cool moment

​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.

This is me sitting on the wall of a castle on top of a mountain in a tiny coastal city called Scilla. You might remember I went here last transfer but we decided to go back again.

This is me on this barge thing going from Messina Sicilia to the mainland. It was the coolest thing. Down on the bottom floor all these cars and motorcycles and even semi trucks drive onto it and then it shuttles them across to the mainland.

This is my mission tag. Last seen on the beach in Scilla Calabria. See those those menacing waves in the background? That's good because I didn't. I even put my tag in the sand a good bit higher than any of the other waves were washing up onto the shore. But as luck would have it, suddenly as I was trying to get the most epic picture of my mission tag ever, this huge wave comes flying up onto the shore. I had my tablet basically on the ground as I was taking the picture and then behind me was my side bag. Well, in the millionth of a second before the wave came racing up the beach I had time to lift my tablet up and my bag (with my train ticket, money, keys, and pass along cards) only was in the water a second before I swooped down and picked it up. The only thing I didnt save was my tag. I do have another tag, but it's a clip kind of one so I will have to order a new magnet one. Haha

Zone calcio last week.

This is me with my temporary mission tag. :)