99 Red Balloons Go By... As your Super Soldier Smiles Slyly

Dear Family and Friends,

No matter what I do.. You always die.

I wish I had never known you.

Updates on the three muskateer bap dates:

• Elisabetta is good.. I think. She has been sick the last two weeks.. and hence have not been able to see her yet. She is an amazing woman however.. and we are not super worried yet. Hopefully she gets better soon.. so we can meet with her.
• William is doing good. We have met with him quite a bit.. and he came to three of the four sessions of General Conference at the church. We talked to him about the Word of Wisdom.. which he has a bit of a problem with. The lesson Anziano Delgado and I agreed was maybe a little too easy. We have high hopes and he is progressing.. Time will tell.
• Tino is a bit awol. We called him a bit ago.. and he told us he is super super busy.. and that he will call us when he is less busy. Which is not what we wanted to hear... hopefully he gets less busy so we can meet with him.

Anziano Delgado and I are doing really good though. We are doing some new things for finding a bit.. that have been working pretty good. To explain how we work well together... Imagine that every missionary copia.. is a lightsaber.. God is the Jedi Master... Anziano Delgado and I are a curved lightsaber. God is a Jedi Master... he knows how to use curved lightsabers.. and will bring about his own work and glory.

Anziano Delgado and I are done with chess.. at least for the moment. 

We technically won against the Italians last week. They were all about 14/15.. so its not like a huge accomplishment.. but it was cool cause.. even though I was taking it a little easy.. because I was starting to get an ingrown toenail... I could run pretty much endlessly.. while even not trying overly. 

I am not patient enough for soccer. I learned that you are not allowed to kick other peoples legs in soccer.... Like If someone is going to move the ball out of where it was.. and I kick your leg where the ball was.. I figure we are even... anyways. I kicked Anziano Delgado's feet trying to get the ball.. and kicked his feet out from under him and made him fly in the air a bit... He was ok. I don't have the patience for soccer.. and don't care enough about it to be any kind of passionate about it.. but it was fun playing against some of the youth.
what the heck.. lame rule.  

General Conference was sooo good. Almost every talk in this last Conferance was what I call... A High Light Talk. Which means it is a really good talk... probably one talk each session was not a High Light Talk.. but every other talk was.. which is really good. I invite you to go watch it if you haven't. As missionaries here with the ward.. we watched one session.. and three  I need to watch the last session sometime when I can. 

Some people like to watch General Conference and do other things by going into it with a question.. or look for specific things that will change them.. for me this session.. (piu o meno) I just tried to let the talks become a part of me.. To change who I was... it is a bit hard to explain.. 

but if I were to watch it trying to get some stuff out of it.... Goodness they talked a lot about marriage and family. Which is important good things... but it brings up the topic of Super Saiyans (soldiers).

The church and God wants Super Soldiers.. as members and missionaries. To get married young if you can.. while at the same time.. don't get divorced later or mess up too bad etc. Not exactly easy to do.. and is a fine line. They want us to be in the world.. but not to become of the world.. or become defiled by the world. As missionaries we are kind of our like firefighters... going proprio into the fire at times and trying to pull people out.. while trying not to get burned. The church wants Super Soldiers.. which I am fine with and I love trying to become a better one. If you want to become a much better person and to become a Super Soldier.. if you live it right.. the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is for you.

Elder Holland gave a talk that I liked. (Normally he hits home runs with his talks (only heard one talk of his that wasnt super good)). Focusing on a specific part.. there was a boy who was on a rock cliff that didn't have safety equipment.. that needed to jump at the last part for safety. If he didn't jump he would die.. and if wasn't clutch.. he would die. He jumped up high.. caught himself for a moment and would have slipped off and died.. but his younger brother grabbed his arms and saved his life. Elder Holland related it to life.. asking the question.. In life are we just meant to jump as high as we can and then fall to our death? 

