rednecks and italians DO NOT MIX!!!!

Buongiorno tutti<3Come state??

Okay well first thing is first...what is this weather??? Still wondering why I decided to shave my legs because it would be better with tights anyways right now! Haha anyways you gotta love spring:D I hope you all had a great Easter weekend full of lots of yummy food, Easter egg hunts, and the most important thing, thoughts centered around the most important part of easter, our savior Jesus Christ. :) Easter on the mission is very special, especially being here in Italy where mostly everyone is catholic, and when it comes down to the conclusion, We all have in common the belief that Christ is the savior of the World, our older brother, and redeemer. I'm so grateful for this knowledge guys, and the peace I feel knowing no matter the difficult days in life, or trails where you don't see a light at the end of the tunnel..you don't need to carry the load by yourself, because someone who loved you so much already did that to make your burdens a little lighter. I can't even comprehend it, but that takes A WHOLE LOT of love to do what Christ did for us...a lot of love!

So Easter Sunday...well after church we stayed and ate WAY TO MUCH FOOD with some of the families in our ward:D Ha 5 courses later, I Think it's safe to say we all had triplet food babies going on. I also played the piano for a little, and Allesandro came and sang along his "James the Mormon" Songs....haha THIS GUY KILLS ME!! He has quite the vibrato, (more like my ears might bleed) and is obsessed with James the Mormon, so he is convinced to write him music to sing, and I guess I'm on the errand to make that happen according to Allesandro...I can't crush his dreams, so I just smile and say ya that's pretty cool...I mean I don't know what's worse, but that man is hilarious! He asked to sing at our weddings... (I think I'll pass on that one) :D haha but anyways I had a good heart to heart with Fratello Caruso who use to be A mission President in Sicily many years ago. We talked about the mission, learning a new language, and how God gives us what we need for our own personal growth...Lots of things I needed to hear that really helped me...even some answers to questions I had, so basically These members here are the best, and I love them so much!

Sports night was the BEST!!! We had 12 people show up, and played some volley, basketball, and RUGBY which Me and Meager are getting pretty good at this passing backwards thing...;)

Okay now the part referring to my subject line....GUYS REDNECKS AND ITALIANS SHOULD NOT BE A THING BUT IT IS!!! Oh my heavens it was the most entertaining, weird experience y'all....okay first off Asunta (one of Grazia's friends) that we met last week invites us to come to Pasquetta lunch with her and some of her friends monday, (its an italian holiday they celebrate the day after Easter) so we are waiting for her to pick us up, and here she comes screaming down the road in this tiny broken fiat that looks like it's about to fall apart...we knew at that moment this was about to be an interesting afternoon. She jumps out, Baci's us, and next thing we know...we are headed up on a very tiny, bumpy road in the middle of the Mtns...we pull into this grass field with an abandon trailer house on one side, and on the other.......................what do we see......

A table with

Italian

rednecks.

Oh heaven help us all!

But what can I say....2 country girls at heart...this was our element:) Oh how I've missed camping out...all they needed was horses and it would be just like home;) me and Meager just high five each other and say alright...let's go see what this is all about:D These people wear legit so funny! We ate probably the worst barbecue I've had, then They start pulling out these huge wine bottles....like 3 times than normal size ones, and getting drunk out of their minds! At one point, Asunta is trying to pour her wine, and instead pours it all over the table...another lady knocks her drink over, this old man is just standing there hysterically laughing at himself...all the meanwhile me and Meager are sitting on these wooden baskets that are practically broken. After each going through and saying something we are grateful for which is our dinner tradition that sorella meager starts at every meal appointment...it got 1/2 way around the circle, and they start arguing about what they are grateful for, and then who is older in the group, so I stand up and Yell out, "Alright we are going in a circle and saying our age." (This will settle things) Not funny....but they all laughed AND LOVED IT!! Literally these people were a tipsy group of hooligans..haha and we finished the lunch off with a toast (our water, and their wine) to god for all the blessings we have. :D so anyways a day I'll never forget, but we did get 2 new english class people from the group, so pretty cool:)

Yesterday after spending the afternoon with Grazia, (a less active) and listening to her life story which was emotionally draining...really sad hearing all she has been through, we had a lesson with Silvana about prayer and Sorella Miele came which turned into a disaster.....WHOA THE SPIRIT WAS NOT THERE and Sorella Miele just argued with Silvana about the Catholic Church which crap....they were such good friends, and then Silvana's husband came out and My heart just sunk...this wasn't going anywhere good. Everyone was heated, and getting out of hand...hands flinging in the air, yelling at each other.....I wanted to cry, I look at Sorella Meager, and yup she was feeling it too while these 3 went at it...finally my awesome comp says OK guys the more important thing here that we were talking about earlier is prayer, that We can pray to our father in heaven and he is always waiting and ready to listen. They quieted down, I added some thoughts and my testimony, and we ended with a prayer...so ya emotionally draining night to say the least. Me and Meager left that lesson pretty broken..but the lord's work moves forward. When teaching others about the gospel, missionary or not missionary, our job is only to invite, and always the person whom we are teaching has their agency to either accept or not accept it..that is how we each learn and grow, choosing for ourselves. Sorella Meager read me a really good quote after getting home which reads, "Remember how the savior handled tough questions....He remained clam, he showed respect, and he taught truth but he never forced anyone to live the way he taught." -Ronald A. Rasband.

AMEN!!!!

Well guys that's about it for the week! Thanks for all the emails and prayers<3 Vi voglio molte bene!!

Love Sorella Rindlisbacher

Quote of the week: "what lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."

The anziani bought us cute Easter baskets and gave them to us tonight. Harris (the tall one) painted those pictures for us!

Happy Easter Sunday from Italy to Utah! Some of my favorite pics with some of my favorite people <3 <3

Man on the right, Fratello Snow... he is from Utah and has the best Utahn accent!

Sorella Miele and Germana <3

Missionary by day... crossing up ankles by night... new ways for finding and we go play ball with the young boys in the park and invite them to sports night.