29 May 13

Good week this week. Heres the run down:

We set a baptismal date! We finally were able to see a less active lady in our ward, whose husband isnt a member, and we set one with him. Second week in July. Hopefully ill still be here in Milano. 

Were working with lots of less actives right now. All of them are from South America, so im getting a good culture of food. We ate at one members house, Augusto, who made us sardine spaghetti, Charki sesina, and bunasimi spagnolo. I might have mixed up the south american food names, so sorry if I did. He also gave us some cheese. He cut it into long slices and gave us each one. I took a bite, and was overcome by the smell of a ripe outhouse. It seriously smelled so bad. I managed to get two bites down, then I had one bite left and Augusto went into the kitchen. I gave the last piece to Anziano Davis, who has allergies and couldnt smell a thing. He saved the day for me. Then Augusto came in and said "Anziano McKinnon, did you have some cheese" and of course I said "Yes thank you." Then it clicked in my brain that he really said "Do you want some cheese." I guess I had a funny look on my face when it clicked cause Anziano Davis started laughing at me. I got the cheese down.

So a guy in our ward is the 7 time champion of Italy and 1 time champion of Europe for MMA. His name is Fabrizio Gambardella if you want to google him or something. Hes a really cool guy, I like him a lot. Sorry this is kind of random, im goin down a list. I have to make a list or else I forget.

We were walking on the street one day, and we get to this roundabout. In the middle of the roundabout, theres a small park. Were walking, and an older lady in front of us starts getting attacked by these crows. Three or so crows kept swooping down and attacking her. In the middle of the park, there was a group of 15 or so Phillipne Os who had set up chairs and were eating snacks, watching these birds. Apparently there was a hurt bird on the grass somewhere, and the other ones were protecting it. So I guess a good Friday night for those kids is getting drunk and watching derranged birds attack old women. Pretty crazy.

So im getting to the point with the language that I can understand pretty much everything, and say like 60% of what I want to say. It takes a second to conjugate everything in my head, but its getting there. The problem with being in Lampugnango still, is most of the members still think I dont understand anything. I had a guy say to my face "I need to talk with you, but you cant speak Italian!" So he got another Italian, who "speaks English" (they all say they can speak a little English, aka they can say "thank you" and "New York") so he was trying to translate, even though I understood. So im speaking to this guy in Italian, hes speaking in Italian, and then another Italian is "translating" for me. For example, I asked if we could meet Saturday. The guy said "Sabato non va bene" (Saturday is no good) and the translator translated it into "Saturday is IMPOSSIBLE!!!!!" and threw his arms up. So im starting to get bugged at stuff like that, which I shouldnt. This guy ended up giving me a free hair cut today, so i cant be to frustrated.

We talked to a guy in the park two days ago who spoke a little English. He didnt speak very good Italian or English, so when he switched halfway through our conversation I didnt notice until later because I was trying to hard to understand both languages haha. I guess when I talk to people I guess I just have a really stupid, blank look on my face all the time because he asked if I understood English. Im American!

Things are going well here though. We have zone conferences on Friday, and weve already taught more lessons this transfer than we did all of last transfer. Same old, same old I guess!

I have some requests for my first care package: 

-All the EFY cds you can find. Anziano Davis has two CDs, one with only the piano, and one with all blue grass versions of some hymns. Thats getting old FAST.

-Flash cards. They aparently dont exist in italy. 

-Ink filler things for the pen brother morgan gave me. 

-A good Italian-English dictionary. I accidently left mine in the MTC, and have been using Anziano Davis. Were thinking one of us is leaving after this transfer, so that isnt an option anymore. Preferably paper back if thats ok.

I know this isnt a lot, so if you want to wait until you have more stuff to put in thats fine. Other than that, im doing well! Hope everything is going well at home. Crazy that school is almost out at home. Time is FLYING.

Thats all from here! Were using the computers at the church and I dont have my camera, or id send more pictures. Keep on CTRing and everything! Love you all!

Anziano Christian Fife McKinnon

PS sorry if my grammar is bad. I realized my English is getting pretty ugly after I spelled "Bird" like "burd" three times in a row.