Found some pretty cool investigators

Dear Family,

Sorry it’s taken me a while to write more, but I just found the time so I decided to include it with the old letter which was written before the transfer and this is being written after. Ok.

Okay. Dad asked how the work is going after vacation season. The work has really picked up. Anz Roe and I found some pretty cool investigators doing street. We have 3 pools of people to draw from (not including members). The first is our active investigator list which are the people who are the most curious and most promising. And into mom’s question about investigators:

The most promising and nicest family would be Bruno and Concetta’s family. They are grandparents. They have family that lives below (daughter, husband, two boys). They are the most promising and the nicest. They are all interested but only Bruno and Concetta have shown progress. They said they would come to general conference on Sunday. We will see.

Next we have Steven who is from Ghana. He is pretty cool. We meet him regularly and we are trying to get him to church.

Next we have Anna and Almondo. They are super sweet. We had a basic lesson with them and are going back to teach them on Monday. They have 4 married sons in the apartment complex that we are still trying to see. 
Then we have this guy named Gianfluance who we see every week at English course. We used to see him on Saturdays but his wife has been getting sicker and its not really possible now. 

Last we have Pino who we showed the church to in August. We are teaching him today.

Our second pool is sort of our investigators that aren’t serious, but we are still trying to see them. There are about 10 or more of those.

Our third pool is our contact pool which has been growing a lot lately. We have some great NEW contacts that we will try to meet with next week. About 20-30 people.

The work is not really a lot. We are still working on booking our days up. Tonight we are going to go through 15 years of missionary work and see if we can find these old investigators and see if anyone is interested. We really do have a lot of work going on. You just need to see it! This area with missionaries is only about 6 months old and when I got here we really didn’t have anything its safe to say. You should see our white board – It’s CRAZY!
Okay to the photos I sent you. I sent home a memory card and on that card are two photos with me and these two old guys walking with a cane and a dog. Send those photos back to me with a frame so I can give it to them. The two old guys are named Pasquale. The pictures are jokes. Anziano pretty much means old guy. In the photos they are helping me walk around with a cane and a dog since I am “old”. That place is a park in Fuorigrotta, and it’s pretty close to our apartment. It’s this park that they made into a garden and we do service and talk with people there. It is a pretty cool place. 

Right now I am studying a few things. I am reading the Book of Mormon in Italian. I am reading the Bible for history and such. Also the ability to defend our religion from crop. I am also reading the Teachings of Joseph Smith during lunch-ish time.

So this last p-day was really fun. After we finished emailing we went and ate kebabs which are this port sandwich. They are so good, but you wouldn’t approve (too fattening?). After that we saw a couple of Catholic Churches and a temple. They looked like that one picture you sent me when I first got here. Well, Napoli has 5 massive churches within a couple blocks of each other. After that we saw the underground city of Napoli. Napoli was pretty much built over itself. They buried this huge amphitheater. We got to see a small section of it which was sweet and an old roman-greek waterway/minethat was sweet. I had been wanting to see this for a while and now I did.

Well, I think that’s about all from Napoli for a week. I hope things are well at home. Watch the fish with Yeti (Mitchell’s cat) and baby for me. She has gotten a lot bigger since I left. Love everyone. Don’t do anything stupid!

End of flower season

Sent: Sept 21, 2011

Well not a lot is changing here. I am staying in Napoli for at least another 6 more weeks. My companion is getting transferred to Tropani in Siciha. The other companionship is losing one to Bavi. However, we will be getting our new comps tomorrow. Tomorrow will be a very long day. However, things are going really well here. We are teaching a bit. Well, it’s a lot for Europe, but not a South American a lot. I am sad that Anz. Anderson is going, me and him get along great, but I do think I’m ready for a new comp. I have almost completely booked us for the first three days he (referring to his new comp) is here which is a good thing. He is over his year mark so I hope he speaks well, but I’ll have to show him everything around here which should be fun. I’m excited.

Oh, so the next transfer ends on November 2nd and if I leave Napoli…I will be leaving on my birthday which will really suck to park and travel, but exciting to go to a new area. It’s hard to believe that I have finished 1/8th of my mission here. I really want to stay here through Christmas and New Years. That would mean staying here for 3 more transfers which is unlikely, but it could happen. 

