritually in-tune woman. Besides all the other times she has felt the Spirit with us, she also just had a dream about us! She's really cool, and I think that she'll probably get baptized pretty soon. She just needs to get married to Ishan first (he's from Egypt, he's cool).

Things are just going great here in Gela. On Friday we're going on splits with Anziano Acerson and Alvarado. I'm pretty stoked.

Last week we were able to have P-day in Catania. It was a total blast! Thanks to Anziano Rowland (MTC District Leader, from Florida), I've got these photos for you!!

haha, SNOW!!! Seriously, the snow was a blast! haha.

The mountain that you can see is Mt.Etna.We didn't actually go all the way up to it because it started snowing and there was snow on the road and stuff, and Anziano McDaniel was driving us n the big van, and we decided it would be best to turn back (good thinking!).

The Peruvian is Anziano McDaniel's greenie. The other white kid is Anziano Rowland's kid. (greenie)

This one with Anziano McDaniel and I holding Anziano Rowland is in front of the old Catania mission home. We actually saw the new owner. He drives a Jaguar.

Let's see, what else can I tell you? One thing I was thinking I should start doing is explaining the principles from the missionary lessons to you. Before for the mission I didn't even really know them (except reading through them once), but now I talk about them all the time! The first is that God is our loving Heavenly Father. We are all children of God, and He loves each of us. He loves you just like he loves me. He is happy when we choose to obey the commandments, and he is sad when we make wrong choices. He is always available to talk to us; we can communicate with Him through prayer. My personal testimony of this is that every time that I have prayed to God with sincerity, he's responded to my prayers. It's not just because I'm lucky, or because He loves me more or something, but he responds to all His children. Ask and you shall receive. It's so simple. I think the main problem is that people don't ask, or they don't ask with sincerity. Sometimes I hesitate to ask until I really do ask with sincerity. For example, if I want something to happen, am I really willing to give it my all so that it will happen? Because that's the key. One thing that I've done on my mission is I ask God how I can improve, and I promise that if you ask, He'll let you know if you're really willing to change. But then you can't really ask again until you improve the thing that you know you need to. Seriously, I know that this is true. Try it!

The other big news this week is that Sorella Gjata came to church! She's this 60-something-yr-old Albanian less-active member that is hilarious. We ate stuffed peppers from her this week and they were crazy delicious. She's so funny. The reason she usually stays up really late on Saturday nights is to crochet a quilt!! haha. She's so funny. I think mom would really like her. She's a little bit crazy, but that's why we love her so much! It's hard to describe her, but basically she gets really excited to see people and it's sweet. I guess that's a little like me too. I love to see friends, and I especially love to see big groups of friends. I guess that's why I love Zone Conferences so much.

One thing that I've started doing is asking people what is most important in their lives. I think we pretty much all have the same things actually. Family, God, Friends, (not necessarily in that order). In general, everyone likes to be happy. So I usually tell people, you know what, you can have more happiness in your life. The only thing is sometimes they choose not to, but whatever. Pazienza.

I hope that you have a great week. I'm pretty much positive I will. Actually, I'm totally positive. Why? Because I'm choosing to! At Zone Conference we talk about things that help with missionary work, but also things that help with life. ACT or REACT. I'm definitely the type that chooses to act. I guess we should all try to be. I also know that I'm going to have a great week because I bought great food this morning. haha. This week I'm going to make some great pastas. I also bought a lot of healthy food that I actually like. Guess what else! We have syrup that an investigator gave us that they got from America! It's SO good. I've been making waffles.

Anyway, goodbye! haha.
Love,
Anziano Banks

p.s. Thanks for the e-mails/letters. Especially when they have pictures. I love that. I think that's why people like facebook so much, because it has so many photos.

Zone Conference!

2011-02-06T19:54:00.001-08:00

Things are going really great here. We just had Zone Conference yesterday and I feel like all my questions and concerns were taken care of. The night before when I was praying, I wanted to know some things, and I decided to pray that I would have my answers the next day at Zone Conference. Which I did. It was awesome.

Then today has been a total blast. We stayed here in Catania for P-day, and the Trapani and Palermo missionaries are here (read: Anziano Rowland). We wanted to climb Etna, but when we went up to the volcano, there was too much snow and we decided to turn back. We had 6 Anziani and 2 Sorelle (we took the van). We still had a total blast. Anziano Rowland is from Florida, and so he goes crazy whenever there's snow. He had his first snowball fight!! hahaha. It was so much fun.

Gela's doing well. We just keep finding tons of people who are interested in hearing about the Gospel! It's pretty cool. I think it's nice serving with someone else who has been in the mission awhile. Oh, by the way, here’s a picture of my new companion!I trimmed my hair the day before yesterday to get ready for the new year. I hope that we all have lots of good fortune, and that next year I'll be able to celebrate Chinese New Year the right way. This year it looks like we are just going to have lots of appointments, so that should be pretty cool.

Anyway, this internet point is crazy expensive (I'm in Catania). So I guess that's about all the news I've got for you.

Have a great week!

Love,

Anziano Banks

Wow

2011-01-29T22:15:00.001-08:00

Things are really going well here in Gela. I think that one thing I love about life is that if you are motivated and you want something, you can pretty much always get it. For example, we wanted to teach some awesome people, so we've been putting in a lot of effort, and we've really met some great people.

One person we're teaching is Antonio. I told you a little about him last week. Well, it turns out that he was only going to the convent for a few days to check it out, and then he would come back to Gela. He sent us a text yesterday that he would be back on Thursday, and that he missed praying with us and he wants to see us Thursday evening! He's awesome. He's just always happy. He completely understands everything we teach him. We asked him to pray about Joseph Smith. The next time we saw him we asked him how he felt. He told us that he felt happy and peaceful, but also something more that he can't describe.

WOOHOO!!!

We've been really blessed with him.
We also met another guy who's 26 and a total stud. The last time we met with him he told us that his heart is telling him to be baptized, but his mind is telling him to just stay how he is. I think he's going to be baptized within the next month.

I really love missionary work. Basically, it's like this, who doesn't want to feel happy all the time? Obviously missionary work isn't just being happy all the time, but when you're teaching great people, you get to feel the spirit all the time when you teach lessons and it's amazing! One thing I've been noticing lately is the difference between feeling the Spirit, and just feeling happy. I like them both. I feel both when we teach Nicola. We're good friends, so we're happy when we chat and stuff, but then we teach him about the gospel and we feel the spirit together it's a kind of joy that is a lot more peaceful (because the other one is just us joking and laughing about different things).

A funny thing happened the other day: we asked someone how he feels when we meet with him, and he said that he feels good. He feels calm. He feels peaceful. And sometimes he feels like sleeping.
hahaha. I guess we're just too calming.

I remember when I was in the MTC when me and Anziano Garvin taught together we would actually almost get hyper because we would start getting so excited for the person we were teaching.

I also got to hear from Kevin this week which was great. I haven't gotten very many of the letters that he writes. I was really happy to hear how he was doing. Whenever I read letters from Kevin, Clark, or Spencer it makes me wish that we could serve together because I think all my friends would make the best companions. But I guess they couldn't put all the coolest missionaries in the same place! haha.

I'm so happy to hear that Josh and Nadia are engaged. That reminds me, I think that the mission is designed to get you ready for marriage. You invite people to be baptized, but then you have to set a date! The best baptismal invites are when you have already prayed about a date, and you say it right in the invite! hahaha

If you run into anyone I know in St. George, tell them hi for me!

Love,
Anziano Banks!

New Companion!

2011-01-21T18:38:00.001-08:00

Things are going awesomely here in Gela! My new companion is Anziano Perez. He's from Oregon, and he's been in the mission for about the same time as I have. He's pretty cool. He's a good missionary and I think we're going to have an awesome transfer together. We've been doing a lot of finding work and we're having lots of success.

In order to fill out the potential investigators section in the missionary planner you have to get two new contacts every day...well, at the rate we're going we're going to fill up potentials, then fill in the investigators section, and then go into members! haha. Things have been going really well. One thing that I really like about him is that he bares testimony often. The thing is, pretty much all missionaries have a strong testimony, so they just need to tell everyone about it! I've started bearing testimony more as well, and I've really enjoyed that.

We found and started teaching a guy named Antonio that is going to become a Catholic monk on Monday. He's a really happy guy. I like him. One thing he asked me is why so many people choose not to follow commandments and God, when the blessings are so obvious. We were teaching him in a park, and there was a guy who was running around the park exercising. I told him that it's like the guy who was jogging. Everyone knows that if you exercise and eat well, you'll be more healthy, but lots of people are too lazy to make the sacrifice. You know that if you follow the commandments you will be blessed and be more happy, but it takes some sacrifice as well. You have to really want it.

I'm really happy with how things are going. Me and my companion work well together and we've been meeting tons of awesome people. I really think we're going to have a lot of success here this transfer. I feel like I've already improved a lot. I've started studying more studiously. haha. It's really helped me realize what I need to help people understand.
God loves every one of us. God has always called prophets to help his children on earth. Sometimes people who follow the prophet end up changing doctrine and going into apostasy. Jesus Christ is our Savior and came to the world to save us. After the death of the Apostles, the authority of God was no longer on the earth. God reached out to us in love 200 years ago when he called another prophet, Joseph Smith. The Book of Mormon is convincing evidence that Joseph Smith was a true prophet.

I love the Gospel. I love you. Thanks for your support and your prayers. I think these next 6 weeks are going to be totally awesome.

Love,
Anziano Banks

Sono qui

2011-01-15T19:53:00.001-08:00

Transfers came. Anziano Destefanis is going to Catanzaro (luckyyy), and I'm staying here in Gela. Anziano Perez is coming here from the Napoli Zone. I'll meet him...tomorrow!

Tomorrow is going to be an awesome day. You know how I love doing missionary work in other cities? Well, tomorrow I'm going to be in Catania with Anziano Acerson and Anziano Mercado (he was in the MTC with me in the group that left before us). It should be a blast.

I know I tell you this all the time, but you should go on youtube.com/mormonmessages

I was thinking about it the other day because Nicola showed us a short clip that talked about the second coming. It wasn't something from our church, but it was awesome, and it got me thinking about the mormonmessages and how much I enjoy those. They're very uplifting.

Speaking of uplifting and all things good: Dried tomatoes. They're delicious, and I know that I'm going to be craving them when I come home from Italy in October. Here's what you have to do: Around June or so you have to put tomatoes out in the sun to dry, then you cut them, they dry out, and you put them in a jar full of olive oil, basil, oregano (i think), and you can eat them all year!!! Maybe you can find on the internet how to do it. You can do it with normal tomatoes, or with cherry tomatoes (delicious). Just thinking about it makes me crazy hungry!

BY THE WAY, You guys are driving me crazy with all the things from IN N OUT! haha. The only thing we have here is McDonalds. Although I recently ate a sandwich from a butcher that had the dried tomatoes, and sausage and it was crazy good.

When I talked to President he told me some interesting things. He said that he'd like me to train, but he didn't feel like Gela was the right city, so he's probably going to transfer me into another city in 6 weeks (after this transfer), and then my second transfer in the next city I should be training. He's totally right, Gela isn't the right city to train because it's not totally normal. The city itself is weird, and then there are very few members.

I like it though. It's nice to be in a big city where you can almost relax, but in the end you grow and learn more in a city that is totally dependent on you (like Gela).

Have a great week!

Love,
Anziano Banks!

Buon anno!

2011-01-09T18:31:00.001-08:00

So everything's going pretty well here. There's not too much news since last week. We've been praying for a family and we found huge one! They are from Croatia, and they have EIGHT KIDS! We're meeting with them tomorrow. We figure if we baptize them, we can pretty much open up a ward here. haha

I'm really excited for the holidays to end because then we should be able to do better missionary work. We've met some amazing people, but they're all from up north!! Now I see why the church is so big up there --because we give them all kinds of referrals! I really enjoy sharing the gospel with people from different places, but right now we really want to find people who are here because the Branch needs it.

New Years was crazy here! We had to be in the house by six because once it turned dark it turned into a war zone outside. Besides the fact that it sounded like bombs were going off everywhere, I saw one of our neighbors who was literally shooting a rifle into the air from his balcony!!! haha. What a nut. I went to bed on time, but I ended up getting up again around midnight because it was impossible to stay asleep.

New Years Day is a missionary cleaning day. It's always nice to have a clean house. We cleaned all day long. In the end, it was pretty enjoyable, but I prefer missionary work. I cleaned the bathroom tile walls with bleach and accidentally messed up one of my t-shirts a little bit. Bleach is pretty awesome. Hopefully you can learn from my example and keep the house in St. George really clean. haha

Have a great week!
Love,
Anziano Banks!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-03T21:27:00.001-08:00

It was nice talking with you on Skype a few minutes ago! haha. However there is always a lot more to tell you about. I have to admit, I don't like to think about how short a mission really is. I only have one phone call home left!!! yikes! I've still been telling people that I have a year until I go home. magari!

On Monday we did exchanges and I was with Anziano Reyes again. That was pretty sweet. The great thing about him is that he always shares personal experiences. I think that for anything we do in the church it's a good idea to reflect on the subject and think of personal experiences that you've had because that way people will be more interested in what you have to say.

New Year's shouldn't be very exciting. haha. We have to be at home by 6pm because it'll be more or less a war zone outside (fireworks), and then New Year's Day we get to clean all day long.

