Scambi, Rita, Interestin' food‏

Well hello family and friendsiesIt has been yet another not disappointing week in Sardegna! First of all, at this moment I'm not e-mailing from Cagliari but from Sassari. It's like the northern most part of the island....ish. ha ha But we are doing a scambi. (A companion exchange) It's been a crazy week because right after our district meeting on Monday we had to take the train to Sassari (it takes like 4 hours but on top of that it was delayed). I was SUPPOSED to just drop sorella Bjarnason off and bring Sorella Hughes right back on the train BUT because our train took so long to get to sassari...we missed the train back. So I had to sleep here in Sassari without anything. No pajamas, to shower goods, no new clothes for the next day, toothpaste...nada. So it was interesting. It wouldn't be a very big deal, but I have to be a missionary, you know? Like I can't just look completely mangled and ravaged by wolves for no good reason. I'm pretty sure it's in the rule book! ha ha Anyway, so the Tuesday morning we woke up at like 5:30a.m. to take the train home to Cagliari, we had a full day and then this morning (wednesday) we woke up at 4:30a.m. to take the train back up here to drop off Sorella Hughes and pick up my companion. ha ha Man oh man it's been an adventure. Lots of train rides for Sorella Hansen! So I'll take yet another train ride home today at 2 and then no more train rides for a while. It's been an adventure to say the least!SO let me tell you about something completely wonderful that happened! So do you remember Giuliano? I met him my first week here in Cagliari and went to talk to him while we were doing Mostra. Anyway, we taught him two lessons and then he stopped answering my calls. I was actually SO sad about it because I really felt like I was supposed to talk to him and I ....I dunno, it was just sad that he just stopped answering. So we went a MONTH without hearing from him, and him not answering. Well a week ago we got stood up on an appointment and I just ended up walking to this piazza to make a phonecall. Well, guess who was just hanging out at the Piazza? Giuliano himself! Anyway after the conversation I still got the feeling that he was holding back. He told me that he was really busy with work and stuff and THAT's why he didn't answer. I tried to be nice but I didn't believe a word of it. You can tell. Anywhoodles, so then this sunday we went to this Piazza to do chalk. (pretty much we lay a sheet down on the ground and draw the plan of salvation or something). You'll never guess who we ran into...our ol' boy Giuliano! AH! I kind of felt frustrated and like I didn't really know what to do. So I did chalk for a second and then went over and sat by him and talked to him. IT WAS SPLENDID! Listen to this: So he told me that he had read 30 pages of the book of mormon. Er...I think my mouth dropped open as he continued by retelling the whole story of Nephi killing Laban!! Seriously, come on, does this really happen?! So I felt like I could do this so...I totally called him on not answering our calls. ha ha And it actually turned out being just the right thing to do. He knows my personality well enough that it worked and he understood and it was good. I guess he just felt like it was too much for a bit and wanted to wait for a little bit. I was just like "Giuliano, if we're not going to hear from you for a month will you just tell me first?!" ha ha He just laughed and...whaddaya know, we have an appointment for Saturday! It was such a rewarding experience to have an investigator that I found tell me a story from the book of mormon. It just helps remind me that I'm supposed to be here when something like this happens. It was the best feeling and I just felt so happy for him. I'm trying to work on being more bold and in this situation it worked out!On our scambi yesterday with Sorella Hughes, we had an appointment with our new investigator, Rita, that we found doing house like a week ago. Holy smokes that family is great! It's her and her husband Antonio, and their daughter Federica (who's 26) and HER son Alessandro (who's 19 months). It was really cool. Federica is practically my age and she is fantastic. If things go according to planned, then she'll be a new investigator next time. We were able to finish teach the first lesson-the restoration. It went well. There were some elements that were a bit out of our control but it went really great. Federica had some really amazing and sincere questions. She told us that she doesn't believe in the catholic church and she feels like the people in that church are just men. You know like...pretty much saying that she doesn't feel like they have authority. Which was cool. THEN, I'll have to explain something. In the catholic church, they don't pray directly to Heavenly Father. They pray to Mary--the mother of Jesus, and she I guess...delivers the message...or something. Also, they pray to saints. But Federica was telling us that she doesn't like praying to the Madonna (Mary), because she says that it doesn't feel natural and she just doesn't like it. It's just so cool to see people recognizing inside themselves a desire for the truth. They don't always recognize it, but it's so clear that there's something inside of her desiring to know. BAH! Love it!After the lesson we had lunch with them. We had some crazy stuff! I thought, when I got my mission call that I was pretty safe as far as weird food goes. It's italy! Come on! But I had my first Anchiovies! I don't know if I spelled that right. But they were...hardly ideal. I dunno, like I was able to swallow but I wouldn't force them upon anyone that I love! Also, after the meal we had a green fig. It was like the size of a baseball but shaped like a ...top. You know, like those toys that you spin. Then on the inside it looked like a sea anenomi (Wow, my spelling has gone rapidly down periscope! Sorry if you can't understand a lick of this e-mail) The texture of what was inside was completely bizarre. It looked like it should live and sway about in salty water, and should glow-in-the dark. ha ha It was the craziest thing but it was actually pretty A-okay. I think I'll try another one sometime!Well thanks for tuning in to this eternal e-mail. I hope that everything's going great for everyone. I learned so much from my scambi from Sorella Hughes. She's a really bold missionary. That's one thing that I really want to work on because it's so great. The church is true. Read your scriptures. Say your prayers. And love your beautiful lives everyday, all the time. Sardegnian love, Sorella Hansen