11/8/86 continued

Well, I’m home (now my pen is wimping out…wait a second, the more I write, the more it is starting to come to life.  Look! It’s getting darker).  I hate to let you down, but today wasn’t as exciting or fantastic as I said it was going to be.  First of all, this morning we went down to Via Candia and did some sondaggio.  Greenig got one address.  Me, the other hand, niente.  However I did at least talk to some people.  One girl was really cool, but she didn’t want to talk about religion and she didn’t give me her address.  Then I talked with a cool African guy (All African guys are cool).  He said he might come to church.  He probably won’t, but at least since he said that, then maybe he is considering it.  Then we went home, got a quick bite to eat, and were off again to an appointment with Fratello Torelli.  He had met some lady that had a lot of questions about man’s purpose on Earth, so he wanted us to go with him and help teach her.  The appointment went well, although I didn’t do much teaching.  I think Greenig was a little miffed at me.  At one point during the discussion he made me talk about prophets.  I totally screwed up.  I had to pretty much shoot from the hip, because Greenig was teaching senza notebook, and I didn’t want to look dumb by pulling mine out.  It was all for naught, however, because I ended up looking silly anyway as I stumbled badly over my words.  In the end maybe it didn’t really matter because the lady was really cool.  The incident did reinforce to me the fact that I need to study the discussions and learn them better.

11/8/86

Well, I’m out of journal paper (I finished the book off last night), but I feel like writing so you’ll have to excuse the piece of paper.  Anyway, as I wrote yesterday, I now have a new companion, Elder Greenig.  I can’t say yet what I really think of him, but I will say that all the rumors about him have turned out to be true.  He is a super missionary.  Last night we all made scones for a little late night snack.  We started talking about how the work was going and he asked Southwick and I how many lessons we’ve taught.  I said that I had taught 5 and said 1 in Caserta and 1 in Rome.  Greenig was astounded.  He then proceeded to preach to us.  Usually when someone climbs up on their high horse and starts shotting off from the mouth it annoys me, and I generally completely tune them out.  However, when Elder Greenig started telling us what we should be doing and about what he done and how it had brought him success, I felt like I really need to hear it.  This is going to sound dumb, but I felt as though Southwick and I were Laman and Lemuel and Greenig was Nephi.  OK, that does really sound dumb, but that is how I felt.  The only thing that I am slightly worried about is that there is a slight chance he could actually be a weird fanatic.  Sort of like Anziano Monk (an Elder that our MTC teachers used to tell us stories about).  I am not really too worried though because so far he seems normal.  Although this morning he was reading some talk by President Kimball out loud (loud enough that I could hear him from the bathroom) – or he could have been praying, I wasn’t exactly sure.  I suppose everyone is entitled to some weirdness.  There I go again, playing the hypocrite.  I am the biggest freak of all.  I’d better start getting ready.  Today is first day out in Rome as companions, and I have set a goal for myself to talk to someone on every bus.  Greenig told us that is a really good way to get contacts.  Yes folks, I am on the Greenig plan now.  This morning will surely be interesting, so I should stop writing now and leave room on this paper so I can write more when we get home.

11/7/86

Well, this is the last page of my journal, or at least the actual book that I am writing in, which is kind of ironic because this page is also a beginning point in my mission – I have a new companion, Anziano Greenig.  From the information I gathered he has the reputation of being a real hard worker.  I hope together we can work really hard.  So far we’ve been together for, I’d say, 8 hours.  No, make that 6.  Anyway, he seems pretty cool.  I think that his impression of me is that I am some sort of Florida beach bum.  Oh well, vediamo.  One good thing though, he is a 4-wheel man.  Hopefully the 4-wheelin’ bond will pull us together.  Like I said though, he seems pretty cool.  I’m confident we will have baptism in November.  Sono sicurro!  Buona sera.

11/6/86

Yes, this morning were the long awaited transfer call-ins.  Guess who got transferred.  No, come on, it should be obvious.  Yes, Elder Gale is going via.  He wanted to go to small two-man town and that is what he got.  He is being transferred to Luca.  Sooo, all we did today was salute everyone.  We went over to Sorella DiGioa’s just to say goodbye, but we ended up staying for about 4 hours.  She fed us a ton of food.  I went away totally stuffed.  The we went and saluted Lorenzo.  He was cool as always.  He even said that since he has known us he has become closer to God.  That kind of shocked me.  Maybe he as actually been listening to us.  The we had to go to the train station and get the departure times for trains to Pisa.  That was our day.

