Chapter Three: The 7th Epistle of Anziano Stewart to the Bitontians

Gennaio is over, Happy Groundhog Day!!!

okay, first something I meant to send last week but forgot... It's a poem that Gordon B. Hinckley wrote.

What is this thing that men call death

This quiet passing in the night?

’Tis not the end but genesis

Of better worlds and greater light.

O God, touch Thou my aching heart

And calm my troubled, haunting fears.

Let hope and faith, transcendent, pure,

Give strength and peace beyond my tears.

There is no death, but only change,

With recompense for vict’ry won.

The gift of Him who loved all men,

The Son of God, the Holy One.

I'm glad you all were able to get to Utah and see the funeral and be with family and such.  I'm sad I couldn’t be there.  The pictures look great; everyone looks so unified.  Isn’t uncle Craig the greatest? =)  I look forward to that cd, or just the mp3 would work as well, whatever floats your boat. 

Sara, that sounds great about your goal to play soccer at BYU, But to get there you have to practice everyday!!  I'm glad Mattie’s heart is still chugging along. How's Maren's New Years Resolution going? And what about Abby's new schedule? Is it still going strong?

All right, this week was pretty sweet.  We met with a lady (Maria Costanza) who has known the church for 20 years, and was ready to be baptized when she was 17 but her dad said no and now she's seeking signs... =/ She also has schizophrenia.  Kind of different but she is really sweet.  Also, we did a mostra Sunday night and were able to hand out some publicità.  We’re hoping to get a permesso for the other cities in our area and do mostras there as well.  It's been so long since the missionaries have been there that it will be something new and hopefully successful.  Also, Michele is still smoking.   He insists that he can’t stop cold turkey, that he has to slowly diminish the amount that he smokes until it is zero.  So we try to help with that... Also, Thursday night we took a surprise permesso trip to Lecce.  Its kind of a long story but we pretty much just left on the fly.  It’s a way pretty city, but a total tourist trap.

I got a letter from the Deckers, it was great to hear from them.  Did you know they bought an airplane?! I totally want a ride when I get home =P

So being a district leader is nice.  Our district is pretty sweet, which makes my job a lot easier =)  We missed Anziano Pedriera and Curzola (the elders at Poggio Franco) because Anziano Pederira was having problems with his eye (he pretty much went blind in one eye in a day) so he was in the hospital here in Bari for a couple days and went up to Rome but it's all resolved now and they are coming back today. It’ll be nice to have them back. 

Well it's time for me to get off. It was good to hear from you all this week, gosh!! =P But really, I love you and I’m glad everything is back to normal. Hopefully everything settles back into place soon.  Happy Groundhog Day!!!

--

Vi Amo Bene,

Anziano Stewart