When In Rome....

Monday, September 14, 2015

It’s not like I really need my left arm

Heeeyyy heyyyyyyy heyyyyyyyy. 

Come state? 

Shout out to the two Italians who were both in the finals of the US open.  That’s SSHEEEWEEEEETTT. 

This week went good.  Let me tell you some cool stuff. 

This week my greenie experienced her first crazy Italian rainstorm.  During September, October and November there are lots of crazy rainstorms.  It rained super hard here on Wednesday.  Mama mia.  It was fun though.  We ended up waiting for a bus for an hour and watching all these cars hydroplane through a huge puddle of water.  I think a great skill I’ve learned on the mission is making anything entertaining.  By the end of the day we were wet and happy.  Ci vuole a good rainstorm every once in a while.  During the rainstorm we went to see a less active we had never been to before.  She was SO CUTE and Russian.  She lived in Russia during Gorbachev.  She said she wasn’t allowed to read the Bible or anything religious.  Me loooooving history I was just soaking up all the information.  I’ve met the coolest people here!  Then on the way out of our appointment we had to run to catch the bus.  Before we left she just started shoving all this random food in our hands while we were running out the door, like nuts and mints and candies and raisins.  It’s gonna be weird when I go home and don’t have people do that anymore haha.

The sad thing of this week was saying goodbye to this super sweet member, Isuri!  She and her family left for Verona.  Her family will still live here but they took Isuri so that she could start school.  It was a bummer to say goodbye to her.  She’s such a fantastic person.  We miss her a ton already!

Giulia and Abigail were at church on Sunday!  Twas fantastic.  Giulia is so cute and seems like a member of the church already.  Her mom isn’t too stoked about the church so we will continue working on that.  Abigail is still working to her baptism date on the 3rd of October.  WHOO HOOO.  With Isuri gone it would be awesome for Abigail to be baptized because we need another young woman.

This week we got a bidone (set up an appointment and they don’t follow through).  We decided to go stop by and see if our other investigator was at home.  Every time we go see this other investigator we pass by the CUTEST old couple. They are like 90 years old and are always sitting together outside of their house.  We say hello to them every time that we pass by.  So as we were walking to see this other investigator we stopped to talk like always to this old couple.  They are always so excited to see us, but this time the wife was especially excited (we mainly talk to the wife because the husband pretty much only speaks Sicilian so we have NO idea what he is saying).  She invited us inside so we got to visit with her and talk about her life and say a prayer with her.  I have a firm testimony that Heavenly Father uses His missionaries to help not only those who are young, but always those who have been on earth a little bit longer.  He cares about ALL His children.  It was so fun to be used by Heavenly Father to brighten the smile of someone who doesn’t get a lot of visitors.  It only took about 20 min of our time but it affected her so positively.  I’m thankful that Heavenly Father uses us to do His work!  Whether it be baptizing someone, or helping an old couple feel happy.  PLUS their names are "grazia" and "santo" which mean "grace" and "saint". HOW CUTE.  

Ok, now for the funny story of this week.  We went to this appointment and there was this dog that was super crazy, like jumping all over me while I was sitting down. Bleh. It’s a puppy so its way of playing was gnawing on my arm with its teeth.  That’s NOT SUPER my idea of fun.... So we are sitting there and the whole time I’m trying to get out of range of this dog, pretty unsuccessfully I have to say.  We were having a really great, spiritual lesson and at the end the lady we were teaching said the prayer.  As she started saying this beautiful prayer, the dumb dog started barking because it wanted to "play" with me by gnawing on my arm.  I wanted this lady to have a good experience with the prayer (obviously) so what did I do? The only thing I could do.  I peeked my eye open, stared at that dumb dog, and then sacrificed my arm.  This lady said a wonderful, beautiful prayer and the whole time I had this dog gnawing on my arm and licking me to death.  You should have seen my face.  FINALLY the prayer was over and we left.  I think Italy is making me a dog person.  I mean if I can handle a puppy gnawing on my arm and licking me like a popsicle, I think I can do anything.  Mom, maybe if you serve a mission you too can come to enjoy dogs.  And cats.  hehe. 

We got a bunch of American candy this week from a member that has a daughter living in America. It was so weird to eat a three musketeer.  Those things are pretty dang good. 

I had a dream this week I was at home.  I walked outside and was with some random person walking down the street.  But instead of everyone speaking in Italian they were all speaking in English.  I was talking to the person I was with like, "why is everyone speaking English?" and I woke up and I was crying.  It was so weird.  Mission dreams are weird.

It was a good, busy week.  I’m so happy to be here! 

As for the spiritual thought, my companion and I are reading the Book of Mormon together this transfer.  In six weeks!  It’s kinda tough because it’s not like we just have eons of extra time to read haha. But it’s possible.  I LOVE the Book of Mormon.  OH MAN I love that book so much.  I wish people would just READ it.  They think it replaces the Bible but it totally just completes it, and helps us to understand what is in the Bible.  It’s such a blessing.  I know the Book of Mormon is true.  We really can see miracles and receive answers to our prayers as we read and ponder the things in the Book of Mormon.  I love it! 

Love you all.  Keep doing sweet things.

Sorella Brunson