FAITH AND BLESSINGS

Dear Mom and Dad,


Hey guys!!! I'm glad that the house is all in order! That's good.
Please don't worry Andrea will be feeding me EVERY Tuesday night as long as I am here in La Spezia. ha ha. He is a great kid. There has been such a great change in him. He reminds me a lot of myself ha ha. I pray that I can stay here throughout the holidays! That would be so good. I'll be so sad if I get transferred the week right before Christmas! Oh well we will see what happens.
This past week was good. It went by so fast. Things with Luis are good. We feel that he made some good steps. He just got work on Monday so now it's gonna be a bit harder to meet with him. It's a great blessing but at same time kinda stinks a bit 'cause we wont be able to see him as much! ha ha But we are happy he finally found some work.
Our finding work seems to be getting a bit harder. We've just had a few tough weeks finding, and it's probably gonna get harder before it gets better thanks to the holidays. I remember last year.... ugh it was a pain! ha ha But just because it's harder doesn't mean we are gonna give up!!!! It just means that there are more chances for us to see amazing miracles! :)
We did find this man named Matthew who seems pretty dang bravo, but he just lives outside of La Spezia and it just almost seems impossible for him to get to church.... we are gonna have to find a way to work it all out!
That is a super amazing story about Mr. Deeds.  :) I don't got much to say about it because you can't really explain with words the feelings that come after hearing that!

I'm still trying my best. It can be hard sometimes. Especially when you wake up not feeling good and it's freakin cold and stuff. But it's OK because it'll all be worth it in the long run. Things are going well though, and  Saturday is gonna be sick. A member here is getting married to a member from San Remo (my first city), and it is taking place here in La Spezia!!!! So members from San Remo are coming here! I'm so stoked to see them!!! That's gonna be so fun! I'll let you know how that goes!

So... pretty much all is good! Anz Angel is so chill and we are just having a good time. and PS.... we have been listening to Christmas music for the last 3 weeks!!! ha ha we love Christmas! :) ha ha
Well have a great week! I love you guys tons!!!! ciao ciao!!!

love Anziano Bona

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Dear Mom and Dad!


HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Please eat so much for me too!!! I love that food and miss it tons! ha ha The activity at the base was awesome. Man it was so much fun to play around and just chill! And it was so good to eat some good American food too! Man we all ate so much it was hilarious! We took a few pics and had a good time. Over all it was a success! There was only one downside... and that was the day after we were all so dang sore and like couldn't walk! I couldn't sleep 'cause my legs and back hurt so much! It was really crazy! Now we all feel better thankfully! ha ha
Overall things are going well here. Anziano Angel is chill. We have fun and all is good. I'm just so tired lately!! And the holiday season is always rough cause I miss home and my friends a ton. But it's OK. We are still going forward!
I am really so thankful for my mission. It has been amazing and I wouldn't trade it for the world. The things I've seen, felt, and been a part of have solidified my testimony. I'm still not perfect and I'm so so far from it. But now I know what I need to do to piano piano get better. I am really so thankful for the church. It's awesome :)
Thank you guys for your emails! ha ha I'm gonna keep mine short too cause I'm super tired and need to go to bed soon! Good luck with all the house stuff! I love you guys tons!! I'll write more next time!
vi voglio bene :)

love anziano bona

PICTURES....PDAY'S AND BAPTISMS!

P-day started with going to Cinqueterre

Anziano Bona had the opportunity to go there one last time.

Little did he, or anyone else know, that a few weeks later 

there would be major flooding in this part of Italy

and several of these towns have been destroyed.

Hopefully wiith time they will be rebuilt. 

Bona and Winward

Good friend, Alli, from high school.
She is doing study abroad in Italy this semester!

2 days worth of 5 o'clock shadows...
that is what happens when you have sensitive skin

Another p-day spent in Pisa with the elders from there.



