Early morning email because we're off to catch a train to Firenze. O mamma, am I excited. Plus, not sure if I told you, but Sorella Nilson did the BYU program in Siena so she knows the area and tells me all sorts of history as we giro around. She'll just be my personal tour guide as we explore today.
This week has been beautiful, but first, a few thoughts.
Dad I was literally just talking to Sorella N yesterday about kayaks and remembered for the first time in ages how much I don't love my Vela anymore and wondered what my kayak status was, so your email was perfetto. Color wise, I'm not sure. NO sparkles. Maybe tell me a few of your color combos and I'll tell you what I like best. I do love the turquoisey blues but I know that's not always the wisest open water choice.
Okay, so missionary work in Siena is hard. But we are so happy and so hopeful always. And I haven't laughed so much in awhile. There are times when it's a good thing people don't answer their doors because neither of us are breathing we're laughing so hard. We're talking days and days of 9 hours of finding. That is a lot of finding and you realize how nice it is to teach, not just because that's why we're here and it's fun and people are great, but because it's 30-60 minutes that you can sit down...ha.
But the miracles have started flooding in. Like crazy. After my first week I really felt like I had finally learned what it meant to work hard and how to pray because I know that I can make nothing happen here in Siena, it has to be the Lord, so I pray and pray and then I work and work. And we've already trippled the number of phone numbers the Sorelle got last transfer. When I got here the sorelle had been here about 1.5 transfers and they spent days cleaning out the nasty apartment and doing all kinds of prep work. The way sorella nilson put it they couldn't even plant any seeds for awhile they were busy weeding and plowing the field. And now we're finding people that want to listen to us. A couple cool peeps:
1. Luca and Claudia. Here is the simplified version of how we meet Luca. Everyday we pretty much pick a new place to do casa from 5-8 so we're out in this little funny town full of CRAZY people. Seriously, the weirdest casa I've ever done, including kids messing with us on the citofono, large dogs wanting to eat us, a man with a scary pointy tooth BETWEEN his front two teeth, and old man who talked about and inch away from my face (who wants a Book of Mormon..) yeah, just tons of crazy.
People are starting to eat dinner so we make our way to the bus stop and this car stops and asks if we're Sorelle and offers a ride to Siena. So obviously we get in this stranger's car and a few minutes into the ride realize they're Jehovah's Witnesses. Have a pretty funny conversation, they were actually much less aggressive than usual, and drop us somewhere I've never been outside the city walls. Sorella Nilson thinks she knows where we are and we start walking up the shoulder of this highway road on the other side of the metal thing that runs between the traffic and the four people that probably walk that road once a year. But there ahead of us is a couple so we stop and talk to them and he is the nicest so excited to talk to us subito gives us his digits and we have an appointment to see at least him, maybe also the woman in church tomorrow.
2. Grazia. We had planned to do casa in a couple places where the Anziani had potentials two years ago and we get to this palazzo with no last name, so we just start ringing names trying to get in. I'm on window watch to see if anyone calls down to us and then this woman appears with her keys and Sorella Nilson tells her who we are and how we have a message we want to share with the peeps here and she said, "Sure I'll let you in."
So we go in and I ask her if she has a few minutes we could come up and tell her what we believe and she's like "Sure thing." She's this beautiful girl, maybe late 20s from Taranto studying to be a judge and it was incredible to teach someone who just understood everything we were teaching. At the end we asked if she thought it could be true, and she said "yes," and we asked if she wanted to read the Book of Mormon and she said "yes."
We left her house so dazed, it was too perfect and incredible. I had this moment while we were teaching her and I just looked at her and saw how beautiful she was, and how much God just loves her and I felt SO inadequate that I have this responsibility to give her the gospel, to teach with the spirit and simply so that she is given a real opportunity to accept it and change her life for the better. How crazy it is that God trusts us with His children.
3. Dimintri and Claudia. Sorelle found them a few weeks ago and we finally got to go back and teach them, kind of...it was kind of a crazy lesson because they had forgotten. Dimitri is 23 and Claudia is his mom and they are the funnies, and you can see in his face that Dimitri is a good kid and gets what we're saying we just need to organize ourselves to see them more.
4. Cesar. Found him last week, came to our second appointment in the church on time and came to church on Sunday. just got here from Peru two months ago, meno male I pretty much understand Spanish.
Running low on time. Things are beautiful here, time is freaking me out. I still can't get over this city, old red buildings and green shutters everywhere. Not only can a camera not really capture it, but I feel like my eyes can't open wide enough to let it all in.
love you all!!!
be good!
sorella cespuglio
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