Mini Miracles

Hello!
Last week after we got off the train coming back to Crotone we were hit by that cyclone I mentioned. It did not just rain on us, IT POURED. And the wind was crazy. I was the coldest and wetest I have probably ever been. The whole city was flooding and cars were driving by super fast splashing us ever few seconds. We were already drenched so that just made it all the more fun! Then it continued to rain on us every day this week. It's been good because I get to wear my rainboots and scarfs and sweaters and all that good stuff. The other plus is that no one leaves their house when it rains so when we pass by people they're a lot more likely to be home!

Despite the crazy weather, we still made our way to visit the africans like we do every monday night. We were wet and cold and exhausted, and to be honest, all I wanted to do was take a nice hot shower rather than venturing back out into the storm. But because we went, the biggest miracle happened! I don't know if you guys remember Salvatore, that guy that I talked about 2 weeks ago that we met on the bus ride home from Taranto? Well, the saddest thing happened when we tried to refer him to our elders. Somehow our phone deleted a bunch of numbers and his was one of them. We had no way of contacting him and were pretty bummed about it. The only thing we could do was pray for him to call us or stop by our church. So monday night, as we were walking to Juliet's house I heard someone yell out, "Taylor!" (my companion's last name) I turned to see Salvatore standing across the street! He came over and told us that he was actually just thinking about texting us to tell us that he was sorry he wasn't able to stop by our church but he'd be leaving to Bari early the next morning. He told us that because of the weather they didn't leave the house much, but he had to go out that night to pick up a few things before he left. It was an absolute miracle that we happened to be in that spot at the same time and that he saw us! He told us that he's been reading the Book of Mormon that we gave him too! He said that he won't be back in Crotone until the end of February so we told him that there are missionaries in Bari and asked if we could send them him number, he said "of course! I'd love to meet with them!" And like that we were able to get his number again and refer him to the elders in Bari! How crazy is that?! I really hope that all goes well for him! There's definitely a reason that we met on that bus 3 weeks ago, then ran into each other again a week ago!

We ate fufu again with the africans. It was good, she just made sooo much. Juliet told us, "you must eat all of it sorella's, I know you can do it." (did you catch that? she calls us sorellas it's so cute. she also calls us her church people haha) I got halfway through and thought that my stomach would burst (not to mention there was also chicken and fish meat that we ate) so when Juliet left for a few minutes to close go close down her shop we hurried and stuffed most of it in our bags so that we didn't have to eat it all hahaha. The things you do as a missionary...

We have been teaching one of Juliet's friends named Precious. And she really is so precious. She's 19 and got to Crotone like 2 weeks before I did. She is very quiet but so sweet. She has been coming to church every week without fail since she got here (even when none of the other africans who are members come!) She told us that she really wants to get baptized and was so grateful when we gave her a Book of Mormon. She is moving to Holland as soon as she can though, so we plan to just teach her until she leaves then pass her to the sisters so that she can be baptized up there.

We had a Worldwide Missionary Broacast this week that involved the church missionary council which consists of Elder Oaks, Elder Bednar, Elder Andersen, Sister Oascarson, Elder Allen, and Bishop Waddell. It was broadcast live to all of the missionaries in the world! A lot of it was devoted to reviewing and discussing things that were taught in the previous year's conference, and at the end they made some announcements regarding some changes to the missionary schedule and key indicators. I'm so grateful to know that we are directed by inspired leaders. The entire meeting was filled with wise counsel directed specifically to us as missionaries.

This week we went out to a little town that is in our area called Cutro. We have some potentials out there as well as a less-active family that we got to visit. It's a cute little town that's known for their famous bread. We had to buy a loaf of course. In the words of Sorella Taylor, "it was about as big as 3 smashed footballs"..so really big, it was fresh, and it only cost £2! This town is only about a 30 min bus ride out of Crotone but it was like a different world. Everyone's accents were soo thick and they all just stared at us. We say hi to every we walk by and usually people will greet us back but here they all just looked at us like we were crazies. But it was still fun and a successful day.

highlight of the week: we found a pizza place by our investigator Rosa's house called Ninja Turtle's Pizza so we had to stop in and get a slice. We planned to stop by again on Saturday night after our lesson with Rosa but she decided to randomly make us dinner instead. She doesn't have much, like she doesn't even have money to heat her house, so it made it all the more special. It breaks my heart when people sacrifice like that for us, but to them, since we're servants of the Lord, they tell us that it's like sacrificing that for Him.

