Buongiorno tutto!
This was indeed a week of cold! Not because it was cold
outside (it was actually rather pleasant with a warmish wind) but rather
because I have been fighting a head cold all week! Yay for not being able to
talk! in other news, it's been a great week for the work.
Pizzas eaten: 48
Gelato: 41
Books of Mormon: 61
English Course!
I'll start off my account with Thursday,
because I already mentioned how last week on tuesday there was the whole
"p-day shifted to Tuesday because we were in Rome" thing. I spent
that Tuesday with a bunch of dead people in some catacombs. Not my favorite
activity, but certainly memorable. When Thursday rolled around however, we had
stuff to do. I managed to get a haircut with Anziano Belnap and and we both got
Raggazzasacced with the way we look know. I'll attach a picture, but
think it's funny. Our mission president thought so as well, but this is
certainly not the first time that he has heard of silly hair stories. I've
heard worse stories at very inconvenient timing for that person. The usual,
"I'm bald because my companion said he could cut hair and he really
couldn't." stories that are somewhat prevelant in almost every mission.
That night at English course, a whole
lot of people showed up to learn and even one guy who was on his way and nearly
got hit by a car only moments before he walked into the building. He was a
little cut up from jumping into the wall to avoid certain death so we patched
him up and he trooped through the whole hour of our English course and even
took a book of Mormon because he was curious to know what it was that we teach
outside of English.
Rotisserie Chicken
Friday was awesome because that day is meant
for weekly planning. We start it off like we would any other study session
(with things being recited in Italian, prayer and the occasional snack being
passed back and forth) but we had a focus on "what can we do to grow the
branch into a ward" and then it hit me. We have that one member who's
friend we taught at the members house that we haven't talked to since, because
our schedules had been so hectic. Sorella Ballacchino! We called her up and we
ended up getting a meal appointment for the very next day a her house with her
daughter and son in law who are less active and a non-member
respectively. We didn't know that at the time but we found out the next
day.
I've mentioned in emails past that there
is a market outside of our house every Friday, but I've never gone through it
before. So, after I bought my 5 euro chicken from the same guy as last week
(because I never learn and chicken is tasty) Anziano Belnap and I walked around
for a little while until I was more hungry than curious and we'd seen enough
sunbleached underwear to know what to do with. The rest of the day went
fantastic because there was no one on the streets due to a soccer game and I
still couldn't talk very well due to my cold. It was funny trying to stop
people that were on the street, because they heard me speak and more or less
walked very quickly away from me while using the tried and true excuse of
"I have an appointment!" to escape from us. We know that the only
appointment they have is at the bar down the road where they will be for the
next hour or so by themselves, drinking coffee and watching Calcio.
The Trinity of Unholy Food Combinations (Anziano Anderson
edition)
Saturday was an amazing day where we
were able to teach la famiglia da Sorella Ballacchino. However, if you've known
me for more than a week you will know that while there are foods I don't like,
there are three foods I absolutely cannotforce myself to eat. At least, until
today. First and foremost, Pickled Lemons. These exist and the world is a worse
place for it. Second, raisins. These are fine unless you eat a chocolate chip
cookie and it turns out that it was actually a raisin cookie. I can usually
avoid these with ease. And third, any combination of the two flavors Chocolate
and oranges. I love both of these! A lot! On their own. After a little incident
abut them years ago where I ate 5 full-sized chocolate oranges on christmas and
couldn't keep them down, the flavor combination has been ruined for me.
Well, for 45 minutes in our meeting it
was just her, and us at her house while we waited for her family. We sat on the
balcony and she vrought us Pannettone. This is basically fruit cake, but with
raisins and candied orange rinds in them. She paired it with my saving grace, a
cup of some tropical juice and then left us to eat while she cooked for a bit.
My companion would not eat my slice because he wanted to save room for the
actual meal, so I remembered what was almost doctrine in our house when it came
to food you didn't like or have time to eat, and I quote from my Father:
"Bite, swallow, bite, swallow, taste it later" which I then set about
doing. Don't get me wrong, I loved the Pannettone. Just not the raisins, and
I'm not going to be "that" missionary who won't eat the food that was
bought just to feed them because of personal preferences.
The lesson went well, we taught the
daughter more than her husband because he left the room to play with his four
year old son and she committed to come to church with her family for fast
Sunday the following day. We had a wonderful lunch of pasta al forno, sausage
and some zucchini that was really scrumptious. But, they always have dessert
after lunch, followed by fruit. Lunch is most definetly the longest meal in
their day, usually three hours. Well, the cake that was brought to us was
chocolate orange pudding cake. I thought to myself "alright, bite and
swallow", but as soon as I bit into the cake I realized something. There
were RAISINS IN THE PUDDING. There was no juice to save me this time, and I of
course was handed the biggest slice. I managed to use the rinds of a sizeable
orange and a play from my kindergarten years to cover and thereby avoid having
to eat, the majority of the cake. Can already se my Dad's face as he
thinks back on his time served in the Philippines and all the Balut he ate there.
This is a reminder to me if nothing else, that I do not have the strongest
stomach in the family. Never claimed to, never will.
That night, we were called and asked by
our new branch president to come and open the doors to the church for the
branch council Tha I didn't know we were having. That council lasted for three
hours, and there were only seven people there, including us. I've once heard
that the definition of a member of the church of Jesus Christ of latter-day
saints is someone who: leaves one meeting so they are not late for another.
This was very true today because we had only been back from our lunch
appointment for maybe ten minutes before that call came in.
Sunday!!!
There were more people in church on
Sunday then I have seen since I arrived to Agrigento. There was even a man in a
wheelchair that I hadn't seen before but that everyone knew by name. There were
a bunch of returning members as well that we hadn't contacted, buthat had
brought their families and even the family of Sorella Ballacchino was there.
Just about everyone bore their testimony before our new president had to
intervene because we were going over our allotted time.
I love Italians. They end on time, but
they never start on time. We started sacrament 15 minutes late but ended on the
dot. The same for second hour. It's just so Italian, I love it so much. They
don't do that on purpose, but they like to talk between the hours and get
sidetracked. It's like what all of our moms do after church with each other but
instead of talking for an hour afterwards, they sneak it in between the classes
and then a little bit after as well.
This was my week. I love my mission, I
love all of you, and I want to hear from you!
Anziano Anderson
P. S. We got so many leftovers from our lunch, and I got to
carry home a sizeable chunk of that wonderful cake. And a zucchini.
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