If there is one thing we can learn from that.. even if you don't proprio believe in the church.. If you are going to jump (and you should).. make sure you try to jump as high as you can. If you get saved by your brother great.. if you fall to your death.. well at least you jumped high (I highly recommend looking long term and letting Jesus Christ save you). God most of the time or outside forces (Job) (example.. job.. or the guy that gets cancer) is not going to stop you from living a happy life.. a life of doing wonderful things... of jumping as high as you can. If you are going to live a certain way.. at least be smart about it.

Find your happiness.. jump high... have a good life. As I said.. I recommend the gospel that will bless your life now and later.. but at least we should all try to jump high as high as we can. 

I invite you to jump as high as you can this week.

A great movie that I really like is The Edge of Tomorrow. Basically this guy is in a war.. (On a heavily heavily losing side) and every time he dies.. he wakes up at a certain time.. the day before. Hence.. giving him time to learn and to become a better soldier and help his side win the war. Through out this movie.. it is implied that he probably dies.. over a million times.. but every time he wakes up and can try again. I feel as Latter Day Saints with us trying to become Super Soldiers we in a way have this tool. We have the Atonement. That Jesus Christ suffered for our sins so that we can repent. That every week we can repent of our sins and become clean.. to start over. No matter how badly we die.. or how often. We can always restart and come unto God.. to repent. With Easter.. I would invite you to think of the Atonement and to use this valuable gift from Jesus Christ. It might help you win the war ;).

Life is good and bad.. In the end it is a little bit of what you make it... Make it good. I hope y'all had a good Easter and that you are able to find your purpose a little more during this Easter time.. 

Lets start over.

With Love,

Anziano Gridley

Steps to control your frustrations

Dear Family and Friends,

"At least give me a soldiers death."

We got two more bap dates this week. Which is kind of unheard of to us. (I have set two bap dates.. before this week.. my whole mission). The missionary work seems to really be booming right now.. which is great. Anziano Delgado is a really great guy and we get along really good. We have developed a missionary style which is working pretty good. We have things to improve.. but we are doing pretty good.

We have been meeting this really cool guy named William.. who is a little robust.. cares about what people think about him.. and really wants to prosper financially in the world. He really likes cars and what not. He really likes doing lessons with us though.. so we have met him four times in a week and a half.. and are meeting with him
pretty often.  He came to church last Sunday.. but hasn't been reading the BOM yet. We have big hopes for him.

We also set a bap date with this man who is over 80 (Tino) . (Which is really rare type of a deal.. People may think they will repent or whatever when they are older.. but basically every old person here is like ehhh I am dying soon.. I can't change... obviously there are exceptions case and point here). He is really open and at first we thought it might not go to well.. because he started by asking us about our stance on people who are gay.. and other controversial topics... but we answered all his questions and taught him the plan of salvation and he basically agreed with everything we said. We then showed him John 3: 5. (Which is a really good scripture to use.. it is
really funny when they like a verse so much they read the next verse or two for fun haha). Yeah we are excited. We have not met with him a lot because he is busy with whatever.. so I hope we can overcome that
barrier.

Yesterday we had dinner with Stephano and his non member family. It was really good. They were really nice. We ate a lot of really good food. I got to try legit french cheese. Which took me about ten minutes to eat a decently small slice. It was good.. but I think if I ate more of it.. I would appreciate it more.

What do you do medically if you have a cough / are starting to get an ingrown toe nail. How do you treat these ailments?  (Editor's note: Here's some good tips)

We are going to play soccer with some young men youth here today. It should be a battle to be remembered. It is

really funny when an Italian loses at Foosball.

I started to get lost a bit in the abyss of my mind.. but I faced myself and got out again. If you are feeling frustrated or angry etc.. I suggest you try these few things to healthily handle the situation or just feel better.

The Seven challenge:

1. Pray to God... He always eventually answers.. Be honest and real with him.
2. Let your soul be still. Go listen to that song.. and let your self calm down.. don't try to be a negative emotion... if you need to forgive someone.. let yourself forgive them.
3. Read the Book of Mormon.
4. Go exercise...
5. Be Grateful
6. Go sleep (I usually always feel better after I sleep).
7. Change your situation a little bit everyday.. try to make the next days situation and your self a little better each day.

