Catania, Sicily - 10/26/2011

Salve tutti!

So this week has more or less been kinda awesome, haha. The best day though was by far this Sunday. After those long 7 hours of church we have, me and Anziano Andersen felt inspired to cancel our plans to track down a referral and instead go by a house we had found a couple days before where the man told us through the citofono (intercom) to comeback on Sunday, which usually means here, “I don't want to see you ever again go away, but in a nice way.” However we went by anyway not having much hope of getting into this home. It was a walled off palazzo with a huge yard inside, from what we could see over the massive wall which surrounded it. It was actually one of the largest homes in the area especially because most everyone here in Italy doesn't live in a home but live in large apartment complexes. To our surprise, however, after ringing the citofono the man let us in. We walked through a huge beautiful garden, up a stair case and then into one of the most beautiful homes I have seen so far in the Country. This man introduced himself as Silvio. An older guy maybe in his early 60's and very, very warm and welcoming. After talking for only maybe 2 minutes or so we felt incredibly comfortable there. We noticed along the walls many model ships, sea charts, maps and pictures of the ocean. It happens that Silvio is a retired sailor. He has sailed the whole world in wooden cutter ships. He was a great adventurer and now lives in retirement at home with his wife and children. He was curious a bit in who we are and what we teach so we dove head first into a 1st lesson with him. When we got to the Book of Mormon he sat with an incredible curiosity on his face. We explained to him the story a bit and he was incredibly interested. He brought out one of his favorite books for us to look at. It's called the Kon-Tiki Expedition. It’s a true story, non-fiction book, written by a man who went about to prove a theory that Polynesia was settled by ancient Peruvians who crossed the sea on a raft. In this story the man builds a raft out of ancient materials only known to the Ancient Americans and sails to Tahiti. A great story and you guys should check it because OUR CHURCH TEACHES that the inhabitants of Polynesia are actually decedents of Hagoth the boat builder found in the book of Alma. These things made Silvio incredibly excited and I'm sure he isn't hesitating to read the book of Mormon. After this awesome experience we were walking and on our way back home from the car I glanced to the left, just to look up a street to see if there was any traffic, as I peeked I noticed a red glow in the distance but didn't think much at first. But after a second I did a double take and noticed that it was the mountain in the distance SPEWING OUT A GIANT RIVER OF LAVA THOUSANDS OF FEET INTO THE AIR!!! I almost exploded with excitement at what I was seeing. Through the darkness of the night we could see the volcano in the distance with a bright red spout at the top and a thick orange river flowing down the side of it. We climbed up to the roof of our home to get a better look where I took a video on my camera. But just to my luck it will not let me send it to you! It's too large of a file!! So I will try and figure something out. But if not just go online and you can probably look it up because it was quite spectacular. I was living a dream haha. I sat outside and watched it for maybe an hour or two, it was amazing. It was really a once in a life time kinda thing. And it really topped off an excellent week. =)

As for pictures I am sending you one of me and our wonderful member/fruit man Fratello Giardina. He honestly has the biggest heart ever and every time we stop by, he makes sure we have our fair share of fruit to eat. He’s a great guy. We are going to have an amazing Saturday this week also. We will wake up early to start prepping the font for our baptism of Samuel and Rose. I will be doing the Baptism, awesome huh? It will be my first time baptizing someone so we'll see if don’t mess up. After the baptism president Kelly approved for us to go to a...catch this!... A SOCCER GAME!!! Catania against Napoli! We are going with some members and the Anziani from Messina. It's gonna be amazing. It's a once in a mission thing, president said, but I think this will be totally worth it. Both teams are doing very well and it should be a very good game. We are Catania Fans btw haha. After the game we go to the ward Halloween party which here in Catania is supposedly legendary. The whole city apparently comes to this thing. It's gonna be a big day Saturday and I’m pretty excited to say the least. Now other than that we have done a lot of searching and finding to no real avail, but we go on. That’s how it is here. When we search we usually spend our time in the park talking to people on benches or we go to houses which is very difficult here because you can only talk to people through a citofono because they are all apartment buildings. And if you sneak into them people usually run you out with a bastone.(stick) That’s what our finding really consists of.

