Anziano Justin Barnes, Italy Milan Mission: First Letter from Italy! (October 28, 2010)

Contacting people at the Duomo (Cathedral in Milan)

Hello family (and Anz. Knutson)!

I made it to Italy! I am serving in a city called Prato. It is in the tuscany area, about 20 minutes away from Florence! My mission president is awesome. Here is the other exciting news- my trainer is named Anziano Pastillo. He is from Guatemala. And, he hardly knows any english! He lived in Italy for several years before his mission, so he can speak italian very well! It has been a lot of fun speaking with him in italian for almost everything today, and i am surprised at how much I can actually understand and say. Anyway, we had an awesome experience on the trip here. We met a lady named Judy who was traveling to Germany. First of all, it is a miracle how we met her. She arrived in the airport about 3 hours early because she heard that security stuff can be really bad, so she was just out walking around. Then, before she came to sit down, the seat that she chose had been occupied by one of us missionaries for a long time. First, I was in it and then moved to sit by another anziano so that we could contact someone else close by. Then, another anziano came and sat in the seat, but he came to sit right next to me because the anziano next to me went somewhere. Then, Anziano Hinz came and sat down in that seat, but he wanted to go get a drink so he left that seat. There were still quite a few seats left throughout the area, but she came in and saw that spot open and went and sat down in it! Anziano Healey got it all started by just being super friendly to her. It turns out that she never heard of the church before, but she has had some amazing spiritual experiences. She used to be looking for a church to join, and she felt the spirit during some activities, such as going to some special sites and listening to gospel related talks and reading the bible. She also had some experiences where she prayed to find something and found it and other similar things. As we talked, the spirit was really strong, I know that the anziani that were there all felt it, and I am pretty sure she felt it too, because of the things she said and how open about things she was with us. Oh, one of the coolest things was the reason she was going. Her mom or sister died in 2002, and before she died she told Judy that she wanted her to go to Europe for some reason that I do not remember. She had not gone yet, but then one day she got a call from a friend (about 2 weeks ago) who wanted to go to Europe. They quickly made plans (which also had some cool divine intervention in how it worked out) to go to Germany for some kind of tour. However, soon after they made plans her friend said that she could not go, but that she wanted Judy to still go. Judy was afraid of traveling alone, especially to another country, but for some reason she felt that she needed to do it. The spirit prompted us, as we were talking to bring up the book of mormon, and when we offered to give it to her if she would read it, she said that it would be great, because she forgot the book she wanted to read (she even went shopping for another book - a religious book in fact - in the airport but nothing caught her fancy). We continued to talk and testify a little bit, and then it was time to enter the plane. Oh, another miracle, we got delayed about 15 minutes, and when we were supposed to depart was about when Judy arrived, and when it was time to enter the plane we had just given the book of mormon. Another miracle - she sat next to anziano reusch during the plane ride! She read the intro and stuff (and cross referenced to Moroni 10!) and through chapter 8 of the book of mormon. Anziano reusch was able to answer a bunch of questions for her, but I am unsure about what happened exactly. However, we did our part in sharing the gospel with her, and even hopefully she will look up the missionaries or at least look up more about the church with the pass along card we gave. It is amazing how the Lord works sometimes.

Okay, so a little bit about today. My companion, again, is Anziano Pastillo. We had to travel about 2 and a half hours to get to Prato. It is a pretty small city with a branch of about 30 members. There are two investigators that we have right now, and this week we want to invite them to be baptized. We have bikes! We went shopping for food today (Wednesdays are actually our P days). Oh, we are 8 hours later here (so right now for me it is a little after 7 pm, while it is 11 am in utah. I got to see Robert this morning, and he looks like he is doing great. His companion is anziano weller, from bay area california (he was the zone leader in our branch - he is an amazing missionary). Oh, because we had to basically stay awake for two days straight with the funny time difference, we were able to go to sleep (in a hotel) at about 8:30 last night and we got to sleep in until 7:30. Oh, my meals so far in Italy... On the plane I had this weird vegetarian asian dish (with tofu, peas, and the sauce that mom thinks smells bad, I forgot its name). I also had this European sandwich thing with some interesting dressing and some delicious cheese. For lunch (when we arrived in Milano), we had some stuff called panzerotti, which is a deep fried sandwhich type thing, kind of like a hot pocket (but tons better), with some amazing cheese and delicious ham inside (so basically it was scone with a delicous combo of ham and cheese). We also got fanta (which is a lot different from the USA fanta, it is a lot better). Then, we went and got gelato. Oh my gosh, it is so good! I got this melon flavored one and some really good tropical fruit combo. For dinner, we had some amazing lasagna, the best green beans i have had in my life, a mixture of veggies (peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers) tossed in a little bit of oil and vinegar. We also had this fruit salad type thing in a frozen whip cream like thing. We also had breadsticks (which I did not like very much) and some more gelato (lemon and strawberry). I ate way too much... Today for breakfast, I had a variety of Italian breads with nutella. I also had some delicious cheese and also some amazing ham. Oh, also some fruit. For lunch, we had a sandwich type thing with foccacia bread (I think, at least it tasted like foccacia), ham, salami (or some other spicy meat type thing), some amazing cheese, and tomatoes. Yum! Dinners do not really exist, but we eat after we return to our apartment at 9:00.

Anziano Pastillo and I have had a lot of fun so far together. I have been able to express myself fully and I have already learned a bunch of things from him. I am especially excited to learn and listen and gain a more italian accent. On the train ride, we met a lady, Maria, who was really interested in our church and about us as missionaries. We talked to her for about an hour and got her information. However, I was too scared to jump in and say stuff, and I did not make an opportunity to testify. However, now I know I just need to gather the courage when the time is right and open my mouth. What would it hurt? We have lots of rooms in our apartment - a bedroom, a room for studying, a bathroom, a room for exercise (with a weight bench even), a kitchen (that is actually decent size - probably about the size of the one I had at heritage, a little smaller though). We live on the third floor of an apartment place. I think that that is pretty much it for me these past couple days, but it has been absolutely great! I can hardly believe I am in italy, with italians, speaking italian, and being a missionary!

Voglio scrivere un po in Italiano. Anziano Pastillo e io abbiamo parlato della nostra vita prima della missione. Lui è fortissimo! Sono molto emozionato di servire con lui e di avere tante esperienze con la lingua. Il mio italiano crescerà an bel po! Io amo il Signore e so che lui mi aiutarà con qualsiasi cosa, ogni volta ho bisogno del aiuto e anche sempre!

I love you all!

Thanks family for everything you have done for me and thanks for the notes and stuff and also for talking with me - it is so great to hear from you!

And thanks Anziano Knutson for everything you have done - i have learned a lot from your example and I am better prepared to do what I need to. I really think that we were perfect for each other.

Di Nuovo, Vi Amo Tantissimo!
- Anziano Barnes