La Fine in Italia

Buongiorno!!!

Well, this is it. The next time I will e-mail, I will be outside of
Italia... It has been sweet! It definetely wasn't the easiest thing I
have ever done and my body feels it. I am worn out after two years of
walking a lot. It has been pretty awesome though! I have learned a
ton! I have learned lessons that I did not think I needed to learn and
I have grown in ways that I did not think I needed to grow. It has
been a learning experience that has pushed me to become better and to
give instead of get. I am grateful for Italia. It is such a beautiful
place. I have been immersed in a culture rich in tradition and
history. To be very honest it hasn't necessarily been easy being
immersed in the culture here, but it has been awesome. I have learned
things from the Italians that I would never have learned from other
people. I love the Italians. They are so much fun and sooooo Italian.
It has been such an incredible experience working with them and
sharing my testimony and my love with them. The pizza has been
delicious and the pasta has been superb. I will definitely miss the
food of Italy. That has been a nice bonus of serving here.

I am grateful for God. He has given us all so much. I hope that
someday I may be able to truly understand how much he has given us,
because right now I can only see glimpses of it. He loves us so much.
He loves the Italians so much. I have seen people here who truly put
their trust in Him and He lifts them and brings joy and peace into
their lives. I love Him and I love that He has cared so much for the
people of Italy. I am grateful that He sent me to serve these people.
It has been my honor to give service to a people whom He loves so
much. I am grateful for God and His goodness. It is powerful and it
makes everyone of us stronger and better.

God is merciful. When people come to Him with honest hearts, humble
and ready to be healed by Him, He will be merciful to them. It is
something that I am grateful for, because I have so much need of His
mercy and goodness. He has helped me to overcome and given me a way to
grow. Through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, every single one of us
can be free and have peace. I love my savior and I know that He lives.
I think that often we hear that phrase "I know that He lives." I hope
that we can truly ponder it and understand what it means. The
testimony of knowing that He lives is beautiful. It means so much.
Everything is possible for us. He lives and because He lives we will
all live again, and we can live more fully in the present.

Something that has been very special to me personally during the
mission is bearing testimony of Joseph Smith and the Restoration. I
have had many different experiences in my life that have solidified my
testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith and I am grateful to have shared
that special testimony with the people here in Italy. It is something
that means a lot to me and I am grateful to have shared that with the
people here.

I am grateful for the mission and I am grateful for the many things
that I have learned and the chance I have had to serve here in the
Italy Rome Mission. It is a pretty sweet Mission. Can't complain at
all. Life is good and we are blessed!

I can't wait to see Sam in New York that will be awesome! We will see
if I get an e-mail off from NY, if not then I will next hear from you
at the Salt Lake Airport! Love you everybody! Thanks for all of the
love and support during all of this! It has been awesome and I am
grateful for you!

Sincerely,

Anziano Burton

Vivendo in Italia...

Buongiorno Tutti!

Well, it has been a good week! A nice start to the year of 2015! In case any of you are wondering, I am still living in Italy. Life in Italy is going well and I am enjoying it thoroughly! It is crazy, as time is ticking ever closer to me getting onto that plane I feel an increased push to work harder and harder. It is good. This week still being the holidays, it has been really hard to meet with anyone. Apparently the holiday season here ends on the 6th of January after some celebration about a witch named the Befana. Kind of strange, but cool all the same.

This week we were able to meet with A* and we unfortunately had to move her date back again because our Branch President wants her to come to Church 3 times in a row before her baptism. So, right now, it seems to be set for the 24th of January. I won't be here for her baptism or S*'s, but it will be cool just hearing about them and stuff after the fact. We were able to teach A* this week and we taught her about the atonement and being purified from our sins. It was a cool lesson and it went really well! She seems really ready to keep going and stuff and she understands and is ok with the date being moved back and stuff. She knows that she needs to be ready for baptism and be ready to make this her new life. It is good. I think that she and S* will be very good new converts for the Church here in Gela! This week while doing finding on the street we were able to get a pretty good amount of numbers on the street but all of them told us to contact them after the holidays haha, so we will be doing that later this week. Hopefully we will get a new investigator out of it. It would be awesome!

Yesterday in church we had A* come again with her husband and their daughter. The husband doesn't seem very interested, but we will see if he takes the lessons in time. It would be pretty cool to see them all get baptized in the future! A family in the church! That would help Gela a ton!