I can honestly say that I push myself and I've been learning a lot. I've learned a lot about the language, the culture, how to drive here, but above all I've learned about my Savior Jesus Christ and how essential He is in all of our lives.We need to always have our Heavenly Father involved in our life. I think that a lot of times it seems difficult with all the commandments, and then trying to have charity for everything, but the thing that is really important is that we are constantly trying to be better people even if we always have lots of weaknesses and room for improvement.

Happy New Year!!!

For this next year I hope that we can all make a commitment to magnify our callings. As a missionary that pretty much means that I have to improve everything I am doing. haha.

Love,

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-22T14:02:00.001-08:00

It's that time of year. Christmas is pretty awesome. I think it's the best holiday. Then again, I said that about Thanksgiving too. haha. We had a Christmas party in our branch last night that went well. The best part about Christmas this year is that Gela isn't nearly as cold as Cosenza was last year!

Haha, okay, so that's not really the best part. The best part about Christmas is that we get to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. I really enjoyed watching the Christmas Special that the first presidency did. Have they always done that, or is that something they've just been doing these last few years? Anyway, it was good.

I was hoping to tell you a lot of things, but I've gtg! We’re super busy today. Luckily, I’ll be calling next week! Tell everyone in America “hi” and “Merry Christmas”!

Buon Natale!

Love,
Anziano Banks

Wow

2010-12-15T17:47:00.001-08:00

This week was totally awesome. Very spiritual. Very tiring. My companion doesn't speak a word of English, so I just speak Italian all day long. I know, it's horrible. hahaha. Nah, it's alright. I'm already past the point where it's uncomfortable.

We had the opportunity to hear from two seventies on Wednesday. That was awesome. Then on Thursday morning we met with Nicola. He had already had his interview, but wasn't sure about getting baptized on Saturday. We told him the same thing that Elder Caussè said which is that each of us needs to find our personal sacred grove. We need to find somewhere that we can pray aloud, kneeling, and express all our desires to the Lord. Personally, I did it Wednesday night, and then on Thursday I bore testimony to Nicola about the Spirit that I felt. I also read a little bit from Joseph Smith History. Some advice that Dad gave me has really helped. Whenever you want to have the Spirit, open Joseph Smith History and read a little bit of his experience. When we left Nicola's, we had decided that for now we wouldn't set a specific date, but that he would be baptized as soon as he feels ready.

That night we talked to him on the phone and he said that right after we left he was going to read the Book of Mormon, but it was like someone was telling him not to read it. He said no, and read anyways. He prayed and he was overcome by the Spirit. He wanted to be baptized two days later, on Saturday.

WOOHOO!!!

That created a real mess for us though. haha. There has been a lot of work being done to the church (repainting, repairing, etc.) so the church had to be cleaned up. With the help of the members we cleaned the church, and then we set up the baptismal font. The baptismal font is ridiculous. haha. You know those swimming pools that are made up of white tubes? Well, it's kind of like that, but with rusty metal pipes instead! haha. It's crazy.

The day of the baptism we tried to do everything we could to prevent the water from being freezing cold. In the end we had four pots of water that we heated with the stove, and we made trips from our house to fill up jugs with warm water. We also underestimated the time to fill the font, and had to use water from our back-up water supply at home (that they have for when the water doesn't work in the summer).

After the baptism we used the same pots from earlier to drain the font! haha. It was the only way! We had a lot of difficultly taking it down because the pipes are rusty, so we had to leave it partially mounted until Monday when we used some tools to take it down.

Nicola was baptized on Saturday, and confirmed Sunday. Next week Nicola is going to get the Aaronic Priesthood. They're hoping to get him the Melchizedek Priesthood early next year because we really need it here in this Branch.
I love new converts. They're always happy and have the spirit. Do you remember in Bari, with Cecilia (the new convert who's 32)? Well, whenever I saw a guy around her age in Bari I would stop him and share the gospel with him because I told her that she needs to get married and that I would help her find a husband. WELL, I've finally found someone! haha. Nicola's 33. hahaha. Now I just need to figure out how to get these two to meet.

There basically haven't been any baptisms here for about five years. In January we will officially have two new active members (that started coming but live out of our area). Our Branch will now be up to 8 active members. We just got a new list of less active members to work with, so I expect that we'll start having even more.

Well, I've gotta go! You're always in my prayers. If I could give you any advice it would be to follow the counsel to find your personal sacred grove. When I was in college I always had up the poster of the sacred grove. That's a sweet poster. I went to a member's house in Ragusa and they had it in color! It was pretty awesome.

Love,
Anziano Banks

p.s. Merry Christmas!!!!!!

Gela

2010-12-07T19:30:00.001-08:00

So things are good here in Gela. There's not too much news from this last week, but I realized that I haven't told you about some of the characters that are here. I'll try to start giving you them every once in a while.

One of my favorites is a guy that comes up to me and my companion and tells us how beautiful we are. A few days ago he told us that my companion was "bello" but I was "bellissimo!" He said that it was because he read Psalms 42. haha.

The next day we ran into him again. This time he told my companion, "Tu sei bellissimo!" Then I said, hey! What about about me? He says to me "Tu sei bellissimo!" Then he turned to my companion and said, "Ma oggi, to sei PIU' bellissimo!" hahaha. He's a funny dude.

There are also the two Chinese girls that we also we say hi to. They are probably around 4 years old. One time we passed them and I said "Ni hao." They both started repeating to us "NI HAO! NI HAO NI HAO!"
They said it over and over while we walked away. Now, every time we walk by one of us says ni hao to them and they start to yell NI HAO at us! haha.

Our district is doing great. Last transfer I sealed the anointing of a blessing for a man named Angelo. Right after the blessing I felt like he really needed to be baptized. I actually regretted on the way home that I didn't invite him to be baptized myself (he's one of the sister's investigators). Anyway, in a couple weeks he's getting baptized and I'll get to do the interview!

Speaking of baptisms, Nicola passed his interview and just needs to do the baptism now! Oh! Tomorrow we have a conference in Catania so I'll get to see some of my friends from my MTC district!
woohoo!

Love,
Anziano Banks

p.s. Buon Natale!

Pictures!

2010-12-04T20:19:00.001-08:00

Gela 2010

2010-12-02T10:12:00.001-08:00

It looks like I'm going to finishing the year here in Gela. We got the transfer calls the other day, and the only thing that is changing is that I'm a district leader. That should be cool.

I feel like I'm going to end up in Rome at some point. But if not it may be better because we can always visit Rome after the mission. Instead it seems like I keep serving in the cities that aren't worth visiting! haha.

This place has so much mafia. The other day we saw a random Ferrari. haha. There's also a street with multiple cars that have been destroyed. There are also some people that we see all the time that we're pretty sure are with the mafia. Gela and Palermo are supposed to be the two cities where it's the biggest, but they always keep quiet about it all.

Things are going pretty well here. We've doubled the attendance in church!! haha. Which means that last week in church we had more than 8 people. haha. The work's going well. There is a less active brother that hadn't been to church in a long time, but he talked to one of his coworkers about the church. We went with him to teach her, and she said that she would come to church, but that he would have to come too! haha. They both came to church, and I'm pretty sure they'll both continue coming.

Nicola is doing great. He needs to have a stronger testimony, but if everything goes well he should be baptized in a couple weeks. One thing that I've been really enjoying is proselyting here. I pretty much enjoy it anywhere, but what makes me really like it is the specific people that I meet. For example, I met a couple of atheists that were all dressed in black, and we explained to them a little bit about God and invited them to pray. The guy didn't really accept it, but the girl listened and was really interested and said she would do it. It's really great to see people who are sincere because they'll really come to know the truth.

Speaking of which, I also met a couple people this week that were a little more difficult. For example, we met a guy who was 18 and he talked like a 70-yr-old that has lost the faith. He told us about how he's been praying for 18 years without getting a response and that he doesn't believe in God. We tried to help him and invite him to make changes, but he wouldn't accept anything. In the end he more or less asked if it's possible that God exists with all the evil things that happen. Yes! We tried to explain to him free agency and God's plan for us, but in the end he pretty much thinks that if someone does something wicked, they should be punished immediately. . .oh well.

One thing I was thinking about lately is the amount of time and effort that people put into something. For example, if I was to be good at tennis, I have to go and play for hours every day, and slowly I'll start understanding how to play the game and how to do the strokes and how to play well. If I want to become a mathematician, I have to study for hours and study and study and practice and practice and practice. If someone wants to understand the things of God, they can't just think about it a little on Sunday, or figure it out with just a few minutes of study. When I think about how complex and difficult some concepts are in math, and how much time it takes to understand them, it's obvious that the mysteries of God take some time to understand. On top of that, we can't understand spiritual things with just study, and so we have to pray and receive help through the Holy Ghost.

Which brings me to another thing I've been thinking about which is the concept of giving milk before meat. We need to teach the basic principles of the Gospel before teaching the more complex ones. In the end, even though it's interesting to learn the complex things, a lot of times it's not even that important. There are things that we don't even really need to worry about for now. I'm sure that the prophet and apostles know all kinds of doctrine that we don't know, but they generally teach the basic things because that's what we need to strengthen our faith and our testimonies.

There's a person here that is from another religion that has studied a book written about a book that Brigham Young wrote (or something like that). In the end, official church doctrine comes from the scriptures. Here we have some who doesn't even understand English that well who is studying a book about a book about doctrine that comes from the scriptures. He doesn't even really know what the Book of Mormon is! It didn't take long to realize that he was actually an anti-mormon, but it was silly because he was bringing up things that we don't even believe in! haha.

Anyway I hope that every thing went well for thanksgiving. We didn't do a whole lot here. We did a fast a thanks and that was about it.
I guess the Christmas season is starting. Merry Christmas!

The weather here is starting to get a little chilly. brr. It's not too bad though. I definitely prefer warm weather for doing missionary work, but now I'll have more motivation to get appointments because I want to be inside! haha.

Love,
Anziano Banks

First Palermo Stake Conference

2010-11-30T19:55:00.001-08:00

This last week I attended the first stake conference of the new Palermo Stake (which includes all of Sicily). It was awesome. I got to meet one of the Chinese members in Palermo! I can't remember what part of China she's from, but anyway, she's married to the brother of a member I knew in Bari.

The entire trip was crazy. We rode over to Palermo with a bus that came from the Ragusa ward. We were the only ones from our branch that went to the conference. haha. At the conference I also got to see Anziano Rowland! I also had a pretty scary experience. I've picked up the habit from mom of always carrying around a little water bottle. I've also picked up the habit of using the restroom whenever I get the chance. So, right after the conference I decided to use the restroom before we had to leave. I went into a stall, and closed and locked the door. Then I tried to get out, but the door wouldn't unlock!! I was pressing down on the handle, moving the lock around, and instead of being a normal stall, it was more like a closet in the sense that I was in a closed room. I kept trying to get out, but after a little bit I decided it would be best to call for help. I started yelling, "AIUTO!! AIUTO!!"
nothing.
I could faint voices of people talking. I even heard people saying that the third stall was occupied. "AIUTO!!" I screamed. I faintly heard my companion chatting with someone. "ANZIANO DESTEFANIS!!! AIUTAMI! NON POSSO APRIRE LA PORTA!"
Finally, my companion heard me, and tried to help me. After a few seconds he was able to get the door open using his lucky coin to open the door . It was crazy. My companion told me that he couldn't hear me because of the hand dryers. Anyway, it sure was a stressful experience.

Afterwards we got a ride from the Zone Leaders to Agrigento. Anziano Acerson was too tired to give us a ride home, so we stayed the night there! That was pretty fun. I love our Zone Leaders. Anziano Acerson and Anziano Reyes (he's originally from Peru, but he's from northern Italy). They had hardly any food at their house! We ate a couple little frozen pizzas and the last of their pasta for dinner, and then in the morning Anziano Acerson and I made pancakes.

So then it was Monday, and we took the train home. We talked to a lot of people on our way home from Agrigento. We taught a couple people about the restoration, and one of them worked for the train station. I asked him about his tie, and I think he's going to give me one! It's a sweet tie.

Then we had to go to Ragusa to give the Sorelle the baptismal clothes that Agrigento had borrowed (that's why we stayed over there), and we gave a blessing to one of their investigators. My first Italian companion, we've given two blessings together, and both times I've been the one who does the sealing. haha. It went well though, and I really like the man we gave the blessing too.

Speaking of blessings, things are going great with Nicola! We taught him the word of wisdom, and he was good with it except that he drinks two or three cups of coffee every day. He was having a hard time overcoming, and then his doctor told him the he had to quit drinking coffee!!! How awesome is that? Unfortunately, at this point we had already promised him that I would make him a cheesecake if he quits drinking coffee, and now he quit. haha. Today I gave him his cheesecake, and we also went to see some things around Gela with him for his birthday (he just turned 33).

Nicola is going to get baptized on the 11th (we decided it would be best to go a week later instead of earlier because we wouldn't have had enough time to teach him everything well).

So anyway, as far as everyone else goes, we just found a new family!! We were finishing up the end of our housing zone (where we had chosen) and we found a family of four! They're pretty awesome. We went by them again yesterday, but their son (young) was extremely sick and went to the hospital. We also found another family in that zone. I think it's part of the whole enduring to the end. haha. We didn't really have much success at all in that zone until we reached the end.

By the way, Thanksgiving tomorrow!! Happy Thanksgiving!! We were going to have a party in church, until we realized that we don't have any money, and no one can come! haha. So instead we decided we're going to do a special fast. haha. I think this will be the only Thanksgiving that I do something like that. haa.

