While summer might be ending on that side of the world, it has just begun for Italy. And that means it is hot! Honestly, I was cleaning the balcony on our deep cleaning day Saturday night and thought to myself, this feels like home. So either Italy has become just that for me or it's about as hot as it is in Peoria haha. Apparently according to the people I ask, these longs periods of caldo are very unusual and so the people here at Ragusa are also having a hard time adjusting to it as well, as shown by the increase in men not wearing shirts on balconies (2 times there was someone just in a speedo!).
But even the heat can't stop us, or at least I am not going to let it. Our finding days have resulted in us walking around town looking for the only person on the street to talk to, calling people, searching for addresses, heading to parks to escape from heat and find other people escaping it, and of course classic Via Roma. One night coming home after talking to this one kid (who actually began trying to convince us to read the Quran in the end after we explained about the Book of Mormon) and this lady that thinks she speaks English, asks us, "Are you fine?" (Translated: How are you?). It was hilarious!
This week also involved a lot of waiting. Anziano Mars finally got his fingerprints done at the Questura (only took 2 hours this time) so that was successful! We also visited Comiso this week and had two great lessons with members, especially the Guastella family. I love feeling the Spirit come from these people and the dedication they have despite the great opposition they have usually. It's very powerful and they always bring a smile to my face (because they are just so dang funny in italian!). But the bus that was supposed to take us back never came so we ended up waiting an extra hour outside. Don't worry, we made up the lost strength with an extra helping of pasta. I have to say that we are getting pretty good at cooking pasta like the ragu pasta al forno we made to start our fast, was soooooo good. Mmm!
Okay, side story! We decided to have pranzo one day in the church so that it would make the long walk to Emanuele's house more managable. That was super fun and spontaneous but comunque, we arrive at Emanuele's house sweating still from the hot sun. Basically, this is the way we think is the best to teach Emanuele. Remember when we talk, it mostly us yelling slowly so he can hear.
Introduction (3-5 min)
Tangent story about what he did that day (~5 min), then he mentions that it's not his fault for talking so much, it is our fault because we didn't bring a stapler for his mouth :)
Prayer
Emanuele argues about how we shoudl drink wine in the sacrament instead of water (3 min)
Open the scriptures, Turn to 2 Nefi 31, Emanuele reads one verse
Pause, talks about catholic baptism, we explain how we do baptism by immersion like Jesus did, etc.
Next verse
Emanuele proceeds to explain a random story about a Catholic pope
Skip to important verse, he reads
Emanuele explains once again how even though he doesn't like some people that practice his religion, his faith is still in his church and he doesn't want to change followed by a story that explains why not (~30 min). He is really loyal to his father and he believes that he would be disgracing all his father ever did for him if he changed. But he said he likes us a lot still.
Emanuele offers coffee. We deny. He asks if we can eat cookies, to which we say we can.
Emanuele offers a ride home. We try to deny but he says don't worry, just give me time to put on some pants.
Anyway, that was the best lesson we had because his side tangents were related to the scriptures we were reading. He is so funny, interesting, and he totally surprised us yesterday by coming to church which was totally unexpected.
Also Sebastiano is making great progress and continues to be awesome! He picked us up for church without us calling and he said he stayed up until 3 that night. We probably should talk to him more about his sleeping and eating habits haha. But he is great and the ward is more on board with his conversion too so we are hoping that are fasting and prayers will help him receive his testimony. Miracles are really happening and I don't think I can appreciate it enough. Like yesterday, we heard someone yell "Mars!" So we turn and see Elias, a contact we had met two weeks ago that promised to come to church. He explained his situation and we planned the next week to walk with him to church. Before he mentioned that he wanted to know about our "doctrine" in his words, so luckily I brought everything we had in English for him to read. I guess we will see what happens on Sunday!
I'm looking forward to this next week and recommiting myself to work even more. As I have been reflecting on these past few weeks, I have realized there is a lot more I could and should be doing as a missionary. I guess that's the real beauty in what we are teaching as missionaries, that God gives us the opportunity to change every single day and only waits for us to ask and receive his help in that change (repentance). So I am going to work as hard as I can because God loves me and knows that all these trials are good for me. I will not shrink before this fight. I need to give my all. Bring it on! I can talk to all these people, I can withstand rejection, persecution, old sicilians talking for long periods, the heat, all thanks to our Savior (sorry, that was my personal pep talk haha). I truly love being out here unlike anything else or at least I really want to love every second of it, because I know that this mission is changing my life and I hope the lives of everyone else here.
Vi voglio bene!
Anziano Price
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