11 August 2010
So this week has been pretty decent. My companion still gets frustrated and thinks that if she doesn't do everything then it isn't going to get done, but I'm trying to be more patient with her compulsive need to be in control.
Last Wednesday we had a lesson on Lungomare with a little old man named Mimo. He's not a very happy person and after we tried to teach him for half an hour and he just told us a long list of how many people had done wrong things to him in his life I felt like I needed to talk to the man on the other side of him. He wasn't the happiest man either, but he was nice. Not a fan of religion because he worked in the bank with money exports and thinks all religions are just monetary organizations and not really religious. But he was very interested in hearing that God knows who he is personally and that was kind of neat. Before meeting Mimo we had been talking to a man on a bench and then an old lady from our ward came and sat next to us right as we were leaving, and we went to see her last weekend and she told us that he had asked her a bunch of questions and that she had taught him some and had a nice conversation about the gospel with him, and that he had been very content to meet her. Cool cool. I was way proud of her.
Thursday we went to see Annarita again, she was still not particularly happy, and she's still struggling. We decided to leave her with the conference Liahona, we had two in Italian in our apartment and I felt like she needed it. So hopefully she'll read it. I can't really figure her out. But she's a cool person. She was telling us how she used to be a happy person, "solare" and I just felt impressed to tell her that I knew that, I could see that the sad gloomy person in front of me wasn't her, and just expressed how much God loves her and how she really needs to really on him and remember all of the spiritual experiences that she has had. I think we helped her. Unfortunately we were late to our next appointment and she was no longer home. That was kind of sad.
But then we had pizza with our ward mission leader and the Anziani, and the 16 year old who works with Andrea and some of his friends. That was pretty cool. We left them with a Libro di Mormon each and the boy told Andrea that he was interested, just that he's scared of his mom because one time he dated a girl of a different religion and his mom made him stop and didn't talk to him for a month. Sad. Andrea told him that's one of the problems that the Book of Mormon can help him with, and he said he'd try it.
Then in the afternoon we went and saw Flavia, we need to teach her daughter the gospel, because Melani wants to come to church and Primary and be involved. They're cute people. And Melani prayed for us at the end. Flavia helped her.
We were walking to church to go to an activity for a half and hour and we walked past a store where there was a woman sitting alone reading something, and we walked by and got to the end of the street and then I decided to go back and talk to her. She wasn't very excited to see us, but I just kept talking to her and eventually she told us that her husband and her 11 year old son recently died, and she doesn't really believe in God anymore. She said who knows, some day she might. We talked a bit about the Plan of Salvation and I told her that I know GOd loves her, because I felt like I had to come and talk to her, even though we had to turn around and come back, and that if God was not aware of her then we wouldn't have come to talk to her. It was kind of neat. We left her a Plan of Salvation pamphlet to read--she hadn't read it yet on Monday, purtroppo, but hopefully soon she will.
On Friday we went to church for correlation and we called Mimo first to ask if the Anziani could come eat dinner with him, because he invited us and we told him we needed somebody else with us. He said that was way too many people and kept explaining why over and over and apparently I was too direct with him or something because my companion got mad at me and said she didn't feel like I was making our investigators enough of a priority. I wasn't aware that he was an investigator, so after correlation we called him and tried to have a lesson with him in church and he confirmed that he just wanted to feed us, and when we said we wanted to share the gospel with him he withdrew the invitation to eat with him. Sad day.
Then in the afternoon we went to see Annamaria, Clementina's friend who wants to stop smoking, and she became a new investigator. She told us she was willing to try the experiment (see Alma 32), but she wasn't ready to take a Book of Mormon so we left her with a pamphlet about the Restoration. When we left my companion gave me a lecture about how we're asking them to make a big change in their lives and we need to be direct and why didn't we leave a Book of Mormon. So I explained to her but apparently saying things how they are is offensive and she started analyzing my personality AGAIN.
So we went to Sorella Ferreri and that was kind of nice. She is a fun lady, loves to talk and has a great testimony. She fulfilled the homework we left her on Sunday when she walked by a lesson we were teaching on Lungomare and bore her testimony to the woman we were talking to. Yeah Sorella Ferreri.
Saturday we planned. I hate the companionship inventory section of planning.
We went to see Patrizia in the afternoon and she was great. It was amazing. She SPOKE. And she said the closing prayer! Very quietly, but she said it. It was amazing. She was like a different person.
Then we went to see the Miccoli family. They are great. Greta is five and can name the prophets when her dad holds up their pictures. It's cute with her Italian accent and the English names.
We talked to some men who sell plants and I got about 30 mosquito bites on my legs. Okay, only 20 on my left leg and 5 on my right. That is SOOO many bites. Man. Then we did some house, and met some cool people at a panificio under the palazzo we had done house in.
