A Week of Surprises

Ok, this was possibly one of the most random weeks of my life, complete with little surprises. I loved it. I wish I could relive it. True story. 

Me and Sorella Russell.

Friday we went out to this little town called Alpignano. Guess what? It was raining . . . a lot. Also, we didn't know where we were going because we were just doing some pass-bys. We also didn't have a map, so that was fun. We just walked around looking for people to ask and finally we found the houses. It took a really long time; we were lost a lot, but we found all three houses. We also saw some truly beautiful things, like a beautiful river we didn't know existed and a tiny open, one-room chapel. It was gorgeous. It was getting late, and we were looking for the last house; no one knew where the street was, so that was disappointing, but finally a lady knew where it was. She even gave us a ride because it was a little far away. We gave her cookies to thank her, and she was so touched. I love little miracles. Best part of the day . . . when we got home, wet and shivering as we were, we found a map for Alpignano next to my desk. Helpful.

Sunday starts off the surprises. We went to church late because there was a Gans [Young Single Adult] activity in the morning, so we had church at 3 p.m. I'm walking towards the church, and I see someone who looks a little like Anziano Scisci . . . because it was Scisci. He had been at the activity and was just leaving. Kind of weird because the last time I saw him he was a missionary . . . but it was wonderful to see him nonetheless.

Awkward moment of the day, a man visiting the Torino ward came up to talk to us. This is kind of how it went. 

"Ciao sorelle."

"Ciao"

"So, where are you sisters from?"

"......"

"......."

"I got confused by the English" - yours truly

"We can speak in Italian if you'd like"

"Si . . . meglio cosi."  [Yes . . . better that way.]

Chris at church. Best surprise ever!

I'm sorry but I probably won't be able to talk to any of you when I come home, unless you've magically learned Italian. English is hard. 

Surprise number two. I walked around the corner after Relief Society [meeting for women] and ran into one of my favorite people in the world. Chris Dean! He came for the activity and stayed for church. It was so weird to see him - weird, but wonderful. That makes the second time I've seen him in Italy. And there was the other time we were on the same train but didn't know. Weird miracles. 

My Sorella Gunnerson. Gotta love her.

Monday we had zone training. Good stuff. I always walk away feeling so inspired and ready to get to work. Sorella Gunnerson and I went to the station for our scambio [change in companions for the day] in Alessandria. We stopped to get lunch and ran into the Vercelli Anziani again . . . with Victor. Suprise number three! It was so good to see him, and we got to talk to the anziani for a while after he left, but then we had to catch our train. 

Our scambio was crazy amazing, we rode all around Alessandria on bikes and only got lost a couple of times. Mostly, I just loved being with Gunnerson again. We're real lucky she didn't go too far away from Torino. 

Yesterday we came home, and we went to visit the Vicedomini's. They had friends coming over for dinner so they just invited us over. I will never turn that down. We ended up getting to teach them a little lesson. It was super fun and we ate delicious food. Also, they think we're fluent in Italian . . . they also started teaching us some dialect . . . I remember nothing. 

I love you all! Until next week,

Sorella Ervin

Best Italian parking job I've ever seen.

Gotta love Italian graffiti.

It was raining so hard the flag just fell over.

Cutest little chapel

The little beauties you stumble upon in Italy.

This is what we do at member's houses. I make Melanzane . . .
what's that called in English? Sorella Russell told me eggplant . . .
what a stupid name.

Sorella Russell just takes pictures of herself. Why is she terrified?

Raimondo!