Battipaglia is unique and crazy!

Pizza. of course. just for you dad.

Church with Sorella Scherbel and a member

Ciao famiglia! Che settimana!! This week has been so great and a little crazy! Battipaglia is filled with the craziest stories that I have heard on my mission so far of just the craziest people and problems. I can't write it all, but be excited every week to hear more. 

 First let me tell you about Rosa.  Rosa is a sweet investigator who has read the BOM, knows it is true, and really wants to be baptized. But she is obese and has a bone disease where it would be hard for her to walk up and down 4 flights of stairs to come to church each week. We brought over Presidente Scherbel because we had no idea what to do. We talked for a long time and we actually figured out a way for her to get baptized! It will take lot of work, but it is possible to make it happen. So then we were stuck with the decision of do we still let her get baptized, even though she can't ever come to church? She wants to get baptized and baptism is important...but church is also very important and Italy already has a ton of In actives!  Luckily I didn't have to make that decision...President did! But he told us to work more with her and to try to get her family involved for the time being. Then we went over there and did the catholic lesson...the one where you have to tell them they need to stop praying and worshiping the saints and only God. Well she didn't take that too well. She has spent her whole life believing and praying to Mary, padre pio, etc, and she has received a lot of faith and help from them. She wouldn't accept the idea. But the worst part is is that we didn't have a lot of time before we had to catch the bus to talk through everything. But she still wants us to come back and I think she just doesn't quite understand the restoration yet. So she’s not getting baptized quite yet. 

Last week we went out with this member and the Elders to Salerno! This cute city by the sea and we saw this huge catholic church where they claim to have the body of the apostle Matthew. The whole inside was dedicated to Matthew and had pictures of every scene from his book. 

Salerno

Salerno

Salerno

Salerno

We also have Rosaria, who is doing great! I'm like shocked with how great she is doing. She's reading the BOM everyday, praying every day, wanting us to come and teach her everyday and is getting ready for her baptismal date. On Friday we had a fireside in the Scherbels home and we invited her to it. She called us in the afternoon and I didn't want to answer (when an investigator calls right before it is usually to cancel) but I did and she was just confirming the time. Then she called again and I was so scared to answer, but again just to tell us that she watched the restoration a third time and loved it more. And then she actually came!! She loved the fireside. I feel like she is too good to be true, but she is really so interested and is really progressing. I think we’re really going to have a baptism!!! But she does really like her saints and she doesn't like this ward member and she wasn't actually able to come to church Sunday so she's not completely a perfect. But still!! Pray for Rosaria!!! 

Those are basically our only two investigators right now. We have others, but they don’t seem too interested…which means a lot of finding! Which I am actually enjoying! I’ve been putting a lot of thinking and strategy in finding and it is fun! Trying to think of all our potentials and how we can get them to take the lessons. Sending out scriptures every night has made a huge difference here. Also, in Italy the month of June is called the month of the invite and everybody is a supposed to invite all the less actives to come back to church. There seems to be so much work here to do with the less actives and three of the people we are working with came to church yesterday!! 

Ok I'm just going to rave a bit about how awesome Sorella and Anziano Scherbel are! They are the senior couple that live across the hall from us and they are the best part of this city. Here is their blog if you want to see it...geriandpaulscherbel.blogspot.com. She adds pictures on it all the time. 

I found these next four pictures on Scherbel's blog and decided to add them.  

  

They do so much for us and the ward. Today Anziano Sherbel took us to this mountain top where we went hiking (I went hiking on a mountain! I love hiking!!). Also, sometimes they invite us over for our lunch hour and teach us how to cook yummy Italian food and then we eat it together. Anziano Sherberl actually reminds me a lot of dad…only because of his jokes. Today we went hiking and there was all this poo pellets on the ground and he told us the ‘’smart pill’’ joke just like dad always does. It feels just like being in a family here…our parents, us two sisters and then we have the two Elders as brothers. Oh funny story…both of the Elders here come from Pheasant Grove and American Fork.  In fact, Anziano Sorensen knows my cousin Todd! I have never been in a city with this little amount of missionaries, but it is kind of fun. We actually share a lot of  less actives and investigators…which I have never heard of doing…but it actually works really well here. With us all having the same goal…it doesn’t matter who teaches who what. They are teaching the sweetest lady ever named Anita who I just already love so much and she goes really well with them, but sometimes they let us teach her too. Anita has a really particular situation…she has epilepsy and she goes into seizure attacks whenever she feels the spirit. So she wants to be baptized and loves the church…but goes into seizures whenever she feels the spirit really strong. So do we not teach with the spirit? We don’t know what to do with that one either. Haha but she’s great.

Cooking with less actives

The church...the yellow building in the back.

