Family

This Years Picture at the Fmily Reuinon


This is our Family Picture at our Pearce Reunion 2 summers ago.

This summer at the reunion we thought we should try to get the same picture to see if we have changed much.

We put Wills where Buddy was. Bailey is in the same place but is now actually expecting their first baby in February. The other boys could not be put in the same places as before or Hal and I would not be seen in the picture. I can't believe how much these boys and this Family have grown in just 2 years.
I am so thankful for my sweet family. I am also very thankful that I have a testimony of eternal families and our Saviors sacrifice that makes it possible for us to go through this mortal life and still have the opportunity to live as families forever.

Week 17

Ciao Tutti,
Hey everyone how are you all doin!? Thank you all so much for the e-mails you sent me! It is so great to hear how everyone is doing, and its definitely better to get e-mails than waiting once a transfer to hear how everyone is doing all at once. This week i will be writing a lot of individual letters home cus it takes me forever to type and there is so much i want to talk about with everyone. so plan on getting some mail in a week or two, hopefully you get it. But i have had an incredible week, we haven't had time to hardly breath! This last Thursday we woke up early and took a long bus ride out to the middle of the country to visit this awesome investigator family so we could do some service for them. The Woman's house we went to is named Lynett, and her husband is in the Military and is always gone, and they have 2 younger teenage girls one is 12 and the other is 14 or 15. But anyways this family is incredible! They are from England, and have some friends that are members and they love to feed the missionaries, so they invited us out for a huge BBQ, and we accepted on the condition that they gave us some work to do once we got out there, and of course she needed help so Lynett was happy to put us to work. When we got there we ate first, and man did we eat!!!! Ribs, and Chile dogs and hamburgers, and salad, and fruits and veggies, it was so good! Then it was time to work, and we ended up mowing her huge yard with a pushing mower. It was about the size of uncle Richards yard but on a 90 degree slope up a hill, haha it took about 3 hours to finish. It felt great to get out of my shirt and tie and to do some outside work, and i know it helped them out alot, so it was a great experience to help them out. When we finished we had cheesecake, and i played the guitar for everyone and sang for about and hour which was a blast cus everyone sang along and everyone had a great time. Before we left we gave them a spiritual thought, and sang a hymn for them and then it was time to catch our bus back to the city. I love that family so much and want so badly for them to know the things that i know and for them to feel the happiness that i have felt. I'm so excited for them to progress in the gospel. On Friday we made a big batch of brownies along with cards with scriptures and a nice message for bunch of our investigators. It was alot of fun bringing everyone their brownies because people don't know what brownies are here, its a total American thing, but they LOVE them, hahaha! Mom can you send me a good brownie recipe? I don't really like the kind that we made, cus it came out more like a cake. On Saturday we took a train out to Teremo which is a city near Pescara. Well its kinda near, its about an hour and a half trip one way. We went out to visit a few members that live out there and gave them all spiritual thoughts and tried to kinda recharge their spiritual batteries. The members that live out that far have to make huge sacrifices to get to church every week, so we just wanted to take the morning to tell them how much we love them and how much the ward needs them. It went really well, and the next day at church we saw all the members that we visited, even the ones that are semi-inactive. Sunday was such a great day! We had 7 progressing investigators attend sacrament meeting, which was such a blessing. For some reason its always hard to get people to church for the first time, but once they come and see whats its really like they usually come back no problem. After church we were slammed with appointments all day long and didn't get home till almost ten. I have no idea what we have been doing to deserve so much work, but all i can say is i know the Lords hand truly is in all that we do. My love for these people grows every day, and the more i am with them and the more i serve them, the more i realize how grateful i am to be here. I'm giving my everything to these people. Its the first time in my life when its not been all about me. My prayers aren't for myself anymore they are for the people I'm serving. As my knowledge of the gospel grows I'm finding a burning desire in my heart to share our message with everyone! There is so much pain, and darkness and confusion here, SO many people are lost, and It breaks my heart when people and especially families don't want to listen to the most important thing they will every hear in their entire lives. We were in the park the other day and there was a beautiful family; a mom, a dad a little boy and a little girl in a wheel chair who looked about 5 or 6 years old. This little girl had a tache., and looked just like a little Jesse. And that's the first thing i thought about....Jesse. I tore into my backpack and grabbed my family photos with Jesse and headed straight for the family. I greeted them with a huge smile and tried to introduce myself to the father and knew if i could get him to see a picture of Jesse he would open up and let me meet his family. I couldn't even get through my introduction before the man cut me off and said; sono troppo impegnato per Dio-Im to busy for God. My heart sunk! I tried just pushing the picture of Jesse in front of him and just explained i had a message about the family and that death wasn't the end, and that he would find more happiness than he had ever known if he would just listen. the man shook his head and walked away with his family, and i wanted to cry. Not a day has gone by that i haven't thought about that family, and that experience. I pray that someday that family will have another chance to accept the gospel. If not in this life i know they will in the life to come. But anyways we are working with some incredible investigators and have a few baptisms this next month. Ill keep you all posted on that. Dad Can you email me a list of what you think the top 5 best motivational books are (other than the scriptures), like How to win friends and influence people, those kind of books. Anziano Bennets Mom's email address is (bennett_marja_liisa@hotmail.com, and her name is pronounced mar-eee-a) haha sorry i hope that helps. Well i got to get running we are booked again today, I love you all, plan on getting some handwritten letters in a week or 2. Keep the E-mails comin! Love you!!!!
Anziano Koozer

