So for New Year's Eve we had our district meeting and then were required to be inside at an earlier hour due to festivities that may be uninviting for missionaries. So we spent the day really inside. From our balcony we can see the city's castle, and at midnight the castle had a firework show that lasted for a full half hour. It was a nice little thing that the city does.
Our New Year's Day was really nice. A lot of people were asleep and inside most of the day, but we spent it visiting investigators that we knew were not big party people. G. was at home and he was with his daughter and her family. It was really nice and we were able to invite them to English class and are also possibly going to visit them at their home! After that we went and had a visit with M. I think he really is listening to us, and on the fast Sunday testimony meeting, he got up a bore a sincere testimony of prayer. We just need to help him get over his little doubts and issues he has with being rebaptized.
Saturday we were doing casa and it was cold and just had been a long day. It had been raining and our spirits were pretty low. We get to one apartment complex and starting calling all the doors and on the last one we see someone look at us, and we just get so surprised when she says "venite" (come) so we slowly walk in and then we get even more surprised when she asks us "so you said you have a message about families?" (Our approach to teaching some people) usually we don't get that surprised, but when we do door approaches seldom do people let us in and then actually ask us about our message. It was a mother with two little girls, and we shared a little bit about the plan of salvation and how it blesses families. She invited us back, and told us she knew a family that were members so that is why she let us in. We felt extremely blessed to have met her.
Sunday we spent the day with some members trying to fellowship and help with family mission plans, and we ate some of the best food I've ever had in my life.
Monday I woke up to just a wonderful site. SNOW. We had snow proprio falling almost all day. We were set to have an exchange so the udine missionaries were coming to do the switch so we decided to make our first snowman (and by us I mean the two Californian missionaries and the one Arizona missionary. The Idaho missionary aka my comp has made plenty) after the snow play day, Anziano L. and I were able to meet some new people. We taught a man named prince about the restoration and he invited us to come and teach his friends at the end of the week. The snow brought so many people outside and everyone became super friendly.
Tuesday was Anziano L's birthday so we made a big breakfast to celebrate the end of our exchange and his birthday, and then took him back to Udine. The snow was almost all melted which was really sad, and our snowman was melting, and fell so we were a little depressed, but we talked to some good people and found a couple more potential families.
Today we took a trip up to the city Tarvisio, a city up near the border of Italy, Austria, and Slovenia. There was a ton of snow up there, and we went on a hike that was just soo epic. We felt the we were the fellowship in Lord of the Rings embarking on an adventure. The city was just so calm and full of snow. There was a ski hill nearby and just pretty things. It was a really cool find.
So with so much going by this week, my mind has been very scrambled, but I read something pretty profound from President Monson. “Life is full of difficulties, some minor and others of a more serious nature. There seems to be an unending supply of challenges for one and all. Our problem is that we often expect instantaneous solutions to such challenges, forgetting that frequently the heavenly virtue of patience is required." Sometimes patience is a pain in the rear, but how much more do we learn when we exercise our patience? We can see the blessings come from the patience we have. If a trial came our way and two seconds later it is immediately lifted, we would always get mad when after two seconds our trial was still here. As a missionary, we practice patience daily, and always are working on our patience. But when we truly are patient we always receive the blessings.
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