25 November 2009
Hello everybody! Happy almost Thanksgiving!
I just have to tell you about Sorella Campo. She is the coolest member in the world. She's a convert, like everybody else here. And she really really wants to have an eternal family. But her husband left her years ago, her oldest son isn't interested in the gospel, her middle son is semi-interested but smokes a lot and lives in Lecce now, and her 13 year old daughter would love to be baptized but her dad won't let her. This woman works all day every day and then comes home and does a million other things. We asked her last week if she ever gets a chance to rest and she says that she just loves being with the sisters in the ward and working with the missionaries because she gets to recharge spiritually and that's all she needs. And she calls us to ask if we'll come with her to visit inactives, and even if she spent 14 hours on a bus the night before she'll still let us bring over an investigator for a lesson at her house. Most of our members are just very Italian and want to force their friends to believe the things that they believe, but Sorella Campo really understands the principle of inviting everyone she knows to hear, and doing all she can, but then allowing them to choose, since we all have libero arbitrio [freewill]. She's invited tons of friends to hear the gospel, and she hasn't seen a baptism yet but she isn't discouraged. She's just so cool. She was at our citofono [intercom] this morning to give us a box of artichokes (we don't even know how to cook them!) and a box of tomatoes and some peppers. I don't know where she gets the time to be so generous and talk to so many people but she's just an amazing person.
I have spent half of this week on buses. Gross. And one train, trains are like a little piece of heaven in a world of buses. At least we never have to take city buses though, in Ragusa. Let's see...last Wednesday a member told us we weren't allowed to talk about missionary work if we go to her house. I don't know what she wants us to talk about...
Thursday we had a GANS lunch. The only ones there were Gianni Cascone and Clorinda our English course friend. She hasn't started reading the Book of Mormon yet, she read the verses we wrote in the dedica in the front but she felt like she was missing a bunch of information so when she's off work for Christmas she'll start reading it all the way through.
We met with Elvira on Thursday too. She was super excited to see us and actually listened too! She's a nice lady. Her husband just wants to ask questions but it's really hard to understand him since his speech is kind of slurred as a result of a really bad car accident when he was young.
Friday we went to Gela for the shortest district meeting of all time. Our train left at 7:30, we got there at 9, got to the church at 10, and then the Gela Anziani were late so we didn't start until about 10:30. We had to leave at 11:30 to catch the 12:30 bus, but the buses are ridiculous to get to the station so we missed it. The next one wouldn't have been until 5:30. Luckily I'm resourceful and we figured out that there was a train to Comiso at 1:30 and were able to catch the bus from Comiso to Ragusa after that and got home around four. What a pain though. Che altro? [what else] OH, Friday night we met with the Rapposelli family. They've been inactive forever and a day. But Paolo loves the hymns, even though he's really mad still that they lowered them all because he thinks they sounded so much prettier when they were higher. But he played and sang and his wife was actually not mean and it was fun. I don't know that we can help them get back to church, they are not big fans of the branch members because their daughter got baptized and married one and it kind of turned into a big disaster and the members sided with the daughters husband over the daughter. But they are a nice family, Paolo just needs to smoke about 100% less. Everybody smokes here. And it's really gross.
Saturday we planned to do casa in casa and we did and it went surprisingly well. We picked a street that actually had doors on the street, that people answered. Di colito they are just big apartment complexes and you suon [sound] on the citofono [intercom] and they talk to you over that. But we saw real people's faces and set up a couple of return appointments and overall it was just a really successful morning. Then in the evening we had Sorella Campo and Elvira, which went super well.
