Good morning!! The time change has been
greatly appreciated here in mission life, I got a whole new new hour to sleep
so I got 7 hours of sleep instead of six this last Friday or Saturday, whatever
day that was! That's a blessing in and of itself.
The Stats:
Pizzas Eaten: 39
Gelato: 23
Books of Mormon: 51
The Week:
- Castellammare
- We Be Broke Boys
- Miracles and Blessings
- Giuseppe the cousin of Giuseppe
- Weekly obligations (Photos and stuff)
Castellammare
The thing about being in a trio and then
being the greenest missionary in the bunch and also the supposed ''Expert'' of
the area in which we are serving, is you are expected to know the city like the
back of your hand. Also, you need to know the names of every single ward member
and their birthdays and anything else that is slightly relevant. I know where
the church is. And where the food stores are. After that, Google Maps to the
rescue!
This city is beautiful and I will send
pictures of some of the sunsets that we had at the end of this email. They will
also include my two new companions, Anziano Baker (the senior companion and
also the shortest one I've worked with so far) and Anziano Officer from Canada
(who is a quarter inch taller than me, we had to measure with a level and a
board) and they are both very awesome people. We all have a decent grasp on the
language and Anziano Officer is only one transfer ahead of me. That means when
I got t the MTC, I rolled in to the bed that was still warm from when he left
for Italy that morning. We were 24 hours or less apart from seeing each other
in the MTC.
We Be Broke Boys
The last week of the month is always the
hardest. There was no money between the three of us so we had to get creative
with three onions, some probably expired salsa and all the noodles I bought
with the last 8 euro I had for the month so we wouldn't starve. I'll say that
for lunch we had Hotdogs, Couscous onions and some other spices.
After that (We have enough for a few days)
we had a few lunch appointments this week which were lifesavers because I
couldn't eat much more of our ''delicious'' concoction. I'll see if I have a
picture.
Miracles and Blessings
This week I gave my first blessing in
the mission. It was one of comfort, and it's amazing how the spirit guides
those blessings. I was trying to think of what to say when I was asked for it
by one of the people we are teaching, and my mind was racing. But when I put my
hands on her head and was joined by my companions, the Italian flowed. All of
us were crying at what was said and I was very bold in what I promised and
said, but it was not me talking in that moment. I heard myself speak, but I
wasn't saying a thing.
Later that night we were heading back to
the apartment after an awesome night of finding, talking to the Ragazzacci and
just having a great first few hours, we ran into someone that we hadn't seen in
almost a month. Her name is Sisi and she's from Brazil. She speaks Portuguese,
Italian, English, and that nightmare dialect Napoletano. She loves speaking in
English so that's what we used when talking to her. She saw us and we saw her
at the same time. She ran over to us and threw a surprise hug on me, but stiff
armed my companions. We ended up praying for her on the street and then heading
back to the apartment but she told us her story and why she hadn't been talking
to us these past few week and it's a sad, very personal story. Being here in
the mission has allowed me to have the opportunity to see lesser privileged
people struggle to do what's right and then get spit on by the world.
The third miracle of the week was this:
we went finding for the last 45 minutes of the day on Saturday night. We got
lost and prompted to stop moving forward and to stay where we were. After a few
minutes a stray dog trotted up to us and then it sat and stared at us. It
walked a little ways away and sat and stared again at us. I started to follow
the dog and it waited for all three of us. We followed this dog for about 10
minutes and ended up in front of our apartment. After that, that dog has been
following us around for the better part of most days since. It waits in front
of our building for us and actually opens a lot of finding doors for us.
Giuseppe the cousin of Giuseppe
After church yesterday we were asked to
help one of our investigators move out of their ouse into a new one by a
member, who's name is Giuseppe but we call him Pepè because it's what he
prefers to be called. Anyhow, we moved stuff from one house to another and it
was fun, mostly because Anziano Baker ost his tag while we were moving stuff.
It had fallen into a box of stuff that he had been carrying, so it was easy to
find.
We moved them into government housing which
basically means that the building had been abandoned and the government said
they could live there without having to pay rent but they had to deal with all
the problems the house had. Like no electricity, water or heater. Little things
like that. Makes me mad, because he has nine kids and this is how they are
forced to live. So needless to say, we help wherever and however we can.
Weekly Obligations
1. We are with some guy and his bike while being guided by a
dog
2. Us with Pepè after the move
3. My companions posing
4. The family of 11
5. The sunset here in Castellammare
6. Us being lit with the ragazzacci
7. Me with Padre Pio. Supposedly he suffered for
a third of all our sins. That's what they believe here. 
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