This email I want to discuss a little bit about what our
schedule is like and also what I do to fill those hours. Because where I live
is smaller compared to most other cities in Italy save the other two in my
district and one in a different island that I'm aware of at the time of my
writing this email. Anyhow, here are the stats and then the rest of my
email!
Pizza: 51
Gelato: 43
Books of Mormon: 65
The schedule and the hours
We as missionaries are expected to
follow a strict routine that keeps us busy and alert for most of the time we
have in our 24 hours in the day. Eight of these hours are spent sleeping from
22:30 to 6:30. The only time this changes is if we are sick or if we have an
hour or longer on a bus and decide to take a nap. Busses are for napping. We
like busses. From 6:30 to 7:30 we wake up and work out for that first hour of
the day. From 7:30 to 8:00 one of us showers while the other irons their clothes
and cleans up the kitchen while trying not to use all the hot water in the sink
so they have some to use in the shower. The one in the bathroom showers, shaves
and prepares for the day. Then we switch and the one who just showered finishes
the dishes if there are any and then irons their clothes and starts cooking
breakfast for the both of them.
From there, we eat until 8:30 and then
we plan for the day. Who we want to visit, where we want to goad what we want
to teach if we have (somehow) a lesson to prepare for. We do this until 9:00
and then from 9:00 to 10:00 we have a personal study where we study whatever is
in our hearts and minds that morning. Usually, in preperation for our lesson
but also so we can have a better understanding of the five lessons that we
teach which are summaries and the basics of our religion. We do this because
the better you understand something, the more simply you can explain it. If you
have issues explaining something, than maybe you need to study up on it
again.
During the hours of 10:00 to 13:00 we go
outside and we proselyte. This involves us talking to Italians, getting
rejected, sometimes handing out a card but then smiling and looking forward for
the chance to talk to another person who will probably reject us again. I
honestly love it. It just gives me all the more reason to apply myself because
if I can't explain what we believe in fifteen seconds or less in about that
many words, they lose any interest that they might have had and move on to
stand around in fromt of the nearest Cafè for a while.
We are blessed with an hour and a half
lunch in the Great Italy Rome Mission from the hours of 13:00 to 14:30 because
that's when the people here are on lunch and they hate to be disturbed when
there is food on the table d a reason to sleep for an hour after they eat. We
have a half lunch in comparison to the Italians. They eat for three hours
during the day, sometimes four for their lunch hours. All the businesses are
closed during this time as well so once lunch is done, we study together from
14:30 to 15:30 and then from 15:30 to 16:30 we study the language and practice
it with one another. By the way, we speak with one another in Italian during
the day as well, so this is where we practice the harder parts of the language
and test each other's knowledge. We are then blessed with the ability and
opportunity to go proselyte again from 16:30 to 21:00 if we don't have English
course or a lesson planned. If there is course, we teach English from 19:00 to
20:00 and finish our course with a spiritual thought. Every time we start
anything in these hours, end something in these hours, or leave the house, we
do so with a prayer (exceptions on the bathroom). We say anywhere between 15-25
prayers daily on a normal day.
Of course, we are allowed respite every
Monday of the week. First time in my life I've said that Mondays are my
favorite days in the month. It's these days that we start off and follow the
schedule until about 10:00 and then we go and d missionary appropriate
activities from 10:00 until 18:00 and then we put our missionary garb on again
and go out proselyting for the last three hours of the day. From 21:00 to 22:00
we write in our journals if we feel so inclined and then we prepare for bed
from 22:00 to 22:30 and then we start over the next day. Every day is an
adventure and while it is very structured, it's well worth the obedience and
diligence it takes to follow and to want to follow this schedule, it's tried
and true. It's protected me from harm, ill-will and unnecessary misfortune.
This, and a little white handbook with 65 pages of guidelines/rules and 12
pages of ordinances to assist and protect us in our work. If you are in the
fence when it comes to serving a mission, make he choice to serve. I promise
you that as you serve, you will be blessed tenfold more than whatever you left
behind could have ever possibly given you. Choose to serve, because the
testimony you will build while in the service of others will be strengthened
more during these two years to 18 months than any other experince you can have
in your lifetime.
