When In Rome....

Ciaoisimoooooo                                                                                   Monday, January 26, 2015

Sono Sorella Brunson.

Per questo email, parlo solo in Italiano. 

Just kidding.  But there is UN SACCO di Italian swimming in my brain. So just prepare yourself.

Here I am, in the beautiful city of Cagliari!  WHOO HOO.  It’s beautiful here.  Much bigger than Ladispoli, and much better looking as well.  I haven’t been to the beach yet, which is what this Island is famous for, so I’m excited to check that out.

Sorella Mazzerela is super, super cute.  We are having a good time.  It’s A LOT of work to get to know a new city.  My brain is swimming with everyone’s names and Italian and just craziness.  And plus also I’m in charge, which is NUTS haha. But I love it!  It’s exciting to get to know some new people.  They are all wonderful.  I will be able to tell you more about the people next week probs.

I guess I’ll tell you about my journey here.  I slept in Rome with Sorella Barona at the Sorelles house there.  Then in the morning a senior couple picked up me and Aniziano Nomelini.  We went to the airport and hopped on our plane!  It was literally like a 50 minute flight.  super chill.  The anziani were at the airport to pick me up with their car! and my new comp was also there.  So that’s how it worked out!

Saying goodbye to everyone in Ladispoli wasn’t super fun.  It’s weird to just be like "ok ciao" and then hand over the reins to someone else but Sorella Barona is stellar so I know it’s all in good hands. Random side note. This week before transfers, I ate this stuff called Mozzarella di Buff......its Mozzarella made from Buffalo milk.  I literally have never thought about Buffalos being milkable....but anyway yay it was THE BEST THING EVER.  Sorella Barona brought it back from Napoli for Anziano Kunz who then gave me some. It was sooooo gooooood.

My district in Sardegna includes Cagliari and Oristano.  There are 2 sorelle and 2 aniziani here in Cagliari.  I’m not sure how many missionaries are in Oristano.  My zone includes another city, Sassari.  SORELLA WINEAGER from my MTC district is in Sassari so I’m totally stoked about that!  I think there is another city in our zone as well....ahhh as you can tell I’m really not sure.  I DO KNOW that I am in a city named Cagliari, and on an island called Sardegna and it is really pretty!  (note from DaLene:  There are four cities in Katie’s Zone:  Cagliari, Oristano, Sassari and Olbia.  Each city has its own church building for a total of 4 churches on the Island of Sardinia.  For an interesting article on the first church building in Sardinia go to Katie’s blog.) 

The church here actually looks like a real-life Mormon church, for reals!  It’s sooo werid.  It has the steeple and everything. It even has its own real life parking lot. It pretty much blew my mind when I saw it haha.  

 

So guess who the first person I saw in my new ward this Sunday?  A member from Ladispoli! haha Presidente Dinichachi and his wife.  It was SO GREAT to see them.

 

The plan of the stake is to double the number of members here in the next 5 years.  That would literally be sooo cool.  They have this awesome stake plan that they gave out and talked about this Sunday!  I’ll send pics of it next week.  Really really cool.

My apartment here is SO MUCH BETTER THAN LADISPOLI.  This is what it has:

-heat

-my own bathroom

-hot shower water

-a flushing toilet

-NO MOLD OR DEAD BIRDS OR MAGGOTS

-huge places to put your clothes

-I have two beds smooshed together to make one big queen sized bed, all to myself. 

It’s sooo stupendous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The only bummer with this whole thing was that I could only take one suitcase onto the island...One suitcase and a carry on.  So it was craaazy trying to pack.  But I did a good job and got all the stuff here that I need.  The rest is in my other suitcase at the mission office.

Ok, cool story and then I’m gonna go.

Last night we were finding.  We ended up going to the pier.  We found this lady sitting on a bench and we asked her if she thought that God responds to prayers.  She gave this crazy awesome answer.  We ended up telling her about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith.  We even read from the Book of Mormon together.  It was sooo great!  I have NEVER had a conversation like that with someone on the street.  We got her number and hope to teach her soon!  Patrizia.  What a DREAM.  It was super, super awesome and a huge blessing. The Spirit was really, really strong. 

Missions are hard, but they are sooooo so good.  Being able to testify of the Book of Mormon Is fantastic.  ahhhhh I LOVE THIS PLACE.

I hope everyone has a great week.

Birthday shout out: Grandpa Ottley!

Thank you shout out: Brother Paul and Brother Black, my awesome seminary teachers. 

Thanks for the prayers and support!  Couldn’t do it without you.

VI VOGLIO BENEEEEEEEE

Sorella Brunson

PS Last week while I was still in Ladispoli, we were paying for our internet at the internet point and waiting in line.  The guy in front of us just looked back at us, smiled, and then let a huuuuge fart rip!  Like, WHAT THE HECK!!! It smelled terrible.  Then he just started cracking up, and walked out of the room.  Persecution by fart everyone. It’s a real life thing.