First of all, this week I have had a couple of eerie old lady experiences. We have a member who lives in a casa di cura (like an old folk's home) whom the R.S. pres. has asked us to go visit, so we do. This old lady came up and really wanted to hold my hand, but really she was just looking for a tissue because her nose was running, so then she took the tissue my companion gave her and my companion's hand, and then dragged my companion off with her for five minutes or so into the dining room to find her seat. Then the next time we went, another old lady followed us into the stairwell and started trying to go down the stairs. But I was afraid she would fall, so I took her arm and helped her down. We get to the bottom of the stairs, and then she kept trying to go down further, but there weren't any more stairs! So then we asked her if she wanted to go back up since she couldn't keep going down, so then I helped her back up all the stairs, and we took her back into her hallway, but she wouldn't let go of me. She was pretty old and weak looking, but she had a vice-like grip and I really couldn't get out. I finally had to use my other hand to pry hers off mine, but then she would grab that hand. It was ridiculous! We finally get her off with the help of a nurse and ran into the stairwell before she could grab hold again and had to almost close the door on her to keep her from coming back in the stairwell. That was intense. Then we were doing casa the other day, maybe even yesterday, and knocked on the door and this very old woman answered with a slightly eerie smile on. She said how wonderful it was that we finally found her and I thought, 'maybe she's not eerie, just super ready,' then she shook my companion's hand. Then she shook my hand, but decided not to let go. Instead, with the same eerie smile on and without an inch of change in any part of her expression, she yanks me forward through the door right up to her face, and I was a little bit frozen and not knowing what to do, and then she kissed me on the cheek like the Italians do, so I was a little less alarmed, but still a little weirded out. Then she pulled me in further and made me go past her into the house and beckoned my companion in. Then her very old husband also came out so I greeted him. Then her daughter came out and got very very angry at us and commanded us to get out and go away! So then we had to run away. It was so bizarre.
But in the way of other news, we have made some real progress with one investigator. She really is beautiful, and also super intense. But she has had a really hard life, and we talked to her about it the time before last, and helped her see that it is possible to be happy even in difficult circumstances. This time we shared the plan of salvation. Her son passed away unexpectedly a year ago, and it has been very hard for her and her husband, but just in these last few times we have seen her since she got out of the hospital I have seen her soften a lot and really start to open up her heart more. She really is searching, and I am so happy for the peace that I know the gospel will bring her. She said her first prayer for us yesterday, a major turning point! Normally she has us pray. She is really adorable about prayers. She always interrupts us to tell us what to pray for. The first time I remember praying for her with her there she stopped us and said, 'no, no, that is my nickname, you have to use my name from my baptism so that He knows who you are talking about.' And then she will often interrupt for things like, 'don't forget to pray that my husband will stop blaspheming,' or 'pray that the word will enter my heart,' but all of this happens in the middle of the prayer. Yesterday when I was saying the opening prayer she stopped and said, 'every time you pray I just want to open my eyes and stare at you and I can't keep my eyes closed! Why can't I keep my eyes closed?' And so then we have to respond, but we are in the middle of a prayer. I haven't figured it out yet, what is the prayer ettiquete? Should you close and then say like five prayers to get it all said that you want to say, just ignore her, or just respond and then keep on with the prayer when you are done? Who knows? At least I do know that whatever way you do it God is listening. I think He is probably pleased with her for paying such attention during the prayer and being so conscientious of praying in her own way, like asking about little details like eyes closed, and like always having something to say in the prayer. It is fun.
Antonella is doing well, we got to meet her sons on Friday, Niccolo and Samuele. They are 15 and 17, and have hearts every bit as kind as Antonella's. We got to go walk around centro with them and their family and gave them each a Book of Mormon. It was fun.
Also, Benita is back and forth in health. Better one day and not as good the next. She cannot see at all anymore really, so we try to do not just visual aids but tactile aids as much as possible to help her feel involved. We love going to see her, despite everything she is still so kind and cheerful and always joking. JR, her friend who is 24 and takes care of her, is really progressing as we are teaching him. He is actually thinking about baptism right now, and taking it very seriously. He loves the Book of Mormon and prayed to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet and said he felt good, a really bright feeling. He really thinks that Joseph Smith could have been a prophet. Meno male we know he was. It is really cool to watch people search for and then gradually find the truth. I love it. And prayer has such power, and the Book of Mormon really has converting power, and that comes because it is truly the word of God, written by true prophets, and because it testifies so fully of Jesus Christ our Savior and Redeemer. That brings power into the words of the book, and people feel that power when they read. It is so important that they read and pray, because those are the things that will help them gain the faith they are searching for. It is also the things that we must do in order to endure to the end, because those two small things done daily, combined with going to church weekly, will give us a strong and very real protection from temptation. It is true. Always read your scriptures and pray every day.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Saturday, October 23, 2010
August 4, 2010 - Verona, Italy
Woot! I have been with my new companion almost a week now. Her name is actually Sorella Tramacchi, and she is from Australia! She is really cool, super sweet and laid back. She was actually in the Rome mission, but got switched to ours because she was in the zone that moved up this past transfer, and has been in the mission for over a year now, so she only has this transfer and next left! She is really cool, and we are having a ton of fun together, even though bikes are being as hard for her as they were for me when I started. I have really come a long ways, it seems, with the bikes; they are a lot easier for me now and I actually enjoy them!
