Physical and Spiritual Strength.

 PS- Tomorrow I'm off to Taranto for Zone Conference!

Congrats to Lydia on her baby!!! You didn't even tell me she was pregnant!! Hahah! Also shoutout to Ashley M. who just got engaged!!! Give them a big hug from me! 

This week has been AWESOME!! So many great things have happened!! First off, let me tell you about RODICA!! She is awesome!! She calls us everyday to see how we're doing and tell us what she has read and asks if she can come to church before we can even invite her. We invited her to be baptized on the 1st of November and I think she will really make it! She came to an hour of conference (sadly she couldn't stay longer) and loved it! She keeps telling us how she feels so good when she is with us and she is really liking everything so far! She also has made a really good member friend who is going to come to our lessons now. Also, she is the nicest lady ever! We went over to her house and were talking about recipes (because I'm always trying to learn how to cook) and suddenly she was giving me all these books and food! I told her to stop, but she insisted on it! Then she brought us all this stuff at our lesson. She is too good to be true. I love this lady. 

 

Cosenza

Cosenza

 The zone leaders and Presidents have been focusing on having good planning sessions lately. They asked us: ''How often is planning a spiritual experience?'' I definitely try my hardest to plan each day and follow the spirit so I can't really say that I've had a great spiritual experience from it. So this week we tried to listen to the spirit more. One day we didn't have any planned appointments but a lot of potentials to pass by and we didn't really know when or who we should visit. We knelt down and prayed, asking for guidance and this girl named Rossella came to my mind and Giovanna came to my companion's mind. The next day we sent out to find these two.  Rossella is a new investigator, but after the second appointment we haven't had any luck finding her at home...but she was home this time!!! We had a great lesson with her! Then we went to find Giovanna (this lady we met on the street and who is actually the mom of a member) and she was home too! We had a great lesson and she became a new investigator! So I learned how important it is to have the spirit during planning so God can tell you exactly who and when to see them! His plan is perfect! 

 

Sorella Hansen and I

 

On Friday we met a new convert who got baptized a couple months ago, but lives really far away and can't come to church every Sunday. Her name is Maria and she is soooo nice! Although her husband is really against the church. We went over there and first thing she asked if we would like some tea. My heart just dropped...shoot she doesn't know we don't drink tea. I told her we don't drink tea. She looked at me and said no we can't drink hot drinks...but this is cold and is of fruit...so it's okay right? I started explaining to her about how we don't drink green or black tea, but we can drink some herbal teas, etc. I admit, I was kind of confused if we could drink this or not because it was a different type of drink and it looked like it just came from fruit so we called the Elders just to make sure. They told us they weren't sure what type of tea this was, and told us to pray about it with her. So we prayed about whether this drink was about to drink and after discussing it, we decided it was probably better if we didn't drink it. I think it was actually a really good experience for this new convert to pray about something and make a choice to be obedient. Also the lesson happened to be on obedience which really enforced the principle! 

 

All of us sister trying to wear our hair like Sorella Hansen

Funny Greenie culture shock moment of the week: Sorella Hansen is super weirded out by how often Italians touch each other. Italians are very touchy and are always hugging and kissing each other. Sorella Hansen is just not used to having all these Italian ladies hug and kiss her all the time. Haha I find it funny. Get ready to be kissed from me all the time when I come home!! 

Also, Sorella Robinson and Sorella Chandler from Bari have been here all weekend because Sorella Robinson has to get her permesso (permission to live in the country) today so it has been fun having more sisters! 

 

Watching conference in the church

Conference with the Favre!

 Spiritual strength: Conference was awesome! We watched it in church and also this amazing member family named Favre invited us over to eat and watch conference with them! The spirit was so strong and I learned so much! It was really enlightening to me, I got some really good insight with what I want to do with my life. I still need to research and think a lot, so I'm not going to give you details yet...but the mission has really changed me a lot and I want to do something else with my life. So when I come home, I'm changing my major...and it will probably require more schooling, but I think it will be good. Anyway I loved conference! Also, in case you were wondering...they're not announcing any more temples...because the Rome temple is taking so long to be finish and they're going to focus all their efforts on that before they can announce new temples (that's my guess at least). 

 

I love Gelato

Also, I finished Jesus the Christ!!! There you go dad! Dad has been emailing and bugging me to finish it for over a year now every week. I really loved the book and learned so much about Christ! But my goal is to finish the New Testament, Doctrine and Covenants and the BOM for the fourth time (3rd in Italian) before I come home so that's why it has taken me so long. Haha silly dad! Are you happy now? 

Physical strength: Sorella Hansen has this program to do 100 push ups in a row in 10 weeks and as a joke we decided we were going to try it. Then the Elders decided to challenge us to a push up contest at the end of the transfer to see who can do the most push ups. We were like..that's stupid...you guys are boys. So now they have to do double the amount of push ups that we have to do. So everyday Sorella Hansen and I try to do as many as we can each day. On Saturday...I successfully did THIRTY in a row!! I have never been able to do more than 5, but now I can do 30 man push ups in the row! Pretty impressive no? I'll let you know how the contest goes! 

Anyway! Love you all!!! 

Sorella Knudsen!