Week 3

This week was another busy, but good week! We had a "scambia" which
means exchange in Italian or splits in missionary terms... I was with
one of the STL's Sorella Dew and she was so much fun! I was laughing
so much at everything she said and we were kind of just tender mercies
for one another! One of the funniest things she said was, "I've
decided that it's so humid in Italy because of everyone boiling their
pasta!" I mean it makes sense...
Last Monday for p-day we went to Rome! I LOVE the Trevi Fountain and
the Spanish Steps, so we went to both of those places! The funny thing
is that the Trevi Fountain wasn't full of water, it was full of men!
They were cleaning it and collecting the money. The Spanish Steps are
under construction right now too, so that was kind of lame! But we
happened to run into a set of Elders basically as soon as we got to
Rome, so we just went sight seeing with them. One of them was Anziano
Carroll and we were in the MTC together, so it was way fun to catch up
with him and hear about his first few weeks in Italy! We talked about
who had seen the fanciest cars and eaten the best things. Had the
funniest language mistakes, etc. he insisted that we walk down kind of
the main shopping street in Rome that has all of the super high end
stores i.e. Gucci, etc. that was "divertenta" (fun). And for anyone
who cares to know... Olive Green is so last year; electric blue,
bright red, floral and jungle prints, and shoes with two inch or more
soles are the style. Oh there's actually a super cute hair style I
right now amongst the women too! So get ready because short hair is
going to be in style soon! Anyway, it's a short bob on one side and in
the back, but then tapers longer on the other side... I've seen it a
few times in America, but it's just done better over here or
something. Haha
I've been trying to ease into using the phone, but mostly it just
terrifies me because what's if I don't understand right and then we
are in the wrong place at the wrong time??!! But I made three phone
calls this morning and no harm has come of it yet so... There's hope.
Yesterday was pretty frustrating as far as the language goes. Church
is always the hardest for me- I never understand anything! But church
is always entertaining. First of all it always starts at least fifteen
minutes late. Second of all people just wear whatever they want to.
And italians have this weird idea that white tennis shoes are a normal
persons "nice dress shoes"... Cosa?! (What?!) And there's somewhat of
a false doctrine problem... Obviously I don't understand the lessons
well enough to know perfectly for myself, but it's usually small
things that get cleared up during the lesson and don't get left false.
Yesterday though... Oh man. There was a guy in Gospel Doctrines and I
don't know exactly who he is, a member I would assume but in my short
history of three Sunday's here I had never seen him before, but anyway
we were talking about the creation and how everything is made for the
use of man and this guy started a huge Italian-Style-"Discussion"' aka
Argument about how it says in the scriptures that we aren't supposed
to eat meat... Yeah, I've read the scriptures and it doesn't say that.
1 Nephi 16:31 point proven. People believe the craziest things
sometimes...
Anyway, the metro is always a fun place too. You've always got gypsie
women with their babies or little kids and it's sad to see, but if you
tell them you're s missionary they basically run away... Weird, but
works for me! The gypsie men all play the accordion and oh my gosh
I've never heard a more obnoxious sound in all of my life! I don't
know if it's the fact that I'm stuck on a stinky gross metro with a
bunch of people that are standing and/or sitting waaaaaay to close to
me and then he is just making unnecessary noise on top of that or
what, but if I never hear another accordion in all my life it'll be
too soon. Actually, in recent days there have been a few that are
pretty good, so it's not so bad!
Okay that's all I have time for, I love you all! I can't wait to hear
from you next week!
Vi voglio bene!
Sorella Hatfield

P.S. This is from today. We went back to Rome. We just couldn't help it! I❤️ROMA