I hope you're all doing well. I pray for you. I pray that you remember to read the scriptures and go to church! haha. This week I was thinking about something. In our last Zone Conference our President mentioned something about how we demonstrate our own faith and testimony by how much we want to share it. That made me feel pretty good about mine because I understand that in the end every person will be happier if the accept the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. What does that mean? That means that when I talk to someone that says that they're happy, I tell them that they can be even more happy! That's the truth.

Love,
Anziano Banks

P.S.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!
HAPPY BLACK FRIDAY!

Be thankful for all the great things you have, like internet at home instead of in a smoky internet cafe where everyone plays online poker and they play the same song over and over and over and over again.
haha.
But I'm grateful that I at least have that!

Tis a Gift

2010-11-17T20:19:00.001-08:00

So lately I've had the opportunity to drive a lot, which has given me some time to reflect, and to listen to the mormon tabernacle choir. On one of their CDs there is a song that is probably called "Tis a gift."
It's pretty good. I really like a line from it that says: "Tis a simple gift to be.”

I'm so grateful that we all chose to come here on this earth to learn and be happy. Do you remember my farewell talk? (I know, probably not, haha) Anyway, I mentioned the promise in it that more happiness awaited me on my mission than I had had before. I can honestly say that I have had tons of happiness. It's been awesome. Plus, I discovered a way to send you a picture! The webcam on this computer! haha.

One thing I've realized is that there are lots of missionaries that do a little too much enduring through their missions. I'm into enjoying it! People focus too much on the how happy they'll be in the future. I'm happy about that, but I'm also happy about now. Lots of missionaries sleep away half their missions too. haha. I figure, I have two years to learn as much as possible, and there's always something to do.

One really great thing is that we set a baptismal date with Nicola!!! He's such a stud. We met him on October 28th. I stopped him and started talking to him a little bit about prayer. In the end we got his phone number, and then the other day we set a baptismal date. It was sweet. I looked him straight in the eyes and asked him if he would be baptized by someone who holds the the authority to do it on December 4th. He said "Sì.” haha. It was sweet. Unfortunately we're going to have to change the date because the branch president can't be there for when we give the gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday. We're still not sure if we'll do it a week before, or a week after. I think he can be ready for a week before.

I also have seen how much obedience brings blessings. My companion right now hasn't had any real success here in Gela his first two transfers here because he had two companions that were "dead" but now we're finding tons of people and things are going well.

Here is a picture from our last zone conference. Someone forwarded it to me so I can actually send it to you guys! I’m in the middle in the very back. One cool thing is that our district is doing really well. It's only us and the sisters, but we're having the most success in the zone! haha. I have to admit though...the sisters baptize like crazy. We basically haven't had a baptism in Gela for five years. Nicola is solid though. We just need to find more people like that.

I'm starting to feel really good about this branch. Nicola will be a solid member, and we also have two more members that we got last week. One sister was reactivated, and one brother lives between us and Ragusa, so he got permission to switch to our Branch!! Then we have another sister that should be reactivated soon. This branch is going to double easily while I'm here. It was at five active members when I came, right now I would say it's at seven, but we'll reach ten for sure!

The only problem with all the success that everyone is having is that it means we have to do lots of driving. I already drive to Ragusa and back once a week, but this week three times! One extra to get baptismal clothes for Agrigento, and another to do a baptismal interview! It's crazy.
I think I'm becoming a better driver though...or maybe worse! haha. I'm getting good at driving in Italy. haha. Anziano Acerson is the driver in Agrigento and he's already had to do three repairs to the car! One was the mirror, another was he popped a tire on a curb, and then he also dented in some siding on a curb!!! haha. So far the only repair I've had was replacing the headlights and changing the oil. I really don't like Ford. It's just not a very good car in comparison to a Toyota.

Anyway, the highlight of this week was definitely Nicola. Right now we're looking to find someone else like him because we want to have more strong members.

Let me know if there's anything I can do for you from here.

Love,
Anziano Banks

P.S. I'm sorry that I'm not able to get more photos to you all, but if you get the chance to send me some that would be much appreciated. Even just things that are normal. One thing I've realized is that we should all take more photos of everyday life because 30 years from now it will be interesting. Mom studying, Dad doing yard work, Lia sleeping, you know all the normal things you all do. ha ha ha.

Super Short Email!

2010-11-16T18:44:00.001-08:00

This week was awesome. We had Zone Conference in Catania, and I got to see Anziano Garvin, Marzolla, and Rowland. Did I tell you that Anziano Garvin got transferred to MALTA?? hahaha.

Anyway, it was awesome to see some of my best friends. We laughed so hard. Anziano Marzolla was literally crying. I'll admit, we were definitely the loudest missionaries when we were eating lunch at the conference.

The other good one this week is that I figured out why all the Italians drive tiny cars!! We got a ride from the husband of a less active member to his house to help him with something, and we went on roads where there were literally inches between the car and the walls on both sides! haha. One time he actually had to pull in his mirror to get buy a road because in the old city parts of Italian cities the roads are TINY.

I've also been doing well with my driving, and getting a lot better at dealing with tiny roads and crazy drivers.Apparently northern Italy is different, but here in Sicily there are no rules! My companion always complains that no one wears a helmet.

Okay, I'm sorry but I have to go because this internet point costs more than a euro every fifteen minutes!!

yikes!

Our other place is closed.

Have a great week,

Love,

Anziano Banks!

Amazing

2010-11-04T20:54:00.001-07:00

You remember that song from Kanye West called "Amazing"?? It's the one that pretty much just says the word amazing over and over again. About 17 times in a row. haha. Anyway, that's how I would describe this last week.

One of the amazing experiences I had was splits with Anziano Reyes. He's one of the Zone Leaders and he is an amazing missionary. He's Peruvian, but he's lived in Milan for the last 20 years. What makes him really great is his firm testimony, and that he puts it all into practice. What I learned from the splits is that I need to study and apply more. When he talks to people he says lots of things that are straight from the scriptures, and modern day prophets. He's very sincere and direct, and that's what makes him so effective. I've taken a new route with my language study because of him. My problem is that I don't study the doctrine enough in Italian, and so I can't always quote things in Italian because I don't know the exact translation. Lately I've begun reading all the general conference issues of the Liahona so I can quote apostles and prophets easily when I teach. I also loved how much he expressed his love for the people and willingness to help them. We were at a members house and he said, I love you, the Lord says to love your neighbor, and I do it. I've never enjoyed splits as much as that time because he is a really great example of a Christ-like missionary.

Another amazing thing that happened this week is we have a new investigator that used to be a frate. I believe in English it's a friar, or a Catholic monk or something. Anyway, he showed us photos, and it's those Catholics that have the whole brown tunic. He's amazing. Obviously, he knows the Bible really well. He was with them for 6 years. He came to church on Sunday, and then we had another appointment with him yesterday. We spent the entire time answering all his questions because he's really interested in the church. He went online and studied about the church a ton, but he didn't go looking for anti-sites, he actually found a lot of good information. He's exactly what this branch needs. We only have one worthy priesthood holder, and that's the Branch President. I really feel good about this guy. He's only 32.

I also met a less-active that came by English Course last night. He has a powerful testimony, but he is in Palermo on the weekend, and so he can't come to church here. I was wondering, what is the maximum age to go on a mission? He is 26, and I think he would be awesome. On Monday they had a special day for the dead. In other words, everyone went to the cemetery. We had to go to District Meeting in Ragusa, and got stuck in traffic for more than an hour. I'm getting used to driving here, but I'm going crazy because we don't have any music!! I have a couple CDs that I've already heard too many times, and my companion doesn't have anything! Fortunately, I was able to get another Mormon Tabernacle Choir CD from the Zone Leaders, and also one EFY CD that's pretty good.

The other night we went downtown (if you can call it that...the city is only 80,000 people), and we walked around talking to people about the Gospel. Well, me and my companion both like talking to everyone, and so we meet tons of people. This time when we went, we just kept running into people that we already knew that wanted to talk to us! A few of them were pretty crazy...one was anti-mormon, and another was someone that asked us to pray for him and he introduced us to a couple of his friends. One of his friends started bagging on the Catholic church, and we told him that we shouldn't judge and that we don't want to talk about it, then he started going off on the Jehovah's Witnesses, and we told him that we had to leave. I'm pretty sure if we had stayed a few minutes he would've gotten to us! haha.

It's crazy how many different religions there are in the world. Some people get really into theirs, and some people don't care. One that has stood out to me lately are the people who believe in God, but don't believe in religion because they see all the corruption. I think that what's important is that they realize that when Jesus Christ was on the earth he created a church, he called twelve apostles, there were other leaders of the church called as well (like Bishops). For many it is obvious that there was an apostasy and that things from the Bible and the original church of Jesus Christ were changed, but they think that the time of apostasy is right now! Instead, we are here to let them know that the apostasy is over and if they pray than they will know that the true church is here on the earth. Just because you don't know about something doesn't mean it doesn't exist. People give up the search too soon. The good news is that not everyone does, and we've been blessed to meet a lot of people that want to learn the Gospel of Jesus Christ and pray to know that His church is here again.

One thing that they advise us to do is to keep a study journal. I...haven't been the best about it, but now I've finally started one! It's awesome. When we study the scriptures, we receive revelation...when we don't write it down, then we forget it! I also generally have a pen and paper near my bed for thoughts that come to me while I'm lying down, or inspiration that comes to me during my nightly prayer. I also recommend writing notes in the margin of the scriptures. That's what I do, and it's really helpful. Maybe it can help you too.

No photos this week. I've been taking them, but I don't really have a way to get them to you because the USB on these computers doesn't really work. Last week I was able to because I unplugged the mouse, plugged in my camera instead, used the keyboard to copy the images onto the computer and then e-mail them to you, but in the end I think I may have messed up the mouse. haha. . . . so unfortunately I'm not sure how much I'm going to be able to do as far as sending you photos while I'm here in Gela. I'll always try and see what I can do. SORRY! Well, there's someone who keeps yelling in the internet cafè so I’m going to go. Yeah...we don't have the best place to use internet.

Have a great week!
Love,
Anziano Banks

P.S. What you were saying about me not being weird after my mission, hahaha, oh man. I actually had a conversation about this with my companion the other day. He's very focused on the world (girls, soccer, etc), and he says that he doesn't want to go home from his mission and be weird and totally into the gospel. He said he doesn't want to follow the missionary handbook when he goes home. Obviously. The missionary handbook only applies when you're a MISSIONARY. What I've come to realize lately is that people go to extremes in the gospel, while not actually following it. The reason why return missionaries are like that when they go home is that they don't understand the difference between mission life and life in the world, and how to help others whole all have their own free agency. I think that we should all try and shape our lives after Jesus Christ, and we can look to the Apostles and Prophets as examples of people who do a good job at it. For example, the apostles have non-member friends that they aren't friends with just to share the gospel with (some RMs end up like that), the Apostles have a great education. Elder Eyring has an iPhone. I say we should follow them. I may not get an iPhone after the mission, but I'll for sure get an iPod touch. hahaha.

Also, I heard a story that may or may not be true, but I liked it. Anziano Shaw's Bishop was at a Beach Boys Concert and saw President Monson. He was surprised to see him there, and started to talking to him. He explained that he was surprised to see him there, and President Monson said that we are to be "in the world, but not of the world" haha. I'm not sure if it's true, but I think it demonstrates a good point.

Hey!

2010-10-28T22:25:00.001-07:00

Unfortunately I'm having some problems with my computer. In funny little cities like this, internet points are somewhat limited.

Things this week went pretty well.

It's almost as if I was in Castrovillari again on Sunday! We had one member there for Sunday School, and then we had two there for Sacrament meeting. I gave a talk about the Book of Mormon and gaining a testimony. One thing I’ve realized is that analyzing our testimony and pondering about the spiritual experiences we've had in our life helps us have a stronger testimony. When we review our spiritual experiences, I think it helps us understand more what they are like, and then when we feel the spirit again it is easier to recognize. One thing that I realized is how strong my testimony is. That was really cool. I know that the Joseph Smith was a Prophet, I know that the Plan of Salvation is the true plan that God has for us, and I know that the Book of Mormon is true.

Anyway, I guess the two newest things about being in Gela are having a car, and having an Italian Companion. Both of these have resulted in extremes. My companion doesn't speak any English, and my companion doesn't have a license.

Driving is actually going really well. I think that I'm becoming a better driver, and using a stick up and down hills all the time is helping me improve with my shifting. My car is pretty sweet.

Speaking Italian all the time is good too I think. Sometimes I'm not sure if my Italian is getting better or worse because my companion's grammar is all over the place. I guess it doesn't matter though, everyone here in Gela speaks the same way. In Bari most people spoke very well, but here they kind of say things however they want. I guess the good thing is that I'm getting Italian sunk more into my mind. I'm at the point in my mission where switching to Italian all the time wasn't that hard because I've already been in Italy so long that speaking is natural for all the things that missionaries do. Hopefully now I can gain more vocabulary on other topics.

One crazy thing about Gela is that there are tons of funerals. I would say at least daily, if not multiple times a day. The city is full of old people, so it kind of makes sense. There was also one day when we saw three ambulances drive by.

Sorry, I'm not feeling very talkative because this computer is giving me problems.

Love,
Anziano Banks

P.S. Here are some pictures from my trip over.

Gela???

2010-10-22T11:41:00.001-07:00

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...

Transferred!

2010-10-18T09:23:00.001-07:00

This evening I'll be going to Taranto, and then tomorrow I'll make the long trip to Gela. I only got to stay in Bari for 2 1/2 months!

