Popcorn popping on the apricot tree

These first few pictures are of my P-day in Ortona!

Valentina and her dog

 Ciao madre! Love the Halloween stuff and the family looks like they're doing good!

Okay great week! First we had a huge talent show in my ward and it was the best!!!!!!!!!!!! I love this ward so much. We had over 25 different talents and it took forever, but SO MANY people came! And guess what....I was in it! Yeah who knew I had a talent? Haha well actually first Sorella Mckenna played Popcorn popping on the apricot tree on the piano...then she came and sat down with all of us sister missionaries (there's Patterson, Worshum, Mckenna and I right now), and then we brought out all these water bottles and we played the song by blowing over the water bottles! It was so awesome and the ward LOVED it. Patterson acted like she couldn't play and by the end she pretended to be so frustrated that she crumbled up her bottle for her last note. I can't send you the video (too big) and I can't describe all of it...but just know it was really great. Also we made brownies for the cook off they did--and we totally won. Somehow my brownies tops all Italian food! We had a lot of investigators come and it made such a huge difference for them. For example, my lovely Dintino family! The son came, played the accordion (is that how you spell it?), rocked it, and won the whole talent show! The son is 14 years old right now and if he gets baptized now he could be prepared to go on a mission when he's 18 or 19 so we've been trying to focus more on him. He made a lot of friends at the talent show and he seemed so happy to win so I think that made a huge difference for him and the church! 

Okay now onto the dad of the Dintino family. So he's getting baptized in a week and a half (speriamo) and he is really committed to that date. On Saturday I asked if he was going to come to church tomorrow and he said that he had to tune a piano by tomorrow afternoon so he didn't think he would have time. I told him how he needs to come to church three Sundays before he can get baptized so if he can't come tomorrow we'll have to move his date. So I didn't expect him to come to church...but he came! He told me he stayed up ALL night tuning that piano so that he could come to church and be baptized on the 7th! WHAT?!?! Che bravo. But there's another little problem...he smokes. Yesterday he promised to quit and if he doesn't smoke again then he can get baptized. We're praying really hard that he will have the strength to do it. But he is really committed to being baptized so I have full faith in him. 

That's all for this week. Vi voglio bene! 

Bracio! 

Sorella Knudsen

Investigators getting ready for baptism!

Morena is the cutest

Italian BROCCOLI. best monster looking vegetable ever.

 

 

 

 

WOW CHANTEL IS ENGAGED!!!! Ah I'm way upset and happy. Congrats Mckay! You just got the best girl ever! (Dad you keep an eye on Mckay.... haha jk). Wow I'm way happy for them! How is planning the wedding going? AH I WISH I WAS THERE. kasjdf. whatevs I'm doing something better. Keep me updated! I want to see more pictures of everything! AND MCKAY IS IN TROUBLE. HE NEVER WROTE ME FOR PERMISSION.  

 

Anyways...THIS WEEK...It was awesome! I'm so happy to be in Pescara again and I just love these people so much! Okay first off, Dintino family! The dad has a baptismal date on the 7th and he's working so hard to be ready and to quit smoking in time. Che bravo! This week I got to know the dad a little bit better and it's amazing how prepared he is. One he owes a music shop and has supplied ALL the churches in this part of Italy with pianos and gave the church a huge discount or something. He was telling us how his whole life he has been really upset and disappointed in the catholic church, he knows it's corrupted, and he was really sad that the truth has been lost. Then he started talking to Fratello Guisti (who happens to be our ward mission leader) about how he feels and Giusti was like..."uhh can I tell you about my church?!" And the rest is history. He believes everything and he loves everything about the church! He brought a friend to our last lesson and it was really cool because HE started teaching the lesson to his friend and testifying of it. Ah he's going to be the best member and bring so many other people to the truth. Our main goal right now is to get the whole family excited and baptized! The older son doesn't want anything to do with it, the 9 year old daughter doesn't quite understand and wants to go to the catholic church each week, but the 14 year old son seems kind of interested! 

 

Okay then there's Analia and her family! Analia is really progressing and reading the Book of Mormon. Although last time we went over there she read the story about Nefi killing Labano... (I forgot his his name in English) and then we had to answer all these questions about why God would do that, but at the end it ended up good and we talked a lot about the love of God. Also Saturday night she called us telling us that she was really sick, but feels like she needs to come to church anyway and asked if it would be okay if she came. She also said she talked to her companion and he wants to learn more about the church and wants to come to church too. We were like "WHAT?!" so surprised. But then the next day she decided that she was too sick to come so that didn't happen. But the miracle is that she WANTED to. Also, in church we had the singing primary program and it was the cutest thing ever and the spirit was so strong! So I'm sure Satan knew how great it would be and made her sick. Whatevers. 

