Hello again! I hope all is well with you, wherever you may be. This week has been an interesting one. Of course, what week isn't as a missionary? Looking back over this week, I've realized that almost every appointment we had fell through. As upsetting as that was in the moment, it's opened up the door for a lot of other opportunities. We got back to doing finding work, which is something we haven't done in a while. When we were doing Ancona and Pesaro, we barely had time to breathe because we were going from appointment to appointment. While that's a really good problem to have, it was exhausting. We've been doing a lot of finding work and making a lot of phone calls and we're starting to see it pay off. Now that we're focusing on just the Pesaro area, we've been trying to do more work in Fano. Fano is the city just south of Pesaro; about seven minutes by train. The city has hardly seen missionaries of any sort, so it's been a thrill to work there.

On Tuesday we did a scambio with our zone leaders. That means that we switched companions for a day. Anz. Miller went with Anz. Hess to Fano and I stayed in Pesaro with Anz. Hill. In Fano, they found a man from Napoli (Naples) who was very interested in the Gospel. He's staying around here for a while, so we will have an appointment with him very soon. In Pesaro, Anz. Hill and I held down the fort. It was nice to work with someone else. Different viewpoints and different ways can be nice to see sometimes and Anz. Hill is a blast to work with.

I'll give a quick runthrough of all of our "progressing" investigators. I say "progressing" because they're doing everything EXCEPT coming to church. Ugh. Every week there seems to be some sort of roadblock or other that stops them from coming. Gyldena has a lot of exams coming up, so we haven't been able to see her in a while. She actually stopped by the church during English class and told us she does really want to meet with us, but she has a lot to do. She said we'd try to work something out. 

Rosanna... We've had one lesson with her. It didn't go as well as we had hoped. She talked the whole time and we hardly got in a few broken sentences. I think it was good for her though. We can tell that she doesn't have a lot of people to talk to. Sometimes, we all just need to vent right? The next lesson will be much better.

We're seeing Claudio and his family tonight hopefully. Everything we teach, they seem to agree with and they are reading what we ask them too. They wanted to come to church last week, but it was in Rimini, which is about 30 minutes away, so it was difficult. We're doing everything we can to get them to come on Sunday.

Amanda has been looking for an apartment. This is great for her because that means she's one step closer to getting her son back. Once she has an apartment it'll also be easier to meet with her. Lately, we've been meeting at a bowling alley in Fano, which obviously isn't ideal.

We got back in contact with Maura. The progress we've seen with her is amazing. After the last lesson we had with her she said she would pray, which is a HUGE step. The first time we asked her to pray we got a twenty minute lecture about how God hates us and how she will never pray.

That's all of our regulars at the moment. Every one else we've either lost touch with or just haven't been able to meet with. The work continues. As the Italians always say "andiamo avanti" which means "we move ahead."

For P-Day this week we went to San Marino. That's where this week's picture is from. Isn't it beautiful? Che bella! San Marino is a country inside of Italy. It's something like 60 sq. km. with a population of 2,000. The entire country is built on a steep mountain. They said it was the oldest republic in the world, the main reason being that nobody was stupid enough to try to climb the mountain to conquer it. What a beautiful place. We saw the sights, toured a castle, ate some pizza, looked at the shops, and got some gelato. It was awesome.

Speaking of pizza, Anz. Miller and I made a pizza all by ourselves this week! It was a beautiful thing. It obviously wasn't as good as Sorella Tariffa made it, but hey. For two Americans and a five kg bag of flour, I don't think we did too bad.

I also was able to Skype my families on Mother's Day. It was awesome to see their faces and to see how fast my brothers are growing. I'm so grateful for my two wonderful mothers and the support they are to me. Happy belated Mother's Day to all of you mothers out there.

Sempre andiamo avanti qui a Pesaro.

Vi voglio bene, Anziano Simcox

Mamma Mia!

Another week another euro right? Oh wait, I don't get paid.

Mamma mia. Yes, it's a real phrase and it gets used all the time. I love it. What to say about this week... I'm really tired right now. Hah. I claim no responibility for whatever words my fingers may type. This was our first week back in just two! Finally. It was really weird the first day. We had several moments where we just looked at each other as if to say, "what do we do now?" It was a weird adjustment. We got so used to travelling back and forth on the trains that it was weird to not be running to catch a train or bus. Now that we're in Pesaro though, we can actually use our bikes... when they work that is. Which is about 50% of the time.