I'm pretty excited to go down to Sicily, but I really love Bari. I haven't decided if it's my favorite city, but it might be. This place is totally awesome. When I first got the call I was a little sad, but I think I'm really going to love Gela as well. Most everyone was really surprised that I didn't stay longer, but it seems like the new mission president just likes to transfer people more.

In Gela I'll have a car!! I'm also going to have an Italian companion, so I guess I'll have a good opportunity to improve a lot with the language. I have to admit, as cool as having a car sounds, I'm not sure what it's going to be like doing missionary work with one. I also talk to people on the street when we're going between appointments! I guess I'll just have to make more phone calls.

I'm also not sure how I feel about driving in Italy. .. It'll be pretty crazy.
My last week in Bari has gone well. It's been crazy busy. I feel like I've been running from appointment to appointment trying to see everyone. Last night I taught my last English course. Sometimes it's crazy how attached people can get to each other in such little time. I guess it's kind of the feeling that you have when you go to a summer camp. You just bond with people really quickly and then it's over. I shared my favorite scripture with my English Course and then bore testimony of Jesus Christ. The Spirit was awesome. There was another student that thanked me for everything, and basically bore testimony as well. They all really like the fact that even though we're of different religions we all love Jesus Christ and each other.

We also did something before English Course that was really cool. We taught a half-hour message about how the Church of Jesus Christ was restored. We have 3 people that want Book of Mormons that we're going to give to them next week after we write something in the front. I feel like things in Bari went well. I've met some awesome people that I definitely will stay in contact with in the future. I also think that I would've enjoyed more time here, but I think what I've done here is good. I hope to come back and visit sometime.

I guess I better get out of here. I'm trying to get all packed and stuff.

Love,
Anziano Banks

La Conferenza Generale!!

2010-10-15T18:12:00.001-07:00

So how about General Conference? haha. That was so awesome. I really loved President Uchtdorf's talk. That was hilarious, and helpful. Another one of my favorite talks was the one by Elder Andersen. I think that it is a really important talk because it shows what we need to do to not become less active. This time I actually got to watch it in English, which was 100 times better. If they spoke in Italian, I would watch it in Italian, but since the speakers speak English, it makes sense to me that it is better in English.

We also went to a Special Zone Meeting in Taranto this week. I really enjoyed seeing Anziano Garcia and Anziano Rowland. On the way to the meeting I met a girl that lives in the Basilicata. Unfortunately, the church isn't there and she lives hours away from any missionaries.

Bari has been great since I've been here. One thing that I noticed is that crazy people seem to be drawn to me because I always meet lots of them. At first it seemed a little weird, but I actually really enjoyed it. The weird thing now is that they are all becoming a lot more calm and normal. For example, the How do do do do?! guy has been really sad lately because he lost his job, and so the last time I talked to him he wasn't even excited to see me. He didn't even say anything in English to me! I miss the more hyper somewhat crazy version of him.

English Course is going pretty great. We have a lot of people interested in the Gospel, and next time we're going to teach a bunch of students 1/2 an hour before English Course. After we do this a couple times we're hoping we can start meeting with more people individually.

Saverio, one student we started teaching, came to the baptism on Saturday and then we taught him last night. He asked us what would happen if he got baptized. We're hoping to set a baptismal date with him tomorrow. He's pretty awesome. His wife came with him to the baptism, and we're hoping to start teaching her as well.

The conference got me thinking a lot about consecrating your life. Hopefully you know which talk I'm referring to. Basically what it comes down to is we need to put enough faith in the Lord to obey the commandments. For example, Elder Ballard came here to Italy, and although I didn't see him I saw a recording of his talk. He told us to start doing something. He told us that each day we should talk to ten people in situations other than planned proselyting. In other words, talking to people going to and from appointments and such. We already did some of that, but since we've started going out of our way to do it, we've started seeing blessings.

I think that some people need to understand and know more of the commandments. I think that once you do know them, you just need to have the trust in the Lord that He will bless you for following them. It's hard sometimes because it means looking at everything in more of an eternal perspective. It's already hard enough to look at things in the long run sometimes, so moving to an eternal perspective can be especially difficult.

www.lds.org if you missed some of the talks.

Have you all heard of the new mormon.org facebook-type thing? I was thinking maybe you guys could look into it for me. It sounds interesting.

Anyway, have a great week! If you need anything let me know. I'm praying for you.

Love,

Anziano Banks

P.S. This week we went with some of the sisters to Matera, and as you can see it was sweet!

Hey Hey

2010-10-14T20:14:00.001-07:00

Things are great in Bari!

This last week we've started doing the mostra fairly often, and it's going great! On Wednesday night after P-day we did it and I got six phone numbers myself! We've found the perfect place to do it where it is calm, but there are a lot of people that pass through, and people like to talk to us there.

The best thing that happened this week is I heard news from Cosenza! Giuseppe Belsito is getting baptized on Saturday! How awesome is that? I made a deal with him that if he got baptized I would come visit them in four years. haha. So I guess I need to have that trip planned. His wife still needs to get baptized though! They told me that when I come back I'll probably be with my wife! I said no way! I'll only be 23!

I'm really stoked about that baptism. We're also having a baptism here on Saturday. There's an 83 year old getting baptized by an 80 year old! hahaha. They're actually from the other ward in Bari, but they're doing it at our church because we have hot water. On October 23rd Maria Pia is getting baptized! When I first showed up here she dropped us because she couldn't get over the Word of Wisdom (coffee in the morning), but then we started meeting with her again and she's doing great. She's 73 years old!

Anyway, lately things have just been awesome here. We have great members that want to help us, and we have some awesome investigators. I also saw a special edition lambourghini the other day, and so we have a really cool background on our cell phone (I got a photo).

English Course is started back up and things are going really well. I'm teaching advanced course, which basically means I get to chat with people in English for an hour! haha. I'm actually doing a combined course with Intermediate, so I teach them grammar as well. I have...roughly 15 students (they don't all come both days though). The really cool thing is that they are interested in the Gospel, or at least a couple of them. Last night I did a spiritual thought about prayer. First I used Matthew 7:7-8 and told them that if we need help we need to ask for it from God. Then I showed them how the Book of Mormon helps us understand the scripture more clearly. We read from 3 Nephi 18:20-21. It's really cool because it explains how we need to ask the Father with faith that we will receive, it has to be just, and we need to ask in the name of Jesus Christ. Then it gives an example of what to pray for. I like it a lot because it makes it really clear how the Book of Mormon and the Bible work together, and it's helpful. After class a girl asked me if she could have a copy of the Book of Mormon.

Lately I'm trying to get back into the Book of Mormon more because I went through a Bible phase. It's funny because I studied the Bible more so I can show people how it all works in harmony, but now we have a bunch of investigators that don't even have the Bible! haha. So they like to be taught only from the Book of Mormon, so I try to use the Book of Mormon more.

We've also been writing dedicas in Book of Mormons for specific people. It's just a little note in the front of the book that you write to someone. One of my favorite scriptures to mention is Mosiah 2:41 because the gospel is there to make us happy. My favorite scripture in the Bible is in 1 Thessalonians 5:16. I prefer it in Italian. It says: Siate sempre allegri

I'm really excited for this weekend because we're going to have lots of investigators at that baptism, and then we have general conference!! I'm also pretty sure that I'll get to watch it in English this time, which is way better because the translators aren't that great (you see Elder Holland pounding his fist on the stand, but the translator is still talking in monotone...)

Food Highlight! This last week I learned how to make a ridiculously delicious sauce. I don't want to give away the secret, but I'll just say that we made the most delicious pasta that I've ever had cooked by a missionary. It was awesome. Remember to have plant a basilico plant. You can just put it in a pot and have it as an indoor plant. I didn't think I would want to eat a bunch of pasta after my mission, but after making this one, I think I could eat pasta every day!

Okay, last thing. I sent a photo that has me and a kind of weird looking dude. He is hilarious! He always comes out of nowhere and says: HOW DO DO DO DO DO DOO? How do do do do do doo?

He tries to say: How do you do?But he doesn't really get it..I told him he should just say how are you. I have a few favorite people in Bari. He's one of them.

Love,

Anziano Banks!

Hahaha

2010-10-12T19:47:00.001-07:00

This week was totally awesome. I don't really know where to start, so I'll just hit you up with my Sunday.

During sacrament meeting the Patriarch gave a talk about going through trials, and how we are able to get through them. Towards the end of his talk he said something about us being able to get through them, and all of a sudden an old lady raised up both her arms in the air and yelled: PERCHE' NOI SIAMO FORTI!!
haha. It pretty much means: BECAUSE WE'RE STRONG!!
Me and Anziano Tingey had to hold ourselves back from laughter, but everyone else didn't seem to react at all! haha. She kept rambling about something, and then she calmed down and he just kept giving the talk. It was sweet.

That night we decided to visit some less actives that a member said could use a visit. It turns out that this sister was 90 years old! Her husband (not a member) is 93!! It was pretty hilarious. I'm afraid it may be a little bit of you had to be there, and a little bit of I have to tell you about it in person. It's also a shame you don't speak Italian. Basically,
Siamo andati e all'inizio lui non voleva farci entrare. Abbiamo detto che soltanto volevamo condividere un piccolo pensiero spirituale, e quindi siamo entrati. Lui diceva molto: noi dobbiamo morire! Anche ci ha detto che lei deve morire prima, perchè lui possa trovare un'altra moglie piu' giovane. Abbiamo spiegato un po' del piano di salvezza, e lui ha detto, io non devo morire. lei deve morire, ecc. Sorella Milella invece rideva molto perchè lei non ha la testa. Oh! Lui anche ci ha detto che la moglie del Diavolo (che si chiama Caterina), viene di sera, e nasconde le cose. Per esempio, dove sono le chiavi? Sicuramente sono nascoste da Caterina! haha. Perchè lei fa così. It was totally hilarious the way Sorella Milella kept laughing, I'll try to explain it to you after the mission. Trust me though, it was way funny.

On Saturday we did mostra and that went pretty well. A guy came up to me and asked who all of us were (we do it with all the other missionaries in Bari), and so I explained that we're missionaries, and then he was really curious about our church so I explained the restoration. It went well. That's how mostra is supposed to be. (mostra is when we set up a big display downtown and talk to people as they look at it).

Yesterday we started English Course! That was pretty crazy. We got into a really tight situation because we had an Anziano with us from Bitonto, and he had to go to his English course there. We found a member to go on splits with him, but the way things worked out, we were late to our first day! When we showed up at the church (maybe...five minutes late) and there were about thirty people outside the church. We weren't too prepared...but it went great! Our English course totally loves us. I'm also really excited because I'm teaching the Intermediate/Advanced course, and they basically just want to do conversation. We didn't contact any of the old students, and some people may think that's a bad thing, but I think it's awesome. Almost everyone there is new. We have a number of people that said they're interested in hearing our message about the restoration, and we had three people that asked if they could take restoration pamphlets that we had sitting on a table. I'm really excited.

This week I've been thinking about a principle of faith. It's about demonstrating our faith. One thing that I've always found interesting is how the Lord blesses in ways that we don't expect. I think that even if we don't have faith in a particular proseltying technique (for example, knocking doors), we should still put everything into it, and we'll be blessed for our efforts in other ways. I've seen this work with tons of other things. You just need to put forth the effort. I'm not saying that you can't get blessed directly for what you do as well, but I've just found that things will work out one way or another.

Yesterday was Sorella Tinoco's birthday! We had a couple other missionaries over so we called in the morning (at 6.30 to sing her happy birhtday. Before we finished, we accidentally hung up! haha. It was pretty funny.)

One more thing! We went and visited Bishop's parents this week and his mom read from the Book of Mormon! We watched the restoration video with her and she was crying at the end. That's a pretty awesome video. Bishop bore his testimony of how he knows the Book of Mormon is true (most people think he converted because of his wife, and that really bugs him, haha, but it's because he finally had the desire to know, and he prayed). Moroni's promise is really interesting. We always tell people that if they read and pray they can know the Book of Mormon is true. That's true, but they should also understand that they won't receive an answer from God if they do it without the conditions that are laid out. They have to pray to God, with faith, and with real intent, in the name of Jesus Christ. If they aren't really interested in following Jesus Christ, or don't really have faith, they won't receive an answer.

I really like the testimony of Sorella Ziccarelli in Cosenza. She met with the missionaries for a couple months before she finally decided to pray and ask if the Book of Mormon is true. As soon as she really asked, she decided to get baptized! haha. Up until that point she was just meeting with them, but not praying about the message. Spiritual things can't be understood only intellectually.

Reasoning things out is important and good, but then to know the truth we have to ask the one that knows everything.I saw some of the mormon messages on another missionaries iPod today. Some of those are really powerful.

Double check this for me, but I think it's just:youtube.com/mormonmessages
I love those. While you're on, you might as well go to:youtube.com/immediatechinese haha.

Have a great week. I know that the church is true, and that a couple of the most important things we can do every day is read the scriptures, and pray.

Love,
Anziano Banks!
VVTB
(Vi Voglio Tanto Bene)

WOOHOO!

2010-10-06T20:33:00.001-07:00

This last week we did transfers, and that was pretty awesome. I went down to Taranto and did splits with Anziano Garcia!! I always love doing splits, and especially because I got to go with one of my favorite missionaries.

