Fere Agoste / California Dreamin'

hey mommmma!

anyway transfers have been completed and we had our first district meeting withnew anziano shaw in Oristano and Sorella Turley here in Cagliari (i knew her from the MTC) cool stuff! they fit right in and were all excited about the work we will do and the miracles we will see out here this transfer. were going to hike this place called the devils saddle today haha right after lunch were taking a man named gian pierro were teaching him and a boy thats a member buut is just down here for vacation. hes about 17 and wants to serve a mission. i figured inviting him would be good for him in both ways. see that as missionaries were still normal touristy people and to spend some time with a real life investigator. theres no youth his age in my branch or else i would drag em proselyting with us everyday! haha. this weekend was suppppper slow! theres a holiday here called fer agoste. It means everyone go to the beach for two days. ALL the stores closed down and literally no one was outside it was kind of eerie. the actual day of the holiday we got to do a deep cleaning of our house! we dont have a cd player or anything so we sang all day. it was nice rearranging everything and knowing that it probably wont get cleaned like that for another 10 years. it seemed that way when we cleaned it anyway. On sunday two very cool things happened! We had some visitors from the states. an RM who served here two years ago. i met him and BOOM he was one of our investigators in the MTC we taught him two different times haha. so funny. i met his wife and theyre just out here hanging out. AAAND it looks like im the new branch chorister. haha sorella rifaldi (my mom, or the senior comp sister missionary in my first area)

did it before but she got transfered so im just standing there talking with the members in between class right before sacrament and they ask my comp if he knows anyone who can lead the music he just says i can so they grab me and just say these are the songs were doing today good luck. haha so i lead no every sunday. woohoo following my dads footsteps as chorister! haha. everything else is going very well, the weather changes daily. some days cool and breezy then the next will be humid and sticky. its not bad at all though. the shade works here too so itsa not bad.

also Jackson will be baptised on the 28th of agosto! were very excited and so is he. We actually scheduled the baptism to be this weekend but then branch pres. locci called us and said that an 8 year old girl is being baptised then so we thaught it would be better to move it to next week. we told jackson and he responded with "thats the date god wanted me to be baptized. if he wants me to do it then, i will go and do. like Nefi" oh man! what an amazing man haha. were so excited. we got a photo with him and the lloyds a family in our ward on sunday ill send that in a week or two or just wait till we take the baptism photo. haha.

its way fun walking out of our appartement and walking by the shops and waving to all our new friends. they smile and waave and some times run out and shake our hands and ask us our plans for the day. our friend luccio at the carteloria is always smoking a cigarette outside and puts it out when he sees us and tries speaking english. so funny. we met a man on the bus yesterday and he tried speaking english and we kept talking and it ended up us three in the back of the bus him singing elvis songs and my comp and i snapping our fingers haha. so funny. they long americans here and just looooove california. the response i get when i tell people im from california wont get old haha. so funny. CHE BELLO ! 

anyway i love you 

i hope everything is going swell! send my love around town i miss everyone. 

ciao ciao

"Itsa Jackson 5!" and Transfers: Ronnie 'no go'--not for 6 weeks

hello hello!,

any way,

my investigator Jackson! hes doing so great! i talk to him almost every day and he is going through the book of mormon for the first time. his enthusiasm to read and understand is so inspiring. he just relates everything that hes learning to his prior knowledge of scripture and Faith. he has a tremendous amount of faith which is also just an example to me. anyway, i call him every night to check up on him and make sure hes studying (under his request) and he always has something so crazy happen to him. for example earlier in the week he was at home with all the other refugees that he lives with and after lunch everyone takes a nap. everyone was sleeping and a fire started in the back yard. they all woke up to a huge cloud of smoke just outside their windows. His 2 year ould son in hand he grabs a hose and starts fighting the fire making sure it didnt get to the house. e then gave out orders for everyone to grab buckets and through water on the plants and everything thats close to the house. after a few minutes the fire men arrived and took care of it. the whole back yard was black but the house remained in tact. another time he had told us that his brother is trying to come to italy but he hadnt heard from him in about 3 weeks. once your out of your home country the cell phones dont work anymore. everyone uses prepaids its annoying. anyway, he was praying that he would feel comfort about his brother being safe becuase he was also excorting jacksons other son to italy and he prayed about it for three days he said and then he turned on the TV and saw his brother in the back round of a reporter on the news with his son haha. he relates everything so well too. hes since heard from his brother and will be seeing him soon. woo!  Fratello Deplano calls him jackson 5 but he says it inglese so it makes it way funnier. italian accent just make inglese sound so funny. haha

tranfers were this week! haha im staying here with Russell but every other companionship is changing in Sardegna. Reed is up in Sassari but hell be with an anziano from oristano that rules and some other changes are happening too.  Sorella Riffaldi is transfering to Roma 2 so thats sad but sweet for her.  sorry about the mission lingo its just easier this way. i had to buy a new bag becuase my last one broke! i had a talk with my companion th even though when things are dirt cheap it doesnt always mean theyre better. haha. i spent a little more and gota real durable one.  i set a goal for myself to read the entire standard works by my 6 month mark. the bible is jsut wild. so many cool and weird things.  but yeah i suggest reading the pearl of great price again or if you havent. great info. and ive also been studying the 9th section of the doctirne and covenants. Its something everyone should know very well. anyway, reading through the Book of mormon in another language is something special truly. i read it once already in italian but i still wasnt very good at understanding everything. im still not great but reading it through again is way cool. that way different words get across the same meaning and how italian can be beautified. When people write in Italian they use a different type of language thats more fluid and prettier, people say. ive seen it definitely in the LDM libro di mormon. anyway i have to go. im hungry i need a nap i love you

