5. Personal Narrative Brainstorming

When I think of how I've changed in life, I can't think of many specific time periods, events, or things which caused me to change. But if there are two times I've changed, it was either middle school, or my mission. 

There was one period in my mission when I and my world view perhaps changed more drastically than at other times in the mission, and that was when I was in Pistoia. I'll take this period of my life as an example.

Place

The time of year is spring in Italy. Cool weather, dark skies, humid but crisp.

My companion and I lived in Pistoia, on the second floor of an apartment.

I had the most time to think while we were on trains between Pistoia and Prato. 

Not very clean. Pretty dirty. Beautiful Italian countryside outside the windows.  Many people from all walks of life circulating around me.

The beautiful town of Carmignano; Prato Cathedral steps; the dirty park in front of Prato train station, thick with prostitutes while feather-hatted alpini look on with their fully automatic rifles.

People

Me. Learning to lead as a missionary. Changing my view of the world.

My companions were Anziano Lott and Anziano Greene.

We were teaching a) crazy Italians b) refugee Nigerians and Ghanaians. Both types contributed to my world view "changes." The spiritual maladies of sadness and melancholy assailed the majority of the people around us, and the spiritually ill ignored the messengers of healing, as I perceived us. Then there were the poorest, most scarred people I'd ever met and hopefully ever will meet as I tried to teach our African brothers. It was a sort of sad period.

Anziano Lott is always upbeat and faithful. Resilient.

Anziano Greene is a new missionary, still quiet and hesitant.

Plot

1. I arrive in Pistoia as senior companion and district leader.
2. I became a missionary who led, was proactive, and confident.
3. I really began teaching refugees for the first time.
4. I got a new companion, Elder Greene, who I was training. More growth.
5. We teach even more refugees, and I learn to understand them better.
6. Our Italian investigators are a) crazy or b) spiteful against God.
7. We meet the Bishop (?) of the Duomo di Prato, and I realize how far gone the world really is.
8. I get over it?

Conflict

How did I see things differently as a result of what happened? What things or people seem different to you?

1. I came to understand that spiritual/emotional poverty is far more of a plague than economic, even more.
2. I cannot base my happiness entirely on others' actions.

Result

This experience really did influence my world view a lot. Rather, my mission did, and this part of my mission was an especially strong part. I could easily write about what I learned there.

However, I will struggle to make it into a personal narrative. How can I represent 2 years in 3 pages of dialog? How about 2 transfers? Oh, boy.