I can't remember if I told you guys about our investigator Silvana, but if not, I want to because she's great. We call her "la regina" because she really is the queen of Crotone. The first time that we met up with her she's like, "let's walk, alright girls, talk to me about Jesus." As we were on our stroll she had to stop and talk to almost every single person that we passed because she literally knows everyone. She is very particular and likes things a certain way, but she's also one of the most strong and caring people I've ever met. She works all night caring for an older lady then she comes straight from that to meet up with us at a bar (they're more like coffee shops here in italy--not like the bars in america) for a half an hour, then goes back to be with this lady because this lady is lonely. Anyway, I just love her and I'll keep you updated on her progress. We're convinced that if we baptize her, we'll baptize the whole city of Crotone because everytime we're together she's not ashamed to tell everyone around us that we're "the mormons" and that we're good people who are helping her learn more about her savior.

Well, that about sums up my week. It's been a good one. Rina's still progressing well! I love her!
She still hasn't made it to church. She was so close this week, we
organized a ride for her and everything! But yesterday morning she
called saying that she got the flu and wouldn't be able to come. She
promised us that she'll be there for sure next week though. It has
been such a cool experience walking with Rina as we help her learn how
to walk with God. We have seen the change in her countenance as she's
learned how to repent and change. She's much happier and more in tune
to spiritual promptings. We have faith that she will still make her
baptismal date because her desire is there.

With love,
Sorella Bonzo

We took district pictures in our matching outfits (never mind the fact
that my companion and I look like conjoined twins..)

This describes our companionship perfectly

Pieces of our Cutro bread (aka lunch)

Dinner with Rosa

After living 4 months without a toilet seat, the elders went with a member to a warehouse store and bought one for us!! It was pretty exciting news. We were also super grateful for the space heater that they got us for our freezing house.

Rain is a Good Thing

Good (stormy) morning my friends! 🌧

The weather has been crazy here in these days. We have been getting rained and hailed on every day this week and today apparently there's supposed to be a cyclone in Crotone today. We went up to Catanzaro (the other city in our district) and have been completely poured on all day so we'll see what it looks like in Crotone when we get back. It was funny because you'd think we'd learn to just bring umbrellas with always but instead we were just running around the city let wet little dogs in pencil skirts haha. It was fun though!..minus the hail because that kind of hurt...everyone was soo amazed (and kind of thought we were crazy) that we were still working and going to appointments in that kind of weather because here if it's bad weather, you don't leave the house. 

But despite the rain we have started getting in shape and running every morning with the elders. We kept saying at night that we'd run the next day, but it's kind of hard to hold ourselves accountable when we're tired and cold. Apparently the elders had been having the same problem so we decided to hold each other accountable by meeting up every morning at 6:30 and running to the beach. The run is a little tough because there are a lot of steep hills but in the end it's always worth it to see the sun rise over the ocean every morning. 

Last week we did our family home evening with the Africans in our ward. It's a weekly thing that we like to do with them because every week we have members, new converts, investigators, and potentials all there! This week we brought the dinner and made an oven-baked pasta. After we'd gotten there though one of the friends of our member was already making fufu (a traditional African plate.) So afterwards they offered that to us too! And some fried fish and also cow leg.. it was actually really good. This guy was a chef down in Nigeria before he came here so he knows how to cook. So in case you're wondering, fufu: a ball of dough kind of stuff that you grab off smaller balls from then dip it in a sauce. Then you swallow it (you're not allowed to chew.) it was really spicy though and super filling. But it definitely wasn't bad!