Well, it is crazy, time is flying too fast. I don't even know what to think. The closer the end comes the more I already am starting to miss Italy. It is strange. It is going to be sad. I am trying to live it up as much as I can while I am here.

This week I made a new year's resolution to read a little bit of the Book of Mormon every day and so far it has been going really well. As I have actively been reading from it every day I have felt really happy and it has been such a blessing to every day. I am grateful for that book, it is incredible and I love it so much! It offers help in so many ways and you can't even explain how it does it, it just does it. I have felt closer to the Spirit as I set aside time to study from it. It is one of the things pushing me and helping me finish strong. When you get tired you start to see where the real sources of energy are and you see what is actually strengthening you. It is funny because a lot of times we think that we are pushing ahead so well on our own and that we are making such great progress, when we get tired and wonder how we can go on and finish we realize that it isn't really our strength that we are using to finish, it is something much greater with a lot more power behind it. I am grateful for the help I am being given to finish strong here in Italy. It is great!

On new years eve I had the wonderful opportunity of going out to some small Sicilian towns to find some less actives with Anziano Stephens from Ragusa. It was incredible driving through the countryside here and seeing all of the little towns and stuff. That was a great experience and we were able to find of some the Ragusa less actives. That was one of the highlights of my week. Modica is a beautiful city!!! We stayed the night new years eve in Ragusa and then went back to Gela the next morning. I like Sicilia, it is a cool place!

Well, next week will probably be my last email at least from Italy. I will probably send one from New York when I am with Sam, so that will be pretty cool! I hope all is well at home! I love you all!

Sincerely,

Anziano Burton

And a Happy New Year!

Buongiorno Tutti!!!

Well, it has been a great week! Since I wrote last things have been going well! We had an awesome time during Christmas and everything and it all went well! It was sweet! So, just some updates for the work, S* has a baptismal date for the 24th of January now and A* is still going strong for the 10th. This week because of the holidays, we have only been able to see S* and we were able to teach him the Word of Wisdom, which he is ok following. That is new for an Italian, usually they have some problems with Coffee and Alcohol and Tobacco, so that is pretty sweet that he is already following that. He just is going to cut the tiny bit of coffee he drinks and he is set. He is a good guy. This week we have been trying to set up a date for the baptismal interview for A*a. Things seem to be coming together though.

So, yesterday we had some interesting things happen. There was a crazy wind storm that hit on Saturday night and lasted until Sunday evening. I was woken up by one of the doors in our apartment banging open and closed because of the wind. It was some pretty insane wind for Gela. So, on Sunday, because of the storm... Nobody came to Church. Well, that isn't actually true. A High Counsilor and his wife drove from Catania and came. Strange how they could make it from Catania in the storm and no one else closer could come... Well, we kept apologizing to the High Counsilor and he kept saying, it isn't your fault... Kind of funny. We ended up having a tiny sacrament meeting only. We blessed and passed the sacrament and then the High Counsilor bore his testimony and Anziano Lazarte and I bore our testimonies. That was pretty fun. Then we headed back out into the wind to do some finding on the street. Also, yesterday I was reading some random verse in the Bible in a letter from Paul. He said something like you are drinking too much water, you need to drink wine. Well, lately, I have been drinking a lot of water, so this verse hit me. So today I bought some juice haha (the closest substitute for wine) and I drank that. That was a random thing that happened this week.

Well, everything else has been going well here in Gela. It still smells kind of funny, but it is alright here! I am enjoying being here! It is crazy, there isn't a whole lot of time left... We are trying to finish strong in all that we are doing here and I think these last three weeks we will see some great things! It will be awesome! This week will be cool with Capodanno and everything. We will probably here some bombs and fireworks go off, so that will be fun and exciting! Well, that is all I have to write this week! This next week will be great!

Family, I loved skyping you!!! That was the high light of my week! Also, thanks for the Rootbeer and Chocolate! I loved it! It is a good way to end drinking sodas haha! Thanks for everything!!!

Sincerely,

Anziano Burton

Happy New Year!

Pics, The wind on the Sea, some pretty big waves for Gela. Me and the wind on the Sea.  Me and the Gesso (Chalk) drawing we made in Enna for finding during the Zone Blitz in Enna.

Oh, Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree...

BUONGIORNO TUTTI!!!

Well, Gela is covered in Christmas decorations so that is pretty stinking cool!Life here is going well and I am happy!

