Baptism of Emilia!!!

Baptism of Emilia Rosello

Another Baptism picture off Emilia

Inside the catholic church

The Big Catholic Church

Chieti, gelato

Okay...this week--Ah so great!!!!! First off, last week after I wrote Sorella Mckenna and I went to this city named Chieti and spend our Pday exploring there. This city is BEAUTIFUL--on the top of a huge hill with a great view and all these beautiful old buildings and churches--exactly what you would imagine Italy to look like. We had so much fun taking a million pictures, buying gelato, and looking at churches. We went into several Catholic churches and we were seriously the ONLY ones in these churches! One of them was HUGE with a ton of beautiful art and we didn't see anyone else in there so we went exploring around the church in these creepy tunnels and stuff. It was beautiful to look at, but the thing that was so interesting to me was the spirit in these church. There's definitely a spirit in these churches...but it's so different from our church. I almost felt intimidated by all the crosses and everything. I feel like these people FEAR God, while in our church people LOVE God and you can feel it. When I came out I just thought "No wonder no one here goes to church!" If my investigators think that our church is exactly like that...no wonder they aren't coming. I'm so grateful for the spirit and the love that we can feel every time we go to church! So now I am in love with our little chapel here in Pescara with it's white walls and a few pictures of Christ. 

Also this week...WE HAD A BAPTISM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Emilia Rosello is now a member! Planning a baptism was way stressful (especially since our ward mission leader was gone and the bishop didn't want to help and we had no idea what we needed to do), but we did it all and it was beautiful! We had a ton of people come (including three of our English course students!) and the spirit was so strong and it was beautiful! Okay so Emilia's daughter was so interested in our little blow up font before the baptism and she kept trying to get into it. When Emilia went into the font--her daughter started screaming because she wanted to get baptized too and she couldn't understand that she wasn't old enough. It was the cutest and funniest moment! Ah I am so happy for Emilia. She has known the church for six years and has met with the missionaries so many times--and now she is finally baptized! So grateful to be apart of this moment! 

Okay another miracles...I BROUGHT A JEHOVAH WITNESS TO CHURCH--AND SHE LOVED IT. Yeah. Her name is Mattia, we met her on the street the other day, she let us into her house, we talked about the BOM, she asked us what the name of God is (okay dad--homework for you...all these Jehovah witnesses keep asking me what the name of God is...why?! Why do they care?), she said she was interested and just wanted to see our church. She was true to her word and she came! During the sacrament meeting we had the confirmation of Emilia and an 8 year old boy who was also baptized and Mattia cried during the whole thing!! I was sitting with Emilia, but Slla Mckenna was sitting next to her and said how she couldn't stop crying and kept saying how beautiful these blessings were. I asked her after sacrament what she thought and she was saying it was beautiful and she wants to learn more. Che forte!! We have an appointment later this week and I have so much faith for her! Pray that all goes well.

We're also teaching this lady named Anna Pantalone and she is the best! I already talked about her, but recap: we met her in corso d'inglese and now we're doing private English lessons with her as well the class because... I think she just likes being with us. She's been divorced and has three kids that have all suffered much from the father; she's the strongest little lady and does the best she can. It's very interesting to see how different the people are that we teach--for some this is a search for the true church, but Anna she doesn't care about Joseph Smith...but she loves the spirit that she feels when she's with us. I love how here people can recognize a difference in us and know that we have something that they don't. I love being a missionary. Love you all. Till next week.

Sorella Knudsen

Our dog that we bought...jk. After our lesson with Elena, she asked us if we could take her dog for a walk and we were very happy to do it.

 

We found these ladies in the area book--they LOVE the missionaries, aren't interested in religion, but they were cute anyways.

Sorella Patterson making UN SACCO (a LOT) of pasta. Succede (it happens). It really is a wonder that I haven't gained any weight yet ahha! 

 We teach these Africans Italian and at the end of the lesson they always give us cookies and the strangest drinks.

 

Sono felice di sentirti! That's cool that already you got to meet one of Dallan's converts...if only people of Italy came to Utah more often...haha. Anyway this was another bellissimo week! First off...