Sunday was a pretty good day. I called Flavia and woke her up around 8,30, and so she and Melani got to church around 9,30. Yay. She was grateful that I had called her. I was excited that they were there and they were there long enough for everybody to greet them and for Melani to make some new friends in Primary. Then in the afternoon we talked to some people on the way down to lungomare for mostra, but it was too windy to keep the mostra up, so we just talked to people down there. We had a good lesson with a man by a car, during with we both realized that we need to talk to women, because we're talking to a ton of people but the majority of people we had talked to are people that we cannot teach. We met a woman named Grazia, who unfortunately lives in Statte so we aren't sure that we can see her and she doesn't want to see the Anziani in Statte. But she was great. Her dad died not too long ago and she had been taking care of him, so she's just really having a hard time. But she was great.
On Monday we had a great lesson about prayer from Anziano Ascione in District Meeting. That was good.
In the afternoon we went to drop off a letter at a less-active's house for a member of the ward. That was good. Then we did some casa. We met a woman named Sandra from Nigeria, and I love Africans. She has a darling little boy. She lives in Grottaglie which is kind of far away but still in our ward so we'll see when we can go see her. I think she lives in one of those houses run by nuns too which means we can't really teach her there, but we'll see.
We also talked to several women, most of whom have lost a close family member recently. It's been an interesting Plan of Salvation week.
Yesterday we went and saw Sorella Galeandro. That was fun. It took us a while to find her house, because we don't have the address and it wasn't on the map, my collega thought I was thoroughly incompetent again. But we got to her house, rang the citofono, and she told us she was leaving and we couldn't come up. We got somebody else to open the door and went up anyway. So she opened her door and said no way could we come in, there were way too many problems. So I asked what we could do to help and she just said nothing, and talked a little about the problem, and I just reminded her that God loves her and asked her if she was reading the scriptures. She said "read? with these eyes?" I forgot...oops, she can't see well enough to read. SO I asked if we could share a scripture with her and she said it had to be fast and invited us in and then she started talking and laughing and was a lot happier when we left than when we got there. I like her.
Well, today we're here at Mailboxes, Etc doing email and it's going to cost an arm and a leg but what can you do. I didn't think to tell my companion to bring her photocopies of passport and stuff because she's supposed to have them on her all the time, and she didn't when we got here so we had to go back and she's mad at me again. Hopefully next week she won't cry all through email. Managgia.
But it's been a good week. And this place has a good radio station playing. :) You know you've been on too many buses and in too many stores when you know all the popular Italian songs. It's kind of fun.
I finished reading the Book of Mormon in Italian finally. I wasn't reading everyday. But I'm excited about that.
I'm also working on being more positive, I don't know if you can tell haha. And praying better. President Taranto in the last interview with him told me that he knew these last few months of my mission would be the best yet, so I'm making an active effort to make them that way.
Well, I love you lots!
Have a great week!
Love Liza
Last Wednesday we had a lesson on Lungomare with a little old man named Mimo. He's not a very happy person and after we tried to teach him for half an hour and he just told us a long list of how many people had done wrong things to him in his life I felt like I needed to talk to the man on the other side of him. He wasn't the happiest man either, but he was nice. Not a fan of religion because he worked in the bank with money exports and thinks all religions are just monetary organizations and not really religious. But he was very interested in hearing that God knows who he is personally and that was kind of neat. Before meeting Mimo we had been talking to a man on a bench and then an old lady from our ward came and sat next to us right as we were leaving, and we went to see her last weekend and she told us that he had asked her a bunch of questions and that she had taught him some and had a nice conversation about the gospel with him, and that he had been very content to meet her. Cool cool. I was way proud of her.
Thursday we went to see Annarita again, she was still not particularly happy, and she's still struggling. We decided to leave her with the conference Liahona, we had two in Italian in our apartment and I felt like she needed it. So hopefully she'll read it. I can't really figure her out. But she's a cool person. She was telling us how she used to be a happy person, "solare" and I just felt impressed to tell her that I knew that, I could see that the sad gloomy person in front of me wasn't her, and just expressed how much God loves her and how she really needs to really on him and remember all of the spiritual experiences that she has had. I think we helped her. Unfortunately we were late to our next appointment and she was no longer home. That was kind of sad.
But then we had pizza with our ward mission leader and the Anziani, and the 16 year old who works with Andrea and some of his friends. That was pretty cool. We left them with a Libro di Mormon each and the boy told Andrea that he was interested, just that he's scared of his mom because one time he dated a girl of a different religion and his mom made him stop and didn't talk to him for a month. Sad. Andrea told him that's one of the problems that the Book of Mormon can help him with, and he said he'd try it.
Then in the afternoon we went and saw Flavia, we need to teach her daughter the gospel, because Melani wants to come to church and Primary and be involved. They're cute people. And Melani prayed for us at the end. Flavia helped her.
We were walking to church to go to an activity for a half and hour and we walked past a store where there was a woman sitting alone reading something, and we walked by and got to the end of the street and then I decided to go back and talk to her. She wasn't very excited to see us, but I just kept talking to her and eventually she told us that her husband and her 11 year old son recently died, and she doesn't really believe in God anymore. She said who knows, some day she might. We talked a bit about the Plan of Salvation and I told her that I know GOd loves her, because I felt like I had to come and talk to her, even though we had to turn around and come back, and that if God was not aware of her then we wouldn't have come to talk to her. It was kind of neat. We left her a Plan of Salvation pamphlet to read--she hadn't read it yet on Monday, purtroppo, but hopefully soon she will.
