24 February 2010
Well, buon giorno famiglia mia!
Another week has gone by and we've been learning a lot and doing lots of work. Lots of interesting things happening.
Thursday we had a lesson with the Branch President's wife and their baby who has had bronchitis for a while so Sorella LaFerla couldn't come to church. It was a good lesson, we don't really know their family very well so it was nice to meet her and talk to her a bit. We read the “I love Loud Boys” talk with her and just invited her to find someone at church who needs a friend and welcome them. She thought it was a really good idea. It was a fun long walk to her house, down a street with lots of big old beautiful houses that are so different than all the apartments that are everywhere else. We also found some pretty good cheese that tastes like garden herb triscuits. Before corso d'inglese we had a lesson with a couple of girls from the course. They mostly just have a lot of questions, the one seemed more sincere than the other, we were supposed to teach them again last night but they ended up not being able to come. The buses might have been doing something weird though, who knows. Then Thursday everybody was way late to class so we just talked with them about their day instead of doing grammar, which is way more fun than grammar stuff anyway.
Friday we had a good programmazione, and then we went to Sorella Catania's for a lesson with Anna Rita and pranzo. The lesson with Anna Rita went really well, we talked to her about faith using the Holland devotional that's in the January Liahona (we don't get Ensigns here, but did the layout of the Ensign change a bunch too?). It was what she had been talking about before and it went well, and she said she'd try and get to church. She still needs to decide she wants to be baptized, but she told us she's really afraid of making decisions that will change her life so she never does, she just kind of lets things happen. After that we went and visited the Palla family. Fratello Palla likes to yell and when he thinks he's made a point he says “OOH”, all the old men here do, it's weird. He did it a bunch and I just kept saying “Fratello, I just said that”. Va bene, they gave us really good oranges.
Saturday we saw Giuseppina again. She's going to Rimini until who knows when because one of her granddaughters is doing something in church and then she'll just stay for Easter. So we'll send her back to the Sorelle who referred her to us. She is a character that woman, and she doesn't understand that we're not trying to prove anything. But she's still willing to try so I guess that's good. We waited for a bus in Santa Maria di Licodia for a couple hours. There should have been one at 1:50, but then it didn't come. A lot of buses went through to Adrana, but didn't come back. We found out there was a car accident on the entrance to the paese so the buses decided to take a detour. Finally we barely caught one at 3:30, but I feel bad for the little old lady who was with us waiting to visit her kids in Catania and started walking outside the city to get the detoured buses which then stopped being detoured as soon as she left.
We had a lesson with a cute family, we talked about Tanner, who's in the January friend, and invited them to give a picture of Jesus to a friend.
Sunday we taught a lesson to the Giovani Donne, and said that they were like Esther and they can make a huge difference in their schools and with their friends. Cool thing, Elisa Maiori (inactive girl who's like our age) came to Sacrament Meeting! Yeah! She sat by us because there was no room next to her mom but her mom was way excited. Hopefully she didn't feel too uncomfortable when the less tactful people kept turning and staring at her. We were so excited that she came though.
Then that night we went down to Via Etnea and talked to a bunch of people. It was interesting, they are all different. There was a kid who's a sikh from India who talked to us. Well, first we were walking and told me I was beautiful and we just ignored it (it's a phrase that every Italian boy knows in English). Then he came up and walked next to us and asked me if I speak English, I said yes, he said 'you're beautiful' and then asked if I was a student and I said “no, actually, I'm a missionary”. So we taught him and his friend a lesson and he told us that our eyes are different, clearer and softer, maybe because we're talking about Jesus. At the end he didn't even ask us to get a coffee with him. His friend did, and he said “no, they can't, they're missionaries.”