The Week as I remember it
Well, as for the rest of my week and the
experiences that populated it I'll start with this tuesday and we'll see where
that leads us. We have this member that I've mentioned in times past, Sorella
Ballacchino, who lives in Licata which is an hour away by bus and she has
friends with interest in the gospel. She invited us over very early in the
morning so we had to take a 9:45 bus to make it there on time and we were
picked up by her and her friend, Danielle, in the friend's car. I've taught
Danielle once before and it was perfect because we had planned that morning to
teach about the second part of the five lessons that we have. However, after we
picked up the food required for lunch and an Italian dessert, we were then
dropped off and Danielle drove away.
As my companion and I went over our
options as to what we needed to do or what we were going to teach, we ate that
Italian dessert which was puff pastry that was fried, sprinkled with powdered
sugar and then drizzled with a bit of honey. Much like the tortilla cinnamon
and sugar chips my dad used to make for new years at the church before our nerf
gun wars.
We were joined a few minutes later by
sorella Ballacchinos daughter and she would have brought her husband but he was
very sick. So we taught these wonderful women and then we caught our bus home
almost two hours later than what we had originally planned. While at the bus
stop we saw some hair that will remain in my memory for the rest of my life and
I've attached a photo below so we will all have the chance to see what we
saw.
The days that followed
Wednesday brought with it a whole bunch
of people to our apartment. I had the whole district and the zone leaders over
after or district council and I started to cook lunch for all of them. I had
bought a little bit of food the day before so I cooked literally all of the
food that I bought and it was just enough for them. I ended up eating some corn
and tuna with balsamic vinegar and salt in a bowl for lunch while they ate
pasta, but it's cool because I totally love tuna and corn. I actually do, it's
just so fresh and crisp that I couldn't help but enjoy my healthy lunch.
Once everyone left, Anziano Koford and I
had a scambio for that night and most of the next day. We had a ball
proselyting and I showed him the best Piadineria in town with a wonderful wait
time of twenty minutes. It gave us time to run to the ATM and make it back just
as they were calling our name. The next day we had an appointment in a nearby
city called Porto Empedocle which is near the ocean. We received the call just
five minutes before we made it to his house in which he told us he had to
cancel because his wife was sick. That just meant we got to skip rocks on the
beach for half an hour until the next bus came because we were supposed to have
lunch with that family and no one was out while we were waiting for the bus.
There are also pictures of our time on the beach attached.
When our companions pulled in and exited
their bus, I was given a brand new quad that one of the other missionaries who
had just left our district last transfer left behind because he lacked room. I
received it because I mentioned how the pair of scriptures that I've had since
I was 8 was just about full and I was having to create new marking techniques
to keep track of everything that I was studying. I'm liking the quad a lot more
than I thought I would.
Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Birthday!
For Friday, we traveled back to Licata
to have lunch with our ward Mission leader and we had the chance to talk to him
and eat lunch with his family while Moana (Oceana in Italy because Moana is the
name of a pornstar here) was playing in the background. I've now seen that
movie two times. Once in English, once in Italian. I understood most of what
was said, so that was a plus! As per our meeting and lunch, it went well and
just gotta say I love sausage and potatoes way more here than I did in America.
It's just better here.
Saturday was full of excitement for
Carnivale which is this week-long festival here where there is a farmers market
every day (I bought some garlic purè and some tomato/olive purè which is
delicious) and other things like trampolines and bumper cars for those who want
to party hard. My companion and I then went to the church to help them set up
for he party we were holding there. Karaoke, pizza, and the occasional line
dance that they knew were found there. It was funny, because someone brought a
USB stick with a bunch of music but it wasn't that great if I'm going to be
honest. So, I jumped onto the computer and started playing the songs that I
could remember from my time as stake dances and they loved it. I had to start
with Rick Astely "never gonna give you up" and after that song I
became DJ. It was fun, every now and again I had a request and I can see why
DJ's love their jobs.
I received a call today that informed us
of where I and my companion are going for this transfer. He is staying here in
Agrigento, but I'm headed to Rome to follow up train and I'm getting blown in.
That just means that both the Anziani that lived there before got pulled at the
same time so neither of us know where anything is. It also means we have the
chance to meet the prophet and the whole quorum of the twelve in this coming
week. I'm not complaining, that's pretty awesome!!
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