Happy Thanksgiving Week 15

Well this week was great! I have been thinking about how many things I am grateful for and I couldn't stop counting things until i gave up! This week was a little bit strange because at the beginning of the week we received a call from the mission president which is always a bit strange and he told us there would be a set of sister missionaries transferring from our district to Rome instead! We were very curious why because they were some of our best working missionaries in the district, so president told us it was because in Rome there was a sister who finally received her visa for Venezuela and he needed the two sisters there on Friday, so that was pretty strange! Then later in the week we had an investigator who went a little crazy and told us she was going to hang out with a missionary in our mission which is totally not alright! Also this week all of our members were in Switzerland going to the temple up there! They all brought back a ton of chocolates for us which was amazing!  This week our members all want us over for lunch which means we will have a busy week! We are also having Thanksgiving with all of the missionaries on P-day with the Senior couple serving here in Bari. 
I have seen so many blessings in this life it is too hard to count! and every time I am thankful for a blessing it seems as though we are just given more!!! Yesterday in church we had a less active family there with the mother and her two kids, Raphael and Michaele.  They are both really funny! We were talking about soccer and their favorite teams and stuff like that! I told them that I liked Roma and they were so happy! The kids even had glasses that were red and yellow like the Roma team colors!! haha! They were so happy to talk to an American about soccer and ping pong and all of that good stuff! They aren't actually baptized either but they are old enough so I  am hoping they will start coming to church more and the mom will want to participate more in church! She was very nice either way! She brought us bags of snacks because she loves the missionaries, but I am hoping to help that family start coming more to church and understanding the importance of it in their lives! 
I know I have been watched out for here on the mission there is no doubt about it! Yesterday when I was asked how I know God exists I said because of His creations and because I know he has helped me in my life! Unfortunately many people here do not understand the basic truths that we all have a loving Father in Heaven who wants the best for us! We all have many things to be grateful for! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!! Love Anziano Goode

Anziano Goode on the Adriatic Sea

Week 14

Hello Everyone!! 
     This week was truly great. We wave been focusing our time on finding new investigators and it has been going really well. We decided to use our English course as one of our main sources because we have only had about 5 students recently, so this week we flooded Bitonto with "Volantini" or advertisements for our free English course and they have shown some real promise.  Tons of strange people having been calling us as a negative result of these posters but it's alright!  One person even started talking in Albanian thinking that we would have no idea what they were saying, but it turns out my companion is actually from Albania! It completely shocked the person who tried to prank call us and they just screamed and hung up, hahaha! Also this week we have been having a lot of fun on the streets when finding, for some reason little kids always think we don't speak Italian which is great and they start talking to us in English or a kind of English and that is when we invite them to come learn real English! It's really great! Well other than that we had three lessons this week,  I have learned though this week that we can tell people all day long which things are true and which things are not true but unless a person has the real intent to find out the truth and then act on what they learn, nothing will ever change. We can teach the truths but without the Spirit, a person will never be converted. I love being a missionary and being a representative of Jesus Christ! There have been times already where my knowledge has been tried but I can never pretend that I haven't seen the the guidance and help from Heavenly Father when I am in need! Well to everyone who is wondering, my Italian is improving and I can understand and speak most things I want to say to people. My companion and I are getting along alright and the work is starting to move a bit with the help of our members! As Thanksgiving approaches I think even more about all of the many things I am grateful for! Thanks for all of the letters this week and all of the support! 

Love Anziano Goode

Matera, Italy

The Caves of Matera

Streets of Matera

Water Stop

I miss burritos so much, I made them for my Comp and myself!

Week 13

Hey everyone!!!!

Well I don't have much time this week because we just got back from this hike that took up most of our p-day, but man this place is amazing! The more people I meet and the more places I see here make me love it so much more! I have just reached the point where I can understand everything that the people around me are saying but as far as responding, its still a little bit slow, but coming along! So anyway, the work this week was good we had Stake Conference yesterday and I was able to meet a lot of new people. Today we traveled to this beautiful city which is one of the oldest in Italy called Matera.  Check out this link: Matera,Italy  Well, I am pretty much out of time. I hope everyone had a good week! Thanks for all of the letters this week!  

Love Anziano Goode

Photo credit: http://europehotelbreaks.com/check-out-the-sassi-di-matera-ancient-italian-cave-dwellings/

Matera, Italy

Matera, Italy  "City of Caves"
(photo credit: http://www.johnvitophotography.com/newwork.htm)

Another View of Matera

3 Months!

So this week started off pretty slow, my comp and I were both really sick, and so were our investigators. so this week the work didn't go quite the way we wanted, but everyone has those weeks. We had Zone Conference which was really good! We talked about obedience and how we can be blessed through our obedience to the rules. Of course this is like the most talked about thing as a missionary because we have been given so much freedom and we are to represent the Lord in all of our actions. It was also very nice to have Zone Conference because I finally was able to meet some new missionaries even younger than me in the mission! That was quite a confidence booster seeing how I was just like them the first weeks and how I have already learned soo much! They bore their testimonies in Italian and I couldn't understand them because they were speaking very slow and in Americanized Italian! I just laughed to myself and realized that was me just a few weeks ago! We also had Halloween this week which was very fun! For some reason the kids here go around throwing eggs and flour at people so we had to be extra careful when we were outside because we were just moving targets as American missionaries! So we dressed up in our street clothes trying to avoid attention and in case we were hit we could wash them easier than our suits and then we pretty much ran to the church! We made it there just fine!  One of the members painted our faces, actually pretty scary, and we had a nice Halloween party with all of the members and kids!  Well other than this nothing much happened during the week, oh and we made it home safely too, after being chased by a few kids and girls. Haha!  Well it was a lot of fun anyway!  Thanks for all of the letters! hope everyone has a great week!!! Happy birthday to my little Brother Nathan!!
If you'd like to see more pictures of those serving in the Rome, Italy Mission (200 Full-time Missionaries) check out: http://romeitalymission.blogspot.com/ 
Love, Anziano Goode 

Birthday Present to Myself!  Italian Soccer Uniform!

Halloween, Italian Style

Cooking Lessons

Homes in Bitonto

Streets of Bitonto

Zone Conference with my Comp, Anziano Seiko