Week 2

Hello! 

This week seemed so long! And boy do I walk a lot! It's insane! I also fell in love with Italy, but I also miss America. We don't get fed very often here by members which is a good thing and a bad thing. Good thing because most meals with them take 2-3 hours and we don't have time for that in our schedule. Bad thing, because we don't want to buy too much food, not eat it, and so we eat fruit most nights. I can see how most missionaries lose weight the first few weeks of being here. But, it's okay. My trainer is pretty good at cooking, and I don't mind doing dishes although we are still doing those in the bathroom sink which isn't the best predicament. We mostly make pasta, and contrary to popular belief, we have had rice a few times. It isn't all pasta and pizza. 

Yesterday, we had our first meal with a member family. They are literally the cutest. Sorella Defranchi tried to scare me by saying it is usually a five course meal and they make you eat until the food is gone. But that didn't happen for some reason yesterday. The parents told me their love story which is pretty funny. I'll tell the quick version of it. So the father was dating another girl, but she was leaving on her mission. So this girl asked her best friend to look after her boyfriend while she was gone. She wasn't worried because this friend was 10 years older than him and bigger. But, they ended up spending so much time together that they fell in love. And then they got married. The story is still funnier because the girl who went on a mission is in the same ward with this family now. They have one biological son who is 14 and he has autism. And then they adopted three of the mothers sisters children because they didn't have a good home. But after they told us their love story, they asked me if I had left someone special at home. By the time I am done here in Catania, everyone will know I have a boyfriend. Everybody asks! Hahaha

Quick run down on the people we are teaching. 

There is Jennifer who I talked to you about last week. It is still hard to teach her because her boys run around like chickens with their heads cut off. If anybody has any suggestions on how to teach small children (2 and 4) let me know. We need to find a way to teach them and teach their mom at the same time. 

Then we have Angela. She is 22 and just graduated from the university here in political science. They have to give a speech thing during the graduation for a grade, so we went to that for a little bit to support her and she got the best score. Actually 110/110. She is a genius! Haha.. She is super sweet and absolutely gorgeous. She is the closest one to baptism other than Jennifer. On our way to the graduation we got lost, so we stopped at the university headquarters and a security guard helped us find our way. Later, we went back and thanked him and asked if he would be interested in hearing our message. He said he is usually pretty busy with work, but he said we could stop by whenever we wanted. He was super sweet. He seemed genuinely interested in the church, has a steady job, and has a desire to help people. Unlike most Sicilian men. He seems like a very good potential. His name is Angelo. 

Then we have Andrea. He works at our favorite granita place. My favorite flavors there are cantaloupe and lemon. And they are usually 2 euros for all who have been asking. They are particularly addicting because it is extremely hot outside and it is cold and watery rather than cold and creamy. Yum! We had 5 of them in 9 days. Think I might have a slight addiction. Anyways, back to Andrea. He is another male. He is younger so we have to be more careful with teaching him than Angelo. But he seems genuine too. 

Then we have Valentina. She is interested in the gospel, but she doesn't want to be baptized because she doesn't like the ward and there aren't enough young people. She is 21 and is also studying at the university. We might have to drop her because she is not progressing... Sad. We are hoping going over the restoration again and watching a movie on Joseph Smith will help her see that she shouldn't wait to be baptized. 

We also have Anna. We had one lesson with her, she seemed really interested in the Book of Mormon, but we haven't heard back from her in over a week. We also think she might have blocked our phone number. We'll see about her this next week though. 

We also have these twins named Denise and Morena. They are 17, but one of them has a child, so they grew up faster than maybe they should have. They always have these dreams about needing to get baptized, but they don't take the actions to get them to that point. Right now, they need to stop smoking. We are going to give them a few more chances. 

We also teach several less active families. There is Kiran. She speaks French and Italian and is literally the sweetest. She might be from the Marshalese islands. I don't know. But her husband isn't a member and she hasn't been to church in 10 years because she usually works on Sundays. She is making us dinner on Saturday and we are going to teach her husband on Saturday. Pretty excited about that. Also, she became my new favorite person because she said I'm beautiful and that my cheeks are skinnier than in the pictures I brought. Yay, because I thought my cheeks would be fat forever. Maybe it was after effects of the wisdom teeth. Non lo so. 

We have some others, but we don't have as much time to email today because we are going to the mall because this week is the last week of sales. Last p-day, I bought a super cute pencil skirt for 8 euros and a pair of jeans that are long enough for 15 euros. Yay for sale season! 

Other experiences from this week... We had a member come to one of our lessons. It was the best, and one of our other lessons fell through that day, so the fact that we had a member lesson was like an extra bonus. Air conditioning has become my new favorite thing. I probably won't take it for granted when I get home. Haha.. Also, Catania is still hot even though it is by the sea. We do get a nice breeze most of the time though which is heavenly. The water bottles here, we don't very around with us so most people we teach give us water to drink. The water bottles are 2 liters so they are kind of funny to drink out of. 

I will have Italian fast food today. It is supposedly better than American fast food. And I like the potatoes here better, so I'm excited for the French fries. Last p-day, we went to the cathedral of St. Agatha. You might be able to find her story on the Internet. She is absolutely crazy, but her cathedral is pretty and quite apostasy like. I made a joke about going into one of the confession stalls and teaching the first lesson through the thing to the priest. Like in Blue Bloods. I've been trying to get a cord that connects from an iPad to an sd card so I can send pictures, but they are always out of them when we go. Hopefully this week. 

We also teach this lady who only speaks Sicilian. I was like, Sorella Defranchi, this isn't the language they taught me at the MTC. Eek! I still didn't have a voice for most of the week. Frustrating. I sounded like a Sicilian smoker. ;) 

I found a coke bottle this week that said Bella on it. It's a good thing I didn't drink it outside though, because it also said #daiunbacio which is give a kiss. I think some men here would have thought I was asking for one. The cat calls here continue to be ridiculous! 

It was 100 degrees the past few days, so hot! Also, I noticed this week that the word ambulance is backwards on the front of ambulance. Is it that way in America? Because I don't think I knew that. The things you see when you walk everywhere. 

Someone also told me I have athletic shoulders. Haha. They don't keep comments like that to themselves. They are very blunt, it was a compliment, but still.. Hahaha

Well, I love you all. Next week, we will try to write more. The bus system made it so we can't write as much. 

Sorella Flansberg