We had a nifty week this week! We got to see a great investigator again, and we are starting to move in to teaching her the commandments, because she has been taught all the doctrinal lessons already and accepts them pretty well. The cool thing about her is that even if she has a problem with something we teach, she prays about it and gets and answer and then she knows the truth. I know that what we teach is true because it is not just the ideas of another man who started another church, but the eternal truths directly from God Himself. We are not teaching ordinary philosophies, but things that the Lord said in person to prophets or sent His angels to say to them. I love it so much. Well, we were planning on teaching the ten commandments along with a heap of other simple ones she is already living, like pray often and study the scriptures and obedience. So when we got to the ten commandments we thought we wouldn't have to take a lot of time talking about them because she is pretty cool and lives a very good life, but then we read the very first one, Thou shalt have no other Gods before me, and remembered all of a sudden that we still hadn't succesfully addressed the idea of worshiping mother Mary with her. So on the spot we had to teach her the principle of what this commandment means. We taught her that God has asked us not to worship images, or anything or anyone else instead of Him. Since prayer is a form of worship, that means that praying to Mary is a violation of this commandment. Obviously we believe that Mary was a wonderful and chosen woman, the mother of the Savior of the world, but God has asked that we direct our worship not to her, but to Himself. She objected very much, and we just bore strong testimony that we knew this principle was true. We knew we had to be very firm on what the truth was, even though she was not happy about it, and we were, very firm, but of course polite. And by the end of the lesson she had already told us she knew what we were saying is true. We committed her to pray about it to know for sure directly from God. She will. I am excited to see how that went for her when we see her again!
We had another potentially tense experience with an investigator this week. A woman whom we have been teaching off and on for almost two transfers now. We have had a couple of very powerful lessons on the Restoration with her, and she listens very closely and understands what we are teaching very clearly. It is so neat to see and then to hear her tell back accurately the truths we have taught her. The spirit has been very strong. Then we went this Monday and she starts off by telling us that she can't learn with us anymore. She told her family about it and they said that she can't follow two religions at once, that is Catholic, and must not meet with us anymore. Normally I would have felt very nervous about what the right response was or the right thing to say to help her eternally, but I suddenly just felt very calm and peaceful, which I recognize as having been the strong influence of the Spirit, and my companion said afterwards she felt the same way, and we just knew what to say and how to help her. She let us pray with her and teach her the deep importance of reading the Book of Mormon to know for ourselves, and the importance of counseling with God in her decision making. We read Alma 32 with her to help her understand how to find answers and find the truth - she told us she was searching for which church holds the truth - and she talked a lot and opened up and really felt the spirit. She told us back again very clearly that she understood that she must read and pray and come to church, and committed to come to church next Sunday. We were so excited! Sorella Snodgrass and I are so so grateful for the strong presence of the Spirit in that lesson with us. I have had a few times in my mission where I felt strongly that I had said exactly what God wanted in a lesson and really delivered His message to that specific person exactly and that now it was truly that person's choice fully and completely. This was one of those times. She let us teach and committed to continue learning because she felt the Spirit, and wanted to follow it. Preach My Gospel warns that some people reject your message even after having received a witness of its truth. She texted us today to tell us she does not want to meet with us anymore. We called to find out what had happened and she was very closed and would hardly talk to me, but said she could not find the time right now and that she had not been reading the Book of Mormon. It was way sad, she was our most progressing investigator right now. But that's her choice. Way sad.
But three people we met very recently did come to church on Sunday and that was a big boost! We haven't had any investigators in church in a long time. We were very excited that they all came to church on their own, even invited themselves. Yeah! We will see how this goes.
Probably the biggest news from this week is the scambio we did. I went all the way up to Pordenone, a good solid hour north of Venice, whereas I am two hours south of Verona. It is a very small town but really nice, I liked it a lot. My scambio companion, Sorella Burgoyne, and I had some fun casa experiences. We invited an old Italian man waiting for an elevator, and he declared he was atheist because of deaths in his family, and kept talking with his hands very much (as all Italians do), but getting uncomfortably close to me as I was talking to him. So I would casually take a step back when he came too close. Then immediately he would get closer again while ranting about our beliefs. And I would back up again. He literally chased us in a circle and then out in a straight line a solid ten feet away from the elevator he was waiting for, almost separating off my companion from me at one corner because the sidewalk was too narrow, and all without noticing at all that we were moving. It was hilarious! Finally we just said, 'well, we have to go. Thanks. Bye!' and had to rush off because I was trying so hard not to laugh it was so funny. Then in that same complex we were walking and nearing a corner, and suddenly a man came running around the corner and scared me half to death. I literally screamed at him and flung myself against the wall to get out of the way I was so startled, and then busted up laughing because he was just running past to his house. It was pretty embarrasing. Also Sorella Burgoyne and I lost each other for a solid ten minutes. I had no clue where I was or where she had gone, so I just sat put with my bike and waited for her to come back and find me. It was pretty funny. I just biked in circles in the piazza I was in. But it was a really fun scambio and I enjoyed working with a new sister I had not hardly known before.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Modena, Italy - February 2, 2011
I don't really have very much to say today at all, and I am not sure why there is so little but it is so. But my companion and I did have a funny moment that makes me wonder how strange I will be when I come home. Last Wednesday after email we were chatting and I told her about taking that scuba diving class at BYU before leaving for my mission, and she was asking how it works and stuff, and so I told her how we would have about an hour and a half of classroom time and then a half hour break and then reconvene at the swimming pool for practice for the first three weeks of the class, and then the last three weeks were all just open water dives in the crater out in Midway. And so I told her how it was a little tricky taking it when I didn't have a car or any friends in the class, and how every time we split to reconvene at the pool I had to just sort of walk around until I found someone who would let me ride with them, and how I had to set up rides with random people in my class to get to the crater. And she asked if a friend of hers had been in my class, a guy named Nathan, and we thought for a minute it could have been the same Nathan who would give me a ride to the crater. But it wasn't. Then we were talking about how I would like to take the last class maybe when we are back at BYU, and were talking about having to get rides again, and started talking about how it will be tricky now to make sure we have another woman in the car so that we are not breaking the rules. And then said, 'wait a minute, I wouldn't have to get a ride from a female, right?' and she said, 'wait, I'm not sure. um...' and we were actually legitimately confused for about ten seconds, then realized those were all just mission rules non-applicable to normal people and we laughed a lot. Another strange thing about mission life that I have heard carries over: you basically change your name for a year and half. I really am not 'Rebecca' anymore, ever, but instead I am Sorella Langham. But in practice, your companion and other sisters and often even elders drop off the last name and we just refer to each other as 'sorella' or 'anziano', in effect changing your first name for 18 months from Rebecca to Sorella. But it isn't just me, either. You always just refer to your companion as, 'hey sorella, look at this!' or 'sorella, do you have a pamphlet in Bulgarian in your bag?' or whatever it is. But you do that for each companion, and everyone does that for every companion. So basically for 18 months you spend all your time with a bunch of other people who all have the same new first name, sorella, that you do. And it is so automatic now to just call the person I am with 'sorella,' that I am pretty sure I will accidentally call people 'sorella' when I come home too! bah! How strange!
Nothing much has changed this week, just did a lot of finding work and second appointments with the people we found last week. We did have interviews with President this week, and a training from the assistants during, and it was actually really good, Sorella Snodgrass and I really enjoyed it quite much.
Well, next week we are doing scambi, but a three-way scambi with Verona and Pordenone, and I will be going to Pordenone, way up north in the middle of nowhere, for Tuesday and Wednesday, and so we are bumping back p-day to Thursday. I'll write again next Thursday!
Nothing much has changed this week, just did a lot of finding work and second appointments with the people we found last week. We did have interviews with President this week, and a training from the assistants during, and it was actually really good, Sorella Snodgrass and I really enjoyed it quite much.
Well, next week we are doing scambi, but a three-way scambi with Verona and Pordenone, and I will be going to Pordenone, way up north in the middle of nowhere, for Tuesday and Wednesday, and so we are bumping back p-day to Thursday. I'll write again next Thursday!
Modena, Italy - January 26, 2011
So, as you know, we were meant to have zone conference last wednesday. It was incredibly awesome! Elder Kopischke, of the 1st quorum of the seventy, who is a member of the Area Presidency of Europe, came and did the whole thing. It was the longest zone conference I have ever been to, all the way until 6 pm (started at 10:30), and so awesome. He had served previously as a mission president in Germany (he is German), and told us tons of awesome stories and gave really solid, practical advice about things like how to know when to leave an investigator and go on to someone else, or how to help members get involved in stuff, how to invite people to church. He did a lot of role plays, and they were usually hilarious and also instructive. It was way cool. I loved it. One thing that President Wolfgramm, our mission president, mentioned before Elder Kopischke spoke was that one of the reasons he likes doing casa is because he looks at it as a game. Normally when people open the door they don't keep it open hardly any time at all, and just straight up slam it in our faces. He said he looks at doing casa like a game to get out a question before they close the door again. So Sorella Snodgrass and I started doing it, and it was amazing! We had so many conversations with people instead of just slammed doors. Not a lot of people necessarily let us in, but they talked to us. We're not talking questions just like, 'What's your name?' but more like questions of the soul, like, 'Well, what do you think the purpose of life is?' And it has been a blast. People talk instead of slam and it helps us feel a lot more productive in doing casa.
In fact, we've seen a lot of miracles in our finding work lately. For example, we had already knocked every single door in this one palazzo, but were back for a follow-up passby thingy, and there was a young Philipino girl waiting for the elevator. So I asked her if we could come up and talk to her family (talk to everyone, preach my gospel says, even when you have knocked all the doors and everyone else said no), so she said yes and let us come up with her! We went inside and met her mom, and I was feeling confused because I really did not remember having knocked on the door of any family from the Philipines, when out of the back popped this older talkative Italian man, whom we did recognize because he was the one who answered the door. It is his house, and he rents part of it to the family, but we did not know that when we knocked on the door and he answered. he was very polite, and kept telling us what a bravo man Joseph Smith was, and really was very polite towards Mormons but said he had already read the Book of Mormon and wasn't interested. Well, he was totally okay with us coming in to talk to the family, and we even had a Book of Mormon in Tagalog with us. (Usually before going out the door I try to pray and think about which Book of Mormon language to take with me that day, and that day I had felt Tagalog, and usually my companion tells me I am insane when I try to take Tagalog because it is such a random language.) So we taught mainly the mother and the old Italian man, actually, about the Book of Mormon, in English, too, because the man understands English abbastanza and the family speaks English much better than Italian. and then halfway through the lesson the man interrupts and turns to the mother and says, 'look at their eyes. You can see they talk with God by their eyes, can't you?' he actually was the most excited one in the room, and he is the one who had told us no when we knocked on the door! We were able to really discern some of the mother's most pressing questions of the soul, revolving around her family, and the old man even left half way through because, 'the husband and children must hear this message!' and went and brought the whole family. It gets even more incredible, at the end of the lesson the old man said kind of sheepishly, 'um, could I have another copy of the Book of Mormon? I would like to re read it.' And so we gave him one in Italian (we always carry one in Italian). And we have a return appointment tonight with the whole family and the old man! We are so excited! It was a really beautiful experience.
We have actually gotten many many comments lately about how clear our faces and eyes look and how bright, and from others even more specific things like how that means we talk with God or that we have the spirit or we represent Jesus Christ. It has been a really humbling thing, to think people really do look at us that way, and know that we really have a responsibility to represent him. But this is not only us, but all members have taken upon them the name of Christ at baptism. We really do represent Him in a very literal way. What a privilege! (in fact, someone in the priesthood session of this past general conference talked about this, about member missionaries or something, which I cannot remember the name of. But my friend Hermana Kinghorn mentioned Elder Nelson's priesthood session talk in her letters home recently, so maybe it is that one. Check it out!)
I read a talk of President Monson's today from the past general conference about gratitude. I realize that I really do need to be more grateful. As I write these awesome experiences we have home, I realize that I really am so grateful for the chance to be a missionary, for the things I am learning, for the people I get to meet and help and teach and even see baptized. What a privilege! But sometimes I am just so tired or we go a whole day where no one shows for their appointment or lets us in the door doing casa and so we return home without teaching a single lesson, or I have a headache or I am hungry and biking quickly because we are late, or someone awesome flat out tells us they want to settle for the terrestrial kingdom because it is easier, and I think how much I will be glad to return to normal life when this is over and not be a missionary any more. I think all missionaries feel that way at times. But I think that maybe a lot of these feelings stem from un-gratitude and that if we make a bigger effort to be grateful, to see miracles and recognize our blessings and what a privilege we have, a lot of our tired frustration and homesickness or hopelessness that anyone will ever open a door or get baptized will go away. I love the gospel. I love the interactions between different gospel principles. Gratefulness affects faith and hope and, therefore, miracles. I love being a missionary, and am excited to see more miracles together with Sorella Snodgrass here in Modena!
In fact, we've seen a lot of miracles in our finding work lately. For example, we had already knocked every single door in this one palazzo, but were back for a follow-up passby thingy, and there was a young Philipino girl waiting for the elevator. So I asked her if we could come up and talk to her family (talk to everyone, preach my gospel says, even when you have knocked all the doors and everyone else said no), so she said yes and let us come up with her! We went inside and met her mom, and I was feeling confused because I really did not remember having knocked on the door of any family from the Philipines, when out of the back popped this older talkative Italian man, whom we did recognize because he was the one who answered the door. It is his house, and he rents part of it to the family, but we did not know that when we knocked on the door and he answered. he was very polite, and kept telling us what a bravo man Joseph Smith was, and really was very polite towards Mormons but said he had already read the Book of Mormon and wasn't interested. Well, he was totally okay with us coming in to talk to the family, and we even had a Book of Mormon in Tagalog with us. (Usually before going out the door I try to pray and think about which Book of Mormon language to take with me that day, and that day I had felt Tagalog, and usually my companion tells me I am insane when I try to take Tagalog because it is such a random language.) So we taught mainly the mother and the old Italian man, actually, about the Book of Mormon, in English, too, because the man understands English abbastanza and the family speaks English much better than Italian. and then halfway through the lesson the man interrupts and turns to the mother and says, 'look at their eyes. You can see they talk with God by their eyes, can't you?' he actually was the most excited one in the room, and he is the one who had told us no when we knocked on the door! We were able to really discern some of the mother's most pressing questions of the soul, revolving around her family, and the old man even left half way through because, 'the husband and children must hear this message!' and went and brought the whole family. It gets even more incredible, at the end of the lesson the old man said kind of sheepishly, 'um, could I have another copy of the Book of Mormon? I would like to re read it.' And so we gave him one in Italian (we always carry one in Italian). And we have a return appointment tonight with the whole family and the old man! We are so excited! It was a really beautiful experience.
We have actually gotten many many comments lately about how clear our faces and eyes look and how bright, and from others even more specific things like how that means we talk with God or that we have the spirit or we represent Jesus Christ. It has been a really humbling thing, to think people really do look at us that way, and know that we really have a responsibility to represent him. But this is not only us, but all members have taken upon them the name of Christ at baptism. We really do represent Him in a very literal way. What a privilege! (in fact, someone in the priesthood session of this past general conference talked about this, about member missionaries or something, which I cannot remember the name of. But my friend Hermana Kinghorn mentioned Elder Nelson's priesthood session talk in her letters home recently, so maybe it is that one. Check it out!)