There's two stories for this week! Now I got to go to Ortona to explore! Love you all! vi voglio bene!

-Sorella Knudsen

Hey here's my address for at least the next six weeks (and for google map stalking purposes) if it won't arrive in the next six weeks, don't send it to me here:

Via delle querce 4

65015 Montesilvano

Italia 

and here's the mission office: 

MISSIONE ITALIANA DI ROMA

Piazza Carnaro, 20

00141 Roma, Italia

No transfer at this point, staying in Pescara!

 The following pictures were taken on our P-day: 

Thanks for sharing the ward news! Wow non ci credo that friends from my grade are already coming home! So weird.  Wow what a week! Okay first--we taught famiglia Dintino finally!!! You all probably don't remember them--but we first taught them my second week in Italy. They are friends of our ward mission leader and we had some really great lessons with them! Then our ward mission leader went to America for two months and this family wanted to wait for them to return so we haven't seen them for this whole time. But they've always been on our investigator's list and we've been praying for them every day--well those prayers worked!! The mission leader, named Fratello Guisti, is a huge music guy (he's actually pretty famous and does a ton of stuff for the church (side note: looks like the temple will not be finished while I'm here, but Guisti will be the choir director and he said I can come back and be in the choir!!!). Anyways Massimo Dintino (the dad) owns a music shop and really looks up to Guisti and that's why he started taking the lessons in the first place. Our bishop came over and talked to him about how he should learn more about the church to get closer to Christ, not fratello Guisti. Massimo understood that and how he's really into the lessons and accepted to be baptized Nov 7!!!! Also the wife has always been the one who seems really unsure, but now she seems a lot more open and wants us to come over more. Also two of their kids were way into our lesson. Man I am so excited for this family!! 

This week we've also been teaching this other family that I talked about last week--Analia and her children. We've gone over a few times to teach English and then the gospel. We watched the Restoration and the whole time she kept saying how his question was her question; we explained so many things about the church and she agreed and loved everything! After we left, she looked all over LDS.org, watched almost all of general conference with her kids, and even found some great polygamy stuff that I had to explain the next day hahaha. AND she came to all three hours of church!!!!! Ah I just love this family! Every lesson with them goes by so fast! Okay the other day I was helping the little (9 years old) learn English with using some of the techniques I learned from China (okay I never would've thought I would be teaching English this much in my life!) and I was drawing with her helping her learn some words, when she drew a picture of me and wrote "my friend" over it. Her mom told us how she won't stop talking about us. Ah best feeling ever! 

Okay another story: one night Slla Mckenna and I were looking for this inactive named Katia Maccione and we were looking for the longest time but I kept messing all the streets up (which is weird because usually I'm good with this stuff) and finally we found her house but it was getting late so we were unsure if we should try but we decided to anyway. We couldn't find her room so we did casa in casa and ended up talking to this really strange guy--when Katia and her daughter walked by. They invited us in and we talked for a little bit. Katia wants us to come back and she also said she would like us to come back and teach her daughter the lessons. If we didn't get lost or talk to crazy men (haha) then we would have been there too early and never would have met her. So even if sometimes everything seems to go wrong--there's a reason!! God knows all and this is his work and we just need to do our best and follow him!

Wow so this week has been crazy busy and filled with miracles--more people came to church this week then this whole transfer combined, we also found this other cute couple who wants to hear our message, and we suddenly got all these referrals! It's crazy!! My whole mission I've wanted to teach a whole family--and now we have four families! We haven't been doing anything so I don't know why the Lord is blessing us, but I am sure grateful! This ward is so great! Seriously the Bishop and our ward mission leader are seriously overzealous in doing missionary work--in the best way possible! Well the bishop was a mission president two times so what can you expect? Yesterday the ward had a meeting on how the members can do missionary work better. Seriously I can't believe all the things and sacrifices everyone is making. 

Okay so you're probably wondering about transfers...well you can imagine how I felt after a week like this. We got the call Saturday and all Friday night I couldn't sleep at all because I was way sad that I might have to leave these people. Feeling such great love for other people is the best part of this mission. Anyway waiting for the call Saturday was the worst--especially since everyone else got their call in the morning and we never got ours...finally I was just sick of waiting so I called the assistants at the end of the day and they told me...I'm staying in Pescara!!!!!!!! With Sorella Mckenna again!!!! I was sooooooooooo happy! There has been times that I wanted to leave, but I am so grateful to have another transfer here! Sorella Mckenna is really great so I'm excited to have the best transfer ever! 

