We have exactly one week left till it's time for us to head home. We have so much to share with you guys about all that we have learned and all that God has taught us during our time here, but I'm gunna leave that to Aaron. Instead, I'm gunna share with you about the really cool things that we've been able to do these past couple of weeks. We have been able to participate in all kinds of neat activities and I simply can not wait to fill you guys in.
First off, we were asked by a member of the church to sing at his wedding. Luigi, the groom, really wanted a few of us to sing some pretty acappella songs for the ceremony. Talk about a honor!! and PRESSURE! I mean Italian weddings are a HUGE deal. They spend alot of time planning them and spend tons of money to make them just perfect, the last thing I wanted was for us to go "off" and ruin their whole ceremony=) Thankfully, we practiced and we did pretty well. The wedding was a smaller one( 35 people) and it was at a garden on the top of a mountain. It was gorgeous, hands down the prettiest location I've seen in a long time! The ceremony was quite
similar to the ones we have in the States, there were prayers, songs, the reading of the vows...etc. The only things that I thought were different was that they sat in 2 chairs, and that before they were pronounced husband and wife they had to sign this paper ( them and 3 witnesses). All in all, it was beautiful. We sang and then they let us stay for the appetizers, and then we had to leave. The dinner part of Italian weddings is the biggest deal. They eat for like 4 or 5 hours, like 7 courses.....all paid for by the couple. AYE! Talk about expensive, no wonder we weren't invited=) Wish you guys could of seen it. It rocked! And for a little while, I really felt like we helped to make their special day a little more perfect=)
Next on the list of cool activities, is our trip to San Gimignano. Ok, so we have developed a close friendship with a couple named Deborah and Orfeo (members of the church). We have spent quite a bit of time with them in the time that we have been here. Well, one day they had this great idea for us to take a trip together to one of the little towns on the Tuscan hillside just to enjoy our time together and for us to get a better feel for Tuscany. We decided on San Gimignano, the Manhattan of Tuscany, and
lemme tell you how glad I am that we did. It's simply breath taking! It's called Manhattan because of it's many towers. It used to have like over 100 tall towers, now it only has 7 but they are pretty neat. Ok, so our trip. We ending up going with Deborah's whole family( who was already in town for the wedding) =). It was a blast, exploring and experiencing life in the small town. We all got to have some pretty neat conversations, some even spiritually focused, so besides the fun, I think that the trip was a success! =)The fourth of July was classic! One of the Aimers has been developing a friendship with an American girl who lives here in Prato, but who isn't a member of the church.
Her name is Julianna. Anyway, Juliana invited us all to spend the day with her and her fiance at the lake. We were thrilled and we planned for this pretty traditional fourth. I mean, we had hot dogs, sloppy joes, peach cobbler...the works! We spent the day soaking up the sun, talking, and swimming. My 3 favorite things!!! It was cool though because, it gave me the chance to really talk to the Aimer girls and encourage them. Girls have some of the best conversations when they are laying out=) We were thankful for that little piece of home on that special holiday!The last really interesting thing that we did was this last Sunday. The whole church decided to head up the mountains after church top attend the annual "Wild Boar Festival". =) .
It was all new to me, but they were all pretty pumped. We all caravaned up this curvy and really dangerous mountain road to get to the festival, that was at the summit of a huge mountain. It was scary but really neat. When we got there, we heard Italian folk music and saw what looked like a little fair. It was soo cool. Old people were dancing and waltzing in the center of it all.... soo cute. Basically what you did, was pay for whatever type of wild boar meal you wanted, and then you picked it up at this huge tent. The food was AMAZING! Wild boar is my new favorite meat. It was juicy and soo tender, who knew? We all ate, listened to music, played cards, and just hung out all day long. It was "an event". It was soo cool to see the church members fellowshipping and enjoying each other's company. I loved it.I know none of the activities listed above sound much like "work" and maybe it wasn't much "work" for us, but they were amazing opportunities for us to love people. We just spent time with people and tried to show them that they were important to us. I just feel like that is soo important here, well everywhere. Relationships are everything! People will not respect you or listen to what you have to say if they don't know you. And on top of that, I really felt like all of these activities really gave us some time to strike up some much needed and beneficial conversations, so for that I'm thankful! God is good.
We love you all soo much and miss you. We are excited about being able to be home to see you all soon! Thank you again for helping to make this amazing experience possible. You have truly been a part of this work, right along with us. Thank you. May God bless you all wherever you are, whatever you are doing. We send our love.Josie
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