Fall is in the Air

Email: October 16, 2013

The weather in Bologna is quite cool. I am glad I am in a suit jacket. It has been raining alot in October, but expected. Always rains in October.

I will be staying as capo zona here in Bologna. my new companion will be Anz. Warnock(he is from up north like bountiful or somthing) He is starting his 12th trasfer so two older than me. He has never been Capo Zona before so I have to basicaly train him in a sense on zone leader stuff. My companion is being trasfered to Trento, up in the northern mountains. He is going to be a "normal" missionary. He is with a young missionary who is starting his 4th trasfer and Anz. Thompson will not be a district leader. He is really excited to not be a leader and be at a slower pace. It will be weird for hom though. There is a big differnce in the speed and everything with being a zone leader. Zone leaders are always thinking about everything and just quick paced. It hard to keep up sometimes.

There were quite a few changes in the Zone, about half the companionships were changed and we are getting some really good missionaries. I am really excited. it is alway a good thing to get some "new blood" in a the zone. New and difernet ideas add to the zone.

It is super crazy for zone leaders. We recived all the travel plans for all the missionaries in our zone and also all those missionaries who were traveling through Bologna or meeting up half way with someone. It is simply crazy! We have to make a billion phone calls, check train times and inform the zone. We also have to correlate with the other zones a bit. Plus we have the current zone members calling and wanting "mission gosiup" and its just anoying, maybe more annoying than the "dumb questions we get during the week. The answer is usualy, use your brain! hahaha. It is super fun though, but quite stessfull. we ere lucky that no missionaries are traveling halfway and staying the night in our apartment because that just creates more chaos.

All is going well here in Bologna. We have found some new investigators and so its not too bad. We are excited and happy and healthy so not much to complain about except it is about winter time and that will mean Anziano Edwards will freeze to death. It was a miracle that I didnt die last winter. hahaha I pray there will be little to no snow. snow....YUCK! 

Love you all as always and pray for you daily!

Con amore,

Anziano Edwards

Email #2 10/16/2013

oh, well I speak more English, but I should be speaking more Italian.
A mission rule is speak English in the apartment and Itlaliano outside. I am not very good at speaking Italian always outside. Inside is 90% English. Only the Africans will speak english with us. 99% of the time we speak Italian on the street. You do meet that random Italian who speaks really good English, but more times that not, my crapy Italian is better than his really crapy English.
I email earlier because in Bologna is just makes more sense to email, then so shoping and return home to put away the groceries then go and wander around and see cool stuff. Before in Udine and Genova, we did shoping, lunch, then did a fun P-day activity then emailed at the end of our p-day. Hope that made sense :)

Picture is of the fix-it job with some packageing tape of the wall socket that wasnt in wall....tape is magic. The only problem is if you pull the plug out, the socket comes out. So as long as you dont mess with it, we did a mighty fine job. We are basically profesionals :) hahaha

Miracles of English Class and New Life Motto!!!

Email: October 9, 2013

Miracles of English Class! We had a random guy call us and said he wants to come to our English Class! He was looking online for a good english school/class and all the comments online said "dont go here, the Mormons do a free english class" so then he googled "mormons in Bologna" and found the address of the chaple, went there and since the chaple is under consturction there is a paper taped on the door with the bishops phone number and the missionaries number along with the temporary chaples address. He saw that and called us and said he would come with his girlfriend. Sure enough he came! He went upstaris in the church (where there was the institute class) and so they talked with the young adults of the ward for a few minutes then were directed to the room whrere we do English Class. They are super funny, a young couple, and also from the south. Southern Italians talk with such a differnt accent, usually partly in dialect so its easy to pick out people from southen Italy. Anyways I really like their accent, plus, they might me the funniest Itlaians I have ever met! We taught class, then they stayed after and we, (Anziano Money and I, he is one of the presidents assistents. (Abbiamo fatto un scabio con i assistenti la settimana scorsa)) taught them a gosple lesson and answered a buch of their questions. Really good questions too!. The piont is tehy came again to English Class, witha friend, and we stayed after and taught all three another lesson! They are all new investigators! That is a miracle within a miracle because we have gone three weeks without a new investigator! In the past, I have always averaged at least 1 or 2 new investigators weekly. It has been hard to find people to teach for us, but its on the upside now :) Also, they said they have another friend who is interested in learning English too! Do I have a testimony that doing Engish Class will bring new investigators? YES! Miracle! 

