First of all I would like to say sorry for how long this email is. 😅 Allora, this week I accomplished the amazing task of eating 1 kilogram (2.2 lbs) of cookies over the course of the week. I think I am a better person because of it. Also I realized that "Nessun Dorma" is in Italian and I can understand it. So you could say it's been a good week.
Also! We just found out our mission has been approved for Facebook! So that will be interesting. I'll definitely be learning some self-control the rest of my mission haha.
Sorella Vanderkooi, one of the other Bergamo sorelle living with us, started training this transfer. Her new missionary's name is also Sorella Johnson haha 😅 She is really nice and we have a lot more in common than our last names! It is nice not being the youngest in the mission anymore. Also I will be the oldest Sorella Johnson in the mission the whole time I am here 😎👍
The new anziano here to replace Anz. Austin is Anz. Norton. He's from American Fork, UT and played trombone with some of my good friends from the U!! I thought that was super cool. Also I noticed Anz. Norton wearing marching band shoes as his black shoes and called him out on it. He said I was the only one in his whole mission who's ever noticed, and he's been out 11 months. I don't know whether to be proud or not... 😅
We ate at the Ghilardi family's house twice this week. They live on the floor above us in our apartment building and they invite us over to eat all the time. They are the greatest. Monica, the mom, made swordfish! It was actually super good! I thought I didn't like fish, but maybe I just don't like American fish haha 😝
On Saturday night we went to a member's house to have a lesson with some investigators and the members who are their friends... but the investigators didn't show up... so the members made us eat food. I ate chicken heart and liver without knowing it. I was very glad I didn't know until I finished haha. Once they told me, all I could think about was the frog I disected for my sophomore biology class.
On Monday we also had a lunch appointment with the Garcia family. It was super fun. We played trivia and I still won, even in Italian 😎 Then the mom was like, "Sorry this was so boring. We can play a better game next time." And then I was sad haha.
Several times this week we've seen good 'ole Giorgio that I mentioned in my emails awhile back. He is really hard to understand, because he slurs his words altogether-- he is used to speaking Bergamasco, the local dialect. Instead of his usual half-buttoned white shirt, shorts, and sandals, he's changed it up: He now wears a half-buttoned, long-sleeve pink shirt, jeans, and sandals. What a guy. He has very long nose hair I've noticed. Also when we asked him a couple days ago what he would be doing that day, he said, "Ho appuntementi con seidici donne!!" (I have dates with 16 women) and then he proceeded to tell us that every time he goes to Esselunga (one of the more common grocery stores in Bergamo), he has a nice pick of cashiers. I'm making some interesting friends.
We've also seen this guy on the bus several times who is afraid of bees. The reason we know he is afraid of bees is because the first time we saw him on the bus, there was a bee, and he was literally running around the bus swatting it away. He ended up at the front of a bus in the fetal position. We haven't talked to him yet, but at least I can think of some good conversation-starters.
On Friday we had our first lesson with a woman named Tina who is from Nigeria but has lived in Italy for 17 years. She is very passionate about religion, as most of the Africans here are. We started out the lesson by talking about how God is our loving Heavenly Father and how He blesses our families. We asked her how God has blessed her family, and she told us this story: a few years ago her brother was kidnapped in Nigeria, and the kidnappers were requesting a ransom of about €10,000. Tina was here in Italy and couldn't go back to Nigeria to be with her family, so over the phone, she told her mom not to worry and that God would help them. Then Tina fasted and prayed continually for her brother's safety. After a few weeks, the kidnappers lowered the ransom to only €200, and another family paid for him to released, and he was. Tina told us that she knows God blessed her family when that happened. Pretty amazing story I think.
"... you will not be whole and healed and fully empowered unless you receive the voice of the Spirit and go and do whatever it directs" ("Put the Savior First," Ensign July 2017). I know that we are prompted to do good in order to be tools in God's hands. We will become better and feel more fulfilled when we hearken to those promptings, or thoughts, and become better instruments in God's hands.
I hope you all have a wonderful week. I am attaching a pic of a house that says "Benvenuti alla casa di Babbo Natale" (Welcome to Santa Clause's house) that is obviously not la casa di Babbo Natale, Anz. Norton's marching band shoes, a little gift we left in someone's mailbox when they bidone-d us (had an appt. scheduled and didn't answer or show up), and a ceiling that is heart-eyes gorgeous 😍
Vi voglio bene!
Sorella Johnson
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