Scandi Vibes

Scandi is short for Scandinavian in this case. I'll explain that in a minute but first, stats!

Pizzas eaten : 18

Gelato : 9

Books of Mormon : 10

     Alright so a number of things happened this week starting off with this last Saturday. We had a ward activity where we all met in front of the train station that borders our apartment (fun fact the trains run until about 3 am and they rattle the whole building every time they pass) and it was raining slightly but nothing huge. I didn't bring a jacket or even an umbrella but that's alright because I brought a sturdy stick and introduced the Italians to stick pull. I won against all the teenage youth at once in the ward. There were three of them and it was the only slightly challenging match I had the entire time we were playing that game. That night however, after the ward activity and weekly planning was finished my companion and I decided to do two hours of finding. After those hours were almost up with about 20 minutes to go, we stopped what we thought was going to be a very prepared family but then some big, warm raindrops hit and there was a collective gasp. It took three whole minutes for there to be a river of water in the streets and for us to be stuck under a building side for about half an hour before we realized it wasn't going to stop. So we ran in rain that you could swim through, pictures at the end of the email.

     Another fun thing that happened was I did this thing called ''the Pallones challenge'' where I ate three very large Pizzas by myself, crust and all. It's a challenge only known to missionaries and only attempted by few after they've been in the field for a year or so and fewer finish it. I'm proud to say I did the challenge in 15 minutes and got the award for fastest pizza eater in the entire Rome Italy mission. Immediately after this I went on a scambia or companion exchange with an Anziano Andersen. So that was fun explaining how we weren't related even though the name was the same. And this week, we've had three separate occasions where people have offered to by us a drink in a bar or to hit up the Vista (boardwalk) because they wanted to see how much alcohol '' the big American '' could hold. That was fun turning those invites into word of wisdom lessons.

     And for the title of my email, everyone here is convinced that I'm not American but Scandinavian and they keep telling me that. I looked at the family tree and sure enough, my 3rd great grandfather is from Scandinavia. There were two girls from Denmark on the train back from Napoli where my scambia was at to Castellammare where I live who we asked this question to. They agreed and told me in fluent English that aside from my accent I gave some serious "scandi vibes".

     I feel like I should mention this so I will. We are doing something here in Europe called the book of Mormon 21 day challenge. Basically it's this: read the book of Mormon every day with a specific question in mind and /or a sincere desire to grow closer to God for 21 days. Read the book of Mormon with either of those in mind and it will be given to you to have a stronger relationship with God, the people you love and it will help you to make better and more correct choices throughout the day.

     Feel free to send me emails anytime throughout the week with questions and I'll do my best to answer them! Also, if you know of anyone who might want to receive these emails, feel free to include their emails with your questions as well 😊 

Anziano Anderson