I read a talk of President Monson's today from the past general conference about gratitude. I realize that I really do need to be more grateful. As I write these awesome experiences we have home, I realize that I really am so grateful for the chance to be a missionary, for the things I am learning, for the people I get to meet and help and teach and even see baptized. What a privilege! But sometimes I am just so tired or we go a whole day where no one shows for their appointment or lets us in the door doing casa and so we return home without teaching a single lesson, or I have a headache or I am hungry and biking quickly because we are late, or someone awesome flat out tells us they want to settle for the terrestrial kingdom because it is easier, and I think how much I will be glad to return to normal life when this is over and not be a missionary any more. I think all missionaries feel that way at times. But I think that maybe a lot of these feelings stem from un-gratitude and that if we make a bigger effort to be grateful, to see miracles and recognize our blessings and what a privilege we have, a lot of our tired frustration and homesickness or hopelessness that anyone will ever open a door or get baptized will go away. I love the gospel. I love the interactions between different gospel principles. Gratefulness affects faith and hope and, therefore, miracles. I love being a missionary, and am excited to see more miracles together with Sorella Snodgrass here in Modena!
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Modena, Italy - January 18, 2011
Elder Kopishcke, a member of the Europe Area presidency, is coming to the mission so we are having a special zone conference of half the mission tomorrow, our normal p-day. Sorella Snodgrass and I are excited!
In fact, we had a really awesome miracle, which for some reason was super extra exciting for both of us, on the day we were coming back from Milano with her luggage. We got off the train in Modena, and went to the elevator. It was extremely slow in arriving, and we were worried because we did not know how we were going to manage all the very heavy bags down the stairs, but then it came. We got ourselves all loaded in, and pushed the button to go down, and it would not go! Nothing was happening. We were concerned. So Sorella Snodgrass said, 'well, in Bergamo, we prayed once to make the elevator work and then it did.' So we started praying. Really hard. Many times. Then we asked a random person going down the stairs to push the button downstairs and try calling it from down there. And we prayed some more, trying to be very faithful that it would work. We literally stood in the elevator praying for about five solid minutes. Finally, we were about to step out and try to figure something else out, and right as I was about to take a step, the door closed on us! We got very excited! So now we were in the elevator, but it would not move. So we pushed the button, and faithed it some more, and then it very slowly moved to the bottom, and opened up! It was so awesome! The scriptures say that even a grain of mustard seed of faith can move a mountain. We moved an elevator! Hooray!
And then two days later, our long lost friend (investigator) finally came back from her Christmas holidays in Bulgaria! And we got to see her at last, with Sorella Bergamini, a member here, who came with us to the lesson. It was awesome. And the investigator came to church the next day too, which was a particular act of faith because she brought back her aged and infirm mother from Bulgaria and was very afraid to leave her at home for the three hours of church, but we told her it was an act of faith and that God would protect her mother if she came, and then she came! And now she is praying really hard about getting baptized next month, in February. We are so excited! Woo hoo! I really admire that woman's faith. I already told you about how she came to know this church was true, right, about how she kept hearing the voice over and over that told her she knows already where the truth is, and then how after that she talked herself into baptism during our lesson? Well, yesterday, she said that after she agreed to baptism with us (this is all still before she left for Christmas, but we hadn't been able to see her in the interim, so we just found it out yesterday), when she was alone she started freaking out because she is not at all perfect and still makes mistakes and so she can't be baptized yet because she is not ready. I was totally ready to jump in and start telling her that no one is perfect and you do not have to be perfect to be baptized and I just really wanted to correct these false notions right away, but she talks louder than I do, so I had to wait and listen to the end of the story (good thing). She said she started praying to tell God that, that she couldn't get baptized yet because she wasn't perfect and didn't feel ready, and she said she felt the same voice (the one that said, 'tu lo sai dove la verita' about knowing where the truth is), say to her 'don't worry, you can get baptized anyway.' So now she knows that she can get baptized! She fixed her own doctrinal issue and concern through prayer! SHE IS SO AWESOME! Prayer is so powerful. I really know that anyone who prays with faith and is willing to accept and act on the answer will receive.
Also, we got this new training booklet when they introduced the new training program to the mission all about the eight mini-lessons that goes with preach my gospel. It is super awesome. There is an additional section about finding in it, with some fun finding ideas, and one idea is to carry around a whiteboard with a yes-no question of the soul written on it. (Actually, at first that confused me, because normally we don't like to ask yes-no questions so we can get people talking, but then it explained that if it is a yes-no question people are usually more willing to stop and add their answer, and then you can ask a follow up question to start talking to them.) And then underneath you have a yes and a no section where people can tally mark their answers. We brainstormed questions like, 'Is there life after death?' 'Can a belief in Jesus Christ affect my every day life?' 'I wish there were a prophet like the ones in the Bible on the earth today.' and 'I prayed last week.' We ended up writing out 'I prayed last week' (ho pregato l'altra settimana) and just walked around asking people to tally in their answer. we did it for about two hours, and by the end of the time had about four new follow-up appointments with people, many of them actual Italians! It was remarkable! When someone tallied their answer, we would follow it up with something like, 'how do you pray?' (i.e., memorized prayers, to God in the name of Jesus, stuff like that.) And bear testimony of prayer and ask to see them again with our message and it was so super cool! We had a ton of fun doing it.
I really love teaching people about the gospel, and am so grateful for the restored truths we have thanks to God's love for us in calling the prophet Joseph Smith to restore the gospel of Jesus Christ. Yay!
In fact, we had a really awesome miracle, which for some reason was super extra exciting for both of us, on the day we were coming back from Milano with her luggage. We got off the train in Modena, and went to the elevator. It was extremely slow in arriving, and we were worried because we did not know how we were going to manage all the very heavy bags down the stairs, but then it came. We got ourselves all loaded in, and pushed the button to go down, and it would not go! Nothing was happening. We were concerned. So Sorella Snodgrass said, 'well, in Bergamo, we prayed once to make the elevator work and then it did.' So we started praying. Really hard. Many times. Then we asked a random person going down the stairs to push the button downstairs and try calling it from down there. And we prayed some more, trying to be very faithful that it would work. We literally stood in the elevator praying for about five solid minutes. Finally, we were about to step out and try to figure something else out, and right as I was about to take a step, the door closed on us! We got very excited! So now we were in the elevator, but it would not move. So we pushed the button, and faithed it some more, and then it very slowly moved to the bottom, and opened up! It was so awesome! The scriptures say that even a grain of mustard seed of faith can move a mountain. We moved an elevator! Hooray!
And then two days later, our long lost friend (investigator) finally came back from her Christmas holidays in Bulgaria! And we got to see her at last, with Sorella Bergamini, a member here, who came with us to the lesson. It was awesome. And the investigator came to church the next day too, which was a particular act of faith because she brought back her aged and infirm mother from Bulgaria and was very afraid to leave her at home for the three hours of church, but we told her it was an act of faith and that God would protect her mother if she came, and then she came! And now she is praying really hard about getting baptized next month, in February. We are so excited! Woo hoo! I really admire that woman's faith. I already told you about how she came to know this church was true, right, about how she kept hearing the voice over and over that told her she knows already where the truth is, and then how after that she talked herself into baptism during our lesson? Well, yesterday, she said that after she agreed to baptism with us (this is all still before she left for Christmas, but we hadn't been able to see her in the interim, so we just found it out yesterday), when she was alone she started freaking out because she is not at all perfect and still makes mistakes and so she can't be baptized yet because she is not ready. I was totally ready to jump in and start telling her that no one is perfect and you do not have to be perfect to be baptized and I just really wanted to correct these false notions right away, but she talks louder than I do, so I had to wait and listen to the end of the story (good thing). She said she started praying to tell God that, that she couldn't get baptized yet because she wasn't perfect and didn't feel ready, and she said she felt the same voice (the one that said, 'tu lo sai dove la verita' about knowing where the truth is), say to her 'don't worry, you can get baptized anyway.' So now she knows that she can get baptized! She fixed her own doctrinal issue and concern through prayer! SHE IS SO AWESOME! Prayer is so powerful. I really know that anyone who prays with faith and is willing to accept and act on the answer will receive.
Also, we got this new training booklet when they introduced the new training program to the mission all about the eight mini-lessons that goes with preach my gospel. It is super awesome. There is an additional section about finding in it, with some fun finding ideas, and one idea is to carry around a whiteboard with a yes-no question of the soul written on it. (Actually, at first that confused me, because normally we don't like to ask yes-no questions so we can get people talking, but then it explained that if it is a yes-no question people are usually more willing to stop and add their answer, and then you can ask a follow up question to start talking to them.) And then underneath you have a yes and a no section where people can tally mark their answers. We brainstormed questions like, 'Is there life after death?' 'Can a belief in Jesus Christ affect my every day life?' 'I wish there were a prophet like the ones in the Bible on the earth today.' and 'I prayed last week.' We ended up writing out 'I prayed last week' (ho pregato l'altra settimana) and just walked around asking people to tally in their answer. we did it for about two hours, and by the end of the time had about four new follow-up appointments with people, many of them actual Italians! It was remarkable! When someone tallied their answer, we would follow it up with something like, 'how do you pray?' (i.e., memorized prayers, to God in the name of Jesus, stuff like that.) And bear testimony of prayer and ask to see them again with our message and it was so super cool! We had a ton of fun doing it.
I really love teaching people about the gospel, and am so grateful for the restored truths we have thanks to God's love for us in calling the prophet Joseph Smith to restore the gospel of Jesus Christ. Yay!
Modena, Italy - January 12, 2011
Allora, cara famiglia, e' gia finito un'altro trasferimento.
Well, dear family and friends, already another transfer is done. Moving on into transfer number 7, I will be on my second city, still here in Modena, with my sixth companion, who will be Sorella Snodgrass! She was in the MTC with me, so I already know her. How cool is that? Sorella Ryan and I had a blast, and the transfer zoomed by super super fast, but she is off to go be whitewashed into Milano 2 with Sorella Thurston (a.k.a. Anna, with whom I studied abroad in London, still way weird that we're in the same mission). She is excited and ready to leave her first city. I am excited for another new companion! I never thought I would be so steadily switching companions so far nearly every transfer. Still Sorella Mullen is my only companion for more than one transfer! Strange! This'll be fun.
Also, this week we found something really awesome. In the July 2010 Ensign (or at least the Liahona, which is what we get here), in the section of Latter-Day Saint Voices (where people mail in and tell cool stories), you have got to go read, right now, the one called 'Forgetting Ourselves in Sicily.' The reason it is so particularly extra cool is that, yes, the Interdonato family, the one in the story, is totally in my ward here in Modena!!! Sorella Interdonato, who was just released from her calling as Relief Society President, was giving us a ride to an appointment and coming with us a few days ago, and told us the whole story of her conversion from her perspective. It was hilarious, and so awesome. She said her son, Omar, contacted the missionary and they printed the story all without telling her, and when she read it, she cried a lot. And our whole relief society, when they read it, all cried. Crazy! Go read it. It's super exciting.
Also, we have been doing a ton of finding work, lots and lots and lots of casa in these days. So at one of these places I forgot to take off my helmet and didn't realize it until we were already in the palazzo, so I certainly did not want to go back out to the bike to put it away, so I just carried it in my hand the whole time. Then, after getting about 50 other doors slammed in our faces, we were lamenting and wondering if we should be trying something different, because nothing seemed to be working. I made some joke about using my helmet, and my companion laughed, and we just kept going. This guy opened the next door, and my companion started talking, and all of a sudden I just jumped forward with the helmet up and a huge smile on my face. The guy gave me the weirdest look, especially because I hadn't said anything yet, and Sorella Ryan almost started laughing, and I just started talking and telling him how lots of bad things happen in life, and sometimes it's hard, and although we have helmets to protect us if we fall when biking, sometimes it seems there is nothing to help us out and keep us safe when these things happen to us in life. I told him we had a message about the helmet for our life (il casco della vita) that we would really love to share. It was awesome! He gave us a time to come back, because at that precise moment he was studying for an exam the next day, and told us to come back the afternoon after the exam was over. Cool, huh? It was way fun.
And speaking of helmets, it brought out another awesome story this week. No one in Italy wears helmets when they bike (and everyone bikes, even if they are 90 years old), except the missionaries. In fact, that's how people identify us. 'Wait, I know who the mormons are, but I've never seen the girl ones, just those guys on bikes with helmets.' It's kind of fun. Anyway, we were teaching this family, mainly the adult daughter and the mother, and there were three very small children, a six-year-old girl and twin 3-year-old boys. The boys are the most adorable thing ever, so cute. Well, we were biking along the other day and saw this woman with a wall of small children ahead, and when we got closer realized it was those small kids! (But with a different woman, I don't know why.) Anyway, we stopped and said hello to the small children very briefly, and the twin boys, were so excited to see us, and one of them kept looking up at me and saying, 'wow, che bella testa oggi!' which means, 'wow, what a beautiful head today!' And after a moment I realized he was talking about my helmet, and that this three-year-old Ghanian boy has never seen a helmet before in his life, and it is so foreign looking it did not even look like a hat to him, and he literally thought that today we had changed our heads. Not our faces, just our heads. And it was just such a funny thought how real that could be to him, that these awesome American missionary sisters could just change their head for the day. It was so adorable though, just over and over again, che bella testa oggi! hehe.
Oh yeah, and also, this week Sorella Ryan and I took our first ever cultural day. Once every other transfer we are allowed to take a short p-day and instead on another day attend some sort of event that we could not do during normal preparation day hours, so Sorella Ryan and I went to Bologna and saw a play in Italian! It was Agatha Christie's 'The Mousetrap,' and it was super interesting, because I have seen it before in English (in London, actually), but this time it was all in Italian. It was a really cool experience with the language in particular. We really enjoyed it.
This week we finally had a breakthrough with all our finding work and got to see one of our new people for the second time - the Italian family I think I mentioned a while back that we saw the first time right before Christmas. We were able to bring them a book of Mormon and teach them about it, and both of the wives (we actually haven't been able to see the husbands yet) are very interested and want us to come back, so we have another appointment this weekend! Hooray! We are very excited. It went well.
Well, I think that's it for this week. We have to pack up my companion today! I am so glad we have an elevator in Modena. In Verona, we were on the fourth floor and I moved four different people into and out of that apartment, and no elevator, and the bags are really heavy to drag up and down that extremely tall narrow staircase. Bleh. I expect tomorrow to go much more smoothly with an elevator. yay!
Well, dear family and friends, already another transfer is done. Moving on into transfer number 7, I will be on my second city, still here in Modena, with my sixth companion, who will be Sorella Snodgrass! She was in the MTC with me, so I already know her. How cool is that? Sorella Ryan and I had a blast, and the transfer zoomed by super super fast, but she is off to go be whitewashed into Milano 2 with Sorella Thurston (a.k.a. Anna, with whom I studied abroad in London, still way weird that we're in the same mission). She is excited and ready to leave her first city. I am excited for another new companion! I never thought I would be so steadily switching companions so far nearly every transfer. Still Sorella Mullen is my only companion for more than one transfer! Strange! This'll be fun.
Also, this week we found something really awesome. In the July 2010 Ensign (or at least the Liahona, which is what we get here), in the section of Latter-Day Saint Voices (where people mail in and tell cool stories), you have got to go read, right now, the one called 'Forgetting Ourselves in Sicily.' The reason it is so particularly extra cool is that, yes, the Interdonato family, the one in the story, is totally in my ward here in Modena!!! Sorella Interdonato, who was just released from her calling as Relief Society President, was giving us a ride to an appointment and coming with us a few days ago, and told us the whole story of her conversion from her perspective. It was hilarious, and so awesome. She said her son, Omar, contacted the missionary and they printed the story all without telling her, and when she read it, she cried a lot. And our whole relief society, when they read it, all cried. Crazy! Go read it. It's super exciting.
