21 October 2009
Hello!
So I find out tomorrow who my new companion will be. Yikes. It's kind of nerve-wracking to just barely get to know the person you're living with 24/7 and because friends and start working well together and then have to switch. But hopefully it will be good. We aren't sure who will come to Ragusa, because there are four sisters who are going home after the next transfer who are going to probably stay in their own cities, so we aren't sure who's old enough to be switched around or who has been in a city long enough to need to be moved, etc. But we'll see.
This week was actually really really amazing. Thursday we had our weekly appointment with Sorella Turtula, the inactive who is really just a sweet lady. The sisters have been visiting her for ages and have been working with her for months trying to get her to find a spare moments to kneel and pray and ponder. But she hasn't been able to find uninterrupted moments because taking care of her mom is so demanding, so she hadn't been praying at all. I suggested that she keep a prayer in her heart throughout the day, because she really just needs to be communicating with Heavenly Father. And when we checked on that this week she said my scheme worked. :) She has been praying during the day, whenever she walks somewhere she prays because she knows nobody will interrupt her. She had never thought of doing that and now that she knows she can she's doing it A LOT. We are VERY excited for her.
Then, Thursday, Emmanuel came to English course with mission papers in hand! He was baptized about a year and a half ago and he's the only member and has kind of been going back and forth between activity and inactivity. But the Anziani have been really working with him and asking him for help in appointments and rides and such, and he taught a really amazing spiritual thought in English course last week where the students stayed for half an hour and asked questions and were super interested. And we just asked him why he wasn't already gone on a mission, he's felt like he was supposed to be a missionary since before he was baptized, and I guess that experience really helped him decide because he went and talked to the branch president the next day, and then he announced in a talk he gave in church on Sunday that he was going to go on a mission. Super cool.
Friday we had a zone bust. I don't know if they do those in any other missions. But basically our whole zone, except Sciacca who were getting ready for a baptism, went to Gela, a city where they haven't been able to find any investigators for a while and there hasn't been a baptism in about 7 years. So we had twelve missionaries in the city, visiting the 70 inactives (9 active people and 70 inactive, whoa) and talking to everyone on the street and everywhere. In the evening we did a singing mostra. We stood on a corner downtown, because in this city EVERYONE walks around this main street and a piazza of a church at night, and just hangs out outside, so we stood on a corner all together and sang hymns. And as we noticed people watching and listening a few would branch off and talk to them, and we got a TON of numbers. There was one guy, who was actually from Romania and didn't speak Italian super well yet, who had been watching us the whole night. He hadn't wanted to talk to us initially, but he followed us across the street to where we were singing and listened to us the whole time, and one Anziano gave him a pamphlet about the gospel and he was reading it as he stood there listening, and eventually ended up giving his information and everything and being interested. There was a family that they found who had heard about the church somewhere else and they got an appointment with for this week. So many people listened and wanted to hear more, it's amazing the power that the hymns have.
So, earlier in the week I asked the Branch president about how would be the best way to go over the mission rules with the members, because President Taranto had asked us to, so President Sorrentino got up in Sacrament meeting and went over them in the announcements. My favorite part was "'tu' non esiste!" because we had some fratelli in the branch think that it's okay to use informal with us and wanted us to do so as well, but that's not allowed. And then after sacrament meeting a copy of the rules was handed out to everyone. It was kind of cool to know that he listens to us and that he's willing to work with us.
Monday, we planned to find. We had prayed about a couple of streets a long time ago, and had gone to the one and met the old ladies who thanked Mary and Padre Pio for bringing us, but we hadn't gotten around to the other. So Monday morning we went, and there were no citofoni. Which was weird because we both felt really good about it. So we decided to go down a side street, and there was a building that contained two separate apartment buildings, and there were people working on the roof and such, so the doors to these two buildings were open. Which in itself was a miracle, because the citofoni are horrible. So we went into the first building, climbed the stairs to the fifth floor and started working down. Nobody was home on the first three doors, but the fourth opened. We asked if we could sing her a hymn and she said not a chance, and was about to close the door, but she looked really sad so my amazing companion kept talking to her. IN the end we found out that her brother died a year ago at only 68 and her dad died when she was five and she's really angry at God and doesn't think he loves her all the time. We were able to have a good discussion, and it was clear that she wants to believe really badly but at the same time is stubborn. In the end we asked if we could sing a hymn again, and sang "families are forever" and she started to cry again and said over and over "Voi siete due angeli, voi siete due angeli" (you are two angels). She said we could come back. I think that if we can help her break down the walls she'd be a really strong member.
