July 1st Email

HI!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm IN ITALY!!!! And it's so hot ha ha!! I am sweating bullets right now and I’m sitting in an air conditioned place lol!! But it's all good I love it!!

Typing on an Italian keyboard is so weird! ha ha! The keys are all different because they have all the accents in their language [and] there are a ton of keys with accents i.e. àòèçé°ù§ [and]that's only a couple lol!!

Ok so I will start from when I last e-mailed.

After we finished we stayed in the [missionary] couple’s house for a little bit and had some brownies that she baked for us. Anziano Harris said he must really love missionaries if he was letting us have his brownies lol!! They are really nice! They are in our zone (albeit they are really far away) so we will see them and Anz. McDaniel at the next zone conference which should be coming up soon. That is also when I will get any mail or packages that have been sent since they are sent to the mission home they give you the mail any time they see you, so that would be at conferences or other times. We actually might have to go down to Palermo to take care of some permesso stuff for Anz. Lewis so we should be able to get any mail then, if not then at ZC for sure!! So that's how that works, I could give you the address of our apartment but that's risky in the sense that I could get transferred and the missionaries could loose it. So that's how that works! :)

Ok for the area, it's beautiful!!!

So my first area is SO awesome!!! It's a pretty small city but it's right on the coast. We can only go down there in the evening because well it's Europe and it's a beach so yeah, but after 5 EVERYONE leaves the beach and people just walk up and down what’s called the allungo mare (or sea street) so we set up what's called mostra and talk with EVERYONE!! In fact tonight we are going to go and do more!! Its really fun talking with all the Italian people, few want to listen to us but they are all so nice!!

Also some interesting facts, the man who invented the Pythagorean Theorem (sp?) lived in Crotone. Also Narcissus, the Roman story of the guy that was so in love with himself he was turned into a flower! ha ha! This city has a lot of history!! In the center of the town is what's called centro (pronounced ch-en-tro) that is ANCIENT!! It’s where the d'uomo is (the city's main Catholic church) which is actually really cool!! For our service we work at a homeless shelter place with this nun, she is so awesome lol!! She is really nice! I LOVE IT HERE!!!

Right now we have four set in stone investigators. Walter, who is actually a pretty famous musician, he had a record go gold in France! :) Also this Muslim guy we found that just eats the gospel up!! His name is Rafael he is so great!! We found an Arabic Book of Mormon in our apartment and gave that to him! He was so excited to read it!! We [had] a great lesson about the plan of salvation!! It was awesome! He’s our really good friend!! Then a family that we are teaching! And one other guy named Francesco, but he bedoned us (which means he dumped us, or didn't show up for a lesson) so we went and got gelato! lol! Hopefully we can [still] meet with him. Also these two young men who are REALLY REALLY interested in the gospel!! So I’m excited to see how all that works out!!

No baptismal dates as of yet, but we'll change that!! I can't remember if I told you or not but we got a baptism in the MTC from the TRC (a legit one!) He is an Italian man that our teacher knew here in Italy that we taught and he got baptized and we had the opportunity to go to it before we left for Italy!!

Our branch here is really small, about 15 people attend but there are about 30 [less active] that we need to work with, our ward mission leader is one of them so he is our first goal right now!:)

The climate is exactly like Oki it's really warm and humid! In fact right now it is so HOT!!! lol!! Speaking of that Happy first of July!! The terrain is really really hilly!! lol!! It's fun to walk around all these hills and talk with the Italian people!! There is also this street that is closed off to cars (which drive so CRAZY!!!) called again centro where we do mostra too! It's a really cool cobble stone street; in fact most all streets here are cobble stone!!

Ok here are some fun things about where I live!

Our apartment is SOOO nice!! We have TWO bathrooms!!! SWEET!!! There are four elders here in Crotone and they are all awesome!! Anz. Shaw [is the DL (there are only four in our district)], Anz. Benson, me, and Anz. Lewis. OH man it's so nice!! It's on top of this huge hill that overlooks the whole city and you can see out to sea, oh man it's great!!

The cooking works just like we thought in that one elder takes lunch one day and for brekky and din din you’re on your own! Also for lunch we are not allowed to be out working, because it's against the culture to interrupt lunch. So from 1:30 to 4:00 we are in our apartment eating then studying the language, also President encourages us to take naps so we are able to work as hard as we can after lunch! So we work from 10:30 to 1:30 and then from 4:00 until 10:00 (these are just summer hours, it changes all the time I’ve heard!)

Today after this we are going to the Crotone castle to check it out....oh there go the d'uomo bells it's time for service lol!! IT'S SOOOOOO COOL HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't believe I’m in Italy!!!!

Oh man they are about to close up shop since it's close to lunch time so I have to go now! SORRY!! We will try and finish later today, if not I will talk to you next week!!!

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!!

Know I am happy, and healthy and loving life and my mission!!!

Love,

Anziano Nielsen!!