How you all doin? Mission transfers are this week and that means new
missionaries are arriving today! It's hard to believe that Anziano
Leavitt and I have already been in Pesaro for six weeks. Time goes by
so fast! I remember by the end of my first transfer in the mission and
it felt like I had been away from my family for years. It's kind of
scary thinking about my mission ending one day! It's not that way
anymore. I was reading about Joseph Smith's time in Libery Jail
earlier this week and it struck me that he was imprisoned for a little
over four months... The same amount of time I have left in the
mission!! If Joseph Smith can be stuck in a "hell surrounded with
demons" for four months and bring some of the most beautiful scripture
known to mankind into the world, I better do some great things with my
time left to wear my black name badge... Surrounded by beauty... And
good food... And some of the best friends I've made in my life!
I wish you all could've seen Pesaro on Saturday morning. Our city
center was flooded with Mormon missionaries. All the missionaries in
the Rimini zone came and did proselyting work with us for a few hours!
We were a sight to see. Before the big proselyting event, Anziano
Leavitt and I worked hard to organize everything. When all the
missionaries arrived in Pesaro, we sent them to specific areas of the
city with someone besides their normal missionary companion. We gave
them all lots of pass-a-long cards and homemade chocolate chip
cookies. Every half-hour, there was some sort of competition scheduled
to keep all the missionaries motivated. At the end of the morning, we
met up at a local pizzeria for lunch. Unfortunately, the event didn't
turn up much success.
Despite the unsuccessful zone blitz, Anziano Leavitt and I have seen
some cool miracles in our work this past week. We've been able to meet
with two new Italian contacts thanks to old area book records. The
first man we met is named Giuseppe. He knows are branch president
fairly well and is a teacher at an elementary school. It was really
cool talking to him because he is so open; as a matter of fact, he is
a creativity teacher and teaches his students to view the world
through a more liberal set of eyes. He's lived all over the word and
has plans to move to Turkey in a few years. The second man we met is
named Mario. He owns a dry cleaning business and works long days. He's
a really down to earth guy and at times can even be a little
flamboyant. Side note: dry cleaners don't know any secret to getting
rid of bad smells from clothes. When I asked him, he acted like I was
stupid and told me that I need to wash them!
We were also able to meet up with a contact named Bruno earlier this
week for the first time. Bruno is Italian and looks like he just
walked off of the Evergreen State College campus- he's a total hippy!
Anziano Leavitt and I met him on the street a few weeks ago and he was
interested in learning about our religion. The guy lives with his
parents, used to be a soul-funk DJ, hates Donald Trump, and is
obsessed with black rights. His walls are plastered with newspaper
articles from 30 years ago and some pornographic pictures. There's
probably a thousand books scattered all this guy's living room and a
box of "2,000 year old fossils" in the corner. This dude is WEIRD.
But, you know what? He is so cool! He wants something more in his
life. He wanted to know what made our church different from the other
thousand churches in Italy and we were able to teach him all about the
Plan of Salvation. He was excited to take the Book of Mormon and
promised us he'd read it.
I mentioned pornography in my last paragraph and decided I had to
share this next thing with you guys. I remember back in the day when a
"good" family home evening was when we made it through the evening
without Abbey crying... Or, when mom made peanut butter kluckeroos for
the dessert. But, since being on the mission, my definition of a good
family home evening has changed a little bit. Anziano Leavitt and I
went to a family home evening this past Monday night at the Leon's
house and it was the GREATEST! For the spiritual thought, Sister Leon
showed us a YouTube video produced by the church. When the video first
started playing, I was really enjoying it. It was in a Spanish and
there was a whole bunch of little kids pointing to different parts of
their body while saying the body part name. I was trying to use my
Italian abilities to follow what was going on and then I start hearing
the word pornography. In that moment, I realized that the Mormon
missionaries were helping the Leons give their 10 year-old son
Guillermo THE TALK! The best part about the whole situation was that
after the video finished playing, Guillermo stood up and proclaimed
that he needed to use the restroom. As he was running out of the room,
he called over his shoulder, "I'll be back soon, continue without
me!!" Don't worry, we waited. ;)
I feel like I've been typing forever and I still have so much to say!
Here are some rather interesting things that have happened in my life
this week:
-Anziano Leavitt weighed himself at a member's house this week and
found out that he's gained 12 pounds since arriving here in Italy. I
don't think it helps that he eats 500-750 grams of tortellini everyday
for lunch and I make brownies or cookies every week.
-After having a man cancel his appointment with us earlier this week,
Anziano Leavitt and I went to a nearby basketball court and challenged
two teenagers to a game. We got destroyed (I'm chalking it up to the
fact that we were in church clothes ;)).
-Anziano Leavitt ran a red light on his bike and nailed a car. His
bike was destroyed, he cracked the drivers windshield, but he was
completely okay (thank you protecting angels).
-One of our grandmotherly neighbors delivered a box full of
strawberries to us this morning (a taste too expensive to purchase on
a missionary budget)!
Question of the week: What is a mind blowing dessert that we can take
to a less-active family? Anziano Leavitt and I made contact with a
less-active family this week from Paraguay and promised we'd bring
them a treat better than a "chocolate bread" thing they ate at the
baptism of Gioanna (the twenty year old daughter) that they have been
thinking about for the past 12 years. I'm not leaving Pesaro until I
see this family reactived. The mom and three kids (all in their 20's)
are members that have been inactive for years. And now, the (newly
married) Italian husband is reading in the Book of Mormon! I'm so
excited for them. Send me recipes!
1. This is the winning photo from our Pesaro blitz photo competition.
Pretty cool, right?
2. This is my studly district! Tomorrow, Anziano Larsen (right) will
be heading to Livorno.
3. This attacking cat made a return appearance this week at our lesson
with Abraham (I swear Abraham doesn't always look this blazed).
4 & 5. We took Marina's dog, Matteo, for a walk today!
6. This is a flower selfie I took a few minutes ago!
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