THIS WEEK HAS BEEN INCREDIBLE!! It was FILLED with miracles!
As I mentioned last week, we dropped all of our investigators except
one last week so we decided to make this week our "finding week." On
Wednesday we had a whole day devoted to finding. That morning we were
at a bus stop and all of the buses were super late. More and more
people gathered and I just kept hearing Elder Holland's voice in my
head saying "OPEN YOUR MOUTH." (He gave an MTC devotional entitled
that that I was able to watch as a "movie" one Sunday while I was
there.) My trainer was talking to someone else and I was standing
there feeling a little helpless. I am always really nervous to start a
conversation with someone because I know that my Italian isn't great
right now so I worry I won't understand them or know how to respond,
because let's face it, here you ask how they're doing and they go into
a whole story about their medical history! And I don't always have the
vocabulary for that! But I got a distinct impression standing there-
"if you do show your faith and open your mouth, how can God trust you
to teach his children?" After that I was determined to talk to
everyone I could. If i couldn't understand them I'd just explain that
I've only been here 2 weeks and I'm still learning the language.
Everyone was super nice and understanding, and I always had my trainer
to back me up if I really needed it.
We talked to tons of people and shared why we were here. We talk
doctrinal principles everywhere! Most people appreciated and respected
us but didn't care to learn more, but we left them with our
information just in case.
Then the most amazing thing happened!! We were looking for a
less-active woman whom we'd never met. We found her house and rang the
bell. The lady we spoke with was confused and said that she's lived
there for many years and has never heard of that lady. She let us in
though, and we began to tell her about why we were looking for her and
why we're here as missionaries. She let us come up to her house so she
could give us water. We continued to talk with her about our religion.
She is Very Catholic but loved what we were saying. She told us about
her life and how she's having a hard time with depression and
different things. We shared an old Easter video of Christ with her
then assured her that this gospel will bless her life. She accepted a
return appointment and even fed us dinner! She's so sweet and needs
this in her life. We are going back to teach her today!
The Zone Leaders completely reorganized our English Course program a
week ago and along with that we had to have each of our students fill
out a registration form, and on that was a section for them to mark if
they wanted to learn more about genealogy, wanted a free Book of
Mormon, or wanted to set up an appointment with the missionaries to
know more about the church. This form has been a blessing for us!!
Most people don't mark anything, but some people did! This is how we
found Salvatore and Sebastiana! Sebastiana is an older lady who has
been coming to English Course for a while now with her son, Salvatore.
She said that she had always wanted to ask for a Book of Mormon but
felt like that was asking too much because we already offer English
course for free. We couldn't believe it! We set up an appointment to
meet with them Thursday before course that night.
They loved learning about the Book of Mormon and committed to read it!
We set up another appointment for tomorrow where we'll teach them the
restoration.
Also, we called and invited them to general conference yesterday and
Sebastiana came to one of the sessions!! She loved it!! She said "I
went to my church this morning and felt the spirit, but here I felt
like I've been transported into the heavens!" She also told us that
she's been reading the Book of Mormon so she is no a progressing
investigator!
I watched all of the sessions of general conference in Italian because
we had a less-active or investigator at every session so we felt that
it was more important to stay there and sit with them. So
unfortunately I didn't get a ton from the sessions but don't worry,
I'm already listening to them and plan to study one every day. The
songs don't get translated so I got to hear them in English which
strengthened my testimony of the power of music. I felt like I was
learning and being edified by the songs that were sang.
As I said before, this week was filled with miracles and we
experienced another one at the first Sunday session (Saturday
afternoon for you) of conference which was held at 2pm. You have to
understand that in Italy, Pranzo (lunch) is a big deal, and Sunday
Pranzo, even bigger deal. Pranzo hours are like around 1-3 so it ended
up only being us (the missionaries,) who came to that session. And
then in walked one of our English course students Felicina (which
means little happy, how cool is that? Haha)! Sorella Clark and I had
given the spiritual thought at English course on Thursday and invited
everyone to come to general conference, and she came!! Even though it
was during Pranzo hours! She just said that she was curious. She was
there for the session when they do all the sustainings and reports and
everything and I was a little worried that she'd think it was long and
boring but she was so impressed! She said "wow this church is
established! I had no idea you guys were this big!" We asked if she'd
like to learn about how our church was established after it was over
and she said she'd love to.
We taught her the restoration. She had so many questions it was great.
And she even commented that she felt a different kind of spirit here!
Once we were finished she said "I loved the conference and all of this
but am I just supposed to believe the things that you say? Or how can
I know for myself that they're true?" SHES AMAZING! So we taught her
how to pray and about personal revelation. We asked if we could meet
again at 6 on Thursday because it English course starts at 7. She's
like "why don't we just meet every Thursday at 5:45?" She is so
prepared for this gospel. I can't wait to keep teaching her.
I also have such a testimony of the power and strength of our
modern-day prophets and leaders of the church. Each session that our
investigators went to had things in them that they needed hear- like
the sustainings and statistical report! Who knew that that would cause
someone to want to meet with us?!
So we ended up hitting our goal to find 4 new investigators this week,
only through the miracles and greatness of God. We showed him that we
were ready to work and he blessed us with the opportunity to teach 4
amazing people.
Okay I can't think of a particular funny story this week..everything
that I can think of were just really funny in the moment and probably
wouldn't make sense now. So, I have started making a list of all of
the Italian cultural norms that are super strange to an American so
I'll share a few of those. I decided to start making this list because
the first week i kept pointing things out to my trainer and she would
say "you're right! I can't believe I don't notice this stuff anymore!"
She's gotten so used to living here that it doesn't even phase her
anymore. I think this list will be fun to look back on once I get old
in the mission.
1. No one lifts weights or goes to the gym here so all the men are
either fat or super skinny.
2. Their kitchens and laundry rooms are usually together and on their
decks or at least partially outside.
3. You have to bring your own bags to the grocery store or buy some
every time you go.
4. When they agree with something instead of saying "mmhhmm" like we
do they just kind of do this deep quick "m m m" thing and my companion
hates it because it kind of sounds like they're just like "okay okay
okay what's your point". That's not what they mean it's just what it
sounds like--haha that probably made no sense
5. They don't have dryers or AC. Everything is air-dried and they
don't have AC because they believe that if you get cold air blown on
the back of your neck you'll get sick. That's also why everyone wears
scarves while they're outside.
6. When you answer the phone rather than saying "hello" you say
"ready". Then afterwards your greeting.
Also, just had my first cannoli and WOW. They really know how to do
pastries here in Italy.
Thank you all so much for your prayers in my behalf. I have been so
blessed here in Cagliari. I see miracles every single day it's unreal.
I love you all! Ciao ciao.
(Sorry I don't have pics this week. I'm getting my camera figured out
and will soon!)
Sent from my iPad
