After that we walked out to do some finding and the streets were full of Australian tourists (a cruise ship from australia had docked for the day.) There weren't tons of Italians around so we spent our time giving directions more than anything haha. They were so surprised to find people who spoke English. I was surprised to find out that even little Crotone has a tourist side to it.Monday we did a district Pday in Cosenza. We went bowling! That night we all stopped by a ward FHE where they fed us tons of food. They were throwing a surprise party for an older sister who will be leaving soon to serve a temple mission in Germany. We had this lasagna with eggplant and eggs and I don't even know what else but it was really good. Then we blitzed the city. We wanted to do a gesso but by the time we got to centro there weren't as many people so we all just split off into our companionships and went finding. We talked to this really cute mother from the philipines with her cute little 4 year old son. We showed them "Because of Him" then told them about eternal families. We got her number for the missionaries in Cosenza. Her son was sooo cute I really hope that they can meet with her husband and her.
This week was really great in regards to our member work. We were able
to do role plays with 2 of our strong members to help them be prepared
to invite their friends to learn about the gospel. Both of those
lessons went really well, and surprisingly, the members loved doing
the role plays! We will follow up with them this week to see how their
efforts are going.
We also got to see two less active members who were very open with us.
It has been hard for me to get them to trust us enough to open up and
tell us their concerns, but this week both of them talked very openly
to us and helped us understand better what we can do for them. My companion said to me, "sister, it must be because we have the spirit with us." I think she's right.
We are finding out that here in Crotone people are particularly
skeptical when it comes to religion. It's easy for us to have street
conversations, get numbers, and set up appointments, but the amount of
times that they actually follow through with these appointments and
become investigators is hardly ever. To the best of our abilities we
have been focusing our finding efforts on more natural encounters. We
are seeing success this way. Obviously we all know that the best way
to find is through our members (and we are hoping to get them involved
as much as possible) but this week we were able to get two new
investigators through our finding efforts because we have become
friends with them. They just opened a pizzeria close to our house and
so we stop by often to say hello and even did some service helping the
daughter with her English homework. We left them with a spiritual
thought showing the video "Because of Him." This week we asked them if
they would like to hear our message to know why we're really here and
we set up an appointment. The mom told us, "that video you showed us
last week really touched me, I would love to hear about what you
believe." We taught them the restoration this week. We're praying that
they can take our invites seriously and receive a testimony of our
message. They have already been an answer to my prayers as I have been praying more fervantly than ever in these past couple weeks to find people who are ready to accept our message and make covenants with God. We are kind of starting from the ground up in these days because none of our investigators whom we were progressing. But don't worry, we're building it back up! I know that our decision to spend time finding those who are truly rather than continuing to meet with those who aren't may have been a little difficult, but it was what God wanted. I know that He will bless us for it.We ate some african pasta this week, that was a first. We went over to have a lesson with Precious but she was getting ready so we talked to Juliet while she was finishing to prepare lunch then she fed us! She is so generous. It was super good. She didn't put sauce on it, just tons of vegetables and meat and spices. It was really really spicey. I have developed a whole new tolerance for spicey foods here in Calabria (the part of Italy known for it's peperoncino.)
That evening there was this huge parade to celebrate the the finding of this black portrait of mother Mary or something like that. They said that they found it at the beach and now they do this huge parade every year with lights all around the city like they do at Christmas. They walk from the center of the city, down the beach, and end at the hospital where they present the painting to an official who receives it which happened to be graziella's husband. She said she was supposed to be there too, but she thinks that worshipping these kinds of things is dumb so she didn't go haha. The whole time they walk they throw all of the confetti that says stuff on it like "ave Maria" so now all our streets are just covered with the stuff. I guess it brought some color into Crotone at least!Saturday we did a Primary activity. We started working on Faith in God with the girls to bring a less active 11 year old back. We did one of the activities to write a letter of gratitude to someone and had the girls make cute cards for their moms for Mother's Day.That night a sister who served here in Crotone 2.5 years ago was back touring Italy and she asked us if we'd like to go with her to see some people whom she was working with while she was here. We went to see a woman named Graziella who used to come faithfully to our english course but now hasn't been since January. The sisters worked with her a little bit before but mostly just formed a really great friendship. The x-sister missionary told me that she wasn't ever really ready to seriously take the lesson. She made us some tizana and we sat and talked with her a little bit and somehow the subject of a friend of hers who passed away recently came up. We got to testify about the Plan of Salvation and the Book of Mormon as a way to undrestand this plan and find comfort. She loved it. The sisters had given her a Book of Mormon in the past but she said that she was never able understand it. We asked if we could come over and read it together and she said she'd love that, and she also promised us as we were leaving that she'd see us at english on Tuesaday.We also went over to a pizzeria and met some people who they were really good friends with but never taught. This couple just had twins so it could be a great time to introduce the gospel to them. It was super fun getting to talk to a sister who served here in the past and now we have some great potentials. I'm so grateful for her help and how she continued to be a missionary even though her full time service has finished. She planted some really great seeds while she was here that are hopefully ready for us to harvest.
Sunday after church we ran over to Damiana and Catherina's house to drop off some brownies and say goodbye. I'm so sad that they are leaving tomorrow but they will be back in July and want to continue the lessons with us then.
It was good to see you guys on skype. It's weird to think that that's the last time we'll talk. Love you guys! I'm glad that you're doing well!
Have a great week!Love,Sorella Bonzo
This was from last week haha we got creative
Cosenza
We played monopoly with a member's son, his friend, and their babysitter for a few minutes while we were waiting for the mom and sister to get home. This kid is such a goofball
African pasta
