Ciao all!
I don't have a whole lot to say today except that I do. I
know I said last week was the craziest week I've had so far, but then this week
happened and, well, it's not the craziest week anymore. I'll start off with the
tallies and then move on to the good stuff!
Pizza's I've munched: 27
Gelato I've scarfed: 17
Book's of Mormon I've given away: 42
Sections:
- English Course and the fun to be had there
- Our newest member
- I haven't cooked in almost two weeks
- A family of 11
English course and the fun to be had there:
Alllll right. I had a feeling something
like this would happen to me sometime on my mission I just didn't know it would
be this soon. I've heard stories from newly returned missionaries, others who
have been back for years and have families and then missionaries out here in
the field with me. Somebody will try to rob you, there will be weapons
involved, you will be up the creek without a canoe and in piranha infested
waters. Something to that affect. Well, I was on my way to English course
Tuesday evening with my companion (obviously) and something that fits the
criteria for this happened to us.
We were walking to the church where we d
English course and we were going to be almost 15 minutes early because we
planned it out and we wanted to prepare the room for an activity we wanted to
do to make the class more fun. We got almost 3/4 of the way there when we were
stopped by a man who was asking us for a euro. "if you really represent
Jesus, you'll give me money because that's what Jesus would do!" This was
his logic and he wasn't letting up. I'll paint a picture of the man I'm talking
about. He was about 55 years old, small and hadn't had the opportunity to bath
in a while. He had a very worn bag hanging from his neck that had a puppy in it
and a few other things I can only assume we're cigarette boxes. He was smoking
his fourth cigarette since we'd been talking with him but at the rate he was
going it was definitely not the fourth cigarette he'd had that day.
We were trying to tell him we don't give
money away ad we really don't carry much anyways and that we had to teach an
English class in the next few minutes when out of the Cafe we were standing in
front of comes a person that we had met on the street a few days previous and
he offered to buy us a drink. We accepted and used it as an opportunity To go
inside and get away from the man. Anziano Daniels got a power ade and I got a
coke because they actually taste better here than in America by a lot. We
thanked the man who bought our drinks and then went outside again. Immediately
after setting foot out the door, my companion was fighting with the old man for
his powerade. The old man had grabbed it and tried to run off with it because
he claimed he needed the salts in the drink. For three minutes I watched a hard
stare down between the two of them as they gripped the drink and told the other
to let go.
The old man let go and then asked what we
would do if he pulled a gun out of his bag and asked for the powerade again or
some money. We stared at him and called him out saying he wouldn't shoot us
because of he loved Jesus as much as he said he did then he wouldn't shoot his
representatives. We then offered to buy him a drink, went inside and bought
another powerade and I handed it to him. He hugged me for an uncomfortably long
amount of time for a number of reasons and even if I knew you it was still
wayyyyyy to long. After that and an awkward hand holding session I would rather
not discuss, we made it to English course 10 minutes late.
Our newest member
Liborio! Man, this guy is the best! He
was the one who got baptized recently and he's a lawyer. Just yesterday he got
the Aaronic priesthood and he wanted to be ordained on his knees just like the
apostles were when Jesus Christ gave them the priesthood. We ran into him after
church last night and he wanted to buy us Gelato but we told him we couldn't
because we don't participate in commercial activities on Sunday. Well Liborio
is an advocate lawyer so he used that trait that all successful advocates have
and bought us gelato anyways while justifying it as a celebration of him
receiving the priesthood.
I didn't want to argue so I ate Gelato.
After that for the next hour he came with us as we went finding and called a
bunch of ragazzacci out on skipping school and then invited them to church and
to improve their lives through self application. This man is definitely going
to be a force for good in this work and world.
I haven't cooked in almost two weeks
Shortly after we said goodbye to Liborio
we went to a bar. I used the bagno and shortly after I returned the owner told
us that we could have anything we wanted off the menu. I got a chicken sandwich
and a soda, my companion got fries. This kind of thing has happened almost
every day for two weeks. I don't know why, and I don't care to know. But I love
the teaching opportunities it brings.
The members gave us whole loads of
pizza, fruit and gelato for helping them with the church and bringing people to
church. We extended probably 7 baptismal invites this week and I extended my
first in complete Italian. The work here is awesome!
A family of 11
To finish off my email I will tell you
about the family of 11 people that we are teaching. There are 2 parents, and
they both love the Book of Mormon. Five of the nine kids can be baptized and
they all love hearing us teach and the kids love climbing me because they've
never seen someone so tall before.
Every time I talk even though I'm not
super fluent yet, they all listen because they want to know what we teach.
Jehovahs witnesses knocked while we were there, and the kids let them in so
they could hear us talk. They left immediately but I love the enthusiasm of the
kids.
After that, we just talked with them and
invited them to church. Most of them came by some couldn't because of life and
what that brings. But hey, it was an awesome week!
Anziano Anderson
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