Ciao!
I made it through my first week! So far the MTC is amazing. My companion is Anziano Lamoureux. He is super cool and kind of quiet. He has some previous experience in the language, so he is a great help during language study. The first night we quickly found that the previous elder’s have left little presents for us in the vents and stuffed down a hole behind the mirrors in our room. The most useful of the items we found were some Christmas lights and a Christmas stocking that we put up to decorate our room a bit, and we found an unopened box of Andes mints that conveniently disappeared soon after.
The biggest surprise came when I met my teacher for the first time. All she said was in Italian. She spoke a long string of words that could hardly follow. I have never felt more like a deer in headlights. This is how pretty much every interaction with my teacher goes with my teacher: She speaks some instructions to me in really fast Italian, and I stare at her with my mouth wide open and what I’m sure is an extremely confused face until she starts doing hand crazy hand motions in an attempt to get her point across. However, the language is getting easier, and bit by bit I’m able to piece more of what she is saying together.
We got our first “investigator” on the third day here. Her name is Francesca. Teaching her was a huge surprise because only three days in we had to be able to teach entire lessons in our mission language. It was kind of tough at first, but I am quickly getting better at the language. Teaching Francesca was such a cool experience especially when you can feel the spirit and your lesson is going well.
The spirit here is so powerful, and I know in a few weeks I’ll be making huge leaps and bounds towards being ready to teach the people of Italy.
Arrevaderci,
Anziano Findlay
P.S. this is for Zach Greenlee, but the other day we figured out how to say Dank Meme in Italian it is “Meme Umida”
Elder Findlay and companion Elder Lamoureux
with Elder Smith
with his companion and two other Elders
Provo Temple
View from the Provo Temple
Gifts from previous room residents
Dorm Room Decoration
MTC Dorm Room
When in Rome... 