Zone conferenceHello my friends! Did you miss me? Our zone conference fell on Monday this week and therefore our Pday was moved to today. So many things happened between last Monday until today so we'll see if I can remember a few highlights for you all.
Sorella Taylor has this magic headband that she wears. It's just a regular diamond headband but with her curly blonde hair I guess it really stands out. Whenever she wears it we EVERYONE compliments it and asks her where she got it. This week we had people on the street stopping us because of this headband. Like really we had about a 20 minute conversation about what we do as missionaries with this lady on the street and afterwards she said that she'd love to hear our message and she was the one who stopped us to ask Sorella Taylor about her headband! So that's pretty cool because we figured out a new finding technique that actually works really well!It's carnevale season which means.....boh...no one really knows... I've literally asked so many people what carnevale even is and when they celebrate it and at least down here in Crotone, no one knows. So after asking people and observing the city every night, I've come to the conclusion that Carnevale is a time to dress up in costumes (like halloween) nad destroy the city. Every night as we walk throught the center of the city we see tons of kids all dressed up in little costumes running around with this shaving cream looking stuff spraying everything. There have been a few close calls where we were almost hit by it but thankfully no damage so far. Also, there's always a new addition of confetti to the street every night. Oh, and one night I think there was some kind of parade or something because the streets were packed and so we stopped someone and asked them why and they told us that the Madona (mother mary) was walking around with the nuns or something like that. So yeah, that's the holiday that we're going through right now...not really sure why, or when it will end, but it's been really good for us because centro is always filled with tons of families at night! wooh!We finally were able to see the africans again last Monday which was fun because we haven't been able to go for a few weeks. Juliet made us about 4 lbs of spicey rice each and some turkey.. let's just say we were full for the next 3 days. But we love visiting and are so grateful for their kindness.Our Valentine's Day was a little unusual but always fun of course! We wore our cute red valentine's outfits, but I'm afraid we looked a little too cute because there were one too many ragazzi who were still looking for a valentine that night. Sorella Taylor and I got to put our nonexistent acting skills to work when we had some young men trying to speak the little english that they knew to us. We both just looked straight forward with blank faces, they then began to speak italian and we continued to pretend like we had no idea who they were talking to. They started debating where we were from and in the end it was just really funny to us. We both were trying so hard not to laugh but we were able to pull it together and dodge a bullet there!Then we went over to our investigator Rita's house where we were invited into a different house right next door by her nephew and his girlfriend. They told us that she wasn't home yet and said that we could wait with them. As we went inside they acted very suspicious closing the blinds and trying to make us feel comfortable. We were a little freaked out because we didn't even really know these people (we'd seen them once) and they were just acting really weird. (Keep in mind this is the family who is obsessed with my very american-looking companion.) As we sat down and they offered us the usual cup of coke and little treat, they got very serious. They proceeded to ask us if we could do a blessing on their house. We explained to them that we are all children of God, and therefore he listens to all of our prayers and answers them according to our faith and his will. After being pretty clear (at least I thought) that our prayers have no special powers and are no better than thier own, they immediately asked, "so....can you still bless the house?" So, my companion blessed a house this week! (She just said a normal prayer for them and their family bascially to make them happy and let us leave.)On Wednesday we got to do to Cosenza for district meeting. It's another city in Calabria about 3 hours away by train. They were put in our district this transfer so we're switching off who which city we go to each week. Our zone leaders and sister training leader and companion from Taranto came as well so it was basically a mini zone conference (just minus one companionship in the whole zone- the sisters in Statte.) It was fun to be in a big district again and to see Cosenza. The highlight (beside district meeting itself) was eating hot, fresh cornetti from a little bar when we first got there. We also got some pretty had kebabs for lunch.In the middle of our lesson with Silvana (which was again held at the bar) she was telling us about her problems then she looks at this random older lady who was also sitting in the bar smoking and goes, "you know what I mean?" That gave this lady permission to join in on the conversation and so she came and sat behind me so I had smoke coming at me from the front and the back and 2 italian women talking at each other about their problems. It was definitely not an ideal situation, but with patience and a lot of silent prayers and seeking of the spirit to know what to say, we were able to get her back on track and with some inspired questions we were able to help her realize that the bar is really not the best place to feel the spirit and hear our important message.We got to teach Precious who is asolutely to a t her name, precious. She's just so cute and sweet and I have absolutely loved teaching her. She will be leaving this week to go to Holland and will have the opporunity to be baptized with the sisters there. We're really excited for her.We had a really good lesson with Rina this week but she still didn't come to church :'( But regardless of that, church was fun because we had the primary program! Our primary consists of 3 girls, the president, and my companion as a counselor. They sang a few songs and gave some good talks, it was a little chaotic to be honest, but in general it turned out about as well as it could've!Like I said we had zone conference on Monday. It was really great as always and I'll just leave it at that do to the time. We did exchanges with the sisters there yesterday and I got to visit this cute older lady who was one of the very first members in Taranto and a less-active samonan lady who was absolutely hilarious. We walked in and she told us that she'd been cutting wood for her neighbors all morning then out of her bag she pulled this giant machete to show us how she cut it. She was so funny but as we started the lesson, the spirit was able to touch her, and us, and we were able to discover some of her previously unknown needs and reasons for not coming to church. As she told us about her concern that she thought that she had to be completely perfect to take the sacrament, we were able to testify to her of the purifying power of Holy Ghost that comes after we have repented of our sins and partaken of the sacrament. Elder Bednar said it best in a recent general conference talk, "the Holy Ghost is a sanctifier who cleanses and burns dross and evil out of human souls as though by fire." This lesson really helped me to reflect on this amazing power that the sacrament has for us each and every week as we do so worthily and with full purpose of heart.Today we went to a city in area called Le Castella which was this super cute city with this beautiful castle in the middle of the ocean.Anyway, it's been a lot of traveling this week but it's all worth it of course. I love you guys and pray that you're doing well!with love,sorella bonzo
Cool panting on this wall with all of the symbols of Crotone
Le Castella
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