This week was pretty normal. We got to see a bunch a people, do a bunch of finding, and save a bunch of souls...you know, the usual. We just been meeting with a lot people and getting Sorella Zapata familiar with the area and missionary work. We're both really determined to help make this little branch and make this area a great one.
Precious is doing really well. She has a solid testimony that just keeps growing stronger. She's now attending a school to help her learn italian so when we have an extra minute and we're in the area we go and help her with her homework. She's so awesome, and so smart!Wednesday we went up to Cosenza for district meeting. It's a little over 3 hours away by train so we had to leave pretty early in the morning to get there. We decided to meet up with the elders at 6:15 to take the 20ish minute walk to the station so that we'd have plenty of time to catch our 6:45 train. One companionship of missionaries (I won't tell you which one haha) was running a little late and didn't make it there until about 6:35. We ended having to run to try to catch this train, but at the pace we were going there was no way we'd catch it. The entire time I was praying in my heart that we'd somehow make the train because there wasn't another one to Cosenza for a few hours so we'd miss district meeting. We got to the station around 6:50 to see that our train was the only one with a 10 minute delay..the miracles of prayer..The new district is fun and the meeting was good. Afterwards we got deep-fried mozzarella balls for lunch(yeah..I'm really killing it at this "eating healthy 6 months before you go home" thing) before we caught our bus to come home.That night we had a lesson with a less active lady who won't come back to church because her perception of forgiveness is a little distorted. We had the same conversation that I have with her every time we go over and talked and talked and talked and tried to help her understand that we are commanded to forgive all men..no matter what..no matter how many times. She didn't agree with what we said and wouldn't change her mind. Then, my amazing companion started asking some inspired question and we finally were able to understand the root of her problem..she doesn't understand the atonement! She couldn't even really tell us what it was or what it allows us to do. We now understand that we can help her by teaching and strengthening her testimony of the atonemnet of Jesus Christ. I cannot imagine going through life without understand this fundamental principle of the gospel, yet there are so many people in this world that don't--sure most know that "Jesus died on the cross for us", but often times, they overlook the suffering in Gethsemany, why he did it, and what this atonement allows us to do. This realization gave me even more motivation to find and teach everyone who will listen because it's almost unfair that a person should go through life without this comforting knowledge.The sisters from Taranto came on Friday for exchanges. I got to work with Sorella Rhoades again! Them deciding to come was a very last-minute thing and we'd planned to do our weekly planning that morning so we didn't have tons of appointments planned for the day which I felt bad about becuase I always try to get a lot of lessons planned for exchanges so we aren't just all finding the entire day. We decided to go in the morning to visit a bunch of less active members that we can't schedule appointments with. Miraculously each companionship was able to get in and teach some people! Sorella Rhoades and I got to see a less active sister that I have only seen once before that. Her nonmember boyfriend and she let us in, a little skeptically, but after we did some service helping them finish up their cleaning, they warmed up and listened politely to our message. We talked about the peace that we can find in our lives as we bring ourselves closer to Christ. This sister chimed in, with shame and sadness in her eyes and said, "but if we don't go to church..." then trailed off. My heart ached for this sister because I knew that she understood what she was doing wrong, and she even had the desire to change, but because she is in a difficult situation, she feels stuck and doesn't know how to find this inner peace that comes from faithfully keeping the commandments. We invited them to attend General Conference and they actually happily accepted the invitation, saying that if she didn't have to work, she'd be there. That is the first time that she has committed to step foot back in the church, so it was a huge miracle to see the progress that she has made.We also had a lesson with Rina. I asked her what her motivation was to stop smoking. I realized that she has good motives, like for her health, but they were not strong enough to help her overcome this strong temptatoin in the difficult times. We then shared my favorite conference talk of all time, The First Great Commandment by Elder Holland. We tried to help her make her motivation to quit smoking, her love for Christ, because in the end, love is the greatest motivator. It is interesting because President Uchtdorf talked about this kind of motivation in his talk on Sunday. Rina commited to come and watch General Conference, and I know that that talk would have perfectly solidified everything that we had discussed in that lesson, but she didn't come becuase it was raining.Friday also had appartment inspections from the senior couple in Bari. Anziano Fitzner came and fixed everything that was broken and even brought us office chairs for our desks! And Sorella Fitzner brought us banana-nutella muffins. I miss having a senior couple sooo much!!!Friday night we did a big gesso with all of the missionaries from Taranto and Crotone (our anziani were also doing exchanges that day with the zone leaders.) The weather has been warming up so lungomare--the walkway along the seaside--has been really popping so we've been doing most of our finding there rather than in centro. We decided to try a gesso there! We have been using the new easter video Prince of Peace in our finding a lot lately and have seen some pretty good success come from it. It was fun doing a gesso with more than just 4 missionaries. I felt like I was in a big city again! Near the end of the night we actually met a family! Sorella Ensign and I did some team work. The 10 year old some came up as I was drawing on the sheet and asked what I was doing. I asked if he wanted to draw with me, so he drew himself playing soccer and we talked, and meanwhile Sorella Ensign talked with his mom with was pregnant with another child! They were the cutest people ever and we were able to get their number! I have a lot of hope for this family.On Saturday we got to visit and eat lunch with our relief society president who has recently become less active. We haven't been able to get into her house during this period, but I felt like we needed to call her a few days earlier and at first she said no to an appointment, but then I asked if we could see her Saturday morning instead and she said, "okay, but come a little later so that you can stay for lunch!" She listened very intently to our spiritual thought and continued to thank us afterwards, telling us it was exactly what she needed. Lunch was tasty as well, she is such a sweetheart.That afternoon & evening we watched the Women's session, and the Saturday morning session of General Conference. We watched it in Italian and I was taken back to a year ago when I watched the entire conference in itlaian my second week in the mission. I can gratefully say that I actually understood it this time around haha. We had 2 investigators there for the Saturday Morning session that night, a couple who the elders were previously working with but recently passed them to us. We did our first lesson with them after the conference. I have known them since they started investigating the church a couple of months ago because they come to church and english course. I translate for gospel principles and help teach the lessons so I already know them really well. The wife Oriana is so ready to be baptized but her husband won't let her because he says it's way too early. They loved conference. Oriana loved how they talked about light. We then decided to focus the lesson on light, and how she will continue to see more light in her life as she continues to take steps of faith, such as baptism. We wanted to set a date with her but her husband firmly disagreed to this. He said that it is going to take him probably a year or so, which is probably true because he doesn't keep the commitments. On the other hand she is so prepared and could have been baptized weeks ago. It's a tough situation and we're still trying to figure out how to overcome it, but we are just praying that the spirit will touch their hearts, especially Antonio's to allow his wife to be baptized even if he is not ready to be at this point.Sadly, not very many people came to conference, on Saturday there were 3 members there and 2 english course students actually came which was super cool, and on Sunday the same 3 came plus Precious. I got to watch it in English with her when she came which was a tender mercy for me to be able to hear the voice of our sweet prophet. I appreciated so much all of the words of the speakers and am excited to listen to the other 2 sessions when they come out because right now I feel a little incomplete.I hope that you all took the opportunity to not only listen to, but also take to heart the words of our inspired leaders this weekend. I hope that you have reflected on the words that you heard, and have made goals for how you will become better thanks to the things that touched your hearts.with love,sorella bonzo
Finding all day on lungomare
Centro storico
After the gesso with Taranto missionaries (+sorella zapata's first after-finding gelato reward)
It randomly decided to start pouring last night after the conference.... the lightning was soo close to our house too)