Bushman, Bona, Lenhardt, Andrea Manucci, and Winward

Victor's baptism

Bona, Nicolo, and Winward

Gianelli and Nicolo

Anz Angel, new companion

A WEEK OF MIRACLES AND FUN

Dear Mom and Dad,


How are you guys doing?! Sounds like things are going pretty well! I'm really glad. I'm happy that you guys got the pics and I'm glad you enjoyed them! ha ha It had been a while! Ya Cinqueterra is so legit. Peccato that the flood jacked it up for a while. One day it'll be back to normal though. Dude, dad I loved the story that you shared. Freak Lion King is so deep! I love it! It's true. we need to always remember who we are and what we stand for ;)

So this last week was pretty dang good. Anz Angel is a really good kid! I like him a lot! We laugh and get along great! We do good work too. But of course there is room for improvement. There always is. So ya Friday we went to the district leader training meeting. Yup my comp came with me!!! Man it was really cool. We learned a lot of neat stuff and we always leave those things spiritually on fire! It was just a bit different cause normally we talk about helping investigators and stuff but this time we talked about helping other missionaries. It was really good.

Monday I had my scambio with Justin! aka Anziano Barnes! ha ha Man that kid is a freakin machine! He is a perfect example of perfect faith!!! And perfect faith= no fear!!!! And that is something he has. We had a really cool lesson with Luis. We felt like we taught him pretty well but with the language barrier (he only speaks Spanish) it's kinda hard to know if he's totally understanding and stuff! We did have a cool miracle though. We asked him for referrals and if there were other people who he wanted us to teach and he gave us a few and one of them was his brother in-law. And right then the brother in law walked in the house and we taught him right there with his wife and right then and they said they would get baptized if they get an answer from God saying the BoM is true. So we will see! We got more potentials. ha ha, and Anz Angel and Anz Heninger found new people too. So overall it was a very successful day!

Yesterday was sick too. We had a training meeting in Modena. Basically like a zone conf type thing. It was sooooo good, and after lunch President Wolfgramm had us watch a movie, its called 17 Miracles. I would love for you guys to watch it too. It's really powerful. The reason we watched it is 'cause we were talking about visions and our goals and how it's all about the process of reaching our goals. That's where we grow. Reaching it is important but if we don't grow in the process its pretty much for nothing. But this movie is so powerful. You can just look it up on google and you'll find it. It's only like an hour long. It's really good.

Tomorrow we are going to the military base in Pisa. Our whole zone got invited to go there and to play in a turkey bowl and then eat lunch with them!!!! We are so stoked!!! It's game time :) ha ha so that's gonna be sick.

But all is going well! Luis will probably have to get his date moved back. But that's OK he is still awesome. We just gotta make sure the people are ready before we baptize them. Everyone has their own time. But it's all going well!

I love the holiday season! ha ha its getting a bit cold but it's OK! ha ha it's not as cold as last year thank heavens! ha ha

I love you guys tons! Have a great week!!!! and mom........ HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! I LOVE YOU SOOOOO FREAKIN MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HA HA I get to talk you in like a month and 9 days! :) ha ha Have such a good day! Dad get mom something nice k!?!?! ha ha Later guys hear from you guys next week! ciao ciao!!

love anziano bona

UPDATE/FAMILY LETTER

Anziano Bona wrote us a lovely letter this week. He is doing really well in La Spezia and loves his new companion Anz Angel. He says that his name matches the type of person that he is. He is from a town near San Diego, California, plays the guitar and drums.

Luis still has a baptism date set for the end of November. He also asked for us to pray for the Gianelli family. Due to the flooding in La Spezia , Fabrizio has lost his job. They were the only family in the branch really affected by the floods. This Friday Anz Bona and his companion will be going to Milano for a DL training that he has to attend, and then on Monday he will be doing splits with Anz Barnes (his ZL) who is also from our ward, and he is looking forward to that.

NEW COMPANION

Dear Mom and Dad!


