When in Rome

This week was unlike anything else! So many miracles and surprises, it's was the least normal week I've ever had in the mission. 

Starting with Tuesday when we were doing some door to door because we went looking for a less active but she told us she's not interested in letting us in. We don't do this approach very often because it hardly ever brings success in this mission. We'd been going for a while when we actually got let in!!! That's my first time ever! We went up to find a cure Indian woman and her baby. She didn't speak very much Italian but the spirit was still there. We were able to communicate enough to testify of the Book of Mormon. She told us to come back and bring her one of them. Luckily we were in Rome and got to look in the supplies office and found one in her language Timl!! We're so excited to take it to her. 

We also started teaching this cute lady, Rosalia, who was an x-English corse student. We called her up and invited her back and also asked if she'd like to meet with us. She did, and when we met, she was touched. She set her own return appointment and will start coming to English again as well!! 

Wednesday was one of the most stressful days of my life haha. Our flight for Rome was at 5 so we were planning to be picked up by the Garrett's at 2:30 to head to the airport. We were out working in an area pretty far away from our home when we got a call saying that the anziani from Sciacca got to Palermo without their passports to the garrets had to drive them back to get them which means that they wouldn't be able to pick us up and we needed to be at the station in an hour to take the bus to the airport. It usually takes at least 45 minutes to get to the station from our house. We were at the end of the line on the tram and had to wait like 20 minutes for it to even go again. The other sisters helped us gather out things over the phone (because we hadn't packed) so we ran home and threw it all in a bag then ran to grab a bus to the station. We made it on time, grabbed a quick lunch at McDonald's and got on the bus to the airport. 

Then when we got to the airport my companion couldn't find her passport!! So called the Garrett's who got to the airport, dropped off the Sciacca anziani and grabbed us, we sped back to our house, grabbed her passport, then back to the airport. We made it just in time to catch our plane. Hahah but seriously I think that Garrett's deserve exhalation for all that they do for us. 

Then a bunch of more crazy stressful things happened but I don't have time to write them all but just know that if you notice any zits in my pictures this week, that's why. 

We got to stay in the Villa (mission home) with a bunch of other sisters which was fun! 

We had a conference in Rome on Thursday where every missionary in the mission got to go up and learn from President & Sister Kearon, Elder & Sister Hallstrom, and President & Sister Nelson. It was such an unforgettable experience to get to sit there and be taught by an apostle of the lord for an hour. He taught us all about the abrahamic covenant and how that applies to the work that we are doing today. He referenced scripture after scripture and did so without any notes at all. He also wanted to make sure that we told our families "thanks to them too," so, family and friends and everyone who is supporting me in this mission, President Nelson thanks you. 

We weren't able to get a lot of work done in our area because of the conference but I'm so grateful for the opportunity that we had to be in Rome and be instructed directly by God's servants. And it was so much fun seeing everyone!! So many cool reunions with people I thought I'd never see again.

We had fun doing some finding after the conference, in fact, sorella Frogley and I were able to teach a girl the restoration in one of the most famous piazza's in Rome. She was just there as a tourist, but she told us that a lot of her friends are Mormons. She's originally from the U.K. but has lived in Texas for a while, and right now is doing a study-abroad in Switzerland. She said that would love to learn more. We even helped her download the gospel library app! It was such a cool experience for me to teach the restoration in my own language for the first time in my mission and in such a cool, historical place like Rome. 

Our plane to leave Rome wasn't until Friday night at 9:30 so we spent all day in Rome hanging out with President and his wife in the villa because there was a strike that day so all of the buses and trams and metros were shut down for most of the day so we couldn't go anywhere. Then we received a message that sorella Frogley'a permesso (visa) would be ready to be picked up on Tuesday and they were trying to figure out our travel plans. We called and told them that we were still in Rome (they didn't realize because everyone else had already left) so they decided that sorella Frogley would stay in Rome until Wednesday to pick up her permesso and I would go back to Palermo with the other sisters. 

