From Pisa

Pisa, Italy

Hello Family, 

The ride over here was good. Took a long time. 18 hours of actual travel time to get to Pisa not to mention all the layovers we had and waiting for trains. So I've been trying to overcome the jetlag this week. The physical and physcological exhertion of getting here as well as being here is crazy.  I never thought it was possible to be as tired as I am. But the work goes on.

 

So you heard about my companion. He is awesome just like president said.  I dont know if president told you this but I'm killing my companion. Yep my trainer Anziano Schultz dies at the end of this transfer. He turned 21 yesterday. So he has lots of experience and is amazing at the language. Unlike me of course. I didn't know how bad I truly am at Italian. I thought I knew so much! Yikes. I can't understand anyone. It's awful-so discouraging. So I kinda just sit there. Like last night for example, sitting in branch counsel with 5 Italian priesthood leaders, my comp and me for an hour and half. I try so hard to listen and understand but its not coming, So hard here. But I get along great with A. Schultz. He is a real good missionary especially for being in his 16th transfer. Apparently a lot of misisonaries just give up near the end but not him.  Our branch is pretty good. Despite a lot of difficulties in Pisa missionary work in the past, the members are really strong. We had prob 40 or 50 people at church last Sunday.

 

My apartment is pretty nice. Really old but very spacious for just the 2 of us. The bathroom is bad but thats okay. But everything else is good. We even have a stereo system  with big speakers. The food here has been really good. Or the pizza we have gotten at restaurants is good and we had lunch at a part member family after church on sunday, the food just kept coming, first a huge plate of pasta, then pork roast, then the salad and bread with oil then cake then fruit. The fresh squeezed blood orange juice is so good. The milk is really wierd. They don't refrigerate it. Just sits out and doesn't go bad somehow.

 

Missionary work is going good but really discouraging at times, especially when you don't speak the language real well. Casa in Casa especially, door after door closed. no mi interessà! is what I get, We have a couple of investigators who seem to be doing good and interested in progressing, i just dont know what will happen. We taught a guy from Senegal the other day, big guy. Wants to convert to christianity. His name, Fall fallou. cool huh. We also have an investigator, Nicla she is really nice. She doesn't laugh at my italian like everybody else. This first week we've taught a lot of new-converts and less active members. So we work with the members a lot too. Our ward mission leader is awesome, he sets appointments up for us all the time.

 

Pisa is nice, the tower is the only real beautiful thing about Pisa other than that its kinda ghetto. We went with a member on some referrals out to Lucca, a city just outside Pisa, in the beautiful rolling hills and farmland of Tuscany. O my gosh, Tuscany at its best, just like you would imagine. So gorgious out there. Orchards and old style houses. That's my misison field. We have already been to Firenze (Florence) too. We went for zone interviews on Monday so I've already seen so much here already. The APs were there too. Its nice knowing Creed, the APs are like the law aroud here besides president of course. They're really corny and excited all the time.

 

Alrighty, I dont know what else to say. I love you all so much and miss you. talk to you later.

 

Love,

 

Anziano Mendel 

The Eagle has Landed

Arriving in Milano, April 6, 2011

Just so everyone knows Elder Mendel made it safely to Italy! His first area will be in Pisa, Italy in the Florence District. We couldn't be more excited for him!!!

Week 8

Hey Mom and Family,

 well i guess ill start by Answering all your questions I hope I get them all.  Yes I will take a lot of pictures as we are leaving and such. And I will try to put them online on MobileMe when I can I just dont know yet. I have some pictures that im gonna send home soon. I havent packed my bag yet, I still and always worried about getting it down to 50lbs, I dont know when I would ever have the time to pack my bag and unpack it again only to pack it up again when I leave. This last week is so busy with things that I have to do before I leave! Im really stressed about it! I hope I know enough of the language. I know every grammer principle and tense and lots of verbs but when I go into give lessons in ITalian I only use like 6 verbs and a couple tenses. Its so frustrating. I can say pretty much whatever I wanna say in Italian now so thats cool but I still really have so much to learn.  

