But seriously, I'm 20 now. I can't
believe that. I'm so old. Every time I say that to the members though,
they always give me a hard time. But I always have the ace in the hole,
because then I just say, "look! my name tag even says that I'm
Anziano!!". haha. They love it. And speaking of getting old, I'm going
into my 7th transfer. WHAT?!?!?!? Where has the time gone? It's April
now? WHAT?!?!?!? I literally cannot believe how fast time is flying by. Any who, since I mentioned transfers, nothing is changing in our little
city here of Pavia. The Sorelle are the same and our apartment is going
to be the same. We did however, pull a really good April Fool's joke on
the other Anziani yesterday. Anz. Parker and I got the Capi to call us
and literally talk about nothing and I pretended like I was getting
transferred and no one else. They totally bought it. We were dying. It
would have lasted all day, but then the Capi actually called with
transfer info, and so the others figured it out. haha. Super funny. Good
times here in Pavia.
OK! So this week. Let's see...well, our apartment
has kinda been sick on and off this past week, so that's not very fun.
But, I've been in scambio with Anz Valencia for 3 of the last 4 days or
so, so that's always a blast. I love that kid. But, yesterday we had a
small and simple miracle. So this past week or so (like I just said),
between our two companionships here, we've been kinda on and off sick,
so our work has been limited so we can recover. But yesterday morning,
we were feeling great so we went and did some fiume for a couple of
hours. I will admit, when you just have finding work planned, its not
always that exciting, but I know its something we need to do so we can
find more people to teach, so we went out and did it. The 3rd person we
talked to, we ended teaching a lesson to. Then we said a prayer by
ourselves to thank Heavenly Father for that lesson, and then we kept
going. The very next person we talked to, we taught a lesson to and got
her phone number so we could pass her to the sisters. Then we said
another prayer of thanks. Then while walking past these two old men, one
of them stopped me and asked me who we were. I was more than happy to
tell him. So we taught him and his friend a lesson. It was crazy! Every time I say a prayer during finding work, I've seen a miracle. I
know that what the Bible Dictionary says about prayer is true. The
objective of prayer is not to change the will of God, but to secure for
yourself blessings that he is already willing to give to you, but are
dependent upon you asking for them. I've seen this time and time again
in my mission so far and I know that when we really utilize prayer in
the correct manner, we will see amazing results.
OK, now. Let's talk about my birthday. It was really
weird to be honest. It didn't feel like my birthday at all because we
just did what we do everyday. Preach the gospel. But we did some fun
stuff. At one point, we went and got gelato and then came and sat on the
river bank eating gelato watching the sunset through the bridge. Again,
it was one of those "what am I doing here with YOU" moments. hahaha.
The Sorelle also made me a cake for my birthday. It was super good. At
church, a bunch of members told me "auguri" and our gospel principles
class sang to me. Super funny because no one can pronounce my name.
haha. Then the next day, a family called me and told me that they forgot
to tell me something yesterday at church, and because I had already
forgot that it had been my birthday 2 days earlier, I was super
surprised when they started singing happy birthday to me on the phone.
The members here are too awesome. I love them so much. Apparently to
make up for forgetting, I have about 4 members making me a cake this
week, so I guess it really be like Jason's "birthday-kah". haha.
Speaking about the members, we passed by one of our
families this past week just to say hi, and they invited us in and told
us that we weren't allowed to leave until we had eaten. So they made us
dinner. Gosh, no wonder I'm getting a pancia. haha. Anziano Parker also
told them that we will be by their house again tonight, so they told us
that they will make us something. Goodness me. So Much Food. I love
it, but that's the problem. I eat way to much of it. haha.
Well, Lizzy, that is an awesome story and I can
totally see Dad doing that. I would have died laughing. He's so funny.
And speaking of Dad, I've been telling some of his mission stories
lately. In fact, last night, I told the story of "halan, halan, HALAN!!"
to our English class. They died laughing. They thought it was so funny
that they fell out of their seats when Craig said that. Gosh, I can't
wait to tell you all of my mission stories. Warm up the campfire!!
hahaha.
In other news, we're really excited for conference
this weekend. Unfortunately because we already did day light savings
over here, we will miss another session of conference, which is lame.
Super lame. But oh well, I can always go read them later.
As always, thanks for the sports report dad. This is
really some madness this year. I haven't had time to check how my
bracket is doing, but I think its pretty bad. haha. I will definitely
let you know how I do at the end of it all.
Oh yeah! I can't believe its already almost Mother's
day. That's crazy! It seems like just yesterday I was Skyping you guys
at Christmas.
Sorry, my thoughts are just kind
of jumping around right now, so I'm just typing what I think of when I
think it. haha. So two nights ago, I got to talk to Anz Andersen from
Prato and he was actually at the Pascuzzo's, so I got to talk to each
one of them for a minute or so. Gosh, I miss that family so much and
they miss me. We are definitely going to see them when we come back.
Talking to them and Anz Andersen, I realized just how fast time has gone
past. That was 6 weeks ago, but it only seems like maybe 6 days. I
don't know if its passing as fast there for you guys, but I remember
when Jason was on his mission that those 2 years seemed to fly past. Now
I know what it's like to be on the other side of that. I don't want
these 2 years to go so quickly! Sometimes I forget that I'm really in
Italy, because it just feels like home here. This is where I live, eat,
sleep, work, walk, talk, breathe; everything is Italian. Sono italiano
ora!! It's going to be so crazy and weird to go home. Good thing that's
still over a year a way. Not much more than a year (scary), but still
got a good amount of time here. Meno male.
I really do love the people here so much. I miss
everyone back home, but I know I'm going to miss everyone here. I
already miss the people from my previous areas. Being a missionary is
weird and its really hard, mostly because you get so close to these
people for 2 years and then you're gone. Sad kind of. But oh well.
that's the life of a missionary.
Any who, I love you all so much and I hope you all have a great week! Thank you for everything you do and are!
Vi voglio bene!
Anziano Langlois
Pics:
1. The one and only Ponte Coperto with the duomo in the background
2. The milano duomo. Yeah...it's kinda big
3. panzarotti at Luini's (super good)
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