So now Ive been in a trio the rest of the week! It's been super fun but I also miss my cute companion. It's hard to get a lot done because we work in different areas and are trying to do both of our works, but we're doing what we can! 

We got home at 12:30 Friday night so we were super tired Saturday from all of the late nights and early mornings that we've been doing lately but it just made it more fun because we're all a little crazy when we're tired. 

Do you remember the crazy old lady I talked about a few weeks ago? The one that cried on our shoulders at 5 am when we were taking sorella Anderson to the station. Well on Saturday she was like "I want to come to church with you tomorrow. Come and pick me up at my house and I'll go with you" we didn't know what to do because we could tell her no so we picked her up for church the next day! I was really worried because it was a stake conference and she's really just not all the way there so I was stressing the whole time that she'd do something crazy like stand up and start yelling in the middle of the meeting. We were able to keep here pretty calm throughout the whole thing though. She did start balling when she had to leave early and she said bye to us, but other than that we were good!! Before she left she was like "so when can you come to my house? Tomorrow? And the day after that?? You have to come visit me now because I came to church with you"...my life is so much fun. 

Two other fun things- 

Yesterday we sat by the ocean and read the Book of Mormon with a less active so that was fun. And then that night we did a gesso. I saw that old man who stops my literally every time and tries to get me to go get coffee with him so I ran and hid behind some people and started talking to them. Meanwhile the elders told him that I had gone back to America...hahaha what can you do? Hopefully he won't come back now.. 

Today we went to a cute little tourist town about an hour away from Palermo by train called Cefalù! It was beautiful. And guess what, it's the end of October and everyone is still going to the beach because it's still 80+ degrees every day!! Yeah it rains most nights and in the morning sometimes but by the middle of the day it is hot ancora! 

K cool. That's all I have for ya. Love you guys! Always talk to people on planes and at bus stops and train stations and stuff. People love Mormons! And although we may not be able to convert them right there on the plane, we're just putting a little more light and truth into their lives which never hurts! And then when they're ready, they'll remember you, and that moment. 

You guys are the best! President Nelson loves and appreciates you, and so do I. 

Love always, 

Sorella Bonzo

Palermo zone on our way to Rome 

Our hands right after we shook hands with president Nelson 

My MTC group! 

Palermo sisters 

My mom and sister!! (My trainer with her 2 greenies) 

Rome- it was actually really cold there! 

The lesson by the ocean. (Look at my iPad..don't worry sorella Frogley, we promised we wouldn't go to the beach without you) 

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When in Cefalù

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When in Palermo..

We saw Alessia on Monday, she's doing well, but we weren't able to see her the rest of the week and we won't be able to this week because she works at nights so we'll have to wait a little longer for her baptism. We are going to see her today though and do a lunch with her before she has to go to work so that's exciting. She's super awesome and I've learned so much from her. She is the most selfless person I have ever met. She sacrifices everything for her family and I really admire that. I also admire her desire for knowledge. She has been investigating the church since February and has started the Book of Mormon for the second time, read the pearl of great price, Jospeh smith history, almost all of the doctrine and covenants, and reads the ensign every month. She amazes me with her pure desire to learn and grow and know the truth. I love her so much. 

Zone conference was Tuesday! It's always great to see President Pickerd and his wife and receive instruction from them. The underlining message that president Pickerd had to share with us was that we are loved, and we are successful. Of course we can all do better to become more successful missionaries, but he wanted us to all believe the we are successful missionaries right now. 

The assistants did a really cool addestramento about finding strength in through the atonement to be the message. We did a role play where we practiced GIFTING a baptismal date. It helped me to realize how special and much of a gift baptism really is. Yes it is a commandment, but why does God give us commandments? Because HE LOVES US! And why do we keep commandments? Because WE LOVE GOD!

