It Is All Good

Dear Family,

Things are good here. There is still flu going around, but they just pop the people in quarantine and in 5 days they return to the "real world" all healthy and ready to catch something else. There was an Anzioano in my district that got the flu and as a result, they [took] the rest of the district into a meeting where they gave us all Tamiflu. So we are on a preventative dosage of Tamiflu - one a day for ten days.

I am doing pretty good. I got a little cold over the weekend and it hit hardest yesterday, but don't worry. I got it checked out and no flu here. I am just going to rest today and get myself healthy. Cause this week we are beginning to teach the lessons in Italian so I need to get myself better. But I am feeling a lot better today than I was yesterday so that is good.

In othe news, our oldest group of missionaries got their flight plans for next Tuesday so they will finally get out of here. That is a really good thing, because things are getting pretty crowded here in trainingville. Lines for meals and such are ridiculously long. It is crazy, but the word is that people will be shipping out starting this week. I saw Todd yesterday and was talking to him. He was supposed to leave last week but got delayed like everyone else. He doesn't leave till next week though, and the MTC doesn't have enough staff for them so all of the English speakers that are delayed don't have teachers. They just study all day long. That is a hard life I would imagine.

In reply to Mom's question, yes, I sent that deferrment letter in the day after I received it. So whatever needs to happen next with that can happen.

We got new missionaries this last week. One of them is Japanese and only speaks Japanese. So this younger group of missionaries' class is all in Italian. No English. They are learning the language so fast, it is incredible. All classes have switched to that though, so all classes are now taught solo in Italiano. Myself, I can speak Italian for most of the things I say throughout the day. It is just getting myself to remember to speak Italian which is the hard part. But that will come.

My companions and I have the opportuity to take chats from people that are on Mormon.org and we talk to them about the gospel. Last Saturday, we were talking to someone and we taught them the first lesson and they are going to read the Book of Mormon. He had to go unexpectedly fast so we couldn't set up a return appointment but that is ok. It felt like a sincere commitment on his part and all the missionaries here that he would talk to are able to answer questions and keep him progressing.

There is so much to write about but not enough time to explain everything so that my stories make sense. It is kinda frustrating. Yesterday was kind of a rainy day in the morning and the grounds crew mowed the lawn anyway, so the scent of freshly cut grass was strong in the air. It was nice. It will be nice to get out of this place and be able to see real things. I have no idea what is going on in the outside world. Although I did hear that Elder Nelson was mugged or something like that. That is pretty crazy!

One of my companions that is only 18 (his parents are the mission presidents) has really been slacking off lately. I have been praying that as my other companion and I stay focused that he will follow our examples. We were going to talk to him yesterday night during companionship inventory, but Saturday night after we returned to the residence he asked if he could talk to us and we said yes. He said that he was sorry for slacking off this last month or so, and he said that he does not want to waste another month of his mission. Like he said, he felt like he wasted this last month. Now it wasn't a total waste. He knows the language probably better than anyone in our district, but when we are in study time he gets really distracted. But he is one hundred percent changed by the spirit, man. It is impressive. What an amazing testimony of the power of prayer.

Well anyway that is about all I have for this week. I love you all, and keep your letters coming. It is always fun to receive mail. I can feel the help from your prayers. Thank you so much! Love you all!

P.S. I was going to see if I could send pictures over email with the computers here. I am not sure if I can, but I forgot my camera today so we will see next week.