I'll start off by talking about Rosanna. Saturday night we were looking through the Area Book. The Area Book is a big blue binder with the names and contact information of everyone the missionaries in Pesaro have ever met. I did say BIG blue binder right? There's actually two of them. Anyway... We came across Rosanna's name and decided to give her a call. She met with the missionaries in 2010, but they eventually lost contact with her. When we called her she was SO excited. I could hear hear excitement from the other side of the room. She said she'd meet us in church the next day. I can't tell how many times someone has said that, but the miracle is that she actually showed up! She came and loved it. At the end of sacrament meeting (service) she asked if she could go up to the microphone and say something. Of course we were more than willing to let her do that. Through tears she talked about how at peace she felt sitting in the chapel and listening to the members bear testimony. She definitely needs a lot of peace. In the past few years, almost every one in her family has passed away: her husband, her child, her parents... Her granddaughter has a really bad illness... Despite all this she said she feels so at peace and knows that the Gospel of Christ can help her through these trials. Wow. The members were so glad to see her. I could just feel the spiritual energy in the chapel that morning. It was something else. We look forward to meeting with her soon.

Do you remember Claudio? We taught him my first or second week here and then he just disappeared. Well, we found him! We finally just went to his house until we caught him at home. We've started teaching his entire family now! It's a beautiful thing. His wife and he are having some marriage problems, but at the moment they're determined to stick it through. They are very willing to hear us out, as well as feed us. Culture lesson number one: If you enter an Italian's home, you WILL eat. It's not a choice, it's a law. Anyway, we had a good conversation with them and we're meeting them again on Friday. They have two daughters of eleven and fourteen. The fourteen year-old, Giulia, has started coming to English class.

Have I ever written about English class? I honestly don't remember... Every Tuesday night we teach English. It's actually really cool. We usually have at least four people. Donatella and Roberta have been coming for over ten years now. They're both fluent in English. Donatella has even taught English before. They keep coming though because they love all the anziani. Michael is a little pazzo, but we love him anyway. He doesn't speak much English, but he knows how to say "I love you" and "beautiful tie." He says those two phrases a lot. Marco started coming about a month ago. His English is decent. He understands well, but has trouble making sentences. He loves coming to practice his English though. The beautiful thing is that these four people aren't members of the church. Roberta actually has said before, "I love everything about you, but I will never join your church." That's ok. Everyone is free to live their lives. We're just here to do what we can! Sometimes some of our members come too. I love English class. This week, we had younger people too, which usually doesn't happen. Giulia (Claudio's daughter), one of the Tariffa girls (a member family) and her friend came. I went into a separate room with them and did beginner's English. As stressful as it was, it was also fun.

Today, we went over to the Tariffa home. They are a member family who moved here from Napoli (Naples) about 10 months ago. They're awesome (or as Anz. Miller would say, they're freaking sick). Sorella Tariffa showed us how to make real Pizza Napolitana. Mamma mia. It was delicious. She gave us the recipe, so maybe I'll be brave enough to tackle it one day.

Let's see... Like I said in the last email, we've hit a bit of a rough patch when it comes to teaching lessons, but it happens. We're doing our best though. Lately we've been getting back to doing some finding work, a.k.a. walk down the street and see how many people you can talk to. On Monday we went to Fano, which is the city just south of Pesaro. It's been a long time since they've seen missionaries of any sort, whether they be Jehovah's Witnesses, Evangelists, etc. Usually we get mistaken for Jehovah's Witnesses! Anyway, we went to Fano and talked to as many people as we could. We had a few good conversations and actually set up an appointment for Sunday with a man named Antonio.

Then, we met Gerth Miller. What to say about Gerth... We asked him where he lived and he said that the whole world is his home. He spends his days in downtown Fano. He's particularly attached to a bench in a nearby piazzale. He is originally from Germany, but he moved to Italy because he likes it better. He speaks German, Italian, English, Russian, and Greek. He's a good guy, however awkward he might be. We know he's not interested in the Gospel, but right now we're trying to just be encouraging. The man knows five different languages. We know he's smart. Now, we're trying to encourage him to get up and go do something. All of us have great potential, but it's up to us who we want to become.

