When In Rome....

Monday, August 17, 2015

Fish, the Madonna, free tours, miracles and a Whole lot of AMORE…

Some weeks in the mission are just crazy. This was one of those weeks.

First off I’ll start back at LAST PDAY.  Sorry for the super lame email I sent out last week.  I’m a tad bit ashamed of it but we had to do email supa supa fast ‘cause we went to the coolest place ever called Taromina!!!!!!

So yeah we went to Taromina with this less active lady that can’t come to Church because she cares for an old person and pretty much can’t leave her side unless her teenage daughter is there.  BUT she wanted a vacation so we took her to this place!  The only problem was we had never been there before...so we had NO idea what we were doing.  We just kinda got on the train....everyone told us it was close and easy.  It was pretty close but NOT pretty easy.  We were on the train and this random Italian man with Einstein hair who was getting off at our same stop was like, "hey! We gotta get off here and catch a bus!" so I was like..."FOLLOW EINSTIEN!" We start sprinting off the train behind this old Italian man to catch the bus, but we missed it so we were gonna have to wait for like 30 minutes for the next one.  We decided to grab a granite, ‘cause there’s nothing better to do when you’re waiting…and BOOM.  This guy who owns one of those super sweet tour buses came up to us and asked us who we were and what we were doing in Italy.  We told him and he looked at us and said, "alright, I’m giving you guys a free tour around the city." WHAT WHAT WHAT?!!! So we got to go on the coolest tour bus…the ones without windows and that have headphones that tell you the history of the places you’re seeing and that normally cost a million bucks.  It was so sick!  So we saw Taromina in style and it’s beeeaaaauuuutifull!!!  Everyone needs to take a trip there sometime in your life!  I’ll send pictures.  So yeah, that was Monday.

Tuesday morning we woke up and took a boat to Reggio Calabria which is on the mainland.  We went for DDM, which was great.  After the meeting we grabbed a gelato.  I chose a flavor that was seriously just frozen Nutella.  It was wayyy too chocolatey. Seriously mom, I think it would have been too much chocolate even for you. I gave it to Anziano Kelly who said, "you can never have too much Nutella."  By the end he was like, "alright alright, that was way too much Nutella." Then we took the boat back.  This mission is so cool.  On the way back there was a STORM and it was SO SWEET.  Tuesday night we had English course and I had a really cool experience which I’ll leave for the "spiritual part" at the end of my letter.

This week we had one the weirdest lesson ever.  We taught a mormon, buddist, and a roman catholic at the same time.  DID NOT plan it out like that but it happened.  Also we were teaching in English, Italian and the language of Sri Lanka, which I don’t speak.  Sometimes when I’m in Italy I wonder if I’m in Italy, or a melting plot of millions of countries mushed together.  I need to make a list of all the people I’ve met from different places around the world.  It’s crazy!

We visited a Sicilian hospital this week.  WHAT an experience.  I wouldn’t recommend hanging out at hospitals in Sicily. Ever.  There are people smoking...and homeless people begging.... I’m just gonna stop there.  The reason we went is because the cute, cute old lady who Namile and Kushan (members) take care of, fell and had to get hip surgery. Sad!  So we went to take her flowers and visit her. We call her Signorina.  She’s the cutest!  So we went to the hospital and yeah, like I said, it was crazy.  Signorina’s operation was delayed because the hospital didn’t have enough blood there!  Like WHAT?  I’m gonna stop telling Sicily hospital stories though because if I ever end up there now my mom is going to have five heart Attacks.  The Anziani gave Signorina a blessing and we asked everyone else in the room to be quiet for a second so we could give the blessing!  The spirit rushed into the room and everyone was listening and quiet!!! It was awesome.  The other people in the room were looking at as amazed.  They seemed to be saying, "What nice looking teenagers are friends with people from Sri Lanka and come to visit an old lady in the hospital?"  It was cool!

