1 September 2010
Ehi ciao famiglia mia,
Come state? I'm glad you liked the card. I figured she'd like that dog. Ha. Yay she's fourteen, how crazy is that that we're all so stinking old.
We've had a pretty good week. I think that my collega finally realized how important it is to be with the members when we got a half hour lecture from a Fratello in the ward about how we really just need to show people that we love them. I have noticed that the times we've seen members since then she has spent much less time looking at her watch. Yay.
Last Wednesday we went to see Sorella Taconelli. She's really having a hard time because the girls in the ward are excluding her 14 year old daughter, and she doesn't like that her daughter isn't happy obviously. Her daughter is a sweet heart though and a way smart girl, not sure how we can help the young women to integrate more, but we just encouraged her and told her how awesome we think her daughter is. We still haven't told her that the bishop told us her daughter needs to break up with her boyfriend. Haha. And we met her mom, and heard about how she found the church and all, and it's always great to hear conversion stories. My keyboard is weird and my desk is way too tall by the way, so it's hard to type. I just got a chair that's slightly taller, hopefully that helps a little bit.
Thursday we went around trying to find people that we had already met. Our friend from Chile does not respond to phone calls. Dang. We taught some good lessons though, and got a whole lot of phone numbers to give to the Anziani. All of their work currently is coming from us--we've given them tons of referrals the past couple weeks. We don't teach single guys but they're the ones who like to talk to us so we just give them to the Anziani and see what happens. We had a fun consiglio di rione. It wasn't as intense as some that I've been to, but it was still a lot of fun. Anziano Garcia told the ward that we're going to tell people that the reason we do English course is to have an opportunity to introduce the gospel to them, and they weren't too happy with him. He said that once he and the bishop and another member asked everyone to think of a name of a friend to give to the missionaries as a referral and somebody said "excuse me, but if we all give you names, you won't even be able to get to all of them there would be so many, so what would you even do?" Hmmm...
I found a man from Veneto who likes to read and wanted to read the Book of Mormon. Now if only I could remember the paese that he lives in or at least the bigger city that it's next to...Nice guy though.
Friday we were supposed to have correlation and we waited in the church for an hour before the ward mission leader called us and told us that he couldn't make it. SOOO we did comp study in the church and then ran to Patrizia's but she had forgotten about us and had already left. Managgia. So we called Grazia and she told us that she just didn't have the testa to meet with us because her kids were being disobedient and she hadn't read and she was getting ready for the final mass for her father who died a while ago. So just busy busy. We're hoping to see her tonight but I have called her several times and no response. :( We may just have to send the Anziani di Statte over there to go and knock on their door. That way we could pass them to the missionaries in their city and find out how they're doing all at once.
So instead of Grazia and Aldo we went to the Delle Foglie's, and that was when we got the big long lecture about how we need to just say we love the members, eat something with them, and share a scripture with them that fills them with love and then they'll automatically go out and share the gospel with all of their neighbors because they will feel that we love them so much. I agree that we do need to find good ways to work with them and strengthen them. The eating not so big on. :P Or the fact that they confuse contention with feeling the Spirit. But he had a very good point and it was very helpful. He was feeling like we only come to get something out of them, like they're referral machines. And to be quite honest, that's kind of how we were acting when we went in, it's hard to do otherwise when you have a collega who thinks time spent with members is time wasted. But that'll hopefully change. It's interesting though that I have been feeling the same way as Fratello DF, a lack of genuine love and instead an effort to force "love" on a person to reach a desired aim, and it doesn't help anything.
Saturday we planned. Fun fun. ha.
In the afternoon we went and saw Patrizia. She's an interesting woman, honestly. I think if I were inactive and the missionaries came to visit me I'd probably be a lot like her--she's just in her own head and doesn't want to get personal but she does enjoy joking with us. SHe's really an awesome lady, I'm hoping that we can help her a little bit more. She knows there's a prophet, and that she feels happy when she listens to him talk. And she knows she can get answers from the Book of Mormon. But church is still not somewhere she wants to be.