We went over to see our new investigator Rita again. When we got there she said that she was at her sister-in-law's (they all live in these houses all right next to each other kind of in their own little community.) We walked in to find 3 of women (Rita's cousin & sisters-in-law) Sitting there chatting. We were super surprised because we also walked into a house that was all blinged out in gold with chandeliers and everything. It was so nice. They were all googly-eyed for us because we were the first Americans that they'd every seen.. they were especially interested in my cute blonde-haired, blue-eyed companion. At one point they took pictures of us without asking haha. This is my 3rd consecutive blonde companion so I'm pretty used to it haha. We get so many stares all the time and people actually think that I'm Italian sometimes next to her. Last week I even had someone tell me, "I thought all Americans were blonde." Eccomi qua. But anyway, we finally got them calm down and listen to our message (after many attempts.) it was actually cool because we tried a lot of different tactics to help them listen to us and stop talking about American or on the phone or to each other. Our last attempt we tried to explain the Book of Mormon by telling the story of it using the pictures in the front. They still lost attention super quickly. So I just closed the book, and began to testify. Rather than explaining what it is, I explained what it does based on my own experiences. The room got quiet and for the first time since we got there I felt the spirit. We had there attention now. My companion backed me up and bore her testimony and in the end, they were all asking for copies. We had only brought one with us so we left it with the one who seemed the most interested and they all promised to share and read a little bit together this week, then we'll bring them all their own next week! 

We watched the restoration movie with one of our investigators this week and as I sat there and listened (reciting the entire movie by memory in my mind) I started to get all nostalgic. I cannot tell you how many I have watched that video in the past 10 months of being here in Italy, but the cool thing is that I can get something new out of it every single time. I firmly believe that all of the lines in that short 20 minute movie were prayed over because there is so much power in every sentence. Watching with different investigators helps me to see it with their eyes, thinking about their doubts and concerns, different principles stick out to me. This week when we watched it with Rosa, she stopped and said, "wait, I have all of those questions too!" I feel like something clicked for her! It's been hard for her to think about changing the religion that she's been her whole life. It's part of her identity she feels, although she has openly expressed the things that she doesn't like about it. But little by little, she's seeing all of the light that we have to offer and becoming more comfortable with the idea of changing. 

We also passed by her a few days later because we were in the area and she invited us to say for lunch! We ate with her sister and her which was so much fun because we got to talk to her sister a lot! She kept teasing us because when Rosa asked if we wanted to eat with her she said, "we don't want to disturb you all!" But after we insisted of course we said yes. So her sister kept saying "we don't want to disturb..but we're going to eat anyway." We left them with a spiritual thought and they both were in tears at the end so that was cool. 

A miracle this week was when we went to pass by this less-active that we haven't ever been able to see or get ahold of. We walked up and she was standing outside of her apartment building waiting for her husband. It turned out to be sooo much better than if we just rang her bell then went up and did a lesson because we just got to talk to her and get to know her. We told her that we wanted to make lasagna that day so she taught us how and even told us a recipe for another pasta! We got to talk to & get to know this less-active in a non-threatening situation (and she invited us back) and we learned how to make lasagna! Double-wammy!! 

Our lasagna turned out sooo good too. Mmmmmm. We ate half on Saturday for lunch and after we got home that night and then other half on Sunday. We're planning on making it again this week too because it was soo tasty.

Other random fact of the week: my zone leaders decided to sort us all into our "harry potter houses"...we're not really sure why but they put me in Gryffindor- characteristics: courageous, nobile, and just.

Sunday was fun because the sacrament was delayed 30 minutes to wait for some members but we'd already started sacrament meeting so there was just this awkward time in between so I just played the piano for all of that time which was actually pretty stressful because I don't know very many hymns and am not all that great at sight-reading. I just pick the 4 hymns every week then practice them after English group on Tuesday and Thursday while my companion makes phone calls is I wasn't really prepared to play a half an hour of intermediate music but oh well, at least we weren't just sitting there in silence. I also got to give a talk yesterday able the temple. I felt inspired to encourage them to "see [themselves] in the [Rome] temple." It's been a long time coming and still had a little while to go, but I hope that we all take seriously the preparation that we have to do, all the way down here in Crotone, to be ready to have the blessing of temple in this country. 

 Another miracle was definitely Rina. We hadn't seen her all week because she's been so busy then her grandkids who that she is the guardian over got really sick so she wasn't even able to come to church again. But we got to go see her Sunday night and although her house was full of caos with her grandkids running around and her teenage son and all of his friends making crepes (side note--they made some for us and we're pretty sure they did something to them because they just kept looking at us and smiling while we were eating and when they asked us how it was, but whatever, sometimes as a missionary you make sacrifices like that haha,) we got to have a really good lesson with her. We taught Rina about the sacrament and how we use the atonement and renew our baptismal covenants. She has a great desire to come to church and said that she will definitely be there next week. She also said that she's been reading the Book of Mormon every night and she knows that she wants to be baptized so she was a little sad when we told her that we needed to move her date because she hadn't come to church. We prayed and pondered as a companionship for her new baptismal date and invited her to be baptized on March 4th. She also told us last night that she has started the process to stop smoking and has already cut back the amount that she smokes a day!!! At the end we talked about this gospel being for the family. She expressed her desire for us to teach her whole family after we get her baptized. That lesson felt like Christmas morning! It was just one good thing after another!

