Sacre di San Michele, Saldi suits, zone pictures

Then its all three of us, me, Anziano Torgerson and Anziano Christiansen, with all nice suits. I finally bought a suit during Saldi. 70 percent off! 

Here is a picture of my MTC group at consiglio, the sisters in our group are going home in two weeks :(  The sisters are on their missions 18 months- thats how you know you have been on the mission for a while. We are only missing 2 or 3 people in this group. 

I'm really excited, I'm glad that my mission isn't close to being over yet. I still have many months. These months I know are going to get way more hectic. 

Then is a picture of our entire zone after zone meeting.

This week we had some really special spiritual experiences with an investigator named Daniele. He is going through some trials right now but is closing his spiritual journey that he has been on for many years. Its been really cool to see how despite opposition he is persevering in this path and has been finding comfort and answers. 

We were also able to meet with an interesting man named Francesco this week, who speaks 5 languages fluently and can read like 15 languages. Its a little crazy. He believes in the church very strongly but he just has to get himself back in the habit of getting up early on sunday! He was baptized many years ago and is a great person. 

I also got sick this week :/ which wasnt fun but I recovered after a day or two. Tons of people are getting sick around here, in fact one of the families we went to, one of their young children had one or two red spots on her face which we found out later were chicken pocs! Ah! 

But we are keeping healthy by drinking lots of water and fruits and vegetables don't worry mom. 

I love being a missionary! Its great! 

And I love you!
Anziano day

Here is one picture of us making panserotti (food stuffed deeped fried italian dough), unfortunately we ate them all before I could get an after picture. Oh well.

 Then this p-day we again went to the Sacra di San Michele. It was beautiful

Here is the Sacra di San Michele, 

Here is the sacra di san michele's, giant staircase

 and me 

A coffin with dead people

 A chart for the places people went from Britain to the Holy land. We have been to the France one! (Mont St Michel with the family) Pretty cool. They all focus around Michael the Archangel.

Historical Note from Mom:

Around the end of the tenth century St. John Vincent, a disciple of St. Romuald, began to live the lifeof a hermit here. The choice of the place is certainly conditioned by its impressive setting, by the predisposition to the sacred of Mount Pirchiriano and by the pre-existence of a colony of hermits on Mount Caprasio. 

On the threshold of the year one thousand, a man who sought redemption from a questionable past burst into John Vincent's hermitage: he was the Count Hugh (Ugone) of Montboissier, a rich and noble Lord of Auvergne, who had gone to Rome to ask forgiveness from Pope Sylvester II. The Pope gave him by way of penance a choice between a 7-year exile and the task of building an abbey. 

It was in the years 983-87 when the building of the monastery began, five Benedictine monks were assigned to establish the community.

A staging point for high social level pilgrims developed on Pirchiriano, making it an international cultural centre, through the initiative of Hugh of Montboissier and his systematic recruitment of abbots and monks in Auvergne. 

Since its foundation, the monastery vigorously sought from the jurisdiction of the bishop of  Turin: in particular, in the eleventh century the monks came out clearly in favour of Roman centralist reform, under their most famous abbot Benedict II. This autonomy from temporal and ecclesial authority was quickly attained and the abbey, thanks to its wide and generous hospitality, was able to stimulate exchanges of ideas not only in matters of practical order but also in matters of deep spiritual significance, which helped to create our common heritage of a great religious civilization. from  http://www.sacradisanmichele.com/

Note from Dad:  Accounting really got its start in Northern Italy, and was a result of all the crusaders traveling through on their way to Jerusalem.  This created lots of merchant opportunities for supplies, etc…, and they needed a way to track all their activity.  So Italy is the home of modern accounting J

dad

and a great view,