Sister Arndt's Italy, Milan Mission: 2016-04-27 Nelly, Dante, and trip to Basilica of Superga

Hey sorry if my blog has been a vague jumble of random stories, I just kind of showed up in Italy and started sharing random stories about it.

So here's a slightly clearer update on my week:

Idk if my mom posted the thing about Dante on the blog last week but we ran into him again on Sunday!! Torino is huge so it was a big coincidence! He was just starting his weekly 20 kilometer walk, apparently hahaha. I didn't understand a lot of what he was saying but apparently he was telling sister Harris to look at the sun and when she did and started squinting, he told her that she's weak because her body is fighting something that's good for her hahaha. So I told him it's great the the earth is a gift from God and we get to enjoy it which lead to him leading me through some yoga breathing exercises but our bus came so we had to leave him. Another time, Dante.

Also we work in two wards. It's a huge blessing and a curse. Many places only have one branch, and we have two full wards. So we have lots of members and that's great because there's a lot of potential work but it's hard because we can only go to one church every other week, so it's really hard to build relationships with the members because we see them so infrequently. Easter and general conference didn't help.

But we have a couple members who we are really tight with. One of them is named Nelly, she's from Peru and always cooks is way too much food. Both times we've been over, she's had a Catholic friend there too and just happens to be curious to hear how we decided to go on a mission. So we share our conversion stories and then she shares hers while her friends just happen to be there eating with us. Best member missionary EVER. Last time this lady got up from the table halfway through the conversation to cross herself in front of these heretic Mormons haha. But Nelly is the best.

We have two baptismal dates, which is about two more baptisms than many people see in this mission at all. I am very blessed for that. But one of them we are worried about, her name is Leslie and she's from Peru. She's 20 and her family is Catholic I think. Well she set her own bap date a while ago but just told her parents about it recently. Her parents freaked out. She's afraid of ruining her relationship with them at the price of her baptism. So she's really in a rock and a hard place. We can't tell her what to do.

I'm really loving Italy and the people. Thanks to everyone at home for your support, I love you all so much!

Below are a variety of pictures Jill has sent. She went to Basilica of Superga, which is on a hill above Turin (Torino). I looked at the Wiki article, and it is the burial place for the Savoy family, and is also infamous as the place where the Torino soccer (football) team all died in a plane crash in 1949.

District meeting. The number of chairs they are sitting on represents the number of transfers they have done. That is why Jill is so low (center, in green skirt)