5 Week Training

Well no surprise this week's email is coming late again! But this is a good thing because after English connect (our English class) I am full of confidence! It's nice when I get to seem smarter than everyone (until they ask what something means in Italian or just ask a question all in Italian so I have to whip out Google Translate. Also English is hard once you try to teach it). 

I must say this every week but this week truly was the fasted week so far. I remember waking up on Thursday with a weird feeling that it was gonna be a bad week. And then I just remembered Saturday morning and church on Sunday and that's basically it so let's fill in some gaps.

1st of all I was sick. Yeah I know. If the MTC sickness wasn't bad enough here's another cold thrown my way. But luckily thanks to Aunt Kelsey and some Alka-seltzer it actually was pretty easy to weather (Also don't mean to brag but we crushes a duolingo friend quest last week). 

2nd thing. We lost Anziano Palmer. On Saturday he was called to officially leave for the office and a trio became a duo on Sunday and we sent him on a train to Milano. 

Now at this point I was getting what some may call panicked. I definitely got along better with Anziano Palmer than I do Anziano Cox and I was kinda nervous that being a duo would be quite the challenge. So we go out our first day as a duo and I'm getting nervous because any time we go out it feels like I'm about to give a verbal in Spanish class. And I was down overall that day. And we start going around then I noticed something. Anziano Cox sounded miserable! And I realized that maybe we had the same feelings and weren't so different after all. So I thought for a minute and decided that we couldn't both have a bad day so I just started smiling. At everyone and everything. We didn't get any finds or numbers that day but I think missionary life would be pretty miserable if that's how you count success. It may just be because I'm new but for me the nice conversation I had with a woman whose husband stayed with Mormons in the states and said that while she thinks we're nice, believes her own things and isn't interested was successful enough! The conversation with the guy who wasn't interested but said he thinks Seattle (where I'll say I'm from depending on the day) is beautiful and that he lived in Vancouver for a bit was success. The little kid that couldn't stop smiling and waving at me and his family seeing this interaction causing them to smile too was success. Sometimes we need to help God out a bit and realize that blessings can be so simple. And the days that are harder I still know God is aware of me when I get to see a Mini Cooper or get to have one of my Nutella biscuit cookies 😋. I didn't intend for the spiritual thought to creep up in this part of the email but I guess it's there now. 

So I'll just finish with the end of the week. Yesterday we got to go to Milan for our 5 week training and it was such a good break. Even though I had fixed my attitude earlier that week, basically a full day break from regular missionary life was still well welcomed. We were driven up so I got to just listen to some Christmas music and do some more duolingo. And I loved being back in actual Milan. I hope I get to serve in the proper city. It really had the whole "depressed gloomy big city" feeling for it and I was really enjoying it (Also I swear the most graffiti of any city I've seen in my life). And training was only like an hour and it was basically just all the trainees getting to rat on our trainers to the president. I love Presidente & Sorella Wood. Some people don't like their mission president, others think they have the best. I feel bad for both knowing mine really is the best president of any mission, in history. Had an amazing lunch too (I had like 10 oranges with no shame and also had to teach my old MTC comp how to peel an orange....I won't say any more on that matter but wow). Then it was time to head home this time on train. And navigating the metro and the train stations was honestly when I realized I had grown the most. To think that 5 weeks ago I was in the same city doing those same things but with no idea WHAT was going on to basically having to lead everyone and figure out which train was our and where it was (I've basically done all of our navigating and logistics since week 2) and also having a little bit better understanding of things people were saying around me was a good feeling.

Anyway somewhat out of time but I found out this next transfer is just 5 weeks because of Christmas for some reason(?) And I'm really excited about that! And I may have bought a Christmas gift today and an advent calendar!

A prossima settimana!






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