Buon giorno!
Yes, I got Mom's letter today. Thanks a ton for writing this week, haha! But anyway, before I forget, Audrey's mission guesses: foreign - England, stateside - Maine. I'm leaning towards Maine, though. And no, we didn't really do anything special for Thanksgiving, and I even almost forgot about it. I only remembered because I was reminded throughout the day, by my companion in the morning and then by this one lady from Colombia in our English Course that we teach here every Tuesday and Thursday. She knew my holidays even better than me, apparently!
But the day's just keep going here. Honestly, something new happens everyday. I love it! And last week, I even got to help with my first baptism here! WOOHOO! Granted, she already had the date set before I came to Italy, and had received all but one part of the lessons, and she's 9 years old, but who cares! My count is up to 1, haha! and it was even better, because the bishop asked me to participate in the confirmation on Sunday, so that was really a cool experience. Not to give it, but stand in the circle (of 3, so more like a triangle).
So that was I guess my "Sunshine moment", according to Kalyn. Actually, there have been quite a few of those this week. On Tuesday, we spent the day with the Vescovo (bishop) driving around to visit some contacts that he gave us. Well, two, but we also visited a less active member. But the 2 contacts seem so awesome and prepared to take the lessons, and they're both really nice old men, I can't wait to meet up with them again! But it's gonna be hard, without a car. But anyway, the 2nd one, a man named Claudio, was really nice and open with us, and appreciative of our visit. But the best part was when the other member who we brought with us, named Sorella Oliveri, told a brief summary of her conversion story. I'm telling you, the Spirit was so strong in that room. You could have cut it with a knife. Maybe. :) But Vescovo is pretty sure that he'll be baptized within a few months. I can easily see that happening.
Another thing that happened last Friday was awesome. We were going to visit Nicole, the 9-year-old who got baptized the next day, and called up to her apartment with that intercom thing. One of her little sisters answered and said Nicole and their Mom weren't home. She sounded a little worried about something, so we kept trying to call them, but they wouldn't answer anymore. We called up to their window (2nd story conveniently over the intercom), and one of them poked out their head and said they were flooding. So we went up to help out. Turns out, something that they used to hold water in the bathroom broke, and it was empty, but most of the kitchen was soaked, and the two girls were huddled on the couch (which was kind of a funny sight, actually). We got it all cleaned up just before their Mom got home. She said it happens, so she didn't get mad. But it was cool to be able to get there just when we're needed!
And goodness, with investigators, this week has been hard. There's only three progressing now, and we even set the date for baptism with them. 2 are a mother and daughter, with a little 7 year old who we aren't really focusing on teaching, and the other one is a friend that I'm pretty sure they met here, and they're all from Sri Lanka. Lessons with them are interesting, because the mother speaks Italian somewhat, the daughter too but is better at English, and the friend speaks English pretty well. But we bring in another Sri Lankan in the ward so we teach in English and he translates to Singhallah. Crazy. But they have all had hard times, and it's nuts what they're going through, but they seem like they're really accepting the gospel and noticing miracles that it brings. And the Vescovo even payed their electric bills when the ex-husband refused to, so they're electricity was cut off. Anyway, I could go on forever about them, but I don't have time. Those are our 3 progressing investigators, but we're trying to get through to about 4 others, and one of them lost a baptismal date because she couldn't come to church 3 weeks in a row at least, and she smokes, and isn't really trying to stop, but it stinks cause she has a testimony, and we had to stop seeing her so frequently cause it's too long of a walk for us to go 2-3 times a week and..... *sigh*. Nutsy.
Language.......bugs. I'm getting there, but the thing I need is practice. The problem is, I'm trying to talk to Italians. Which means that they talk A LOT. All that I heard in the states was an understatement. We've stayed at people's houses for 2 hours longer than we planned on because they were going off. Granted, that was with 2 Italians for a lunch appointment after church, but it's kinda the same thing with everybody else we visit. Gosh. I'm getting there though, SLOWLY.
But at the lunch appointment, I had lasagna (which was great) and horsemeat (which was not so great). I didn't like it because it was cold, tough, tasted funny, and I felt like a jerk. And what stinks, everybody here drinks Coke! Three times now, that's the ONLY drink they've put on the table! Blech. It tastes kinda bad. But other than those two things, food here is AMAZING! We order a pizza a week for dinner, haha! And the toppings are crazy, I had one with something like bacon on it. My friend in Reggio Calabria (from the MTC, I see him every week for District Meetings. He takes a boat over here.) had a pizza with hot dogs and french fries on it. Nuts. But, good.
Anyway, I love hearing from all of you! Have fun this week!
Ci Vediamo!
Anziano Walker
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