28 April 2010
Hello again!
So about this whole Mother's Day business coming up--I have no idea
what time your ward starts or what time you want me to call
you...We've got a little bit of a time difference so I have to call
you guys before church, but I don't know around when would be good or
necessary.
I don't have the package yet. I need to get a codice fiscale, and we
tried, but to get the codice fiscale I need my permesso, which I've
also tried to get and will try again not this Monday because we have a
zone meeting but the next. Hopefully then I can get my codice fiscale
and ritirare my package from the dogana. Mamma mia. Che confusione.
But oh well, the questura in Ragusa evidently is open Monday
afternoons just for the people who are here for motivi religiosi
(woulda been nice if we had known that months ago...) and so me and
Sorella White will go to Ragusa to get those things and our companions
will do scambi. And the Agenzia dell'Entrata or whatever it's called
is really surprisingly organized. It's kind of like the DMV, except
maybe better. Who would have thought.
Also, for the scholarship thing you can send me the paper to sign and
I can fax it or mail it back, I'm assuming I'm still coming home in
December, that's what I'm planning on, but President Kelly is the one
who has to do the whole changing the transfers thing so I'll have to
ask him and that won't be until at least July. Vediamo.
That's what we did Thursday morning---walk up to the mission home and
try and figure out what we need to do to get our packages from
customs. :P What a pain. Then we went to see Sorella Seminara in the
afternoon and she is very excited to teach us the next time, which is
kind of cool. We're excited to see what she's got, she was excited to
study the lessons in Preach my Gospel too, she says it reminded her of
when she got baptized 30 years ago or something.
Thursday night we had just Stefania in English Course again, and we
did a little bit of English this time, but then we started talking
about the gospel of course, and after talking for a while I just told
her, you know if you have these questions and you really want answers
then we can teach you what we know, and you can pray and read the
scriptures, and you'll find the answers. We made it clear she has to
do some work too, and she said sure, she wanted to know the things, so
we made plans for her to come early on Tuesday.
Friday morning we went to the place to do the codice fiscale. It
wasn't so bad. Somebody was really mad that a new list had been
started, but these people were actually Italians and so there wasn't
quite the madness that there was at the questura in Ragusa when the
list had been restarted. There was a lot of reasoning in loud voices,
but no big deal in the end. We all got in, Sorella Williams got her
number, etc. Friday afternoon we had a little lesson with Sorella
Sciacca and then we went to the church for a missionary activity that
Anziano Hancock had planned. It went really well, everyone had a
blast. We started off with some spiritual stuff and then we had some
games. There was a scripture chase, a "dress the missionary" where you
have to roll the dice to the right article of clothing to dress the
person in order. And then there was a help the old lady carry her
groceries game, and a lunch appointment game in which we had a HUGE
plate of pasta that the team had to finish eating completely before
they could look at what was underneath and find out what the family
they were eating with needed to hear for a lesson. It was a really
fun game. Then a returned missionary in the branch bore his testimony
about how serving a mission is just a member living under the law of
consecration and giving all time and talents to the Lord, and how all
the members need to try and be more like that.
Saturday we went to Cristina Spina and we discussed starting the stop
smoking plan a little more. It was kind of a crazy day with a lot of
stupid buses, but oh well. And we planned.
Sunday was really good. The Gospel Principles class was really
surprisingly basic, normally it's like "I'm a BYU religion professor
and want to impress everybody" type of class, even though he's
obviously not a religion professor. But yeah, it was good and actually
for investigators and not directed to us as missionaries. woohoo.
Then Sacrament Meeting was super awesome, Sorella Smedila gave an
awesome talk about how faith needs to be the basis of all that we do.
And it was way cool, she shared a lot of personal experiences, like
about how she got baptized when she was 16 and was the only one in her
family and rode the bus to church and sat all by herself because she
was too shy to talk to anybody (which is surprising because she isn't
shy anymore). And how it wasn't until she was 25 and on a mission that
her parents decided to be baptized and she wasn't even there. And
then when she got married her husband lost his job but they decided to
have a family anyway even though they didn't have tons of money. This
might be a fairly normal thing to hear in a ward in the US, but in
Italy people just don't have kids without money, it's just not normal.
But the meeting was awesome.
Sunday evening we had dinner with the Smedila. We actually eat dinner
with people maybe once a week, usually we try for less. We are
encouraged to never accept more than two lunch appointments in a week,
probably because we'd die if we ate that much that often, and be
totally useless and unable to feel the spirit. We get enough money
that we can buy our own food. I think we'd be morbidly obese
otherwise. But people who have served missions in Italy know that you
just shouldn't eat that much and don't make as much food. It's the old
ladies that are bad bad news.
After the Smedila family we ran into Edur, and told her we'd get her a
Book of Mormon in Spanish and she said she might paint us a picture.
Cool...She's from Venezuela, we've seen her a few times when she's out
helping her boyfriend sell his paintings and she talked to the
missionaries at home. She's cool--her little boy is WILD. I think he
needs a life that does not involve traveling to sell paintings.
