Ciao!!
It feels like it's been so long since I've emailed! There's so much stuff to say! I'll start by just telling you what my day typically looks like and then I will talk about all the stuff that happened this past week.
So everyday except for Sunday I wake up between 6:30am and 7am. I get changed into my workout clothes and I do about an hour of working out. My companion likes to workout longer so he gets up at 5:30 am. He goes pretty hard. I'm not there yet but maybe someday After I workout I go make myself breakfast, which consists of a piece of fruit and 2 pieces of toast. The fruit can consist of an apple, pear, strawberries, or bananas. Yes I found out that I like bananas om. With the toast I have once piece with nutella and one with peanut butter. After breakfast we shower and get ready for the day. Once we are ready we do personal study. During personal study I read the Book of Mormon in Italian with the English Book of Mormon next to it, and then I'll write in my journal. After that it's usually around 10am. From then on it's basically open. We may have lessons or meal appointments. We have language study and companion study sometime during the day too. We are usually back in the apartment around 8:30pm. At that time we will eat something and then get ready for bed. We are both in bed at 9:30. I'm always so tired every day that I fall right asleep. That's what a typical day looks like.
Oh also our apartment!! It's actually pretty nice. We have a nice open living room and kitchen. There are two rooms but the other room we use for our workout room. Something that isn't normal.... we each have our own bathroom. It's actually really nice. We kinda live in the ghetto part or Torino but its still nice. I love it.
Okay, now for my week.
On Friday there was a nationwide strike. All the bus drivers, train drivers and tram drivers didn't show up for work because they think they aren't getting paid enough. So we kinda stayed home and did stuff inside. So we did weekly planning where Anziano Lombardi told me about all our simpatizzante. We actually have quite a few. We have Ivan, Solomon, Bash, Vinicio Davide, and Monday. So he told me about all there situations. They are all really cool. We also made pizza for lunch that day.
On Saturday we were gonna go check out a referral we received but we missed our stop twice! But a member ended up texting us asking for a blessing. So we went to her house and we talked with her for a bit. She has been having some trouble with the person she let in to live with her. She wanted to help her out but she has been giving her some trouble so she wanted a blessing. Her friend was there but isn't a member. So after we get done talking with her about the situation she actually decided to feed us lunch. Which was really nice. She fed us artichokes filled with meat, a really weird salad and some pudding and then made us lasagna to take home. It was actually really good. I've had to suffer through a lot of tomatoes and I still don't like them but I'm still eating them. But her friend actually came out to eat with us and turns out she is from Pakistan and when she moved here the missionaries had talked to her before. So we kinda talked with her for a bit. And we talked to her about blessings since that is what we were doing. It was so cool what happened. So we are getting ready for the blessing. As soon as Anziano Lombardi said the members full name her friend immediately started to cry. We all felt the spirit so much during that blessing. And after, her friend wanted a blessing too. And her and the member were crying. It was a very spiritual experience.
On Sunday we went to church (my first Sunday church service in Italy), and man was that an experience. We get to sacrament meeting which starts at 9:30am. Everyone is coming in and saying hi to me the new elder. So it was nice, but one of the counsel members came up to us and asked my name and then wrote something down on his paper. So Anziano Lombardi turned to me and said, ya... your are speaking. I was like oh no. Luckily I prepared a short testimony the night before. But when they announced me they said I was the first speaker and I was to give a talk. So....I went up there....and gave a 30 second talk in Italian. Haha! I thought that I did great. So when I went and sat down next to Anziano Lombardi and he said let me see what you wrote... I got scared. I was like, oh no I said something wrong. So...basically I was trying to say I was excited to be here in Italy. I used the word eccitato. And I have now learned do not use the word eccitato. It means excited but not in the way I meant. Basically I told the entire congregation that I was aroused to be here. Haha! It was pretty bad but no one said anything to me so that's good. I gotta make all the mistakes in the beginning Haha! Second hour we taught the Africans in our ward the Gospel Principles class in English so that was nice. Then third hour was priesthood. I wanted to fall asleep during that hour because I didn't understand anything, but I made it through. After church we had a lesson with Solomon, and he is so dope. He is already so educated in the gospel. He has been taught all the lessons and he's very good with answering our questions. So guess what?!?! We committed him to be baptized on November 17th!! My first baptism will be so awesome! I'm so proud of Solomon! Sunday night we were asked to give another blessing to Samuel and Sara's aunt. So we went over there and apparently they had waited until we got there to eat. So we ate with them. We had Ragu which was so good, and then we had something that I have never had before... rabbit!! They gave us whole rabbit legs to eat. It was different but we ate it and it was not that bad. They gave us this carrot salad that had some sort of cheesy creamy stuff in it. I took one bite of it and almost threw up so I didn't eat it. After dinner we all sat and talked for a while. It was me Lombardi, Valentina, Samuel, Samuel's cousin, and then their aunt. They were helping me with Italian and we were just chilling. It was actually really awesome. I absolutely love that family. Samuel and I are really good friends. We hug each other all the time and we mess around like we are brothers. He even calls me his brother too. So we ended up giving 2 blessings. To his aunt and his cousin who are both nonmembers. That was also really spiritual and really special. Valentina showed us her turtle and told us about school too. We teach Valentina in English class and we are best friends. Turns out she is one of Samuel's cousins also. Their family is just so cool. I actually did a bacii for the first time with the aunt and one of the cousins. Bacii is the kisses on each cheek. It was a different experience but it shows how much they love me.
Monday was also really good. We had a lesson with Davide. We have only taught him once before this, so we taught him the Plan of Salvation, and I actually spoke... in Italian! I told him about the Atonement. He said that it did not sound like I just got to Italy and that my Italian sounded very good. So that's awesome! He was really receptive to everything we had to say and was accepting everything. It was so good. He has been through a lot. He had cancer and had to do chemo and it really messed with his bones. So one day he was standing in the kitchen both of his ankles just broke. So he has a hard time. He has also had a near death experience. He was dead on the table for 7 minutes but then he came back. He was very happy when we told him that our bodies will be perfected after resurrection and that we will be with our families forever. It was just an awesome teaching experience. I could see his face light up every time we talked. It was awesome. Monday night we went to our blind friend's house Vincio. He is 72 and he is a character. He has had all the lessons but doesn't want to get baptized. He just likes to have the missionaries over because we are nice, but I really like him. He is a great guy. He likes to pinch my face a give me a few slaps on the face. He gave us cookies and milk. He told us about his life and his wife. She passed away. He had me share my favorite scripture and tell him why. He gave us a tour of the house. Then we all knelt down together and held hands and he wanted me to say a prayer, so I did and he loved it. I love Italy and Italians so much!!
Tuesday me and Anziano Lombardi bought leather jackets, and they are so dope. Then we had English class and we just chilled with Valentina and Samuel.
Today we went and got hot chocolate with the Sorelle's. We have a Halloween party tonight with the young single adults. We are dressing up as greasers and we are about to look dope.
Well that's how I'm doing . I'm having a blast and I love being a missionary! I love and miss all of you!! Email me!! Ti voglio bene!!
Anziano Bailey
Me and Samuel
Me and Samuel
Samuel, Anziano Lombardi, Valentina, Me
Halloween fun (Italians don't actually celebrate Halloween, no kids going door to door getting candy and whatnot so they just have a little party most of the time.)