Olives. Flowers. Baby Jesus.

Herrrroooooo!

It's been a pretty great week.

So many chins. It's all that McDonalds...

PDAY: Last p-day we went to st. peter's and sat on some steps and ate mcdonald's and people watched. the best guy we saw was an old guy doing stretches and it made us laugh real hard. then we walked to castel sant'angelo because im obsessed with it. i dont even know why, ive never been inside. i guess ive just always wanted to go dancing on a barge in front of it on the river like princess anne in roman holiday.

Then we went to visit Salvatore and brought Brother Frulla, a sweet, skinny, bald guy from the ward that is so slight you feel like you could blow him away just by talking too loud. We talked about the priesthood and Bro. Frulla explained the responsibilities and how Salvatore will become a priest after he is baptized. Then Sister Smed and I bore our testimonies about it. I talked about how my brothers are always getting hurt or sick but I'm grateful my daddy is worthy of the priesthood and can bless them. It was a wonderful lesson.

mcd's at san pietro's

FOOD: Sorella Winward cooked us cheese-stuffed FLOWERS this week. hmmm. delicious.

i bought a figho d'india (those strange fruits that come off cactusy plants). that guy at the store was like, oh be careful! there are pricklies. and i was like oh, i didnt feel any, after i had been squeezing it with my whole hands. 15 minutes later several spots on my fingers starting hurting. they DO have pricklies. idiot.

EXERCISE: we've gotten up every day this week to go jogging or play soccer with the anziani. its really fun. and better than what we used to do, namely, do 10 situps take a little nap, do 10 pushups, take a little nap.... Today we are in Ladispoli visiting Sorelle Ivory and Buckley and we're gonna go to the beach and play soccer with them. Cant wait!

"sor. smed" and "sor. sobe" on a crammed metro

OLIVES: Monday sorella perego came to pick us up so we could do service in her neighbor's olive orchard. it was fabulous! they set up nets on the ground and use these strange flapping combs to "comb" down the branches and knock all the olives off, then

we gather them in the nets and put them in buckets. It smelled wonderful. and was so fun!

Olive Queen 

Sam Perego 

OTHER: my ward is great. full of characters. i sat by a sister who loves to sing. very loudly. and she dresses like cruella devil. we sang "called to serve"/ "chiamati a servirlo" and she sings like she's on a roller coaster: "iiiiIIIIIINNIIIIII di vitOOOOOOriiiiiaaaaaa" priceless.

Drama: sor. smed. had to give a sister the smackdown last week because it's the fifth or sixth time the sisters have warned her not to look up dangerous videos online, because she is obsessed with when the second coming will be. she showed us part of one she was really excited about and it was a cheesy narrative about love but the background was disturbing images and ufos and aliens. no no no. she ignored us on the street and didnt come to church. we're visiting her tonight.

THOUGHT:

We met up with Tiziana this week. We planned restoration, but instead mostly she told us about how she knows God exists because she visited a country village where a woman saw baby jesus, and how l'arcangelo san michele blessed her, etc. etc. Sor Smed tried to emphasize that it was important to ask God directly if things are true so we can know for ourselves. At the end I said the prayer and prayed just for Tiziana, she has a lot going on, and afterward she cried because she said it's been rare in her life that she has felt loved, and that she felt our love for her. We reminded her that God ALWAYS feels that way about her. It reminded me of what daddy told me on the phone in the airport, that as long as we make people feel loved that's most important. I agree.

 I tried to chat with a guy on the metro on our way here, I just said hey, how are you today? and he answered "why?" these peeps arent used to a little friendly convo from a stranger. after all "you can always depend on the kindness of strangers..."

love you!

-sorella rain

Castel Sant'Angelo