Reggio Emilia!!! :)

Email: February 26, 2014

I am opening the second companionship of Anziani here in Reggio Emilia. There are also a companionship of sisters in the city, Sorella Killpack from Cedar, and Sorella Jones from Virginia. I live with Anz. Carter from Pleasant Grove and Anz. Berg from Canada some where....They are the coolest people ever. Honestly though I love my new companion the best! Anziano Finnerty is from Boston! Yeah fro the East Coast! hahaha The coolest part was, he was baptized two years ago and the only member of his family! He has the biggest love for the Book of Mormon of anyone I have EVER met. I love it! He is really creative and comes up with all these new ways to go about doing missioary work. His quick conversion story is the coolest thing ever. He heard about the Honor Code at BYU, found Mormon.org, requested a Book of Mormon and was baptized!  


We have the coolest ward here too. But really. I loved the members in Bologna, but I might just love the members in Reggio Emilia a bit more...we will see! I have never served in a branch or ward that has true missionary focus and mindset! They are on fire! I LOVE it! Pres. Dibb told me that Reggio Emilia was the highest baptizing unit (branch or ward) in the misison in 2013! The member involvment shows why. The ward, now with a Canadian missionary makes 18 different nationalities! It is the most diverse place I have ever been! Crazy! 


Our district is the 6 missionaries in Reggio Emilia, then 4(two sisters and two anziani) in Piacenza. Yeah the city I served in for 7 days a year ago, its a bit strange but really exciting. Crazy thing is Anz. Mendoza is from Udine. He doesnt have his visa so he has to stay in Itlay. He is called to serve in some south American country but is stuck in Italy as a temporary missionary in the milan Mission. His parents are from Santa Domingo or somthing like that, but was born and raised in Italy. He has learned English incrediably well with is fun to teach him slang...hahaha Anyways, district leader is a change of pace from zone leader and I feel like I am not going fast enough, but being a trainer, I am back up to my high level of stress ;) haha I love it though! 


We are in the Modena zone. The smallest in the mission, just 4 cities. Modena, Montova, Piacenza and Reggio Emilia. The zone leaders live in Modena. 


Tomorrow I will travel to Bologna with the ZOne leaders for a misison confrence just for zone leaders, district leaders, and sister training leaders. Half the mission leaders will be there because there in one in Milano and one in Bologna so I guess there will be 40 of us, because there are about 80 mission leaders total with all the district leaders. I will let you know how it goes! 


Keep me and my new companion in your prayers. He struggles, just as I did with Italian and misses home, like all missionaries so pray for him. Pray for me so I can konw how to best help him. ALso we have a man named Thomas from Gahna who will be baptized on Mrach 8th, he just passed his interview! :) Also, we fouind a man named Destiny from Nigeria and have set a baptimal date with him for April 4th! He truly is a golden investigatro we stoped on the street! He asked us for a copy of the Book of Mormon so that was super cool! He accepted the baptimal invite with no problems!


Vi voglio un sacco di bene!
Anziano Edwards


all those pictures were trasfered to my portable hard drive and its in the appartment so maybe next week I will email them again :)
Ciao!