1 December 2010
Mamma mia che settimnana lunghissima...uou.
So it's been another good one. We're definitely busy. I have a question for you--what is my homecoming talk on??? I have to write it before I get home because I don't think that even with going back in time a day that I'm going to do it the day I get back so somebody needs to let me know please. Thank you.
So, let's see, Thursday was Thanksgiving, which of course is a day just like any other here in Italy--some of the people who use internet occasionally read that it was a holiday in the USA but they don't really know what that means. So in the morning we tried to go visit Rosanna, the woman who lives in the house that's more than 1000 years old but she never answered her phone so we just ended up doing some finding work. We also had to make a copy of the key to our water heater cabinet, because the one that was in there was ridiculously old and it broke. They didn't even have to make a copy, they just have the same key in the store that they looked at and it matched and they gave it to us for 90 cents and that was it. We met a man on the trenino coming home named West, short for Westly, who is from Sierra Leone. He is a politicul refugee, and he asked us who we are and I talked to him about the gospel in English while my companion talked to his atheist friend in Italian. He's way cool, he wanted us to bring him a Book of Mormon. Then we went home and I think we set a world record for making a Thanksgiving feast. We just bought some pieces of turkey and cooked them in the oven, made a pumpkin pie, stuffing (which is amazingly easy and I had no idea) mashed potatoes (the box kind), broccoli, basically everything. It was pretty exciting to have a Thanksgiving that tasted totally American, and to have done it by ourselves in only 2 hours or something. We also had real milk, instead of that long conservation stuff. Cool.
In the evening we met with Leda at Sharon's house--Leda is from Brasile, she's cute. We met with Sharon after her. And we talked about gratitude and Sharon gave the most beautiful Thanksgiving prayer, it was great.
I talked to some awesome people in the metro and the buses, and it was a good day.
On Friday we had kind of a disaster...we left the phone at home, and we were late. Which meant we couldn't call the member who was going to our appointment with us and tell them we would be late, which meant that when they called and we didn't answer and after waiting for a half hour they had to leave. Aia. Ooops. We did end up seeing Patrizia briefly in the evening, but it would have been so much better with a member, she desperately needs friends. We met with Peter in the evening, he's such a good person. I wish that he spoke English better, or Italian. Or that there were missionaries sent to Rome that speak Tagalog because we need them. But he's awesome.
After that we went with Sharon to teach a lesson to Galin, a man Sorella Zeller met on the trenino a while back, and he has been out of town a lot, but he's way cool. He's Filipino, he works for Nuskin or something, he's a good guy. And he said he wants to learn about the gospel and what this is all about.
Saturday we planned woohoo.
In the evening all of our plans fell through, but we went to take a cake to Sorella Cadena because she had been willing to come to an appointment with us but we left the phone at home so she couldn't. My collega likes to make cakes. It was good, S Cadena is a pretty recent convert, she's got four sons and no daughters, and she needed some girls to talk to. She's really sweet, and her baby boy is way cute. She's from Ecuador and her husband is from Colombia.
We were going to do some finding on the trenino but then we saw Shopa, our friend from Bangladesh, and we met her husband as well, who speaks English very well. They are really good, respectful people. She's cooking for us on Saturday and we're giving her a Book of Mormon.
Sunday was a great day. Purtroppo, even though we found a ride for Patrizia she chose to help a friend out in a store instead of coming to church (in the end I don't think she was in the store because it rained, and she told us on Monday that she just couldn't even do anything on Sunday, she tried to do her crafts and different things but in the end she just went to sleep because she felt bad about not being in church). Claudia couldn't come either because she had a cold, and she really did. But Teresa came even though her husband is still not happy about it. :)
It was a really good Sunday, all of the lessons were excellent. Basically everything was based on President Uchtdorf's talk from October conference (maybe you could get me an Ensign for when I get home, I don't think we'll have the conference one before I leave. We still don't have the October temple one). And it was excellent. And in the evening we saw Sara, Gisella's sister, and their other sister who is not a member and her boyfriend. We had a good lesson, they are all good people. They are from Peru, and Sara's son is serving a mission in Peru, but Sara is inactive and to make matters worse doesn't know how to use email so she never hears anything from her son and she doesn't even have a clue what missionaries do. Hopefully somebody fixes that and she starts hearing from him, that's just weird.
