Ansiano Hale's Mission

Howdy,
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> Well its december and today i was riding my bike with a short sleeved shirt on. We had to do some work at the church and so we wore normal clothes and my jacket has dog poop on it from when we helped some italian members move. It was a little cold but still the weather here is not too bad. Usually people stare at us because we are in suits and ties on and helmets. But today people were staring at me because i was the only person in the town with a short sleeve shirt on. It was funny. Anyway this was a pretty good week. Last Preparation Day i went to the american base and hung out with the Marlors and also Anziano Mack. It was pretty fun. And i had an A&W bacon cheeseburger that was really good. We also had Zone Conference 2 days ago and it was really good. Sister Acerson cooked us a nice christmas dinner and all the trainings were amazing. Our assistants anziano deruvo and steiner gave a great training on the Saviors mission and our mission. Anziano Steiner has only one more transfer after this so i will be sad when he goes home. But it was good to see him and also i got to see Anziano Herrick. This week we saw Arcangelo and he was doing really good. He has been coming to church when he can and he doesnt have soccer games. He told us that he invites his friends to our church. He is such a nice man. It is still hard to help him progress but i think slowly slowly he will. We also saw Adam, Jacob, John and Francis this week. Francis was the first one we met and so it was good to finally see him again. But they are all very busy with work in the christmas season and didnt make it to church but we did get to teach the plan of salvation to them and it went well. Antonella Gervasio came to church and their babys heart surgery went well. They asked us to come with Brother Donadeo to help give the baby blessing in a couple weeks. This Saturday we are having an open house at our church for the comunity. We are hoping we will have a good attendance and we have been working very hard to get it prepared. It is going to be a Mexican Fiesta with music, talent show, an explanation of our church, food, and a pignata. I am very excited. But our preparation today was spent in the church cleaning and setting up. Also a couple days ago we had a family home evening with Brother Romano and Emilda. Emilda is the recent convert from the Philippines and Brother Romano is one of my favorite members. His wife is very inactive and she joined us in the FHE. It was really good because Emilda is such a friendly person and i think she softened Sister Romanos heart. So we are going to go back with Emilda. It was really neat. Brother Romano said to Emilda as we were going home that Emilda might be his salvation for his wife. I hope so. Ok one more story. There was an old man who lived across from us. He always was on his balcony and always waved to us and was very nice. About 2 weeks ago he passed away. Yesterday we went and talked to his wife. She is very sad and lonely and we couldnt enter because there wasnt a man in the house but she said we could come back and talk to her about the plan of salvation. She is probably 70 as well as her husband. She was very sad as we talked to her but also very grateful. I am very excited to teach her the plan of salvation atleast to bring her some comfort. Well i really enjoy this city and also my new companian. I could stay in napoli area the rest of my mission. Anyway i love you all and hope that this christmas season goes well. The marlors the other day at zone conference gave little talks and they talked about the importance of gifts during this season. They both talked about how the best gift we have is the atonement and how the best thing we can give back to our Savior is to share this great news with everyone. So thats my invite to you. During this Christmas season to find someone and share this great message with them. I promise it will be your favorite Christmas you have ever had if you will do this. Well i love you all. oh and my thanksgiving was really good. it was with the lord family. It was american food. She is italian and he is american so it was so comfortable because we were all speaking both languages and we understood everything that was going on. it was cool. and the turkey and all the rest of the food was good. ha. ciao
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> Con affetto,
> Anziano Hale