26 Feb 14

Another good week! We set a bap date with one of our investigators for April 4th, so hopefully he makes it! He loves God and Jesus alot (both good things) and is soooo close with the doctrine. Everything he says is seriosly just barely barely off from the truth. When we invited him though, he said "A man can be baptized 100 times, but unless it is the right church, it means nothing." So its a good thing he found the right one!

Were excited also because one of our investigators just got back from Africa. He would have been baptized already, but he had to go work out some stuff for a will. But hes back now and were stoked!

So I find myself being forced into musical things here. I really dont get why though. Im sure you remember the stake choir incident. Other than that (I dont know if I wrote about this stuff) ive had to sing in sacrament meeting with the other missionaries, and sing (still with other missionaries) in a concert. Well last week we had another concert. Luckily for me though, Anziano Garner and I were the MC guys. It was super fun. Anziano Matau took some videos so ill see if I can get those from him. 

We found some milk in our fridge that expired in November. That was pretty gross.

Weve got a conference tomorrow morning down in Bologna, so that will be the farthest ive been away from Milano my whole mission. I know thats not very exciting to anyone else, but I dont know what to write about. If anyone has questions, let me know, because missionary life seems pretty normal to me haha. Sorry im becoming more and more boring. Im still having a blast, but all my funny stories are just "Had to be there" moments.

Thats all ive got this week! I hope everything goes well for everyone! Im glad BYU beat Gonzaga. Crazy to think that this time next basketball season, ill be back at the games. Anyways, I love you all! Have a great week!

Anziano Christian Fife McKinnon 

19 Feb 14

Hey again family!

So Anziano Garner and I are staying here in Verona. No big changes that I can think of. Anziano Mata’u is still here, but Anziano Burton is going down to a city called Ancona. Other than that though, no changes that would interest you.

This week was a pretty good week. One of our investigators had a baby, so we went and visited them on Saturday. We’re really excited because we had an awesome lesson with them about eternal families. Before the baby was born it was hard to go and visit them, just because they were so busy trying to get everything ready. The lesson we had was super powerful, and we’re hoping to use it as kind of a launching pad into the baptismal font. 

There is another guy who we’re teaching that’s going pretty well. We’ve had a string of really awesome lessons with him, and he's praying about a baptismal date now for the 4th of April. We’ve kind of got our eye on that Word of Wisdom lesson because he owns a bar, but we'll see how it goes. 

We’ve been doing a lot of door to door lately. I think I already told y'all that were going to a city called Bussolengo a lot. Most of our active members live up there, and President asked us to really push member work. We decided that it was a good time to make that shift, so we’re kind of starting from scratch up there. It hasn’t been raining as constantly lately, so that’s been good. 

I made it a goal a few weeks ago to gain weight. It is officially impossible for me. Goal failed.

Other than that though everything is good with me! Anziano Mata’u put it best this morning, "Where are the cameras? Because we're all way too funny not to be documented."

I really have no idea what to say in these letters anymore. So I’ll just send some pictures! We’re doing internet in the church today and not some sketch internet point so hopefully it works!

I love you all! Keep CTRing and being good people!

Anziano Christian Fife McKinnon

12 Feb 14

Hello again!

It was a pretty interesting week this week!

So far in my mission, ive gotten inside 9 times going door to door. Up until this past week, we got in two times! So thats a pretty cool miracle. 

The weather has still been pretty bad, but its starting to get better (I said that like two weeks ago, and it hasnt stopped raining since. Hopefully I didnt jinx anything.) It been really good though, Anziano Garner and I just have a blast.

We had a lesson with one of our investigators that was super sweet. At the end, he was saying "Look, I havent read everything in the Book of Mormon, but up to now I really like what I see." Then a lady walked in and said to him "Are you becoming Mormon?" "Im studing with them, and reading and stuff." "Bravo." And then she asked us to come and teach her. Were really excited because finding work has been close to zero effective thanks to the weather, but we made it a goal to be outside as much as possible. If were outside, good things will happen, and it paid off here.

We had a zone training on Monday and that went really well, then last night we had a meeting with a member of the high council. After that, we had a meeting with more high council guys, and then the zone leaders from Modena and Bergamo came up. So I got to see Anziano Simcox! I know that none of this is very excitng for y'all, but its been a change. 

Im trying to think about what else I can write about but im drawing a blank.

Oh! This morning, we went and helping some of the Senior Couples. They are working on the biggest geneology project in the world right now. They are taking pictures of old documents to be used for indexing. So we went to the Archives and helped them clean books. Theyre working on records from 1914 right now. It was cool to help with missioanry work on the other side. Im really excited to do geneology when I get home. 