Sunday was district conference in Catania, with Gerard Causse or however you spell his name. He spoke in English, not French. The poor Italian guy who was translating kinda struggled. There were a couple of really funny mistakes in translation, I just hope the Italians understood it all. But he talked about how the church is like a boat in the middle of a stormy ocean. Some people see the storm and think they should just jump off the boat, but the ocean is dangerous. The boat has a captain and will keep you safe. He also talked a lot about forgiving people, and how if we've offended somebody even if we have no clue what we did it's our responsibility to always try and resolve problems. And he talked about reverence and other things and said "This is not a matter of CULTURE, it is a matter of the GOSPEL". :) It was really a perfect talk for our people. Then we scambied [traded], Sorella Robb went to Siracusa with Sorella Morgan and Sorella Black came back to Ragusa with me. It was probably the worst bus ride I have ever been on in my life, sitting in front of ten screaming kids who kept hitting my chair. But splits were good, we were able to figure out some issues in the area book and find some inactives (Ragusa was Sorella Black's first city as well). Unfortunately the bus schedule lies and there is no 12 pm bus to Siracusa from Ragusa. And there are no trains from Siracusa to Ragusa after like 8 am. So five and a half hours on buses. Gross. But we met some girls from Spain and helped them find their friend's house and got a referral to send to Madrid. Good news, I understand Spanish and the Spanish girl who doesn't speak Italian can understand Italian.
Yesterday we helped the youngest Manzini couple in our branch to get their house ready to install appliances and move into. We never have service and nobody ever lets us serve, so it was nice. And then Comiso. We're working to help Sorella Turtula overcome her fears and we gave some personal examples and just had a really good conversation and we really helped her yesterday. It's always nice to feel that way after an appointment.
Well, that's my week. I also think I lost a filling. Hopefully it doesn't become a problem, but I can't go to an Italian dentist because I've met people who have and they don't have many teeth left. Plus I don't have a permesso di soggiorno yet so I'm pretty sure I'm not allowed to get anything medical done. :P
Well thank goodness they FINALLY called Dad as ward organist. Sheesh, took long enough. I didn't think that Brother Williamson was the type to get nervous conducting, wow.
They don't do Thanksgiving here, and I'm pretty sure we won't have appointments. Who knows if we'll have any for Christmas even. Here, people don't set up appointments with missionaries, we have to call and set up appointments with members. It's weird. But we're going to try and make a pumpkin pie for our English class and they're going to bring us their favorite recipes written in English. Should be fun.
I'm thankful for you all, you really are a great family! Thanks for all you do and for the great emails. I love you!
Love, Eliza
I just have to tell you about Sorella Campo. She is the coolest member in the world. She's a convert, like everybody else here. And she really really wants to have an eternal family. But her husband left her years ago, her oldest son isn't interested in the gospel, her middle son is semi-interested but smokes a lot and lives in Lecce now, and her 13 year old daughter would love to be baptized but her dad won't let her. This woman works all day every day and then comes home and does a million other things. We asked her last week if she ever gets a chance to rest and she says that she just loves being with the sisters in the ward and working with the missionaries because she gets to recharge spiritually and that's all she needs. And she calls us to ask if we'll come with her to visit inactives, and even if she spent 14 hours on a bus the night before she'll still let us bring over an investigator for a lesson at her house. Most of our members are just very Italian and want to force their friends to believe the things that they believe, but Sorella Campo really understands the principle of inviting everyone she knows to hear, and doing all she can, but then allowing them to choose, since we all have libero arbitrio [freewill]. She's invited tons of friends to hear the gospel, and she hasn't seen a baptism yet but she isn't discouraged. She's just so cool. She was at our citofono [intercom] this morning to give us a box of artichokes (we don't even know how to cook them!) and a box of tomatoes and some peppers. I don't know where she gets the time to be so generous and talk to so many people but she's just an amazing person.
I have spent half of this week on buses. Gross. And one train, trains are like a little piece of heaven in a world of buses. At least we never have to take city buses though, in Ragusa. Let's see...last Wednesday a member told us we weren't allowed to talk about missionary work if we go to her house. I don't know what she wants us to talk about...
Thursday we had a GANS lunch. The only ones there were Gianni Cascone and Clorinda our English course friend. She hasn't started reading the Book of Mormon yet, she read the verses we wrote in the dedica in the front but she felt like she was missing a bunch of information so when she's off work for Christmas she'll start reading it all the way through.
We met with Elvira on Thursday too. She was super excited to see us and actually listened too! She's a nice lady. Her husband just wants to ask questions but it's really hard to understand him since his speech is kind of slurred as a result of a really bad car accident when he was young.
