Two is better then Three!

Emilia and her mom at church.  Kind of a dark picture

Nana one of our investigators and a boy who lives with her

This will probably not be funny to anyone else, but we were laughing so hard. This lady told us to take one of her fruits, but the whole branch came off instead and we ran away before she could notice. 

All the missionaries here...and Pamela right in the middle for English/French class!

This week we got a new sister in our apartment--Sorella Patterson! She's from Texas, super great, and has studied Italian for two years so she is already really good (only at the grammar though--I'm still ahead in speaking and understanding)! But it has been really fun to have four sisters, although it's kind of weird hearing English again. Yesterday I told a storia in English and it was actually funny (my stories are never funny, but it takes so long for me to explain)! But I like staying in Italian so I can learn it faster! As much as I loved my last companionship--it is SOOOO much better to only be in two in every aspect of the work! I love being with Sorella Spicq; we have a lot to learn from each other, but we try really hard and also have a lot of fun! 

Okay some great stories from this week:

One of our investigator's name is Pamela and she comes to church almost every Wednesday, comes to French class, and we teach her whenever she has time. She said she wants to be baptized, but she hasn't talked to her husband about it yet. Her husband, Franco, also comes to French class and we decided to talk and invite both of them to be baptized as our thought for French class at the end (they are our only students at the moment for that class haha). We weren't sure how Franco would take it, but we decided to try anyway. We explained how we need to be baptized, and the blessings of it, etc. The whole time he was nodding his head and when we asked him to be baptized he said, "I need to think about it...but how do I prepare?" Then we explained how we would need to teach him and we invited him to come to church. He turned to his wife and said "Let's go?" We were absolutely shocked! All this time we thought Franco didn't want to do anything with the church and here he is all prepared and wants to be better! We don't think his wife ever even invited him to come to church! But now the other Sorelle and I are teaching both of them the lessons and hopefully they will be baptized together! 

Also, we have this other investigator, named Adamo, that we haven't taught in forever. His wife is super active and he comes to church all the time. It's weird because every time we have an appointment with him--his wife calls and cancels the appointment! We think she just doesn't want to push him into the church or something. Well this week we finally had an appointment with him...well the other sisters were teaching him this time and they decided to go ahead and invite him to be baptized--and he accepted!! Whoo we're so excited! The wives here are silly. 

Okay so this ward that I am in has probably over 200 members...but only 90 are active. Non va bene. This ward used to be a ton of small branches, but they combined all of them into one big ward. But our members are still all over the place. We think this is one of the main reasons why so many are inactive--because they now have to drive at least an hour to get to church every week and we think most of them just kind of stopped caring to put in that much effort. Since our investigators have now been split up, this week we've been working with the less active members a lot. Almost all of them are part member families so we are also finding new investigators through that. The other day we were on the bus when this guy came on, saw our my name tag and said "Ah the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!" (which is kind of odd because my name tag is in Italian). Then he told us how he was the first Italian baptized. We don't believe that is true...but turns out he was baptized a long time ago and is now one of our in-actives! On Monday we visited him and he told us how he saw the missionaries a long time ago and they were in front of some graffiti that made them look like Christ...so he talked to them and was baptized a while later. He told us about how special his baptism was, how he has noticed a void in his life, and wants to start reading and praying again.  He and his wife (who is not a member) promised to come to church this Sunday and we're going over for dinner and a lesson next week! He totally wants to come back to church, but all he needed was the invite. It was definitely a miracle that we happened to take that bus to meet him!

Exchanges and Transfers

Scambio with Sorella Wightman

Waiting for sheep to pass on the road

Sleepover on our balcony

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ciao famiglia! Come vai?

Happy 24th of JULY!!!!! Today I'm making hamburgers for my companions so that's my celebration! Are you having fun swimming and watching fireworks while I do important stuff ;) Wow I feel like I just wrote you guys two days ago--how has it already been a week? And this week is my three month point...I seriously have not been gone this long! Crazy! Well anyway this week has been really great! Last Thursday I got to go to Rome 5 to do a scambio (exchange) with Sorella Wightman! It was so great and exactly what I needed! I absolutely love my companions, but it has been a bit difficult at times having two companions and only speaking Italian. It's just difficult when we plan because I miss things they say and then I'm way confused what is going on. Also, sometimes I feel a bit left out in this companionship because I don't know what they are saying and I am not very good at expressing myself in Italian so sometimes I feel like they don't know me very well. It's worth it to learn the language faster and understand my investigators better, so even though it's hard--no way am I speaking English with them. So anyway it was really good just to be able to talk about everything in English for a bit and I learned so much from Sorella Wightman. Seriously, there are some great missionaries here! 