We fasted for Davide on Saturday night and Sunday morning. He's a 16 year old whose mom won't let him get baptized, and the anziani want to go talk to her and try to get permission, so we had a special fast for him. He really is a sweet kid, I hope that his mom will allow her heart to soften and let him receive the blessing of baptism.
Hmm...then later Saturday night we had an appointment set up with a woman I had talked to on the street a couple weeks ago, but we went and she wasn't there. We talked to some women who were hanging out their window while we were waiting and hoping for her to show up, that was fun. Sweet ladies. And then to another family that was hanging out their window to get a little bit of cool air. It was a hot week last week.
Sunday was a good day. Sorella Pastano brought her friend to church, a woman who we had met on a bus a few weeks ago who was just really great, and now we have her phone number and hopefully we will be able to see her on Saturday afternoon. She works pretty constantly though. Sacrament meeting was awesome. Vescovo got up and gave a smack down talk about how it's wrong to come to church just for the sacrament and then leave, and it was just way in your face and I loved it. Sorella Parabita was sitting next to me and just kept saying "è giusto, è giusto" [that's right]. haha :) And then at the end almost of the meeting a family got up to leave and the RS president who was sitting next to me as well grabbed her and said "where are you going, it's done anyway, wait five minutes" and made them sit down until the end. Cool. THey have big problems with everyone leaving before the end, and reverence, hopefully the lesson will sink in for some.
In the afternoon we met our Romanian inactive, Maria, who did not have a Book of Mormon in her language, nor has she ever had the opportunity to have one. Odd. But she's sweet. We need to find out if there are missionaries near her home in ROmania that can go teach her, because she doesn't know much due to a huge language barrier.
Then we met Mardacheo, Ilia's brother (Speranza and Ilia are the ROmanian family we tried to teach when I first got here). He's a cute Romanian model boy, he asked if we would be interested in a friend. Haha. We talked to him about the gospel of course. He's much less defensive when he is on his own. Nice kid. But he can't get past the fact that he has been taught that according to the Bible nobody has ever seen God. So there you have it.
Monday was consiglio and we did house near the church first. There was NOBODY home, but it was kind of fun. There was nobody there on Tuesday either...We went to see a man named Franco that I met on the bus, who is currently on the phone with me ironically enough. It was an odd appointment, I think he just wants company but he wants us to come over every day. We'll go back sometime, I'm sure, and try and teach him the gospel, however this last time he really didn't seem to want to listen, so I dunno...Vediamo cosa possiamo fare [We'll see what we can do].
Yesterday we went to the Piccione. Fun stuff. They are awesome. However he is too proud to come to English course so he can talk to his grandkids who are all American, he thinks they're different generations anyway so they wouldn't be interested in talking to him. He said he'd come if we taught a philosophy course. Doesn't make Sorella Piccione very happy though. He's a great guy, I think he's just afraid of not being able to learn as fast as people think he can, and possibly making a fool out of himself. Hopefully he'll realize that it doesn't really matter.
We met a bird that sings "Nella vecchia fattoria" (old mcdonald had a farm) and says Forza inter. Cool bird. And we gave a Book of Mormon to our friend Marghereta from Romania, and talked to a whole bunch of other people. Good night.
Today we went to Ostuni again. It was a lot nicer this time because it was COOL, and there was wind and we weren't sweating to death. Beautiful place though, although I wish that the duomo had been open to visitors.
Yesterday Fratello Piccione asked me what I want to go home with from my mission. I told him I want to go home knowing how to be more Christlike, having done a tiny bit of what Christ did that I will be able to know Him better. And that I will be better prepared to continue to serve the Lord throughout my life and to raise children in the gospel. Then Fratello Piccione told me that he thinks that I won't know all the things I've learned from my mission and that I won't be able to thoroughly appreciate it until I've got more experience. I think he's right. But I love this work so much, it is so amazing. It's so cool to bear your testimony to tons of people everyday. It's so cool to learn new things about the gospel, about life, about people. I'm so glad to be here, in Italy, with these incredible people. And to know that God knows me, personally, and all of these people as well. It's incredible.
