Week 20- Happy New Year!

This week was awesome! To start it off we had Zone Conference in which we acted out the nativity and everything fun like that. Then we played soccer! After that we had a ton of fun leading up to Christmas! For Christmas Eve we went to a friends house where we ate seafood as it is a traditional thing! it was my first time eating straight from a clam which was an interesting thing, hahaha! Then on Christmas we went with all of the other elders to play some ping pong, then we got to Skype home! The best part!  The call went by super fast and afterward I was feeling a bit out of it and couldn't stop thinking of home, so we got home anyway and made some food and went to bed. The next day was rough! We went with the other Anziani to watch a movie and relax but then that night we were supposed to work again, when we got home we started to do our planning but we both felt that it wasn't the right thing to do.  Neither one of us were not able to concentrate.  My comp and I had already gotten into to our warm pajamas and my companion said we should go outside and do some finding. I told him I really didn't want to but I had the same prompting. So we got back into our missionary attire, put on our scarfs and gloves and walked out into the freezing cold. We started off great and talked to everyone we saw outside. Everyone we talked to said they want to meet with us again! After about forty five minutes of success it started to get really windy and started hailing like the size of golf balls! We were still like a half hour away from the house so we started to run home, which was crazy because the hail was totally nailing our heads and we were like screaming throughout the streets and laughing. Then the lightning started hitting within a mile from us and it was the loudest and brightest thing ever! After we got home we were still laughing and had forgotten about our laziness and homesickness! It was really a great experience to see that when we follow His promptings, we are blessed in multiple ways. Well I hope everyone has some Happy Holidays! 

Love Anz Goode

Bari Zone Nativity

Zone Soccer Game

Our Christmas Tree and gifts!

One Extra Large Olive!

With my new Comp, Anziano Bee!
"Bee, Goode!!!"

Pasta Nativity

We visited a huge nativity scene room, and went to a cathedral to watch the church choir perform!

Week 19- Merry Christmas!

Thanks to everyone who has made my mission experience special leading up to this first Christmas season in the mission!!  I have loved every moment of it! 

Although it can sometimes seem embarrassing to share our beliefs, this is exactly what people are looking for in their crazy lives! Last night we went caroling in the middle of a giant piazza in Bari and we had hundreds of people crowded around just to hear our songs filled with the topic of Christ and his birth! Thanks again to everyone!  Remember this Christmas season as the Apostle said to not be ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it is the power unto salvation!!! Have faith, be courageous and have fun sharing what you know and believe! Last of all, Merry Christmas to everyone and I hope it is special!

Love Anziano Goode

Week 18

So the beginning of this week I started of with one companion and at the end I am here with a different comp!! This week my old comp wanted to say goodbye to everyone so we had been giving everyone visits in our ward and on Tuesday we stopped by this old lady in our ward that is like our grandma, she is an awesome member! She made us soooooo much food then at the end of our lunch she wanted to make us this hot chocolate because it was freezing out and she had gotten almost all the way done when all of the sudden she picked up the pot and it slipped, and all of this boiling hot water shot everywhere! It showered my head and back of my neck but it was all over her face and her arm! I turned around to hear her scream and panic! I told her to go and run her arm under cold water so she did. There was water everywhere, so we cleaned it all up. I was totally fine, my shirt was stained but it was not really that big of a problem. She even dropped her glasses and the lens popped out, but we fixed it without her knowing! hahaha! Well that was just a little crazy! She wasn't burned that bad and she was just grateful we were there! 

Then the next day I got a new comp from Torrance, CA which is like 40 minutes away from Huntington Beach and he totally knew everything I was talking about! He even went to the same Mormon Formal "Mormal" as me, like two years ago and I had no idea! haha! Well then we were taking a bus to this one member's house and these guys on the bus were just like smoking and all of the windows were up so we just like rolled them down and the guys walked up to us super mad with us!!! They started telling us all this trash and were like cussing at us in a Barese dialect that neither me nor my comp could understand!! We were just like, "Dudes, we don't speak your dialect!" So they started yelling at us and wanted us to pay them money for living in Italy! They were like super drunk too, it was pretty scary because they were out of control and there were like 6 of them in the back of the bus. We were almost to our stop and the guys were like standing up just screaming at us to pay them and they even were like running their fingers in my hair saying they were going to burn it off if I didn't pay! Everyone in the bus was just staring at us, so all of a sudden I said a little prayer for help and all of the guys turn around and the bus stops, right when the bus stops we just jump out and start running, luckily the bus driver saw what was going on so as soon as we got out he started driving off... I don't think we will ever see those guys again thank goodness! 

Well I have just been so grateful for these miracles in my life and I'm grateful to be ok! This week also my new comp came and was looking through the apartment and saying how crappy it is without hot water and with like only three lights working in the whole house, so we got permission to search for a new place, thank goodness! Well have a good week Love Anz Goode

P.S. I saw another car crash and took a picture this time. Hahaha!

Saying goodbye to Anziano Seiko

Week 17 - 4 Months have passed!