Some good news and bad news...bad news first. On Sunday we received a text from Vanessa, our investigator, saying that she dropped the BOM in our mailbox and she doesn't believe it. I admit, I was more than a little sad. We only had one lesson with her and I really don't think she gave us a chance. She kept talking about how confused she was by all the religions and I was so excited because I was sure this was going to be the answer to her prayer. Hopefully she'll listen to some missionary in the future.   On Monday we met this guy and he said his sister would be interested in hearing us so we went over to their house to teach them. The sister, Samantha, said she's very interested in learning about all religions and would like to have a better relationship with God. I told her a little about the BOM and what it is about and then she asked, "If this is true...how come I have never heard of this book before?" Well Samantha this is why we are here--to tell people! Then her mom came out and invited us in to have lunch with them (Rule #1 you never reject food from Italians). There's six kids in their family--all in their twenties or late teens (also that's a huge family for Italians) and we had a lot of fun talking and eating with them! We have another appointment with them tomorrow night to do a FHE with them. They are seriously a really great family and we are so excited! So maybe we don't have Vanessa--but now we have Samantha!!

Also, this week--we got a baptismal date for Emilia!!! She really is ready to be baptized and we brought a calendar with us and had her chose a date. And she chose September 21...which is a long time away, but it's a special Holiday in her country and she said it would be really special to have that date. We've thought about it and we don't feel like there's any danger with her waiting a long time--it will only be good. She doesn't really ever read the scriptures or pray and she's not going to stay active if she doesn't do those things so now we are working on helping her with that. Also, only her mom is a member, but lately her brother has been listening in on our lessons...so maybe with this extra time we can get the whole family baptized! 

This week we got the big phone call from the Mission President telling us about transfers...and I am staying here! But I will only have one companion--Sorella Spicq! And Sorella Mistura is training a new missionary. I'm excited and happy about this. It'll be nice to only have one companion and I just love my French companion! The past few days we're been moving around the new apartment and getting all this new supplies, such as a bed, for the new Sorella. Our apartment seems so small now, but we're excited to have four sisters here. And I'm excited to not be the dumb one anymore haha jk. It's kind of funny because two transfers ago there were no sisters in Pescara...then Sorella Spicq and Mistura came...then me...then the other Sorella! The ward is really excited to have four sisters here. Also, because there's two companionships...we had to split our investigators; kind of sad, but hopefully I'll still see them at church. Our investigator list looks small now, but if the Lord wants six missionaries in this city (counting the Elders) then there's definitely a lot of work to do. 

Anyway I'm excited for this new transfer! Favorite scripture of the week: Ether 12:27 Weak things become strong in the Lord. A member shared how this scripture made her want to be baptized and I have loved it since then. This fits this past transfer because I am so weak, but I have been able to become stronger when I have faith in the Lord. 

Okay got to go. Love you guys so much! Have fun today!! 

Love Sorella Knudsen

 

My Investigators!

Me in front of the city Popoli.  

 

Me on top of the castle

Marcone family in front of the castel

Awkard picture of our district

We have to take water to our apartment like this.  It is very homeless of us. 

Wow today has been a crazy one! For P-day we visited one of our investigators in Popoli and hiked to visit a very old castle! It was so beautiful and fun! But our usual Internet point was completely busy so we've been running around the whole city trying to find another one. Luckily we found this one, but I'm a little bit frazzled so I hope I can still make this a good letter. Okay for today's letter I wanted to tell you about my SIMPATIZZANTI (investigators) that I love so much! 

1.Pamela! Pamela is this sweet lady that comes to English and French class, pinches my cheek (I actually don't like when she does that), and comes to church each Sunday. We've invited her to be baptized and she said yes, but she doesn't want a date yet because she wants to tell her parents first. So we're trying to help her out with that. 

2. Emilia! Emilia is a 19 year old single mom with the CUTEST daughter in the world! She's from Argentina and her mom is a convert and is the one who invited us over to teach. Emilia is great and is very interested, but with her baby it's hard for her to keep reading and they live far away (we take a train to visit them) so they can't come to church every Sunday. We also invited her to be baptized-she said yes, but she didn't want to choose a date yet. This week I'm sure we'll have one though!

3. Elena! Sometimes we've looked over Elena because she hardly has any time to meet with us and we haven't seen her in a while. But we saw her yesterday and taught her the Restoration. She was telling us that she doesn't like the Catholic church and doesn't think it's true (yes finally someone!). She hasn't prayed yet, but she already believes what we taught her and agreed to be baptized (although not till September because she's going to be gone a lot for work). 

