A Year of Miracles

This week was the best! A lot of stuff happened so buckle your seatbelts because you're in for a good ride. 

Monday night we did a gesso with our district. It was fun to do finding in another city. It actually reminded me a lot of my first city, Cagliari. Cosenza is defintiely a bigger city than Crotone and the centro is very similar to Cagliari. We spent the night in the Cosenza sister's empty house because they were blown out last transfer. That was weird, it was like staying in a condo. We had district meeting in Cosenza on Tuesday morning. While we were in the church a member came in and grabbed Sorella Taylor and I and just started hugging us. She said "I've missed you soooo much!!" (meaning the sisters in general because they don't have them in their branch anymore.) She even took a picture with us haha. She was sweet and I feel bad that they don't have sisters there anymore.

We arrived in Crotone that afternoon and met with Precious before her baptismal interview. She skyped President Pickerd for the interview and it was really cool experience. He had a stay in there for the first part as we did a mini-lesson all together talking about the qualifications for baptism. Afterwards we left and were called back in at the end. She passed her interview and was determined worthy to be baptized!

Wednesday we had a branch party! Last Sunday after church our branch president came up to all of us and said, "We're having a branch activity on Wednesday, let's do a spaghettata! 

spaghettata: Gustosa mangiata di spaghetti in allegra compagnia (tasty eating of spaghetti in cheerful company)....only in Italy do these words exist hahaha

It was dsyfunctional and hectic, no one knew when it started or who was cooking or what was even going on but we eventually all got there and set up and organized everything, and in the end, it turned out to be my most favorite ward activity that I've ever been to. We all sat at a long table and ate our spaghetti together just laughing and talking. As I looked around the table at each of the members, the realization came to me that this city is my home, that all of these crazy unique people and my people, and together we are just one big dysfunctional family. I went home with a full and grateful heart. Sure we've got our problems down here, but so does every good family. In the end though, we're all just here, doing our best to follow Christ and love those around us. 

I don't know if you guys remember me talking about the ladies that we met at the jewerly shop that they own. We talked to them for forever and then asked if they wanted to hear about our message and they said they'd love to have us back to listen. Well this week we were finally able to go back and find them at a time when they could listen. We taught half of the restoration before one of them had to go. It went well, we hope to keep teaching them.

Friday, March 17- a year ago on this day, I landed on the beautiful island of Sardegna (my very first area.) I was picked up from the airport by my trainer, taught my very first lesson as a missionary, rode my first Italian bus, taught English course for the first time, ate my very first Italian pizza, and ran home that night because it was pouring rain. This would be the start of many lessons taught, much poor-quality public transportation taken, much patience tested while teaching English to Italians, many pizze eaten, and lots of running around Italian streets in the pouring rain. That first day I was excited to be a missionary, nervous to speak the language, happy to be there, and all in all pretty confused. I felt like I had no idea what was going on and all I could do was follow my trainer around and hope to pick up on a few of the words that she said as she conversed with people. 

Now that this year of being a missionary in Italy has come and gone, I can gratefully say that I am still excited to be a missionary, sometimes I still get nervous about my capability to do this work, I am happier than I ever though possible, and still even a little confused at times haha. This year has been the biggest blessing in my entire life that will last for my eternal life. 

Here in Crotone, IT in the year of 2017, we got to celebrate my year of work and growth by watching a beautiful soul enter the waters of baptism. 

The days was hectic (it seems to me like every baptism is) and definitely had its struggles:

• At lunch time we realized that we hadn't even thought about practicing the hymns on the piano that we were to sing for the baptism so we hurried over to the church so that I could figure them out. To my dismay, the opening song could not be found in the "hymns made easy" book that I play out of for church each week. There I was with less than an hour, trying to learn to play a hymn out of the regular hymnal for this baptism. I've never felt so unprepared in my life, but with the help of God, I was able to learn it well enough to play it as the opening number. 

