Getting Organized and Meeting People on the Tram

Hi!

(Here are some photos of our apartment and the views we have.
**Reminder: you can click on the photos to see them BIGGER.)

study area

closet area

bath

kitchen

NEW COMPANION. It's been a great week with my new companion, Anziano Sanchez. He is from Florida, originally from Venezuela. We've gotten along really well so far, and I'm looking forward to the other six weeks.

main room and kitchen and Sanchez

Our work has been interesting -- aside from the usual workload of people to visit from my area, they closed the other companionship in my apartment. So we're taking over their area as well. That requires getting to know a new set of buses in the area, a new set of people, and some condensing of visits and reorganizing, so that nobody gets forgotten. If people were getting visited unnecessarily, then we have to stop doing that, so we have time for everyone.

BOOKKEEPING SKILLS. Also, it turns out that the other companionship, and we, were not good bookkeepers. So I have a lot of organization to do this week! Still, it's nice to have a fresh set of people to work with.

Talking about "sets of people" is sort of weird, but it helps me keep it all straight if I keep the people I work with in "boxes" (and I let them out twice a day for an hour, and I feed them, and make sure they have bedding :P) -- it helps me keep it organized in my head. We have "the people the other missionaries were working with," or "people who haven't come to church in awhile." I do enjoy working with the people here in Torino, even if there are lots of crazies here.

view from apartment

COOL BUS EXPERIENCE. We're on the tram, and a lady is looking at Sanchez's tag. So he asks her if she's seen missionaries before, and she says no. So he starts explaining who we are, and she responds with some interest. So we take her number and she asks us to call her this week. Yay, people on trams! Also, a few days ago we got a call. A man recently moved in from Ghana, where he had been meeting with the missionaries. He still wants to meet, so we went to see him and he wants to be baptized. So in a few weeks perhaps, hopefully he can.

beds

On Thursday, Anderson left in the morning and Sanchez arrived. But we also had an Elder Martin with us who was waiting for his companion, who would arrive late in the evening. So we went around as 3 that day. Transfer day is always somewhat surreal, so having another missionary around wasn't all that strange. I assume it would be strange for several weeks, but for a day it wasn't bad.

view with snow

MISSIONARY PARENTS. A lot of families here have kids on missions. There's an RM (Returned Missionary) from the Japan, Kobe mission, two RMs from the Salt Lake City Temple Square mission, one family has a son in England, another in Florida, another family has a daughter in the Italy, Milan mission, and another has a daughter in Chile.

Last Sunday we went to one such family's house for lunch, and then we went for a roundabout walk around town to the station, just talking. It felt really therapeutic; I think it was nice for them to talk to someone like their son (Florida, Jacksonville mission) for a bit. "Just going for a walk with the boys."

Here is our "Toy Box," even if we're just 2 in the apartment now.

Love, Anziano Whitesell