When In Rome....

Monday, November 2, 2015

Wowzers this week was a doozey.

Let’s start off with the fact that Messina didn’t have water all week!  Like, the entire city.  Ok not the entire city but close.  Let me explain.

Deep in the mountains of Italia, a tube broke, the water tube, which supplies water to about 75% of the city.  They worked on fixing it quickly....but Italian construction isn’t really known for being quick (#romeitalytemple) so it took them ALL WEEK to fix the water.  So 75% of the city was without water for an entire week.  hahahahha. It was one stinky city.  I’m just kidding. sort of.  LUCKILY we are in the 25% of people that get their water from a different pipe and we also have a huge water tank emergency supply of water so we were good on water.  So were the anziani but man it was super crazy.  There were places set up all over the city where people could go and fill up huge buckets of water so they could take showers and cook and stuff.  Even restaurants didn’t have water!  It was nuttso.  Because of this issue some sad things happened including...

OUR HALLOWEEN PARTY GETTING CANCELED. So sad.  But they told us we couldn’t do it because the church didn’t have water. super duper sad. We had everything planned out and all these super fun games and everything.  So that was a little sad but to make up for it we are going to have a ROCKING Thanksgiving party.  It’s gonna be really rad.  

Also we only had one hour of church. soooo weird.  I don’t think I’ve ever only had one hour of church before.  It was so short!  Now I know what normal people feel like that have an hour of church. Che strano. 

Also a lot of people told us we couldn’t come visit them because they hadn’t showered in a week....hahahhahah that’s the weirdest thing ever huh?  BUT don’t worry because even with this crazy water stuff we still had a stellar week. 

The anziani’s investigators got baptized this week!  In the sea!  It was so sweet.  I’ll send some rad pics.  It was pouring rain but the sun came out for the baptism and it wasn’t even cold or anything.  Joesph and Kelvin have some awesome testimonies of the gospel.  They bore their testimonies in church on Sunday after they received the Holy Ghost and it was way way awesome!  All the members were feeling the spirit so much and it was the best.  

Also we got to eat this African dish called fufu with them on Monday.  Grandma and Grandpa did you ever eat it when you were in England?  They make a really spicy sauce with chicken, and then you dip some dough in it and swallow the dough whole.  I’ll send a video.  It’s really cool.  Anyway Joesph and Kelvin are super awesome and it was a great experience to see them get baptized. 

Tuesday we got to meet with an AWESOME English course student who has a ton of faith and is way way sweet.  She is a new investigator and we are pumped.  At English course we did this cool spiritual thought this week.  We wrote our schedule up on the board.  Like how we get up at 6:30 and all the stuff we do all day.  And everyone was like, "WOAH, this is nuts, why would you young ragazzi (teenagers) want to do this?"  So we got to explain how important our message is and that we LOVE being missionaries.  It was cool. 

We successfully picked up my permesso.  And we only waited three hours this time!  BECAUSE we made a friend with this guy there so he made sure they took care of us.  So now I’m done with that and I just have to wait to pick it up. 

We saw a lady this week that is less active because she lives really far away.  She is Russian.  I think I’ve talked about her before.  She lived during the time of Vladimir in Russia. This lady is such a good example to us!  She is here, far away from her home, and she is married to an Italian but he doesn’t treat her well at all and she is more like his servant than his wife.  You would think she would have every reason to feel sorry for herself but she said, "better to be here, have food to eat, and be able to send money to my family.  I am happy."  The people I’ve met in the mission are just incredible.  

Another incredible person we visited this week is a member who has been a member for a long time.  She has been in the hospital and is finally feeling better so the Relief Society president asked us to go with her to see her and share a spiritual thought.  This woman was BEAMING with faith, even through this hard time.  I thought to myself, "this is what enduring to the end looks like." She is a wonderful person.  I feel the same way about our ward mission leader here.  He is 80 years old, a counselor in the bishopric and does SO MUCH for us and the church here.  He refuses to slow down.  He is an example of enduring to the end. 

One of the best parts of this week happened on Monday & Thursday.  On Monday we got a bidone and our backup plans all fell through.  So we were like, what are we gonna do?  We shot some ideas around but couldn’t think of anything.  Finally we were like, "alright, let’s just pray."  So we said a prayer and asked what we should do for the rest of our time that night.  Sorella Embley said, "I think we should call Stefania” (a sweet referral we received but haven’t been able to get ahold of for three weeks).  So we called Stefania.  It rang, it rang, it rang....NO ANSWER.  We started getting ready to go visit a member when BOOM.  Our phone rings.  I looked...ITS STEFANIA!  I answered and was able to set up an appointment with her.

We saw Stefania, her mom, and her sister on Thursday.  It was so rad.  Stefania’s mom is a member of the church, who lives two hours away so she can’t come to church (and has had some other problems) but she has the strongest testimony still and has taught her children the principles of the gospel!  The mom was so happy to see us and called us angels (haha it’s so cute when people do that) then she said, "Stefania here told me she wants to be baptized, but I told her she has to take the lessons with you first."  YES!  The mom and the sister live far away, but Stefania lives in Messina because she is going to university here.  They are all coming to church this Sunday and we are seeing them again Thursday!  THEY ARE SO AWESOME.  It was such a blessing from Heavenly Father.  We taught the restoration and they loved it and said it just makes sense.  WHOO HOOOOOOOO. 

Also, for those of you who don’t know, I got a great referral this week from my Grandma Brunson.  One of her friends she served with in Korea is Italian and has a non-member sister that lives in Messina!  SO AWESOME. She doesn’t live too far away but the buses to get out there go at the WORST times haha.  So we are totally going to go out there this week but we just have to plan it out well.  What an awesome, awesome thing.  We are so excited for the opportunity and will let you all know how it goes.  

The last cool thing that happened this week is actually a miracle that came from the lack of water in Messina.  Since we didn’t have a party we had a bunch of brownies we had made (yes mom, they were a little bit better this time) and we didn’t know what to do with them.  We decided to take some to Giulia’s mom.  Giulia is the one in Korea that visited my friend Courtney.  ANYWAY Giulia has told us her mom doesn’t really like the church.  We were able to meet her mom before Giulia left for Korea and she was really nice (it was the first time her mom had met sorelle).  Giulia is still in Korea and we dropped by and her mom happened to see us outside of the window and let us in right away!  We came in and she was so thankful for the brownies and we had a wonderful conversation with her about the church and she told us that she respects us and respects Giulia if she wants to come to church with us and take the lessons.  It was such a miracle!  There is no doubt in my mind now that if Giulia wants to be baptized, her mom will tell her that she can.  How cool.  

Well you guys, this is pretty long. Sorry. This week was so awesome.  We saw so many miracles and are just feeling overwhelmed with the blessings of Heavenly Father.  He really does lead His work here.  If there isn’t water in Messina WHO CARES.  Everything works out because He is in charge.  Oh how I love this crazy, crazy city.  Speaking of this...transfer calls are this week.  How did that happen?  The time goes so quickly.  Saturday I’ll find out if I stay or go.  I love Messina!!  I don’t really want to leave but if I stay it will only be for 4 weeks and then it will be transfer time again because of Christmas.  After that it will be my last 8 week transfer.  8 weeks is not enough time to be in one place!  So I might leave but you all know that I’m never right so we will see.  Man I love Messina.  You guys, every city I’ve served in has been the BEST.  I’m so blessed.  

The church is true!  I know it!  I hope you all had a fantastic Halloween.  Up next....Thanksgiving!!!!  

VI VOGLIO BENE ASSAI!!!!

Sorella Brunson