Beautiful beatiful things are happening in Varese! Seriously, I couldn't be happier. We are finding amazing people literally everyday and the people we have I love and want to be friends with forever and are coming to church. What more could I ask for?
First la famiglia Ortiz. We taught the most incredible law of chasity lesson Tuesday night. At the end I just told them how much I voglio them bene and how living the comandments will davero bring them a lasting happiness they can't imagine.* We invited them to get married and baptized and they're thinking about it. At the end we were drinking some aranciata chatting it up and Alfonso just says to himself "sposarsi" as if he had never thought about it before.
During the lesson Senia said "Okay...so if someone wants to be Mormon they have to per forza be married." I said "If you live together, yes." She made jokes about her sleeping on the couch. Anyway...I'm praying my face off for this family.
Then there's Luca. I don't really know what to say. He's so great and I just feel lucky to be one of the missionaries to teach him/just talk to him because I don't feel like I teach him much of anything.
Next is Barbara. The sorelle found her daughter Giulia on the bus right before I got here and we finally got to go teach them last week. Super rad Italian family who are just interested in everything. But Barbara is straight-up elect. There house already has a beautiful spirit because they are such good people. We taught the restoration and came back this week to eat lunch and teach the plan of salvation. Barbara is ready to come to church and read the Book of Mormon and check out the website because she wants to be informed. But the more we teach her the more she expresses all the things about catholocism that she's never really jived with. We're going back when Giulia gets home from France so we can see them together in about a week.
Then we have these two Albanian girls we found this week. First, Gina. Sorella McNamara stopped her in front of the post office talking about the family, and we ended up talking about the purpose of life and she said "In fact I've been kind of confused lately, all the trials we live and what it's all for," I summed up the premortal existence, our goal to return to heavenly father in three sentences and she said Ma che bello! non ho mai pensato cosi! It was one of those moments where I felt like the spirit just put the right words in my mouth because it was something I had never said before and just came out for her.
Then a few hours later we met Suarda, also from Albania, who told us she was an atheist and we had an awesome discussion about prayer and God. She's totally open to the idea, just doesn't really know anything. We'll see her again tomorrow.
That night we were off to do casa and long story short, I felt like I had to talk to this lady at the bus stop and she royally blew me off. The other lady nearby started laughing because it was so absurd. So we laughed and started talking, she took us home to meet her 13 year-old daughter. They're Hindu and the mother wants the daughter to come to English class. We taught them the restoration and the daughter walked us to the bus stop. On the way she tells us that her Mom doesn't know, but she believes in Christ. We're giving her a Book of Mormon Tuesday.
Then we got off to our casa spot and Sorella McNamara rang the citofono and this little 4 year-old girl was talking to her and finally opened up. We find their door and the mom answers. I tell her how God always answers prayers and ask if God has ever answered her prayers and she lets us in. We teach the Joseph Smith story and we're going back tomorrow to give her a Book of Mormon.
Another favorite is the lady Fransisca (from the Domenican Republic) we met walking by the lake in Gavirate. When we had our follow up appointment she took us to the house she works at and we taught the Italian lady she works for too. Then we went back tonight to find 4 other dudes from the DR who are friends of the son of Fransisca who had been doing some house work and taught them about the Book of Mormon. Two of them were super interested and gave us their numbers to track them down because they had to scapare. All from little Fransisca, the very last person we talked to two weeks ago. Enough miracles for now? What say you?
Basically I feel like I'm finally back into my stride that I reached in Bergamo. I feel like the Lord is guiding us to find the right people, I feel like I'm getting better as a missionary and a human. I love this place and all the people here, davvero. I had a great chat with President today at interviews about hell being when you die meeting the person you had the potential to be if you didn't follow through and we talked about that for the mission too. I told him today was my 9 month mark and I was in shock and I've been thinking about what I need to do make sure I'm the best missionary I can be when I finish. And he more or less told me he was proud of my work, I just need to keep on doing what I'm doing and get better every day.
I'm reading Talmadge's Jesus the Christ these days and it's been really beautiful to study the example of Christ as a teacher and just focus on my work being to love these peeps, because when you do everything else falls into place.
Vi voglio troppo bene,
sorella cespuglio
ferragosto - an August holiday where everyone chills.
I voglio them bene - Proof that Whitney is forgetting how to speak English. Basically this sentence says she loves them and knows that they'll truly be happy.
aranciata - really good orange soda
sposarsi - to get married
per forza - a must-do
ma che bello - How beautiful, I never thought of it that way.
to do casa - go talk to people door-to-door
citofono - intercom outside a flat of apartments
scapare - take off
davvero - truly
The verb is "scappare" with double P!! :D
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