Sicilian Thanksgiving

Dear Family and Friends,

Wow, I had a cool week! Since Thanksgiving was this week, there is a lot that I am grateful for. I am super grateful to be here in Siracusa! The food is amazing here and the people are so nice. Like literally, we were knocking doors and we started talking to this one family whom we have never met. Even though they were busy then, they gave us a huge bag of oranges to say thank you. And these oranges are soo good, I probably ate too many! Overall, I have seen the blessings of the Lord in our work and the importance of our work here.

Turns out you can still have Thanksgiving even when you are on the bottom of Sicily in Siracusa where gravy and turkey don't really exist. Since Anziano Anderson comes from Post Falls, Idaho, he knew how to cook some mean fried chicken, as well as some fries and fried zucchini. Add the sister missionaries' green bean casserole and chocolate cake, and you have a feast! It was fun and I would say also super humbling for me because it took a lot of work to cook just that small amount of food so I can't imagine all the food for a real Thanksgiving feast. We also made cute little paper turkeys to put on our ties. 

First, I have to thank Anziano Anderson. He's the best! He's such a great missionary companion who really just wants to work hard! He's a super spiritual guy that also isn't afraid to have fun while doing the missionary work. Our goal is simply to make this area better than we found it so we are looking for ways to improve every day in order to be better missionaries. Just doing small things like waking up at 6 a.m. instead of 6:30 have really helped us to be better and more obedient. 

But really I need to thank God for what happened this week. For example, here's what Saturday looked like, probably our craziest day. First, we ran to the church to give our new investigator, Concetto, a lesson on English and also touching on how the Plan of Salvation is really important for him right now because he's 88 years old! Things went great and we invited him to pray if this was the right path for him. Then he gave us a sweet ride to Bronzo's house. Bronzo is a member who needed a blessing. Then we walked all the way back to our apartment to see Sorella Zombra. We had pranzo with her and her family which was super great, and she cooked some of the best food I have had here in Italy.(a vegetable pasta with this super good chicken!) After sharing a spirtual thought with her and helping read the Book of Mormon since she has a hard time reading now, we went to the church again to see our investigator, Giuseppe, at a youth activity at the church. Okay here's when it gets crazy. 

We then need to walk all the way to Roberto Nitto's, a new convert, house which is about 4 km away. We walk there and call him and find out he is still at work for another 2 hours. That was frustrating for a bit but we decided to use our time wisely and do a little giro around town passing by some families. No one is really home and then Anz. Anderson thinks to go see Vittorio. Luckily he's home with his wife Silvia, and they were glad to see us. We decided to show them the Christmas video the church recently put out which is amazing! By the end of it, I look up and see tears in both of their eyes. They described how they needed us to pass by right now and we did, acting like angels! The Spirit definitely testified that we were needed that night for them. So then we hurry and walk back to Robertos after that amazing experience, and he still isn't home! 

So now we could return home early and say we did our job. But we decide to give him another chance and knock on some doors while we wait. While knocking, people are really nice but no one invites us in until this grandma opens the door. Turns out she's a Jehovah's Witness but wants us t come inside still. We get to know her and her family, especially her grandson Alex. We showed their family the video too and really just brought the love of Christ into her home even if she wasn't that interested in our religion. And then we walked back home since Roberto never could meet in the end. It was such a great day!

By the end of this week, I was probably the most tired I have ever been from just walking (9 miles just on Saturday) and filling our days full with things to do. And the crazy thing that keeps happening is that I am happy doing it. Strangely enough, it's making me happy to be tired and sacrifice so experiences like with Vittorio and Davide can happen! I just want to invite you to take on the example of Christ and do something really special for someone else or really just anyone! I love this video that the church put out. It shows how Jesus Christ did so much for us and so like him, we can be angels in this Christmas season and be the light of the world! Thank you guys for your blessings and prayers! Wish I could talk more but I gotta run!

Vi voglio bene!

Anziano Price

(You can view the video and learn more about the #lighttheword campaign at www.mormon.org)