Vi voglio un mucchio di bene [I wish you much good],
Eliza
Come state? I'm glad you liked the card. I figured she'd like that dog. Ha. Yay she's fourteen, how crazy is that that we're all so stinking old.
We've had a pretty good week. I think that my collega finally realized how important it is to be with the members when we got a half hour lecture from a Fratello in the ward about how we really just need to show people that we love them. I have noticed that the times we've seen members since then she has spent much less time looking at her watch. Yay.
Last Wednesday we went to see Sorella Taconelli. She's really having a hard time because the girls in the ward are excluding her 14 year old daughter, and she doesn't like that her daughter isn't happy obviously. Her daughter is a sweet heart though and a way smart girl, not sure how we can help the young women to integrate more, but we just encouraged her and told her how awesome we think her daughter is. We still haven't told her that the bishop told us her daughter needs to break up with her boyfriend. Haha. And we met her mom, and heard about how she found the church and all, and it's always great to hear conversion stories. My keyboard is weird and my desk is way too tall by the way, so it's hard to type. I just got a chair that's slightly taller, hopefully that helps a little bit.
Thursday we went around trying to find people that we had already met. Our friend from Chile does not respond to phone calls. Dang. We taught some good lessons though, and got a whole lot of phone numbers to give to the Anziani. All of their work currently is coming from us--we've given them tons of referrals the past couple weeks. We don't teach single guys but they're the ones who like to talk to us so we just give them to the Anziani and see what happens. We had a fun consiglio di rione. It wasn't as intense as some that I've been to, but it was still a lot of fun. Anziano Garcia told the ward that we're going to tell people that the reason we do English course is to have an opportunity to introduce the gospel to them, and they weren't too happy with him. He said that once he and the bishop and another member asked everyone to think of a name of a friend to give to the missionaries as a referral and somebody said "excuse me, but if we all give you names, you won't even be able to get to all of them there would be so many, so what would you even do?" Hmmm...
I found a man from Veneto who likes to read and wanted to read the Book of Mormon. Now if only I could remember the paese that he lives in or at least the bigger city that it's next to...Nice guy though.
Friday we were supposed to have correlation and we waited in the church for an hour before the ward mission leader called us and told us that he couldn't make it. SOOO we did comp study in the church and then ran to Patrizia's but she had forgotten about us and had already left. Managgia. So we called Grazia and she told us that she just didn't have the testa to meet with us because her kids were being disobedient and she hadn't read and she was getting ready for the final mass for her father who died a while ago. So just busy busy. We're hoping to see her tonight but I have called her several times and no response. :( We may just have to send the Anziani di Statte over there to go and knock on their door. That way we could pass them to the missionaries in their city and find out how they're doing all at once.
So instead of Grazia and Aldo we went to the Delle Foglie's, and that was when we got the big long lecture about how we need to just say we love the members, eat something with them, and share a scripture with them that fills them with love and then they'll automatically go out and share the gospel with all of their neighbors because they will feel that we love them so much. I agree that we do need to find good ways to work with them and strengthen them. The eating not so big on. :P Or the fact that they confuse contention with feeling the Spirit. But he had a very good point and it was very helpful. He was feeling like we only come to get something out of them, like they're referral machines. And to be quite honest, that's kind of how we were acting when we went in, it's hard to do otherwise when you have a collega who thinks time spent with members is time wasted. But that'll hopefully change. It's interesting though that I have been feeling the same way as Fratello DF, a lack of genuine love and instead an effort to force "love" on a person to reach a desired aim, and it doesn't help anything.
Saturday we planned. Fun fun. ha.
In the afternoon we went and saw Patrizia. She's an interesting woman, honestly. I think if I were inactive and the missionaries came to visit me I'd probably be a lot like her--she's just in her own head and doesn't want to get personal but she does enjoy joking with us. SHe's really an awesome lady, I'm hoping that we can help her a little bit more. She knows there's a prophet, and that she feels happy when she listens to him talk. And she knows she can get answers from the Book of Mormon. But church is still not somewhere she wants to be.