Monday we had a really cool district meeting. We finished talking about the new preach my gospel stuff last week and this week we had a lesson on charity, and then we did the hot seat thing where everyone takes turns having all the others say something they like about them. That was neat. And then Anziano Shaw put a picture of Jesus in the chair, and we all said things that we like and are grateful for with regards to our Savior. It was a really cool lesson.
In the afternoon we took a Book of Mormon to West, and we'll see him in a week to talk some more. And then in the evening we went to Patrizia, she needs to forgive a lot of people and be a lot more positive about things, we left her the homework to write down two good things each day and to pray to ask for the ability to see the good things and the strength to forget the bad things. She's really great but kind of crazy too, but we love her and we're working to help her to understand her relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. She didn't feel like the Plan of Salvation was true after reading the pamphlet because she feels like she's been abandoned. We'll keep working with her.
Yesterday there was a sciopero in the metro--strike! All closed, what a disaster. We were luckily at the capolinea for the bus and we got on and got seats right as it pulled up, but the bus left a whole lot of people waiting for the next one, and then as we pulled up to the first stop a cry of "no!!!" went up throughout the bus and the driver didn't stop at any of the stops unless people were needing to get off--there was just no room. Ha. Crazy day for transportation. We had lunch with Leda, the best polenta I've ever had--it was good. I don't really like polenta, but this stuff was tasty. Hopefully she'll go home to Brazil soon. And go back to church. Sigh...hopefully.
We checked out four different modes of transportation that were each ridiculously packed because of the strike, and then the metro finally opened and we took it and we made it just in time to squeeze our way into another PACKED bus in the rain to get to Fernanda and Gabriella. We had a good lesson, Fernanda set some goals for how she can be a good example to her children.
All in all, an excellent week.
The work is so good, it's so amazing. And it's true.
Today we're going to Villa Borghese, with all the Bernini statues, I'm excited. And we get to start our advent calendars.
OH! And for the last two weeks we will be in three, there's a girl from Battipaglia (Napoli District) who recently got a mission call to Chicago who is going to be serving a mini mission here for a transfer at least, and she will be our new companion. Woohoo we get an Italian! Should be fun. We're pretty excited, and my collega is excited to not be training an American, at least not this transfer.
Well, I love you, have a wonderful week!!!
Eliza
So it's been another good one. We're definitely busy. I have a question for you--what is my homecoming talk on??? I have to write it before I get home because I don't think that even with going back in time a day that I'm going to do it the day I get back so somebody needs to let me know please. Thank you.
So, let's see, Thursday was Thanksgiving, which of course is a day just like any other here in Italy--some of the people who use internet occasionally read that it was a holiday in the USA but they don't really know what that means. So in the morning we tried to go visit Rosanna, the woman who lives in the house that's more than 1000 years old but she never answered her phone so we just ended up doing some finding work. We also had to make a copy of the key to our water heater cabinet, because the one that was in there was ridiculously old and it broke. They didn't even have to make a copy, they just have the same key in the store that they looked at and it matched and they gave it to us for 90 cents and that was it. We met a man on the trenino coming home named West, short for Westly, who is from Sierra Leone. He is a politicul refugee, and he asked us who we are and I talked to him about the gospel in English while my companion talked to his atheist friend in Italian. He's way cool, he wanted us to bring him a Book of Mormon. Then we went home and I think we set a world record for making a Thanksgiving feast. We just bought some pieces of turkey and cooked them in the oven, made a pumpkin pie, stuffing (which is amazingly easy and I had no idea) mashed potatoes (the box kind), broccoli, basically everything. It was pretty exciting to have a Thanksgiving that tasted totally American, and to have done it by ourselves in only 2 hours or something. We also had real milk, instead of that long conservation stuff. Cool.
In the evening we met with Leda at Sharon's house--Leda is from Brasile, she's cute. We met with Sharon after her. And we talked about gratitude and Sharon gave the most beautiful Thanksgiving prayer, it was great.
I talked to some awesome people in the metro and the buses, and it was a good day.
On Friday we had kind of a disaster...we left the phone at home, and we were late. Which meant we couldn't call the member who was going to our appointment with us and tell them we would be late, which meant that when they called and we didn't answer and after waiting for a half hour they had to leave. Aia. Ooops. We did end up seeing Patrizia briefly in the evening, but it would have been so much better with a member, she desperately needs friends. We met with Peter in the evening, he's such a good person. I wish that he spoke English better, or Italian. Or that there were missionaries sent to Rome that speak Tagalog because we need them. But he's awesome.