We got a call Thursday night from our Zone leader saying that Saturday night we need to come to Rome because Elder Ballard wants to have a meeting with all the missionaries in this area!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sunday was stake conference and we were already planning on going to Rome with our ward, but now we get to go earlier and meet Anziano Ballard! All of us missionaries stayed in the villa (the mission home) and then we had to wake up super early to head over to the hotel (conference center). Both Elder Ballard and Elder Maynes spoke to us and it was so great! I was kind of expecting a talk about the atonement or how to follow the spirit...but if I could title it...it would probably be "How to deal with Catholics." Not what I was expecting--but it was SOOO helpful and I learned so much! It was basically just an apostle of the Lord giving us advice very specific for this area! He was talking about how we need to praise people for their belief in Christ and tell them we want to add to it, how important it is to establish who Christ and God are (the catholic church believes in the trinity, but most people don't anyways), how we need to emphasize the apostasy and especially help people realize that it has happened many times in the past and it is no different from today. He gave us all this advice to work with members and he went on a long time about how we need to convert the youth here in Italy! They did a study and almost all the church leaders in Italy were converted when they were about 18. Older people are so stuck in tradition that they won't ever listen to us, but the young people aren't! He really emphasized the youth and how we can have a greater effect through that. And he said a bunch of other great stuff! For the conference with everyone they only talked about missionary work and he said that when God gives a temple--he raises the expectation for the members...so now all the members have a great desire to do missionary work. Ah such a great conferenza! 

The work this week has been really great! We've had some really great lessons with our investigators and we've finally saw Maria and Elena this week (these are huge miracles). Emilia's baptism is this week and we are way excited for it!! Oh the other day we were walking when this girl stopped us and said "Hey I want to do lessons with you." It was right after English class so I thought she was talking about that and I started explaining about the class when she says "but you guys are a religion right?" "si..." "Yeah I want to learn about your religion--I met the Anziani (Elders) in Milan." We talked with her for a while, got her information, and we're teaching her later this week. We were so amazed. We didn't do anything and this girl just asked us to teach her. THIS THING NEVER HAPPENS. One day Sorella Spicq told me how it's easier for prepared people to stop the missionaries than it is for the missionaries to find and stop prepared people and that we should pray that prepared people will stop us. I've actually been praying for this to happen--and it did. God really does listen to our prayers!  

Read and pray every day!

Vi voglio bene!

Sorella Knudsen 

New Companion!

Bella Italia

Slla Mckenna and I!

Looks like you've had a great week! How is it possible that Kylie keeps getting cuter and cuter? And that RED hair! Ah so darling.  Okay so right now I am companions with Sorella MCKENNA! She is great. She's 22, from Georgia, bubbly, a little kid at heart (she brought a few stuff animals and Harry Potter toys with her), knows the scriptures by heart, loves easily, and so on. I miss Sorella Spicq and it's a little weird being with a new companion, but it's really good! So Slla Mckenna did three transfers in Rome...but in Rome everyone speaks a lot of English so she hasn't had as much practice as I've had...so suddenly now I'm the one teaching Italian and talking to everyone! It actually has been really good and not as hard as I would've thought. We may not speak very well, but we still do work! This week the work has really picked up here in Pescara, I have no idea why, but I am loving it! Suddenly we have so many appointments and things we need to do that we are late to everything. And we've seen a lot of miracles this week...

Okay last Saturday we had the best lesson ever with Emilia! Emilia has took the missionary lessons many times in the past, but she has never had a desire to follow the commandments or be baptized--but now she does! We just talked about how she has changed and she was just talking about how she hates reading, but she doesn't mind reading the scriptures now. Also, a couple months ago she was saying how she liked being immodest and wasn't sure about joining this church...well after this lesson I asked what she was going to do and she said we're going shopping to buy a modest dress for church tomorrow. This just showed me how much she really is changing and wanting to be better. The gospel changes lives! I am so happy and grateful to have Emilia! We also planned out her whole baptism and it is going to be so cute! 

This week we've also seen some miracles and got a couple new investigators: Daniela--a cute lady who met with the missionaries in the past and wants so badly to come to church, but her mom is way Catholic so we're trying to work with that. We met her the first day that Mckenna was here--after all our plans fell through and I felt like I was completely failing--but then we found her! 

