Ciao!
I can't believe week two in Italy is already over... The days go by SUPER fast (unless we are doing weekly planning)! Your question about garlic breathe made me laugh; surprisingly, I haven't smelled stinky breathe from anyone since being in Italy! The missionaries on fast Sunday at the MTC definitely have worse breathe than any of us Italians! ;p
I can't believe week two in Italy is already over... The days go by SUPER fast (unless we are doing weekly planning)! Your question about garlic breathe made me laugh; surprisingly, I haven't smelled stinky breathe from anyone since being in Italy! The missionaries on fast Sunday at the MTC definitely have worse breathe than any of us Italians! ;p
I haven't heard anything about being in such an awesome chocolate place, but I definitely need to take advantage of that! Although, I am surprised with how cheap their chocolate spreads are in the store. You can buy a big jar of fancy-Nutella-stuff for under €3!
As for communicating in Italian, it's really hard! I can understand a lot of Italian when my companion or an African is speaking it because it's generally slower and the words are separated. But, Italians speak SUPER fast and their words slur together, so I can't even understand a lot of words that I do know when it comes out of their mouth. Fortunately, I can tell I've been improving, both understanding and speaking wise!
Interesting facts I learned this week: Number one, Italians don't drink normal hot chocolate! Their version of hot chocolate is basically warm pudding (that's how thick it is). Number two, my companion doesn't wear deodorant because (in his own words) "he doesn't sweat under his armpits." And number three, missionaries love doing service. A couple missionaries in my district asked me how they could serve me, so I followed Ezra's advice and actually took them up on their offer. Let's just say, the next time I saw the missionaries, I received some delicious homemade cookies (even if they weren't mom status). Number four, I consume a lot of food and it's not fun (I'm a baller on a budget and can't afford my current lifestyle)! If I'm not careful, I can go through two boxes of cereal and half a loaf a bread in a day ($$$).
My favorite time being a missionary is when people approach US and want to hear about the Gospel... Last week we had a Nigerian man approach us and told us he's been looking for the missionaries ever since he got to Italy! We haven't been able to meet with him yet due to our schedule conflicts (and still don't know if he's a member or not), but we felt like celebrities when he ran up to us. Then, this week, we had a little Chinese boyish-man come up to me and Anziano Gibbons and say, "You guys believe in Jesus Christ?!" We taught him for a little bit and he was eating the gospel up! But, unfortunately, his mom isn't a fan of Christianity and wouldn't let him see us again after she found out who we were.
My first three-hour church meeting in Italy made me a little scared for the next two years... I never know what is being said! I can understand words every now and then, but everyone speaks so fast that I don't get any meaning out of anything. The only thing I understood during the three hours was a portion of fast-and-testimony meeting: When I was the one baring my testimony! ;p My companion translates for a few of the Africans that don't speak Italian during church, but I'm always too far away from him to hear. Luckily, we had a lesson with our investigator, Solomon, after church and it was INCREDIBLE (and not just because it was in English); the spirit was so strong! Solomon is getting baptized this Saturday and I have no doubt he is ready. He truly understands the significance of the step he is making in his life. He's shared some really awesome insights with me from his Book of Mormon studies that have left me wondering if he's secretly already a member. I know he's not going to be falling away from the church anytime soon!
Funny story of the week: When shaving a few days ago, I accidentally cut a really big gash above my lip. And since the gash wouldn't stop bleeding, I had to go out in public with a paper towel pressed against my face. It was a little embarrassing, but it became a lot more embarrassing when I was sitting across from some Danish tourists on the train... They kept on talking, looking at me, and laughing!
Earlier this week, we went to Pisa for a new missionary training this week and the city was BEAUTIFUL! It's fun being in the big cities like Pisa and Firenze because there are so many old-American-Mormon tourist couples that come up and talk to you. Anziano Gibbons and I had a few nice conversations with people as we walked to the church building in Pisa. We even ran into an investigator of the sister missionaries serving in Pisa! It was kind of funny though because he seemed a little too sad that the sister missionary's "friend" moved to a different city (he didn't understand how transfers worked)! ;p Also, I can now say that I've seen the leaning tower of Pisa (although I was never close enough to it for a decent picture with it). But, the coolest part of that day was the train ride back home. We were supposed to take a certain train, but my companion had a prompting that we needed to take the train 10 minutes later. So, we did. On that train, we taught about the apostasy and restoration with a lady and she was really interested in our message. She didn't want to give us her contact information after the lesson, but I know we needed to plant that seed in her heart. :)
In other cool news, I gave my second blessing this week! Anziano Hyde (a senior Elder) had a toothache and asked me to give him a blessing. Unless someone is in need of receiving a lot of animals (my animal vocabulary is off the hook), I don't think I'll be ready to give a blessing in Italian for a while... But, luckily, Anziano Hyde speaks English and giving the blessing was a really cool experience!
I thought you guys might be interested to know that parents aren't the only people that embarrass you in life... Companions are just as embarrassing! Prato, the neighboring city to Pistoia, is like the Chinese immigrant capital of Italy, so we always see a ton of Asians walking around. For some reason, my companion thinks it's okay to scream out, "NEEE-HOWWWW" every time we see an Asian person because he just assumes they only know how to speak Chinese! Every time he does it, I'm not sure whether to laugh or run away, but it's always pretty embarrassing for me when the Chinese person turns out to be a native Italian and speaks Italian flawlessly.
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| I love gelato! |
And finally, before I go, I want to tell you about my favorite experience I had this week... After English class on Thursday, we were invited over to one of our student's houses by him and his girlfriend (both of them our in our English class). The guy's name is Gigi, he's 40ish, and lives in a super fancy house on the top story of a building. He literally treated us, two stinky 20ish year-old boys (one more stinky than the other), like kings! The view from his balcony was unreal. It was hard to get down the fish that he prepared for us (it literally tasted how the ocean smells), but I would've made you proud because I ate the whole fish with a smile on my face! Luckily, he fed us lots of gelato afterward, which made up for the not-so-appetizing fish! ;) Gigi and his girlfriend were in disbelief that Anziano Gibbons and I couldn't drink wine and we couldn't see our girlfriends for two years. However, that lead into a really nice conversation about the church! We're going to have an official lesson with them tomorrow (with dinner included compliments to Gigi) tomorrow and I am STOKED to see them progress!
Anziano Gibbons and I have been asking our investigators if they have anybody we can pray for and it's been an awesome way to get referrals for us! I'm glad all is well back in Olympia! I'm always glad to say that I'm from OLYMPIA, Washington because Olympia has an Italian-like name and it always gets a few "ooh's" when I tell people that's where I'm from. In fact, Olympia and Italy aren't very different at all... It rains constantly here! Fortunately, missionaries bike here, rain or shine. ;)
Vi amo,
Anziano Anderson
Anziano Anderson
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