Okay, well flower season has pretty much ended here. We have been having cold nights lately which is nice because it is colder at night instead of the blazing heat. The only bad thing is that the cold kills the flowers so you might have to wait till the spring before I send them again. But if I see them I will pick them. (a cute thing with Mitchell is that he normally sends me a pressed flower with every letter ) 

I do a great job with writing in my journal …it helps me drain out my thoughts even if it’s boring, but I like it. It’s taken me 5 months to fill up half of my journal so far. 

Well, you probably won’t meet everyone I’m teaching. That really could be a lot. As of right now I really want you to meet Concetta and Bruno. They love us for some reason. We go over to their house a couple times every week. They want us to come back when our missions are over. 

Listening to the crowd cheer

Dear Family,

Right now I am sitting in my apartment listening to the crowd cheer for Napoli’s soccer team. I bought a huge Napoli flag and its hanging off our balcony at the moment. It’s pretty cool living this close to the soccer stadium in a city that loves their team. It’s the AC Milano and Napoli game … huge game. As of right now Napoli is up 2-1. (We think Napoli won by all the honking we heard after the game).

Well my second transfer officially ends on the 21st which is this Wednesday. Fortunately I am staying here for another transfer. Unfortunately, Anziano Anderson is going to Sicilia. We had a really good last three weeks and about the time that we got our work going he is leaving. We have 7 companionships in our zone and 5 of them are changing. I am sad cause Anz. Anderson and I really just got the work going after summer vacations.

I will meet my new comp on Thursday. I haven’t met him yet but his name is Anz. Roe. I heard he is pretty cool and laid back which works for me since I am laid back here and so was Anz. Anderson. We are also getting another missionary from the group ahead of me in the MTC which will be pretty sweet. He was pretty cool. I decided I am going to make peanut butter cake for my b-day here. I think I am at least. I might need the recipe for the frosting.

Okay. So in response to mom’s letter.

I would love to come home 300 pounds but I don’t think it’s going to happen. I am pretty good about doing pushups morning and night along with an ab workout. I try not to eat after 9:00 but that’s hard some nights especially this week with all the meal appointments. We have 7 for 3 days, but we can’t go to one because we teach English course every Tuesday ngiht. That and we do a lot of walking. We found an investigator that we play soccer with on a concrete court.

We have tons of mosquitoes here. Only at night though. I always have like 3 or 4 bites but I don’t really care that much. Plus if I were a mosquito I would want to bite me as well. So I guess I really can’t blame them.

So Sunny’s birthday is on October 10th. She is turning 19. I finally got something for her that I think she will like, but I am not sure. I am sending it in a package home with other stuff. 

You asked how the end of Agosto party went. It went pretty well. We played laser tag and ate dinner at the Van Cleeve’s house which was a lot of fun. (Mitchell told us not a lot of people are home in the month of August and their teaching pool suffered.)

Really after that our week started picking up. We taught 5 lessons in a couple days then 9 lessons the next week. This last week we taught 7. Over all it’s been getting a lot better. It will be alitle hard this next week with someone new and Anz. Anderson leaving, but I am trying to book us all week. So far I am up to Friday afternoon completely booked with lessons and I need a couple more. I will work on it.

It’s nice to know so many people here that we can just call people and set appointments. Two weeks ago we had everyday booked top to bottom. We would have gotten 12 lessons but a few at the end of the week fell through.
We are still trying to teach the whole ward the Restoration. Which will slow down for a bit. Se we had some good teaching experiences, nothing extraordinary. Hopefully something will change.

As of right now we are working with the ward mission leader trying to have a ward monthly or bi-monthly social. The first one is set for this Saturday and I have no idea if it was announced in church. We have to do all the planning for it which sucks. I wanted it to bring it into branch counsel but it doesn’t happen here. So we will see how it will work out. We want to use it to invite our investigators to a more casual setting so they can meet the members. We also want members to invite their friends to this. We thought it would be a good idea. We don’t really receive referrals anways. So maybe something more will come out of this.