The work in Gela is really going well and Anziano Lazarte and I feel like things are really beginning to take off and that the Spirit is guiding us in the right direction. It is really good and I am really happy. As for the baptismal date A* had, we moved it to the 10th of January because she hasn't been reading the Book of Mormon. We felt like a little wait would prove a stronger member in the future and we feel that it will help her prepare for this special experience. She had some good deep questions when we met with her on Saturday. She seems very set on baptism and we are very happy with that. We were able to bear testimony about how the Book of Mormon is important and why we need to have personal testimonies about it in order to truly have a strong base about the Restoration of the Gospel. It was great! I think she understood the concept well and we committed her to reading and praying more. She is a good lady. We weren't able to meet with S* this week unfortunately, but he is doing well from what we have heard of him. As for Ao* we tried to go back to visit him earlier this week and his wife kind of told us that they weren't interested. So, that is too bad. But it was nice while it lasted. This week in Church we got a less active lady to come back!!! That was awesome! Her name is Sorella Tabbi and she has been going through some rough times in her life. She seemed very happy to be in Church on Sunday. That was great! We had a lot of Less active lessons this week and it has been good! I think we will see some good progress with members returning soon.

This week we went and visited a member named Salvatore, he is our Branch Mission Leader, and we helped him decorate his Christmas tree! I took some photos and it was fun! I think with him the work will go better here. He is the one who came with us to visit the less actives and also helped us teach A*. It was really good!

Well, Christmas is in the air... as well as the strange smells of Gela. It is awesome! Gela has kicked things into gear and everyone is preparing for Christmas. Today Anziano Lazarte and I did our Christmas shopping for our District members, so that was pretty fun! We will be spending Christmas in Ragusa with the four missionaries there. Oh, also, this week we have Specialized Training. This is technically my last "Zone Conference", so I will be giving my final testimony... It is strange, I'm not going home yet, I've still got time! That will be an inter

​e​

sting experience.

You know, this Church is true, it has it all. I really am grateful for the Book of Mormon and the testimony that I 

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have

 of it. It has shaped my life much more than I actually thought it would. I am grateful for this beautiful time that I have to invite others to come unto Christ. It is an incredible thing and an amazing opportunity for me to offer people the chance to taste truth. God is good, He loves us soooooo much and He has given us everything we need. All of the knowledge, help, guidance, and strength we need is right at our fingertips. He is there and it is something that I have seen repeatedly in my life and especially on the mission. He has helped guide me to understanding Him better and by doing this I understand better who all the people around me are, sons and daughters of the Most High God. This mission has been a huge growing experience for me. It is still hard for me to look back and see exactly how I have grown, but I generally feel it. I feel a difference and I feel better. That is what God does to us. When we obey and when we strive our best he gives us His peace, and it makes us feel better. It makes us feel the joy in this life and gives us the glimpse of the eternal joy and power each and every one of us can experience in the future. God is good and I am grateful for that simple but powerful fact. It is all true. I love it!

Well, this week we have been really trying to bare testimony more often and it has been good! I think that this week we have done a lot more bearing of testimony and we feel better as missionaries. It is really good. Anziano Lazarte is a funny guy, I like being with him. It will be a great final transfer! Italia is awesome, kind of hard, but awesome! I hope that everything is going well at home! The Christmas Tree looks awesome family! Good job Mom and Twinners! Love you all! I can't wait to skype you coming up soon!

Sincerely,

Anziano Burton

Ahhhh Yeah, Chilling in Gela for one more...

BUONGIORNO TUTTI!!!

Well, transfer calls are in and it looks like I will be in Gela for one more and I will be staying with Anziano Lazarte, it will be great! I am excited for this next transfer, we will have some great things going on! First of all, I will get to hang out with Anziano Durham for Christmas again, that will be sweet, two Christmas's with him. He is staying in Ragusa with Anziano Stephens. The Sisters in Ragusa are staying the same also, it will be a good transfer, we have a great district. 

