CIAO ANZ DUQUE! CIAO ANZ PORTELLANO! and...MY LAST TRANSFER

Dear Mom and Dad,

 No worries about the combined email, it's less to read which saves me time and it's what I try to do each and every week so it's all good! Sounds like you guys had a solid week. Man I miss Tucanos and stuff like that! Not gonna lie I'm looking forward to it! :)

 

Thanks for getting me all the info for school and... ugh I can tell it's gonna be a pain! Real life is coming soon! One of the negative things of coming home from a mission ...a .mission is pretty care free! We have to deal with saving souls which is super important but when it comes to worldly stuff, we are pretty much taken care of and we do not have many problems, ha ha... oh well. I will start thinking about that stuff. For sure I will pray and fast. How soon do you guys need the answer of what I want to do, so you can contact the advisor? Let me know, and don't worry I will stay focused and worry about the now and not too much about the future. Saving lives is still my main focus especially during the last 30+ days of my mission.

 

It's been a crazy week with Anziano Duque getting ready to go home. Visiting a lot of members and last second running around! I have come to love Anziano Duque so much!!!!! For real, he is a great friend. I think we've helped each other out a lot. I have to say that a lot of people kinda questioned President when everyone found out we were going to be together as companions because I'm in my last month and 1/2 of the mission and he has a few weeks left. People thought we would be "too relaxed" but it really was for a reason and we have both grown and learned from one another. He is someone I for sure hope to see again one day.

 

Today for pday the Maughans took us and the missionaries from Padova (Anz. Free and Anz. Lenhardt) to the American base for breakfast. Then we played bowling and then for lunch we ate Taco Bell and had a chance to even watch sports center for a moment!!! Man it was awesome! Do you want to know one of the best parts... free refills on drinks! That doesn't exist here in Italy but it did on the base because it's like America :) ha ha and later tonight they are coming to pick us up and we are going back to the base to watch the American branch play some b-ball because Anz. Duque needs to say goodbye to some of those members too. I'm gonna miss him tons! I have to say it's been a good transfer, of course with its ups and downs but I can say I've learned some really good lessons and it's been awesome.

 

That being said.... yes I know who my next comp is.... his name is Anziano Portellano! He is french, straight up from France!!! ha ha He's been on his mission about a year now. He is a really good friend. I always see him at zone conf and we have gotten along great. He is kinda short and cooks like a king! We are going to get along really well! I'm stoked! He is going to be the one "killing me". For my last 5 weeks I'm going to have to keep us working hard! ha ha hopefully I'm up for it! Oh guess who our new AP is..... Anziano Justin Barnes! He's gonna do great. He literally is the perfect missionary, and will do a great job!  I'm excited to be with Portellano. It's gonna be a good experience. And I know that all companionship's a for a good reason and we will learn a lot, together!

 

FYI I wish you guys could see my hair right now!!! It's so... Italian style ha ha probably not the most appropriate thing ever though so I think I'm going to cut it. I don't think I'm gonna be able to grow it out until the end of my mission like I wanted to! I just wanted to let you know that I am  growing out my hair style like this after the mission!!! ha ha

 

So really quick before I end the email, our little miracle for this week is that Evans had a meeting with a judge and they are letting him off house arrest so he is gonna be able to come to church! He is free as of Feb 13th. We've been praying for this all transfer. That's the good news! The bad news is, that he is still having some family challenges (I don't want to go in detail). Some prayers for them would be nice. Put their names on the prayer roll in the temple because that would be good..... thanks!

So...as you can see I am good! I am loving it out here but at the same time I can feel it is starting to come to an end. Don't take that the wrong way!!!! It is sad to think mission is about to end. I hope you guys have a great week! Thanks for the info about school again! I will "piano piano" start thinking about it....

I love you guys tons! have a great week! Looking forward to hear from you guys soon!!!

Love Anziano Bona

PS... am i gonna be able to see any of Brian's bball games or am i gonna miss all of them, and yes ...that is the apartment place where i live! we live on "piano terra". It's a kinda small apartment but really nice inside! And...I slept like a baby didn't even feel the earthquakes last night! ha ha!

BIRTHDAY'S AND ANNIVERSARY!

Dear mom and Dad,

 

Sorry I didn't write yesterday. You guys should know by now that if I don't write there is always a reason why! ha No need to worry! My birthday went really well thanks! Birthdays here in the mission are just like any other day! I went to church and later Anziano Duque made some dinner for me and then some people came and brought me a cake! It was nice! Dinner with Dan was great. Man... Dan is super chill! It was a Mexican place but we all ended up getting steak and shrimp! Soooooo good.

 

Yesterday we had a zone conference and a member of the 70's came and spoke to us. Man it was  good. Such a great spirit and it's awesome to hear from our inspired leaders about how we can improve. Mom you are right though to stay focused.... we are super busy today..... we gotta do a lot of running around for Anziano Duque and it will probably be the same next week. I'm sorry I gotta keep this way short but I wanted to tell you Happy Anniversary !!! I love you guys tons !! 22 years down and 1 zillion more to go...at least!!

 

I love you again,

your son Robert...have a great week!

HAPPY 21ST BIRTHDAY

ANZIANO BONA

TANTISSIM AUGURI PER TUO

21 essimo COMPLEANNO!

TI VOGLIAMO TANTO BENE!

VAI QUI PER VEDERE UN PO DELLE

VITA DI ANZ BONA

HAPPY 21ST BIRTHDAY

ANZIANO BONA

WE LOVE YOU!

HAPPY 21!

Dear Mom and Dad,

Once again things seems good back home. Just same old Provo ha ha. Ya if Bishop Chipman wants to call he is free to call whenever. I'll answer as long we aren't in a lesson. He is so lucky to get to come here and have a nice little vacation. Italy is so freakin awesome!!!