We have an investigator who is in the hospital. Well, she got transferred to another part in the hospital, then went home, then came back in another part, and now is in yet another part. We have been seeing her as often as possible through all of this, and teaching her. I think this experience has really humbled her, and she gave us her promise one week ago that she would be baptized! It has been really neat to see the change in her since then. Every time we come she talks about how it took her thirty years to be converted but now she is and how happy she is with this decision. Right now the problem she has is kind of intense and she is not doing well at all. I am afraid she will die before she can be baptized, but at least if that is the case she can accept it in the next life. We are right now trying to help her prepare for that if that is in fact what happens, planning on teaching her about repentance so she can start preparing. I know that sounds kind of weird, but that is what we feel like we should do. Awesomely enough, though, her hospital roommate is a twenty-four year old man from the Philippines, and we have started teaching him and he is so cool and super interested. He loves the stuff we are telling him and always feels good when we read together from the Book of Mormon. We have taught him the plan of salvation and the restoration, and he said he would pray to know if it is true. He is really cool, and I love teaching them together even in the hospital!
We've had some moderately goofy experiences, like our investigator giving us umbrellas because it was raining when we went to leave her apartment, but then asking us if we were even capable of riding our bikes with umbrellas, so we said no, because we can't (I certainly don't have the balance - remember that time I fell at the bottom of the ramp right on my bags when we were leaving the MTC?), and then she gave them to us anyway. This morning something really cool happened. The sorelle from Pordenone were here (i.e., Sorella Shuel!! my MTC companion and Sorella Jacobson) because they needed to bunk over on their way home from permesso (the documents that say you can live in Italy) stuff in Genova, so we took them to see centro here, and of course if you come to Verona you have to see Juliet's balcony. So we went there and just as we were entering this woman stopped my companion and started talking to her (I didn't notice and had to go back and find her a few moments later). Turns out she found a Book of Mormon in a used book store, bought it, and has been seriously reading and studying it. She has read about half of it and studying alongside the Bible using the footnotes, and is super interested and really likes it. She wants to see us when she gets back from vacation in two weeks! How cool is that? Even cooler: my companion just told me that her family found the church because her grandpa found the Book of Mormon in a used book store then went and found the missionaries. Neat, huh?
Sorella Rossi really taught me a lot about using visual aids, and teaching has become way fun using them in these days. My new companion really likes it too. It is fun.
We have an investigator who is in the hospital. Well, she got transferred to another part in the hospital, then went home, then came back in another part, and now is in yet another part. We have been seeing her as often as possible through all of this, and teaching her. I think this experience has really humbled her, and she gave us her promise one week ago that she would be baptized! It has been really neat to see the change in her since then. Every time we come she talks about how it took her thirty years to be converted but now she is and how happy she is with this decision. Right now the problem she has is kind of intense and she is not doing well at all. I am afraid she will die before she can be baptized, but at least if that is the case she can accept it in the next life. We are right now trying to help her prepare for that if that is in fact what happens, planning on teaching her about repentance so she can start preparing. I know that sounds kind of weird, but that is what we feel like we should do. Awesomely enough, though, her hospital roommate is a twenty-four year old man from the Philippines, and we have started teaching him and he is so cool and super interested. He loves the stuff we are telling him and always feels good when we read together from the Book of Mormon. We have taught him the plan of salvation and the restoration, and he said he would pray to know if it is true. He is really cool, and I love teaching them together even in the hospital!
