Hello!
This week has been really tough. It's flu season here in Italy (I guess it is in the USA as well...), so there are a ton of people that are sick. We got tons of appointments that fell through, most of them because people were sick. Since I wrote last, we've only taught a few lessons, and only two or three of those were to our investigators. However, this week has been a lot of fun! Last thursday we had a conference with a few zones (it lasted all day long) - that was great! We have another conference tomorrow as well for the same zones. Also, starting last Sunday, Anziano Pastillo is giving me the opportunity to be the "senior companion." I get to make all of the calls, lead the nightly planning, lead our studies, and, of course, try to start and lead the lessons. It's been really hard (especially the phone calls - I don't like making phone calls anyway, and it doesn't help that I don't understand the language super well, and it is even worse on the phone because of the noise and sound distortion!). However, it's been a lot of fun, and I've grown a lot these last few days.
Anziano Pastillo and I are growing closer and closer every day! This last week was the funnest we've had so far! Even when we get rejected, we have fun. We've been continuing to look for "successo" in everything. One time, we got rejected at a door, but we were really friendly and hopefully showed good examples and thereby helped someone come a little bit closer to Christ. Anyway, after this, I made the remark - "successo!" - and while we were approaching the next door. Apparently this was still on his mind when the lady opened the door, because the first thing out of his mouth was "successo!" Whoops! She probably thought we were crazy, but then he corrected himself, and we laughed a little bit with the lady at the door (but she wasn't interested...). We've been trying to serve each other more and show our love for each other more. One night, I made a bunch of little paper strips with dumb little sayings (inside jokes that we have) with a "ti voglio bene" or something similar, and hid these all throughout the apartment where Anziano Pastillo has stuff. It's kind of fun, because he'll be going to get some food or something and he'll find a card that says something stupid (one was hidden with some eggs, and it said successo!) and we'd have a good laugh. Also, yesterday was Anziano Pastillo's birthday! For lunch I made him a custard (mango flavor) that was pretty good. Then, at Mary's house, she had a cake (it was coconut and had some other sort of nut in it - it was had a pretty simple taste, but it was good) for us. Then, we went out and bought a pizza. 1/2 had tomato sauce, cheese, ham, and some other sort of something (maybe a vegetable or something?) that was spicy - this part was my favorite. The other 1/2 didn't have tomato sauce (maybe a white sauce, I'm not sure), but had cheese, spinach (or some other green), and sausage. The pizza here in Italy is so much better and so different than the pizza in the USA (the crust is a ton thinner, there's less cheese, and it just tastes better!). Then, we were still hungry so we went and each got a huge kebab. We didn't do a ton for his birthday, but it was fun!
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Anyway, most of the success we've found has been with Nigerians! These people from Africa are absolutely amazing! They usually speak English, and the way we approach them is saying something like "how are you doing, my brother!?" Most of them are very open to our message, but it is hard to schedule time with most of them because they either work all the time or they are going around looking for work. However, we've had lots of cool experiences meeting and talking with these fabulous people! One time, we were waiting for a bus, and we were talking with some people. Finally, the bus was about to arrive (we'd been waiting for 10 or 15 minutes, and then there was just a minute or so until it was supposed to arrive). There were a couple nigerians close to us, and we started to talk to them, but then the conversation kind of faded off, and then I had the feeling to go to the other side of the bus stop (it was a bigger bus stop, and there were probably 20 people or so waiting) to talk to people. I didn't see anyone that looked like they would be willing to talk, but we went. And there, at the end of the stop, was a Nigerian guy. We went up and started talking to him, and he seemed kind of interested, however, right then our bus pulled up. But, luckily, it was his bus too! We got on the bus and had 10 or 15 minutes together, and we talked a little bit, got his information, bore testimony a little bit, and just listened to him (it's a really hard time for him right now). Anyway, it turns out he's been looking for a church to go to on sundays when he's not working and he wants to find time during the week to talk about religious things because he hasn't had much time the last little while to do anything religious. He wants to come to church and he wants to visit with us. In fact, we're planning on visiting with him this Sunday! ...
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