So, this week some great things have happened! To start we set a baptismal date for the 20th of December for A*. She is still going strong with not smoking and she is so determined! It is so cool to see the change that has taken place with her! She is so much more happy and just open and ready to follow Christ. She is excited for her baptism! We still have to teach some things, so we will be hurrying to get the details taught and have her ready for the 20th. It will be great! She is awesome! We also met with S* this week and he is doing good! He has read the pamphlet we left and is making progress steadily. We will set a date for him this week also. This week we came across an old man named A*, who swore a ton. He was really nice though, we got invited to his house and watched the Restoration film with him. He agreed for us to return and so we will teach him again this week. He kept telling us he is Catholic but he said he would pray about Joseph Smith, so hopefully he does. He was a very nice man with the mouth of a sailor. On Sunday we had A*, S*, and another guy named N* in Church. We have been teaching them all in Licata. It is great! Sorella Ballochino is the member who is helping bring these people to us in Licata, she is awesome! I took a photo of her and Anziano Lazarte, also, the other pics are of the boast in the marina of Licata, it is nice there. 

This week we finally met with a man named G* whom we had met on the street a while ago. Well... That was an experience... We taught the Restoration in the Church and he was asking questions and all this stuff and he was being a little hard to get to commit, but we didn't think anything of it. All Italians are hard to commit to anything haha. Well, we tried to give him the pamphlet of the restoration and he said no and said he didn't like the picture of Jesus on the front... Well, at that point I was pretty confused... we ended the lesson and asked him to say the prayer. He said "Really? I can say it?" We said yep... I bowed my head and closed my eyes... Then I heard "HALLELUJAH!" And I thought oh no... he is Evangelist. Haha, well from that point the prayer lasted for a solid 6 minutes or so of very loud Praise to God and Hallelujah. He kept saying stuff like "Thank you for my knowledge and help these young ones to learn truth." A bunch of stuff like that. Well, it was a prayer that reminded me a lot of one said by some people on a tower in the book of Mormon. It was sad to say the least. He was a nice guy, but very loud. During the prayer he used his hands a lot and I could hear it. I kept thinking, "Well, he could kill me pretty easily and probably take out Anziano Lazarte also. I hope that doesn't happen." It was a fun experience haha. Well, we have seen him on the street since then and he keeps bringing up stuff about being born of the Holy Ghost and stuff. We don't know what to do exactly with him now. We have actually met a lot of Evangelists this week on the street. Strange... The first 2 weeks in Gela, only Jehovahs Witnesses, the next 3 weeks a lot of Catholics, and now this week a lot of Evangelists.

Well, a solid 6 weeks left... I am excited to fly to New York and say hi to Sam, it will be great! It has been soooo stinking long! That will be an awesome reunion. Well, I hope all is well at home! I love you all! Do good things and read the scriptures! This week I have learned a lot from the letters of Paul. His stuff applies to missionary work so much! He is a boss! I wish I could be as awesome as him haha. This last 6 weeks I will try. It will be great!

Sincerely,

Anziano Burton

Catania

BUONGIORNO TUTTI!!!

Well, this has been a very interesting week overall. We haven't been in Gela a whole lot because of all the things we have had going on for Zone Conference, Stake Conference, and everything else. It has been a pretty cool week! Right now I am writing from Catania and we have been sleeping here for the past 5 days or so. This morning for P-Day we all went and played soccer as a zone and it was pretty sweet! We all had a way fun time here. The house in Catania isn't too big, but we have been able to fit 16 missionaries into it without too many problems. Only one bathroom and a ton of mosquitos flying everywhere all the time. It has been a little bit hard to fall asleep with a constant buzzing in your ear, but I have managed. Earlier in the week we were invited to help out the Ragusa Anziani with their Thanksgiving party in Ragusa, so we went and helped with that. It went really well and was very fun! Ragusa is a full ward and they have some very nice members. Then we drove with them to Catania for the conference. It went well and I loved it! I always like the refresher that you get at Zone Conference. It was good. They talked a lot about obedience and doing roleplays in companionship study.

The next day, Saturday, we all drove to Enna, up in the mountains of Sicilia. I was the driver and that was a pretty cool drive. When we got to Enna it was covered in a thick fog. It was pretty cool! That conference went well and there were all the missionaries of Sicilia at it. I got to see Anziano Ostler and others, so that was awesome! After the conference we drove back to Catania and then the next morning we had the Sunday session of the Stake Conference in Catania and it went well! I really enjoyed it! There were so many people there and we had two potential investigators who came to the session. Overall it was awesome! I really like Catania. It is a fun city, it always has a lot going on. 

So as far as work goes in Gela this week, it was obviously a little slow because we have been gone for so much of the time, but we did have some good successes. We are helping a less active man quit smoking and we also had out investigator A* start quitting smoking, that is pretty sweet! Both of those things are huge blessings that we have seen and they are both little miracles that we have seen. I love how God just helps everything to work out. It all just works out in the end. Everything ends up being guided and it is fantastic. I feel like that is happening in my life right now, I am having little experiences here and there that just build me into something better and guide me along the path of life. It is a beautiful thing. God is good. 

