How do you like that?

So I have some pretty sweet news. I told you about the family I tried to get us the other day, that Chinese one. Well, Anziano Sadler picked up new investigators up in Castrovillari while he was on splits. A family of four!!! haha. They have two daughters. Prayers are answered. I kind of was hoping it would be here in Cosenza, but at the same time, I may also be serving up there in Castrovillari for the whole transfer. I'm going there tonight for the weekend.

I also forgot to tell you about something funny that happened about a month ago. Or at least I think I forgot to tell you. I remembered yesterday because we were eating lunch at a member's home in Catanzaro and they found out quickly that I spoke chinese, and they started telling me a story they had heard about an Elder speaking chinese to a lady on the train. And as they started they said maybe it was me!! And it was! haha. I'm getting famous. lol.

So here's what happened. My companion had to go down to Catania for his mission conference. So I guess this was more than a month ago. But anyway, he met a chinese lady on the train that couldn't really speak any English or Italian, but he knew that she needed to get on a different train and the missionaries were trying to help her. Well, he called me and told me to talk to this Chinese lady (without telling me what he wanted), so I just started teaching the first lesson! haha. I asked her if she believed in God, and she said maybe, and then she passed the phone back to the Elders (confused) and they told me what they had wanted me to tell her.

All in all it was pretty funny and I was able to help her get on the right train. And I guess that the story has gotten around a little bit.

Also, another funny thing. In Bari I guess there's a TV show about the missionaries (a comedy). I'm actually pretty sure it's not offensive though, it's just funny. And it makes it so lots of teenagers just walk up to the missionaries and start chatting with them. They even have a theme song!! haha. Siamo noi...doo do doo do . . . It's pretty sweet. It's about Brother Johnson and Brother Johnson. Two missionaries. They have Italian actors for it. I thought it was pretty funny. Apparently it's a pretty popular show, because when I was with Anziano Marzolla we were walking past a random group of kids and he started singing it and they all started laughing and singing. haha.

Have a great week!

Love,

Anziano Banks!

So this is tonino's little 50CC car!! haha. That's the same size engine as the one on our little motorcycles. hahaha. So funny. Anyway, he's always driving this thing around castrovillari.

He's one of our investigators. He's pretty hard core catholic. He has a four foot long picture of the pope in his house. I think he knows that the Book of Mormon is true though. He keeps meeting with us, and he said that he's afraid that it is true, and he feels like he shouldn't be baptized because he's been baptized once. Anyway, he has a sweet car. And he feeds us gnocchi every saturday we're in town. haha. pretty cool.

I'm not one to leave a long build-up . . .

There are tons of things I want to tell you about this week, but I'm just going to start with the best.

Effective July 1st the Italy Catania Mission, along with all of its missionaries will become part of the Rome Italy Mission!!!

Which means that the possibility of serving in any of their cities will open up (like Napoli!!), and also that the mission home will move to Rome.

Basically it's just totally exciting. We will also have twice as many missionaries in our mission now.

Pretty much, this is totally awesome.

Now, normal things. Well, somewhat. This last week I have been in Cosenza (my city), Castrovillari (my other city), Bari (mission coference), and now I am in Catanzaro (P-day).

Because both my companions are Zone Leaders they had an extra meeting in Bari, and so I got to go on splits there. It was pretty fun because I was with Anziano Connell!! Plus I had some killer Panzerotti, and I tried Foccacia, which I actually wasn't that into. haha.

One thing that was sweet up there was we met some backpackers from Canada. They had just come from Switzerland. Basically what I learned from them is that backpacking around Europe is actually pretty expensive, and so I'm definitely thinking China is where I want to travel around after my mission.

Chinese, Chinese. So I told you I gave away a Chinese Book of Mormon, right? Well this week our goal has been to find a family of 4 to teach. Two married parents, with two kids. Well, yesterday we were walking and we saw a Chinese family like that!! So I went over to talk to them, but the wife was very not interested (which is weird because usually it's the husband). But anyway, it didn't work out because she said that all the Chinese go to a Christian Church together, and so they already have a church. What I'm thinking is, if they all joined our church they could just start a Chinese Branch!! haha. Oh well, she didn't want to listen. We still have the rest of the week to find a family.

