11 November 2009
Hello!!!
Sorry my email is late today, but we went to Vittoria because there was a big fiera (fair) and we heard about it and wanted to find out if they had anything good for cheap. They did. So I have some more scarves and pants and stuff but we didn't find gloves so I'll still need to look for some. We also got a cake-pan like the kind you make angel food cake in that has a bunt cake attachment for only 5 euro. I don't make cakes because it costs money but it's cool anyway. And we're pretty excited that the socks we'll be wearing under our boots have stripes and stars and really bright colors. It was a pretty fun day. We talked to a guy from Peru who has talked to the Anziani before. And we also taught a lesson to our bus drivers. I'm kind of amazed at how well they drive in ridiculous conditions while holding meaningful conversations. The woman sitting next to us looked pretty ticked at him when he said that Jesus appointed people as saints. I think he was a Padre Pio fan too. He's not even a saint, I don't know how he got to be such a big deal around here.
So, this week has been a very busy one. I can't even remember all that we did. Last Wednesday we only got half a p-day because it was the only day that some of the members could meet with us. It was kind of crazy. The Lo Monaco family is really cool. They're little boys are both excited to go on missions one day and they've given their teachers at school copies of the Book of Mormon, they chose to do it on their own. And they're pretty smart kids, we had Giorgio read a verse about Lehi's vision and his dad asked him a question and he explained it and said "but I don't know why they call it a dream, it was really a vision". They are a really cute family, Sorella Lo Monaco is the Relief Society president and really busy all the time so she comes off as a little abrasive sometimes but she's actually a nice person. She irons her little boys' shirts though, weird.
We went to visit Lucy on Thursday and that was weird. It was like somebody gave her a script and she repeated the same concerns that she told us the first time we were there and she hasn't opened the Book of Mormon and she thinks that it's equivalent to C.S. Lewis's books and that our prophets are like the Catholics' saints. We really weren't getting anywhere trying to explain doctrine so we just had to bear testimony that we know the book is true and how it has helped us in our lives. She couldn't say anything against that. Kind of neat how much power a testimony has.
We asked the couple who fights all the time, the ones in our branch, to study the scriptures together every day. We'll see if they do it. Cross your fingers. They committed to it, kind of, and so hopefully they will. Maybe it will help them.
Friday was really cool. We had a huge zone conference in Catania, with all of Sicilia and Malta came too. And Anziano Kerr, from the seventy, spoke to us. He's the Scottish one who smiles a lot and he pronounces his name "care" not "kurr". It was a really good day, lots of fun to teach lessons to the people at the bus station and to cram all of us on an urban bus. I think we kind of scared people. But it's so much fun to see other missionaries, and even though it was probably only around 50 we felt like it was a lot. He told us a lot of things, I don't have my notes with me. But we've got a really big emphasis on the Book of Mormon right now, reading it in two months and using it in all our lessons and testifying of it all the time. He told us that some day the church archives people might use our journals to write a history of the mission and Sorella Miller (she was my MTC companion) leaned over and whispered that they'd use mine. I've only filled one since I got to the MTC, no big deal. If I use one every 3,5 months I guess I'll have to buy more, but it's hard to find time. My companions have both been kind of amazed though that I write everyday. That took our entire day traveling to Catania and back, but it was fun. And we got to eat M&Ms, which is really an exciting thing these days. So we left feeling excited, of course.
Saturday was kind of a long and crazy day. First of all, it's really cold outside. Second, it's kind of colder inside sometimes. We pretty much just planned and pranzoed all day, we took something to the Branch President's wife in the morning because it was her birthday, but then we didn't leave until late and Sorella Campo was late and our appointment with Jamal fell through because he was working in Marina di Ragusa which is a 30 minute bus ride away. But we ended up getting to go with Sorella Campo later in the evening and trying to visit Sorella Vezzuto, who wasn't there unfortunately. Worked out okay though because Slla Campo came with us to Sorella Palermo's for a couple minutes and that was really great for them both I think. Sorella Palermo wasn't able to get to church on SUnday because she had to cook for ten people. I think it must be a bigger deal in Italy than it is at home...ten people is kind of not many. Oh well.
But as it turned ouuut, we taught Jamal on Sunday. We weren't sure he would come, but he did, right at the end of our correlation meeting. Jamal is from Morocco, he was born Muslim but is not currently practicing, and he's all alone here. And he doesn't have faith in Jesus Christ currently but he did pray at the end of the lesson in the name of Jesus Christ. And he asked really sincere questions, just a cool guy. He read the Book of Mormon assignment we gave him, but it was hard because he can't read Italian super well, but it's still easier for him than reading Arabic (we now have an Arabic Book of Mormon, it's pretty cool). And after that we went down to Via Roma and talked to people all night long. Lots of fun. We talked to a man who is perfect and thinks he's Catholic even though he believes tons of things that Catholics here don't, but he doesn't comprehend having a prophet.
