Second Letter from Italy

Italy is wonderful! so much has happened in 2 weeks! Its incredible here, i dont know how to describe it in any other way. so... where do i start? well, to start i want to talk about the metro. or depending on the metro: THE GHETTRO! We travel a lot in this mission and especially in my Area. I live in Ostia which is about an hour away from Rome. Our proseliting area is in Rome, Ostia, Acillia and basically covers an area that takes 2 hours to get from the highest north to the lowest south. i love that because that means that we have a lot of time on the GHETTRO. the Metro or Ghettro is a great place to talk to people. They dont have much to do and they are there for a while so they are more willing to talk. For me its a great experience because my companion goes and talks with one person and i go and sit by another. This means that i am all alone with the language. this is great because i cant rely on him taking over if i dont understand and i also cant turn to him and say, (how). i just have to wing it on my own and try to get the point across. its not easy to do, but its an adventure. i love it because i can go up to someone and say, I'm new here and i was wondering how you say this word or what does this saying mean and then they are open to talk. Italians love helping others. thats such a great quality that i admire. its funny cause when we go up to someone on the street they are audomatically turned off and dont want to be bombarded (as they have been by Jehova Witnesses), but as soon as we ask how to get to someplace or where we can find the metro, they put all their energy into helping us find our way. I really do love the people here. They are great. They live their lives in a very breezy but defined way. They spend hours cooking, take a good 2 hour lunch with their family, go to work as much as they have to, because unlike Americans they do not like to work. If they could choose, they would stay home rather than make extra money. Then at night or even during the day they take a Passagiata. which is a walk. they love to walk and think or walk and talk with a dear friend. They also take their dogs on walks frequently. Their are so many dogs in Italy, i dont know where they keep them! The apartments are fairly small but almost everyone has a dog, no particular size, small, gigantic, just their preferences. You are probably wondering why im talking about dogs of all things but i do have a point. My point is that their arent any lawns in Italy so where do the dogs go to relieve their food... yes, on the steets. But thats not all. Because we are talking to everyone on the streets and walking everywhere, i dont look down at the sidewalk so, what happens? I take the wonderful presents from the dog community with me on my journey. the Elders make fun of me because i never fail to step in the presents. I hope you enjoyed that, becuase its very imbarrassing for me, and im blushing... but at the same time, its very funny. so i understand. Well, i dont know how familiar you are with missionary vocabualary so im going to explain it a little to you. When you are brand new (like me) you get a trainer companion. In the mission they are called your Dad or for the sisters your Mom. If you are a trainer then your companion is your child. My Dad is Anziano Scoville. He is from Idaho Falls and has 11 brothers and sisters. He is so great. He is a runner so every morning we wake up at 630 and go running for a half an hour. He is very fast, and runs marathons, so he runs for the full 30 minutes and i run a lap here and there and then walk for the rest of it. He has been in the mission for a year and 4 months. My district leader, Elder Goddard is from Las Vegas and has been on his mission for a year and 6 months. Usually when youre born, new in the mission. You have a mom and a dad. the dad is your trainer and the mom is the senior companion of the sisters in your area. Well... we dont have sisters in my area, which is very sad, so i dont have a REAL mom, but long story short Elder Goddard is my mom because he and elder scoville were companions in caserta. So with Dad and Mama Goddard, im in good hands! ha ha ha ok, enough with that. I hope you liked that. We are all crazy here, but atleast we are crazy together. Now, the language. It is coming... i hope. I love it. Its beautiful and incredible. I am trying to ubsorb all that i can, and im so glad that i have two years. I wanted to just get it all in one week, but as all the italians tell me PIANO PIANO which means step by step. Which is so true. Even by learning a phrase a day, i am improving and getting the language. My trainer is fluent and is working on Spanish. There are many foriegners in Italy, so that means there are many languages. His spanish has helped in a lot of situations. I wish i could speak Romanian or German, because there are many people who speak those languages. But i learned that the most important language is the spirit. I spoke with a couple on the metro. They were from the Island just off of India. You know, the tear drop country... I dont remember the name, not a big surprise! But anyway, He spoke less Italian than i do and spoke that language from India. But even though we had a language barrior, we had a great conversation for about 20 or 30 minutes. Its incredible the miracles that have already happened here. I realized that so many miracles happen that we dont fully realize or appreciate, but they are miracles. That was just one example of many. I know that this is the only true church on the earth. I do not have any doubts of that. I know that God and Jesus Christ love us so much. The scriptures are incredible. I love you all, miss you so very much! Enjoy life and live it to its fullest, thats what im striving to do. love always, Anziano Beau Richard Brewster