Sorella Carter: I now know what the word acciughe means

Okay well this past week there have been lots of surprise rainstorms.. And when I say rainstorms I mean pouring rain, lots of thunder, lightning and wind..

The classic Italian rainstorms. It is reminding me of last summer in Como wearing my sandals with the surprise rainstorms. Oh man!

We were riding our bikes to the church this past week and all of the sudden it was pouring. Pouring rain! To the point where it was getting hard to see where we were going. Our timing was hilarious as soon as we pulled up to the church the anziani pulled up to the church in their warm car.. hahah They felt so bad for us as we were dripping wet. I had to ring out my skirt to get out all of the water. It was embarassing because after our lesson in the church there was a huge puddle on the floor from my skirt. haha whoops!

Last week I decided that I wanted to get a pizza because it had been a while since I have ordered a pizza. I was a little bit tired when I ordered it and so I didn't really realize what I was getting myself into. For some reason I thought I was getting an artichoke pizza but it turns out that it was acciughe AKA ANCOVIES!!! So I get my pizza and I was so excited. I opened the box and I knew something was wrong... There were strange little brown things on my pizza and it smelled like fish..I thought to myself, " No it's fine it's fine.. It will be okay." I began to eat the pizza and I began to smell like the anchovies. The whole apartment smelt like the little fish.. I ate what I could of the anchovy pizza and after a little while I said to myself," BASTA!" So this week I learned the hard way what the word acciughe means. Next time I will ask Sorella Yost before I order something out of the ordinary.

Just when I thought my week with anchovies was over it happened again! We were a a dinner appointment with a less active members house and everything was going good. All of the sudden I looked at the table and I saw them.. Yes..

Anchovies..

It is not a joke.

They were in a little saucer dish with olive oil, garlic and the little anchovies. Sorella Yost and I both knew what they were, but Sorella Yost asked her what it was..

The member said, "ACCIUGHE!"

I thought to myself, " No not again!!" So the member comensed to explain to us how we eat them. She said, " You put a little bit of butter on the toast and then the anchovies on top.." So we watched her first to stall the time a little bit. Sadly, the member took the two smallest pieces of the anchovies.. So let's just say Sorella Yost took one for the team.. She took the biggest anchovy (aka papa anchovy) that there was with hair and all on it and took the first bite. As she took the bite the toast fell down and the anchovy was still in her mouth. I just watched her in awe.. She was such a champion! I took the smallest one I could find.. When made it through the dinner. Luckily we didn't have to finish them.. We are survivors!

We had a wonderful fhe last week and we did a little activity with the story of Lehi's vision of the tree of life from the book of mormon. We had the iron rod "verga di ferro" (string) going in the member's back yard that went to the "tree of life" or l'albero della vita (the plum tree). I was supposed to be the holy ghost to help them get to the tree of life. One of the little boys there said to me,"Tui sei lo spirito santo?" It was soo cute! At the end this same little boy found a huge zucchini and was holding it on his shoulder and said, "Non è l'albero della vita! ma la zucchina della vita!" Little children are so funny. I am grateful for the little things.

We have been having a hard time keeping investigators that we find. We had a sad breakup with someone on monday. She came out with the Book of Mormon that we gave her and she told us that she wasn't interested. Luckily she kept the Book of Mormon, so I hope one day she will read it. Right after we left it started pouring again.. Yet again it felt like a Les Miserables "On my own " moment. SOmetimes the timing in life is just so hilarious. It makes me laugh!

We are happy though because our meno attiva that we are working with came to church for her third time on sunday! It was a tender mercy!

Next week we are having our branch talent and I am so excited for this. I hope that someone that we can teach will come to it.

I am just so grateful to be a member of the church. Every rejection I recieve daily makes me more grateful for the knowledge that I have. I am so blessed and it is such a priviledge that I have to share my testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ everyday. I am starting to understand more about our Savior Jesus Christ and how even he was rejected and crucified. I am grateful for his sacrifice and love that he has for each and everyone of us. I love you all so much!

Happy Summer!

Love,

Sorella Rebecca Carter

my anchovy pizza