When In Rome....

It’s the NEW YEAR!!!!!!! I get to spend the entire year in Italy.  How am I so lucky? whoop.       Monday 1-5-15

I hope everyone had a good new year. It probably wasn’t as good as mine but hopefully still good.

This week some good stuff happened. 

I ran a 10K!  Woah.  Hahahah  I’m not sure how I actually did it.  But it happened.  I ran it with Sorella Henson.  Sorella Barona went on a scambi with some other sisters.  It was beeeautiful.  It was crazy to run the streets of Rome.  Literally once in a lifetime opportunity.  And we wore shirts that said, "Sono Mormone" on them so that was cool!  Lots of people looked at them.  It was one of the funnest things ever.  I’m emailing Tyler a funny story about it.  I didn’t want to send it out in the main email but it’s available upon request.  We ran the race in an hour and eight minutes so not bad.

 New Year’s Eve in Italy is kinda crazy.  We were in the house by six (to be safe) so we had a yummy Peruvian dinner from Sorella Barona and played Phase 10.  We were SUPER tired from the race so we went to bed at like 10 on New Year’s Eve but we woke up at 12 to everyone’s fireworks.  Here in Italy ANYONE can buy fireworks at any age.  You just go to a Chinese store and they give them to you.  It’s pretty nuttso.  People just throw them all over the place and off their balconies and crazziness like that.  I’m glad we have laws in America.  So we watched some fireworks for a sec and hopped into bed again.  It was great!

The day after New Year’s we cleaned all day long.  IT WAS A DREAM COME TRUE!!!! There was soooo much junk in our apartment.  I tell people as a joke sometimes that Heavenly Father sent me on a mission just so that I could clean mission apartments.  Cause seriously it’s like, "Did you ever learn how to clean when you were a child?!?!"  There was some serious dirt and grime.  But we got it all cleaned and organized.  I am one happy missionary. 

I was also sick.  bleeeh.   A cold.  I got better though.  I took some Nyquil one night and then started getting ready for bed and all the sudden I just felt soooo weird.  I was laughing for no reason and just like dizzy and weirddddd.  I went to my bed and just passed out for the entire night. 

Good news, on the 6th there is a holiday and then FINALLY le feste are over.  Italians celebrate holidays for literally like 4 weeks.  These people know how to party.  I’m excited for missionary work to be back to normal again.  This week should be really really good.

This week we had a lesson with Ida and Vescavo.  It went really good.  We sang Sono un figlio di Dio and talked about how we are all children of God.  It was simple but the Spirit was super strong.  Piano piano with Ida.  I love the woman but she’s a toughie!  We want to teach her 11 year old son too so we are going to work on that this week. 

Also we had a lesson with the Podivani family!   We met the dad of the family finally and he is interested in the church! woahhhhhh.  They are a really cool family, but super  busy.  They remind me a lot of Americans actually.  The dad is a doctor and works ALL THE TIME.  It’s crazy.  They have a super cute family though. 

I love my companions!  It’s fun being in a trio actually.  We have been laughing a lot and working hard.  Sorella Barona is the sweetest girl to walk the planet, and Sorella Henson loves to laugh and is reallly ready to work all the time.  It’s grand. 

Funny story of the week.  Last pday we got on a train and there wasn’t a ton of space so I was like "permeso" and asked to sit by all these really big looking dudes.  They looked at me like I was crazy and then I realized they were American so I was like "can I sit here" (haha I almost forgot how to say "permesso" in English.)  But I sat down and started talking to them and I was like "so, are you guys on a cruise....?"  Let me describe them. They were short, really big, and had shaved heads.  They weren’t on a CRUISE.  They were OVBIOUSLY in the military.  sigh.  Sometimes I am just a crazy person. hahahah. They were like "uhhh you can kinda say we are on a cruise.....a really bad one with terrible food and no space" ughhh I felt so silly.  They were cool though and one of them told me he had Mormon friends growing up.

So..make sure you all make News Year’s resolutions!  I want to start doing a "Thank you shout-out" in my emails every week.  And this week it goes to....Sister Mickelsen and Sister Baer!!!  When I was a beehive they taught me how to set goals.  I was a little resistant haha but now I totally understand how important goals are!!!! So I’m thankful for them!  Set goals.  When we set goals, we get stuff done. 

I’m thankful to be here.  I love this country and I love these people.  I know that Heavenly Father loves us.  We are children of God.  If you don’t know that, pray and ask.  If you know someone that doesn’t know that...please help them find out!!!!!!!!!!  That’s my challenge this week.  Make a New Year’s resolution and ask Heavenly Father if He really is there.  Because He is.  

I love you all!

Vi voglio bene!

ASSAI!

Sorella Brunson