I told you we were splitting up our email this week, right? So here we are for part 2. We got back to Verona last night from the training thing in Milano. It was a really cool conference. Basically what's going on is they are going to start teaching the missionaries in the MTC a little differently starting next summer, so between now and then they are getting us all ready by teaching us the same course they will be doing in the MTC so that when these new missionaries hit the field we are all ready to go with them. It is all the same stuff that is in Preach my Gospel, just splitting it up into 8 mini-lessons that will help us all become better teachers. We covered about 2-3 lessons a day for 3 days, and then each evening we did work in Milano. Most of the elders did finding work, but it turns out the Sorelle in Milano were actually sick right when we showed up, so they sent us out doing a lot of their work and keeping their appointments because they couldn't. It was kind of neat working in a different place for a few days. Milano is a huge city with a way different feel from Verona. We stayed with the Sorelle in Milano 2, in their apartment, and it was cool to see another missionary apartment, because I have only ever seen Verona. It was also my first time away from Verona overnight since arriving in Italy, and it felt weird being away from my city for so long! I loved the training in Milano and had some cool experiences in the evenings, but I was so glad to come home again to Verona. It was neat how much I really felt like I was home too, the instant we arrived at the train station. It was neat. I really love this city and these people and everything about it. We watched a lot of videos from The District 2, basically missionaries in some mission in the states, I think California or something, being filmed teaching and talking about teaching, and it was really cool and I got a lot of new ideas from it and from the roleplays we did that I think are really inspired help for our specific investigators in Verona. It was an extremely practical and useful training, I really loved it.
Something funny happened with my companion this morning. We were talking in Italian, because we try to as much as possible, and she asked who the bishop was in Verona 2, so I said that he is 'Vescovo Morando.' (vescovo = bishop, morando = his last name), and she stops all of a sudden and says in English, 'I don't think that can mean what I think it means. Did you just say the bishop is dying?' Because she thought his name was from the verb for to die. It was really funny. But no, the bishop is neither dying nor does his name mean that. Sorella Mullen is remarkably good at Italian, especially for being here only one week! She is incredible; I really love her a lot. I felt sorry for her and Sorella Casalino though, because neither of them know the city Verona at all and turns out they were pretty much 100% lost the whole week while we were gone at training, and had to call this one ward member with a bike to come lead them around and back home a couple of times. But she is so incredible, and has such a good attitude.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Verona, Italy - September 14, 2010
So, my new companion, her name is Sorella Mullen. She is from California, and is way cool and super optimistic and energetic and ready to go. I love her already, she is so awesome. One of the weirdest parts about going to train was traveling from the train station in Milano to the church building in Milano without another sorella, just with a bunch of elders. How bizarre. Then we got there, and there was actually only one sister coming in, so we knew right away that we were each others' companions. (The elders had to wait until the suspensful moment of announcement to get matched up with each other.) We had a cool meeting all together, just like the one when I got here, where the assistants read off who is with who and where in front of everyone and you get up and go sit with your new companion, and president talked to us, and sorella wolfgramm also, and then each of the trainers bore their testimonies. It was really cool and really exciting to be with a brand new missionary, there really is an extra fire and energy in them and I love it! Her first week has been a little strange though, and will get even stranger tomorrow. With the new schedule for missions all over the world they do this leadership training thing where all the zone leaders, district leaders, and new missionary trainers (I think that is everyone?) go to Milano for three to four days for extra training. So tomorrow two sorelle from Pordenone will be coming here, and one will stay here in Verona with my companion while the other will come with me to Milano to be my companion for the conference. How crazy is that! I have to leave my new missionary in her very first week! It will be potentially stressful for her, because the sister coming to be with her does not know Verona at all of course, and she is still so new here that she doesn't really know where things are either, and the two of them are going to have to go visit a bunch of people that neither of them have ever met. So weird. So she will spend the next three days basically like she has been whitewashed into the city. But I am super impressed with how incredibly capable and wise she is, so when it comes right down to it I am not at all worried about her being able to handle it. I know she can.