Also, we have been doing a ton of finding work, lots and lots and lots of casa in these days. So at one of these places I forgot to take off my helmet and didn't realize it until we were already in the palazzo, so I certainly did not want to go back out to the bike to put it away, so I just carried it in my hand the whole time. Then, after getting about 50 other doors slammed in our faces, we were lamenting and wondering if we should be trying something different, because nothing seemed to be working. I made some joke about using my helmet, and my companion laughed, and we just kept going. This guy opened the next door, and my companion started talking, and all of a sudden I just jumped forward with the helmet up and a huge smile on my face. The guy gave me the weirdest look, especially because I hadn't said anything yet, and Sorella Ryan almost started laughing, and I just started talking and telling him how lots of bad things happen in life, and sometimes it's hard, and although we have helmets to protect us if we fall when biking, sometimes it seems there is nothing to help us out and keep us safe when these things happen to us in life. I told him we had a message about the helmet for our life (il casco della vita) that we would really love to share. It was awesome! He gave us a time to come back, because at that precise moment he was studying for an exam the next day, and told us to come back the afternoon after the exam was over. Cool, huh? It was way fun.
And speaking of helmets, it brought out another awesome story this week. No one in Italy wears helmets when they bike (and everyone bikes, even if they are 90 years old), except the missionaries. In fact, that's how people identify us. 'Wait, I know who the mormons are, but I've never seen the girl ones, just those guys on bikes with helmets.' It's kind of fun. Anyway, we were teaching this family, mainly the adult daughter and the mother, and there were three very small children, a six-year-old girl and twin 3-year-old boys. The boys are the most adorable thing ever, so cute. Well, we were biking along the other day and saw this woman with a wall of small children ahead, and when we got closer realized it was those small kids! (But with a different woman, I don't know why.) Anyway, we stopped and said hello to the small children very briefly, and the twin boys, were so excited to see us, and one of them kept looking up at me and saying, 'wow, che bella testa oggi!' which means, 'wow, what a beautiful head today!' And after a moment I realized he was talking about my helmet, and that this three-year-old Ghanian boy has never seen a helmet before in his life, and it is so foreign looking it did not even look like a hat to him, and he literally thought that today we had changed our heads. Not our faces, just our heads. And it was just such a funny thought how real that could be to him, that these awesome American missionary sisters could just change their head for the day. It was so adorable though, just over and over again, che bella testa oggi! hehe.
Oh yeah, and also, this week Sorella Ryan and I took our first ever cultural day. Once every other transfer we are allowed to take a short p-day and instead on another day attend some sort of event that we could not do during normal preparation day hours, so Sorella Ryan and I went to Bologna and saw a play in Italian! It was Agatha Christie's 'The Mousetrap,' and it was super interesting, because I have seen it before in English (in London, actually), but this time it was all in Italian. It was a really cool experience with the language in particular. We really enjoyed it.
This week we finally had a breakthrough with all our finding work and got to see one of our new people for the second time - the Italian family I think I mentioned a while back that we saw the first time right before Christmas. We were able to bring them a book of Mormon and teach them about it, and both of the wives (we actually haven't been able to see the husbands yet) are very interested and want us to come back, so we have another appointment this weekend! Hooray! We are very excited. It went well.
Well, I think that's it for this week. We have to pack up my companion today! I am so glad we have an elevator in Modena. In Verona, we were on the fourth floor and I moved four different people into and out of that apartment, and no elevator, and the bags are really heavy to drag up and down that extremely tall narrow staircase. Bleh. I expect tomorrow to go much more smoothly with an elevator. yay!
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Modena, Italy - January 5, 2011
You know, this week we used in a lesson for the first time this awesome object lesson where you douse cotton balls in alcohol and light them on fire! it's super cool.
We have been having a crazy time of things these past few weeks, because everyone we were teaching that was progressing or had a baptismal date went out of town for the holidays. They're still not back yet. So we have been doing tons and tons of finding work, lots of door knocking. One family we found was from Nigeria, a husband, wife, and their two-year-old daughter. Mainly we were teaching the wife, but this week on Friday we went and she was not there, but her husband was there, so we decided to teach him the first lesson, hoping to catch him up with his wife. He had the two-year-old daughter there too. She is a little crazy usually, but today she was pretty good, just eating her food on the bed across from me while we were teaching. Things seemed to be going well and he was listening, when all of a sudden out of no where, his daughter violently spits her mouthful of mystery-creamed food. All over me. Aach! It was super gross. The father was horrified. He went running around looking for a towel or something and comes back and starts attacking me (really the food, though) with some old t-shirt he found. By the time we took care of the food, the lesson had fallen to pieces. He did not like anything we had to say. It was crazy. And gross. Blech!
Also, we had another funny incident at service this week. Every monday from 3-5 in the afternoon we do service at a local mensa, a place where people who haven't any food can come and we give them food, like packages of pasta, rice, fruit, meat, bread, etc. Well, many of the people who come are muslim (a little ironic, since it is in a catholic church, which makes it equally ironic that we the Mormon missionaries do service there), and so we have to be sure not to give them any meat from pigs. Well, usually they give us a heads up before hand when we come to get their bags to take them back and fill them up. On Friday, when we went in because they called us and needed extra help for the holidays, towards the end, all of a sudden this lady comes back in with a slightly frantic expression on, with the loaf of bread we had given her in her hand, and comes up to me and one of the other volunteers. She points at the bread and says, 'cos'e' questo qua? c'e' qualcosa dentro?' which means, 'what is this here? is there something inside?' She was pointing at the pieces of grain on the outside of the bread. But she panics and starts saying, 'no, no, e' maiale, no?' which is, 'no, no, it's pig, isn't it?' but it was not, it was just grain. So we told her that we were certain that's not what it was, but that if she did not want it anyway she could easily just leave it here and did not have to take it home at all. All of a sudden she breaks the bread in half, says, 'secondo me, c'e' qualcosa dentro' (according to me, there is something inside it), drops the bread, and storms off! It was so startling!
i mentioned how the work has been pretty slow lately, with tons of finding work and virtually no progressing investigators. Well, we finally had a couple of second or third appointments, so we went crazy finding members to bring because we finally had the opportunity. It felt so good. Monday was a great day, and having members come with us to the lessons made such a difference! (also, as a side note, if the missionaries in your ward ever ask you to come to a lesson with them, please please go, it is so important!) The members talking and bearing testimony makes such a difference and helps the investigator so so much. We brought one fairly new convert from Nigeria to a second appointment with a man we found on the street placing Books of Mormon, the one who had just recently survived a car crash and felt he had been given a second chance at life. It was incredible to see how attentive they were and how much they all listened to him. We asked the member to share the story of Joseph Smith, and he did a great job. At one point he held up the picture in the Restoration pamphlet of Joseph in the Sacred Grove praying, and he very seriously looks at the four people in the room we are teaching and says, 'This is Joseph Smith, praying in the, in the sacred...uh, in the Most Holy Forest.' And it was so adorable. Afterwards he told us it was the first time he has ever gone teaching with the missionaries. He was phenomenal, and had those people hanging on his every word. One of them at the end asked if it meant that if everyone in the world followed the truth of the Book of Mormon if we would all be unified and have the same church Jesus had, and we told him yes, and he said he would read it. It was a really neat lesson. We will be seeing them again tonight. We are super excited!
Also, our apartment is falling apart. We did the big cleaning day, capodanno, this week on Saturday, we are not allowed to go outside all day and just clean clean clean from 10 am until 9 pm. We did not stop cleaning until almost 10:30, and even then still did not finish, and called the office on Monday with a massive list of things that are broken and need to be fixed. The biggest thing is that our toilet has a hole in it, and then that there is a bunch of mold growing on the walls. Crazy! So now we are sleeping on mattresses on the floor in the living room while we are preparing the bedroom, laundry room, and kitchen for de-molding by ripping off wallpaper, scraping, and sponging with bleach. We are to do that, my companion and I, as soon as possible, and then when the assistants are down in Modena (we are a fair ways from Milano, though closer still than several other cities) for interviews in a couple of weeks, they will come take a look at it. Our ward responsible person for the missionary apartments was totally unhelpful. He came over to look at it, said he already knew about all of these things and that the only useful thing to do would be to move us to another apartment, and refused to do or think of anything to actually help with the problem, just called the mission office to tell them how he has been saying for three years that we need to move. It was crazy! So now my companion and I shall do the deed! We are pretty secretely excited to rip all the wallpaper off the walls...hehehe...
well, I hope y'all had a great new year. I love you.
We have been having a crazy time of things these past few weeks, because everyone we were teaching that was progressing or had a baptismal date went out of town for the holidays. They're still not back yet. So we have been doing tons and tons of finding work, lots of door knocking. One family we found was from Nigeria, a husband, wife, and their two-year-old daughter. Mainly we were teaching the wife, but this week on Friday we went and she was not there, but her husband was there, so we decided to teach him the first lesson, hoping to catch him up with his wife. He had the two-year-old daughter there too. She is a little crazy usually, but today she was pretty good, just eating her food on the bed across from me while we were teaching. Things seemed to be going well and he was listening, when all of a sudden out of no where, his daughter violently spits her mouthful of mystery-creamed food. All over me. Aach! It was super gross. The father was horrified. He went running around looking for a towel or something and comes back and starts attacking me (really the food, though) with some old t-shirt he found. By the time we took care of the food, the lesson had fallen to pieces. He did not like anything we had to say. It was crazy. And gross. Blech!
Also, we had another funny incident at service this week. Every monday from 3-5 in the afternoon we do service at a local mensa, a place where people who haven't any food can come and we give them food, like packages of pasta, rice, fruit, meat, bread, etc. Well, many of the people who come are muslim (a little ironic, since it is in a catholic church, which makes it equally ironic that we the Mormon missionaries do service there), and so we have to be sure not to give them any meat from pigs. Well, usually they give us a heads up before hand when we come to get their bags to take them back and fill them up. On Friday, when we went in because they called us and needed extra help for the holidays, towards the end, all of a sudden this lady comes back in with a slightly frantic expression on, with the loaf of bread we had given her in her hand, and comes up to me and one of the other volunteers. She points at the bread and says, 'cos'e' questo qua? c'e' qualcosa dentro?' which means, 'what is this here? is there something inside?' She was pointing at the pieces of grain on the outside of the bread. But she panics and starts saying, 'no, no, e' maiale, no?' which is, 'no, no, it's pig, isn't it?' but it was not, it was just grain. So we told her that we were certain that's not what it was, but that if she did not want it anyway she could easily just leave it here and did not have to take it home at all. All of a sudden she breaks the bread in half, says, 'secondo me, c'e' qualcosa dentro' (according to me, there is something inside it), drops the bread, and storms off! It was so startling!
i mentioned how the work has been pretty slow lately, with tons of finding work and virtually no progressing investigators. Well, we finally had a couple of second or third appointments, so we went crazy finding members to bring because we finally had the opportunity. It felt so good. Monday was a great day, and having members come with us to the lessons made such a difference! (also, as a side note, if the missionaries in your ward ever ask you to come to a lesson with them, please please go, it is so important!) The members talking and bearing testimony makes such a difference and helps the investigator so so much. We brought one fairly new convert from Nigeria to a second appointment with a man we found on the street placing Books of Mormon, the one who had just recently survived a car crash and felt he had been given a second chance at life. It was incredible to see how attentive they were and how much they all listened to him. We asked the member to share the story of Joseph Smith, and he did a great job. At one point he held up the picture in the Restoration pamphlet of Joseph in the Sacred Grove praying, and he very seriously looks at the four people in the room we are teaching and says, 'This is Joseph Smith, praying in the, in the sacred...uh, in the Most Holy Forest.' And it was so adorable. Afterwards he told us it was the first time he has ever gone teaching with the missionaries. He was phenomenal, and had those people hanging on his every word. One of them at the end asked if it meant that if everyone in the world followed the truth of the Book of Mormon if we would all be unified and have the same church Jesus had, and we told him yes, and he said he would read it. It was a really neat lesson. We will be seeing them again tonight. We are super excited!
Also, our apartment is falling apart. We did the big cleaning day, capodanno, this week on Saturday, we are not allowed to go outside all day and just clean clean clean from 10 am until 9 pm. We did not stop cleaning until almost 10:30, and even then still did not finish, and called the office on Monday with a massive list of things that are broken and need to be fixed. The biggest thing is that our toilet has a hole in it, and then that there is a bunch of mold growing on the walls. Crazy! So now we are sleeping on mattresses on the floor in the living room while we are preparing the bedroom, laundry room, and kitchen for de-molding by ripping off wallpaper, scraping, and sponging with bleach. We are to do that, my companion and I, as soon as possible, and then when the assistants are down in Modena (we are a fair ways from Milano, though closer still than several other cities) for interviews in a couple of weeks, they will come take a look at it. Our ward responsible person for the missionary apartments was totally unhelpful. He came over to look at it, said he already knew about all of these things and that the only useful thing to do would be to move us to another apartment, and refused to do or think of anything to actually help with the problem, just called the mission office to tell them how he has been saying for three years that we need to move. It was crazy! So now my companion and I shall do the deed! We are pretty secretely excited to rip all the wallpaper off the walls...hehehe...
well, I hope y'all had a great new year. I love you.
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Modena, Italy - December 22, 2010
Buon Natale! So, we had our zone conference on Friday, in Modena. That was handy for us, because we did not have to travel at all. Zone conference was completely incredible, I think one of the best I have had in the mission. It was all about the Book of Mormon, and Sorella Ryan and I were able to share our testimonies of how God really truly does place people in our path who need and will read the Book of Mormon when we are looking for the opportunities to talk to everyone. Super awesome zone conference. And to top it all off, at the end the Wolfgramms called out certain people to be actors in a nativity scene, and the rest of us sang the primary nativity song while all these missionaries came in dressed as donkeys and angels and the star. hilarious! Then, it started snowing. really hard. Ao much so, that 12 missionaries from the Firenze zone could not get home that night at all, because the trains weren't going and the busses weren't going, so we housed the two sisters, and the anziani in Modena housed two elders, and then the other eight elders slept with the elders in Bologna. It was crazy! And everyone went home the next morning instead.
On Sunday night we were finding this invite's house, someone we invited on the street that is, but like two months ago so it was before I got to Modena. We found her and met her husband and two-year-old adorable son. He was so adorable, and so outgoing! He was bouncing all over and climbing all over us and playing with everything. His mom finally pulled him over to the other side of her to keep him still, but he still would not stay still. So, in typical Ghanian manners of discipline, grabbed his arm and bit him. Really hard, and he started crying. But he did calm down. It was so crazy. That is something really crazy actually, is the way Africans treat their children, they yell at them to be quiet when they are going crazy and usually say (but not actually do) things like (and this is one we literally heard), 'I will beat you! You be quiet, or I will beat you so hard your head will come off and you will see yourself!' It's always a dilemma as a peace loving, spirit loving missionary to know how to react in situations like those...
And then, on Monday morning, we took of to go do scambio! with Verona! yay! That means I got to spend Monday and Tuesday in Verona with Sorella Mullen again doing scambio. We are actually still in Verona doing p-day up here, so I am writing from my old haunts! It was a really awesome scambio experience, particularly for me. On Monday right after arriving we went to go see a sister who was baptized and confirmed the week I left Verona, so I missed the event itself. I had heard a bit from Sorella Mullen that the confirmation was kind of crazy, like in the audience all they could see was that the sister was breathing oddly and not quite herself, but seemed fine. So I asked her about it and how it went and she said it was incredible. She said that they were blessing her to receive the Holy Ghost, when she felt an electrical shock all down her, all over, so strong and overwhelming, and she lost her memory even for a minute before she came back to her senses and just had to thank and praise God for such an amazing experience. Talk about baptism by fire! It was so great to get to see her again, and see how incredibly happy she is to be baptized! Hooray! I also got to see another sister, and elderly woman whom we were teaching. Her health has improved so much that she can come to church and they have even set a baptismal date with her! That was so neat to talk to her about that. I remember when we found her all the way back with Sorella Rossi, and then teaching her for four transfers, but her health was so bad she couldn't even walk or anything, often not even sit. It was so happy! And then we dropped in on several other investigators who were super excited to see us, and had a great lesson with them. We struggled so hard to get one of these investigators to pray, and at the end of the lesson, she prayed without putting up one bit of fuss, and was totally serious about it and it was beautiful! AWESOME! I loved it. It was great.
