Today was Sunday. The first time I have thought about church in a long time and I must say I am quite excited. There are a bunch of us who went to church. I got exact directions from my brother. Luckily his current companion used to serve in Mestre which is where the nearest ward was. When I say exact I mean exact down to looking a specific shoe strores as landmarkers to keep us on the right path….those missionaries….they rock! Well after about an hour of traveling including dropping our luggage off to store at the train station and taking two different buses and walking quite a ways…..we made it. In our best clothes possible we walked up to 124/C. White Stucco gates with a mouthful of words printed on them in a plaque that any member anywhere would recognize. Doesn’t matter the language barrier or country….it felt so good to be home. With a little bit of grief keeping my emnotions in check we walked into the ward building to find books of Mormon out on the table in the foyer in 4 different languages. We were helped by I think a member of the ishopric into Sunday school where we sat and silently listened to the lesson in Italian…Music to our ears. I sat there and just felt. I did nothing but feel the spirit and the calm of standing in holy places. When the closing prayer was said in Italian we wandered up stairs to the best thing I had seen in a long time…MISSIONARIES! AMERICAN missionaries. They were so freakin adorable I could scream. I talked to them about my brother who is serving currently in Milan. He is the A.P. and so the Zone leaders we met with were well acquainted with him. I was talking to people my brother had talked to. I know it sounds so corny but it was so great! I told them I had a package to give to him and they said they would deliver it. We went in for sacrament and they had a designated interpretor who greeted us and introduced himself. He gave us headphones that we could put on and he would sit in the corner by the pulpit and translate into a mic that would broadcast to ur headsets….so Cool! The ward members were so nice. We met a lovely family in front of us that were from Denmark visiting for Holiday. There was a nother young couple behind us from Arizona. We our little group of Seven took up an entire row….but everyone was so glad to have us that we were not uncomfortable at all. There were probably 75 people total. We sang all the hymns in Italian as we could not really remember the words. The intermediate Hymn was Families can be together Forever. We alls ang this one in English. The family in front of us sang in Danish and the coulle behind us in English. Everyone else sang in Italian….There are certain times and places in your life where things just fel soo good and soo right. This was one of my moments. I stood there with tears streaming down my face and sang about how my family is forever. Miles away from my family and my husband I have never felt closer to my eternal father in heaven and family. It was so beautiful.
After church was over we waited around for the missionaries for like twenty minutes all the while I was panicking and thinking they had left….no they were just in meeting. I had like rounded up people to give the package to the missionaries later that week….always a planner! They ccame out and we gave them the package. We of course got pictures with the missionaries and directions back to the train station. It was a fabulous little trip. One of the best things I have done so far. When we were back in venice Kylee and I split off and meandered around again. We went shopping and bought souveniers. We got Kylee some delicious McDonalds to eat and I had Pizza. We both had Gelato one last time and I had to try Pistacio flavor as my brother said it is his favorite….he is so right..inspired that boy! I loved it and it is now my favorite too! We made our way back to the train staion and bought a juicy looking watermelon on the way. As we hung out in front with our huge group of students I could not help but think of how lovely thimgs seem een when they suck in the afterglow of a lovely Sunday service. We made the mad dash to the train olnly to find that it was tiny and had to fit 6 of us in the car…YIKES. Talk about Tetris. Well it took Kylee and Amanda and I all working and sweating to death to get the suitcases up on the top storage area, once again the overpacking thing comes into bite me in the butt. Wellwe spent the rest of the night lasughting being ridiculous. I loved it. Julia and I even came up with a secret hadshake for us middle bunkers. It was hilarious! Can I just add that it smelled so bad in our little car I could have died….breath and shoes and chips is a really gross combo. Ha ha memories! I guess we will just have to see how this pans out tonight….till tomorrow!
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