So this week is insane because all our members are depressed and Sorella Cascone thinks Gianni is mentally ill because he's home from his mission but still worried about which friends he can introduce to the gospel. And basically we have no evening appointments. We need some good ideas for things we can do when it gets dark at five pm and nobody is outside because it's freezing. Monday we did pretty well, we were able to finally contact the referral in Ibla, and they were interesting. It was like they knew the things that were wrong about all the churches around here but hadn't been able to find one they wanted. We gave her a Book of Mormon and hopefully she'll read it, but it was really an interesting appointment and they were by far the most courteous Italians I have ever met. They listened when other people were talking, no interruptions necessary.
Yesterday was interesting. Basically we have a young man from Tunisia who's in love with us and thinks my boyfriend is really lucky. And it's really weird because he was kind of frustrated with us I thought because we haven't read the Qur'an and basically he thinks we need to accept everything as true. But anyway, we taught a lesson to him in the morning in the rain waiting for the bus and then on the bus. He was nice, and by far the most Islamic person I have ever met. Religious people are sooo different here it's crazy. We didn't find out he thought we were cute until the evening when he called and asked if we had boyfriends. I guess we've got really great smiles or something.
Esther is going to have her baby in two days!!! She's so cute, and we just asked her to bear her testimony of Jesus Christ yesterday and she did, and we read 2 Nephi 31 together and just reminded her to keep praying and committed her to pray to know if the Book of Mormon is true since she hasn't yet. But it was really neat to hear her testimony, and to have her share with us. She's really nervous about having Vittoria, I think partly since her own mom died when she was born. But she had read Mosiah 24 and said it just reminded her that if she trusts God he will take care of her.
Sorella Turtula is going to write her testimony in a Book of Mormon since she says she's too shy to get up in Sacrament meeting and do it...Her mom has found a new friend in Sorella Robb and was not quiet at all yesterday. But it was fun.
IN corso d'inglese I gave the spiritual thought about the first vision and the Restoration, we had set it up by talking about the apostasy the week before, and it went really well. One thing we've learned is to do the spiritual thoughts in Italian, the people all went from blank stares to interested looks.
It's been quite the busy week. Hopefully we'll be able to find something to do tonight since it's getting dark already and we're kind of cold and tired.
Well, I love you, have a great week,
Love Eliza
Sorry my email is late today, but we went to Vittoria because there was a big fiera (fair) and we heard about it and wanted to find out if they had anything good for cheap. They did. So I have some more scarves and pants and stuff but we didn't find gloves so I'll still need to look for some. We also got a cake-pan like the kind you make angel food cake in that has a bunt cake attachment for only 5 euro. I don't make cakes because it costs money but it's cool anyway. And we're pretty excited that the socks we'll be wearing under our boots have stripes and stars and really bright colors. It was a pretty fun day. We talked to a guy from Peru who has talked to the Anziani before. And we also taught a lesson to our bus drivers. I'm kind of amazed at how well they drive in ridiculous conditions while holding meaningful conversations. The woman sitting next to us looked pretty ticked at him when he said that Jesus appointed people as saints. I think he was a Padre Pio fan too. He's not even a saint, I don't know how he got to be such a big deal around here.
So, this week has been a very busy one. I can't even remember all that we did. Last Wednesday we only got half a p-day because it was the only day that some of the members could meet with us. It was kind of crazy. The Lo Monaco family is really cool. They're little boys are both excited to go on missions one day and they've given their teachers at school copies of the Book of Mormon, they chose to do it on their own. And they're pretty smart kids, we had Giorgio read a verse about Lehi's vision and his dad asked him a question and he explained it and said "but I don't know why they call it a dream, it was really a vision". They are a really cute family, Sorella Lo Monaco is the Relief Society president and really busy all the time so she comes off as a little abrasive sometimes but she's actually a nice person. She irons her little boys' shirts though, weird.
We went to visit Lucy on Thursday and that was weird. It was like somebody gave her a script and she repeated the same concerns that she told us the first time we were there and she hasn't opened the Book of Mormon and she thinks that it's equivalent to C.S. Lewis's books and that our prophets are like the Catholics' saints. We really weren't getting anywhere trying to explain doctrine so we just had to bear testimony that we know the book is true and how it has helped us in our lives. She couldn't say anything against that. Kind of neat how much power a testimony has.
We asked the couple who fights all the time, the ones in our branch, to study the scriptures together every day. We'll see if they do it. Cross your fingers. They committed to it, kind of, and so hopefully they will. Maybe it will help them.