So that’s is really the whole deal here. This week will be busy. I hope all are doing well at home. I just realized if I get transferred next time I might be traveling on my birthday! I might celebrate it the night before. Can’t wait to hear from everyone.

Specialized Training

All you ever need to know about pizza

Well Napoli is dangerous, but it’s not the typical US dangerous. I have never felt in-dangered yet. It’s a wild place. We live in a very safe area. I am bigger than just about every Italian. You have nothing to worry about, but yes they do have legit mafias. I have met some. They are very nice. Business is still business to them but to us they’re nice.

So the trash was a terrible part. Not so much anymore. they have been doing a good job about picking it up lately. They also have been cleaning up areas. It’s really difficult to say if this will continue until September.

My comp is pretty cool. He is very easy going and we get stuff done without any problem. We are both pretty laid back which makes things very nice. We do good work finding people. We have a lot of fun and some quite epic adventures here.

The members here are way awesome we might actually eat more with nonmembers than members. We do eat very well here. Honestly, picture of the day is over. We gave more to take pictures of but I just don’t have the time. I take pictures when I can though. I just thought about it, I can skype home in 4 months! it’s way cool to think about. 

The language is coming along. After being here for a little over 2 months I can understand what people are saying. I have adjusted to the accent here. It’s honestly wonderful to know what people are talking about. I don’t understand every single word of what people say, but I understand enough. I only have a hard time speaking to people. When I get warmed up with talking I do alright. But for me speaking the language is a lot harder than understanding. I am not too worried about it. It’s coming along. I used to see this lady about once a week and she would always complement me on the fact that my Italian had gotten better. Well I didn’t see her for a month and I saw her yesterday and she was shocked about how much I had learned. We actually had a full conversation. Given my grammar wasn’t the best, but it was good enough. So, that’s how the language is coming.

Pompeii was nice and interesting but I think there are cooler places to see. They have removed a lot of the art from it which is really sad. There is a museum around Napoli somewhere with some its art. But Pompeii really isn’t worth the money to get in it.

There was a lot of the pollution in the water so people couldn’t go swimming for a few years unless they wanted to get sick. I think everything’s fine now though. We are about to go on the beach…on the beach on the colder months. not that it makes a difference anyways because we see the beach every day. Beaches here aren’t like American beaches with tons of sand. They have more rocks and such. There are so many misconceptions about Italia it’s funny. I will tell everyone little by little what they are as I think of them. Italia really isn’t what you expect.

Well, our teaching pool is slowly growing. I was never worried about a small teaching pool. We are slowly increasing the lessons we teach each week. Like my first week here we averaged 3 a week to investigators (we also taught members, new converts, and less actives but these are just investigator lessons) and as of right now (Wednesday morning) we have taught 4 lessons this week and have pretty much the rest of our week planned with appointments. So the work here is progressing and for a newly formed companionship we are doing well. 
Okay, j-dubbs and tj’s are Jehovah’s witnesses. That’s a common missionary name for them and tj’s is another name for them. It’s a long stpry about telling where it came from. I don’t really give them the time of day because they are not interested in learning the gospel. We do talk to them for a couple of minutes when we see them and ask (generally older, smarter people) basic gospel questions that primary children could answer. In 2 months, we haven’t received any answers from any of them. It’s sad nd amusing. It really makes me happy that I am LDS.
Okay, gelato can be compared to American ice-cream, but it’s not the same thing. Gelato is softer and just more rich. You just gotta have it. So many foods have been ruined for me in the states, ice cream is one..

Well, I know you asked about the pizza in your most recent letter…
1. Pizza was invented in Napoli
2. Pizza in Napoli is the best in the world (no joke, it’s not just me saying that)
3. American crap…I mean pizza is not real pizza and is not the same as the kind made here. 
4. Pizza here uses fresh ingredients, no grease. The juicy parts of the pizza are a mixture of sauce and olive oil which is fantastic.
5. I love the pizza here!
6. Also, every pizza is made in a brick oven (or Napoli at least)

The pizza here isn’t served in slices. It’s more of a personal pizza. I have had 35 so far. All of them the same cheese pizza…they are really called Margaritte (plural) Margaritta (singular). It’s the traditional pizza here. It’s incredible. Well, enough about pizza….

