Ciao!!

-Thanks for the emails! I especially loved that you told me about all my cousin's missions! It was awesome to see their photos! I especially think about Nicole all the time because there are so many Romanians here!! Will you send me her email? Also--I know her companion!!! She was in the MTC with me!!

-So guess where I am...CAGLIERI!!! Tomorrow is Zone conference and today we have interviews so we got to come down early and spend P-day here! I'm in this cute little Internet cafe that has great music (that we're trying not to listen to haha). Also, sadly there's not our great Library Lady Lucia here, but we knew that we would do Internet on Monday so we stopped by on Friday and she gave us necklaces! So cute! And she told a member that' she's reading the BOM. I have a feeling we're going to get another Lucia! Stay in tune till next week...

-I GOT YOUR PACKAGE! Yay Christmas!!! That would've been awesome to have for Christmas, with the little tree and stocking and chocolate orange (I was so happy for that!) but February is also a great time to have Christmas too hahaha! Thank you so much!!

Scambio. all the great sisters close to me.

-This week the sisters from Caglieri came to do a scambio (exchange) in Sassari with us! It was fun to see other sisters (it's been about two months) and learn how great they are! (fun fact...the closest sisters to me are in the French mission) My good old Italian companion Sorella Mistura and Sorella Rost came! Sorella Rost is the best cook EVER and gave us great cooking lessons. (Like did you know when frying something...you should heat the pan...then the oil...then put in the veggies otherwise the oil just gets soaked in). We had four lessons planned...and then the last minute...all of them cancelled!! But when things like that happen we know that God has another plan in store...Sorella Rost and I were walking the streets of Sassari getting rejected over and over again...then we found this cute little Romanian girl named Laura. We talked about how much God loves us, and prayer, and the restoration and now we have her as a solid investigator! She lives in the sketchiest and dirtiest place, but she's great!

Alleyways

-This week we made progress with Antonella. I've already mentioned her a few weeks ago. But she's this old lady who loves the bible (she has studied with Jehovah Witnesses) and it's been really hard for her to accept the BOM. Mostly because when she read the Bible or the BOM she just opens to a random page and starts reading...but every time she does that with the BOM she gets weird war scriptures. But this week we read Alma 32 about the seed and she loved it! She said that now she really likes the BOM and maybe there's good things in it too. Success!! Also, we borrowed her BOM and marked up scriptures for her to flip to and it has made a huge difference.

-One strength that Sorella Felice and I have for our investigators is tender loving care haha! But really, this week we decorated (so sister missionary) their BOMs and marked up chapter for them to study. It's paying off because more investigators are reading!!

Well got to go! Right now us missionaries in Sassari are making all these plans for activities, member missionaries and meno attivi so get excited to hear about all that!

LOVE YOU ALL!

Missions are like Popsickles

Missions are like popsicles. The first half is the hardest; the second half is the fastest; and it's best enjoyed when you “stick” to it and thrust in your “sickle”! (my lovely companion told me this)

So I hit that sad/happy moment this week when February 1^st came around and I hit my half way point (OHHHH I'M HALF WAY THERE....OHHHH LIVING ON A PRAYER!--it's a song). Yes, I am half way done with my mission. It's awesome because I've done so much and learned so much and I can really work hard these last nine months...but I only have 9 months left in the beautiful country of Italy.......... :( :( :(

-This week was great! I feel like P-day was just yesterday and I have no idea where the days went or what I've done...pensiamo un po...

-OH remember how last email I said how we just gave the library lady named Lucia a brownie? Well today we gave her a BOM and she was so touched and loved it! She promised to read it! Also, she works with one of our members! Stay in tune for next week...

-Last P-day Sorella Felice and I took a train to Algero—a BEAUTIFUL city by all these boats. It was so cold and wet, but we had fun anyway. Attached are the pictures.

The beach! All those brown things are sponges.

 -Corso d'ingese! So our English course is one of the best finding tools ever (besides the members) and we have found many investigators and friends from the course! One of my best friends (and an investigator of the Elders) is named Daniela and this week she gave us these really nice Sardengian necklaces which were so pretty! Also, we have all these other students that stay an hour after corso and talk with us. Then we have these three older students who come EVERY WEEK without fail! They are so funny and they really like our church. 

