"Disney is going to make a movie based in Italy, and we are going to
be the princesses in it. We chase sunsets and eat pizza and have
magical flower crowns, and we tell the princes they have to wait
because you guys are busy being missionaries and don't have time for
them." -Francesca
"Well... I liked the torture chamber part!" -Anziano Whitlock
"Man, you are about to make someone reeeeeally happy" -Francesca to
the pizza delivery man
"Look, if you get sorted into Slytherin, you've basically just been
screwed over. It's like 'hey 11 year-old kid, you'll probs be a death
eater one day.' Nice." -Anziano Jacobsen
It has been a week. What do you do when all but one person you're
teaching go on vacation? And you have under 10 active members? And
only 3 of the less-actives are willing to even talk to you? And there
are like no new people to find because everyone is at the beach? Well,
you get creative and try not to blame yourself for the slowness of the
work😂😂 also, you play Josh Groban music a lot. Also you try to serve
the Anziani in your city. And you try to visit or talk to anyone you
can. You also bake a lot, because we are not above bribing people. You
go on lots of crazy adventures, all in a skirt and a nametag. And, if
you're lucky, you get to do it all in a country you love with
missionaries you adore.🤷🏼♀️🇮🇹
Oh, funny story. So we went and visited this less active named
Christina. She's super cool, and the only reason she doesn't come to
church is because she's a live-in nurse. Well, we'd just gotten kebab
and had started our fast immediate after. Well sure enough, we show up
at Christina's house and she gives us each a giant pizza and makes us
eat it in front of her. I wanted to hurl. She also showed me her
kidney stone she keeps in a jar. I wanted to hurl x2
We also got to hold a mini sacrament mtg with the Anziani and a
less-active on Sunday evening. She hadn't taken the sacrament in almost a
year because of her work, and it was such a neat experience. Then we
got a call from her this week saying she's quitting that job- she gets
to start coming to church again first week of September! Man, faithful
people are so cool to me! Especially after normal sacrament meeting,
where a crazy Albanian guy showed up and called out all the members,
er, I mean, bore his testimony🤦🏼♀️🙄
In other news, we got wrapped up into a 30 min conversation with a
Muslim dude and it ended with him inviting me to convert to his
religion, then him accepting a Book of Mormon...? Whatevs. Good old
Isaac lol. Also, this random old lady who has adopted us as her
grandkids told this pizza place to put any pizza we order on her tab.
She also calls me kiwi and I adore her. Also, yay for small towns
where you are friends with all the bus drivers and shop owners. Makes
me feel like Belle in the beginning of Beauty and the Beast, and
sometimes it's nice to be reminded that some people in the city like
you❤️
Pday was reeeeeeal good today. We took a train to this city called
Gradara. It happens to be a full-on medieval city with a super dope
castle used in movies. Also, any of you literary people out there, a
lot of writers refer to the tragic love story of Francesca and Paolo.
I know it's for sure in Dante's Divine Comedy, but it's in other
stories too. Well anyways, their tragic love story happened in this
actual castle, so that's cool. Just imagine a medieval castle with
trap doors and torture chambers and a drawbridge and probably an
actual dragon stored somewhere, and that's the Castle of Gradara.
Super cool. Funny story though, last night at English class we told
the Anziani about how we were going to this castle thing. Sure enough,
today as Sorella Hurst and I entered the city, we saw the Anziani
sitting on the steps looking rather put out.
Us: "Wow, way to copy our Pday!..... and why do you guys look upset?"
Them: "We thought this was gonna be a super cool medieval thing!"
Us: "...aaaaaaand?"
Them: *points at the castle*
Us: *sees castle and streets have been covered with butterflies,
streamers, and a big glowing sign saying "Magic Castle"*
Ok, so yeah, they're doing a princess festival this week... buuuut
serves the Anziani right for trying to copy our Pday 🙄😂
We also got to do an awesome FHE with Francesca. She's so funny... we
went to the church to meet up with her, and instead of driving to her
house or someplace for the FHE, she headed to the beach...? And that's
the story of how we had a super spiritual convo on the beach whilst
watching the sunset. Also the story of how my childhood desire to be a
mermaid has totally returned. Maybe I'll look into it after this
mission thing😉🐬
I know I always talk about how much I love these stubborn Italians, but
y'all can deal with it since you only have to listen to me for about a
month longer lol. This last week, I got some emails from my precious
Firenze friends. It was really neat, because the bishop and his fam
sent me the talk "Cast Not Away Therefore Thy Confidence" by Elder
Holland. I'd read it various times before, and always liked it. It
talks a lot about the spirit of revelation- how it works, the ways
Satan tries to combat against it, and what we can do to remain
grounded. I love it because he utilizes Doctrine and Covenants 8 ("Now
behold, this is the spirit of revelation; behold, this is the spirit
by which Moses brought the children of Israel through the Red Sea on
dry ground.") to explain how revelation really works, and what we need
to do. His main points brought up were to come with a question, do not
fear, and remember that God will help us.
I loved this. In the end, it is really simple and super beautiful. He
knows all the answers and wants to help us, but we gotta invite Him in
and stay strong against whatever Satan might throw our way. The
adversary tries to discredit our spiritual experiences and cause us to
doubt and fear. We just need to not, lol. I mean, I'm sure the people
were pretty freaked out at this whole "parting the Red Sea" thing and
probs thought it'd be impossible, but there's a first time for
everything lol. God gets pretty creative on our behalf, and we really
just need to trust Him.
And that's all I've got today.
xo
Princess Smeds👸🏼
1-??? 2-The Magic Castle LOL 3-Our copycat Elders 4-9 Medieval/Princess Festival 10-20 Beach FHE with Francesca
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