G: How are you doing? Did you finally get some sleep?
EB: This isn't what I expected, but it's good. I slept alright last night which is really good.
G: Tell me about your comp, area, first impressions of Italia, mission president
EB: My comp is really cool. He's from Connecticut, but his family now lives in Rexburg so I told him to tell his fam to go try LuLu's. The area is awesome. When we ride around on our bikes I just say ciao to everybody and my comp laughs haha but it's fun. First flying in I thought t was beautiful and I still think it is beautiful. The city i'm in is the home of Mussolini and there are anarchy and communist symbols around a bit. The people here are really friendly and super curious.
I'm not sure what exactly I was expecting. I do want a bike with a better seat though. It makes riding the bike miserable.
G: Your AP's called us and told us you made it safely and where you were going.
EB: Oh cool. I like the AP's a lot
G: Maybe go and buy a better seat and keep that seat with you throughout your mission. Have you had some real Italian food?
EB: I could. I need to save the money first.
G: Send us your address and we can have it shipped maybe through Amazon. Did you get some sheets? Flops, blanket etc?
(Elder Brady had to leave a few things at the MTC because of no luggage space)
What have you done so far for your pday? When do you have to switch to What'sApp?
EB: No I haven't. I do need flip flops though. I've been looking but the biggest size they have are 11 and 12 so I most likely won't be able to get some. (Elder Brady needs size 15-16) I don't use the blanket so I use it as a sheet. For pday my comp just showed me around Forli and we had kebab for lunch. I took like a 10 min nap when I was writing email drafts haha and my comp just let me sleep.
G: Send me your address and I will have flops sent. Amazon delivers to Italia.
EB: I won't be able to switch to What'sApp for a while. Only one in a companionship gets a sim card so until I'm senior comp
G: What is your comps name? How long has he been out?
EB: I'll figure out my address. He's been out 13 transfers, his name is Anziano Moss. His fam is gonna try LuLu's.
G: Cool
EB: Yeah. It's a change from seeing a thousand missionaries a day to only seeing my comp.
G: How much time is a transfer?
EB: 6 week
G: Big change.
EB: haha yeah it is. He's been out here for about a year and a half now.
G: You comp only has like 4 months left?
EB: Yeah ish nish
G: Is he trunky? Is he making you speak Italian?
EB: What does trunky mean? I had a candy thing that's called trunky. He's making me speak and I'm asking him a bunch of questions. He'll ask me if I know what a sentence means. Oh we teach English classes every Thursday night and we go to like a soup kitchen every Friday night. I'm gonna try to get a ragu recipe for you and mom to try. This Sunday my comp and I got invited to a members house.
G: Trunky is when a missionary is thinking more about going home than the mission. That's good that he makes you speak.
EB: Oh. Nope. He's got his mind on the mission.
G: Awesome. Make sure it is really good. We want the best.
EB: haha I'll do my best. As a missionary I probably won't have the time to make ragu but maybe.
G: That is good. To have a great comp as your trainer is the best.
EB: Yeah. I'll get some good recipes. When you and mom come here you're gonna love just going into the regular grocery stores and getting the meat packs with a little block of cheese.
G: Nice. I love those. Do you eat with members every day or just sometimes? Send some photos of your house. Do you have a fridge, stove, etc? You're on a bike, is there public transportation also?
EB: We eat with them just sometimes. We have a stove and oven and fridge. We handwash dishes and hang dry our clothes. The washer is about 1/4 the size that we have at home. We don't have any wifi in the apartment so we go to a park or the church to talk to family.
G: You're blessed to have a fridge, stove and washing machine. So where are you at now?
EB: There is public transportation and we'll probably use that when we have to go to places further away. Our area is really big. Haha yeah, I know, I'm happy to have them (the washing machine, stove and fridge). The shower doesn't work that well though. I'm at the church right now.
G: How many missionaries in your town?
EB: Just my comp and I. This is our area. It is outlined in purple.
G: Is there a branch, ward? How many members?
EB: The whole area in the purple boundary is just for me and my comp. There is a branch, about 40 members.
G: You cover 3 cities?
EB: Yep, just him and I. This is a photo of the inside of our chapel where we have sacrament.
G: How bit of an area is it? That is way cool.
EB: I'm not sure how big, but it's big.
G: Is the chapel close to your house?
EB: It's a 10ish min bike ride.
G: Not bad. You will have some really neat experiences. The small branches are really fun.
EB: Yeah. I met the 1st counselor who is also the branch mission leader and he's French but from London and he served his mission in Italy and moved here.
I'm really happy I got short sleeved shirts.
G: Hmmm, are those the shirts you didn't want? hahahahahahahah. Do you wear suits every day or do you get to wear shirt and tie?
EB: haha yes. It's already so hot and not even summer. We wear shirt and tie to all the normal stuff, but for meetings, church baptisms, etc we wear our suits.
G: Nice
EB: Yeah I don't like wearing the suits. Just because it's way too hot and humid.
G: Take your suit off when you can to keep cool. You will get used to it with time.
EB: Si, when the pres is around we can't take them off without him giving us permission which is kinda dumb but oh well.
G: haha. I understand it is an obedience thing. Do you like your mission president and his wife? Where are they from?
EB: haha yeah I don't like rules too much. They're both really nice. She made dinner for the 11 of us new missionaries the first night we were there and they both care about all the missionaries a lot which is good to feel that form them on day 1. They're both born and raised in Idaho. We haven't had our first interviews yet because we got in really late so we do it in a couple weeks. I learned that it is legal to have a wolf as a pet here.
G: Oh good.
EB: Yeah. What time is it there?
G: 8:55am
EB: Okay cool.
G: Is this where your branch meets?
EB: Yeah
G: Does it remind you of Latin America?
EB: Oh Yeah. That's probably why I don't have culture shock. The address to send things to is the mission home which I'm pretty sure mom has. We're off to a members home. I love you. Let everyone else know I said hi and that I love them. My pday is next Wednesday.
G: Love you. Be safe and work hard.
