PRIVATE JOURNAL CHAPTERS
CHAPTER 4
Elder Thomas
CHAPTER 4 - EXCERPT
Giulio pulled the door wide open and stood there staring, as an awkward silence passed between us. Then suddenly, he broke into tears and bid us come inside. No sooner had we entered than he grabbed us in his arms and hugged us both tightly.
I think we spent the entire day there. We listened, we talked, we prayed. We ate and helped with the dishes. We listened again, read scriptures together, testified, and prayed some more. Looking back after all these years, the whole episode with Giulio plays out in my mind’s eye as a clinic in conversion – an archetypal metamorphosis of a man wrestling with doubt, hope, faith, weakness, and spiritual awakening. Giulio was reaching, grasping, searching. Elder Bosco and I walked with him, we saw him, we heard him, and we encouraged him throughout the process...
- - - - -
CHAPTER 4 - PHOTO GALLERY
COMING SOON
CHAPTER 4 - EXCERPT
Rosa took my plate to the stove and dished up fifteen boiled snails from the big kettle, still in their shells, then lovingly poured spaghetti sauce over the top of them. I shot a panicked glance at my companion. Seeing Claudio’s science project staring back at me from my dinner plate was more than a little unsettling. Elder Wilcox whispered under his breath in English, “Just choke ‘em down, and try to smile.”
The snails kept sliding away from my fork, slipping across the plate, sometimes spilling over onto the table. I was so embarrassed. Antonio finally instructed me to pick up the shell between my fingers, clench the head with my teeth, and suck the snail out. The slurping, squishy sound made me shudder. When the first snail slid into my mouth, I could taste grainy clumps of dirt, or something else, sticking to its tail. Ugh. This was not how I envisioned Italian cuisine…
- - - - -