11/5/86

Today was kind of a preparation day in case Gale gets transferred.  District meeting wasn’t really anything out of the ordinary.  The only bad thing was that i had to bring cookies because I didn’t accomplish my sfida.  I’m not usually one to complain, but I spent almost 2 mille on the cookies I brought, and Worthy and Willardsen spent only 1,500 on their cookies…combined!  It kind of miffed me, but I got over it.  Later on Gale showed me how to get to some of our contacts’ houses in case he leaves.  In conclusion of our day, we went and helped the Sisters move a mattress.  Actually we ended up throwing it away, but the nearest garbage container was a few blocks away – they gave us each a Mars bar!

11/4/86

Skeefo, Skeefo!  That is all I will say, and I’m not going to worry about making up missed days either.  Sorry but that is the way it is going to have to be.  First of all, yesterday was p-day.  We couldn’t really do anything because it rained all day, just like the day before.  We ended up going to the open market at San Giovanni, which is always quite the experience.  For a little added excitement we also visited a small black market.  I don’t think it was it was really a black market by definition – I just mean to say that it was not an organized open market.  It just seemed like a group of random individuals selling stuff.  It reminded me of a scene from medieval times – a gray, rainy day with all these old and gnarly people with their goods, mostly junk like old wristwatches and second hand clothes, spread out for sale on blankets.  For added effect, they were all in and around some ruins – it was pretty cool.  Once we made it to San Giovanni, Gale and Maldinado bought some good looking tweed overcoats.  They were only 25 mille apiece, and they were really nice.  There was an overcoat that I was tempted to buy, but it was 40 mille and I couldn’t afford it.  If I don’t get transferred I’ll probably buy it for sure next month.  At the market we ran into Sister Williams, the Mission President’s wife, and her sister who is visiting from Hawaii.  Sister Williams is really cool , so that was an added bonus.  That night we had to go to another family home evening at the Elsworths’.  All day I was really dreading having to go and play dumb games like dropping cotton balls into glasses (a game we played last time).  As it turned out, however, we all had a pretty good time.  Southwick gave the lesson and did a really good job.  We ate rolls, jam, and butter, and then finished off with a game of Uno.  I’ll give you an Italian chestnut peel if you can guess who won – Sorella Duel (if you guessed right I’ll have to give you a voucher on the chestnut peel).  Sorealla Duel wasn’t as lame as she usually is, so I guess I shouldn’t be too mad at her.  Today was uneventful, like every other day in the last couple of weeks.  I think Gale is planning on getting transferred so he is kind of taking it easy.  It will be a surprise if he doesn’t get transferred.  More than a surprise – a trial for the both of us.  Anyway, back to today…in the morning we had to go try to get in touch with the familia Bongini because the dad is a plumber and our shower is broken.  He wasn’t home so I guess it is cold showers for us tomorrow.  Then we went and bought a USA Today paper – it wasn’t worth it…Florida State lost to Miami!  After lunch we were suppsoed to have a meeting with the new mission leader in our branch, Carlo Soma, but after getting to the church and waiting for one hour we found out that he was sick and wouldn’t be able to make the meeting.  Soooo, without anything better to do we went out to find the plumber dude again.  He was not home so we just bought some popcorn and went home.  The only good thing I did today was read a lot of scripture.  I’m starting to read the Old Testament.  I began about 3 weeks ago and now I am at the beginning of Leviticus.   Unfortunately it is really starting to get boring.  Genesis was cool, and I liked the first half of Exodus (up until the Israelites left Egypt).  I am going to try my best to stick to it.  Zone Conference (I dont think I ever wrote about Zone Conference) was really cool.  The AP, Anziano Piper, bore his testimony and said that he went a whole week without teaching the gospel and he felt like total crap.  It made me think…we’ve gone almost two weeks without teaching anyone and I don’t really feel that bad.  Maybe I should feel bad.  I keep telling myself that I was Senior Companion things would be different, but that’s not right because if I really wanted to work hard I could be more enthusiastic and help Gale more.  I have to work on self discipline.  I did get up at 6:00 this morning, although it was mainly because our shower is broken and I wanted to be one of the first in bathroom – just the same, I got up early for once.