Friday we went to Gela for the shortest district meeting of all time. Our train left at 7:30, we got there at 9, got to the church at 10, and then the Gela Anziani were late so we didn't start until about 10:30. We had to leave at 11:30 to catch the 12:30 bus, but the buses are ridiculous to get to the station so we missed it. The next one wouldn't have been until 5:30. Luckily I'm resourceful and we figured out that there was a train to Comiso at 1:30 and were able to catch the bus from Comiso to Ragusa after that and got home around four. What a pain though. Che altro? [what else] OH, Friday night we met with the Rapposelli family. They've been inactive forever and a day. But Paolo loves the hymns, even though he's really mad still that they lowered them all because he thinks they sounded so much prettier when they were higher. But he played and sang and his wife was actually not mean and it was fun. I don't know that we can help them get back to church, they are not big fans of the branch members because their daughter got baptized and married one and it kind of turned into a big disaster and the members sided with the daughters husband over the daughter. But they are a nice family, Paolo just needs to smoke about 100% less. Everybody smokes here. And it's really gross.
Saturday we planned to do casa in casa and we did and it went surprisingly well. We picked a street that actually had doors on the street, that people answered. Di colito they are just big apartment complexes and you suon [sound] on the citofono [intercom] and they talk to you over that. But we saw real people's faces and set up a couple of return appointments and overall it was just a really successful morning. Then in the evening we had Sorella Campo and Elvira, which went super well.
Sunday was district conference in Catania, with Gerard Causse or however you spell his name. He spoke in English, not French. The poor Italian guy who was translating kinda struggled. There were a couple of really funny mistakes in translation, I just hope the Italians understood it all. But he talked about how the church is like a boat in the middle of a stormy ocean. Some people see the storm and think they should just jump off the boat, but the ocean is dangerous. The boat has a captain and will keep you safe. He also talked a lot about forgiving people, and how if we've offended somebody even if we have no clue what we did it's our responsibility to always try and resolve problems. And he talked about reverence and other things and said "This is not a matter of CULTURE, it is a matter of the GOSPEL". :) It was really a perfect talk for our people. Then we scambied [traded], Sorella Robb went to Siracusa with Sorella Morgan and Sorella Black came back to Ragusa with me. It was probably the worst bus ride I have ever been on in my life, sitting in front of ten screaming kids who kept hitting my chair. But splits were good, we were able to figure out some issues in the area book and find some inactives (Ragusa was Sorella Black's first city as well). Unfortunately the bus schedule lies and there is no 12 pm bus to Siracusa from Ragusa. And there are no trains from Siracusa to Ragusa after like 8 am. So five and a half hours on buses. Gross. But we met some girls from Spain and helped them find their friend's house and got a referral to send to Madrid. Good news, I understand Spanish and the Spanish girl who doesn't speak Italian can understand Italian.
Yesterday we helped the youngest Manzini couple in our branch to get their house ready to install appliances and move into. We never have service and nobody ever lets us serve, so it was nice. And then Comiso. We're working to help Sorella Turtula overcome her fears and we gave some personal examples and just had a really good conversation and we really helped her yesterday. It's always nice to feel that way after an appointment.
Well, that's my week. I also think I lost a filling. Hopefully it doesn't become a problem, but I can't go to an Italian dentist because I've met people who have and they don't have many teeth left. Plus I don't have a permesso di soggiorno yet so I'm pretty sure I'm not allowed to get anything medical done. :P
Well thank goodness they FINALLY called Dad as ward organist. Sheesh, took long enough. I didn't think that Brother Williamson was the type to get nervous conducting, wow.
They don't do Thanksgiving here, and I'm pretty sure we won't have appointments. Who knows if we'll have any for Christmas even. Here, people don't set up appointments with missionaries, we have to call and set up appointments with members. It's weird. But we're going to try and make a pumpkin pie for our English class and they're going to bring us their favorite recipes written in English. Should be fun.
I'm thankful for you all, you really are a great family! Thanks for all you do and for the great emails. I love you!
Love, Eliza
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