In the end one person does not have a lot of control on the world (generally). You have no control over a lot of things (especially things other people do). I consider it wisdom to control yourself and not get angry about what others are doing. If Sam wont mow the lawn.. it is more of a him thing and not a you thing.. and you have a few options of how you want to handle it... Generally getting angry or yelling or something like that is not very good. (If Jesus is our perfect example he did rebuke and get angry at times.. but more often he was merciful.. calm.. etc). Try to find some happiness.

If you are having a problem with Tithing.. and that is your only problem with this church... I will just say this... It is a pretty stupid reason not to be in God's church and secure your salvation type of a deal.

This last Saturday we had a talent show. The other Anziani sang a song together... (They sounded good when they sang together). Nick sang can you feel the love tonight and got everyone into it.. it was pretty funny. Davedee danced really really well. Olga and Nina sang a Ukrainian piece that was really gorgeous. Anziano Delgado played the piano while I improv danced.

Take the seven challenge. Be happy.. eat healthy. Have a good week. I hope y'all have a good life.

With Love,

Anziano Gridley

Of Pasta Shock and Interpretive Dancing

Dear Family and Friends,

Never trust a beautiful woman. Especially one who is interested in you.

Anziano Delgados birthday is today... and hence we had a victory nap this afternoon. It has been raining this P-day.. so we haven't been too interested in going to go do anything.

For my upcoming birthday... in missionary apartments (at least in the Elders ones in Italy) there is generally a lot of cool stuff.  Example... Anziano Delgado bought a brand new coat before he left on his mission. It was a little too big for him.. so he left it in his first city. Hence I kind of got some free nice, almost brand new gifts for myself this upcoming month. I fixed these shoes that are super sweet and sick and that fit me really good. The only problem was there was a bejewled 

Editor's addition.  Not Anziano Gridley's actual shoes.  :)

skull on the side of each of the shoes. I took off the jewels which took a while.. but they are pretty dang nice. I have this super nice green brown coat. It reminds me of the old camo coat I used to wear if any of you remember... but this is super nice.. and is going to be great for camping and what not when I come home. It looks a bit awkward when we are finding.. but I have patience. A silk tie.. and some funny looking suspenders. Some of this stuff I wouldnt buy. But it is really nice for being free. 

Moral of the story... Pay your tithing.. And serve a mission.

We have been where we have been needed often this last week. We have ran into members and investigators often on the street. We ran into Paulo Cibin three times this last week. It has been really nice to be able to feel the spirit strongly and often again. (Since the Mtc). I have a firm testimony of the holy ghost. It is a real thing. For those of you who have seen The District 2.. A missionary kind of movie thing. I am sort of becoming like Anziano Christianson.. (Italian is ruining my spelling life)... and it has been really nice to be doing what I can for people out here.

We found a woman on the street a few weeks ago. We finally met her in a formal lesson yesterday. There was a girl that was high on drugs that came to the church for a lesson with the other Anziani. but the other Anziani were not at the church.. while we were arriving with this woman..  Elisibetta. Anziano Delgado handled the situation while I was just talking to this really amazing woman. She was very patient. We taught her everything and she is basically one of those prime people ready for the gospel. She found it strange that people did not listen to use as missionaries more. We should be baptizing her May 9th.. unless something crazy happens.. but Anziano Delgado and I are very excited. She reminds me a bit of Aunt Becky. She has just a really good soul. She and her husband are seperated.. so we were going to have to give her to the sisters to teach... but we called the mission president.. because we knew we could teach her with a male member every lesson at the church etc.. and what not... and we got permission to keep teaching her. You may pray for her if you would like. We have a lot of hope for Elisibetta. 

I have kind of lost my appetite the last few days. Which may be a good thing I don't know. There are red oranges here in Italy.. that have so much juice they are red. Those are nice. There is pasta.. with amazing ragu.. chicken. There is not fast food here... not like America at least. The food here is kind of like America.. just a little bit different and better. Italians know how to eat.