Also, by the way…I love cooking!! The Italians have got to me and now I can’t spend my lunch hour doing anything, but cooking. And it’s not good unless I have to at least spend 10 minutes of cutting vegetables and use at least three different spices. Yeah J
Okay we saw so many miracles this week...Rosaria progressing, 3 in-actives coming to church, meeting a lot of people who are ready for the gospel.  Also this week...well there are three people we're working with (members, investigators, etc) that are named Mina or Nina and I was trying to call one of them...but being new here...I forgot her last name and called the wrong one.  Realizing what I did and not knowing who I was talking to...I thought eh I might as well get an appointment with this random lady.  So I did.  I told Sorella Webster about it and she was so amazed because they have been trying and trying for week to get a hold of her.   God knew when she would be there and knew that we probably wouldn't have called at that time anyway so he had me call her on accident.  Hahah!  buona settimana!!!!

p.s. Grazie for the package! Loved it! Especially the cool scripture study book! I need to find a good time to make that cake though!

I'm Spoiled!

 I said goodbye to Sassari. That was a bit hard. All our friends threw us a going-away party which was the sweetest thing ever. Those six months in Sassari went by so fast and I loved every minute of it. Those people are absolutely amazing. I was sad to leave, but I know I am a supposed to be in Battipaglia so it wasn't too sad. So Wednesday morning we got on a train to Cagliari, then an overnight boat ride, then I took three train rides to Battipaglia. It was crazy traveling because we had to take some extra suitcases and we ran into so many problems and almost missed everything, but by the grace of God...we made everything without losing one thing! So now I am in Battipaglia!!!!I already love this city so much!! 

goodbye party.

the best future missionaries ;P

Saying Goodbye

Saying Goodbye

Coming to a new city has given me this new spirit and motivation for the work. I feel like I'm a Greenie again with how much I want to work and do my best. Also, it is kind of cool being old in the mission...I have so much experience! It is so cool coming to a new city with it's own problems...and realizing just how many ideas I have! I feel like my experiences in Pescara and Sassari have even prepared me to come here! Like here in Battipaglia we have this huge group of youth who love English course and hang out at the church all the time...but don't want to take the lessons. That's how it was in Sassari, but now that group is all praying and reading the BOM. So I am so excited to work here and have all these new things to try. 

Boat ride with the elders

And my companion, Sorella Webster? Is amazing!!! She's from Idaho, 19years old, and is just the happiest, cutest girl ever. She is loves the work, never gets tired, and always just wants to learn and do more all the time. We get along so well and this transfer is going to be the best. 

Battipaglia!

Okay some random things about Battipaglia: It's a small branch here (it looks smaller than Sassari, but I guess a lot of members were gone this week). There's quite a few spanish people in this ward. There's a ton of less actives in this area. I live in a huge apartment (6 Elders used to live in it). I live by MOUNTAINS! Every week we help two handicap kids do exercises which is super fun. I teach Primary! It is so fun singing Italian primary songs! I don't understand Napolitano (the dialect they speak here) at all and the accent is way different here. Cheese from buffalo is really famous here. But the best part is that we have a senior couple who lives next to us! They're named Scherbel and are from Wyoming and they do everything for this ward. Anziano Scherbel is actually the Branch President which is so nice because he gets to do it full time basically and is so involved in coming to lessons and friend-shipping. They do everything for this ward. Also, I heard they have us over all the time and every Pday they will drive us out to do something fun! So basically I am spoiled here! I've only met two of our investigators so far, but they seem great! One of them, named Rosa, has already read the whole BOM and knows it's true. But she is obese and can't walk down and up her 4 flight of stairs to get to church. We're hoping to try and help her get more exercise so she is able to walk around easily.

Then we have Rosaria, who is a fairly new investigator.. We went over Friday and we taught her the Restoration again and we watched the film and she loved all of it and believed it was true. Then she told us about she had a dream many years ago where (and during that period she was reading a lot of religious books) Mother Theresa told her that the truth is not found in one of her books, but in a greater book...and she told us that it was the BOM that Mother Theresa told her about! It was so awesome! So we invited her to be baptized and she wanted to be, but is scared so we asked her to pray about it that night. The next day we went back and she told us that she prayed about it, read 4 chapters of the BOM, and felt really good and she accepted the June 7^th as her date!! Then on Sunday she felt sick so she couldn't come to church so we'll have to move the date back a bit, but she is so going to get baptized!!!
Bacio!
Sorella Knudsen
p.s. The Scherbels went into Rome today and we bring me my package so I finally will have it! Thanks mom!





Last P-day we went fishing with some members!

yum hahaha

my fish 

yum hahaha

Release Date from Mission President

To the Family of Sorella Knudsen

Sister Knudsen will be completing her mission 28 Oct 2014 .

