Monday we finally got to do an FHE with sorella Zapata and Juliet. She
made her famous fried rice and turkey. We told the story of the
Jaredites and talked about faith which was really cool to do with her
because she does have a lot of faith. She hasn't been to church in a
while though which is really sad, but on Sunday she came so that was a
miracle!
Another miracle happened on Tuesday morning. We had just arrived in
Catanzaro for our weekly district meeting and were waiting to take the
calebro to get to the church when a lady accidentally hit my companion
with her umbrella. We turned around and she said sorry, then saw our
name tags and stopped and said, "who are you?" We explained that we
were missionaries and all of the usual stuff to which people just
usually say that we're great people and wish us well in our work. But
she continued to talk and ask questions. We got on the calebro and
continued to talk with her and explain what we teach. She asked us
about the difference between our churches and listened intently. I
brought up the Book of Mormon to her and pulled out my copy. She said,
"can I?" And began to look through it. She said that she felt so much
peace as we talked and that she was really draw to us and what we had
to say. I realized that we needed to get off of the calebro at that
point so I asked if she would like to meet with the missionaries here
in Catanzaro so they they could bring her one of these books. The
Anziani got off of the calebro as I was getting her number and the
doors began to close. Luckily they were able to forcefully pull them
back open and hold them until we could finish getting her number and
jump off. Then right after I tried to call her number to make sure
that it was correct because it all happened so quickly and it said
that the number was inactive!! I was so disappointed! But we looked
back at the number I had written and realized that it had 1 too many
numbers. I decided to try to delete one of the zeros that I had put
and call again. She answered!!! So many miracles. Nothing happens by
chance.
On Wednesday morning we had planned to go see some people but didn't
have any set appointments. I've been making it a point to really seek
the Lord's will in my prayers and that morning as I was opening my
personal study with a prayer, I had a small feeling that we should not
do what we had planned, but instead go finding all morning. Usually
finding is more of a backup plan if your plans fall through, so it
seemed a little strange to me, but I earnestly prayed to know if that
small feeling was a prompting from the spirit, and I felt that it was.
I then asked where we should go and what kind of finding we should do.
After personal studies I told this to my companion and she agreed that
we needed to follow the prompting. So we went to lungomare for a whole
morning of finding. I was praying constantly that morning that we
would find at least 1 person that would become a new investigator. We
faced a lot of rejection, like always, but I was determined to talk to
every single person there because I knew that there was someone out
there for us to find that morning and I didn't want to miss them. We
ended up finding and exchanging numbers with 2 women who have a lot of
potential. One is young and had never heard of our church, but is
curious to learn. The other is in her 40s was walking her dog and when
I saw her I awkwardly ran over these 2 barrier things to talk to her
before she walked away. I know that I looked so weird but in the
moment, my sol focus was to find that person that we were sent to
find. She said that she's familiar with our church because she's
friends with our branch president. He had given her a Book of Mormon
that she occasionally reads when she has time, and she said that she's
even been to our church before! What a miracle! My companion is still
getting used to the fact that these mini miracles are our huge
successes here in the Great Italy Rome Mission because she came in
with higher expectations, which isn't a bad thing by any means. I am
so grateful for these 2 women that we found and I know that by doing
what God asked of us, even if it didn't seem to be the most ideal or
practical thing, we were blessed.
Another huge miracle that night happened when we called a member to
ask her a question and then we ended up getting to have a spontaneous
appointment with her right after our other one fell through. When we
went over her inactive daughter came to join us for the lesson which
is always what we want. She was excited to find out that my companion
speaks Spanish because this girl lived in Mexico for a year and hasn't
been able to really speak it with anyone since she's come back here.
They sat and spoke Spanish for like 10 minutes and this girl was in
heaven. I felt like a new missionary again because I could get the
gist of what they were saying for some of the time but I didn't really
know what was going on. Now she actually wants to keep seeing us
though! Yay!
We went to visit our investigators Francesca and Sonia (mother &a
daughter that own the jewelry store) on Thursday. They were really sad
because Francesca's sister had just passed away. They said that they
didn't want to have a lesson that day but thanked us for our visit. We
bore testimony of the atonement of Jesus Christ and its healing power
as well as the power to be resurrected. We offered them comforting
words and before leaving I asked if we could leave them with a prayer.
After I said the prayer it showed in their faces that they both felt
the spirit. Sonia said, "while you were praying I felt like you were
really connected to Jesus." That was a cool experience for me, because
as missionaries, we pray a lot. I know each time that I am talking to
my Heavenly Father, but at times it does feel a little rote. I gave a
sincere and heartfelt prayer for them because I knew that they were in
need, and everyone felt the difference.
We went to visit our favorite little old member on Saturday morning.
She was all upset and frustrated because she is 80+ years old and none
of her neighbors clean up their trash outside so she does it for
everyone. She spent the morning doing that and still didn't have time
to prepare the relief society lesson for the next day. She was upset
and stressed so we talked for and calmed her down, then offered to
help her prepare her lesson. She is so wise and wonderful. I learned
so much just while talking to her and she was so grateful for the
help. We were able to talk through some of the parts of the lesson
that she didn't understand so she felt prepared for the next day. She
said, "you were an answer to my prayers!!" I love her.
That night we visited the branch president's wife who is inactive. She
was very cold when she let us in again so we took time to just talk
and get to know her. She ended up sharing basically her life story
with us and talking a lot about her family and the love that she feels
for her 5 sons. It was perfect because we had prepared to teach the
first 2 points of the restoration: God is our Loving Heavenly Father,
and the Gospel Blesses Families. She told us that it wasn't by change
that we talked so much about families. At the end of the lesson, we
hadn't planned on inviting her back to church yet, we wanted to start
with the basics like prayer. But my companion boldly invited her to
come back to church and I know that she was inspired for doing so. She
firmly said, "No." We asked her why and she told us that she practices
her religion at home, but will not come back to church because she
doesn't feel the spirit there. That's a problem that a lot of people
have been having in this branch that we're trying to solve. We talked
with her and in the end she said, maybe some day, which means that we
are getting somewhere! She really grew to love us in that appointment
and we grew to love her too. It helps to have an Italian companion
because they seriously love
Italian missionaries. After the lesson she showed a room that she has
full of pictures of her family and even offered us fresh strawberries
to take home. As we kissed her goodbye she said, I hope to see you
soon! That is a miracle!!
We came to Taranto yesterday because we have interviews tonight and
zone conference tomorrow. Today we did a picnic by the ocean with the
sisters in the zone. It's getting warm here in southern Italy which
means no more tights and tons of bug bites! Bring on the endless
sweaty days and funny shoe strap tan lines.
Have a great week! I love you!
Sorella Bonzo
We drew this picture for precious so that she could teach us the plan
of salvation for her new convert lessons
These are all chocolate eggs that they buy for their children for Easter
Today
There were tons of these all over the city on Saturday and Sunday for Palm Sunday.
