Ciao tutti!
It's not often that you get to sit
inside of a temple while it's being dedicated and meet six apostles and
prophets of the Lord. But, that's exactly what I did this week. More on that in
a moment.
Pizzas : 55
Gelato : 42
Books of Mormon : 68
This whole week has been a wonderful
time for me because I've been able to meet with almost every single Anziano or
Sorelle in the mission and we even got a group photo which I assume was posted
because my mother sent it to me because she could see me standing in the
wayyyyy back of the photo. Mothers. They learn everything sooner or later so
don't try to hide things from them. Pro tip.
The Week was fairly normal until Tuesday
because that was the day that we all took so many busses up to Rome in order to
get to the temple dedication on time. When we all arrived, I found all my
previous companions that were still in the mission and then I watched as
President Christopherson walked into the temple. Following him was President
Oaks, Eyring, Cook and Stevenson. They came and said hi to all the missionaries
before the session started and that's where we all had the chance to meet them.
The temple dedication was amazing and
president Oaks said that he was sure that the choir of fourteen was joined by
angels in the other side of the veil because he heard many more than just
fourteen voices. Shivers. The temple is now usable and I'm certain that it's
being used every day by all the many, many faithful Italian members that
preside here in this beautiful country.
After the dedication, it was basically a
mission wide reunion where we all exchanged hellos and final goodbyes. It was
at this point that I Das trailer on the shoulder and when I turned I saw an
extended hand. When I took it, I looked up and I saw Elder Gong. We exchanged a
few words, mainly my name and where I'm from and then he smiled and wished me
the best on my mission. So, that's how I met Elder Gong. Yay!
Once the dedication was over, I had
Permesso travel and so I went back to Napoli with the Napoli zone leaders! But,
after a night in Napoli and two hours in line, I was told that I was supposed
to have been in line the same time I was meeting Elder Gong the day before, and
to come back in the next two to four weeks depending. This means that I still
have permesso travel and the ability to eat another Napoli pizza! Yay
miscommunication!
After another day or so had passed and
Thursday night came around, my companion and I who are both very new to the
area because we arrived at the same time and therefore do not know where we are
going half the time, decided to try to take a bus back home instead of the
metro in an attempt to better learn our mission area. Well, an hour later we
were in the middle of nowhere and had very little chance of making home by bus
so we switched to the metro that we knew. Anziano Kennedy and I were waiting
for our metro, but when it arrived he felt that we needed to take the next one
that came in eight minutes. I didn't fight it, I just accepted his feelings and
so we let the metro go and while we waited for the next one, we started up a
conversation with a woman who had been trying to read our tags from about 3
metres away.
We ended up getting her number and
giving her a Book of Mormon and explaining the restoration. The spirit is real,
and even though that prompting got us home at ten thirty, we knew the Lord was
happy with our work.
Finally, come Sunday, I had to translate
for an hour in the young men /young women's class because there were tourists!
I haven't had tourists in months so my translation skills were a little rusty,
but we made it work.
On the way home from church, we decided
to walk for some reason and we passed this very big garbage bin. Anziano De La
Rosa pointed out that there were four suitcases in that bin and that they
looked brand new. So, we checked and aside from the years of dust that were
covering them, they were indeed new. So, I shamelessly took one and made it
home with my new bag. As De La Rosa says, nice one bro!
This is all for now, over and out until
next week!
Anziano Anderson
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