We are extremely grateful for the time we have been able to spend with your missionary as she has served the Lord and the people here in Italy.  However, the time has come when we must look ahead and help you make plans for her return home.

Sister Waddoups and I would like to thank you for the support you have given us and your missionary.  We ask that you help your missionary continue to work hard and stay focused in her missionary work.  The last six months in the field often prove to be the most fruitful for our missionaries.

Best personal regards

Michael G. Waddoups

President

Italy Rome Mission

 

I'm Feeling 22!

 THIS WEEK WAS CRAZY! First, ''I'M FEELING 22....'' -name that T-swift song! Ho compiuto ventidue anni! Sono vechia!! --I'm old!!! My Birthday was so awesome!! I am completely spoiled here. My companion and the two other sisters who I live with completely spoiled me. They covered my apartment in sticky notes, made me the famous ''Holey cake'', and Sorella Rost made me the best, healthiest lasagna. 

Sticky notes everywhere

holey cake. I took this typical photo just for you mom

Also, I got a call from Sorella Waddoups to wish me happy birthday...and then to tell me...I AM BEING TRANSFERED...TO BATTIPAGLIA!!!!! WITH SORELLA WEBSTER!!!!!!!!!!! I knew it was coming because I've done almost 6 months in Sassari and I could feel my time was up...but ah!! Battipaglia is a city by NAPOLI! (aka best pizza in the world!), by the sea (well pretty much every city in Italy is by the sea), and I've hear so many things about how beautiful and great it is! And I get to be with Sorella Webster who is very new in the mission! Greenie spirit! I am so excited! I never would have picked it out, but it seems perfect. But that means I have to leave Sassari...which is so sad.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY MOM!!! LOVE YOU!!!! And what a great Birthday present too! It was so awesome skyping you guys. I wish I could've seen Dallan though. What things did he say? That was awesome how all the missionaries, friends, investigators...came in at the end to wish me happy birthday! That was so sweet and completely made my day! I guess they all planned this suprise Birthday party for me and they brought over all this cake and sweets. I LOVE THESE PEOPLE. 

Surprise Birthday party

Surprise Birthday party

Also, another crazy thing is that out of our district of 10 missionaries...6 of us are being transferred. That like never happens, usually just one or two. This past couple months seem like they have kind of been difficult for our mission, just us feeling down and things, so I guess President just completely switched everyone up. I am actually grateful for it. I feel like a change is needed and I'm so excited to work in a new city. But this was really sad for all our members and friends. When I came here there were hardly any youth or young adults, but now we have a good group of young adults who are coming to church and reading the BOM. It is really awesome, although sometimes I'm just scared they're only doing that because we are all such great friends. I think all of us leaving will be good to help everyone realize why they are coming to church. All of our goodbye testimonies were kind of directed at them about really being converted to the gospel (not us missionaries). Then Anziano Philips gave his testimony last and he was such a boss and over the pulpit, he invited everyone to reconsider being baptized so that they could feel this spirit always. It was so awesome. I'm going to miss all these people, but I know good things will happen to them.

Well besides that this week wasn't super productive. I was sick the first part of it so we spent the first few days inside sleeping. Which I think was needed for all of us sisters. Even Sorella Patterson who wasn't sick, I found out she hasn't been sleeping well at all lately and has been really stressed because of it so it was a blessing for us to take a little time. We made a lot of calls and studied how to improve our corse d'inglese. The great thing about this week is all the referrals and contacts we made! 

member birthday party

The Branch President's family invited us over to their kids Birthday party and there were a ton of family and friends! We talked to so many and got a ton of numbers, addresses and appointments! They all were super excited and wanted to learn more! We've been having really great luck with our in actives lately! We met 3 at a Birthday party and they are willing to let us come over. There's this one lady who hasn't let the missionaries come over in YEARS, but said we could come over and visit her. Then yesterday while walking home, this lady stopped us, told us she used to be a member and would like us to come over again! So awesome!  

abbacio!! 

My whole Sassari ward!!!

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My favorite snail selling guy. also, he's been coming to church these past few weeks.

7.

Food sickness but still going strong!

Cambio with Sorella Mistura

 So I'm writing on the internet a little later today because I got way sick last night! It was seriously the weirdest thing...I was sitting in a broadcast for the ward when all of a sudden I felt really hot, but then SUPER cold. I was shivering and achy all over. They took me home and I just laid in bed so cold and dying. Then the other sisters came home and they had exactly the same symptoms as me. None of us could sleep because we had such a high fever and were so cold (haha as an attempt to stay warm the other sisters heated potatoes in the oven and then put them in their beds haha). The weirdest thing is that we all got sick at the exactly same time with exactly the same thing, except sorella Patterson. The other sisters ate lunch at a member's house, but the only thing we had in common was some Reeses that the members gave us and all of us ate them, except Sorella Patterson. So we're thinking those Reeses were spiked or something. Haha IDK! But now we are being commanded to stay in for a couple of days.

