Well, this has been a fun week. Lots of
things to do and lots of very Italian things. Let me explain. There are
a couple of things that really define Italy. Public transportation that
just implodes whenever there is a minor problem, cool old Catholic
churches, and just straight up crazy experiences. I had them all this
week, so it was very Italian.
This week on a scambio, Anz Salmon and I were
walking past this cool old sandstone church, when we heard the organ
playing inside. We had a minute to spare, so we hopped inside and
listened to this awesome church organ. The music/setting was kinda
creepy, but the acoustics were amazing!!! It was really really cool.
Then, this past Saturday, we went to our Ward
mission leader's house to do some service. He told me on the phone that
we just had to pull some weeds from his garden. Oh boy.....he was wrong.
We literally deforested this garden. The weeds were at least a meter
tall and I literally had to use a falche (sickle) to cut it down. I
literally reenacted D&C 4. haha. I was so sweaty and gross and it
really made me appreciate learning how to weed a garden properly all my
life. Because if you don't take care of it, the weeds attack!!! So thank
you Dad. I always complained about weeding, but it payed off, because
our member didn't really know what he was doing. Oh well. haha. So that
was a pretty fun day.
This week was also District Leader appreciation day
at district meeting, so they made me a card and all signed it and told
me something that they appreciate about me. It was really nice and super
unexpected. Its always nice to feel loved.
We also had a Prato throw back this week, where we
went out and sung hymns in Centro. It was super fun. And then we tried a
new finding technique, where we went to stores and asked to leave some
pamphlets on there counters. Almost everyone said yes, so it was super
awesome! Hopefully people actually take them and call us. Gotta try
weird things to get results. Learned that from Anz Salmon alright. haha
This
miracle comes from my letter to President Dibb this week: As you know
already, we are working really hard with the De Simone's oldest son to
prepare him for baptism. Well, a few weeks ago, we had a great lesson
about the baptismal covenant and what it means with him and we left him a
baptismal calender and invited him to pray and search for a date to be
baptized. He told us that he would and every time we checked up with him
on this, he hadn't received an answer yet, but was still searching and
praying every night. Our entire district has been praying for him for
the past few weeks. Yesterday, when I was on a scambio with Anz Taylor,
all of our plans fell through. Unfortunately, one of our investigators
dropped us because her husband doesn't want us to talk to her. So
yesterday, we were pretty sad. At lunch, I was thinking about the day
and I knew that the Lord had something in store for us that day to boost
our spirits. We were able to set up a lesson with a member who is
waiting for his mission call and we were able to testify very powerfully
of the importance of the spirit in teaching and studying. After that
great lesson, we went to English class where we read from the book of
Enos (in English) and had a great time. At the end of class, the De
Simone son and mom walked up to me and asked me whether or not a baptism
must be on a Saturday. They were excited to hear that they could do it
on a week day if that worked better for them. This question literally
came out of the blue and gave me a ton of renewed hope for their son and
his progression towards baptism. It really was a tender mercy of the
Lord. My day had turned completely on its head, but the Lord still
blessed us with a simple miracle that really lifted my spirits.
This
brings me to our public transportation fail of the week. While going to
pass by a less active yesterday morning, we got stuck about 10 feet
from the bus stop we needed to get off because someone got hit by a car.
The bus driver refused to open the doors to let us off, so we sat there
with all the looky-loos for about 10 minutes as we watched police at their finest. They aren't very good at directing
traffic. haha. Out of nowhere a giant semi full of cars tried to turn
onto the tiny street and there were cars trying to pass the bus, but had
to back up for the truck and it was just a mess. Then finally when
there was space to go forward, all the cars behind us just kept passing
the bus and so we sat for another 3 minutes or so waiting to move
forward. it was utterly ridiculous. Anz Taylor and I were literally
shaking our heads and laughing about how ridiculous it was. There was no
need for it to be that difficult. Oh well....I love this country. haha
As for the McDonald's, it will probably be easiest for them to meet at the station. We can easily be there at 2:00
to meet them. As for things to bring....um......bo.....I don't know. I
don't know if I really need anything, but I do like surprises!!!
I
don't know Sorella Ervin, but one of our sisters here in Pavia does,
she finishes her mission in like 2 weeks with Salmon, Condie, and
O'Connor. Crazy to think that they are done with their mission. I
remember being trained by Salmon and seeing him hit his year mark. Now
he's going home. Crazy how time flies.
Life sounds crazy back home, which makes sense because life is always crazy. haha.
That
picture was taken on Lake Como in a small city named Varenna. Don't
worry, I will take you there next year. haha. And speaking of that,
what's the plan? How long are we planning on being here? I'm always
looking into things to do and so we'll never have nothing to do. haha.
But one request, would be to leave out of Rome. Because I really want to
see Rome. Actually, I want to see all of southern Italy, but that might
be too hard, so if we could at least hit up Rome that would be awesome.
Well,
another week has gone by on the mission and as always, I love hearing
from you all. I hope you have a great week and I hope to hear from you
all soon!
Vi voglio un sacco di bene!
Anziano Langlois
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