Quote of the Week: "These are the days of miracles and wonders." - Paul Simon
I realized what has been missing in my letters! The
quotes! Well… I have forgotten all my American Pop Culture but I think that a
quote of the week is the least I could do.
Hey listen. So Pa! If you have a few pictures of me doing
the Cat in the Hat could you send them to me? When I tell people about things
that I did before the mission they are always way into the story about how I
was Cat in the Hat. I guess they do not have Cat in the Hat here. Sad. Also…
They do not really have costume characters? So people love to hear that story
and I would love to have a few pics to show them.
This week we had a little miracle moment. We decided to
go visit a less active guy named Carlo. We could not get a hold on him on his
cell phone so we decided to go to his apartment and see how he was doing. So we
get to his house and, being the classic Sicilian guy that he is, he was sitting
on his roof in his underwear painting. He was happy to see us and invited us
downstairs where we had a little lesson. He never did manage to put his pants
the whole time we were there... At the end of the lesson he had absolutely no
interest in coming back to church but he said to drop by in a few days and he
would have a surprise for us. So we did, and he had a big ol’ list of people
that we should stop by and talk about the Gospel with! No pants… BUT HEY! He
was a little instrument in the hands of the Lord.
So our investigator with a baptism date... We have not
been able to contact him for the past 3 weeks. So... I don’t think he really
wants to meet with us. That’s okay. We did our best. Also. There is this
Italian Investigator named Valentina who is getting close to accepting a
baptism date. She mostly meets with us because we are beautiful young American
boys but she is keeping commitments and when she asks questions and explains
things she honestly has a testimony! We have a lesson with her tomorrow and
are hoping she will accept a baptism date in November!
So Mom. A Duomo is not just a Cathedral. The Duomo is the
biggest cathedral in town. There usually is only one Duomo in every city. Also.
EVERY CITY HAS A DOUMO. Even the small cities with only 100 people. There are
cathedrals everywhere. But the Duomo are very big and very beautiful and every
couple hours the Doumos play songs. It’s beautiful to hear walking down the
street. Because there are cathedrals on like every block and there are always
the sounds of bells being rung. On Sunday morning they all seem to go
off at the same time. It is really hard to explain what I see every day because
there are Churches and Statues and Monuments and Shrines every few yards. I
really just want to show you what the city is like.
Also Mom. The apartment we live in is not a junker. It is
pretty big actually. It used to house 4 missionaries until they combined the
Catania and Rome missions. We get bugs every once in a while but that is normal
for any Italian house. We clean really well. Some of the apartments with 4 or 6
missionaries get cockroaches and mice like every week. Nasty. But we live
pretty good. "Good solid walls. Good solid floors"
Also Mom! We have to wear our church clothes on P-Day as
well. Not just the missionaries in Utah. Every day on the week we are in a
shirt in tie. And starting next week we have to wear jackets. It is still
super-hot in the day though. It’s gonna be brutal for the few weeks.
Also Mom. So the other week I talked about the Madonna
coming out on the mountain. That really is what happened. There is a big ol’
Madonna that they bring down into Reggio about once a year. It is solid gold
and takes about 50 people to carry her. People see miracles and visions when
she is in town. And people talk about it for months after she has left.
Yeah.... Tell me about it...
I have decided who Anziano Stewart reminds of! He is
Blake Peart! I have been trying to decide who he reminded me the past few
weeks! I finally managed to figure out who it was this week.
We have transfer calls next week. I think I am staying in
Messina.