I also discovered today by using the scale in the Verona apartment that I literally (including coat and boots) wear 6 kilos of clothing every day. Too cold! Bah!
On Sunday night we were finding this invite's house, someone we invited on the street that is, but like two months ago so it was before I got to Modena. We found her and met her husband and two-year-old adorable son. He was so adorable, and so outgoing! He was bouncing all over and climbing all over us and playing with everything. His mom finally pulled him over to the other side of her to keep him still, but he still would not stay still. So, in typical Ghanian manners of discipline, grabbed his arm and bit him. Really hard, and he started crying. But he did calm down. It was so crazy. That is something really crazy actually, is the way Africans treat their children, they yell at them to be quiet when they are going crazy and usually say (but not actually do) things like (and this is one we literally heard), 'I will beat you! You be quiet, or I will beat you so hard your head will come off and you will see yourself!' It's always a dilemma as a peace loving, spirit loving missionary to know how to react in situations like those...
And then, on Monday morning, we took of to go do scambio! with Verona! yay! That means I got to spend Monday and Tuesday in Verona with Sorella Mullen again doing scambio. We are actually still in Verona doing p-day up here, so I am writing from my old haunts! It was a really awesome scambio experience, particularly for me. On Monday right after arriving we went to go see a sister who was baptized and confirmed the week I left Verona, so I missed the event itself. I had heard a bit from Sorella Mullen that the confirmation was kind of crazy, like in the audience all they could see was that the sister was breathing oddly and not quite herself, but seemed fine. So I asked her about it and how it went and she said it was incredible. She said that they were blessing her to receive the Holy Ghost, when she felt an electrical shock all down her, all over, so strong and overwhelming, and she lost her memory even for a minute before she came back to her senses and just had to thank and praise God for such an amazing experience. Talk about baptism by fire! It was so great to get to see her again, and see how incredibly happy she is to be baptized! Hooray! I also got to see another sister, and elderly woman whom we were teaching. Her health has improved so much that she can come to church and they have even set a baptismal date with her! That was so neat to talk to her about that. I remember when we found her all the way back with Sorella Rossi, and then teaching her for four transfers, but her health was so bad she couldn't even walk or anything, often not even sit. It was so happy! And then we dropped in on several other investigators who were super excited to see us, and had a great lesson with them. We struggled so hard to get one of these investigators to pray, and at the end of the lesson, she prayed without putting up one bit of fuss, and was totally serious about it and it was beautiful! AWESOME! I loved it. It was great.
I also discovered today by using the scale in the Verona apartment that I literally (including coat and boots) wear 6 kilos of clothing every day. Too cold! Bah!
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Milan, Italy - April 28, 2011
The Mission address has changed. It is now:
Italy Milan Mission
Via Gramsci, 13/2
20090 Opera MI
Italy
The Mission offices relocated within the same building.
Italy Milan Mission
Via Gramsci, 13/2
20090 Opera MI
Italy
The Mission offices relocated within the same building.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Modena, Italy - December 15, 2010
Vi voglio sempre bene, e mi mancate. E non vedo l'ora che ci sentiamo il giorno di natale!
This week, on Monday, something really creepy happened. Sorella Ryan's bag had truly fallen apart, so we had to stop by the market on our way home for lunch to pick up a new one for her. We were walking through the market and heard this growling noise, and both of us could not find the dog. Then we had to walk back by a few minutes later, and the growling noise happened again, and then the man from whom the noise issued reached out and clawed at my arm! It was very scary. We left. Then as he was walking by later being towed along by his caretaker, he growled the whole time and was reaching out at people, and I was afraid. And now sometimes my companion scares me by growling next to me.
On Saturday we had a lesson with our incredible investigator from Bulgaria. She actually found us: the anziani were biking by and she flagged them over and told them off for biking so fast. 'What if someone wants to talk to you?' she said. Now we are teaching her. She has come to church twice and the week before last we taught her a lesson about authority and the restoration using candles to represent authority. It was really nifty, and she got it. And we committed her to pray to know if this really is the one true church with authority to baptize. She is super awesome, she studies the Book of Mormon and every time we come she has underlined and marked up like crazy whatever chapter she's read. She asked us for a Gospel Principles manual so she can be prepared for the classes on Sunday. Anyway, she came to church for the second time the next day, and I asked her how praying had gone, to know if it was true, and she said that it went really well. That she had prayed many times and that each time she just kept hearing a voice telling her the same response, 'tu lo sai dov'e' la verita', which is 'you already know the truth.' It was such a miracle! That was all we got to find out right then, though, because we had to rush into Relief Society. So then we went back again this past Saturday, having assigned her 2 Nephi 31 to read, all about the gospel of Jesus Christ and baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost. She had read it, and recounted the whole thing to us. She basically taught herself the gospel at home that week. We asked her again about her prayer response. We asked her if she believed this was the true church, though, and she said she was not ready to respond to that question. So then I told her that she needed to keep praying, and to remember that God knew that she knew, and then she interrupted me and said, 'Wait! No, I know the answer. This is the true church! haha, how funny, I could not answer you before, but then I knew the answer while you were talking. Now I know!' it was so cool. And then we invited her to be baptized and she did the same sort of thing again, and by the end of the lesson had talked herself into baptism because she felt the spirit so strongly, and then recounted her decision making process and all of the things she had been feeling during the lesson. She is incredible! She is getting baptized on January 15th, after she returns from her Christmas trip to Bulgaria. We are so excited for her.
We also met this family from Ghana doing dieci inviti. Sorella Ryan stopped the bike to talk to this guy who gave us his address, and we went over and got to meet his cousin and her two adult children. We watched finding happiness with them, and then taught them simple prayer, how to truly communicate with God instead of just say stock phrases. We left them the restoration film to watch, and when we came back there was only one of the children whom we were able to teach, and he had watched the film and loved it and recounted the whole story to us. Only he thought it was just angels who appeared to Joseph Smith, and when we told him it was actually God the Father and Jesus Christ, his eyes got really big and he was really excited. We taught him about how the Book of Mormon is the proof, and he said he needed to read it so he could find out and pray about it. He promised he would read it, and treated the book so reverently, and then offered a really beautiful prayer asking God if it really was true. We are super excited for him, and for his sister, who will be there when we go back in a couple of days (she also watched the video, but we only got to talk to her on the phone). We are seeing many many miraculous successes here in Modena, for real. And I really believe it is because we are still placing at least one Book of Mormon every day, with great success. And today we have two appointments with people we met through dieci inviti. It is so important to talk to everyone when doing missionary work, and to truly have an attitude of always finding!
Oh, oh, I just remembered, that here in the market where the man growled and Sorella Ryan bought her bag, there were these tiny little cactuses on sale for less than one euro! So I bought two of them and now they are my friends in my apartment, and I fully intend to send a picture of them to Waldo. Yes.
I hope Christmas festivities are going well and that all is happy for y'all in nice warm Texas. It is cold here. Brrr...
This week, on Monday, something really creepy happened. Sorella Ryan's bag had truly fallen apart, so we had to stop by the market on our way home for lunch to pick up a new one for her. We were walking through the market and heard this growling noise, and both of us could not find the dog. Then we had to walk back by a few minutes later, and the growling noise happened again, and then the man from whom the noise issued reached out and clawed at my arm! It was very scary. We left. Then as he was walking by later being towed along by his caretaker, he growled the whole time and was reaching out at people, and I was afraid. And now sometimes my companion scares me by growling next to me.
On Saturday we had a lesson with our incredible investigator from Bulgaria. She actually found us: the anziani were biking by and she flagged them over and told them off for biking so fast. 'What if someone wants to talk to you?' she said. Now we are teaching her. She has come to church twice and the week before last we taught her a lesson about authority and the restoration using candles to represent authority. It was really nifty, and she got it. And we committed her to pray to know if this really is the one true church with authority to baptize. She is super awesome, she studies the Book of Mormon and every time we come she has underlined and marked up like crazy whatever chapter she's read. She asked us for a Gospel Principles manual so she can be prepared for the classes on Sunday. Anyway, she came to church for the second time the next day, and I asked her how praying had gone, to know if it was true, and she said that it went really well. That she had prayed many times and that each time she just kept hearing a voice telling her the same response, 'tu lo sai dov'e' la verita', which is 'you already know the truth.' It was such a miracle! That was all we got to find out right then, though, because we had to rush into Relief Society. So then we went back again this past Saturday, having assigned her 2 Nephi 31 to read, all about the gospel of Jesus Christ and baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost. She had read it, and recounted the whole thing to us. She basically taught herself the gospel at home that week. We asked her again about her prayer response. We asked her if she believed this was the true church, though, and she said she was not ready to respond to that question. So then I told her that she needed to keep praying, and to remember that God knew that she knew, and then she interrupted me and said, 'Wait! No, I know the answer. This is the true church! haha, how funny, I could not answer you before, but then I knew the answer while you were talking. Now I know!' it was so cool. And then we invited her to be baptized and she did the same sort of thing again, and by the end of the lesson had talked herself into baptism because she felt the spirit so strongly, and then recounted her decision making process and all of the things she had been feeling during the lesson. She is incredible! She is getting baptized on January 15th, after she returns from her Christmas trip to Bulgaria. We are so excited for her.
We also met this family from Ghana doing dieci inviti. Sorella Ryan stopped the bike to talk to this guy who gave us his address, and we went over and got to meet his cousin and her two adult children. We watched finding happiness with them, and then taught them simple prayer, how to truly communicate with God instead of just say stock phrases. We left them the restoration film to watch, and when we came back there was only one of the children whom we were able to teach, and he had watched the film and loved it and recounted the whole story to us. Only he thought it was just angels who appeared to Joseph Smith, and when we told him it was actually God the Father and Jesus Christ, his eyes got really big and he was really excited. We taught him about how the Book of Mormon is the proof, and he said he needed to read it so he could find out and pray about it. He promised he would read it, and treated the book so reverently, and then offered a really beautiful prayer asking God if it really was true. We are super excited for him, and for his sister, who will be there when we go back in a couple of days (she also watched the video, but we only got to talk to her on the phone). We are seeing many many miraculous successes here in Modena, for real. And I really believe it is because we are still placing at least one Book of Mormon every day, with great success. And today we have two appointments with people we met through dieci inviti. It is so important to talk to everyone when doing missionary work, and to truly have an attitude of always finding!
Oh, oh, I just remembered, that here in the market where the man growled and Sorella Ryan bought her bag, there were these tiny little cactuses on sale for less than one euro! So I bought two of them and now they are my friends in my apartment, and I fully intend to send a picture of them to Waldo. Yes.
I hope Christmas festivities are going well and that all is happy for y'all in nice warm Texas. It is cold here. Brrr...
Modena, Italy - December 9, 2010
Well, my first week in Italy not in Verona! How strange it feels. I am sorry I did not email yesterday like I normally do, but there was a giant Italian holiday (a celebration of the Virgin Mary), so everything in the world was closed and we are doing p-day a day late.
So, Modena. It is really fun here so far. I was pretty sad about leaving Verona, after spending so much time there, but I am also way loving the change and everything. Sorella Ryan, my companion now, is super energetic and way fun and positive, and we are really enjoying working together. The way transfers work here in this mission is on Tuesday night we get the transfer call, then Wednesday is p-day so you get to pack and tell your family where you are going, then Thursday is transfer day, where everyone in the mission who is being transferred comes in to Milano, the train station, and we all meet up there and switch companions and hop back on trains back out to our new cities. I have ironically actually been to this, called the transfer circle, every transfer except one, but not for me, but because my companions keep getting transferred! They are usually really fun, because you get to see a ton of people, old companions, MTC companions, and people from your old districts and stuff. Sorella Ryan and I came back out to Modena on the next train, and then we went to four appointments she already had set up! What a great first night! Our second lesson together was with a woman from Ghana. Both of us felt strongly to invite her to baptism during the lesson, which was not planned, so we did! She is getting baptized on January 8! It was a miracle, and super cool. This investigator has seen some really incredible miracles in her life, too, since she has started reading the Book of Mormon; it is really neat.
So, Modena is another biking city. There are only four cities in our mission where sisters go on bikes, Verona, Pordenone, Firenze, and Modena. Eccomi! I was excited to get to stay on bikes, which is funny considering how much I hated them and how difficult they were for me when I arrived in Verona, but after seven months of riding a bike all day every day I had gotten really used to it and learned to love it! I hate it when the bikes break and we have to take the bus, it is so much less effective. So I am here, hop on my bike (which was, in fact, bought by my trainer, Sorella Harper, after she left Verona and came to Modena as well), and start going, and felt like I was starting the mission all over again! I was so wobbly! I hadn't realized how much my bike in Verona, named Wilma, had become a real extension of my body. I was so used to that bike and everything about it, the breaks, the seat, the portapacchi, the kickstand, the balance. I got really good at it, and could actually balance at stoplights and not have to put my foot down. But not on this new bike! It is so foreign! I am starting to get used to it, which is nice, and it has a basket in the front, which is also really nice, because I don't have to carry the groceries on the handlebars as much.
Anyway, there is this one person here, whom we don't really teach but she comes to church every now and then, who is a little crazy. For example, she called us the other night, and Sorella Ryan answered the phone, and she sounded really confused and finally just said, 'Sorry, let me pass you to my companion, because I can't understand.' (Sorella Ryan is newer in the mission and thought she was misunderstanding the Italian.) So I answer, and this girl starts saying to me, over and over again, 'Ho trovato pace quando il garage e aperto da solo.' Over and over. It literally means, 'I found peace when the garage opened by itself.' No wonder my companion thought she couldn't understand! I had to repeat it back to the girl a few times before I was convinced I was not misunderstanding! She asked us what it meant. We could not tell. So we told her to come to church, because coming to church is good for people. End of conversation.
The ward here in Modena is pretty neat. A lot smaller than the one in Verona, and there is only one ward, while in Verona there are two, but I like it. And the ward mission leader is super intense.
