Lots of Contacting...

This week we were at some of our lowest moments... Lots of Contacting. Tourist season has started. Holiday. Rain. You know the drill. But we worked through it all. HOWEVER! We did find a miracle new potential in our darkest moment. We had done 4 hours of street finding, to no success, so we took a stop on a bench to meditate and to talk... A woman from her balcony saw us in our sad state and called to us and we had a sweet, 30-minute conversation about who we are. Her name is  Lilla. She is great! We want to pass by her tonight.

Things are pushing forward slowly but surely. We are doing our best. Boy how we are doing our best!

Thanks for all you guys do and you guys are great!

Easter & Little Easter

Well Brothers and Sisters,

This week has been absolutely classic. Classic. Yes, yes, it seems all the forces of nature are combined against us. But trials before blessings. This week we hopped on the bus going to District Meeting... However... It was not the normal bus to district meeting. Turns out it was the direct bus to Catania (on literally the opposite side of the island). It took a full day and a night slept with the missionaries in Agrigento, and a full wallet to get us back to Sciacca. But I learned from my mistake and will always ask the bus drivers where their bus is going and not assume the sign on the front of the bus is right... Also this week the phone services in Sciacca quit working for about 4 days... Classic. 

The good news is we got a sweet new phone that we have been replacing numbers in all week and we have had a good excuse to ask people what their names really are so we can put them in the phone. 

Easter Week is always a good time in Italy, especially in the land of Sciacca. Everybody is out with their families eating big lunches every day of the week and going to church and everybody is super happy and friendly. Speaking of going to church. I have never seen so many people in Sciacca as I did Easter Sunday. We walked out of church at 12:30... 

Quick side story. Church this week was awesome!!! Nobody showed up to church for the first hour (NOT EVEN THE BRANCH PRESIDENT! Just us missionaries.), then at about midway through the second hour all the branch shows up dressed super, super, super fancy with tons of jewelry and perfume. They said that is just what you do on Easter Sunday. You sleep in get all dressed up. Go to church. And then strut around town in your Easter best. 

Anyhoos. Back to my dialogue. We walked out of church and there was a sea of people all dressed in suits and skirts! We blended in perfectly! It was the weirdest thing I have ever seen in my whole life.

Yesterday was a holiday in Italy as well. The translation of the holiday is "Little Easter". Essentially, everybody in the cities goes to the countryside and eats and sleeps and plays soccer. Pretty much the same things they do every day, but yesterday they do it in the countryside. So yesterday the mission asked us to deep clean our houses. When we finished cleaning we tried to do some finding (which is what we do every day) and we walked around for 4 hours and saw literally 4 elderly people, a drunk man and a few stray dogs... Strangest thing I have ever seen. Literally a ghost town.

We have been doing our best to keep up our spirits in Sciacca. It is not the easiest city in the world. We literally pray our hearts out and work 10 hours a day talking with people and knocking on doors... I don’t know what we are doing wrong but I can honestly say I have never worked this hard in my life and still I can count all of our weekly numbers combined on one finger. It can be very frustrating. But I can say I have done my best. And that’s all that matters. 

It was a good Easter Week and next week there is yet another holiday in Sciacca where everybody goes out to the countryside. The 25th. Classic. The life of a Sicilian. Eat. Sleep. Play. Eat. Work. Sleep. Sleep. Eat. Play. Festival. Sleep. Not a bad life at all if you ask me!

Ciao Ciao Ciao

Unique Package...

Anziano Kelley sends the most unique packages. This one, to his parents, was filled with sand and a pass along card.

Lots of Finding and a Lost Phone

This week was not very eventful in the sense that we literally just did street finding every day this week. Needless to say, this P-Day is well deserved, and I fully plan on sitting in the Sicilian sun for the next 6 hours looking out in to the ocean and thinking about absolutely nothing. Finding every single day is physically, emotionally, and socially draining. Strangely enough, as the weather gets warmer, the people get colder. But there are always those people who are just good people who will talk with us. :) We are definitely not the best finders in the world. But we are doing the best we can do and expecting miracles.

This week... I also lost our cell phone. I don’t know how it is possible. But it was definitely my fault. All of the numbers were lost and we have been without a way to call people all week long. :( I feel really dumb because that phone had about 5 years’ worth of contacts in it that have all been lost... ... ... Amidst the shame of losing the phone we now have to go to Palermo to pick up a new one...

Palm Sunday was really neat yesterday. Every street in town (literally almost every single one) was lined with palm leaves and there were tons of people set up selling palm leaf art (bags, purses, and any sort of weaved object you can think of). This week every single day is a party and the biggest part of the week starts Friday were all the main Priests in town will hang up Christ on a big Cross in the Main Piazza. It is a big ceremony and kind of play. The next day they will take him down and put him in a coffin like thing and have a parade around the city. Then they will have another parade when the Resurrection happens. At the Finale they will have the resurrected Christ and the Madonna meet up together again in the main Piazza. It should be a good time had by all.

We need some people to teach. Me and Anziano Brown are both going crazy from only doing finding on the same streets every single day. We are almost out of ideas for what to do in this city. I don’t know if we are doing something wrong or what but it is seriously rough. But there is really not much to do other than to keep doing our best and to keep going on.

Loves and Kisses,

Anz Kelley

Greek Temples

We do not have time to email again today. Today we went to the Greek Temples. Super cool. I think the majority of my email time will be sent sending those. However! I will tell of a few highlights from the week:

General Conference was sweet! Many a good talk was heard. The spirit was felt. Notes were taken. We got to watch it in English in one room and the members (3 of them) watched it in Italian in the other. It was a good time had by all!

Our one friend in English course (7th Day Adventists) invited us to come to a youth activity in his church were they sing songs and read the bible. It was super fun! We made a lot of new friends that hopefully will come to English Course now. Soo many young people! They also dedicated a few English songs to us as "the honored guests." Good, good people. We see them around town now and they are our friends

We found a family doing finding this week! They asked us (ASKED US!) if we do appointments in people’s houses. We said yes. Exchanged some numbers. Feel super dumb, we made an appointment for 5 o clock and we forgot to ask for their address. Their phone was off when we tried to call them the next day... They are a Mom, Dad, and a little baby!

Still pluggin’ along in Sciacca!

Swagger.