I was able to watch both saturday sessons, the preisthood session and Sunday morning sessions of confrence. We watched them at the internnet cafè here in Bologna. The other Anziani traveled to Modena and watched it there. We would have gone too, but we set up lessons between sessions of confrence. 
To say the least, confrence was fantastic! I have pages and pages and pages filled in my journal from confrence. My favorite part was when pres. Monson said that after confrence he is going to write that this has been one of the most memorable and inspiring sessions of confrence. If the Prophet said that, you can bet it was a powerful confrence. Nearly all the talks were focused on missionary work, and that is not just because I am a missionary and everything in the world relates to missionary work...it is so true that the members are vital in growing the Lords kingdom. Missionaries cant do it alone and neither can the members do it alone. We need to work together. A favorite talk of mine was David A. Bednar's talk about tithing, it didnt realate 100%, but the way he did his invite at the end was powerfull, he said that as you and I obey this divine law, we will recieve the besings. He didnt say 'you' or even 'we' he said 'as you and I obey' Cool little thing I picked up. The work is going well. We have new investigators after a few long weeks of dropping investigators, others just not answering their phone, and other little things that happen so we can no longer teach someone. It helps alot if you have a large teaching pool of investigators. Anziano Thompson's girlfriend is serving in LA California Spanish speaking and there is a member in Cal who gave her three referals of her family who lives in Italy. It ends up them living in Bologna! Out of all of Itlay, Bologna! What are the odds! Even more crazy, they all live on the west side of the city, the side my companionship works on! it was crazy odds. The Lord has his hand in this work, I am sure of it. Too many things happen, its more than 'chance'. They were not home when we went to their house, so we will go back agian this week at a different time of day. 
The chruch is true. Miracles every day. I love you all, and dont ever forget that! 
XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Con anore, il vostro missionario,Anziano Edwards


Follow up from last week:
"100% leagal...maybe not, but I shouldnt get deported back to America.....hahaha. I started the renewal process and my appointment at the Questura di Bologna is at the end of the month, then I will give them a photo of my beautuful face and my prints of my fingers ;) Then maybe a month after that they will give my a new official card aka permesso di soggiorno. We will see, hope all will go well!"

Castello in Centro 

We went to Cento last p-day. Cool little city with a castle and I found where to buy cheap gelato in Italy, go to Cento. I tried a new flavor too, Soy. made from soy milk, it was actualy really good, had a very homemade taste.   

My companion almost killed himself this morning. Electric current will hurt according to Anz. Thompson...hahaha 
I just started to laugh uncontrollably at his stupidity...maybe I am not the nicest Christlike companion. It did numb his arm for a bit Maybe we will get the electrical outlet fixed sometime.....

Motto of Anziano Edwards' Life

One Year in Italy!!!

Email: October 2, 2013

Italy is treating me very well! I have no free time really as capo zona but the benifits are all worth it! i hear and see so many miracles as we do scambi (exchanges) with each of the district leaders (two of them) and then if we feel the need, with any other companionships. Its fun and great work be able to train, lead, and inspire the members of my zone. Anziano Proctor, my second companion in Vicenza emails me often and gives me great advice to being a great capo zona as he was one too during his mission. Presidente Wolfgramm told me I have one of the best missionaries, refering to Anz. Proctor. And I agree, he was amazing!

The econonmy is still really rough here. Its hard on my seeing the effects it has on people. Back home I never really interacted or saw what could happen with someone who didnt have work or a house. Its rough! Really sad, but cool part is the message of the restoration of the true gople of Chirst is of true happiness. Happiness an joy during this life and sweet happiness that last for the eternities.

Bologna is a great city. I am getting used to the big cities, but still dont like them. It is nice to serve in a ward, but nothing like a ward back home. We have maybe 70 people is a ward. Bologna should be nice in the winter because it has the most covered walkways in the world so I will be out of the snow. It snows quite a bit here too. I strongly disaprove of the cold! haha The people are alot more open here than my past cities so that is a plus! :)

