Week 8 -- Miracle of the week: We didn't die!

This week we saw lots of miracles. Just little guys, but I think miracles nonetheless. For one, one day it was raining and so we were hiding under a doorway waiting for it to let up and this cute woman walks by and asks us if we want a safe voyage under her umbrella. So we each grabbed one arm of her and she was going to the exact same place we were -- same train and everything -- and so we got to talk to her for a while about the gospel and gave her a restoration pamphlet. Cute. Also, this week we met with a member in our ward whose kids are inactive, and our lesson was basically like, hey, you have a strong testimony so lets get your kids to church and we extended an invitation for her to invite them to the Thanksgiving party on Saturday and she said no, they are too busy, they have work, etc., but then she actually did invite them and they came!!! And we talked with them and they wanted us to come over and meet with them! I think the wife of her son is not a member also! And then we met one day with a woman in the Napoli ward whose daughter is inactive also, so she wanted us to plan a game to teach the kids and then a spiritual thought for the mom, so we did and the mom couldn't come. So we did a shift lesson with the kids and then went with her to go drop them off at home, (and I'm like kinda having a bad attitude because we are only supposed to do lessons for 45 minutes and this was already over that) and we go in and talk to the mom, have the son tell what he learned and then we talk to the daughter and she talked about how she can't believe when there is so much bad... and then at the end she said she wants us to come help her get her faith back!!!!!

BUT THE REAL STAR OF THIS WEEK:  OUR APARTMENT CAUGHT ON FIRE, hence the title. My silly sweet companion doesn't know how to cook and added water to hot oil (we were making stuffing for the ward party) and it WENT UP IN FLAMES and then it calmed down and we thought it was fine.  NOPE.  The vent above it caught on fire. I patted it out and thought I got it out but no such luck because it was turned on, so the fire got sucked up through the vent. Sorella starts having a panic attack so I have to be the calm one, but I don't know how anything works, I'm yelling at her to turn off this vent, smoke starts billowing out, we are searching for our fire extinguisher and no luck, so we start banging on all our neighbours' doors asking for a fire extinguisher and help but I can't do that because I don't know those words and don't understand what they are saying but Sorella is freaking out so she's not really understanding either. So everyone clears the building, someone calls the fire department and the police and THEY DON'T ANSWER. Some guys in our building go and start throwing water on it which isn't working. We're all freaking out and then a calm, clear thought comes to me:  businesses have fire extinguishers. CAN YOU SAY HOLY GHOST OR WHAT!  So I say it out loud and so I follow after Sorella (once again I can't speak Italian, lol) down the street to the pizza shop and the men from the shop run down with their huge fire extinguisher, get to the door of the building (not even where the smoke is because smoke rises and we are up some floors) and they say it's too scary. So Sorella grabs it and runs in and those men are still throwing water at it inside though.  Thick smoke (Italians smoke so much that I don't think it phased them) so we run up, Sorella with a guy's help is spraying the fire. It took THE ENTIRE HUGE FIRE EXTINGUISHER TO PUT IT OUT. Wow. Also somewhere in there I called our Anziani because they ignored our first call and said "hey, our house is on fire, can you please come help. Like run." And they say oh shoot, yeah. So after the fire is out we are outside, super shaken up (some lady brought out milk for us), Sorella is crying, it's a mess, we look down and see our two Anziani running down in white shirts and ties. Lol. And the senior couple also came like 20 minutes later. The fire like shattered glass, ruined the vent and the stove, fried some wires, we might have to replace the wall. But we are safe and our apartment still smells a little (upstairs and close to the scene of the crime) but it's fine. We aren't allowed to cook obviously, so the senior couple brought us American snack foods because they are on base and we got lots of leftovers from the ward Thanksgiving party so we are good on food. Also in Italy there's food everywhere. 

Long story but a good one. Other than that we did a lot of finding (found this one lady Maria who like asked us to learn more asked us to come over!!!!!!!).  Did some casa a casa (house to house) which is rough here because it's all the buzzer, so you ring the buzzer and they hang up. Also when we were doing that I got such a strong impression to ring a group of houses but I ignored it because Sorella had just said this is where the Testimony Jehovah's ring so we don't. Finally I said something and wanted to stop on the way back but I couldn't remember which one. Lesson learned... listen to the spirit silly)

I gave my birth testimony yesterday and it was like I got up and forgot everything in Italian. Super awkward. Super me. But the Italians in our ward got off on a weird tangent about the last days so I think I called it back in. The members are sweet and said my Italian is good even though it's not, lol.

1.  Have you had any thoughts on anything you would like me to send to you for Christmas?  Favorite candies?  Or favorite things like ramen (LOL), Easy Mac, etc.?  Any ideas for your companion?

We had a member in our ward this week who literally came up to us and was like, "Hey, if you guys want anything, like anything, write it on this piece of paper and we'll go get it.  We do this for the missionaries."  But they've been out of town for a while so Sorella didn't know about it.  So literally as far as candies or american treats go, we can get them all the time so don't even worry about it.   Like I told you before, I just want cute little letters.

