When In Rome....

Salut                                                                                                     Monday, April 20, 2015

That’s hello in Romanian!   I have the coolest companion EVER and she speaks like 4,000 languages, seriously she speaks Russian, Ukranian, French, Italian, English, and Romanian.  AWESOME!  Sorella Vasilachi arrived this week and she's the best.  We've been having a blast.  She’s a super hard worker, speaks great Italian, loves to run, and is a great teacher.  Pretty much life is grand.  I have been taking notes like a mad woman and learning a million things. This weekend was super cool.  We taught some cool lessons, met some fantastic people, and had some great miracles.  MISSIONS ARE THE BEST!

Mom wanted to know some cultural things…here is one.  People here use these things called a bidet. They weird me out major.  You know, they are the toilet things...they look like a mix between a toilet and seat.  People use them instead of toilet paper.  Comunque, there is rule here in this country.  It’s called the, "use the highest towel rule" cioe, when you are washing your hands, look for the towel that’s the highest up, because the lower one is the one that they use for the bidet....like to wipe their bums.  This week, I was in a house of an investigator, and went to the bathroom.  After washing my hands I went to dry them and grabbed the towel and wiped them reeeal good.  Then I looked around.

I had used the lowest towel.  aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!  I dried my hands with the bum towel!!  I TOTALLY re-washed my hands like a million times and almost thew up.  Lesson learned.  ALWAYS use the highest towel.  NEVER use the towel to dry your hands that people use on their bums.  Ugh.

Anywayyyyssss so yeah, Sorella Mazz left on Wednesday so I was companions with Sorella Tapia, the BEST woman in the whole wide world.  It was way fun.  She cut my hair whoooooo hooooo.  We went to this cool gans activity (ysa).  I had to make a cake.  I’ve never baked so much in my life as I’ve had to on the mission.  It’s so much pressure! I even had to make pasta for all the people coming in for transfers. ahhhh.  It’s not only cooking and baking, but then a lot of people have to eat the stuff.  Its good "mom" practice, I guess.  Maybe I’ll find myself a husband after all. cmq Then on Thursday Sorella V arrived!  And also Anziano Poof.  Sorella V is the COOLEST EVER.  Like I said, we’ve been having fun and working hard and teaching cool people.  We found some super cool people on the street and I’m super excited about them.  yay!

Here’s a few more culture things....

-When Italians call each other on the phone, at the end of the conversation they always say, "ciao, ciao, ciao, arrivederci, ciao, ciao ciao…ciao," like a million times, instead of just saying "good-bye."  I’m going to come back to the US and when I’m hanging up the phone instead of saying "bye" I’m gonna say, "ok, good, see ya later, bye, bye ,bye, talk to you later, bye, bye ,bye." Prepare yourself for that.

-Italians are super blunt.  They tell you what they are thinking. I love it.

-Italians always have to touch you when they talk to you.  They will grab your hand, or something like that (mostly girls talking to me).  It’s totally helped my whole "personal space issues."  Personal space doesn’t really exist anymore.

Sardegna is a lot like Rome, culture-wise.  The people are very similar, except Sardegnas speak reeeally good Italian (in my opinion haha).  Sorella V wants to see cool stuff.  Today we are going to the beach, and then we want to see a castle and some beaches and stuff.  But there aren’t a lot of touristy stuff to do here except go shopping. You know how much I love that hahahah.

Miracle of the week!

There was more than one…but this one was the coolest!  CONSESOU CAME TO CHURCH!  for the first time in like 10 or 15 years!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She brought her 4 year old and her tiny little baby.  AHH. It was so cool to see her in church.  She’s the funniest, coolest lady ever.  It made my heart happy.  ALSO we are teaching Bettys two daughters, Gaia and Valentina.  I think they could both TOTALLY get baptized and Betty is totally coming back to church. THEY ARE SO COOL!  Missionary work is awesome.  I never want to leave this city. I love it.

NOTICE: I won’t be able to write next Monday because WE ARE FLYING TO ROME. No cruise this time. We are flying to Rome on Monday and then staying in a hotel with 80 missionaries on Monday night.  Then Tuesday is the conference with Elder Bednar and a bunch of other cool people!  I’m going to see an apostle AND see ALL THE MISSIONARIES IN THE MISSION. I’M SO EXCITED!

Life is great. Italian cibo is good.  The church is true.

Have a greeeeatttt week everyone!

Don’t forget to pray.

Love, Sorella Brunson