...surreal.

Today I had the opportunity to go contacting and attend a baptism with the sisters here in Mestre. So I donned my finest sister missionary gear, got some words of encouragement/wisdom from Andrew, and headed out.

I don't speak Italian, I don't know the particular area we were working in, and in the companionship I was with one of the sisters very fresh from Utah and doesn't speak Italian and the other is an Argentine meticulously fluent in Italian and Spanish, not English. I was scared. I've never been out with the missionaries, much less missionaries I can hardly communicate with as a whole.

 An uneventful hour or so out with the missionaries doesn't qualify me as a missionary, but it was surreal. I was contacting in David's mission. Earlier this week I was looking specifically at his Mestre pictures and it finally registered. I am in David's mission. The people I see on Sunday are the people he is going to talk about in talks for years to come. These are THOSE people all of my brothers have that I will never know, and I know his! And now I've had the opportunity to have shared the gospel with them. I'm going to their baptisms. I'm eating in their homes. I get their hugs and kisses every Sunday. These aren't my hugs and kisses! They're David's!

So David, know, I am trying to be a worthy representative of you to these people who love you so dearly.