15 September 2010
Carissimi,
So this has been a good week.
Last Wednesday basically all we did was clean, that was tons of fun. Then Wednesday nigth we packed all of Sorella Askew's stuff into the zone leaders' car and drove up to Bari. In spite of having a suitcase in the middle of the seat, that was a lot more fun than a bus ride would have been, I think. Plus, we got to go to the Bari Poggiofranco ward's GANS activity (GANS=giovani adulti non sposati= YSA) and learn how to make panzerotti. Fun stuff. I think it's really cool that Sorella Jenkins is serving in Bari, we've been able to see each other many times during the mission and it's been great to continue to be friends with her even after the MTC.
We had to wake up bright and early on Thursday morning, Anziano Hansen came at 6 to get Sorella Askew and drive up to Foggia to pick up a mini missionary Sorella and to continue on to Rome. And Sorelle Jenkins, Tinoco and I went to the train station to say goodbye to Anziano Fernandez Ruiz. He's gone home! That's so crazy how fast time flies, we served together in Ragusa and he had only been here a year! But that was fun, and ex-Anziano Branca, who is from Sardegna, was visiting a friend in Bari and came too. He said he felt weird being in normal clothes when we were all in nice ones. Ha.
After that we went home and studied and such, and then went to visit an investigator named Fratello Lassandro. His wife has been a member for years and he's read everything and just hasn't felt much. He's a way cool guy, I think his wife has unfortunately given up hope, but we think he needs to know that Heavenly Father loves him and really feel that people are interested in his life and in helping him, and not just in getting something from him. He came to English course too, very nice guy.
Then we went to see a Filipino woman, a contact, and it started to rain. A lot. I haven't bought new black shoes, at this point I don't see the point, but mine have holes in the bottom and so they were soaking wet really fast. I have my boots fixed for the winter, don't worry. But I can't wear them yet because it's not cold and the Italians are still wearing their sandals even in the rain. Weird, considering they wore their coats until June. Love it. But I just can't wear my boots until they start wearing theirs. We made cookies at lunch.
After lunch we went to see an inactive Sorella, and then we went to see a woman who lives in Sorella Magna's house and the Slle met her in the elevator there. Way cool woman, and her husband who isn't interested in religion invited us in. So they have an awesome new investigator. It was cool. Then we had English course, which went pretty well, I didn't do anything.
Around 9,30 Sorella Jones arrived. Yay. She's way cool, I'm excited to work with her, and thus far we've had an awesome week. Lots of good things have happened. Anyway, we slept in Bari again, and bright and early Friday morning we drove home with the Capi Zona.
We got home just in time to have the Anziani drive us to church for correlation. Our vescovo cracks me up. He's a good guy. It was a good meeting, and he was excited for Sorella Jones to be here which was cool. After that we walked back home--it had started raining so we were soaking wet by the time we arrived. Ha. I made a bunch of phone calls while Sorella Jones unpacked and organized everything. She's a little bit of a clean freak, the first one I've ever lived with, it's pretty interesting. Our house is very organized now, which is good, I always want to organize things but in the end there are other things like studying or writing in my journal or sleeping that I fell take priority.
We went to find some people in the afternoon. I can't really remember who, because I didn't write down where we ended up going...
Saturday we found some mouse poison in the morning, because although we killed one mouse, there are others living in the house. And we talked to a man named Salvatore, a barber. Nice guy. Then we went home and did planning, which was good. My companion is great, she works hard and she's willing to learn and she's willing to keep learning, and she's positive and it's amazing. After lunch we went to see Jlenia, she is working on being more positive about her family this week, and on remembering to read the scriptures. She's the bounciest person ever, I think Slla Jones felt a little overwhelmed, but she's sweet. She did not come to church AGAIN though, and I don't know what the deal is. Hopefully when school starts she'll be more organized.
Then after that we went to Sorella Quercia's house and answered her prayer. She has pains because of diabetes and she was really wanting company so she prayed that either a relative or the Sorelle missionarie could come over and we called and came. She's a cute lady, but she's having a hard time. She was exhausted but she's anxious and can't sit still, and we helped her to feel a little more calm. I was a little concerned she was going to drop dead while we were there, but luckily she didn't.
We saw Speranza and Ilia again, but just to take them a picture. They did invite us to come over whenever we want, but I don't think that they want us to come over for the gospel. Anyway, we'll go back and try again.
We saw Enza in her store, that woman is so great. ANd then we talked to the couple that works at the gelateria with the golden Obama and had a great lesson with them.
Sunday we had a lesson in Principi Evangelici about developing our talents, and our impegno for the week from Fllo Pastano was to look inside ourselves and find our talents and with every step we take to develop them remember to thank the Lord. I was a little distracted by the thousands of ants surrounding me in sacrament meeting though...