We have got an awesome district too, and had a really cool experience in district meeting on Monday. First off, in our mission, every companionship creates a vision for the transfer, and individual coppia vision, measured in terms of baptisms, and reports it to the district leader the Sunday night before day 1 of the transfer, and from that the district leader creates a district vision. So, the sorella coppia here in Modena has not seen a baptism in over a year (we don't know how long before that, but we just know there are no new converts). And Sorella Ryan and I prayed a lot and sought inspiration for this vision, because we wanted to set the goal Heavenly Father really wants for Modena during this transfer, and both of us felt very strongly about 2 baptisms as the vision. (There are lots of other things involved too, like plans to make these two baptisms happen, like how many people we want in church every week, how many new investigators a week, how many people we invite to baptism every week, how many inviti we do on the street in addition to planned finding work every day, things like that.) We went to district meeting first thing the next morning, which is, luckily for us, here in Modena, along with three coppie of anziani, the ones here in Modena, and then one from Bologna and one from Reggio-Emilia, two other nearby cities. And we put together our district vision. And at the end of the district meeting our Capi Zona (who are in our district) were giving us a heads up about a new thing we will be doing in the mission starting zone conference time, which is one week from tomorrow, and it will be a challenge from president to place at least one Book of Mormon, in whatever language, each day. We as a mission had been preparing for this, but none of us really knew what we were preparing for, we just knew that president kept sending us all boxes and boxes of Books of Mormon, and that at the big meeting last transfer for all the mission presidents in Europe the area presidency had told us all that we are not using the Book of Mormon the way we need to be in our missionary work. So Anziano White explained this to us, and then he paused for a moment, and the Spirit was super strong, and I knew that he was about to say something directly from God, I knew it. And he said, 'I promise you each that if you will start this challenge now, and will place one Book of Mormon each day, starting today, before president extends the challenge in zone conference, you will reach your vision for the transfer. You will find two people to baptize.' The Spirit was super strong, it was a really powerful district meeting. Sorella Ryan and I talked about it afterwards, and she felt the same strong spirit I did. We are positive that if we truly do act in faith and place a Book of Mormon every single day, we will reach our vision for the transfer, and we are super super excited about it. We have been going crazy doing invites to people on the street and on the bus since then, and now, at day four, we can say that so far we have given away not one, but two Books of Mormon every day, including today, except yesterday, when we only placed one instead of two! We have been seeing incredible miracles as we have taken this challenge. We have received inspiration to randomly carry around one in Tagalog, and then during the last half hour of the day when we haven't given it out yet, knocked on the door of a Tagalog speaking woman moving to Canada within the next few days, whom we never would have been able to find another moment, and set an appointment to come meet with her brothers who are not moving. The day we took one in English, we met an amazing woman on a bench in centro from Ghana, therefore English speaking (or at least English reading), who told us she felt very happy, and when we asked her why, it was because of the things we had taught her that morning, and said she would read the chapter we left her right then that very instant in preparation for our return appointment on Saturday. Our less active member had a friend over, and we gave her one in Italian, and our less active friend explained it and testified of it, and the non-member girl said she would read it and was very excited to receive it. And then today we met a woman at a bus stop, and by the end of our conversation she said she knows it is God who arranged our meeting that morning at the bus stop. It's been incredible! We have handed out even more, and it really has been miraculous through and through! We are super excited about this transfer. Yeah!
We have also been going crazy with dieci inviti. (10 invites, it is a thing we do in our mission, we are supposed to invite at least ten new people every day to hear the message of the restored gospel.) We talk to absolutely EVERYONE these days! For example, we were walked down the street on Monday just after district meeting, and this man was biking down the sidewalk, so I said Salve way loud and flagged the guy down, made him stop, get off his bike, and talk to us. My companion was shocked. It was super fun.
Okay, this letter has been way too long, but things are super exciting. Sorella Ryan and I are working really hard here in Modena! I can't believe I am not in Verona! How strange.
So, Modena. It is really fun here so far. I was pretty sad about leaving Verona, after spending so much time there, but I am also way loving the change and everything. Sorella Ryan, my companion now, is super energetic and way fun and positive, and we are really enjoying working together. The way transfers work here in this mission is on Tuesday night we get the transfer call, then Wednesday is p-day so you get to pack and tell your family where you are going, then Thursday is transfer day, where everyone in the mission who is being transferred comes in to Milano, the train station, and we all meet up there and switch companions and hop back on trains back out to our new cities. I have ironically actually been to this, called the transfer circle, every transfer except one, but not for me, but because my companions keep getting transferred! They are usually really fun, because you get to see a ton of people, old companions, MTC companions, and people from your old districts and stuff. Sorella Ryan and I came back out to Modena on the next train, and then we went to four appointments she already had set up! What a great first night! Our second lesson together was with a woman from Ghana. Both of us felt strongly to invite her to baptism during the lesson, which was not planned, so we did! She is getting baptized on January 8! It was a miracle, and super cool. This investigator has seen some really incredible miracles in her life, too, since she has started reading the Book of Mormon; it is really neat.
So, Modena is another biking city. There are only four cities in our mission where sisters go on bikes, Verona, Pordenone, Firenze, and Modena. Eccomi! I was excited to get to stay on bikes, which is funny considering how much I hated them and how difficult they were for me when I arrived in Verona, but after seven months of riding a bike all day every day I had gotten really used to it and learned to love it! I hate it when the bikes break and we have to take the bus, it is so much less effective. So I am here, hop on my bike (which was, in fact, bought by my trainer, Sorella Harper, after she left Verona and came to Modena as well), and start going, and felt like I was starting the mission all over again! I was so wobbly! I hadn't realized how much my bike in Verona, named Wilma, had become a real extension of my body. I was so used to that bike and everything about it, the breaks, the seat, the portapacchi, the kickstand, the balance. I got really good at it, and could actually balance at stoplights and not have to put my foot down. But not on this new bike! It is so foreign! I am starting to get used to it, which is nice, and it has a basket in the front, which is also really nice, because I don't have to carry the groceries on the handlebars as much.
Anyway, there is this one person here, whom we don't really teach but she comes to church every now and then, who is a little crazy. For example, she called us the other night, and Sorella Ryan answered the phone, and she sounded really confused and finally just said, 'Sorry, let me pass you to my companion, because I can't understand.' (Sorella Ryan is newer in the mission and thought she was misunderstanding the Italian.) So I answer, and this girl starts saying to me, over and over again, 'Ho trovato pace quando il garage e aperto da solo.' Over and over. It literally means, 'I found peace when the garage opened by itself.' No wonder my companion thought she couldn't understand! I had to repeat it back to the girl a few times before I was convinced I was not misunderstanding! She asked us what it meant. We could not tell. So we told her to come to church, because coming to church is good for people. End of conversation.
The ward here in Modena is pretty neat. A lot smaller than the one in Verona, and there is only one ward, while in Verona there are two, but I like it. And the ward mission leader is super intense.
We have got an awesome district too, and had a really cool experience in district meeting on Monday. First off, in our mission, every companionship creates a vision for the transfer, and individual coppia vision, measured in terms of baptisms, and reports it to the district leader the Sunday night before day 1 of the transfer, and from that the district leader creates a district vision. So, the sorella coppia here in Modena has not seen a baptism in over a year (we don't know how long before that, but we just know there are no new converts). And Sorella Ryan and I prayed a lot and sought inspiration for this vision, because we wanted to set the goal Heavenly Father really wants for Modena during this transfer, and both of us felt very strongly about 2 baptisms as the vision. (There are lots of other things involved too, like plans to make these two baptisms happen, like how many people we want in church every week, how many new investigators a week, how many people we invite to baptism every week, how many inviti we do on the street in addition to planned finding work every day, things like that.) We went to district meeting first thing the next morning, which is, luckily for us, here in Modena, along with three coppie of anziani, the ones here in Modena, and then one from Bologna and one from Reggio-Emilia, two other nearby cities. And we put together our district vision. And at the end of the district meeting our Capi Zona (who are in our district) were giving us a heads up about a new thing we will be doing in the mission starting zone conference time, which is one week from tomorrow, and it will be a challenge from president to place at least one Book of Mormon, in whatever language, each day. We as a mission had been preparing for this, but none of us really knew what we were preparing for, we just knew that president kept sending us all boxes and boxes of Books of Mormon, and that at the big meeting last transfer for all the mission presidents in Europe the area presidency had told us all that we are not using the Book of Mormon the way we need to be in our missionary work. So Anziano White explained this to us, and then he paused for a moment, and the Spirit was super strong, and I knew that he was about to say something directly from God, I knew it. And he said, 'I promise you each that if you will start this challenge now, and will place one Book of Mormon each day, starting today, before president extends the challenge in zone conference, you will reach your vision for the transfer. You will find two people to baptize.' The Spirit was super strong, it was a really powerful district meeting. Sorella Ryan and I talked about it afterwards, and she felt the same strong spirit I did. We are positive that if we truly do act in faith and place a Book of Mormon every single day, we will reach our vision for the transfer, and we are super super excited about it. We have been going crazy doing invites to people on the street and on the bus since then, and now, at day four, we can say that so far we have given away not one, but two Books of Mormon every day, including today, except yesterday, when we only placed one instead of two! We have been seeing incredible miracles as we have taken this challenge. We have received inspiration to randomly carry around one in Tagalog, and then during the last half hour of the day when we haven't given it out yet, knocked on the door of a Tagalog speaking woman moving to Canada within the next few days, whom we never would have been able to find another moment, and set an appointment to come meet with her brothers who are not moving. The day we took one in English, we met an amazing woman on a bench in centro from Ghana, therefore English speaking (or at least English reading), who told us she felt very happy, and when we asked her why, it was because of the things we had taught her that morning, and said she would read the chapter we left her right then that very instant in preparation for our return appointment on Saturday. Our less active member had a friend over, and we gave her one in Italian, and our less active friend explained it and testified of it, and the non-member girl said she would read it and was very excited to receive it. And then today we met a woman at a bus stop, and by the end of our conversation she said she knows it is God who arranged our meeting that morning at the bus stop. It's been incredible! We have handed out even more, and it really has been miraculous through and through! We are super excited about this transfer. Yeah!
We have also been going crazy with dieci inviti. (10 invites, it is a thing we do in our mission, we are supposed to invite at least ten new people every day to hear the message of the restored gospel.) We talk to absolutely EVERYONE these days! For example, we were walked down the street on Monday just after district meeting, and this man was biking down the sidewalk, so I said Salve way loud and flagged the guy down, made him stop, get off his bike, and talk to us. My companion was shocked. It was super fun.
Okay, this letter has been way too long, but things are super exciting. Sorella Ryan and I are working really hard here in Modena! I can't believe I am not in Verona! How strange.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Verona, Italy - December 1, 2010
''It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere you go!'' It snowed this morning in Verona! It was Sorella Mullen's first time seeing snow falling, and she was super duper excited. It was really cute to see her running around all over the house to all the different windows trying to get the best view. She was so excited she even called the Anziani to tell them, and they are all from Utah or Colorado, and one from New Hampshire, and thus all very familiar with snow, and thought it was really funny how excited she was. Also, today for p-day we went around centro (downtown), and it really does look awesomely Christmas-like. They've got this great Christmas market, a German one, actually, just like the one Dad and I went to in Nurnburg, but smaller. The workers are even from Germany. It's beautiful. Cold, but beautiful. The bikes are harder with the weather being so cold and wet. Hmph. Well, that at least was the proof that it is truly beginning to look like Christmas in Verona, but i sure hope it's true that it is looking like Christmas everywhere you go because, at long last, after seven months, five transfers, four companions, and literally hundreds of lessongs taught (over 500, I do believe), I am leaving Verona. The transfer call came yesterday, and I will be going to Modena! So not too far, just a little jump south. Crazy. It feels so weird to actually be leaving, transfers didn't ever really feel real because I have still been in my first city all the way till now, which by the way this week in the halfway point of my mission. I love Verona and the people here so much, and I have really loved my time and the opportunity to serve here. I am excited for a new adventure in Modena, though! I will be with Sorella Ryan, with whom I have done two scambi, and I like her very much. I have had a really wonderful experience here in Verona, and I am really going to miss these people. But I also feel very strongly that going to Modena is where the Lord wants me to go right now, and I am excited for it! I love missionary work.
Verona, Italy - November 24, 2010
I have a major announcement. During my third week here in Italy, in Verona, the light in the bathroom went out. Despite our best attempts standing on the washing machine or shower edges, we could never quite reach it. I got used to it. Then, about a month ago, I was cleaning the bathroom and became crazed from the lack of light, and built a tower out of chairs and tables to reach the light. Finally, we could touch it! But the inexplicable Italian light fixture would not be opened. And alas, we went away empty-handed. Then, this week, my companion was very sick. So we stayed inside most of the past three days. And I took the opportunity to call the bishop, who sent an Italian ward member who knows Italian light fixtures over. And he couldn't open it either. And then, it suddenly became apparent to him and it opened! And yes, dear friends, we now, after seven months of darkness, have light in the bathroom! It's incredible! We also had a unusual random encounter with this random woman from Norway. [Editor note: I'll call her A.] We think she is somewhat nomadic, or homeless. We got a call from her, asking if we could meet her at Castelvecchio, so we went right away. She told us she would be sitting on a bench with three large bags. She seemed a little crazy, honestly, like clinically insane, and she wasn't making a lot of sense as to why she was there in Verona, where she was going, who she knows, what she does, anything at all, but she really wanted a place to go pray, just for a few minutes. So we went with her on the bus to the church to let her in to pray for a few minutes. But getting there was quite an adventure too. She had a lot of bags, right, so we go to try and get on the bus, and my companion takes one bag, A takes another, and I try to take one, but A gets off again to help me, so I have one end of the bag and A the other end, and I am in the bus, when the bus driver, who is totally not looking, just slams the door on me! He wacked me in the head with the door, sending my glasses all skewompus, and has my arm caught, and then starts driving! And I was still holding the other end of the bag. People started yelling at him, and he tried to blame it on us, but he was totally the one not looking. Anyhow, we made it to the church in fairly good condition after that, with a stop so that A could pick up some food at a mercato because they would all be closed afterwards. Oh, and also, we saw the anziani on our way, who could not understand what on earth we were doing. But we stopped and they met A, and she pinpointed their family nationality solely by last name, made random comments relating what we were talking about to our immediate surroundings, like what sorts of stores we were standing in front of, which I certainly had not noticed, and did I mention that she only had one functioning eye? the other was stuck closed. I was very impressed by her observativeness. Both Sorella Mullen and I only became more and more impressed by her the more we got to know her, even though she definitely was insane. So while she was praying, we wrote a note in the Book of Mormon for her, telling her about her divine potential and how much God loves her. We prayed with her and taught her about the Book of Mormon, and then she read the note and cried and told us thank you so much. It was a really beautiful experience, getting to see one of Heavenly Father's daughters in a light we probably would not have otherwise taken the time to see. Over and over again I meet people that I think are ridiculous or strange or something, then get to know them and feel so powerfully God's love for them. I really do know that God loves and knows intimately every one of His children.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Verona, Italy - November 17, 2010
Yesterday we went out to Bussolengo, a city outside Verona, to eat lunch with our member friends, Sorella Gasparatto and Sorella Mistura, but we missed our stop and ended up in the middle of no where. We called Sorella Gasparatto to tell her we were lost (we were already extremely late), and so she asked me to describe where we were. We told her we had no idea, but that there was a field of big electricity towers on one side of the road, and a field of very small trees with no leaves on the other side. She announced she would come get us, and that we should wait! So we have no idea where we are, and Sorella Gasparatto and Sorella Mistura have no idea where they are going, and they just hop in the car and start driving, and left their cell phone at home so we couldn't contact them either. It was crazy! We waited about twenty minutes, then decided to start walking and hope we would find Bussolengo. Then miraculously, they found us! It was so funny, and Sorella Gasparatto was so excited to tell her son, who would just laugh and say, 'women.'
Then during lunch, they started telling us about going to some crazy Italian yoga class the other week, and how the lady teaching it started chanting and making gong noises halfway through, and how they had to do this one position (which they imitated for us), where they are rolled in half on the floor, and the lady says, 'If you are having trouble breathing, don't worry! It's fine. It's good for you. If you can't breath, just stay there.' And it was super funny. They taught us some of the stuff they learned, so we were all doing yoga together in the Gasparatto's living room. hehe.
We had a big training meeting on Monday with two zones combined together here in Verona, and so two of the anziani from my MTC district were there, Anziano Lesa and Anziano Palmer, and we chatted some about the MTC during lunch. It was fun. The training was really neat, both Sorella Mullen and I felt we learned a lot of things we need to improve on.
Then during lunch, they started telling us about going to some crazy Italian yoga class the other week, and how the lady teaching it started chanting and making gong noises halfway through, and how they had to do this one position (which they imitated for us), where they are rolled in half on the floor, and the lady says, 'If you are having trouble breathing, don't worry! It's fine. It's good for you. If you can't breath, just stay there.' And it was super funny. They taught us some of the stuff they learned, so we were all doing yoga together in the Gasparatto's living room. hehe.