Fun story. So my Permesso di Soggiorno expires Oct. 1st 2013 (what keeps me from being deported back to America). two months ago I received a folder of papers to renew it. The insturctions said to start it at least 6-8 weeks before it expires. The mission office would inform me when they set my appointment. Never got it. I called them each week, and they said they will do it and let me know....never happend....go figure! I guess the office didnt like me and wanted me to get kicked out of the country haha All the paper work was address to the government and city of Vicenza, my first city. So I had to renew it there, but couldnt with out the appointment....well I got trasfered to Bologna and I told them next week I will be illegal in Itlay, so the actualy set my appointment, but it was in Bologna, the city that wasnt written on my official paper work....whoops! their fault! ....hope the fancy government people dont care! haha Well the office over night send some more documents for my appointment, recived them in the morning, I wasnt able to go out and work all morning because I needed to be home when DHL came with my package so I could sign for it. it came I went to my appointment stood inline for 30 min, its worst than the US "post dump"! Left becuase I had my number, bought a gelato and then came back and my number still wasnt even close to being called. So after nearly all day, step one of 4 is complete and my renewal process has begun! Miracle! hahahIn a month I have my second appointment with the real official people who can deny me and not give me permission. But good thing the church has always been polite and always had our paperwork filled ouit inadvance so they like us and always give us permission. :) 

Thanks for all you do for me. I truly feel your prayers and see the Lords hand in this wonderful work. I cant even begin to tell you my love for my savior, for the Italian people and of course for all of you! With all the love I can get into this little email,

Love you TONS!  (I hope that hurt your eyes!) haha

Anziano Edwards :)

The Covered Walkways 

Random picture of me and my collega.It is us taking a picture of this really old window that was like a mirro. Co0l random stuff you find if you walk around a city all day every day

Construction in Bologna!

Email: September 25, 2013

Attached is a picture of the Duomo in Centro. Its under construction though. They are redoing the front as it started to fall apart...

Cool story I guess: some catholic leader a billionish years ago wanted to be more powerful than the Pope so he started building his chruch (the Duomo in Bologna) and was making it bigger than the one in Milano. The Pope didnt like that and canceled the building of it and made a rule that no chruch could be bigger than the Duomo in Milano. So the Bologna Duomo never was finished as planned. 

Well this week was great, the missionaries in Ferarra were "white washed" two new elders last trasfer so they had no idea of the investigators or who to get around the city. Both came in blind to the area basically. They had a miracle 2 week baptism! 

The sorelle in Reggio Emilia will baptize this weekend and we shoiuld baptize on the 12th!

Zone leader is fun, its really rewarding too. 

Also, our church is under consturction. they are redoing all the inside. New tile and tearing down a wall to make it bigger, new bathrooms, ect. So we are renting a British Institute, a english school, so we have church in a school right by the train station. We will move into our "new" church by Christmas....or maybe longer...but lets hope not.   

Also, we had to take a missionary to the train station this past week. The Italian who is in my apartment. He has medical problems and had to go home. That was a weird issue. President Dibb called at night right before bed and told us to take him to the train station and get him to Milano the next morning. Super short notice and he had to pack super quick. 

So that left Anziano Cook alone with out a companion so I was in a trio with him. The EXACT SAME trio I was in for a week in Piacenza! Super crazy! Flash back! haha We were in a trio for a few days and Anz. Cook recieved his companion monday afternoon. 

Thanks for all your love and support.

Love Anziano Edwards!

Bologna Duomo

Super old and super small Mini Cooper

Church under construction in Bologna

Remodeling the church building

Inside church reconstruction

"Mr. Cloud"

