HELLO!!! Monday, September 22, 2014
Holla from the land of
ITALY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Moooommmmm you asked me so many questions
hahahaha. It seems like I have been here forever already. Also
traveling here seems like it happened 60,000 years ago. But because I
love you so much I am going to answer most of the questions. Sorry if any
of this stuff is spelled wrong. I am at an internet place and the computer is
obviously in Italian because I live in Italy now. weird.
First off, I am in the beautiful
coastal town of Ladispoli. I LOVE
IT!!!!!!! It is next to the ocean so it’s super hot and humid and my hair
goes crraaazzzzzyyy. I tried to straighten it yesterday hahaha that was
funny. It won’t be straight for at least 6 weeks. If I stay here
for two transfers, it will be 12 weeks. So don’t judge haha.
Alright now for your questions.
FYI I have been praying my brains out that you won’t stress out too much about
me and that you would know I was safe and happy. Especially because I
looked like a zombie in my arrival picture the mission President sent you hahahaha.
On the plane we just chilled. I
wrote in my journal, read some scriptures and stuff from the gospel
library. On the long flight me and the Elder sitting next to me taught a
girl named Vienna about the church! She was pretty interested and I have
her email so I’m going to email her and say helllo. I had a BofM so I
gave her one and we challenged her to read it. It was literally the first
lesson that we taught. She is awesome. I hope something comes of
it.
It was great talking to you guys on
the phone. Sorry I couldn’t call in London. My calling card was out and international calling
was really hard to figure out.
Going through security was
uncomfortable. I had to be
searched. I also accidently had some
lotion in my purse so they had to search it. But good news was I didn’t
have any bombs or anything so that wasn’t too big of a deal.
Lemme explain the delay situation.
Sooooooo we were supposed to get to Italy around noon. However, our
flight got delayed from Chicago to London. THAT meant that we missed our
flight from London to Rome. We got on the next flight from London to
Rome, but they didn’t have room for all of us. So of the 15 traveling
together 8 arrived in Rome at 4, but the other 7 took a later flight and ended
up getting there at 7. Plus some people lost their luggage, so we had to
wait for that. We ended up leaving the airport around 7:30 or 8:00 Rome
time. The Mission home is like 30ish min away from the airport. So
we saw some of Rome but mostly it was dark. We saw the temple! It’s
really pretty. Except it doesn’t look very close to being finished....baaahhhh.
When we first got there we had dinner. It was like 9:00ish I think.
We had salad, yummy lasagna and gelatto. It was good but I was so tired.
I only slept for a total of like 3 hours on the planes. It was hard
to sleep. Soooooo I hadn’t really slept in like over 40 hours at that
point. Ya. I know. Crazy. I was actually falling asleep
without meaing to.
Heheh so after dinner President had to
do some interviews with everyone. So they told us some important information
about the mission while he interviewed us. I have noooo idea what they
said. haha but it was all written down on a paper so that’s good. I was
looking at them speaking but kept drifting to sleep. hahahhaa laaaands I’ve
never been that tired! Then finally around 12ish the President pretty
much finished interviews except for four people. I was one of them.
He said he already knew where I was going and who my companion was and
that I didn’t need an interview till after. So we all sat down in a room and
everyone got to open up their "golden envelope" which is named that
way because it’s literally what it sounds like, a golden envelope. It tells you
where you will be serving and who your companion will be. It was exciting
so see where everyone was going. I kinda woke up at this point
haha. I opened mine and it said I was going to Ladispoli with Sorella
Marqueis. Ladispoli is right next to Rome pretty much. Everyone
cheered and I sat down to finish watching everyone open theirs. Then President
had to finish doing the last of the interviews. I was second to
last. Sooooo by the time I was in the interview it was about 2ish, Rome
time. I’m not sure how many hours I had been without sleep, a lot hahah.
I was really tired. But not too stressed. Just really tired. That
night we slept at the mission home. I hopped in bed and slept like a
rock. We slept UNTIL TEN!!!! AHHHHH!!!!! hahah it was the best but I
was still tired cause jet lag and also we missed a night of sleep.
In the morning we woke up, got ready,
and then we were walking to a street market when I met my angel of a companion,
Sorella Marquies! ugh I am spelling her name wrong. It might be
Marques! Ya I think that’s it. Anyway, she is the best in the whole
world. I am blessed times 1000. So I met her and then we hauled all
my stuff back to Ladispoli by taking some buses and then the train. And I’ve
been here ever since.
