So all I can really say is Bari is COMPLETELY different from Roma. Completely. But that is just Italy for you. Wednesday night we had the Sorelle from Mistretta come and stay the night with us because one of them, Sorella Olsen (I graduated with her from Lone Peak), was transferred up to Roma 4 (Ostia) which was just opened up to Sorelle this transfer. It was a fun night because Mistretta was Sorella Picketts first city and that little place has her heart. The next morning we had to wake up extra early though because My train left at 8:20 and we had to go into Termini which is in Centro. We got there and right away I had to walk Sorella Pickett to the Mission Van and Anziano Rappleye, the AP, told her to get in the car. So . . . I broke again and started to bawl right in the middle of the train station haha. I am such a baby, but goodness sake! In one day I had to leave my first city and my trainer! I can only take so much! But the best part was the Anziani. They got all awkward :) Gotta love awkward missionaries when a sister missionary starts crying when she gets transferred. I eventually got over it, but that was after I talked to Sorella Giordano for 10 minutes. I kept saying "Sto bene, sto bene!" amidst all the tears and she would go "No, non sei bene." But I survived, got on the trian, and we were off! It was a fun little train ride. I went with Anziano Schwing and four new greenies down to Puglia, the region we will all serve in. Anziano Schwing has so far followed me my whole mission. We were together in the MTC, he was in my district in Roma, and now he is in a city about an hour away from me in my zone. But He is an excellent missionary, even if he is a little bit intense. The new greenies were great as well. They were all so excited and it reminded me of when I first got here, which as hard as it is to believe, was not that long ago. Crazy! So we all had a lot of time to get to know each other was we took our 6 hour train ride down south. First off, Bari is flat. The whole city is at sea level which is new for me. In Utah we are surrounded by mountains and Roma is kind of like eastern Kansas, just full of hills. But Bari has none, which is kind of a nice change since we walk a lot more than we did in Roma. Also, most people here are actually Italian. In Roma, everyone is from South America, the Philippines, or Africa. But now I am put in a position where I will be speaking a lot more Italian. I love my companion too! She is great. I did not get to know her too well in the MTC, but she is a hard worker and we are in this together! Her name is Sorella Lauren Laws and she is from Salem Oregon. Sorella Pickett laughed because she is a vegetarian from Oregon and so is Sorella Laws. She predicted my next companion would be a greenie from Oregon as well, seeing as there are no other Sorelle in the mission from Oregon and I cannot break my record now. Another big difference from Roma is our apartment. I loved our home in Fidene, but lets face it, it is no Palace of King Solomon. At all. We were on the ground level, had mold, plaster peeling off the walls, you sit down in the shower . . . just different than I am used to. In Bari we live on the third floor, it is a lot bigger, NO mold at all, tons of windows . . . all together an upgrade! Especially the shower! Mama Mia! I could have kissed that thing! It had been almost five months since I had taken a shower standing up where I did not have to hold the water sprayer thingy over my head :) And like most cities in Italy, they all have their own dialects. Here it is called Barese, and because almost everyone is Barese, they all speak Barese. And our last name, LeCates, when pronounced correctly is a vulgar word in Barese. So I have been warned to always introduce myself as Sorella Le-cah-tez. Everyone seems so surprised when I pronounce it the way it would be pronounced in Italian. But if it makes it easier, va be! We had English course that first night after I unpacked and it was too fun! I have always enjoyed English course and this was no exception. The course here in Bari is actually about 4 times the size of the one we had in Roma. The advanced course had only 4-5 in Roma, but here we have about 15-20. All of the students are great though and our conversations are quite funny. But I am sure I will have plenty of stories to tell about them another day.
