February 12, 2014

These weeks are disappearing faster than my gelato... and that says something. Ooooh I'm funny.

This week I've been travelling a bit. On Friday we went to Milano for mission council, where leaders from each zone meet together and we talk about ways to improve the mission and we talk about problems in each of our zones. And we eat food. Yay pizza. :) I saw a few missionaries that I haven't seen in a while so that was nice. It's always a nice morale-booster to see mission friends from the past and see that they're still doing the same thing you're doing. Then last night we went to Verona (Romeo and Juliet anyone?) for another similar meeting just with Italians this time. Italians can really talk fast when they want to! It was good though. Now I can say I've been to Verona, even though I just saw a couple old buildings and the autostrada (freeway). 

The weather is beautiful. Nothing like Ohio from what I hear. The sun is shining. The birds are singing. We go out in the day without jackets. This has been the least scariest winter of my life. 

What did I do this week you may ask? More or less the same as usual, but hey! We did try a new way to make talking with people more effective. To be honest, going out in the street attempt to show people a book they've never seen/don't care about doesn't usually yield a whole lot of results. We decided that we would try to make it a little more exciting. How often do you see two nicely dressed young men with a whiteboard strapped around their necks walking down the street? Not too often I would venture to say. [see attached picture.] We took a big whiteboard we had hanging on our wall, strapped it around my neck, and wrote on it "Dio ci parla oggi?" which means "Does God speak to us today?" Then, we walked down to centro (the old part of town where the streets are wide and there are lots of shops) and started talking to people. It turned out to be much more effective than normal. It was a good way to talk to the younger generation too, because usually they don't want to listen to us. We had over a hundred people that day at least give us a tally and we were able to stop and have a few good conversations along the way. We have a few people with whom we working to set up a return appointment with. Cool huh? I like it a lot.

Well that was my week. Nothing too crazy, but I'm trying to keep the spice in life! Next week are transfers, so I might be getting a new companion. Anz. Hansen has been in Bergamo for six months now.

Here's your daily dose of spirituality. I've been looking for this scripture forever and my companion showed me last night. You Mormons have probably heard this before, but hey. I got excited. "Remember, to be carnally-minded is death, and to be Spiritually-Minded Is Life Eternal" (2 Nephi 9:39). Look at the letters I capitalized. Hehe. Scripture gem. It's true though. If we focus on the things of least importance, we get nowhere in the end.

Lots of love from Italy, Anziano Simcox.