Literally, that means "ready". But that's how they answer the phone here, instead of "hello". That took a bit of time to get used to.
But anyway, HI! First off, for Kalyn: that sucks. Make sure you don't stress out like that again. :)
Secondly, thank you, parents, for worrying about me, but it's funny, my mood kind of fixed itself the next day. Or, sort of. It got to our companionship study time in the morning, and I was kind of in my own little shell, but Anz. Stewart realized that, so he started to ask my opinion a little more often than normal. Finally, I just said "I'm tired", and then he had the wisdom and patience to let me be for a few minutes as we just sat there. After a bit, I started up talking about lessons again, and whaddya know, my mood just gradually fixed itself! I finally understood what it meant to "lose yourself in the work", and how that brings joy. I haven't done much different, but I've just... felt so much better about it this week. Thanks for the encouragement!
But back to the phone thing from before (or I guess just that tidbit at the top), I've learned I need quite a bit of practice on the phone here. It's DANG hard to understand people here when you can't see them, for some reason. And, to make matters worse, one of the Sri Lankans who recently got baptized speaks English, but he learned it in the UK, so he not only has a Sri Lankan accent, but a BRITISH accent at the same time! So it's super hard to understand my own language here.... dang.....
But Tuesday morning, it was raining cats and dogs, so Anz. Davis and I (we were doing a scambio, an exchange, with Reggio Calabria) were calling old investigators in the Area Book. The FIRST person I called was from 10 years ago, but was totally down to meet THAT AFTERNOON. Unfortunately, something came up for her, so she sent us a text saying she couldn't come as we were walking there, but hey! The Lord prepares people, and a lot of them have already been met with, we just need to ask them to see us again!
Did I tell you guys about that one guy from Israel we met? Who's super set on Saturday as the Sabbath? But believes in Christ? Yeah, we've met with him a few times, and he's still super set on it. The thing is, he has a very solid foundation for that. He's read the Hebrew, Italian, and English Bibles, and is a firm believer in an unchanging God. And since God instituted Saturday as the Sabbath, since the world was created, it should still be Saturday, right? We've tried just about everything with him. Explaining that Christ resurrected on Sunday. Revelation to the prophets. We tried teaching the Restoration to invite the Spirit to testify. We've invited him to come to church and to pray about it and re-read the Book of Mormon. We've tried explaining that it's more the "why" than the "what". He always comes back to how God is unchanging, so the prophets who uphold the Sabbath on Sunday can't be Heavenly Father's prophets (he says that the devil can appear as an angel of light, which is completely true, it says in the New Testament), and that if Heavenly Father Himself came down and told him it was now on Wednesday, he would probably not believe it (since if He made Himself a liar, God would cease to be God). Basically, we're stuck. Any ideas? I'm trying to study it now to see what I can get. If anything, just a stronger testimony that that is what God wants.
Cool little miracle, but walking to his house Tuesday, something awesome happened. It's a half-hour to get there by tram. Unfortunately, they haven't been running lately. But we didn't know that until we came to the stop on time. When a lady told us that, we started walking like our feet were on fire, and called him to say we MIGHT be a little late. We knew it would probably take 40 min. to get there on foot. But somehow, we got there EXACTLY on time, a half hour after we left home. But that's not all. We had an appointment at the church about an hour after we had planned to finish, to account for tram time, and time to prep. The thing is, the church is a half hour walk from our home. So we walked there as quick as we could, hoping we could get there. We got there in about 35 min. Basically, we got there in impossible time. It's amazing what the Lord can do for us!
Today, I got a few more Christmas presents from you guys, thanks! The small pizza, focaccia, and calzone cookbook was genious! And the ties were super cool too, really fun colors! But I especially love the Italian jacket you got me, although I may have to send it home, because it'll be best for after the mission. Your choices were great, it's almost like you knew exactly what I wanted! Haha! :)
Oh, speaking of packages, smaller ones are ok to send to the mission home, I'll just get them at Zone Conference, hopefully. If you're wondering. Maybe.
But I still love to read about what's going on at home, and I love all of you. Thank you for being great parents, and a great family!
Ciao ciao!
Anziano Your-son-in-Italia
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