I have felt this great desire to study Jesus Christ this past week. Studying the New Testament and Jesus the Christ, i feel like I have learned so many things already. These materials are jam-packed with "golden nuggets" (as President Pickerd says.) One things that stuck out to me was this short, simple verse: 

Matthew 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

The first recorded word of Christ's marvelous ministry was repent. That is also our focus as missionaries! That's what we're here to do! Sometimes things seem so difficult and complicated but in the end, we're just here to do as Christ did and preach repentance! If we teach people how to repent, we fulfill our purpose of bringing them closer to Christ through necessary ordinances such as baptism and partaking of the sacrament. Sweet is the work of the Lord. I love it, and I love you!  

-Sorella Bonzo

Fufu

My first graffa (on of the famous desserts here)

Our lasagna

Sunsets in Crotone 

He cute little sassy girl (Rina's granddaughter wanted to be a missionary too) 

Inviato da iPad

The Duty of Discipleship

Good Morning friends and family!!

We spent half of our keep out of our area because of Zone Conference this week. It's a 5 hour bus ride from Crotone to Taranto (where the conference is held) so we spent half of the day on Tuesday getting there. That night I got to do an exchange with our sister training leader Sorella Ensign. It was so much fun, she's great. I admire how good she is at setting meaningful goals that will help her progress and then following through on them. I have been working on setting some goals for the next six months and her example helped me to continue and follow through with them. The highlight was definitely visiting a cute older lady who can't come to church anymore because her illness doesn't allow her to leave her house. We sang hymns with her and read the scriptures that went along with them. She was so sweet and grateful for our visit. She still had ever single hymn memorzied by heart and sang right along with us. We all felt the spirit during our songs. In fact, her grandaugther was there visiting and it was very noticeable that she felt the spirit with us because she stayed in the room the entire time that we were there.

Our zone conference was mainly focused on the spirit. I enjoyed studying about the Spirit and will continue to do so because of the key role that it plays in this work. I felt the spirit strongly at the conference as well. President Pickerd does something really cool where he chooses a topic like the Holy Ghost, then asks us to study it and come to the conference prepared with scripture in The Book of Mormon that have strengthened our testimony of this topic, or we've used to strengthen the testimony of an investigator. Then we spend about an hour doing "group council" sharing our scriptures and all of the different insights that we have. It's uplifiting to hear the thoughts and feelings that other missionaries have about the scriptures. 

Our biggest miracle this week happened on our way home from zone conference on Thursday night. We had been driving for probably an hour or so when the bus stopped at a rest station to get some gas. We got off to use the bathroom and as we were exiting a young guy asked us, in english, where we were from. We told him American and he said that he could here it in our accent. We talked to him for a second but we were holding up the line so we had to get off. As we were about to get back on the bus I told my companion that we should sit by him to talk some more but he beat us to it! We got back on to find him already sitting by and talking to the elders. We sat down and started talking to him again, all in english. It turns out he was born and raised in Crotone and taught himself english through a lot of reading and watching tv shows in english! I was super impressed because he spoke really well and didn't even have an italian accent. Our conversation quickly turned into the gospel. We started by talking about The Book of Mormon, and by the end of the three and a half hour bus ride we had taught him The Restoration and and discussed tons of things. He had a lot of questions. One of my favorite ones that he asked was after we read Moroni's promise with him (Moroni 10:3-5) He read verse 5: And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.

and said, how does it feel, the Holy Ghost? How amazing is that?! We had literally just spent our zone conference the day before talking about the Holy Ghost! At the end we gave him a Book of Mormon and set up an appointment to see him on Tuesday after English Group. We'll pass him to the elders there but he'll eventually get passed to the elders in Bari anyway because that is where he is studying right now. So Sorella Taylor and I are not going to be able to watch his conversion, but we're so grateful that we got to play a little part in it!