Week 16

Hey everyone!

Thankyou SOO much for the Emails, hahaha i was cracking up when i read about how much fun you all had at the family reunion! And holy cow Cade we weigh about the same now your getting huge, and i knew you would when you starting lifting. Im so glad you did good at Camp and continued on the tradition of Koozer's kicking butt. Keep working hard, and keep hitting those weights, and just remember; speed, strength, and technique kill.Thats so awesome Dane and Cade that your getting your Eagles done this year, they are a lot of work, but it is totaly worth it when your done. you will be so glad that you did it. It sounds like everyone is doing really great at home. I love you all so much and really appreciate hearing from you. I have been having the time of my life here, we have been doing so much! To answer some of your questions, the language is coming along pretty well. Haha no Mom usually people dont have to translate what im saying to people. I can completely communicate with people now. I dont usually understand every word but in most cases i can understand what people are saying from the context. Teaching is easier for me than regular conversation, just because i learnded all the vocabulary in the Mtc for the lessons. It also helps alot that we have an hour of language study every day. Its really different here cus from about 1 in the afternoon to almost 4, the entire city shuts down for lunch and nap time. All the stores close, and most people are let off work and everyone goes home and eats as a family and rests. I love It!!! Haha i wish we could do it in the states. But anyways, we have been absolutely booked all week long! We have been so blessed to be teaching so much, my companion and i are getting pretty pale from being in side so much, haha. It has been a pretty fun week. To start off on thursday morning we decided to get hair cuts, but instead of going to a barber to get it done my companion found an old pair of clippers in one of the back closets and told me that he had seen tons of missionaries cut eachothers hair. Being completely new to this whole haircut thing in Italy, i had no idea and took his word for it which was my first mistake..... Lets just say that i am now BALD! Anziano Bennett totaly had no idea what he was doing and completely destroyed my hair, and we ended up having to just buzz it all off with a size 2 guard. and THEN he decided to go to the barber to get his hair cut! I couldnt believe it! HAhaha, and it was just in time for the baptism which was the next day. So now my pictures of Gloria's baptism are going to be especially memorable. Friday was her Baptism and it was absolutely amazing! We had to go early that morning to fill up the font. THe Church here isnt a big ward building, its just a little front of a Palazza, and the baptisimal font, is this blu swimming pool thing, i'll get a picture of it next time we use it so you all can see, its kinds funny. We got the font all filled up and had GLoria come early to watch a session of confrence and to answer any last minute questions, and it went really well. Then it was time to get everyone changed before people started showing up. I put on my suit, and my companion and Gloria changed into white. It was the coolest thing to see her in all white. I was really happy at how many of the members showed up for the service, it was a great tun out. I gave my talk on Baptism which went well and also sang a Childs Prayer which of corse was in Italain. The spirit was so strong, and she started crying, it was a really special moment. Then it was time for her to be baptised! I couldnt wipe the smile off my face, it was one of the happiest moments ever! Our district has had 2 other baptisms since i first arrived but to actually see someone who i found, taught and baptised, it was incredible! Even though i wasnt the one actually performing the baptising it was such an amazing feeling. After the baptism, President and his wife took all of out for pizza with GLoria. We had a great time, and really enjoyed ourselves. It blows my mind to see how the gospel can change peoples lives. Gloria is a completely different person now, and she is SO much happier. There is no other place i would rather be right now. I LOVE being a missionary!! on monday we got some bad news about the 2 brothers we are teaching. Because they are adopted they have to go through the government before they can be baptised, its just how Italy works, and its not looking good right now. We have to postpone the date for now, and are all going to do a fast together, and pray that their paperwork and approval will be passed. Yestarday we had an amazing lesson with an African woman named Belinda that we found and i challeged her to be baptised, and she said yes. We set her date for the 15th of this next month. We deffinately have a lot of teaching to do though because she had never even heard of Jesus Christ before she met us. But we are so excited! There are also a few other people that i want to set baptismal dates with this next week. My companion thinks I'm crazy for alwaying talking about baptism with the people that we teach, but i love it. And i think it's better to be upfront with people and so people know exactly why we are there, and what we are expecting of them. ITs been working so far, so we'll see how things go. I have been learning so much since i have been here. And the more i learn, the more i realize how much i really dont know. I am so gratefull for the opportunity to be here and to be serving the Lord. I know that i am nothing by myself, and if it wasnt for his help we wouldnt be having the success that we are having. well thats pretty much been our week. I love you all and hope to hear from you.