Finding work is daunting at first, but you just have to keep an eternal perspective. Most people just ignore us or make up some excuse, but every now and then you find the one person who will listen. That's what it's all about. Even if we only find one interested person out of a million, it's still worth it to go through the other 999,999 to get to that one person. We've been hung up on, given excuses, been lied to, been yelled at, had doors slammed in our faces, but all of it's worth it when we find that child of God who is prepared to listen.

Ci sentiamo al prossimo. Vi voglio bene, Anziano Simcox.

I apologize for the lack of pictures. It's been a crazy day and I forgot to put my camera in my bag this morning.

La Settimana del Trasferimento

Hey everybody! Another week has come and gone already. This week is the last week of the transfer. For those who don't know, a mission is divided into transfers. One transfer is six weeks. During the last week of the transfer, new missionaries come in, old missionaries go home, and some of the missionaries in the mission get transfered to different cities. Here's what's happening to our district:

-Anz. Miller and I will be staying together in Pesaro and Anz. Miller is our new district leader.

-Anz. Garcia will be staying in Ancona and he'll be training a new missionary.

-Sorella Montagnoli and Sor. Acerson (both of whom were in the MTC with me) will be training a new missionaries in Forlì and Rimini. Yes they've only been here for six weeks and they're already training. That's how many sisters are coming in! It's awesome.

-Sor. Heupel will be training a new missionary in Genova.

-Sor. Bush will become a travelling sister assistant, which is a new position they just made.

We've probably set a record for the youngest district ever. Anz. Garcia is now the oldest one in the district and he's only starting his fifth transfer! Crazy. We'll have two new missionaries too, so I won't be the youngest!

Alright, so there's your missionary jargon for this week. Anz. Garcia will finally have a companion so we won't be travelling back and forth anymore. We'll miss him and Ancona, but it'll be nice to be able to finally focus on just Pesaro. The train system will miss our patronage, but our wallets will not. It's been a challenging experience to be in three. There have been a lot of clashing opinions at points. It was difficult to travel so much every day. We made it work though and we learned SO much from each other and from the experience in general. That being said, I wouldn't ask for it again. Hah!

The work itself has been a little slow. We've lost contact with several of our investigators. Both of our baptismal dates fell through. We had a hard time setting up appointments and teaching lessons this week. Everything needs to go up and down right? It's just part of missionary work. We're working hard though to find new people to teach, to strengthen the faith of our members, and to help our investigators along the path. We're still meeting with Gyldena. She's made friends with Sorella Tariffa, a member of our branch, which has turned out to be a wonderful thing. We're trying to get her to come to church, but she works on Sundays, so that's our challenge right now.

We met with a new woman named Amanda. She's from Nigeria. I love Africans. There's a lot of them here in Italy. Most of them don't speak a lot of Italian, but almost all of them speak English. I've taught more in English than in Italian lately. She lives in Fano, which is about a seven minute train ride away. We found her on one of our many train rides between Pesaro and Ancona. We set up an appointment with her and finally met with her last week. She drank in everything that was taught and willing accepted to read the Book of Mormon and pray. When we talked to her last she said she actually read and was going to pray! She's been prepared for this and it's such a pleasure to talk with her. She said she is most likely able to come to church on Sunday. Since I've been here, we've never had an investigator come to church, so this will be a big step if she actually comes!

Italy remains beautiful. The weather here is gorgeous. It's been sunny for the most part and not too hot. The humidity is coming though. I thought I could escape Ohio weather, but it looks like it's followed me here.

I actually haven't had much Italian food this week... I know. It's sad. I've found a new hobby in cooking though. It's been really enjoyable to try new things and be brave. The good thing is that Anz. Miller eats anything I put on the table, so it's been a good opportunity to experiment! Hah.

