Caio famiglia!
Ok, so general conference in Italy! It was SO good, all of the talks answered my questions! We can't watch all the sessions in real time. So, the woman's session we watched on Saturday before the morning session. The morning session we watch in real time, at 6 in the evening! Then Sunday, they watch the priesthood session at like 1:30. Then we as missionaries watched the Saturday afternoon session before the Sunday morning session started at 6. We have yet to watch the Sunday afternoon session, but will most likely watch it tonight or tomorrow.
But what I have seen has been amazing! I never appreciated conference this much, that is for sure! I truly felt the Lord speaking to me through the speakers. It was amazing. I loved the woman's session. We do have refugees here. A lot. Most are from Africa. Italy has a very lax immigration process, so it is easy to get in the country and then get resettled. There is a big problem with immigrants and missionaries, though. We can not teach or baptize them, because they do not have a permanent residence, and they get shipped off everywhere without the support system to keep them active, and no one can keep track of them. It is difficult because the people are so ready to accept the gospel. There are Africans who walk from the camps every Sunday to be in church, dressed in their good Sunday clothes, even though they can not be baptized.
There is a huge racism problem here in Italy. Italians, especially the older ones, are not very kind to those of different races. There was a sister who's husband died, leaving her with her 6 year old son, and a few weeks later, she found out that she was pregnant with her husband's child. And the ward did nothing! Like absolutely nothing! They are like "which one was it, I can't tell those blacks apart". Those words exactly. Honestly. There used to be a good group of Africans who were settled here and everything, but now none of them come, and they have set up this apostate church in the basement of one of their houses. It's so bad. And the members are completely oblivious, just so indignant that they started their own church. Well, no wonder, they don't feel welcome here! Ah, so frustrating, but I hope that conference got through to someone!
Oh, pasquetta! It is a holiday here, and I am not totally sure what it is celebrating, but something to do with Easter. Pasqua is Easter, and pasquetta is the Monday after. It was a good pranzo though, we made pretzels and this blood orange salad, and the Anziani of Ragusa made this like pasta stuff with pana and pancetta, and the Anziani of Gela made this like eggplant with ragu. It was good stuff! We then ate some more on Tuesday after district meeting!
Ok, now this week was sort of all member appointments. The investigator situation is poor. We dropped our only true investigator on Thursday. She has been taught for 6 months and has never come to church, and is still living with her companio. It was hard, but before we could really say anything, she was like, "I think you need to spend your time looking for others, because I am already converted. I just need some time to sort out my life, otherwise, I would be baptized next Sunday". It was a great moment. We dropped her, but I really believe her. I think she knows that it is true. She wants her family to come too, and marriage is VERY expensive, the certificate alone costs like 2,000 dollars. But. One day, she'll be ready, and she will be a very strong addition to the Ragusa ward.
So, we are investigator hunting. No one really yet... But. Ok, today is P.Day, and we wanted to do a drawing P.Day down in Iblea. So, we stopped by our ward mission leaders cartaria shop, but it said that "be back soon". We waited, and waited. For like an hour. Then, we see this girl with a wiener dog combing down the road, and we are like, no way! It was the same girl we showed the video to! She didn't say anything about that, or English course, but we got to talk to her again, and I think that she will be like, huh, coincidence? I would be thinking that!
That's my week! Let me know how the wisdom teeth go, and also the Marshalls application, and Allstate, just keep me posted! Vi voglio tanto bene!!,
Sorella Hills
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