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

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