After that we went with Sharon to teach a lesson to Galin, a man Sorella Zeller met on the trenino a while back, and he has been out of town a lot, but he's way cool. He's Filipino, he works for Nuskin or something, he's a good guy. And he said he wants to learn about the gospel and what this is all about.
Saturday we planned woohoo.
In the evening all of our plans fell through, but we went to take a cake to Sorella Cadena because she had been willing to come to an appointment with us but we left the phone at home so she couldn't. My collega likes to make cakes. It was good, S Cadena is a pretty recent convert, she's got four sons and no daughters, and she needed some girls to talk to. She's really sweet, and her baby boy is way cute. She's from Ecuador and her husband is from Colombia.
We were going to do some finding on the trenino but then we saw Shopa, our friend from Bangladesh, and we met her husband as well, who speaks English very well. They are really good, respectful people. She's cooking for us on Saturday and we're giving her a Book of Mormon.
Sunday was a great day. Purtroppo, even though we found a ride for Patrizia she chose to help a friend out in a store instead of coming to church (in the end I don't think she was in the store because it rained, and she told us on Monday that she just couldn't even do anything on Sunday, she tried to do her crafts and different things but in the end she just went to sleep because she felt bad about not being in church). Claudia couldn't come either because she had a cold, and she really did. But Teresa came even though her husband is still not happy about it. :)
It was a really good Sunday, all of the lessons were excellent. Basically everything was based on President Uchtdorf's talk from October conference (maybe you could get me an Ensign for when I get home, I don't think we'll have the conference one before I leave. We still don't have the October temple one). And it was excellent. And in the evening we saw Sara, Gisella's sister, and their other sister who is not a member and her boyfriend. We had a good lesson, they are all good people. They are from Peru, and Sara's son is serving a mission in Peru, but Sara is inactive and to make matters worse doesn't know how to use email so she never hears anything from her son and she doesn't even have a clue what missionaries do. Hopefully somebody fixes that and she starts hearing from him, that's just weird.
Monday we had a really cool district meeting. We finished talking about the new preach my gospel stuff last week and this week we had a lesson on charity, and then we did the hot seat thing where everyone takes turns having all the others say something they like about them. That was neat. And then Anziano Shaw put a picture of Jesus in the chair, and we all said things that we like and are grateful for with regards to our Savior. It was a really cool lesson.
In the afternoon we took a Book of Mormon to West, and we'll see him in a week to talk some more. And then in the evening we went to Patrizia, she needs to forgive a lot of people and be a lot more positive about things, we left her the homework to write down two good things each day and to pray to ask for the ability to see the good things and the strength to forget the bad things. She's really great but kind of crazy too, but we love her and we're working to help her to understand her relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. She didn't feel like the Plan of Salvation was true after reading the pamphlet because she feels like she's been abandoned. We'll keep working with her.
Yesterday there was a sciopero in the metro--strike! All closed, what a disaster. We were luckily at the capolinea for the bus and we got on and got seats right as it pulled up, but the bus left a whole lot of people waiting for the next one, and then as we pulled up to the first stop a cry of "no!!!" went up throughout the bus and the driver didn't stop at any of the stops unless people were needing to get off--there was just no room. Ha. Crazy day for transportation. We had lunch with Leda, the best polenta I've ever had--it was good. I don't really like polenta, but this stuff was tasty. Hopefully she'll go home to Brazil soon. And go back to church. Sigh...hopefully.
We checked out four different modes of transportation that were each ridiculously packed because of the strike, and then the metro finally opened and we took it and we made it just in time to squeeze our way into another PACKED bus in the rain to get to Fernanda and Gabriella. We had a good lesson, Fernanda set some goals for how she can be a good example to her children.
All in all, an excellent week.
The work is so good, it's so amazing. And it's true.
Today we're going to Villa Borghese, with all the Bernini statues, I'm excited. And we get to start our advent calendars.
OH! And for the last two weeks we will be in three, there's a girl from Battipaglia (Napoli District) who recently got a mission call to Chicago who is going to be serving a mini mission here for a transfer at least, and she will be our new companion. Woohoo we get an Italian! Should be fun. We're pretty excited, and my collega is excited to not be training an American, at least not this transfer.
Well, I love you, have a wonderful week!!!
Eliza
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