Email: September 18, 2013

I use my shoe horn every day and I switch shoes daily, every other day. I slacked off a little on shining them, but I shine them every two or three weeks and wipe them with a rag every other day because we walk a white sand/dirt path everyday through a park so they get dusty.  
I did not take a picture of me and the car, I didnt have my camera and the first week we gave it to the zone leaders in Torino as they had a bigger need for it. :( it was a Opel Corsa. An ugly grey color. haha
They do not make that fake bologna meat here! Gross! I have never seen or even heard of it in Italy. Bologna, Firenze and the little cities near by are know for the best food in Italy. Spaghetti Bolognese is famous here.
My favorite food is gelato :) haha Well best food would be a lasagna, anything the South Americans make or a carbonara. Oh and a real homemade Pesto Genovese with gnocchi or Fusilli is amazingly tasty!.
My favorite school year was 12th grade, 5th or kindergarden. But the best school years were in elementary school because I didnt have to go to the crapy bobcat school hahah jk, but I loved the buccaneer bazaars in elementary school.
Bathrooms in Italy are like 1 euro. Quite expensive. You find very few public bathrooms. I have seen a few train stations with free bathrooms, super dirty though, and in a few parks maybe. I just use the one in the appartment in the morining, at lunch and then hope we have an appointment in the church of an appointment at someones home haha.
I send an email from a public internet place. It is 50 cents for 30 min. Most cities have the internet caffe for years so they often get discounted internet. There is one city in the mission that gets free internet becuse they made friends with the owner. The one here in Bologna is really nice and isnt dirty. The one in Vicenza was really gross with scary people.  
This week was great! We have two people with baptismal dates so we should baptize twice this transfer. Also the other bologna Anziani will baptize and everyone in the zone too! Bologna zone is one of the best zones as far as finding, teaching and baptizing. We are the smallest zone too becuause right before I came, they split Bologna in half and made a new zone, the Ravenna zone. So now San Marino is in the Ravenna zone so I cant go there for p day :(
Our investigator from Gahna  gave me the wizard name "Mr. Cloud" becuase he says I am wispy and come and go as I please just like the clouds haha he is the funniest guy, I love him!
Coolest news ever. Sunday was stake confrence fro the Venezia Stake. So we watched it via satilite and they announced the men who will be getting the Melchizedek Preisthood. They read the name William from Udine! The william that I found and baptized! He is solid in the church and really making eternal progression! It was super awesome. I was the happiest missionary every I'm sure.
Cool spiritual thought! I was reading in 3 nephi 11:39-40. I had the thought of the rock vs sand. The rock is the strong foundation that doest change. But sand is the same as a rock, one is just compacted together so its stronger. So, we are all on a sandy foundation but we need to compact it so it doest fall apart when the though times come. We will have have the though times so we need to prepare now as it teaches in Alma 34:32.
Well Capo Zona is great! It helps that I have an amazing and super funny companion, but we have a buch of success and lead the zone for lesson taught, which happens to be one of the highest in the mission. We are well above the mission averages in all key indicators and the zone is too! We rock! hahaha, but really we are a strong zone.
Well until next week!  Ciao!
Anziano Edwards :)  

The middle of the city area. (centro) in Bologna

Bologna, Big Improvement, and Growth

Email: September 11, 2013

Bologna is a bus city, which mean it is a big city :( I dislike the big cities! But big city=a big branch or a ward so that is always a help and a benefit :)

As capo zona I travel to Milano the first Monday of each month and we get trained on the months focus by president and the assistents, then that week on thursday we as zone leaders hold a zone meeting and we teach all the zone members. 

We collect the weeks numbers from the district leaders and then input them all into the computer to the assistents(lesson count, progressing simps, referals, baptism al dates and baptisms ect.)

We then help teach and train in zone meeting which are 1 each trasfer except for this trasfer because Elder Teixierà is coming to the mission the 22-24 of oct. That will be really good! We are all really excited.

We have a ward, but a really small one, like 65 maybe in church. 

In my zone, there are 3 cities, and some cities have more than one companionship:

Bologna (me) 

Bologna 2

Ferarra 

Reggio Emilio 1

Reggio Emilio 2

Reggio Emilio Sorelle

Modena 1

Modena 2

I live in 4 and its really fun. My room mates are great! The Itlaian is from Taranto. All great missionaries. 

Cool sutff is in Bologna we are appartment shopping. as soon as we find one and get it approved, and bought, we will have 1 or maybe 2 companionships of sorelle here in Bologna! 

All are really young except for a few missionaries. A few people in training. So in total there are 14 anziai and 

Bologna is a really old city and is famous for having the most arches and cover walkways in the world. Nearly all sidewalks are covered with arches. 

We had a car, but we had to give it up and now the capi zona in Torino have our car :( I did drive in Italy before we had to give it away and we didnt die! hahaha, Italian driving is crazy but super fun.

Exciting news in Italy! The temple in rome is going to be done in 2015...its takes for ever to build anything here, plus the temple in Rome is HUGE and super super super amazing. So much cool things there! It will make an impact in the world, it already has. Plus, it is located right in the middle of Rome. :) But the best part is on Sunday, there will be a second stake opened in rome, it will split from one into two! The true church is growing! I think Elder Ballard will be comming over for it. I dont remember which quarm of the 12 will be in Italy this weekend. 

25% of the missionaries are being trained, aka, the mission is full of super young missionaries. 4 went home last week and 30ish came to replace them!

Some mission stats, when I came last year, there were 7 zones I think, now there are 10. There were 130 missionaries, now we have 234ish. This last trasfer (6 weeks) we had like 25 baptims. Last year we averaged just under 2 baptims a missionary and now we average like 3. Not sure on that one 100%....