Oh and ps- I made friends with this awesome man fron Africa, and he gave me his bow and arrows!!! Hahaha its SWEET! And yes mom i found out you can email pictures. And i cooked my first pasta by myself and it actually turned out pretty good. Thanks again for the recipies! Anziano Koozer

Week 15

Hey Everyone,

How is everyone doing? Has Cade done football camp yet? What has everyone been up to? I get these emails once a week then any mail that has been sent to me i get only once a transfer, when we go to Rome. So Email me, cus i have no idea what you all have been up to, and i miss you guys like crazy! But anyways, I've had an awesome week, there have been a lot of fun things that have happened. We have been super duper busy teaching, the Lord has truly blessed us. We are kinda struggling though because were not getting much help from the members, which makes it hard because the city is so huge and we get stuck having to take take buses to all our appointments and can only plan so many lessons in a night. Things would be so much easier with a car, the Elders in the states are SO lucky to have them. Gloria the L'Aquila woman we have been teaching had her baptismal interview this last week and passed! We were kinda nervous that she wouldn't but everything went great and now were set to have her baptism this Friday evening. We are absolutely thrilled for her! I am giving a talk at her service on Baptism, and also doing a special musical number, with one of the sisters in our district who has an amazing voice. Her name is Sister Skabelund, and she is actually from Mesa too. And it turns out she knows Sgt. Pepper and Gooburr, and i guess her family is friends with the Judds. But yeah, were all set for the baptism, and should be having a few investigators coming which will be great. On Sunday we went to my first member dinner appointment, and it was a blast! they picked us up in this big van with no seats in it, so we sat on this little stools and held on for our lives. They live out in the country and so it was a crazy ride, ha ha oh man i wish i had my camera with me, we were cracking up the whole time! But it was so beautiful to see all the scenery on the way to their house. The rolling hills, and grape vineyards, it was so neat. When we got there we ate a huge meals then i played them some music on the guitar they had and i taught them all how to play the game Mafia. And don't worry, we weren't just playing around waisting time, they actually had 4 investigators over and after we played games we did a spiritual thought, and i told them all Jesse's story, and how blessed we all are for having the plan of salvation. It went really well, they should be coming to church on Sunday, and we are actually going to do some service out at the investigators house then have a BBQ this Saturday. On Monday we found a new investigator, named Morena. She is what you call a "Golden Investigator". We are so excited to teach her. the first time we met she asked all of the "golden questions", and wanted to know what it would take to be baptised. we couldn't believe it, ha ha she is such an amazing woman!On Monday we went to an Italian wedding which was so much fun to see. It was just like the movie My big fat Greek wedding! ha ha all the old Italian women all dressed up, with enough perform to smoke out a beehive, and all the younger women had super tight short dresses on with a ton of make up. Ha ha it was just like the movies. Well its the last week of the transfer already and we received our transfer call last night and received some pretty crazy news. They blew out the other companionship, and made our city a 2 Elder city! We couldn't believe it! IT means we take over all of their work, and investigators, and not only that we get our huge apartment to ourselves!ha ha which means all there food they just bought for the week and everything! Its going to be so nice to get everything to ourselves, but i have no idea how in the world we are going to handle so much work. they have 6 progressing investigators that we are now adding to our 13. We are planning on making an announcement in church to try to get some help from the members, cus its going to be impossible if some people don't step up and help. My biggest fear is being so busy that we forget about people and we end up losing investigators. I must admit though, it is a pretty great problem to be having, with almost too much work to handle. It is going to be a little weird with it just being me and my companion now, it was nice having other people to talk to during the day to kinda get a break but now its just us 2. I'm so glad my companion is such a great guy. well we definitely have our work cut out for us its 2 missionaries with stewardship over 4 hundred thousand people in our area. I'm so grateful to be here, Ive been having such an amazing time. I cant believe I'm already done with a whole transfer, i only have 15 left in my whole mission, and it will be time to come home. Time is going way to fast, i definitely am not going to waist a single moment while I'm here. I'm starting to Love these people, and don't want my time to end, i LOVE being a missionary!!!!!! Well i hope to hear from you all soon.
Love Anziano Koozer

