Monday, April 20, 2015

Week 49 - Bari, Liberta, Italy

Famiglia e Amici,

Last Monday after emailing we took a bus to our new convert's house to try some fufu.  On the bus there, there was a old man who began to talk to us.  He was very interested in why Americans were in Bari and we explained who we were. I gave him my seat and he then pinches my cheek like I'm six years old and says "good boy."  They are funny here in Italy sometimes. Then we ate some amazing fufu at our new convert's house which is basically dipping hot flour dough balls in a meat stew.  It was pretty amazing though heavy in the stomach and then we tried to drum a beat on his African drum.  I was terrible... I think it's something you're born with. Then I was able to get a little nap in back at the apartment before P Day ended.  The fufu did something to me because I was out in like ten seconds and I woke up not knowing where I was for a few seconds.  Good fufu.  Then later that night we decided to do some finding down by the seafront which was pretty scenic.  On the way home I met a man from the Dominican Republic and was able to fix an appointment for the next day in spanish and grab his number.  The next day we went to district meeting before going to a lesson in Bitritto.  Then later we did a couple new convert lessons before English course.  After that we had a lesson with another guy.  Busy day.  The next day we had a lesson with a contact who speaks good English.  He is 20 years old like me and I think he has good potential.  We then had to sprint from the park where we did the lesson to the bus stop to head to Bitritto again for a meal and lesson.  We ate spaghetti with mussels cooked in some olive oil and chopped onions.  It was really good.  The next day we had a three lessons before English course.  One of our newer investigators has a talent for the piano and can play anything by ear and our new convert is pretty good at singing.  So, we got to listen to some popular and religious Nigerian songs after we finished the lessons.  Then one of our crazier students, who calls himself Awesome Steve,  joined them for a pretty good rendition of We Are the World.  After English course we helped out some Pakistani guys who came late to the lesson with their English.  The next day we planned for the next week before heading to the Questura (police station) to complete the fingerprinting for Elder Toronto's permission to stay in the country.  While waiting, I made friends with an Egyptian, Afghanistan guy, a Nigerian, and some Bangladesh guys.  There were also other Africans from diverse nations and some families from Eastern Europe (probably Albanian).  A mosquito also flew right past everyone else and tried to get me in the corner.  Then we ate some kebab before a lesson.  Later we had correlation with the ward mission leader and ward council.  The next day we did a big chalk drawing in Bitritto with the other missionaries of the district.  Lots of curious people came up to talk to us and we had some good conversations about the restored gospel.  Then we had a few lessons before a service project for a man's nonmember brother.  We had to move a bunch of junk from his car into his apartment on the 2nd floor.  There was a hired African helping us and he was a beast.  He would say, "No, I do it," and then take whatever we were holding and haul it by himself to the apartment. Some of the stuff was heavy and normally would have required to 2 big guys to carry it.  I was impressed.  The next day was church and 4 Americans showed up to the 1st hour.  They were vacationing and doing some biking.  Then we had lunch at a member's house and a ton of relatives showed up who were very kind.  We ate a huge amount of food including toast with olive oil and tomatoes, olives, pasta with a meaty red sauce, stuffed meatballs, sausage, salami and ham, an omelette thing, lots of greens, lots of different types of bread, fruit, and then desert.  I was stuffed.  Then we had a lesson before turning in for the night.  I didn't eat that night.  Today, we cleaned around the church on via cancellorotto before playing soccer and eating panzerotti.  The moss is pretty much dried up so we didn't slip as much this time.   Well, that's all for this week.  Have a great week everyone.

Anziano Blazzard

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