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Snowball to the eye in San Marino |
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31-1-00:
Well journal - long time no write. I've been quite busy and quite tired. Today is the last day of January. I'm coming up on my 4 month mission mark. It's amazing how fast time is going. I have this opportunity to write in my journal because Anz. Bowen is sick. He threw up. His copia has an apptmt. right now so we're on splits while Anz. Ditto & Perry go to the apptmnt.
This week we took P-day on Friday because we had to go into Rimini on Friday for a broadcast from Pres. Hinckley and we didn't want to waste a bunch of time on a day when we could be doing miss. work.
We went to San Marino early Friday morning. San Marino is near Rimini. It's not very big, but it is a completely different country (officially) It's completely surrounded by Italy, but holds itself apart as a different nation.
We spent our time in a giant castle there. San Marino is at the top of a giant Mountain so there was a lot of snow. The snow is what made it so fun. We built a snowman and I carved a face into it. The face ended up looking a lot like my own. Then we dressed it up like a missionary and put a book of Mormon in its branch-hand. We took some pictures and I'm anxious to see them.
We also had a big snowball fight. I got hit right in the eye with a snowball going very fast, at very close range. It sent my glasses flying and kind of knocked me goofy for a second. It left a nice mark on my eyelid and underneath my eye. Anz. Ditto threw it and he was sorry so it wasn't a big deal.
It's kind of a neat mark on my eye though.
After a very fun P-day in San Marino, we came back to Rimini to watch the satellite broadcast. They tried to get the satellite working, but alas, failed miserably. So we didn't get to hear the prophet's special address to the full time missionaries...bummer.
But we watched a couple church videos and had a testimony meeting with the Elders from around the zone. It was quite a spiritual experience. A brand new - 8-day greenie bore a strong testimony. It was neat.It's always cool to see the other Elders and hang with them for a bit.
On the train ride back to Ancona I wrote Carrie. I did it uniquely: Like I was writing scripture almost. I divided it up into different "books" for the different categories of the letter. Can't wait to see how she responds. I'll make mention of another letter I wrote to her too: All backwards. She'll have to read it in a mirror. Ha. It'll be interesting to see what she thinks of that one too. HeHe.
I've also received a couple letters from my mom w/ food spices in them - taco and chili spices because they are tough to get out here. The other day I was running up the stairs in the apartment building where our chapel is and my suit coat pocket caught the stair banister and put a huge rip in my suit coat. Then I was stuck for a but because one suit had a hole in the crotch and now this other had a giant rip down the side. Luckily a lady in our ward sewed the crotch of my suit and I took the jacket to a professional to get it done.
Right now I'll relate an incident that happened on the P-day before San Marino. It may seem like a strange thing, but I learned a really important lesson.
It was P-day and I had finished writing all my letters and my colloqui - I had done all my studies and I didn't need to take a nap. So I started reading my Calvin and Hobbes book. (Which is probably one of the best comic strips ever made). While I was reading - my companion told me: "you know we're only supposed to read 'mission approved' stuff" or something along those lines.
At first I was offended because I didn't feel like I was doing anything wrong and that he was judging me. So that made me mad and also made me want to just keep on reading it even more than I was planning. Then I started looking for excuses to justify myself. (also to examine his faults) Then I even looked in the rules to try to refute it...but alas I was forced to recognize the fast that I was wrong.
I shouldn't have been doing it. It was tough. It's hard to be humbled by someone else. I was feeling really hard feelings towards my companion - which isn't good - especially over something so small. I finally decided to ask God to help me overcome the feelings. (I didn't even want to talk, or even look at my comp.)
I left the room and knelt down and prayed. And wouldn't you know it...I felt better and also realized a good lesson: When you get offended, take a couple good looks at yourself, and you'll usually discover you're at fault. I heard a good quote from one of the Anziani: "I love to be broken."
It hurts, yes, but in every situation we should look to how we can improve - and seek to avoid feelings of contention.
This morning Anz. Perry and I were doing street and we talked with a "testimone di Geova" Jehovah's Witness "J-dub." She tried to bash w/ us. They have some good things, and are good people, but some of their ideas just don't make sense - from a logical informed view.
They rely completely on what the Bible says - and say there is "no interpreting" of the Bible. That it has only 1 meaning and that is THEIR meaning. Therefore they don't even look at another person's ideas. Which is ridiculous. You must consider other ideas in order to support your own. Close mindedness never convinced anyone.
We probably could have done better at addressing her concerns, but we were both trying to get our point across. J-Dubs don't believe in revelation either - which is astounding to me. They say revelation has stopped. They believe in the Apostasy - and that it is over, but only because someone has finally been able to use their human talents and logic to finally read the Bible how it was "meant to be read" It's pretty obvious that man alone has not succeeded in interpreting the Bible - just look at all the churches there are w/ the Bible.
God HAD to take a part in restoring his truth - without God, man is nothing. Like it says in the 3rd discussion - Human wisdom and understanding will never work to explain the things of God because they are on a much higher level. But with God's help - everything makes sense - even to man.
I used to be a little afraid of J-dubs because I'd always heard that they really know how to use the Bible to "prove" their case. But I've come to discover that there are some GIANT holes in their logic...and besides...nothing can stand against the truth.
Another funny situation: Katia - the latest baptism - is in love w/ Anz Bowen. She writes him love letters and is always being extra friendly w/ him. To prevent this, their copia turned her over to us for the new member discussions. This made her mad and she called Anz. Bowen w/ the threat of suicide if he didn't start teaching her again.
Yes folks...she's psycho. She's more like a little kid than anything else. She likes to get her way by throwing tantrums. She also asked Anz Bowen to marry her when he gets back from his mission. It's no temptation for Anz. Bowen because she is 35, short, fat, and has as many missing teeth as she has black rotten teeth.
She's a sweet lady, just very emotionally immature. So I think Anz. Bown will be getting transferred real soon.
I'm set to finish the BoM again real soon. This will be #3 - my goal is to get 10 by the end of the mission. I'm also just about done w/ my colloqui, which is a relief. Only 1 more to memorize and I'm free to study what ever I want for my personal study! Yipee! I'm gonna try to have it done by this Thurs. for zone conference...it's gonna be tough, but it's possible - if I eat sleep and breath colloqui.
I finally got my triple combination in Italian - BoM, D&C, and P.G.P - all in Italian. It's the brand new, hot off the presses, translation. I love it!
Tonight we're meeting Carolina - the first time for quite a while. I really hope she will be able to get back on course to be baptised. She really needs to start being more serious about all this. We'll see how it goes.
I'm still waiting for Anz. Perry to get back from splits. I'm just sitting here looking through my journal. It's just about 1/2 full. Half the pages have been written on and the other half are still blank - white - waiting for experiences from my mission to be written. I can't help but wonder what stories and experiences will be written on these many pages. How much will I change? What will I learn? There a whole lot of future in front of me. |
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