Hello from Snowy one day, Sun Shiny the next and raining buckets after Piacenza.
Altough a little damp, I am doing well and as always Piacenza rocks even though it begins to look like a lake lately. We got our transfer calls this morning because all of the missionaries phones were down yesterday. Seriously all across the mission. Well the verdict is... ... ... that I am going to... ... ... Train!... ... ... Just kidding. I am staying in Piacenza with Anziano Iacovelli. Though this morning when the phone rang our zone leaders in Verona (where Anziano Thompson is) first told me that I was training and I freaked out and they had me on speaker so I heard Anziano Thompson bust up laughing and saying "I knew he would fall for it!" Training means that I would be responsible for a new missionary from the MTC and have to teach him all about being a missionary. I was scared.
On Thursday, we recieved a text message from the referral center at mormon.org with a lady named Priscilla in Cremona (a city in our jurisdiction that is about 50 minutes away on the bus) asking for us to come visit her and her family the following Saturday. It was really awesome to see because usually we are the ones who do the approaching.When we called her, she said "I am so glad you called! You have answered my prayers. I have been praying for missionaries to come find me and my family and I put my name in mormon.org several weeks ago! I am so glad!"
On Friday we taught two friends from the Ivory Coast who speak French. One of them barely speaks any Italian and the other speaks really well. They were awesome! They accepted the baptismal invite and a date. It was really cool! Also they said that they felt like they finally found an answer to their questions. The lesson was really spiritual and it was in a mix of Italian and French.
On Saturday we helped an elderly couple in our branch move and they fed us after. It was pretty good. The craziest part of that was moving a fridge up four flights of stairs with a bunch of rough movers speaking in dialect and from what I understood, none of it was necissarily appropriate language. We went to visit Priscilla and her family that day and found out that Priscilla had joined the church years ago when she was living in the Phillipines and fell away. She wants to become active again and her son Nicolo who is 9 wants to be baptized really badly. When we asked him why, he said "So that I can recieve the Holy Ghost and one day hold the Priesthood!" Anziano Iacovelli and I were blown away! Her husband is Catholic, but Catholic in the way that everyone here is Catholic (went to church as a kid probably long enough to cover all the bases and jump through the hoops and then stopped and now barely believes in God at all.) Their house is really big. One of the biggest I have seen here in Italy and their walls are literally covered in art of many different styles and types. It was amazing. They actually did a good portion of it. They are really cool so we will go see them every Saturday.
We went to Church on Sunday and afterward we had lunch with President Taina, our branch president who then decided to accompany us to all of our lessons after with Sorella Libè and Yvonne. They were happy to see him but Sorella Libè seemed a little stressed because President Taina sort of rushed her through the lesson. That was a good day for the most part but it did rain like crazy!
On Monday, we woke up to a pile of snow which we rode our bikes in so that I could take my immigration class that is required before I get my Promesso di Sogiorno (green card, residence permit) which allows me to stay in Italy for the next two years. It was way boring but I just bit the bullet and took the class. It was a video of an American woman and an Englishman talking about all the laws and requirements and things the Italian government think people need to know to integrate into Italian culture and be happy here. None of it was super useful to me or missionary work and they didn't even cover the rules for people here on religious motive visas even though they said they would. It was really funny becasue I was the only American, male, over 18 person in the entire room and one of the girls in the room turned to the other and said "I am so bored! What is your number so I can text you?" They proceeded to text through the entire class and at the end added each other on facebook. I guess it is good to make friends to make immigrating easier.
Yesterday, We cleaned our house and saw Andrew and tried to get around the cell phone failiure that our whole mission experienced.
Today we got a new bike lock, haircuts we are going to go grocery shopping and then teach English!
That's been my week.
Mom, you asked me if I am in good health. The answer is Yes. I have just gotten over a cold/flu and doing great.Also I am about 50 lbs lighter than I was when we last saw eachother. The sun is coming out more and more, so it should be really nice soon. You also asked if there is anything that I need. If you could send my French study materials because as it appears, there are French speakers here... a lot of them. Actually if you can find any of my Spanish materials too that would rock, but French is a priority since the Spanish speakers can figure out Italian pretty well. You other question is what we have been cooking lately, well we do pasta things a lot because pasta and pasta related things are cheap here, I do quiche (which I could use some pointers on :) since yours is still way better than mine any day.) We made a chicken coucous curry vegetable thing which was REALLY good. I also made enchiladas which were good. We are trying to come up with some good ideas, so any that you can think of would rock. On the menu for next week is Chili (which I have never made from anything but a can), Tuna Sandwiches (to use up some of our old stuff), Tortelini soup, And Fancy French Bread Pizza.
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