Nobody else in her building answered the door, except an old man who saw us and said "non c'รจ nessuno" Except he was there, but oh well.
The next building though, we went up the stairs and knocked on a door and this lady answered and we said we'd like to sing her a hymn to bring some joy. She said "okay, come on in". So we went in, sat down, and were about to sing and she said "can't we get to know each other first?" So we did. She's evangelical pentecostal, and she had heard that we worship Joseph Smith but she saw Jesus Christ on our tag so she knew that couldn't be true. So we explained prophets a little bit and the Restoration, and then she asked about the book Joseph Smith wrote, and we were able to explain about the Book of Mormon, that he only translated it but that it testifies of Christ and was written by prophets and the only way to know if it's true is to read it and pray about it. So she took it and said she'd read, even if just for cultural purposes. Which is unheard of, generally evangelicals won't look at a Book of Mormon I hear. And then she asked US for our phone number so she could call US, and then we sang a hymn, and she asked US if we could close with a prayer. Whoa. She said it, it wasn't too different than ours, except she said "Signore" (Lord) about 500 times. But it was super cool.
Yesterday was district meeting and president's interviews, which is always good. Only I think that the Ragusani must have a lot more faith than most to go to church in a building that cold. It was FREEZING in the chapel. The sad thing is it's so cold, winter is on it's way, but in reality it's maybe only 60 degrees. It feels freezing though. We go to Chinese stores all the time, they have a million and we haven't been in the same one twice, and so I've found some sweaters, I've been getting like one a week. I bought leggings to wear under my skirts, and I need to work on finding scarves and gloves. You have to wear scarves here, people think if cold air gets on your neck you'll die.
We're not sure about the African "save the babies" house. :) There are tons of African immigrants here, some, like Esther our investigator, are here with their spouse and doing pretty well with nice apartments and things. Others have four children that they left home alone that they're trying to find work so they can send money home to their kids. The Italians don't treat them super well though, and it's next to impossible to find any work without speaking Italian. We aren't sure about volunteering at the home because we aren't allowed to hole babies and we know the women would want us to. We'll see what happens.
Hopefully since they forced me to get a flu shot at the MTC I won't get sick at all.
I didn't know that Freddie died. She's tons happier now that she can do everything again, I'm sure.
I'm glad to hear that things are going well. Happy Birthday tomorrow, Mom! :)
I love you! Have a great week,
Eliza
So I find out tomorrow who my new companion will be. Yikes. It's kind of nerve-wracking to just barely get to know the person you're living with 24/7 and because friends and start working well together and then have to switch. But hopefully it will be good. We aren't sure who will come to Ragusa, because there are four sisters who are going home after the next transfer who are going to probably stay in their own cities, so we aren't sure who's old enough to be switched around or who has been in a city long enough to need to be moved, etc. But we'll see.
This week was actually really really amazing. Thursday we had our weekly appointment with Sorella Turtula, the inactive who is really just a sweet lady. The sisters have been visiting her for ages and have been working with her for months trying to get her to find a spare moments to kneel and pray and ponder. But she hasn't been able to find uninterrupted moments because taking care of her mom is so demanding, so she hadn't been praying at all. I suggested that she keep a prayer in her heart throughout the day, because she really just needs to be communicating with Heavenly Father. And when we checked on that this week she said my scheme worked. :) She has been praying during the day, whenever she walks somewhere she prays because she knows nobody will interrupt her. She had never thought of doing that and now that she knows she can she's doing it A LOT. We are VERY excited for her.
Then, Thursday, Emmanuel came to English course with mission papers in hand! He was baptized about a year and a half ago and he's the only member and has kind of been going back and forth between activity and inactivity. But the Anziani have been really working with him and asking him for help in appointments and rides and such, and he taught a really amazing spiritual thought in English course last week where the students stayed for half an hour and asked questions and were super interested. And we just asked him why he wasn't already gone on a mission, he's felt like he was supposed to be a missionary since before he was baptized, and I guess that experience really helped him decide because he went and talked to the branch president the next day, and then he announced in a talk he gave in church on Sunday that he was going to go on a mission. Super cool.
