Sunday, May 4, 2014

I Love This Place April 30,2014

Ciao tutti!!!

Well another busy and super fun week has flown by. I can't believe how fast the time is going. So let me just start out with the worldly stuff. Yes Dad, Anz Parker wants to know about the NBA playoffs. haha. Why do we always end up playing the Sharks in the playoffs? I don't get it. At least we made it again. Hopefully we won't bomb out with the Kings or the Clippers, but we'll see. Also, BYU volleyball is killing it!!! That's so awesome. Anz Valencia and I always talk about BYU volleyball. Also, on that all star team thing, I know Jake Staahl. He hung out with Emile and I back in middle school. He's super good and he went to Westlake!! Whoo!!!! I'm not surprised the Dodgers are already starting to crash and burn. It just always happens. As for people caring about hockey.....that would be a big fat no. We talk about it sometimes in English class, but no one really understands any of it or like watching it. There are hockey teams here though, they are just super unknown. But everyone here is excited for the world cup or mondiale and not excited, because they all think that Italy is going to bomb out in the group stage (very possible). Surprisingly, a lot of people here think that America is going to do really well this year. I've even had some people tell me that they think we might win it this year or the next one. We can dream right? haha. 

Next, thank you for the pictures of Ellie and Jack. I miss the white wonder and Ellie is adorable. I don't know if you guys think so, but she totally looks like Linda to me. I can totally see it in her. I can't wait to actually see her in a little more than a year. Holy cow....that's nuts. This time next year I will be getting ready to come home. WHAT?!?!?!?!?! Where has the time gone. The harder we work the faster it goes!! There's no way to make it slow down, it just gets faster and faster. Lame. 

Dad, don't worry, we don't miss a lot of buses anymore, because we just decided  that its easier and faster sometimes just to walk, so we just skip the buses. However, this past week every time we went to Voghera, we had to literally sprint back to the train station to make it in time. Crazy stuff. I hate running. Any who, I will be on the lookout for contact solution because we are in Milano today. There was a certain other brand that Dr. Reider told me about, but I don't remember what it's called. Whoops....

But speaking about Skype, me doing it at 6 my time is going to be perfect because Anz Parker needs to do his at 5 our time. I don't know where we are going to do it yet, but that's our problem to figure out. Let's just plan on that time and I will let you know next week for some reason if it needs to change.

OK, lots to talk about today, but before I forget, last week I talked about this super awesome family that we received as a referral that want to move to Pocatello Idaho (again...don't ask me why). Well, they told us yesterday that they got word from a lawyer in New York that they've been cleared to come over, so now they are trying to sell their bar they just bought here and trying to figure everything out to come over in like June. Crazy fast, right? Any who, they wanted to know if you, Dad, knew of any good immigration lawyers close to the Idaho area (anything closer than New York). It would be ideal if they happened to know about Italian law, but they are just trying to find a good lawyer closer to Idaho than New York so they don't have to fly back and forth to the east coast. So if you could let me know that would be great.

Alright, so like I said, this week has been crazy busy. Full of fun and excitement and lots of success. Just to start off, we taught 15 lessons this week and got 7 new investigators!!!!! WHOOOOO!!!!!!!! That was some HUGE success for us. Unfortunately 5 of those investigators will be moving to Idaho relatively soon, but we'll see what we can do. 

So first, one day this week, we were walking around doing some strada when we decided to walk down this one street that we had never been down before. I knew there was a little park or something down there, but we had never gone, so we decided to go. After walking all the way down the street, we found the "park" which was actually just a place where you can launch boats into the fiume, and since there was no one there, we walked back. When we got back to the main street, we were standing there deciding where we wanted to go, when all of a sudden, we see this man walking on the other side of the street. We both recognized him as a man that we stopped the week before at that same spot, but he immediately got on the bus, so we couldn't talk to him. So I ran across the street and started talking to him. He had some time, so we sat down on a bench near by and taught him the Restoration. We then invited him to come to serata familiare that night, and he came! He had a blast, and then we saw him the next day and taught him again. Then we invited him to baptism of the Sorelle's investigator, because he wanted to see one first, and it just so happened that we had a baptism the next day. So he came to that too!! After the baptism, we sat down and talked to him about what he thought and what not. He loved it and when we extended the baptismal invite, he accepted! We saw him again yesterday, and he told us that he's glad we met him and that we are helping him follow Jesus Christ more fully in his life. He's so awesome and a real miracle from the Lord. He sent us down that street to be there to run into Nelson, so that we could bring him the gospel. He also told us that his aunt started reading one of the pamphlets we left him and so we're trying to meet her and teach her too. The Lord really does prepare people together.

