AHHH I only have two weeks left!!! I can't believe it!

Zone Conference

This week was great! We spent most of it in Taranto for zone conference. My last zone conference :(. I had to give my death testimony (or departing testimony as Sorella Waddoups calls it). That's where you get up in zone conference and bear your testimony about the things that you've learned on your mission. I was kind of in denial that I had to give it and I procrastinated deciding what I wanted to say until the morning of. But I think it went pretty well. Zone Conference was really good besides that! 

Have I told you that everyone thinks Sorella Hansen and I are twins? We are about the same height, we both have light skin and freckles (hers a bit more than mine) and we both have big, think, curly, reddish hair. When we stop people, they don't only ask if we're sisters...but everyone asks if we're twins! We find it funny. So for zone conference, Sorella Hansen and I decided to match the whole time hahah! We even bought these dresses from a Chinese store that match. It was actually a lot of fun! My mission President and his wife gave us a ride home from zone conference so that was fun spending three hours in the car with them. 

Rodica is doing awesome! She is so prepared and is accepting everything! On Thursday we taught her the plan of salvation with a member named Sorella Spizziri and the spirit was really strong and I feel like she really understood it. She came to church too and on Sunday and loved it! Shes working a lot so she doesn't have a ton of time to read the BOM, but she is really making sacrifices to read it before each lesson. She is just great. She is so getting baptized!

spray painting mostra

spray painting mostra

One of the Elders here is really good at spray painting planets and stars on paper. Missions are all about using your talents so this week we've tried doing a mostra (shows, demonstrations...whatever they're called in English) with it. We find an open area in the city, he sits down and starts painting, crowds start to form as they wonder what he's doing, and then we have all these people wondering who we are to share the gospel with. We've done it two times and it has worked really well and we've gotten some great contacts. It's a great way to get people to stop and listen and then this anziano gave out these paints for free. 

By the Sea

 Sorella Hansen is doing really great! I'm a proud mom! Sometimes she's scared to talk to people or be bold...but she is improving each day! Sometimes I'll be walking along and I'll be like ''wait where did my Sorellina go?'' And then I look behind and she's back there talking to some people. I'm excited for her to get a new companion, she's going to do great without her trainer. 

On Friday we had these two appointments planned, but when we got there...no one was home. Our back up plan also didn't work out so we decided to pray. We knelt down on the ground in the middle of this street, asking where we should go, then we got up, and both started walking down this one street. We started talking to this family when this member family, the Favres, walked by. We asked them where we should go and they told us to go visit their mom. The mom was very catholic, but we shared a nice lesson. Moments like these are probably the best in the mission. My favorite times are when everything goes wrong and you're just wondering what can you do now. Then you pray, follow the spirit, and the Lord leads you to someone who needs it that you never would have thought of. I've really learned that God's plan is perfect. It is amazing how every night I think about what happened each day and I can see how much God has guided us into finding certain people, helping someone, or maybe it's even us that's learning something. I love serving a mission and I am so grateful for the miracles that God shows me everyday!

Playing soccer on P-day

Don't worry, I'm not trucky or sad with coming home. I decided that I was going to be really cool about it and accept everything. I only have two weeks left and I'm going to love them and make the best out of them. Then I will go home and it will be fine. Luckily you guys are coming to get me, otherwise I probably would never get on that plane home. 

Till next week, 

Sorella Knudsen 

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! 

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 

My companion is the girl from Brave!

Thanks mom for getting my card done! You saved my life for transfers! Plus, it was cool that I got to say hi to you! Ah cute little Kelsey is in Florida! I've been thinking about her all week!! 

Goodbye Battipaglia!

I left dear Battipaglia which was filled with a lot of sad goodbyes (but luckily I'm going back in six weeks so it wasn't too bad). I packed up all my heavy suitcases and went to the Napoli train station to wait for my train that my Greenie would be on. I made a huge sign that said "VERDINA (GREENIE)", I got on and asked who was being trained by Knudsen, a redheaded girl answered and I attacked her. Her name is....SORELLA HANSEN!!!!!!!! She is the BEST! She is 22 years old, has lived in Texas, Louisiana, Kanas, and is recently from Wyoming. She has studied at BYU, Hawaii and did the Disneyworld program. She has crazy red hair and looks like Meridth from BRAVE. She is super funny and cool. I love her so much!