We fasted for Davide on Saturday night and Sunday morning. He's a 16 year old whose mom won't let him get baptized, and the anziani want to go talk to her and try to get permission, so we had a special fast for him. He really is a sweet kid, I hope that his mom will allow her heart to soften and let him receive the blessing of baptism.
Hmm...then later Saturday night we had an appointment set up with a woman I had talked to on the street a couple weeks ago, but we went and she wasn't there. We talked to some women who were hanging out their window while we were waiting and hoping for her to show up, that was fun. Sweet ladies. And then to another family that was hanging out their window to get a little bit of cool air. It was a hot week last week.
Sunday was a good day. Sorella Pastano brought her friend to church, a woman who we had met on a bus a few weeks ago who was just really great, and now we have her phone number and hopefully we will be able to see her on Saturday afternoon. She works pretty constantly though. Sacrament meeting was awesome. Vescovo got up and gave a smack down talk about how it's wrong to come to church just for the sacrament and then leave, and it was just way in your face and I loved it. Sorella Parabita was sitting next to me and just kept saying "è giusto, è giusto" [that's right]. haha :) And then at the end almost of the meeting a family got up to leave and the RS president who was sitting next to me as well grabbed her and said "where are you going, it's done anyway, wait five minutes" and made them sit down until the end. Cool. THey have big problems with everyone leaving before the end, and reverence, hopefully the lesson will sink in for some.
In the afternoon we met our Romanian inactive, Maria, who did not have a Book of Mormon in her language, nor has she ever had the opportunity to have one. Odd. But she's sweet. We need to find out if there are missionaries near her home in ROmania that can go teach her, because she doesn't know much due to a huge language barrier.
Then we met Mardacheo, Ilia's brother (Speranza and Ilia are the ROmanian family we tried to teach when I first got here). He's a cute Romanian model boy, he asked if we would be interested in a friend. Haha. We talked to him about the gospel of course. He's much less defensive when he is on his own. Nice kid. But he can't get past the fact that he has been taught that according to the Bible nobody has ever seen God. So there you have it.
Monday was consiglio and we did house near the church first. There was NOBODY home, but it was kind of fun. There was nobody there on Tuesday either...We went to see a man named Franco that I met on the bus, who is currently on the phone with me ironically enough. It was an odd appointment, I think he just wants company but he wants us to come over every day. We'll go back sometime, I'm sure, and try and teach him the gospel, however this last time he really didn't seem to want to listen, so I dunno...Vediamo cosa possiamo fare [We'll see what we can do].
Yesterday we went to the Piccione. Fun stuff. They are awesome. However he is too proud to come to English course so he can talk to his grandkids who are all American, he thinks they're different generations anyway so they wouldn't be interested in talking to him. He said he'd come if we taught a philosophy course. Doesn't make Sorella Piccione very happy though. He's a great guy, I think he's just afraid of not being able to learn as fast as people think he can, and possibly making a fool out of himself. Hopefully he'll realize that it doesn't really matter.
We met a bird that sings "Nella vecchia fattoria" (old mcdonald had a farm) and says Forza inter. Cool bird. And we gave a Book of Mormon to our friend Marghereta from Romania, and talked to a whole bunch of other people. Good night.
Today we went to Ostuni again. It was a lot nicer this time because it was COOL, and there was wind and we weren't sweating to death. Beautiful place though, although I wish that the duomo had been open to visitors.
Yesterday Fratello Piccione asked me what I want to go home with from my mission. I told him I want to go home knowing how to be more Christlike, having done a tiny bit of what Christ did that I will be able to know Him better. And that I will be better prepared to continue to serve the Lord throughout my life and to raise children in the gospel. Then Fratello Piccione told me that he thinks that I won't know all the things I've learned from my mission and that I won't be able to thoroughly appreciate it until I've got more experience. I think he's right. But I love this work so much, it is so amazing. It's so cool to bear your testimony to tons of people everyday. It's so cool to learn new things about the gospel, about life, about people. I'm so glad to be here, in Italy, with these incredible people. And to know that God knows me, personally, and all of these people as well. It's incredible.
Vi voglio un mucchio di bene [I wish you much good],
Eliza
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