Hello from Caserta! Well my last week at Rome was really good. I am going to miss anziano herrick and the assistants and anziano deruvo who was anziano steiners companian slash the new assistant. But i love Casserta and my companian is awesome. Very smart educational and with the language and obedient and i dont think we will have any problems. I am very thankful because it is just the two of us in the apartment. He reminds me of my cousin Ben and Napolean Dynamite. He is great. Anziano Patrick is his name and he is from Florida. So my second night here i woke up at 12. i thought i heard bombs going off. I was very worried. It sounded very close to our house. I thought maybe already the mofia was after me. I woke my companian to ask him if the bombs close to our house was a normal thing. He explained to me that it was just fireworks. Italians always put off lots of fireworks for holidays of the saints and the next day was a day for one of the saints of this town. Ha so that was funny. So this town is pretty small but we do work in alot of the cities nearby also. And we ride bikes everywhere. No more bus. Last saturday i am almost positive i was on a bike for 4 hours. We went to a small city about 40 minutes away. It was really cool because the people in that city seemed very open that day. We knocked this door and this really cool kid of 22 years let us in and we taught him the restoration. We also talked with this investigator who is so ready for the gospel she just needs to realize and commit herself. The ward here is 70 percent american and 30 percent italian more or less. It is really interesting hearing talks in english again. The branch president is american and his counselors are one italian and one american. It is because there is an american base close to Caserta. We also have an investigator named Claudio who has a baptism date. He really loves america but also is a very good man. We are just trying to help him read the scriptures on his own. We also have a ward missionary leader named rudolpho Donodeo who just returned from Dallas Texas Mission. He knows Ben but not supper well. You should ask ben what he thinks of him. He is very on the ball and he is really picking up the missionary program here. It is a very good time to be here in caserta. I am very excited. It is very different being here but i am learning different things. Our finding work is just stopping and talking to people on the street. Its really fun. Well sorry if i just bored you all but i dont know a whole lot of specific information yet. But i am very excited to be here. Oh yes i will have the opportunity to translate often which will help my language. I translated on sunday in primary for a little italian girl who is 8. probably one of the funnest things i have done on my missions. This week i have really started realizing the importance of continuous prayer in our lives. Preach my Gospel has so many promises about prayer. If you get the opportunity read chapter 3 commandments(chapter 4) prayer. Like 4th paragraph i think but so many amazing blessings. Prayer is truly helping me become who i want to become. Ok well i have nothing else to say this week. I love you all and have a wonderful week.
> Anziano Hale

This might be a little short cause i am starving. So we had a good week. In august alot of italians like to leave for vacation for the whole month. So 3 of our investigators and alot of out contacts are on vacation. But we were blessed this week. we were finally able to meet with one of our investigatos named leonardo. it was my first time meeting him. He is a good man but he has some problems in his life that are distracting him from realizing the importance of this message. he wasnt very willing to commit himself and he showed too much doubt during the lesson but we will see what happens. we got to meet with Gemil and Sharlene who are 14 and 12 from bolivia. Because they have only been here for a couple months dont speak italian. but this week they understood almost the entire lesson. It was a really neat lesson. we had another missionary who was with us getting his permission to stay in italy. he stopped in rome for two days and stayed with us. it was fun having anther companian again because i learned alot from him. anyway the spirit was strong in the lesson, and they accepted to get baptized. The little girl sharlene was much more willing but we talked to their mother and she said it just might take patience on our part to wait to gemil understands and desires more. so i think that next transfer they will be baptized. And then we got a new investigator yesterday. i was on the bus and i smiled at me, he smiled back so i waved and he waved back. i guess i looked familiar. so i went and sat by him and we talked. he is actually a member of the Jehovah witnesses but is from the philipines and very nice. he is about 40 and lives here by himself. but we had the first lesson and it was amazing. he felt the spirit and we are meeting again with him this friday. Very very nice man. speaking of jehovah witnesses there is a convention here in rome and there are over 80,000 of them here. its crazy. Last experience of this week happened this morning. as we were getting ready to leave the house to do shopping we got a call from the patriarch. he said a man