Don't tell Grandpa and Grandma Low.. but I have gone a year without drinking soda... A pretty good decision I feel. 

I have finished the Old Testament, which was really good book to read. I have started to read the New Testament.. a bit slowly as I am checking the foot notes for good things as I go. I am really loving reading it right now. One thing that stuck out to me was..

Matthew 16: 24-26

24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.  

25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.  

26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the wholeworld, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

I can become as skilled at a lot of things.. have endless money.. lots of cars.. everything.. the world... but what good does it do in exchange for my soul. Hence we should follow the commandments.. even if something else may be good.. for example you go camping with your family every Sunday. It isn't bad and I am sure it is fun.. but it isn't worth exchanging that for your soul type of a thing.. but on a little less scale. Also note how Jesus doesn't care how well you take up your cross... that is never an issue. You could be the worst cross carrier ever and he still wants you to take up your cross. The point is to be trying to improve and to become better. 

Anyways I found this as a wake up call a few days ago.

Easter is coming up..as is general conference. I would invite you to watch general conference this upcoming month. 

(Amos 3:7) Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.

It isn't in the bible for laugh and giggles. Watch General Conference=).
Life is good.. I wish y'all the best and that all works out for ya. 

Buona Vita.  The best defense is a good offense.

With Love,Anziano Gridley

How you Fa?

"I'm not afraid.

You will be. You will be."

The ward mission leader is a twenty six year old named Martin. His family are the Lazartes. They are a really nice good family. They had us over for Christmas eariler last year. The mom and the daughter sophia are pretty funny. Martin brought a friend to the gans family home evening on Sunday which was pretty cool. The gans apparently dont know how to play risk or clue.....

You shake it up. And hoodily who.

Lard with Bacon bits.

Not Acceptable! 

We are going to teach them how to play some time soon.

Back on point. Last week Fratello (Brother) Lazarte and me went on a pass by to a family with a less active elder whose wife comes every week but isn't a member. We just talked and gave a small spiritual thought to these two ladies.(Sisters). They are from Ukraine. Fratello Lazarte and I had time to talk before the lesson and after. I took the liberty of asking him some questions finding out more about him etc. For instance when I asked him how he met his wife.. or why he married her. He said... She lived close to me...... HAHA. When I asked him how he found out about the church and why he joined he said... My Wife... haha.. He is a really good guy and him and I had a really good conversation in Italian that I felt a lot of peace with.

We went and ate with the Lazarte also this last week. 

I am having a blast right now. We went to Genova today to have some interviews with President. We got to see a fair bit of the city and I am sending pics. The mission is good, I am trying to use the time well.

I was a bit bothered that we would have to be on a train for some time with nothing to do. (It is a bit of train ride). So I brought a chess board and we played a few games. Anziano Delgado tries but he is the Annikan to my Obiwan.. which means he hasnt really beaten me.. even though at times they are close games. It's all good fun haha.

The apartment below us have been hammering their apartment..... All day... which isn't super enjoyable for us. We are hoping they stop soon. It is just annoying when it is two people hammering and demolishing the apartment below us all day. Kind of funny though.. and I probably wouldn't change the situation is just for the sake of the humor.

Anziano Andricks is an Anziano in my zone. He is a really cool guy that is super down to earth. He has a different style to missionary work that maybe not everyone would like or appreciate... but in the end we are here to do good.. and do what we can. I am thankful for good examples here. (and bad haha)

There was a stake priesthood meeting at a hotel this past week. We rode down with Fratello Zito which I really liked. He served a mission in England and pulls our legs a lot. I don't exactly love the Italian meetings like this. The stake kind of yelled at us at times etc.... but I felt the spirit really strong anyways. Which is a really sweet feeling. A feeling that I like... hence I decided even if the meetings in the future are.... interesting.. if you are in the right place and you are feeling the spirit it is a good meeting regardless.

A topic I have thought a bit about is expressing love. Some times people do not feel they are loved.. or that people care about what they care about. It is a really good thing to express love and care in good healthy ways. Maybe that someone is failing or not doing something good.. or like something that isn't the best thing.. we should still show love for the person. Hence one thing I try is.. if I don't care about something.. but someone else does.. or God does.. I try to do care about it. I invite y'all to show more love and to care more about other people. I am no where near a master at this.. but as the Africans would say. It is good. It is fine.