SORELLA HANSEN

My sleepy Greenie.

Also, Sorella Gates was on the train down so I did get to see and talk to her! We have both heard from each other from our moms so it was funny. She is going to Sicily and being trained by someone in my group named Sorella Kippen so that will be fun for her! They traded who I would train at the last minute. 

Sorella Gates!

Being "blown in" or ''whitewashing'' as some people call it has been a really fun adventure! First, we had to trade trains and get to Cosenza where the Anziani (elders) were a supposed to meet us. We accidentally got off on the wrong stop and then had to get back on the next train and we had five suitcases to carry and it was fun I'll just say. We got to Cosenza and the Elders were not there....we had no phone and no place to go...so we just waited. Finally I found a working pay phone and called the mission office asking if they were looking for two lost sisters. They said yes and asked where we were. I told them the Cosenza station and they actually sent the Elders to another stop so they had to call them and tell them to come to the Cosenza station to pick us up.

Getting stuck at the train station.

We ended up waiting almost two hours in the station laying on our stuff to keep these gypsies girls from stealing our stuff. Finally the Elders came and they took us to our apartment...only to find out that the Elders turned our whole bedroom upside down! Haha I love mission pranks! They even made a cheesy sign that said "we hope you turn this town upside down". We unpacked everything, I got my Greenie her first Italian pizza, and then we went to bed. We live right by a very busy street and we kept hearing people outside all night long and then in the middle of the night...someone started hammering on our wall! Why would someone hammer a nail into the wall at 12 am?!?! 

Friday was spend doing weekly planning and trying to figure out everything about the area. So it turns out....we don't really have any investigators. They had a lot of work, but like last week all the investigators were dropped so basically we need to start from the ground up. Okay honestly, I am actually enjoying being blown in!  We have a whole new start on this city without any bad impressions and I've made a lot of plans to try. We have a branch here with about 15-20 members who came to church on Sunday (every city I go to the branch just gets smaller and smaller haha). All the members are very nice and welcoming to us and willing to have us come over! By the end of church, I got an appointment with almost every member! 

Finding!

We've done a lot of finding in these past couple of days and we've seen a lot of miracles and found a lot of people! We were able to have 6 lessons with a prayer on the street. I want to tell you about some of the miracles and people we have met. 

On our first day, we were doing finding and at first I was stopping everyone and then I told Sorella Hansen to talk to someone. She told me that she likes talking to people, but she was so scared. I kept encouraging her and finally she stopped this lady to invite her to English course. This lady stopped immediately and started asking questions about who we were. She found out it was Hansen's second day in Italy and insisted on buying us gelato. We exchanged numbers and hopefully we will be meeting with her on Tuesday! Her name was Sabrina and she was seriously the nicest lady ever! It gave Sorella Hansen a lot of confidence and I was so grateful that God showed us that tender mercy. 

We got a referral from a member in Crotone who asked us to meet with her husband who was in Cosenza. We had a lesson with him and he was a really nice guy, but not really willing to listen to us at all. We met with him by this bar and I noticed that there was a worker who kept passing by and watching us. After, we talked to her and we were able to do a whole lesson with her. She really admired us for what we were doing and said we could come back another day to talk to her more! We are going tonight! 

We met this really nice old man on the street who is evangelist and invited us in to talk to him and his wife. We told them about the BOM and they told us about their church, very good people.

Sunday night we had four miracles in the row. We first stopped this lady named Rodica and was telling her about English course when she asked if she could give me her number. Then she asked if we wanted to come over next Sunday to explain our religion to her (in my head I was like...WAIT I'm a supposed to ask you that first!)....we were like ''yeah we could do'' haha! Then we went down a street, but I felt like we needed to turn around and go the other way and we met this girl Rossella. We explained who we were and asked if she would like to learn more and she said yes and we're meeting with her tonight! Then we walked down a couple streets without any luck so we stopped and said a prayer and asked for someone who is prepared to received this message. We stopped this girl named Francesca and told her about the BOM and asked if we could meet up and explain more. She said yes and we have an appointment for Tuesday. Then we met this guy named Massimo and talked to him a long time about God, we're planning on passing him to the Elders though. 

