Dear Family and Friends,
Today was nice. We played soccer with all the missionaries in the zone. Just a nice fun day with good food, laughs, old fsces, and new friends. Now it's raining hard like it has for the past couple days and it's sadly getting in the way of our work. Oh well, what's one more trial right?
I'll just get straight to the good stuff. As Zone Leaders, we have the responsibility to teach and inspire the missionaries we serve. We felt strongly the need to strengthen the Ragusa district and so we decided this week to go their district meeting (I promise this gets more interesting so stick with me).
We pull into the great city of Ragusa and I couldn't help but feel that same special love once again for the time I spent here. Exactly the same good old tranquillo Ragusa. We park in front of the pristine church to find Anziano Morrill and Mars already waiting for us. Anziano Morrill gets a big hug of course and I don't let go of my figlio, Anziano Mars, in the mission for a minute (I didn't realize how much I missed him). Dolce was eaten, the meeting went well as we delivered our message of encouragement and diligence, and we even were able to give blessings of comfort to the Sorelle there.
Now, as we are leaving Ragusa with Anziano Morrill and Mars because we are about to do a scambio, I see we probably should get gas. That leads to Anziano Mars recounting the story of when Simone, a member in Ragusa, put diesel instead of gasoline into his car. I get out, finally figure out how to pay for this, and then grab the black handle and start putting what I think is gas into the car. It was diesel.
Now I know many of you are shaking your heads because I was at that point too. And of course, we reasoned that it probably wasn'ta big deal so we drove. 50 minutes later we are on the side of the highway in the middle of sicilia, waiting for a tow truck to come get us. Finally, it comes after a couple of hours, and I'm just grateful at this point. They give us a car to drive back and follow the truck back home. But twist, it's a small red Fiat 500 and it's a stick shift. Quick update: I don't know how to drive a manual. But since I was the only one authorized to drive, I had to learn. The Italian helping quickly taught, "It's easy! 1, 2, 3, 4, 5!" In short, I manage to finalky learn how to change gears, get the car all the way to 3rd gear on the freeway and stay like that until we get into Catania. In Catania, there was a traffic and it starts pouring! I'm forced to change gears and really finally learn how to drive the car in this rain. In the end, after several times stopping and having to turn on the emergency lights, we made it safely to the auto shop and currently, we hope to get the car soon. That's another mistake I'll never forget.
Really I have been working on encouraging myself more and I had been wishing for more exciting experiences so I got my wish. Nothing else too interesting really. My scambio with Anziano Morrill was nice, my first one so I'm glad it went decently well and that I was able to comfort him and help him serve in Ragusa. As well as I went on a scambio with Anziano Lambert, a greenie here in Catania, and I loved it! I loved seeing that enthusiasm, the desire to attack the world, even if a lot of things got in the way. Other than that, we taught Giuseppe and had an amazing cena thanks to the Rochira family, I had an astounding pistacchio bomba (i'll try and get a picture for next time), and of course, General Conference!
All I can say is, I really needed general conference. I asked God for a mountain to climb and he certainly has given some mighty hills to mount, but I feel there's still more waiting for me. Hearing the words of prophets and apostles really enabled me to feel the Holy Ghost confirm that these things are true, that I just need to keep enduring, and learning, and growing! Have peace, don't fear, and know you are doing the right thing! I know this church is lead by Jesus Christ through his prophet and apostles. I could complain and try to get by with little effort, but that's not what God expects and wants me to do. I'm going to give it all, and hopefully this week I will be able to really feel that I did it!
Vi voglio bene!
Anziano Price
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