Ciao Tutti!
So this week was really crazy! We were all over the place and we have been on some sort of transport for 50 hours this week which was really nuts and definitely the most I have ever done in a short amount of time within my whole life. We were definitely worn out by it all and it was a very fun travel at the same time. So we started out Monday night by heading to Palermo and we stayed the night there so we wouldn’t have to wake up super early on that Tuesday morning for travel to get to Palermo for our train and run the risk of being late for it or something like that. We headed out on that train at 9:30 and we were on that one for a good amount of time. We had a guy assigned to sit next to us and I am not really what sure what language he spoke because after he sat down for a second I asked him where he was headed in Italian and he didn’t acknowledge me so I am not totally sure haha.
He got off after a little bit and we eventually made it to Messina where we cross on the boat to get back over to the mainland. I have been on that thing a fair amount of times it seems like. We had a small expensive lunch on the boat and got back on the train.
We then had to endure this lady that was sitting in another little section play traditional Sicilian music out loud and at first it wasn’t that big of a deal, but it definitely started getting a little annoying after a while hahaha. We finally arrived at Salerno at 6:30 in the evening and had about an hour and half layover before we had to be on the train again. Just enough time for a pizza!! We were close enough to Napoli and we were logically starving at this point. We had a pizza place picked out that we wanted to check out also hoping it was a like a sister restaurant to Sorbillos in Napoli. Well that place was closed so we made our way to another one and sat down and stuffed our pizza down in about 15 minutes or so, which was super delicious as well! After contemplating for a total of 3 seconds we decided to head back to the original place since it was said to have been open by then and grab a pizza to go. Don’t know what was up, but it was still closed. There was another one that we passed by and we decided to check it out and it seemed to be a fast place. We ordered and then I started talking to the older man that took our order. I was asking if they were from Salerno and whether this was their Pizzeria. We were just starting the small talk and then the guy that was making my pizza who was younger stated in Italian that we weren’t from around here. We said that we were from the United States and then all of a sudden he asked in English if we had a tag. Mine was half way covered by the tip of my jacket and we were shocked at the question and the fluency of English. Then he said that he was mormon and asked where we were from.
Well we told him we were from Sciacca and he said that he served part of his mission there. We asked him his name and having heard it since being here as well as talking to the members about him we had a great little time talking to his family and his pizza was really good too!
We in fact have a cook book he made while he was on the mission and it was a pretty cool experience.
After chowing down that pizza we had a nice short little ride for the next leg of the trip. We were late taking off and then we also sat at a station for a while and I had a feeling we were going to miss the connection to get on the bus headed towards Foggia. I tried searching for someone and went down the train, but the door I knocked on no one answered, didn’t realize till after it was the door connecting to the carriage hahaha. When we got off we were rushing around and then we saw the Tren Italia worker getting off and we asked him about the fact that we missed the bus and two others had the same problem. Well thank goodness we asked him, because he offered all of us a ride to catch the bus. So we hurried in the car and headed to one of the towns about 40 kilometers away that the bus would stop and pick up more people. It was super funny and we were just laughing at the situation that we were in and everyone in the car was super nice and we got to talk to them for a good amount of time.
Making it to Foggia we had our ride up to Pescara and then sat in the station for 2 hours waiting for the next train and oh my goodness was it freezing in that station. It was so cold and we were tired hahaha.
That was definitly the most painful part of the trip as well as waiting in the Porto D’Ascoli station for the last train. We arrived in Ascoli around 7:00 in the morning and we were able to go and get some breakfast at the Anziani’s house, shower, and study before getting Anziano Campbell’s permesso. I got to try these really good fried olive type things in Ascoli which are famous there. We had a nice little short stay in Ascoli before heading back down to Rome and from there we were able to thankfully take a night train with beds on it so we knocked out really fast on that part and when we woke up, besides the few times along the way, we were arriving in Palermo. Took the bus back to Sciacca and were finally able to make it to our area.
We had a great few work days here in town and were able to accomplish a lot of great stuff. We were able to visit some members and we also had the chance to help some members move to a new house so that went really well!
Friday while we were planning there was snow coming down! It was crazy!! That rarely ever happens down here. It was sticking of course, but cool to see. That is also a holiday here in Italy called the il giorno dell’Befana it is where all the Christmas decorations are taken down and apparently this witch comes and leaves some gifts for the kids. It is a cool little cultural holiday. Well, needless to say there weren’t many people out with a combination of these things. We hopped in somewhere to grab something to eat in the evening and ended up sitting down from little bit. Upon exiting I turned around and Anziano Campbell was talking to this guy in English and we were all of sudden in full fledge conversation with someone that served in Sciacca as a missionary 20 years ago and was on a trip planning where he will take students on his trip this summer. It was super cool talking about members and the experiences that he had on his mission. It was super cool!
Well Saturday the whole branch, as well as our new convert, were going to head to Palermo to get to a conference where there would be a General Authority speaking. Well the bus was late for starters and then the next thing that we knew we got the slowest bus driver ever and it took like 3 and half hours to get all he way down there.
Thankfully everyone was a great sport about it and we had a potential there as well that is the husband of a member in our branch. Well we made it for the last 15 minutes or so, but it went super well! It was a nutty night, but we made it back safe. All went well and we had a great Sunday to the close of a super long and busy day! We were super happy about everything that happened and all that we were able to accomplish.
One thing that the experience in Salerno made me reflect on was a story that Elder Quentin L. Cook recounts in a devotional he gave some years ago about President David O. McKay.
When I was your age, President David O. McKay was the prophet.
President McKay served as President of the Church from 1951 until 1970, which was the year I turned 30. There is always something very special about the prophet who serves when you are a young adult. I loved and admired President McKay. He often related a true account that occurred while he was a missionary serving in Scotland. He was feeling homesick after being in the mission for just a short time and spent a few hours sightseeing at nearby Stirling Castle. When he and his companion returned from visiting the castle, they passed a building where the stone above the door had a carved inscription of a quotation usually attributed to Shakespeare, which read: What E’er Thou Art, Act Well Thy Part.
Recalling this experience in a talk given in 1957, President McKay explained: “I said to myself, or the Spirit within me, ‘You are a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. More than that, you are here as a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. You accepted the responsibility as a representative of the Church.’ Then I thought [about] what we had done that forenoon. We had been sightseeing, we had gained historical instruction and information, it is true, and I was thrilled with it. … However, that was not missionary work. … I accepted the message given to me on that stone, and from that moment we tried to do our part as missionaries in Scotland.”
I love this quote a lot because it shows that we always have to be doing our part to be who we really are at all times. We didn’t have to start talking to the people at the pizzeria and often times in our lives we may find ourselves in situations where we can maybe be different than we normally are or whatever. I just really love the fact that wherever we are we should always be doing what we can to be who we know that we need to be. I really know that all actions have consequences and something I loved this week that I read in a talk from President Thomas S. Monson was how we are always affecting the lives of others by the way we live our lives whether that be for good or bad. I hope that we may all do what we can to be who we need to be always! Sorry for the length of the email this week it was super long!
Have a great week everyone!
Vi voglio bene!!
Anziano Garrett
Pizza in Salerno
Pizza in Salerno with an RM who worked in Sciacca while he was on his mission
It’s freezing cold in Sciacca