How are you guys doing? Sounds like you guys are doing well. This is a quick email because of transfers: to answer your question mom, Alessandra Po is Andrea's mom!! She is so awesome. She is less active at the moment.... because they got some family stuff going on, but they are one of my favorite families here in La Spezia.

Speaking of La Spezia there is going be a change. My companion is out. He is going to Merate (close to Venice) and I'm getting a new companion!!! His name is Anziano Angel. I have no idea who he is because I've never met him!!!! He is going into his 3rd transfer so he is young, so... I guess we will see how he his!!!! I will let you know more next week!

Nicolo' is awesome. His baptism was awesome! Then after the ceremony, we went to his birthday party!!! Man it was fun! Nicolo' is so bravo and his family is amazing! They also had a Halloween party last night! Man it was fun! There was like a haunted house in the church and people came and we just ate and had fun! I do love La Spezia.... I have come to love it tons! The young people here are so chill! The members have just accepted us and it's been nice!

Now the work is kinda slowing which means we got a lot of finding work ahead of us and with my new companion I know it will all be ok! I really don't have much to say today! I'm super super busy! We are at Andrea's house and I'm just on his computer quickly doing emails but I will write much more next week, I promise.

Dad, thanks for the great email you sent me, as always! Tell everyone hi for me!! :) I love you guys tons!!!! have a great week!

Love Anziano Bona

FLOODS

Dear mom and dad,

Thanks for your emails this week!

 

It was a good week. We had district conference and yup I got to sit by Alli with my companion so it was cool to see her again. Don't know if it will happen again, we will just see, with the possible transfers.

 

Conference was awesome. Elder Lopez of the Seventy was there and spoke Saturday and Sunday. His talks were all really good and I translated some but not a ton because Anz Winward helped me translate for Victor so it was cool. Last Saturday was Anz Free's birthday as well. The conference that day was in Livorno, the city were he is serving so we went there, attended conference and to chill with him on his birthday. After the conference we went to a member's house with Anz Free. The members were awesome and crazy. They are south American people who are so chill. They made us super good food and we got to play Wii with them. We played the funniest game that you guys need to get! It's the Michael Jackson game for the Wii. You dance to it and it's just so fun!!! ha ha I wish I  had my camera! As you can see we had a nice time. Then Sunday we had the Conference in Firenze. It was really good. Monday was a great day too. We had our interviews with President Wolfgramm. He is so inspired and such a great man! He really is called of God to lead and guide our mission! My interview with him went so well. I love that man... he is great!

 

By the way, I got both of my packages! Thank you so so much for everything in them! Much needed!!!

 

After all that, Anz Free and I started our scambio. We got home around 9 on Monday evening so we just went straight to bed. Yesterday we had a fantastic day! We had a super bomb lesson with Louis, our new investigator and we set a baptismal date with him! :) it's for the 27th of November. Keep praying for him! We just taught him about baptism and read 2 Nephi 31 with him and it all went well!

 

The only negative thing is that the second we finished the lesson and got out it started flooding, literally!!! It was crazy! The water was at our shins! You know what that means? Yes... our clothes got owned!!!!! ha ha We ran home and we were just laughing the whole time cause we knew we were soaked!!! We just stayed in after that because it was crazy out there!!! Today it's better and it's sunny and a decent nice day!! I don't know how that works out but it just kinda does!!!

 

It is great that you saw some of my friends at Magelbys fresh! That place is so so yummy! I miss their french toast!! Next time you see any of them let them know I say hi!

 

So...a new ward or changes...huh? It is going to be way interesting.... hmm... I hope we get some cool people in our ward but I'm so glad that we are staying in it cause I love them tons!

 

We have another baptism this week! Nicolo is getting in there! We are so happy! He is awesome! :) It's always a good week when someone is getting baptized!!!

 

Just as FYI I've spent a lot of personal money the last few days.... sorry :( because we had so much traveling we had to do this past weekend. Unfortunately my comp also got his credit card eaten so I had to pay for him too.... .. ugh. oh well it happens! Sorry about that, I hope it is OK, We should be getting money again soon.