I was thinking about something after I e-mailed you last week. I'm pretty sure I forgot to tell you about church in Castrovillari!!! hahaha. So first off, Anziano Sadler is the Branch President. There are two hours of church. First we had Sunday School, and we had one person come to that (an investigator), and then we had sacrament, for which one member joined us. haha. It's pretty crazy. We really need to get more members up there! I think that will probably be the smallest Branch I go to in my life. The thing is that they actually have quite a bit of work up there, they just need to start getting baptisms (don't we all..)

Thank you for your letters you've been sending. Lia's one with IN-N-OUT made me SO hungry!!! All we ever eat is pasta! I haven't even had McDonalds since I've been here. (only Burger King. haha).

The thing about the mission, is you pretty much lose your support system, except you can still pray to your father in Heaven. So if you don't start relying on him, then I could see how you would have struggles. Prayer is totally key to everything. And in prayers I think the key is the word "affinché." Which basically means, "so that," and it helps you realize the motives for the things you are asking. It really helps to make your prayers more effective and thoughtful. You should definitely try it.

Well, I guess that's about it. Everything's pretty sweet here. I'm really excited for the mission change. The Calabria and Puglia are sweet, and I'm still hoping to get a chance to serve in Sicily. But let's face it, the Rome mission just seems awesome. They have Napoli.

Keep me updated on your lives. Read the scriptures!!

Ciao ciao ciao.

Con Affetto,

Anziano Banks.

Buona Notizia da Italia

Ciao!!
As always it’s great to hear from you! This week I have quite a bit of news.

So, I don’t know how much I explained, but currently I have two companions. Anziano Sadler’s companion should be here in a couple weeks, but right now he is having visa problems, so there’s a chance we’ll be a threesome for the whole transfer. Another thing is that I am also serving in two cities!!! Haha, It’s actually really awesome, I love it. So right now I am serving also serving in Castrovillari. We take a bus (about an hour) up there and spend half of every week there. It’s pretty sweet. And actually, I get to go to Saracena too, which is nearby Castrovillari. You should look up pictures sometime because I think it looks really sweet.

Another really cool thing about Castrovillari: Yesterday, I went and talked to this Chinese family in their shop that I had spoken with last time I was on splits in Castrovillari, and also another time I had taught them how to pray. This is the Peng family. They’ve lived in Italy for sometime, but they don’t really speak much Italian besides what they need to use in their shop. Yesterday I gave out my first Chinese Book of Mormon to them! Well, I actually just gave it to yang fan, and she said she is going to read it on her plane ride over to China for Chinese New Years, and then when they get back I’m hopefully going to be able to teach them the gospel. I had to memorize some gospel terms before I spoke with them this last time, but I think she’s really going to read it, and then hopefully her brother who read the pamphlet I gave them will read it as well. And of course then they’ll pray, get a testimony, and be baptized!!
Right now the mission is ordering some Chinese pamphlets and Book of Mormons for me, so I’m pretty stoked for that.

Another story for you. So in the city of Castrovillari there are “Magic Fountains” where the missionaries go and fill up their water bottles. Those glass ones that I sent a picture of. The “Magic Fountains” are where you go to get clean water, and you always carry the glass bottles full of water back to the house. The previous Anziani (plural of Anziano), have apparently always done this. Well, me and Anziano Wood started asking more about it because it was something unique to Castrovillari. What we discovered is that Anziano Sadler hadn’t actually ever seen anyone else do it. But he and Anziano Rogers always did, and so did Anziano Pett before him, as far as we know. Well, we decided to ask one of our investigators the story on the fountains, and quickly learned that they are actually the same as the tap water!! Hahaha. So basically that morning when we went out in the rain filling them up at 7:30 in the morning to have something to drink for breakfast, that was totally ridiculous. Haha.