Singing in Pescara Week 14

Hey Everyone,
Thank you SO much Bailey, and Mom for the recipes you sent me! ha ha I am so sick of hot dogs and boiled eggs. It will be fun to try to figure out these recipes. Well I have had such a great week! I found out my new most favorite thing to do while we tract, can you guess?....I sing! ha ha oh man, it is so much fun! We just go palazzo to palazzo and I sing hymns to people and tell them I'm trying to learn Italian and it would help me learn by singing them a song. Then I sing them a hymn, and they are completely different people by the end of the song. That first instinctive wall they put up against us is instantly gone and they all the sudden want to talk about whatever we want to talk about. It has become such a wonderful tool for us, and I especially love it cus when I sing its like me bearing my testimony to them and it is so rewarding helping people feel the spirit.
This week we have found 4 families, and have begun to teach them. They are all such beautiful people and it is especially exciting cus they are all learning as whole families, MOM, Dad, and kids. One of the first few days I was here in the city we went and played soccer with some kids and we ended up getting to teach 2 brothers and yesterday we invited them to be baptised, and they said yes! and thank goodness the parents are completely great with it! The boys names are Roberto, and Andrea. They are 14, and 12, and we have set up there baptism for the 1st of August. We also have a set date for Gloria, the woman I challenged to be baptised, we are set for the 17th of this month. Its actually her birthday, and she is so excited! She is from Earthquake zone in L'Aquila, and has had some serious hard times since the earthquake, but is now ready to change her life. I can't even describe the happiness and joy I feel from seeing the change in peoples lives as we have the opportunity and privilege of teaching them. I know I've only been here for 3 weeks, but I've had some of the best times of my life, since I've gotten here. The work is going so great, the Lord is truly blessing us.
My companion has been getting a little trunky lately, so we have decided to set some really great goals that will help him finish his mission with a bang, and will help me start with a bang. Monday is the start of his last transfer and we have set the goal of 10 baptisms, before he goes home. ( As of right now he has zero from his whole mission) it has really helped him and I both focus. On Monday at district meeting I was given the assignment to teach the hour long lesson, so I taught about goals, how to set them, and how to reach them. It went really well. The district is excited to try it, and hopefully it will lead to more success in the city.
On Saturday we had a 4th of July party at the church and invited all the people from our English class to come. My companion and I were in charge of the hamburgers and hot dogs for the party, and ended up cooking 30 hamburgers and 40 hot dogs on our little stove in our kitchen, since we don't have a grill. Ha ha it was complete madness in our kitchen! We had a great turn out at the party, about 25 people came and none of them were members. We ate a ton of food, played ping pong, and sang songs and played games, and at the end had a spiritual thought and invited everyone to come to church the next day. It was a lot of fun, and even better was the next day at church seeing 7 new investigators from the class actually show up!
This last week was the closing ceremonies for the Olympic games here in Pescara. They had huge firework shows and big celebrations. It has been amazing to be here and to see all the excitement of it all. And it has actually helped us a ton, because when people see us in our white shirts and ties, they think were part of the games and come up and ask us questions. Ha ha at first we would just say no, that we were missionaries, and people would quickly walk away but after a while I just started saying yes and would talk to people for a while then tell them I was just kidding and they would laugh and keep talking to me. SO its been fun. The Italian people are so stinkin FUNNY! ha ha they have their own kind of humor here that i didn't really get at first but now that I'm starting to know the people better I love it, its so funny, especially the old men, they are the best.
But anyways, I was reading in the ensign from conference the other day and i saw Mike Conway in there, did you guys see that? I think he's with his new wife, it was just kinda cool to see. So I'm doing great, I'm healthy and happy, and having the time of my life. How is everyone at home doing? What have you all been up too lately? I miss you guys a ton and look forward to hearing from you soon!
Love , Anziano Koozer

