Luisa

June 21, 2009

Jacky and I got up and went to church this morning.  It was a walk through memory lane the whole way there.  The Metro, the streets, the chapel, everything.  The first meeting was relief society and after just ten minutes of sitting in that meeting I thought, “Woah, this ward is so strong!”  Everyone was involved in the lesson and answering the questions from the teacher.  It was great to hear the same funny ladies that always give their opinions during the lessons.  I remember a couple that got into a pretty heated discussion and then they called the bishop in to teach about charity on the next lesson.  It was so funny.  It was funny to hear their half Spanish half Italian again because there are way more Southern American members in this ward than Italian members.  The Latin people are so strong in the church and this ward is lucky to have them.

 I think I took this for granted while I was here and I didn’t appreciate it enough.  It’s never a dull moment in relief society in this ward.  They are just a big group of strong women with bold opinions.  It’s like they have their own little paradise.  I forgot how much I loved these people.  I love them so so much.  Besides tons of new people it was like my memories were untouched and there were still the same strong families in church.  There is such a different feeling here in church than there is in Siena.  It just felt like there was more strength in numbers and in the consistency. 

The lesson was about temples but the problem is that these sisters like space doctrine.  The bishop’s wife is really good though, she just kept turning it around to where the lesson was supposed to be with her comments.  She bore her testimony about how she hasn’t been able to get to the temple for ten years.  They’ve been trying to get her the documents she need so she can cross the border to go to the temple in Switzerland.  It was SO touching!  She told about how even through all these year’s she’s kept her temple recommend current and kept herself worthy.  Gosh, these people rock.  I love them.  

I got to see lots of friends from this ward.  I got news that a friend, Yamila, is going on a mission.  Yay for her!  I’m way excited because she’s such an awesome, good, worthy, and beautiful young woman.   I saw another one of my friends and they were like, “Hey!  It’s been a long time!  You’re getting married right?  To the big guy that we saw on your facebook pictures!”  Haha.  I love you JR!

During the gospel doctrine class the bishop came in a listened for a while.  This man is awesome.  He’s from Peru and he’s been the bishop since I was here as a missionary.  He’s friendly and very good with people.  He stresses missionary work in the ward.  He always gets to know the missionaries and encourages the members to do so as well.  During sacrament meeting the bishop had a few new members and old members get up and talk about how they had first met the missionaries and when they got baptized. 

During Sacrament meeting I sat with Marlena and her four-year-old niece Luisa.  Marlena is from the Dominican Republic.  She’s been here in Italy for years.  When I was here as a missionary Sister Davis and I would often visit Marlena’s sister Lucy and her daughter Luisa.  Lucy was sick; the doctors had just told her that she had cancer so we would go over and try to encourage her by giving spiritual messages and bearing our testimonies.  I asked Marlena how her sister was and she looked at me somewhat shocked and said, “Sister Puga, my sister is dead.  She died seven months ago.”  It was like cold water washed over me.  I had no idea.  I tried to act normal as my eyes swelled up with tears but alas…

Marlena was moved by my reaction and just picked up little Luisa and hugged her.  Luisa is SOOOO incredibly cute.  She just smiled and hugged Marlena.  I got the feeling that Heavenly Father sent Luisa so that Marlena could get through this and have motivation to go on.  Marlena invited me to come over for dinner at her house later today.  I’m really glad because it’s very close to Jackeline’s house and I’m excited to spend with them.

So dinner was fun.  Marlena had some other friends over.  Two of them are from Peru and the other two were from Colombia.  We just talked about my upcoming wedding and they were happy and excited for me.  They were also talking about their lives in Italy.  I asked them if it was difficult for them learn Italian and they said that they sort of just talk however it comes out.    Luisa was so cute and she let me work on a puzzle with her and watch a bit of Winnie the Pooh with her while she held my hand.  She’s so cute!  Then I just came home and hung out with Jacky and her family and watched a movie.  

Okay, this picture made me laugh because it was right after church and the three sisters from the ward are looking over their brand new ensigns that they just got and next to them there were two men that had beer bottles and were drinking.  And it was only noon on a Sunday!