Thats all ive got for this week! We find out about transfers on Monday, but im nervous for Saturday. Saturday is when President calls the new Assistents, and im pretty sure Anziano Garner is going to be called. I really hope not, because weve become really good friends.

Hope everything goes well for you all this week! CTR and read your scriptures! I love you all!

Anziano Christian Fife McKinnon

05 Feb 14

Soph, youre just growin up so fast! Im so proud of you!

Everyone else, stay off the roads.

This week....flew. And this next one will probably fly again. We have a meeting in Milano with the AP's and President Dibb that all the zone leaders go to, then on Monday we have a zone training, so thatll make things a little more interesting.

We made kind of a big change this week. We havent had a lot of success in finding solid people to teach. We decided that we need to work a lot more with our members, and we decided it was a good time to switch things up. So weve been going to a city in our area called Bussolengo. 80% of our members live there, so we'll be able to get a lot more members to our lessons. It means that were doing a lot lot of finding work.

This change resulted in one of the worst weeks in my mission numbers wise. I still feel really good about it though. We had lots of cool lessons that are considered lessons according to preach my gospel. A lesson according to PMG is two prayers, a gospel principal taught, and an invite. So we were visitng one of our members in the hospital, and his roommate was there and listened/participated the whole time until his daughter came and stole him away from us, so we didnt get an invite in. In the closing prayer we prayed for him, and him and his daughter were just beaming at us. We had a lesson with a lady on the street for 30 minutes, but before we could say a closing prayer with her, she bolted cause she was late to a doctors appointment. So weve had some success in our work, but it doesnt show on paper.

It rained and rained and rained and rained and rained and rained this week. It literally didnt stop. So that was kind of frustrating considering were outside all the time. There was one night where there were literally 3 people on the street to talk to, and one of them was a pizza guy asking for directions. Then, on our way home there was a guy kind of in a hurry so we stopped him. It was the most elect street contact ever. "How would a prophet help your life?" "I think it would help put my life in order so I can spend more time with my family." Only problem is that hes a PROFESSIONAL RACING DRIVER so he will be in Australia for the next two weeks. So we'll just see him then. So if the Hutchins family sees a racing driver running around, remind him to read the pamflet we left him. Sorry if I mispelled any words, I cant ever remember if I use an F or PH anymore.

Those are all the stories I have for this week. I keep telling Anziano Garner that he's going to be an AP next transfer, but I really hope he stays. We have a blast together, and ill be really bummed if one of us gets transfered.

Again, Sophie, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Dont kiss any cute boys! Or any ugly ones. I love you all so so much!

Anziano Christian Fife McKinnon

29 Jan 14

This week flew again. I dont need to say that every week, I know, but its true.

Again, another pretty boring week. We have some pretty cool investigators, but most of them are super inconsistent. Most of them are foreigners, so they work all day every day and its been really frustrating to find time with them. So we spend lots of time walking down a street (Santa Lucia, in case you get bored and want to look at it on Google Maps) and we have to ask the question "Are they drunk, or should we stop them?" before we talk to everyone. Our area isnt exactly super prime for proselyting. So were thinking about switching it up a little bit, and shifting our focus to the smaller subarb cities outside of Verona. 95% of our members live outside of Verona anyways, so that might not be a bad switch. We might be spending a lot more time on trains, but ill keep you posted!

I did a scambio up in Trento on Monday/Tuesday. Its a really cool city in the middle of the mountains. It was pretty cold, but it was still a good time. There is one Elder serving up there who is very very very ready to go home. I went with the other guy and we had a good time. Trento and Bolzano are the only two cities in our zone outside of Verona. There are two sets of missionaries up in Trento, then one in Bolzano, and then six sets here in Verona. There are two wards in Verona with about 60 members each, with three sets of missionaries in each. So those are all the cities in our zone. We used to have another stake, but President Dibb changed all the zones so they line up with the stake lines. It makes sense, but it shrunk our zone a lot. 

Not a ton to report here though! We got our bikes fixed, and thats been a blessing and a curse. My legs are not used to bikes, so thats been less fun getting into shape. Its kinda crazy riding a bike through "game day traffic" after soccer games. I wear a helmet though so ill be safe if anyone hits me :).

The only thing I would really need in a package would be new long sleeve white shirts. I only have four of them, and theyre getting kinda thrashed. And, actually, if you could send two things of advil for migraine, that would be sweet. Ive started getting migraines again, but im seeing a doctor on the 7th in Milano when we go for consiglio. So hopefully we get that figured out!

That's all ive got this week. Its crazy I hit my year mark this week. Like I said at the beginning, time is going super fast. But at the same time I feel like ive been gone for decades. Have a good week! I love you!

Anziano Christian Fife McKinnon