Friday was really cool. We had a huge zone conference in Catania, with all of Sicilia and Malta came too. And Anziano Kerr, from the seventy, spoke to us. He's the Scottish one who smiles a lot and he pronounces his name "care" not "kurr". It was a really good day, lots of fun to teach lessons to the people at the bus station and to cram all of us on an urban bus. I think we kind of scared people. But it's so much fun to see other missionaries, and even though it was probably only around 50 we felt like it was a lot. He told us a lot of things, I don't have my notes with me. But we've got a really big emphasis on the Book of Mormon right now, reading it in two months and using it in all our lessons and testifying of it all the time. He told us that some day the church archives people might use our journals to write a history of the mission and Sorella Miller (she was my MTC companion) leaned over and whispered that they'd use mine. I've only filled one since I got to the MTC, no big deal. If I use one every 3,5 months I guess I'll have to buy more, but it's hard to find time. My companions have both been kind of amazed though that I write everyday. That took our entire day traveling to Catania and back, but it was fun. And we got to eat M&Ms, which is really an exciting thing these days. So we left feeling excited, of course.
Saturday was kind of a long and crazy day. First of all, it's really cold outside. Second, it's kind of colder inside sometimes. We pretty much just planned and pranzoed all day, we took something to the Branch President's wife in the morning because it was her birthday, but then we didn't leave until late and Sorella Campo was late and our appointment with Jamal fell through because he was working in Marina di Ragusa which is a 30 minute bus ride away. But we ended up getting to go with Sorella Campo later in the evening and trying to visit Sorella Vezzuto, who wasn't there unfortunately. Worked out okay though because Slla Campo came with us to Sorella Palermo's for a couple minutes and that was really great for them both I think. Sorella Palermo wasn't able to get to church on SUnday because she had to cook for ten people. I think it must be a bigger deal in Italy than it is at home...ten people is kind of not many. Oh well.
But as it turned ouuut, we taught Jamal on Sunday. We weren't sure he would come, but he did, right at the end of our correlation meeting. Jamal is from Morocco, he was born Muslim but is not currently practicing, and he's all alone here. And he doesn't have faith in Jesus Christ currently but he did pray at the end of the lesson in the name of Jesus Christ. And he asked really sincere questions, just a cool guy. He read the Book of Mormon assignment we gave him, but it was hard because he can't read Italian super well, but it's still easier for him than reading Arabic (we now have an Arabic Book of Mormon, it's pretty cool). And after that we went down to Via Roma and talked to people all night long. Lots of fun. We talked to a man who is perfect and thinks he's Catholic even though he believes tons of things that Catholics here don't, but he doesn't comprehend having a prophet.
So this week is insane because all our members are depressed and Sorella Cascone thinks Gianni is mentally ill because he's home from his mission but still worried about which friends he can introduce to the gospel. And basically we have no evening appointments. We need some good ideas for things we can do when it gets dark at five pm and nobody is outside because it's freezing. Monday we did pretty well, we were able to finally contact the referral in Ibla, and they were interesting. It was like they knew the things that were wrong about all the churches around here but hadn't been able to find one they wanted. We gave her a Book of Mormon and hopefully she'll read it, but it was really an interesting appointment and they were by far the most courteous Italians I have ever met. They listened when other people were talking, no interruptions necessary.
Yesterday was interesting. Basically we have a young man from Tunisia who's in love with us and thinks my boyfriend is really lucky. And it's really weird because he was kind of frustrated with us I thought because we haven't read the Qur'an and basically he thinks we need to accept everything as true. But anyway, we taught a lesson to him in the morning in the rain waiting for the bus and then on the bus. He was nice, and by far the most Islamic person I have ever met. Religious people are sooo different here it's crazy. We didn't find out he thought we were cute until the evening when he called and asked if we had boyfriends. I guess we've got really great smiles or something.
Esther is going to have her baby in two days!!! She's so cute, and we just asked her to bear her testimony of Jesus Christ yesterday and she did, and we read 2 Nephi 31 together and just reminded her to keep praying and committed her to pray to know if the Book of Mormon is true since she hasn't yet. But it was really neat to hear her testimony, and to have her share with us. She's really nervous about having Vittoria, I think partly since her own mom died when she was born. But she had read Mosiah 24 and said it just reminded her that if she trusts God he will take care of her.
Sorella Turtula is going to write her testimony in a Book of Mormon since she says she's too shy to get up in Sacrament meeting and do it...Her mom has found a new friend in Sorella Robb and was not quiet at all yesterday. But it was fun.
IN corso d'inglese I gave the spiritual thought about the first vision and the Restoration, we had set it up by talking about the apostasy the week before, and it went really well. One thing we've learned is to do the spiritual thoughts in Italian, the people all went from blank stares to interested looks.
It's been quite the busy week. Hopefully we'll be able to find something to do tonight since it's getting dark already and we're kind of cold and tired.
Well, I love you, have a great week,
Love Eliza
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