Happy San Giuseppe Day.

Wow, so this was a really interesting week. The other night we were doing house (knocking doors), and we didn't have a lot of time so we said a prayer that we would be led to someone that would listen to the gospel. The second door we knocked on the lady let us in! We talked to them a while, and the lesson went really well. After she offered us some snacks, the drinks she brought out were starange looking. We asked her if there was alcohol in them. She said there was in one of them, but the other was just a grape drink. So, we drank a little cup and it burned all the way down. There was definetly alcohol in it. It tasted like cough syrup as well, yuk! I also found out from a member that most Italians will tell you that there is no alcohol in wine. They just say it's grape juice. Liars. Well, a cool thing. My companion went to a Catholic high school, so he was very familar with masses, and he wanted to go to one in Italy. It's a must, really. So we went. It was really interesting what the priest taught that night. He said "Christ taught us that we must be as he is. He did not say be ye good.- He said be ye perfect. A non practicing believer does not exist. There is no such thing a non practicing Catholic. If you believe you practice. Those that do not practice are not true believers and therefore are not members of God's church" He really broke some boxes. I liked it. We talk to people everyday- I believe in Jesus, I do the sign of the cross in the morning, but I don't go to church. It's interesting to see the differences between every person.

So, yesterday we had Zone Conference and I love our President so much. He is such a stud. He just always makes you feel good about what we are doing. I also saw my trainer for the last time in the mission (buona morte Anziano Beck. mi mancherai) and that was sad. Last, but not least. Happy San Giuseppe Day. Here they actually make quite a deal about it. As we were coming out of the house of a less active member we see the makings of a huge fire behind this building. So, we go to see what in the world was happening. Apperently, for this holiday they make huge bonfires all over the place, and just light them. There was one right by our house, so we went down there to see it. Everyone was kind of excited that we were there. Especially when it turned into a religious meeting after they light the fire. We made a prayer circle, and people just began to pray when they felt like it. It was cool, but then after like two prayers the rest of the prayers were directed at us. They kept on praying for us that we would realize that we are all children of God, and that it doesn't matter which religion we follow. I hate it when people tell us that. I hate it because Christ and his apostle never taught that nor did they say anything that resembles this. I feel so bad for the confusion of the world on this matter. Honestly if this saying were true, then what is the harm of joining our church? According to every other church's doctrine we have been saved already, what harm is there in going a little further? I suppose people just don't think about that. Well, here are some pictures of the bonfire, and of me under the arc of a Roman aqueduct outside of Taranto. We drive past it almost every day.

Arrivederci

Anziano Paul

I drank a lot of hot chocolate.

Ciao,

Ok, again I need to ask forgivness for not writting for a few weeks. Statte (pronounced stat-te, sorry I never realized that that would be a problem until I just recieved a letter telling me about a mix up) is not the biggest place, so things don't really happen a lot. We had transfers, and my companion and I were the only ones not transfered in the entire zone. We are really happy about it though, well until the other day when we had a disagreement over whether soccer or baseball was the better sport. Although, I do believe we all know the answer to that one. Let's just say 4 billion hooligans can't be wrong. Continuing, we had the great pleasure of going to Foggia(pronounced fo-ja) to get my companion's green card. Well, we took a three hour train ride, spent the night, and had to wait 5 hours before they called his name. Then, of course, they told him that he didn't have everything, so he had to come back. I was fine because there was an amazing hot chocolate machine there for only £.30. I drank a lot of hot chocolate. So, this past Saturday was the 10 year anniversary of the Puglia (pu-ye-a) Stake. We, all went back to Bari for a wonderful night of standing around. It was great. As for our contacts we are kind of coming short on that, but never loosing faith we keep working hard. Speaking of working hard this Sunday an american couple came to church, so we got to translate for them. That is very hard to do. It went pretty well, but the last speaker did something that I did not like at all. He gets up in church, says well there isn't much else that I can say that hasn't been said on this argument, so he decides to just ramble off for 30 mins. Second of all he is already hard to understand, and when he just starts talking about completely random stuff. My companion just gave up. I think even the children were all asleep at the end. It was brutal. Anyway I hope all is well for ya'll. Stay safe and healthy.

Arrivederci

Anziano Paul