Buon giorno famiglia!!
And a Happy Anniversary to Mom and Dad!! Has it really been 25 years?? I guess how would I know? But congratulations!! Like I wrote to Dad, that really is incredible.. Especially being out here in Italy and seeing the different families successes and failures, it all depends on the foundation the parent have set for their children and I'm so thankful for both of you.. Not only have you given each one of us kids the opportunity to grow and to succeed in this life, but you've been carefully trying to help us along the way.. I'm so grateful for both of you and for your love for us and for each other.. Granted, it's never easy, but hearing that you spent your 25th Anniversary eating Bombay at Sundance?? Yeah...things are going just as planned.. As for me?? Well the work moves forward.. It's been a crazy week, like usual.. The city of Napoli never sleeps and I'm happy for that!! Unfortunately, it's lights out at 10:30 for me.. So we have a baptism next week! Great news I know.. It was incredible the other night hearing Antonella tell us about how she received her answer.. What a testimony to my heart that the Lord is in this work and that this is the true Church of Jesus Christ.. He's always the same, for now and forever.. Just as He answered the question of Antonella He will answer the questions that we have throughout our lives if we just pray and ask Him, but even more important is to listen for the answer.. But anyway, the work moves forward and Napoli continues to grow! I truly am loving being in the service of my Lord and I can't believe it has already been four months!! Crazy, I know.. The language is hard, but a blessing.. Everyday seems to be a new language to learn and I'm thankful for that, it keeps me working hard.. However, I would like to just be able to understand everything!! Oh well... With time it will come.. This last Sunday there were some amazing people in Church.. A couple Special Intelligence guys from Utah that were here on business, who both served in Italy.. We talked for along time about the Church here in Napoli and the growth around Italy.. It was amazing to hear the blessings that came from their service so many years.. Then there was another couple that didn't speak Italian and were from Idaho.. And like so many people say, "Oh, you're so lucky, two years in Italy is a vacation on the tithe-payers money!".. If this is a vacation then I wonder what actually working means! They were wonderful though.. And then a man that is from Napoli, now lives in Orem and owns a Pizzeria near University Mall.. You have to go try it out!! It's completely genuine Napolitano food and you would absolutely die.. He's great and if he's working ask for the owner and tell him I'm the Elder he saw in Napoli this week!! Our week has been really busy and this week there has been a conference at Rome for all of the leaders so I'm here with Anziano McBride and Anziano Bahr for a couple days.. It's always fun to get a fresh face for a couple of days, but totally different.. I'm so grateful for all of you though and for the letters, e-mails, etc... Attached will be a couple of photos of the food, the streets, and such so that you can sort of get an image of what I do everyday!! The food is like that every day.. The streets are just like this everywhere, except for that picture is of one that is pretty spacious, usually they are just little alley-ways and such.. It's awesome though and I'm really losing myself in the work.. Sounds like Dixie Football is struggling a little bit.. Wyatt is really number one in the state?? That's INCREDIBLE!!! What a stud.. Tell him to keep it up and I wouldn't mind hearing from him hear or there.. I miss you all but you can't take the miss out of missionary... I'm so happy that all of you are doing well and that we are blessed.. Share it with others.. It's when we start to look at our blessings as the means to help others is when we truly find the happiness that our Heavenly Father wants us to have.. My companion has a list of quotes with about 200 phrases of how to be happy.. At the end I just asked, "Why don't any of them just say, 'Go on a mission'?" But it's true.. Serve others and find sure happiness, worry about ourselves and misery will surely come.. I love you all and I'm grateful for all that you do.. Have a wonderful week and I'll hear from you again in a few days.!
Con amore,
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