Anyway we already have one new investigator and five appointments set up this week (who will all hopefully become investigators once we get to teach them a lesson). We definitely feel like there are a lot of prepared people here and there is a reason why we were sent here! I have to say...this is all Sorella Hansen's work...she has just great faith for finding people! I just do the talking. 

My companion doesn't really know Italian at all...so I get to teach her! It's fun hearing all her mistakes! Like she keeps saying about ''the woman of tongues'' instead of ''the gift of tongues''. Also in Italian there are two ways to say ''you''--unformal (tu) and formal (Lei). Excepts lei also means ''she''. In the MTC they teach the missionaries to all use the formal lei so Sorella Hansen kepts talking to me formally...which is kind of weird because I'm her companion. She will say ''Cosa lei vuole fare?'' (what does she want to do?). Every time I look around the room and ask ''who is this other woman?'' It's fun :)

I really love my companion and I feel so strongly that I had to be her trainer. She's a little fireball. She gets a little nervous to talk to people, which is normal, but once we stop someone she has no fear at all. She has a great desire to learn Italian and tries to practice it always. She doesn't seem to feel like missionary work is too hard or anything, but has a lot of energy and wants to go out and talk to everyone. She has the coolest life and we get along so well.  I am so sad that I only have six weeks with her. Can I PLEASE extend my mission!??!?!?!?!?!??!?! 

Vi voglio bene! 

Sorella Knudsen

I GOT TRANSFERRED, BLOWN IN, TRAINING. Sharp rocks at the bottom? Bring it on!

Saturday morning I got a call from President Waddoups telling me that I have to leave this beautiful city of Battipaglia because I'm getting TRANSFERRED to COSENZA!!! Which is this little city on top of a hill down south (look it up...you have google :) ). I asked who my companion was going to be and President said ''I don't know yet...because you are getting blown in...and you are TRAINING!'' So there were two sisters already there and now they are both getting transferred and I get to come in without knowing anything or anyone...and have a great adventure. I AM PUMPED! This is going to be awesome! I've always wanted to train my whole mission but because of the age change, a TON of girls came before me and not many sisters have come in since so not everyone has had the chance to train. Since I was still younger in the mission than half the girls until two months ago...I figured I probably wouldn't get a chance. I'm way excited! I'm not even scared of this challenge, I think it's exactly what I need for my last transfer. I really want to end my mission strong and I think going to a new area and trying to set a great example for my Greenie is exactly what I need. There will be no truckiness here.

Also, I want to tell you about a Italy Rome Mission tradition. Every week before the transfer call comes, every missionaries buys a Kinder egg (which is a hollowed chocolate egg with a toy in the middle) and according to the toy we make guesses on where we are going. For example, if you get a car...you are getting transferred where there is a car. If you get something that flies...you are getting transferred- Etc. Etc. I am a firm believer in Kinder toys...they know all. Anyway last week I got a green frog that blows out water. And I'm getting BLOWN in with a GREENie. Kinder always knows.

But I am a bit sad to leave Battipaglia. These people are AWESOME and I'm going to miss them. This week was really good and I feel like I made a difference. We had a lot of lesson where we got to be there for someone and even if it didn't end in a baptism...I feel like we really helped people.