We ate lunch with the Pastano famiglia. Sorella Pastano is the coolest member around. We asked her for a referral, she took it seriously and prayed to find somebody, she felt that she should invite Elisa to church so she went to Elisa and said "the Lord told me that I needed to invite you to church" and Elisa said okay and came. This Sunday was her third Sunday in church. So cool.
After lunch we went to a Catholic church to give food to the homeless, a man I had talked with a few weeks ago invited us so we went. It was fun, the people who were there were way nice and I made friends with a six year old named Francesca who was way cute and was really bored because nobody would let her do anything for most of the time. So we talked. She told me all about going to the beach and how parents really need to be careful to keep their children away from jellyfish. :)
After that we were able to find a few people on the streets and talk to them, one of them being a woman named Annamaria, who gave us her address and we said we'd come see her the next day...
So Monday we had district meeting, we did house before that, all of that stuff. Then in the afternoon we went to find Annamaria, and we walked up to the third floor of her palazzo to find her door, and asked her neighbors, whose door was open, which one she was, and they said that she wasn't home but that invited us in and we had a lesson with them instead. The father talked a TON, mamma mia, but his son and sort of daughter in law thought it was great that I told him to listen to us for a minute. haha. Laura seems so sweet, I would love to teach her. They told us to come back whenever, we tried to invite Laura to the SdS activity yesterday but she wasn't home. It was amazing though, I hope we can talk to Laura and Gianfranco without Antonio someday because they seem incredible.
Before that we had had lessons with our sort of investigators on the benches, and after that we went by Annamaria that I talked to weeks ago and she also talks a lot. She doesn't believe that God is capable of punishing disobedient children. It was a cool day though, to be able to recontact several contacts and have some awesome experiences.
Yesterday we went to see an inactive with an adorable 15 month old. Fun fun fun. We basically did a lot of stuff and we've been working really hard and I'm really excited about the things that we're doing and my companion is amazing so I think that this will be a great transfer.
Thanks for all that you are doing, you are an awesome family. I really liked the stuff you wrote on your anniversary, Mom, that was cute and fun to read. I love you all. The church is true and Italy is amazing. I have been here for a year today!!! Wow. You're right, I'll miss these crazy people when I go. And speaking English all the time makes my head hurt, last transfer was rough for that. Haha. But life is good, it's cooling down, etc etc.
Love you tons!!!
Eliza
So this has been a good week.
Last Wednesday basically all we did was clean, that was tons of fun. Then Wednesday nigth we packed all of Sorella Askew's stuff into the zone leaders' car and drove up to Bari. In spite of having a suitcase in the middle of the seat, that was a lot more fun than a bus ride would have been, I think. Plus, we got to go to the Bari Poggiofranco ward's GANS activity (GANS=giovani adulti non sposati= YSA) and learn how to make panzerotti. Fun stuff. I think it's really cool that Sorella Jenkins is serving in Bari, we've been able to see each other many times during the mission and it's been great to continue to be friends with her even after the MTC.
We had to wake up bright and early on Thursday morning, Anziano Hansen came at 6 to get Sorella Askew and drive up to Foggia to pick up a mini missionary Sorella and to continue on to Rome. And Sorelle Jenkins, Tinoco and I went to the train station to say goodbye to Anziano Fernandez Ruiz. He's gone home! That's so crazy how fast time flies, we served together in Ragusa and he had only been here a year! But that was fun, and ex-Anziano Branca, who is from Sardegna, was visiting a friend in Bari and came too. He said he felt weird being in normal clothes when we were all in nice ones. Ha.
After that we went home and studied and such, and then went to visit an investigator named Fratello Lassandro. His wife has been a member for years and he's read everything and just hasn't felt much. He's a way cool guy, I think his wife has unfortunately given up hope, but we think he needs to know that Heavenly Father loves him and really feel that people are interested in his life and in helping him, and not just in getting something from him. He came to English course too, very nice guy.
Then we went to see a Filipino woman, a contact, and it started to rain. A lot. I haven't bought new black shoes, at this point I don't see the point, but mine have holes in the bottom and so they were soaking wet really fast. I have my boots fixed for the winter, don't worry. But I can't wear them yet because it's not cold and the Italians are still wearing their sandals even in the rain. Weird, considering they wore their coats until June. Love it. But I just can't wear my boots until they start wearing theirs. We made cookies at lunch.
After lunch we went to see an inactive Sorella, and then we went to see a woman who lives in Sorella Magna's house and the Slle met her in the elevator there. Way cool woman, and her husband who isn't interested in religion invited us in. So they have an awesome new investigator. It was cool. Then we had English course, which went pretty well, I didn't do anything.