Her very first night here a couple in the ward, were kind enough to pick us up from the train station with her bags and take us, not only home, but also to the grocery store so that she didn't have to ride the bike with groceries on her very first night. Then we went hurrying off to an appointment with these two Nigerian girls that we are teaching, and she loved it. She was awesome! Her very first lesson in the field. Then we come out to bike home, and it starts raining. So she even got to ride in the rain on her very first night.
Sunday was an adventure too...um, we closed the door to the apartment with the keys inside. Bah! So we couldn't get in and the zone leaders had to come and try to break in with a credit card, and they tried and tried and couldn't do it. We were starting to think we were going to have to sleep at a member's home for the night, when suddenly this other man on our floor that I had never met before came home and the zone leaders asked him to help and he really pulled out all the stops trying to help us. He comes out with some real breaking into the house materials (why he had them, I did not ask). But still couldn't get in. So I go down the stairwell a ways to start calling members to find somewhere for us to sleep, and suddenly turn around to the sound of a power drill...this guy brought out his power drill and just starts drilling holes in our door to break in! It was crazy! And he did succeed, I suppose, but now we have a pile of sawdust in the doorway and a rather less secure door that doesn't let the key turn as easily...hehe. What an adventure.
And then last night we were on the bus instead of bike because it was raining, so to come home we hopped on the bus, but I was making phone calls the whole time so unfortunately I did not notice until it was too late that we were not going the right direction. The bus driver stops and tells us we have to get off because it is the end of the line. So we find the nearest street sign and try to look ourselves up on the map with no luck whatsoever, and so we finally stop this passing lady and ask her where we are, and she said we are actually outside Verona off the map. And the busses were all done for the night. Ah! So we called our incredibly awesome ward mission leader, who looked up where we were on the internet, and then sent his brother and his girlfriend to come pick us up because there was no way we could have gotten home at that time of evening without a ride! How embarassing. But also completely hilarious. I am so grateful Sorella Mullen is so patient and so optimistic; she looks at everything as an adventure, so we spent all this week laughing like crazy because of how many funny things happened to us, where someone else could easily have gotten angry or sad. She is so awesome, I am so happy to be with her.
Her very first night here a couple in the ward, were kind enough to pick us up from the train station with her bags and take us, not only home, but also to the grocery store so that she didn't have to ride the bike with groceries on her very first night. Then we went hurrying off to an appointment with these two Nigerian girls that we are teaching, and she loved it. She was awesome! Her very first lesson in the field. Then we come out to bike home, and it starts raining. So she even got to ride in the rain on her very first night.
Sunday was an adventure too...um, we closed the door to the apartment with the keys inside. Bah! So we couldn't get in and the zone leaders had to come and try to break in with a credit card, and they tried and tried and couldn't do it. We were starting to think we were going to have to sleep at a member's home for the night, when suddenly this other man on our floor that I had never met before came home and the zone leaders asked him to help and he really pulled out all the stops trying to help us. He comes out with some real breaking into the house materials (why he had them, I did not ask). But still couldn't get in. So I go down the stairwell a ways to start calling members to find somewhere for us to sleep, and suddenly turn around to the sound of a power drill...this guy brought out his power drill and just starts drilling holes in our door to break in! It was crazy! And he did succeed, I suppose, but now we have a pile of sawdust in the doorway and a rather less secure door that doesn't let the key turn as easily...hehe. What an adventure.
And then last night we were on the bus instead of bike because it was raining, so to come home we hopped on the bus, but I was making phone calls the whole time so unfortunately I did not notice until it was too late that we were not going the right direction. The bus driver stops and tells us we have to get off because it is the end of the line. So we find the nearest street sign and try to look ourselves up on the map with no luck whatsoever, and so we finally stop this passing lady and ask her where we are, and she said we are actually outside Verona off the map. And the busses were all done for the night. Ah! So we called our incredibly awesome ward mission leader, who looked up where we were on the internet, and then sent his brother and his girlfriend to come pick us up because there was no way we could have gotten home at that time of evening without a ride! How embarassing. But also completely hilarious. I am so grateful Sorella Mullen is so patient and so optimistic; she looks at everything as an adventure, so we spent all this week laughing like crazy because of how many funny things happened to us, where someone else could easily have gotten angry or sad. She is so awesome, I am so happy to be with her.