We visited one of their potential investigators who owns an awesome hip hop store. It's called "lifestyle." Unfortunately I didn't get a picture, but the inside of the store feels like you're in an iPod. Everything in it is white, and clean. He also has a huge iMac. Above the counter where they have the cash register there is a little balcony with turntables. It's hard to describe, but it's basically the coolest store I have ever been to. They sell things like various types of spray paint, clothes, shoes, and some skateboards. We visited with him a few minutes and then went to McDonalds to catch lunch with a member.

At Taranto if you have a used bus ticket you can turn it in at McDonalds when you buy a meal and they give you a free Big Mac!! (or any other burger)

It was awesome. After splits I met my new companion Anziano Tingey. I think he's from Pleasant Grove. He went to Utah State. He just came from Catanzaro, which is one of my favorite cities in Calabria. A lot of people think it's a pretty silly city because it's spread between different hills and you have to take a little train to get anywhere. I think it's like Disneyland! It's a fun city.

Yesterday we went on quite the adventure. We had a referral that came from San Diego. A man that lives in Gioia del Colle wanted a Book of Mormon. We had already had someone google map his house, but they couldn't find it....so...we decided to just go there and ask around.

It turns out that he lives on the very edge of Gioia del Colle. Fortunately, it's a really small city, so it wasn't too far.

We got to his house (after passing a mansion that looks like a castle...i really wish he would've lived there), and found out that he is in France! He'll be there until December! We taught his sister about the restoration, and we might go visit her again next week.

Anyway, so everything is going great here in Bari. I'm off to enjoy my P-day. We're going to go check out the castle that I believe is closed...oh well!

Love,

Anziano Banks!

Transfer week. Still in Bari (meno male!)

2010-10-04T14:57:00.001-07:00

Transfers came this week. Unfortunately, Anziano Gilbert is leaving. He's going to a little city near Naples. Transfers used to be somewhat predictable, but with the new mission president you never know. For example, he transferred both the missionaries in Bari-Poggio Franco out (actually, one finished his mission), and there are two new missionaries coming in!

Tomorrow morning I go to get my new companion. So far all I know is that his name is Anziano Tingey. I also have discovered that it's a very difficult name for Italians to pronounce, and I've seen some pretty funny reactions as I've told members the name of who's coming.hahaha. I've heard good things about him.

This week was totally awesome. We had stake conference! I got to see some friends from Foggia, some members that I met when I went on splits in Bitonto, and also tons of missionaries! Stake Conference was held in the Sheraton.

Splits in Bitonto were amazing. I went with Anziano Gurney, and we had a blast. We had panzerotti for dinner, panzerotti for breakfast, and we were going to get some more before we left, but we were running late to the train station to come back to Bari. It was a nice opportunity to experience a small city again. I like it. We walked around in a park and talked to people on benches. I had practically forgotten what it's like to proselyte in a place like that. It kind of reminded me of Castrovillari...except that Bitonto has about 30 members! haha. (castrovillari had one or two)

Splits with Anziano Gurney and the Papagallo Family.

I think my favorite thing about Bitonto is the panzerotti. If you don't know what they are, they are kind of like a calzone that is full of only mozzarella and tomato sauce, and then fried. You can get big ones for a euro each in Bitonto, or three little ones for one euro. They're totally incredible. Anziano Rowland started his mission in Bitonto and he got one every night before he went home (it's right below the apartment there). They also have an awesome apartment with two bathrooms, and two people can shower at the same time!! We actually have two bathrooms in Bari as well, but you can only shower in one. If you're wondering why all our apartments in the mission are so sweet, it's because most of them used to have four missionaries, and then they went down to two (for cities I've served in this is true for Cosenza, Foggia, and Bari).

Today we played soccer and Anziano Garcia came up from Taranto. That was sweet. He's a pretty good soccer player, and his team beat ours 10-8. We were up until the last three goals. It was crazy hot outside, so we were all pretty worn out towards the end.

We're still doing a lot of finding work. We've gotten a few new investigators, and some are good, some aren't so good. haha. We have one guy that is pretty sweet that we taught the other day. We just have to find him a Book of Mormon in Persian or something. He also speaks Italian quite well, and a little English.

I was thinking about the parable of the Talents the other day, and how some people get more and less. Well anyway, I was thinking, I've sort of been given English and Chinese (from growing up). Now I'm getting Italian, so I think after my mission I need to learn another language to make it so I double what I started with. haha. I also need to review my Chinese, but I have been talking to a lot of Chinese lately.
In fact, the other day I had a guy that was really stuck on the word "jing." As in the book of mormon. Basically, he says that it's the bible of mormon. I tried to explain to him, but he was really stubborn. It's my understanding that the same word is used just to mean scripture. But then I was thinking, why didn't they just call it the "shu" of mormon? Anyway, this guy was being totally ridiculous.

Well, have a great week. I'm sure mine will be exciting with a new companion and everything. Thank you for all the stuff you gave me for my birthday!

Love,
Anziano Banks

No Photos!

2010-09-13T19:49:00.001-07:00

Sorry! This week I haven't had the chance to take any photos.

Anyway, it was a pretty enjoyable week that passed by very quickly. We've mostly been doing a lot of proselyting, and trying to keep track of all the new contacts that we have.

Yesterday I had a pretty cool experience. Our Zone Leaders challenged us to pray about a goal to have three new contacts every day, so me and my companion decided to do it. Yesterday I was dead tired and it was pretty crazy trying to do proselyting. Recently we taught one of our new investigators about diligence, and so I remembered what we taught her. haha. That's when I decided that even though I was crazy tired (about as tired as when Clark and I stayed up for 26 hours so we could avoid jetlag going into China), I would still do all I can to talk to people on the street.

The first new contact I got was really crazy. I stopped a guy and told him we were missionaries and we were in the area explaining how God has called a prophet in these days. He told me he had to go to work, and then I asked him if I could have his number so we could talk about it some other time, and then he actually gave it to me! hahaha.

The next one was pretty normal. I just stopped a couple guys, explained the restoration, and then we exchanged contact information so they can learn more.

Then the third one was a Chinese couple that I taught about the restoration. I've been going out of my way to teach Chinese lately because I asked the church to send me 10 restoration pamphlets, and instead they sent me 25! So I figure I should start giving them out. They also accidentally gave us a Japanese Joseph Smith pamphlet, so I've been looking for someone Japanese as well.

I felt like the church decided to give me a birthday present this week. When we went to district meeting on Monday there were new pass-a-long cards!!! I love pass-a-long cards.

The work is growing now. I think I told you already that we got Stanley back. Well, we ended up losing contact with him, but then this week he called us and told us he was in Venice!! He was visiting his brother up there (a member), and then on Sunday they went to church together! We're going to meet with him tonight. Maria Pia (another old investigator), came back to church and wanted to meet with us. We have an appointment with her tomorrow. Andy Connell (my first companion) is still in town, and the other day he gave us a couple referrals. haha. That guy's a stud.

I tried cooking a pasta with SPAM today! haha. I had leftovers from when I made fried rice. It turns out that spam isn't the best meat to use in pasta, but it still turned out pretty good. I used about 150 grams of SPAM, a little onion, a can of peeled tomatoes, basil, and panna (i think it's cream). And I threw in some pepper. Pretty good.

As a mission we're reading the Book of Mormon. I had already been reading it through. . .I was in Ether. . It's going pretty well though. If you aren't reading the Book of Mormon through right now, maybe you could do it too. We're focusing on our missionary purpose, but you could read it through and just focus on Jesus Christ because it's pretty amazing to see how much He is mentioned in the Book of Mormon.

Well, I hope that you all have a good week. I'm doing splits this week with Bitonto. We should get transfer calls before next Wednesday. I'll be staying here for sure. My companion has already been here four transfers..so he's probably gone. Too bad. Things are going really well.

Love,
Anziano Banks

A Beautiful Week

2010-09-07T14:06:00.001-07:00

Buon giorno!

This week was pretty incredible, hahaha. For one, yesterday we had Zone Conference (which was sweet) and I received some crazy packages!! hahaha. Grazie Mille! Now, I've got a pretty good story for you.

While I was in Foggia we had an investigator named "Michela" or "Michele" we actually weren't really sure. Anyway, I wanted to call her to set up an appointment, but I wasn't sure which one she was in the phone, and my companion was being too lazy to look it up in his planner (I didn't have her number in mine). We also had three or four Michela/Micheles, but I decided to just go ahead and try calling them. I called all of them. I set up an appointment with one, and I was told to call the other after about a month to set up an appointment with him.

Then I was transferred.

Now, one of the Michela's that I called (the one that I set an appointment with) is now meeting multiple times a week to be taught by the missionaries with help from the members and is going to be baptized in a couple weeks!!! How amazing is that?! I had just randomly called her.

This week we had an appointment with the Diciolla family. They're awesome. They're also pretty funny too, because they LOVE America. They're actually hoping to move there. Talking with them makes me realize how much we're really blessed. They went on a trip to northern Utah and they were totally amazed. They said there were churches and temples everywhere, people just leave their doors unlocked at night, they have yards, and they have more than one bathroom!! They're planning on moving there. I have to admit, I'm not really too into the whole living in an apartment and sharing a bathroom between four people (like we had in Foggia).

Zone Conference was totally sweet. We hosted it. We had all the missionaries from Puglia (Apulia) and half the ones from Calabria. I got to see Anziano Rowland, Garvin, and Garcia!! Then Anziano Garcia stayed over last night and stayed here for P-day. I seriously love my MTC district. I

Today we went to Santa Clause's church (Saint Nicholas). It was pretty cool. What was more cool is that we had some Burger King afterwards. I know, I know, I'm in Italy, but after three transfers with Anziano Halverson I can hardly handle any more pizza (he has a reputation for eating pizza on an average of four to five times a week).

I love how everything is going. We've been meeting some incredibly interesting people and the work should be taking a huge boost as we hit September. We've been having quite a few flaky investigators, but we also have lots of very promising potentials. The really cool thing about sacrifice and exercising your faith is that you know you will be blessed for your righteous desires. The more energy and enthusiasm I can put into the work, even when we're not having a lot of success, the more I know the Lord will bless us. Just look at Foggia for example. I worked hard in Cosenza, and as soon as I left, they had a baptism, and Foggia had a couple right away when I showed up. Cosenza is now up to four missionaries and I hear the work there is going awesome. Foggia has that baptism coming up with Michela, and I'm looking forward to finding all kinds of sweet investigators here in Bari.

I think as I've been working hard and spending time with other missionaries, I've been growing my testimony and my Unity. I'm really happy that we've been able to pass off so many referrals to other missionaries to help lighten their load, and it's just really sweet. The mission is sweet. I love the Book of Mormon because if someone is actually willing to follow Moroni's promise, God will answer.
I've been thinking about that lately. Some people have hesitations about things like baptism, or changing because they don't think they're ready. That's just a lack of faith. If you call upon the powers of heaven and ask God, you can be ready for anything. I think it doesn't take more than one prayer to gain a testimony. The same goes for reinforcing one. We had a member in Cosenza that told us that it took her two months before she accepted to be baptized because it took two months before she specifically asked God to reveal to her the true. What is there to fear? Will God not respond? The fact is that sincere prayer brings results. Sincere prayer is powerful. God is powerful.

I know that the church is true. Thank you for your support and all the supplies that you sent to keep me going! haha. If I had to pick a favorite thing it probably wouldn't be possible because there were too many things in there that I love. I guess though that I really appreciate the letters and words of encouragement you send, and also the seaweed. hahaha. I love seaweed. There's something about it that I crave.

Have a great week. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Love,
Anziano Banks

Salve.

2010-09-05T17:32:00.001-07:00

This week went really well. We've continued to do a lot of finding work, and have had tons of success in finding investigators that are totally awesome!!! The only problem is that we've been finding them for other missionaries!!! haha. Check this out:

We were on our way to an appointment when we ran into an African man that stopped us and told us that he's a member! He said that he was visiting from up north. We told him that we didn't have much time, but I still asked him if he knew anyone in Bari that would be interested in learning about the church. He told me that his brother would. We met his brother, got his number, and went to our appointment. The next day I called his brother (Stanley) and we met with him. We taught him all about the restoration, he agreed to read and pray, and he said that usually he doesn't go to the churches here, but he feels good about our church because his brother is a part of it. He also accepted the invitation to meet with us three times a week so we could help him understand our message, and said he would be willing to be baptized if he feels it's true!!! Then I found out where he lives, that it's out of our area, and we passed him off to the missionaries in Bitonto. He waited an hour for the buses to go there for church, but they weren't running on Sunday because of Ferragosto. He's now meeting with the missionaries there. I was a little sad at first when we lost such an amazing investigator, but I got over it.

Yesterday we had an appointment with that guy who stopped us from Venezuela. He actually called us to meet with us! (His name is Massimo) Of course, it turns out he lives in the other missionaries zone, plus his wife doesn't speak much Italian, so we passed him off to the missionaries of his area. He has another appointment with them in two days, and he's going to go to church with them on Sunday.
We have been going through our potential investigators and we had a lady that wanted to meet with us. She was a single lady that we passed off to the sisters.

We had an appointment with another man that when we found out his address, it is in the other missionaries area, so we're going to pass him off to the other missionaries.

Basically, lately we have been doing great missionary work that I feel really good about, but it's all going to the other missionaries!!! hahaha. Don't worry though, we've also been finding some totally awesome potential investigators, and a couple of new investigators. The only problem is that one of them has an EXTREMELY bad smoking problem, and the other one doesn't really believe in God. In fact, when we first started teaching her she just told us that she didn't believe in anything, but by the end she was willing to pray!! It's amazing to see how people's hearts soften.