I drew this for a little girl in my ward. Guarda quanto brava sono. 

-This week has been really great! I feel like it has gone by so fast! We had a great lesson with Lucia Farina! We gave her Alma 32 to read and she loved it! She marked it all up and she spent 30 minutes telling us how great the analogy about the seed is and telling us all the things that she's learned. We invited her to come to church again, and she doesn't want to come all the way to Sassari (she lives 40 minutes away) when her church is right by her house. Then we asked her if she has been praying to know if this book and the church is true. She told us she already knows the book is, but hasn't really prayed about the church (well she doesn't believe that there's one true church). For some reason at this moment, Sorella Felice and I couldn't think of anything to say so we just sat in silence for about a minute. But it was really good because I could feel the spirit and after she said “I think I actually really need to pray about this.” I really do think she will sincerely pray about it and then will receive a strong testimony.

-We found a new meno attivo (less actives) this week! Her name is Maria and her house is covered in Catholic pictures, but she pulled out her BOM and it looked like she has really studied it in the past. Also, she offered us wine and coffee. But she is really nice and wants us to come back and talk with her. We've decided to do all the lessons with her again. Hopefully we can help her come back!  

LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!! Sorella Knudsen 

Lucia, Lucia, Lucia

Okay this week has just been a lot of crazy lessons and planning and finding and there's not too much to say, but here's a few stories:

-We're teaching this lady named Lucia who was a referral from the Anziani. She's great, but we haven't got to see her too much yet...THEN this week her cat climbed up a tree...and she climbed up...and then fell and broke her leg. Sad, BUT now she's lying in bed all day and bored so now she wants us to come over all the time and she's reading! I feel bad that that happened, but I'm pretty sure God had a hand in it.  

-We're teaching another Lucia—a mom of one of our members who is Evangelist. We weren't sure how interested she was, but last week we read with her and left her a chapter to read. When we went back this week she not only read, but deeply studied it and was so excited to tell us what she learned. Sorella Felice and I were just blown away and so happy to see someone finally progress like that! She told us how she knows the BOM is true, but she still really likes her church and doesn't want to come to ours yet.

-The lady who works here at the library is named Lucia too! We just gave her some brownies (the great converting power of brownies!) and she was so touched that we thought of her like that. Next week we're bringing a BOM. Stay in tune.

-This week we've focused a lot on our investigator Valentina and her member mom Tina. Tina is probably the worst mom ever; she's not keeping any commandments and is letting her 11 year old daughter drop out of school. There are so many problems in that house that I can't tell here. I feel horrible and helpless every time I think of them. They need a lot more help then two sister missionaries can offer and I don't konw what to do. But we're working so hard to try and help them with the little we can.

-Well this week has had some hard moments—Angelo dumped us (cowardly I might add—he snuck into our church and left the BOM), Antonella doesn't like the BOM at all, Anna is not answering her phone, Flora is busy, etc. But it has also had some great moments! Our neighbor told us she wants to come to church, Sandra has been reading the BOM every day, we found some great potentials and the weirdest thing happened last night—we met this guy from Colorado! It was SO weird talking to someone who speak English from the states (Americans never come to Sardegna)! He seemed to know a lot about the church and we explained the BOM to him and we have his address and going to go give him a BOM this week. Although...our lesson that we did was horrible...because we had to do it in English and we had no idea what to say. I CAN'T TALK ABOUT THE GOSPEL IN ENGLISH. Hopefully he's still interested though haha! 

Love you all!  My Times up! 

Sorella Knudsen!

My big fat Italian Wedding!

 Questa settimana e stata bellissima!!! Okay so first...I got to go to an Italian wedding! The daughter of one of our members got married this Saturday and although the daughter is a little less active—they decided to have their wedding in our church! They covered the church with flowers and invited a ton of people to come! The wedding was kind of a mix of Mormon and catholic traditions like they had some talks and the bishop gave advice to the couple and preformed the ceremony (and there was no alcohol), but then they invited this Catholic choir to sing. This choir was the typical gospel soul music, singing at the top of their lungs and clapping. It was the funniest experience! But this wedding was so awesome because all these people came and saw our church! So many people were asking questions and we gave out a lot of BOMs and pass along cards. We made a lot of contacts, but one in particular that I made was this cute little family that happened to sit by me. We talked a bit before, and I watched the wife as she was smiling and nodding during the talks. I just kept thinking how much I wanted to baptize a cute little family and I prayed really hard that she would feel the spirit and I could talk to her after. Then she left right away...but I was able to find her later and she told me how much she liked what we did and believe. She wants us to come over this week and explain some more...so hopefully everything will go well!!! 