We have been working to strengthen the members here by visiting as many as we can every week. When we set our appointments with two of the sisters this week they invited us to eat lunch with them as well! And they just so happened to be two days in a row (saturday and sunday) So we got to enjoy the company of two sweet sisters and their non-member families over lunch. I just don't think I'll have a very big appatite for a few more days.. We have been sharing the video titled "Always Remeber Him." If you haven't seen it, you should check it out! It's one of my favorites. 

On Saturday we were out and about and at first there was no one in sight, but then when the streets started flooding with people we realized that Crotone had had a soccer match that just got over (the stadium is pretty close to our house.) We asked people how it went and it turns out that we lost unfortunately, but the cool thing was that we got to make the soccer game a starter to our conversatoins that night and were able to talk to tons of people! The people are soo nice here in Crotone! Holy Cow! We got so many phone numbers within a matter of a half an hour. It felt like everyone we talked to was interested to learn from us! It's also cool because since this town is pretty small, a lot of people that we talk to know at least one of our branch members (usually the branch president) which makes them way more open to talk to us! Go members!

Translating the church meetings for the member that we have who are african has started to fry my brain a little haha. After translating all of sacrament meeting, our branch president asked if I would come to translate interviews with the african women. I found myself half way through speaking Italian to the africans and English to the branch preisdent! Haha I didn't even realize until they just stared at me with these confused looks..oh man..My brain hasn't been this exhausted during church since my first few months in the mission. I have always said that I want to get good at translating though!

After church the branch president asked if we would pass by his house that night to visit his wife who is not active. We had planned on doing a gesso (a demonstration in the city center where we draw on a sheet with chalk and talk to people) with the elders, but it started pouring rain so that wasn't possible. We decided to pass by this family. We walked in the rain for 2 hours trying to find their house! When we got there his wife answered the intercom and did not sound very happy that we were there, but she let us in. We entered their house to find only his wife and their daughter-in-law (one of our investigators that we haven't been able to see for a while!) He got home a little bit later with his grandson. His wife was very cold to us at first. It seemed like she thought we were just going to come in and tell her that she needs to come back to church. We spent a little while just getting to know her and by the end found ourselves laughing and bonding over chocolate. We asked if we could leave them with a spiritual thought which she accepted a little more willingly now. This family has gone through a lot of hardships this last year including the death of one of their sons (the daughter-in-law's husband.) It's really cool being a missionary and follow the spirit because yeah, we're here to teach repentance and baptized converts, but sometimes the spirit tells you to spend some time getting to know someone and gaining their trust. I know that that was the case with this sister. Our spiritual thought meant so much more to her because it was coming from "friends" rather than "two missionaries who came to bring her back to church."

Yesterday we were able to finally have our first member-present lesson with Rina! It's not very easy to get the members here in lessons especially because we teach all of our investigators in their homes, but we were diligent in inviting a sister to the lessons with Rina and after we did some service for her this week, she finally agreed to come! It helped Rina so much to hear the testimony of this sister. This is the first member that she has ever met and you could just tell that it all felt more real to her, seeing a woman who is also from Crotone and converted to this church. We hope that now, having a friend, she will feel more comfortable coming to church (she still hasn't ever been :( ) She asked us to bring this sister back when we come again and I'm excited to do so because I know that her testimony will really help Rina to follow the answers that she's already recieved and also feel more intagrated into the branch. She's so close. We praying and fasting a lot for her right now. I know that she has a testimony though, so although there are a lot of obstacles that she needs to overcome first, I know that she will be baptized.  

I was asked to give the lesson in Relief Society yesterday. The main focus of the lesson was about how although all of us have different roles, callings, and responsabilities in the church, all of us have the responsablility to grow the kingdom of God. We, as members, need to have the faith and vision that the church leaders of old, like Brighman Young had when he saw the desolate Salt Lake valley and declared, "This is the place." My favorite part of that story is the fact that these early pioneers not only had the faith and vision that they would build a temple in that valley, but they got to work and started to make it happen! We had a wonderful discussion and I hope that these sisters were able to see how important their faith and works are in building up this little branch. 

And I hope that all of you understand this as well! No matter how big or small your church unit may be, you make a difference! As a member of this church you have the responsibility to grow and strengthen it. I pray that you will all take this covenant that you made at baptism seriously and do your part as a disciple of Christ. I know that as I have taken this duty more seriously, I have become happier than I had ever thought possible. 

