> La mia famiglia!
>
> Well the palace that i went and saw last week was amazing. Probably my favorite thing i have seen in italy. Old building are really neat but it was the most gorgeous place i have ever been. It was raining for alot of the time so we got our selves pretty wet but it was really fun. I will send some pictures. This is also where they shot part of the star wars movie. Anyway this week went pretty well. It was a little slower but this next week is looking really good. No one came to church but we were able to see a couple people. We saw arcangelo and talked about scripture study and prayer. He will not commit himself to do anything and so it is hard for him to progress. He wasnt able to come to church because he had to coach soccer. So we invited him to read 3 verses and thats it. Hopefully he can slowly gain the desire to read the book of mormon. We had a great appointment with Jacob this week. He has a little eleven month year old daughter who lives in ghana with his wife. We talked about the plan of salvation and baptism. He feels good about the book of mormon but he says he needs to be patient to recieve his answer. And he has commited to come to church this Sunday along with his 3 friends. So that will be wonderful. He is a great man. We had Emilda who is a recent convert help us teach and it went great. She has such a strong testimony and it was helping here understand some of the doctrine better also. It was so neat we were walking on the street with her and we started talking to some young men who were in their 20s. After we invited them to english class and we were walking away emilda had stopped and was digging through her bag. She grabbed out five cards that had the articles of faith on them and proudly handed them out to the young men. It was so neat. She has such a strong testimony and such a great desire to share this gospel. She is a great example for me. We also were able to teach Emilda this week about Temples. She is very excited to go to the temples. She did not know about that she could be baptized for her deceased ancestors and when we told her she was so excited.
> This last weekend we had to go to Rome to get the permesso for my companian. Its the card for his permission to be here. We did not have the receit for his card and so they did not give us the permesso but the trip was not wasted. Right after we left the permesso office, a little down, we met this really cool man from tanzania. He has a family of 8 children. He was in rome for a couple of days on a business trip. He had heard of the church but he did not know very much about it. So we had broughten with our luggage a book of mormon in english and italian. So we gave him the english book of mormon after we had explained the restoration to him. He said, well that would be important to read this book. We got his email address and he was very excited to read the book of mormon. It was such a neat experience. My companian said after it happened, its funny that he had to come to Rome to hear about the gospel. The lord is in this work. So this week went really well. Next week are transfers. I will probably be staying here in caserta and be recieving a new companian but we will see. Well i love you all! I love this work and there is nothing i would rather be doing. Thank you so much for all the prayers.
> Anziano Hale
>

Hello!
> Well today we are going to the regia which is a big palace here in caserta so sorry if this is kind of short. I will send a few pictures next week from halloween and the palace. Well we were pretty busy this last week which is always a good thing. We were able to teach arcangelo once. He wanted to learn about the 2nd coming so we had a pretty good lesson. He has been harder to get ahold of lately because he kind of has a girlfriend. He also has a hard time keeping commitments but he really likes coming to church. He says he would come even if we didnt ask him. Then we were able to teach John Adam, Jacob and ebenezier from ghana. It went really well. We went to teach Jacob and then the others were all at the house. We watched the restoration together and then we talked about the book of mormon. We had a really neat american member there with us that bore amazing testimony. They were all really excited to read the book of mormon and they are going to try to come to church next week. I am so excited. It was such a spiritual lesson becuase they are so humble. This week my testimony was strenghtened on the power of the priesthood. We were able to give alot of blessings this week to members who needed them for sickness and also comfort. We were also able to give one to Rudolfos mother who is not a member. It was really neat. Sunday evening we called an inactive who we have been trying to get a hold of. We got through to her and she did not sound good. She said she wasnt feeling well. We asked her if there was anything we could do and she asked for a blessing. So later that evening we went over there. Luckily, well there is no luck in missionary work, but i was able to memorize how to give a priesthood blessing in italian earlier in the week. She asked me to give it and i was very nervous. It was a very simple blessing but Sister Russos faith was amazing. The spirit was so strong. It was a really neat experience. I have gained such a love lately for my studies in the scriptures during my mission. I am so excited every morning to study and am always sad when the studying time is over. The scriptures truly can give us a power that we need throughout the day. oh other good news is sister bove came to church again this last week and bore her testimony. it was so awesome.
> Oh yes on halloween I made a pumpkin pasta. The pumpkin that we cut out from our pumpkins with faces i put in the freezer and then on saturday turned it into a pasta. It was delicious. Hope everyone else had a wonderful Halloween. Well I love you all. I know this Gospel is true. I know its not always easy to endure to the end but i know as we search ponder and pray every day that we can become the people we need to. Ciao!
> Anziano hale

