On the 8th day of puzza Pescara gave to me…

Ok so once upon a time, 8 days ago, the city of Pescara dug up the road by our apartment and ever since then it has smelled like someone “went” in the street! Seriously it is not a pleasant smell. I hope they finish doing what ever it is they are doing and fill in the hole. On the bright side, we are not at or around our apartment building for very long on any given day and my companion and I have been able to polish up our song lyric writing skills as we sing the 12 days of Puzza. (puzza means stink or stench). Hopefully it wont be more than 12 days! From our apartment on the 5th floor we can see a shiny greenish puddle in the hole, and I can’t remember if that puddle was there before it rained all day yesterday but I shudder to think what gives it that sickly color.

Ok enough about the Puzza and on to something more exciting… Missionary work! Yay! So we had another lesson with Anna Maria. We watched The Restoration with her and her daughter and husband. She reached over and took my hand during the movie, so I took that as a good sign and at the end of the lesson she gave a beautiful prayer. I really really hope that she will continue to progress in this gospel. So many people hear what we have to say and like it and believe it but don’t want to do anything about it. Or they are too comfortable with their current life that the thought of changing just seems like too much of a stretch. We were dropped by one investigator this week (don’t worry though, I still have high hopes for her, she’ll come around) and had another investigator tell us “I have known the church for 15 years and I come to sacrament meetings and pay my offering, baptism? Who needs it?” hmm… no worries I also have a good feeling about her. I am learning more and more everyday the importance of our free agency. We have all been given it and it is the one thing the Lord will never and can never take from us, and that is why the handing over our will to accept the will of the father is so important. I heard something somewhere about goal setting this week and how the goals we set for ourselves need to be solely dependant on ourselves. We cant set a goal for someone else. So from a missionary stand point to say I will baptise this person by this day, is not a goal you should set, but instead you should set the goal to be I will extend the commitment of baptism to this person for this date and I will do all that I can to teach and prepare this person for this baptism date because in the end it is the other persons responsibility and choice to determine whether or not to be baptized. This idea is the same with any and all goals we set. If we are going to make personal goals they need to be just that, personal goals with an outcome dependent on you and your decisions.

The weather is really starting to warm up here! Meno Male! We went a full morning without our coats! That’s a big deal! I am a little worried for the heat of the summer, but I think I prefer hot to cold. (maybe, ask me again in july).

So I have a semi funny story. Me and my companion were waiting at the bus stop by the station. All the busses pass by this stop so there are always a lot of people waiting for a bus. Something about the buses here is that the drivers don’t waste anytime. You have to hail the bus like you would a taxi and then when it pulls over you get on and don’t dawdle because most bus drivers are a little impatient. So anyways a bus stopped at the stop and a bunch of people got on and there was someone on the bus calling to a friend to come get on. So he ran to get on the bus as the bus driver was closing the doors. His friend tried to tell the bus driver to wait but when the bus driver didn’t hear him (ignored him) the friend stood in the door to try to hold it open while his friend jumped on, however the man jumping onto the bus was holding a briefcase or bag in his arm and he was not faster than the closing bus doors and they closed on his arm. It was quite a sight as the bus drove off with this man’s arm, holding a briefcase, was sticking out the side. Then to make it even better some man who was a little bit strange (I have found as a missionary you meet a lot of these types of people) came over and was ranting and raving about how the bus driver did it on purpose and when he saw people were ignoring him he came to us and tried again in really broke English. Good times.

I don’t know if I ever explained Gesso to you, I might have, so if I did sorry. I thought you would like to hear about this fun finding technique we do. Every Sunday evening from 6 until 8:30 we go to the busiest part of town where a lot of people walk by and we put down a sheet and then take some chalk and draw on it. Usually the plan of salvation but sometimes prophets from the bible or something about the book of Mormon and talk to people who stop to see what we are doing. It is funny how many people we can talk to just be drawing on a sheet on the ground. Usually there are two people drawing and the other 4 missionaries out talking to people who pass by. I am finding that as a missionary you do a lot of strange things and go to great lengths to be able to find people to teach, but at the same time it is kind of fun to be able to do these weird things for a year and a half knowing I will never have another opportunity to do it in quite the same way.

Anyways I have rambled on long enough. I want you all to know that I love you and I love this gospel. I am so so so grateful for this time I have as a missionary! The church is so true. Be happy and safe and keep me updated with the big events in your lives! Vi voglio Bene!