 Well im getting to know a lot of people from the new Anziani, So yeah. Theres some others that ive gotten close to. Really I just miss my samoans. All the new Italians are doing good. italians Are definatly the strongest group of missionaries at the MTC, I am so sick of hearing spanish and portuguese all the time. I thought Portuguese was a pretty language. Oh how wrong I was. Ugliest tthing ive ever heard. way worse than spanish. 

Thats awesome your playing ball! im sure youre a baller. Ball here is really intense, Great players. I dunk it every once and awhile and have elders awe at me. Prob not the best thing i should do. But you know. I just love being big, Ive stayed the same weight here pretty much. like 200-205lbs. So sad to think that i went to the temple 1 hour ago and wont be able to return for 2 years. We are definatly gonna go once a week when i get back, probably more.

Oh I am so excited for Conference! ive been excited for some time now! how awesome is it. I get to hear from all 15 prophets and revelators 1 day before I go to italy, Thats more than coincidence.

Well I cant wait to be in Italy! I love you all and will be able to call you on tuesday at the airport. Cant wait.

I dont think I need anything else.  Thanks for getting me PMG laminated! does it look sicK? I love those pictures.

Did justin Love going to the jazz game. Hearing about those kids drives me crazy. If I woulda been there I woulda gone crazy.

Cant wait to see you agian. love you all

I have to report to the Travel office at the MTC at 4:00am on Tuesday next week! Yep so next Tuesday ill be headed off to Italy and I am so ready to leave. 

Anziano Mendel

Vi Voglio bene 

Week 7

Hey mom and family how goes live in the real world this week, today has been a different Pday for me so sorry the letter has taken longer for me to write then usual. This last week has honestly been the best week for me here in the Mtc so far. I've just been having so much this week and there has been so much change. Change for the good and change for the bad. Well to start off, Im in a 3 some now with vitali and taggart. So things are good in my 3 some now.

TRC was different, teaching with 3 companions seeing as me and vitali are both the leaders of our old companionships and took the lead in the lessons but we figured it all out. The samoans left for samoa on monday and that really sucks that theyre gone now. As ive shared with you before We were really close so it was tough to say goodbye for 2 years but thats missionary work really. The new missionaries are here and that is really fun and different being the old guys on the block, I like it. Ive gotten really close to two of them who are a lot like me. They're really chill. A. Holland and Riacerretta I dont know how to spell his name. They are so cool. ITs crazy how diverse the missionaries are here.

 I've gotten so close to my district here i feel like ive known some of them for a lot longer than 7 weeks! which makes for going to bed at 1030 pretty impossible. We had parties in my room before the samoans left and That amazing package you sent me kinda got devoured, or inhaled i dont know which word to use. So i might need a refil?.... hint hint they were just so good! haha. We took some amazing pictures at the temple yesterday that were so funny!!! we were crying laughing so hard at them. I get my Travel plans in a couple of days and i am so excited! it will tell me when I leave and where our layovers will be just all the information so next pday I will share all of that with you.

Im sending home my English PMG I glued in pictures and they wont let me Laminate so Its pretty much ruined so itd be awesome if you could take it to kinkos our something and get it hard laminated. It will look so cool! and then mail it back asap, I have another one here so dont worry about me not being able to use it. I am getting soooo excited to get to Italy I Cant even breath right now! its only 2 weeks away! I wonder what city i will be started in or who my trainer will be! Cant wait we are all so excited. The language for me is coming along really! I can understand it really well and can read it well. I go through PMG in Italian and only have to look up a few words. Im hoping that will help me.

The hardest part is speaking it. Speaking it all the time. My District isnt really good at it cause we are all so close and like to talk to much! couple nights ago we made a man cave which was really just 6 elders pretending like we were 6 again making a fort out of covers. Remember the forts we used to make? anyways we sat and talked for hours. talked about everything and dont worry we got a lot of it on pictures so you can see. But we are just so tight now! Im having the time of my life out here, So much memories and being in the service of our God together all going to Italy will just unite us forever.