Friday we had a zone bust. I don't know if they do those in any other missions. But basically our whole zone, except Sciacca who were getting ready for a baptism, went to Gela, a city where they haven't been able to find any investigators for a while and there hasn't been a baptism in about 7 years. So we had twelve missionaries in the city, visiting the 70 inactives (9 active people and 70 inactive, whoa) and talking to everyone on the street and everywhere. In the evening we did a singing mostra. We stood on a corner downtown, because in this city EVERYONE walks around this main street and a piazza of a church at night, and just hangs out outside, so we stood on a corner all together and sang hymns. And as we noticed people watching and listening a few would branch off and talk to them, and we got a TON of numbers. There was one guy, who was actually from Romania and didn't speak Italian super well yet, who had been watching us the whole night. He hadn't wanted to talk to us initially, but he followed us across the street to where we were singing and listened to us the whole time, and one Anziano gave him a pamphlet about the gospel and he was reading it as he stood there listening, and eventually ended up giving his information and everything and being interested. There was a family that they found who had heard about the church somewhere else and they got an appointment with for this week. So many people listened and wanted to hear more, it's amazing the power that the hymns have.
So, earlier in the week I asked the Branch president about how would be the best way to go over the mission rules with the members, because President Taranto had asked us to, so President Sorrentino got up in Sacrament meeting and went over them in the announcements. My favorite part was "'tu' non esiste!" because we had some fratelli in the branch think that it's okay to use informal with us and wanted us to do so as well, but that's not allowed. And then after sacrament meeting a copy of the rules was handed out to everyone. It was kind of cool to know that he listens to us and that he's willing to work with us.
Monday, we planned to find. We had prayed about a couple of streets a long time ago, and had gone to the one and met the old ladies who thanked Mary and Padre Pio for bringing us, but we hadn't gotten around to the other. So Monday morning we went, and there were no citofoni. Which was weird because we both felt really good about it. So we decided to go down a side street, and there was a building that contained two separate apartment buildings, and there were people working on the roof and such, so the doors to these two buildings were open. Which in itself was a miracle, because the citofoni are horrible. So we went into the first building, climbed the stairs to the fifth floor and started working down. Nobody was home on the first three doors, but the fourth opened. We asked if we could sing her a hymn and she said not a chance, and was about to close the door, but she looked really sad so my amazing companion kept talking to her. IN the end we found out that her brother died a year ago at only 68 and her dad died when she was five and she's really angry at God and doesn't think he loves her all the time. We were able to have a good discussion, and it was clear that she wants to believe really badly but at the same time is stubborn. In the end we asked if we could sing a hymn again, and sang "families are forever" and she started to cry again and said over and over "Voi siete due angeli, voi siete due angeli" (you are two angels). She said we could come back. I think that if we can help her break down the walls she'd be a really strong member.
Nobody else in her building answered the door, except an old man who saw us and said "non c'รจ nessuno" Except he was there, but oh well.
The next building though, we went up the stairs and knocked on a door and this lady answered and we said we'd like to sing her a hymn to bring some joy. She said "okay, come on in". So we went in, sat down, and were about to sing and she said "can't we get to know each other first?" So we did. She's evangelical pentecostal, and she had heard that we worship Joseph Smith but she saw Jesus Christ on our tag so she knew that couldn't be true. So we explained prophets a little bit and the Restoration, and then she asked about the book Joseph Smith wrote, and we were able to explain about the Book of Mormon, that he only translated it but that it testifies of Christ and was written by prophets and the only way to know if it's true is to read it and pray about it. So she took it and said she'd read, even if just for cultural purposes. Which is unheard of, generally evangelicals won't look at a Book of Mormon I hear. And then she asked US for our phone number so she could call US, and then we sang a hymn, and she asked US if we could close with a prayer. Whoa. She said it, it wasn't too different than ours, except she said "Signore" (Lord) about 500 times. But it was super cool.
Yesterday was district meeting and president's interviews, which is always good. Only I think that the Ragusani must have a lot more faith than most to go to church in a building that cold. It was FREEZING in the chapel. The sad thing is it's so cold, winter is on it's way, but in reality it's maybe only 60 degrees. It feels freezing though. We go to Chinese stores all the time, they have a million and we haven't been in the same one twice, and so I've found some sweaters, I've been getting like one a week. I bought leggings to wear under my skirts, and I need to work on finding scarves and gloves. You have to wear scarves here, people think if cold air gets on your neck you'll die.
We're not sure about the African "save the babies" house. :) There are tons of African immigrants here, some, like Esther our investigator, are here with their spouse and doing pretty well with nice apartments and things. Others have four children that they left home alone that they're trying to find work so they can send money home to their kids. The Italians don't treat them super well though, and it's next to impossible to find any work without speaking Italian. We aren't sure about volunteering at the home because we aren't allowed to hole babies and we know the women would want us to. We'll see what happens.
Hopefully since they forced me to get a flu shot at the MTC I won't get sick at all.
I didn't know that Freddie died. She's tons happier now that she can do everything again, I'm sure.
I'm glad to hear that things are going well. Happy Birthday tomorrow, Mom! :)
I love you! Have a great week,
Eliza
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