Sister Arndt's Italy, Milan Mission: 2016-07-20 Pordenone and Venice

(Jill did not send a Blog email this week. These are excerpts from her emails to us. Soo, yeah, these are a little more real than what is usually put here. :) )

It took us one hour with three heavy suitcases to find our palazzo that is 5 minutes away from the train station....I about killed someone. Picture sweaty, exhausted, fish-out-of-water, slightly angry Jill rolling up to her new palazzo and stopping just short of chucking all her suitcases on the ground at the front door. Now picture judgy old Italian landlady watching this all unfold from that same front door, telling me to go get the rest of my stuff so that afterwards she can tell us "how things are done around here." Oh my gosh haha I love Italians. She then went on to give us a billion ridiculous rules like how we have to leave the tapperelli down at night in case it hails and breaks the glass windows. It's summer?? Anyways, she likes us a lot because we're sisters and we pay better attention to cleaning things up and not being loud etc. Traditional Italian old couple: she is bossy but loving and is an amazing cook with strict rules about "what one does and does not do." The man is super nice and gardens all day. Her and her husband are this couple to a T. Our palazzo is adorable, I'll try to remember to send a picture.

Look where we went today!!

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Also we work with an AMERICAN ward is t that crazy?? Because I'm right by a military base!! I've met so many cool people but we also get to work with the Italian ward which is good cuz otherwise I'd have to start all over with my language again.

So many people out here say they don't believe in God because so many bad things happen like war. But then they b---- and complain about the immigrants in their country.....it makes me crazy.....I told a lady that maybe we need to help these people because our lives are much more blessed than theirs. When she realized I was calling her a hypocrite, she got a look in her eyes (scared) and started talking about how one person can't do much.
Well, one person can stop complaining. One person can make a difference in ONE persons life maybe. And service betters your own life too. So if you help just one person, you're really helping two people instead of zero.

Well, that's my spiritual thought this week. As always, I do not have very much time to write and I have 31 emails to respond to this week....were on a train to Venezia (Venice), I will attach pictures

. I really like my companion. I learn to get along with people more and more every companionship.

Anyways, we have an American and an Italian ward and they are AMAZING. In fact I got to see ANOTHER baptism! that makes two baptisms that I've been present for!! And I love her so so much! We literally did the last lesson with her and then she was baptized the second day we were here. But she is a better person than I am. Her name is Lauryn, she's a military daughter, she's a sassy black 18-year-old who reminds me exactly of myself but better. I feel like I was meant to meet her because she needs someone who understands her and I need someone to make me realize that I need to be better and have a stronger testimony.

Having wards is throwing me off though, watch me get sent somewhere next where there's a branch with like, 10 members.....were pretty sure that one of us will leave already next transfer which is already in 4 weeks cuz it's a short transfer. You never know until you get the call, though. Happy to be in Pordenone for now, even when my skirt gets caught in the bike chain and gets ruined (because I found a bunch of way cute clothes in our apartment from an old sister missionary woo-hoo)!