back!! We have been so busy I literally only sent the group email and
then one to my mom. But I am so so grateful for all of your emails and
I promise I will email you back as soon as I can!
Numero tre: I've been meaning to write this email for a while now but
I keep forgetting. Every single person I meet asks "what is the origin
of your name?" They're like "it doesn't sound American" Then almost
everyone tries to tell me what it means. Some of the best ones I've
heard are: a ninja, a bald priest, and some ancient ruins. They also
ALWAYS think it's my first name at first when I introduce myself
because my companion's last name is Clark and I think they know that's
a first name for males in America so they just think she has a boy's
name. And then I introduce myself and they look at me funny and say
"BONZO?? What kind of a parent would name their kid Bonzo?!" Hahaha
MARISTELLA: I got to do service this week!! We are supposed to be
doing 4 hours of derive a week (2 of those hours we spend doing
English course) but we never get the change because Italians are
pretty prideful people so they never let us help with anything. But we
got a call from a lady named Maristella and she asked if we would help
her clean her garden. We thought she was a less-active (there's so
many here) but when we got there she told us that she's half-Catholic
and half-Mormon..meaning that she's Catholic but she reads the Book of
Mormon. We found out that her sister lives in Milan and is a member
and so she kept telling her to call the missionaries so she finally
did! little did we know SHE WAS CRAZY..in the best way. She was sooo
funny and wild. We started working then next thing I know she was
blasting Elvis music and dancing-keep in mind she's like 80. She sang
along to all of them but had no idea what they were saying. We
translated for her and she just laughed and laughed. We went back the
next day to finish up then tried to have a lesson with her. She's very
religious, loves reading the Book of Mormon and always prays-like
before we started gardening she said "okay first we have to say a
prayer because the scriptures say you have to pray before doing
anything" and throughout the whole time she just kept saying "oh lord
give me the strength" 😂 But we found out that she's met with the
missionaries in the past (like 20 years ago) and does not want to be
baptized. Sorella Clark asked if she had prayed to ask god what path
she should take and she said "yes, Catholic." Unfortunately some
people will never understand and change from what they know and are
comfortable with but she's still a great person the sweetest lady. She
even sent us home with dinner that night.
DANIELA: On Wednesday after our correlation meeting our Zone Leaders
came up to Sorella Clark and I and asked for our advice with one of
their investigators..you have to understand that our zone leaders and
the most amazing missionaries you will ever meet. They are the kind of
missionaries that everyone looks up to and wants to become like..and
they were asking us for advice?? After we talked about the situation
they said "what are you doing right now? We have a lesson with her in
5 minutes and we feel like we need to pass her off to you." So not
only was I about to do a lesson with my zone leaders that I had no
time to prepare for, but also their is their miracle investigator.
She's like the investigator anyone would dream of having. Then we get
in there and they say okay we want this to be your lesson, we'll be
here to support but you'll lead the lesson. We had to completely go by
the spirit because we had no time to prepare and we didn't know her at
all, but it turned out so great! And SHE IS AMAZING! She has such a
desire to gain a testimony. I have had the most amazing lessons with
her because she sincerely wants to know. When she asks questions it's
never because she's trying to compare our beliefs to the Catholic
Church (which is what a lot of people do.) she really ponders on the
scriptures she reads and always comes with questions about things she
didn't understand during her reading. She came to church on Sunday..I
talk about it in my letter to my president but here il just say that
it was incredible!! UPDATE ON DANIELA: as I was writing this Daniela
called us and told us that she is having a hard time right now we
asked her why and she said its because she's trying to quit smoking!
We haven't even taught her the word of wisdom yet! This is huge for
her because she usually has to smoke every hour or two. She told us
that she wanted to talk for a second to take her mind off of it. She
said prayed and asked her Heavenly Father to help her over this
addiction and was currently watching meet the Mormons as a
distraction!! We're like: wait, we didn't even tell you that we don't
smoke first of all, and second, how did you know about meet the
Mormons?? She is so awesome and has been doing her research (in the
right places might I add.)
