6/4/14

Another Wednesday in paradise. Well, Bergamo... but it's Italy so that counts for something right?

Weather report: Rain decided to mess up life these past few days. It's also very hot. 24 celsius, whatever that converts to. Actually that's not terribly hot, but the humidity adds on to it. Good ol' Ohio... err. Italy.

In Italy there exists something called a bidone. The first definition is a garbage can, at least that's what Google translate will tell you. When used colloquially however, to give someone a "bidone" means to set an appointment with them and then not show up to that appointment. As missionaries, we become well-acquainted with this phrase. To me the concept doesn't make a lot of sense. If you don't want to see me, just tell me you don't want to see me. Everyone saves time. Anyway, there were quite a few bidoni this past week. It was a holiday in Italy, although of what I'm still not sure. Then it was also raining.

One positive thing that comes from a bidone however is that more time is now opened up to find other people to teach. The thought process is "well, if they don't want to be taught, we'll go find someone who does want to be taught!" Sunday night was pretty slow, so we decided to go ring some doorbells; classic Mormon missionary right? Although in Italy it's different than you would think because every apartment building is gated and to get in you have to ring the intercom. Some apartment buildings have 6 apartments, and some have 50. In big cities like Milano there can even be 100-200 apartments in one complex. So, the trick is ring an intercom and hope that they will either buzz you in without asking who it is or that they'll take pity on you and let you in with the promise that you won't buzz their door. Sometimes people get really mad when they find us at their doorstep, or even just at the intercom. Every now and then you'll find that super angry guy who threatens to call the police and even more rarely the guy who actually does. We have permission from the state to ring doorbells though, so the worst that happens is the police come, check our documents, we have a chuckle, and then we ring the next doorbell.

I know I sound like just another conman selling some sort of knock-off Windex, but I promise that what I have is much more valuable. No, it's a very rewarding experience. Anyway, we had entered into a building and we started from the top floor and worked our way down. I would say that every other door, we had a positive encounter in which we were able to at least hand out a card or a pamphlet. We had a nice chat with a very nice Italian woman who really needed it. She actually wanted to let us in, but we couldn't go in because she was alone in the house so we just talked for a while on the doorstep. In another building, the tenents were just as nice. We handed out more material and we even found a new investigator, a teenager who had read online about Mormons and was curious to learn more. Overall it was a very productive session of door-knocking and my testimony of it has grown.

That's the big experience this week. Another cool experience: Last week we had an Italian man walk into church in the middle of Sunday School. He asked if there was a way he could learn more about the Church. We were happy to help. This Sunday he came again. He has a Book of Mormon and a pamphlet which he's thoroughly studied. He participates in class and loves the service. It's been hard to meet with him so far to actually teach him, but he's doing a lot of study on his own and hopefully his work schedule will clear up so that he can start meeting with us. He read about Mormons online and was really curious, so he just showed up! That definitely doesn't happen every week, so we were really excited to see him.

That's the life of Anziano Simcox. Find, teach, baptize as I always say.

I love you all. Vi voglio bene. Cari saluti, Anziano Simcox

Picture: The Anziani of Bergamo. Typical characteristics too-- the four clowns having a grand old time and the zone leaders on the side "innocently" scheming.