Wake up gird up my loins!

If you strike me down. I will become more powerful than you can imagine. (I really am a Jedi haha).

With Love

Anziano Gridley

Pictures:

Christopher Columbus is proprio from Genova

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I want the Truth, You can't handle the Truth

Dear Family and Friends,

You are just jealous that I have been preaching the gospel... All day.

 Besides we all know that I am training to become a cage fighter.

Last Wednesday was really funny. I mentioned that we were going to go play basketball. We went and played, I did pretty good the first game, less good the second... because I got two big blood blisters on the balls of my feet (one to a foot). I thought something was in my shoe and hence was kind of irratated, by the friction on my feet. I have never had a blood blister before so I didn't know I was getting them, and nothing was wrong with my shoes in the MTC haha. I couldn't really put pressure on the blisters for the rest of that day and hence had to walk kind of funny. Which gave my legs a work out. They were a lot better the next day though. I see the irony of how mentioning in my last letter made this bound to happen.

Anziano Larson and I (my last collega), got offered some torta (pie) a little bit ago after a lesson. Anziano Larson thought it smelt a little funny so we checked the ingredients, and it seemed fine. The man also assured us that it was fine. We each had a slice of this cake. We found out later that the skim milk in this cake had alcohol in it. Terrible. I am not too happy about it and though it is a bit funny. I now dislike even more sugary goodies that kill you over time.

Anziano Delgado

Anziano Delgado has arrived. He is great. He is from Arizona, and really likes to sleep and work out. He loved video games before the mission. He went to BYU Idaho for a semester before his mission. I asked him if he knew Walker, and he probably doesn't. He kind of acts like Walker sometimes, which is really nice. He was super skinny about five months ago, but he has worked out for the last five months and now is definitely not skinny. He has been out here for about a year and nine months. He is also an Italian mago (wizard). He likes the card game "magic". He is trying to get me to buy some cards, but I told him.... no. He uses the black deck if anyone knows what that is haha. He is alright, there are some really cool things about him, and some less cool things about him, as with everyone I suppose.

Anziano Howel and a Sister (K) are in our district as well. Anziano Howel is super nice and cool. He is always nice to people, and whenever he speaks it feels like the spirit on a breeze on a beach. 

Can someone ask Katy what kind of shoes are the Italian shoes that she feels I should get... She seems like a pretty reliable source... and I might get some eventually (Anziano Delgado got two pair today). Some things in Italy are really cheap and some things are not. For instance with shoes. Fourty Euro for some pretty good shoes at a store in Alessandria. (Which is really good for Italy), and I think we got me some back home for one hundred fifty dollars each back home. You just got to use smart descretion when shopping. There was a sign in a store for a while that said. It is time to a shopping... us missionaries got a pretty big laugh at that.

(If you would like to not read this part you dont have to.. I just found it funny). Anziano brought a scale to our apartment... I had not weighed myself since I had left on my mission. I have been taking pretty good care of myself though so I wasnt super worried or anything... I have gained at least twenty pounds. Which is kind of strange to say the least. Maybe I am just a little freaked out because I am getting close to being as chunky as Dad. (Editors note: That wasn't a very Christlike comment!!!!)  Anyways I was a little bewildered, and have been being extra health conscious.

Anziano Delgado works out quite a bit and drinks protein whatevers. This is something I admire a lot about him, and kind of gave me a new push to go at it. Mom last email talked a bit about investing our time, and I will probably invest a bit in this endeavor. I feel that if you can self master your body, you can more easily have selfmastery over your spirit. It is healthy, and if our bodies truly are temples... we should probably take care of them. It has been really good... and we will see what happens. I still feel that being strong spiritually etc.. is more important than being strong physically... but if Miley Cyrus can have the best of both worlds.. why cant I.