wanted to meet with us. so we went to the mission home where i am right now and he started to talking to us( the patriarch me and anziano herrick and sister acerson). he told us his life story and come to find out he is a member and has the priesthood. he has been inactive for 25 years if i understood right and his niece just passed away. it got him thinking and so he decided he needed to come back. so we set up an appointment with the bishop of the area he lives in rome and they are talking right now. It was a cool experience. I was very happy for him and i would not be surprised if he becomes a leader in this church. he knows the scriptures well and seems like the person that knows what things need to be done. anyway so now i am at the mission home writing you all. this saturday is called ferragosto where almost nobody works. we will be staying inside and cleaning ALL day. i am very excited. well i love you all. I know this gospel is true and we have the amazing responsibility of sharing it with others. oh one more quick story. i was on the bus yesterday and i asked this man if he spoke italian because i could tell he was foreigner. then a couple minutes later i asked english. he told me in broken up english why is it important. he said he knew who i was and what i was doing. i tried to talk to him but he just kept persecuting me. but then i just thought of how i am not the only person he is rejecting right now and it was easier. i was comforted and i was very grateful for the atonement which gave me that comfort. i know that atonement is real and ask we excercise faith in it our lives are changed. Ciao
> anziano hale

well i am physically exhausted so sorry if i sound weird ha. we did service this morning and then ran around this morning. so first of this week we taught jerry a new investigator for when i arrived. we watched the restoration in french. it was cool. hopefully he comes to church on sunday. he is not much of a talker but he did tell us that before we watched the restoration he was a little confused. we were going to teach him the second lesson but thanks to companianship study and prayer we decided not too. the spirit is truly in this work. cant remember if i talked about roberto who was a new investigator last week but he has a family and is italian and awesome. but unfortunately he goes to new york until september. then we taught slash had dinner with this couple below us. they are hilarious. it is so cool now that i can understand 65-87percent of what is said. it makes it so much more enjoyable. and it gives me enough so that i can respond. some people are still really hard to understand but i am definately improving. then we taught jonathan who is 26 and waiting his mission call. his family and friends are not members and not the best influence on him but he is so strong. he likes meeting with us to help himself have strength. i love him. he is one of the most humble and fun people i have ever met. i went on a short exchange with him and we did this survey in this park. the second person we talked to was elect. he is so kind and friendly and speaks the language so much better(he is from philipines but has been here for 15 years or something) and we taught her first gave her a book of mormon and got her information. she is a mother of 2 and the night before had been talking with a friend about the purpose of life. she lives in milan so we will be sending her information their. Ok this week me and my companian were blessed to have another elder with us. anziano cooper was with us this week. he has only been in italy for 1 month and a half but his companian was sick in bed so he came with us for a week. he was surving in batipaglia which is by naples. but he would talk with literally everyone. i learned so much from him and i have never talked to so many people in one week in my life. it was awesome. i learned alot from him.anziano herrick is amazing. i am so blessed to have him as my companian he is a twin and from utah and we are quite common. i love him. we are seeing so many blessings. then we also had zone conference this week which was such a spiritual booster. anziano and his companian gave one of the trainings and it was great. they talked about having the faith to find people. and lastly on wednesday i did a giro (tour) of rome. it was so awesome. so i will tell you the things we saw. first went to spanish steps, then pantheon, then piazza barberina, piazza navona, and the vatican and we saw castel di st angelo, and st giovanni ( huge church), sacred steps (for the catholics the holy of holies) and this church with human bones everyone, and trevi fountain and because there is the world wide watersports championships here we met these professional korean waterpolo players who spoke a little english. it was cool. we also did zone singing with like 35 missionaries at piazza del popolo this week. so we saw alot and alot of things. it was amazing. i took alot and alot of pictures. to the point that there is no room on my camera. but i will send them home on cds. well hope everyone is doing good. i will keep you all in my prayers and i thank you all for yours. i feel them every day. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the only true church on the earth. i know it. vi voglio bene.
> anziano hale.