So italians are just starting to pick up this tradition of halloween. me and my companian carved some pretty cool pumpkins. his pumpkin ways 36 pounds and mine is named shades. i will send pictures next week and maybe it will help you understand.
> Well how is everyone? I am doing great. Another great week at Caserta. Well nothing really new this week. Oh accept today i am officially not a teenager anymore. Unfortunately. Ha just kidding i guess its cool. Today has been a great day. I got franks sauce from the american base and made chicken wings, and had a cake, bunch of little treats from my companian and a tie from my ward missionary leader. Its been awesome. And now i get to hear from my favorite people! Well this week went pretty good. Arcangelo came to church again but when we invited him to be baptized he said it needs to be a thing that comes from within him. But i have very good feelings about the future for Arcangelo. As soon as he can truly get himself into the book of mormon he will gain a strong testimony because he is a true seeker he just needs to commit himself. Also in church this week was sister Bove. 5 years ago she wasnt really wanting anything with the church and when i met her 2 months ago i thought she would never return. but the Lord works in certain ways to help his children becuase He loves each of them so much. Her families money situation is not good and her circumstances led her to come to church. Even if she was humbled because she had to be it was so good to see her in church and the members welcomed her so good and she is planning on returning next week. I love inactive work. It brings so much joy! We also got a new investigator from Ghana this week. His name is jacob and he has a little girl not even a year old who lives in ghana with the mother. He is very nice. This week we met with an old investigator named Louisa. She is about 45 and has a beautiful family. She is also very catholic. But she is great because she has a strong testimony of the bible and Jesus Christ. We are hopefully meeting with her and her husband next week to teach the first. There are so many wonderful people in this world with great testimonies of Jesus Christ. I just wish they could all have the fullness of the blessings that are available through the Restoration. Actually they can. We just have to help them find the truth. I also did an exchange this week in Naples with one of the Zone Leaders. It was really good. Naples is a crazy city. Really crazy. But i really like it. We got to teach a part member family. The mom is a member and the dad will be a member when he can quit smoking. It is so neat to see families who are ready for the gospel. We had the father right down the reasons he wanted to stop smoking and among them were getting baptized and getting married in the temple with his wife. It was such a neat experience. This last sunday was the primary program and it was great. All the kids are american accept for one little italian girl. But it was a great program and made me grateful for the humility and love of children. Well thats about all for this week. Hope everyone is doing great! Love ya all! And thank you everyone for the birthday emails!
> Arrivederci!
> Anziano Hale

Buon Giorno!
> Well it is finally winter here in italy. There is no snow but it is definately a little colder. We have been taking our coats with us everywhere. But maybe i will enjoy not having snow for a year since i cant play in it anyway. But these here are going very well. Zone conference was yesterday and it was great. I did not know where anyone in the mission was before yesterday because we find out at zone conference. I was really hoping that anziano Herrick would come down to the napoli zone, and i was guessing there was a fifty percent chance anziano Steiner would be the new assistant and i would get to see him. And both of them happened! So i was very happy to see them yesterday and the chances are anziano steiner will be assistant the rest of his mission so we will have served with eachother every transfer accept the last one. Such a blessing. Zone Conference was also very spiritual like it always is and we talked about gaining out own testimonies of the Savior Jesus Christ. It was really good. Arcangelo is still coming to church and meeting with us but he is having a hard time reading the book of mormon. He says he is still not in the right frame of mind. So if you could please pray for him. He is such a nice man and everyone at church loves him. Being here in italy makes me so grateful for the restoration because just talking with italians every day and them talking about the way the grew up and the things they were taught some of just the smallest truths i grew up with that the world does not understand. There is so much i have taken for granted in my life but i am so grateful for the knowledge that i have and the life i have ahead of me to live. Also this week we went to a city called Mondragone. It is about a hour and 15 minute bus ride from Caserta. It is also the home of Buffalo Mozzarella which is the best cheese in the world. So we definately had some of that while we were there and it was the best in the world. We went to Mondragone to teach the Gervasio family. The father is a member but inactive because he doesnt have a car to get to church. He was not married to long ago and they just had their first child a little girl. She had problems when she was born and so the elders gave the baby a blessing and the baby started healing quickly. The mother was able to see the power of the priesthood and wants to continue learning about our church. They have come to church the past 2 weeks and the lesson went really well. Hopefully their daughter will be able to come home from the hospital this wee and hopefully next week he can get a car. As we went to catch our bus that passes not often at all we sat down expecting to wait a while but the bus came within 5 minutes. It was such a blessing and a good experience. I know that the Lord is in this work. I love you all and appreciate all your emails letters and prayers. Have a great week!
> Anziano Hale