We've had some moderately goofy experiences, like our investigator giving us umbrellas because it was raining when we went to leave her apartment, but then asking us if we were even capable of riding our bikes with umbrellas, so we said no, because we can't (I certainly don't have the balance - remember that time I fell at the bottom of the ramp right on my bags when we were leaving the MTC?), and then she gave them to us anyway. This morning something really cool happened. The sorelle from Pordenone were here (i.e., Sorella Shuel!! my MTC companion and Sorella Jacobson) because they needed to bunk over on their way home from permesso (the documents that say you can live in Italy) stuff in Genova, so we took them to see centro here, and of course if you come to Verona you have to see Juliet's balcony. So we went there and just as we were entering this woman stopped my companion and started talking to her (I didn't notice and had to go back and find her a few moments later). Turns out she found a Book of Mormon in a used book store, bought it, and has been seriously reading and studying it. She has read about half of it and studying alongside the Bible using the footnotes, and is super interested and really likes it. She wants to see us when she gets back from vacation in two weeks! How cool is that? Even cooler: my companion just told me that her family found the church because her grandpa found the Book of Mormon in a used book store then went and found the missionaries. Neat, huh?
Sorella Rossi really taught me a lot about using visual aids, and teaching has become way fun using them in these days. My new companion really likes it too. It is fun.
July 28, 2010 - Verona, Italy
Of course the biggest news of the week is what happens for transfers! When I got my mission call, there were three missions in Italy: Milan in the north, Rome in the middle, and Catania in the south. Just this transfer the change happened and they closed the Catania mission and combined all of that area with the Rome mission, making there be just two missions in italy: Milan top half and Rome bottom half. They also moved the northern part of the Rome mission into our mission to even out the geographical area of the two missions, which happens to be Tuscany, so now Tuscany is in our mission! The reason this is relevant is because my new companion here in Verona will be coming from Florence, which was formerly part of the Rome mission. Her name is something like Sister Tachamuri, but I suppose I will find out tomorrow for certain when we meet in Milan! So that is exciting. Sorella Rossi goes home, of course, because it has been a year and a half for her. Strange to already be starting my third transfer.
Oh! The Romanian investigator totally came to church again, and then met with us yesterday for a lesson and says she will meet us again on Friday. How bizarre. We still can't communicate, but we should be getting some stuff in Romanian and we can just read together instead!
Weirdest food for the week was this creepy corn pudding thing, but without any sugar. I had a hard time swallowing; it was so gross I just wanted to gag. I took your slogan very much to heart, Dad, of “where you lead, I will follow. What you feed, I will swallow!” It was a really weird dessert. Don't ever try it.
Oh! The Romanian investigator totally came to church again, and then met with us yesterday for a lesson and says she will meet us again on Friday. How bizarre. We still can't communicate, but we should be getting some stuff in Romanian and we can just read together instead!
Weirdest food for the week was this creepy corn pudding thing, but without any sugar. I had a hard time swallowing; it was so gross I just wanted to gag. I took your slogan very much to heart, Dad, of “where you lead, I will follow. What you feed, I will swallow!” It was a really weird dessert. Don't ever try it.
July 21, 2010 - Verona, Italy
[Email 11] Is that right? number 11? I am kind of loosing count; I might switch counting methods if I do lose count. Wwoops! =)
First and foremost: baptism!!! Woohoo!! Antonella is officially a baptised and confirmed member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints! What an incredible feeling! At the baptism, she changed into her white dress, and when I walked back into the chapel she was sitting there in a white dress and the organ was softly playing in the background, and all the members, her friends, were there and everyone was just sitting quietly and reverently. It really felt like the temple, and thinking of Antonella in the temple was awesome. I want to go with her someday, somehow. Maybe I will come back to Italy for the Rome temple dedication when it happens, and I can see her again then. How cool is that? Antonella has the Holy Ghost! She is so cool. I am so happy for her! And she was so happy. And the baptism was beautiful. One sister, who has come to lessons with Antonella, gave the talk about baptism, and another sister, our member in the hospital, gave the talk on the holy ghost! I was so proud of her for getting up in front of everyone to give a talk! Antonella has come with us to visit this sister in the hospital, and they have quickly become friends. This sister speaks Italian, but not super well, so they can't even communicate humongously, but they are still friends and Antonella was so excited that this sister would give a talk at her baptism. She spoke in English, so I was at the pulpit with her translating into Italian what she was saying. I was nervous. It went well though. And it was beautiful!
