June 22, 2010 - Verona, Italy

Salve famiglia.

Surprise! I bet you were not expecting to hear from me today. That is because today is Tuesday. We are having p-day today this week because zone conference is tomorrow when we normally would have had p-day, so that is why you are getting email from me today instead of tomorrow. Che bello!

My new companion, Sorella Rossi, and I are doing great. I love working with her, because she is teaching me so much. This is her last transfer, so we will only have one transfer together. But she started her mission here in Verona a year and a half ago, so she knows the members really well and has a lot of ties to people here in the city. She is so good at talking to everyone about the gospel and connecting with people quickly on the street, we find people to teach everywhere, all the time. Really truly miracles happen when you have faith, and Sorella Rossi has faith.
Sorella Harper is now in Modena with Sorella Rossi's previous companion, Sorella Ranieri, which is kind of funny. So we have good friends for sister missionaries in Modena, and we get to do scambi with them this transfer too, which will be way exciting.

On Friday we got all bedones, so we were on this street that Sorella Harper and I had felt prompted to do casa on, but never finished because we got in and started teaching a family (whom we have now taught a couple of times, I believe they are slowly gaining a testimony of Joseph Smith). But that was the street we were one, so we walked around talking to people on the street and doing more casa, and found so many people that we truly were the answers to their prayers. One woman we met on the street told us of her two sons in prison, and was actually praying with her rosary when we stopped to talk to her on her way to the Catholic Church to pray. We talked with her, gave her a plan of salvation pamphlet, and the beautiful image of the resurrected Savior on the front really brought her to tears. Then we knocked on a door and an old infirm woman let us in. We taught her a very brief message and testified to her of how God loves her and is mindful of her, and that was why we were there, because God sent us to her right then right there. And she started crying to, and said, 'really?' so hopefully. We told her yes and she held our hands and cried. We took her trash out for her. We knocked on another door and this woman said she remembered talking to me on a bus somewhere in the city one day (although I must confess I don't remember her, Sorella Rossi thinks she might have been mistaking me for another missionary before I got here, which would explain why), so she let us in. She did not have much time for a message then, but wants us to come back and gave us each a gift to remember her by - me a blue and red flashing cross with Jesus crucified on it, and Sorella Rossi a rosary...um... I am excited to see her again sometime.

On my very first day in Verona, right after dropping off my bags at the apartment, the first person I talked to was this woman at a bus stop. I was so excited to go talk to someone, so my companion and I went and talked to her. She said she was from Russia! So I said, “Oh, I know a song in Russian,” and started singing the Katyusha song, and she knew it! So we connected right away and it was wonderful. She gave us her number and said she wanted to meet with us. I was so excited. We tried all transfer to call and set up a time, but she was always busy, and I was so sad. Then this Saturday night, a full six weeks after our initial meeting on the street, she was finally able to meet us in the church for a lesson. She opened up right away, told us of her troubles and how she has been searching for the purpose in life for ten years now. So we taught her the plan of salvation. The spirit was so strong, she was literally in tears the entire lesson (which was not very long, it is better to teach for short times). It was incredible! We are meeting with her again tonight and feel impressed to invite her to baptism. She needs this gospel, I so want her to have the joy that it brings. And I am so glad that I know that song!

Yesterday we were biking along and felt to stop and talk to someone, and then we started suoning at this palazzo, and then I saw this nun digging through a dumpster with a broom. She had the lid of the dumpster balanced on her head to keep it open, and was literally fishing through the dumpster with a broom. It was so odd. So we went over to offer to help. Turns out she needed plastic bags, so she was fishing out old dirty ones and emptying them, and then taking them to use! We made her stop and told her we have a bunch at home and offered to bring her some, she was very appreciative. We shared a little bit about the Book of Mormon, so today we dropped off at this prearranged meeting spot the bags and a Book of Mormon for her to read. Isn't that a random encounter? I don't think I ever would have thought to dig through a dumpster to find plastic bags.