10/26/86

Now I’ll tell you about last night (when I refer to “you” in this journal it is just a pronoun that generally refers to whomever may be reading what I write).  Southwick and I did a split because Elder Gale and Elder Maldinado had to go and get some pants tailored.  First we went to show a film to a couple of people, but neither of them decided to let us in.  So then we went and did some Sondaggio on Via Candia (a street on the way to Vatican that is usually very busy).  Just about everyone we stopped actually listened to us, so we were having a pretty good time.  We talked to this one African guy who was totally funny.  I asked him in Italian if he would like to answer some questions, and he seemed to not understand me, so I asked him if he spoke English and he said “you’re welcome” in a way that was obvious he was joking with me.  There was something about the look on his face and the way he said “you’re welcome” that was super funny.  First I started to laugh, then he started to laugh, and then Southwick started to laugh.  Soon we were all in tears from laughter.  Finally, after what seemed like five minutes of belly laughing we gave him a biglietto so our insides would stop hurting.  After that encounter I had a horrible urge to use the bathroom – I had been saving it since almost that morning.  The situation became so dire that we started aksing people on the street where a bathroom was.   At last we came upon a fancy restaraunt that looked for sure like it would have a bathroom, so we entered.  We were greeted by the maitre d who immediately asked, ” table for two?”  Embarrassingly we asked him if we could use the bathroom and fortunately he let me use the facilites and I got some relief.  Now for the clincher – at about 9:00 we decided to start to head home, and while we were standing at the bus stop these two guys walked by, and one did a double take and then approached us and said, “Can I have your address? I’m a damned drunkard.”  What made the situation even stranger was that he had long gray hair, sported a little goatee, wore a leather jacket with a long bright yellow scarf, and spoke English with an unusual accent.  He wanted to talk with us, so we went with him to a nearby bar where he treated us to some milk.  We found out that he is from Venezuela and he is a member of our church but he has a word of wisdom problem so he is inactive.  In fact, he told us that he is an alcoholic.  It was really sad.  He told us that he can’t help himself.  Whenever he gets money he just spends it on booze.  But there was more strangess about him – he started explaining to his friend that we don’t drink anything but wine made naturally from grapes.  We tried to correct him, but he insisted on it.  Then he explained how he liked Utah because they assassinate criminals by Winchester.  I told him I was from Florida and he said it was full of bastards from Cuba (I just kind of took that one on the chin and let it go) .  We walked him home, and it turned out his friend plays the saxaphone, so we listened to him play for a while.  Before leaving we made an appointment to pick him up at 10:00 for church the next morning.  A pretty wild evening I must say.  This morning we went to his place a little early to pick him up, and no one was home.  We hung around for almost half an hour and then left.  On our way back however he spotted us – he was sitting outside of a bar.  Once again he bought us some milk (this time it was pretty tastey though – warm with sugar) and we talked.  He explained that after we left him last night he and his friend went back out and got drunk so this morning he had a bad hangover.  He seemed pretty ashamed and said that he couldn’t go to church in his present condition.  He said he would try his best to totally abstain from alcohol for one week, and that if he could do that then he would come to church.  I feel really sorry for him.  I wish there was some kind of alcoholics program for him.  Oh well, I suppose the Lord will help him better than anyone else can.  After that we barely made it to sacrament meeting.  That night Gale and I did a little sondaggion on Via Candia.  Amazingly enough, most of the people were pretty nice.  One guy was even cool enough to give us his address, however, he is not in our zone so that stinks.  At least we found somebody though.

10/25/86

Last night we had a branch soccer match.  It was the Trionfale Branch against the EUR Branch.  The field was so huge I couldn’t believe it.  We went thinking it was going to just be a little game, but we were in for a big surprise.  It was all out soccer – take no prisoners with uniforms and everything.  Before this I thought I was OK at soccer, but now I know for sure that I really stink.  All the Italian guys were running circles around me.  I did improve a little towards the end of the game.  The highlight for me was when I scraped my knee really good.  It was all very fun, except for when after the game we found out that we had to pay 5,000 lire each for use of the field.  On top of that, when we got home I realized that I had left my white bible, complete with tessera and sogiorno, in the back of Fratello Torelli’s car.  I am such a doinkus sometimes.  I think I’ll wait and write about tonight tomorrow.  Tonight was so wild I couldn’t believe it.  Southwick and I did a split, so there is your explanation right there.  For now I’ll leave you in suspense.

