Austin's First Letter from Italy!

Chillin' at the airport on the way to Italy!

Ciao Mama! I hope to be able to respond to all that! But first, I really need to tell you everything that has occured in this super long week. And these keyboards do not have apostrophes, that I can find right now anyways, so I am going to sound really educated. Anyways, the flights were great, if not a little boring. But still, I sat by some really cool people that actually loved talking about religion, and other things. So right off the bat I felt a little more comfortable with talking to people. I am going to skip all that boring stuff and get straight to the awesome time I have had here in Italia. Well, coming off the plane and out the airport was great! I stepped out, took a deep breath, and smelled Italy for the first time. The air here smells a little like cigarrette smoke. Everywhere. But the cities here are beyond description. Milan is beautiful, every few steps there is a work of art somewhere. It is crazy, I met the president, and he is very kind, and I can tell he is a great man. After I met him, we went to the duomo (cathedral) to do some proselyting. That was where it got weird for a little bit, I felt different going up to people and talking to them with a goal in mind. However, me and my temporary companion at that time were able to give out a book of mormon. It was neat, but for the most part people just say thanks and walk off. Most of them are very polite about it actually. So anyways, after that we went back, had thanksgiving dinner with the president, and went to bed.

After that, we were taken to a nearby church building and assigned a trainer and an area. Okay, and my first area was........... Padova!!!!! It is probably Tulsa sized, if not larger, with tons of people crammed in. I love it here! I am in a biking mission however, and I bike upwards of what feels like 100 miles a day. In actuallity it is probably only 8 or more. I just love Italian cities and people though, the narrow streets, tall buildings, with statues of who-knows-who covering half the buildings, but they look cool anyways. Biking here is pretty safe, cars fly by, but they are careful of bikers. To get to Padova, we took a train, trains are different than I had thought they would be. Not nearly so bad. Now to the important stuff, my first lesson was with an investigator named Jackson. His baptismal date is set for Jan. 11, and he is from Kenya and speaks french, english, and that language that Kenyans speak. He is an awesome guy, and I do not talk a whole lot, because I usually have no idea what is happening, but sometimes I get to bear a testimony or say something real quick and simple. He is an amazing story, he came here to find a job for his children, and he worries about them a lot. However he came here, and he said the first day he was here we was found by the missionaries. After being taught for awhile, he said he felt like he needed to decide to stop smoking and drinking, and has not done so for about a month. We have not even taught him the word of wisdom yet. So I am hoping for the best for him. We have a lot of great investigators, but he is the one who is progressing the most right now. Another one, who I actually talked to on the street is Paula, she is awesome as well. My companion dared me to contact her, so I went up and said something like, "salve, Dio ha un piano per noi, segunda lei, cosa e la scopo de questa vita." Or something, I am sure that is awful grammar. But she just laughed and said "that is a really difficult question" and after talking about that and other things for awhile she said she would love to meet with us, so she is the first person I contacted! I hope it goes well. About what you were saying though, yeah this is a huge sacrifice. But it never feels like it too much, I feel like my face is going to freeze into a smile while I am bikng, because I just love it here! The people are awesome, the place is awesome, and I find more joy doing this work than I have from much else. Sure, it really stinks to wake up at 6.30 and go jogging in 0 degree celsius weather.. plus the heaters in our apartment kind of stink as well, but I love teaching and talking to the people of Italy. One thing that is kind of funny though is how much they wave their arms around, it seems like their arms would get tired after awhile but they do not seem to. It sounds like you all are having a great time as a family! I wish I could have been there, I am sure the cousins were all being super loud and crazy somewhere and the adults were all gathered around somewhere either talking or doing some game. They always seem the same but they never get old. Oh yeah, my new companion is Anziano Lefler, he is an awesome guy, but he was like a track star, and I am super out of shape, so we go jogging and I feel like I am in a military camp sometimes, but he is really nice and is a great teacher who works hard so we will get along great. I will be honest though, about 3 days ago I was feeling really bad about the language, and I know it is only the first week, but I felt like for some reason I know less Italian here than I did at the MTC, like my brain was wiped off all the knowledge I had of the Italian language. So the langauge is my big challenge right now. But I just made about 120 or so flash cards today with some important verbs to remember, and I am going to go through 20 or so a day and do their conjugations and all that, so I am working at it. You are making a big sacrifice too, I feel like yours might be alot more than mine is. Still, I pray for you and dad and jack, and each of the little cousins by name each night. Needless to say my prayers take a little while. Haha. I hope you have a great week, make Jack sing Christmas songs with you, since I am not there. I am singing them over here actually, it must be habit now to start singing those things before Christmas. Oh and also, the members here are awesome. The wife asked me to sing with the primary kids actually, obviously I accepted. So we will see how that goes. I am actually getting somewhat adopted in a way by the Palini family, they have 3 sons, one my age, and 2 that are 12 and 9, and a daughter who is 15. They are super nice, and have made us 2 meals in this last week, so I get to go play with the little kids a little and share a quick message with them. The daughter actually invited a friend to our last one, which I felt went really well. Anyways, I love you! Ti voglio bene, Anziano Vaclaw