We played some sweet soccer today...

Buona Sera

It's actually night right now because we had a crazy p-day (for those of you not familiar with missionary talk that's our free day). We played some sweet soccer today, and it rained during the middle of it. That's one of my favorite things in the world. This week we really didn't do much. I did exchanges with Anziano Hogg last Friday, and it was really funny because we got lost. We are both new to the city, and we just weren't paying attention to where we were going. So we saw some buildings on the other side of this field, and decided to go through it. There was this house too and we wanted to go check to see if it was ok to go through their field. It turns out that the people in the house are illegal Romanian aliens, and we scared them real bad because they thought that we were the police. Also probably one of the funniest things I've ever heard was this week. We were walking on the street, and we passed these two Jehovah's Witnesses. As we were getting closer I hear the man whisper in the ear of the woman he's with "we don't stop mormons. They know the scriptures to well." I almost died laughing. Sorry not much this week.

I love ya'll.

Anz Paul

...and at times of necessity makes a great defensive weapon. It's your all purpose book.

Buongiorno

So this week I have another pretty exciting story. In Bari the missionaries have a lot of trouble with the youth here playing pranks on us(mainly just throwing rocks at us and singing this stupid song), and there are a lot of crazies as well. We do this mostra (which is kind of this poster board that we use that explains stuff about the Book of Mormon and other stuff) or booktable (which is exactly what it sounds like a table of books), and we have a lot of trouble with these homeless people in the park where we do this. They don't like us because we seem really rich (which we aren't by any means), but we aren't allowed to give beggers money. Well this past week we were doing the book table, and this one lady comes to the table. She has the wonderful idea of tipping the table over with all our stuff on it. We had to chase her away, and set a guard because she tried to do it a few more times. That's when she started throwing rocks at us. It was unbelievable. So the next day we decide that booktable was not a good idea. So we bring the mostra. Then the problems begin again. This other lady was really druged up, and she had drank a lot. This one missionary was teaching some people when this lady comes to the mostra and head-butts it like Zidane in the world cup. I go over to her to see if I can find out what's going on. I ask her what she is doing, and if I can help her with anything. She barely says to me (she had a hard time talking) "tell me something intelligent." I tell her that I have nothing to say to her. She then head butts the mostra again, and starts to freak out. I was pretty scared that I might have to drop her with the Book of Mormon (wonderful book. Has the fullness of the everlasting gospel and at times of necessity makes a great defensive weapon. It's your all purpose book). Finally some other bums came over, and dragged her away. Pretty crazy night. Sorry there's no pictures. I did loose my camera, and I don't know if I can get another one. Also I have some CDs, but we aren't using the usual internet point that we usually use. They're closed for holiday. I hate August. We'll see. They should be open next week so I think there will be a good chance to send some pictures. Thanks for all ya'lls letters.

I love ya'll. Vi voglio bene


Anziano Paul.

We took a bus from Catania to Bari...but today should be better, I hope

Buongiorno

Well this has been a crazy week. I got transfered from Siracusa unfortuantely, and now I'm in Bari. Bari is a huge city on the coast near the top of the heel of Italy's boot. Alright now for the crazy story. We took a bus from Catania to Bari, and while we were in Messina (city where the ferry takes you accross to the mainland) something unbelievable happened. A missionary and I were sitting in the front of the bus, and this nun gets on the bus. The bus driver immediately tells us to get up cause we can't sit there cause the nun needed to. We put up a little fight, but it was useless because we didn't want to get kicked off the bus. I felt very wronged like I was back in America during the '60s. Anyways as the bus is driving off the ferry on the other side it breaks down, and we get stranded for 5 hours with nothing to do. It was wretched, and I really felt bad for this one greenie. First day in Italy, and this stuff happens. Well we finally got another bus, and it was packed and blazing hot. I would fall asleep for like 3 mins and wake up completely soaked cause it was so hot. We finally get to Bari at 1 in the morning, and there is no one to greet us. So we have to walk 5km to the missionaries house (Thank goodness there was one of us that knew where they were going) with all our bags. The really fun part was that one wheel broke on my big bag, so Anz Hogg tried to carry it on his bags. After about 20 feet the wheels on his bag got completely ground off. Then the next day I had to take a city bus accross town to my house, and I forgot my backpack on the bus. All my important stuff was in it, and now it's completely gone. That night was also crumy cause we were out tracking, and it started to pour rain. We got soaked. Not a great day in Bari, but today should be better, I hope. Well that's all for this week. I hope all of ya'll had a great summer.

Arrivederci.

Anziano Paul

Click this link to see my new area.

I've decided that my companion and I are really smart

Italia

Ciao tutti!

This week the big news is that we had another baptism Saturday, and on Sunday I gave him the Gift of the Holy Ghost. I really messed up the prayer though, and the branch president had to tell me I messed up and I had to restart. Something really interesting. I've decided that my companion and I are really smart. We had to fix the baptisimal font before the baptism. So we scrapped away all the rust, and spray painted the floor again. That much spray paint in that little area was terrible, and not healthy in the least bit. We saw that our nostils had turned blue, and when I tried to climb out of the font I fell cause I was so dizzy. If this wasn't bad enough yesterday our contact asked us to grab him some non-alcoholic beer before our appointment. It was non-alcoholic, but I still felt weird doing it. Today we went to an old city near Siracusa called Noto. It was really strange cause it was a really small city, but they had a church on every block. The coolest part was that we got way lost and were just wondering around for like an hour through the old city. Anyways the pictures this week are mainly of this castle on the very tip of Ortigia (the old city of Siracusa), except the last one is of the city from a cool spot. Well I hope all is well.

Arrivederci


Anz Paul