I love you, and I pray for you. 

-Sorella Bonzo

They started taking down the Christmas lights this week :(

On our way to Taranto 

Exchange

On our bus ride home. Taranto had the most beautiful sunset every night 

When you're still celebrating Christmas..

x

Festeeee

Hello!

Monday night we had a family home evening with the Africans! A member,
Juliet, is basically the "mom" of all of the Africans in this city.
She owns a little shop close to her home and they all hang out there
or at her home. We literally meet new people every time that we go to
see her. So every Monday she invites us over and all of her friends
(members and nonmembers) to do a big family home evening together! She
cooked a huge meal of super spicy rice with goat liver, turkey, salad,
and fruit. the sister who I replaced in this city finished her mission
and was still here in Italy with her family visiting her cities. So
she got to come to it that night with her family which was super fun
to have all of them there! The Africans didn't even eat with us
though! They just cooked the food, served us, then took pictures and
videos of us while we ate. Haha, they're so weird I love them. But it
also shows how giving they are. All Juliet was worried about is that
we were accommodated. She didn't eat the whole night while we were
there.

Wednesday was kind of hard because we had to do two "drop lessons"
that day because neither of them were progressing or keeping invites.
It's sad because they wanted to keep seeing us, but they really didn't
understand why we are here as missionaries. Then we got to babysit two
10 year old new converts (one of which is inactive) because they
wanted to do a lesson together...yeah never doing that again...
they're both sweet girls but when you put them together it's hard for
them to focus. They're kind of in they stage where they think they're
"too cool for us." But that's alright! We saw so many miracles the
rest of this week that it made up for it.

In fact on Thursday we had finished a lesson and we're heading home
for lunch. We planned to eat at 12:30. As we were about to enter our
apartment complex my companion said, "I think we need to go finding" I
looked at my watch, It was 12:24. We had 6 minutes that we could've
either spent getting into our apartment (trust me it takes about they
long because you have to unlock 3 different doors to finally get
there) or we could've stayed out on the street like we said we would
for 6 more minutes. We decided to do the latter. As we walked around
the block there wasn't a soul in site. (The streets are always dead
from around noon until after four.) We tried stopping people but
everyone just wanted to get home. Then as we turned the corner to get
back to our house (it was about 12:30 now,) this man passed us and my
companion gave him an English course card. She said, "I don't know if
you'd be interested," and he immediately said "actually, I am
interested! Can I have some more cards and invite my friends from
work?" So it wasn't anything huge, but we both felt like he was the
person that we needed to run into that day at that time.

This week has been SOOO COLD. Like so cold. I'm in southern Italy
where snow is unheard of and yet it's coming down in a lot of cities.
And it's so windy in Crotone which makes it miserable. We planned to
see this less active on Thursday night but she didn't let us
in...bummer..so we found ourselves stuck in the freezing cold weather
for a few hours with not much to do (no one was outside due to the
weather.) we decided to try some house to house tracting because it
seamed to be the most reasonable thing to do. Not having seen very
much success with this finding approach in the past, I was amazed when
we were buzzed in by a man named Max and his mother! We taught him a
lesson (the mother not being very interested,) and at the end he gave
us a referral for his niece as well! He even set up a return
appointment with us for a time that she would be there!! Wooo!!
Enduring through the hard circumstances always pays off!

This week everyone we talked to told us "copritevi bene venerdì!"
Saying that we needed to cover ourselves well because Friday would be
the coldest day of the year. On top of that it was a festa (yeah,
they're still celebrating Christmas here.) it's this holiday where
this witch comes and puts candy in children's stockings to celebrate
the day that the 3 wise men came and gave gifts to Jesus. We tried to
be smart about this day and did planning in the morning then had
appointments scheduled for the afternoon. But unfortunately we got the
biggest bidone (appointment that fell through) because we called this
investigator to confirm an hour before and she's like "yeah come
over!" Then when we got there she's like "actually never mind I don't
have time right now." So we found ourselves stuck on the streets for
about 2 hours in the craziest wind and coldest weather I've ever felt
in my life (humidity is killer.) there was literally no one on the
streets because of the weather and the festa. We tried to go talk to
these people in the one bar that was opened and they just looked at
funny then wouldn't even take our Jesus card. So we went to the only
thing that was opened (a grocery store) and made some calls and talked
to the workers. Haha it was kind of rough to be a missionary in that
moment. But then...

