Caserta | week 1 {new city, new apartment, new companion}

Regan's new apartment! 

On pday, Regan and his companion visited Rega. He said there are 1200 rooms and it is even more legit than the botanical gardens! (one of Regan's favorite places to visit in Atlanta) 

Regan's new companion Elder Heder!

This past week has been kind of crazy with goodbyes, packing, transfers, getting into a new apartment, and getting readjusted to a new area. The night before I left Brindisi though we had an English Course party that we usually do every 12 weeks. Everyone brought in a different dessert and we played scattegories. It was way fun for the last week and a good way to say goodbye to everyone. I will miss Anziano Pizza, Jepson, and Alvey a lot. Brindisi is in good hands as long as they are there.

On Thursday I rode up from Bari with a couple of other missionaries going to Rome and I got off in Caserta. I was so excited to get here. Anziano Heder is my new companion, and he is so awesome. For example, we finished exercise Friday morning, and he asked "How do you like your eggs?" Yes he made me eggs for breakfast first day there. He is always looking for ways to serve. Our church here is about 70% Americans who live on the American Military Base and so Anziano Heder translated all 3 hours of church. I have no idea how he did it. He never complained or viewed it as a burden he just did it like a champ. Everyone in church wears headphones and Anziano Heder just goes from English to Italian and Italian to English depending on who is talking. No one slows down for him, he just goes. It is super impressive. He told me it will be my turn by the end of this transfer. Anyways, church was awesome this week. All of the members here love the missionaries, and it is definitely different to be around Americans. I really like it because everything is organized really well because these people are in the military. They make calls, they plan, they start on time. I am excited to work with them.

Ok, so a little bit about Caserta. They people here are a lot different than Brindisinos. There are a lot more youth and there is definitely a lot more going on here than in Brindisi. The people that have stopped and talked to us have been really nice and respectful. It is difficult for us to get any real work going right now because the missionary who I replaced accidentally took our phone down to Sicily and it is not suppose to get here until the end of the week. We have gotten a few numbers and have a lot of other people we need to talk to but we have no way of doing it. It is quite frustrating, but there is nothing we can do about it. We just have to do the best with what we have. Anziano Heder and I went through the Area Book yesterday for 2 hours and got the addresses of every person the missionaries of taught in the past 10 years and we are going to go stop by their houses and talk with them until we get our phone. It is a long list of people and surely enough to keep us busy this week.

There is a lot of rich culture here that will be fun to experience. This morning Anziano Heder and I went to the Rega which has 1200 rooms. It was easily the coolest place I have ever seen. I sent a couple pics, nothing to do any justice. They have miles and miles of gardens we are going to see another pday. The nopton pizza surpassed all the hype. It was straight up incredible. Tomorrow will be my first time going to Napoli. We have district meeting there every Tuesday, so I am excited to meet the rest of the district. It should be an exciting week. We are certainly anticipating the arrival of our phone. Until then, it is some good old fashioned street contacting. Sorry there is not much substance to this email. There will certainly be more to report next week. Take care everyone. Love you all.

Anziano Smith