5 Weeks Down

Buon Giorno Famiglia e amici!
Come andate? tutti bene in Simi Valley?
I'm glad you're enjoying work mom! I'm sure its pretty overwhelming, but like you've always said, endure it for 2 weeks, and it'll all be fine. I think that's so cool to work at the Reagan Library! And thanks for taking my challenge! I think that's so cool how you just created your own opportunity to share the gospel! I'm sure the Spirit recognizes this and was with you while you were talking about the church. How's Zack doing in wrestling? Has season started yet? Has he had to fend all the girls at school off of him since he's got his braces off? I'd love to hear from the kid haha..... I miss him tons!
This week has literally gone by so fast its not even funny! I can't believe I'm already on week 6! As of now its strange because they have all but two of us (of course I would be one of them) leaving the 18th of December. For some reason they have me and another elder leaving the 26th... They're still trying to figure it out, and it could possibly change, but there's definitely benefits to both. On one hand, I get to experience Christmas in the MTC, here from an apostle, and do whatever else they have planned for us, and on the other hand, I'll be in freaking Italy!!!! Either way, its so strange to think that I will be on the other side of the world in the matter of a couple of weeks! As far as what I've done this week, it hasn't been super eventful, but then again, the MTC schedule is always eventful, so I guess I've just kind of become used to it haha. For anyone who is wondering what I do, basically every day I have 6 hours of class, which is completely in Italian, I teach "investigators" for 2 of these hours, and for the rest of my time I have gym/personal study/food/devotional/service. Regardless of what we do, its always planned out for us, which I like because it helps me not waste time! On P-days (such as today) I'm probably the busiest, because I have to do laundry, write letters, write an email, and go to the temple, all before 6, when we end the day with class. The temple is great though, it really allows me to relax and be reminded weekly about how eternal and important this gospel is! I also got a haircut today! It's neat cause they have a barbershop that gives them to us for free up here!
So I had to say goodbye to Elder Rice this week which was pretty hard. He was my last connection to BYU up here, and we definitely had quite the fun time, but I'm sure he's gonna do great out in the field. I don't know if you heard but his visa didn't come in time, so he'll be in Vegas for the next transfer and then hopefully in Mexico. He'll be great though. Also, this next week, we have to say goodbye to Elder Crescenti, our Italian Elder, as he leaves for Romania. He's really become one of my best friends up here, and we've already planned to go visit him in Milan after the mission. With his help, we've become much better at Italian, and he's been getting a lot better at English. If I could describe him, I would say he's totally the Italian version of Tony haha (btw me and Tony have been writing eachother and it's been great). Anyways, he loves dubstep, pokemon, wrestling, etc. He's literally the same, except he's Italian haha. Me and him have been working on a rap about the mission, and he thinks I"m the best rhymer in the world haha. Thanks mom ;) It's gonna be hard to say goodbye to him, but on the bright side, we get 19 brand new Anziani e Sorelle this next week! It's gonna be great to have a big branch finally! Me and Elder Allen will have a lot more zone responsibility with this though. Our Branch President told us that it is our goal to make sure that no one goes home as a result of homesickness in this group. After losing 3 in our group, we are determined to do all we can to prevent this in the next.
Last week we were able to watch the movie "17 miracles" for Thanksgiving. It seems like when we watched it as a family I fell asleep, but when we watched it up here it was great!!! I definitely recommend it to anyone reading this. It's absolutely amazing to think of the sacrifices that the early pioneers made, so that their posterity would be able to have the gospel of Jesus Christ. It really reafirmed my testimony that this Gospel is worth giving anything up for! Also, I watched the biography of Thomas S. Monson on LDS.org. That was amazing too! My favorite line from President Monson in it is "If ever the Lord needs an errand to be run, I want Him to know that Thomas S. Monson will always be His man for the job!" What an amazing example of church service! We're so blessed to have such an amazing prophet in these latter days! If ever the Lord needs an errand to be run, I want Him to know that Matthew Walden will always be His man for the job also! Church service is truly an awesome blessing, and I'm so happy to be a servant of the Lord at this most important time for the church!
Io so che questa chiesa e la vera chiesa, con tutti mio cuore! So che Thomas S. Monson e chiamare di Dio, e so che Lui e il presidente di nostro chiesa. So che Gesu Cristo e al capo di nostro chiesa, e che questo e il Suo Vangelo. Solo mediante l'espiazione di Gesu Cristo, possiamo vivere con nostro padre celeste dopo questa vida. Il Libro di Mormon contiene la pianezza del Vangelo di Gesu Cristo e so questa essere vera. Voglio bene per tutti persone di Italia, e voglio condividere il Vangele al loro. Io voglio seguire l'esemio di Gesu Cristo, e invitare le persone di Italia avere fede, pentire, facendosi battezare, e perserverando cino alle fine. Sole mediante questa, possiamo trovare felicita. Nel Nome di Gesu Cristo, Amen. (Hopefully at least Dad, will understand this).
Also, I challenge everyone to read D&C section 6 this week. It's a great chapter about personal revelation and missionary work! I testify that the spirit of revelation is real, and that it is readily available to all the Lord's faithful servants!
Vi voglio bene,
Anziano Matthew Walden

P.S. We were able to run into Jessica (our real investigator from Milan) this week again. Apparently she decided to just stay here in Provo, and she has been going to church every week, and taking the discussions in English from some Provo missionaries! She told us she's halfway through the BoM and our teacher told us that he thinks she is close to baptism!!!! How cool is that! Someone that I taught the first discussion to might be getting baptized soon! She goes back to Italy soon, so we'll see what happens!