2.  What was the spiritual highlight of your week?

One thing that I really think is cool, and it kind of keeps coming up and I feel like everything that I'm studying and the central point of the gospel is revelation. And so we were teaching a lesson with this family and, first of all, when Italians talk about something I don't understand all the words and so I think that they're arguing and they're like yelling across the table, and this whole time I thought that they were screaming at each other.  It turns out that's just the way Italians talk.  Anyway, so she was going off about how "I can't trust you. I can only trust God."  And Sorella had a moment, she got everyone quiet, and she was like, "Yeah, the person here who is the most right is her, because what she's saying is exactly true.  You can't take my word for it.  You need to ask God."  Yep.

3.  What have you learned from your studies this week?

I can't exactly remember what I studied. one thing that is super cool is the changes they've made in Preach My Gospel in section 3, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and then I've been studying in Alma in the Book of Mormon -- so a lot of missionary chapters, which I love, and I have three different colors and I'm just marking everything because everything is so good.

4.  What was the funnest thing that happened this week?

Today we went to the theatre (pictures) which was pretty cool.  Napoli is a cool city so that's fun.  The fire was kind  of fun...just kidding!!!

5.  What was Halloween like in Italy?

Last week I told you that we took a family to the Halloween party on base and it was basically like trunk or treat, literally the exact same as at home.  As far as Halloween here, I think what they do is they trick or treat at businesses.  We were out contacting on Halloween and we totally forgot it was halloween, and so all the groups of little kids were just wearing the same exact costume, groups of little kids, so it was kind of hard to contact people that day.

6.  What did you do for P-Day today?

We went to Napoli and we went to that theatre, and then for lunch we got kabob which I thought was just the same as kebabs at home, like a little gyro type deal, but it's not.  And on the French fries, I think they call it ketchup but it's not ketchup.  They put a ton of almost ketchup and mayonnaise.  It's interesting.

7.  Are there stores similar to Wal-Mart and Target there?  Where do you do your grocery shopping?

No.  We do our grocery shopping at a grocery store but there's a bunch of markets that have fresh stuff. It's just like a normal grocery store, but it's small.

8.  Do you have many opportunities to do service for people there?

We got to do service this week because we helped out with the Thanksgiving party at church and then we also helped out at Young WOmen in Excellence last night which was fun and was just like at home except half the girls were Italian. All the desserts were the same -- they had cupcakes and cheesecake and we sang for that.  We sang "Light the World" (I think) and also I noticed a painting by Rose Dall was in the Napoli chapel and it was super exciting!

9.  Do you have to walk to church?  If so, how long is the walk?

Yes.  It's about 30 minutes.  Mostly it's like all uphill.

10.  Have you started reading Jesus the Christ?  If so, how is that going?

Not yet.  I don't have time because I have to learn Italian.

11.  What is your favorite Italian food so far?

We haven't eaten a lot of Italian food.  We had pronzo last week with an Italian, one of the people that we teach.  she made this pasta that was good, and chicken and potatoes, which is pretty common.  Yesterday we had pronzo with someone in our ward who was giving us a ride to the Young Women in Excellence and she made some Chilean soup that was really good, but they're an American household.  I would have to say pizza, which I've still only had twice.  for lunch we make a salad which is like cut up fennel, corn, some chicken, and then balsamic vinegar, oil, and salt, and so that's what we usually make for lunch and the first time I ate it I was like, what is this? But now I actually like it and sometimes I think that I wish I had that in the house.  Also, one of the families sent us home with a bottle full of red sauce and I'm sure that will be delicious when we try it.

12.  How do you find joy in your daily activities?

I don't know.  I eat a lot of candy.  Me and Sorella have a lot of fun together.  We get along really well so that's fun.

13.  What is a typical day like for you?

Wake up after four alarms (LOL), get out the door probably at 6:30.  We live in a piazza (I think) so we can run around this square, it's basically a giant square of concrete with some trees and benches and cars around it, so we go and exercise out there.  We either run around the square or bring mats out and do some bodyweight stuff.  Not enough because I'm already getting a mission bod... Then we come in and plan for 30 minutes, then we get ready for the day (we have an hour to get ready and I usually take 30-40 minutes) and then I start personal study.  We personal study until 10:00 and then we leave for three hours.  We might have appointments, but we don't usually have morning appointments so we usually do contacting.  We'll walk down to a giant boardwalk and we'll do finding there until 1:00, and at 1:00 it's pronzo, which is lunch, and the pronzo hours are like from 2:00 to 5:00 or 6:00 and Italians will come home and eat and nap, so no one will be outside during those times.  So normally other missionaries have studies in the morning but we put that all during those pronzo hours.  So we have pronzo from 1:00 to 2:00 and then we have language study, companionship study, then an extra hour of companionship study since I'm new, so then it's like 5:00, and then we go out from 5:00 to 9:00 finding people or visiting people.  Right now we're doing a lot of finding new people to teach and teaching some lessons.  Then we come home and I have a snack because I'm always hungry, and then journal a little and go to bed, and then we do it all over again.  

Anyways those are the highlights of my week that I can remember. Love you all so much!

This is the biggest grapefruit I've ever seen but it wasn't very good.

The scene of the crime...

At church yesterday I saw this painting by Rose Datoc Dall in the chapel.  She was in our stake in Virginia!

Erin sent cozy socks.  I love them.

 I don't really know what this building is but we walked right past it.

"Just" a castle in Napoli

San Carlo theatre

Me in front of a famous place in Napoli...

It's a bit rainy and humid...

A big church in Napoli

I still can't find Diet Coke here...