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!!