Well this week was awesome!! We have been working super hard and still trying to have some fun at the same time!  This week we had a couple of lessons! All with people who could be very interested in hearing more about our message!! This week we also received transfer calls and it turns out I will be staying here in Bitonto but will be getting  a new companion from Torrance, California!  It should be awesome! This week we also did a bit of cleaning around the house and I found this bucket of water in the laundry room that was like green so I thought it was a bit strange so I took it outside and dumped is out. I looked closer in the water and there were some baby mosquitoes and all of these nasty worm things in it just squirming around it was absolutely disgusting but I finally solved the mosquito problem I think! hahha! Oh, and my comp wanted to use the bucket to mop the house, so he said I had to fill it up in the sink, but then when he saw the worms he totally changed his mind and said that if I would have filled up the bucket in his sink he would have made me drink it hahah! Also this week in our English course we had over thirty students!!!! It was seriously incredible!! 

Last night we had a lesson with these two people in their 40's. One is a doctor and is super smart the other is his girlfreind who is a psychologist! At first I was a bit nervous to meet them because I thought they would just destroy every thing that i would say because my Italian is still a bit broken. Well we started teaching them and they were both super nice! She asked me why in the world I would leave my family AND California for 2 years to go on a mission? And that is my favorite question to answer! I told her, with all sincerity of my heart, that I knew the church was true and that we are all children of a Heavenly Father that loves us and who wants all of his children to be happy and to hear this wonderful message to be able to return with him after this life! Me and everyone in the room could feel the Spirit so strong it was undeniable. She started crying as well as this member of our church that was there with us, I hope she will remember that feeling for the rest of her life. I know that there is nothing that I could have said to them, with my little knowledge  to convince them of the truth of our message, but I know that the Spirit told her exactly what she needed to hear. I have come to see the change in my self as well as the change in others because of the gospel and I know it can bring happiness to everyone!

I am so grateful for this wonderful opportunity i have to be a missionary and a representative of the Lord! I am seriously so grateful for this time to learn and grow and change! If I have learned anything, it is that everyone can change and should change throughout life, but we should decide today what we want to become and how we can do it!!! Thanks to everyone for all of the support! 

Love, Anziano Goode

In this picture I cooked Sicilian food, which was amazing but the first bite I took was the hottest pepper I have ever eaten and I started coughing and choking and crying! It was incredible how terrible it was!! The member totally understood that i was dying! hahah! Everyone was staring at me! I thought the whole thing was going to be that hot! I got so scared to eat more! 

       The guy in the picture lived in Huntington and helps me with Italian! 

This picture was taken last night just chillin' in this member's sweater that she wanted me to wear because it was cold!  

Love Anziano Goode

Week 16

Well Thanksgiving was awesome! I was actually on splits with one of our zone leaders from Michigan and he taught me sooooo much about the language and about how I can better involve myself and ask better questions and how to teach! We even had a lesson with this one girl, Gabriella, who is 21 and her boyfreind is a member who is 23 but hasn't served a mission yet. We think after she is baptized both will serve, but I am not sure... I seriously met them for like the 3rd time and I already love them! It's crazy how fast you can feel this love for someone just by serving them and helping them! I shared my testimony about the eternal nature of families and about how important it is to endure to the end. Then I told them about my great grandpa who told me before I left, to hold on the the gospel with both hands and with all my strength.  By the end of the discussion, we were all crying! I have learned so many things! One is that, all the way until the end of my mission, even if all of my bones and muscles hurt, the Spirit will sustain me till the very last minute of it! Even if I faint the second I am released as a missionary the Spirit will carry me until then! Everything is going great! We will have our big Thanksgiving today and after that we will have a lesson with a mother, Guiseppina, and her handicap son who is 15. I guess the hardest part is trying not to judge myself and compare myself to other missionaries and to not think about what I will say next but just letting the Spirit lead me and trusting in that!  

My next transfers are on the 13th but we find out this Saturday! I am pretty sure I will stay here in Bitonto for one more transfer, but my comp has already been here 6 months! I am ready for a new companion, just because we have almost been together for 3 months, but its not bad! 

My Italian is coming along pretty well.   I have been listening to Andrea Bocelli music for language study sometimes and it is amazing to be able to understand his words, finally! It sounds even better now that I know what he is saying lol!!!! A funny story, today on the train, which I take every week,  the ticket man came past and asked for my ticket and I told him "I have a monthly ticket" in Italian and everyone just stared at me because they thought I was just an American dude and then these 3 girls and guy were like talking about me and saying  like,  "Oh my gosh, it's so awkward, I can't tell if he understands us or not..."   hahha! I just started laughing! it was so awkward because then I started talking in perfect English with my comp and they were so confused, it was great!!! It is so awesome to learn new languages and new things!!! Seriously, I have stopped judging people at all instead I have been asking everyone if we can help them in anyway!! Another funny story, yesterday I saw these three beautiful girls my age walk by and they were all staring at me. When they walked past all they said was "Voglio! Voglio! Voglio!" which means,

I want! I want! I want!  I'm pretty sure they didn't know I understood them but it was funny anyway! All I know is that people and Satan will tell us sometimes how beautiful we are and will tell us all of these things to try to tempt us into bad thoughts or bad actions!! If there is anything I have learned it is to not pay attention to the distractions in life no matter how "beautiful" they seem! You can tell Nathan this story to warn him that girls are all on Satan's team! We must respect our lives and all of the power we have!! 

Well I love you guys, have an awesome week!!

Love anziano Goode