Friday we did weekly planning and then did grocery shopping. Wow, a grocery store across the street from our apartment?! Sure beats a half hour bus ride! After that we went out to Japiga, a zone of Bari to visit some contacts that Sorella Laws and Sorella Foote had found before I came. Only one was home but they are a family I will never forget. The mothers name is Nella and she is a sweet little thing. Her husbands name is Enzo and I just have to laugh when I think about him. One thing you must know about Bari is that a lot of people lose their minds as they older. This is no exaggeration and Enzo is no exception. He is blind in his right eye and tends to laugh and repeat himself a lot, but is super nice. He always insists we sit down and offers us about 30,000 things before the lesson even starts. Their daughter, Giusi is great too! She always says "talk about Jesus. Go ahead!" The only problem with this family, is it takes a little while to get started. They speak Barese and yell at each other a lot (but they are Italian after all) and to get things quiet, Nella yells at her husband to get out and shut the door. So once we did that we sat down and talked to her and Giusi about the plan of Salvation briefly. Nella, despite her background and her insistence that she will die Catholic, is a very spiritual woman and she recognizes truth. She loves us too and says we can come back anytime. We will be sure to do that. Back on the topic of crazy people in Bari, our bus ride into Centro was quite funny. We got on the bus and this middle aged man motions for me to take the empty seat next to him. I figure, "what the heck" and Sorella Laws whispers to me to baptize him :) So I sit down but for some reason I feel like I should not say anything, which is weird because we are missionaries. We are supposed to talk to strangers. But I still do not say anything. But about 15 minutes into the ride he starts barking at these girls in the back of the bus and they growled and barked back . . . this continued for 10 minutes until he got off . . . yeah. Not sure what to think about that, but Sorella Laws assures me that after another week it will all just seem normal. I also made a phone call without complaining! Sorella Pickett would be so proud! Whenever she tried to get me to call a contact, investigator, or a member I would moan and groan about it because, lets face it, I have a phone phobia in English, let alone in Italian. But Sorella Laws is not my trainer so I have to suck it up now and just do it. She turned to me and said, "call this person." So I took the phone and did it. Granted I hardly speak Italian and I was scared out of my pants to do it, but it was not so bad. See! I am becoming brave! Kinda . . .
Sabato mattina all of our plans fell through because everyone we were planning on visiting was not home. But that is alright, we are used to it. So we were just walking around, doing house when a palazzo door was left open, when Sorella Laws stops and said we should visit a contact in the area named Lorella. We go over and luckily she was home! She said we could not stay long, but had we been any later she would have left to go out. We sat down and had a really sweet, though short lesson with her about prayer. We then invited her to church and she got really excited and said she would call her sister and daughter that night and slyly get them to come as well. I can already see her being one of those sneaky member missionaries that get their friends in church. She also thought I was Sorella Foote, which I am used to at this point. Everyone thinks I am her or they say "Sono eguale!" Sorella Foote is a little shorter than me, but we both have short blonde hair, round faces, and similar body builds. We also dress the same too! We had to Lorella about three times that I was a new sister before she realized the difference. Our afternoon and evening kind of fell apart as well. We went back to Japiga to run by our contacts again but again, none of them were home. So we went back into centro to an internet point to make up a pamphlet for the geneological center here in Bari. It is open everyday, almost all day. And Italians are big on family so we thought it would be a great way to get people into the church building and feeling the spirit of Elijah. Vediam. After that we ran by a contact across the street. She is this really nice woman who runs a focaccia shop. Her husband recently died and is having a hard time. We hope we can teach her and her children sometime soon because they really need the gospel, especially right now.
Domenica was my first time in the Poggiofranco ward! Again, totally different than Roma but I liked it. Also, again, everyone thought I was Sorella Foote. But I guess that makes the transition easier for them if they do not even notice haha. My favorite part of church though was Rione Sacramentale. I was sitting by these two girls and one of them leans over to me and asks if I like kittens. I nod my head and out of the top of her purse pops the head of this kitten! Gotta say, that is a first for me. I love Italy :) Every Sunday in this ward a different family is assigned to have the missionaries over for Pranzo. I was warned before hand by Sorella Laws as to the quantity they try and feed you, but I just had no comprehension until I got there. It was la famiglia De Santis and they had three generations there for Pranzo. They set up two big tables and had cooked enough food for an army. First off we had HUGE bowls of pasta called al forno, which is pretty much just spaghetti baked in a caserole pan. I was thinking, this is not so bad, I am full but not about to explode. But they were not done. Next thing I know they plop a gigantic steak in front of me. Oh, and I cannot forget the french fries. This is one thing about Italy I do not understand. French fries? Non lo so . . . but they always have them. Boh. And again, they were not done after that. They made us home made gelato! Even though I was busting at the seams and lactose makes me sick, I could not turn this down. It was white goodness with fresh strawberries! Yum! I could not eat for the rest of the day, but it was all worth it after that deliciousness. At 5:30 we had an appointment with the Costanzo family, the family I had called the night before. They have been investigating the church for ages but are not progressing. But despite that they gave us about 10 pounds of cherries. Better than a steak in my opinion! If people fed me cherries all the time life would be perfect! After that we went to the weekly GANS meeting. GANS is the abbreviation for the young single adults here in Italy and Bari has one of the biggest in the country and every Sunday they have the missionaries come to their meeting and then the Serata Famigliare afterward. That night they were watching a CES fireside from a couple of weeks ago that was filmed at the Spectrum at Utah State. It was funny because I knew the girl that said the prayer and a third of the choir. I have also been in the Spectrum for many a basketball game. Weird de ja vu . . .