We went over to our investigator Rina's house and okay first let me
just say that I've made some goals for the new year and my last 6
months as a missionary and one of them is to just have no fear. I
decided to accomplish that I would set a goal this week to volunteer
for anything that scared me..so one of the things that scares me more
than anything is ragazzi...little 13-18 kids. Don't ask me why, they
just freak me out. I think it's because kids are not very well behaved
here so they're all kind of brats, especially to people like us
(American girls who trying to speak Italian and talk about Jesus.) so
we get to Rina's little house to find it filled with about 20 ragazzi
(all friends of her son.) We were definitely not planning on that but
we're like alright, everyone gather around, we're gonna teach you
about God's plan of happiness for each of you! It was hectic and not
easy teaching 20 teenage catholic boys, but it was definitely a "face
your fear" kind of moment. They ended up leaving right before we got
to talking about the celestial kingdom. I was sad because that's the
best part of the whole thing! But then that's when the spirit hid the
room. We sat and explained this wonderful kingdom to Rina and her 2
young grandkids then ended up explaining the gospel of Jesus Christ as
well. She was captivated and testified that she knew it was all true.

Saturday was my 20th birthday! And guess what?! IT SNOWED!!!! This is
the first time that it has snowed in Crotone in over 15 years. Nothing
stuck and we didn't get very much because we're right on the ocean,
but for a few hours on and off we saw flakes! My cute companion put up
some birthday decorations and made me an egg on toast for breakfast
and put candles in it but by the time I blew them our there was blue
wax all over my breakfast haha that was good. We had lunch with the
Anziani. They made this really good chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy,
and veggies. Mmmm American food. Then we had little cakes and this
nasty burnt jello stuff that my companion tried to make haha she was
struggling that day. It was super fun though! I'm so grateful for
friends in the mission!!
After that we had a pretty exhausting branch council then babysat
Xenia (9 year old new convert) and her little sister Sasi for an hour
while we were trying to do one of the after baptism follow up lessons.
They are little crazy phillipine girls. Don't worry, their mom (a
member) was there but she just didn't do anything.
That night right before we were about to pray and get into bed an
alarm started to go off in our room. We check our fire alarm and it
wasn't that. It was this random other alarm on our wall that we'd
never seen before we we thought it was like the carbon monoxide alarm
so we're like ahhh call the elders! I ripped the battery out and read
that it said "life long" on it so we're like oh no. We grabbed our
stuff and went outside and then after we calmed down a little bit we
started reading the alarm and turns out it was just another fire
alarm...don't ask me why we have 2 in one room..and apparently I get
dyslexic when I'm stressed because the battery actually just said
"long life" ....haha so after having to call and tell our elders, zone
leaders, and senior couple house specialist that it was a false
alarm....supper embarrassing but a crazy way to finish my birthday!

So being the oldest missionary (missionary who as been out the
longest) in our district, I am now the branch pianist, translator for
sacrament meeting, translator for gospel principles (which is a class
full of Africans who don't speak Italian with an Italian teacher so I
basically just teach the class and translate and everything, I say
like all of the prayers, and I am the designated substitute teacher of
relief society because the teachers never come. Haha let's just say
that Sundays are really exhausted. But I feel worse for my companion
who is in the primary presidency and has to chase around crazy little
kids all day.

Sunday there was this crazy miracle that involved getting picked up by
a random couple they we'd never met before and going to their house
and teaching their whole family. It was crazy and great and now
they're investigators.
I'm sorry that this email is awful. I get super distracted haha.
Anyway, I'll be better next week! I'm super happy! And I love Crotone!
Love you guys! Have a great week!

Grafiti that we pass every time we go to the church

BIRTHDAY lunch

Cute little puppy I got to hold on my bday

District lunch

La mia nuova città

My companion sorella Taylor! She's a cute young missionary who is full
of energy and enthusiasm.

The castle

This is Crotone.

Il mare

My first calzone!

Inviato da iPad

Fwd: change

Good Morning cari miei!!  