We had another investigator attend the baptism. She is very interesting. She really doesn't speak Italian. Teaching her is completely insane. We met her on the street, and understood each other enough to set up an appointment. So we brought her a Book of Mormon in Romanian (we met in the church), and had her read the introduction. She speaks pretty much all in Romanian, so it is difficult to communicate. I finally just kneeled down to make us say a closing prayer because we had to go! Then we met her again with a member and watched the restoration video (which doesn't come in Romanian, which was frustrating, and makes me wonder what on earth the Romanian missionaries do!) with a member. Again, we could not communicate. Then she shows up randomly in church! How surprising! She brought her Book of Mormon with her, and kept saying, it is all true, it is all true over and over again. It was super cool. She felt the spirit super strongly, and actually had to sit down during the intermediate hymn because she was so overcome and crying. Crazy! Afterwards the bishop came up and introduced himself, and we stepped off to help Antonella, and when we came back she was gone. So Sorella Rossi called and set up an appointment and we saw her again the next day in the church building again. I was praying so hard to be able to understand her, and I actually did understand a good portion of what she was saying! (thank goodness Italian and Romanian are as similar as they are.) She was telling us about her husband, who died a year ago, and her commitment to follow God, and about all the churches she has been to and about how they all talk about the word of God. Then we find out she gave her Book of Mormon to the bishop, who knows why, we really couldn't understand that part. Then we had a prayer and sang a song (we were just going to read from the Book of Mormon, but she didn't have it anymore, and we can't talk effectively), and she felt the Spirit I believe. Then she stands up and starts crying and just puts her chair away and leaves. And we kept saying, wait! Wait! and are following after her locking up the church building as we go. She was so distraught, and telling us about how she is really at a point of survival financially right now, no food, no water, nothing. We convinced her to meet us again the next day at the church so we could give her another Book of Mormon and read from it together. So we go the next day to the church and she is there already, so we start unlocking the gate to go up together and I handed her a new Book of Mormon, and she just refuses to take it. She was super angry and gave it back to me and just kept asking for money and saying how the bishop wouldn't give her money, and how is a book supposed to help her when she needs food and water? And she was really angry and kind of yelling at us and finally just yelled 'arrivederci!' and stalked off down the hill. I was so befuddled and had no idea where this came from when just two days before in church she was telling us how the whole Book of Mormon was true! We saw her again randomly later that day, and talked, but then she got mad at us again. I told her that she is of course always welcome in church, but she was really mad and I didn't think we would ever see her again. Then she shows up at Antonella's baptism on Saturday! We were able to give her a Book of Mormon in Romanian again, and even a pamphlet of the plan of salvation in her language we had found. She stayed for the whole baptism, and at the end I talked to her a bit and she kept pointing at the plan and saying something (she was reading it during the baptism), I think about wanting to endure to the end, but honestly it is all such guess work because she only speaks to us in Romanian. Then she leaves again very suddenly. She does that a lot, in the middle of talking, but she can't understand what we are saying and we can't understand her so it is crazy! Then we saw her again on Monday, and she gave her Book of Mormon to some other random person again. We talked and she was complaining about the bishop not giving her money again. She just kept saying, 'lultima volta' which is 'last time' that she is ever coming to the church to see us again. And then she left. And then we ran into her on the street today. And she started talking, and wouldn't stop, but we had to go to interviews, so we finally just had to interrupt her and tell her we had to go. It is insane! I have no clue if we will ever see her again! But even if we do, who knows if she will love us or hate us, and there is no way we will understand her anyway! How crazy is this?
We did have a really amazing experience this week with these three American girls. On Sunday, two Americans show up in church, turns out they are here for a three week opera thingy in Verona. One was a member, the other was her roommate for the program whom she had invited to come to church. We went to go visit them, and the non-member friend had invited another non-member to come listen to us with them, so then we are teaching two girls with their member friend. It was so incredible! Teaching in English, real English, not pigeon English, was really a cool feeling. We sang I am a Child of God to them, and everyone started crying, the Spirit was really strong. The one of them kept telling us she hasn't cried in 18 years. The other is super prepared, and really wants to keep meeting with us and hear our message. I love seeing the powerful testimony of members, and how incredibly important it is to bring members to lessons. They bring a very strong spirit and are an important step for the investigator to have friends in the church.
First and foremost: baptism!!! Woohoo!! Antonella is officially a baptised and confirmed member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints! What an incredible feeling! At the baptism, she changed into her white dress, and when I walked back into the chapel she was sitting there in a white dress and the organ was softly playing in the background, and all the members, her friends, were there and everyone was just sitting quietly and reverently. It really felt like the temple, and thinking of Antonella in the temple was awesome. I want to go with her someday, somehow. Maybe I will come back to Italy for the Rome temple dedication when it happens, and I can see her again then. How cool is that? Antonella has the Holy Ghost! She is so cool. I am so happy for her! And she was so happy. And the baptism was beautiful. One sister, who has come to lessons with Antonella, gave the talk about baptism, and another sister, our member in the hospital, gave the talk on the holy ghost! I was so proud of her for getting up in front of everyone to give a talk! Antonella has come with us to visit this sister in the hospital, and they have quickly become friends. This sister speaks Italian, but not super well, so they can't even communicate humongously, but they are still friends and Antonella was so excited that this sister would give a talk at her baptism. She spoke in English, so I was at the pulpit with her translating into Italian what she was saying. I was nervous. It went well though. And it was beautiful!