As for your questions mother:

1) How does Anziano Andersen like Catania?

1) Andersen loves Catania and doesn't ever want to leave haha

2) Have you been able to teach anyone this week?

2) Yes

3) What experiences have you had this week that have strengthened your testimony?

3) See first paragraph

4) Have you served anywhere besides Catania this week?

4) No but we did go to Agrigento for P-day today

5) Do you have any new pics this week?

5) Just this one and the volcano video but that isn't working =( sorry

6) Do you know how much we pray for you? Scott actually prayed for you to be safe TWICE in our family prayer tonight. Haha

6) Tell Scott to do it 3 times in the next prayer. Haha =)

I miss that guy I can't wait to get home and shoot him with that nerf bow and arrow thing I got for Christmas again. Ohh the funny little things you miss while on your mission.

As for letters I really can't remember =S uhhh. I got one from you and maybe one from Kristin I think, but really I’m not to sure.... =P I'll try to keep better track this week. Sorry.

I LOVE YOU ALL AND MISS YOU TONS!!! I home you guys keep being awesome and doing awesome things and stay excellent to each other! VI voglio bene, vi amo e ci sentiamo!!!

Con Amore!! Anziano Kyle Hill

Catania, Sicily - 10/19/2011

Hello tutti,

I really am not quite sure what to write to you guys this week. Things are normal here and everything is just well... fine. Teaching goes good and so does finding. Nothing crazy happened this week really. Just normal missionary stuff.

We did scambi (exchanges) this Monday. So I was with Anziano Perry the zone leader from Messina which was really great.

We had a baptism for the sisters this Saturday for a lady named Lydia and she thought asked me to talk about the Holy Ghost during the baptism which was my first discourse in Italian but it was went by awesome. WOO!!

The refugees we have been teaching are doing awesome. =) They are actually from Ghana originally so they aren’t really Libyans. Samuel needed paper work to get his documents so that he could start working so he went to Rome last week and was able to get some help from his embassy there and it looks like everything is starting to go very well for them now. =) It’s really, in all honesty, a miracle how well things are going for them now, after what they have been through.

The Italians are great people just some are really not interested in us telling them that we don’t believe that Mary is a God and that we also don’t believe that saints do miracles. It’s a sensitive subject and their whole culture is based around this doctrine so it can make people very upset at our message.

Anziano Andersen loves it here. He has only served in little cities. Catanzaro in Colabria (the toe of Italy) and Olbia in Sardegna. So Catania’s a big change for him.

We haven’t seen Silvio anywhere for awhile, but I pray everyday that we will just bump into him.

President Kelly made sure during our last interview that I was aware to not trust that I would be staying in Catania for another transfer which in other words means I’m gone. So I should be leaving Catania in early November around the 5th so if you guys could plan mail accordingly so after October 26th send all mail to the mission home which is;

Anziano Kyle Hill

Missione Italiana di Roma

Piazza Carnaro 20

00141 Roma, Italia

So after the 26th mail stuff to that address instead of mine here in Catania. It will take a big surprise for me to stay but just know that I am probably gone. In all honesty I have done more time in this city than most missionaries do in any city.

As for letters and stuff I got an email from dad’s cousin John Keysor and emails from both you,mom, and dad. I got letters this week from you mom, Kristin my sister, and grandma Carolyn all very good stuff =) Thank you everyone for the letters I love them all. Oh and I got an email from aunt Kathryn, and that’s about it for this week. And thanks again I really love the mail. The port-man of our apartment who collects it all can bear witness of it.

