Hello hello hello! I have so much to tell you all and guess what?
President doesn't limit e-mail time so prepare yourselves for a long
e-mail.
So first things first, I have to start with the last few days at the
MTC. On Wednesday, we had the opportunity to clean the Provo temple.
The sisters were in charge of cleaning the chandeliers in the sealing
rooms along with the sconces. This required us to take apart the
entire thing, clean each individual crystal, and then reassemble it
without breaking any crystals. Just a bit stressful. There were 10
sisters there and it took 4 hours to clean one room. 4 sconces and a
big chandelier. Crazy! The sealing rooms are beautiful and there is
such peace found in those rooms. I absolutely loved it.
Then on Thursday, we skyped for TRC again. This time we talked to
Sorella "Mama" Gigante. She was super sweet and our thirty minute
lesson turned into a 40 minute lesson because she told us a story and
it kept going and going and going. Typical Italians, but I absolutely
love them!
On Friday we had in-field orientation which took all stinking day at
the MTC. It was good, but I felt like it was much longer than it
needed to be. I did learn the importance of member missionary work
though. Story coming up about that. Although the members of the
Catania ward need to learn this concept. We'll work on that.
Sad to hear about Pres. Boyd K. Packer...but kind of good news too. We
learned Friday night from a sister in our district.
Then it was 4th of July. It just kind of reminded me of how much I
sacrificed to be able to serve a mission. I was reminded of family,
yummy barbecue, friends, stadium of fire (although I was grateful I
didn't have to work), and fireworks. So much red white and blue at the
MTC though. They also attempted to let us watch fireworks and we had a
freedom devotional which was really great. The fireworks were blocked
by the trees, so it was hard to see them. It's the thought that
counts.
I've decided that the MTC is evil. They put you with people who aren't
even going to the same mission and then you spend 6 weeks together and
then it's like... See you later. Lame, I will miss my Romanians and
Milanos.
On Sunday, the anziani in our district gave everyone blessings and
that was a super cool experience. The spirit was so strong.
Then on Monday morning, we rode the bus to the front runner station,
got to the airport, and got on our flight to Atlanta. The pay phones
were all ripped out of the walls in Atlanta because it is 2015... You
should all have cell phones according to the worker. Well, I
voluntarily gave that up for the next 18 months of my life. Then from
Atlanta, we began time traveling. It was a 10 hour flight and it would
have been way better if we could have watched movies. But that is okay
too. Sacrifices. What do we sacrifice today for God? Then Rome.
First experience. I'm happy because I'm in Rome and I'm carrying my
suitcases and I'm leaving the airport and feeling all the humidity,
and I still have a smile on my face, so I saw a guy and I smiled, and
boom! Kissy face. Oops. Can't smile at men here....
I've decided that I don't like mirrors anymore. I am a hot sweaty mess
like all the time. And I don't like to see that so no more mirrors for
me. Also, you don't know the definition of hot or toasty or humid
until you are in Italy during the summer. This also means hardly
anyone wears clothes. Or I guess they wear barely any clothes.
I love my mission president and wife. They are literally the cutest!
All the elders wore their suit jackets on the plane to make a good
first impression. 2 minutes after we get there, Pres. Waddoups
says,"okay, take your suit coats off. First impressions are over." The
look of relief on all their faces was priceless. Then we go to the
temple site, by the way.... It is gorgeous. Still not very much
progress, but it is still beautiful. And we tried to take a selfie and
then he says, " Do you want to use my selfie stick?" What?? Haha.. So
funny.
On our way to the temple, we got our first taste of Italian behaviors.
Our bus driver was on the freeway and he just stops in the middle of
the lane, gets out to talk to the other bus driver, lights up a
cigarette, smokes, gets back in the car and we are off again. Weird, I
tell you. Oh, and everybody here smokes. There aren't laws about where
and when you can smoke or bring pets. Cigarette butts are all over and
the streets are disgusting. But, just look up and you can see all the
beautiful ness of Italy. Just look up. :)
I just love Italians. They are people just like Americans, but they
speak Italian. I just love them.
The first thing we did was go to the mission home. It is absolutely
gorgeous and was built by Monticello? I think. Does that sound right?