Well it finally cooled down here this week. it is still not cold but i do need my suit jacket to stay warm. well we had a pretty good week. Arcangelo came to church and really enjoyed it. WE are trying to get him to read the book of mormon with a member because he is having a hard time commiting himself to do it by himself. but he is doing very well. we are seeing him tomorrow. we are seeing the family again this saturday because last saturday it didnt work out so we went to another family. the desimone family. they live below us and are very nice people. the mom is not too interested in our visits but he enjoys listening and really feels the spirit when he is with us. but with his family and not much work it is hard for him to focus on praying and reading the scriptures. but he is a wonderful man and i know that if he can commit himself to read the book of mormon he could get baptized. we also this week met with a part member family this week. it is so sad the circumstances of some people. we went there and the mothers job has not paid her for 7 months and she just has to keep working and hope that they will pay her. they didnt have enough money to go shopping the day before we got there and there electricity bill expired that same day. It was a miracle that we went to their house because anziano patrick and i were not planning on going there but things fell through and we went there. on sunday we were able to bring them some food set up a meeting with the branch president to help them with the electricity bill and we had a great lesson on sunday and after 7 , 8 years she told us she will come back to church. we are hoping she will keep to her word but it is so interesting to see the way the lord works. oh this week i got a letter from anziano herrick my last companian and he told me jhemil and sharlene ( the bolivian kids) were baptized and it was a beautiful baptism. it made me so happy. davide though from terni did not get baptized. i think it was because of family problems. he is still doing well though and they are working for another date so if you could keep him in your prayers that would make me happy. well this has been a great week for my studies. i have been able to study the scriptures this week and preach my gospel with a more opened mind and i have learned so much from the spirit. i love the book of mormon and i loved elder hollands testimony of it. i know it is true with all my heart also and i am going to do more to use it as a missionary. well hope everyone is doing good. Be grateful for your circumstances. be grateful that your family also has this gospel. i never realized how big a blessing the gospel is in my family until i came here to caserta. we are so blessed as members of this church to have the knowledge we have. we have a great responsibility with this knowledge. i am so greatful for this responsibility. well i love you all. arrivederci
> anziano hale

i cannot believe transfer 6 is allready here. well next week it will be. there are 16 total and it is going by way to fast. well good news. i am staying and so is anziano patrick. i am so happy. especially because we got some awesome new investigators this last week. so saturday night me and my companian watched one hour of conference at an internet point and then we raced on our bikes to an appointment with a family. this man works across from where the elder couple lives. we have talked to him alot and finally set up an appointment with him. he has 3 beautiful children who are 9 7 and 3. and his (massimos) wife is an awesome lady. we ate dinner with their family and then taught them the first lesson. it was one of my favorite appointments ever. they are a very normal amazing awesome family. and they said they will read the book of mormon and we can teach them the plan of salvation. it was such a cool experience. hopefully we will see them this saturday night. also we taught arangelo again this last week and it went very well. he also went to pozuoli to watch a session of conference with one of the members. he enjoyed it and we will see him tomorrow. he is such a great person. well for conference we watched it in English on sunday at the warners house. we watched 7 hours of it. it was awesome. i loved it so much. we havent seen it all yet but i am excited to hear the rest. well those were the highlights of my week but everything went well. oh we finally got hold of claudio who was supposed to be baptized and he says he is in north italy working until christmas so we wont see him for a while. well i love you all. i know this work is the greatest work ever and i am so happy to be doing it. ciao
> anziano hale

ok so i just wrote this letter and had about 3 sentences more to write and my time went out. so sorry if this letter is a little shorter this week. i dont have the patience slash time to rewrite everything. so this week was crazy. Friday we went to Claudios and his very catholic mother was very against him getting baptised. but when we left he still was planning on getting baptised. saturday morning when we went to pick him up he wasnt there. his mom said he went away and told us to leave. his phone was turned off. we still have not been able to make contact with him. it was very sad. but that just means that he wasnt ready. we still had a little meeting for all the people that came to the baptism. but i learned alot because of this experience. his week we got an amazing new investigator. very nice normal man. he has been prepared for the gospel. he came to english class coming to learn english but really liked the spirit he felt. he has been out of work for 3 years and has 2 sons. his wife left him along time ago so he raised his sons. we taught him last thursday the first and then yesterday the 2nd. he hasnt read the book of mormon but he has felt the spirit very strong. yesterday my companian invited him to be baptised when he gains a testimony. he accepted. it was such a miracle. He has been prepared by god and his angels. it is such miracle! i know God is in this work and this is His work. Ok last cool experience. yesterday we were in the park doing english class publicity and were were talking to these three 16 year old boys. after about 3 minutes talking to them they had atleast 10 other 16 year old boys come over to join them. we started talking to them and after about 5 minutes i asked if they were religious then they asked me what our church was and i got to teach the restoration to about 7 of them. it was so neat. they were all in a little circle just listenig so intently and asking questions. when i got to the book of mormon they asked how much they cost and i said they are free. some of the boys wanted this book and we didnt even have enough for the ones that wanted them. it was so neat. and then one inparticular who seemed so interested we got his number and hopefully we can see him next week. it was such a cool experience. People are ready for the gospel everywhere. i just need to have the faith to be lead to them. it was like a dream coming true teaching to these young men the thing that mattters most to me in my life. well i know this gospel is true and i am so so so grateful for this opportunity. i love you all. transfers are next week. hopefully i am still here with anziano patrick. bye!
> anziano hale