Till next week! 

Love you all!!!

Love sorella Knudsen!! 

Italians Love Brownies!

 It is finally cold and wet here! I'm probably going to regret saying that I am so sick of the heat and humidity.

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All of us missionaries and our YW Sara

Family Di Marzio

Our great ward mission leader who turns out to be one of the most talented music leaders in Italy--he leads all the choirs and teaches all these classes. 

English course! This is only half of our students!

So you did get my package? Whoo! I'm glad you all enjoyed conference! Did you like Elder Ballard's shoutout at me? (well at all the missionaries in Europe) I only got to watch two sessions...and in Italian! Haha so I didn't understand the whole thing and that's kind of a bummer but that's okay. Instead I had a lunch with this Italian family and it was the best ever! Their name is Di Marzio and only the son is a member. The food was great, the Dad OFFERED to say the prayer (first prayer he has EVER said), we had a great spiritual thought, and it was just so much fun joking around with these loud Italians. Ah I just love the people here!

This week has been great! Our ward mission leader FINALLY came home from his vacation (we've gone two months without a ward mission leader...non va bene) and now we have so much work and it's great! He also gave me a great compliment saying that I have the gift of tongues because when he left I couldn't say or understand much, but now I can understand everything and talk okay. Hooray for progress! Also he and his family come to Utah every year and they want to come over to our house and cook for us. Who's excited? 

So we lost my Jehovah witness this week.  Last week we weren't able to get a hold of her so we dropped by and left a note. The next day she called us and invited us over, we tried to teach a lesson (but then she kept interrupting us with random doctrine questions), but at the end it ended good and she seemed really sincere in wanting to read the BOM. Then we got a text message Sunday saying that she wanted to stay the way she is. So yeah. It happens. But I still have a lot of faith for her because she's not like all the other Jehovah witnesses and she really seemed interested in the BOM. 

BUT then I found a new investigator this week--Analia! I met her on the bus and invited her to English course. She just looked at me like I was the answer to her prayers because she and her family are moving to America next summer and they need to learn English. We set up an appointment and when we went over we ended up talking the whole time about the gospel! She told us how she has seen the missionaries all her life and she has always wondered about them, but has never talked to them and all the people who she has talked to don't know who they are either. We explained the restoration and the BOM and she was just eating it all up and telling us how she hopes its true. She doesn't have a religion, because she doesn't like any that she has been to. Okay off topic for a second: so I've learned a lot about prayer lately...for example the Catholic church prays to the Saints to take the prayers to God. Jehovah Witnesses pray to God through Christ. But we pray directly to the Father! I love the fact that we know that he is our father and wants to hear from US and we don't have to feel unworthy to pray to him like other churches. The great thing about Analia is that she doesn't have a religion but has taken parts that she likes and lives those--like she doesn't like how other religions pray and she prays directly to the father! I'm so grateful to have found her and to see how well God prepares people for the missionaries! 

Also, I am now know as "Brownies master" here. I've made brownies for some activities, families, service, etc---and everyone LOVES them! So I'm really popular right now! It's so funny how much Italians love brownies! Oh hey I think my P-days are now going to be on Mondays so make sure you get me my letters in time! Also this week is transfers...vedremo se rimango o vado. We'll see if i remain or stay. Ah freaking out here. Ci Vediamo! Vi voglio bene!!!

Bracio!

Sorella Knudsen

Great Week!

Okay I have no time this week because we planned things bad and I have to go soon. BUT great week here! We had Zone conference and did an exchange with some sisters from Rome and I learned so much! Thanks for your package! Yes I got it. PEANUT BUTTER (I took that and hid it from my roommates haha). I also got my license without problems! Thanks!

Well this week we had two baptisms in Pescara!! Luigi and Pamela! They both used to be my investigators but we gave Luigi to the Elders because hes a guy and the other sisters got Pamela when we had to split up. Anyway I'm so happy that these two made this decision! Pamela has been an on and off investigator for 14 years! And she is finally baptized! Luigi has changed so much...he has stopped smoking and made all these changes in his life to be baptized! The sad thing for these two is that their families don't support them AT ALL. Luigi actually didn't end up telling his family when he finally made the decision. 

Time. Next week! Love you!

Sorella Knudsen