referral from another one of our investigators Eleonora. We haven't
seen Eleonora for like 2 months because she's been so busy with
college and exams but we were able to see her this week and she
brought her friend who was really interested! We texted Sabrina and
she said she's already been reading the Book of Mormon!
Another was a referral from the Anziani, she has a son. She seemed
really out of it the whole lesson and distracted because we were in a
park and she was watching her son play but then she said she'd read
and pray and meet with us again so we'll see haha.
And the last one we found when we were making some calls from these
super old contact lists just trying to clean our area book up a bit.
We called this lady named Maria and she said, "why didn't you ever
come over that Saturday??" Haha so apparently some missionaries had
said they would stop by but forgot or something. She is a mother of 4!
We met two of her sons when we went over. She'd been taught by
missionaries a long time ago and kept the Book of Mormon. She's super
nice and wants us to come back soon, the only problem is she's like
let's go get pizza together We're hoping to teach her whole family!
We've also been seeing tons of members because our zone leaders have
come up with a ward mission plan and part of that is teaching all of
the missionary lessons to all of the members and less-actives.
Everyone. It's been really cool as we started to make our first rounds
of teaching the restoration again to all of these people. Basically
everyone here is a convert so they were able to think back to when
they heard this for the first time and share their experiences. It's
been awesome and I can tell it's having a very positive affect on the
ward already.
Last Monday we went to the beach with Daniela and the other
missionaries then on Tuesday she texted us saying she had strep
throat.. My throat had been hurting that morning but I was like
whatever I'm fine. Then I woke up Wednesday morning feeling super sick
but we continued to go out and work anyway because we had things to
do! Thursday we worked as well. it hurt too badly to swallow anything
so I just didn't eat or drink anything that morning. Haha then I took
a nap during Pranzo and went back out for the rest of the night. So
when Friday came I felt like death but I was still pretty stupid and
just went out and did everything because we had had appointments all
of those days and we hadn't gotten appointments for so long so we
didn't want to cancel them!! I had a fever all of these days as well
but I was just trying to convince myself that I was just hot because
it's hot outside. Friday night I finally gave in and called our
mission nurse because I figured I should get some antibiotics if I
wanted to get better. She told us that we had to go to the pharmacy
immediately and get the antibiotics and that we were not allowed out
of the house for 2-3 days!! That means that we had to cancel all the
plans we had just made for Saturday and we couldn't go to church on
Sunday!
Looking back I'm super grateful that she made us do that because I
really did need the rest, my body was trying to fight off strep throat
and I was exhausting it even more. But have no fear because we did
everything we could those two days to grow our work (i.e. Area book,
making calls, setting up appointments) and we did a ton of deep
cleaning that our house really needed. And today I'm feeling so much
better!
The ward members and our investigators were all so sweet, as soon as
they found out they called and asked if there was anything they could
do. Our 90 year old new convert even called us this morning to see if
we were okay, she's adorable!
AND our investigator Daniela still went to church and stayed the whole
time without us!! We talked to her on the phone the night before and
were really worried that she wouldn't go because we couldn't. Sunday
morning we called a member and asked if she'd sit with her during
sacrament meeting and asked the Anziani to make sure that she was
alright. Then she called us Sunday night and told us about how great
it was and how much she loves church and the ward and she even got
invited to go eat Pranzo with a family afterwards!! She is doing SO
well and I am so grateful. In the words of Sorella Biccherri, "she
will be baptized!!"
We also got to have a cool experience Sunday night. The Anziani called
and asked if we wanted to take the sacrament. They got permission from
the bishop then came over and brought one of their new converts too.
They shared a short spiritual thought then blessed and gave us the
sacrament. It was a really cool experience and I'm so grateful that
they did that for us. I think we don't realize just how much we NEED
the sacrament until we don't have it, then we get that opportunity to
take it again and it's a wonderful feeling. I didn't realize how much
I needed that little spiritual experience afraid kind of "going
without" for 2 days. It made me realize what not being a missionary
feels like a little bit. As a missionary we get to have these awesome
spiritual experiences in every moment of our lives! It's the best
thing ever! Now that I kind of know what it feels like to not have
that anymore, I'm even more motivated to work as hard as I can and
give everything I have to these next 13.5 months, because that's
really not very much time. Also I'm grateful that our Anziani are
always looking out for us. They're the best.
I can't think of a funny story but I'll just say this:
Italians have this weird belief that if your neck gets cold then
you'll get sick. They call it "colpa d'aria." So whenever there's any
wind at all (which it's ALWAYS windy in Cagliari,) they all have their
little scarves that they keep in their bags and they get them out and
put them on. So everyone I talked to that called to see how I was
doing said "I told you a million times that you have to put on a
scarf! You sisters never listen!" I just laugh and say sorry haha. But
like excuse me if I'm not going to wear a scarf when it's 90 degrees
and I'm sweating haha, sorry excuse my sassiness. It's just so funny,
they're like "no wonder you're sick!"
I just remembered some more funny stuff so I'm going to add it haha
We taught Sorella Pistidda this week. She's the lady who makes bread
for a living and give us a loaf every week at church and whenever we
stop by her house. I've been with her from the beginning because her
daughter used to be one of our investigators. I talked to her on the
phone to schedule the appointment this week and she goes "your Italian
is getting so good!!" I've had a lot of people tell me that these past
few weeks which is really nice to hear. But then when we were at her
house she looks at me randomly like in the middle of the lesson and
goes "you're getting fatter" hahahaha I told her it's because of her
bread. I've seen her almost every week since I've gotten here so she
would be the one to notice both of those things haha.
Other thing: we went to teach Iolanda again. She's the super old
less-active who doesn't remember that she's a member half the time.
She's so funny though. We were trying to teach the restoration and
half the time she was saying that she's Catholic and the other half
she'd randomly bear her testimony about Joseph smith. Then almost the
rest of the time she just went off on Muslims (like she does every
time.) we taught the lesson as simply as we could for her. We're like:
God is our Heavenly Father. He loves us. We are all children of God.
Then she'd just start ranting about how God loves everyone but the
Muslims. Then at the end we invited to her read the pamphlet and pray
again to know that Joseph smith was a prophet to strengthen her
testimony and she's like oh I've my research on Joseph smith. She
pulls out this huge notebook she'd written in and just starts reading
the whole thing to us. It was hilarious. Haha I basically just work
with old people here because everyone else is too busy for us. It's
fine though. It makes life more interesting that way!
Okay I'll stop now. I feel like this email is super random and I'm not
actually talking about anything so sorry if Im just rambling. Thanks
for your patience. Love you guys!
This was in our house a few weeks ago. There are so many bugs here.
You all think that I live the good life and don't have to eat nasty food. An African in our ward made this for us. It was basically just straight up raw fish that she deep fried then we ate it with our hands. So gross.
This is a less-active family. The girl on the left reminds me so much of my sister Lindsey.
Daniela took this picture of us last week.
Cagliari is awesome.
