Wassup Family! It has finally started to get a little cooler here. It has been terrible hot here but this week it rained and stormed a lot, which made it a lot cooler (also cleaned out the smokes in the gutter). We got stuck in the rain twice walking home and I actually really enjoyed it because for once I was wet by something other than my own sweat. I guess in the winters here it rains buckets and I think we are starting to get a little bit of that weather change.
Speaking of change…August is over! That means people will
finally come back from vacation and we will have a ward again! The Bishop has
been out of town for a month and a good chunk of the ward is classified
inactive because they haven’t come in ages. I am happy because there are more
people in the streets to talk to and it seems that a lot of crazies have gone
back in their homes now that everybody is back.
I am close to being legal in the country now! We have had
to go to the government building like 5 times to get this thing filled out and hopefully
in the next few days I will be legal in the country. Most of the people here
are actually not legal in Italy. Especially the Sri Lankans. So I guess that
over the last 30 years Italy has taken a lot of steps to stop illegal immigration
and they have been checking peoples’ papers a lot. But...they never check
papers in Sicily. This is why we have so many Indian and Sri Lankan people here
in Messina because it is right next to the mainland and most of them end up
stopping here. I like it. There are a lot of Hindu Shops and the Sri Lankan
ward members always cook their native foods for us. It’s really good but spicy.
And messy because we eat it with our hands.
Speaking of eating. I think I am slowly developing gluten
intolerance and Diabetes here. All these people eat is Pasta, Fruit, Ice Cream,
and Granita. I am not joking. It is actually hard to find vegetables and food
that isn’t made up simple carbs and sugars! I have had more ice cream in one
week here than I have had in all my time spent in America. And this is a normal
thing for Italians! In fact... My MTC Teacher really did develop a gluten intolerance
and mild Diabetes on his mission. I am always telling Anziano Stewart that we
need to cook more vegetables and eat whole grains. I seriously can feel a
difference in my energy and body from all the stuff we eat.
I had a good Birthday though! We had our District Meeting
where a member met us with Pasta and Gelato Cake! It was awesome. After that we
helped a member move. She is moving to Richmond, Virginia with her kids. That
took about 6 hours because she lived on the 4th floor and was not really ready
for us. Afterwards we had Pizza and Coca Cola. After that we had an appointment
with Namoli and Kushon who just got married in the temple. We needed to talk
about the temple with them. They had made a birthday cake for me too, and more
coca cola. It was nice because we got to where normal clothes pretty much all
day on my birthday. But all the Pasta and Sugar is slowly wearing me down.
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
Birthday Miracle. While carrying a bunch of stuff to the
garbage while moving there was this Romanain guy in a little truck who was
taking all the metal stuff from the trash can to melt it down. We gave him
about 200 pounds worth of metal and he was super happy. We went to move more
stuff and came back and he has taken a copy of The Testaments that we were
throwing away. He said he was going to give it to his little kids to watch tomorrow.
Sweet! One man’s trash is another man’s salvation. He said that he wanted us to
come over to see his yard and meet his family (without us even asking). So that
was pretty cool.
Transfers are today. Nobody in Messina is going anywhere.
Reggio is moving an Anziano out and bringing another one in from Bari.
Also! I got a lot of mail this week. One from Dad, few
from Mom, Terrik, Whitney, The Kelley, G-Ma Barbara. It was nice because I got
them on my Birthday! Grazie Tutti!
Ciao Ciao Ciao Ciao Ciao
