I was absolutely on top of the world and as I got closer to the office, I was literally trying to formulate in my mind the Italian words for "I'm very happy with my life," when suddenly I went splat on to the sidewalk. I don't know what happened, I just tripped and fell. Although it was a busy street, my fall happened behind parked cars so no one saw me. And although I often encounter other pedestrians, at that moment, there was no one in sight so no one came to help. It took me a minute to pick myself up, brush myself off and limp the rest of the way to the office. My leg looked like this:
I kind of thought afterwards that there must be some sort of poetic symbolism in all that; one minute you can feel on top of the world and the next minute, you can be lying on the pavement wondering what happened. (It reminds me of the Alberta economy, actually.)
Anyway, it's just a scraped up leg and I'll be alright. And spectacular falls are a specialty of mine. I think my ability to fall as many times as I have and not die might even be classified as my super power.
But back to the happiness part. I am loving life here. I even feel a lot of gratification from the office work and I really enjoy the camaraderie of the other missionaries: the young and not so young alike. There are missionary moments that happen in our day. A week or two back an email was forwarded to us and the Milan mission from LDS charities from a young man in northern Italy who said he was someone who studied religions and had spent the last year studying the Book of Mormon and now he wanted to not only join our church, but come to America to study for the priesthood, as he put it. That email made me smile. I'm not sure how he found LDS charities on line and not Mormon.org, but LDS charities wrote him back, gave him the Mormon.org website, the address of the church closest to him, and said someone would visit him. And that's when they forwarded the email to our two missions. Well, it will be missionaries in the Milan mission who will get to teach this young man, but still I found it thrilling to see how The Book of Mormon can change lives all on its own.
In addition, we get phone calls every so often from people who want to get videos or have the missionaries visit them. Usually it's Hermes who talks to them because my Italian is too basic. I got left in the office by myself a couple of times last week and had to manage a couple of phone calls on my own. I think it was just people asking about bills or payments and usually I get to the point where I say "il mio Italiano e molto terribile!" and they end up deciding to call back later.
In our church Ward here in Rome I got called to be the 1st counsellor in the Primary Presidency which is difficult due to my lack of Italian. Hermes had to help me teach the lesson a few weeks ago. The Primary president speaks English but the other counsellor does not. Perhaps the kids will end up teaching me some Italian. It remains to be seen if I end up teaching them anything!
Our Saturdays are our fun days and we generally end up sightseeing at museums or scenic towns. Here's some pictures:
Isn't that black and white sheep cute? It was so peaceful there.
And this was one of several mooch cats that hang around by this hill town viewpoint hoping for food from the tourists. He looks so much like the cat I left behind at home, I had to take a picture. I've decided to start carrying cat treats wherever I go for moments like this.
And last Sunday, we had a Valentines Day senior missionary dinner at the mission home. Some of the people below are missionaries working on the temple construction.
Here's the group shot:
And with that, I'll leave you with some graffiti we had a laugh over.
It says, "Whoever reads is silly." I hope you don't feel that way about reading my blog. Until next time, Arrivederci!