One night this week we ate at our investigator’s house.  We didn’t want to eat really, but you know....the Italian culture. So we ended up eating dinner.  I LOVE this investigator soooo much but she brings out this fish.  MAN ALIVE I love fish but that fish smelled soooo badddddd.  Ohh so so so so so bad.  It’s making me sick thinking of it. And she was like, "It smells bad, but don’t worry, its super good." I looked at her like, "yeah of course!" My companion hates fish and I knew they were going to make us eat it all.  So I buckled down and took a HUGE portion of this fish.  It was so so so so so so gross. so gross. Its making me sick to think about it actually.  It was like chewing cardboard with the flavor of cat pee and fish.  That night we got home and I was NOT doing very well.  My comp didn’t eat that much fish but she threw up.  The next morning when I was trying to get up to exercise I literally couldn’t.  I went back to sleep and was out for an hour.  I woke up and tried to do personal study, and fell asleep again!  I slept for like 7 HOURS in one day.  I was having some serious "fissues!"  We had to stay home for the day.  It was terrible.  I was sick as a dog. actually, as a fish. 

Saturday was a festa!  Which means we stay home and clean the house all day which is THE BEST.  It was so fun.  And then that night everyone in the city went to this huge festa to celebrate the Madonna (Mary).  IT WAS INSAANE.  I have pictures and videos to send to you guys.  Pretty much there is a really huge statue of Mary and all these buff guys pull the statue, attached by huge ropes, all over the city. Everyone watches Mary and then at the end there are fireworks and a huge party.  We didn’t stay for the party because it was too late and because...well we are missionaries but we watched the Madonna because it’s super famous.  We went with some less actives.  They said they used to, in the old days, let all of the prisoners out of the jail for one day so they could pull the statue.  How crazy.  It seriously blows my mind how deeply rooted the traditions and cultures are here.  Religion and culture are very, very mixed.  It’s very interesting to see.  Man that was a crazy night.

Saturday morning we got transfer calls!  Can you believe I’ve already been in Messina for six weeks?!?!  Sorella Embley and I are staying together YES! I’m so happy.  We are having so much fun and I love her so much.

To top of this crazy week, Sunday night we got caught in a huge rainstorm on our way home from an appointment and got soaked. 

Have I ever told you I love the mission?

Alright, now for the cool story and then I’m gonna peace out.  I’m sending an army of pictures home, be prepared!

Tuesday before English course we had made an appointment with a student to teach her about the gospel.  The missionaries had met with her before, but we felt we should try again because she is dating a member.  So we set up this appointment and we were waiting for her. She called us, out of breath not sounding good and said she would be late.  Halfway through English course she walked in.  We could tell she had been crying, and she kept silently bursting into tears.  Finally I called her out into the hall and asked her what was going on.  She started bawling and sobbing and told me all about her very very difficult family situation.  I threw my arms around her and cried with her.  I started comforting her and she asked me, "Where is God?"  At the moment I knew what I needed to say.  I testified to her that my companion and I are representatives of Jesus Christ, that although He isn’t here on the earth today, He has sent us as His representatives to help her in her time of need.  I really don’t get emotional often on the mission, but as I testified to her that Jesus Christ himself had sent me there to help her, I couldn’t help but cry quietly.  I felt the spirit so strongly.  She thanked me and we were able to have a lesson with her after English course and talk to her about God’s plan for us and how we can overcome hard times.  This is why I came on a mission.  I didn’t come to convert mass crowds of people.  I came to help the one.  I felt after that experience that if Heavenly Father wanted me to serve my WHOLE mission JUST to help that one woman, it would have been WORTH it.  The Whole year and a half of difficulties and learning a new language and being away from my family and friends, it was Worth it to help that one woman.  I testify that our Heavenly Father is concerned for the one.  The individual.  and He will help us in our time of need. 

I love love love this city and I love Italia.  I hope that we can all be a little better this week!   Thanks for all the love and prayers.

vi voglio bene ASSAI.

Sorella Brunson

PS on Sunday the Giorganni family came to Church! from LADISPOLI!!!! Their mom is in this ward.  It was so sweet!!!!! We are eating pranzo with them Wednesday.  We were so stoked to see each other. It was such a tender mercy.