26 Nov 14

Sent: Wednesday, November 26, 2014 6:10:41 AM
Subject: Transfer 15 Week 4

Happy Thanksgiving!

Funny story about that, we forgot which Thursday Thanksgiving was on, so we were ready to go with a branch Thansgiving party last Saturday. We figured it out in time though, so we'll have our party this Saturday instead. Our branch wasn't very impressed when they asked what I did on Thanksgiving. "We eat a ton of food...and then we watch football." "What else?" ".....when it's halftime we go play football outside?" "Yeah, but what else?" "....that's Thansgiving." So we're kind of making up american thanksgiving traditions for Saturday. 

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes! It was full of miracles. So I woke up and went and went to my desk where I had put my presents (Thanks Mom and Dad!) I got a new wallet (one that I picked), a second new wallet from a less active in the ward who heard I needed a new wallet. It's purple and has little cartoon aliens all over it with a velcro strap. So i've decided that when I go on dates, i'll bring both wallets. If it's going well, i'll pull out my cool Italian one, and if it is going less well, i'll pull out my alien wallet. That way i'm not the bad guy when a second date doesn't happen. Anyways. The last present I got for myself was a box of Krave, my favorite cereal here. I only get it on my birthday and Christmas because if I ate it more regularly than that I would probably die of sugar intake. Later I also got myself a cookbook called The Great Golden Spoon. It is Italy's pride and joy, with 1000 recipes for only 25 bucks. Then Anziano Mallari gave me a sweet wireless bluetooth speaker that i'm really excited about.

Then we went to church and my Branch President pulled me into his office and gave me a really nice tie and a card. It was really nice of him, i'll be sure to send pictures because I like it a lot. At the end of sacrament meeting, we were talking to a member and his girlfriend, who is visiting from the US. She pulled out this GIANT jar of Skippy Peanut Butter and asked if we wanted it. Anziano Mallari still has American PB from his last city plus he's finishing in two weeks, so I have 1.5 KG of peanut butter. It's great because i've been living off of African/Asian store peanut butter, and it's not really the same. After trying American PB i've decided i'm never leaving the States for the rest of my life.

After Church we went to our investigator's house for lunch and they got me a cake. It was great to spend time with them. They are from some city in Equador which is written in my planner, but I forgot to bring my planner so i'll bring that next time. Where is Amanda's boyfriend from?

The rest of the day was spent out in the rain knocking doors.

Yesterday we found a cool guy who is interested in meeting with us, and he wants us to meet his Priest as well. He says that this priest is the best one in Piacenza, so i'm really excited to teach him as well.

The rest of the week was pretty normal. We're getting pretty close to dropping a lot of people because it feels like all of our investigators know that the Church is true, know that they need to be baptized, but don't want to give up stuff. We've got a lot of people saying just give me 3 months/6 months/one year and then i'll be baptized. Mom and Dad, I apologize for every time you asked me to do the dishes or clean my room or come to family night and I said "Give me five minutes" because it is the most annoying thing ever. Thanks for not dropping me.

That's all I have for this week. Keep on being good people and obeying commandments. I love you all and thanks again for the prayers and the support! You da bomb.

Anziano Christian Fife McKinnon

Shout out to everyone who remembered my birthday on Sunday. People who aren't my friends on Facebook yet/missionaries without facebook to remind them, you are forgiven. The rest of you, you aren't forgiven. I think 21 means that I get a horizontal driver's license and that I can legally drink alcohol. 21 is less of a big deal as a Mormon I guess.

For Thanksgiving tomorrow I will be in Reggio Emilia eating fufu. Fufu is an African food that is like hard mashed potatoes that you eat with your hands and dip in soupish stuff. It's not turkey, but it should still be somethin. I've never tried it, and i've heard "It's the best thing ever" as well as "Avoid it at all costs." So i'll tell you how it goes next week. 

Report on last week, for those of you concerned i've gone rogue for writing on Thursday instead of Wednesday, we had a conference so we had to change our p day. Don't worry, im still CTRing. 

Have a good week friends.

Anziano McKinnon