It is about 930 in the morning here and I am emailing from a little internet shop in Napoli. This week has been absolutely fantastic!!! My trainer, Anziano Badger is actually from our stake back at home and he went to Olympus High and stuff. He is really fun to be around! He helps me a ton with Italian and it is great! We also found out that we have the exact same birthday, two years apart. April 20th, so we will both celebrate that in April. This is Anziano Badgers last transfer before he returns home but it is so much fun having him as a trainer.
I love this area!!! Caserta is so beautiful!!! It is kinda sketchy in some areas, but where our little branch is it is really nice. There are tons of shops and stuff with clothing in them and it is way cool. Oh, I decided to start a blog so that I could keep all of my pictures that I take on it. The web address isanzianoburton.wordpress.com Here you can see exactly what I see everyday when I walk around. Basically all of our work is in Caserta and we havent gone outside of the city except for coming here to Napoli to spend our Pdays with other Anziani. Today I think we are going down to Pompeii and then we will be playing some soccer with Italians a little later. It is so much fun here!!! I dont understand the language really at all right now and I cant speak it to save my life, but it is fine! I am learning each day and when people speak, especially when they talk about the Gospel, I can usually follow the basics of what they are talking about. I contribute a few sentences here and there in our lessons. I love listening to people speak! It is so beautiful!!!
The work here is actually fantastic!!! So, they downsized from four to two missionaries in Caserta, So me and Anziano Badger are the only ones in the city. It is way fun, we get the apartment all to ourselves and it has two bathrooms. So, the most recent and best news about the work here is this!!! Yesterday we invited a girl named R* to be baptised and she accepted! She said she wants to do it this Saturday and so we are working it out right now. It is incredible. She has been taught by the missionaries for a while and now she feels prepared. Anziano Badger has been here for a while, but I am the first person he is training. It is so much fun being here and already having a baptism this week! We are so excited. The Italian people are so ready for the gospel, you can see it in there eyes. We have probably about four or so lessons each evening with investigators and that is way cool. When we dont have lessons to teach we try to go out and contact people. I got to try house to house and some street contacting, and that doesnt work at all... We do this other thing called Mostra, where we go to our branch (a little apartment building in Caserta) and we set up a little table with pamphlets and stuff on it. The other night we actually got like three new phone numbers by doing it and we are going to call them all tomorrow! It is so cool. People know who we are through the English lessons we teach every Tuesday and Thursday. I teach intermediate and it is really hard, but luckily I have help from a recent convert named M*. M* is awesome! He helps the missionaries so much. I think he is 23 and he is so great! He speaks english very well and helps me out a lot with Italian. We are teaching probably about 10 or 11 investigators right now and we have about 6 or 7 potential people here. I swear, the work here has so much potential and it is so much fun to see how people want to here our message. It is kind of annoying sometimes, because we get mistaken for Jehovahs Witnesses, but when people find out we are the Mormons, they become more interested. Our branch here is interesting. Because of the American Base in Caserta, it is half American and half Italian. We have to do translation for meetings. It is impossible for me, but Anziano Badger does it well. The members of the branch are really great and are way fun to be around. There is one senior couple here and I have only met them a couple of times. They have been here for like a year and they dont know any Italian, so they try to get us to translate.
A lot of the people here are such stereotypical Italians. We have gone to a Pizzeria a few times and the way people speak and act is just awesome!!! I love it! Caserta isnt a huge city but it is way fun. There are also a lot of Africans here who speak English and we teach a few of them. We teach about 4 or so Africans and they are fun! The Pizza and food here is amazing! Everyday Anziano Badger makes some kind of delicious lunch and it is soooooo gooooood!!! You know, the work is progressing so much and I love it! Sorry I am rambling a little. There is so much that has happened and it is hard to get it all written down. I LOVE THIS PLACE!!! THIS IS ITALY AND IT IS AMAZING!!! Really, the work and everything is progressing so much and it is incredible. We went and taugh a family a few days ago, the husband is named J* and the wife is named V*. They speak English and Italian, but their daughters speak only Italian, so we taught our lesson to them in Italian. It was so cool because we taught about the plan of salvation and you can just see there love for God and everything in their eyes. I love this work so much!!! It is awesome and I am so happy to be here! It is kind of weird being in a different culture, but it is fun. We walk across the street in the middle of traffic and cars have to stop for us, just cause that is how it works here. It is fun! I have already placed one book of mormon to an Italian 16 year old boy who seemed really interested and understood a lot of what we were telling him when we contacted him. I love it here!!!
Well, until next week! I will write how the baptism went! I feel like in April we will be seeing even more baptisms!
Grazie!!!
Sincerely,
Anziano Burton
P.S. I will send my address later this week. I cant remember it right now. Thanks! Remember to check out the blog. anzianoburton.wordpress.com
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