Cosenza

Calabria is beautiful!!

We went to this castle last pday

 Calabria is BEAUTIFUL!! It is full of all these hills and fields and mountains and just everything you would want in an Italian city. This week has been great! We've been working hard and we got 3 new investigators! 

The first one's name is Pina. She works at a pizzeria, has lived 12 years in Australia, is catholic (but doesn't practice too much), etc. She is really nice and tells us how she feels really good when she is around us. We gave her a BOM and she seemed really interested and told us how much she wanted to read it. 

The second is Rossella who is this 30 year old girl, who is divorced, doesn't have a job, and is trying to change her life at the moment. When we did the restoration, she was very interested at the thought of a new prophet and asked a lot of questions. 

Cosenza.

Us

 

Then there's Rodica! Rodica is from Romania and we actually met her through English course pubblicità. She asked if she could come to English course, and then asked if we could come over and explain our religion to her! We really didn't do anything, she was so prepared! We met up with her yesterday in the church and she just wanted to know everything and we had a great restoration lesson and she accepted the invite to be baptized! When we explained the BOM, she kept saying how much she wanted to read the book. She kept thanking us again and again for meeting with her and how happy she was. I feel so good about her and I feel like she is definitely prepared! 

Anna Filipelli 

 

We've also are trying to work with the members a lot and get them excited for missionary work! We met with this member named Anna Filipelli who is a new convert of 3 years and is so sweet. When we invited her to pray for a missionary experience, she was kind of sad because she said she has invited a lot of people to church, but no one has ever come. We gave her some comfort and encouragement. She lives in this town named Domanico which is on a top of a hill and I thought to myself about how we need to get an investigator there that this member could help out and give home to. Then we found out this Pina (our new investigator ^) is from Domanico and knows Anna! They are already friends and Anna is going to drive Pina to church one day! It was an awesome miracle! 

 

On Saturday we visited this member family who live in a city named Saracena, which takes a few hours to get out there. Going out there was going to be an all day event so we prayed that we could make use of our time and teach lessons on the bus. God definitely answered our prayers! We shared the gospel with many, but there was this lady named Lucia who was really interested in the BOM. When we got to the city...the dad of the family came to pick us up from the bus stop...but he came alone and we can't go in a car with only a man...so we ran all the way to his house behind his car. Luckily it wasn't too far and he was impressed that we were obedient. This family was really nice, but they too were also a little scared about doing missionary work. The grandpa told us how he has given a BOM to everyone in the city, even to the Priests! But no one has ever read them. We talked about miracles and the effects of our efforts. On the bus stop home, we met one of the ladies who they have given a BOM to. We talked with her a lot and she mentioned how she is trying to find her faith again and wants us to come back and meet with her! Also, at the station we met this other guy to teach and taught him the whole Restoration and he told us he thinks that the BOM comes from God. So we now have 3 appointments in this city.The member family, the Di Leone, were so happy that we had some success and want us to come back next week to teach these people! I think showing members that miracles really do happen will help them be excited do to more missionary work. 

Training has been really fun! I love Sorella Hansen! She is so fun and we get along so well. I feel like we were a supposed to be together and that she needed me to be her trainer so I had to wait to have her. It has been especially funny to see Sorella Hansen adjust to the Italian lifestyle, which to me has become so normal. We went shopping, and she thought all the Italian food was so interesting...and I was like ''wait...this isn't normal?!'' How will I survive at home without all this cheese, bread, pasta, meat, and juice? I've been a good Italian trainer and made lots of Italian dishes for her to try, which she loved all of it. She's surprized how many vegetables we eat here (Italian do eat A LOT of vegetable, which is really good). It was also funny when we went to a member appointment and they gave us Italian rice (rice with olives, peas, and mayonnaise) and eggplants--Italian food which is weird and usually missionaries do not like (by now I'm used to them and I actually really like eggplant! I can't wait to cook it for you muahha!) and she thought it was really strange. 

 

Beans that I cooked from a old man we met on the street

It is also interesting seeing her struggle with the language...it brings me back to my good old Greenie days. Learning a language is TOUGH!! I remember how hard it was at the beginning and I was so jealous of English speaking missionaries. It can be so hard at first when you can't speak or understand anything and you just want to share the gospel, but you can't. Sorella Hansen is awesome and she is learning so fast, but she still doesn't understand everything and can't say everything she wants to say. After every lesson, she turns to me and asks...okay so what just happened? I remember her struggles oh so well. We had this lesson and this guy went on talking for 40 minutes without stopping and at first Sorella Hansen was trying to understand and was following it and then she just got completely lost and spent the next 30 trying so hard to look like she was paying attention. Poor girl. But it is cool for me, at the end of my mission, to see how much progress I have made. I've actually gotten a lot of compliments on my Italian this week and it just feels good to know that I have worked really hard on my mission and that I have changed. Parlo italiano. :) 

Vi voglio bene!!!

Sorella Knudsen