Other fun things that happened at the baptism is that I made brownies for Sorella Palumbo's birthday and I'm going to be honest...it weighed like 10 pounds and was super uncooked in the middle, but everyone LOVED them for some reason. I thought they were gross, but everyone else liked them, so go figure. Then walking home from the baptism (because we had to stay late to drain the font), we walked past this bar and these super drunk people who were dressed up like pirates asked if they could take a picture with us. We started all having a gospel based discussion with them, so it was super funny, but they were hammered. One of them, asked me why we had never come to his bakery, so I told him that we would come by this week. I'm curious to see if he actually remembers us. haha. Gotta love this place. They were all super nice though, but super drunk and super funny.

Next, I got to exercise my Priesthood 2 times this week. It was super cool. So the first time we went by a less active who is really looking for work and having a hard time and is super stressed. During the lesson, I got the impression to ask him if he wanted a blessing. He said yes and so we gave him a blessing. The spirit was really strong and I really think it helped him a lot. Then the next day, we went out to Voghera to try and pass by some investigators and members. We went by the first house. Husband wasn't home. The next house, doesn't live there anymore. The third house, we ran into the daughter who told us that no one was home. So we struck out. Lame. But then we decided to pass by this other house, the Carbone's. The husband is kinda losing his way at this point in time for some reason, so the family is a little on edge. But we stopped by and they always love seeing us. They tried to make us some pasta again, but we were fasting. Anyway, during the lesson, I got the impression that we should give the daughter, who was sick a blessing. I wrote on my planner "Nicole=Blessing?" and handed it to Anz. Parker and he wrote back "ho pensato lo stesso" or "I thought the same thing". So we asked if Nicole wanted a blessing, and they looked at us completely astonished. Then they asked, "how did you know????". Apparently the night before, she was crying because she wanted a blessing, but never got one. So we got sent there to answer that prayer. The blessing was super spirit filled and I could totally feel the words just popping right into my head. They were so grateful after and kept on asking us, "how we knew". The spirit works in mysterious ways, and I'm so glad that I headed both of those promptings, so that I could use my priesthood to serve my fellow man.

OK, now for some less spiritual stories. So there is construction upstairs in our palazzo, and every morning this week, when we are doing our studies, it sounds like a bunch of hippos are throwing a rave. It's so loud and obnoxious. Then I also starting to learn a little bit of "twee" (may have spelled that wrong). Its a pigeon language that they use in Ghana. It's super fun and our new converts love it that I'm trying to learn their language a little bit. Right now I can ask how you are, what's your name and respond to those. I can also ask to eat fufu and bankoo. Fun stuff. It's a blast. But don't worry dad, I'm still studying Italian.

OK, and here in the best story of them all. So this week after church we were going over to a member's house for lunch. While we were waiting for them to finish a meeting, Anz. Parker went into the bathroom and when he tried to get out, he couldn't. The door had broken and it was stuck shut. I started laughing, and then some members came by and we started trying to get him out. we used plastic cards to try and get it. we tried to pry it open with a screwdriver, but after 20 minutes, we just decided to have Anz. Parker "go SWAT" on it and kick the door in. He didn't want to be it was a church door, but after our vescovo told him to stop being a pansy and just do it, he kicked the door in. It was super funny and its probably going to be remembered forever here in this ward. Too funny, seriously. haha

Well, anyway, that was just a little taste of our week. A lot happened, I know. Crazy life here in the mission field, but I love every minute of it. even when its raining and you miss the bus, or when you have to sprint to catch the last train of the night. The mission is crazy fun, and I'm really going to miss it. I'm super pumped for this next year in the mission. Get ready for lots of miracles, great stories, and amazing pictures of this beautiful country. Can't send you pictures yet, because this internet point is super sketchy. But last week, we pretty much went to the most beautiful place in the world, Varenna. Its on Como lake and lets just say, we are definitely going back there. haha.

I love you all so much and I hope you all have a great week! I love this place!!!

Anziano Langlois