​Dear family,

AGAIN I am already at the end of a transfer! The time really goes by too fast. This week for Thanksgiving we didn't really do much. Haha it didn't really feel wierd though because here in Italy they don't celebrate Thanskgiving (go figure;) so it almost felt like a normal day. Haha Also, because they don't have Thanksgiving I figure the rule of not listening to Christmas music doesn't apply so I have actually been listening to Christmas music for the past two weeks. I am so excited for Christmas! They have been putting up lights and decorations in the centro of the city. Also, here in Italy they have these really good christmas deserts called Panetone. It like a big cake tall cake kind of bell shaped and a lot of the time with cream inside. The taste isn't anything like it, but the texture and feel is almost like you are eating a giant Twinky. Haha 

This week on Friday we ate pranzo with some members. They some of the most awesome members and I love them so much. It was like any house In have ever been to in Italia. Put simply, they have 31 cats!!!!! And 4 dogs. To explain I have to say first that here in Italy they don't neuter their animals as much so there are more stray animals. Well, this kind generous couple gathers in these abbondened animals and feeds and shelters and sometimes nurses them back to health (because sometimes the animals are wounded or sick when they first find them). For the most part it wasn't too bad accept when one of the kittens decided to sharpen its claws on my pant leg, but I caught it fast enough and moved away before it wripped anything. :D

The next day, Saturday, we had a really cool experience when we went searching for a referral that we had recieved. We followed the address we had and went to the house and rang the citifono. A voice answered and said the person we were searching for didn't live there. Well we turned around and there were these three ladies sitting on there balcony. They called down to us and asked who we were searching for. We told them the name and they said he lived there, but wasn't home then. They asked us if we were Jehovah Witnesses (we get that all the time haha) and we responded no. We started talking more and then they invited us to come in! We talked a good bit about who we are and talked about the gospel and they said they would like us to come back! It was so cool. We went out that day searching for a certain person, but instead, God had another plan and we found several others! 

Well, that is all for this week. Next week when I write I could be in a new city! We will see. I am so nervous. Haha

Love you, Anziano Stucki.

​Well, in way of news as you have probably already seen in my picture email, I lost my missionary nametag today in Scilla. That was eventful. Haha Also we had stake conference this week! For stake conference they usually have all of Sicilia and then Reggio Calabria meet in Catania. It's actually pretty crazy because usually they have to rent out this huge conference room in some hotel. I actually got to go to the last one 6 months ago when I was serving on the far side of Sicilia in my first city, Trapani! I was so excited for this stake conference too because I would get to see all the members from Trapani, but they changed things up this time and all the members from that half of Sicilia went to Palermo and us and the rest of Sicilia went down south to Siracusa (the conference was then broadcast from Siracusa to Palermo). Anyways though, that meant we had a very long long travel to make. Well, put in brief words we left Saturday evening. There were no more boats leaving from Reggio Calabria to Messina so after we took the bus from our house down to the train station in Reggio we then stopped by our investigator Josephine who I will talk about below. We then headed to the train station when it started pooring rain like crazy! In an effort to pack light I was wearing my suit and suitcoat and didn't bring any jacket whatsoever not to mention an umbrella. So we got so soaked! Haha Well we got on a train and road it up to Villa San Giovanni where we got on this crazy boat that in my mind would maybe resemble a mini cruiseship. On the top floor there was a bar with a bunch of tables and then there were two big sections full of just seats.There was also cool decks where you could stand outside. Then the bottom two floors were basically a two level parking garage for all the cars and even semi trucks who needed to get shuttled across. So that took us to Messina where we spent the night with the Anziani there. Long story short, there was six of us and four twin size beds and I got the crack. Haha then the next day we woke up and walked to the church in Messina where we got on a Pullman and went on a 2-3 hour bus ride down to Sircusa! All I have to say is that was the most complicated trip to stake conference I have ever had in my life. :) 

As I said we stopped by our investigator Josephine Saturday evening. It was the only face to face contact we were able to have all week with her and it was pretty short too, but she had a spare minute at her store so we asked her about the Book of Mormon. She said she hadn't read it so we decided to explain it a bit more. Her day also had been really crazy so she hadn't even eaten lunch yet. So she sat down and started eating a sandwich while we bore our testimonies and promised her that reading the Book of Mormon would bless her life. It was so short and sweet, but the spirit was there and afterward she said she would read it! It was just such a cool moment of success. It felt so good to do that. It was just testimony to me that teaching and lessons can just be so simple, but if we have the spirit it will be effective and we will get the job done. When we walked into the store she didn't really care much for the Book of Mormon and had vagely attempted to read it, but then when we walked out she agreed happily to read it and thanked us for coming by. 

Well, that is all for this week. Love you, Anziano Stucki.

​Hello all! 

I don't have very much time to write today because we went to Catania for zone calcio today. It has been a long and crazy travel. I will say this week we got to go give a blessing to the husband of our Nigerian investigator. This man had a very bad accident about a year ago and has been left disabled and bedridden. Only in this past week or so has He returned home from the hospital. It was unlike any blessing I have ever heard. Anziano Compas did the blessing part and after seriously every other word they were just calling out "Amen!!" Hahaha you've got to love the Nigerians. I love there family so much too. They have such a difficult situation like many immigrants. The mom is left to basically provide for the family. They have two sons. They all have been here in Italy for actually an unusually long time. In fact the two sons were born here and grew up speaking Italian. 

That's all I have time for today. And sorry I haven't responded to so many of your emails. Today was just really tight! 

Love, Anziano Stucki.