In other news, my companion Anziano Jeffrey Sadler, is in HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL!!! Haha, he plays the trumpet in the movie. I knew you would all love that. He told me that he’s willing to sign autographs. Just let me know how many you’d like.

Lately me and my companions have been going out of our way to always be smiling, whether because we’re laughing about something, or just because we have the joy of the Gospel in our lives. Another thing we’ve been doing is trying to find a family to teach. Well, the other day we were walking and laughing and we all said “Buona Sera” to a man as we walked by, and he had a big smile as well. So I turned and asked him “Come Sta?” and then we all stopped and started talking to him. We asked him why he was so happy, and he asked us the same. Haha. Well, we ended up having a nice chat with him and he accepted all the things we told him because it all made sense. He had never heard of our church, but his wife was a practicing Catholic. Anyway, so we gave him a Restoration pamphlet, and we’ll hopefully get a chance to meet with him sometime. Unfortunately he works a lot, and he doesn’t actually live in Cosenza. But the point is we had an awesome opportunity to teach a man because we were smiling.

A few days earlier in Castrovillari we had a similar experience with a lady that we had offered to help with her bags. She didn’t need any help, but we laughed and chatted with her, and she’s asked us to come back by her house, so that was sweet. Last night while I was talking to the Chinese family in the shop, she actually walked by and my companions spoke with her, and she still wants us to come over to her house, so hopefully we’ll get the chance to teach her next time we’re in Castrovillari.

The mission is going well. Missionary work is going well. One thing we’re finding out with our investigators is that they have a problem of saying yeah, I believe this is true, and so they don’t want to ask God and receive a witness from the Holy Ghost. I think it’s important that we all ask on occasion, so that we have our testimony reconfirmed, so that we have that much more confidence. We’ve also been really pushing them to read scriptures daily, and I think that that is also just as important for members. Not only just to make sure we keep our faith, but also make sure we keep our action. The scriptures are really inspiring, and we can use the Powers of Heaven to help us not only with spiritual things, but also temporal things. It’s all about motivation and faith.

One other problem is that we have a couple investigators who don’t have enough self-confidence. They believe everything, but they just don’t think they can keep it up after they’re baptized. I guess they also don’t have enough faith that God will help them.

Well, I guess that’s enough for this week. Tomorrow I’m heading up to Bari. That should be pretty cool. We’re having a conference up there.

Thank you for your prayers and all that you do for me! It’s always good to hear that you’re going to church. : ) Don’t forget to read as well. The Lord always blesses us when we do what we should.

Have a great week!

Con Affetto,

Anziano Banks

Filling up the water bottles at the "Magic Fountain"

P.S. I forgot to tell you one of the coolest things that happened last week!!

So we were on the bus from Castrovillari to Cosenza, and it was completely full. Anziano Wood was talking to someone sitting, and me and Anziano Sadler were talking to each other, and then we started talking about how we always heard of people teaching buses full of people. Well, then we were like...maybe we should do it! So then we thought about how to do it, and I explained to him I think it would go down if it were in English.

Well, then this is what went down. Anziano Sadler asked the bus driver if we could do a presentation about our church for the back half of the bus (keep in mind this a full sized bus). Then we started teaching the Gospel to about 15 people at once!!! It was awesome. It was a little to start, but then I realized to get them involved we would just have to ask people directly. So I asked one kid (because it was pretty much all college aged kids), "According to you, who is Jesus Christ?"

And then we went on explaining things and asking about different things and it was overall awesome. I actually did quite a bit of talking too. It was really cool. We gave pass-a-long cards to everyone, and I gave the Book of Mormon I had with me away to a girl that wanted to read it.

It was an awesome experience, and what's cool is that it was both me and Anziano Sadler's first time doing it. But since I'm at the beginning of my mission, now I can do it for the rest of my mission!!

Awesome, huh?