Final Blog From Italy

All these deaths are really saddening.  [Two missionaries from our area have unexpectedly passed away this month] I'm so sorry for their families.  It's hard to be happy when others are mourning.

9:23??  Whoa, I wasn't expecting that.  Lots of travel ahead, I guess.  And I have a room!!?  Wow, I wasn't expecting that either!  Ha!  Cool!  I had a dream last night that after appreciating the carpet, I literally flew to my bed and cried happily into my pillow.  Somehow I think it'll be even better in real life... even if I can't fly.

I'm excited too.  I'm so excited.  But... it's hard to leave Italy.  And this perfect school of learning. But I'll talk about that more in a minute.

Whew.  This is weird.

Well, here I am.  The last PDay.  The last time sitting in a nasty, creepy internet point and writing too fast for 90 minutes to a sliver of the people I love.  Yesterday was a great "last full work day".  We taught 2 lessons and found a new investigator, which is pretty awesome for an opening companionship in a city like this.  I'm proud.  And happy.

Yeah, you read that right, I'm happy.  I'm really happy.  But it's a... sad kind of happy.  Hmm.

There are so many things I look forward to in the next week.  Tomorrow I wake up early and head to Milano Centrale.  There I'll take a little train to the Mission Office where we'll get situated, interviewed, and then... I dunno, whatever missionaries do when they finish.  I've never gotten this far.

Then we'll eat and sleep and get on a plane and fly home.  Ha!  Just thinking about that makes me shiver and giggle.  It's weird.

I wrote a poem, and I think that's how I'm going to finish this final blog.  Well, maybe I'll say some closing remarks after the poem, but... anyway, here it is:

Fixer Upper

Oh, man.  I don't know what to say when it gets down to the wire.  This is my second to last email.  Sorry if the lack of missionary-y stuff makes it anticlimactic.  Believe me, it's boring on my end, too.

Last night I could barely sleep.  There's just so much coming.

I feel a lot of love.  I feel the love of God for me, for all of you, and for this whole big wonderful mess we're in.  I feel love from my friends and family, and I feel tons of love for them.  It's great, it's all great.

I'm going to miss Italy so much.  We went up to Città Alta and got a great view from behind the Fortress.  Wow.  Hopefully I get to the opportunity to send some pictures home soon.  Maybe later today.  We wanted to go to a cool island in the middle of a lake, but it's raining.  Uffa.

I'm freezing cold.  I should have brought my new coat that I bought last PDay.  I love it, dark grey peacoat, super skinny and European.  I'll wear it home.  In nine days.

Love Light

Sorry, here's a really short one.  I'm in a terrible position squished super close to the keyboard and I can barely type.  Ugh.

I saw Mattia Modugno on Sunday!  His girlfriend (fiancee!) lives here in Bergamo so he came to visit for the New Year.  He's like the bread around the sandwich of my mission.  He's also my Italian brother and we love each other a lot.  It was so great to see him.  I think I'll see him again today.

It was Anziano Hillyard's birthday yesterday, so we took some cool things (funicolare) up above Città Alta to a super nice restaurant with the greatest view of the valley.  Oh, it was phenomenal, and the plate I ordered was so good.  I'm going to miss that... I'm probably going to miss everything.

Two more emails after this.  I'll fill these two last weeks with light.  I have come to love light and understanding more than anything, especially when it comes to other people.  We fill each other with light through love.  Beautiful, isn't it?  I almost wish I could write a song.

Love,
Anziano Burton