We did tons of park finding this week and saw so many miracles. We were able to sit down and teach the entire restoration I think a total of 5 times. It's so cool to me that no matter where we are, how loud it is, or how many distractions there are (and trust me, I've never had so many random things happen to me in a park than when I am teaching lessons) we can always feel the spirit when we testify of truth. 

Miracle: we felt like we should go see this less-active one day, just showing up without notice. When we got there she was like "you should've called!" But still let us in because she was just hanging out with her sister who happened to be there. It turns out that her sister is a less active member as well in the other ward who is going through a lot of things right now. We shared a message that really touched her and she began to cry. She said that we really helped her out and she needed us that day. We've passed her information on to the other sisters and I hope that they can help her more. 

All in all it was a wonderful and work-filled week. Sorry I don't have tons of stories to tell you, lots of stuff happened but I feel like they wouldn't be that interesting to you. I love my companion and I love the mission. Oh, here's something funny- my companion is a tall blonde girl with beautiful curly hair. She gets stared at and comments every single day because here, (and especially here in Sicily, the people are abnormally short) she sticks out like a sore thumb. I feel bad because I feel like it's even worse with me because I'm like regular-sized (or maybe even on the taller side) to them. The other day we were walking on the street and we said "buon giorno" as we passed this guy (like we say to everyone we pass.) He was walking his dog and not really paying attention, but there he looked up to say "buon giorno" back to us and he goes "madonna mia! Quanto alta sei tu?" (Oh my gosh how tall are you?) I told him it's because we're American and he's like "but you're still a piccolina (little small)" hahaha poor girl. She's used to it by now though. 

Anyway, that's my life, and I love it. I hope you guys love your lives too, and if not, do something to change it so that you do!! Even if it's just changing your attitude and view on things because like president Nelson said, it is our choice to be joyful! 

I love you all so much! 

With Love, 

Sorella Bonzo

Her first brioscià 

Her first bomba..rocking glasses because the air is so gross here that it bugs our eyes 

Our first granita! It's sooo gooood. Another Sicilian thing that's only good down here. 

Barbecue activity for the YSA 

Gesso yesterday

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More pics because this week was so full of greatness

Her first cannolo and our first picture! 

I ❤️ arancine

Waffle party at p2 

La famiglia madonia

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TRANSFERSS

Hello family and friends! 

We got our transfer calls Monday night that sorella Anderson would be leaving me and spending the last transfer of her mission in Pescara. My new companion, Sorella Frogley, was trained in Rome then sent to me fresh out of her greeny days! So I am now "follow-up training" her which means that my responsibility is to help her to become a regular companion, and do all the things that missionaries do because she's not a greeny anymore!

Sorella Anderson left early Wednesday morning. It was actually a very interesting morning... we had to leave the house by 5 so that she could make her train. As we were walking down the street this random lady came up to us holding a cardboard box and acted like she knew us. She just started talking to us about her problems then started balling asking if we were leaving her (because we were carrying sorella anderson's luggage) and started crying harder and hugged and kissed all of us like ten times. We had to go so we didn't miss the train but we didn't want to leave this poor lady just standing there crying..we finally escaped and she made sure to tell us where she lives so we can visit. 

Then we met this dog on the street that followed us all the way to the bus stop. We were worried that he'd get in the bus with us but he didn't. I actually think he was trying to protect us, it was cute, and actually kinda needed because we had a lot of weird guys trying to get us to come over and talk to them...like, what in the world are you doing out at 5 o'clock in the morning and what makes you think we're just wandering around with this big bags of luggage because we want to be hit on by you??..haha the life of a sister in Italy. 

Sorella Frogley didn't get in until Thursday night so I got to be in a trio with the p2 sisters for two days. That was super fun. Wednesday night we had an dinner appointment with a cute member family from their ward. They had 3 GANS(YSA)-age sons who were crazy so it was super fun. They ordered these huge barbecue chicken pizzas for us...soo good. They also showed us that stupid video that is like #1 on YouTube or whatever? The pineapple pen thing? I don't really know. All I know is all the GANS keep showing it to us now and it gets stuck in my head like all day. 

