December 18th - Christmas Festivities!

Ciao Mama! I am really excited to Skype too! My username is austin.vaclaw, so be looking for me around 11 oclock your time! That will be the highlight of my Christmas day as well. Especially since I could not bear having those christmas presents wrapped up, taunting me. So I opened them, and I love them! Thanks so much for the gifts, I am already making use of the gloves and scarf, I am finally warm.. at least some of the time. A few updates on the musical stuff, we caroled in Prato, which I think I am sending in a picture, it is the picture with the huge christmas tree and lights everywhere. Needless to say, people loved it! Of course, you had some that just gave us funny looks, but I am long since over feeling awkward about stuff like that. Some people really enjoyed it though, and I got botched for the first time! Which is the weird kissing thing, some lady came up and told us we were singing great and started to botch the other elders, who made it seem like it was no big deal, and I was kinda freaking out in my head as she was closing down on me, so I basically just went so far to the left that we still had a good foot of space between our faces. The other anziani made fun of me for awhile for that one.. and also, the bishop put us in charge of the nativity activity that our ward is having this Sunday, so I hope that goes well. We arranged the songs, the characters, and all that stuff, so I am hoping it turns out well. We have invited a lot of less actives and investigators, so there should be a decent turn up. I am really excited for it though! The kids in this ward are awesome, and since I have been working with them for so many different things they all seem to like me, which my companion thinks is why we are getting so many lunch appointments. To answer dads question about the food, my favorite food so far has been some kind of weird lasagna. It had a different name, I just cannot remember it, it had egg plant and other things in it, and then after that I had lamb with some sauce on it that was amazing. I wish I could give more details, but words can not explain it. I will send a picture of my first pizza though! That is crazy that it snowed so much in Oklahoma! I am sure Jack is having a blast getting out of so many things. I know I would have. Unfortunately, here it never snows, all it does is get so foggy that everything gets a thin layer of frost over it and when you are biking around your pants get wet and cold, but after you go for awhile you start to warm up. That rodeo sounds awesome! When I tell people here that we have horses and stuff they think I am a cowboy or something, I try to clarify that I am really not as best I can, but I do not think I am explaining that very well, because the next thing I know a member who I have not talked to asks if I know how to ride horses really well or something like that. That makes me very sad about the Hobbit movie... I was expecting so much out of it. What is Legolas doing there anyways?? I know for a fact he is not mentioned until the Fellowship of the Ring. A shame. Oh polly, that horse worries me. And tell Jack to just keep going at it, it stinks to lose, but when you win it feels all the better. It will be good practice for finding work out here in the field. Talking to people you tend to lose 19 out of 20 tries, but those 1 out of 20 make it all worth it. That activity sounds fun! I am sure you will make it awesome. That thing about peace is one of the things we taught to our investigator Jackson. He has a really hard life, he is looking for work, he is moving from house to house with Usain, who is also an awesome kid, but he has a sickness that he is in Italy to get treated. We talked to him about the gospel, and he said that as he reads the Book of Mormon he feels these things. Which is why he has been reading it as much as he can every day. He is currently in Alma chapter 10, and he has had the book for maybe 8 days. I can just see the happiness he feels, and he thanked us just the other day for coming over and sharing these things with him because he said he needed these things, and that it is not just a message for him but it is life. I sure hope he can stay in Padova, but right now we do not know for sure what will happen. He is a great person to teach though. And we actually have not seen Piergiorgio since he has left for the Holidays, we do contact him though and he is super nice each time, so we hope to continue where we left off. I am doing great here in Italy! I am super grateful for your gifts! And for my awesome cousins. I basically stuffed myself with all the food that was in that box already. Junk food is so great when all I have been snacking on is bananas, apples, and crackers. I cannot wait to see you next week! I keep hoping Sawyer might call for a bit while I am talking to you guys so I can see him as well. Probably not, but a brother can hope. Love you, have a great week! Ti voglio bene, Anziano Vaclaw

Italian Pizza, YUM!!!