We also met a man the other day that played at the church TWENTY FIVE years ago! He didn't really remember much about the church, but we explained to him the restoration, and he told us that he wants to learn more. It's really pretty cool how the Lord prepares people and puts them in your path. He also blesses you for your efforts. We have been studying the chapter of Preach My Gospel about finding people a lot this last week, and we've pretty much figured out that when we follow everything that it says, it really works! I'm not sure if it works because we're changing some things, or if it just works because the Lord blesses us for our efforts. I have also gotten really into the Bible lately. It's pretty awesome. It's getting pretty colorful, haha. It's good though because Italians are way worse than me when it comes to marking the scriptures. They always just mark about everything. It's like when I was little, and me and Lia started reading the Book of Mormon together for the first time. I had a scripture marking pencil, and I would just color in everything! I think Lia told me that it was pretty ridiculous, but it seems like everyone here likes to mark their scriptures like that!!

Anyway, things are going great here in Bari. I love this city. It's definitely my favorite city that I've served in. What's not to love!?!

Remember how we have those new converts that I've been trying to find husbands for? well, every week I've started giving Cecilia a different article from random Liahonas about marriage. It's way funny. I always right a little note too. Usually it says something like this °Go to the Single Adults activity! ++The missionaries
or... get married!

I'd type more, but this keyboard is driving me crazy! I think that someone from a random country used it because I'm able to type symbols like this ç L é*ç:_Lç°L

Have a great week.
Se trovate un po' di tempo, imparate Italiano.
Va bene?
ciao ciao
-Anziano Banks!

BARI BARI BARI

2010-08-30T18:50:00.001-07:00

So this week was pretty sweet. Well, in the sense that I enjoyed it and we met a lot of great people. As far as missionary work...it's a little bit dead. haha. They have something here called ferragosto. Basically everyone goes on vacation for a couple weeks. haha. We've gotten a lot of great contacts, but everyone says that they are busy until September!! So I'm pretty sure that the work is going to go crazy in September!! It'll be like a birthday present. For now, we're just going to keep doing a lot of proselyting, and finding people. They'll probably all tell us that they're going to leave until September, but that's alright.

It's really interesting how true the things are that are written in Preach My Gospel. Lately we've been studying a lot about finding people, and we've been following everything that we learn. One thing that is says is that sometimes when you talk to people, they won't recognize at first that you are messengers of the Lord. So anyway, the other day I stopped a lady and I told her that we're in the area explaining to people how families can be eternal and we can live with our families after this life. She then told me that for her families aren't forever. hahaha. Anyway, I can't remember everything that we said, but by the end of it all we had talked for about 1/2 an hour about the church, and given her a Book of Mormon! It was pretty awesome.

I also decided that Venezuela is the place to serve a mission. We were doing houses the other day, and a lady from Venezuela was biking and stopped us. She said that her husband wants to learn from us. Then her husband came over with his two kids and told us that he wants us to teach him more about Jesus Christ!! haha, it was totally crazy. Unfortunately they don't speak Italian really well, so we put them in contact with a missionary in our city that speaks Spanish. Since then me and my companion have been joking with each other about what it would be like proselyting in Venezuela -- people stopping you on the street as soon as you walk outside your apartment, setting baptismal dates on the place ride over, churches with two baptismal fonts so they can do more baptisms at once, etc.
hahaha.

Anyway, so things are going really well. Our new members are all doing fantastic, the ward is doing well, and once September comes our investigators should be around. This city is great. Every week we get fed by members at least twice. Once on Saturday by Sorella Panza, and then on Sunday by other members. Sorella Panza is a pretty interesting lady. She loves the missionaries. No one really knows how long she's been feeding the missionaries for, but I know it's at least for a few years. She has four pet cats! They usually end up on the table a few times every time we eat there, haha. It's pretty crazy. Last time we went she showed me all the photos of her family from the last 100 years. It was pretty nuts. I had heard various weird things, but I actually enjoy going over to eat there. She's a pretty good cook.

Have a great week. I hope everything's going great for you.
Love,

Anziano Banks

P.S. Today we went to Alberobello. It was pretty sweet. They have some pretty funky houses there.
We went with me, my companion Anziano Gilbert, Anziano Fernandez-Ruiz and his companion(from Italy), Sorella Jenkins, Hirsh and Tonoko (Peruvian but lives in Genova, Italy).

I love BARI!

2010-08-27T16:02:00.001-07:00

Woohoo!!

This place it TOTALLY AWESOME! It's my first city that actually has the sea.

We also have a pretty good sized ward - and four new converts!! They're amazing.

First is Fabrizia. She's 39. She used to study a lot of languages including...CHINESE!! She took four years of Chinese (15 years ago). She doesn't remember that much, but I say a few phrases to her every time I see her. She also speaks English really well. She drives a FIAT punto that's way sweet.Next there's...Cecilia! She's 32. I think she's a babysitter. She's way funny and she loves to study the scriptures! We've already taught her a couple of lessons and she always asks us to leave her something to read from D&C, and from the Bible. She's way amazing.Then there's...Loredana! I still haven't met with her for a lesson, but she was just barely baptized a couple months ago, but she's really busy. She also speaks some English.Oh, and then there's Rita. We meet her at lungo mare (the walkway along the sea) to teach her. It's pretty sweet. She's not that good at remembering church doctrine, but we're working with her.

As far as investigators we pretty much just have one...but she has a baptismal date! Besides that we're going to have to find some more people. We'd have more good investigators, but all the good ones got baptized! hahaha.

The story on how Fabrizia, Cecilia, and Loredana joined the church is really cool. They're all friends with each other, and first Fabrizia got baptized. Then Cecilia noticed that she was way happier, and asked her what made her become so happy. The she joined the church too! Then Loredana did too.

The only problem is that now they all need to find husbands in the church!! They have a single adults activity in Rome in a couple months that I hope they will all go to. Cecilia doesn't want to go, Fabrizia might not be able to because of her dog, and Loredana can't because of work!By the way, all three have pet dogs. Actually, Rita has a dog too. Rita's like...45 years old. She's also not married!!So, I've taken it upon myself to help them find husbands by stopping every male I see that could be in the right age range.

I'm really just loving Bari. The people here are great, I get a lot of time to do proselyting, and we have a sea here. It's great to walk around the streets stopping random people. I really just like anything that we do that gives me the chance to meet lots of people, and so I really like it. I also like giving out pass-a-long cards. You should try it sometime.

I've been able to use my Chinese here just about every day. There are tons of Chinese in Bari and I run into them on the street all the time.I also have been running into lots of crazy people. I think crazy people are attracted to me, because I seem to meet quite a few in every city. I like that though too, because it keeps things really interesting.

The apartment here is incredible!! We have a dishwasher! We also have quite a bit of space, and we have a BENCH and we have some decent weights. It's also very naturally well-lighted.

I think that if I had to move to any of the cities that I've served in, I would move to Bari because it's the best. I love the people, I love the city, and everything here is just really awesome. We even have Saint Nicholas here (santa claus), I'm going to go visit his church sometime. haha.

Love,

Anziano Banks.

p.s. Life is way good.

Transfers!

2010-08-22T12:22:00.001-07:00

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!

I love the people!

2010-08-08T16:49:00.001-07:00

This week was totally awesome. But where to start?

We had Zone Conference last Thursday with our new mission president. He's great, and his wife is too. He seems to know a lot of quotes and stories by modern day prophets, and he's just a really nice guy. His wife doesn't speak any Italian, but she's learning.

I found out that all the Zone Conferences in the Rome mission are done in English! (Ours are done in Italian. It makes sense because we're in Italy)So Sorella Kelly said that she was impressed that we did it all in Italian.

Besides that, the conference was great because I had the chance to see a lot of my old friends. Anziano Garvin was there, Anziano Garcia (both were in my MTC district), and then there were tons of other missionaries that I've met here on the mission.

The weather has been crazy hot here. It got up to 109 degrees one day! Needless to say our motivation for getting appointments with people has really gone up. I've also started carrying a water bottle around with me.

On Sunday we had an awesome lesson. We taught one of our investigators named Silvia. She's been an investigator for more than two years! Her boyfriend is a member, and he teaches gospel principles. Anyway, when we visited her we wanted to set a date for her to be baptized. So after we talked about the restoration and her testimony, we asked her when she would like to be baptized. She didn't feel comfortable setting an actual date, so then bishop chimed in. hahaha. I can't remember everything he said, but I know he said this, "I want to see you two get married in the temple." Instead of baptism he kept talking about marriage. haha. It was way funny. Anyway, she's going to pray this week about getting baptized in a month, because it's already been way too long (she comes to church every Sunday, reads the book of mormon daily, knows the doctrine, etc).

We've started meeting with the members more, and I love it. We have some awesome members here. Last Friday we did splits and Anziano Gilbert and I visited the Grieco family. We taught them about family councils. I'm not sure if you've heard of them, but I realized we've actually done them for a long time. It's just where you discuss decisions or problems as a family. I think we would would do it usually before family prayer. We also did it when we planned for trips. Anyway, we taught them about it, but then we found out that Fratello Grieco is already way into it!! We're teaching all the members in the ward this message because we want them to do a family council to figure out how we can have more reverence in Sacrament meeting. They have a cute little girl, but she crys too much. haha.

Anyway, then we did FHE with the Corvino family on Monday and taught them the same message. Sorella Corvino is totally awesome. We're going to go help their neighbor with some yard work tomorrow.

Oh! I almost forgot another really cool thing. On Monday we went and visited a less active member from Florence and she gave us 3 referrals!! Two of them turned out to be difficult because they're too stubborn, but one is going to be a new investigator. One of them (a stubborn guy who lived 30 years in Canada) had some crazy views on the Bible. He told us that he believes in the Bible, but I'm not sure if he's ever read any of it at all!! He told us that Jesus was never resurrected!!

Last P-day we went to Barletta. It's right next to Trani. It was a pretty sweet trip. Italy's starting to all look the same to me, but it all looks pretty sweet compared to America. hahaha.

Speaking of the Bible, I've really gotten into it lately. I have about 50 scriptures tabbed for lessons, and now I'm going through and listing my own cross-references for them. It's pretty awesome. I've also still been studying the Book of Mormon. I'm in 3rd Nephi, and I'm about to hit a really good part. (When Jesus appeared in America)

So everything's great here. Transfers are next week! Odds are that my companion goes, but you never know!

Love,

Anziano Banks

P.S. I forgot to tell you all a crazy story. We have a member here that is named Constance. She's from Nigeria. We had been trying to get her membership records for a couple weeks, and then she told me that when she was baptized she had a different name! She's really interesting because she has a lot of views that go in line with church doctrine, and she told us that she had heard of Joseph Smith, but not the Book of Mormon! She also told me that when she was baptized she was immersed in water, but that it was done three times! Anyway, so we had all been really interested in what the story was on her, and now we finally got her records! It turns out that she was baptized, but she was never confirmed! So now the Bishop is going to have to do an interview with her and get everything worked out, but I just thought it was all pretty funny and interesting.

Zoom.

2010-08-04T18:14:00.001-07:00

Hey, So it's always great to hear that you're doing well. Things are going well here as well.It's very hot. It's a little humid. Basically I only eat sandwiches for lunch now because it's too hot to use the oven or the stove. I'm getting pretty good at making tuna fish sandwiches.

Our work here is going great. Yesterday we had a lesson with a new investigator about the restoration and she was very interested to read the Book of Mormon and pray after hearing me and my companions experiences with reading the Book of Mormon. Her husband is the type that thinks everyone is just good as long as they do good things, so we'll have to help him understand the importance of following Jesus Christ and being baptized just like he was. It's really great because we're teaching quite a few families right now. The only problem is that they're a lot harder to teach than individuals. We have one family where the husband was almost baptized five years ago, but the wife has a problem; we have another family that the wife loves the church, but the husband isn't willing to read the Book of Mormon; then we have that other family where the wife is really interested, but the husband thinks everyone's good. Not to mention these people's kids who are very hard to keep focused. haha. But it's really cool that we're having so much success.

This week we have lots of appointments with members. We haven't been meeting with them very much, and so this Sunday right after church I decided to talk to as many members as I could and try to set up appointments. I was able to get five appointments for this week!! It was totally awesome.
I guess it just goes with the principle of being proactive.

This week flew by so I don't have a ton to say. sorry.

One cool thing is that we made a new bar. haha. We already had one bar made out of water bottles, and then we have been collecting bottles so we could make a heavier one. It's made for some great workouts in the morning. Here we are working out in the shirts Sister Wilkey sent us.

We've been having tons of meal appointments (pretty scary). I found out that I can actually eat more than my companion. At the last two I've managed to eat a lot more than him. We were at an investigators house two days ago and the lady was pretty concerned. She asked me if my companion always eats that little. haha. The really funny thing is that to me he had eaten a lot! But I just kept going because if you don't eat a lot then they think you don't like their food.
I guess that's about it. Nothing too exciting this last week.

Love,
Anziano Banks

My Italian “greencard”.

Ciao!

2010-08-02T14:32:00.001-07:00

And when I say that I mean hello!

The other day we were doing house and we ran into some teenage girls. They asked where we were from and as soon as they heard my companion was from Las Vegas they got way excited and started asking all kinds of questions. haha. Anyway, we ended up teaching them about the restoration, and then as we were leaving they all said , "Hello! HELLO!" In the Italian language ciao means hello or goodbye. But whenever Italians are taught hello, they are told it means ciao. haha. So people here always say "hello" when they mean to say "goodbye!"

