Ciao all you beautiful people!
I'm still not sure where the week went,
but I kept a record of it so o I wouldn't have to remember da solo! It's
extremely foggy right now where I'm at this morning, so I'm curious to know
what everyone else's mornings look like. Are they full of snow, sun, cold, rain
etc. Just want to hear what you were blessed to wake up to! some of you I can
assume, seeing as I know where you live, but others I'm not to sure. Anyhow,
stats!
Pizza eaten: 52
Gelato: 43
Books of Mormon: 72
To start off the week, last Monday we
had an impromptu zone calcio where I was planning on taking a nap because we
didn't have anything planned and we both decided that a nap sounded like a good
idea. However, about thirty minutes into this nap, we were awoken by the other anziani
who informed us that there was a zone calcio being held that day, and because
we hadn't seen any of the people in our zone yet, we then went and played
calcio. Yay calcio! I was lucky and did not catch a ball to the face this game,
but it was also hard to touch the ball when there were about 34 people running
around on the field.
After calcio, we went to get burgers. I
don't know if it's just Italy or the people who cook the burgers, but someone
started to yell at someone else in the kitchen and then for half an hour you
could just hear the yelling of Chef screaming at Chef and that caused
everyone's food to be late (and cold) by about half an hour. The burgers were
good, just flavored a little too heavily with Italian passion. I cleaned the fridge
when we got home, and that was my Monday.
Tuesday held much in the form of
technical difficulties. Our sink was clogged, so we took apart the draining
pipes to see what was holding it up. Cleaned it out, put it all back together.
Well, the last time it was cleaned out was probably never and so the gaskets
were old and loose with our all the gunk holding them together. Water started
to leak and the sink was out of action for a little while, until the next day.
It somehow also wrecked our actual sink cabinet and everything was broken,
hanging on by virtue of splintered wood and water logged particle board. That's
still the case as of now.
Wednesday held sink repairs! Our sink
works now and it functions a little better than it did when I got here. We were
expecting the repairman at ten, but he called us and said that he was in front
of our house at eight in the morning and so we went out to greet him. But he
was right in front of our door and so we let him ito the house and through our
conversation he left us with these words of wisdom: God can't bless stupid. He
wasn't calling us stupid, he was just informing us of other people and how even
though we are missionaries, we are not immune to the devices of other people,
so lock your doors at night and don't leave your bags unattended where people
can see them.
Thursday was full of phone calls. We
"flushed the phone" which basically means that we go through the 500
plus contacts that the anziani previous to us have collected and we find the
ones who still have interest in our church or who gave us their number out of
desire for us to leave them alone, or if they even still live in our area.
There were a few who no longer did, and others who moved to different countries
entirely. This took about two hours from our day and after our lunch and
studies we decided to do some metro finding.
Everywhere I've served before has been
devoid of metro travel. So, being abke to go somewhere there are lots of people
who can't escape because they are in a metal tube with you is totally awesome!
Unless it's really not! Like today where we were approached by two very drunk
men who I heard talking about us because they thought they were whispering but
it was just a *barely* sub speaking voice. They looked at us and mentioned
"tanti mogli" which means many wives. Of course they know about that!
That's all anyone knows about us! they then came over and started asking
questions. They also demanded that we give them our books of Mormon because the
loved God, and all of his word. How true that is, I'm not sure, but we handed
out two books of Mormon that day to them so that was a win. That and we were
able to dispel some of the their misconceptions. Woo-hoo.
Bus finding! Friday consisted us other
metal tubes that were full of people and we met some very interesting people.
One of them was a student studying chemistry and she spoke wonderful English.
We were able to talk to hear and bear testimony of the book of Mormon to her.
Se didn't take the book, but she took a challenge for the book and said she
would download it later because she saw we had it on our phones.
The next lady was also on that same bus,
and she told me right after I said "hi" that she had lost her
testimony, doesn't care about what we think comes after or came before this
life and that she admires us for what we do because she could never devote two
years of her life to uch a faith centered work when she doesn't have any. This
led to a much more interesting conversation, but in the end, her stubborn
Italian side won out and she didn't even take a Jesus card because "he
doesn't serve me anymore" was her logic. The amount of happiness people
limit in their lives because of what they choose to believe hurts my heart
whenever I see it, and I saw it here.
Saturday! baptism! we all wore our matching
bright pink ties and went to the temple where we were holding the baptism.
There is a church on the temple grounds, very similar to the Boise temple
grounds where we held the baptism, not inside the actual temple. There was much
food, love and people with interest in that building as well as the spirit.
Anziano De La Rosa and his companion, angle, were the ones who found and
extended the invite to this man who was batized Saturday and confirmed
Sunday.
Baptisms aren't a rare occurrence here,
but they are certainly less common than in most other missions because of the
prevelant catholic background in this country. But there were plenty of people
who were walking the temple grounds who were not members and also people who
attended the baptism. I love the temple, it brings so many blessings with it!
My life is good here in the wonderful
city of Rome, and during my mission In general it's been very wonderful. I'm
excited for my time here, but I'm also excited for the day that I can just
drive five minutes to a grocery store and buy peanut butter without worrying
that it's costing me my whole life's savings for two mouthfuls.
Anyhow,
Anziano Anderson
1. Me in a closet... Barely
2.My companion and his love for Christmas
3. Our sink being broken
4. Italy and their trash disposal
5. 5 kili of pasta for about 3 dollars
6. Fidget spinner cracker
7. A comic about travel related anxiety found outside a
metro station
8. Marshmallow fries. Why? Why not.
No comments:
Post a Comment