Yeah some times are tough and hard but Its all worth it. I am going to miss the spirit that I feel every day in here Im going to miss my fantastic teachers But still, ill be living in Italy in 2 weeks, Can you believe ive been here 7 weeks. Thats the longest by far that ive been away from you. Im not saying its gone fast in any means cause it hasnt but Its been 7 weeks and I know when Im in Italy time will just go faster and faster and faster.

Then ill be home and reunited with you. I think all the time what you (my family) will look like in 2013, remember how much I grew between 14 and 16? Justing will have the priesthood, Dani will be Married! hopefully... No... She will. And then there will be Camille and Alan prob the same and a much fatter version of Trevor. Im gonna have to go to Golds a lot with Davis when i get back. Although iv'e kept up on my push ups and I can do more than i ever could.

Times like these where a knowledge of the plan of salvation really is esential! Cant imagine how anyone could live with out it and thats why im here. Im so honored to be here. Cant even tell you enough how awesome it is that I can do this at 19. After 7 weeks of being in the MTC I've learned so much. Its insaine. I still have so much to learn though and Im humbled by that fact every day.
Thanks for finding me a CD player. Apreccitate that! Was Bubba's wedding cute? do they look happy? What temple were they married in? What temple does Dani wanna get married in. I cant believe that after next week I wont be able to go to the temple for 2 years.... Thats gonna be awful. How awesome would it be to be married in the San Diego Temple, Or how about this the Rome Temple! You been going to the temple every week? how great it is to give you some perspective of why we are here and whats really important by doing the Eternal ordinences in the temple. I just love it and hope I can continue after my mission.

Hows my buddy at the Subway doing!?! that is so funny that he remebers me. did you get a double chocolate cookie to eat for me?
Hows my Riley doing? Hows the real world? whats new. Alrighty i have to go ill apolagize again for how all over the place my letters are. Love you all so much cant wait to see yo
u again.

Much Love
-Anziano Mendel
Ci Vediamo, Vi voglio bene!

Week 6

Hello! hows it going family!

Things are going good for me here right now! Im teaching all the time 100% in italian. I feel a lot of the times that I suck at the language and cant talk but I can teach pretty well in Italian and thats the whole reason Im learning the language in the first place. Anziano Taggart and I taught the Sorelle (sisters) in our district the other day. Even in Rough Italian the spirit was so strong as we taught them. One of them Sorella Bishop was crying her eyes out with the spirit. I felt it strongest then I think then Ive ever felt it before. And it wasn't even a real investigator, Just practice. I know the Italian words coming out of my mouth were true and the Holy Ghost was making it known to me. Just an Awesome experience.

You asked why I hang with the samoan missionaries so much, I still hang with italians a lot but im literaly with them all day long. so the last hour of the day its nice to go back to the residence and talk to other people. The samoan missionaries im talking about are going to samoa but like half of them are samoan so yeah that answers your question. We really just study the language while studying how to be a missionary. So its all Italian based around teaching investigators so we dont learn pointless vocabualry like animals and slang cause we dont use it.

I cant wait to be in Italy. Kinda scary but I want to be there. 3 weeks thats IT! the countdown is on! We get the 39 new italian missionaries tomorrow and we've been preparing for that. We all want to be the best examples we can possibly be and want none of them to go home while in their first 3 weeks. We're gonna speak only Italian to them so THat should be funny!

Tell Danielle Happy Birthday and let her know im thinking about her always but especially today on her birthday! 22! big day. Im gonna write her a letter but that wont get to her til Wed or THur

We got asked to do 5 contacts in Italian to just other random misionaries around the MTC last night We shared our italian testimonies with some missionaries going to Holland and Belgium Mission! i just thought about Dad the whole time. The Dutch testimony was cool to hear. A lil rough cause they had only been in the MTC 3 weeks


Love you all! I pray for you always

Love
Anziano Mendel

Week 5

Hey Mom, Hey Family. Another week has passed here at the MTC. more than half way over!!! only have 27 more days here then its off to Italy. I cant wait. So my Big news for the week. Yesterday (Monday) I had my normal TRC where we teach fake investigators volunteers. Well We had to do it 100% in Italian this week. So like an hour of only speaking Italian. It was tough but also really fun. I thought I did pretty good, I know A lot of Italian but still not enough. I kinda cracked a little when we were in their but I recovered... I think. My Companion and I did a good job I think.

