Dear Family and Friends,
Italy is the best and I'm so blessed to be in Ragusa. Yesterday, we did a gesso near the Ibla Duomo and I got to play my violin. I remember thinking how much of a dream this is for some people, but it is my reality. One lady even tried to give me money but I quickly explained how we were missionaries and were doing this as a service, although the thought means a lot to me.
Ferragosta is here and that means lots of closed shops, more tourists, and more challenges that we are ready to face. Sadly, I could have used a haircut but nothing will be open until next week. The heat recently has gone down a lot so that has been a miracle considering everyone in Ragusa agrees this is the hottest that it has ever been! Really, we have seen a ton of blessings that are making up for the challenge of summer.
One day in particular was a miracle. We received an online referral (rare and far between) so we planned a day to go pass by. On the way there, someone stopped us about English Group. Then we met Salvatore who turns out to be from South Africa and speaks perfect English. I was definitely not expecting that for sure. He was super funny and nice and wants us to come over again for a pranzo! And after that crazy experience, some random guy on the street asked when our church meets and when he could come!
We also helped Elias who's from Nigeria wall to church and meet everyone. It's harder of course since he doesn't understand too mucu Italian, but he explained how he feels good here, especially when we sang the hymns in sacrament meeting. He's a very perceptive person and wants to come back next week! Sebastiano is doing better at recognizing what he needs to do, so we are trying to help him actually make those necessary changes in his life like better eating/sleeping habits and reading the Book of Mormon. Hopefully, he will be prepared for his planned baptism on the 9th of September.
Other cool things were dolce less active member finding (sugar cookies with cream cheese frosting!), Guido from English Group giving me hug since we are pausing it for 3 weeks, celebrating Fratello Lo Monaco's birthday with the cheesecake we made, normal long Emanuele lesson where he gave us "interesting" wild figs, cleaning the church with Stefano and Simone and then they mention they both want us to teach someone, and a surprise pranzo at the Manzini's house with the Scoville senior couple. Vescovo Manzini was pretty disappointed that we still didn't bring him a dolce (sorry!).
Yesterday I had the opportunity to give my first talk in church so as you can imagine I was nervous (we also sang a musical number too!). The topic was "The Most Difficult Part of Missionary Work" which I thought at first was a really interesting topic to choose. As I thought during the week, a lot of ideas came to my head of course. Talking to people, walking lot, rejection, serving others, but I finally summed it all up into Turning Outward, not Inward. The hardest thing is always sacrificing your will for that of God's, but as I mentioned yesterday, the reason we do it is because we love God and Jesus Christ so much (because they have done everything for us!). There is no other reason that can replace that. I know the mission is truly a blessing, an experience that refines us and makes us better, as well as blessing the life of every other person we meet. I thank God everyday for telling me to serve this mission and the opportunity that I have to be his representative everyday. I just love it so much and want to stay more! My favorite advice: quit worry about yourself, just go and do what's right and God will make up the rest
Vi voglio bene!
Anziano Price
No comments:
Post a Comment