Letter from the Mission President

26 May 2015 To the Family of Anziano Goode , We are pleased to inform you that Elder Goode has been called as a District Leader here in the Italy Rome Mission.  It is a position of trust and an opportunity to serve.  As a District Leader he will be responsible for all of the missionaries in his district.  He will meet with and teach them weekly in a district meeting.  He will also encourage them in their own areas, supervise their service, and be a mentor to them.  He will interview all baptismal candidates and supervise the baptismal services. Elder Goode has been called to this new assignment based upon his outstanding service and dedication as a missionary. Sister Waddoups and I thank you for your faith and prayers on behalf of our mission and for all you have done to prepare such an outstanding missionary. Sincerely, Michael G. Waddoups President Italy Rome Mission

Week 40

Heyyyy! Well it's weird, seriously, that I have been out for almost 10 months now! I am super happy to hear you all had a great week this week!!!! It sounds like this summer is going to be packed with fun stuff! Man, I cant believe that HBHS Volleyball train is still going on the winning streak!!! That's super awesome!! Also that's cool to see the package made it home and that Jake and Ryan are smiling and that Amber is graduating, that's super awesome!!!  
So on Saturday we got transfer calls!! I am going to be staying here in Tràpani with an Italian companion! My 2nd one! haha! This will be an incredible help for my langauge skills. He is also only 5 months in the mission so I have been moved up to Senior Comp and District Leader this transfer! It will be a lot of responsibility, but it will be great!!!! Obviously President trusts my Italian by now, hahahah! I will be serving as District Leader in a different district than the one we currently are in!  Sooo... things just got a little bit interesting!! This week we were in Palermo most of the time so we didn't do great work in our area, but with this next week and with a new companion coming in I'm sure we will get a ton done!! This week we had Stake Conference in a hotel here in Palermo and we had Anziano de Feo come and speak to us.  He is the Area 70 from Rome. There were a ton of missionaries there and all of Sicily there for the conference, it was great!!! Too bad our investigators couldn't come to Palermo! This week we will have meetings with a lot of our members because Anziano Tew is going to be leaving!!!  We are even meeting with this cute little family of 4 people this week because the little girl will turn 10 this week!! So this week will be fun, however, I am sad to get rid of Anziano Tew because he truly helped me in the areas that I lacked in. We didn't have zone conference this transfer because of our conference with Anziano Bednar, but next transfer we will have zone conference here in Palermo. Anyway, this computer isn't working great, so I can't really see which pictures I am sending home. I hope they are good ones! hahahahah!!!? 
I hope you guys have a great week!! Happy Memorial Day!!
Love, Anziano Goode 

P.S. These buildings are in Palermo! The first one is the main cathedral and the second one is a picture of the statues of the shameful and the third one is Teatro Massimo! The 3rd largest theater in the world!

Palermo Cathedral

Piazza Pretoria or "The Square of Shame"

Teatro Massimo

Week 39

Hi!  I'm doing realllllly welll! We had just an awesome week!!! So we met this lady Monday night that is a Buddhist and was really willing to talk about religion and these things! So on Thursday we had our first lesson with her in the park! Her name is Roberta, she is 50 yrs old, by the way, and has 4 kids! So we taught her in the park for an hour and a half! Way too long of a meeting but I just couldn't help but answer all of her questions! So then we met again yesterday in kind of another park and we even prayed together to invite the Spirit, of course, even though there were a bunch of people close by staring at us. So we gave a thirty minute restoration lesson and it went really smoothly, the Spirit was really strong, probably because we had planned really well and used the scriptures, the Bible and the Book of Mormon! At the end we invited her to be baptized by someone holding the authority of restored priesthood and she accepted! She said she wants to prepare herself for baptism for the 20th of June! Also she talked about how 2 of her children never had been baptized and they need to hear this message as well! I was soooo happy! So that was the most exciting thing that happened this week! 
     As far as members feeding us, we were fed yesterday really well, like every Sunday! We had pasta, sword fish and potatoes and bread and fruit salad and ice cream and then these chocolate things, so yeah we were fed well! I think I'm still full... haha.  Then tonight we have been invited to go teach a family home evening with a family then eat "cena" with them!  
     Other than that, we have some less active Africans in our Ward that we have been trying to contact since i got here and they hadn't responded really and just the other day this one man from Ghana called us and was like "ANZIANO, I am Sooooo sorry I didn't call you!  I have been travelling for two months looking for work!"   So we met with him and another guy this week and we read the Book of Mormon. They speak this language from Ghana called Twe and not very good English so we read in English and they followed in Twe!   Then yesterday one of them came to church and I gave him my tie because he did not have one! He was so grateful to come to church and feel the love from our members, even though I was translating the lessons from Italian to English for him so he could understand! 
     Well there wasn't too much else that happened this week, this next week we will already be receiving transfer calls! I hope my comp and I get to stay together for six more weeks, but I'm not so sure it will happen! Well anyway, I hope everyone has a good week! Thanks for the letters and the prayers, I receive both of them and I try to respond in letters and prayers as well! 

Love, Anziano Goode

Week 38

Thanks so much for the e-mails, even though we talked yesterday! The weekly e-mails really help! It's been such a blessing to have the Goode family always on my team and on my side! 
I'm learning lots and I think that's what the Lord really expects from me! I have this really good talk printed out by Elder Bednar that talks about learning by Faith! It's really awesome! I'm sure you had a great day on Mother's Day and I hope you have a great week! In Italy they celebrate "la festa della mama" they just buy flowers and stuff, really its not a huge festival here! The other celebrations are kinda weird, like they just had Labor Day a few weeks ago and all they do is go to the beach and roast meat and food and then they sleep all day, there is usually no one outside! Well, I hope you are all learning as much as I'm learning.  Be happy in every circumstance by following the rules! I love you and the family a lot! Have Nathan keep in touch! Thanks for everything you guys do! Buona Setimana!
Anz Goode

A church in Palermo

Day of Service - Pruning Citrus Trees

Anz Goode and Anz Tew

The grandparents of Trapani

Week 37

Hello!  

For P-day today we took a 30 minute public boat to this island which is called Favignana! It's seriously the most beautiful place I think I have ever seen!! The water is just sooo blue and tempting haha! Man I wanted to dive in sooo bad! Well anyway, we didn't break any rules, which was good and we had the most awesome day in the world hahaha! The pictures just don't do it justice either! We walked around half of the island today we will probably come back another week! It was a lot bigger than we expected, we should've rented bikes to be honest, but we are used to walking! I am in love with this place! It's sooo beautiful! It's super hot, but amazing honey moon territory hahahahah! And to see it again with the family would be nice too hahha!  I'm so glad you guys got to go to the temple open house in Payson, UT while you were visiting Hanna!  My mission companion, Anziano Tew is from Payson! I am hoping that  the Rome Temple will be done before I am ready to come home.  They are saying now that it will be done by the Spring of 2016! It's been a crazy 9 months, I'll tell you that, haha! I have felt many ups and downs but the greatest thing is that the Lord is always pushing us pretty hard!  Church was really good this week we have been helping our members know how they can possibly help us! Now they are starting to want to help us because we've told them how important this work is and how much better is is when the members get involved!! Well anyway, I love the church and I love the mission! I love you all and I cant wait to see you next week!!  

Love Anziano Goode

P-day in Favignana, Sicily

The water is SO blue!

Craving Tacos!

Homemade tortillas

Our hotel in Rome

Package from the Seapoint Ward Young Women
shared with my comps on the overnight train from Rome

District Lunch in Palermo

Mozzarella!

From our 5th floor apartment in Trapani