17 February 2010
Hello famiglia mia!
It has been a crazy week. Both Sorella Hirsh and I have colds and the people above us are redoing their house and hammering even during pranzo (unheard of!) so we can't nap or anything. And well, some disappointments with people and getting sprayed with stupid carnevale foam. Lent has begun, so we don't have to worry about big feste for a while.
So Gabriella, we're not sure what she's up to right now. We had an appointment on Wednesday that went great, and then she came to church on Sunday and it was great, but I think somebody said something about the fact she was wearing jeans and she's kind of stubborn and so she decided it's ridiculous that people feel compelled to wear jeans and then people sent her some fun websites to look at and she talked to a member in the branch on facebook who told her that if she had questions about why we wear skirts to church and why we don't drink tea or coffee then she probably isn't ready to get baptized. So she's probably not going to be ready to get baptized. I think she still will, at least I hope she still will. We told her maybe it would help her a bit more to read the Book of Mormon than to read things online that she even thinks are ridiculous. Vediamo. She already knows it's true, she'll tell you it too, but somebody got the idea in her head that having questions means she isn't ready, which is thoroughly untrue. But that was a disappointment.
We did, however, have a really great appointment with a guy we found. Actually he found us a few weeks ago, we were talking to another couple and he kept looking around and then joined the conversation and then told us his 15 year old daughter had died. We had called him a couple of times and he said he was busy, because he works until late, so last week I called and asked if we could meet him Friday at 8. He said yes, so we went and took Anziano Hancock and Anziano Acerson with us because Giovanni lives alone so we aren't allowed to see him on his own. We had a really good lesson, he would rather that we go out and teach a billion young people, but he's willing to read a chapter of the Book of Mormon and the Anziani will go back on Friday without us because they live right next to us and he's about 45 minutes away from our house, even if we catch a bus. But he's a nice person and I think it's going to go really well with him.
We saw Giuseppina again on Saturday. The bus ride was interesting, it didn't stop in Santa Maria di Licodia because they were doing a Carnevale thing in the street for the Elementary School kids, they have school Monday—Saturday here by the way, but they go home for lunch and stay home after that, but then on Sundays they just want to play, it's not very conducive to a Christian society to only have Sunday off. But anyway, we ended up in Adrana which isn't too far away, and the guys who kick people off the buses if they don't have tickets just took us with them and helped us switch buses and let us stay on without stamping the ticket again. Kind of nice of them. We got to Giuseppina's with not long until the bus came, and so we just went in to say hi basically, and she had been reading the Bible and something in 2 Corinthians about how you shouldn't pray to images, and asked us about saints, and said she's been praying to know if her religion is wrong (we didn't ask her to do that, by the way, and I have never heard of anyone doing that before) and asked if she's been praying to images and saints her whole life if she's a sinner and will be held accountable. We told her that if she didn't know then she'll be okay, but that's why when you learn new things it means you have to act on them. And she gave us 3 or 4 kilo of oranges. But she's a nice lady. She can't get to church though, unfortunately.
We will, however, be getting a new Branch mission leader because Fllo Battezzato is now the Elder's Quorum President, so maybe we'll be able to have him find us some people who will work with us. We went home early on Saturday because we were both sick. And then Sunday morning it was raining and that sure didn't help the sickness. We walked to church, there were a lot of really huge puddles. I tried to jump across most of them. And luckily a few cars were nice enough to slow down when they saw us so we didn't get shamoo-ed. We got to church and my skirt was soaking wet and we just were soggy for all of church. And the heater wasn't working in the Società di Soccorso/ principi evangelici classroom, so we didn't dry even a little until Sacrament meeting. It was Branch conference so I didn't have to do my talk. Everyone was way mad at us for being wet. They all said “what?!?! you walked to church in the rain?!?!? Sorelle, you can't do that!!!” yeahhh, I don't know what they expect us to do.
We had dinner with members for the first time since I got here. There were a lot of people, we didn't overeat too much. But cake with ricotta as filling is killer, like you could die eating stuff that heavy.
We've been working a lot on our area book since we're sick and it's raining. I don't know why people who haven't been contacted since 2007 are still in progressing investigators, but whatever, they are getting taken out and organized. I like organized area books, otherwise they're useless.
We locked ourselves out of the apartment on Monday! With two sets of keys! Mamma mia. I had mine in my coat pocket until that morning when the power went out because we had too many things running. Fortunately we were planning on going to the office anyway to grab an English Bible for a referral, and fortunately we realized that we were lacking keys before we had walked to the office and come home. But my companion was way embarrassed because it's happened to her like once a transfer. Va beh, Anziano Crawford gave us banana bread and we taught some lessons on the way and we got some referrals from Anziano Crawford too so it's all good. (The Crawfords are the office couple, they were in the MTC with my group and flew to Italy with us)
Not much else to report I suppose. I know the church is true. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't. I would never go up to strangers and talk to them about a message if I didn't know that it was from God. I would never on my own ask these people to change their lives. And I'm not asking, it isn't my message, it's from Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. It means something to me, that's why I'm helping them share it, but it isn't mine. So I guess that's why it's easier to be bold. It's not a question of what they think of me, yeah, my name tag says Sorella Stevenson but it also says Gesù Cristo—so I have a lot of help.
Sounds like you're doing your advanced writing class or whatever it's called? I wasn't a fan of the resume assignment either.
Thank you for all of you support, and all that you do, you are wonderful!