Verona, Italy - September 8, 2010
Well, upcoming is fourth transfer with fourth companion. We received the call last night, and Sorella Tramacchi will be going to Genova for her last transfer. And I...will be training! Tomorrow I will go to Milan to pick up a brand new missionary, and I don't know who it is yet because you don't find out until you get there! Crazy, eh, training on my fourth transfer...I am actually really nervous about it, but also certain that it will work out ok. I will let you know who she is and how it is going once next email come around! I sure am going through companions fast...hehe.
It also means I get to stay in Verona for at least one more transfer, and so I will be celebrating my birthday here! How exciting! The work is going really well here, I will get my permesso di sogiorno this transfer, two days before my birthday, and that will be fun. We invited several investigators to baptism and they are all praying about it right now to know if that is the right decision. We have a lot of investigators who are progressing really well right now.
Oh, and we had another new record of church attendance this Sunday, with 9 people in church! It was incredible!
One of the girls in the ward here got a mission call to serve on Temple square last week , which is exciting for her, and cool for us because she is peppering us with questions and really wants to come help us out.
We have had a really good work week, with people progressing, teaching lots of lessons, and members being really willing to come with us, even when we get bedoned by the investigator (that is always sad when you have a member with you for that). Every week we get to email president and answer the question of what miracles we have seen that week that have showed the guidance of the Lord in our work, and I really do know that he truly is guiding this work.
I can't believe I am training. Ach!
It also means I get to stay in Verona for at least one more transfer, and so I will be celebrating my birthday here! How exciting! The work is going really well here, I will get my permesso di sogiorno this transfer, two days before my birthday, and that will be fun. We invited several investigators to baptism and they are all praying about it right now to know if that is the right decision. We have a lot of investigators who are progressing really well right now.
Oh, and we had another new record of church attendance this Sunday, with 9 people in church! It was incredible!
One of the girls in the ward here got a mission call to serve on Temple square last week , which is exciting for her, and cool for us because she is peppering us with questions and really wants to come help us out.
We have had a really good work week, with people progressing, teaching lots of lessons, and members being really willing to come with us, even when we get bedoned by the investigator (that is always sad when you have a member with you for that). Every week we get to email president and answer the question of what miracles we have seen that week that have showed the guidance of the Lord in our work, and I really do know that he truly is guiding this work.
I can't believe I am training. Ach!
Verona, Italy - September 1, 2010
Here is a funny story: On Saturday we were riding our bikes down one of the main streets in our part of town to go to the church for correlation, the street was Via Venti Settembre (or, in English, 20th of September Street - but I haven't been able to find out what significant thing happened on the 20th of September in Italian or Veronan history such that they would name a street after it, any of you know?). My companion is behind me. A man on a bike is passing by next to us, but when he gets next to me he stops going faster and instead starts talking to me, while we are still biking. 'Excuse me, are you a missionary?' 'Yes,' I said, since missionaries shouldn't lie and I am a missionary so yes is the true answer. 'Oh good,' he said. 'I am looking for some information. Can I ask you a question?' So I said, 'Of course! But let's stop and not talk while riding.' So we pulled over. He said he was looking for a church to go to and can always recognize a christian when he sees one, so he wanted to know where our church was. I told him. I told him we were, as it happens, going to the church right now, and would he like to come meet some male missionaries who can teach him more about our church? He said, right now? I said yes. He said, ok then, why not? So he followed us up to the church building on the bikes and we had a nice little chat in the meantime. He is from Nigeria, but a Jewish part of Nigeria or something that I had never heard of before. We meet a lot of Nigerians, so it was cool to find out about another new place in Nigeria. He is the only one in his family here in Italy, and he has been here three years, but doesn't speak Italian super well, and doesn't super enjoy going to the Catholic Church. So we took him to the church, and he met the elders, and now he is a new investigator! How exciting! It was fun having someone try to ask me about the church on the bikes. That was a new experience!
