It's a New Year!
YES. Wanna know something cool? I spent all of 2015 in Italy. Man that year flew by. And also went really slow. But it was so sweet. So yah this week we rolled in the New Year. As missionaries Christmas is SO FUN but New Year’s...not as much. We go to sleep at 10:30 (and honestly I went to bed early on New Year's Eve) so that's the only holiday that's kind of lame as a missionary. But it's all good because we had a dinner with the less active that lives right above us which was so fun.
This week started out crazy. I was in Foggia to help Sorella Kennedy get ready to go to Rome and then Sorella Peterson and I cleaned the entire house there. After that we went to centro to buy some tights for Sorella Peterson. That would have been a simple task except the Sorelle in Foggia have bikes and my back tire went flat like 5 minutes into our ride. It was so hard to pedal and I was breathing so loud. I could only laugh because after the crazy week I had I got a flat tire to top it all off. Anyway, I said goodbye to my companion and left Foggia, and then started life in a trio...for the THIRD time. But it's actually going really well and I'm super happy.
This week included a lot of figuring stuff out...taking care of the whole city of Bari isn't super easy. (I used to cover half the city but now I cover the whole thing.) It takes a lot of good planning. Good thing my mom taught me how to be a master planner. I'll just tell you guys some cool things that happened...
Sometimes in the mission you get lost. You're never SUPER lost but lost enough. This week we got on the wrong bus and ended up in the middle of nowhere. We asked the bus driver and he said we would eventually get where we needed to go but to sit down because it was going to be a while. We took the most random route ever. FINALLY we arrived at our destination only to figure out that it was closed for the night. We laughed it off and we're waiting at the bus stop. Sorella Taylor was like, "Sorella Brunson, go talk to the kid over there." So I went over to talk to him and he was like, "Sorelle, I'm a Mormon!" He is a kid who doesn't come to church anymore. He's actually the nephew of our bishop. We talked to him and had a great conversation. I know that doesn't seem too big, but let me tell you, we were in the most RANDOM place ever. It's amazing how as missionaries, even if we accidentally do dumb things like taking the wrong bus, God turns it into a miracle.
We got to see the Riccis again this week. It was awesome! We just stopped by and they invited us to pranzo again this week. While we were there Sorella Ricci told us this crazy story. I honestly don't know if this is true but she said she saw it on the Bari news. So there was a guy selling fish on the street and he got news that the health code people (can't remember how to say that in English) were going to come. He had some eels that he shouldn't have had, so he threw them into the pipes. Well apparently these eels ended up going through the city pipes, into someone’s house and ended up in a toilet. This guy was going to the bathroom at the time the eel popped up and....well you can imagine what happened. Who knows if this is true but it's pretty funny if it is. Hahaha. Let me know if you look it up and can find anything about it.
We received some wine this week as a New Year’s gift. Don't know what else to say about that except that it was pretty funny to have wine sitting on our counter.
For New Year's Eve we had a huge dinner with our meno attiva that lives right above us. It was so fun and she is so sweet!!!!!!!!! I love her. She hates cooking but she wanted to make us pasta and salmon and it was so cute. Then we went to bed and woke up to atomic bombs outside our window. I'll send videos. Man it's sooooo crazy I'm Italy. Just in Bari alone 2 people lost hands from setting off fireworks. Everything is legal here. It's CRAZY.
New Year's Day was cleaning day. So fun! I loved every second and we got,our house looking super good. All of us love cleaning so our house is so clean. It is wonderful. That night we went looking for a new mop but everything was closed except a gelato place so we got that instead. Life of an Italian missionary. Also New Year's Day we had a lunch with some members and it was so good! Best fish I have ever eaten. Melted in your mouth. It was like eating fish butter. Sounds gross but it was sooooo yummy.
So ya. last week we got everything figured out with doing all our work together, so this week we are going to do so much!!!!!! Our investigators will finally be back from vacation. Wednesday is a holiday in Italy. THE LAST HOLIDAY. Then no breaks until Easter. In Italy Christmas starts the 8th and finishes the 7th of January. It's CRAZY. I love Christmas time but I'm ready for people to be back to normal life haha.
Two awesome things happened this week. Then I'm gonna finish this letter.
We are still teaching Rosa and Lorenzo from English course. Rosa is 15 years old. This week I called her on the phone to see how she was doing because she has been sick. I asked her if she had read any of the Book of Mormon. She said yes and then I asked her how she felt as she read it. She said, "I loved it. I think this is the word of God. While I was reading I just felt like Christ was right there with me." I was shocked! It was so awesome to hear that. We can't wait to see her this week!
We had a lesson with Giuseppe and during the lesson he told us there was this cute couple who always come to the bakery they work at. Giuseppe said him and Johnny (also a member here) always talk to them about the church and eternal marriage and stuff. I didn't think much of it. That night we did gesso and we were talking to people walking by (that's the one where we put the sheet on the ground with stuff written on it). I saw this lady with a pink scarf and I just knew I had to talk to her. So I walked up to her and I just said, "Hey, how are you?" pretty awkwardly I have to say. It wasn't one of my smoothest street stops. She looked at me with the funniest look on her face. I was like, "Have you guys seen missionaries like us before?" (This lady was with her husband.) They were like, "uhhh we don't know". I described a little about the church and they were like, "Oh we know two Mormons. Giuseppe and Johnny." As we talked I realized I was talking to the same couple Giuseppe had mentioned to us that morning! WHAT. It was so cool. They were so so awesome. So the moral of the story is that Heavenly Father really leads us to talk to those that we need to, and those that are searching for us.
I love the mission! I love my companions, this country, the people we work with, this language and I LOVE THE GOSPEL.
Keep living life.
Vi voglio bene!
Sorella Brunson
Also shout out to my trainer who got married this week! Sooooooo awesome!
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Sorella Brunson is THE BEST!!!
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