First Letter From Italy!

Famiglia!!!

Buon Giorno tutti!!! How is everyone?? I'm in ITALY!!!! Can you believe it? As you know, I'm in Napoli (Naples) and wow... I don't even know where to start at... This city is nuts!! Remember how I used to say it would be cool to go to a big city on my mission?? Well Napoli is absolutely nuts!! There are so many people, the streets are insane, the cars are crazy, people yelling, mo-peds crashing, it's an absolute free-for-all and I'm right in the middle of it!! There truly is no more of an absolute intense and crazy place on this planet (sorry, Mom) and when I opened my call they all said, "You better pack heat".. Haha so awesome.. To back it all up, Elder Holland called this bay area the Devil's Doorstep.. That is no lie, I'm a missionary. My first night here we went out finding for about an hour and my mind was absolutely blown.. It's an absolute mad house this place is.. The streets, buildings, people.. I can't describe it.. We get yelled at everyday, make a best friend everyday, teach everyday, find everyday... The work goes forth and it's beautiful.. My babo, trainer, is the absolute best.. He has been ZL for awhile and President Kelly kicked him down to train for his last transfer here.. He's from LA and loves football and sports.. We get a long so well it's wierd.. Also in my arpartment is Anziano McCallister from Orem, total stud.. And Anziano Grigg from Denver, also a total stud.. They all said that we have the most athletic house they've ever heard of.. Haha figures that's what I'd get thrown into the second I get here.. How the athletics help preach the Gospel?? We teach football lessons Thursday nights.. Played basketball with an investigator last night.. It's a blast.. It's all sort of crazy right now.. The work is moving forward and we have a lot of investigators that are progressing.. We teach all the time, it's awesome.. My babo is the best teacher and I'm learning so much.. I always put in my two cents in all the lessons and I absolutely love it.. I've never been so tired, so exhausted, so mentally drained.. This language is not the language they taught me in the MTC.. Haha I spend all day just trying to understand, it's a blast.. The dialect is called Naplotan, basically it's just jibrish.. I love it.. But everyone speaks Italian so it's not terrible.. The language is coming along.. Completely submerged in the culture helps so much.. It's everywhere.. I love it though.. Everything here is just like the movies.. We have an old Italiano lady (nonna) make us dinner on Thursday nights.. She doesn't wanna be taught, doesn't want any money, just gives us bacci (kisses on the cheeks) and hands us dinner.. EVERYONE here is like that.. I have felt so loved here just cause the Italians are awesome!! But like I said, Devil's Doorstep, there's a lot of work to be done.. I saw that you got the picture of me and the Kelly's.. They're so awesome.. When we got here we went back to the Villa (Mission Home) and had an amazing night together.. In the morning we went to the Temple site, it was unbelievable.. So gorgeous and it's next to the main highway where 60-100 thousand cars pass by everyday, not including the biggest mall in Europe which is right next to the Temple site.. Incredible.. Then we went home and opened our Golden Transfers.. I have some cool pictures of that that I will send home.. Afterwards we had a little bit of training then we got on the trains and headed out, saying goodbye to my district.. The train went right along the coast of Italy and it was gorgeous.. When we finally got to Napoli I was like whoa, this place is nuts where is this?? They quickly informed me that this was my home and that in a few weeks nowhere else could compare.. Everyone says the people that serve in Napoli bug because whenever they serve anywhere else all they talk about is what happened in Napoli.. Haha unreal.. Oh and about the pizza?? Okay, Tanner, we used to say it originated in New York? The first ever pizza came from Napoli.. And the pizza here is UNBELIEVABLE!!!! I can't even begin to describe.. All of it, the food is incredible.. I had my first REAL Italian meal yesterday.. Contains of a bowl of pasta, bread, cheese and meat, salad, fruit.. In that order.. It was soooo good. That's all I have to say about that.. I'm sure you're mouth is watering cause mine is!! I'm sitting in this third floor computer lab and outside the window are two guys yelling at each other, it's a crack up.. Church Sunday was awesome, haha so different than in America and at home.. Like SOOO different, but wonderful.. It was testimony meeting and what a testimony it was to me that I was put here in this mad house and yet still, the Church is true. This city is huge so we have about 80 or 90 members, although it's Agosto and everyone goes on vacation during this month so there wasn't a ton this last Sunday.. When I say everyone goes on vacation, EVERYONE goes on vacation.. Talked to a Pharamacist.. There are 350 main pharmacies in this area, only 40 will remain open during this month.. Crazy huh?? Somehow I think the majority will still get their drugs.. This city is crazy.. I never could've imagined such a place.. Anyway... House boat?? Really?? That's awesome but really?? I don't care I'm going to Pompei today!! Congrats Tanner, that's awesome news.. And Wy...every little Italian kid here reminds me of you.. Like all of them.. Franco is my best friend and teaches me Italian, he's like 12 or 13... Reminds me exactly of you.. I think you have some nativo blood in you.. Congrats on the captain.. That's awesome.. Just lead by example, you know what to do.. Sounds like things are awesome at home.. Wednesday is my P-day, obviously.. I still don't really understand how to write home and what's the best way of doing things so bear with me for a couple of weeks while I try to figure it out.. I do know however that you don't need to send me packages.. I have been told it is a huge pain to receive them, a ton of money, sometimes they don't get through, and yeah.. The best way is for money to be put on my card and I buy it here.. They have everything here!! Including suits.. Agosto is the sale month, perfect right?? Haha I'll get it on this month, they're dirt cheap it's a joke.. Armani for like 50 euro.. Anyway, that's beside the point.. I mean there's nothing wrong with packages here and there, but yeah, you get the gist of it.. Gelato here is amazing, pizza is incredible, the people here are fantastic.. The humidity is brutal, I sweat nonstop.. I swear I've lost 10 to 15 pounds since getting here because of walking in this heat.. We take the subway everywhere and it's a billion degrees.. Subway, trains, and buses.. Or metro, treni, e autobus.. (Aww-oo-toe-boos) Haha this language is nuts.. I had to buy a new belt because my old one is too big.. Don't worry, I hung on to it.. Have a feeling this won't last.. I don't have everyone's emails so if you could all send me an e'mail so I could just reply to you next week that would be awesome.. We are headed to Pompei today, really.. If you don't recall, it's the city that got completely covered by the eruption of Mt Vesuvius (?) because of their wickedness! So they built another city right where it was, Napoli.! Anyway, I'm way excited and my district has a bunch planned to go see in my first transfer here.. We're gonna take off soon so I'm gonna send off a couple more e'mails and yeah.. I love you all.. You all mean the world to me.. I love it here, I'm getting used to everything and soon it will be my home.. I miss you all, all can e'mail me and I think I can only e'mail family.. But the best way to do it I think is for me to receive an e-mail from anyone and write home in a letter and it should be there by a week's time from what I hear.. Anyway, I love you all.. See you all again soon!!

Love,

Anziano Gatchell