Happy fourth of July!!! I'm so sorry to
hear about all the health problems with my cousins. I will definitely
keep them in my prayers! Give them my love!
I'm loving
Battipaglia more and more each day! Sorella Williams is great and we
were able to really bond this week. We also celebrated Canada Day!
She made a traditional dish named pouten or something. Then we also
celebrated the fourth of July! We had lunch at this familys house and
it was the best lunch I have ever had! They have this huge garden and
everything was fresh from the garden! Also...so our English course
here has been kind of dying and so we decided to try and get it back
up and have a party! We have spend a lot of time these past couple of
weeks making posters, planning, and inviting the whole town. Luckily
it turned into a huge success!! We decorated the church with stars,
split everyone up into two group—Americans and English and fought
for our freedom with minute-to-win-it games. Lots of people came and
had a lot of fun (and we only had one injury). We also made
America's finest...cheesecake, apple crisp, and pumpkin pie (made my
first homemade pumpkin pie! Except turns out pumpkin pie is really
strange for Italians and not many of them liked it...). Also, the
English won...so there goes our freedom everyone.
On Monday I was
shopping at Lidl (a supermarket here) when this guy asked me who I
was. I told him all about us and he said how he knew missionaries in
the past. He randomly said he played the organ (we have this organ
player in the church, but he is going to be gone all July and by
chance none of us missionaries here or the members play the piano) so
I asked him if he would like to play for us. He showed up at church
already and excited to play the piano! Miracle! God gave us a piano
player! ...Okay now for the funny story after...this guy...is
older...like at least 60 or 70 years old. Well he started hitting on
Sorella Scherbel (the senior missionary here) so I made sure to
introduce him to her husband. All was well. Then he asked me to sit
by him in church and he kept whispering to me the whole time about
going out to take a walk and getting gelato. I politely declined
because it was Sunday and I felt weird about him. After, he kept
bugging me about when we could see each other and go out. He kept
saying ''tu mi piace, sei bella'' (I like you. You are beautiful).
But he's an old man so I thought he was just being nice. THEN he told
me how I make his heart beat fast and how he's in love with me! AH!
My companion and I were just like no! No! No, not okay! We're
missionaries! He asked how we could make it work anyway and I told
him I'm too young for him. I told him I was 20 and he said he was 53
(Lies! He is older than that) and acted like it didn't matter. Eck!
This is the worst part of Italian men...there is no age limit and no
fear in telling someone how you feel. Gross!
Also, this week the
ward here has been difficult. I love them so much...but they offend
and get offended all the time! Half the ward doesn't come because
they got offended by someone. It's really hard to deal with because I
love all the members and I'm on every side. It just makes me sad to
hear how someone is missing out on so much, just because one thing
someone said once. I've really learned how stupid gossip is and the
power of reaching out to people.
Also, here in
Battipaglia....it's its city’s saint week! Almost every city in
Italy has a saint dedicated to it and they do a huge festival for it.
Their saint is Maria di Speranza...I don't know her story yet. But
all the streets are covered with stands, food, music, and lots of
catholic things. Wahoo.
Also, Italy is
COVERED in cats right now. They are all getting pregnant and having a
million babies and there are cats ALL over the place. The best is
that we get to go over to people's house and they-'ll have all these
kittens so I get to play with a kitten while teaching the gospel!
Yeah!
Anyway sorry this
letter is kind of all over the place, I wrote it fast because right
now I'm getting a train to go to NAPOLI (Naples that is....WHERE
PIZZA WAS MADE) and tomorrow I have zone conference and exchanges in
Pozzuoli! Should be fun!
Love you!!
And I will send you
pictures next week!
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