Week 26 - Trapani, Sicily, Italy

Amici e Famiglia,

church building

Chapel meeting room

We had a great week in Trapani.  I am very fortunate to be in another area with very nice members.  This past week on Tuesday we took a bus to Palermo for district meeting.  As we were waiting for a city bus to take us to the church, an older man slipped right in front of me on some spilled gelato on the sidewalk.  Thankfully he was okay, but very embarrassed and angry.  He started going off on something in Sicilian until I told him I didn't speak it.  He apologized and started to tell me in Italian that he had just spent over 10 hours in the hospital for something and now he might have to go back again.  Then, on the bus, he began to fight with the ticket checker people about how he didn't have time to buy a ticket because he was in the hospital all day and night.  All of this in Italian/mostly Sicilian and many hand gestures from a small man in a little sweater wearing  a typical sicilian hat.  Entertaining stuff.

pass-along card

from Trapani Apt

District meeting went well.  It is composed of elders from Bagheria, Mistretta, Trapani, and Palermo 2.  They are all pretty cool guys.  The district leader is from Sweden and one of my friends from the MTC and seaman in the Navy, Elder Rasband, is serving in Bagheria.  Later that night, we taught English course.  One of the students was there early and began to show off his piano skills.  Apparently he is one of those people who can just sit down at the piano and play anything they want.  He kept playing random things and looking at me with this proud look on his face. Then, another student came in and sat near him.  The piano star said to him, "Sai suonare il pianoforte....(and then he said without waiting for a response) Io, sììì :)."  (Do you know how to play the piano?- I do.)  Then after English course after everybody had left, I sat down to practice a few hymns. This guy comes bursting through the door saying he didn't know that I could play.  For the next half hour he showed me how it was done on the piano. He eventually stopped when we turned off the lights and began to lock the door on him.  

The next few days were filled with some lessons, haircuts, and English and Spanish course.  On Saturday, there was a baptism of one of the member's kids.  It was the first baptism I had seen in one of those portable set-up fonts but it was still a nice spiritual experience.  Yesterday, we ate at a member's home.  We had homemade lasagna, oil and vinegar salad, beef, a variety of fruits, chestnuts, and then homemade cannolis. I was stuffed.

Alla prossima,

Anziano Blazzard

Also ... it is very hot here.