This week went pretty well. We did a lot of great things. For example, we ate pizza last night. haha. Our new assistant to the ward mission leader loves to buy us pizza! Me and my companion decided that we were going to get healthy and in good shape, but it seems that Foggia is totally against us.

We went to the beautiful city of Manfredonia this week to eat lunch with some new members. Manfredonia was started years ago by King Manfredi. haha. I didn't really get the chance to see much of the city, but it seemed pretty cool. Here is the view from their house:

I've found that my mission fits me perfectly (it's not really a surprise because I called by inspiration to be here), but it's still really interesting. For example, I love to travel. This last week I went to Bari, Manfredonia, Panni, and then on other weeks I go to San Severo, Aquilia, and other random cities. I've found that I travel tons. It's way sweet. We go to all these places because Bishop takes us there to find Less Active members, or visit members that can't come to church.Unfortunately we take rides in Bishop's car that isn't always the most consistent, and also doesn't have a working AC!!

Our Bishop and his riding lawn mower!

Going to Bari is my favorite trip. We go there for our district meetings, and it means a two-hour train ride!! (It also means a chance to pass by the Bari tie market). Anyway, this week I met some pretty cool people on the train. I met one guy named Joe. He's from Gambia (West Africa), and he's Muslim. He was a really nice guy, and he told me I should visit Gambia because everyone there is smiling. If they're anything like him then it's definitely true!

On the ride back from Bari I met a girl (24-yr-old) that studies languages. She actually spoke quite a bit of English, but I taught her the gospel in Italian because she couldn't understand well enough. She stopped going to church because they changed Priests and the new priest is old and boring. I told her, come to our church! Our members are the ones that give talks! haha. She was pretty cool. She also had a friend in Taiwan that she speaks Italian with on the internet. I always meet my favorite people on the train.

We moved to a new housing area this week. It was really weird. I don't have any photos, but basically the houses kind of have front yards and there are four families in each unit. It's a really quiet area, and we didn't have any luck our first time going. The people were friendly, but just not interested. The cool part about this area is that there are tons of families there, so we're hoping to find someone that wants to listen to our message.

I guess that's about it for this week. We're part of the Rome mission, but nothing has really changed yet. I still haven't even heard from the new mission president. I guess he's really busy trying to get a hold on things, especially since he has two missions combined into one. haha.

One other thing we've been doing is going to Less Active members. I can't remember if I told you, but we met one guy that has been Less Active for years. He came back from his mission after only going out for a couple months. It's pretty sad because he's caught up on little things about doctrine. Basically, he wasn't ready to hear some different things, and he just didn't ever have enough of a testimony. He talks to us like he thinks that he's going to say something that is going to damage our testimonies or something, but the nice thing is that I realized that anything he could say wouldn't effect me! I know that the church is true and I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet that restored the church with the priesthood of God. I know that this is the only true church of Jesus Christ.He also told us a bunch of different things, but it's not anything I haven't heard before. He's too stubborn to listen when we explain things to him. It's a real shame.

A great thing that happened this week is we talked to one of our less active members that always meets with the Jehovah's Witnesses, and he finally came around. haha. I've learned way more about their doctrine than I ever wanted to know. I guess the cool thing is that I've done a lot more studying of the Bible.My Italian Bible has gotten very marked up. I also have been reading the old testament in English, and it's pretty sweet. Well, Genesis is pretty sweet. I think last time I started reading the old testament I made it to Leviticus and then it just started getting too boring. haha. But it's going pretty well.

Alright, I better go. I love you. Have a good week. Mom,

Love,

Anziano Banks!

P.S. My cooking is getting great! Making homemade pasta is easy and fun!

Benvenuti a Roma!!

2010-07-18T16:33:00.001-07:00

So, we’ve now become part of the Rome mission! That means that even if I don't serve there, I should at least be able to see Rome a little bit the last day of my mission right before I go.

I personally am totally stoked about the mission change because it opens up the possibility of going to a number of exciting new places. We just had transfer calls, and for now I am staying in Foggia. It's pretty sweet because we now are starting to learn how to cook, and we also realized that just about every city near Foggia is Medieval.

Last week we went to Trani. One interesting thing about Italy is that just about every city has an old cathedral, and an old castle. Trani also had a nice park. We only had time to spend a couple hours there, but it was enough to check out the highlights of this little city. We had some Foccaccia for lunch, and we walked around and enjoyed the nice little bay they have.

That was my travel highlight for the week.

My cooking highlight was that we learned how to make gnocchi from one of our investigators! That was pretty awesome. I'll teach you how after the mission. I'll probably have to show mom and Lia all the things I will have learned how to cook, because I think I'm going to know a ton. On Saturday we're going over to learn something else. Gnocchi were really easy to make, and basically all you need is potatoes, egg, and flour!

My spiritual highlight this week was a pretty cool one. We were with Fratello Manzo going around visiting random less active people that he knows in the area. Fratello Manzo used to be the ward mission leader (years ago) and now he is about to be called as the Assistant ward mission leader. Anyway, we rang a less active sister's intercom, and she was happy to let us up. Fratello Manzo did some catching up with her, and we all chatted about different things (job, school, where you're from, etc) It turns out that she's the daughter of one of the first members in Foggia. Then she told us about how she had just been robbed! This was really interesting. The robbers must have had a key to the house, because they didn't have to break the lock or anything, and then they checked behind a couple picture frames and found her wall safe. They removed the entire safe from the wall, and left! All this was done while she was out of the house at work or something. It happened a few days before we passed by. Anyway, she was really shaken up. She had about 30-40K of jewelry, money, and other items in that wall safe, but the thing that really shook her up is the sense that someone invaded her privacy and personal space. Obviously now the locks have been changed, and when we came by it was the first time that she's returned to stay in the home (she lives by herself). We then decided to offer a prayer. After the prayer she was crying. She told us that yesterday she had prayed to Heavenly Father to comfort her, and today he sent his angels to her. It was really cool. Although she has been inactive, and she has strayed away, she is definitely making her way back. That was really cool.

Okay, so here are the opposites this week! haha.

Travel opposite: Today we went with Bishop to visit some members that live in the countryside (near the Basilicata...in the direction of Calabria where Cosenza is). To get to their house we had to drive up a road that zig zags like crazy, and it was miserable. The members there are amazing though. An old couple that is unable to come to church (health problems), but they hold sacrament every week themselves. We go and visit them every few weeks. They're awesome.

Cooking opposite: I decided to try and make a pasta out of fresh tomatoes that I had. I thought it would be a good idea to have a pasta that wasn't so smooth, and so I didn't blend the tomatoes or the carrot I threw in very well, and the sauce ended up having a bad texture. The pasta still tasted okay though. I think there's a reason why Italians usually use peeled tomatoes and use a tool to take out the seeds. There were way too many seeds.

Spiritual opposite: We were doing house (which means we were ringing intercoms) and some guy started yelling at us not to bother people! He told us that no one wanted to hear from us. It was really rude because there was a lady I was already talking to that wanted to know who we were, so I said to him, can I just tell this lady who I am because she wants to know (she kept asking "Who are you?"). He yelled into the intercom and told her to hang up. She didn't! haha. And I ended up telling her who we were as he left (although she didn't end up having interest). He went around the corner and stared at us, but we felt like we should finish ringing the intercoms. Anyway, then we ended up talking to a guy who used to play soccer with missionaries in the past, and he listened to our message, and we're going to meet with him again! So it actually ended up being pretty cool.

Anyway, so there are all my highlights and the opposites for this week. I hope that you find joy in your lives as you experience the ups and downs. It's always about balancing your life.

I know that this church is true, I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and I know that without the Holy Ghost people can't really understand the Bible. This week I started studying the Bible a lot more than usual, and I found it very obvious how so many people get confused.

Love,

Anziano Banks

INN-N-OUT

2010-07-08T16:02:00.001-07:00

This week I tried to make myself a Double-Double Animal style. ...
I decided not to take a photo. It didn't even come close. The next day I got a Whopper at Burger King, and I think that's about as close as I can get while I'm here in Italy.

This week we have done a lot of traveling. I've found that most weeks I do. haha. First we went to Panni with our Bishop. That was awesome. We visited a member and his new member wife that are in the hospital there. That city is totally awesome. I really wish I would've gotten a picture from their balcony, but I'm sure we'll go again sometime. Then we went to get water from a pipe coming out of a rock. Apparently that's where all the best water comes from, and we filled about 50 - 2L bottles with Bishop after the appointment. haha.

The next trip was for Zone Conference in Bari. It was the last Zone Conference with President Toronto!! It went pretty well. We had to get a ride from the Assistants back to Foggia to make it in time for our baptism! Angela, the mother of Irene who was just baptized.
She's awesome. She is really...upbeat. After the baptism she gave us each huge Boches. (I'm not sure how to say it in English) After the baptism we also invited the girlfriend of one of the members of the church here to be baptized, and she accepted!! That was awesome.

Right now I'm actually back in Cosenza!! I love this place. Within my first few minutes here I already ran into a member and had a brief conversation. It looks like I'll actually be here a couple days because the Questura may not give out Permessos tomorrow. Basically, I'm here to pick up the card that makes it legal for me to stay in the country!

Summer is here. People are starting to all go to the sea. We're going to end English Course at the end of this month, but I only had two students come to my class yesterday! It still went well though. People like to have more personal help sometimes. Plus it makes for a killer spiritual thought at the end because you can connect with the people more.

The other day we decided to do a little bit of Chinese Hunting. haha. First we passed by a guy that I had talked to before that seemed really friendly and interested. His wife was the only one there. I asked her if she had a chance to read the pamphlet that I left her husband, and she told me that she's buddhist and that they're not interested. That was kind of a bummer. So then we decided to go to another chinese shop where I had met a couple ladies before. I talked to one about how her day was, and then a little bit about religion, and I ended up explaining to her about prophets and Joseph Smith. She told me she would read the pamphlet, call me if she didn't understand anything, and that we were always welcome in her shop!After that I was feeling pretty good. I love it when people actually accept what we say!

With all the trips I've had a chance to talk with a lot of people traveling (which I love). I spoke with one man on the train to Bari. He was very interesting. He told me, "What's better: Being baptized and killing people, or not being baptized, but being a good person"
I said, "Why can't you be baptized and be a good person?!"
He was stuck on his idea. The fact is, a lot of times there is good and bad, black and white, but I think in this case he was definitely choosing between two mistakes. We can either choose Jesus Christ, or we can choose Satan. Jesus Christ was baptized!! He also did good things! I say we should try and do all the things that he did. Anyway, unfortunately I couldn't get through to him at all. You do what you can. He also told me I should be serving a mission in Africa where they need the Gospel. It's funny because a lot of people tell me that I should be in Africa. Speaking of which, we found out that our African member isn't actually a member of our church. She's never heard of the Book of Mormon, and we couldn't find her baptismal records. We don't really want to tell her that she's not actually a member, but hopefully she'll want to be baptized afterwards!

We had stake conference and we had a satellite transmission from Salt Lake. Elder David A. Bednar said some great things to us about revelation. I wish I had my notes with me so I could tell you some quotes. Anyway, basically he told us that usually revelation is like the sun rising. Slowly you see more and more light, and then it breaks over the ridge and you realize the truth! Sometimes it's an overcast sky and it takes a long time for the time to show. He told us an experience that happened on his mission, and he didn't find out until 20 years later that what he did was really what the spirit prompted him to do!! It was really cool. My thought on revelation follows also what he said. We just need to choose the right, do good things, and have confidence that the Lord is blessing us and giving us revelation. I've also found that I usually don't realize it until after the fact.

Have a great week.
Love,
Anziano Banks

P.S. I’ve found that all this travelling I do makes it so I see a lot of great views!!

Whoa

2010-07-07T09:11:00.001-07:00

Unfortunately this week I don't have any pictures! sorry.

Not too much has happened. Oh well, I also have a bad keyboard.

Lately I've started getting really into the world cup (seeing as everyone else in Italy is so passionate about it), and so I'm really excited for the game Italy is playing tomorrow.

Our mission president has given us permission to watch the Italy games as long as we make it an excellent activity by having an investigator there, or at least a less active member. Tomorrow we're going to watch the game with one of our investigators that we haven't seen in awhile (that wanted to get baptized but wouldn't give up smoking, not Salvatore, but another one) and a bunch of his friends are going to be there as well. It should be pretty awesome.

Today the U.S. is playing, but I don't think we're going to be able to see it. We're going to a place called Tranni for P-day today.

Things have been going really well. We get transfer calls in two days! Next week we're already starting the transition to the Rome mission, and then it becomes official on July 1st. I'm really hoping to see something happen with these transfers.

On Sunday evening we gave the sacrament to Fratello Manzo because he has health problems and can't come in the morning. He loves to help us with missionary work, so it's always great to talk with him. This time he told us about two investigators from about 5 years ago. He ran into them the other day and invited them to FHE which we've been having in the church every monday.

This week we decided to change it to Wednesday, so he said maybe we should go visit them and tell them that the time changed. We walked to their home, and they were very excited to see us. We sat down, ate some cookies, drank some carbonated water (ew), and taught them about the Plan of Salvation. They're an awesome family. We'll see them tonight at FHE.

It sounds like your lives are pretty crazy right now. I'm glad to hear that. It's always fun to receive exciting e-mails from you.