I’m glad to hear those missionaries back home are committing those lazy bum brothers of mine to write me. Those missionaries must know what it’s like to not get mail from people. You guys should try and look up my old companion Anziano Medina and talk to him. He can tell you probably better than anyone how I was these last 5 months.

For this P-day we went down to Siracusa (Syracuse I think is what it’s called in English) We stood on the steps of the very temple where Paul taught the people there. Holy cow is it amazing to be in the same place as those guys and you can read about it too and it’s the same exact location. And to be doing the same thing in the same place just in a different time period. It all kinda blows my mind. I think I’m in the greatest mission in the world!!! I wouldn't give this up for anything!!! To stand along side the ancient apostles and bear testimony of Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and the son of the Living God and how he suffered for all of our sins so that if we are baptized we can be saved from fault and be made perfect. That's about the basis of our message in a nut shell right?

Well I’m gonna go now. Nice to hear from you all and I miss you all. Vi voglio bene, Mi mancate e Ci sentiamo Più Tardi

Con amore, Anziano Kyle Hill

Catania, Sicily - 10/12/2011

CIAO!

Well I got ALOT of letters and stuff this week. Two packages this Sunday. One from home full of amazing stuff and great little letters. =) I loved them all and I've already eaten half the stuff in there and thanks for the sweater that will be sure to keep me warm this winter. The other package was delicious snickerdoodles from the Lindsays. I got a letter from Grandma Nancy too. As for emails: you, dad, Aunt Kathryn, Aunt Kristin, and Aunt April. Thank you so much for the letters and emails guys they are great. I especially loved the pictures Aunt Kathryn sent me. There was one of me as a baby with Grandpa Howard. It made me cry a little. I always like to think here on the mission that while I'm working, grandpa is right there standing next to me encouraging me. The truth is the spirit world is not too far away, in fact its right here around us, and sometimes like Brigham Young said the veil can get very thin. I always like to think I have an army of ancestors guiding me around. =)

So as for the work, we are doing pretty good things here. The sisters had a baptism last Saturday and will have another this week. Things are going very well here. As for Samuel and Rose we are honestly seeing miracles. As I told you last week he doesn’t have anything but faith that God will help him. He needs to get to Rome to go to the embassy to get his documents but the thing is that he has no money for a ticket to Rome. Us as missionaries can give him nothing which at times is very hard but it’s the rules. So we told him that by faith and prayer he will somehow find a way to get the 100 Euros to get to Rome. Well this is where it gets good. After a week of trying and trying, the embassy calls and says they will buy his ticket back home. And then on the same day a man at the hospital gives him money to by the rest of the ticket! The way literally just came out of no where. The guy has more faith than I have ever seen in my life. We will see good things come from him and his wife Rose. And God does provide a way and bless his children no matter how hard or impossible things may seem "YOU ARE NOT INVISIBLE" -Elder Uchdorf, he gave a great talk Saturday morning last conference. I'm amazed at how anyone could possibly believe there is no God when miracles happen everyday right in your face. You might as well live your life blind. Open your eyes and you will see his love anywhere at anytime in anyone or anything. He is there. =)

Here in Italy I have learned how to drive stick and do not want to ever go back haha. The brakes were broken in our car and we had to go get the discs and pads replaced at a mechanic. I asked the office if I could do it myself and they freaked out at me. =P I could have saved the church a couple 100 Euros but they'd rather have a professional I guess. I love you all and miss you all tons. I had a great birthday with the missionaries here and the ward. Vi voglio bene e mi mancate!

Con amore, Anziano Kyle Hill

Catania, Sicily - 10/5/2011

Ciao Tutti!