Oh, I almost forgot. Last week I was the senior companion. It actually went really smoothly. I made decisions and I made all the phone calls in Italian. It actually wasn't even that hard. Looking back, it's amazing how missionaries can learn a new language in just a matter of months. Yes, my brain feels like exploding most days, but that's a good thing! I go to bed tired and I wake up tired, but that only means I'm putting in good work. There's been ups and downs, but the work continues. I'm learning and growing every day. It's such a rewarding and enlightening experience to be a missionary. Most of all, I've felt my testimony and knowledge of the Gospel growing. I love my calling as a missionary and I look forward to th experiences and opportunities coming up in this next transfer.

Vi voglio bene. Con amore, Anziano Simcox.

The picture is of the Palla di Pomodoro. It's a statue in Pesaro right against the sea. It's a beautiful spot and there's a nice pier there too. For all you AOYC people, it reminds me a lot of Lakeside, which makes me happy. Pesaro is such a beautiful city.

Pictures

Austin's Apartment

It's kind of a weird angle, but it works. We just used the self-timers on our cameras. Hah! Anziano Garcia is on the left and Anziano Miller is in the middle.

Piano, Piano 4/17/13

Time is so weird on the mission. Sometimes an hour takes five minutes, but then sometimes five minutes takes an hour. The days are long, the weeks are short, the days are short, the weeks are long... I know it doesn't make sense to me either.

Te best way I can describe this week is like something out of those cheesy Mormon comedies about missionaries. I always thought those were so kooky, but I promise they're actually just as accurate. It was a week full of crazy people, laughs, miracles, trials, phillipinos, and even a soundtrack (I'll get to that part in a bit).

We slept in Ancona every night this past week, but we went to Pesaro almost every day. It's 47 minutes each way by train. Yes, I do have the train schedule memorized, thank you very much. We couldn't sleep in Pesaro because our apartment was being painted and repaired by a man named Ugo Pino Taco. Yes, that really is his name. You can't make this stuff up. He's actually really nice and he did a great job painting our apartment. But, he and his friend slept in our beds and didn't wash their sheets or do the dishes. That part, I was not happy about. Customer service here in Italy is... uhh... different.

Phillipinos. We taught a family from the Phillipines. We brought one of the members of the Ancona branch, Fratello Aranas, who speaks T'galic (not sure how to spell that). The parents could speak T'galic, English, and Italian, so the lesson kept switching between the three languages. I was so confused because I don't know T'galic, Italian is still a challenge, and I'm not sure about English either... It was a good lesson though, from what I felt.

That's one lesson I've learned. Because understanding is a challenge sometimes, I've learned to listen more. Though I can't always understand the words, I can usually understand their meaning, if that makes sense. I can feel. It's weird. The trick to learning another language is to not think about what the words mean, but to listen for the intent. I'm to the point where I can listen and understand, but not be able to translate it into English. You have to learn how to not think in English, but to think in Italian. It sounds crazy, but it's working. I feel my understanding growing and my ability to speak also. "Piano piano," as the Italians say. It means "step by step." I use it all the time.

As to the soundtrack, we taught a Nigerian man named Joseph. He's a street performer, so he brought his guitar with him to our lesson. He played a "Gospel" song that he wrote. It was kind of weird, but it was cool to listen to and watch him perform. The lesson took forever because he took a long time to tune his guitar. At first I thought he met with us just so he could have someone help him tune his guitar. That's what it seemed like at first! It turned out to be a decent lesson though. Randomly he would go off on a tangent about something that had nothing to do with anything, but when we got him focused, it was really good.

Gyldena keeps progressing. She is still looking for an answer, but she is frustrated that she's not finding one. We promised her it would come eventually. She's hoping to come to church this week. Her original baptism was planned for next Saturday, but she won't be ready by then.

We got ahold of Claudio. We have a lesson planned with him and his family next week.

Maura is looking forward to her baptism, but she is still struggling with having faith. She wants to be baptized because she feels it's right, but she doesn't know why. We told her that's what faith is: sometimes you have to take a few steps in the dark until you see the light. It's amazing to see her light grow. Her baptism is planned for May 4th.

Anziano Miller and Anziano Garcia are hanging in there. All three of us are very different people, so that leads to some interesting group dynamics. We're doing our best to maintain our unity though. 