SEBASTIANA: Sebastiana is an investigator who we've had for about 4
weeks now. She is an English course student who wanted a Book of
Mormon. She's like 70+ years old, very Catholic and super sweet. She
loves having us over and loves everything about our church. She even
came to general conference (she's the one who said she felt like she'd
been transported into heaven after watching a session.) And she is
already in Mosiah in the Book of Mormon!! Okay so funny story for this
week..actually it was really really sad at the moment but hilarious
now that we look back on it. So you may have noticed by now that
Italians show their love through the food they give you. That's why
they give you 5 scoops of pasta at dinner appointments when they only
eat 2 or every time we visit someone they send us home with a juice
box and some kind of treat and the members always bake things for the
missionaries (now you'll also sympathize with me if I start to look a
little chubbier in my pictures haha I promise I workout every
morning!!) You have to eat it because it's a demonstration of their
love for you! Anyway, we were at Sebastiana's house for a lesson and
we were getting ready to leave and she's like "oh wait I made
something for you with all the love in her heart, I was thinking what
could I make these incredible girls? It took me 3 hours to make. I
made you TIRAMISU!" OF COURSE IT WOULD BE SOMETHING WE CANT EAT. She
was sooo excited then we had to crush this sweet old lady's heart and
tell her that we couldn't eat it. She could not understand. She's like
let me just bring it out and show you. It was the most beautiful,
perfectly-made dessert I have ever seen in my life. So we had to give
a brief lesson on the word of wisdom and then she's like "but I worked
so hard on it, you can just try a little bit and repent tomorrow!"
HAHAHAHAH so obviously we need to have a lesson on repentance..😬 When
she realized that we weren't going to eat it she started to cry and
said "what do we do? What do we do?" By that point my companion and I
felt so bad we wanted to eat it just to make her happy, but don't
worry, we didn't. So she's like "I can make you some TEA" OF COURSE
THATS THE NEXT THING SHED OFFER US!! Hahaha So after we explained all
of the things we don't eat she ended up giving us some juice boxes and
Nutella cookies and even some lemons from her tree (which were
AMAZING.) Needless to say my companion and I didn't sleep well that
night because we felt so bad. We basically denied her love. But we
called her the next day and apologized again and she also came to
church so all is well. Now looking back after a few days we just laugh
every time we think about it.
We also started teaching a couple from English course who has 3 young
kids! They are great and are really family-oriented and love that our
church is as well. We are setting up a family home evening with them
and another family in a ward with young kids and we're excited for
that. They are super busy and live pretty far away so we haven't been
able to go over to their house and teach their whole family (we just
saw them before English course in the church) but we're hoping to do
so soon! We also started teaching Eleonora this week but I haven't met
her! I was teaching English course with one of the Sorelle from
Sassari (the area at the top of the island) while Sorella Clark was
with her companion and they taught Eleonora. But my companion has said
great things about her so I'm excited to meet her!So we ended up with
4 new investigators this week and 10 in total!! We are so busy with
all of these people. My companion has been here for 6 months and
almost a year into the mission and she has never seen this much work.
I told you Cagliari is blossoming!! It's an exhausting, difficult,
strenuous, and wonderful thing to get to work with and help this many
people!!
As for today, I spent my whole morning in the questura (to get my
"green card") and have to go back next week as well. Yay. Sorella
Biccheirri was with me because she's Italian so she can understand all
of the legal stuff. We had been waiting for 2 hours and got super
hungry so we tried to find a nearby store really quick so we could buy
something and eat while we waited because we figured it'd be another
hour and a half. The only store close was a baby store literally full
of things just for babies. We decided it was better than nothing and
bought ourselves some baby food 😂 it's funny because we are "babies"
in the mission. She's only 1 transfer ahead of me and we're both still
with our "moms" (trainers)
Letter to mission president
We were blessed with 4 new investigators this week and have been
seeing progress from the others. Daniela is one of those new
investigators who was passed to us by the Anziani. She is wonderful!
She has such a desire to learn and gain a testimony! She has accepted
the baptism date of May 21st and I'm confident she will be ready for
that day. She's one of those people who didn't know they were missing
something or searching for something until she met the Anziani. Now
she hungers to know more. She wants to meet with us whenever possible
and really ponders and asks questions about the scriptures she reads.
She really wants to understand. She came to church yesterday for the
first time and cried because of the sprit that she felt. After hearing
many of the ward-member's testimonies she turned to us and said, "is
all of this really true? It seems almost too good to be true. How did
I, out of millions of people find this church?" I am so grateful to
the ward members for the beautiful testimonies they shared as well as
being so kind and welcoming to both of our investigators who were in
church that day. I know that they both felt loved and cared about.
Daniela made us this cake!
My old district. 2 of them got transferred