So of course I remember Anz Wilkinson! I love that kid he is so funny and is such a great kid. For sure tell him if he's in Utah to totally give me a call! I'd love that!

Claudia told me that she talked to you guys and added me on facebook ha ya her and Vanessa (two English class students) are from Messina! Small world huh? She is so cool! Italians are just so funny! Their humor is just very particular! I love it! We went bowling with them two and Davide (another English student) on Saturday! (for an activity) It was so fun. Before that we had lunch with the Matteazzi family. They normally feed us every Saturday for lunch. Man they freakin feed us like kings!!!I love how here there is primo piato, secondo piato and then even sometimes terzo piato and then dessert and then after that fruit! ha ha I love it! You eat so freakin much!!! I love it but hate it cause afterwards you just feel like you wanna sleep for forever! ha ha

Things this past week went pretty good. Fabiola came to sacrament meeting and it was so good. All of the testimonies were pretty much exactly what she needed to hear. And of course it's the same stuff we've been saying forever but it's really nice for investigators to hear it from normal members instead of always hearing it from the weird missionaries! ha ha 

We've been working with quite a few less actives lately and it was good cause a couple of them came to church! So church was nice. Anz Duque taught priesthood and it was really good. He didn't prepare because he forgot (ha ha classic Duque) but he winged it and it went so well. The lesson was vivere cio in cui crediamo (live what we believe). It was really good and just made me think a lot ya know. We really do need to be living all of the things we believe! It was just one of those things that hit ya sometime ya know? ha ha

But things here are going OK. Ya Duque is almost done. ha You can tell his tank is running on low sometimes ha ha but we are still doing our best. We actually finally got a really good week set up so I'm stoked to see what happens.

Dad your little story thing was hecka funny. Such a classic grandpa joke ha ha I loved it thanks. But hey that's what you get if you drink! ha ha You see the commandments really do protect us! It was a good story.

But speaking about being able to drink and what not... I'll be turing 21 so now I totally can!!! ha ha JK! ;) Actually here in Italy as long as you got the money to pay for the drink you can have it! so sad!!!

It stinks my birthday is on Sunday so we really can't go out and get anything! ha But we will probably do something Saturday. We will see! Actually Dan is gonna take us out to this really yummy Mexican restaurant on Monday night for my birthday so thatll be nice! They say it's got legit Mexican food and I miss Mexican food tons so that should be fun! Dan is one of the members from the American branch who is such a stud.

We talked to the ward mission leader of the American branch and we are gonna start working with them and stuff now too so that'll be good! I'm excited! There is a lot of potential here in Vicenza! But ya overall things are good.

I'm having a great time with Anziano Duque. I have loved reading the BoM with him. It's been a really neat experience for both of us. Kinda a long story but it's just been cool.

Thanks for everything! Thanks for all the birthday wishes and what not! I hope you guys have a great week! Hear from you guys next week!

vi voglio bene

love anziano bona

LOVING LIFE

Dear Mom and Dad!

 

Yup Happy New Year! Sorry I didn't write yesterday. I'll explain why later. Sounds like things are still going good at home. I'm glad. Ya, Brian emailed me. I answered him. I sure love that kid!

 

So ya new years here in the mission field is nothing special. Dad you are right we had to stay in ha kinda nice but kinda boring at the same time ha ha. We just cleaned and chilled. We went right outside our house cause there were some fireworks that we could see. It was cool but nothing special. 

 

We now have church from 3-6 PM. It's kinda weird ha ha but kinda nice at the same time! We had a lunch appointment with our investigator Evans and his family. He and his wife Fabiola are super elect amazing investigators. They will be baptized the second Evans is off house arrest. (Another story for another time). He is Nigerian and she is Italian. She is kinda feeling down because her work didn't renew her contract so she just lost her job. And they have a little boy named Brian. He's about 2 years old and hes so freakin cute!!! But ya if you guys could shoot some prayers off for Fabiola that would be awesome. thanks!

 

The food was hecka good! Evans made an African stew thing. It had chicken in it and then he put it all over pasta. It was so good. Then Fabiola's mom made some legit tiramisu' for dessert. And she used panetone for the bread stuff. It was way good. But.... me being the klutz that I am of course I got the sauce all over me!!! And it was a red sauce. It was perfect. But wait, I haven't told you the best part yet. After that we had to go to church and Anziano Duque and I had talks to give! I looked so good up there giving a talk with a nice red stain on my white shirt ha ha the talk went well though. The topic was crescere nella fede e nella retitudine. (grow in faith and righteousness) it went well.

 

Monday I went on a scambio with Anz Lehnardt in Padova. It was pretty sick. Padova is a cool city. He really has become a good missionary! I remember him in his first transfer. He's come along way from then. He's a boss. I love that kid!

 

Yesterday we went to Venice!!! Man, it was cool!! haha I took a load of pics of course. We went with Anz Free and Lehnardt. Then we met up with the Anziani from Udine too. It was a really cool day. 

 

Anziano Duque is nuts!! haha he is so funny and I love him. I dunno if I told you this but he is a convert of like 3 years. That's why hes a bit older (28). But he has funny stories and is just a blast. The work is going kinda slow at the moment. It seems like during all the holidays people don't wanna talk to us here! But we are trying our best. The people are cold just like the weather here! haha jk. I think we just need to step up our game a bit. Tut overall not much more to report on.

 

I've learned a lot here being with Anziano Duque. I'm gonna miss him a lot!! Tut ya now things are back to normal. You'll get the pics in a few weeks at the end of the transfer. Well love you guys tons!!! thanks for the great help and support you guys give me! Can't wait to hear from you guys next week!

 

love Anziano Bona