• We had announced for the baptism to start at 4:30...but when that time rolled around, we still found ourselves alone in the church (along with the other missionaries.) By 4:45 two students from the free English class that we teach had arrived. We were so surprised and happy that they'd actually come! We had to explain to them though, that we'd be doing this baptism in English because Precious does not speak Italian. We had all of the Italians take a translator machine and asked an elder to translate everything from English to Italian. We also printed programs in both languages and had to have the other elder conduct because our branch president doesn't speak English. It was really different and pretty awkward to do everything in English. Precious asked me to give a talk on the Holy Ghost which I was happy to do and wrote easily, but when I got up there to give it, it felt so foreign standing at a pulpit speaking my own language, especially when I knew that half of the people there couldn't understand me and had to wait for the translation. 

• So yes, Precious was the last one there, but she did finally arrive around 5. All of our African members sadly missed the entire ceremony and got only got there when we got back to the church to eat treats because Juliet made rice and meat for the occasion, but her gas went out while she was cooking so she had to replace it and continue cooking. 

The best part though, was definitely when we all squished into 3 cars and drove down to a little bungalow owned by a member that sits on a secluded part of the beach. The sun was setting making the sky a mix of beautiful purples and yellows and blues. The water was pretty cold I was told, but the 3 elders that got in were just happy to say that they got to stand in the Mediterranean Sea on their mission, and Precious was filled with so much joy that it didn't even fase her. We sang some favorite hymns while we waited for her to change, I translated the "welcome to the branch" from the branch president, then we closed with a musical number "I Stand All Amazed" sung by the 4 of us missionaries in Crotone. As I mingled and spoke with everyone while we ate desserts after the baptism, everyone told me about the wonderful feelings that they felt during the baptism. We had 4 nonmembers there, and they all commented on the "beautiful atmosphere," one even told me that she got emotional while watching it. 

Sorella Taylor and I ended this happy day by doing something daring...we both chopped off all of our hair! (Well we chopped off each other's hair.) It's the most hair I've ever cut off (we're guessing it was around 8 inches.) It's definitely different but a fun change! 

Sunday we had stake conference. Calabria was just made part of the Puglia stake so it was broadcast to us from Bari. The conference was really good. We have some awesome stake leaders, but it was also REALLY exhausting because we had to translate all of it into english for Precious. I made the other missionaries help me translate, we switched off every talk so none of us would get too exhausted. But then it fell on me to translate the last talk given by the stake president which lasted around 25 minutes. I don't know if any of you understand how much thinking it takes to translate, but it's really difficult. At the same time that you're repeating what you just heard in english, you're listening for what they are continuing to say in Italian, and while you're doing that you're looking up in english the scriptures that they are reading in Italian. mamma mia! I was distrutta after the conference. But hey, we do the best we can to help other people as missionaries. 

We taught Rina last night as well. We decided that this week we are going to go full out with trying to help her to quit smoking which is one of her biggest blocks for baptism. We gave her some stuff to help her quit like mouthwash and grapefruit juice and we decided to sacrifice something with her. We told her that we have no idea how hard it is to give up smoking because neither of us has ever smoked before. We decided that in order to do this together and help her feel our complete and total support, we would give up eating sugar. We started last night with her and will continue to do so until she gets baptized. This way, when we call her every night to follow up on her progress, we will also be accountable to her for our sugar intake. We are praying really hard for her to make her new baptismal date that we prayed about together and she picked out herself. She ended up picking the very same day that we had prayed about and thought of, April 15th which means that she would be confirmed on the 16th which is Easter Sunday as well as her birthday. 

Other random funny fact of the week, we somehow managed to break all 5 of our glass cups in this week alone...don't ask me how. We had broken 4/5 yesterday then sorell taylor goes to open our bedroom door and drops the last one! I guess it's all or nothing right?

Also today I wore my colorful skirt and we got a bunch of random free stuff from men that were a little too friendly including a head of garlic and a bracelet that he insisted on tying on our wrists and trimming them for us right then and there, coinsednce? I think not. 

Vi voglio beneeeee!

<3 Sorella Bonzo

Spaghettata 

Hair cut