We had a big training meeting on Monday with two zones combined together here in Verona, and so two of the anziani from my MTC district were there, Anziano Lesa and Anziano Palmer, and we chatted some about the MTC during lunch. It was fun. The training was really neat, both Sorella Mullen and I felt we learned a lot of things we need to improve on.
Verona, Italy - November 10, 2010
On Monday morning before district meeting Sorella Mullen and I were walking down the street, when suddenly our vision was slightly obscured from some smelly haze, and we realized we were walking through smoke! And that smoke was coming off the top of this house we were walking past! It was not good. So we ran all over trying to see where the smoke was coming from. We suoned all the citofoni on the house but no one responded. Sorella Mullen was convinced they were passed out from smoke inhalation and going to die. So we called the Anziani, who gave us the number for the fire department, and we called the Italian version of 911. (except in italy there is a different one for each service - 113 for police, 115 for ambulance, and 118 for firemen). They asked us if the smoke was more white or more black, I told them it was more black and explained what it looked like, he took my name and phone number and said they would be there in ten minutes and we were to flag them down so they could find the place. Then we wait. And then we hear sirens blaring and blue lights flashing and up drives the vigili del fuoco! They come piling out of the truck with oxygen tanks and gas masks and axes and full gear. We show them the smoke. They go try to get inside. Then some people come out of the building and are wandering around. We wondered why they did not answer their citofono, because we suoned many many times before calling 118. Then we saw the vigili del fuoco up on the roof. They were inspecting the matter. They took my info from my recently obtained permesso di sogiorno. Do you want to know what it was? Wet wood inside a wood-burning heater thing. We called the firemen for wet wood. We felt quite sheepish.
Verona, Italy - October 27, 2010
Frequently accordian players will walk up and down our street playing, and hoping to catch people looking at them from their windows, in which case the accordian player kind of expects you to throw him money from your window for the benefits of his services. The other day during companion study we suddenly were hearing accordian music, and I already knew what it was, having seen this phenomenon before, but Sorella Mullen looked very confused and I realized she had never seen one yet and had no idea what the music was! So we rushed to go look out the windows to find him, but I told her not to let him see her looking, so she is staring out the window and then all of a sudden yelps and ducks super fast because he glanced towards her, but Sorella Mullen, being her goofy self, ducked so fast and hard she sort of fell backwards across the kitchen. It was hilarious.
Last week also we were doing casa, and it was a neighborhood full of not very willing to talk to us people. Two funny conversations over the citofono (the intercom thing outside the front gate where we talk to them and they are still inside their apartment):
Sorella Mullen: Salve! Siamo missionarie della Chiesa di Gesu Cristo, and siamo qua per ---- (Hello! We are missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ, and we are here for ---)
they hang up abruptly while the mailman is walking up unbeknownst behind us
----per niente. (---for nothing.)
we turn around and see the mailman listening.
Sorella Langham: E come sta lei oggi? (And how are you doing today?)
Mailman: laughs at us and does not respond.
another conversation went like this.
Citofono person: Chi e? (Who is it?)
Sorella Langham: Salve! Siamo della Chiesa di Gesu Cristo! Mi puo aprire? (Hello! We are from the church of Jesus Christ! Will you please open for us?), said in thoroughly energetic tones.
Citofono person: NO! practically yelled, but they don't hang up and just wait.
Sorella Langham: Oh. in dejected tones with drooping shoulders.
CLICK. they hang up.
And then that same morning, someone did let us in, and we were very excited, but he was on something like the fifth floor, and was trying to yell down through the stairwell to find out who we are, so I said, we're coming, we are missionaries, we'll be right there, or something or other, and we start trying to hurry up the stairs, and he just keeps saying, no no, i'll come down, i'll come down, so finally we stop and wait, thinking it was very polite of him to come to meet us. he did not even talk to us at all, though, he just said, 'non mi serve niente!' which is like, 'it does nothing for me,' basically, and then forcibly walked us out of the palazzo, very angrily, and would not even let us knock on the other doors. Turns out he came down five flights of stairs, this 80 year old man, just to walk us out the door! Crazy neighborhood.
But then on Sunday night we got to watch the coolest thing - the broadcast of the temple groundbreaking in Rome! President Monson came to Rome on Saturday to break the temple grounds, and it was a really awesome meeting. They played it all over Italy on Sunday night for everyone to see. Everyone is soo sooooo excited here for the temple, and President Monson gave a very touching talk and a beautiful dedicatory prayer. And then after the prayer, before going to sit down, he stopped and said, 'I would add just one line. Our eldest son, many years ago, served in the Italy Milan Mission, and alighted in our hearts the fire of the spirit of the people of Italy, which is very near to the spirit of Godliness.' And then he sat down. It was way cool. And our mission president was there, President Wolfgramm, and he got to take a shovel full of dirt too! And President Monson called up a bunch of the little kids in the audience and helped them shovel dirt too. It was really great! Woot! The Rome, Italy temple is begun!
Last week also we were doing casa, and it was a neighborhood full of not very willing to talk to us people. Two funny conversations over the citofono (the intercom thing outside the front gate where we talk to them and they are still inside their apartment):
Sorella Mullen: Salve! Siamo missionarie della Chiesa di Gesu Cristo, and siamo qua per ---- (Hello! We are missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ, and we are here for ---)
they hang up abruptly while the mailman is walking up unbeknownst behind us
----per niente. (---for nothing.)
we turn around and see the mailman listening.
Sorella Langham: E come sta lei oggi? (And how are you doing today?)
Mailman: laughs at us and does not respond.
another conversation went like this.
Citofono person: Chi e? (Who is it?)
Sorella Langham: Salve! Siamo della Chiesa di Gesu Cristo! Mi puo aprire? (Hello! We are from the church of Jesus Christ! Will you please open for us?), said in thoroughly energetic tones.
Citofono person: NO! practically yelled, but they don't hang up and just wait.
Sorella Langham: Oh. in dejected tones with drooping shoulders.
CLICK. they hang up.
And then that same morning, someone did let us in, and we were very excited, but he was on something like the fifth floor, and was trying to yell down through the stairwell to find out who we are, so I said, we're coming, we are missionaries, we'll be right there, or something or other, and we start trying to hurry up the stairs, and he just keeps saying, no no, i'll come down, i'll come down, so finally we stop and wait, thinking it was very polite of him to come to meet us. he did not even talk to us at all, though, he just said, 'non mi serve niente!' which is like, 'it does nothing for me,' basically, and then forcibly walked us out of the palazzo, very angrily, and would not even let us knock on the other doors. Turns out he came down five flights of stairs, this 80 year old man, just to walk us out the door! Crazy neighborhood.
But then on Sunday night we got to watch the coolest thing - the broadcast of the temple groundbreaking in Rome! President Monson came to Rome on Saturday to break the temple grounds, and it was a really awesome meeting. They played it all over Italy on Sunday night for everyone to see. Everyone is soo sooooo excited here for the temple, and President Monson gave a very touching talk and a beautiful dedicatory prayer. And then after the prayer, before going to sit down, he stopped and said, 'I would add just one line. Our eldest son, many years ago, served in the Italy Milan Mission, and alighted in our hearts the fire of the spirit of the people of Italy, which is very near to the spirit of Godliness.' And then he sat down. It was way cool. And our mission president was there, President Wolfgramm, and he got to take a shovel full of dirt too! And President Monson called up a bunch of the little kids in the audience and helped them shovel dirt too. It was really great! Woot! The Rome, Italy temple is begun!
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Verona, Italy - October 20, 2010
So, we went out to Lago di Garda today for p-day, which is a big giant famous lake right here near Verona, and it took a while to get there in the bus, but it was absolutely gorgeous with a castle and a swan that tried to eat me. We ate some really good fish from the lake.
It is really hard for me to get up in the morning every morning at 6:30, and then even harder to exercise. So this week my companion and I wrote a jingle, and we sing it every morning when the alarm goes off, and it makes a huge difference. It's amazing. The only day I didn't wake up was the day we didn't sing. (Today, actually.) It is to the tune of Good Morning Baltimore, from the beginning and through a chorus. It goes like this:
Oh oh oh woke up today just in the way the handbook says.
Oh oh oh dreaming of sleep that I can't have, when I hear that beep!
That's my alarm clock. It's going tick tock. It's 6:30 and time to exercise.
Oh oh but I know I can cuz of 1 Nephi 3:7!
Good morning mission life! Exercise helps us beat the strife!
It's the way that we show our faith that there are those who do us await.
And one day these children of God will get baptized and then hold to the rod!
And we'll be right there to say: I exercised today!
It may seem silly, but it's fun, and it works for real, I suddenly am able to get up and exercise!
Also, on Friday the bishop (vescovo in Italian), called us to tell us that there was a wedding for a random inactive member from Bulgaria the next morning at Juliett's tomb (yes, as in Romeo and Juliet), and that he wanted us to go and convert the non-member she was about to marry. So we show up, and it is the strangest wedding ever. We are at a tomb of a fictional character, with some judge lady wearing a sash who does the wedding, and the only people there are the two getting married, one legal witness they brought, us two sisters, and the elders. So Elder Bartholomew got to be the other witness, because there was no one else. The lady started off asking if they wanted to exchange rings, and the member from Bulgaria said of course and starts searching through these thousands of different small bags she brought for about ten minutes, and never finds them, finally gives up and says that they will just do it at home later. Then the ceremony takes about two minutes flat, and then the judge spends about ten minutes getting Anziano Bartholomew's information, because he didn't have his passport on him, just his U.S. driver's license. Then the bishop and his wife showed up late, and the bishop was taking tons of pictures. And then Anziano Bartholomew couldn't understand what the lady was asking him and so his companion had to tell the judge what his birthday was. It was really funny. Then afterwards we went onto the lawn and the Bulgarian member had us take a ton of really goofy pictures, she was super excited, and then they wanted us to go to a bar and drink with them. The bishop luckily tactfully got us to go to a pastry shop instead. It was so weird. But we are going to go see them day after tomorrow, so hopefully it will have been worth it! What a strange wedding.
Also, Anziano Jones, our capo zona (zone leader) here in Verona, told us at district meeting on Monday that his grandma is the one who picked the color for the cover of the hymn book. Apparently she was working doing colors for the church. They presented her with a bunch of choices, and she told Anziano Jones that she looked at them and simply knew it had to be green. So green is our hymnbook. Thank you, Grandma Jones. How awesome is that?
Also, an investigator got baptized on Sunday! And now his sister, another of our investigators, is totally excited to get baptized too. It was amazing to see the change in her, and hear her telling us about how she finally came to gain a personal spiritual testimony this week of the fact that Joseph Smith was a prophet. She is so happy now already, and she hasn't even gotten baptized yet! And her brother is so happy. It is so awesome. And Sorella Tramacchi, with whom we started teaching them, came back to Verona with her parents this weekend because she finished her mission and got to see the baptism! Woohoo! It was cool to see her too.
My companion the other day was trying to say that it was just the beginning of winter, which is inverno, but accidently said instead inferno, which is hell. So instead of "it is just the beginning of winter," she said "it was the beginning of hell." Very funny.
It is really hard for me to get up in the morning every morning at 6:30, and then even harder to exercise. So this week my companion and I wrote a jingle, and we sing it every morning when the alarm goes off, and it makes a huge difference. It's amazing. The only day I didn't wake up was the day we didn't sing. (Today, actually.) It is to the tune of Good Morning Baltimore, from the beginning and through a chorus. It goes like this:
Oh oh oh woke up today just in the way the handbook says.
Oh oh oh dreaming of sleep that I can't have, when I hear that beep!
That's my alarm clock. It's going tick tock. It's 6:30 and time to exercise.
Oh oh but I know I can cuz of 1 Nephi 3:7!
Good morning mission life! Exercise helps us beat the strife!
It's the way that we show our faith that there are those who do us await.
And one day these children of God will get baptized and then hold to the rod!
And we'll be right there to say: I exercised today!
It may seem silly, but it's fun, and it works for real, I suddenly am able to get up and exercise!
Also, on Friday the bishop (vescovo in Italian), called us to tell us that there was a wedding for a random inactive member from Bulgaria the next morning at Juliett's tomb (yes, as in Romeo and Juliet), and that he wanted us to go and convert the non-member she was about to marry. So we show up, and it is the strangest wedding ever. We are at a tomb of a fictional character, with some judge lady wearing a sash who does the wedding, and the only people there are the two getting married, one legal witness they brought, us two sisters, and the elders. So Elder Bartholomew got to be the other witness, because there was no one else. The lady started off asking if they wanted to exchange rings, and the member from Bulgaria said of course and starts searching through these thousands of different small bags she brought for about ten minutes, and never finds them, finally gives up and says that they will just do it at home later. Then the ceremony takes about two minutes flat, and then the judge spends about ten minutes getting Anziano Bartholomew's information, because he didn't have his passport on him, just his U.S. driver's license. Then the bishop and his wife showed up late, and the bishop was taking tons of pictures. And then Anziano Bartholomew couldn't understand what the lady was asking him and so his companion had to tell the judge what his birthday was. It was really funny. Then afterwards we went onto the lawn and the Bulgarian member had us take a ton of really goofy pictures, she was super excited, and then they wanted us to go to a bar and drink with them. The bishop luckily tactfully got us to go to a pastry shop instead. It was so weird. But we are going to go see them day after tomorrow, so hopefully it will have been worth it! What a strange wedding.
Also, Anziano Jones, our capo zona (zone leader) here in Verona, told us at district meeting on Monday that his grandma is the one who picked the color for the cover of the hymn book. Apparently she was working doing colors for the church. They presented her with a bunch of choices, and she told Anziano Jones that she looked at them and simply knew it had to be green. So green is our hymnbook. Thank you, Grandma Jones. How awesome is that?
Also, an investigator got baptized on Sunday! And now his sister, another of our investigators, is totally excited to get baptized too. It was amazing to see the change in her, and hear her telling us about how she finally came to gain a personal spiritual testimony this week of the fact that Joseph Smith was a prophet. She is so happy now already, and she hasn't even gotten baptized yet! And her brother is so happy. It is so awesome. And Sorella Tramacchi, with whom we started teaching them, came back to Verona with her parents this weekend because she finished her mission and got to see the baptism! Woohoo! It was cool to see her too.
My companion the other day was trying to say that it was just the beginning of winter, which is inverno, but accidently said instead inferno, which is hell. So instead of "it is just the beginning of winter," she said "it was the beginning of hell." Very funny.
Verona, Italy - October 13, 2010
Well, I don't know if I remembered to tell y'all, but transfers this transfer were only 5 weeks long, and the next one will be seven weeks to get us back on track, so the transfer call came last night. And I finally get to have a companion for more than one transfer! Woohoo! Sorella Mullen and I will be staying right here in good ol' Verona for my fifth transfer. We are super excited about it. Woohoo!
Also, the weather is really really cooling down. I now wear three layers at almost all times, including flannel pants rolled up under my skirt. I have at least three more layers I can readily and easily add when it gets to full-blown winter, so hopefully I will be fine. My poor companion, though, did not bring a single article of winter clothing! poverina! So today we went about trying to find some more stockings and sweaters and stuff, but no one is selling gloves yet, which is a problem on the bikes because your hands get really really cold. hmph. We will keep searching!
This week we met this guy from Sri Lanka on a park bench who speaks neither Italian nor English. We have given him a Book of Mormon, but about all we can communicate further than that is enough to set up a next appointment, and that only on the park bench because we can't communicate an address even! So tomorrow night we are going to show up at the park bench at 6 o'clock and then take him with us to Italian class at the church, because it is the only way we can ever get him there. We have been able to figure out that he has been in Italy more than a year, and is still searching for work. He probably won't find anything until he can speak Italian, too, so he really needs to come to Italian class. It is an interesting experience trying to communicate, pretty funny really. But he is such a softspoken, kindly fellow that we are really hoping that he will read the Book of Mormon, because it is the only way to teach him!