 

send my love to the family! i was talking about lucky and nakita the other day and i miss my pups too!

ill be here for another 6 weeks and ill be better about letting you know in advance haha it snuck up on me too.

ok ciao ciao.

The man from Nigeria named Jackson

The elders from oristano have a baptism this week and thats way sweet because were the only ones on the island with a baptismal font so theyre coming down here to Cagliari and were going to invite some investigators. Jackson this man we met on the bus is so amazing. he made the most progress this week it was wild. it was hard for us to find a time with him because he lives very fall and has a small son. we met with him and he doesnt speak Italian yet. so we gave our lesson in English. it was the best english lesson thats ever hit Italy haha. it went super well his eyes were just bright with excitement and realization. he wanted to study the bible with us and we did that but that just led us to the Restoration and we gave the whole restoration lesson. he gave the closing prayer (which is so hard to get italians to do!!!!) hes not italian though he has an amzing story. i felt the strongest spirit flowing from this man it was amazing. He was born in Nigeria where he met his wife. he moved to Libya where he had two children and supported his brother and his family. Now because of the war they are refugees here in sardegna and i heard him speaking english on the bus and just started talking to him about everything and he wanted to study the bible in english. we gave him a quad in english and he was so excited! it was amazing to see how greatful he was for a book haha. anyway, we meet him again on saturday. 

everythings going well here its crazy to think that ive been here for a month already haha. its funny too. i dont feel like my italian is growing but i understand almost all of what the people say. Sometimes.  

but yeah i have to go mom my time here is running out i love you. 

if you want anyone to make me smile or make me super happy have them write me a letter haha. it stinks not getting anything for two weeks haha. 

i love you tell the family i love them. 

give michelle a big ol hug tell her i miss her and sorry for not writing back a ton last week. 

pet nakita and lucky for me. ive been around a bunch of dogs lately and it makes me miss em haha. 

vi voglio bene famiglia 

ci sentiamo! 

ciaociao

Pesto Genovese & First Parking Ticket

famiglia,

i cooked some delicious fresh pesto genovese with garlic and fresh onions yesterday for lunchh mmmmmm

you would be so proud haha. im slowly learn the art of italian cooking haha its harder than the language but the results always taste good no matter what you mess up. tthe milk and the cheese here just blows anything else out of the water. were buying a bunch of meat this week so well see about this haha

 i wanna share a quick story.

we got the sweetest blessing this week.
last week we planned a bunch and talked a bunch about how to make our investigator pool grow. they had a baptism here in cagliari last month and we want to get at least one every transfer. we did everything we could last week. we tried all our favorite spots found a ton of contacts commited all of our investigators made more appointments with others who werent progressing everything. then later in the week some of the people who were making the most progress called and said they were going on vacation for a few months. (this is pretty regular in Italy, weirdest thing ever.) so we were pretty sad. we needed some acid stuff since our sink was clogged (my companion thought the sink was a good place to cut his hair) we walked around the corner bought the stuff i made two contacts in the store while he got the acid haha and when we walked out a man says "hey just the men im looking for!" we were just surprised since everyone in Italy is super paranoid haha. we were just like heyyyyyy.....? how are ya? haha and he goes i have three books under my arm if you guess what one of them is ill talk to you. he had a book of mormon haha so sweet. he asked us a few questions about the word of wisdom and them my companion started going through super short lessons of everything. he already knew it all he read and i guess recieved lessons from some elders in another town. he is pretty much ready to be baptised he just couldnt before because of family. we gave him our number he called us the next day and were meeting with him on thursday. so sweet. we just need to get some things clarified and then hell be ready for the baptism interview! wowwww
what a blessing haha.

we got our first parking ticket. my companion convinced me it would be fine and then he forgot his card number so i paid 40 euro for some stupid thing. Italy also has universal everything so the post office is also like the police station and everything else important. we waited for three hours in that place to pay 40 euro so cool.... i met three really nice ladies though. i hope they come to church this sunday. they were way nice. haha.

tell D and Z that i love them and i expect their couch to always be open for me. and also if either of them want to learn how to make a REAL dinner give me a call. or an email. since im out here still haha.

i love you mom tell all the grandmas i love them. tell nana i just barely got here letter. it was sent to the MTC and then to ROMe and then to here haha. anyways gotta run.

i love you.

 ciao ciao