There's this new convert named Carrie who we finally got out to see. She is actually American and studied with the missionaries a long time before she decided to get baptized. We were talking and she told us her whole conversion story. Then she mentioned how she wants to go running every morning at 630 and thinks about us missionaries who can do that. I said ''yeah but we get up at 630 so that we can get blessings from being obedient...otherwise I couldn't do it.'' She said that hit her and she thought it was really cool. Then she told us how she is not doing so well with the word of wisdom...she really likes wine and she had some friends and family over and she has slip up a few times. We talked about obedience and Sorella Williams mentioned how the blessings of the W. of W. is that you can run and not be weary. She was like ''oh!!! That's why I'm so tired lately!!! I need to stop drinking.'' We told the story of Joseph Smith and shared our testimonies about him and the BOM. At the end she just thanked us so much for following the spirit to come visit her because she really needed to be reminded of all these things and she committed to living the word of wisdom again. It was just a really sweet lesson and I'm grateful that God used us to help her out.

Okay there's this funny thing in Italy where every day of the year is assigned a certain Saint and they celebrate those saints every day. (there's always a reason to party!). But the best part is, is that if your name is the same as the Saint's...you get to celebrate too. So all Catholics get two birthdays--their birthday and their saint's day! (meanwhile the Jehovah Witnesses don't even celebrate birthdays...so if we have to convert to another religion...I say we go catholic! haha jk!) Anyway this is a big deal here and people are sad when no one tells them ''Auguri''--wishes on their saint day. We have this new convert who's name is Maria and September 12th is Maria's day (the mom of Christ, Mary) and even though she is Mormon...she still wanted to have two birthdays and invited a ton of people over for lunch. No one could come, but us. It was the littlest thing--coming to lunch, but we could tell it made a huge difference for her, especially since her husband has died in the last year.

Every week I do service for this family and help this little girl do exercises.

Have I have told you about mozzarella di Bufala? It's mozzarella made from Buffaloes and it is the BEST. Battipaglia is famous for their cheese. It's just this big white ball of cheese that you eat. I found a picture of someone doing twilight with it hahah. Also, last P-day I got to touch some buffaloes!

mozzarella di buffola

Feeding buffalo.

 There's this children's song that goes through the animals and what sounds they make. Cat goes meow, cows go moo, etc. Then it says ''il crocodrilo come fa? (what does the crocodrile say?) ''non ce nessuno che lo sa!'' (no one knows). Anyway it has a great tune and I randomly sing it for people and every time I do...people go crazy and love it. Who knew you could reach so many hearts with a children's song?

Also, before I leave Battipaglia...I need to tell you guys a really cool story about this branch! First, I want to tell you a story that happened 150 years ago in St. George Utah. Once there was this catholic priest in St. George who wanted to have the very first mass in St. George history. But one problem...he had no place to do it. Recently a tabernacle was built in St. George and the guy in charge invited this priest to have his mass in the tabernacle. BUT this priest did not have a choir...so the Mormon St. George choir volunteered to sing for them. BUT this priest needed the song to be in Latin so the choir learned Latin and they had a great mass. Fast-forward 150 years. There's this guy named Alfredo who lives in a city called Salerno. He is friends with the Mormons. He hears that none of the members in Battipaglia can play the piano. Then he hears of this story about this tabernacle in St. George. He is so touched by this story that he offers to come to church every week and play the piano for the Mormons in order to pay them back for what they did for the catholic church. This guy is the sweetest guy and he has played the piano almost every week for years. We love Alfredo!

Saying goodbye to the Melella family

Two of my all time favorite people

Anyway I am off to say more goodbyes and pack. Also, this morning we went to Napoli because we had to pick up Sorella Marsh, who's companion is going home tomorrow. So now we get to have sweet Sorella Marsh with us for the next couple of days. The best.

The subway in Napoli

Napoli!

Vi voglio un MONDO di bene!

Sorella Knudsen

I GOT LET IN!

English Course Party

English Course Party

 This week has been awesome!! Last Tuesday we had the best English course party! The theme was country and everyone loved it! We taught them all a line dance, sang country songs, ate lots of food, and had a photo booth.  Best themed party! Then at English course on Thursday, I decided to share a thought about the BOM and we wanted this Mormon message about this bishop in London and how he feels about the BOM. After we watched it, we all bore testimonies and invited everyone to take a BOM. 8 students took a BOM! It was awesome to see them all holding one and reading it!