We had another investigator attend the baptism. She is very interesting. She really doesn't speak Italian. Teaching her is completely insane. We met her on the street, and understood each other enough to set up an appointment. So we brought her a Book of Mormon in Romanian (we met in the church), and had her read the introduction. She speaks pretty much all in Romanian, so it is difficult to communicate. I finally just kneeled down to make us say a closing prayer because we had to go! Then we met her again with a member and watched the restoration video (which doesn't come in Romanian, which was frustrating, and makes me wonder what on earth the Romanian missionaries do!) with a member. Again, we could not communicate. Then she shows up randomly in church! How surprising! She brought her Book of Mormon with her, and kept saying, it is all true, it is all true over and over again. It was super cool. She felt the spirit super strongly, and actually had to sit down during the intermediate hymn because she was so overcome and crying. Crazy! Afterwards the bishop came up and introduced himself, and we stepped off to help Antonella, and when we came back she was gone. So Sorella Rossi called and set up an appointment and we saw her again the next day in the church building again. I was praying so hard to be able to understand her, and I actually did understand a good portion of what she was saying! (thank goodness Italian and Romanian are as similar as they are.) She was telling us about her husband, who died a year ago, and her commitment to follow God, and about all the churches she has been to and about how they all talk about the word of God. Then we find out she gave her Book of Mormon to the bishop, who knows why, we really couldn't understand that part. Then we had a prayer and sang a song (we were just going to read from the Book of Mormon, but she didn't have it anymore, and we can't talk effectively), and she felt the Spirit I believe. Then she stands up and starts crying and just puts her chair away and leaves. And we kept saying, wait! Wait! and are following after her locking up the church building as we go. She was so distraught, and telling us about how she is really at a point of survival financially right now, no food, no water, nothing. We convinced her to meet us again the next day at the church so we could give her another Book of Mormon and read from it together. So we go the next day to the church and she is there already, so we start unlocking the gate to go up together and I handed her a new Book of Mormon, and she just refuses to take it. She was super angry and gave it back to me and just kept asking for money and saying how the bishop wouldn't give her money, and how is a book supposed to help her when she needs food and water? And she was really angry and kind of yelling at us and finally just yelled 'arrivederci!' and stalked off down the hill. I was so befuddled and had no idea where this came from when just two days before in church she was telling us how the whole Book of Mormon was true! We saw her again randomly later that day, and talked, but then she got mad at us again. I told her that she is of course always welcome in church, but she was really mad and I didn't think we would ever see her again. Then she shows up at Antonella's baptism on Saturday! We were able to give her a Book of Mormon in Romanian again, and even a pamphlet of the plan of salvation in her language we had found. She stayed for the whole baptism, and at the end I talked to her a bit and she kept pointing at the plan and saying something (she was reading it during the baptism), I think about wanting to endure to the end, but honestly it is all such guess work because she only speaks to us in Romanian. Then she leaves again very suddenly. She does that a lot, in the middle of talking, but she can't understand what we are saying and we can't understand her so it is crazy! Then we saw her again on Monday, and she gave her Book of Mormon to some other random person again. We talked and she was complaining about the bishop not giving her money again. She just kept saying, 'lultima volta' which is 'last time' that she is ever coming to the church to see us again. And then she left. And then we ran into her on the street today. And she started talking, and wouldn't stop, but we had to go to interviews, so we finally just had to interrupt her and tell her we had to go. It is insane! I have no clue if we will ever see her again! But even if we do, who knows if she will love us or hate us, and there is no way we will understand her anyway! How crazy is this?
We did have a really amazing experience this week with these three American girls. On Sunday, two Americans show up in church, turns out they are here for a three week opera thingy in Verona. One was a member, the other was her roommate for the program whom she had invited to come to church. We went to go visit them, and the non-member friend had invited another non-member to come listen to us with them, so then we are teaching two girls with their member friend. It was so incredible! Teaching in English, real English, not pigeon English, was really a cool feeling. We sang I am a Child of God to them, and everyone started crying, the Spirit was really strong. The one of them kept telling us she hasn't cried in 18 years. The other is super prepared, and really wants to keep meeting with us and hear our message. I love seeing the powerful testimony of members, and how incredibly important it is to bring members to lessons. They bring a very strong spirit and are an important step for the investigator to have friends in the church.
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