Well, we received transfer calls last Monday night and after serving in Palermo for almost 6 months the Lord has decided that it is time for me to learn something new. This week was spent packing up my little life and saying goodbye to dear friends. I have grown to love those people of Palermo more than I ever thought possible. I had so many fun moments and spiritual experiences in the half a year that I spent there. I truly miss all of my sweet friends there, but am grateful for the gift of change.

Change is a concept that has never been very easy for me. I feel like my entire life before the mission had little change (growing up in the same house, dancing at the same studio, hanging out with the same friends) and I liked it that way. I was content. When I steped into this new lifestyle 10 months ago I have seen nothing but change. Although it is still not always easy, I have learned to love and thrive off of it. Change exists to help us grow and stretch, to learn new things and gain new skills.

One of those new skills that I have already learned in my new city was perserverance and patience. We were not allowed to leave our house on new year's eve due to the dangerous situations that we could encounter. Instead we were asked to deep clean our house. I spent my entire day cleaning black mold off of the bathroom walls and ceiling. I actually 

woke up pretty sore the next day from all of the scrubbing and stretching to reach the ceiling with a little ladder. But after all the work I can proudly state that our appartment is now mold free!! It smells a lot better now haha and looks much nicer too! 

So by now you're probably wondering, where is she? Well, after 3 long train rides and a ferry with 3 pieces of luggage all by myself, I find myself finally serving on the main land in deep in the south in a cute little town called Crotone. 

It is very very different than anything that I am used to. The church is very new here in Crotone. Only 3 months ago the branch president was a missionary. We got to the church (an apartment building) an hour early as missionaries to set everything up. There are only four of us here in Crotone and we run the branch. As nine o'clock rolled around we paused the CD player of "prelude music" and I turned around to see our congregation which consisted of 3 women, 1 elder who would pass the sacrament, the other elder sitting on the stand to bless it,  the branch president, and us. By the end of the meeting we had about 10 of us there including 4 africans who I translated for because they don't speak italian. On the bright side everyone (including all of the missionaries) had the opportunity to bear their testimonies and we still had extra time! Right after the meeting finished the gospel principles teacher came up to me and asked if I would teach because she wasn't feeling well. I told her of course, then got to teach about the millenium for an hour without any prior preparation. Only 2 africans (neither of which are members) came to the class so we did it in english but with little to no participation we had to get pretty creative in order to fill the whole hour. In the third hour we sat in relief society with 4 ladies and all they did was argue the entire time. I have never felt so much hostility in a church meeting in my entire life. There are a lot of pride issues and a lot of work to be done. I am excited to get to know and love these members so that I can do my part to unify and strengthen them. 

I prayed a lot before I came here that I would be able to feel the same love for these people as I do for the people of Palermo. I also prayed a lot that Sorella Taylor (my new companion) and I would get along well and be united as a companionship for this next transfer. I have been so blessed to already see these things in this short weekend that we have spent together! On Sunday night we had our first lesson together with our investigator Rina. As we watched The Restoration film the spirit was powerfully present. The lesson went so well and we both felt that we had been guided by the spirit with the quesitons that we asked and things that we said. At the end we asked her if she believes that the things in the film really took place and she said that yes, she had recieved a witness that they had. We were filled with joy to see that she understood and recognized the spirit as well. 

That night we went to the hospital with the elders to visit a less-active member. We left them with a spiritual thought by reading a scripture from The Book of Mormon. We shared our testimonies on faith and hope and everyone in the hospital room (there were about 5 people there) all listened intently. The friend of this less-active very boldly told us that she was catholic before we shared our message, but after we shared our message and left them with a prayer, the spirit was so present and she said, I think that you all coming tonight was a sign for me. She shared how she has lost trust and faith in God. She said that what we shared was exactly what she needed to hear and fervantly asked us to pray for her mother (who was also there in the hospital) and to come back again.

This week has been a week of faith and hope and love. I am beyond excited to work here in Crotone and do everything that I can to build up this little branch of faithful saints. I love them so much already. 

Today we went to the Duomo (biggest cathedral in the city,) the town center, and a cool 

castle that has a great view of the ocean with the elders. I am so happy to still be on the coast of italy. I have gotten so used to living on the ocean and seeing it almost every day. 

I don't know what I'm going to do back in Utah...haha

Have a great week! I love you guys so much!

The Garrett's too us out to a fancy restaurant to say goodbye. 

I miss them ❤️

My last cannolo 

The ferry ride over to the mainland 

x