How are my investigators doing? Well...not so great. Most of our investigators can’t, or don’t want to see us or they have stopped progressing so we’re thinking about resting almost all of them.  We had one really great investigator, Angela, who has changed so much and has been progressing so much...but she called us this week and told us that she got a job...in Olbia so we can’t teach her anymore. That was seriously so hard to hear because we have worked so hard with her...and now she is leaving us. But I'm sure God has a plan for her and hopefully the Elders in that area can visit her. Sandra is still making progress though! She's cutting down on her cigarettes and during testimony meeting...she went up and gave her testimony! I mean it wasn't quite a testimony with all the “I know this is true” stuff but she went up and talked about things she was learning and just told everyone how grateful she was for this church and the sister missionaries who are teaching her about the BOM. It was such a tender mercy for me to hear. Even if a lot of people have chosen not to hear the gospel this week...Sandra bore her testimony in church. 

Encouraging sticky notes to help Sandra stop smoking!

This week my testimony has really grown a lot about the BOM and the power of it. This week I chose to focus on telling everyone about the BOM in my finding…and you know what…I found a lot more people interested! Telling people about the book made them really curious and once I told them we could come and give it to them for free and explain it…they gave us their address! It amazed me how easily it was. I was thinking about this and I really realized how big of a difference the BOM makes for religion. The thing that sets us apart from being just another Christian church is that we have this other book of scripture that tells us everything we need to do. Without it, our church would be nothing. And only by reading and praying can someone get an answer. I have to admit, when I first got to Italy and suddenly I was this little 21 year old girl telling all these people about my church when they were all convinced that there church was true, it gave me some doubts. Who was I to tell everyone their church was wrong when they seemed to have great reasons for why their church is. Then I remembered the BOM and how I knew that it was true. And because of that I know everything else. I am here because I know the BOM is true and I have felt the love of God through it.

This week I learned to always follow promptings. For example, this we were walking home from English course and I felt like we should stop at this place and get pizza. Haha I wasn’t even hungry, but all the other sisters easily agreed so we went into this pizza place…and we converted the whole place! Well kind of, but everyone in there was seriously so prepared and asked us all these questions and they want to come to church and take the lessons and everything. So always follow promptings. 

Sisters from Cagliari.

What Miracles have I seen? This week I saw a lot of miracles with God placing people in my path to talk to. This week I have really tired to talk to everyone that I could and I met so many awesome people who were so ready to hear the gospel. Also, a lot of the people already had a connection to the church…we met this guy who actually helped build the church, another who had a Mormon girl stay in his house for two months, and all these people who knew members. It’s cool to see how God knows when we’ll go out and do ricerca (finding) and he’ll make sure that certain people are placed in our path.

This week was my year mark which was so crazy. HOW HAVE I BEEN GONE A YEAR?? It just made me think a lot about my mission and make some goals to make the rest of my mission even better. I realized just how blessed I’ve been to be able to serve here and how much I love it here. Even on the worst days where everyone rejects you, you are tired and nothing goes right…I still love being here, because that’s how great it is to be a missionary! 

One year mark...they made me a cake!

Random culture bits. The other sisters and I have this thing called Italian points…where whenever we take on an Italian habit…we give each other points. Out of all the sisters…I’ve been getting the most points but probably because I still wear my winter jacket (in Utah when everyone would be wearing shorts…Italians are still in winter clothing). Sassari is filled with ambulances! I seriously hear an ambulance every 20 minutes outside our apartment, I think people get sick a lot more often here or something. Worst three words to hear as a missionary: vi chiamo io. Which means I’ll call you. Which basically means I actually don’t want to hear anything, but I’ll give you a call if I change my mind.

Oh, oh yeah last week for Pday Sorella Mastino took us to Stintino which has the most beautiful beach I have ever seen!! It was so blue and I felt like I was in a dream! Also, Sorella Mastino is probably my favorite member ever. I didn’t think she would be, but the more I get to know her the more I just love her. She got baptized as a young girl and seriously spends all her free time doing things for the church. She calls inactives everyday, makes food for everyone, tells everyone about the gospel. She especially does a lot for us missionaries! She comes to lessons with us, takes us out for Pday and today she came over to give us all medicine when she heard we were sick! She is so awesome! 

Stintino

Stintino

Stintino

Stintino

So transfers are this week. AH. I have been in Sassari for almost 6 months and I love it here and I could so do another transfer. But I kind of also feel like it is my time to go. So we will see. Guesses anyone? I will get the call Saturday morning so I will tell you Saturday night! Crazy! Ah.

LOVE YOU ALL! CAN’T WAIT TO TALK TO YOU GUYS!