Also awesome this week, because I don't think we have ever had a Sunday this successful, we had four people in church! And the elders had another two or three a piece! How awesome is that! Especially because we have not been able to get a single person to church all transfer, and then finally this week four people came!
Also awesome this week, because I don't think we have ever had a Sunday this successful, we had four people in church! And the elders had another two or three a piece! How awesome is that! Especially because we have not been able to get a single person to church all transfer, and then finally this week four people came!
Verona, Italy - August 25, 2010
Okay, I would just like to begin by saying that it is a good thing I had brainstormed and written down during the week a list of things to write home, because it is really hot today and I am exhausted! So I am sorry if this isn't as energetic sounding as normal, but you can blame it on riding bikes in the heat all day. hehe.
We had a neat experience last Wednesday night after p-day ended (p-day is never a full day, it starts at 10 am after studies and ends at 6 pm in the evening). We went to visit a couple of investigators and a member came over and gave one of the investigators a blessing because she wanted one. It was cool to see how she really was calmed and touched by the blessing. And then afterwards we taught a really impactful lesson about how to hear the Spirit, because right now that is the investigator's biggest hang up. She has felt the spirit, and she has felt the truth of our message, but she absolutely refuses to recognize it or admit it. She just keeps insisting she has not felt any thing, no change whatsoever, so we keep trying to teach her about how it is not likely to be some gigantic thing and she isn't just going to suddenly become a different person, but that it is a soft feeling. There is a quote in preach my gospel about how the spirit does not get our attention by shouting or shaking us with a heavy hand, but rather, it whispers, which we read to her twice now and I think she is starting to understand. It was really fun to have the other investigator in the lesson, because she could talk about how she came to recognize that she was feeling the spirit when reading the Book of Mormon. We have seen the first investigator a few times since that night, and she still is not willing to recognize the soft feelings of the spirit. I think there are a few distractions we need to help her eliminate. She is in a lot of pain from some of the tragedies she has suffered in life. It is so hard to watch her just persist in her pain when we know that the gospel will truly bring her peace and healing, and she is just refusing to see it or accept it. She is reading the Book of Mormon now though, abbastanza spesso, and still really loves for us to come visit her, so it is not that she isn't moving forward, just very slowly and having a lot of trouble overcoming this particular stumbling block. But it will come, though.
Anyway, the next night we finally got our Brazilian family of investigators to do a serata with our Brazilian family of members. We told the wife and mother of the investigator family that we would come by at 6 pm on Thursday then all go together by bus to see the member family, and she said ok. So we show up at the investigator’s house, but she and the older son, are not at home and are going to meet us at the station, so we go with the husband and the younger son by bus to the station and then we put them on an out of city bus to take them to the place outside Verona where the members live. But we didn't tell them beforehand how far it was, and they were a little hesitant to get on the bus, but we just acted like it was totally normal and way cool and we were super happy and excited and then they were fine. Luckily it is not too far outside the city. And then the member family took them back home afterwards in their car, so I think that helped. It was really cool! It makes me really want to learn Portugues, actually, because we teach a lot of Portuguese speakers and use a lot of portugues speaking members, and sit through a lot of lessons or evenings with familys that happen all in Portuguese with us just trying our best to understand. It is way fun though! I think it was especially good for the husband, who is a lot more hesitant than the wife. She already knows that it is true. We found her during my first transfer, right at the end, and through her started teaching her family. They are super awesome, I really love them.
