I suppose I better give you the run down on my new companion. First off, I should begin by saying: I LOVE HIM! When we first met, he was telling me that he has only gotten along well with a couple companions over the course of his mission... He told me that he has the reputation in the mission for not being a fun companion to have. Needless to say, I was a little concerned about what my next eight weeks were going to look like. Fortunately, we've been working extremely well together and we haven't been having any trouble getting along. He's 28 years old and not a very outgoing guy; I think that's part of why we work so well together. We don't have a lot of meaningless small talk. We ask each other questions about our lives, talk about lessons and investigators, I ask lots of Italian questions, but we're okay with silence. Also, his Italian is a lot easier to understand than everyone else around me (which is comforting for my future here in Italy). Unfortunately, we talk in English too much! He speaks very good English and likes speaking in it as much as possible. I ask lots of Italian questions everyday, but I was speaking Italian a lot more with Anziano Gibbons. It's kind of funny though because although he speaks great English, he cannot understand Africans! ;p I have been doing 90% of the actual teaching during all the lessons we teach with Africans (which is pretty much all the lessons we are teaching right now).
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| I'm on the top left, Mastino is next to me |
Anziano Mastino is a very funny guy because he is... Quirky! He is very good at analyzing people and just says it how it is. I don't know how else to put it. He never really intends to make jokes, but a lot of things he says has me laughing! ;p He also gets super fixated on different things, which is always hilarious (to me). For example, yesterday morning, when he saw that our microwave doesn't have a spinning plate, he couldn't let it go! After a five minute rant, he came to the conclusion that we need a spinning plate in our microwave or a new microwave all together because this situation is just not going to do! ;p It's also pretty funny because he didn't ride a bike before the mission, so he is SLOW! I remember riding bikes with Pierce at the family reunion and that kid is 5x as fast as my companion. I completely understand why he isn't good at riding a bike (us Americans ride bikes all throughout our childhood), but for some reason he doesn't wear a helmet. He's always really wobbly and I'm always scared to death for him! Is this what it's going to feel like when I'm teaching my son to ride a bike?
Nonetheless, it's been AMAZING being the missionary who knows what's up in the companionship. Anziano Mastino doesn't know the people or the location, so I've been planning the appointments, finding out how to get where, deciding when we leave, and taking the charge in the lessons. I've basically been the unofficial senior companion for the past week. :D I'll tell you guys about a few different appointments we had this week...
First off, I want to tell you guys about the ultimate bidonet we had this week. We were waiting outside the house of a man named Billy earlier this week for our second appointment with him. He hadn't been answering his phone all morning, but since we knew his address and had an appointment, we went to his house anyway. When we rang the doorbell, Billy asked through the house intercom who we were. I told him that we were the missionaries and were here for our appointment with him. He seemed happy enough that we were there and told us to wait outside for one minute. ...1 minute went by... 2 minutes went by... 3 minutes went by... Then, another man started talking to us through the intercom. He told us, "Sorry, Billy isn't home right now. Maybe try calling him to schedule another appointment with him." Needless to say, we aren't calling Billy ever again! ;p
Next, I want to tell you guys about an appointment we had scheduled for this week that got us a lesson with someone... But, also so much more! We were teaching the restoration to a man named Ezekiel in our church building. We weren't getting much teaching done because Ezekiel knows the Bible very well and he kept on trying to whip out scriptures to disprove us. After about 90 minutes of this, I had had enough. I bore my testimony about the Book of Mormon and closed the lesson. Then, I asked him to say the closing prayer and he happily agreed. This is when things got interested. He was convinced that we needed to repeat his prayer back to him as he said it to truly show that we were confessing Jesus as our Christ (he was obsessed with Romans 10:9). We literally spent 40 minutes explaining to him why we don't pray like that... And at the conclusion of the big extravaganza, he wouldn't even say the closing prayer!
I saved the best appointment for last... We have had a few awesome lesson with a man named Kevin! I guess I don't need to specify with you guys that I'm talking about Kevin #2 (we have three investigators named Kevin). ;) After our first lesson with him, Anziano Mastino said something like, "I really like that Nigerian. I can actually understand the English he speaks." And not only does he speak really proper English, he can sing! He travels around Italy singing and playing the piano for different churches. He's been recording some of his songs in a local studio and is coming out with an album next year. He played us a song after our last lesson with him and it was hilarious! He is a pretty quiet dude, but his voice is loud and opera-ish. He's been asking some incredible questions during our lessons and is truly searching for the truth. He even lived with a member of our ward for a few years when he came to Italy, so he is very familiar with the church.
Before I go, I have to tell you all about the best and worst parts of my week (both of which happened in a 10 second timespan). A few days ago, while waiting for the bus, a bird pooped on Anziano Mastino's arm. It was the first time I saw Anziano Mastino get flustered, so it was quite a funny scene. After getting out my iPad to take a picture of my unfortunate companion, a bird decided to drop a dump on my shirt collar AND iPad! I'm sure an optimistic elder would've been rejoicing that the poop didn't land on his head, but I can't say I was rejoicing! It was molto schifo. We had to make an emergency run to our church building to get cleaned up before our next lesson. Have a great week family! Hopefully the birds in Washington are a little nicer than the birds here in Italy. ;)
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