Hey Fam!
I love that I'm gonna get a package tomorrow! That's honestly one of the best part of the days here, after meals, 'cause it's like a game when the District Leader goes off to get mail. At least, that's how I think of it. It helps, cause if nothing was in there, then it's easy to say "oooh, almost," and then move on. But anyway, the earplugs were a nice thought! If they work, that'll be genius! Although I had a discussion with Fratello Bulloch last Friday (they occasionally take us aside one at a time to see how we're holding up), and he gave me the suggestion to go in a completely separate room for each of the study times, which has been working wonders! The only problem is, it's not always a viable option, if it's only for like 10 minutes, so the earplugs could definitely help. And I'm not always sure my companion WANTS to go into another room, cause he's having so much fun in that room, and then I come in as the boring, studious type and say "hey, let's go work our butts off or at least try to instead of enjoying ourselves in here 'cause we're on the Lord's time and we have a lot to learn yada yada yada...." I don't ACTUALLY say all of that, but I'm pretty sure that's how the others in the class see it. Sometimes I feel very separated from everybody in my district. Which isn't very good, because my companion and I were called as Zone Leaders here, and I really want to do my best to love everybody else and do my best at that assignment, but I dunno if they even want me as a Zone Leader. And nobody takes the calls seriously here, cause their always joking to my companion about "Oh, he's the ZONE LEADER, you better watch what you say to him, or else he'll......" fill in the blank. And that's another thing, nobody acknowledges that I'm the other Zone Leader like that, so there is a definite separation of cliques, where I'm kinda by myself in the District, occasionally talking to the sisters or this one other elder going to Rome who is really nice.
Ok, I think I made that sound worse than it is, but yeah. But life is good here, just going through, trying to learn as much as I can in the short time we have here. It's weird after the older districts left on Tuesday morning, because now there's only 16 Italian missionaries here, whereas there used to be 44. Crazy switch.
Gym is a fun time here, 'cause our whole district usually plays basketball together. We're all pretty even, which is nice. The only thing is there's this one Elder who probably learned how to play from street ball, and he ALWAYS defends me when we're on opposite teams, and because he learned on the street, he fouls like none other. He doesn't realize it, though, which makes it worse. If I ever try to roll around him to get open, he uses his arms to stop me, and is always pushing me. What's funny, though, is that if the guy with the ball is coming down the center with an opening all the way to the basket, he won't switch guys to stop an easy lay-up, he'll even move AWAY if I do. I would like to let him know all of that, but he is the one elder that is the hardest for me to get along with in our district, and I'm pretty sure he's the only one who actually doesn't like me at all. I'll admit, some of that is reciprocated, but I am really trying to fix that. It's just really hard when he never talks to me without a slightly angry tone, and then I accidentally say the wrong words when I'm trying to say something and he jumps on it like it was an attack against him. I dunno, I guess I've gotta look for more opportunities for service for him specifically, cause I don't want there to be any serious problems.
Ok, spiritual thought before I go: we were reading 2 Nephi 2 as a class this week, and we were talking about the Fall. A lot of interesting points were being raised, and we just got deeper and deeper into the material. Near the end of the discussion, I remembered something that Bro. Tolley talked about in Institute: you can go as deep as you want in the scriptures, as long as you can relate it back to Christ. I then tried to find some way to relate the story of the Fall to Christ, which is hard, cause I have always had a hard time interpreting stuff in that way. Suddenly, I thought "ok, where have I heard about a tree with some fruit before?" Immediately, I remembered Lehi's dream. The Spirit brought that to light, I'm positive, cause the connection was staggering: because Adam and Eve "ate the fruit", another tree had to be planted before they could "eat the fruit" of the "tree of life". The tree of the Love of God (Christ's Atonement) was planted, and because of that, we can go back and live without sin after this life. Since the Tree of the Love of God is completely symbolic, then perhaps the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is symbolic as well. And it all ties back to Christ beautifully. I was dang impressed at how the Bible and the Book of Mormon worked together that well. Anyway, love you all!
Ci vediamo! (See ya!)
Anziano Walker
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