Anyway, we also had zone conference this week, which was way cool! We got to spend some more time learning from and about our new mission president and his wife, and I feel a lot more comfortable with them now and like I know what they want for the mission and what they expect of us. They are really great, I love President and Sorella Wolfgramm. As part of the zone conference, we found out about some changes that are happening world wide for missionaries, particularly with the scheduling of zone conferences and interviews with president, as well as a couple of extra training things they will be instituting. They have come up with these condensed lesson thingies that relate to the information in preach my gospel but are differently formatted that they want us all to start learning, because next summer they will start teaching this way to the missionaries going for the whole world in the MTC, and we have to be ready when the new type of missionary hits the field, to train them well and to work with them well and to step missionary work up a level world-wide. I think it will be really exciting to get to see this shifting process throughout pretty literally my whole mission, since I should end up coming home just after the switch over takes place, I think. Plus then I get to be constantly learning new ways to do missionary work through training from the church and working hard on constantly implementing them and thinking as differently as possible all the time. It should be really cool. I am excited!
Also, I have been thinking a lot about less active and new convert work this week, and how that really is an extremely important part of missionary work. New converts need to be visited after baptism regularly, and need to be integrated quickly into the ward, or else they will simply get lost, and all the work before baptism will be in vain. We had scambio this week, and so Sorella Harper came back here again to Verona with me, and we got to see a new convert who got baptized with Sorella Harper and the sister before me, and she freaked out when she saw Sorella Harper. She was so excited to see her because she loves those two so much, those are really her missionaries, you know? And then we also saw another investigator, and she sort of told us the same thing, that it was Sorella Harper and I who started teaching her and took her through that process, and so we are the ones she will always have as the image of the sister missionaries in her mind. It made me feel really good to hear her say that, because I love this investigator and she is so important to me, and it was nice to hear she likes me so much too. =) It is nice to know I have really made that difference in someone's life, that the Lord let me be a part of that process with her. Yay. And then also less actives, we have been working with a family from peru here, and they have just started coming back to church and it is so exciting to see them there every sunday and to see the changes in them as they come back to church! I never knew that reactivating was so exciting, because those people still really need that help. It is cool.
Also, during zone conference, they had this example thing, where the assistants were teaching a lesson and they brought out this gigantic barbell with tons of weight on it, and said they needed someone really strong to come up and lift it for them. So they said, 'Sorella Langham, why don't you come lift this for us?' And I laughed and so did everyone else, because we all thought they were joking, but they totally weren't. So they had me come up in front of both zones full of missionaries, and then they gave me the authority to lift the big bar with so much weight and made me try. Twice! Obviously I hadn't a chance. So they called up a pair of big strong elders to help me, and they represented power, showing that we really need to back up our authority with power or else it is in vain. It was kind of exciting to get to participate in zone conference; I liked it.
We had a neat experience last Wednesday night after p-day ended (p-day is never a full day, it starts at 10 am after studies and ends at 6 pm in the evening). We went to visit a couple of investigators and a member came over and gave one of the investigators a blessing because she wanted one. It was cool to see how she really was calmed and touched by the blessing. And then afterwards we taught a really impactful lesson about how to hear the Spirit, because right now that is the investigator's biggest hang up. She has felt the spirit, and she has felt the truth of our message, but she absolutely refuses to recognize it or admit it. She just keeps insisting she has not felt any thing, no change whatsoever, so we keep trying to teach her about how it is not likely to be some gigantic thing and she isn't just going to suddenly become a different person, but that it is a soft feeling. There is a quote in preach my gospel about how the spirit does not get our attention by shouting or shaking us with a heavy hand, but rather, it whispers, which we read to her twice now and I think she is starting to understand. It was really fun to have the other investigator in the lesson, because she could talk about how she came to recognize that she was feeling the spirit when reading the Book of Mormon. We have seen the first investigator a few times since that night, and she still is not willing to recognize the soft feelings of the spirit. I think there are a few distractions we need to help her eliminate. She is in a lot of pain from some of the tragedies she has suffered in life. It is so hard to watch her just persist in her pain when we know that the gospel will truly bring her peace and healing, and she is just refusing to see it or accept it. She is reading the Book of Mormon now though, abbastanza spesso, and still really loves for us to come visit her, so it is not that she isn't moving forward, just very slowly and having a lot of trouble overcoming this particular stumbling block. But it will come, though.