Two of my favorite members

Funny story: One of the favorite members of all time works in this little garden shop next to our apartment and one time he showed us this video of this guy who was hanging off the mountain calling for help. God answered him and told him to let go of the mountain and that his angels will catch him...then the guy said “uh...is there anyone else out there?” It was just a funny film to show the lack of faith people have. Anyway then Sorella Felice and I went in and hid before he could see us. Then, in the deepest voices we could muster, we said “Sono Dio” (I'm God) and this member, Fratello Marras answered and asked what do you want me to do. So we said the first thing that came into our minds- “Compra le sorella la pizza. Hanna fame” (Buy the sisters pizza, they're hungry). Then we came out and laughed about it. THEN this member showed up at our apartment with pizza this week and he said God told him to do it. And that's how great our members are and how good pizza is. 

Pizza from God

This week we've gone to a ton of in-actives...and no one has been home yet, but we found out some more information about them so it hasn't been a complete waste. We also visited the mom of one of the members and read the BOM with her. She really liked it, the spirit was strong in the lesson, and she wants us to come back and read some more with her—hooray new investigator! Also this week...we are able to text! And now we get to send scriptures to all of our members, potentials, meno attivi, investigators, etc to help them build their testimonies each day.

Okay yesterday both me and my companion and the Elders got invited to eat lunch with a member named Julieth. She is this African with the BIGGEST faith I have ever seen. She is awesome. But somehow she just got married to this Italian who doesn't believe in Christ. At the end, we shared a spiritual thought about prayer and then all of the sudden Julieth turns to her husband and starts asking all these questions about what he believes. He said he believed that Christ died because there's evidence of that, but there's no evidence that he was resurrected. We all bore testimony, but at the end this man was still stubborn and said he wouldn't pray. THEN Julieth said to him: “You know there's a quote that says: Every knee shall bend and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is the Christ one day. I cannot WAIT for the day to see your knees bend and your tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ! I know it's going to happen. I'll just wait. I'm cool.” I'm not going to lie...it was AWESOME. All of our missionaries were just like...whoa...we wish we could say that. And that's why Africans are so cool.

Cats are everywhere

Taken at Julieth's home

VI VOGLIO BENE!!!

Love Sorella Knudsen

Christmas Training and Christmas Program

I found some great pictures on Kendra's mission presidents blog post about a specialized training they did in Sardegna which is on the island that Kendra is on.  They came and trained and then all the missionaries did a skit on the birth of the Savior.  Kendra was one of the narrators.  I asked Kendra if I could put the pictures on the blog and she was fine with that.  I really liked the pictures.      ----Shari Knudsen

These first few pictures were part of the training:  

These next pictures were part of the skit pictures:

He is the man that says, "He".

So to explain this story...We met this girl from England and we started talking to her and this guy walked passed, heard us talking English and started yelling “He, HE, HE” at us. Then we saw him on the street going to church and he started yelling “He HE HE” at us. Then we were doing casa in casa (house to house) one day and he randomly came out of this apartment and started yelling “He he He” at us. We've seen him at the most random places and we're just like...”who is this guy?!?!” Finally we got to talk to him and he explained how “he” means “ciao” in American. And we're like...really? And he's like yeah and he spells H I for us in Italians. Italians say their “i” as an “e”. So all this time he's been trying to say hi to us. Hahaha so funny. So he is the man that says “he”! (instead of the “knights that say ne” ahah get it?). 

