They started taking down the Christmas lights this week :(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
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..
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