Buongiorno tutti!
As it seems that yet another week has
passed in this experience that we call a mission, allow for me to explain a few
things that went down and why they helped me become a better person. But first,
the ever growing statistics:
Pizza: 56
Gelato: 43
BoM: 76
With that out of the way, onward we go!
Last Monday was very chill, and we spent it mostly hanging out at a kebaberia
where they indeed, make kebab for us missionaries to eat. I was Abe to make it
to some place with decent wifi where I called my family (don't you love it when
the church announces changes?) and then went home to begin my evening of
proselyting in the rain. Not a whole lot worth mentioning happened there.
Tuesday was a day with a little more
going on. Recently, Anziano Inkley and I have been getting really big into the
exercise world. It seems that when all you do is walk all day for 16 hours a
day, your legs and lower body gets slimmed down a bit but the rest of you
doesn't really follow suit. We decided to try to keep up with the weight
loss/muscle gain and so we headed to porta di Roma (a very, very big shopping
mall) where we could buy some protein powder and long the way we spoke to
people and saw some pretty awesome things. We bought our powders and then began
the return trip home, but it was about lunchtime so we decided to go to a
Chinese place near our house for the heck of it.
It was not as easy as just hopping on a
bus. It was supposed to be, and it should have been, but in the end we just
barely missed the bus that would take us there, so we walked, got lost, got
found, and then got disappointed when te resteraunt was closed for lunch. As
funny as that sounds, it happens all the time. We bought some reesty pizza from
the store next door that I ended up violently ejecting from my body that night
just before English course, but it was all good.
Wednesday was a day for milk. When it
comes to the work, nothing overly strange happened there, but Anziano Inkley
and I, the "Sendy" companionship that we are, decided that it was
only logical and made sense to run next door to the store when they were having
a sale on boxed, partially skimmed milk, and to buy 24 litres of the stuff.
Totalled out to about 12 euro overall, but that's enough milk for the next
transfer and a half, so we're sitting fat.
I know what some of you are thinking.
"Anziano Anderson, why only 24 boxes of partially skimmed boxed milk? why
not 48?" or "what on earth are you going to do with 24 boxes of
partially skimmed boxed milk?" the answers are simple and are as follows:
48 boxes of partially skimmed boxed milk is excessive, and so we want to be
prepared and not oversaturated in the stuff. And for the second question: we
plan to drink it. It's not that hard to understand when explained in this way,
no?
Thursday was a day of interviews with
Presidente Pickerd! I don't have many left with him. Maybe one more after this
one because he goes home in May, and then we will receive President Smith. This
is funny to me because the mission presidents change in my halfway point in the
mission so I will have exactly half of my mission with President Pickerd and
half with President Smith. I'm sure there is a reason for this, but I'm just
excited to see what changes come to the mission culture with the new president.
I've been here long enough to see what the mission was like before, and I want
to see how the Lord has prepared this man to lead and guide the great Italy
Rome Mission!
Friday is weekly planning. As Anziani,
and because we like to encourage one another to do silly things that are
actually kinda awesome (being "sendy" as I said a few paragraphs
before when concerning boxed milk) we decided to fet 21 sticks of jasmine
incense and hot box the bathroom. It has been four days since that happened and
it still smells of jasmine whenever you go to that end of the house. Strong
stuff, permanent air freshener. 10/10 would recommend again.
Saturday was zone conference and in this
almost 8 hour meeting we discussed what it was we need to do better as
missionaries and we role-played the restoration and the plan of salvation with
President Pickerd. I'm happy to say that when they asked for a companionship to
volunteer, I and my companion immediately raised our hands and taught them a
wonderful five minute lesson in Italian with very little difficulty because we
practiced many times before in the days prior, as one should practice in
missionary work.
Because zone conference is so long, we
are always fed, or given extra money to feed ourselves. However, this day we
were fed hamburgers, with BACON!!! It was actual bacon as well, not the
"almost bacon" pancetta they use normally. It was very delicious, and
I enjoyed every juivy bite of my American reminiscence patty on white buns.
And finally, Sunday! we were able to
enjoy Stake conference in which a member of the third quorum of the seventy
came and spoke to us after some lovely singing from the choir and other local
speakers. It was a blend of Italian and English, but it was cool not needing a
translater because of my ability to speak the language now as opposed to the
first few months of my mission life where everything was a challenge, and
asking someone how they were doing took me about two minutes to
accomplish.
As is usually the case after we leave
the church in Rome, we were asked by all the English speakers how to get to the
place that we were already headed, I.E, Termini. So, we felt like tour guides
leading a gaggle of Americans to the trains. I never realized how fast we walk
as missionaries until we had to slow down to make sure that the seniors and
people in general could keep up with us.
At this, the end of my email (which is
kinda lame this week, I'll be the first to admit) I wish to extend another
invite to all who read these emails and who have the slightest bit of interest
in what it is that we do in this church. I know some of you are not members,
but you have heard of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints before,
if only in passing. I urge you to learn more about what it is that I am
devoting two years of my life to share with others in a country that is not my
own, in a language that is also not my own, but with a conviction that is
entirely my own and a testimony as well.
If you have ever wondered who you are,
who you really, truly are, then let me know. If you have ever wondered what
happens after this life, or are curious to know if there is anything at all
after this life, let me know. If you want to know what happened before this
earthly life, let me know. There are people just like me, devoting anywhere
from one and a half years of their life to two, in an effort to make sure that
you might have the chance to hear, and to come, and to see why we are such a
joyful and happy people. I promise you there are missionaries like me near you,
and they want to speak with you about this glorious message if you just give
them a chance. Five minutes is all we need to explain every single question I
just brought up. Please, come unto Him, come unto Jesus Christ.
In the following email, you will find pictures of almost
everything that I described and a few extra things as well. Enjoy! And feel
free to respond to these emails anytime during the week because I usually have
time to read them but I do like to hear how all of you are doing back in the
great United States of America, or wherever you may be posted! Ciao
tutti!
1. Stake conference
2. Incense aftermath
3. Almost 24 boxes of partially skimmed boxed milk
4. Kebaberia where they sell Kebab
5. Anziano Inkley looking pretty at a Chinese
resteraunt
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