Lunedì was Sorella Laws birthday! But it did not turn out to be too exciting of a birthday. Our whole morning went awry. We did not have consiglio because they moved it to martedì for this week, so instead we had planned about 4 member lessons outside of Bari. but the member who was going to go with us cancelled literally the last minute. So instead we went to go visit an inactive member named Francesca. She has some struggles and has not left her home since her mother died 20 years ago. But it was great because she gave us about 15 referrals! After that we stayed in Japiga because there is no bus that goes out there. It is about a 3 mile walk and it is not worth going back home for fifteen minutes just to go back out for another appointment we had with Nella later that afternoon. So for Sorella Laws birthday we spent our lunch break sitting on a cement curb trying to do language study until 3:30. But that is just the mission. When the time came we ran over to Nellas home. When we got there it took about 40 minutes before we got to teach. We were going to watch the Restoration, but we accidentally grabbed the wrong one so we only had it in English and Spanish. Then Giusis friends from school came over and they were all yelling in Barese at each other while they were smoking. We thought after about a half hour that we should just go but we felt like we should at least read a scripture before we left. But 5 minutes after that, the room miraculously cleared out! The only one left in that room was Nella and us and we had a truly awesome lesson! We taught her about prophet cycles, the restoration, and that she can pray to know that these things are true. She would not stop staring at us we testified and she grabbed each of our hands, squeezed them, then kissed them. She promised us she would pray to know and tell us the answer. She is awesome! Pretty sure she adores us because she kept pinching my cheek and calling us her "figlie" :) At the end, Enzo took us downstairs to see all of his pictures of Christ. Before we left we added one to his collection of Mary and Christ at the Garden Tomb. He liked it and pinched my cheek too. I do not know what it is about these Italians, but they just love to pinch my face! After that great lesson we walked a little ways to the apartment of a mother and daughter who are both less active. Their names are the Tarantinos. The mom is 89 years old and I love her. Truly. She too is losing her mind, but she is just a hoot! Two weeks ago the Sorelle got invited over to their apartment for her 89th birthday and invited them to church. They came that next Sunday after they had not been in about six years. They were also super excited that night to come to the Relief Society activity Tuesday night. Sometimes people just need one little invite and they can enjoy the blessings of the gospel again. After that lesson we had a serata famigliare with the De Santis family and Massamiliano Italiano (yep, that is really his name, great isn't it?) He has attended English course here in Bari for about 4 years and Sorella Laws and Sorella Foote jsut started teaching him a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately he does not like to wake up in the morning so has not come to church, but we hoped that if he could see what a family of the church looks and feels like, it may motivate him to progress. And again, Sorella Pickett would be so proud of her figlia! I almost taught the entire lesson by myself! Granted I just taught the Restoration and asked a lot of questions, but I was understood!
Tuesday mattina we had consiglio and again, I am a member of a rather large district. We have 10 members and it was neat because I got to see Anziano Luke, my zone leader from the MTC. He just got transferred to Puglia this transfer as well and was doing scambi here in Bari while his companion went to Zone leader conference in Roma. We had a really sweet destrimento given by our District leader, Anziano Knutsen and played a little bit of basketball after. No worries, I was in a skirt so I could hardly injure myself or my knee Dad :) That night we had Correlation with our ward mission leader, Fratello Corci and then English Course again. That is another difference here. We have English course every Tuesday and Thursday night here in Bari while in Roma we only had it on Thursdays. But again, I love English Course so it works for me. That night we asked the question "Who are you?" And it was great because everyone really did have to think about that one. And it was a perfect way to tie everything back to the gospel for the spiritual thought at the end. We wrapped it up to asking them who they would want their children to be and what they would be willing to do to accomplish that. We then read Romans 8:32 and even got a member of the class to say the prayer! All together a success! Sorella Laws also got a birthday gift from Massimiliano :) A HUGE stuffed tiger! She was a little embarrassed to walk home with it, but it was nice of him to get her a gift.
So altogether, Bari is pretty sweet! I have a lot to learn, and not just about the City. Everywhere we are sent is inspired of God. I know there are people here who need me and I have experiences and people that I need as well. I have already realized and learned things that never occurred to me before. Missions are absolutely awesome and I cannot wait to see what else this transfer will hold! Thank you for all that you do and your prayers and support!
Muah! Vi Amo con tutto il mio cuore!
Sorella LeCates