10/24/86

Let me start by talking about Wednesday (today is Thursday) [correction: today is Friday].  Wednesday, after district meeting, we had a dinner appointment with the Denti family – all six of us.  The food wasn’t really that great.  I suppose that is bad of me to say. OK, I’ll say this, it was good but it wasn’t really better than what we fix for ourselves.  At the end of the meal they brought out the fruit, and I thought I’d be cool and try a persimmon.  Big mistake.  I would have to say that it was probably the grossest fruit I have ever tasted in my life.  It was all I could do to force my body to swallow it down.  I don’t think it was the taste as much as it was the texture.  If it would have been crisp like an apple and not soft and mushy like a pile of dog crap perhaps I would have liked it more.  After the meal, Fratello Denti  was feeling everyone’s collar bone to test our strength.  Apparently the feel of one’s collar bone says something about one’s fortitude.  When he got around to me though, he just pinched my cheek.  What does that mean? I guess I look so whimpy I don’t even merit a feel of the collar bone.  Earlier that day at district meeting we did sfidas.  Mine was to sondaggio 10 people on Via Candia, a street near the Vatican.  That evening I did it, but with little success.  Only one guy listened to me.  He was pretty nice but he wasn’t too interested.  Thursday I got a letter from who else but…Coni.  It was even longer than a page.  She sounded really cool, but get this, her friend did actually try to kill herself and was really pregnant.  For some reason I’m not surprised. You can only fool around so much before it catches up to you.  She told me in the letter that she really liked the colosseum dust and that she would keep it forever, with emphasis on the word forever.  That little hint was more than enough to rekindle the old flame.  Although she also wrote that she will probably go to BYU in January, which means that she will be married with kids by the time I get back into the picture.  Oh well.

10/22/86

Well I didn’t “get right into writing” yesterday, but now I will.  The only real significant thing I can remember in the recent past before p-day is when we went and talked to this Indian dude.  He is a catholic student who is here from India on a scholarship, and he lives in some kind of dorm at the University.  We met him in the study room of his dorm and taught him a little bit about families, mostly because that is what he is studying.  The study room was filled with paintings of Popes and there was one bug bust of a Pope at the end of one side – it was an interesting environment.  The guy was really cool.  He said it was good for people our age to teach about Christ.  He took a Book of Mormon and said he would read it, I think he will.  The only thing is, I got the impression that his view on religion is that they are all the same if the teach about Christ.  The only two religions he knows to be different are Hinduism and Christianity.  Hopefully the spirit will tell him differently.  Anyway, he is still a really good dude.  As we were leaving the dorm and passing through a passing through a couryard of the University, I had the sensation of being in India.  It was a moonlit night, the air was warm, the silohuettes of palm trees swayed softly against silver lined clouds, and the coversation of group of Indian dudes could be heard coming from somwhere in the distance.  It is hard to explain, but at that moment I wanted to be some kind international philanthropist.  The feeling soon faded, however, as we returned to our apartment.  Also that night there was a lunar eclipse.  We watched a little bit of it on the way home.  We weren’t sure what was happening; I figured it was an eclipse, but I didn’t know for sure, so we asked some lady that was standing near us.  She turned out to be German, and she spoke in broken English, so we talked with her for a while.  The eclipse kind of reminded me of myself.  In the MTC I was a strong missionary, doing most of the things I was supposed to be doing, going to the temple every Friday, hearing devotionals – I was full of the light of Heavenly Father.  But now that I am here in Italy, something has passed between me and my Heavenly Father.  His light does not completely reach me anymore, and I feel like I am slowly becoming darker.  Unfortunately I feel like this shadow is permanent.  I really need to work on getting myself motivated.  Hopefully I’ll get transferred, or Gale will, and then it would be like a new scenario.  Not that it is Gale’s fault or anything, I just need some kind of change.