Week 12 & 13

Hey Everyone,
I finally made it to Italy! It has been such a crazy last 2 weeks. Last week when we came to email our families i typed out a 2 hour long email and went to send it and the church website i was on kicked me off and i lost the entire letter i had typed. I was so mad, and didn't have time to write a new one so now i have to try to catch everyone up.
OK, so the flight over was FOREVER LONG!!!! HAHAHA oh man! I am never going to complain about being carsick ever again. As we landed in Rome we were met by president and sister Acerson, and the assistants. We were absolutely wasted from the long flight and it was so hot and smoggy, and we had been in our suits for over 24 hours, and there was a constant fog of cigg smoke and terrible pictures on the walls everywhere i looked, and tons and tons of people running every direction speaking a language i had never heard before, i was guessing it was Italian! You could say I was experiencing just a little bit of culture shock! Haha i had spent the last 3 months sitting in a quiet classroom reading the scriptures and now i was in the real world, in Italy of all places. I think President was used to seeing the dazed look on the new missionaries as they got off the plane, cus he dint skip a beat. Everyone grabbed our bags for us and they quickly lead us out to the van. It was nuts as we walked outside. Cars were flying around doing whatever they wanted. I quickly learned that traffic laws in Italy are more like suggestions, and are usually just disregarded. Dad, you prob wouldn't function very well hear as a police officer, all they do is sit around and do nothing. You know how we have blond jokes in the US, well they have the same kind of jokes but for the police here. So the streets are pretty much just a free for all. Well the first place we went to was a pizzeria and i had my first real Italian Pizza. It was SOOO amazing!!
After we finished eating, the zone leaders took us on a tour of Rome by foot. We were pretty much running everywhere we went because there is so much to see and they wanted us to get to see most everything. So i had to just take pictures as we were running around. Everything here is just like the pictures and movies. It didn't even feel real, as we looked at some of the things we saw, it was incredible! Later that night we heading to the mission home and had a huge lasagna dinner, and took showers and relaxed. The mission home is amazing! They said its one of the nicest properties the church owns in Europe.
The next morning we had a big lunch with all the trainers and we did something called the golden transfer. Because it was my first transfer i got a golden envelope with the name of my city inside along with the name of my new companion/Trainer. We opened them all up 2 at a time in front of everyone and found out where we were going. I opened mine up and found out I would be serving in the city of Pescara, and my trainer would be Anziano Bennett. I was so relieved when i found out cus as we were talking during lunch him and i really clicked and i really wanted him to train me. They showed my on a map where pescara was and we packed up my things and we were off. Pescara is a beautiful city on the east coast, right on the Adriatic sea. We took another long trip by bus that was 4 hours long and finally arrived that evening around 7:30. The rest of my district was at the station waiting for me with a big chalk sign. There are 6 all together in my district, 4 Anziani and 2 Sorrelle. They took me to the city bus and we headed out for some gellato and more pizza! Hahaha oh man i am addicted! You can buy a whole pizza for only 3 Euro, and its amazing!
After we finished eating we walked to our apartment which turned out to be not even 50 yards from the pizzeria! The apartment is pretty nice but is was trashed inside, you could definitely tell it had been lived in by 4 college aged guys. But i was to tired to even care, i dropped my bags and said my prayers and crashed! For the next 4 days i was absolutely miserable but at the same time excited out of my mind. The jet lag caught up to me and i met my new worst enemy-the CITY BUS. I have never been so car sick in my entire life! We take the bus everywhere we go and my body was so tired and the jet lag wasn't helping and hearing the constant Italian made me SO sick. We did some super fun things though.
