7-11, sacred saturday, and piazzas.

buona "pashqua" tutti!

italians.
they know how to party.

i am still recovering from the pasqua food shock. man, they weren't kidding when they told me that sicilians know how to eat (they = sorella smedley, who told me that she often made herself throw up after eating with members in sicily. the food is too good to stop and plus nobody listens when you tell them that you don't want a fifth serving of lasagna anyway).

if you want to know one thing about italians it should be this: a holiday isn't a true holiday unless everyone gets at least 5 days off of work. easter included. which threw a bit of a wrench in the work but hey our beloved ragusans (i don't actually know their proper title) thought even more about jesus christ this week with or without us having to tell them to. really it was the worst on saturday. we had an appointment that went ... uh ... went. then we figured to keep the member who accompanied us, to do some finding work. first we wanted to visit an old investigator. we got to the house and the member, named gaudia, said "um, i went to this man's funeral this morning." ha! well, not "ha" because he is dead but "ha" because that's ironic! eek, i'm loosing my humor along with my waste line. anyway we had back-ups. they all fell through. how dare we try to talk about jesus christ the day before easter!! in fact one lady yelled at me so much. WHAT KIND OF MISSIONARIES ARE YOU TRYING TO TALK ABOUT CHRIST ON THE SACRED SATURDAY! oops. sorry guys! gaudia however gained a bigger appreciation for missionary work that day. haha! still love em, just fyi, dont bother an italian mother in the kitchen on the night before a big christian holiday.

then it happened; pasqua. church was lovely. we watched this film called il creditore il debitore il mediatore and i loved it a lot. it was a little parable about the justice and mercy of the savior. then this great little sicilian man in the ward gave a talk about the resurrection that had me all kinds of emotional. but one line specifically got me: see this week's italian word phrase of the week to know what it was. then we were invited to the sorrentino family for pranzo. ooooooo boy. i love that family. mostly i love them because their son looks like a mini italian version of joseph gordan levitt. i wanted to kidnap him the whole day. plus his name is salvatore. and all the kids love disneyland so we literally talked about that all day long. for lunch we ate 1) artichoke lasagna with spinach pasta 2) lamb and peas -- which is the ragusa traditional easter dish 3) some bread that is made with lots of pepper, boiled eggs and pancetta 4) fruit -- sicily has THEE BEST oranges that has ever entered my mouth 5) this delicious ricotta cake -- sicily has THEE BEST ricotta that has ever entered my stomach. speaking of ricotta, i wish i could email you all a cannoli like the one i am eating now. that is really saying something. usually when i love something so much i avoid having to share it at all costs. the only time that i have loved something so much that i had to share it was the gospel. and now cannoli. anyway the sorrentino fam is great. the dad is a convert from napoli. he is from a little town outside of salerno. i asked him if he knew grandama and grampa wightman and he said that he was probably baptized right after they left. dang! but he said that the branch that they served in was really fabulous and that they probably had something to do with that. they also told me all about their trip to utah 13 years ago. their favorite "restaurants" were crown burger and 7-11. i told them that i would die if 7-11 didn't exists. they said they want to look into how they can open a 7-11 in italy. ha ha dream life! then i couldn't stop smiling for about 20 minutes. man i love them. we spent the rest of the evening with a member family and their less active best friend, anna. she loves us so much. well she loves mistura so much. haha! she only refers to me as "america" and involves me in the conversation when she wants to know something about america. haha! whatev.

then the next day, in order for pasqua to be considered a true holiday, monday was also a holiday. pasquetta. where every italian goes to the countryside or the beach and relaxes. mistura and i had "cleaning day" at our apartment for a solid four hours until it was time to go with anna and the member family for their pasquetta festivities. we were almost out of the apartment doors when we realized that we forgot something in the house. we ran upstairs to grab it and realized that not only had we forgotten the thing but also we had forgotten our keys. in the house. locked out. on pasquetta. when all of the italians our in the countryside or at the beach. oh boy. that was quite the little pasquetta adventure. BUT eventually we got in ... about 8 hours later. in the meantime we went to marina di ragusa, which is the beach town. everyone seems to have a little condo on this adorable little beach with a boardwalk and a gelato shop in the middle of the piazza. apparently that is where everyone escapes to in the summer. good to know ... i am more than willing to come do some finding work in marina in the summer!! i thought i was dreaming. it is easily the most beautiful beach town that i have ever seen. we ate gelato, did some contacting, basked in the sun, chatted with anna and her father-in-law and his girlfriend. it was a pasquetta to remember.

tuesday something happened that i have thought about every single time i knock on doors. preface: italian last names don't get too crazy. everyone basically has the same last name and there are about 10 to choose from. one of them is micozzi. we were knocking on doors without a lot of success when finally we rang a doorbell and the couple told us over the speaker thing to come right in. wow! proselyting miracle! we scurried up the stairs to discover, fratello and sorella micozzi, active members in the ward. haha! now we know where they live. we had a good chat with them and got back to work, aka: we went to english course and talked about april fools day.

tonight we are visiting a family that was given to us as a referral and i LOVE them!! our next baptisms for sure. pray for them, will you? they are GOLD!

also i am SO EXCITED for conference and i hope you all are too. i am realizing how blessed i am to live where i can go to see conference live. confession: last conference was a) my favorite conference of all time -- maybe because missions have this power to make spiritual things clear as day b) the most homesick i have been on my mission -- you don't know what all of those video swoops of temple square can do to a slc girl. but hopefully i am man enough to handle it this time. we have been prepping for conference all week and i want to invite you to do the same. will you prepare yourself for the opportunity to hear from the prophet of god, who holds the SAME keys, and SAME power that moses did when he parted the red sea, that noah did when he built the ark, that joseph smith did when he brought light back into a world of darkness?? rejoice! because we have a living prophet to lead and guide us. he has received revelation that will protect us from the guaranteed storms ahead in the coming 6 months. rejoice! because he is preparing to share with us the things to do to become like jesus christ. rejoice! because we are experiencing something so special this weekend, something that deserves a special fast and prayer and spiritual and physical preparation. ask and receive. this is my prayer for all of my little loved ones on the opposite side of the planet. (beeteedubs, can you believe how close i am to africa right now? ... weird). rejoice!

click here for some good conference prep.
click here for some more good conference prep.

saddest thing ... my camera card reader will not read my new camera card. UGH! i think i am more upset about it than you are (mom). really i am so sorry!! i wish i could fix it and send to the most beautiful pictures ever ... because i have them!but nothing is working :( sorry!!!

xoxo
sorella wightman