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!! 

Recipe Finding!

I can’t believe Kelsey is already leaving on her mission!!! I’m going to miss that face! Her pictures are so cute!!!Well this week was awesome!! Almost all of our investigators are reading the BOM right now! And not just reading here and there, but starting from the beginning and trying to read at least a chapter every day! It is really awesome! One of our investigators, Giovanna, hasn’t read at all, but this week she read!

But sadly…none of them came to sacrament. We had one investigator tell us that if it was sunny than she would have to go with her husband to the sea, but if it was bad weather then she would come to church. Then another investigator said that if it was sunny than her family would go to the sea and she could come to church. Either way we would have someone come to church! We prayed really hard that weather would work out well for both of them somehow… then at 9am on Sunday, they both called and cancelled…so that was sad. 

We are as tall as this vegetable

This week I figured out the best finding tactic in Italy. Last week during programming (I think the correct word in English is planning, but in Italian it’s programmare so it always comes out as programming in English) we were trying to think of something new we could do for finding. A couple months ago the mission came out with this long list of finding ideas and conversation starters. We read through the list and I read “asking for recipes”. We thought why not? We called up the Elders and challenged to a finding contest to see who could get the most recipes for the pasta by the end of the week. This was such a great finding idea!!! First, because it was really fun for us. Second, because hardly anyone rejected us! There were a lot of people that were a little standoffish and you could tell that they didn’t want to talk to us, but once we said “We are Americans and we want to learn how to cook Italian, do you know a recipe?” They immediately opened up and were willing to talk to us. Third, because all of these conversations ended with them asking about who we were and us sharing the gospel! And fourth, because I have so many awesome recipes!  

We asked these old ladies in the park for recipes and one of them was like, “I have a question…why do you do baptisms for the dead?” (which was kind of weird…no one knows who we are, and if they do…they usually don’t know we do that)Turns out this lady was an old investigator and went to church a lot and read a lot of the BOM. She also has a great knowledge of the Bible and was telling us everything she believes about baptism. She also talks in parables…which are really difficult to understand. We invited her to come to church and she came!  But had to leave before sacrament…and we haven’t been able to schedule a return appointment yet so next week she’ll be an investigator! 

Recipe count for the Elders: 6. Sisters: 24  They have to make us pasta this week and they’re begging for a rematch. 

These next four picture are from a hike behind my apartment area.  

Also, we got two new investigators this week! We live right next to this Carrefour (it’s a supermarket) and everyone there knows us missionaries. There are couple people who always asks what we are up to and last Monday I told them all about the lessons we teach and invited this girl named Giusy and a guy named Umberto to meet with us. They accepted, but also wanted to learn English. So we are teaching them both English and the gospel!

Besides that, we also got locked out of our house this week. The key just would not turn at all! Luckily the senior couple lives right next door to us so we got to stay with them for the night! Sleepover with the Scherbels! We then spent the whole next day calling all these guys to fix the door. The first guy came over and gave up. Then this other guy came and spent two hours drilling at our lock trying to break it. There were lots of sparks, it was cool. We finally got in and now we have a nice lock J. Also, I had strep throat this week, but it wasn’t too bad and now I’ll completely healed! 

The cake for Anziano Rasband. He likes Ferraris

Anziano Scherbels birthday

We celebrated two Birthdays this week: Anziano Rasband and Scherbel and everyone made cake. Cake count this week: 4. This week I’m having no sugar. 

Our name tags that the Elders stole. Mine is on the bottom.

Also, remember how a couple weeks ago I sent home a picture of the Elder’s name tags that we decorated? Well as payback…they came to DDM with a huge ice block…with our nametags inside…and they put stickers on them. Ours was cooler though.

And that’s about it folks…today the summer holiday ends, people are going back to work, and coming home from vacation, and it is getting colder outside!!! 

Ferragosto

So this week was FERRAGOSTO which is basically the biggest summer Italian holiday and everything in Italy shuts down (besides tourists places) and everyone goes on vacation. If you have to take a bus or train anywhere, you might as well forget it because they go on vacation too. Hey have I ever told you how Italy is known for being the least organized country in Europe. Well it is very true. Italians don’t care about anything but food and the sea. Agh gotta love these people. The official big holiday was on the 15^th (btw…people with Google access…anyone want to tell me why exactly they celebrate Ferragosto. I’ve asked people and they’re like “IDK we just all go to the beach on that day.”) And since everyone is gone, we did some DEEP cleaning in our apartment! More on that later…Anyway half of our investigators left town on vacation so we didn’t have a lot to do this week… BUT we still had some great lessons and saw some miracles. 

Small  ice cream cones

 We had a great lesson with our investigator Gerardo before he left on vacation to his summer home (sad we don’t get to see him as much, but he’s coming back once a week). He’s a really great guy, but for some reason he doesn’t believe in God. Most of his life he hasn’t cared, but right now he really envies believers and wants to know more for himself. We gave him the challenge to pray and read the BOM every day and to ask if God exists. I feel like he is so sincere and I’m sure he will find his answer. 

All the horrible patterns in my Italian apartment. 