That Saturday we played calcetto, which is Italian soccer. It is played in a cage and its 5 on 5. Its way faster than normal soccer, and the Italians that play are incredible! We played with some members and with 2 investigators, and it was a blast! I actually did OK, i scored 3 times. It was so funny though cus no one here can say Koozer so the kids we were playing with called me Arnold Schwartzeneger, and I don't know why they can say his name and not Koozer, but that was officially my new name for the time we were playing. I never realized how small Italian really are, i feel like a giant here.
That night there was a baptism, and it was really exciting to watch, and to get to meet some of the members. We are super lucky here to actually have a ward. There are about 90 members that come every Sunday, and they are such great people! On Sunday i had to Give a lesson in Priesthood about the temple, and it actually went really well. I'm not sure how much they actually understood, but they acted like what i was saying made sense. I totally feel like the guy off of the best 2 years HAHAHA oh man I know i stick out like a sore thumb but oh well, I'll start to get things sooner or later.
On Tuesday we teach a free English class, and i was assigned to teach the beginners class, which is pretty much everything i just learned in the MTC. It was a blast! And at the end we brought everyone together and i sang to them. Hahaha i think everyone was a little surprised at the end, cus i didn't tell anyone that i liked to sing, but it went well and was super fun. That was pretty much my first week and a half, and for the rest of the week were just teaching everyday.
Haha oh ya i wanted to tell you about my first grocery shopping experience by myself. Well my trainer said we need to go get you some food since you missed shopping on P-day, so we went to the store. As we walked in I didn't recognize a single thing! It was all in Italian and it was completely different looking food than what i am used to, and my trainer dint help me with a single thing! So i ended up buying hot dogs, eggs, milk, Nutella, cookies, and a loaf of bread, and that was it. I had no idea what to get, i have never shopped for myself, or planned out meals for myself. Lets just say i completely STARVED my first week! Haaha oh my gosh i was so frustrated when it came to meal times and i saw all the other Anziani eating delicious food and i was stuck with my cookies and hot dogs, haha can you say self correcting error?!
But anyways, the work is going so well! We had a lesson with a woman named Gloria and i challenged her to be baptised and she said yes! I was scared out of my mind when i asked her and didn't even understand her response but i felt like i needed to say it so i did, and now we have a baptism coming up! It was amazing. I have been learning so much, my ear is starting to pick apart the Italian now and i can actually tell when when someone is asking me a question or tell me something. Haha i wish it would just come faster but i know I'll get it eventually. It is such a different world here, the people the culture, the foods the way things work, its has been such an adventure seeing all these new things, and trying so many new things. For example some old man in church came up and kissed me and called me beautiful child, it freaked me out but i guess its normal here, haha. But anyways things are going great, I'm finally used to the bus now i can ride it all day long and not get sick, and its getting funner and funner to talk to people as I'm learning more and more new words every day.
Mom is there any way you could email me some easy recipes, and maybe the directions for how to make that home made bread, and your super good enchiladas? I'm sick of hot dogs, and boiled eggs. Oh ya, there are Olympic games going on right now here in Pescara. I think they are called the Adriatic games. SO i think we are going to try to go watch some this week. I'm way excited. Well i have to go now i love you all so much, and will email you again next week.
Love ,Anziano Koozer