Messina, Sicily - 7/20/2011

Hello!

So I got both packages last Sunday from the Baes. Thank you so much =) you guys are lifesavers! I loved the pics and the letters. Scott had a few questions I’d like to answer. There is no way in the world he could beat me at speed (a card game we play). My companion is way cool and I've had the same one since I got here. So far no one new. I'll probably be with him til about September when he goes home. In Catania we have only one Ward and a branch but for the entire mission there's 3 stakes and maybe 30 wards. And here's the phrases he wanted translated:

1. AIUTAMI!! C'è un coccodrillo nei miei pantaloni!!

2. Sono un americano peloso

3. Michele è un italiano pelosissimo

4. Ho una sorella molta seccante chi piangere troppo spesso ma la amo.

(Not sure what Scott was thinking about when he asked his brother to translate this stuff. If you want to know what it is, you can put it in google translate)

Haha that was fun to translate. if you guys have any other phrases you want to know go ahead and send them to me =)

So Carlo gets baptized this Saturday at 7, I am very excited. other than that the work has been the same. We had zone conference yesterday and president interviews. The zone conference was great but once again we had an alarm problem. The little man who is the building maintenance guy came and pulled me and anz medina outta the conference to yell at us and then president Kelly out of the conference to yell at him. The maintenance guy, Aci, is not a very nice man and is a little weird. I hope we prepared president enough for him because he was with him for about half an hour...... Other than that the conference was great. We learned a lot about how to better ourselves as missionaries and not be discouraged and to set high goals. I got to spend a lot of time talking to president and his wife because we got to drive them to the airport after the conference. They are so awesome and I'm so glad to be serving with them. President and Sister Kelly are very nice and understanding. They are always looking for opportunities to help us and better us as missionaries.

I spent this last weekend in Messina with anziano botalla for an exchange. Botalla is a native Italian from Torino up north and he’s been out the same amount of time as me so were both pretty new except he never had to learn a new language so he’s a little bit of a step ahead of me. He speaks English pretty well but when we are together we really only talks in italiano. It helps me so much to be with him because I am forced to speak more therefore I learn much better and he can help me quite a bit. I found myself forgetting a couple words in English this week like exchange, and always. =P I hope I don’t forget it all before I get home or you guys will have to help me out a bit. I'm picking up a bit of an accent too haha. ohh boy it will be fun when I talk to you guys on Christmas.

Well that’s about it for this week. I'm fine and happy. I'm learning the language and starting to love this mission more and more. I hope you all are having fun in Hawaii!! I’m jealous a little but not really because... well.......... I’m in Italy haha. I can’t wait to take you all back here one day and for you guys to meet people and see some of the stuff here. Have a fun week everyone and I miss you all and love you and I'm okay, even though the volcano erupts it doesn't come anywhere near me so no worries. Vi voglio bene e ci sentiamo

Con Amore,

Anziano Hill