We also had a great lesson with his sister Teresa, who we are also teaching. I don’t remember how much I told you about her, but she is kind of a miracle in herself. She has lived the past two years in Milan with her daughter and son in law—who are both Mormon, the son in law is this really great bishop from Milan. She has met with the missionaries a lot, has read the whole BOM, and now she lives in Battipaglia for us to teach J.  To a certain point, she believes the church is true, but she has a hard time leaving the catholic church behind. We want to explain that by coming to our church, we are only adding to her faith, not taking anything away.

We also saw Rosaria and had a really great lesson. She’s scared to come to church because she’s scared her dad will be really mad because there’s this member who the dad hates that comes to church. We promised her, as representatives of Christ,  that if she came to church, then everything would be OK. But then she still didn’t come to church. Some people take a bit more time. 

Martina helping us clean

Making pizza

-We’ve also seen huge miracles with Martina, who the Elders are teaching for now. Martina is one of my best friends in the mission! I can’t wait to have you meet her! She speaks really perfect English so there’s no language barrier (I can speak good Italian…but it’s hard to be really funny in Italian so sometimes it’s hard to really be yourself).  She has been coming to English course for 6 years,  loves the missionaries and has become really great friends with all of us. But she has never taken the lessons. Then our Anziano Rasband here invited her to take the lessons and she said yes. Later we were talking and she was like “Why has no one ever asked me to take the lessons before?” I just felt awful because I assumed she has been asked a million times, but has always rejected. I think all the other missionaries thought the same thing. But it’s better late than never! On Thursday we had a lesson with her and the Anziani (elders) . She comes in and was like “I quit smoking!” and we’re all like “WHAT?!?” We’ve been trying to get her to stop for a long time, and suddenly this week she decided to stop. She already had the program and planned out everything by herself and we were like …”but wait…we wanted to help you…with that..!” Haha but it’s better that she decided to do it by herself! This happened on Thursday and then we found out that on Friday she had NOTHING to do. Her family was all going to be gone and she was just going to be alone in her house where there are cigarettes. She needed something to keep her busy, but that was Ferragosto and we had to deep clean our house all day long. So we called up our Mission President and asked if she could spend the day inside our apartment to help us clean. He said yes. No one is allowed in missionary’s apartments besides missionaries, so it was so fun having a friend over! I felt bad making her clean, but I think it really helped her out having something to do, being around good people and away from all those cigarettes! It was actually a lot of fun and the Scherbels invited us over for lunch to have delicious Mexican food! But the best part is that she has not smoked since Thursday!!!!!!

Paestum

Planking

Paestum

Paestum

Sacrificing my companion

Besides that this week has actually been pretty fun! Martina and her mom taught us to make pizza, we saw Paestum today for PDAY! Paestum are the big roman temples and they are so beautiful! I couldn’t believe how well intact they were. They are most intact roman temples in the world and I live 30 minutes away from them. Crazy.

Anyway hope you all have a great week! I can’t believe school is starting! I swear it got out last week! 

Hiking and funerals

Have I mentioned HOW HOT IT IS? Well it is pretty hot here and humid. Walking to appointments...I just feel like I'm swimming! 

Hiking

Hiking

 This week we had a fun ward activity! We went to the mountains to go HIKING!!! Dream come true! The only part I was missing from home :P But turns out that Italians don't really like the outdoors so no one showed up...besides us missionaries, one family, and a couple English course students. We drove out to this city and hiked up this mountain. It was so hot, but it felt SO good to be in the outdoors and get some good exercise in! So we had this great hike, ate a sandwich and some snacks at the top, and then came back down...only to find that the relief society had a five course meal waiting for us!!! So after our great, refreshing hike where we all feel great...we were forced to eat for the next two hours and we all felt awful after that. I really love Italians and their food...but I can't wait till I get to control what I get to eat! Why do Italians have to be the most generous people? 
 

Hiking

Meal after hiking

  
So last week I told you about how we decided to drop Rosaria because she's still way catholic? Well this week she invited us over for lunch right after church because her dad wouldn't be there (which is always her excuse for not coming to church) so we're like “COME to church! And then we're come and eat!” and she's like “fine.” So she came! And loved it, but at the same time...complained about everything, and made a huge fight out of it. Also, she heard that some members are getting some money from the church and now she's really interested in that...sooooo idk what to do about her. We'll see. 

the mail man car haha so small.

Then do you remember Gerardo from last week? Well last week we gave his brother a blessing (the elders came and gave the blessing)...and this week...we had an appointment with Gerardo, but then he called and canceled because his brother was doing really bad. Then we talked to Gerardo's nephew and found out his brother died. We gave Gerardo and his sister Teresa (who we are also now teaching!!) a call and they were both pretty upset. They invited us to the funeral and we went the next day. The funeral was in a catholic church and we had to watch mass (their sacrament diciamo)...and that was interesting. It's just basically a priest reading from a book and everyone repeating prayers and lighting incense and things. Gerardo and Teresa were really touched that we came and Gerardo told us that we've been a really great comfort to him. Every time we go over to one of their houses...there's always a new family member that we get to meet therefore at this funeral...we knew a ton of people! We walked around and said hi to everyone and then they would introduce us to more people and by the end we knew almost everyone! The cool thing is that two members of this family are already members, two of them are now serious investigators and the rest of them at least know the missionaries! This family is prepared! I can feel it!

