Easter feast with Napolitanos

April 3, 2013

I had an amazing Easter! Both days were a little bit slow on the missionary work because there was absolutely no one outside and everyone was eating and sleeping for Easter, but that was okay. Also the day after Easter is a huge holiday in Italy, Pasquetta (as opposed to Pasqua, Easter) and we had giant lunches both days. Both families were Napolitano, from Napoli (Naples) and they served delicious food!

The traditional food on Easter is of course lamb, and they made it just amazingly. The second day we ate at a Napolitano family the Espositos, and it was nuts. They all spoke Napolitano half the time (A dialect of Italian) and I could not understand what they were saying half the time, and my new missionary Anziano Green definitely understood nothing. There was yelling and running around the house from the big family that was there, and it was totally normal for them. At that meal I ate the most food I have ever eaten anywhere. It was so much. Rich meats and pasta and at the end we ate this type of sweet bread that had entire unpeeled eggs cooked into them. Very interesting.

We taught a lesson after that at an investigator named Stefanos house and he gave us coca cola, and after I drank that I had a stomachache the rest of the day. Ahhh. Funny way we found Stefano we were contacting people on the street and we talked to him last week, and we set up a return appointment and asked for his address, but he couldn’t quite describe the place that he was located, and so he was just like, well, come on with me! So we followed him into his home and started teaching him about the Book of Mormon and Jesus Christ. He is Romanian and is very interested in the gospel.

My new companion is named Anziano Green, he is about an inch shorter than me and is 60 pounds heavier than me, used to do wrestling and theater, and is just a very happy and funny guy. He is just going with the flow at this point, and I’m helping him learn Italian. I correct him on almost everything he says haha but it will help him learn.

And that’s really awesome that everyone was able to go to New York again (Camille and Jerermy are there right now for Spring Break)  I love it there as well. Everyone in Italy usually only knows about Los Angeles, New York, and Miami. Everywhere else is just random to them. So whenever I say I am from California they are very surprised and are like.. ahhh bello! hahahah

I love hearing about the Easter egg hunt too... hahah Ah and that is SO GREAT that Jasmine is going on a mission that’s just so exciting. So many people going on missions it is a little bit ridiculous sometimes to think about.

Our mission is supposed to grow from 150 to 250 missionaries by the time the new mission president comes in. Me and Jeremy probably look pretty similar now that I just lost all this weight. I’m still topping of the scales at 160-165 so I am ridiculously skinny. I eat so much but it does nothing! Oh well. I pray for everyone in the family every night, I’m going to try to do better at writing everyone every week. So yes.

We visited the tower of Pisa today it was pretty cool. Its definitely leaning. We didn’t get to go inside there or the gigantic church though because it is way to expensive to be admitted (15-20 euro) oh well.

Funny story also about that family that we found.. we suoned (rang, from the verb suonare and ed ending in English) their door and went up inside, the guy opened the door and all he was wearing was a pair of boxers, he said his wife was not home and that we should try another time... sad but oh well. Next time.

I continue loving being a missionary; I see miracles every day through prayers! They are answered thank goodness. I’m so thankful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and I was able to think about that a lot during Easter. I feel the effects of it every day, and see it in the lives of others as they make changes to their lives that seem nigh impossible. A heavenly hand guides this work, and I am thankful for that.

Hope everyone has a great week and a great normal life, you should try some missionary work its fun! Love you all!

Anziano Day