booted

​To answer your question, yes I have been waiting months to put that as the title of my letter for when I got transferred from Reggio. ;) I love Reggio assai and miss it. But, instead of spending this whole letter mourning I'll focus on the sweet, beautiful, awesome city of Napoli where I found myself now!! First off, it's the birthplace of pizza and I for sure didn't even know what a pizza was until I ate a Napoli one. More on that later though. :D I was so overwhelmed when I got this call. Mostly just over excitement! There's an Italian saying that goes, "Vedi Napoli e poi muori." (You see Naples and then you die) After being here only three days I see why! This place is unbelievably gorgeous. It is also HUGE. Between the metro lines, suburbs, innumerable buses, and hordes of people, it's gonna take me not a short amount of time to learn this city. Luckily my sweet new companion Anziano Lamoureux has already been here for almost 6 months so to say the least he knows the city very well! Despite what you might think he is not French. As cool as that would be, he is actually way cooler! He is a Utahn from the great city of Alpine, dances, sings, and does parkour. Seriously, he is the coolest companion. We get along so well and have a lot of similarities. We are definitely going to have a blast this transfer! He is one of the most chill people I've ever met, but at the same time he knows how to get it done and he is also a really good missionary! I feel like since I have been out a few transfers longer I should be the one setting the example and teaching him, but he is totally teaching me so much! It will be really good for me. He is making me rethink everyway I do missionary work. Haha 

The work here in Napoli is poppin. Here in Napoli there is an awesome branch of 60-70 members. There are 6 missionaries in this city, or maybe I should specify and say 6 anziani. There is a reason why sorelle don't get called to serve here in Napoli. *cough* #Mafia #MyMainGoalInThisCityIsToNotGetMugged *cough cough* 

We have some awesome investigators too. The main ones are a mom, Monica, and her daughter, Ylenia. They both are making so much progress! They both have baptismal dates. We are so excited!

Just within my first few days here we have also seen several miracles doing finding. Because this city is huge there are so many piazzas and big streets full of people so it is very very easy to do finding. Friday night we were doing English course finding. We stopped several people, but didn't really have any long conversations until we went off onto this kind of side street. I walked up to this guy and his girlfriend sitting on a bench and asked them if they knew how to speak English. The guy responded yes and we started talking about our English course, but then soon the conversation moved to us as missionaries and what we do. We asked them what they knew about our church and turns out his girlfriend who is actually Russian, but speaks Italian perfectly, went to our church a year or so ago and her boyfriend goes to America everyone once in a while for work and has stayed in Utah and saw a Book of Mormon in one of the rooms! Anziano Lamoureux is so smooth and good with people. He just went on to explain the Book of Mormon lesson, then next moment we were reading Moroni 10:4-5, giving them a Book of Mormon, saying a closing prayer, getting their numbers, and setting up a return appointment. Haha that was just one of many miracles I have seen. 

I am so grateful to be here in this amazing city with an amazing companion and members and investigators. I'm thankful for everything I learned in Reggio, but I know this is my time to move forward and learn and grow in new ways. I know this church is true and God loves us. 

Love you all, Anziano Stucki.

This was the coolest thing to find engraved on the pulpit of our church in the chapel. This branch is so cool!!! It means, "Pray for the work of the missionaries."

My first Napoli pizza!! Thursday night dinner.

3. Me and the comp eating Napoli pizza for Saturday lunch.

Pizza oven

The metro stations here have different designs. This one has an underwater theme.

I took picture 6 as I was riding up on the middle escalator looking up into that divit that you see in picture 5.

​Also, two other random things that I didn't say in my weekly email. First off, here in Napoli they speak Napolitano which is more than just a dialect as they would have in other cities. It is an actual separate language. Basically everyone knows how to speak Italian and they do often, but still a lot revert to just speaking Napolitano. It is the craziest and coolest sounding language ever. I feel like a greeny walking down the street again listening to people's conversations and not understanding even a word. Haha even Italians from all the other parts of Italy don't understand Napolitano. For example one phrase in Napolitano is "Jamm a' mmagna a' pizz!" In Italian you say, "Andiamo a mangiare una pizza!" which means, "Let's go eat a pizza!" It's crazy. Haha
Second thing, I have so many companions and old mission friends serving in the zone of Napoli. A bunch came to Napoli today for p-day. I got to meet Anziano Macdonald my follow-up trainer in Trapani, Anziano Melling my trainer from Trapani, and Anziano Gibson my MTC companion is in my district! Also, in my house (It's a fourman house) I live with a missionary from my MTC group! I am so stoked for this transfer. 

Anyways, that's all for now. Love you again, Anziano Stucki.