Corso d'inglese is a huge success thanks to our party we had last week! We have so many students and all of them are great. There's one student named Anna Pantalone (which means pants in Italian haha) who is going to Australia this spring and wants to learn English really fast so we are doing private lessons with her as well as the weekly course. Yesterday we had the first class and I gave the spiritual thought at the end and it was one of those cool missionary moments where I felt the spirit talking through me. The way we pray is a little bit different than how Italians are used to praying and since we pray every class I wanted to explain how we pray and also what it is that us missionaries do. I talked about how God is our Heavenly Father, he loves, and he wants to hear our words when we pray. I talked about the church and what we do as missionaries and how we also want to become good friends with our students. I don't know I just felt like the spirit was really strong during this. It was a lot easier to talk and I just knew what to say. After, Anna asked us if she could come to church Sunday!!!! 

This week I have felt so much love for the members in the ward and the people in Pescara--I am so grateful for another transfer here. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY. I'm never coming home. 

Vi voglio bene!

Sorella Knudsen

English class and more Pescara

A bit of our party we had yesterday

Me in front of the city Chieti

A member family we are teaching Italian to.

Famiglia Rosselo! Emilia is in the front.

Aw the baptism of Brooklyn and Eric looked so cute! Well this week has been so great! Seriously we have seen so many miracles this week and suddenly we have so many potentials and all these people are wanting to make appointments with us! I don't know why the last few weeks we didn't have anything and now we have a ton, I guess sometimes we just need to go through a tough patch. Also, this week we got our transfers...and...I'm staying in Pescara!!!! This is Spicq's last transfer so I thought for sure she would stay and I would go, but it's actually the opposite. It feels really right to stay because there is so much more that I want to do here! I'm getting a new companion tomorrow--Sorella Mckenna! She has only been out here for one more transfer than me...so together we are way young in the mission and hardly know the language! I'm a little nervous to not have Slla Spicq to rely on when I can't understand anyone, but I'm sure we can do it! I've heard that young couples like us always see more miracles so I'm excited for her to come and to work hard! 

This week Slla Spicq and I set some mete pazze (crazy goals) to keep us more motivated each day, like call someone to repentance or ask for 50 referrals (we got to 28 without receiving any--but then the next day we got six without hardly asking). Anyway one day we decided to give away a BOM in a different language--we chose Russian and Spanish! We went the whole day without meeting anyone who spoke one of these languages and at the end of the day we ended up having some an extra hour. An hour to do finding and find someone to give these books to. We sat down to pray to know the direction we should go and immediately Spicq said we need to go visit this member Sara in her shop, which I thought was a little strange because we visited her the day before. We went anyway and asked Sara if she knew anyone of these lanuages that we could give a BOM to. Immediately she knew two people so we wrote a note inside and she gave them to her. She gave the book to her spanish friend already and she is reading and loving it (hopefully more on this next week)! Then while we were talking with Sara, her friend came in and started talking to us. Her friend loves Sara and was very interested in our religion so we got to tell her all about what we believe and bear our testimonies. She took a BOM, promised to read it, and then meet up with us to talk about it. One of the best parts of being a missionary is getting to see moments like this where you have nothing, you follow the spirit, and suddenly you find miracles and people who want to listen. 

Also, in Italy most baptisms come from referrals from members and then from English class. Because of this, the church has established a whole program with lessons and advertising for us to use for English Class. Yesterday was the first class of the year and we decided to start it off explaining the program and having a party. This week Spicq and I have been working really hard to get everything set up and make it into a success. And it definitely worked! We had SO many members, friends of members, and random people from the street show up! We played all these games, I made delicious brownies (I found out Italians LOVE brownies so I've learned how to make them and now I am every one's favorite :) ), and we had so much fun! We had all these people asking questions about the church and we made so many friends. Ah it was so good and I'm sure we're going to get so many investigators from it!  

This fast Sunday almost all the testimonies from the members were about missionary work! It wasn't like this for the last two fast Sundays that I have been here, but lately we have really been working with visiting members, inviting them to work, and involving them in our work and I think it has really paid off because now all these members are talking about all these experiences they have had on their own and encouraging others to open their mouth. Really members are the key to missionary work because they can share the gospel more naturally than us missionaries sometimes. This (how to work with members) is something that Slla Spicq has really learned on her mission and I'm excited to keep applying it!

Ti abbrachio! 

Sorella Knudsen