Come state voi!!! I am doing great. I am going up to the top of Mt. Etna again today!! WOOO!!!! Another awesome volcano trip!! I’m so excited. We have zone conference again tomorrow. I'm very excited for that also. This week has been pretty great. Me and Anziano Andersen have been doing work. We are going to start working with the ward list because we have about 110 active members here but 500 people on this ward list so we have quite a bit of contacting and finding to do. It’s pretty crazy. We found awesome new investigators this week too. Things are starting to move forward here again. Samuel and Rose our refugee investigators are getting ready to be baptized not this Saturday but the next one. I have never met someone with so much faith in my whole life. They are honestly in the worst situation they could possibly be in. Losing everything because of a war, escaping to a foreign country where you don't speak the language and literally having nothing. Finding work but not being able to be hired because you are waiting on documents through the Italian bureaucratic system, which if you thought the bureaucracy in America was bad you won't be able to comprehend it here. No food, pregnant wife, horrifying living conditions, they are honestly brought to the most humble level I have ever seen anyone be in my whole life but over it all they do not care about their situation. What they want to be is be baptized because they hope, no they know that if they are baptized the Lord will bless them and that they will overcome these hardships. They have more faith than anyone I know. They are truly putting their lives in the hands of the Lord. They are an example to me of true humility, true faith, and true and complete trust in the Lord. I aspire to be that faithful one day.

We were able to watch a bit of conference this week. I saw both Saturday morning and afternoon. I will have to watch the others at another time or read them in the ensign. So another temple in Provo? That blew my mind a little that they are turning the old tabernacle into a temple!!! Way exciting. Also the temple announcements sort of testified of the growth of the church in Africa. 2 new temples there. If there's one thing I know about Africans is that they are a very humble people and those are they that accept the gospel. My favorite talks were the ones by Elder Scott about memorizing scriptures because they all become like little friends you can always count on, and the other one I loved was Elder Uchtdorf's about how even though God has created every little thing in the universe and it seems that man is nothing, God's real purpose and all he wants is for us to return to him, he created it all for us!! I really liked those talks but all of them were great and I still have a lot more to listen to.

As for emails and mail this week I got one. An email from you mom haha. That was it. I'm glad to here that everyone is doing great back home and hope you are all doing well and having fun. It’s strange that kids can move onto our street and still have to go to high schools that are so far away when Hart is literally just down the street. Its way better too. I miss you all. Vi voglio bene e ci sentiamo

Con Amore, Anziano Kyle Hill

Catania, Sicily - 9/28/2011

Ciao Tutti

Hows it going? By means of letters this week I received one from my wonderful little sister. She’s really a great little girl and I miss her a ton. Miss you guys all a ton though. Got the awesome Race car video, haha go mom!! And the addresses and an email from dad. Me and Anziano Andersen are doing work down here. He’s served in 3 cities already with 3 different companions. He’s been moved all over the place. He started in Olbia on Sardegna and then in Catanzaro in Collarbria and now he’s here. Haha and don’t fret about the questions mom, you can ask as many as you want just make sure they are all organized at like the end of the emails you send me instead of just scattered through out the email so I don’t have to go searching for them that’s all. As for my birthday you guys can surprise me. A nice tie maybe, a sweater, I'm still short a pair of black slacks since my little bleach encounter haha. If you want to tell the Baes to keep an eye out for my package you can probably just tell them yourself because I know that sister Bae is friends with some of the sisters’ moms on facebook. We are going to their house this Sunday to watch conference in English. Not a bad deal huh? Well other than that, that’s really all I want.

I was not aware that dad would not be going back to Philly anymore! Where does he go now? Don't tell me he has to go to Europe more now? That would stink. I hope Scott and Kristin have a blast there though. You know how I love history and Philly is full of it.

I’m sending some photos of my last day with Anziano Medina. Excuse the P-day cloths, it was P-day and we had just got back from playing some basketball. There's one of me and Anziano Medina and another of me with Anziano Shaw. He lives in Pinnon Hills which is supposedly relatively close to us in Valencia. He goes home with Anziano Medina. (Unfortunately none of the pictures were in a format my computer recognized.)

Well I miss you all and hope you guys all have a great week. Vi voglio bene e Mi Mancate.

Con Amore!!

Anziano Kyle Hill