Dear Family,
Sorry it's been like three weeks since I last wrote a letter home. After moving to the city furthest south in the mission (which was 7.5 hours on train including being ferried across the Messina Strait and another hour or so on bus from Cantania to Siracusa) I am not here and completely unpacked.
My new companion is Anziano Anderson from Salt Lake City. I guess you talked to his parents already cause I started getting letters from Dad (2) before I sent home the address for my new apartment.
The apartment here isn't as nice as Casserta or in a great spot like Pozzuoli. It's freezing here with the wind and we only have one heated room. We turn off the heater every night while we sleep and wake up to a freezing house making it very hard to get out of bed in the morning unless we go running. We have a great running path here that goes along the shore/cliff where an old train track used to exist. We get to run and see the sun rise over the ocean which is pretty cool. I also thought that we faced Africa which isn't true, we actually face the middle east, on the other side of the sea.
What have I been doing since I got here? We have been trying to do finding and less active work. We really don't have any serious investigators and we are working with one less active at the moment named Ernesto who is coming to church. We are just helping him. It's cool because we meet him once a week and then he comes to family night for singles, Saturday soccer, and Church.
We really don't have any investigators. We have a lot that dropped us/are busy, but that was before I got here. This city is very hard. No one will really talk to us on the street. They either know who we are or most likely think we are Jehovah's Witnesses. Its horrible. We have done house knocking without any success. We are trying to find and help the 600 less actives/inactives that don't wan to talk or who don't live here anymore. Honestly the work here is the hardest and the people the unfriendliest I have every seen. (Mom: this is so different than Napoli where everyone loved the missionaries and they did a lot of street contacting and at lunch with old men they met at the park). In Napoli I was a finder, but here its impossible, but I try my best, I hope everyday. So now we are trying to meet with members a lot for referrals, trying to find inactives no one knows anything about, and we are thinking about taking buses to other less-often visited cities to preach and find there. The work here is now more than just physically taxing, it's starting to get in my head a bit. I am doing my best though. I know I am really here to invite...ya.
The ward. The ward is very nice, but has more problems than a nut house and the problems are scars that run deep and don't heal. This is not a missionary friendly ward. My first Sunday the bishop broke boxes about missionary. During his lesson a man walked in that wasn't a member and I didn't know. This other members motioned for me to sit by him so I did and we got to talking. The member really should have sat by him especially during a lesson about missionary work. There are very nice and great members here though. There are some very nice, forgiving members. Italians are just very prideful.
However, the city is beautiful!
We made a list of everything we wanted to do on pdays. Last pday we tried to see the catacombs where Paul preached but they were closed. So we are seeing them tomorrow and maybe some museums. Last pday we saw some Holy Catholic sanctuary where some Mary statue cried healing tears.
I have almost finished off my first journal here. I have like 20 pages left. So pray for me and know that I am working my hardest here.
Love your son, brother, uncle or friend,
Anziano Hosford
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