4. Nana! There are a TON of Africans in this city and I just love them! They are so funny and nice. We met Nana on the street and so far we've taught her the Restoration and she seemed excited about it. She's cute and calls us her angels. Lessons with her are very different than our other investigators because she'll randomly go off on spirits and such. But she's great!

5. Vanessa! Vanessa is one of our miracles. We hand out hundreds of pass along cards and never hear anything from them. But Vanessa talked to Sorella Mistura on the bus for like two seconds and got a card from that. And just from that she gave us a call wanting to know more. We had a great lesson with her and she was just telling us about how she has looked into many church and she is very confused about God and religion and is hoping to find an answer. (The whole time I was screaming "we have it!" in my head). We've only taught one lesson to her so far, but we have so much hope because she seems so prepared!

6. Paolo! Okay I probably shouldn't have favorites, but I can't help it. Paolo is about 40 years old, single, and a lawyer.. He has read the Liahona, every pamphlet, the BOM FOUR times (no joke) and probably all of LDS.org in the past month! He believes and LOVES it all! It is so cute, because every time we go over, he gives us ice cream and then spends ten minutes describing what he has learned this week (this past week he told us about how beautiful the family is in the Proclamation to the World). But...he won't come to church. Seriously. We've tried everything--invited the Bishop over, had our lessons in the church (he cancelled that lesson), talked about church, had him meet all these members, etc. He has had some bad experiences with the people in church in the past and he doesn't believe in organized religion. But he has changed and improved a lot! At first he was refused to listen to anything about going to church, but now he knows he needs to come and he says he will one day...in September...maybe. I didn't think it was possible for someone to love the church so much, but not want to come to church. He's our hardest investigator to figure out and help, but at the same time we just love him because we pray so much all day long that he will come to church. I know he will one day and then three weeks later (in Italy you have to come to church three times before you can get baptized) he will be baptized!

7. Family Dintino! We got them through a member family (referrals from members are the best). This family was taught by the missionaries a while ago, but now I think they are ready to accept! There's the mom and dad with three kids. We've taught two lesson, both of which went so great! They're taking care of their sick grandmother at the moment so it's hard for them to come to church a lot. 

Ah I'm running out of time so I guess I can't tell you about Adamo or Luigi. But I just love these people that we're teaching. They seriously make my day every day. I love planning lessons, feeling the spirit when I teach, and seeing these people change and want to be better. It's great being a missionary!

Baptism of Sara and visiting the Basilica!

In front of the Basilica

Inside the Basilica--Kinda blurry

Companions in front of the Basilica

Battismo di Sara!

Visiting a New Member family

Grand prize--This picture is for Dad

  Looks like you guys had a lot of fun this week with the 4th! No, I didn't really get to celebrate it...except my companions and I bought some chocolate and then watched the part of the Restoration movie which it mentions the fourth of July. Haha yeah we know how to party! Well this week was  really awesome! We saw so many miracles with our investigators and random people we talk to. I love going to places and randomly finding people who want the BOM and ask if they want to come to church. Like the other day I was doing my permesso and I was talking to this African guy and he said that he went to the Mormon church in Nigeria and was wondering if there was church here. 

          Last week we had our Pday in Rome and we got to see the Basilica! That place is huge!! I've studied it in school and I thought I would recognize all the art, but it is so huge and filled with art...I've probably only seen like a tenth of the art in it before. Man it was so beautiful I can't believe I got the chance to see it. My companions were making fun of me, because I couldn't believe that I was there and there were points where I was seriously giggling because I was so happy to be there. Ah so beautiful. I'll have to take you guys there. 

          Okay I've realized that I haven't really said much about my companions, city, Italia, etc. so I decided to talk more about that for a second. It is really hot and humid here--I am always wet. It's fine. Although we have had some cloudy/rainy days which have been so nice. Everyone does the kiss-both-cheeks thing as hello/goodbye here and I'm getting quite good at it. In fact, I like it and I don't plan on losing this habit when I come home...so prepare to be kissed...a lot :). Haha. In addition to the language...I am learning sign language. Italians are very expressive with their hands and it always cracks me up! It's funny when we get a ride with a member and we'll be talking to them while they're driving. There has been a couple times that I have been scared for my life because their hands spend more time in the air than on the wheel. But somehow they are still have good drivers. Maybe we should talk to them less...haha! My apartment is VERY nice, like seriously. I think maybe even the best in the mission. The thing I love about apartments here is that everyone has a balcony (usually filled with plants and flowers). Ours has an extra mattress on it and we love eating, praying, and talking outside on it, especially late at night. Honestly, this city to me (maybe this is only because I went to crazy China) just feels like a normal city in the US...except everyone speaks Italian. For me, it's not a great cultural experience to be here...maybe if I get to go more south... oh well I really do love it here! I feel like I have been here forever. My companions are really great! There are actually a lot of threesomes of sister in Italia right now and I think that is only because there are more sisters than cities. Once they open up more, they'll move us around, I think. I thought it would be more difficult to be with two companions, but we work really well together. It's fun having three languages-English, Italian, French so together we can talk to almost everyone! 