Monday morning we had the most awesome appointment with Cristina
Spina. We were supposed to start the stop smoking program with her,
but she told us that she wasn't ready because there is just too much
going on and she's way too nervous. We told her that this program, and
being free from the drug and praying and reading the scriptures would
help her to be less nervous. She broke down and cried and just told us
about all the problems she's been having with her kids with her life
and how everyone thinks she's happy but she's not at all. And we read
from Mosiah 24 with her and just talked about how the Christ atoned
for us so that we can let go of all the pain and sorrow that we feel
and find peace and happiness, that he felt all the things that she has
felt so that she doesn't have to carry the weight alone. We asked her
if we could come and reteach her the missionary lessons, and she was
really excited about that, and said she's coming to church on Sunday,
and she PRAYED!!!, and it was really just an awesome lesson. She's
such a sweet person, I really hope that she will have the courage and
the faith to make the changes she knows she needs to make in her life.
Then we had to run run run to the church for the Maxi conference! All
of Sicilia and Malta was here, and on Monday afternoon we had a talent
show and then played sports and ate dinner, and then learned the
National Anthem--"L'inno di Mameli"--and Bella Ciao and Paese Mio (I
think that's the name, it goes "che sarà, sarà, che sarà della mia
vita chi lo sa"). That was fun. And then we had 8 sisters sleep in our
apartment Monday night. Wow. Lots of people. It was really great
though.
Yesterday was the more spiritual side of the conference, and we
learned a lot of good things, about planning and other stuff. And our
study plan for the transfer is the Atonement so Presidente talked to
us about the Atonement. It was a really awesome meeting. The elders on
Malta are learning Maltese--it's been a while since they've done that
I think, they've just been doing things in English because a lot of
the people there speak English, but recently they called them there to
serve for an extended period of time, maybe the rest of their
missions, and to learn Maltese. They prayed a few times in the
meetings and sang a hymn as a musical number and it was really cool,
it's an interesting language.
We had to run from the conference to plan lessons for the famiglia
Sciacca, for Stefania, for English Course, and for Cristina. It was
crazy. We made it to Sciacca, he's going to read over the stop smoking
program and he knows he needs to do it but isn't really happy about
it, and she wants him to quit. But they also agreed to have us teach
them the lessons again, since it's been thirty years since they came
to church.
Stefania's lesson went great, she listened! Crazy.
Life is good, Heavenly Father really loves us a lot and we see so many
miracles and blessings. You just have to take each little miracle as
it comes and not worry about what it becomes later.
I love you and have a wonderful week!
Eliza
PS. remember to tell me when church is so I know when to call you!!!
So about this whole Mother's Day business coming up--I have no idea
what time your ward starts or what time you want me to call
you...We've got a little bit of a time difference so I have to call
you guys before church, but I don't know around when would be good or
necessary.
I don't have the package yet. I need to get a codice fiscale, and we
tried, but to get the codice fiscale I need my permesso, which I've
also tried to get and will try again not this Monday because we have a
zone meeting but the next. Hopefully then I can get my codice fiscale
and ritirare my package from the dogana. Mamma mia. Che confusione.
But oh well, the questura in Ragusa evidently is open Monday
afternoons just for the people who are here for motivi religiosi
(woulda been nice if we had known that months ago...) and so me and
Sorella White will go to Ragusa to get those things and our companions
will do scambi. And the Agenzia dell'Entrata or whatever it's called
is really surprisingly organized. It's kind of like the DMV, except
maybe better. Who would have thought.
Also, for the scholarship thing you can send me the paper to sign and
I can fax it or mail it back, I'm assuming I'm still coming home in
December, that's what I'm planning on, but President Kelly is the one
who has to do the whole changing the transfers thing so I'll have to
ask him and that won't be until at least July. Vediamo.
That's what we did Thursday morning---walk up to the mission home and
try and figure out what we need to do to get our packages from
customs. :P What a pain. Then we went to see Sorella Seminara in the
afternoon and she is very excited to teach us the next time, which is
kind of cool. We're excited to see what she's got, she was excited to
study the lessons in Preach my Gospel too, she says it reminded her of
when she got baptized 30 years ago or something.
Thursday night we had just Stefania in English Course again, and we
did a little bit of English this time, but then we started talking
about the gospel of course, and after talking for a while I just told
her, you know if you have these questions and you really want answers
then we can teach you what we know, and you can pray and read the
scriptures, and you'll find the answers. We made it clear she has to
do some work too, and she said sure, she wanted to know the things, so
we made plans for her to come early on Tuesday.
Friday morning we went to the place to do the codice fiscale. It
wasn't so bad. Somebody was really mad that a new list had been
started, but these people were actually Italians and so there wasn't
quite the madness that there was at the questura in Ragusa when the
list had been restarted. There was a lot of reasoning in loud voices,
but no big deal in the end. We all got in, Sorella Williams got her
number, etc. Friday afternoon we had a little lesson with Sorella
Sciacca and then we went to the church for a missionary activity that
Anziano Hancock had planned. It went really well, everyone had a
blast. We started off with some spiritual stuff and then we had some
games. There was a scripture chase, a "dress the missionary" where you
have to roll the dice to the right article of clothing to dress the
person in order. And then there was a help the old lady carry her
groceries game, and a lunch appointment game in which we had a HUGE
plate of pasta that the team had to finish eating completely before
they could look at what was underneath and find out what the family
they were eating with needed to hear for a lesson. It was a really
fun game. Then a returned missionary in the branch bore his testimony
about how serving a mission is just a member living under the law of
consecration and giving all time and talents to the Lord, and how all
the members need to try and be more like that.
