When In Rome....

Hello!                                                                                                                            October 27, 2014

Apparently it’s already Monday again?  How in the world did that happen?  This week was TRANSFER CALLS!!!! AHHHHHHH.  They are sending me to the Portland, Oregon mission because they need more missionaries there. Just kidding.  Sorella Marquis and I are staying together and we have decided we are going to baptize some people this transfer. So that should be fun.  Sorella Marquis is dying after this transfer, which means she’s going home.  Ahhh so sad.  We are having a blast. This week was super great!

This week we taught lessons.  And we talked to lots of people, as usual haha.  I wish I could write you a thirty page email with descriptions of every lesson we teach and how I feel when we teach them.  Just know that I feel the Spirit EVERY DAY!  It’s crazy.  I love being able to bring people closer to Christ.  All of our investigators are great.  There were two highlights this week that stood out to me.

1) We had a lesson with Anna and Paola.  We talked about prayer and then watched the first vision movie about Joseph Smith.  We were sitting in a little room in the small church in Italy but the Spirit was so strong.  It filled that little room to the brim.  They really loved the lesson and are progressing well. 

Which brings me to number 2

2) During the lesson Anna and Paola brought up how they really wanted to come to church this week.  But as happens a little too often, they texted us Sunday morning and said they couldn’t make it.  BUT never fear, the Lord is on our side.  Right before sacrament meeting someone said, "Sorelle."  We turned our head and THERE WAS ANNA!!  SHE CAME!  haha I was so excited.  Gosh my heart was so happy. 

This week an eternal investigator got baptized finally!  YAY!  But as with all baptisms, there was a shopro.  Idk how to spell that.  It’s not spelled right but what it means is the Italian train workers decide they don’t want to work that day.  So the trains and metros don’t run.  haha it’s RIDICULOUS.  And there is ALWAYS one when there is a baptism.  So we had to get a ride to Rome for the baptisms.  Shoepros are from Satan.  

We had a GREAT English course this week.  There were 30 people there.  Lemme tell you, that’s a lot.  So that was exciting.

Let’s talk about CEREAL. 

1) Tutti frutti is Italian!  It means "all fruits" WHAT?!?!! 

2) There is a cereal here called Master Crumble.  It is the best thing I have ever eaten in my life.  It’s almost on Fruity Dinobite level, and that’s saying something.  I almost cried while I was eating it.  No lie. 

BTW I ate 900 calories of gummy bears this week.  I didn’t mean to!!! I just bought a bag and didn’t realize they were jumbo gummy bears with lots of calories. hahhaha it was BADNEWS bears. But never fear.  I did a good workout this morning......Also I ate some black licorice.  And that stuff is NASTY here.  ugh I’m gagging thinking about it.  But it came in a cool tin with two dwarfs cutting a licorice log with a licorice saw so it was worth it.  

Ok so everyone’s probably wondering about Halloween here.  They do have it.  It’s a little different though because the kids pretty much are only witches or devils.  They don’t do anything else. They have another holiday where they dress up as whatever they want called Carnival I think.  So Halloween isn’t huge.  They don’t trick or treat either.  I think people just have parties. I’m not exactly sure.  For Halloween we might go to a member’s house and eat actually.  If not, we have some pumpkins to carve and we are going to eat tacos.  haha.  I MISS CANDY CORN.  That is totally not a thing here.  I’ll try to send some Halloween pics next week.  

Ohhhh the best thing ever happened.  So we are allowed to listen to lots of different music as long as it invites the Spirit but obviously I only brought church music because I didn’t know what would be allowed.  So I was sad because we are allowed to listen to Jack Johnson and stuff as long as it isn’t about love.  But this week I was looking on the USB I brought from home to put some pics on and GUESS WHAT?!?! (chicken butt) and ALSO I HAD MUSIC ON THAT THING.  JACK JOHNSON!   I don’t know how music got on it but I’m stoked out of my mind.  Yay yay yay. 

