Naptons

i want to hang a napoli flag from the apartment. people like americans here. well its really hard to explain why naptons are different. i will do it over skype or when i get home. you just gotta seethem. and have an explanation. i might send napoli scarves home then. i want everyone to have something little from here. napoli is quite the area. i just cant explain it. they are just prideful and they speak napton first then italian...and they arent as smart. really lazy. idk. they are sooo funny. we call people from napoli naptons. they also speak napton.

Street vs house

Question:  How do you find the people you teach?

House, street, referrals, service.  i like street and service and referrals. honestly. i could go the rest of my mission without doing house. its just not effective. if i feel a prompting that's something different. but that method is not my first. i like street, train-bus, service...which is going very well for us, referrals which is probably the best, and we do a display on this boardwalk along the pozzuoli bay. did you know that pozzuoli is actually referenced by name in the bible. i have yet to find it though. i am only in the last book of moses right now.  

Acts:

 12 And landing at Syracuse, we tarried there three days.

 13 And from thence we ^afetched a compass, and came to Rhegium: and after one day the south wind blew, and we came the next day to Puteoli:

 14 Where we found brethren, and were desired to tarry with them seven days: and so we went toward Rome.

Puteoli is now spelled Pozzouli.  Later in my
mission I served in Syracusa.

I was born Catholic! I will die Catholic!

Dear Family and Friends,  

                                                           

Well, let me start off by saying … Happy Birthday Mom! 

I am staying in Napoli for my second transfer which is nice. In our zone we have 16 missionaries … or 14. I think only one is leaving the zone.  One in our zone is switching areas and we are getting another greenie.

How I broke my retainer story:  Last Thursday we went to a small park in Posillipo after getting free ice cream.  (he says that older men are always inviting them to their shops for ice cream) We saw all the normal old guys in the park.  Like always we got on the subject of food.  This one guy was about to have a heart attack over us making our own food, so he went to the store, got some food, and took us to his house.  His wife had already make lunch and was waiting to see who he was bringing with him.  We she was shocked to see Mormons.  She turned to us and said, “I am Catholic! I was born Catholic!  I will die Catholic! My daughter teaches in Catholic School!”  Before she could finish I asked her about her daughter and what she taught.  I really shocked her for some reason.  Well after that she was the nicest and sweetest old (not old, old but old) lady.  She was really funny to talk to over lunch.  She said not drinking wine was a sin. Haha. She made an awesome lunch with a potato, onion, and tomatoes.  It is simple but very good.  I will make it for you.  Then we moved on to fish which was so good.  I ate about 3 or so.  They were only about the size of my hand. I was using the bread to soak up the juice and eat the tomatoes from the fish.  Well, it was on that bread that I chipped a piece of the cement off.  It’s not that bad and it was so worth it!!  The bread crust here is very tough, but so good.  After the larger fish we moved to a smaller fish.  These ones were about the size of a finger.  The guy wanted us to eat like a napton where you eat the whole fish except for the head.  So we did and we chewed the spines very well.  Surprised I ate fish???  (of course we are!) I guess it would be safe to say that no one in America can cook fish like that.  I need to ask her to teach me how to make it.  It didn’t taste or smell like fish. Plus I seriously doubt you could find fish that fresh.  After the fish we had antipasta. 

Lunch today was bread, cheese (maybe provolone?) and prosciutto (cured meat). Its incredible! I imagined it to be something different,  more like the pork chops we eat for dinner, ground up, and cured.  It would be a crime not to eat it!!  We need two things in America:  Buf Motts (it’s the best cheese) and prosciutto.  Well that’s how I broke my retainer. 

FYI:  IT APPEARS MITCHELL DOES NOT TRACT … THEY DO STREET CONTACTING ONLY.