Anyways, I loved it. Then they took us to the street market. Mom, you
would go crazy. They also have tables where they sell fish kind of
like the sisterhood of the traveling pants. I'm thinking in my head,
your fish is cooking right now. Like literally cooking. It is so hot!
Then we went to Aqua sacro... It's this place that supposedly has
sacred water. On the streets of Rome, they have these fountains on
most corners called big nose fountains that you can drink out of. They
are on all the time. I'll take a picture someday. Then we got to play
tourist for a bit. The mission president was trying to keep us up all
day, but at the same time tire us out. So we went to see the colosseum
at 1:00. The hottest part of the day. How lovely? But really. It was
so cool! We also saw the senate building. Hopefully pictures next
week. We rode the metro there. It is absolutely disgusting. But you
walk out of the metro, and the colosseum is right in front of you. It
can't be described in words. Just wow!
Then we went back, had dinner at this Greek place and got kebabs. They
are like wraps, with this meat thing that ... I don't know. You'll
have to visit and we will go. Hahaha. Then we had interviews, and went
to bed.
The next day, we went to the church building, had iPad training, and a
tour of the mission office. That was about it until dinner and golden
envelopes! I tried so much new food this last week. I had mozzarella
di buffalo which is mozzarella cheese from a water buffalo. Mozzarella
is stored in water, so it has a gross soggy texture. Not my favorite.
I also tried a tomato. I tried so hard to eat my salad, but it was
just not happening. Then we opened our envelopes which is pretty much
a mission call inside a mission call. 3 Sorelle were going to Sicily,
out of 10. I did and I didn't want to go to Sicily. Because it
requires an extra long train ride. But, Catania. And actually, it
didn't say Sicily on the card, so I had no idea where it was, but I
was just happy. I had to wake up at 3:30 the next morning to get on
the lovely train. The Rome train station is the worst. That's all I
have to say about that. The train ride was 11 hours long and the train
reminded me of Harry Potter. 6 people in a compartment. Also, the ac
was sketchy and would turn off for hours at a time. Can you say
roasting? To get from mainland Italy to Sicily, you take a ferry and
they break the cars apart and put the train cars on the ferry. Kind of
cool. New experiences all over the place.
Then I got to Catania and met my trainer. She is the best. Sorelle
Defranchi is from Southwest France, but she lived in America for 3
years. So she is fluent in 3 languages. She wants to be a wedding
planner after her mission so we talk a lot about weddings and wedding
dresses which you can see in store windows. Our apartment has like 5
bedrooms, and 2 bathrooms. Way too big for 2 missionaries, hahaha but
one bathroom and the kitchen sink, and washing machine only have hot
boiling water currently. Also, we had cockroaches. I saw one my first
night there. It crawled out from the door when I was getting ready for
bed, and it was huge. I didn't want to step on it because it would
make a yucky crunching sound, so before I got the nerve up to do it,
it scuttled back to the door frame. I said a prayer, and prayed that I
wouldn't see anymore.. And guess what? God answers even the silliest
prayers so he must answer the big ones too.
We cover the whole city of Catania which is huge. We also walk
everywhere. Sometimes it takes an hour to get from our apartment to
another investigators apartment. There are also two anziani who are in
Catania with a car. On Friday, we walked about a mile and a half to
this lady's house and she wasn't there. If I am going to walk that far
after a long day, you better be there...but since I'm a missionary, I
forgave and forgot. Her name is Jennifer and she is from Nigeria so
her lessons are in English, and she has the two cutest little boys. I
absolutely love them! She wakes up at 4 everyday to cook the food she
sells throughout the day and then she works all day, so when we got
there, we had extra time and we did some dishes for her and let her
spend time with her boys. It's sad because the lifestyle they live
right now is horrible, but it is still better than what she had in
Africa. She also came to church. Woohoo! She has a baptismal date but
we have to wait for president to come interview her.
We had to do permesso stuff which is a pain in the butt, but I want to
stay in Italy.... So we got it done on Friday morning so we could
concentrate on missionary work.
I also ate an arancino and a granita. Delicious! I'm running out of
time, but I love it in Italy. I haven't had a voice and I had a cough
for the last few days, but I'm getting over it. Bugs also love my
legs, and I drink tons of water. More next week.
Love you all!
Sorella Flansberg
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