Also, we are teaching these three people from Ghana, a sister and her two brothers, although the youngest brother is basically Italian because he has been here most of his life. And he is so super into reading, he was sooo excited to get the Book of Mormon. The last time we went, the first thing he said was, did you bring my bible? when we told him yes, he immediately asked if he could see it. He broke the CTR ring we gave him, and really wants another one. He is super cool and an adorable twelve-year old, and we are super excited to see him again. We did this paper folding lesson thing on what the Book of Mormon is, where you fold it and each fold makes an object in the story of the Book of Mormon: first a boat, then houses, then a plow to till the ground, then swords for the wars they have, then you rip it in half to say the people were divided, and throw the pieces on the ground to show how sad it was, and say but there is only one thing that could help them have peace and come back together, pick up one of the pieces, unfold it, and it is a cross. So you say that that is the story of the Book of Mormon; it is how Jesus Christ helps us have peace and blesses our lives when we follow his teachings that are in the book. We did that with this young investigator and when we unfolded the last piece he got so excited, he ran back to his bedroom and came out with another piece of paper because he wanted to learn how to do it. And he remembered every step on his own and the whole story; we didn't have to tell him a thing. It was super cool.
Also, the other day we went to go teach our 3 Nigerian investigators again. We were talking about the gospel, and one of them straight up asked if we are saying that only our church is true, and got really mad when we said it was the only true church of God's on the earth, and she started yelling and arguing, and then the other two got really into it too, and so they are all yelling at each other, one insisting she knows Joseph Smith was a true prophet, another saying it can't be so, and the third yelling in their native dialect so we couldn't understand what she thought. We kept trying to get into the conversation, but we really could not. It was impossible. So finally, I stood up in the middle of the room, they looked at me, and I declared that the Spirit could not dwell in a place of so much contention and that therefore we had to go. No joke. Straight up said that to them. And then we prayed and left. It was crazy. It calmed down right after I said that enough that the doubting investigator did say she would pray and that if God told her it was true she would stop going to her church and start going to ours. It was a really intense lesson. And I don't think ever in my life did I expect myself to stand up and declare that I was leaving because the Spirit could not dwell there. It was crazy, but really awesome. I really do love teaching them, even if they are crazy intense! And then we saw one of them on her own, the first time she has ever been alone, the next time we went, and let me tell you she has a really strong testimony of the truth of Joseph Smith being a prophet and of the Book of Mormon and of this church. It was such a beautiful lesson just the three of us together. We gave her a baptismal calendar to look over (did I tell you she committed to be baptized?), and she is super excited about it.
Also, yesterday, we were studying, when suddenly there was a bird inside our glass walled balcony! But none of the windows were open! We had no idea how it could possibly have got in, but the poor thing was going absolutely insane battering around trying to get out. Its breathing was rapid and shallow, which I of course recognized as the beginning symptoms of bird shock (thanks to First Aid for Birds, how useful that book is!), and thanks again to the same book, I knew exactly what to do. So we snuck out there with it and threw a towel over it to help it calm down (as per bird catching instructions), opened the window, and let it go free! Yet another chapter in the bird saga of my life.
Also, we had a really hilarious experience on Monday evening. Last week we met this guy from Ghana (named Samuel) and his 8 year old daughter and set up an appointment to go to his house and visit him and his wife and their two children on Sunday night. So we went and everyone but the husband was there, and his wife doesn't really speak Italian or English well. So we got along alright speaking to the daughter in Italian and having her translate into Twi (their language), but we set up an appointment to come back the next day when the husband would also be home. So on Monday we tried to call to confirm with him, but unfortunately Sorella Mullen still hasn't figured out the back few pages of the planner, so none of the numbers were labeled well and we didn't know which one was his. So I called one, and it was someone else. Woops. Then we called another, a man named Samuel answered, meno male. So we reminded him we were coming by that night at 7 to see him and his wife and daughter. He was a little confused, but said ok. So then we get there and they are not home, so we called and asked him if he was home. He said no, he was at work. We said, "but you said you would be home!" and he said, "no, I am at work." He asked where we were, so we told him we were at his house, and he was very disturbed by that and couldn't understand how we knew where his house was. But it was so strange, because when we met we were at the dumpster outside his house and he pointed and said, "I live in that big yellow palazzo!" Finally we just agreed that he would be home in about an hour and so we would come back then. So we came back at 8 and he still wasn't home, so we called and he asked again how we knew where his house was, and so we told him again about how he pointed at it for us and then we came back and met his wife and daughter the next night. He was really not getting it, and he still just wasn't home, so we finally decided to leave. He calls us back while we are walking home (the bikes were broken), and he asks again how we know all this stuff, and asks about his wife and daughter, which was really confusing. Finally he said, "because I live here in Verona just with some friends of mine. I don't have a wife and daughter." and I said, "wait, you don't have a wife named Evening and daughter named Veronica?" and he said, "no." It was then that we realized he was not the same Samuel at all, but a different one we had met a different day! But neither of us could remember who the other was, so we agreed to go meet right then and there at Porta Vescovo so we could figure out who we were. When we met we recognized each other and he agreed the anziani could call him and visit. It was so awkward and hilarious. Poor guy, we were really hassling him for not being home too. hehe.
Also, the weather is really really cooling down. I now wear three layers at almost all times, including flannel pants rolled up under my skirt. I have at least three more layers I can readily and easily add when it gets to full-blown winter, so hopefully I will be fine. My poor companion, though, did not bring a single article of winter clothing! poverina! So today we went about trying to find some more stockings and sweaters and stuff, but no one is selling gloves yet, which is a problem on the bikes because your hands get really really cold. hmph. We will keep searching!
This week we met this guy from Sri Lanka on a park bench who speaks neither Italian nor English. We have given him a Book of Mormon, but about all we can communicate further than that is enough to set up a next appointment, and that only on the park bench because we can't communicate an address even! So tomorrow night we are going to show up at the park bench at 6 o'clock and then take him with us to Italian class at the church, because it is the only way we can ever get him there. We have been able to figure out that he has been in Italy more than a year, and is still searching for work. He probably won't find anything until he can speak Italian, too, so he really needs to come to Italian class. It is an interesting experience trying to communicate, pretty funny really. But he is such a softspoken, kindly fellow that we are really hoping that he will read the Book of Mormon, because it is the only way to teach him!
Also, we are teaching these three people from Ghana, a sister and her two brothers, although the youngest brother is basically Italian because he has been here most of his life. And he is so super into reading, he was sooo excited to get the Book of Mormon. The last time we went, the first thing he said was, did you bring my bible? when we told him yes, he immediately asked if he could see it. He broke the CTR ring we gave him, and really wants another one. He is super cool and an adorable twelve-year old, and we are super excited to see him again. We did this paper folding lesson thing on what the Book of Mormon is, where you fold it and each fold makes an object in the story of the Book of Mormon: first a boat, then houses, then a plow to till the ground, then swords for the wars they have, then you rip it in half to say the people were divided, and throw the pieces on the ground to show how sad it was, and say but there is only one thing that could help them have peace and come back together, pick up one of the pieces, unfold it, and it is a cross. So you say that that is the story of the Book of Mormon; it is how Jesus Christ helps us have peace and blesses our lives when we follow his teachings that are in the book. We did that with this young investigator and when we unfolded the last piece he got so excited, he ran back to his bedroom and came out with another piece of paper because he wanted to learn how to do it. And he remembered every step on his own and the whole story; we didn't have to tell him a thing. It was super cool.
Also, the other day we went to go teach our 3 Nigerian investigators again. We were talking about the gospel, and one of them straight up asked if we are saying that only our church is true, and got really mad when we said it was the only true church of God's on the earth, and she started yelling and arguing, and then the other two got really into it too, and so they are all yelling at each other, one insisting she knows Joseph Smith was a true prophet, another saying it can't be so, and the third yelling in their native dialect so we couldn't understand what she thought. We kept trying to get into the conversation, but we really could not. It was impossible. So finally, I stood up in the middle of the room, they looked at me, and I declared that the Spirit could not dwell in a place of so much contention and that therefore we had to go. No joke. Straight up said that to them. And then we prayed and left. It was crazy. It calmed down right after I said that enough that the doubting investigator did say she would pray and that if God told her it was true she would stop going to her church and start going to ours. It was a really intense lesson. And I don't think ever in my life did I expect myself to stand up and declare that I was leaving because the Spirit could not dwell there. It was crazy, but really awesome. I really do love teaching them, even if they are crazy intense! And then we saw one of them on her own, the first time she has ever been alone, the next time we went, and let me tell you she has a really strong testimony of the truth of Joseph Smith being a prophet and of the Book of Mormon and of this church. It was such a beautiful lesson just the three of us together. We gave her a baptismal calendar to look over (did I tell you she committed to be baptized?), and she is super excited about it.
Also, yesterday, we were studying, when suddenly there was a bird inside our glass walled balcony! But none of the windows were open! We had no idea how it could possibly have got in, but the poor thing was going absolutely insane battering around trying to get out. Its breathing was rapid and shallow, which I of course recognized as the beginning symptoms of bird shock (thanks to First Aid for Birds, how useful that book is!), and thanks again to the same book, I knew exactly what to do. So we snuck out there with it and threw a towel over it to help it calm down (as per bird catching instructions), opened the window, and let it go free! Yet another chapter in the bird saga of my life.
Also, we had a really hilarious experience on Monday evening. Last week we met this guy from Ghana (named Samuel) and his 8 year old daughter and set up an appointment to go to his house and visit him and his wife and their two children on Sunday night. So we went and everyone but the husband was there, and his wife doesn't really speak Italian or English well. So we got along alright speaking to the daughter in Italian and having her translate into Twi (their language), but we set up an appointment to come back the next day when the husband would also be home. So on Monday we tried to call to confirm with him, but unfortunately Sorella Mullen still hasn't figured out the back few pages of the planner, so none of the numbers were labeled well and we didn't know which one was his. So I called one, and it was someone else. Woops. Then we called another, a man named Samuel answered, meno male. So we reminded him we were coming by that night at 7 to see him and his wife and daughter. He was a little confused, but said ok. So then we get there and they are not home, so we called and asked him if he was home. He said no, he was at work. We said, "but you said you would be home!" and he said, "no, I am at work." He asked where we were, so we told him we were at his house, and he was very disturbed by that and couldn't understand how we knew where his house was. But it was so strange, because when we met we were at the dumpster outside his house and he pointed and said, "I live in that big yellow palazzo!" Finally we just agreed that he would be home in about an hour and so we would come back then. So we came back at 8 and he still wasn't home, so we called and he asked again how we knew where his house was, and so we told him again about how he pointed at it for us and then we came back and met his wife and daughter the next night. He was really not getting it, and he still just wasn't home, so we finally decided to leave. He calls us back while we are walking home (the bikes were broken), and he asks again how we know all this stuff, and asks about his wife and daughter, which was really confusing. Finally he said, "because I live here in Verona just with some friends of mine. I don't have a wife and daughter." and I said, "wait, you don't have a wife named Evening and daughter named Veronica?" and he said, "no." It was then that we realized he was not the same Samuel at all, but a different one we had met a different day! But neither of us could remember who the other was, so we agreed to go meet right then and there at Porta Vescovo so we could figure out who we were. When we met we recognized each other and he agreed the anziani could call him and visit. It was so awkward and hilarious. Poor guy, we were really hassling him for not being home too. hehe.
Verona, Italy - October 6, 2010
Conference this week was awesome, yeah? We were able to watch the Relief Society session on Saturday afternoon (this weekend, they show it the week after here), then Saturday morning session on Saturday evening, then Saturday evening we watched Sunday afternoon (the men watched priesthood Sunday morning), and then Sunday morning on Sunday evening. It was beautiful! I watched the Relief Society session in English with an investigator who came, and then Saturday morning in Italian because we were waiting for investigators who never came, then Saturday afternoon in English because no investigators came, and then Sunday morning in Italian with two investigators who came and both loved it. It was a great experience and everyone who came really felt the spirit and the truth of Thomas Monson as a prophet today. It was awesome. He spoke out really strongly in the Relief Society session, yeah? In Italian there is a phrase, 'rompere le scattole,' which means 'to break boxes,' which is used to sort of refer to a scolding, maybe, or something, and everyone was talking about how President Monson really broke our boxes there. It was great.
Also, we did scambio this week with the Sorelle in Modena, and it was so fun! I went to Modena to work with Sorella Ryan, whom I have never been with before, and Sorella Harper came here with Sorella Mullen, and they had fun in Verona. I loved getting to be with Sorella Ryan, and it was way fun getting to know another sister in the mission. She is awesome. This is her second transfer, and she is so excited to be here and work hard. It was fun spending a scambio with someone new, especially since Sorella Harper and I did get to see each other all p-day today. In fact, our train got back late, so unfortunately we don't have the full email time today so this will be a little short. But today was great, it was fun to have my birthday on a p-day. Sorella Harper and Sorella Mullen called me early right in the morning from Verona to sing happy birthday, and they brought down to Modena the birthday card Kirsten sent, which had arrived while I was in Modena on scambio, so I got to open it. Kirsten, thank you sooooo much!! It was so perfect, I was so excited to open it and hear your voice! What a perfect card. i love you, thank you!
I've had a great day, and a great week, and now my email is about to kick me off...sorry. But I love you, and thank you so much for the birthday wishes, they really made my day!
Also, we did scambio this week with the Sorelle in Modena, and it was so fun! I went to Modena to work with Sorella Ryan, whom I have never been with before, and Sorella Harper came here with Sorella Mullen, and they had fun in Verona. I loved getting to be with Sorella Ryan, and it was way fun getting to know another sister in the mission. She is awesome. This is her second transfer, and she is so excited to be here and work hard. It was fun spending a scambio with someone new, especially since Sorella Harper and I did get to see each other all p-day today. In fact, our train got back late, so unfortunately we don't have the full email time today so this will be a little short. But today was great, it was fun to have my birthday on a p-day. Sorella Harper and Sorella Mullen called me early right in the morning from Verona to sing happy birthday, and they brought down to Modena the birthday card Kirsten sent, which had arrived while I was in Modena on scambio, so I got to open it. Kirsten, thank you sooooo much!! It was so perfect, I was so excited to open it and hear your voice! What a perfect card. i love you, thank you!
I've had a great day, and a great week, and now my email is about to kick me off...sorry. But I love you, and thank you so much for the birthday wishes, they really made my day!
Verona, Italy - September 29, 2010
We have had some pretty awesome adventures this week. Last Thursday was our first time going to Trento. There are a pair of Anziani in Trento, it is a city up north, in the Alps, about an hour by train from Verona, and the members have been clamboring for Sorelle. They used to send Sorella to Trento, but not for about ten years, and the Anziani find a lot of single women investigators, which means they can't teach them without a member absolutely ever, and can never go into the house when they find them doing casa. So it is hard. So President has asked us, the Sorelle in Verona, to go up to Trento once a week because we are the closest Sorelle, so now we go to Trento every Thursday! Last Thursday was the first time, and it was so awesome. Completely gorgeous, absolutely incredible. We just head north right in between the Alps as they are beginning over in this part of Italy, and then you get to Trento and the city is literally tucked up right in the mountains, surrounded. It was such a beautiful city. The Elders up there are setting up our Thursdays for us, including members to feed us every time we come. Apparently the members are going crazy trying to take turns feeding us, it sounds weird. But this awesome lady, a convert of about ten years, fed us this really good pasta, and talked with us about her worries about her nonmember husband and daughter who has declared that she will stop going to church as soon as she turns 18, and my companion felt to share this incredibly perfect scripture and the member was so moved she was crying, I think Sorella Mullen was a little startled and didn't quite know how to react, especially in Italian, but she was awesome. It was a cool experience. We also ran into members on the street who were super excited to see us, and spent the morning doing finding work up there in Trento, we knocked some doors, and found people right away! We are very very excited to go back. Also, right at the end of the day, we had this really cool experience. We felt really strongly to talk to this guy on the street while we were walking to catch our train, so I called to him to turn and come talk with us, and he did. Turns out the elders in Trento had actually just invited him that very day earlier, and it was his very first day in Trento ever, but he said no to them because he is Muslim. So we talked with him for a few minutes, and he had said no again right off the bat when we started talking, but by the end of our conversation he accepted a pamphlet and said he would be happy to have the male missionaries call him. It was incredible! We felt really strongly to say certain things to him, and it was a really cool experience. Anyway, Trento is gorgeous, and we are going back tomorrow. Woohoo!