Remember to follow the prophet. If he says to do something.. and you do the complete opposite of what he has said. You are asking for big trouble. (My source is the Bible).

I have been reading the Bible quite a bit, and there is quite a bit about how the Jews are going to be taken captive by Babylon etc. The Book of Mormon is really set up perfectly. If anyone is well versed in the Bible they should be able to see it. We dont talk about that part of how the Book of Mormon came to be so much on the streets due to the fact it is a bit complex... but if you are too lazy to read it.. know from me that the Book of Mormon is set up to be a true story based off the Bible.. and that I know that the Book of Mormon is true.

I am going to try to go Hulk Gridley this next little while. No one will like me when I am angry. Scherzo (I joke). But yeah.. trying to go Alto Gioco by becoming the Hulk would be awesome. I have high expectations for myself and I try to get closer to completing them over time. I just need to act in the end.

I have been thinking a bit this last while about what it means to be Tough. Not only Tough.. but to be Christian Tough. I think of the pioneers and how they had frostbite.. and other fun things.. but they kept on going. That is tough. Including myself I feel that sometimes us members and even missionaries could follow their example a little bit better. On point however... worldly tough of being a jerk to lots of people and getting even with people who you dont get along with is not the best type of tough. I have found the Christianity takes you to a whole new level of being tough. Our church teaches to be thankful always.. especially when things are going poorly. That is as tough as you get right there haha. To forgive others always.. to control your temper.. love your enemies.. serve others.. live a good life.. and the list goes on. Jesus taught to follow commandments.. and not only to keep the commandments.. but to not even think about breaking them.. and if you think of breaking a commandment (overly).. you have already broken it. It is not easy. It takes a tough person to be able to do that. I am saying that if you want a challenge... if you want to become a better person.. to reach your potential.. to leave behind the best legacy you can.. this church is for you. 

The LDS church will change and help you for the better. It will make you an uncanny tough that not even CharIzard can compete with. If you aren't that tough yet. Don't be discouraged.. you just have to evolve yourself like Pokemon to that level. It takes time etc. Know the God loves you.. and if you keep the commandments it will all work out. I am grateful for this great experience to become tougher by being a christian and a missionary.

Do you think anyone thinks I am a failure.. because I go home to stern at night? Forget about it! 

With Love,

Anziano Gridley

Time is a valuable thing, watch it fly by as the pendulum swings

Ciao Family and Friends,

Why can't I change time?

It's transfer week here in Italy which means, Anziano Larson, Wilson, Kendricks, and Sorella Albos, are transferring to different cities. Anziano Delgado, is going to be my next collega, I am going to meet him tomorrow. He is the same age mission wise as Anziano Lewis, so a year and seven months give or take. Anziano Larson is kind of excited to leave. An Anziano from a different area came to Alessandria last week. Anziano Kendricks came for a little bit and is now leaving. He is funny and down to earth.

Anziano Wilson and I had a scambio(trade off) last week, in which, we had quite a bit of success in one day. He is a fireball finder. I watched him trying to observe how he was so successful. He is really kind and accepting of other missionaries, and is very funny. On the street though, it seemed a simple secret that worked extremely well, was he would just treat people as if they were already friends. Which makes sense to me, Anziano Larson and I needed to do that more and it was really nice to be shown how to do it really well. He's also really social etc, which helps. I really respect and like him though.

The language is coming along fine. A few weeks ago I just kind of stopped complaining and dealt with it. I have gotten a lot better and have been extremely blessed. I am really grateful. I am not worried about it anymore, though I am no where near fluent. I should be able to get by with my new collega.

I read a book called Our Heritage, extremely quickly earlier this week. It was really good. The start of the LDS church is truly remarkable. I know a lot of the basics of the church since I have been a member a long time, so its nice to read other things that have more things that not every member knows. I know that this church is true. 

We started trying to do genealogy finding last week. It's really easy to talk about families, and most people agree that the family is important. Knowing about where you come from the stories etc, is a free, fun, thing that the church does. We have been having some success this way and I'm hoping this next transfer we will be the Charizard of Pokemon to Missionaries to Missions. We will have to act though. It should be an adventure regardless.