Cutest couple in Italy

This week during planning, we were looking at all our investigators. Right now we had about 12—which is a pretty good number. However, we were thinking about them and we realized most of them we hardly get to see and we feel like they have no real intent so we decided to drop over half of them.  But we feel like this will help us focus on those who are really keeping commitments and find better investigators. So right now we have Gerardo, who is still gone on vacation but he drove all the way to Battipaglia so that we could have a lesson. This week he has read over 10 chapters in the BOM and promised us that when he come back (should be this week) he will come to church every Sunday!

Martina. She was first the investigator of the Elders but now she is ours. She is almost done with first Nephi! She and two other girls from English course went up to Rome this week with the Scherbels and they got to see three past missionaries—Sorella Ghio, Anziano Duffin, and Anziano Ostler who all gave great spiritual thoughts and testimonies that really helped these girls out. Then Martina came to church Sunday!!  I love that girl!

Lesson with Martina...Do we teach the gospel or Harry potter?

We had a great lesson with Giovanna this week about the tree of life, she really liked all the symbolism. We reminded her of her baptismal date for the 4^th of October and she is still preparing…but she did not come to church again this Sunday…we don’t know why yet…she didn’t answer her phone.

Yesterday all of Italy had a fast for the workers at the temple. I don’t know what’s going on, but there’s a great opposition to the temple and the workers keep running into problems. Well mostly because they’re used to making a perfect building…most building here fall apart after a few years. Anyway pray for the temple! We need it so bad here in Italy!! 

LOL

Okay I have two major miracles today… On Wednesday we were on the train home from Battipaglia when this old man sat by us. He said he saw a huge group of missionaries like us last week and wanted to know who we were. We briefly explained the restoration and the  BOM. While we are talking, I notice this couple on the seats next to us shameless listening so we start involving them in the conversation and they wanted to look at the BOM. Then this family behind us are like “what’s going on? Who are you guys?” And before we know it…almost the whole cart is being quiet and listening to us explain the BOM while we are trying to be as loud as we could. This lady asked us for a BOM and if we could exchange numbers. We gave everyone else pass along cards as our stop came up. It was awesome! 

This says "I'm a believer, don't knock Jehovah Witnesses!"

2^nd miracle: We had a great scambio with the sisters from Pozzouli this week! Sorella Baker and I were together for the afternoon and we had this lesson lined up with a member and her friend. We get to this member’s house…and no one is answering. We hear someone hushing the dog so we know they are there, but they’re not letting us in (which is weird, they always let us in!) so we decided to do more finding. We had an appointment at 6 so we headed towards the church. It was raining and there was no one out and we had extra time and we were like well what do we want to do? Sorella Baker said that she heard that if we do English course for casa in casa people are more likely to let us in. Now a little back ground on how I feel about casa in casa (knocking on doors), my first transfer…we did it all the time and we NEVER got let in so then I decided there is a better way to do finding. Since Jehovah Witnesses always knock on doors and everyone hates them, no one will open to us. I’ve done casa in casa on my mission when we’ve had extra time…and again, I’ve never been let in. So I’ve kind of lost all faith in it. Nevertheless,  I said okay why not, lets do casa in casa. We both look at this apartment complex and decide to try it. We push the very first button, say we are doing English Course, and this girl says “Salite, Salite!” (come up! Come up!) I stand there in shock…did I just get let in? We go up and find this 23 year old girl who is doing school online and has to take an English exam in two months, but really needs some help. She told us how she was praying that morning for help and then here we are! An answer to her prayer! Then her mom comes in and starts asking us who we are. Then she leaves and comes back with three bibles: catholic, Jehovah witness, and Evangelists. She tells us how she was born Catholic, but knows that church is corrupt and wrong. She doesn’t like the Jehovah witnesses, and right now she’s studying with the Evangelists. She looks at us and asks us what we have to offer. There was the sweetest spirit in the room while we told her about the Restoration and the BOM. She asked where she could get the BOM and I told her I wanted to give it to church. The mom and daughter both willingly accepted to read the BOM and we have an appointment Tuesday. Sorella Baker and I just walked out, looking at each other completely amazed…We have two new investigators from casa in casa!!!! I GOT AN INVESTIGATOR FROM CASA IN CASA! My mission is now complete! I can come home (not really. I’m never coming home!) 