The gelato continues to be delicious, as does the pizza. Sorella Tariffa, a member in our branch makes this cool pasta/pizza thing. It's baked spaghetti that's folded into the shape of a pizza and you eat it with your hands. It's crazy, but it's awesome. My cooking skills are increasing drastically. It's awesome. I'm learning new things and being brave. I really love cooking though. We take turns for lunch. We each make two meals a week and then on Wednesday we go out. In the States, dinner is always a big production and lunch is usually lighter. In Italy, it's the other way around. Lunch is a big deal. Everything in the city closes down between 1 and 4 so everyone can eat and sleep. It's crazy. We're actually not allowed to knock on doors then because people get really mad if you disturb them during that time. I haven't gained any weight yet though! I've heard the horror stories and Im not going to let it happen to me. Hang in there skinny boy metabolism!

Next week is the fifth week of the transfer. In our mission, that means that every junior companion becomes the senior companion for a week. So that means that starting Monday, it's my responsibility to make phone calls (in Italian, yikes), make the final decisions on planning, lead us around the city, etc. I'll let you know how it goes! I'm actually excited about it. It'll be a nice change and I'm sure I'll learn a ton!

Thank you for the prayers, the letters, and the love. 

Vi voglio bene,

Anziano Simcox

The picture is a shot of Ancona from the top of the hill. Crazy huh? I love it.

Ciao di nuovo da Italia!

The work continues. For the past week, Anz. Garcia stayed in Ancona with the Anziani from Ravenna while their apartment was getting fixed. This meant that Anz. Miller and I had Pesaro to ourselves for a whole week! It was so nice to not have to travel back and forth. We're back in a tri-companionship now for another three weeks probably. Ah well! Every day is an adventure.

So since I stayed in Pesaro this week, this letter will all be about Pesaro. We have six investigators right now: Gyldena, Claudio, Maura, Iryna, Natlya, and Celestina. We also have Carmine. He's been investigating the church for about a year now, but he likes to do things at his own pace. We don't teach him anymore, but he comes to church every week. He'll set a baptismal date when he's ready.

---Gyldena is 23 years old and a student at one of the local universities. Our lessons with her take forever because she always asks so many questions. That's a good thing though. She's a bit skeptical, but she really is looking for truth. She has a baptismal date for April 27th, but she won't be ready by then because she hasn't been to church yet. We're looking forward to continuing to work with her.

---Claudio is a father who has cancer. He has strong faith in God. He is interested in learning more about the church, but we haven't been able to get ahold of him since our first lesson... We're hoping we can get back in contact with him.

---Maura is the woman who let us in when we were going door-to-door. That never happens. Usually people just close the door when they see us (or hang up on us since most of them are apartment buzzers). We can tell she's experienced a lot of pain in her life. She has somewhat of a belief in God, but doesn't believe He loves us or that we need Him. Slowly she's started to gain some faith. She told us that she wants to believe and she has set a baptismal date for May 11th. That was such a miracle. I honestly lacked faith, but this is something she really wants to strive for.

---Iryna is Ukrainian, but she speaks very good Italian. She thinks the Book of Mormon can be helpful, but sees no need for it, saying that the Bible is basta (enough). For some reason though, she keeps setting up appointments with us! We're hoping to see her progress. During her second lesson, she brought her friend Natalya with her. She is also Ukrainian and has similar beliefs. We have an appointment with both of them on Sunday.

---Celestina stopped us on the street. She is from Nigeria, but speaks very good Italian and English. She's met with missionaries twice before; once in Nigeria and once while she was living in Napoli (Naples). We gave her a Book of Mormon in English and she says she is going to read it.

Primavera (Spring) is arriving in Italy. The sun is shining and the rain is coming. The other day it was actually raining while the sun was out. I felt right at home. Haha. We are allowed to proselyte without suit jackets now! Everyone got really excited about that.

