I'm here in Italy! We left on Tuesday morning and got to Milano finally around 12:30pm on Wednesday. Whew... We had lunch and some lessons and then we toured the Duomo. I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside, but I attached a picture that I took outside. It's huge! After that we went back, had dinner, and then went to bed to sleep off the jetlag and vertigo. The next day we got assigned to our areas and off we went!
I've been assigned to a city on the east coast called Pesaro (PAY-zuh-row), in the region Emilia Romagna. It's a beautiful city. I started out with just one companion, but now I actually have two, which means I have two trainers. That's pretty much unheard of, so you can say I've had an interesting first week, even for a greenie. My first companion is Anziano Miller from California. He spent the past year in the Army, so he's very precise, but also very energetic. He can be a little difficult to get along with, but given time I know we will be able to work together and grow our unity as a companionship. This is only his third transfer in the mission (meaning he's only been in Italy for twelve weeks). The fact that he's already training new missionaries is also unheard of. Obviously there's a reason we are together and here in Pesaro! Our other companion is Anziano Garcia from Argentina. Although he's Argentinian, he lived for a while in Rome, so he's fluent in Italian. It's actually much better than his English. Anz. Garcia was in Ancone (the next area over), but his companion had to go home. He got sent over here with us and we are now covering both areas between the three of us! It's a huge area, but we're doing our best. We actually have to take a 50 minute train ride to get to the other side of our area.
Italy itself actually reminds me a lot of Ohio, except with European architecture, mountains in the distance, and everybody speaks Italian. It's just as humid here, it rains a lot, and there's random cities spaced out between trees and lots of fields. Everything in Italy is much greener though. The streets are exactly what you think of: narrow cobblestone alleys with colorful buildings. It's really neat. The architecture is awesome. Every building is different and painted colors I never knew existed.
Pesaro is a decently large city. It's famous for it's university, and also for it's music (go figure I'd get stuck with the music right?). Apparently Rossini was born here. His house has been turned into a museum about him and you can tour it. Pesaro is also right against the Adriatic Sea (I think that's what it's called). I haven't seen it yet, but hopefully we'll get out to it soon.
The food here is magnificent. Americans think they know what pizza is. Please... It's fantastic here. They really do eat pasta a lot though; and bread. Lots and lots of bread. Really good bread. I'll try to get some pictures of food in my next email.
Ok, now the people. Pesaro is a very hard city to proselyte in. The branch of members here is very small. Pesaro has ten active members! Their faith is astounding though. They do the best they can to strengthen each other. I love working with them and I'm hoping to see their branch and their faith grow while I'm here.
We've had three lessons with investigators so far. The first lesson was with La Famiglia Galli (The Galli Family). They were a referral from a member in Ancona named Marina. She helps us a lot! Anyway, we showed them the Restoration film and talked a bit about the Book of Mormon. They said they were looking for the truth, but they didn't think that this is it. They at least took a copy of the Book of Mormon and said they'd read. That's about all we can do. We are not here to convince anyone of anything. We are only here to invite.
Another lesson was with an 80 year old woman named Maria Luisa. She lives about 45 minutes away from Pesaro by bus, so it was a bit of a challenge to get there. She is actually Marina's mother. It looked like the lesson was going to be really great, but once we got into it, it turned out she only wanted to meet with us to argue. It was really sad to see that. We could hardly get words in because she just kept going. Again, we can only invite.
Our other lesson though is the one I want to focus on. She's a 23 year old ragazza (girl) named Gyldena (Jill-day-nuh). She is awesome. Anz. Miller and Sanacuore met her about a month and a half ago. They set up an appt, but she didn't show up. A month later they found her in the library and they found out she had been running late and got there after they left and didn't have their phone number. So they set up another appointment and we were able to meet with her on Saturday! She is awesome and we can tell that she is sincerely looking for truth. She is very smart and I enjoyed talking to her. We had an awesome lesson with her and we have another scheduled for this Saturday. She told us that if she finds these things to be true, she will be baptized!
My language skills are another story. I generally can say what I need to say, but my comprehension is not so good. i have a hard time understanding when people talk to me. I know it will come with time and effort though!
Overall, the mission is filled with bumps and bruises, but I am here and I am fulfilling my purpose: Inviting others to come unto Christ. That's the best reward I can think of.
Ci vediamo, Anziano Simcox
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