Week 6 & 7 - Italy! | Mission Life in Milan

Bouna sera tutto!

I AM IN ITALY! It's so unreal to actually be in the country that I've been dreaming about for the past five months! Since it's been two weeks since I last emailed you all, I have a TON to say... I feel kind of lame talking about my last week at the Missionary Training Center considering I'm now in the coolest country in the world now! ;p So, I'll be fast in recapping my last week in America.

Besides from getting all the love from you all during my final week at the MTC, here are my other highlights: We had an all-day in field orientation with the 700 missionaries departing into the field that week and I learned a ton! Apparently, you are literally supposed to ask EVERYONE for a referral, even people that don't want to hear your message... I'm definitely going to try it out when I learn the language better. Also, my teacher, Sister Miles helped us do an in-depth study of our patriarchal blessings and I learned so many things that have never stuck out to me before. And finally, we had a little goodbye party with our MTC teachers and took lots of fun pictures! You'll get pictures of my last week in the MTC someday, but we use iPads to email/send pics... So, I don't know when. However, my teachers all predicted where everyone's first area would be and two of my three teachers were spot on with me

Our flight from the USA to Germany got delayed in Chicago! We got on the plane on time, but there was a problem they had to fix with the cabin pressure, so we had to sit on the plane for a few hours and wait it out. This was a tad bid stressful for the travel leader (me), but luckily I was able to get in contact with the travel office and work everything out. I even got bonus points with President Dibb before arriving to Italy because I called him from Germany (after spending an hour figuring out how to work a German pay phone) and let him know what was going on. He gave me lots of praise in Italy when we finally arrived! ;)

Everyone in our group was super tired when we finally arrived in Italy, but we were finally in Italy, so none of us cared! We didn't get to visit the d'uomo in Milan because we were so late getting there, so we just went straight to the mission home. We got our iPads there, each had an interview with the president, and then went out to a delicious Italian dinner. I sat next to the AP's during dinner and they gave me a hard time about my poor eating skills; they taught me a lot of Italian eating techniques! After dinner, I slept at the mission office with a few other Elders (the rest of the group slept in a hotel).

President and Sister Dibb

On my second day in Italy, I got assigned my trainer and area! My companion is named Elder Gibbons and we are serving in Pistoia. Elder Gibbons is from California and is a VERY nice guy... I've enjoyed being his companion! He's 21 years old and has been out on his mission for 18 months and knows the language well. I always feel really awkward when we are street contacting and he starts the conversation because he doesn't always show show much enthusiasm in his voice. So, he'll say something like, "We know God calls prophets to the earth to lease and guide us like in the times of Moses. Do you believe in prophets?" SO MANY PEOPLE JUST BLOW HIM OFF! I always kind of force people to talk to me by saying, "Ciao, come sta!" with a ton of enthusiasm to start all my street conversations. It always feels a lot less awkward! ;p

View from my apartment in Pistoia

As for Pistoia, it's an awesome city! It's neighboring city is Prato (where Fratello Gessel said I was going to serve) and that's where our church building is. We are in the Firenze (Florence) district (where Sorella Russel said I was going to serve)! I think there is more poverty in the Pistoia/Prato area than in most of the country. But, what some might consider to be the "Italian ghetto", I consider to be paradise!

I thought you might be interested to know a few things about Italy.. One, it's BEAUTIFUL here! It's a lot dirtier of a country than I expected, but everywhere I look, it makes me feel like I'm in a movie! I wish I could take a picture down every street because the architecture is insane! Two, EVERYONE smokes (I've even seen kids smoking that couldn't have been older than 14). I'm sure I'll be getting some major second-hand smoke during the next two years; hopefully I don't develop lung cancer! Three, people love making out... EVERYWHERE! Four, people like talking very close with you and don't really understand personal bubbles. It's been a little uncomfortable, but I've tried to just embrace it and not back up when someone is talking to me really closely.

One thing that I was not expecting here was how many Africans we teach here! There is a ton of Africans who have fled to Italy from Nigeria because of some very bad things... But, it's cool because they can all speak English (they were taught it in school) and all have a TON of faith in God. In the African culture, they were used to be preached to all the time, so they love when the missionaries come over. However, most of them won't actually do anything you ask them to do (even when they agree)! That being said, we have an investigator right now (that Anziano Gibbons has been working with for a while) named Solomon and he is AMAZING. He has a baptismal date, follows all our commitments, and asks VERY intelligent questions (sometimes a little too good).

Here's a funny story regarding Italian electrical sockets combined with American alarm clocks: I had set my alarm clock and plugged it into a socket on 50 watts (you have to choose a wattage) for 6:30 am the night before. But, apparently I chose the wrong wattage, because my alarm clock never went off... My companion was relying on my alarm clock and woke me up at 8:30ish! The clock on my alarm was going too slow and it never made it to 6:30. So, the next night, I used the 1500 watt setting for my alarm clock (the only other wattage setting) and set my alarm for 6:30. When it went off the next morning, I woke up and started doing pushups for my morning workout. Unfortunately, my companion stops me after a few minutes by yelling, "Elder, go to bed! It's 4 am!" My alarm clock goes too slow on 50 watts and too fast on 1500 watts! ;p

More cool things from this week: First, I had my first lunch appointment with a member family and we ate a delicious pasta/bread/salad/cookie dinner- Italian style! We ate SO MANY carbs and I loved every bite of it! Second, Anziano Gibbons and I teach an English class twice a week and it is sooo much fun! I teach the advance students that already know English farely well while he teaches the basics of English to Italians that don't speak it at all. The people that come to the English class aren't members and are generally 20-40ish... It's a lot of fun having conversations with people that don't fully grasp the language and don't have a huge vocabulary! Third, Anziano Gibbons and I saw a fight go down! We were walking down the street a few days ago next to a park and inside the park, a teenager was kicking the poop out of another teenager that was laying on the ground. Luckily, some other teenagers ran over and broke it up... But, it was intense! Fourth, GELATO!!!! Nuff said.

Well, I am wrapping up my first pday here in Italy and better get going soon! We've spent the day in Florence and have eaten some VERY delicious food- sandwiches thar blow Subway's out of the water. We went to the museo galile, but I didn't enjoy that as much as Anziano Gibbons... I felt like Florence itself was way cooler than anything in the museum! Next time I come back to Florence, I'm going to be buying some new ties (you can buy three AMAZING Italian ties for 10 Euros) and a new belt! It sounds like life in Olympia is going to pretty well, but I don't have time to respond to everything... Have a good week family!

Vi amo,