Thursday morning we went and painted a room for one of their members as service. It was a lot of fun but she was literally crazy. She just kept talking and talking and at one point she's like what can I do? How can I help? And sorella Littlefield said, "you can sing for us." So she did..for like 30 minutes...and if you didn't know already, most Italians and tone-deaf. At the end it look so bad. The wall just kept ripping off as we tried to paint and they're like "no it's fine just keep going." They made the paint themselves so it went on all splotchy and not even. But the good thing is if missionaries come over in the future and she tells them that the sisters painted it, she's obsessed with sorella Bellomo so she won't even remember sorella Littlefield's or my name!! I hope this email is helping you see how insane this people are 😂 but oddly, I love them with all of my heart. I thought about it the other day, about all of the crazy and funny experiences that happen every day here and realized that it won't be like this after the mission. That's so sad to think because I don't think I have laughed harder in my entire life than here on the mission. 

Sorella Frogley got in Thursday night!!! She is so cute. She a tall blonde from Idaho. There's not many of those here so if you think I got stared at by creepy men before, its probably 10 times worse now with her! Haha she's starting to just get used to it though..but if any of you want to send me a tutorial on some self-defense skills so I can protect her if that becomes necessary, that'd be greatly appreciated. She's already such a good missionary, I'm so excited for all of the work that we're going to do together. 

On Friday morning we went to get bus passes and it started poring rain. Luckily we were inside while it was hailing but when we went out and walked in the pouring rain all the way back. Everyone was just sitting there hiding under buildings while I rained and we're just walking around drenched saying "GOOD MORNING!" To everyone we passed. They thought we were so weird, it was fun.  

My companion and I decided that we wanted to work more with the members this transfer so we talked to a bunch of them in Sunday to get appointments and one of the cute older couples invited us over for lunch! They are so funny and the sweetest people...but of course, they fed us tons. My companion isn't used to how heavy the food in Sicily is and felt sick for the rest of the day haha poor girl. 

Sorella Frogley and I taught our first restoration lesson together in the the park yesterday!! It's so fun to work with other missionaries and see how they do things differently because being with the same companion 12 weeks like I had before, you just kind of get into a groove and find yourselves saying the same things every time. When you unfamiliar with your companion's teaching style, you're more likely to follow the spirit I think. It went super well, too. We invited this super cute lady who was on the park bench watching her five year old son play, to read the Book of Mormon. My companion is super awesome and it's fun to have new, fresh finding ideas as well. 

Last night we walked downtown to do a gesso. It was full of people so we were excited for a success night. Then, IT STARTED POURING RAIN. I'm talking buckets. Everyone ran away to find shelter. Italians are the BIGGEST BABIES when it comes to rain. As they were walking past I was trying to hand them pass along cards and they wouldn't even take it they're like "no it's raining." But then, i realized that there were all these people standing under buildings not going anywhere any time soon. So I grabbed my companion and my iPad and walked up to every single person and asked if we could show them a video of Christ (Because of Him). But unfortunately no one would let us. some of my favorite excuses for why they didn't let me show the video were: "we have to go soon" (they were not going anywhere anytime soon), "but it's raining." We were like "we don't care" and they're just like "but..it's raining. Non si fa (one does not do that), and "you guys are really wet." So we ended up just inviting people to English course and getting really soaked. But it was super fun!! And just funny to see everyone's reactions when these dripping wet Americans walked up to them and asked if they wanted to hear about Christ haha. 

That's it for the week! It was super fun and I love my new companion so much. We're super excited for this transfer! I love you all, have a wonderful week!! ❤️

We went to the beach last pday. Bye sorella anderson

Giant yummy pizza. 