So we have been slowly finding more investigators.  It’s very hard to do.  Now in August everyone is on vacation, but we still do a good job at teaching.  We gave this one guy a tour of the church on Sunday. We can really only wait for people to come back from vacation.  Referrals are really the best way to teach people.  Everyone who is giving to us as a referral turns out to be a good investigator. Unfortunately, we don’t receive that many.  Pino (who we gave a church tour) was a referral.  He is pretty cool.  He said we could teach him the 5 lessons.  I think that sounds good. A lot of our other investigators are out of town, but somehow we kept our lesson count up.  Which isn’t hard. We only taught 4 lessons last week.

Sorry for not writing for so long.  We get really busy out here.  I don’t really think I have enough time to write everyone who writes to me.  So if you would explain that to Sister McCall and Aunt Marsha.

Okay.  So the language is coming along.  I am trying to use direct and indirect object pronouns which is hard. That and understanding people.  Understanding people is probably my biggest problem.  I also want to take Dad to this suit store. Even though it’s run by the mafia.  The people are very nice.  The trash problem isn’t over, but it got a lot better. They are becoming better at picking it up.  I got up this morning to see they took out the trash and I was surprised. 

Well, I hope everyone is doing well at home.  Sorry I don’t have a lot of time to answer Amy’s email on this letter.  I hope everyone is doing well at home. I hope baby is doing well.  I love thinking about the days when she would knock on my door and say, “Mitcho, Mitcho”.  She is quite the baby.   I’m out of time to write more.  Love everyone at home.  Hope to hear from everyone soon. 

Love, Anziano Hosford

Blue with white stripes. A mafia thing.

Email conversation with Mom

So what's up for P-day this week?  Going anywhere fun or exciting?  

Well, we were going to go to the castle but no time. I did buy a new suit.  Blue with white pinstripes. Only 40 euro! But, I need to get it fitted. I will bring it home.  It’s a business-ish suit and an Armani knock off. I am going to get a few more suits from this place because they are nice and cheap.  Promesso is once a year here.  The suit retails for about 100 euro but i got it a lot cheaper.   A mafia thing.

I still haven’t received the box you sent. I am trying to get a box from the army base to send stuff home. I still have my warts and I have no idea what to do about them. I need to talk with Sister Kelly about them. I just don’t have time for them here.  I have like 3 small ones, but they need to be dealt with by next week.  Sorry I haven’t sent a letter home in a while. just been so busy dealing with others problems here and finding people. Haven’t had time to write in my journal in like 4 days because I am so tired all the time

Well today it’s 99* here.  BTW happy birthday today plus 3.

The hot water in the shower doesn’t work so kids are in the shower for like 30 to 45 minutes each morning. It’s so stupid. and I can’t cut out sleep cause i don’t get enough. I hope they are not stress warts. You gotta ask me questions.  

Tell me about your apartment

Okay the apartment is nice. we have two rooms like bedroom rooms. one is where everyone sleeps and we have the other for study. we have a small kitchen. one bathroom. nice eating room and a patio. third floor. its nice. except no hot water.

Ward members are very nice. we are taken good care of by the people here. We are having 4 more baptisms next month....Brazilians....not ours though. We missed the referral call but we have found more cool people. Missionary work is hard. Not like physically hard hard but hard you know. 

Send photos if you have time.  Have your figured out how to send your photos home?  I don't think it wise to send the memory card.

I can send photos but I always forget my cord and today its not possible because we are in a different Internet cafe. The bars here are not like bars from home. But we normally email from this one internet cafe that is in Napoli. But its closed for agosto. Lots lots of people go on vacation. 

We get free ice cream whenever we pretty much like. And the ice cream is probably the best in italy

What cool things have you seen?  

Everyday is like p-day with stuff that we see. I saw Il Tempio di Nettune which is the Temple of Neptune...the god. And water enters around the temple depending on Mount Vesuvio with pressure. Its awesome. We see a lot of interesting stuff. We are going to go the port that we think that Paul from the bible entered on. Haha! It even mentions this area in the bible. When i find the reference I will email it to you

Okay. Well, I have to go. My time is up. Well next week we can talk more. I will try and send stuff home