this is going to be a quickie ... i have a new city to explore! guys, ragusa is beautiful!!! really. imagine the most italian wonderland your mind could ever imagine, times it by three, and add the most delicious cannoli and also the steepest hills ever and WHAM >> you have ragusa. i love love love it already!
some asparagus that an english student gave us like flowers ...
after our ten hour bus ride (my fave part was the ferry ride to sicily. the mediterranean sea was misting my face and the sun was warm and it was a dream) ... we finally got to catania, another gem of a city (just less hills and more ocean). we hung out with the sisters there because we missed the last bus. sorella mistura is a GEM! she is AMAZING! doesn't speak hardly a word of english, but imagine me (a girl that only exists by talking) trying to live my life with an italian that doesn't speak english ... yeah, it's that good! but i am learning and getting really creative with how to say what i want to say and my italian is already like 192,387,519,085,710,923,875 times better. haha! you would never know that she only started this whole adventure 7 weeks ago! i am the oldest (both in age and in the mission) in my district. eek! mistura - 7 weeks. stewart (from east milcreek) - 2nd transfer. and ... uh i forgot the other one's name (from brighton) - 4th transfer. whoa. but mistura is PRO already and i have a LOT to learn from her ... not just italian. haha!
okay lets do this letter nutshell version:
- ragusa has a new yellow chapel. can you say love at first sight? can you say it in italian? yeah me neither.
- sicilia is like this little mini collection of the oldest and nicest people you have ever met. doing finding on the street has never been so full of love and kindness! for example: the first lady that i stopped on the streets of ragusa was an awesome hippie named silvia. she talked with us for about 30 minutes about the gospel. however, i don't know how much she understood since at the end she bore her testimony about how she knows that we were sent to her by the feminine power of the madonna (mary, the mother of jesus ... italy's fave person ever).
- sorella mistura is the italian version of all of the tony wood daughters combined. it is really something interesting to witness. imagine kenzie, mAAson, and the twins as one person who was born and raised in verona and is now serving as my companion in the sweetest little village (raguse is the kind of place that should be classified as a "village") in all of southern italy. really i can't explain it better than that. you will just have to meet her for yourself and you would agree with me.
us 2 after a freak rain storm that i thought was for sure going to blow us away.
- i was spoiled with american goods yesterday. there is a missionary couple serving on the american naval base in catania that came to do an inspection of the hole in the wall that we so tenderly refer to as "home". since they live near the base they have all the hook-ups to the american goods. they brought me a care package full of mexican goodies (tortilla chips and salsa >> aka all that i lived on in college << diet coke, snickers, taco seasoning, tortillas, and love). then they treated us to mcdonalds. and they only speak english. it was weird. america ... it is nice, but italy ... good times. anyway it was really nice of them to do that for us.
our american treasures.
- our shower is the silliest thing on the planet. i wish i could send you a video or something of me in the shower (that sounds REALLY inappropriate but i mean it in a comedic way not like ... THAT). ragusa, in all of its glory, has one flaw; they have no water. there are people in the ward that have no running water at all. so i guess we are lucky. but the water pressure is equal to that of the amount of water that comes out of the faucet when you accidentally bump it a little tiny bit. drops really. so we have this hand held shower head that you can't put on the wall, you just have to hold it. so i hold it and the drips get me wet after about 30 minutes. then i can wash my hair. it is something else. but hey, i'm learning a new skill: how to shower with drips.
- imma have one killer behind after this ragusa stuff. the city is all hills. that's all. ps, google IBLA. gorg.
- easter is this week. we will see how italians do it. surely it will be something great but all i know now is that they eat this special cake that is exactly like the special cake they eat at christmas. but don't tell them that ... they'll fight you to the death about it.
- my life has changed for the better after eating the sicilian specialties: arancini (rice balls filled with tomato sauce and cheese) and cannoli ... holy.
- my companion is out of this world special.
- i have been reading this talk and having my mind blown. our identity and our destiny by tad r callister. and also in the strength of the lord by elder bednar.
- alma 31:38 is my goal.
i love you all so so much. thank you for the prayers and the thoughts and the letter and the love. be happy.
xoxo
sorella wightman
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