Catania, Sicily - 6/1/2011

Buona Giornata tutti!

Just to start, mom you are right, there is a giant volcano right next to my home. It hasn't rained ash down on us yet but it is always smoking. I'm hoping one P-day I get to climb it because it’s awesome and there’s lava n stuff at the top. Today we are going to Agrigento to see a bunch of old Greek temples and stuff like that. Should be way fun.

So to answer a few questions I can only read e-mails on P-day which is today Wednesday but I have excellent news! I got your letters last Thursday. So it actually must only take about a week to get letters from you guys =). So I guess send as many as you guys want. I almost get them faster than the MTC haha. My living conditions are not too bad. We have a huge apartment; 3 bedrooms, a kitchen, a study room with a couch and desk, a bathroom and a laundry room. Plus we lucked out and our balcony just so happens to be the roof of another building so we have this huge out door area. It’s awesome. But some of the lights don't work, we are suggested not to drink the water, the shower works decently our neighbors above us are party animals and the air conditioning doesn’t work. Ohh and the toilets are weird here. We do most of our procelyting on the street at plazas or in parks. Catania has beautiful parks and plazas. The old people here don't speak Italian but Sicilian so it’s very hard to understand them if you can at all.

We have this Inactive member who sells fruit on the corner and we go visit him every week and he just loads us up on oranges. They are pretty bomb oranges but they aren't as good as those Ojai oranges grandma Nancy brings. It’s probably the only food here that doesn't taste better than something back home. Everything here just tastes wonderful. I used to not like tomatoes but the tomatoes here are like the fruit of the tree of life, they are amazing. So are strawberries and oh my goodness I can never eat an american pizza ever again. The pizzas here are the most amazing things ever. They have all kinds of cool foods here that they sell everywhere and they are all delicious.

We spent Memorial day at an american member’s home from the base. We ate hotdogs and burgers haha. Not bad huh? And on Saturday we went to a birthday party of a Filipino member where we ate some very interesting food like pig intestines and other assorted "meats".

The Italiani are very into westerns and cowboys and stuff. They have this game here called bang that everyone plays and let me tell you it is so fun. I suggest you look it up somewhere and buy it because you will love it.

We received 2 new investigators this Sunday and found about 3 new people to begin teaching this week. It’s very exciting to see the work starting to progress here. The members are very helpful and way nice

I love you all and miss you. You guys are all in my prayers. Remember that enduring adversity with faith leads to unimaginable blessings =) (I just read the book of Job) what a guy he was. Also read a bit a about Elijah, he’s my new favorite prophet. Have a good week voi =) vi voglio bene e mi mancate.

- Anziano Hill