Saturday we went to Cristina Spina and we discussed starting the stop
smoking plan a little more. It was kind of a crazy day with a lot of
stupid buses, but oh well. And we planned.
Sunday was really good. The Gospel Principles class was really
surprisingly basic, normally it's like "I'm a BYU religion professor
and want to impress everybody" type of class, even though he's
obviously not a religion professor. But yeah, it was good and actually
for investigators and not directed to us as missionaries. woohoo.
Then Sacrament Meeting was super awesome, Sorella Smedila gave an
awesome talk about how faith needs to be the basis of all that we do.
And it was way cool, she shared a lot of personal experiences, like
about how she got baptized when she was 16 and was the only one in her
family and rode the bus to church and sat all by herself because she
was too shy to talk to anybody (which is surprising because she isn't
shy anymore). And how it wasn't until she was 25 and on a mission that
her parents decided to be baptized and she wasn't even there. And
then when she got married her husband lost his job but they decided to
have a family anyway even though they didn't have tons of money. This
might be a fairly normal thing to hear in a ward in the US, but in
Italy people just don't have kids without money, it's just not normal.
But the meeting was awesome.
Sunday evening we had dinner with the Smedila. We actually eat dinner
with people maybe once a week, usually we try for less. We are
encouraged to never accept more than two lunch appointments in a week,
probably because we'd die if we ate that much that often, and be
totally useless and unable to feel the spirit. We get enough money
that we can buy our own food. I think we'd be morbidly obese
otherwise. But people who have served missions in Italy know that you
just shouldn't eat that much and don't make as much food. It's the old
ladies that are bad bad news.
After the Smedila family we ran into Edur, and told her we'd get her a
Book of Mormon in Spanish and she said she might paint us a picture.
Cool...She's from Venezuela, we've seen her a few times when she's out
helping her boyfriend sell his paintings and she talked to the
missionaries at home. She's cool--her little boy is WILD. I think he
needs a life that does not involve traveling to sell paintings.
Monday morning we had the most awesome appointment with Cristina
Spina. We were supposed to start the stop smoking program with her,
but she told us that she wasn't ready because there is just too much
going on and she's way too nervous. We told her that this program, and
being free from the drug and praying and reading the scriptures would
help her to be less nervous. She broke down and cried and just told us
about all the problems she's been having with her kids with her life
and how everyone thinks she's happy but she's not at all. And we read
from Mosiah 24 with her and just talked about how the Christ atoned
for us so that we can let go of all the pain and sorrow that we feel
and find peace and happiness, that he felt all the things that she has
felt so that she doesn't have to carry the weight alone. We asked her
if we could come and reteach her the missionary lessons, and she was
really excited about that, and said she's coming to church on Sunday,
and she PRAYED!!!, and it was really just an awesome lesson. She's
such a sweet person, I really hope that she will have the courage and
the faith to make the changes she knows she needs to make in her life.
Then we had to run run run to the church for the Maxi conference! All
of Sicilia and Malta was here, and on Monday afternoon we had a talent
show and then played sports and ate dinner, and then learned the
National Anthem--"L'inno di Mameli"--and Bella Ciao and Paese Mio (I
think that's the name, it goes "che sarà, sarà, che sarà della mia
vita chi lo sa"). That was fun. And then we had 8 sisters sleep in our
apartment Monday night. Wow. Lots of people. It was really great
though.
Yesterday was the more spiritual side of the conference, and we
learned a lot of good things, about planning and other stuff. And our
study plan for the transfer is the Atonement so Presidente talked to
us about the Atonement. It was a really awesome meeting. The elders on
Malta are learning Maltese--it's been a while since they've done that
I think, they've just been doing things in English because a lot of
the people there speak English, but recently they called them there to
serve for an extended period of time, maybe the rest of their
missions, and to learn Maltese. They prayed a few times in the
meetings and sang a hymn as a musical number and it was really cool,
it's an interesting language.
We had to run from the conference to plan lessons for the famiglia
Sciacca, for Stefania, for English Course, and for Cristina. It was
crazy. We made it to Sciacca, he's going to read over the stop smoking
program and he knows he needs to do it but isn't really happy about
it, and she wants him to quit. But they also agreed to have us teach
them the lessons again, since it's been thirty years since they came
to church.
Stefania's lesson went great, she listened! Crazy.
Life is good, Heavenly Father really loves us a lot and we see so many
miracles and blessings. You just have to take each little miracle as
it comes and not worry about what it becomes later.
I love you and have a wonderful week!
Eliza
PS. remember to tell me when church is so I know when to call you!!!
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