Well I am loving life and the mission is the best thing ever!

Love your favorite missionary ;)

Anziano Edwards

There are these things that look like legos and they are all over teh city to advertize for some art show somthing or another. I like them just because thay are like gigantic legos! 

Last p-day with Anziano Gainer

Roberto and Angela, our gelato guys, thay gave us gelato cheap because we went alot....maybe like average of 4 times a week...maybe once a day....hahaha gelato is super good and plus these two are maybe the coolest Italians in Genova. Also, they would try to teach us Genovese(the dialect oin Genova) 

People from my MTC group. My group is 5 sorelle and 5 anziani.

We alstarted trasfer 9. 4 of the 5 sorelle are traveling trainer sorelle and 3 (one not pictured) of us anziani are zone leaders! Fun stuff! 

Worn out Shoes

Capo Zona

Email: September 4, 2013

Why are the temples so exquisite/fancy inside?; kind of depicts worldliness and boasting. Because the Lord said to use the best material for his holy house. It is respect to the Lord. Would you want to put an old dirty couch into the Lords house? No. Our church is not a worldly church, we are the ture church with the authority, but obviously we are not going to dirty and such. Our chaples are nice and not exquisite, just simple nice and clean, how the lord would want it. My thoughts are that the Lord or God would not appear to anyone  unless is is a consecrated place prepared the Him. Other churches are very fancy on the insides and often times the outsides....I have seen many of them. They are really nice but they are statues and pictures of other people to be warshiped to  other than God himself. We need to remember our nature to God and his Son, our Savior. If we do this, we will know that we need to obey HIm and understand they His house doesnt need to be suepr fancy, just nice. The temple to me is nice, its not over the top and not worldly at all. Clean and simple, and beauty all around. Hope that made sense :)

I have never seen corn on the cob in Italy.  My favorite veggie here is all of them! Nothing has changed. I do miss corn on the boc ALOT! Anziano Gainer will only eat corn if it was on the cob, so when I cooked lunch with canned corn, there was more for me! haha

Well transfers, or as I know them as trasferimenti, I am getting transfered :( I will be going to Bologna to be with Anziano Thompson (the same Anziano that I was with in Piacenza for 1 week in a trio. Anziano Cook, who was also in my trio will be living the the same appartmemt! :) I knew I would see them again, Anziano Cook told me I would be his leader in the near future. 

Well to get to the good stuff, I am going to be CAPO ZONA! or maybe you would understand, ZONE LEADER! Yeah no jokes! Zone leader in my 9th trasfer! Scary, exciting, fun, nervous, yeah everything. I am ready and willing to go. 

Funny part of trasfers is we get called on Monday morning if you are a zone leader, district leader or training and we didnt get a call so we were really confused. Then the assistents called us at 8 at night! and told us sorry as they gave presidente Dibb the list to call the zone leaders and district leaders and they forgot to put my name on the list! So I was supposed to get a call from Presidente Dibb, but the assistents messed up. 

It was such a supprize! I would have never guessed to go zone leader so young in the mission! My trainer is also a zone leader so I will get to see him the first of every month as we have mission council with all zone leaders and president and the financial mission couple. Exciting stuff! I will let you know if I die because of all the stress and stuff to do. It will be really exciting.

Also, in the apartment, there is a native Italain being trained so that will be a realy help for the language. 

Well have a great week, I love you all!

Ciao!

-Anziano Capo Zona Edwards

The mafia....hahah funny you ask. Honestly I dont know much about it, there are all sorts of misisonary stories that flote around, usualy about how the Rome mission does stuff wrong and they are all apostate. They one story I have is there was a companionship whe went out in the moring to find they car was stolen. They went back inside and their neighbor was leaving the appartment building at the same time and asked how they were doing, which led to them telling their car was stolen. This man said, come back in three hours at lunch time, smiles, and walks away as he knew the missionaries were of the Mormon church. This man was part of the mafia and had the missionaries car back and even washed and cleaned by lunch.
I dont really beleve the story, but hey, its cool I guess.
I do know the mafia likes the mormon church because they are not part of the government or the catholic church. So the story makes sence. The Mafia is scary but actualy really like and respect the LDS church, so as missionaries we dont worry about them at all. Plus, the Mafia is basicaly 99% down in the Rome mission.