Gocapio. Next stop, speaking Venetian.
So. I got to go last week to Venice to visit a less active on the island she lives on. No big deal. Today we are going for pday so I can see the real Venice Venice, I haven't visited centro yet or anything. I. Am. Stoked. Not to mention Montag told me there's a cool Jewish neighborhood that was established in WWII. ya'll know I love that kind of stuff!
Man there are a lot of Americans out here. When tourists come to church, we translate. And I am not a fan of translating haha my brain can't switch quick enough, I end up speaking Italian at people. But it was cool bearing a quick testimony on my first Sunday because all the tourists came up to me, I forgot what it's like being around American members...weird!
Side note. Still obsessed with conference.
Time is going fast and there's so much to do still. Mestre reminds me a lot of Bergamo in the sense of the work pace. I always said I wanted to open and even go back to Bergamo to do a redo, looks like this is Heavenly Father's way of answering my wishes. Also including Venice. Can't complain.
We met some people from Chicago yesterday here for a volleyball tourny, a lady we were talking to knew about the church and things and was like 'you guys scored Venice?! GET ON YOUR KNEES AND THANK GOD!' She kept telling us to get on our knees and pray hhahaha so funny.
Also yesterday, I asked a lady on the tram where she was from and she yelled at me and said 'I'm from here! What a stupid question!!' hahahaha i couldn't stop laughing when we got off the tram lol.
Then after a lunch appt with some cute little older ladies, we were walking on a side street and a little old man with a cane asked if he could walk in between us for good luck....hahahaha.
So this week is starting of right. I'm really trying to exercize my faith more with talking to people in giro. Because I know that if I am just trying, we will be finding miracles in various places, even the ones we don't expect. Well we have 3 new investigators, one of which is the boyfriend of a less active, who I guess never would sit in on lessons before. Miracle!
It's a lot more pressure being the STL for numbers and all that jazz. But it's a good push. I'ts cool being with Slla Montagnoli again, we have lived such different missions that have brought us together again.
My spiritual insight as of lately is this: we are nothing. I don't understand the patience God has. I fall so short all the time, I barely put forth effort and instantly see the fruit. It's like he has to baby us. 'it's okay, you sucked most of the day but here's a lolipop.' haha but of course a lot more loving than that.
Read Mosiah 3 and 4, it's where I'm at in Italian and kind of along these lines.
With a sack of love to the moon and back,
Sorella Gillette
p.s. last miracle. We hopped on a bus after leaving the church with the anziani and a member, Anziano Thompson starts peer pressuring me to go talk to this African girl who is far away on the semi-packed bus sitting on the inside seat next to another man. He was like 'she looked at you, go talk to her, here's a book of mormon.' hahaha. and mannnn i was so pansy about it! but I went, awkwardly squeezing past people up to her and the italian man...like a scared little kid I asked, 'Have you ever seen this book before?' He said no and I could tell she was about to nod. He was like 'I'm not interested.' So I was like okay, so have YOU seen this book? She said yes! Then I asked her if she spoke English. Bam she has been to church in Nigeria, She is from my favorite tribe, so I asked her how she was in that language haha and she is good friends/neighbors with a super elect member. oh ya, she has read parts of the book of mormon. got her digits.
So what do we learn from this? A. humble slap. B. being a pansy does nothing and there are miracles waiting. C. Dang diddly anziano was right.
:)
