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
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