The view from my apartment.

Anyway I love being a missionary! I love these miracles that God shows me everyday! I love being able to share the gospel and help people out! 

Sorella Knudsen

p.s. The Knudsen family has THREE missionaries out right now! Wahoo! 

I have so many old lady friends!

AHHHHHHHH!!! KELSEY is going into the MTC tomorrow!!!!!!! I’m so sad and happy for her!!! But I know she’ll do great!!!  Sorry I’m a day late…yesterday we had zone conference! So I hope you weren’t worried! Also…for your information…I never do Pdays with only these Elders here in this city, Anziano Scherbel always comes, but he is also the one who usually takes the pictures. Yeah one of the Elders knows Todd my cousin! And the other one is related to the Creighton’s. Small world! Us four here is my whole district! Usually districts are about ten people…but everyone else is kind of far away or already has districts…so it’s just us, the Elders, and the Scherbels haha hence why we spend a lot of time together! 

Some of our old lady friends

Okay well it has been a great week! I decided to do this email differently and go through every day…It will probably be more boring…but it kind of gives a better idea of my mission…idk.  Last Monday, after Pday we visited a less active named Rosa and she had her friend there named Carmela! Rosa has talked about Carmela a few times but we have never succeeded in getting an appointment with her—but she was there! We talked to her a lot about faith and set up an appointment for Wednesday! New investigator! Then we walked through a park, saw all these old ladies who gave us some recipes, and talked to them. Then comes this lady named Gabriele, who is Italian, but has lived in America most of her life and speaks perfect English. She told us how she as catholic, but doesn’t believe in it and now belongs to…she wouldn’t tell us, but it seemed like some type of a religious group. She seemed great and really understood the apostasy…but then she started going off about how she knows that the second coming is going to be soon and how she prays in languages…so we’re not so sure about her…

Maria Delia

Tuesday morning we made a lot of calls, went shopping, and did more finding (nothing interesting to report). Usually we have District meeting, but Anziano Sorensen had to go to Sicily to pick up his permesso (his permission to live in Italy). Then ate lunch and did language study (we always do language study in the afternoon because there’s this thing called Pranzo (lunch) here and Italians have to cook, eat, and nap…and there’s absolutely NO ONE out from the hours of 1 to 4 and it is impolite to knock on doors at that time so we try to finish everything inside that we can). We saw Rosaria in the afternoon, I gave her the stop smoking program for her to read and see if she would like to do it. Then we taught Martina! She is officially passed to us from the Elders which makes me so happy! She has been reading the BOM lately and we just kind of go over it and help her understand. This week she read the tree of life and was pretty confused. We talked about all the symbols and the four groups of people. I like how the difference between the group that reached the tree and fell away and the group that reached the tree and stayed is two words: costantement and cadero…in English I believe that is constantly and fell down. So in order to stay at the tree we have to do everything CONSTANTLY and we need to fall down on our knees and receive a testimony. Then we taught English course! Sorella Williams felt kind of sick so I taught everyone about the words used for cooking! Then this old lady got really upset because English is too hard.

Bad hair day.

Ikea

Wednesday we taught Giovanna in the morning! She promised us that she would read…and she didn’t do it L. But we had a good conversation about families. She says how the world is really wicked and she’s lucky to have a good husband, but she doesn’t even trust him because she hears so many bad things in the world. We talked about how strong families can be if they live the gospel and we promised her lots of blessings if she kept with us. We brought up baptism again and committed her to be baptized on October 4^th! She said yes!! So happy! We’ve been trying to get a hold of another investigator named Irene but she hasn’t been answering. We called her and she invited us over on the spot for lunch. We read the BOM together and then she made us eat pasta and fish (I usually like seafood, but EVERY single companion of mine does not like sea food so I’ve come to dislike it and hope they don’t serve it for them). In the afternoon we saw Rosa and Carmella! IT was a pretty good lesson…Rosa, the member, just kind of sat there, but Carmela was great! She has great faith and knows the Bible well enough to really understand the scriptures—and she’s humble enough to listen to us and learn more. We taught the Restoration and challenged her to read the BOM. Then we visited Rosaria for a bit and then did parco (park). Okay Sorella Williams and I have realized that we have a lot of old lady friends…and we love it! They are so funny and cute! We have all these old lady friends that just sit in the same spot everyday so we always say hi and ask them how they’re doing. They all love us and tell us how cute we are…but none of them want to take the lessons.

