So a cool story, our president recently released new rulings that we
are allowed TWO cultural events per missionary (a cultural event being
something outside of the missionary norms that potentially takes place
at nighttime like an opera or ballet or something). So, with that
background information in mind, let's set the scene of a bus ride to a
member appointment. We are always on buses haha. We were sitting in an
area of four seats, two seats facing two seats. There was a
middle-aged Italian woman in the seat across from me. What she had in
her lap looked like a script for a play, with lines and everything.
So, we started talking to her about if she is an actress. She said yes
and we got her to explain the whole premise of this play and her role
in it. Well, it sounded AWESOME and so we asked her when it was. She
gave us the address and then we asked if we could get her number which
she enthusiastically gave us. Then she started noticing us and who we
are and we got to talking about the church! We explained a little bit
about the restoration, got off the bus together, our appointment with
members got bidoned so we called her up and taught her 20 minutes
after our bus conversation! We met on a bench next to a river and
taught her everything about the restoration. It was so, so cool,
because this is potentially the first time someone has understood the
gravity of the Book of Mormon on the first encounter with
missionaries. When we finished, asked her to read the Book of Mormon
and pray about it, and then we asked her, "what would it mean to you
if you found out that this book is true?" And she was like, "my life
would go into disaggio (distress). It would change everything." And I
was like, oh my gosh, she GETS it!! Haha. Like, I don't want to ruin
her life (this wouldn't), but I was glad she got the significance of
the libro di mormon.
Other than that, this week we went over to a member who was recently
widowed at the ripe old age of 50 :(. She is an angel and such an
example of faith. Anyways, she has this thing where she wants to learn
how to make a dish from every missionary who comes to Firenze. So I'd
been wanting to make her Creamy Poppyseed Chicken casserole for a
while (the red velvet cake mostly just confused them, as it does me,
because they kept asking why it's red, which has been a question that
has haunted me since I first encountered this odd species of cake) but
they don't sell cream of chicken here!! So I was trapped until, lo and
behold, my favorite member from my favorite city (I don't actually
have favorites) called me up from Pordenone and asked me if I wanted
anything from the American base!! Yes, cream of chicken!!
So, we went over to her house, let her tell us how to cook the rice
because South Americans are so picky about how their rice is cooked,
and fed her and her daughter and daughter's boyfriend creamy poppyseed
chicken, a personal favorite.
My heavens. It tasted like home. My heart felt a level of bliss one
can only imagine. It was almost like being hugged by my mom after 14
months. My level of satisfaction was surpassed only by Sorella
Larrain, who exclaimed without ceasing throughout the entire dinner, "
BUONO. Buono, sorelle. Quest'รจ buono. Mmm. Buono. Buono," until, and
even after, she had finished eating. She said it's the best American
food she's ever eaten! Take that, every other American missionary who
has ever come and ever will come to Firenze! Thank you, mom!
Lastly, something we're pretty excited about is this Mostra we want to
do which us like, any form of a sizable public exhibition for the sake
of stopping and talking to people and making ourselves known. So Pres
has been making a big push for us to be more creative with our finding
and a mostra is something I've always wanted to do but never have. We
are drawing on so many different talents for this, the biggest one
being an art student who is a member here! She's AMAZING. Natural
talent + years of training = she is actually a qualified professional
and she's going to do a chalk drawing of Jesus Christ for us in a
public square. We are so excited and I'll be sure to take pictures
when it happens! Hopefully we'll be able to get some members come and
sing/play so we can have some music too. Meanwhile we will be talking
to people about conquerors and peace, the main themes of the new
Easter video the church sent out! Everybody regardless of faith status
should watch it because it's so beautiful! Here it is!
Mormon.org
Have a good week everybody! I love you all! Let me know what your
thoughts are on the Easter video :)
 |
| Notice Thor's Hammer on the far right. |
 |
| Siena |
 |
| Siena |
No comments:
Post a Comment