Anziano Orso Letter July 31, 2013

In Italy!!

hey how is everything??? there is so much to tell you!!! i only have about 50 minutes right now so ill try to tell you as much as i can.

this has been one crazy of a week!! i had jetlag really bad!! i was out of it the first few days when we would go out to missionary work. but we arrived in Milan, Italy and went straight to the church! it was pretty crazy, because the church building is just a normal building in the City. i have always wanted to go to New york. well Milan is the same thing. after the meeting i got my trainer and where im assigned. guess where im assigned....... Tuscany!! so its really Humid!!! im dying being outside all the time. haha but its okay, at this rate i'll come back as dark and the Austins haha. and the misquitos attack everyone!! its like an apocolypse!!

 

but im in a city called Prato. every city in Italy is designed the same. in the middle is called Centro (central) and that is where all the people go out to eat and shop. then the houses around it. but the culture is a huge shock for me. 1. they dont have AC in any building....its too expensive to have it. so be thankful we're in america. 2. they dont have ice...so all of our drinks are like luke warm, unless we put them in the fridge. but im grateful for that little cool feeling after a long day. 3. everyone here is stuck in the 80's haha. just imagine a bunch of micheal jackson style clothing walking around everywhere you go haha. but everything else here is good. the pizza is amazing!! and so is the gelato!! thats one thing italy has done right haha.
 

so im in an apartment with three elders. my companion is Anziano Walker, he's from Utah. and the other two are Anziani Anderson and Ibba. Anderson is also from utah, and ibba is from southern Italy. so everyone in the apartment can speak italian except me....which is really frustrating >:( but i know it will come over time. when i talk it takes time but i can get my idea out and what my purpose is. but when they talk i dont have an idea what they are saying.. because they talk so fast!!! but overall the italians are nice people. until they find out what our actual purpose here is.... at first a lot think we are jahova witness, which gets frustrating cause 1. we're not 2. they dont believe us when we say we're not.....but its what ever. haha
 

so me any my companion are "white-washing" this area. they divided the district and so we are starting from scratch. so this means its a lot of finding work. walking through the parks, and going casa in casa (house to house) but thats what missionary work is. finding those the lord has prepared to hear the gospel.
 

but so far we have one potential family. we found him in the park and we have had two lessons with him. he seems really interesting so we're having another lesson with him in thurs.!! other than that not really anyone new....just a lot of park lessons. we did have two miracle finds this week. on sat. we did a split and i was with anz. anderson. we were riding our bikes to give a lesson to this lady and we got lost....so i said hey lets ask those people for help with directions. they ended up being less active members!! and its family of 5, nono, nona, mama, figlio, figlia. what are the odds that we found them in all of Prato?? and then yesterday we were on the bus home and this lady who live in Pistoia (next city over) looked at our name tags and asked if we were mormon. we said yes and then started asking us all these questions. so we gave here card. and are having the missionaries in Pistoia call her. we always find our elect people at the end. i know its the lord testing our obedience and faith.

anyway everything here is fine!! always pray for me! i need it a lot sometimes. but the lord gives me strength so im good. tell everyone else i said hi and i love them. love you.

Anziano Dominic Orso