On Friday we went to church for correlation and we called Mimo first to ask if the Anziani could come eat dinner with him, because he invited us and we told him we needed somebody else with us. He said that was way too many people and kept explaining why over and over and apparently I was too direct with him or something because my companion got mad at me and said she didn't feel like I was making our investigators enough of a priority. I wasn't aware that he was an investigator, so after correlation we called him and tried to have a lesson with him in church and he confirmed that he just wanted to feed us, and when we said we wanted to share the gospel with him he withdrew the invitation to eat with him. Sad day.
Then in the afternoon we went to see Annamaria, Clementina's friend who wants to stop smoking, and she became a new investigator. She told us she was willing to try the experiment (see Alma 32), but she wasn't ready to take a Book of Mormon so we left her with a pamphlet about the Restoration. When we left my companion gave me a lecture about how we're asking them to make a big change in their lives and we need to be direct and why didn't we leave a Book of Mormon. So I explained to her but apparently saying things how they are is offensive and she started analyzing my personality AGAIN.
So we went to Sorella Ferreri and that was kind of nice. She is a fun lady, loves to talk and has a great testimony. She fulfilled the homework we left her on Sunday when she walked by a lesson we were teaching on Lungomare and bore her testimony to the woman we were talking to. Yeah Sorella Ferreri.
Saturday we planned. I hate the companionship inventory section of planning.
We went to see Patrizia in the afternoon and she was great. It was amazing. She SPOKE. And she said the closing prayer! Very quietly, but she said it. It was amazing. She was like a different person.
Then we went to see the Miccoli family. They are great. Greta is five and can name the prophets when her dad holds up their pictures. It's cute with her Italian accent and the English names.
We talked to some men who sell plants and I got about 30 mosquito bites on my legs. Okay, only 20 on my left leg and 5 on my right. That is SOOO many bites. Man. Then we did some house, and met some cool people at a panificio under the palazzo we had done house in.
Sunday was a pretty good day. I called Flavia and woke her up around 8,30, and so she and Melani got to church around 9,30. Yay. She was grateful that I had called her. I was excited that they were there and they were there long enough for everybody to greet them and for Melani to make some new friends in Primary. Then in the afternoon we talked to some people on the way down to lungomare for mostra, but it was too windy to keep the mostra up, so we just talked to people down there. We had a good lesson with a man by a car, during with we both realized that we need to talk to women, because we're talking to a ton of people but the majority of people we had talked to are people that we cannot teach. We met a woman named Grazia, who unfortunately lives in Statte so we aren't sure that we can see her and she doesn't want to see the Anziani in Statte. But she was great. Her dad died not too long ago and she had been taking care of him, so she's just really having a hard time. But she was great.
On Monday we had a great lesson about prayer from Anziano Ascione in District Meeting. That was good.
In the afternoon we went to drop off a letter at a less-active's house for a member of the ward. That was good. Then we did some casa. We met a woman named Sandra from Nigeria, and I love Africans. She has a darling little boy. She lives in Grottaglie which is kind of far away but still in our ward so we'll see when we can go see her. I think she lives in one of those houses run by nuns too which means we can't really teach her there, but we'll see.
We also talked to several women, most of whom have lost a close family member recently. It's been an interesting Plan of Salvation week.
Yesterday we went and saw Sorella Galeandro. That was fun. It took us a while to find her house, because we don't have the address and it wasn't on the map, my collega thought I was thoroughly incompetent again. But we got to her house, rang the citofono, and she told us she was leaving and we couldn't come up. We got somebody else to open the door and went up anyway. So she opened her door and said no way could we come in, there were way too many problems. So I asked what we could do to help and she just said nothing, and talked a little about the problem, and I just reminded her that God loves her and asked her if she was reading the scriptures. She said "read? with these eyes?" I forgot...oops, she can't see well enough to read. SO I asked if we could share a scripture with her and she said it had to be fast and invited us in and then she started talking and laughing and was a lot happier when we left than when we got there. I like her.
Well, today we're here at Mailboxes, Etc doing email and it's going to cost an arm and a leg but what can you do. I didn't think to tell my companion to bring her photocopies of passport and stuff because she's supposed to have them on her all the time, and she didn't when we got here so we had to go back and she's mad at me again. Hopefully next week she won't cry all through email. Managgia.
But it's been a good week. And this place has a good radio station playing. :) You know you've been on too many buses and in too many stores when you know all the popular Italian songs. It's kind of fun.
I finished reading the Book of Mormon in Italian finally. I wasn't reading everyday. But I'm excited about that.
I'm also working on being more positive, I don't know if you can tell haha. And praying better. President Taranto in the last interview with him told me that he knew these last few months of my mission would be the best yet, so I'm making an active effort to make them that way.
Well, I love you lots!
Have a great week!
Love Liza
Comments