Read about Katie's adventures as a missionary
for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!

Monday, January 12, 2015

                                                                                                                        Monday, January 12, 2015
Hello. 
Wow.
This week…

Alrighty, I’m gonna tell you the story mom, slash everyone else.  But you can’t freak out, ok? Cause ITS ALL GOOD. 

Ok...so remember those....maggots on our ceiling?  Here is what happened. 
I was debating not even telling you about this but like...I already told you about the maggots and it’s a sweeeeet story so whatever. 

So, as you know, we finally got heat in our bedroom, which was great.  However, a couple of days after, we noticed these weird things hanging on our ceiling....like in cocoons kind of but really small (the maggots).  
We had a member look at them (Rob Squarcia) but he had no idea what they were.  
So I vacuumed them right up.  However....3 days later, they came back.  I then recalled something that Sorella Marquis told me....she told me that during the summer she had heard birds, flapping around in our chimney. 

Ok pause.   We have a chimney in our bedroom, but it’s sealed up from the bottom.  And by sealed up I mean someone took a board and two screws and put it overtop the chimney.  So our chimney is open at the top outside, but closed at the bottom in our bedroom.  It’s not closed very well though...so there is space for little things to come out of it....Anyway, I remembered Marquis had told me about those birds she had heard. And then....I got this terrible, terrible, terrible hunch......that maybe possibly probably....the maggots were coming from the chimney...and there was a dead bird in there. 

On Tuesday we made the decision the chimney needed to be opened.  So the Anziani opened it up...revealing....
20 dead pigeons and a whole ton of maggots.   I will send a picture.  It was DISGUSTING.  They opened it and realized that an exterminator was definitely needed.  Ohhhh my gosssh you guys, seriously 20 dead pigeon skeletons. ahhhhhh. so gross. hahahhaha 

We have been sleeping in the Sorelle apartment which is closest to us in Ostia.  It’s 2 hours away by train.  
I took everything out of the bedroom so nothing is ruined or anything like that.  But we still can’t sleep in our bedroom.  Midway through this week the assistants gave us a CAR so we have been driving back and forth from Ladispoli and Ostia every day (which takes about 40 min. much better than by train).   

DON'T WORRY EVERYONE.  Sorella Barona is driving, not me.  You can all start breathing again!  Did you know parking in Italy is THE WORST? Driving is actually fine, but finding a place to park is TERRIBLE. After 20 min of looking the other night I was like, guys, we just gotta pray.  Then we found a spot like literally 10 seconds later. hahha but yeah parking stinks here.  I miss driveways!!!!!!!!

So that’s our lives at the moment.  Driving back and forth, and not having a bedroom hahaha.  It’s really really crazy.  We are still working on figuring the whole situation out.  The exterminators came and removed the pigeons but there is some other stuff that needs to be done with the house, such as sealing up the top of the chimney.  So yeah.  Don’t worry mom cause I’m totally safe.  They told us that nothing should have been harmful to our health or anything like that.  It’s all getting worked out, President knows all about it and everything is ALL GOOD. So don’t worry ok?  But seriously you guys, it was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen.  The exterminators walked in and took off the board in front of our chimney.  Then when they saw what was inside they were like, "I’ve literally never seen anything like this."  Then they took out their PHONES and started taking PICTURES. hahah cray crazy cray.  It’s amazing the things that happen to you in your mission.  We’ve made some HILARIOUS maggot and pigeon jokes this week. It’s been the best.  We ate pranzo together for DDM and literally we were DYING laughing the entire time.  Ok, enough of that story.  Please don’t stress mom ok?!?   

In other news NOT about bugs or birds of any kind...
We have a new investigator!!! Anziano Kunz found her for us.  Her name is Gloria and she is 22.  She is really really really ready for the gospel.  We are so excited!!!!!!!!!!!  She’s the funniest person ever, super bubbly and kind.  We can’t wait to teach her this week.

Funny story....This week in a lesson with Ida we were talking about getting baptized in the ocean.  I meant to say "inverno" which means winter...but I said "inferno" which means Hell.   So I said, "yeah, except you can’t get baptized there while we are in HELL!" hahhaa we all starting cracking up.  It was way funny.  Speaking of Ida, she still can’t be baptized but she’s meeting with us every week.  And we kind of taught her son this week.  Piano piano.  

Also before we got the car we did a lot of Metro riding slash train riding.  So we had a lot of good gospel conversations.  It’s so nice to be able to have a conversation with someone and understand 80 percent of what they are saying and be able to respond!  It’s really, really cool.  We found some people on the metro and got some numbers and gave away some Book of Mormons, so that was awesome.  

 Someone on the metro told us this week that we are wasting our time.  He was speaking to us in English.  He literally came up to Sorella Henson and said "You are wasting your time."  Sorella Henson was kind to the man and didn’t argue with him.  This is what I think about the whole thing.....

Please believe me when I say I AM NOT wasting my time in this country.  If you think that I am, then you do NOT understand Heavenly Father and you do not understand the love that He has for His children.  Heavenly Father loves all of His children.  And any way we can bring them closer to Him is a victory.  I am thankful that I am not wasting my time here.  I am thankful that I can try to do my part to help those around me.  I am thankful to know that I am a child of God.  Regardless of maggots, dead pigeons, or whatever else comes my way in this country, life is soooo good.  Because we are children of God with divine potential!!  And life is good-great-greater-than-great.  

Thank you shout out: Thank you to my third grandparents, the Nichols family from 8th ward.  I have told all of my companions about our peanut butter and syrup parties.  I miss you both!!! 

Have a great week everyone!  Do something good. 
Vi voglio bene ASSAI!!!
Sorella Brunson  


         


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