         This week was really great because we had a baptism! Except not exactly ours. Her name is Sara, she's about 14 years old (but acts so much older), and she's just great. She has actually been waiting a LONG time to be baptized, but since she is a minor and there's some issues with her mom...I don't know all the details, but she has just been waiting on permission from a judge to get baptized. She's practically already a member and has come to lessons with us all the time. She and I have become good friends and two weeks ago I was talking to her about her baptism. I told her she was going to be baptized while I was here and she didn't believe me because she has been waiting so long and it was a supposed to take longer. Then two days later she called me screaming that she just got permission to be baptized! Moral of the story: I can tell the future. Haha just kidding. But her baptism was beautiful and we had a great turnout for it. The "baptismal font" that we have is actually just a small stand up pool. Her brother baptized her and it was so sad because he hit her head on the back bar of the pool! But he redid it and she's okay! Haha...maybe next baptism we'll do it in the ocean! 

Okay I'm running out of time so I guess I'll just tell you about the rest of my investigators next week. Love you guys! Vi voglio bene (by the way this means "I want you well" but it basically means "I love you" in Italian in a non romantic way.)

Con amore, Sorella Knudsen 

Zone Conference in Rome

Tracking in Rome

The new temple being built

The Rome Temple

Best Pizza ever

My Zone

Exchanges with Sorella Fuller and Gelato

Ciao Famiglia!

Come va? Ah this week has been so good! We have made such great progress with our investigators and I am so excited for them! It's so sad when appointments get cancelled, but it is so great when you get to see their faith grow. We have a few investigators that have accepted to be baptized (although no dates yet due to some problems). I'll tell you more about that in my next letter though. So this week is Zone Conference...in ROME!! We left Pescara on Monday morning, had interviews with the Mission President, then did some exchanges with the sisters from Rome 2. This week is our first week with the new Mission President, President Waddoups! E troppo bravo (he is really great) and I'm excited for him to be our President. It was fun doing tracting in Rome, although to me it looks just like Pescara, and learning new ways to contact. While we were tracking, the Rome 2 sisters led us down this empty street...to see the Rome temple!! Yay I finally got to see it! It looks great, but it still has a long way to go. Actually there has been some speculation that it won't be done till 2015, but I'm praying that it's not true so I can see it! After we got some delicious pizzas and slept over at Rome 2. 

Yesterday (Tuesday) we had zone conference! I really like zone conference because you learn a lot, meet a lot of new missionaries, and see some you already know. Also, guess what! So I'm with two fluent speakers of Italian (one native) and I feel like I'm always making mistakes and failing at Italian. Well I think all that suffering has paid off a bit, because I was complimented so many times on how good my Italian is already. I'm definitely not the best, but I'm doing better than most people at this time! I think the difference is just that I've studied Italian longer, we only speak Italian in my companionship (while other Greenies speak some English), and of course I have a native speaker as my companion. A couple people said they were surprised to find out I was a Greenie and even the President told me he was impressed. Yay for not failing! Oh funny story...one of the Elders was trying to pull a joke on me by saying (in Italian) that he could say whatever he wanted about me and I wouldn't understand what he was saying because he spoke so fast...except somehow I totally understood! Ha in that Elder's face! 

After zone conference, we got to do another exchange and sleepover, but this time with the sisters from Ladispoli! I went with Sorella Fuller (who also happens to be the cousin of my Italian teacher at BYU and I'm friends with her brother) and we did corso d'inglese (English class) and a little finding. Then we went back to their apartment and has a big sleepover. So right now I am in Ladispoli writing you this letter and then we are going to ROME for P-day!! There's not too much to do in Pescara for P-days (besides go to the beach) so I'm excited for today. Last night I asked Sorella Spicq what we were going to do in Rome and she said, very casually, "I think maybe just see the Basilica or something." Then I died of excitement. So I'm sorry to tell you this...but I'm just about to go see The BASILICA!! Non che credo!! 

Well I love you guys a lot!!! Vi voglio bene! I'm so happy to be here and I love being a missionary! My faith has grown so much everyday and I love everything that I am learning. This church is definitely true peeps! haha. 

Vi voglio bene!

Sorella Knudsen