Here we are again at another P-day! Can you believe it?? Cuz I sure can. ;) I'm still waiting for time to magically start passing faster. Don't worry. One of these days I'll write you and say, "What?? Didn't I just have P-day yesterday??" It'll happen. Someday. :)
Random things I've learned these past few weeks: People just look at us weird all the time. ALL THE TIME. We get on the metro and people just look at us like we're crazy. Sometimes that makes it easier to talk to people though. Because they look at you, make eye contact for a split second, and then you've got 'em! "Have you ever seen missionaries like us before?" Ha! Gotcha. So I think most of you know that Elder Holland's granddaughter is in my mission? One of the sisters I room with was with her in the MTC and they became good friends. So, we were talking about how cool/crazy that would be to have him as your grandpa. And then she told us that his grandkids call him PAPA JEFF. What?? How cool is that. I love it. So I've learned that I have no ability to memorize names of people or street names whatsoever BUT if you lead me through a maze of winding streets and ask me to find my way back home, I can totally do it. Luckily, Sorella Palumbo can do the names and I can do the directions. Because if we didn't have each other I would just.....never know anyone's names. And she would be lost. ;)
Funny story: On Saturday night, we were heading home from a baptism at the church. It was the four of us waiting at the Metro stop and we had a choice. We could either take the train that was coming right away that goes to Gessate and then have to walk 15 minutes home, OR we could wait for the Cologno Nord train that drops us off right by our house, but we had no idea when it would come. And it was already late, and we really didn't want to call the zone leaders, so this was a predicament. So Sorella Bucco says, "Ah man, if only we had a Liahona right now." And I, being the Girl Scout that I never was, said, "Hey, I have a Liahona!" And pulled the church magazine out of my bag. So she looked through the titles of the talks and there was one by Pres. Uchtdorf about your journey home. So we had Sorella Palumbo look through the talk and find an answer for us. (We were doing this all as a joke, mind you.) BUT THEN, Sorella Palumbo found a part of his talk that said that he took the train as far as he could go and then walked the rest of the way! So we had our answer! We took the Gessate train. We laughed about it for quite a while. We are dorks. Also, all I really wanted to do was have two of us take the Gessate train, and have the other two take the Cologno Nord train and see who got home first! Let's make a competition out of it! But, alas, we followed the words of Pres. Uchtdorf instead. The End.
To answer your many questions: Luckily, we had a zone training one of my first days here, so the zone leaders were able to bring any mail/packages that had come to the mission office and that's when I got the package from all of you! I didn't know that it was from all of you (Wendy, Amy, Bep, Dad, and Mom), but now I do, so thank you!! Yes, I got all of those things in one package - peanut butter, Jolly Ranchers (those have made me very popular), and the CHOCOLATE FROG. Best package ever! Because it was done through Amazon UK I didn't have to pay anything. So that was nice. And they're always stressing not to send packages unless it's through Amazon UK, because then we have to pay a ton of money. So, that's a good reminder. I'm honestly not sure about padded envelopes. ...That's a good question. Did you find anything out about sending packages within Italy? As for the weather, it was rainy for a bit, and you can feel a nip in the air. We can definitely feel fall coming! It's kind of like Salt Lake though. It's cold in the morning, so we go out with jackets on and then by the middle of the afternoon we are DYING of heat. But it's all good! I've gotten a few more mosquito bites, but nothing nearly as bad as my first weekend here. Only a few here and there. They were probably just welcoming me to Italy or something. We live only a few minutes away from a Metro stop, so that's nice and makes it so that we don't have to walk TOO much. But we still walk a ton. Especially when the place we're going isn't near any Metro stop and we can't figure out the bus system. Haha, this happens way too often. Also, we end up running places a lot. Running to catch the Metro, running to catch the bus, running to get to an appointment/meeting on time, running to get home on time so that we don't have to call the zone leaders. Lots of running. I usually end up playing the piano in Relief Society. I get really lost at the beginning of the meeting, so I just wait until people start looking at me with waiting eyes and then I realize that it's time for the opening hymn and that they've asked me to play. And then I just hope that it's a song I've actually heard before. Sometimes it's not and I'm pretty sure I end up playing them way too fast/slow, but that's okay! I don't think they mind too much. I think they're just grateful to have a sister who can play the piano. There's actually a brother in the ward who is a great pianist, so he plays for all of the other stuff. So that's nice. Sorella Palumbo and I sang a duet at a baptism on Sunday. We got a lot of nice compliments after that. (At least I'm pretty sure they were nice. They looked happy as they were talking to us after. I said "Grazie" a lot, so I really hope they were saying nice things.) Our mission rule is that you can only eat at members houses for dinner if there is an investigator present. So we've only had one dinner at a member's house. And we don't get time for dinner. So you either have dinner with an investigator at a member's house or you just eat a snack when you get home at 9. The big meal here is during lunch, anyway. So it's no big deal. It's really nice living in four because we all just make lunch for each other. Usually we just switch off making the meals in companionships. The food that we cook isn't too exciting - just a lot of pasta because it's fast, cheap, and easy. And cereal. ;) Oh my goodness, they have the yummiest cereal here. There's granola, chocolate, and hazelnut in it.... I eat it for dessert sometimes. P-day is really the only day we go out for lunch. The last two weeks we went to the same place and got these really yummy things - kind of like calzones, but I can't remember what they're actually called. And then today we got these awesome Kebabs. YUM. Also, we usually get gelato on P-days. Oh, gelato. So good.
Now, to the most important thing! Missionary work! We've seen a lot of less actives this week and found a few new investigators, BUT the one that sticks out is this lady the previous sisters had actually found doing strada one day. So we found her in the area book, Sorella Palumbo called her, and she was happy to meet with us! So we met her at the church on Monday night and, I tell you what, she's gonna get baptized someday. She is INCREDIBLE. She was Catholic for most of her life, but is looking for something different. She was just so open to the message that we gave her of the Restoration. At one point Sorella Palumbo asked her if she thought it was possible for there to be another book of scripture and she responded, "Of course! Why not?" We NEVER get that answer. She is incredible. We're meeting with her again next week and I am SO excited. I really do love this work so much. I have already seen the changes it can make in the lives of these people. We are SO LUCKY to have this gospel in our lives! Don't take it for granted! All is well here in Milano. And most importantly, the church is true. :) AMORE!
Sorella Gunnerson
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