THANKSGIVING! Even though we're in Italy, we managed to have ourselves a merry little Thanksgiving. The Harmers, the Dibbs, the Assistants, and us had a wonderful dinner at the mission home. Sister Harmer was cooking for two days straight. Bless her heart. They went to an American military base and got a bunch of American food, including a Butterball turkey, so we had a decently American Thanksgiving. It really hit the spot.
Don't worry, we eat Italian food too. Wednesday night we had an activity for just the men in church. Our investigator (really he's the ward's investigator, we just handle the paperwork) hosted it. He's a professional chef, so he knows his stuff. He taught us all how to make Parmigiana di Melanzane (Eggplant parmesan). Che buona! Anz. Strang and I came ready with spatulas and mission aprons (see picture). It was a good bonding moment with members of the ward.
We've been working with a less-active/part-member family. Roy and his sister Lalita are from the Philippines and joined the Church many years ago. Lalita's husband Joephil, who is not a member, just recently moved here. Because they live so far away from the chapel and there are no busses/trains on Sunday, they have not been able to come to church. We asked around, but no one was able to give them a ride. This past Sunday in church, we noticed an Italian woman in church whom we'd never seen before, so we introduced ourselves. She was a member who had moved to Rome, but had just recently moved back to the same city where Roy and his family live. As we were talking she asked if we ever visited people in Crema. We mentioned Roy and Lalita. She wondered why she had never seen them in church and we said it's because the mezzi don't run on Sunday. She volunteered her car on Sunday and also time in the evening to accompany us to lessons with them! We took her to a lesson a few nights ago and she fell in love with them immediately and organized a ride for them tomorrow. Sweet!
Last Sunday we had a funny experience with that family. They had invited us over one afternoon because they said they would have a couple people over to lunch. We thought oh cool! We'll come, eat, and then have a lesson with them. Well, "a couple people" turned out to be a bunch of filippine and their Italian husbands. We rang the doorbell and Lalita's sister opened the door. She was really confused why we were there, but we thought she was Lalita because they look alike and so we were double confused. But she let us in anyway and everybody just got quiet and stared at us. Honestly, it looked we had just been out ringing doorbells and we just walked into a party. We looked around for Roy or Lalita or Joephil, but none of them were there! So it was super awkward for a little bit. Then we ate some food and started talking to people and it got less awkward. We actually had some good conversations and met some nice people and dispelled a couple rumors. There was this group of Italian men and they were kind of mumbling amongst themselves and saying some not too nice things. Then one of them came over to where I was sitting and said "so, tell me about this whole Mormon thing. I've never had a chance to talk to a Mormon." We had a really nice conversation about Christ and prophets and a bunch of other good things. We exchanged numbers and hope to see him and his wife again sometime!
Moral of the story: Missionaries should crash more parties. :P For the record, Roy and co. did show up eventually and confirmed that we were indeed invited.
I'm loving Lodi. Between what little time in the evening we have to do proselyting work and the time we spend in the office, life is so spontaneous and unpredictable (see Exhibit A above). I'm loving it. I'll find out pretty soon if I'll be finishing my mission here or going off somewhere else for my last six weeks. I'm hoping to stay. I love Lodi so much.
TTFN. Have a great week! Love, Anziano Simcox.
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