We met with Paulo, the older man I mentioned several weeks ago. He talks extremely loud and is kind of the stereo type Italian you think of. We had a lesson with him last night, and it will probably be the most bizarre lesson of my mission. We brought Martin with us. Paulo would talk sooo much. He would interupt us, and when we would interupt him, he would interupt our interuption. It made the lesson really hard to do etc. He smoked a bit during the lesson as well. He would talk about all of these off topic things, even when we told him that this was the time we would talk about spiritual things. When we left he took Martin and Anziano Larson by the arm, and walked us to the car, and wouldn't let us leave for another three minutes. Martin told us he wouldnt do another lesson with Paulo. Its going to be a long road to baptism for him, We are going to try to have him walk to the church so he is tired, so he will talk less next time. He came to church last sunday though. If every soul is worth the same in the sight of God, I believe that if we have to spend extra time with Paulo (over a hour yesterday), that it is degno (worthy). I love him so much though. Some investigators make it easy to love them.

We are going to go play some basketball against some youth here after this. I am pretty excited.

Think of the ocean, and how deep it is. You will now be prepared to think of this deep spiritual thought.    

Jeremiah 14:8-10  Talks about how the Jews were failing and not doing so well because they would do whatever they wanted. Going after the lusts of their hearts or something along those lines. Which is really kind of a deep subject. The first sin was that Adam and Eve tried to have happiness without God, as if they could have knowledge to match Gods (type of a thing, its a bit hard for me to explain). When we put God on the back-burners, when we just do whatever we may want, we are going after the lusts of our hearts, and sort of acting like the Jews in the Bible time (most of the time not a compliment). It is not a wise thing to pit yourself against God. You will lose. If you aren't for him you are against him. This life is a time to prepare to meet God again, after this life. If it seems to hard to change, to repent, and to become better, ignorance wont just save you. If you walk off a cliff even if you don't know there is gravity. You still fall and die. 

I don't believe I am allowed to go around calling the people to repentance here, but I can at least in this email. Become what God would like you to become. Educate yourself. Find happiness. People act however that just because they are well off or want to do other things with their time, that they don't need God. This is not a true thing and will not bring true happiness.

 Anziano Ballard (I believe) talks about he was on a trip with a few millionaires and a billionaire. The billionaire had spent his life on wealth, and he enjoyed that. When he mentioned death and the life after this he said, Either there is no life after this.... or if there is.. I don't imagine all of my wealth will do me much good. Kind of a lose lose lose situation for him. 

I invite y'all to lay up treasure for yourself in Heaven, and maybe a little less so on earth. Keep perspective, awareness, and remember the things that truly are important.

I wish y'all the best in your endeavors.

With Love,

Anziano Gridley

Make it so number one, and we have won

Buona Vita Family and Friends,

Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called "The Pledge". The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course... it probably isn't. The second act is called "The Turn". The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. 
Now you're looking for the secret... but you won't find it, because of course you're not really looking. 
You don't really want to know. 
You want to be fooled. 
But you wouldn't clap yet. Because making something disappear isn't enough; you have to bring it back. That's why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call "The Prestige"."

Alberto and Anziano Gridley.
Uomini Molto bello
(Very handsome men)

Cards on the table. Alberto was baptized and confirmed last weekend!=) It went alright, but we certainly learned what we can do better next time. We forgot the document that we needed the Senior couple missionary to sign at our apartment. The Senior couple missionary was already late to another thing so this was pretty intense and we needed to hurry so that we could attend his baptism. So we had to drive over to go get that with them. But Anziano Larson had forgotten the keys at the church, so we had to drive back and get those. We then got the keys and got the document and had him sign it. I hurried and changed and yeah. I Baptized him. I learned that there is a simple, but fine art to it. I dunked him hardcore with water splashing outside the font on to a few people that were nearby.

The baptismal program.

Legendary Whoops. I had to do it twice though, because I didn't get him completely under the water. I then stumbled over a word of the prayer the second time so I said it again, and now he is Baptized.

