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