Man, let me tell  you, that heat is just staying around. Today while playing soccer I was sweating like a pig. I hope that you aren't getting too cold in America. Here it is pretty nice. Next P Day we will probably go do some more handstands on the beach. Well, things in Italy are good and the work in Gela is moving forward, so it is awesome! I love being here. It is going to be crazy to see how transfers and everything end up this next week. I don't know what will happen. It will be interesting. 

Well, that is all for this week, it has been a busy week with a lot of stuff going on. This next week will be a little bit more calm. It will be nice. 

Love  you all!

Sincerely,

Anziano Burton

Mmmmm... It smells funny.

BUONGIORNO TUTTI!!!

I hope that everything is going alright in the states and stuff. Things here in Gela are going well, a lot better than last week. We had two investigators in Church and we had some good lessons out at Licata. We have a member that lives out there and she helps us with the lessons and stuff there. We taught A* a drop lesson and said that if she didn't want to come to Church and progress towards baptism we would have had to drop her. It went well and the next day she made it to church. Another guy we taught is named S*. That lesson went well and we had a nice Spirit there. He is kind of a shy guy but very respectful and nice. He is the other investigator who came to Church. Also, in Church we had two other guys just show up and now they want to come to the Stake Conference next week. That is cool, but our branch President is kind of wondering what their motives are because they are friends with this excommunicated guy... So that is fun. We will see where that goes. By the way, Licata is a much nicer and cleaner city than Gela. I like it there. It smells better too haha. One of our lessons there was at the mall, it was kind of loud but it went well. 

Earlier in the week I had the opportunity to do a scambio with Anziano Durham here in Gela. That was sweet! It was cool catching up with him and getting to talk with him and stuff. He is a good guy. He is the person whom I have done the most scambios with. It is fun! We found this girl in the area book who we thought would be interested in the Church again. We went and set up an appointment for the next day. We went the next day and taught the restoration but she isn't super interested and kind of rejected our offer to meet again... So, no new investigator there. Oh well. S* is a new investigator so that is sweet.

Well, this next week we will have a crazy busy week. We are going to Ragusa on tuesday evening for a scambio and to help with a Thanksgiving party their ward will be having. We will also be going to Catania for Zone Conference on Friday and then we will stay there for Stake Conference on Saturday and Sunday, then on Monday we will be playing a big game of soccer for all the zone that the Zone Leaders are organizing. So, next monday I will be emailing from Catania. That will be fun. We will be gone from Gela for quite a while this week. 

Well, a fun story this week, we met some old guy on the street who decided to tell us why the Catholic Church is true. He was really persistent and kept telling us the scripture about Peter and the Church being built upon a rock and stuff... That was fun. We just sat there and let him get his rage out, then we said goodbye. This week we have had a lot of people trying to talk to us about things not related to the Gospel. It is hard because instead of them trying to escape us, we try to escape them. They are usually old people. People love to talk in Italy.

Well, this week I finished the four Gospels in the new testament. That was fantastic!!! I love how each one is different but they all tell the same thing. It is soo cool! The scriptures are so important! This week I have felt really good. We are doing a good work here in Gela even though it is a little rough. It is good and I have been enjoying the presence of the Spirit even more. Think about how lucky we are to have the Spirit with us. In John I read about how Jesus talked about the Spirit and the importance of Himself having to leave the Spirit coming. When we as Latter-Day Saints follow that Spirit it really will lead us true. I love it! It is such a great gift! We don't need to worry when we have the Spirit. With it we can face the future with courage and determination knowing that for every wave of trial and difficulty we can receive personal revelation on how to weather the storm. I love the Spirit. I hope that you can all try to have the Spirit be your companion more often in life. It is awesome!

Well, That is my great week of funny smells here in Gela! I am having a great time. Today we went to the beach again, I ran around and did handstands in the sand. I felt free! It reminded me of being in California, minus the swimming :( Someday I will swim in the Meditteranean. I did build a Sand Castle, so family, if you remember my love for Sand Castles you will enjoy this pic! Well, Love you all!!!

Sincerely,

Anziano Burton

Vaaaaa Bene

Buongiorno tutti!!!