Happy Birthday Megan and Happy Fourth of July everyone else! Well the mission is not getting easier but i am always enjoying it more and more as a i learn. ok the first of this week was really hard for me and my companian. we had george the week before and then a couple other investigators that we had worked a little with that kind of dropped us or just never answer the phone. so monday through saturday last week was almost discouraging. which is not how you should be. but we lifted eachother up and we are learning so much. me and my companian are so different but it is so fun becoming better and better friends. But on Sunday we saw John and it was amazing. We talked about the apostasy by doing a little object lesson with candles representing apostles and things and then we watched the restoration. We asked him to pay extra attention to his feelings as we watched. after we asked how he filled and you could hear it in his voice and see it in his eyes. he said i am so happy and i want to keep learning. we asked if he thougt joseph smith was a prophet and this gospel is true. he said yes. we asked him to be baptized and he said, again? so we tried to explain the authority that only belongs to our church but he wasnt catching it. but he said he will pray and ask God and if God wants him to get baptized -again- he will do it. so we are preparing on how to teach him this saturday about authority and baptism more but the lesson was so amazing. he didnt grasp the concept perfect but his testimony he has and his faith he has are amazing. i know everything is going to work out wonderful. ok then only other lesson i did this week was with the italian family. i was on an exchange with anziano steiner and we taught them. it was so amazing seeing how the gospel truly helps and strengthens and changes a family. it was the coolest thing ever. So the sister of Mirco-who is the father- is getting baptized the 18th. she is about 22 and has been taking the lessons also. her name is sara. she and the mother barbara help mirco out so much with understanding the scriptures. It was so cool to see the excitement they had about the scriptures and everything. their prayers were very specific and the whole thing was such a spiritaul experience. mirco the father is so funny. this small italian who loves cracking jokes and is so humble as we teach him. i hope i stay in terni next transfer. and on me andanziano steiners exchange we found this sweet family that we will hopefully teach this next week from nigeria and then also this very kind evangelist italian lady-rare-. and i learn so much from his example. it was such a great exchange. well this saturday for the fourht we are playing football so i have to go right now to find one. im doing wonderful. the gospel is so so true. love you all.
> anziano hale
>

Happy Birthday Megan and Happy Fourth of July everyone else! Well the mission is not getting easier but i am always enjoying it more and more as a i learn. ok the first of this week was really hard for me and my companian. we had george the week before and then a couple other investigators that we had worked a little with that kind of dropped us or just never answer the phone. so monday through saturday last week was almost discouraging. which is not how you should be. but we lifted eachother up and we are learning so much. me and my companian are so different but it is so fun becoming better and better friends. But on Sunday we saw John and it was amazing. We talked about the apostasy by doing a little object lesson with candles representing apostles and things and then we watched the restoration. We asked him to pay extra attention to his feelings as we watched. after we asked how he filled and you could hear it in his voice and see it in his eyes. he said i am so happy and i want to keep learning. we asked if he thougt joseph smith was a prophet and this gospel is true. he said yes. we asked him to be baptized and he said, again? so we tried to explain the authority that only belongs to our church but he wasnt catching it. but he said he will pray and ask God and if God wants him to get baptized -again- he will do it. so we are preparing on how to teach him this saturday about authority and baptism more but the lesson was so amazing. he didnt grasp the concept perfect but his testimony he has and his faith he has are amazing. i know everything is going to work out wonderful. ok then only other lesson i did this week was with the italian family. i was on an exchange with anziano steiner and we taught them. it was so amazing seeing how the gospel truly helps and strengthens and changes a family. it was the coolest thing ever. So the sister of Mirco-who is the father- is getting baptized the 18th. she is about 22 and has been taking the lessons also. her name is sara. she and the mother barbara help mirco out so much with understanding the scriptures. It was so cool to see the excitement they had about the scriptures and everything. their prayers were very specific and the whole thing was such a spiritaul experience. mirco the father is so funny. this small italian who loves cracking jokes and is so humble as we teach him. i hope i stay in terni next transfer. and on me andanziano steiners exchange we found this sweet family that we will hopefully teach this next week from nigeria and then also this very kind evangelist italian lady-rare-. and i learn so much from his example. it was such a great exchange. well this saturday for the fourht we are playing football so i have to go right now to find one. im doing wonderful. the gospel is so so true. love you all.
