she's been super sick lately (she's pretty old) so she's not going to
be able to get baptized on the 25th because we haven't been able to
see her and she hasn't been coming to church.
We had specialized training on Thursday. This was our last zone
conference with the Waddoups. President Pickered and his wife get here
at the end of this month. Although I haven't been with the Waddoups
for a long time, I'm going to miss them a ton. They're such good
people and we can feel their love for us missionaries every time we
get to see them. We're fasting and praying for President and Sorella
Pickered. I know that they'll be amazing as well.
We have stepped our finding game and gotten tons of numbers from it
but the problem is that no one will make appointments with us! Our
contacts, investigators, less-actives, even members! Apparently this
time of year no one will meet with us because they're either out of
time or at the beach all day. It's been a struggle. Another struggle
is that most of the numbers we get are from young guys...99% of the
time I'm pretty sure they're more interested in us (as young American
girls) than our message, but comunque we've been getting a lot of
referrals for the Anziani!
I got to go to un sacco di feste this week! Every Monday we haVe a
ward family home evening in the park that the missionaries switch off
being in charge of. we had 3 of our investigators there and 4
potentials so it was super successful!
On Thursday we did a festa messicana (mexican party) for our English
course students because one of the members had been doing a Spanish
course every Tuesday with us but he was ending it for the summer so we
did a party for all of the students to finish it off. It was super
funny to see Italians try to cook Mexican food. We had things from a
lasagna with chili powder to straight up "American" pizza that someone
went and bought 10 minutes before haha. It's Italian pizza, they just
put their version of French fries on top and call it "American". We
weren't much better though, we just brought chocolate chip cookies.
One of our Anziani is half Mexican so he knows how to make the real
stuff, and Fratello Deplano (the member who teaches the Spanish
course) brought a bench of authentic stuff too. It turned out to be
super fun through and it was a really good way for Sorella Tingey to
get to know our students.
Then a few days ago we got invited to go to the "Philippines
Independence Day celebration." Haha the Anziani have investigators who
are a married couple, the with is Philippien and the husband is
Italian. This investigator is apparently like the president of the
Philippien community here in Cagliari so she puts the festa together
every year. And she invited us to come! It was awesome and the food
was good, but we didn't stay super long because we try to do some
lavoro missionario while we were there but most of them only spoke
Tagalog. I was surprised. I thought a lot of philippenos spoke enlgish
but they told us no, so either they really didn't, or they just didn't
want to talk to us haha oh well! At least the food was good, and
different. It's always fun to have a change once in a while because
all we get here is Italian food! (Not that I'm complaining or
anything..)
Daniela is doing awesome!!! She came to church on Sunday and
absolutely loved it. We called her the night before to make sure that
she was coming and she's like I will if I can, but I might not want to
get up so we'll see. We prayed super hard that she would have the
will-power to come and then we showed up! She told us, I was planning
on coming I just wanted it to be a surprise! Haha she's so cute. She
participating in the lessons and everyone was so good to talk to her
and help her feel welcome.
Then today we went to the beach with the other missionaries and we
brought her! It was kind of last minute, we planned it this morning
and we texted her and she was so excited to come and be with us. We're
seeing her tonight right before fhe then going to that together, we're
hoping she'll except a bap date tonight.
She's a lot different Than she was when she first started with us.
There is visible evidence of the atonement working in her life. She
quit smoking, goes on a run every morning, broke up with her boyfriend
who was a bad influence, and is really trying to be the best person
she can! She is coming unto Christ and thanks to this she is so much
more of a confident person. She's more sure of herself and isn't
afraid to open up anymore. And she's been seeing the blessings in her
life! She had been working really hard last week to find a job (it's
really hard to find work here) and she texted us a few days ago and
said that she had found a job working in a flower shop really close to
her house, and one of her coworkers is a member's daughter! So now
she's getting to know that family. She told us that now she really
does have a testimony that God loves her and cares about each one of
us individually. We're so grateful for all of this growth and
progression we've seen in her. After church on Sunday she looked at me
and said, "thanks for not giving up on me. I'm sorry that I never
answered your calls and told my mom to tell you that I wasn't home,
thank you for not giving up."
Funny story:
We have a lady in our ward who is mentally unstable. She is
schizophrenic and has some other disorders too, but she loves the
sister missionaries. She calls and texts us 24/7--like literally we
get calls from her at 4 am. But anyway, sometime she gets really angry
and just starts yelling at everyone or during testimony meeting she'll
say stuff like "is this a testimony or a talk?!" Or "I don't believe
it, I don't believe it!" She always asks if we can come over but we're
not allowed to because one time she locked some sisters in a room or
something and wouldn't let them out for hours. But anyway, haha
yesterday she was so happy for some reason. She came up to me during
sacrament meeting and said she had a gift for my companion and I. Then
at the end of relief society she came up to me and shoved a half-used
deodorant stick in my face and said smell it! Smell it! Then she gave
it to me as a gift. She gave Sorella Tingey a bottle of lotion that
was almost gone. So in case any of you were wondering, I'm all stocked
up on deodorant for a while... No don't worry I threw it away as soon
as I got home.
Well that's my life! Sorella Tingey and I are getting better at
cooking which is a plus. Everyone loves our "biscotti americani," and
we're getting around alright! God answers prayers, and life is good. I
love you all!
Fhe last week (this isn't everyone) Daniela (on the right) made that
cake for us that says "love missionaries"
We made these bomb chicken pot pie things that were so good. We're getting better!
This is above a members house and has a great view of Cagliari but she didn't get it super well in this picture
This was a legit thing
Today at the beach with Daniela!!