 I love my district. We're all so close right now. So i think Im full to the brim on pumkin and bannana bread. Ive still got a ton of postachios to eat as well. so Im excited to see what I get next.... so Im not really sure what More I can tell you... What do you want to know?

The MTC is just the same ole thing all day long every week. Im excited for the new italian missionaries to come in in 8 days. We made a goal as a district to befriend them so no one heads home the first week like and elder from our districts. See how that goes. Im gonna go print off some pictures today and send them to you. Think If I sent my Preach my Gospel Home You could get the Front and back of it laminated for me? They wont do it for me cause I glued in Pictures. Pictures of Jesus and they still wont do it!?! how much do you think it would cost to mail that to you? Well this week has been pretty good.  I love getting letters from Davis.  look forward to hearing from you soon. Im gonna mail some stuff to you today. I have a poem I want you to read. I also want to share a scripture That I like and used during my lesson in DM. Alma 41;5 Its about Desires.

Love you all! see you soon
Elder Mendel 

Week 4

Hello Family!,
  How is everything going back at home this last week? Anything exciting happening? besides mothers cruise of course is she back from that yet?So everything is going pretty good for me here in the Mtc now. Its March Today! no more Feb and its really nice. 1 down and 23 to go. Yesterday the head Italian teacher and a couple other teachers brought all the Italians into a room and kinda had a ceremony leaving behind English for the next 2 years. We made a gate with 2 desks and walked through leaving behind English. Yikes.. Already. I'll be honest. we've used a lot of English in that last day but I've spoken more Italian in this last 24 hours then probably the whole time I've been here. I'm learning a lot but every time i think i know a lot my pride and confidence gets shattered down to the ground. Last night Elder Taggart and I taught our first progressive investigator in only Italian! I hope and pray that I can learn this language.


  The Samoan missionaries next to us are so awesome. We are like all best friends now! they are all so chill and funny. One kid Paid for his entire mission by doing stand up comedy! I have no doubt he's being real about that cause he is so Outrageously funny! honestly I cry with laughter when he talks. Elder Vitali and I entered into a covenant together last week. We work out every night. We do 1 push up then stand up and raise our hands above our heads 10 times then 2 push ups and raise our hands above our head ten times all the way up to 10. And that is a Work OUT! try it. I do abs too. We're gonna be ripped by the time we leave. And I'll hopefully be able to continue throughout my entire mission. We went to the temple earlier this morning. We did inititories. Thats prob my favorite thing to do at the temple. It was awesome of course and the best part about it was getting breakfast in the cafeteria after! Real Eggs and Cheese! crazy how the MTC gets away with feeding us the stuff they do.  I see Landon all day long on Sundays we have the exact same schedule so we eat together, walk to the temple together and watch the movie together. Its awesome catching up with him. His companion is pretty awesome, They're all so funny and all look the same. its really funny. I haven't gained much weight while I'm here. I'm still like a couple pounds over 200 like I was before I came to the the MTC, Basketball is always fun. A sister from my District got reassigned for 1 month to Baton Rouge. She left early this morning. She already knows Italian so they gave her a reassignment until her Italian Visa activates. So everyone needs more of mothers amazing pumpkin or banana bread. It all gets eaten with us and the Samoans. It's always fun to share food and share our testimonies in our mission languages.  How are things at home then? Kids doing good at school? Is Riley doing alright. Landon always teases me about Riley not knowing who I am when I get home. Did You know that Joe Davis sent me a leather bound journal? its really nice looking. So nice of them. I needed something just like that for a quote/ spiritual thought book. I found the coolest poem that i copied the other day about missionary work. im gonna send it home in a week or so after I transfer it to my quote book.

Love Anziano Mendel