I can’t believe it’s already DISTRICTS FOR AMANDA.  Where in the lanta has all the time gone?!?! I don’t understand life.  I hope she does well.  I can’t wait to hear about it.  I loved all the pics you all sent.  They are fantastic.  It sounds like you had so much fun watching the BYU game.  Gosh that’s a bummer about Hill.  He was a rockstar.  I’m actually kind of glad I wasn’t there to see it haha.  Mom, I’m glad you walked in on a banana sale.  That’s awesome.  Don’t quote me on this after my mission, but I think I might actually like shopping. It’s been kinda fun to dress myself and stuff lately.  And I kinda have been liking doing my makeup.  I don’t know what is happening to me!!!!!!!!!!! hahaha.  Mom.  You need to wear scarfs.  They keep you waay warmer.  The cold hit us this week.  It’s not too bad but with a scarf everything is FANTASTIC.  Tell Tyler to work hard on those essays for BYU.  Kevin seems great.  It’s weird that he is doing homework haha.  I’m happy about Emma’s baptism.  I am sending her a card in the mail (don’t tell her) and it’s really cute.  My comp told me how to make envelopes so they are cute cute cute.  I’m glad Tyler went bowling with girls.  haha. I would rather die than be a choir director.  ù

Now on to your questions. 

Spending money: Yes I’ve used the Schwab card.  I bought some scented water with it.  haha and also something else that I can’t remember.  oh ya the black licorice from heck and ALSO the best chocolate I have EVER had.  Mom you are gonna die when you taste it.  In a good way.  I get enough money from the mission.  I still have like 120 bucks left and there are only three days left in the month haha.  I still try to be frugal though because the left over money goes back to the church, which is good.  

Christmas things: This is SO MUCH PRESSURE.  haha.  Here are some things I thought of:  hot chocolate, cereal (in baggies) specifically:  Fruity Dinobites, Cocoa Dinobites, Cinnamon Toast Crunch.  Ummm... other things.  This is hard.  Ok also American candy.  NOT chocolate but candy.  Like bottlecaps and stuff of that sort.  Uh.  Goldfish.  I can give you more ideas next week.  But that’s what I have for now. If you have to send the package this week then just send those things and anything else that looks good.  haha. your homemade anything.  I don’t care if it gets stale.  Crumb bars I can put in the microwave.

Frizzy water seems pretty self-explanatory to me hahhaahh..It’s water that is frizzy...aka carbonated.  It’s GROSS.  Idk why I hate it.  But yeah.  My water filter is a joke haha.  I tried to use it and the water made my tummy hurt.  We just get water from the "water trailer" which has water for like 50 euro and you can get a bunch.  So we fill up big water bottles. The milk is kinda weird.  Milk and eggs aren’t really refrigerated at all so that’s kinda weird.   The milk tastes fine with cereal though and that’s really all that I use it for.   

Hmm.. maybe I call them small because in Italy you call people babies until they are like 10 years oldish.  So I was specifying that they are small babies, meaning actual American babies hhaha.  

We don’t eat with the ward members a lot.  But this week we ate pronzo with some of our investigators . They fed us sooo much.  It was so good. We had spaghetti, salad, bread and meat. haha Italians.  It was great. We cook yummy stuff.  Normally using tomatoes.  Pasta with tomatoes and mozzarella, rice with tomatoes and mozzarella, or cuscus which is the best thing every invented.  Always with olive oil because perche no?  Sorella Marquies recently taught me how to dice tomatoes. So that was awesome haha. I will learn how to cook from members more in the South.  The food is more traditional there.  Here is more like America. 

Mom your birthday is coming up.  How exciting.  Also last week an Italian said you look like a movie star.  And then they said that dad was handsome.  

Mom.  My neck has been hurting a little.  It might be my pillow?  It’s just really tight.  Any ideas?  It might be from my bag too.  

Mom.  PLEASE log onto my Facebook and accept Anna as a friend.  And any other Italian that has tried to add me.  haha she got mad at me this week.  She was like "I’m friends with Sorella Marquis but NOT YOU" hahaha. 

Sister Goates.  Thank you so much for your Greg Olsen pictures.  I gave one to our 12 year old investigator for her birthday and she loved it so much! 

Thank you to Kevin, Grandma Brunson and the Nicholls for their letters!!!!! It was FANTASTIC to get all those letters this week.  And the Nicholls halloweening cracked me up as usual.  

Kev I’ll writecha back soon! 

I love you all!  Keep doing awesome. 

Vi voglio bene,

Sorella Brunson