When in Rome: Transfers Take Nine

(We begin with the promised pictures from last week's letter.)

A statue of Jesus Christ. Near it there is a fountain with a reference to the water's of life scripture. Not very famous but cool.

A really bad translation into English. I even know what it is, but the directions still don't make sense.

(Product use information. 1. Add water 400G on the product, about 4 hours it will grow up. 2. One clear beauty satiety face will grow up. 3. When the flower want to oxygen and nutrition, I will help you too much.)

Caro Famiglia,

This week has been a fantastic week. Let us start by killing the suspense. I have been transferred to...Battipaglia. So I am still in the Rome mission and my new mission president will be President Kelly. I will be leaving tomorrow. Battipaglia is pretty much just 45 minutes to an hour southeast from Castellammare. I will be DL still and I will actually have a district to preside over, as a senior couple from Rexburg is also serving in that city. My new companion will be one of my companions from the MTC, Anziano Nancallas. So we will be able to skip the pleasantries and just get to work. I am excited for that.

This week has been a great one. We played some soccer and made some good contacts. They said they were impressed with the way that my companion and I played soccer. I guess we were pretty good for a couple of Americans. I did kick a ball in that was in the air. That was pretty cool. We have another game for this Friday, but I will not be here. Managia!

We had president's interview last Friday. He was in a hurry cause he had interviews to do with members also while he was down in the Napoli area. He couldn't find a parking spot so he had us come down, and we drove to a spot and we had interviews in the car while one of us waited outside. It was pretty funny. Being one of the few missionaries that President ever got permission from his wife to play with, I thanked him for that opportunity and for all the wonderful things that he had taught me in my stay in this mission so far. He looked at me and said, "Next time we play I will be in shape and it won't be so easy for you." We had a good laugh about it.

Then on Sunday was probably the most beautiful day. It was an area conference for all of Europe, broadcast from SLC. Speakers were Elder Johnson (who conducted), Sister Cook from the Young Women's Presidency, Elder Bednar, and President Packer. I have really come to love Pres. Packer's talks. Both he and Elder Bednar talked about an experience they had when Elder Bednar was a missionary in Germany and Pres. Packer was a newly called Apostle. The story of the twenty mark note. They both had different lessons that they pulled from the story. It was really good. I had heard the story before in the MTC when Elder Bednar came and spoke. And not only was that wonderful, but we had four - yeah that is right - FOUR members from our branch sustained to be ordained to the office of the Melchizedek Priesthood. One was the other man that was recently rebaptized, two were his sons, and the last was their friend. They are all awesome people and I will never forget about them. They say that they are already planning to come to Battipaglia to see me. I would love that.

And that leaves us here. At the end again. Man, time really flies, but I am happy to be staying in the Rome mission. I must have completed the things I was called to do in Tuscany while I was in Pisa. Time to work down south, I guess. Oh boy, that will be really, really hot. Oh yeah, two strange things that happened this week. On Saturday it was so humid I thought I was going to die. Then it started raining, and I looked up and the sun was right above us - no clouds in sight other than a misty looking thing that looked like the mist of a hose attachment. That was weird. Mother Nature how you amaze me. Then we were doing house on Monday morning (tracting) and a dog bit the back of my leg. It was just a little thing and it didn't break the skin. But I couldn't believe I got bit by a dog. Where am I? South America? It was pretty funny.

Well sounds like another great week for you all. Keep having fun and loving life. Remember to keep growing your testimonies! If you are not moving forward you are moving backwards!

Love,
Anziano Hatch