January 7, 2009

Hi!

How are you all doing? Have you given away the Book of Mormon yet? Does anyone answer my questions? This week has been really good. Our New Year's party at the crazy sister's was a blast! We had a delicious dinner and watched fireworks. New Years day was Festa di Lavoro, which means party of work. We do it twice a year on the mission. It's where we stay home all day and deep clean the apartment. It was actually a lot of fun to be able to stay in my sweats all day long! And our apartment looks great!
This week has still been a little slow. The holidays last forever long here! Yesterday was La Befana. It's a holiday where a witch brings the kids stockings full of presents. It's pretty much like another Christmas, so Christmas lasts 2 weeks.
Saturday we were doing house, and a couple let us in. They listened for about 2 seconds, and then spent the rest of the time trying to convert us to Catholicism. They kept giving us all these magazines to read, and gave us a Mary necklace charm. We gave them some pamphlets, too, which I'm pretty sure they only took because we took their magazines. We tried to give them a Book of Mormon, but they wouldn't accept it. She looked at it for a little while, though. She flipped it open to a random page and read the first verse she turned to. It talked about believing in the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, and how at the last day we will all stand before Christ and know of the truthfulness of the Gospel. She read it aloud once, then stared at it for a couple minutes, read it again, stared again for a couple minutes, and then gave it back. It was a really neat experience. When we got home that night, we experimented and saw which verses we turned to. They were always random verses about someone begat someone else, or something like that. It's so amazing to see God's hand in this work. I know that it wasn't a coincidence that she turned to that verse.
I heard once that a coincidence is a small miracle in which the Lord chooses to remain anonymous. I have so many of those little miracles each day! I know witout doubt that they're not just coincidences. I see so easily the hand of the Lord in this work. It could be so easy to brush off things as coincidences, but when we have faith and choose to see the Lord's hand, it is always there.
Saturday and Sunday night our district did chalk in centro (downtown). Chalk is where we have a huge sheet, and draw with chalk on it. It always attracts people's attention, and when they come over we talk to them about what we're drawing. We drew the Plan of Salvation one night, and the Prophets the next night. We met some great people and got some amazing contacts!
Sunday after Church, we went over to the crazy sister's again. They wanted us to make them an American breakfast for lunch. They're moving to Milano tomorrow. They loved the breakfast! We made french toast, pancakes, bacon, eggs, fruit salad, and syrup. (that's right, we made syrup. They don't have it here, so we made it from scratch!) They asked us for all the recipes of everything we made. Giulia, the most crazy of the sisters, said she wants to become American so she can eat that everyday. We told her that we don't have a huge breakfast like that everyday, but she chose to not believe us and still wants to become American.
Monday we visited one of our inactive members, Giuliana. She's single and has 2 kids, Momy and Michele. They love me! They cried when I left. They are so sweet. They gave me several little presents and drew pictures for me. Momy, the girl, is 7 and Michele, the boy is 5. He gave me his favorite ornament off the Christmas tree, a puppy, because I told him I have a puppy at home.
Monday was also the birthday of Salvatore, one of the elder's investigators. He's the one that has the 18 year old daughter, Rita, that we visit occassionally. They both LOVE the missionaries! Rita invitied the elders and us over for a little surprise birthday party. She made it sound like it was just going to be the 2 of them and us 4 missionaries and a little bit of cake. When we got there, it ended up being his whole family and a full on dinner. And Italian dinners take forever! You have the antipasti, first course, second course, salad, dessert, then coffee, with about 10 minutes between each course. We didn't get home that night til almost 11! It was really good, though. He was telling his kids how much we've helped him and how we've saved his life and brought him hope. It was a really great experience.
I love you all so much and hope you're doing well. You're in my thoughts and prayers!
Vi voglio bene!
Banpy at home.
Monday was also the birthday of Salvatore, one of the elder's investigators. He's the one that has the 18 year old daughter, Rita, that we visit o