Thursday was more finding! Except everyone is busy in the morning so there’s not that many people out… Have I told you how there are a TON of Jehovah Witnesses here? They’re all over the place and everyone hates them.  So sometimes when I’m doing finding, I think to myself “how can I not look like a Jehovah Witness?” something I’ve learned is to be very natural in talking to people. Sometimes we’ll stop people asking for directions (when we’re not lost) and then start a conversation that way or sometimes we go to different stores and talk to the owners about the gospel. People are a lot more open and curious when you seem like a normal person. We were supposed to have a lesson in a less active in Salerno so we got on an hour long bus, called her, she wasn’t home, and we got on that bus back home. But Gerardo came into town for the afternoon (he’s gone on vacation) so we had a lesson with him and he read a lot!!! He had a problem with Nephi  4 about Nephi killing Laban. We talked more about faith and he still didn’t completely accept it by the end, but he promised to keep reading. Then Martina came and we read 1Nefi 13 together and talked about the Restoration and it went great! I love having people read the BOM and understand it. Then we had English course again!

On Friday we did planning in the morning then had a girls lunch with Sorella Scherbel (she’s the senior sister) I made fried rice J. We taught Carmela with Rosa again, Carmela was having a really bad day so we changed our lesson plans on the spot and read Mosiah 24 about how the Lord strengthens in times of burdens. We visited Teresa (finally!), but she talks a lot...my biggest weakness is having people talk too much and not listen…because I can’t talk over them. But we need to figure out some way to teach because we’re not getting anything done like this. Presidente Waddoups and his wife stopped by for the night so we went out to dinner with them! They are both incredible people!

Saturday (are you bored yet?)…was kind of funny…we had absolutely nothing planned so we made a 12 items to do list with the hopes that at least one would work out. We ended up planning an English course part with the Elders and then bought and made some things for the party. We also saw Rosaria, but she was out sitting on a bench and when she is sitting on the bench…it’s really hard to have a good lesson and she just ends up talking about random things. So we left and walked through a park, talking to people.

Sunday we had church in the morning at 9:30am. We called everyone the day before and no one could come…But Irene came for the Relief society. There’s a huge problem in the ward with its members making a huge deal of who takes the sacrament and telling each other to not take it because they’re not worthy. So Presidente Scherbel had a lesson about the sacrament and what is appropriate to do. He handled it very well. Also another German family visited so I had to translate! Maria Delia, a member, invited us over for lunch. Her food is really good…but she makes you eat SO much! She kept giving us more pasta and bread and fruit and meat and we are like “BASTA!!!” (stop!) I always feel so sick after I eat there. This ex investigator was there and she random started yelling at him for not being able to keep the commandments and how taking the God’s name in vain is the very first commandment and we’re like “hmmm….quasi (almost)” She’s funny though. We prepared stuff for English course and then taught Rosaria about the tree of life. 

Zone conference in NApoli. Typical.

Sorella Rost!

Zone confrerence.

 On Monday we drove out to Pozzuoli (where Paul, the apostle served) and had zone conference! I love zone conference and this one was especially good! Sorella Rost missed her zone conference again and came to this one and I was so happy to see her! We talked a lot of PMG and working with members. I really like how the best way to help people do missionary work is not to make them feel bad about not doing their duty but just loving/encouraging/inspiring/complimenting them to do better. Then we came home and visited a less active for her Birthday and met her whole family!! 9 brothers and sisters! They all were super nice and we have some contacts with them!

Whew. That was a lot. Okay well I’m so happy for Kelsey! Give her the biggest hug! Love you all!!