Well, another week down here in Gela. It has been good but kind of
long. Oh, and I keep forgetting to write this, back in Oristano I
finished the Book of Mormon in Italian for the first time. That was a
cool experience that I am happy about. It took a while but I did it.
It was so powerful at the very end of the book, I felt the Spirit so
strong as I was coming to the end. I love the power that comes from
that book, it is something you can feel in your life every day. I
still can't say that I understand how a book can give you power in
your life but it just does. The Book of Mormon is awesome! All of you
out there, read it!

Well, it has been a little bit of a rough week as far as the work in
Gela goes. We have had a ton of lessons, appointments, and other stuff
fall through. It has kind of been ridiculous how many times people
said they were going to meet us and then didn't show up. Oh well, what
can you do? We did meet this guy named V* this week and we
started teaching him. He has a super sad life story that he told us,
we told him a lot about how the things that Jesus Christ taught always
help. We had high hopes for him but then he didn't come to the lesson
the next day... He told us he couldn't leave his house and then while
we were walking around doing finding instead of the lesson, we saw him
with some friends... He didn't really say anything to us. The next day
we invited him to church and he said he would come. Well, he didn't
come.

 That is basically how our entire week has gone unfortunately. It's
alright though. Earlier in the week I did a scambio in Ragusa with
Anziano Stephens, it went well! Ragusa is a beautiful city! Look up
some pictures of it. It was so cool! Tomorrow I will do a scambio with
Anziano Durham, our District Leader. I don't know if I said it, but I
am in a district with Anziano Durham again, that is sweet! Also,
Sorella Taylor from the Holladay Stake is in Ragusa... Pretty crazy!
Three Oly Grads down in two strange cities in Sicily. Couldn't get
much better than that. 3 of the 6 members of our district are from the
same high school... Well, this week I have continued my study of the
New Testament, I just started Luke. It is so awesome reading about the
life of Christ! Really, the things He taught are incredible and they
apply to each of us every day of our life! It is so awesome! The
scriptures are great! I don't think we can even comprehend how good we
have it. I know that I can't, but every once in a while I catch a
glimpse of it and I am filled with gratitude and at the same time a
feeling of my own weakness knowing I shouldn't deserve this all. The
Church is a beautiful perfecter.

Well, I guess there isn't a whole lot else to write this week. This
next week is going to be a whole lot better! I am excited for it! I
hope that all is well at home!

Sincerely,

Anziano Burton

Piove a Gela

Buongiorno Tutti!

Ma, nella Sicilia, piove tanto.

Well, it has been another great week in Italy! This week has been good even though it started off a little bit slow. Unfortunately Anziano Lazarte had a nasty cold on Tuesday and Wednesday and the mission nurse told us we had to stay inside for him to heal. I am not going to lie, I was going crazy walking around the house trying to find things to do. It was hard to be inside haha. But it was fine. Luckily on Wednesday we got hit by a huge storm coming from the sea, so we didn't have to be outside during that thing. It was raining cats and dogs on and off all day. It was actually pretty intense. It continued a little on Thursday and Friday Morning. It was interesting because the rain had sand in it from the Sahara desert, so it was all sandy on the cars and stuff. That was strange. On Thursday night we had a lesson out at a nearby city named Licata to teach an investigator named A*. It went really well and we are hoping that she begins to progress soon, or we will not be able to keep teaching her. She has some problems with smoking and coming to Church, so we will see what happens.

We also got a new investigator from a member referral. Her name is L*. The first lesson went really well and the spirit was really strong there. She might have some trouble coming to Church, but we will hopefully overcome that this week. She is very nice. This week we also did a lot of meeting with less actives here. That was good, but we didn't really see any success moving forward and getting them to Church unfortunately. Church was good though, this week we had about 10 people total and stuff. The branch President is a really nice but intense guy haha. He is cool.

Well, this week we have done quite a bit of finding, but we have also been getting a few referrals this week from members and hopefully this next week we will be able to see them become investigators. Things are moving along just fine here and life is good in Sicilia. The people speak really strange though, way different than I am use to. It is good though.

This week I have been studying a lot in the New Testament and that has been really cool. I read through all of Matthew and most of Mark, it is so cool to read about the life of Christ and all of the things that He did. It really is incredible. I love getting that repass of the beatitudes and everything. It is just awesome. I am grateful for Christ and everything He did for me in my life. This week at the beginning of the week I began to get a little down just with things but as I spent time praying and reading from the scriptures I have felt a lot better and things have gone really well. It has been good. Last night we visited an older member lady whose husband just passed away a month ago. It was hard because she feels like she doesn't know where to go or what to do. She feels confused about everything. As we were bearing testimony to here the Spirit was so strong. I hope that it helped her out. She has been a faithful member for a long time even though her husband wasn't a member. We are trying to help her return to Church now.

