Living with Siblings prepared me for my Mission

Throughout my time living at home, my parents always told us they were "trading adults, not raising children". And at first, I'll be honest, I didn't understand what they meant. "But I'm a child, not an adult!" I used to think, "why do they expect so much of me when all my friends don't have hardly any chores, and get to play video games all day while their dad mows the lawn?" This used to be my train of thought. 

     Alright, the mission stats so far:

Pizzas eaten: 20

Gelato scarfed: 11

Books of Mormon handed out: 36

     Alright, with official business out of the way I shall resume my story: I had other things I thought similarly about as well. Most prominent are dishes, cooking, cleaning my room, and sharing a room with two younger boys that never slept. (Not that I did, but I'm just setting the stage here). After a few months of mowing the lawn, learning how to cook and keep a decently organized a clean kitchen, and working out with my brothers which third of the room was theirs and thus not my responsibility to keep clean, I realized a few things. 

     Firstly, it was a lot easier to mow the lawn. Apparently pushing around a non-propel assist lawnmower through thick, and usually damp grass, really works the muscles in all manner of fun ways. Most natably for me at that age of about 9-10 is I was really good at what is still one of my most favorite games to this day. Stick Pull. A pioneer game where you pull on a stick harder than the other person and therefore, win. 

     Secondly, I had developed a love to cook and that allowed me to always have the ability to eat whenever I wanted to, regardless of how much cold cereal we may have had in the house. I remember my parents abolishing it for a few years because they wanted us to gain that ability to cook actual food and not just eat breakfast soup. This love of cooking allowed me to realize that while pots and pans were (and still are) a pain to clean, you can't cook without them unless you want to use the microwave (which we had also removed from the house for many years) so you learned to keep things clean and not smelling like rotten fruit in the chicken bucket. 

     Thirdly, (while I still have trouble making my bed) I learned that if I just kept my stuff off of the floor, I didn't have much of anything to clean in my room unless my siblings tried to push their third of the room into my third and then things got physical, but that's just how siblings are. 

     Now I know that this title says that living with Siblings prepared me for my mission, and it did. It prepared me with knowledge. I know what behaviors I have that most people find annoying and so I know not to do those things and to try replacing them with other, more constructive things. I know how frustrating it is when you want to sleep and you can't because the person you're sharing a room with is very not tired/talkative/insert something you find annoying here. So I try not to be that guy. 

     So I mentioned last week that we had a baptism planned, and on the 15th Liborio was baptised in the ocean right behind the church. I was asked to be a witness for the baptism along with my companion, so I got to dress in  all white clothes and walk out into the rather warm ocean with Liborio, my companion, and Paolo (Liborio's cousin) to watch firsthand as he was baptised. 

     I feel I should mention that in order to get to the beach behind the church, we need to walk through a very long and dark parking garage. Liborio and myself were leading the whole group through the garage and at the end of the room the door was open so you could see the ocean. It was in stark contrast with the dark room and it looked very much like a small sliver of light surrounded by  lot of darkness, all of it leading to baptism. I loved it. 

     If you didn't know or were not aware, all of the Anziani and Sorelli in my zone put on a play called The Book of Mormon: Another Musical. We performed it twice, once in Italian and then again in English and both of those plays are on my Facebook page if you want to see them. I've seen my language skills creeping along and I'm understanding the people here more and more every day and I'm able to talk to them more as well! 

     This email is very long and so I will end it with a few pictures and and invite to look up the Book of Mormon 21 day challenge and then to do that challenge. I've only been doing it for 3 days and I can already see the blessings because of it in my life. Also, feel free to email me questions during the week, and if applicable I will take a picture to accompany the answer. 

5. A member wanted to try my jacket on. I let him. 

1. Me all dressed in white for a baptism 

3. Me eating at a Bar. They work differently here. (they gave us the food for free) 

2. The usual size of cheese at stores around here

4. The Italian version of Root beer. It tastes just like it says on the bottle.