Also, last p-day after email we went down to centro, so my companion could check out all the big stuff in town, including the Romeo and Juliet stuff, and on our way we walked past the Disney store here, which of course has everything in Italian, and found out they were having a big sale on the Disney DVDs in Italian...so I bought two. haha! I now have Princess and the Frog and Monsters Inc. in Italian, to watch upon returning from here. Won't that be exciting!?
Also, our Mission President challenged us all to challenge all of our investigators to baptism by the third lesson, so my companion and I have been taking it really seriously, and we have seen some awesome miracles, for real. We met this woman last week and now she is planning on being baptized November 7! She is so cool and so wants to study and learn the gospel, and is so sweet and nice. We have another appointment with her tonight, and we are bringing her a baptismal calendar. And then, here is another cool story about our mermaid buddies (the 3 investigators). We were teaching just #1 this time a lesson, and it was really great and the spirit was super powerful and she really felt it too, but then #3 came out of the bath and was literally deliberately trying to destroy the spirit. Like, I am not exaggerating, she was consciously and literally doing just that. So I called her out on it, and told her we were trying to create a spirit of reverence and would she please respect that. It really didn't have any effect on her, but it hit #1 pretty hard; I think she really took it seriously that what we are doing with her is seriously important. But we still needed to do something because the spirit was being destroyed, so we decided to take them to the church building right then and there in the middle of the lesson to meet Sorella Wolfgramm, the president's wife, who was there for interviews that night and didn’t have anything scheduled, she was just waiting for her husband. We made them get dressed and walk up to the church with us, and #3 wanted to come to, so it was all four of us, and we get there and took them on a tour of the church and they loved it. Even #3. They wanted to know if we sing, and when they found out we do, they wanted us to sing for them, so we sang Joseph Smith's First prayer first verse in Italian and then English. Even #3 really felt the spirit and was so much more calm and respectful afterwards, and #1 really knows this is the true church of God. And then I pulled Sorella Wolfgramm aside while Sorella Mullen started leading them down to the baptismal font for the end of the tour, and told her we wanted her to invite them to baptism. And she did, and it was awesome, and now #1 is getting baptized on November 6! #3 is praying to find out if it is the right thing. I really love that advice from the president to invite everyone early, it really helps the investigators progress and understand why we are coming and we are seeing great miracles from following our mission president. It is super cool!
Also, I think I might have gone a little crazy on the mission...and here is why. I am reading all the scripture references in the white handbook to study it better, and under the section about your relationships with others, your companion, there is a reference for Ecclesiastes 4:9-10. I absolutely loved the reference, and thought it was so sweet, in fact, that I literally rewrote it all nice and pretty on colored paper, mounted it on another color, and put a flower sticker on it and put it on our front door. I. Did that. What? Sorella Mullen laughed at me, but really likes it anyway.
And that has been my week. I can't believe my birthday is next week, how weird is that? I will shortly be 23. hm. In Italy! yay!
Also, last p-day after email we went down to centro, so my companion could check out all the big stuff in town, including the Romeo and Juliet stuff, and on our way we walked past the Disney store here, which of course has everything in Italian, and found out they were having a big sale on the Disney DVDs in Italian...so I bought two. haha! I now have Princess and the Frog and Monsters Inc. in Italian, to watch upon returning from here. Won't that be exciting!?
Also, our Mission President challenged us all to challenge all of our investigators to baptism by the third lesson, so my companion and I have been taking it really seriously, and we have seen some awesome miracles, for real. We met this woman last week and now she is planning on being baptized November 7! She is so cool and so wants to study and learn the gospel, and is so sweet and nice. We have another appointment with her tonight, and we are bringing her a baptismal calendar. And then, here is another cool story about our mermaid buddies (the 3 investigators). We were teaching just #1 this time a lesson, and it was really great and the spirit was super powerful and she really felt it too, but then #3 came out of the bath and was literally deliberately trying to destroy the spirit. Like, I am not exaggerating, she was consciously and literally doing just that. So I called her out on it, and told her we were trying to create a spirit of reverence and would she please respect that. It really didn't have any effect on her, but it hit #1 pretty hard; I think she really took it seriously that what we are doing with her is seriously important. But we still needed to do something because the spirit was being destroyed, so we decided to take them to the church building right then and there in the middle of the lesson to meet Sorella Wolfgramm, the president's wife, who was there for interviews that night and didn’t have anything scheduled, she was just waiting for her husband. We made them get dressed and walk up to the church with us, and #3 wanted to come to, so it was all four of us, and we get there and took them on a tour of the church and they loved it. Even #3. They wanted to know if we sing, and when they found out we do, they wanted us to sing for them, so we sang Joseph Smith's First prayer first verse in Italian and then English. Even #3 really felt the spirit and was so much more calm and respectful afterwards, and #1 really knows this is the true church of God. And then I pulled Sorella Wolfgramm aside while Sorella Mullen started leading them down to the baptismal font for the end of the tour, and told her we wanted her to invite them to baptism. And she did, and it was awesome, and now #1 is getting baptized on November 6! #3 is praying to find out if it is the right thing. I really love that advice from the president to invite everyone early, it really helps the investigators progress and understand why we are coming and we are seeing great miracles from following our mission president. It is super cool!
Also, I think I might have gone a little crazy on the mission...and here is why. I am reading all the scripture references in the white handbook to study it better, and under the section about your relationships with others, your companion, there is a reference for Ecclesiastes 4:9-10. I absolutely loved the reference, and thought it was so sweet, in fact, that I literally rewrote it all nice and pretty on colored paper, mounted it on another color, and put a flower sticker on it and put it on our front door. I. Did that. What? Sorella Mullen laughed at me, but really likes it anyway.
And that has been my week. I can't believe my birthday is next week, how weird is that? I will shortly be 23. hm. In Italy! yay!
Verona, Italy - September 22, 2010
I was a little bummed yesterday because our investigator won't admit to the truth. We had as part of our training last time about asking good and inspired questions, and Sorella Mullen and I felt that that would really help our investigator family, whom we have invited to baptism but they do not want to because they have already been baptized catholic and feel that it would be an insult to God to be baptized twice. We respect that, because it is a valid concern, so we explained the concept of authority to them and how a baptism without authority is really just getting wet and not a real baptism. They understand the concept, but still are not moving forward. We asked the investigator questions and she told us she believes that Joseph Smith is a prophet, so we asked her what that would mean for who has the authority to baptize today, and she sort of laughed and just refused to answer the question. So I felt sad because she has had so many very strong spiritual witnesses of the truth of this message, and she knows what it means, and just doesn't seem quite willing to accept it. We also found out that they really haven't been reading, so I think that we will focus on helping them to read the Book of Mormon, because there is great power in that. We'll see.
Then we had this fun lesson with some of our Nigerian investigators (3 of them) about the plan of salvation. We taught about the plan of salvation, which they really needed to hear, and you could tell investigator #1 really felt the spirit. But then they backed out of coming to church on Sunday and we scolded #1 because she promised she would come, and she said she would really really come the next week, but that they have program this week (a big thing the Nigerian churches do kind of frequently). So then we used all our recently learned training skills to invite them to start reading the Book of Mormon from the beginning, and it was going great, so I said, 'will you read the Book of Mormon?' and there was a momentary pause while they thought about it. Then #2 said, 'I want to ask you a question first. In America, are there marine spirits?' Which is a totally beffuddling question, especially when we couldn't tell what all the words were at first. So finally we said, 'um, not that we know of...' but we didn't even really know what marine spirits were, but whatever they were they walk around and live in Nigeria, so we asked what they are, and she said they are half man half fish, so we said, 'mermaids?' and she said, “yes! Are they in America among the whites?” We said “no, we've only heard of them in stories.” She said, “no, not in stories, are they in America?” so we said no (because I have certainly never seen one). but it was such a weird random question, so next I said, “do you mind if I ask why you asked that all of a sudden?” and when I said that #2 just burst out laughing tremendously loudly because apparently it was very funny, and #2 said, “no, I just wanted to know!” like she was defending herself to #1, and then she starts telling us about the flying witches that go around strangling people in their sleep if someone is mad at them that exist in Nigeria too, and wanted to know if we knew about them in America too, so we told her that there weren't any in America...and that is where all our training on great invites last week led to. (They did in the end let us get back to the invite and said they would, so that's good.) But what is the deal with that? Anyone out there know about the mermaids and witches in Nigeria or what the deal is? Because that's the first time I've gotten that question, and it really threw us off...
We had another thought we wanted to open the table to for responses from some experiences we had yesterday. Yesterday morning our appointments all cancelled on us, so we were doing casa in a neighborhood called Borgo Venezia and we had about two hours to do it. And I was dreading every minute of it, and felt like two hours might as well be two years it felt so long and I really really didn't want to do it. Then Sorella Mullen mentioned feeling the same way, and it occurred to me that it was a little strange that we both felt that way when normally it would be just fine and fun and stuff, so I asked her if she thought we were doing the right thing, and she said, “no, we're not.” So we sat down and pulled out the map and said a prayer to know where we should go to do casa, and both felt really good about going to a neighborhood called Valdonega. The thing is that Valdonega has been on both our minds all transfer long, and as soon as we decided to go there we both felt great and were super energized and suddenly two hours didn't even feel like enough. So we hopped on our bikes and went as fast as we possibly could to get there, and even felt unanimously really good about a particular street. We started knocking doors like crazy, because we needed to find whoever it was we were led there to find. We did two hours of casa and never once got in a door. And we both still felt really really like we did the right thing, even though there are absolutely zero visible results that that was actually a prompting to go out to Valdonega. And then that evening we got a bidone from a family we have been teaching, which was really sad, so we were going to get started doing our back up plan, but we really didn't feel like it was quite right either. So we prayed again, and the only thing either of us felt good about was sitting on the steps of their palazzo and waiting. And I have never felt like the right thing to do on the mission was sit. It was so weird, but we decided to do it anyway. We waited for half an hour until it was time to go home, and they never came home. Right as we were leaving this woman comes out and starts asking us who we are and what we are doing, and we both thought instantly that maybe she was why we were supposed to sit there, but then she flatly refused to hear our message and said she was perfectly fine with her own religion. So we hopped on our bikes, and in the underpass by the train station both of us independently felt very strongly to not leave this woman with a bunch of bags we saw by herself, but to go and offer to help her. So we turned back around to go find her, and turns out she couldn't speak Italian at all, did not want help, and that of all of the twenty languages I had in my bag she didn't speak a single one of them and we couldn't even give her a pamphlet or sit with her or help her with her bags. So we went on our way and came home. It was so weird, because we felt like we were trying hard to follow promptings but none of them made sense or yielded any results. So we were wondering what y'all make of that? Thoughts? Comments?
Then we had this fun lesson with some of our Nigerian investigators (3 of them) about the plan of salvation. We taught about the plan of salvation, which they really needed to hear, and you could tell investigator #1 really felt the spirit. But then they backed out of coming to church on Sunday and we scolded #1 because she promised she would come, and she said she would really really come the next week, but that they have program this week (a big thing the Nigerian churches do kind of frequently). So then we used all our recently learned training skills to invite them to start reading the Book of Mormon from the beginning, and it was going great, so I said, 'will you read the Book of Mormon?' and there was a momentary pause while they thought about it. Then #2 said, 'I want to ask you a question first. In America, are there marine spirits?' Which is a totally beffuddling question, especially when we couldn't tell what all the words were at first. So finally we said, 'um, not that we know of...' but we didn't even really know what marine spirits were, but whatever they were they walk around and live in Nigeria, so we asked what they are, and she said they are half man half fish, so we said, 'mermaids?' and she said, “yes! Are they in America among the whites?” We said “no, we've only heard of them in stories.” She said, “no, not in stories, are they in America?” so we said no (because I have certainly never seen one). but it was such a weird random question, so next I said, “do you mind if I ask why you asked that all of a sudden?” and when I said that #2 just burst out laughing tremendously loudly because apparently it was very funny, and #2 said, “no, I just wanted to know!” like she was defending herself to #1, and then she starts telling us about the flying witches that go around strangling people in their sleep if someone is mad at them that exist in Nigeria too, and wanted to know if we knew about them in America too, so we told her that there weren't any in America...and that is where all our training on great invites last week led to. (They did in the end let us get back to the invite and said they would, so that's good.) But what is the deal with that? Anyone out there know about the mermaids and witches in Nigeria or what the deal is? Because that's the first time I've gotten that question, and it really threw us off...
We had another thought we wanted to open the table to for responses from some experiences we had yesterday. Yesterday morning our appointments all cancelled on us, so we were doing casa in a neighborhood called Borgo Venezia and we had about two hours to do it. And I was dreading every minute of it, and felt like two hours might as well be two years it felt so long and I really really didn't want to do it. Then Sorella Mullen mentioned feeling the same way, and it occurred to me that it was a little strange that we both felt that way when normally it would be just fine and fun and stuff, so I asked her if she thought we were doing the right thing, and she said, “no, we're not.” So we sat down and pulled out the map and said a prayer to know where we should go to do casa, and both felt really good about going to a neighborhood called Valdonega. The thing is that Valdonega has been on both our minds all transfer long, and as soon as we decided to go there we both felt great and were super energized and suddenly two hours didn't even feel like enough. So we hopped on our bikes and went as fast as we possibly could to get there, and even felt unanimously really good about a particular street. We started knocking doors like crazy, because we needed to find whoever it was we were led there to find. We did two hours of casa and never once got in a door. And we both still felt really really like we did the right thing, even though there are absolutely zero visible results that that was actually a prompting to go out to Valdonega. And then that evening we got a bidone from a family we have been teaching, which was really sad, so we were going to get started doing our back up plan, but we really didn't feel like it was quite right either. So we prayed again, and the only thing either of us felt good about was sitting on the steps of their palazzo and waiting. And I have never felt like the right thing to do on the mission was sit. It was so weird, but we decided to do it anyway. We waited for half an hour until it was time to go home, and they never came home. Right as we were leaving this woman comes out and starts asking us who we are and what we are doing, and we both thought instantly that maybe she was why we were supposed to sit there, but then she flatly refused to hear our message and said she was perfectly fine with her own religion. So we hopped on our bikes, and in the underpass by the train station both of us independently felt very strongly to not leave this woman with a bunch of bags we saw by herself, but to go and offer to help her. So we turned back around to go find her, and turns out she couldn't speak Italian at all, did not want help, and that of all of the twenty languages I had in my bag she didn't speak a single one of them and we couldn't even give her a pamphlet or sit with her or help her with her bags. So we went on our way and came home. It was so weird, because we felt like we were trying hard to follow promptings but none of them made sense or yielded any results. So we were wondering what y'all make of that? Thoughts? Comments?
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