 

Well overall things are still going OK. I think I'm staying for another one month here and that Anz Winward is moving to another city. (but who knows?) I will let you know next week! Well I love you guys tons! Thanks so much for everything!! You guys really are the best!!! take care let me know how things go!!!!

vi voglio bene

Anziano Bona

BAPTISM

Dear mom and dad,

 

So I will start off quickly by telling you guys that Victor's baptism was awesome! It all went perfect. Fratello Giannelli baptized him. It was awesome and interesting because he is literally 1/2 size of Victor! ha ha Victor is huge and a sharp looking brother too! Sunday was amazing too. He asked me if I would be the one to confirm him. I was so honored. It was amazing. I honestly felt like I was an instrument of the Lord - literally- when I was blessing him. It was the first time I was able to do that. It was amazing... the Spirit was so strong!

Dad thanks for your email! It was awesome and what you said was so true! Thanks for being a great worthy priesthood holder! You are exactly what our family needs! Thanks for your example! :)

 

I'm glad you liked the pics! I think I will be sending some more soon!

 

So...do you guys want to hear my story for the week? It's actually pretty funny.... so there is this "crazy" lady who lives under us who always yells at us. I can't remember if I've told you about her or not before... anyway... so I was on a scambio with Anziano Patullo from Monday to Tuesday afternoon. For lunch we were cooking and the smoke alarm went off. I knew this would be a problem so I thought "we gotta shut it off quickly" because I knew she would come up and yell at us for being loud. So we started looking for it but we couldn't find it!!!! Then I heard it!.... The door rang.....  I answered it and there she was. La "Strega" (I think that's how you spell it? ha ha). I told her how it was an accident and that we are trying to turn it off. Suddenly she came into our apartment. Kicks me straight up in the knee and then kicks over all the trash. So I tell her we are calling the cops because it's not the first time she came up and touched me and caused a "casino" (big scene) like this. So she tells me to do it and then she tells me she is going to break my face and going to kill me. That's when it kinda made me laugh and I should have ignored the comment but I just said to try it and see what happens: the Lord would protect me....that is when she just left and slammed the door. Man it was fun ha ha bless her heart! We have been praying for this lady to stop being mean to us but it is just not working at the moment! Oh well ...it happens.

 

To answer your question Mom, the person from Milano is Susana! Her cousin is Percy! They are awesome! Tell them I say hi! Oh more good news! I don't know if you remember Nick and Omas from Ravenna but they are people I started teaching and taught them about 2/3s of everything. They got baptized :) so that makes me happy!!! :)

 

Overall things are going really well. No worries at all. We just need to make our investigator pool a bit bigger now. So ya I think that is all for now! Have a great week. I will keep you all in my prayers. Have a great week! I love you guys tons! ciao ciao!

Love Anziano Bona

 

Note to Grandpa:

 

Hey grandpa!

 

How are you guys doing!? Well I just wanted to take a sec and tell you guys I love you! Thanks for all you guys do for my family! All here is going great! Victor, one of our investigators just got baptized and I had the honor of confirming him. It really was amazing. This gospel is such a great blessing in our lives! Thanks for being such a great example to all of us! Have a great week! Tell Lorraine I love her too and am so dang thankful for her as well! Well I gotta go so take care! ciao ciao!

 

love anziano bona

Anz Bona in Ravenna at the Dam

CHANGING OF THE GUARD~SAN MARINO

VICTOR'S BAPTISM

Thank you to Fabrizio Gianelli for this photo!

Victor was baptized on Saturday Oct 15, 2011

and this photo was taken that evening!

LA SPEZIA w/ Anz Winward

Zone Conference

Another great blessing of serving in Italy~
Anz Barnes amd Anz Bona
we have grown up in the same ward since we were 8 yrs old!

Paolo and Anz Winward