Anyway, the next night we finally got our Brazilian family of investigators to do a serata with our Brazilian family of members. We told the wife and mother of the investigator family that we would come by at 6 pm on Thursday then all go together by bus to see the member family, and she said ok. So we show up at the investigator’s house, but she and the older son, are not at home and are going to meet us at the station, so we go with the husband and the younger son by bus to the station and then we put them on an out of city bus to take them to the place outside Verona where the members live. But we didn't tell them beforehand how far it was, and they were a little hesitant to get on the bus, but we just acted like it was totally normal and way cool and we were super happy and excited and then they were fine. Luckily it is not too far outside the city. And then the member family took them back home afterwards in their car, so I think that helped. It was really cool! It makes me really want to learn Portugues, actually, because we teach a lot of Portuguese speakers and use a lot of portugues speaking members, and sit through a lot of lessons or evenings with familys that happen all in Portuguese with us just trying our best to understand. It is way fun though! I think it was especially good for the husband, who is a lot more hesitant than the wife. She already knows that it is true. We found her during my first transfer, right at the end, and through her started teaching her family. They are super awesome, I really love them.
Anyway, we also had zone conference this week, which was way cool! We got to spend some more time learning from and about our new mission president and his wife, and I feel a lot more comfortable with them now and like I know what they want for the mission and what they expect of us. They are really great, I love President and Sorella Wolfgramm. As part of the zone conference, we found out about some changes that are happening world wide for missionaries, particularly with the scheduling of zone conferences and interviews with president, as well as a couple of extra training things they will be instituting. They have come up with these condensed lesson thingies that relate to the information in preach my gospel but are differently formatted that they want us all to start learning, because next summer they will start teaching this way to the missionaries going for the whole world in the MTC, and we have to be ready when the new type of missionary hits the field, to train them well and to work with them well and to step missionary work up a level world-wide. I think it will be really exciting to get to see this shifting process throughout pretty literally my whole mission, since I should end up coming home just after the switch over takes place, I think. Plus then I get to be constantly learning new ways to do missionary work through training from the church and working hard on constantly implementing them and thinking as differently as possible all the time. It should be really cool. I am excited!
Also, I have been thinking a lot about less active and new convert work this week, and how that really is an extremely important part of missionary work. New converts need to be visited after baptism regularly, and need to be integrated quickly into the ward, or else they will simply get lost, and all the work before baptism will be in vain. We had scambio this week, and so Sorella Harper came back here again to Verona with me, and we got to see a new convert who got baptized with Sorella Harper and the sister before me, and she freaked out when she saw Sorella Harper. She was so excited to see her because she loves those two so much, those are really her missionaries, you know? And then we also saw another investigator, and she sort of told us the same thing, that it was Sorella Harper and I who started teaching her and took her through that process, and so we are the ones she will always have as the image of the sister missionaries in her mind. It made me feel really good to hear her say that, because I love this investigator and she is so important to me, and it was nice to hear she likes me so much too. =) It is nice to know I have really made that difference in someone's life, that the Lord let me be a part of that process with her. Yay. And then also less actives, we have been working with a family from peru here, and they have just started coming back to church and it is so exciting to see them there every sunday and to see the changes in them as they come back to church! I never knew that reactivating was so exciting, because those people still really need that help. It is cool.
Also, during zone conference, they had this example thing, where the assistants were teaching a lesson and they brought out this gigantic barbell with tons of weight on it, and said they needed someone really strong to come up and lift it for them. So they said, 'Sorella Langham, why don't you come lift this for us?' And I laughed and so did everyone else, because we all thought they were joking, but they totally weren't. So they had me come up in front of both zones full of missionaries, and then they gave me the authority to lift the big bar with so much weight and made me try. Twice! Obviously I hadn't a chance. So they called up a pair of big strong elders to help me, and they represented power, showing that we really need to back up our authority with power or else it is in vain. It was kind of exciting to get to participate in zone conference; I liked it.
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