> anziano hale
>

Ciao tutti,
> well i am short on time so i will just talk about the main events from this week and some things i learned. Today we went to assisi which is about an hour and a half from terni. it is a very big tourist city. more english speaking people there than i have seen my whole mission. very weird. but we saw some old churches that were very big and pretty and just the city itself was cool. one cool church was San Francesco. i will send pictures next week. i felt like i was walking through a museum. but it didnt thrill me a ton. i just liked looking at the church. it is very amazing some of the things they built. it definately makes me more grateful for the true church and for the spirit we can feel in our chapels though. well this week was a great example in my mission of ups and downs and of putting my trust in the Lord. Last friday we went to georges. he seemed on tuesday to have doing farely well. But we had a long discussion with him, him doing most of the talking, and we will not be visiting with him any more. it was very very sad and hard. There were some things going on in his life that we didnt know about and he does not want us preaching to him anymore. It was so hard to hear him say everything he said, but the Lord truly comforted him during this time. I felt my heavenly father with me. so george is no longer an investigator. he said he might come to church if he ever desires. But i learned alot about free agency. I can always do my best but people always have their free agency. i thought alot about some of the things we might have done wrong teaching him but then i was reminded that the Savior Jesus Christ was the perfect teacher and people rejected him way more than i will ever be rejected. And we did all we could to teach by the spirit which is the most important thing. And at the same time i still have hope for George in the future. And i know i can not judge others about anything because God is the Judge. And God will use many factors to judge people. Not just because he didnt accept us as missionaries i can say means what will be his reward because God judges people according to their circumstances, the place where they live, the people they are around, the love they have for people, the desires of their heart. I know God knows perfect and so i do not even have to worry. I love George very much and that is what we told him when we left. So that happened this week. then the next day the Lord blessed us. We taught john an awesome lesson. He has been reading the book of mormon alot. And he told us since he has had the book of mormon in his life he has had so much more happiness. The book of mormon is true! He has prayed and feels very good about it. It was such a wonderful lesson. He has been attending some church in rome for 2 years but we invited him to church this sunday. And he came! and even though he doesnt speak italian anziano drury translated for him and he thought church was fabulous. we asked him to come from 10 to 12 but he came from 9 to 12. it was so amazing. well those were the two biggest things that happend this week. We also worked a little with this recent convert who this last week moved from perugia to terni. He is about 45 or something and is originally from peru. he has been here 1 and a half years for work. He is such an amazing person. So So humble and always trying to improve. It was so wonderful being with him. I also met an awesome kid this week named Giordano. which is jordan. it was so cool. he is probably in his early 20s and he played the guitar and i got his number so we can talk about the gospel hopefully this next week. The Lord blesses us so much. well i am really short on time and have to go do my shopping for this week but i love you all and hope everything is going well. Vi voglio bene!
> anziano hale
>

Ciao Family!
> Thank you all for your emails! it is always good to hear news from home. I cannot believe andy is home. that is crazy. i hope surgery goes well. keep me updated on him and tell him anziano steiner and i say hi. things are going well here in terni. last week we had a lot of new investigators in our district and it was really awesome. the members here in terni are getting really excited about missionary work because usually there are only 4 elders but now we have 6 elders in terni. Last week i forgot to tell you avout another way we find people. we have an english class where we teach english to people for free and then share a short spiritual message at the end. this last week anziano wald and i taught the advanced english class together. we felt like we actually contributed. its hard to feel like im contributing when i cant speak the language that well and when i cant understand people but the lord is teaching me so much. and i am contributing. it is scary to talk to people on the bus but the lord has blessed me so much. last week i was on a bus and i said this is so hard. then i just said i just need to talk so i talked to this lady i think i asked her where the best pizzeria was and i didnt understand what she was saying so she wrote it down but then we started talking and i gave her a plan of salvation pamphlet with our number on it because she had a family. it was cool. it was an answer that i can do something here. whenever i see people that look foreign i always talk to them. especially from nigeria because the chances are they speak english better than italian. and they are so friendly. i have met people from so many different countries. like albania, romania, russia, nigeria, afghanistan, germany and a lot more places i dont know how to say. its awesome. oh william is a less active member and he is doing all right but i think you might be talking about daniel who i might have told you the wrong name last week but daniel is doing pretty good. we think he found a job because we tried going back during the day and he wasnt there but we did teach the first lesson to him and his sons girlfriend rosana and it was so awesome. i might have already told you about it but i could truly feel the spirit testifying through me. right now we are doing a lot of finding work but have so many people we are just trying to set up anappointment with because they have so much potential. Oh yes last week we went to these waterfalls near terni and they were really big and really pretty it was awesome. today we are shopping. oh i cant remember if i told you we sing in centro on sunday to find people. we sing hymns and it is awesome. well i am learning so much here. thanks again for all your emails. oh we had zone conference yesterday and it was amazing. president and the aps and zone leaders and sister acerson spoke and i got to bear my testimony cause i am new but it was just a great experience. our mission president and his wife are amazing! oh one more thing. we went to this investigators house named mimo who fed us dinner and it was an experience. he is so funnny and has been an investigator for quite a while. over the years though with the missionaries he has stopped smoking and drinking.anyway first he fed us alot of pasta which was good, then when we were full he brings out these mozerella chesse balls that are almost the size of a raquet ball and says mangia tutti. eat it all. then a salad, chocolates, icecream and then he made us eat fruit. i had a banana and the biggest orange of my life. i was so full. it was so funny. well i will try to go send you pics right now. thank you all for your prayers i can feel them. i know this is the lords work. i recieve so so many tender mercies from Him everyday. i love the people in italy and am so happy i still have most of my mission left. love you all!
> Anziano Hale