Around 9,30 Sorella Jones arrived. Yay. She's way cool, I'm excited to work with her, and thus far we've had an awesome week. Lots of good things have happened. Anyway, we slept in Bari again, and bright and early Friday morning we drove home with the Capi Zona.
We got home just in time to have the Anziani drive us to church for correlation. Our vescovo cracks me up. He's a good guy. It was a good meeting, and he was excited for Sorella Jones to be here which was cool. After that we walked back home--it had started raining so we were soaking wet by the time we arrived. Ha. I made a bunch of phone calls while Sorella Jones unpacked and organized everything. She's a little bit of a clean freak, the first one I've ever lived with, it's pretty interesting. Our house is very organized now, which is good, I always want to organize things but in the end there are other things like studying or writing in my journal or sleeping that I fell take priority.
We went to find some people in the afternoon. I can't really remember who, because I didn't write down where we ended up going...
Saturday we found some mouse poison in the morning, because although we killed one mouse, there are others living in the house. And we talked to a man named Salvatore, a barber. Nice guy. Then we went home and did planning, which was good. My companion is great, she works hard and she's willing to learn and she's willing to keep learning, and she's positive and it's amazing. After lunch we went to see Jlenia, she is working on being more positive about her family this week, and on remembering to read the scriptures. She's the bounciest person ever, I think Slla Jones felt a little overwhelmed, but she's sweet. She did not come to church AGAIN though, and I don't know what the deal is. Hopefully when school starts she'll be more organized.
Then after that we went to Sorella Quercia's house and answered her prayer. She has pains because of diabetes and she was really wanting company so she prayed that either a relative or the Sorelle missionarie could come over and we called and came. She's a cute lady, but she's having a hard time. She was exhausted but she's anxious and can't sit still, and we helped her to feel a little more calm. I was a little concerned she was going to drop dead while we were there, but luckily she didn't.
We saw Speranza and Ilia again, but just to take them a picture. They did invite us to come over whenever we want, but I don't think that they want us to come over for the gospel. Anyway, we'll go back and try again.
We saw Enza in her store, that woman is so great. ANd then we talked to the couple that works at the gelateria with the golden Obama and had a great lesson with them.
Sunday we had a lesson in Principi Evangelici about developing our talents, and our impegno for the week from Fllo Pastano was to look inside ourselves and find our talents and with every step we take to develop them remember to thank the Lord. I was a little distracted by the thousands of ants surrounding me in sacrament meeting though...
We ate lunch with the Pastano famiglia. Sorella Pastano is the coolest member around. We asked her for a referral, she took it seriously and prayed to find somebody, she felt that she should invite Elisa to church so she went to Elisa and said "the Lord told me that I needed to invite you to church" and Elisa said okay and came. This Sunday was her third Sunday in church. So cool.
After lunch we went to a Catholic church to give food to the homeless, a man I had talked with a few weeks ago invited us so we went. It was fun, the people who were there were way nice and I made friends with a six year old named Francesca who was way cute and was really bored because nobody would let her do anything for most of the time. So we talked. She told me all about going to the beach and how parents really need to be careful to keep their children away from jellyfish. :)
After that we were able to find a few people on the streets and talk to them, one of them being a woman named Annamaria, who gave us her address and we said we'd come see her the next day...
So Monday we had district meeting, we did house before that, all of that stuff. Then in the afternoon we went to find Annamaria, and we walked up to the third floor of her palazzo to find her door, and asked her neighbors, whose door was open, which one she was, and they said that she wasn't home but that invited us in and we had a lesson with them instead. The father talked a TON, mamma mia, but his son and sort of daughter in law thought it was great that I told him to listen to us for a minute. haha. Laura seems so sweet, I would love to teach her. They told us to come back whenever, we tried to invite Laura to the SdS activity yesterday but she wasn't home. It was amazing though, I hope we can talk to Laura and Gianfranco without Antonio someday because they seem incredible.
Before that we had had lessons with our sort of investigators on the benches, and after that we went by Annamaria that I talked to weeks ago and she also talks a lot. She doesn't believe that God is capable of punishing disobedient children. It was a cool day though, to be able to recontact several contacts and have some awesome experiences.
Yesterday we went to see an inactive with an adorable 15 month old. Fun fun fun. We basically did a lot of stuff and we've been working really hard and I'm really excited about the things that we're doing and my companion is amazing so I think that this will be a great transfer.
Thanks for all that you are doing, you are an awesome family. I really liked the stuff you wrote on your anniversary, Mom, that was cute and fun to read. I love you all. The church is true and Italy is amazing. I have been here for a year today!!! Wow. You're right, I'll miss these crazy people when I go. And speaking English all the time makes my head hurt, last transfer was rough for that. Haha. But life is good, it's cooling down, etc etc.
Love you tons!!!
Eliza
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