Some other people we are helping return to Church just aren't coming because they are not willing to spend two hours on Sunday at Church. It is a little frustrating honestly. Oh well, everyone has there free agency. We keep trying to help them, but they need to be the ones in the end who make the decision.  Well, this week has been good! That is it for now... Until next week!

Sincerely,

Anziano Burton

La Bella Sicilia

Buongiorno Tutti!

Well, after a ton of traveling I have arrived in Sicily to the city of Gela. Well, it is quite a bit different here compared to Sardegna haha. It feels way more wild as a place and the people are not nearly as polite haha. It is fun though, there are a lot more strange smells while walking down the street, but it is sweet! I only get 3 more months of these funky smells, I've gotta make the most out of it. Right now I am doing my emailing in a betting place haha. It is crazy loud and people are playing a really violent game of fus

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ball. Everybody yells and swears when they lose on their bets haha. It is kind of a strange place, but we know the guy who owns it, so it is free for us to use the computers. So, that is cool.

Well, it was super sad saying goodbye to Anziano Flynn, he is such a good guy. Anziano Lazarte is cool to and we are getting along well! It is sweet! He originally comes from Argentina but moved to Italy a long time ago, so he speaks perfect Italian, just like Anziano Garcia haha. Pretty funny. Anyway, on Wednesday I shipped out to Rome on a plane. It was fun to fly, I always like the feeling of it. It is just relaxing. We arrived in Rome at like 9:30 in the evening... The assist

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nts couldn't come pick us up, so we were on our own to get to one of the Rome Anziani houses. Well, we hopped on a shuttle going to Rome and we rode on that for a while. It was strange, at like 10:00 at night as a missionary being outside on a bus... Not my usual schedule. But it was fun. They had the radio blasting American music and stuff and Imagine Dragons came on. That was weird hearing a band from Provo Utah on a random shuttle bus going to Rome. But pretty cool. Well, on the bus we passed the Colosseum! Finally I can say that I have seen it. It was all lit up and it was so cool to see finally! I am content haha, I can go home now... But not really, I've got plently of stuff that I still have to do here in Italy. Well at 10:30 we arrived at the main train station and then caught a public bus to the house. We arrived in at about 11:20. We went right to bed and woke up at 5 in the morning to catch the train to Sicilia. The train ride went well and it was so cool! The train went on a boat to cross the strait from Reggio Calabria to Messina. Then we went down to Catania to stay the night. That is where I met Anziano Lazarte. Before going to the house in Catania we had to go help with a Halloween party at the Church. We went and did that and it was really cool! There were a ton of American members because of the other American Navy base in Catania. We ate chili at it! Then we back to the house and went to bed. Oh, by the way, I was driving the car the entire time in crazy Catania. It was so scary driving, but it was cool! They drive so crazy down here. The next morning we drove our car to Gela and got settled in. Well, everything is going well here and it is great!

The church here is pretty stinking small. On Sunday we only had 3 members in Church, a less active guy, an active guy, and an active lady. It was really simple as far as church goes. only two hours from 4:30 to 6:30 in the evening. We just did a simple testimony meeting. The reason we only had 3 of our usual 10 members is because of a traditional holiday here where everybody goes to the cemetery and mourns the dead. So... Everybody was at the cemetery mourning the dead all day. Sicilia is strange. Well, I have met some less actives so far, but we haven't been able to meet our investigators yet. Hopefully that happens soon. Well, I am not sure what else to say. So much has happened and it is kind of crazy here. The house is nice enough, it reminds me of Caserta a lot. The city also. It is good. The city is a lot bigger than I thought it would be and it is built on the cool hill that rises pretty steeply. Well, things are great here! I love being on the mission! I am learning so stinking much every day. It is great! I love the scriptures! I love the mission! Italy is so cool! Oh, this week I had a Canolo. That was a super good treat from Sicily. I like it here, it will be a cool place to finish the mission.

Well, that is everything for this week! Life is good! Oh, it is warm down here also... almost too warm haha. I hope it isn't getting to cold in Salt Lake. Love you all!

Sincerely,

Anziano Burton