Orbits

Mom, you're the best.  Ha!  I love picturing you writing these things.  You're always smiling when I do.

Audrey has a job?  Gentry's at Girls Camp?  Jed's going for Eagle Scout and owns a pellet gun?  What is happening to my family!!?  It's times like these, when there's a huge change in my life within the course of a week, when I realize how much things will have changed in two whole years when I come home.  Won't G be, like... dating?  *shudder*

Yeah, tons happened this week.  Let's see if I can make this coherent.  It'll be a challenge:

On the day before Transfers, Anziano Burr was my companion.  We lived with the capi zona, Anziano Treadway and Anziano Modugno.

On the day of Transfers, I rode a train with Anziano Burr to Brescia where I dropped him off with Anziano Mata'u, his new companion (I lived with Mata'u at the MTC).  Then I rode a train from Brescia to Milano with Anziano Taylor (who was my first District Leader at the MTC), and at the Milano Centrale we got our new companions.  Mine is Anziano Chipman, and he is the BEST.  

We came back to Padova and did a little finding work, where I quickly discovered how bravo Anziano Chipman is at being a missionary.  He's in his 6th Transfer, just finished training Anziano Sloan (my zone leader in the MTC) in La Spezia, which is really close to Cinque Terre.  During our first full day together, there was a funeral we attended for a sister in our ward.  He was invited to give a last minute talk on the plan of salvation.  Then he was asked to translate.  Mind you, this is his second day in a brand new area.  And he nailed it.  He was so cool and calm and ready to help.  I'm going to learn so much from him.

Today, Anziano Chipman is my companion.  We live with the capi zona, Anziano Gessel and Anziano Sanacuore.

I know Anziano Gessel, because he's been in this zone for a while and I've done a couple scambi with him (24-hour companionship exchanges within your area.  They're super fun).  He's amazing bravo, the branch president up in Treviso, and I'm excited to live/work with him.  Anziano Sanacuore is Italian, from Sicily (how am I so lucky!?), and is a classical pianist.  Super humble, funny guy.  They're all SO different from the missionaries I've been living with.  I know I'm going to adore this transfer.

We're moving tomorrow!  A ton of stuff has gone wrong, but we're FINALLY moving tomorrow.  I can't tell you how excited I am.  All our stuff has been packed for nearly a week.

I'm attaching a picture: from left to right it's me (duh), Anziano Chipman, Anziano Gessel, and Anziano Sanacuore (which means healthy heart).

I expect to have a lot of great stuff to write about for the next 5 PDays!  Thank you for all your love and prayers.  All of these transitions have gone amazingly smoothly, and I'm sure there was divine help.  I can already tell these elders will be dear friends for a long time.

President Wolfgramm, my mission president, is almost done with his mission.  We went to Verona for his last Zone Conference with us.  In his segment of training, he bore powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon and blessed all of our families.  It was an amazing experience I'll never forget.  He also talked about something he calls "orbits", comparing our lives to the Star of Bethlehem.  God put that star in its perfect orbit so that it was in the right place at the right time.  Each of us are on an orbit, too.  Remember that, and try to see--this very week--God's hand in your Orbit.

Many of you are surely part of my orbit.  I've been blessed and strengthened by so many of your friendships and examples.  Thank you.  A dopo!

(Sorry for all the parentheses, too.)

Anziano Burton

I planned to be fluent in 3 months.  That's tomorrow.  Ha!  It's not gonna happen--but I can communicate and understand just fine!  What a miracle the mission is!  I speak another language!!!