Yesterday, we were doing casa (casa is tracting house by house, for those who don't know.), and got in on the first door, meeting an albanian named Ildi. We have a significant amount of success among stranieri (people from other countries). We're teaching two or three albanians, a brazilian, an argentine, a spaniard, and maybe one or two actually native Italians.
The other day, we were teaching one of our progressing investigators, and he brought his friend. His story is really interesting. But this investigator, we'll call him "T", got a notice of deportation, which would mean we can't teach him anymore.
This email is really really scatterbrained, but I'm really excited about Italy. At this point, I can understand most everything people say, except once in a while. I can't really speak back to carry on a conversation, though, but every time I've told people I've only been here a week they compliment my Italian. My companion thinks that I'll be speaking just fine by the end of this transfer if we focus on speaking Italian out of the apartment.
Something interesting for me about missionary Italian is that you use the formal "you" form, the "lei" form, with everyone but your companion, with whom you use the "tu" form. That's been tough for me, not because I'm using the tu form, but I didn't really learn the tu form in the MTC, on the assumption I would never use it. It's interesting.
I love Italy. It's so interesting. The roads are tiny, almost all of them are one way, and the cars are super small. Every day I'm sure I'll get taken out by a car. Hasn't happened yet. I'm just glad we don't have a car. Only the Assitants to the President have a car in our mission. I pray I'll never be an assistant.
We take trains and buses everywhere, or we walk. It's kinda bizarre. I've never taken a train for any good reason before, and now we take them everywhere. As I walk around, I see an incredible amount of graffiti. But it's ok, because it's fun to read. Only 1 in like 20 has any swear words that I recognize. The rest are either Anarchist stuff, or (name) Ti amo. There are apparently a lot of anarchists that love everyone in Alessandria.
My area is Alessandria, and Asti. It's a city southwest of Milano. Asti is a 15 minute train ride north... or maybe west... or east. it's a 15 minute train ride. We see a lot of stranieri. In Alessandria, there's a lot of Moroccans... all of them are Muslim, and all of them say something about Jesus being a prophet and a Son of God, so they must be a son of God too... it's interesting. But they never let us get a word in edgewise, so we mostly try to leave those conversations if they won't let us talk. In Asti, there's a lot of Africans. Two... maybe three of our investigators are African. They all speak English or French better than Italian... which is fun. Whenever my companion speaks English with an African, he speaks in a really bizarre accent. I think he's trying to fit in.
We have a ward here, which is nice, because it means that Church takes care of itself, and we can focus on getting our investigators taken care of.
There's a member who is really interesting. His name is Nick. He spends as much of his time with us as he can. He is really amused by saying that something is from the trash, or talking about the bathroom. He's very affectionate. I think I've gotten 50 or more hugs from him. He's here at our internet point, in fact. He also smells like Megan and Elijah's convert... Charles? I don't remember his name. He's fun to have around. He likes correcting my Italian, and he tries to speak English. We call it Nick-English. He seems to know every missionary that's ever served in the Milan mission. I asked him about Anziani Skanky, Cowart, and my MTC teachers, he knew all of them. I asked about Sorella Baird, and he claimed to know her. Fun, eh?
I'm going to ask him to tell me something to tell y'all, so the following is in Nick English.
Hello It's Nick. I'm from Italy. His family is my father Carlo, is my mother, Venerina. My Aunt, Maria. Is maria a teacher in BYU. In Italiano. what's her name, Nicola. Is from Italy. you speak English very good. Email, postcard, email. You teach Italian, you teach english. Vi voglio tanto bene, che non vi conosco. Risponderme, voglio un email next week. He wants una T-shirt. grande. XXXL. color: blue, red, or brown. or ok black. uno. just one. ciao, da nick. Thank you.
He also asked for Anz. Skanky's email address, so if you could send that. also Sorella Baird's and Anz. Cowart's. IamFeek@hotmail.com is Nick of Alessandria's email.
He's fun. That whole paragraph there was about him. I'm not going to translate. You figure it out.
Anyways, we're doing work out here. I love you all!
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