Food... Yum. I had pizza today. It's soooooo good. There's pizzerias on every street. There's so many different toppings and so many different ways to make it. You know how in the States pepperoni is the main topping? It's a lie. They have one kind of pizza that has pepperoni on it, but they're called salami instead and they're much smaller. That's one of the less popular kinds. Usually it's salsiccia (sausage, and I mean really good, fresh sausage) or margherita (tomatoes and mozzerella). The tomatoes here are unlike anything I've ever tasted. I don't even know how to describe it. I was never a huge fan of tomatoes, but I absolutely love them now. This is good, because tomatoes are on everything. Italians really do eat a lot of pasta. In the grocery store there's a whole aisle of just pasta on both sides. Another one of my favorite things are called piadinas. The piadina bread itself is like a tortilla, but much thicker and made with a different kind of flour. Then you fill it with meat and vegetables and sauces and mmmmmmmm. We eat one every P-day night. I'm looking forward to it.

I'd say that one of the hardest parts of missionary work is being with a companion 24/7. Not that I don't love Anz. Miller and Garcia, but I was never the kind of person that liked to be around people constantly. I like time to myself too, but that doesn't exist out in the mission field. That was a rough adjustment, but I'm growing to love it. The three of us are very different people. Anz. Garcia is quieter and kind of messy sometimes. Anz. Miller is very energetic, but also very military. Everything he does has to be perfect. The apartment is 100% clean 100% of the time or else| I'm the scared little greenie I guess. Hah! We all have different things to bring to the table though and I'm looking forward to growing our companionship.

Now it's time for your Italian lesson for the day. The word paese means country. What we didn't know is that it also means village or town. Anz. Miller and I went for the longest time thinking that Pesaro was surrounding by a bunch of little countries. The Italians love to exploit that on Americans, much to our NOT enjoyment. I'm starting to understand things more and more. The best thing to do is to talk and listen as much as I can. I noticed that as I get to know a person better, it's much easier to understand them. When I first meet someone, I usually don't understand them, but as I meet with them more often I can understand them. For example, the Tariffa family. They're one of our three active families in the branch. Fratello (Brother) Tariffa is from Napoli (Naples) so he has a thick accent. The first time I met him I didn't understand a word he said, but now I can understand him most of the time. It's actually really cool as I talk with people more and more and realize that my understanding is growing.

Italians love to try to be American. It's really kind of funny. There's a type of bread at the grocery store called "American Classic." The sad part is that I buy it... I've seen more American flags than Italian flags. Italians do love their culture, but they don't care much for their politics. Most Italians know a couple of English phrases that they like to say. Every Tuesday night in Pesaro we teach English. It's actually really fun. Two women, Roberta and Donatella, have been coming now for ten years! They're fluent in Italian, but they come because they love meeting the Anziani and practicing their English. They have no interest in the Church, but they love coming to English class.

OH! And how can I forget gelato. At first, I thought it was just overhyped. It's not. It's. So. Good. Wow. I don't know why exactly, but it's fantastic. There's any flavor you can think of. I had Nutella flavored gelato. Nutella! Wow. Tonight we're getting some. :)

Missionary work is hard, as I've said before and as I'll probably say again. It's so worth it to see people bettering their lives. It's hard to be away from all of you wonderful people, but your letters and emails make my day. I love all of you! Vi voglio bene.

'Til next time, Anziano Simcox

P.S. I'm sorry I don't have any pictures this week. I left my camera at the church. I'll try to do double next week!

Buon Giorno everyone!

I hope everyone's doing alright back in the States. Things are coming along here in Italy. My language skills continue to develop. The best way to learn how to swim is to be pushed into the water right? My companion gave me this analogy:

Your first transfer (six weeks) in the mission is like this: Imagine you're on a diving board. You're lying down, blindfolded, and your hands and feet are tied together. Now imagine that someone picks you up, throws you in, and tells you to untie yourself and swim. There's someone standing on the side with scissors, but you have to work for it.

Yah, that analogy didn't make me feel any better. BUT, I continue to learn how to swim. Like I said, being thrown into a country of Italian speakers has helped me learn faster than anything else. At the moment, I listen as much as I understand and put in my two cents (in Euro of course) whenever I understand enough to speak up. It's challenging, but it's very rewarding. Every day I feel myself getting better.

I think I said in my last letter how we are in a tri-companionship with Anz. Garcia and we're covering both Ancona and Pesaro areas. To give you an example of how far away these two cities are, that would be like three missionaries covering everything from Columbus to Zanesville. Yah. Our travel expenses have been nuts, but thankfully that's all reimbursible (wow... try to spell that word...). Right now though, Anz. Garcia is back in Ancona with the Ravenna elders for nine days so Anz. Miller and I have Pesaro all to ourselves. It's been nice to stay in one place for this long! I've been moving around almost every day we've been here. I love public transportation as much as the next guy, but come on...