Love Eliza
It has been a crazy week. Both Sorella Hirsh and I have colds and the people above us are redoing their house and hammering even during pranzo (unheard of!) so we can't nap or anything. And well, some disappointments with people and getting sprayed with stupid carnevale foam. Lent has begun, so we don't have to worry about big feste for a while.
So Gabriella, we're not sure what she's up to right now. We had an appointment on Wednesday that went great, and then she came to church on Sunday and it was great, but I think somebody said something about the fact she was wearing jeans and she's kind of stubborn and so she decided it's ridiculous that people feel compelled to wear jeans and then people sent her some fun websites to look at and she talked to a member in the branch on facebook who told her that if she had questions about why we wear skirts to church and why we don't drink tea or coffee then she probably isn't ready to get baptized. So she's probably not going to be ready to get baptized. I think she still will, at least I hope she still will. We told her maybe it would help her a bit more to read the Book of Mormon than to read things online that she even thinks are ridiculous. Vediamo. She already knows it's true, she'll tell you it too, but somebody got the idea in her head that having questions means she isn't ready, which is thoroughly untrue. But that was a disappointment.
We did, however, have a really great appointment with a guy we found. Actually he found us a few weeks ago, we were talking to another couple and he kept looking around and then joined the conversation and then told us his 15 year old daughter had died. We had called him a couple of times and he said he was busy, because he works until late, so last week I called and asked if we could meet him Friday at 8. He said yes, so we went and took Anziano Hancock and Anziano Acerson with us because Giovanni lives alone so we aren't allowed to see him on his own. We had a really good lesson, he would rather that we go out and teach a billion young people, but he's willing to read a chapter of the Book of Mormon and the Anziani will go back on Friday without us because they live right next to us and he's about 45 minutes away from our house, even if we catch a bus. But he's a nice person and I think it's going to go really well with him.
We saw Giuseppina again on Saturday. The bus ride was interesting, it didn't stop in Santa Maria di Licodia because they were doing a Carnevale thing in the street for the Elementary School kids, they have school Monday—Saturday here by the way, but they go home for lunch and stay home after that, but then on Sundays they just want to play, it's not very conducive to a Christian society to only have Sunday off. But anyway, we ended up in Adrana which isn't too far away, and the guys who kick people off the buses if they don't have tickets just took us with them and helped us switch buses and let us stay on without stamping the ticket again. Kind of nice of them. We got to Giuseppina's with not long until the bus came, and so we just went in to say hi basically, and she had been reading the Bible and something in 2 Corinthians about how you shouldn't pray to images, and asked us about saints, and said she's been praying to know if her religion is wrong (we didn't ask her to do that, by the way, and I have never heard of anyone doing that before) and asked if she's been praying to images and saints her whole life if she's a sinner and will be held accountable. We told her that if she didn't know then she'll be okay, but that's why when you learn new things it means you have to act on them. And she gave us 3 or 4 kilo of oranges. But she's a nice lady. She can't get to church though, unfortunately.
We will, however, be getting a new Branch mission leader because Fllo Battezzato is now the Elder's Quorum President, so maybe we'll be able to have him find us some people who will work with us. We went home early on Saturday because we were both sick. And then Sunday morning it was raining and that sure didn't help the sickness. We walked to church, there were a lot of really huge puddles. I tried to jump across most of them. And luckily a few cars were nice enough to slow down when they saw us so we didn't get shamoo-ed. We got to church and my skirt was soaking wet and we just were soggy for all of church. And the heater wasn't working in the Società di Soccorso/ principi evangelici classroom, so we didn't dry even a little until Sacrament meeting. It was Branch conference so I didn't have to do my talk. Everyone was way mad at us for being wet. They all said “what?!?! you walked to church in the rain?!?!? Sorelle, you can't do that!!!” yeahhh, I don't know what they expect us to do.
We had dinner with members for the first time since I got here. There were a lot of people, we didn't overeat too much. But cake with ricotta as filling is killer, like you could die eating stuff that heavy.
We've been working a lot on our area book since we're sick and it's raining. I don't know why people who haven't been contacted since 2007 are still in progressing investigators, but whatever, they are getting taken out and organized. I like organized area books, otherwise they're useless.
We locked ourselves out of the apartment on Monday! With two sets of keys! Mamma mia. I had mine in my coat pocket until that morning when the power went out because we had too many things running. Fortunately we were planning on going to the office anyway to grab an English Bible for a referral, and fortunately we realized that we were lacking keys before we had walked to the office and come home. But my companion was way embarrassed because it's happened to her like once a transfer. Va beh, Anziano Crawford gave us banana bread and we taught some lessons on the way and we got some referrals from Anziano Crawford too so it's all good. (The Crawfords are the office couple, they were in the MTC with my group and flew to Italy with us)
Not much else to report I suppose. I know the church is true. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't. I would never go up to strangers and talk to them about a message if I didn't know that it was from God. I would never on my own ask these people to change their lives. And I'm not asking, it isn't my message, it's from Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. It means something to me, that's why I'm helping them share it, but it isn't mine. So I guess that's why it's easier to be bold. It's not a question of what they think of me, yeah, my name tag says Sorella Stevenson but it also says Gesù Cristo—so I have a lot of help.
Sounds like you're doing your advanced writing class or whatever it's called? I wasn't a fan of the resume assignment either.
Thank you for all of you support, and all that you do, you are wonderful!
Love Eliza
Comments