got a new companion... Anziano Freckleton who is in his 6th transfer.
movies. We are definitely going to be having a good transfer together!
;) Unfortunately Anziano Buckles wasn't the only one to take off
today, Sorella Weidmann left for Mestre today!
I don't really know how to describe one of my Mondday night experiences
into anything less than a novel, but I'll do my best. Anziano Buckles
and I were biking home for the night and all of a sudden we heard a loud bang next
to us as a man that had been walking on the sidewalk fell and hit a
car parked on the street. We stopped our bikes immediately and went
over to the man to try and use our boy scout skills to help him out.
The man was obviously intoxicated and refused water and didn't want us
to call an ambulance. He tried standing up a few times, but couldn't
do it. We tried helping him up, but he was REALLY out of it and it did
no good. He began crying and mumbling inaudible Italian to our
non-Native ears. Anziano Buckles really had NO idea what to do.
Fortunately, we had an angel come to our rescue in the form of a
Nigerian man named Stanley! Stanley came trotting down the street,
assessed the situation and began explaining to Anziano Buckles and me
that the man laying on the street was very sick and needed to go to
the hospital immediately. Stanley then bent over and started talking
to the Italian man in English... "Stand up big man! You must go to
hospital. You will get strong there!" Then, when the Italian man
started slurring inaudible Italian again and Stanley began
"translating" the Italian for us
When the drunkard said, "Mi serve una sigaretta", Stanley understood
cigarette and started laughing hysterically and told the man that
cigarettes did the body bad and he in fact did not need a cigarette
(still in English mind you). At this point, Anziano Buckles and I
realized it was time to call the ambulance and get some real medical
attention for the man. When the medical personnel arrived and were
loading the drunk man onto the stretcher, another drunk man happened
to be walking down the street towards all the action. As drunk man
number two passes, Stanley tells him, "hospital" and laughs as he
points to drunk man number one on the stretcher. Drunk man number two
does not find Stanley very funny and starts shoving him while
screaming at him in Italian, "Why are you laughing?! There is a man
dying there! Get out of here" Stanley thinks this is all hilarious and
starts running down the street laughing his head off, with drunk man
number two chasing him. I can't explain to you all the happiness I
felt in that moment... Me, Anziano Buckles, and the Italian medical
personnel start CRACKING UP because of the scene that just unfolded
before our eyes. (Don't worry about Stanley. He ended up out-running
the drunk man and came back to the scene. We now have his contact
information and plan on seeing him later this week for an
appointment.)
In other news, Anziano Buckles and I had a little brain blast to
promote Book of Mormon reading with our Nigerian investigators... We
made a little Book of Mormon game for them! First, we picked some
awesome war chapters of the Book of Mormon (Mormon 3-5). Then, we
bought a poster board and wrote down 25 questions from the chapters on
it. Next, we made some disgustingly flavored chocolate pieces. We
melted a chocolate bar and then put garlic powder, frozen peas, spicy
pepper, and other random ingredients from our house into different
chocolate blobs. We were thinking that when one of our investigators
got the questions wrong, they'd have to eat one of the gross
chocolates and then we would eat the gross chocolates if they got the
question right. Unfortunately, we just tested out the game on our new
convert, Jerry, and it was kind of a flop. He got 23/25 questions
right which meant that Anziano Buckles and I had a lot of disgusting
chocolate to eat. Bleh! We are going to try and tweak the questions a
little bit before trying the game with any of our investigators.
But, speaking of Jerry, I want to share an experience I had with him
before I close! Yesterday, we had a lesson with him so that Anziano
Buckles could say goodbye (Anziano Buckles baptized Jerry). We had
been talking to Jerry for quite a while about how his life was going.
But then, Jerry got a little teary eyed and said a line to Anziano
Buckles that I can't get out of my head, "Thank you for saving my
soul." The spirit hit me like a wrecking ball when he said it. It's
often easy for me to forget the magnitude of the work I'm doing, but
I'm so glad for the faith of people like Jerry that help me realize
that I'm literally a representative of Jesus Christ right now.
Vi voglio tantissimo bene.
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| Working in the soup kitchen |
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| Michele and I on the train |
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