Listen to your Mother, and to God

Dear family and friends,

Joseph's mother she was quite my favorite wife.

I am staying here in vercelli with Anziano Galli for another transfer.. Anziano Smoot is off to Rimini.. Anziano Taylor is training.

A few weeks ago we met a man named Marcus.. He is from Nigeria.. We met him and then we went to our church so he could see it. We then taught him the restoration.. He left his bike outside during the lesson. Mid way through the the lesson he tells us he wants to lock his bike.. So we all go outside.. And his bike has been stolen. He was a good sport about it.. He said something like.. It looks like we have some thieves in Vercelli. At the end of the lesson Anziano Galli gave him his old bike. So for about three weeks we have had only one bike.. When this is a biking city and could use another. But all the shops (for bikes) have been closed for Ferragosto. So we have been patient.

I keep telling Anziano Galli as a joke.. That I can only do two transfers with him.. Only two. I am only kind of kidding.:)

We lost Marcus as he did not have a phone and he missed an appointment we had made with him due to rain. So I would ask Africans if they knew Marcus.. We didn't find Marcus.. But it was a pretty good ice breaker for talking to new people. Marcus found us about a week and half later. I was so happy when he came in the church while we were teaching Isabella. We are still teaching him now with one of his friends named Godstime. We made bap calendars with them and are hoping for good things.

Anziano Smoot and I had a scambio a week and a half ago. It was very good. We met lots of new people.. And we did a lot of good. (The evening thing was special).

There was a huge storm here in vercelli. I locked one of the doors to our apartment and put all my weight on the door because it kept opening.. And then it opened again and water came rushing into our apartment. Anziano Galli video taped it laughing his head off as I was trying to fix the door again.

We went out to eat at this American burger place here in vercelli with the English class students (Anziano Gallis treat).. Alex and Mathew are really funny.

A new girl has been coming to English class. At the end of teaching her (I have been teaching her alone because she is more basic..) I have been teaching her about the gospel.. She is not super religious but she is really nice,, she brought me bread last class.

We ate with candy and his family.. His wife made really good pizza. She is an American. We also ate with Isabella's husband, mother in law, and her. It went really good. Her mother in law is a great chef.. And she came the next day to church for the first time in 3 years.

God gives lots of tender mercies to let us know he loves us. How we show we love him is by living good lives and following his commandments.

I never really loved another all my life.

I hail you,
Anziano Gridley

Vercelli is more than a Garden of Eden

Dear family,

I am doing good.. I enjoyed your letters this past week. Some of the aunts did some recipes which was nice. I decided That I am going to be writing emails less often.. That I hope you'll forgive me for that, but there is a need. I am not sure when that will change I will let you know. I love you all I miss you a lot. I have been feeding some of our poor investigators lunch when we teach them so they have something to eat. This is a really nice thing. It takes more money for me to do that.. So if you could put more money on my card so I can keep doing that.. That would be great. Also Ali needs help with his bike.. So I would like to help him with that. I am doing fine... I will catch yall up later on what is happening.

Love,
Anziano Gridley

The Alps are screaming my name

Basic principles..
Know what you want.. And then do what you have to do get it. Any woman
can fall for any man. You just need the right broom.

I got this pretty cool but funny green camo coat jacket in
Alessandria... It is sort of nice.. And sort of not. Anziano Galli
really doesn't like it.. He tells me I won't get married with that
jacket.. And then offers me stuff to throw it away. It reminds me of a
coat I had as a kid.. A big puffy camo coat...

For lunch I fed Ali some peanut butter and jelly sandwitches.. They
don't have peanut butter here in Italy (I am guessing in Europe). He
said his mom used to make him peanut butter and jelly sandwitches all
the time.. I guess Africa is more advanced than Europe in that they
have peanut butter.

Anziano Galli is crazy.

After shopping for things here in Italy.. I don't recommend the place
we went to for buying my missionary stuff.. You can get nicer things
for cheaper.. Especially here in Italy.. I got some shoes half off for
about 60€ that are about as nice as the shoes we got at home for a lot
more.. Anyways for the next 5 sons.. I don't recommend those kind of
stores.

We have an investigator tell us about how he feels that he has not
repented about some things in his past.. That they are just sort of
there in the background... Which I sort of found personally completely
unnecessary. That from the bible and Book of Mormon we learn how
important it is to repent now.. Even if it is a bit hard. If we are
breaking a commandment.. The answer is to change ourselves and what we
are doing.. Not to excuse ourselves in whatever way we want and come
up with excuses. It is unnecessary to have old sin on us.. If we are
willing to change etc.

I like talking to strangers because a lot of the time.. They don't
talk to you at all etc.. I could tell them

I was going to do something
great for them and they would not care in the slightest.. But every
once just a while you run into someone who listens and talks to you
and you connect with and have a good conversation.. It isn't all the
time but it is nice when it happens.

This morning we are hiking some mountains near here.. A lady showed me
pictures last week.. It was pretty beautiful. I am excited.

Casle monferato is about 11 miles from vercelli.. Which is kind of
funny because I have been to casale about 10 times earlier in my
mission.

I don't know if these shoes are really me.
Listen to me right now. You bought the shoes. You look great in the
shoes. That's the kind of you I'm talking about right now.

Anziano Gridley