pizza is good.

ciao tutti!!

mamma mia my loves! what a week it has been in my beautiful italy! let me just say really quick that i cant use apostrophes here because i dont know how to do so on an italian keyboard. things like this are embarrassing for an english major; forgive me. 

hopefully i can be a bit more organized in my thoughts this week. last week ... was cray. and so was this week. and so is every aspect of my life right now. haha but i am devoted to the cause of organization!

thrusday

-we took the bus to san giorgio ... and i got sick. ick. however, we were rewarded for our efforts as good efforts ALWAYS are! we went to see some less actives in the area but instead found TWO families to teach! what the ... i cant find the question mark key ... ? aw-hah! what the?! two families. one family we stopped to ask for directions and they noticed the name gesù cristo on our tags. they told us how much they love the savior, especially after some health troubles they have had in the past. golden. then we were walking to the house of a member and a girl came running after us yelling ... SORELLE!!! REMEMBER ME? her name is annatonia and she met with the sisters a few months ago but it didnt really go anywhere. we gave her a book of mormon and have an appointment to meet her and her family next week. MIRACLES!

friday

-i began my italian diet for sure. which is the exact opposite of an american diet. it consists of eating pizza and gelato and coke and pasta and everything else that promises obesity. this has got to stop! haha i am working on it but seriously the italians know their way around the kitchen. 

-BEN! i found the pizza of your dreams, which i have since learned is like the taranto staple pizza. it is a regular cheese pizza with fries as the topping. haha! classic. ill take a picture of the next one i see and send it to you. also you guys have to see the mcdonalds here. it is hilar. everyone loves it because they love america, but it is like a classy version of the mcdonalds we all know ... minus the $1 drinks, bummer.
-we ate with some members and the anziani that night and they PUMPED us full of coke. sorella taylor says when the italians learn about different things that are popular among americans the members will find it in italy and spoil you with it. that day is was coke. haha! and i found a new best friend member. she loves sufjan stevens, therefore i love her and we sang a little chicago together until i felt guilty and stopped. haha!

saturday

-today we found a olive vendor and i will never be the same. it was a dream come true. they had all these different types of fresh olives and nuts. we bought a big bag of olives and a big bag of almonds for a grand total of 4£. yeah. love.

-we went to lama this day to visit a different less active. she told us to wait about an hour then come back and we could chat. she is a returned missionary so she knew that we needed something to do for an hour. she let us into her building to do a little casa-a-casa. it wasnt very fruitful but we did find these great stickers that kindly asked jehovahs witnesses to stay away. (i found the quotation marks!) "jehovahs witnesses: we are not interested in your message. thanks." ha! almost every door had them. ha! 

-sister taylor has had a terrible cough ever since i got here. sad. we bought her some syrup and it makes her a little loopy ... much to our entertainment. she was crazy this day and i was LOVING every minute of it. haha poor thing!

sunday

-WHOA good day. first of all it was fast sunday so that is good. then we saw ANOTHER miracle. franco, our investigator that refuses to come to church, CAME TO CHURCH! yay! and he couldnt have picked a better day. almost all of the youth stood up and bore testimony of missionary work. it was super powerful and then one of the investigators of the anziani stood up and just demanded the spirit. it was so powerful. she talked about her love for the book of mormon and how she cant wait a day longer to get baptized. it was beautiful. and franco felt it to! such a good day!

-i took a nap for like 10 seconds and i have never been so happy. seriously. tender mercy.

-we ate at the home of the missionary power house family. the pastano family. they are so great. they have a son that served in milan and their daughter, marianna, just returned from the milan mission. she is a gem. she helps us all of the time, plus she is learning english so she insists that we only speak english to her. WOO! she is so great. 

-you all would have LOVED to witness this next thing. we have family home evening with the young singles group (the GANZ) every sunday night. first they asked me to give the spiritual thought. HA! luckily the spirit was there so he took over but it was entertaining for the natives im sure. but they really got a kick out of watching me play taboo in italian. haha! i cant even play that game in english! yike. one giant singular yike. haha it was a classic moment for us all!

-ew i ate another italian specialty ... a soggy bagel. weird. but they loved it!

monday

-anziano visintin (my mission dad) is a gem. or at least i thought so until he, a native italian from northern italy, offered me a (insert quotation marks here) delicious italian treat. they were these disgusting licorice bitter mess of a rock that shouldnt even be considered food. ick.

-i had my first authentic italian pizza. made to order and everything. apparently the tradition is to have new missionaries eat a whole pizza by themselves. easy. but guys i swear i wont be totally huge when i get home ... maybe. it will be hard because seriously, the pizza changed my life. 

me and my pizza! 4 formaggio ... buonisima!

-maybe i am talking too much about food. lots of other more important spiritul things happened but i figured that i couldnt describe those things as eloquently as they deserve and you need to know how good the food is so there you go.

tuesday

-i realized that i all of a sudden have cankles ... and i know what youre thinking ... maybe if i didnt eat like a pig i would have ankles ... but no that is not it. haha you should see the stumps i have grown for legs. i called sister kelly and she said that it happens all of the time for the newbies. she said to drink more water and avoid salt (so no more olives until i have ankles again. sad.). haha i will have to attach the picture of my legs. i can already hear courtney laughing! it is really embarrassing ... i am turning into a big italian old lady grandma already! heaven help me.

grandma sorella wightman and her poor achy legs. haha!

-in other food news ... i tried orzo and have found my true love. i think i was called to italy for orzo. it is divine. come here and try it. on me!

-we found a new investigator when we decided to find the prepared people that are right under our noses, in OUR building. and we found her. she is so wonderful. her name is angela and i can already see her in the ward with all of the rs ladies! pray for her. ooo i cant wait to teach her some more!

- today we went to citta vecchia by my love lungo mare. it seriously felt like we took a walk back in time. it was BEAUTIFUL! i will attatch some of those pics for sure. it was absolutely beautiful. PLUS i had my first conversation about the church in italian all by myself while sister taylor was talking to the bus driver. it was great! i hope they call us soon! 

mediterranean sea and CITTA VECCHIA (old city)!

oh man. missions are good. really hard. harder than i ever thought possible, but oh so good. i feel so blessed to be among people with some of the strongest testimonies of our savior jesus christ. it is both beautiful and sad at the same time. all of the people here love christ and center their lives around him. but are so confused because of the true evilness of the apostasy. BUT that is exactly why we are here. to ensure everyone, to remind them, that god has restored HIS gospel, in all of its glory and its fullness, for these the last days. i am overwhelmed with gratitude for his trust in me and other young, flawed, weak kids that are blessed with a black tag displaying the name of our redeemer. he trusts us with this important message that i cant bear that anyone goes without. the truth has been restored, my friends! it is time to FEAST upon the goodness of our heavenly father and dont let anyone pass you by without reminding them of their worth and the treasures that their father in heaven, the almighty god, has prepared and preserved for all that are willing to receive them! i know that my redeemer lives! 

i love you all so much! thank you for your prayers! keep them coming. these italians deserve the very best, so pray that i, through the grace of god, can be just that for these people! and i will pray that you too can be instruments in his hands! be happy. be good. FEAST!!

ps - i just saw that baby easton is here!! yay! congrats chelsey!!! he is BEAUTIFUL!! also CONGRATS KENZIE! that canadian temple worker really knows his stuff!! yay!!!