We just did splits. I went with Anziano Gilbert from San Diego (he's serving in Bari). It was pretty chill. We went in search of a park that Anziano Shaw (from Sandy, finished his mission last transfer) told me about, but we couldn't find it. Park is one of my favorite styles of proselyting, although we usually just end up talking to punk kids. They're pretty funny. We went to another park and some girls started asking Anziano Gilbert if he knew Tom Cruise, or the Jonas Brothers (once they heard that he was from california they named about every famous person they knew).

Well, I think that's about everything. I'm staying healthy, and not drinking water that's too cold!

Remember, if you drink water that's too cold, you'll get a stomach ache!

haha.

Love,

Anziano Banks

Lifestyle

2010-06-27T11:56:00.001-07:00

Things are still going well here in Foggia. We had six investigators come to church on Sunday!! Plus a few more people that aren't investigators and just randomly showed up! haha. One of the best was Favour. He's from Nigeria and he was supposed to be baptized, but then he disappeared! He showed up in church and said that his cell phone has been having problems and he had to go out of town for something this last month, but now he's back and we're meeting with him again. I was way stoked to see him. He's a really good guy. He wants to follow Jesus Christ, but he just needs to be taught all the commandments.

It was a very interesting sacrament meeting. First, there were all the people there that don't know the church very well, then there was the fact that my companion had to translate for Favour (he only speaks English), and it was also a testimony meeting. Well, one member went up and said the Lord's Prayer and then sat down!! haha. It was crazy. I think that's what it's called in English, it's the prayer that Jesus Christ showed as an example for us in the New Testament. I was pretty shocked. But I guess no one else really was. It was just a little weird.

We also went in search of old investigators this week. I've found most old investigators love the missionaries. We went and visited a guy about our age, who happens to be a magician. When we first went into his living room there was an entire wall of dead butterflies, beetles, and scorpions! It was crazy. haha. Anyway, then he showed us some magic tricks that were pretty crazy (making cards appear out of nowhere, things disappear), and then he showed us his Guiness World record plaques! haha. He holds the world record for fastest escape from handcuffs (around 2 seconds), and fastest escape from a regular straight jacket (about 10 seconds). I was impressed. Unfortunately it looks like his level of interest in the gospel is pretty low, but he was a cool dude to meet.

You meet lots of interesting people in the mission field.

We talked to a guy on the street the other guy that told me he used to be Catholic, and now he's Aethiest. A couple minutes later he told me that he believes in God, but not in Jesus Christ. Then later he said he's waiting for Armageddon. Anyway, he wouldn't listen to us, and he's obviously very confused even about his own beliefs. While we were talking to him a bird pooped on my arm!! I told my companion that it's good luck, but he doesn't believe me. haha.

We also learned how to make Chocolate salami this week from the Bishop's wife. It's pretty good, but the way she showed us uses uncooked egg...but it's frozen. So I was wondering if that's okay to eat? It's actually pretty easy to make and it tastes really good. We brought one with us to Family Home Evening on monday, and everyone loved it. We had a great turn-out for FHE. We talked about honesty, and then we played BS. It's a card game. You pretty much have to cheat to play it, it was really fun. haha. We just started having FHE here in Foggia for all the people who don't have families in the church, and it's a nice get together. I love when everyone gets together. I'm hoping none of our relatives get married until I get home so I can go to all the weddings.

Last night we had English course and I asked everyone what they would do for their dream date if they have unlimited money. One guy said he'd go to a muse concert, another said he'd go to Luna Park, another the Eiffel Tower. I also asked each of them what they would eat on their date. One guy said he would buy the girl a hundred roses, and then fly to the moon. I asked him what he would eat for dinner and he said: McDonalds!!! hahaha. He said "I would eat a Big Mac." haha. What a romantic.

Thank you for your support, your letters, and your love.

Love,

Anziano Banks!

Whew.

2010-06-13T15:25:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was crazy. It was the Italian Independence Day! We went to a member's home for lunch. It's been awhile since I've had a lunch appointment, so I forgot how much they feed you. I've come to the realization that all Italian women are excellent cooks, and they all cook enough so that double the amount of guests could eat well. I ate so much that I had to lie down for an hour. I can't believe how much food I ate. They also always say that you must not like the food because you didn't eat very much!! It's nuts.

Anyway, I'm sure you'll all interested to hear about the surprise visit from Michelle. Well, it was sure a surprise!!! I was totally shocked. She came over at 8 in the morning and rang the intercom. My companion answered, and I guess he thought it was really weird because some girl asked for "Ray Banks" in English. hahaha. As we took the elevator down we were both very confused. I got thinking about it, and I figured the only people that would randomly come visit me would be the Iversons. But then I thought to myself that someone would have told me something. As it turns out it was Michelle!! I'm not sure if this is the correct use of the term, but I was flabbergasted. I didn't even know how to react. The only thing I did right is I said we need to get a picture, and so she has one she took on her camera. The next thing I knew, she was gone and I was in the elevator going back up to the apartment!! I actually feel really bad because I didn't even offer her something to eat, or to show her someplace in Foggia, or anything. I think I only talked for just a minute because I was just so in shock. hahaha. It was pretty crazy. I wish she had come on another day, like P-day or something, because that day we had to go on a trip to San Severo.

Speaking of which, it's almost like I have two cities again! San Severo is a little city about an hour or so away from Foggia. There used to be a big branch there, but something happened (I'm not really sure exactly what) and the whole place got shut down. Now there are tons of less actives there, and we go once a week with Bishop to visit with lots of them. He wants to get the branch reopened there, and if we can get enough less actives going then it will be reopened!!

I'm getting a fair amount of traveling in nowadays. My district is now in Bari (2 hour train ride) and we go there every <onday for district meeting. It's pretty crazy. This last week I was really tired and used it as an opportunity to catch up on some sleep, but next week I'm going to use it more as an opportunity to do one of my favorite types of proselyting - train!

Somehow most of my English Course found immediatechinese! haha. They love it. They came to class telling me things like "Wo Wang Gee Luh" haha. They're so funny.

One interesting thing this last week is that people kept calling us their angels. In fact, three different people did. My MTC teacher had told me that people would, but it hadn't really ever happened until now. That was really cool.

Everything's going great here. On Sunday I taught the Gospel Principles class. It was about Talents. I love the new gospel principles manual. It's so easy to teach from!! Basically what I decided from the lesson is that I have lots of talents that I want to develop after my mission.

Next week is a very full week. We have Zone Conference, a baptism, and stake conference.

Be safe! Have a great week! I'll keep you in my prayers, if you'll keep me in yours! haha.

Love,

Anziano Banks!

Livin’ the high life . . .

2010-06-06T16:41:00.001-07:00

What they say is that the mission is what you make it. I've taken the attitude that I might as well make it awesome, so I do what I can to talk to everyone about the gospel, and help people come closer to Christ. This week we tried something called power street. It's amazing. Basically you split up and each missionary takes one side of the street and you both walk down talking to people. I love it! My companion hates it though...haha. Oh well, I still want to do it whenever we can.

The city has gone down to two missionaries now. Just me and Anziano Halverson. It's alright. I liked having four missionaries, but now we have all of their work on top of ours, so there is tons to do!! With all this work we decided it would be in our best interest to get bikes! They're awesome. We already had one that was from missionaries in the past, and then we went in on buying another one. There was already a great lock for us, a bike pump, and even an extra inner tube!! My mission is becoming a lot more like I expected it (because in Taiwan the missionaries always ride bikes).

I also did a way fun activity in my English Course this week. Me and Anziano Cox taught advanced course (now he's in Siracusa), and we decided to teach our students how to make no-bake cookies!! I thought I was just going to do it, but then Anziano Cox asked Lorenza (one of our students) to be the helper. So we started to put in the ingredients, and I started having my doubts about her cooking skills. First I asked her to put in a cup of sugar, and she filled up the measuring cup part-way and asked me if it was good. I of course told her that it needed to be filled to the top! Then we continued putting in all the ingredients and she started stirring.

Then we got to most stressful part of no-bake cookies, at the end when you have to put in the peanut butter and then the oatmeal. The peanut butter went fine, but then we put in too much oatmeal!!! I'm sure you remember that if you put too much oatmeal they're ruined. Or at least I thought they were!! Then Lorenza came through with her natural Italian cooking skills and added some random things (like butter and milk) and saved the cookies!! It was totally amazing, and the cookies were pretty good. : )

It was fun, and I enjoy my English Class. I've started trying to get through to them about gospel principles, but we'll see. Last night I told them about prayer, and I used a lot of scriptures from the Bible about how to pray. I don't really understand how someone could not pray. If God exists, then prayer is the way to get blessings, and so it just makes sense! Plus, if someone doesn't believe in God, prayer is the way they can find out that God does exist. It's such an awesome resource that we have.

Speaking of awesome resources, I'm not sure if all the Book of Mormons in English have this, but the Book of Mormon in Italian has this "Guida alle scritture" in the back that basically has tons of gospel words that it defines and then gives scripture references. It's a really handy resource.

I guess that's about all the news for this week. I also traveled to some little town about an hour and a half from Foggia on Monday and I saw some of the most beautiful scenes I've seen in Italy, but I didn't get any pictures!! I know, that sounds ridiculous, but we were up there with the Bishop visiting some people, and it just worked out so we only passed the ruins and views in the car, so I wasn't able to take photos!! Next time we go there I'm going to ask if we can stop to take a photo or something because it really is awesome.

The weather is getting really warm here, and I'm starting to get a weird tanline from my white collared shirt. It looks pretty ridiculous. haha.

Have a great week! Let me know if there's anything that you need. Like if you know anyone who lives in Italy that you would like to hear the Gospel, because I could always use more referrals! haha.

I guess they would have to live in Foggia for me to visit them though...so that keeps the odds pretty low. haha.

Love,

Anziano Banks

p.s. Anziano Garvin (my companion from the MTC) got transferred into my zone, which means I'll see him in a few weeks!! : )

Hello Famiglia

2010-06-04T16:57:00.001-07:00

Not too much news since the maxi-conference. Here’s our group picture; I’m in the front row.

The other day we decided to do what we call an "excellent activity." Basically it means that we do something that's really fun, while doing missionary work at the same time. For this activity we decided to do a spiritual thought with Salvatore, and then play soccer with him and also a member so that they could become better friends. He is our investigator that is getting baptized on the 5th of June that is making great progress. He's been smoking since he was 16, (he's 21) and he's trying to quit. The spiritual thought went great. Then we started playing soccer and that was a blast. We have a soccer field to the side of church, and we played with a bunch of local kids (who are all crazy good). But Salvatore didn't want to play! We were shocked, and then asked him if he played basketball, and he said yes. So we played a little bit of soccer with this member and all the local kids, and then we decided to play a little basketball to get Salvatore involved--he played for about two minutes and then went inside the church!! It was crazy. haha. So we told him next time we're just going to watch a film with him, and I think we're going to watch the restoration. So far in Italy this is only the third time I've played soccer!! I thought I would play every week! But it's okay, I still played alright.

We do weekly service at the soup kitchen here. They actually have really good food there! Yesterday we went and did service and the food we served was a lot better than the food I ended up cooking for lunch. As usual I made a pasta with red sauce. We had leftover meatballs from a member lunch appointment, so I put those in. I used one bottle of red sauce, and a can of peeled tomatoes. I cheated a little and used this pre-mixed spice that I found in the cupboard. I also grated some carrots, and I put in a little garlic. I tried something weird this time. I decided to put some Basil in the water while I cooked the pasta. I'm not sure if it did anything or not, but the pasta ended up tasting pretty good. The only problem is the meatballs didn't have enough flavor. I also learned an awesome recipe the other day. It's really weird, but it tastes really good. I'll have to make it for you when I get home. It takes 2 boxes of "panna". I'm not sure exactly what that is, but you always use it when you want a pink sauce. Two boxes is a ton, but this sauce ends up tasting awesome. I've found that most sauces that I like would taste better with hamburger meat with them as well...but that's mostly just because I love hamburger meat so much. I also learned a pesto recipe the other day that I'm going to try sometime soon. It just takes a lot of basilico and pine nuts. It's just the classic pesto - genovese. I've tried it and it was tasty.

Institute here is pretty funny. I've had to help teach a couple times. They just meet once every week on Sunday evening and go through a few chapters in the Book of Mormon. There are usually only three or four people there. One girl in our ward just sent in her mission papers! I should probably be here when she gets her call.

Speaking of calls, transfer calls come tomorrow!! This is my first transfer, so I'm sure I'll be staying, but what we don't know is what will be happening to the city. Right now there are four of us here, but odds are that the city is going to go down to two missionaries because there are something like 10 missionaries leaving and none coming in, so everywhere is getting downsized every time we have a transfer. What will probably happen is I'll just stay with my companion and the city will go down to two...which is not that exciting. haha.

Which reminds me of something that is exciting! I met a Chinese guy this week in a store that may be coming to church one of these weeks. It will be hard to do translating for him, but it'll be really cool as well. He's from near Shanghai. He's buddhist and I taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I think anyone who will serve a mission in the future should learn another language, because even if you don't go to a country that speaks it, you'll probably meet someone who does. I've met people who speak Spanish, German, Japanese, Korean, Romanian, Bulgarian, French, Russian, English, Farsi, and all kinds of other languages. Basically, Chinese has helped me a ton, but if I had studied Spanish more it would have helped me as well, or any other language. It's starting to seem crazy to me that anyone doesn't speak at least two languages!

Okay, so my advice for this week would be to serve others, and plant things. haha. I think those are two great ways that everyone can better the world. More plants, more kindness.

Have a great week! I'll let you know of any changes to our city next week! For sure something has to change because Anziano Shaw is going home.

Love,

Anziano Banks