This week has been crazy, so much happened which forced us to actually
remain outside of Crotone most of Tuesday, and Wednesday-Saturday
afternoon. At the end of the day the overlying principle that I have
learned on my mission was really tested and put into practice. That
being, "Come what may, and love it." -Joseph B. Wirthlin
First example of this: the whole first part of my email was very
beautifully written but somehow got deleted. I just quickly filled in
the blanks but I'm sorry... bear with my lack of time.
Monday:
For FHE Juliet made us fufu so that Sorella Walch and Anziano
lamoureux could try it. Let's just say after I downed it like an
African they deemed me apart of an African tribe in Nigeria. After
weekly African meals for 7 months, I'm the whitest African you've ever
seen my friends.
Tuesday:
We went up to Cosenza for district meeting and afterwards had the best
American lunch with hamburgers and hot dogs. We finished it off with a
homemade apple pie they Sorella Walch and I prepared topped with
vaniglia gelato.
Wednesday:
The Statte Sorelle were supposed to be in Crotone for a scambio but
things went wrong with picking up one of their green cards so we ended
up having to go up to Cosenza all day then travel to Taranto.
Thursday:
The Taranto district had an activity on Tuesday which caused them to
do district meeting Thursday morning so we got to participate in their
district meeting as well. Their district is very different than ours
being that the only elders in it are the zone leaders who also double
as the district leaders. Their district is also very old in the
mission whereas most of the missionaries in ours are relatively young.
It was enjoyable to get to spend some time with their district and get
to know all of them a little bit better. The training given by one of
the zone leaders was wonderful. He said that he had prepared his
training, but then that morning he realized that he would have all 4
of the finishing missionaries in the zone listening to his training,
so he did it on something that would be useful both during, and after
the mission. We talked about goal setting and how not only our
successes, but also our setbacks can propel us forward and give us
more drive if we are working towards a specific goal and have a plan
of action. One thing that he said that really touched me was this,
"you don't have to regret wasted time if you learn from it." This
applies, I think, to all of our regrets. Regret is an inevitable part
of life. We as imperfect mortals mess up every single day, and the
fact that we have regrets, is a sign that we recognize our weaknesses
and are striving to do better. The beautiful thing is that we also
have the opportunity to change through Christ's atonement. If we learn
from our mistakes, and do better the next time, then we are repenting,
and becoming better, and that's all that God asks of us. We don't have
to carry around a burden of regrets as long as we learn from our past
mistakes, and use them to become better.
Thursday & Friday:
That afternoon and the next morning I got to do an exchange with
Sorella Calió. She is from Pavia, Italy and will be finishing her
mission with me. We had a lot of fun together, reflecting on all of
the things that we have learned throughout our missions. One thing
that I learned from her during this exchange was the importance of
being very personable and loving to everyone, especially here in the
south of Italy. Sometimes we get so caught up in what we're trying to
accomplish that we're too formal, and forget that these are real
people that we are working with who will trust us more as we be
ourselves and show them that we care about them.
Friday:
Friday afternoon we were supposed to take our usual bus that we always
take to get from Taranto to Crotone that leaves at 4:50 and has since
I got to this area 7 months ago... So we arrived at the bus station at
4:30, having plenty of time to buy our tickets and catch the bus. But
when we went to buy the tickets the lady said, "that bus left 10
minutes ago." It turns out that they decided to change the times so
that now, the bus leaves at 4:20! That is the only bus that goes from
Taranto to Crotone every day so we ran to the train station to see if
we could catch a train back. To our misfortune there were no more
trains going back for the rest of the night either. The best we could
do was take one the next morning at 9:00 meaning that we'd be spending
another day outside of our area.
We made the best of it though and met up with the missionaries in
Taranto and they drove us to a park where we all went finding. Sorella
Walch and I stopped to talk to some people sitting on a bench and had
the opportunity to teach the entire restoration with an opening and
closing prayer which was a tender mercy for us. I always feel so happy
when I share my testimony of the message of the restoration, that must
mean it's true I guess¿
Afterwards we went to the Taranto ward's relief society activity that
they put on as a surprise to say goodbye to one of their sisters who
will be moving to the north this week. They did a funny skit in
pugliese dialect (we had no idea what was going on,) said lots of kind
words, and of course had tons of good pigliano food to eat. It was
good to be with tons of happy, loving sisters and remember what a
beautiful and unique friendship that we can have in our wards and
branches as members of the church.
Saturday morning we finally made if back to Crotone. We left at 9 and
got to the church at 4 so you could say we were pretty hungry..
luckily we have the best anziani in the world because they had lunch
waiting for us when we got there. Then we did tons of member work
because we met with our branch president and he wants us visiting all
of them.
Today:
We finally got to visit the beautiful mountain range in Calabria
called Sila. It was amazing to be out in the fresh air without the
crazy sounds and smells of the Italian cities that I've been living in
for a year and a half.
I don't have tons of time to finish this well, but all I've got to say
is that positivity through adversity is key. When things don't go our
way, we just have to make the best with what we have, which I think
that we successfully did thanks to my amazing companion and the
perspective that she has.
Love you guys,
Sorella Bonzo
American pranzo
Taranto district
Sila
In the woods