You asked me what my favorite part of each day was…I don’t have an answer for you. I really love each day and each hour here. My least favorite part though would be talking to people in the morning because everyone is busy for the most part and don’t want to talk. Really the mornings aren’t even that bad. They just aren’t my favorite.
Well, I get around everywhere on trains and buses. I like being able to use them. We live next to 3 train lines (we don’t hear them) and we also live near the bus depot. The trains and buses are hot, but I love them. They are fun to take naps on. I get tired fairly quickly.

So, today (Wednesday) was the end of day 134 here. So I only have 580 days, give or take a few.
I sent photos home of what my apartment looks like. It’s a really nice apartment for Italy. It’s big and it’s home now. 
(:
I hope you enjoyed this letter as much as I did! (even if it did make you kinda hungry for pizza, haha)

Time flies by so quickly

Dear Friends and Family,       

                                                                

How is everyone doing? It’s always nice getting a stream of letters in from everyone. I actually found time to write everyone in the family as well. I finally caught up on my journal and now I can start writing to people.

Ok. So this week has been pretty great. Its’ the first full week of Settembrew and everyone has returned from vacation and we have been teaching a bit.  This week … so far … we have taught 7 lessons and we still have 3 more days as well!! It’s been a good week. I am also come to the point with the language that I understand what people are saying most of the time. There are certain words I don’t’ understand.  I have finally adjusted to the accent and it’s wonderful. I try to speak as much as I can to people. Sometimes it just comes out wrong like if it’s the first time I speak Italian that day. It takes me a while to warm up to speaking.

Well, we finally have one progressing … ish … investigator.  He is a little crazy, but really nice. It’s hard to tell what exactly he is looking for, but technically his is. We met him last Saturday on a train and we gave him our number. So far we have met him twice and are teaching him again on Saturday. He isn’t in our zone but he doesn’t want to meet with other Elders yet. He said he is moving back to Milan in a couple months anyways. So it might not matter that much. He said he would come to church with us on Sunday.  We will see.

We have seen more progress from a guy named Frankie who struggles a bit with faith, but is a pretty cool guy who can really cook. We teach him every week after English course and some Saturdays. We have a good amount of investigators but none are really worth bringing up.

I hope you have been enjoying the photos I have been  sending home. I just hope I can stay here longer. We have transfer calls not this Saturday, but the next.  (Mitchell was not transferred but his companion, Anziano Anderson, was)  I would really like to stay in this house my whole mission. I have a box that is almost ready to send home.  I will put something in it for Sunny and some Napton playing cards. They are different than regular playing cards. I’m also putting in a sealed package that no one is to open.  Does the ward have my mission plaque yet? I want to see it.

Well, overall everything is going well here. I am trying to get some Napoli soccer stuff. We are allowed to see a game, it just needs to be approved. Life here is pretty good.  It’s starting to cool down a bit which is really nice.  Regardless I still drink a lot of water. It’s very rare that I can sleep through a whole night without getting up.  Last night I woke up at 3:00 am to the smell of smoke. Last night some kids set some tree clipping on fire and everything was really smokey outside. Than about 7:00 am the fire fighters came and put the fire out.  It is funny.  The nightlife here is interesting. Most people are out till about 3:00 am or a bit later every night. I am glad I was raised where I was raised, but it just looks like a lot of fun here.

We can skype in 3 ½ months or so. Time flies by so quickly. We just planned for the 5^th week of this transfer which has flown by.

I thought I’d talk about Roma for a bit. Rome was interesting. I definatley like Napoli a lot more. The sites there were nice, but not incredible. It is a nice and interesting city thought. I had fun there, but I really missed Napoli a lot. We got back and the first thing I wanted was a pizza. Rome was nice, but I think now that I have seen the cooler stuff in Napoli.  Plus its along the coast which makes it cooler anyways. So I sent Sunny a letter yesterday that has more details about here. Maybe she can post some of them.

I hope you all enjoyed London. You should have come down and seen me.  It’s alright thought. Do fun things at home. Play with baby for me. Hope to get letters from everyone soon.

Anz. Hosford