Well, I'm kind of at a loss of words today, so I apologize if this
email is a little shorter. I don't know what is wrong with me. I
usually have lots to say.
This week was a little harder for me. I swear there is something in
the setting apart that makes you more prone to crying. I never used to
cry this much before the mission, and now my eyes seem to water all
the time. And quite honestly, I don't even know what the reason is.
It's probably a combination of culture shock, lots of culture shock,
and language stuff, and a little bit of homesickness.... But that is a
secret. Don't tell anybody.. Shh. :)
But the weeks seem to fly by. Tuesday is the longest... And then all
of a sudden, it's Friday. Which is a good and a bad thing. Haha.. So a
little rundown from my journal this past week because I really don't
know what to say. Sorry!
So, I slept terribly on Monday night this week. Like absolutely
horrible. I was grumpy on Tuesday because of that and we had all of
our appointments cancel on us which makes for not a great day. So we
decided to go less active finding. Sorella Defranchi decided to take a
picture of the map of Catania and then we got lost, it was hot, and
she doesn't talk to me when we're lost and looking for something.
Seems to me that 4 eyes looking for something would be better than 2.
And then she would talk and text on the phone as we walked, and if you
know me... I like to know where I'm going, and I like to go once we
start. So we walked slower and slower and slower and it was hot... And
when I'm tired, grumpy, hot, and blah... It was bad. But once we
figured out what we were doing.. Everything was great. And she forgave
my grumpiness. I also said a prayer to fix my attitude, and once
again... Prayers are answered all the time.
Then, I really wanted to sleep better on Tuesday night. But....
All the apartments in Italy are above street level and above stores.
So in between the store entrances are the doors to the lobby of the
apartment buildings. The doors are locked and so they have a plate
with buttons and names of the people who live there. The buttons are
then connected to these annoying buzzers in each of the apartments.
But background story first... I was so tired on Monday, so I put a
load of laundry in an hour and a half before bed, and Sorella
Defranchi made zucchini bread, and I accidentally fell asleep with my
flip flops on, and my hair up still, but at 2:30, I woke up for some
really strange reason. I didn't remember why I woke up, but I went to
check my laundry and Sorella Defranchi starts to freak out and tells
me not to turn the lights on and to put pants and a shirt on really
quick and to not make any noise. So like a good greenie, I did what
she said. Then I heard it and figured out what was going on. Someone
was pressing our buzzer for long intervals, would stop for like 5
minutes and press it again. It is so loud and impossible to sleep and
ignore it. So we snuck out to our balcony to see who it was. We could
hear a guy talking and he looked pretty sketchy and we were worried
that there were multiple guys. So we called the anziani because we
decided it wasn't very Christlike to yell at the guy off the balcony
and we didn't want something bad to happen. They were half asleep too
but gave us permission to yell at him. We picked up the phone first,
asked who it was... No answer, so we thought he left.. 30 seconds
later, he does the stupid buzzer again, so Sorella Defranchi goes to
yell at him and the neighbors above us tell her to be quiet. So I
thought maybe they had called the police and didn't want us to scare
him off, so we wait... And there comes a police car dropping off some
girl and then it drives away. I guess it scared him because he left...
But come to find out, the neighbors were just waiting for their son to
get home. They weren't concerned about us at all.. Grr.
This week, a lot of appointments fell through. Really frustrating
because we plan lessons, and I practice my Italian so it is all
squeaky clean, and then they don't meet with us. "I practiced all
morning for you!"
On Thursday, we made cookies to go building finding in the building we
live in. They tasted funny because Italians don't know how to make
butter.. But it was American enough for me to have chocolate chip
cookies. Yay! We made them in a muffin tin, so they looked funny but
tasted pretty dang good.
On Friday, we had a lesson with a less active, and then went building
finding. We knocked on this super sweet family's house and they let us
in. We shared a message about Christ with them and then we talked and
got to know each other. They offered us something to drink and told us
about the other people who live in the building. They are catholic. We
couldn't have guessed that... ;) but surprisingly they are practicing
Catholics. The man has a strong testimony of the Madonna because he
had smoked for 20 years but had to stop because his grandson had
health problems, so he prayed to the Madonna and then quit cold
turkey. Cool story, but we'll work on the whole prayer thing.
Although, before the mission, I talked to Ty and Bro. Majors and they
were saying how all religions are really quite similar and they all
have pieces of the truth and I learned that more fully during that
lesson. I had some enlightening thoughts. The first is that because
Catholics believe that God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit are all
the same person, they pray through Mary because it is "disrespectful"
to pray directly to God. But we do something similar. We end all our
prayers with in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. We do that because
Christ is our advocate with the Father. Then, everybody here likes to
compare us with the nuns like the suori.. Because we are missionaries
and because we go by our last names. We just smile and say no, not
really. We dedicate our lives to the Lord for a year and a half but
when we get back, we are completely normal individuals. We'll study
again and get jobs and have families.. But I guess the nuns adopt a
new name and we do that too in the temple, just not publicly and that
new name is sacred to us. Kind of cool to realize all the
similarities. Someday they will realize that the fullness of the
gospel can only be in one place and then they will want to listen to
our message.
Oh, um by the way, it's August. Is that crazy, or what?
On Saturday, we had a lot of time to go finding. We saw some miracles
or what we thought would be miracles... Lots of new potentials for
this week so that will be super fun. We went to the super market to
give the cashier lady a pass along card because we felt like we
should, and then we bought cockroach killer stuff. While there, we met
this lady named Rose from Australia and she seemed genuinely
interested. Her cousin is a member of the church and she could see the
difference the gospel made in her life. She gave us a phone number and
said she would probably come to church tomorrow.. Come to find out,
the phone number isn't even active... That has happened like 3 times
to us. Well either when we meet them or they blow us off after a first
lesson after seeming really interested the first time. I wish people
would just be genuine. You are either interested or not. Don't lie or
act like you think we want you to act. Just be yourself. We aren't
selling something, we are being genuine, so you should do the same. So
frustrating.
Yesterday, we went to Fichera's again. Sister F is so super sweet. She
made us lasagna and it was delicious. She also fed us gelato. It was
strawberry and lemon and it had like angel food cake in the middle..
It was so good! And, I tried frizzante water for the first time. It
definitely isn't my favorite, but I'll drink it.
That is about it. Haha... Sorry for a somewhat boring e-mail. It is
also hard to concentrate on writing because it is zone conference
tomorrow and all the anziani and Sorelle are here for that in Catania.
So a slightly crazy environment right now.
I love you all. I hope you had a great week! :)
Love,
Sorella Flansberg
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