So. On Monday we had a really good district meeting where we talked about Doctrine and Covenants 4 and being a successful missionary, and allowing the atonement to change your life. It was really good. Then during pranzo we got a text from Gabriella saying she couldn't see us because she had to take her little girl to the doctor. Sooo, we'll see her tonight and the Relief Society president is coming with us so hopefully it will go well. So instead we went to see a less-active, Ingrid. She's from Brasil and she's lived in America and other places. She goes to the Sigonella Branch (the American military branch meets in our chapel too) because she can speak English and the Americans don't ask as many questions. We practiced teaching the Word of Wisdom to her and she gave us a lot of good feedback. Her son who may or may not be baptized but isn't active was there too and he said he'd do his best to live the word of wisdom. And then we found a girl who has been an investigator but hasn't been seeing us very often since one Sorella went home, and we encouraged her to read scriptures and set up a day to go back.
Tuesday all our appointments canceled on us. But we had a really good lesson with a member named Sorella Baresi, she is 81 years old and got baptized on 18 dic 1976. She's way awesome and she actually knows what a testimony is and how to share it. She was telling us about how she always reads the Book of Mormon and how every morning she prays and just puts her life into God's hands. And she's really excited to do temple work for a friend who recently died who had wanted to be baptized but was too sick to make it to church. Way cool lady. Then we talked to a whole bunch of people in a park, including a professor and a class of students, that was interesting. And then a man who has a Book of Mormon and just needed a little incentive to read it and hopefully he does because he thinks he's too busy to see us.
I've been praying lately to be able to recognize the Spirit better, and it's been pretty neat to see the response. One simple thing is that my companion was practicing what she was going to say for her spiritual thought in English course yesterday, and I was kind of doing something else at the same time, but then I ended up just listening because she was saying true things, and I could feel that they were true. Same thing happened when she gave the thought in English Course, and I hope that the spirit was able to reach the students as well.
It has been a pretty good week. Things don't always go as planned but we're doing our best and Heavenly Father has a plan and knows what he's doing and we've just got to have faith and do all we can to follow him.
By the way, what in the world is John studying? I have not been able to figure out what he would be doing that has him observing classes...
I love you guys!
Eliza
P.S my new email address is eliza.stevenson@myldsmail.net
Another week has gone by and we've been learning a lot and doing lots of work. Lots of interesting things happening.
Thursday we had a lesson with the Branch President's wife and their baby who has had bronchitis for a while so Sorella LaFerla couldn't come to church. It was a good lesson, we don't really know their family very well so it was nice to meet her and talk to her a bit. We read the “I love Loud Boys” talk with her and just invited her to find someone at church who needs a friend and welcome them. She thought it was a really good idea. It was a fun long walk to her house, down a street with lots of big old beautiful houses that are so different than all the apartments that are everywhere else. We also found some pretty good cheese that tastes like garden herb triscuits. Before corso d'inglese we had a lesson with a couple of girls from the course. They mostly just have a lot of questions, the one seemed more sincere than the other, we were supposed to teach them again last night but they ended up not being able to come. The buses might have been doing something weird though, who knows. Then Thursday everybody was way late to class so we just talked with them about their day instead of doing grammar, which is way more fun than grammar stuff anyway.
Friday we had a good programmazione, and then we went to Sorella Catania's for a lesson with Anna Rita and pranzo. The lesson with Anna Rita went really well, we talked to her about faith using the Holland devotional that's in the January Liahona (we don't get Ensigns here, but did the layout of the Ensign change a bunch too?). It was what she had been talking about before and it went well, and she said she'd try and get to church. She still needs to decide she wants to be baptized, but she told us she's really afraid of making decisions that will change her life so she never does, she just kind of lets things happen. After that we went and visited the Palla family. Fratello Palla likes to yell and when he thinks he's made a point he says “OOH”, all the old men here do, it's weird. He did it a bunch and I just kept saying “Fratello, I just said that”. Va bene, they gave us really good oranges.