Pasqua (Easter) was also spent mostly on the trains... We slept in Ancona, but we had to get on the train to Pesaro for church, then back, then back to Pesaro again to stay the night. It was nice though. We had dinner with la Famiglia Frulla in Ancona. So. Much. Food. I was stuffed. She made this awesome lasagna. It had some sort of cream inside. She said what it was, but I haven't learned food names in Italian yet so I couldn't tell you. Then we had breaded lamb, salad, and bread.

Since I'm talking about food: The fruit here in Italy is amazing. All of it is fresh and most of it is grown in or around Pesaro. It just tastes so much better. I'm not sure completely how to describe it. My favorite are le arancione. They're blood oranges, but they're a thousand times better than any you would find in the States. They're grown in the volcanic ash of Sicily. Yah that's right. They're fantastic. As to the pizza, it continues to stay fantastic. Tonight, I'm having gelato for the first time. I'll try to get a picture in next week's letter.

Ok, now people. We have four investigators here in Pesaro, and several more in Ancona. In Pesaro we have Gyldena, Claudio, Iryna, and Maura. We had our second lesson with Gyldena yesterday. She is coming along well. She has a lot of questions and talks a lot. We brought Sorella Tariffa along (a member of our branch) and she really helped to answer her questions. I'm not sure of everything she said to her, but it must've been good because Gyldena set a baptismal date for April 27th! Claudio is one of my favorite people that I've met. He has a very strong faith in God. He's in his mid 40s and he has cancer. He has two sons I believe, and they live with their mother. He's interested in learning more about how to grow closer to his family and to God. We are, of course, more than happy to help him with that. Iryna is a difficult one. She's very stubborn, but she wants to keep meeting with us. She wants to learn more, but she's not willing to take steps to further her knowledge. Maura, on the other hand, just straight up scares me. We were going door to door a couple nights ago, and she actually let us in! Anz. Miller has been here for almost four months now and that was the first time he's been let into a house. I could understand maybe 10% of what she said. From what Anz. Miller explained to me afterwards, she let us in because she loves learning about religions. She herself though has somewhat of a belief in God, but doesn't believe that we are His children and that He loves us. She is a very nice woman, but she creeps me out, partly because I can't understand what she says and the other part because her conversations are all over the place.

Here's the miracle story though. In Ancona, we are teaching a man named Khan. He is a Muslim from Pakistan. He speaks some Italian, but he speaks very good English, so we teach him in English. Here's how we met him. We were walking down the street on our way to another appointment. A man was walking past us, so Anz. Miller stopped him and we tried to talk to him. It turns out though that he couldn't speak much Italian or English, so we just gave him our card and went on our way. We got to where we were supposed to have our appointment and found out we'd been given a fake address. About ten minutes later we got a call from a man named Khan. He said that we had run into his friend on the street. He said his friend couldn't speak Italian or English, but that he'd be willing to translate for us. We all agreed to meet at the train station. We waited for a while, but his friend never showed up. Khan said he was still interested in learning, so he came along with us to another appointment we had scheduled with a man named Lorenz. Lorenz wasn't very accepting, but Khan really enjoyed it. He said he wants to study as many religions as possible and find "What is new? What is good? I read, then I ask questions." He's awesome to talk to, but our time with him may be short. He found work in Switzerland, so he might be leaving next week. Either way, he'll be hooked up with the missionaries up there.

Whew. So there's my update for this week. Missionary work is hard. Being with a companion 24/7 is hard. It's so rewarding though when you can see the difference you're making in someone's life... or not see it. The reward is that I'm leaving someone's life in better shape than when I found it, whether or not they welcome us into their house, or accept baptism, or read the Book of Mormon. My first goal is to improve the life of everyone I come into contact with.

Until next time,

-Anziano Simcox

The picture is a picture of the view outside of our apartment window. It looks a lot cooler in real life, but hey. Also, I'm going to Firenze (Florence) next week for a zone conference. I'll try to get some pictures.