Painting. She also gave us the things we are holding..we don't know why. 

Trio life!

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Focus on the JOY

This week we had a really great lesson with Alessia. We showed her the talk that Elder Holland when he tells the story of Christ asking Peter "Do you love me?" It really touched her and I could see the spirit work in her. Without us even bringing up the subject of work, she told us that she has been feeling bad about work for a while now. We helped her realize that this is the spirit prompting her to do something and we invited her to act on these promptings. I love that feeling when you know you are inspired by the spirit. 

On Tuesday my companion and I tried to make a cake for our district because it's Anziano Garrett's birthday today. We spent the whole morning making it then right before we left my companion DROPPED IT!! It made a huge mess all over the floor but we were laughing so hard. The only thing that was kind of upsetting is we literally had no money last week, not even to buy food for ourselves, but we spent €5 on this box cake and then it just ended up on the floor!! Haha we had a good laugh though. 

I cannot count the number of times that I have been asked to explain our church's name. Chiesa di Gesù Cristo dei SANTI degli ultimi giorni- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day SAINTS (or, as translated The Church of Jesus Christ of the SAINTS of the last days.) Especially here, where the worship of saints is very common, people get a little hung up and confused about our title, especially when they know that we do not believe in saints. We explain to them that we do not worship or pray to saints, but that it is the "dovere" (duty) of all of us to strive to become SAINTS (true believers and followers of Christ.)

I have reflected on the significance of our church's title many times thanks to the opportunity that I have had to explain it to others, and it has taken on a little bit of a deeper meaning for me every time I do. I was able to reflect upon it again, yesterday, while listening to the talk given by President Russell M. Nelson. He shared the story of the difficult circumstances that the pioneers found themselves in on a cold winter's night. Every one of them starving, and doing whatever they could to try not to quite literally freeze to death. Yet, "among the pioneers, not a complaint was heard," he quotes, "that was a very merry night. None but SAINTS can be happy under every circumstance." 

I read this morning in Alma 62:41 that reads, "But behold, because of the exceedingly great length of the war between the Nephites and the Lamanites many had become hardened, because of the exceedingly great length of the war; and many were softened because of their afflictions, insomuch that they did humble themselves before God, even in the depth of humility." When President Kearon was here, he pointed this verse out to us and taught that in adversity, we can either become hardened, or humbled. We can fall, or thrive. Both of these groups of people had just gone through the same war, faced the same type of affliction, but in the end, there was a very different outcome. 

President Nelson continues by saying, "Joy has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives." This simple yet profound statement touched me. It helped me to put everything into perspective. It helped me to realize that if we want to be happy, we can be! It's literally all up to us! Because like he says, it doesn't matter what is going on around you, it's what is going on inside of you. What you're going to make of the situation. How you're going to choose to respond to it. 

And when the times get rough--and trust me, they will--We can remember our savior, who performed the most difficult task that anyone would ever have to bear in this world, by focusing on the joy. We can endure anything if we will only FOCUS ON THE JOY! "Joy comes from and because of HIM. Jesus Christ is JOY." 

I am filled with joy and gratitude when I think about all of you. I hope you enjoyed your conference weekend and were able to make note of the things that may be a stumbling block in your eternal progression and have decided what you can do to change these things. I also hope that you were able to feel of the infinite love that your Heavenly Father and Savior have for you, I know I did. CHOOSE TO FOCUS ON THE JOY, my friends, and I promise you that your challenges will become easier, your burdens will be made lighter, and your lives will be filled with more light and love. 

Con gioia e amore,

Sorella Bonzo

  

Last pday at a confession booth 

I'm a mountain 

The cake

I did an exchange with sorella Bellomo this week and we cleaned a gym for this potential! It was super fun. I got to play with the cute one year old and keep him happy. Then we had to take a picture in this giant wheel

Yesterday mama Anderson made us French toast for general conference breakfast. We had a cute little picnic 

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