Week 3 in Italy

I just love getting his letters and find that every Tuesday night is like Christmas Eve for me as I anxiously await his Wednesday letter. This week was more of a personal letter to individuals. However there are definitely parts I want to share.

"Last night I had for the first time since I’ve gotten here (Yes it took 3 weeks) Gelato! It is SOOOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOD! Also we have eaten at members houses like 6 times this week. They cook really good but once in a while I wish I ate something other than bread, pasta, and pizza. hehe. We ate at a phillipianian's...yeah....family and they gave us food that was close to American and it was very very good. A little taste of home...almost.
We are finding people and hopefully making progress. Hard to tell right now. We have...had...have...had not sure haha ...we have/had 2 investigators with baptismal dates (Timothy & James) but we haven’t been able to contact either of them in like 4 days....so yeah. But Timothy seems frickin golden every time we meet with him. He said he wants to be baptized that he hasn’t yet at all and wants it and he wants to read...but we haven’t heard from him in several days and we worry... but we are pilling up referrals to go visit and hopefully the members will start getting more involved.
 We had a Zone Training here in Alessandria on Monday and it was great.
The Mission president came and the APs and we learned a lot and got a lot done."

I can tell that he thinks in Italian so much that he has a hard thinking of how to say things in English the proper way. I think this is awesome because it shows he is getting immersed in the work.

Also he gave some great advice to anyone who has even thought about sending him a package.

"Okay so a quick thing with sending me Packages!
They are having a debt crisis here in Italy as you all may know. And I have been told by the office that one of the ways they are fixing this is by charging higher fees on the customs. So the example they gave is this. 2 actually.
 
1. An elder's dear mother bought him a coat and gloves and some shoes (Notice all things that can be bought here. probably better looking and cheaper too!) and the total was about 300 Dollars. To ship the package was 60 dollars...okay, yikes, but that’s only to ship it....The customs charge for the office was 200 Euros...Euros not dollars I will let you do the conversion. As you can see...WAAAAY better to send money. Oh, and they didn’t pay it either. They called the mom and asked if she
wanted to and she said no and they destroyed the stuff....so Only only only only only send packages on occasions and only only only only only only send stuff that I can't buy here in Italy. Otherwise just put some money on my card. and I can buy it and we save 100s of dollars.
2. This illustrates the customs charge hike. Our name tags. We can order extras and stuff like that for when they break and we lose them and what not. So they cost 3 dollars...the customs charge used to be about 1.5 for each one. ..Yikes already. Now the customs charge is 6 dollars for one nametag that costs 3 dollars.....yeah...Italy is doing everything they can to pay their debt....and we have to suffer...so please keep these things in mind when sending packages
 
Also! Anziano Blaga told me that the best way to get a package here safely is to put a picture of Mary on it and write Madonna Vi Benedica (Mother Mary Bless you) hopes it works."

So with that being said, If anyone thinks of sending something for birthdays or holidays please contact me and maybe we can combine packages etc. or donate to his fund in some other way.  

He did declare his love for everyone and I know he appreciates any support given to him. Please continue your prayers on his behalf.