Also, Gerardo came to church again this Sunday for all three hours! At the end he told us that he felt rejuvenated and was glad he came! We are so excited for this family! 

Cute man. Real Mustache.

Cheese

  
I am doing really good! Battipaglia is growing and I'm grateful to be a part of it! Sorella Williams and I are working on studying Christ and trying to become more like him. Every morning I want to write something I learned from him in my study and try to apply it. Like yesterday I studied the temptations of Christ and how he didn't give in to any of the temptations because he knew who he was and he knew he had to complete his mission on earth. Today I know that many temptations come my way, but I am a missionary and I am here to complete my mission and help other people. 

And that's all folks. 

Sorella Knudsen 

Fa Caldo

    Looks like you had SO much fun on the vacation! Thanks for sending me photos! Aw Jordan is getting so big haha!   Well it is HOTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are all dying here! All the Italians go to the sea everyday while I walk and swim in the humidity. :) yay August in Italy! Today for Pday we went to Amalfi! A beautiful city on the sea known for it's fried sea creatures in a cup. *see following picture. There's octopus, squid, clam, and lots of tentacles and things haha. 

Amalfi! 

Cup of fish

 This week has been great, but it definitely has had it's hard moments. Last week we had two baptismal dates, but this week we dropped both of them. One of them is our eternal investigator, Anna, who has had many baptismal dates, but has never showed up to any. She knows she needs to be baptized, but...thanks to some crazy dreams...she believes that if she gets baptized...the second coming will happen. She says “Io sono la donna” (I am the woman) in Revelations 12. So she is kind of crazy haha. Anyway we don't feel like she has changed at all since the missionaries have started teaching her and that she doesn't have real intent right now. 

Lots of mopeds. Typical Italy.

Another Catholic Church

The second one is Rosaria...who I've worked with my whole time here and who we've seen a lot of miracles with. Well teaching her has just been kind of difficult lately and she hasn't made any progress. Last night we asked her what her desires are and she confessed that she has never liked going to church and that she'll never want to come to church. She told us that she prays everynight the way that we taught her to, but then she has to pray to Maria or Padre Pio. She's still way catholic and at the moment does not want to change. So we're still going to keep in contact because we're friends, but in our minds...she is dropped. It is really sad to have to drop people after you have worked so hard trying to help them out. But that's the mission and we need to find other people who will accept the gospel. 

The Elders left their name tags in the church so we stole them and decorated them :) They loved them ahha

So we lost these two, but we saw some other big miracles! First, Irene (she's this old evanglist lady who is the mom of a couple members), has been reading the BOM and understands it beautifully. We went over there and she had read Nephi 13 (which talks all about the apostasy and restoration). She sat down the book, looked at us, and said “I know what abominable church is it talking about.” We're like that church? “The catholic church of Rome” We're like... “well it's just all churches that are against the church of god.” She's like “No. It has to be that church.” Anyway she understands the apostasy really well, which is always a good thing here in Italy. 

Yard work outside the church

 

Then there's Gerardo. He's the sweetest old man ever and when you come here...you HAVE to meet him! Last Sunday he asked us and the Elders to come to the hospital to give his dying brother a blessing. After a while we were talking, he mentioned how he actually has a big interest in our church. He has a lot of doubts about the catholic church and has searched a lot in life, but has kind of been disappointed in what he has found. He's reading the BOM, a bit slowly because he's kind of old though. Then one day he found out that his nephew is actually a mormon bishop in Milan! On Saturday morning, he called us up saying that his nephew is in town and that we have to meet him. We went to Gerardo's sister's house and met these two great member couples who came down to visit. It was such a great lesson!! It made a huge difference for Gerardo to actually see how his own family members have become converts to this church. There was a very strong spirit as we all taught him the gospel and bore our testimonies. After, he told us he's worried about his wife because she is super catholic and will not want him learning about this church. So we will see on that. Anyway then Sunday came around. At 9:30 am (when church starts here) Gerardo comes to church in a sweat saying he was so scared he was going to be late. Then all the rest of the members came at 940 haha. Anyway he stayed for all three hours of church and I think he really liked it! It really helped to have his family be there! And today we're doing an FHE with all of them! I have so much hope for Gerardo! He's such a nice man and really just wants to find the truth.

One last story hahah...last Sunday I found this cat on the side of the road that was very badly hurt and was dying. It layed on the ground, breathing really hard and I felt bad for it so I got out my Plan of Salvation pamphlet and petted it. Then it freaked out and died right before my eyes. It was so sad. But then we left because we had an appointment and I had no idea what to do with a dead cat. Well no one else knew what to do and it sat out in front of our church for four days in the hot sun and it stunk soooooooo bad. Seriously. So bad. Finally the city cleaned it up. But now knowing what dead cat smells like...I've realized Italy always smells like dead cat!

And I will leave you on that note :) Love you all!