Now you can see why it would be easy to cause too
much water disturbance with it splashing over the edge.  

He was really chill and happy, telling me that it was all right and to be tranquil in Italian. I wasn't freaking out but it
would have been nice to have been more clutch.

We also were worried he wouldn't be on time to church for his Confirmation the next day, because he's always missed sacrament meeting. He came on time though. We now just need to finish some paper work stuff and it will be official. He is such a good, funny, character. He likes to do things his own way. After church he was playing a little bit of poker on his phone. (against computers, don't be too uptight about it).

Anziano Larson, Alberto and Anziano Gridley

During the talks that two sisters gave before he was baptized it was basically like they were talking to each other. She said ciao to him and he started talking back to her. He bore a really interesting testimony, he doesn't really use the format yet, but he wants to take his wife to be sealed in the temple. He is heading back to Equador on Friday. Thank you for your prayers and good thoughts.

Anziano Larson it seems has always been sick this last transfer. So besides being just regularly sick this last week he also cut his big toe, toe nail to close to the nail and got a disgusting super painful ingrown toe nail. In order for it not to get worse than it was, we mostly stayed inside for a good portion of last week. He is getting better though so that is good. I kept joking to him that a quick and easy solution would be amputating his big toe. He only thought I was only so so funny.

Here in Italy lunch is almost sacred. You eat it with your family and you get off work and school to do this. (Which is good and bad). Hence on Sundays in order not to interfere with the especially sacred Sunday Lunch, Church is held at 9 in the morning.

A bunch of Italian stores, and Anziano Larson
with the decked out coat he bought here.

Two times a year there are huge sales or Saldi(s) as the seasons change and hence they try to sell all the things they didn't sell off the last season. Anziano Larson had his last Saldi here just barely, so we went to a store outside of Alessandria today, on a train and then a bus.

Anziano Larson lost his wallet earlier this week for a few days. He was freaking out. We almost went to report it to the police etc. He found it under his bed, by his dirty socks, however, so that is good.
It has kind of been a bit crazy around here recently.

I found a missionary quote book this last week in our appartment which is really actually good. There are quite a few motivating quotes that are written by important people in the past. I read it all that day. Needless to say I liked it and picked my favorites which, I'll make a highlight paper of, which y'all can read some day if you wish. A funny thing is the author is this return missionary who compiled all of these motivating good quotes. He also added a few of his own, some of them are really bad like... The best way to complete your effective goals, is to make effective goals. We as missionaries here make fun of him a bit for that, but he really did make a good book, even if some of the quotes are repeated a few times.

I keep over thinking a lot of things out here. I have a lot of time to think and to improve myself out here among other things, sometimes I just think too much. As Beauty and the Beast teaches, thinking is a dangerous past time. A mission is a really good thing though. Anziano Larson said, my mission has been 90% been for me to become better etc, and 10% for others. I recommend a mission to my family and friends, even if you don't see all the reasons why, you will experience why, if you have the faith to be obedient and go.

It seems for everything from everyone, there are always excuses. In the end you just need to act and do the good things you should. Don't let the excuses hold you back. I need to bring back our old Alto Gioco.

In life we need four things from others:

1. We need to be loved. 
2. We need to be trusted. 
3. We need to be understood. 
4. We need to feel that our work is appreciated. 

The person who gives this talk talks about how he had a really good dog that he loved and took care of. That dog got ran over by a car, he ran to help the dog, and the dog violently bit his hand. His dog would never normally bite his hand. Sometimes when we are in pain, we do things we normally would never do. Hence make sure you have all four of those things, then check that others that you care about, (and even those you don't quite as much) have these things as well.

Thank you for the letters=).

Self-mastery is doing things even if you may or may not like doing something, but do it anyways if it is a good thing that needs to be done. I invite y'all to pick one thing to take some Self-mastery of your life. Don't punch your brother... etc. As proverbs says  It is better to win control over yourself than over whole cities. If you take that seriously you'll find a whole new challenge. (Also help others=))

Are you watching closely...

With Love,
Anziano Gridley