 

Our newest investigators

 

 

 

 

Sassari

 

Lately I've been thinking about how we could do missionary work better. We've done a lot in this city and quoting my wise old trainer...”if you always do what you always did. You'll always get what you always got. So try something new.” I've been praying and thinking about how we could make a greater difference here in Sassari when it kind of just came to me...INACTIVES. We have a TON of inactives here and I think it's time for some of them to return. We took our huge list and went around to some members trying to get as much information as we could about these people. We spent a couple hours with this one member who told us everything he knew about the inactives and now we have probably the best ward list in all of Italy. He told us how the requirements to be baptized were different and people could get baptized just like that and all of these people fell away right after their baptisms and never came back. But he gave us a good list of people who are going through a hard time right now or something and that he believes we could help come back to church. So that is our game plan right now—inactives! We've already gone to a lot of houses...and no one was ever home...but we're going to go back! Hopefully we'll have some success! Plus most of these people are part member families.

I do have one great success story of this week: Tina and Valentina! So Tina is our less active and valentina her daughter and our investigator. Since Valentina is 11, we really need to get her mom back in the church before the daughter will come. And Tina is a bit difficult sometimes. She never really let us come over, but slowly slowly we have gotten into this house and showed her that we care. We've gone over and cleaned their house and we spent our New Years taking her out to get hot chocolate. Another thing about Tina is that she doesn't have a testimony or really even knows anything about the church anymore so we are trying to teach her all the lessons again. Our plan this week was for her to come to church and we'll watch the Restoration and then make brownies. Then she called us telling us she was too lazy to come, but we could come to her house. We were a little disappointed...but then it turned out AWESOME. Valentina was there (we never get to see her) and she talked with us the whole time! We made brownies and watched the Restoration. We asked Valentina about what she thought about the movie and she said she believes it's true. I asked how does she know and she said because she felt it!! So sometimes it takes a lot of work, love, and service to help people accept the gospel!

Also, this week I have just loved being a missioary (as always), but really I am so grateful to be here. Sorella Felice and I have been talking about how much our missions are preparing us for after the missions. In my mission I have learned to LOVE the gospel. I eat up the words of the prophets and scriptures like I have never done before. And I'm grateful to be on the mission so I could learn to love it, because I don't know if I would otherwise. Also I'm learning how to be a great cook, how to clean (I know how to get rid of mold), to be a great teacher, to be a great visiting teacher, to be patient, to live with someone, to follow the spirit, etc. Missions are awesome. The end.

Oh, also we made friends with some children of a gypsy and bought them to English course and everybody freaked out...because no one likes gypsies here (i'm not a huge fan, but these kids are innocent). But that was funny. 

Lamb Brains!

. new years view

 So this email is going to be short because today is a Holiday in Italy so all the internet points are down and we have no time now. Today's Holiday is called the Befana--the day they have chosen to celebrate when the wise men visit Jesus and give him gifts. They celebrate by leaving huge stockings out and then it gets filled up with candy..(this is the best part) a creepy, old witch! IDK why, but this town is filled with creepy witches!

                                        -Transfers--I'm staying in Sassari with Felice!

-So for all the Holidays we've been invited over to the members house to eat. It's great--I love these people! But here's a fun fact--everything about Italian food is delicious...except the meat. They eat everything. I feel like I'm back in China. For new years this family basically took a lamb, cut and cooked it up and put it in a bowl. Here's a picture of me eating it's BRAINS! So gross.

Lambs brains

-I pulled out my little voice recorder this week that says "Hey can you hear me?" and scared my compaion real good. haha.

 

-This week we had a lesson with Sandra our investigator and we invited her to be baptized--and she said she will never ever get baptized with our church, but she wants to keep coming to church with her son.  I kind of had a change of view after this. I was a little bit sad about how hard we've worked and the little we have to show for it. I read how Ammon first began to preach and then was thrown into prison while Ammon on the other hand said "I will be thy servant". Then I read a quote that said "aspire to be a great servant, instead of a great missionary." That kind of gave me a new perspective. I will always try for baptisms, but I was called to SERVE these great Italian people and that is why I am here. I'm going to try and do all I can to serve others, help them know that God loves them, make people smile, make friends, listen when someone needs it, etc. I have a list in the back of my planner where I put all the friends that we've made here and we go visit them all the day and try to find a way to make their day and bring them closer to Christ. So...go serve someone else! It will make you happier!

my crazy investigator. Love her.