2. Our scambios (companion exchanges) this week helped me soo much
Especially with Sorella Biccherri. All throughout the day she would
say "talk to that girl" and you don't say no to Sorella Biccherri 😂
so I ended up talking to so many more people than I would have and by
the end of the day I was so happy because of it! I cannot explain it
but I just felt like I really did my very best to bear my testimony
and share these wonderful things I know with as many people as I
could. I did strike up some controversy a couple times on the bus with
people telling me that the bible is complete and its a sin to try to
add to it (have another book area the Book of Mormon) and there's no
such thing as modern day prophets, but for the most people are really
interested when I tell them about these things. Opposition in all
things.
3. Capi zona did the spiritual thought for English course on Tuesday
about coming to church. It was the coolest thing. They asked everyone
there who had been to our church to come up and talk about their
experience (only 3 men had been.) they all talked about how different
it is and how the feeling was also different than at their churches.
Afterwards one of our newer students came up to me and said "I've been
to your church before, and I've seen a baptism for your church, oh and
I have your book." Like no way?! I asked if she has read the Book of
Mormon and she said "oh yeah, I'm still reading it right now." It
turns out she had worked with missionaries years ago but then moved
here and never gotten in contact with anyone in our church until she
was invited to English course! How crazy is that?! Her name is Mara
and we started teaching her Thursday night. We're not sure how far she
got in the lessons before but she remembers a lot of it so its just
like we're reviewing everything, it's awesome!
4. Do you all remember Sebastiana? The 75+ year old lady who made us
tiramisu? She ignored our calls for like 2 weeks straight so we ended
up dropping her. But then last week I'm pretty sure I wrote about her
coming to the baptism and crying because she felt the spirit so much.
Well, we started seeing her again this week and SHE ACCEPTED A BAPTISM
DATE!! FINALLY!! SHE KNOWS WITH ALL HER HEART THAT THE BOOK OF MORMON
IS TRUE. She's only been reading for about a month and she's already
in ALMA! She will be baptized June 25 😊 We are so happy for her.
EVERYONE can change. No matter how old, no matter their culture or
background, everyone. Sebastiana is a testimony of this.
5. We threw a surprise birthday party for our ward mission leader
with the help of his wife. All the missionaries came and she invited
some ward members too. It was tons of fun, everyone devoured our
brownies, and the best part is he was not expecting it at all. We
decided kind of on the spot to play a game where everyone went around
and said something about Fratello Ancis (the ward mission leader).
Afterwards he told us that he really needed to hear those things right
now. He has struggled with depression in the past and apparently he
needed to hear all the wonderful words of his friends and family In
that moment. God is aware of our needs and will help direct people to
fulfill them. I have a testimony of this.
6. I thought that after two months I wouldn't get as many bug bites
anymore because no one else seems to get any, but don't worry, I'm
still going strong and currently have 7 just on my face 😝 in fact I
woke up two days ago with blood on my cheek because apparently I'd
smashed one on my face while I was sleeping. I know, gross.
I think that's all I have to report for now, sorry this was a really
weird/not very good email. Oh, we had another awesome pday today. Our
bishop took us to this town further north and we got to go and visit
this site of ancient ruins. These people didn't keep any records so
they have no idea who they were or what these structures were used for
(living, military, temples) but looks like I could have been a huge
castle or something. It was awesome! I took tons of pictures but don't
have my camera so you'll just have to wait until next week.
Letter to president
This week was a week full of growth for me. Zone conference motivated
me to become a better missionary then the scambios we did this week
helped me to put that will into action. I have started using the
restoration pamphlet in my finding and I see have seen miracles
because of it. Before my conversations with people consisted of small
talk and then exchanging beliefs which ended up with them saying that
we believe in a lot of the same things so if I asked if they wanted to
know more they saw no reason to investigate our church. Now the people
really understand my purpose and know what makes our church different.
It has made me want to talk to more people because I have something
amazing to share with them that they don't already know. I won't lie I
have had more people disagree with me because I bear testimony of the
restoration, but I have also seen more miracles. We have also gotten
better at planning this week rather than just filling time with our
backup plans and it has made it so much easier to be excited for our
backup plan when our main plans fall through. Thank you for the
wonderful zone conference, it really did change my life as a
missionary.
Sometimes all the Sorelle go for gelato by the peer
Cathedral of Saint Efisio
Another awesome cathedral
There's tons of cute houses that are all so colorful. I can't remember if I've already sent this one or not
Here's a picture of the ruins that we saw today. (One of the other sisters sent it to me) we got to go inside this huge castle part and this is looking out of it
