Happy May!
Yesterday we passed by a shop that restored furniture. I said, "That man must know a lot about what restoration is!" So we went and talked to him and he showed us how to strip mahongany, we talked about how praying to saints instead of to God is a little backwards, explained how God can restore his church to the earth just like the man was restoring 18th century cabinents, and then we said a prayer while he stripped varnish off his hands. We'll go back next week. NICE.
The Puglia region continues to be more and more like Middle Earth. Last week we visited the "grotte" in Castellana, aka THE MINES OF MORIA! We found a cave troll, were pretty sure we heard Gollum following us, and couldn't find a Balrog, so we just nominated Anziano Reed to be the Balrog (since he finishes his mission today and will soon be, as we say, "dead").
If I succeed at attaching pictures, you will see Slla Chirstiansen and I and the cave troll AND another another testament (along with the Book of Mormon, another testament of Jesus Christ!)
On the way back from the caves, my rusty ear picked out two girls speaking -- YEEES... FINALLY! -- Japanese! I spent five minutes stewing on whether I should talk to them and trying to remember how to say all the simple things that I have just plum forgotten. I worked up the courage and started talking. I started out okay, but I kept slipping in Italian words and am pretty sure I was speaking Japanese in an Italian accent. Think of the phrase "Itsa a pizza!" and then say "DomO arigatO!" and that's pretty much how I sounded. But the girls were adorable, spoke perfect Italian, and we were able to take them to their hotel. YAAAY. I have to go back to Japan and remember what I've forgotten. It's shameful, I say, shameful!
What else? THE BOOK OF MORMON IS A POWERFUL TEACHER! Have you ever just tried to explain concepts to people just out of the Book of Mormon? It's insanely powerful! And it's the best when you are teaching someone who doesn't speak either your language or the foreign language you are learning. Enter: Gao, a Chinese student of opera. He's been taught a lot of the main concepts, and would be progressing swimmingly if it weren't for the fact that he studies 24/7 and can only meet with us once every three weeks. But he's GREAT! And he's READY! The key is that the missionaries in the past have used so many teaching materials in Chinese, when instead we just need to read out of the Book of Mormonses together. Yes? Yes. Yes we can.
Gao asked a great question. "How do I know when God is answering me? How will the answer come?" The answer to Gao and to everyone who has ever stumbled around blindly looking for answers (of which I am the first) is: 1) the Holy Ghost and 2) the Holy Ghost speaks to us in our mind and our heart. What does that mean? It means that sometimes we just "feel" something is right. Maybe that's just our feelings. Sometimes something "seems" right. Logically, our brain tells us that it makes sense. But maybe it makes sense, but it doesn't feel right.
When something feels good and makes sense... that's your answer. For me, usually I feel it is right first, and I have to take a step of faith in that direction. If I trust myself, if I follow what feels right, then the next step illuminates everything and suddenly I know why it felt right, because it also makes sense. Whoa. I don't know if any of that made sense. Write me a letter and I will explain it better to you.
Hey! I'm staying in Bari with Sister Bradford for another transfer. That means 6 months in Bari TOTALLY UNEXPECTED ON MY PART! Next stop... Rome? Probably. But that's not for another little while, so we'll think about that later.
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