Saturday we saw Giuseppina again. She's going to Rimini until who knows when because one of her granddaughters is doing something in church and then she'll just stay for Easter. So we'll send her back to the Sorelle who referred her to us. She is a character that woman, and she doesn't understand that we're not trying to prove anything. But she's still willing to try so I guess that's good. We waited for a bus in Santa Maria di Licodia for a couple hours. There should have been one at 1:50, but then it didn't come. A lot of buses went through to Adrana, but didn't come back. We found out there was a car accident on the entrance to the paese so the buses decided to take a detour. Finally we barely caught one at 3:30, but I feel bad for the little old lady who was with us waiting to visit her kids in Catania and started walking outside the city to get the detoured buses which then stopped being detoured as soon as she left.
We had a lesson with a cute family, we talked about Tanner, who's in the January friend, and invited them to give a picture of Jesus to a friend.
Sunday we taught a lesson to the Giovani Donne, and said that they were like Esther and they can make a huge difference in their schools and with their friends. Cool thing, Elisa Maiori (inactive girl who's like our age) came to Sacrament Meeting! Yeah! She sat by us because there was no room next to her mom but her mom was way excited. Hopefully she didn't feel too uncomfortable when the less tactful people kept turning and staring at her. We were so excited that she came though.
Then that night we went down to Via Etnea and talked to a bunch of people. It was interesting, they are all different. There was a kid who's a sikh from India who talked to us. Well, first we were walking and told me I was beautiful and we just ignored it (it's a phrase that every Italian boy knows in English). Then he came up and walked next to us and asked me if I speak English, I said yes, he said 'you're beautiful' and then asked if I was a student and I said “no, actually, I'm a missionary”. So we taught him and his friend a lesson and he told us that our eyes are different, clearer and softer, maybe because we're talking about Jesus. At the end he didn't even ask us to get a coffee with him. His friend did, and he said “no, they can't, they're missionaries.”
So. On Monday we had a really good district meeting where we talked about Doctrine and Covenants 4 and being a successful missionary, and allowing the atonement to change your life. It was really good. Then during pranzo we got a text from Gabriella saying she couldn't see us because she had to take her little girl to the doctor. Sooo, we'll see her tonight and the Relief Society president is coming with us so hopefully it will go well. So instead we went to see a less-active, Ingrid. She's from Brasil and she's lived in America and other places. She goes to the Sigonella Branch (the American military branch meets in our chapel too) because she can speak English and the Americans don't ask as many questions. We practiced teaching the Word of Wisdom to her and she gave us a lot of good feedback. Her son who may or may not be baptized but isn't active was there too and he said he'd do his best to live the word of wisdom. And then we found a girl who has been an investigator but hasn't been seeing us very often since one Sorella went home, and we encouraged her to read scriptures and set up a day to go back.
Tuesday all our appointments canceled on us. But we had a really good lesson with a member named Sorella Baresi, she is 81 years old and got baptized on 18 dic 1976. She's way awesome and she actually knows what a testimony is and how to share it. She was telling us about how she always reads the Book of Mormon and how every morning she prays and just puts her life into God's hands. And she's really excited to do temple work for a friend who recently died who had wanted to be baptized but was too sick to make it to church. Way cool lady. Then we talked to a whole bunch of people in a park, including a professor and a class of students, that was interesting. And then a man who has a Book of Mormon and just needed a little incentive to read it and hopefully he does because he thinks he's too busy to see us.
I've been praying lately to be able to recognize the Spirit better, and it's been pretty neat to see the response. One simple thing is that my companion was practicing what she was going to say for her spiritual thought in English course yesterday, and I was kind of doing something else at the same time, but then I ended up just listening because she was saying true things, and I could feel that they were true. Same thing happened when she gave the thought in English Course, and I hope that the spirit was able to reach the students as well.
It has been a pretty good week. Things don't always go as planned but we're doing our best and Heavenly Father has a plan and knows what he's doing and we've just got to have faith and do all we can to follow him.
By the way, what in the world is John studying? I have not been able to figure out what he would be doing that has him observing classes...
I love you guys!
Eliza
P.S my new email address is eliza.stevenson@myldsmail.net
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