Sorella Gates lost a suitcase and
Anziono Beesley lost his carry on. They are on Sicily as well so they have
to wait like two weeks to get it. But apparently they always lose lots
more luggage than that so yay. I didn’t lose anything. hollllaaaaaaaaaa
Ok, now to life in Italy. I took
pictures of every part of my apartment for you. I will send them so you
can feel like you live with me.
Italy is crazy. When I walked
off the plane the first thing I noticed was the humidity (haha I almost
typed humility, I’ve been teaching the gospel a lot lately) anyway, it’s like
the air is choking you! Weieeeirdd. I’m almost used to it already though. Yay.
The next thing I noticed was its actually pretty dirty. For some
reason, when I thought of Rome, I pictured streets paved with gold and really
fashionable people eating gelato and pizza. But actually it’s not like
that haha. It is great though! Don’t get me wrong. Just dirtier then I expected. I really
didn’t get to see much of Rome, but in Ladispoli the fashion is definitely not
super hot hahaha. Sometimes it makes me giggle. a lot of the time
it makes me giggle. Also it smells bad. Either like BO or people
smoking or something like that. I’m also used to that already.
It’s also beeeeautiful here. The
apartment buildings look cool and the ocean is pretty. The people are
wonderful. sooooo wonderful. Italians speak Italian sooooooo pretty.
ahhhh I love it. The sound of them speaking is just the best.
There aren’t a ton of real Italians here though. Lots of them are
from different countries. It’s really diverse, which is cool.
Our church building is in the basement
of an apartment thing. hmmm I’ll take a pic next week, it’s hard to
describe. It’s actually really nice! AND there is AC in it.
But the people hate AC so it’s kinda funny. Ya anyway, the church
building is really nice and it’s only 2 minutes from our apartment so that’s
fantastic. The ward here is AWESOME TIMES 1,000. The people are
great. A lot of them speak English because Ladispoli is where the church
has their translation center for Italian. hehe so a member of our ward is the
voice of Thomas S. Monson (so pretty much the prophet is in our ward) and other
people are voices for the rest of the apostles and such. So my first Sunday I
spoke English with a couple of them and that felt good. I actually can
understand a lot of Italian. Speaking is tough too! Especially when
they ask me direct questions. It’s hard to answer them because I’m never
100% sure that they asked what I think they asked. So ya, I’ve been quiet
a lot lately. It’s a new thing for me. bleh. The ward is great and
our bishop is awesome.
Yesterday I had my first two baptisms!
hahahahha ya I didn’t do anything to get them but yesterday two 9
year old twins from the ward from a part member family got baptized. It was stupendous. We taught them a
lesson on Saturday and it was way fun. I love the gospel! We are
also teaching a girl named Dara who is 11, she is stupendous. She reads
the Book of Mormon and prays every night and she understands like everything
she reads. She wants to get baptized but her mom is not sure about it. We
have a couple of other investigators as well.
I loooooovee that I get to talk about
Christ all day every day!
We teach English course on Tuesdays
and Thursdays. It’s really fun. It’s a great way to talk to people
too. They get to know us before we talk about religion, so it’s nice.
They know we aren’t weirdoos. When we talk to people on the street
we say, “We have a free English class! Do you want to come?” It is a good way
to start conversations.
The food is super good! We don’t
eat with members that often so we normally cook in our apartment. My comp is a stellar cook. So I normally
do dishes and she cooks. It’s a
fantastic trade. We have pasta. Also
I’m sending a pic of something else we ate, tomatoes and motzerella. It
was soooo good and made me feel very Italian. I had a pizza from a shop.
holy shamooollieee it was the best thing EVER. I want one right
now. mmmmhhhmmmm it was so good. We are getting my first real gelato
tonight. So that’s exciting.
Alright. I’m not sure what I’m
missing. Let me just tell you that I love being here. I am so
happy. Italy is the best. I love the
culture and the people. It is definitely different than the United States for
sure. BUT it’s wonderful. I’m thankful to be here telling people
about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Even if I can’t say a lot, I can say, "I
know Jesus Christ loves you and knows your name." And for someone to
know that, that didn’t before, makes all the sacrifices to be here worth
it. I know that this is where I am supposed to be. And I am soooo
excited to get to work!!! I love you all times 100000000000, thank you
for your prayers and help to get me here. I can’t wait for what’s to come!
Voi voglio bene,
Love,
Sorella Brunson
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