Week 2

Buongiorno la mia familia!

This week has been so great! On Friday, we got out of class to go watch Elder L. Tom Perry's funeral live. Such a good experience. I guess President Burgess had to get super special permission to let us do that. Before I go any further, I apologize for any typos or uncapitalized letters in this e-mail. All the keyboards here are terribile. That's italian, not a typo. haha... I think Elder Perry is my new standard for optimism. He always seemed to be in a good mood and so happy. I want to be like that, and I am working on having the mindset of never having a bad day. 

Francesca, our investigator also became one of our teachers this week. Fratello Wortham is leaving in a week and a half for boot camp (air force) and Sorella Anstedt is gone for 2 weeks on vacation, so we have different teachers everyday. I will miss Fratello Wortham. He is hilarious! He is our new investigator. Well, actually he is pretending to be actual people he taught in Italy. We have Marco. He is 55 years old, his mother has Alzheimer's so he helps her a lot, believes in God, and said "Why not ?" to our baptism invite. So far so good. Although, Sorella Rackham and I need to work on our lesson transitions. We went from asking about his hobbies, to saying an opening prayer, to asking him why we are on earth. That escalated quickly. ;) 

We also learned why we challenge people to baptism on our first lesson. It isn't because we want them to be baptized right away. It is to explain to them what our purpose is and what we want the end goal to be. If we don't invite them to baptism, and spring that on them in the seventh lesson, they think we are just their friend who is teaching them about Christ. But, if we tell them what our goal is for them and what we want them to do, it starts out the lessons right and they know that we are there to bring them closer to Christ through faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. 

On Sunday, we went on the temple walk. I love getting out of the walls of the MTC where we can actually see the mountains. We took some pictures and hopefully I will be able to get them attached. The computers here are locked up really tight. On Sunday night, we had a devotional with Pres and Sis Tanner. They are the new presidents of BYU-Hawaii. They had a great message and it was fun being with them. On Sunday night, we watched a film. It was a devotional by Elder Bednar called The Character of Christ. It was soo good. Ty, you need to watch it when you come. It is a life changer! He talked about how the natural man tends to turn in when things don't go his way. We tend to think about ourselves. But he said the character of Christ is to turn out in charity when the natural man would turn in with selfishness. He also gave several examples from the scriptures when he did this. He said, "This mission is not about you. Get over yourself and get out of the way. You only change when you focus on others and lose yourself in the work. If you go looking for yourself, you won't find it." He also said that there is a difference between having a testimony and being converted. Conversion is consistently doing what you know is right. Conversion is turning away from the natural man and getting rid of the cookie monster inside of us. 'I want cookie now'. 

I got a package from Heidi this week. She sent me a gratitude journal which I write in every night. and some candy.  Starbursts and smarties. Some of my favorites. 

Tomorrow, we are teaching 4 different lessons all in Italian. They don't waste any time getting you teaching in your new language. 2 are to members of the church who speak Italian. So it is kind of like the real deal. It will be nice to get out of the role plays for a little bit. We are also teaching Marco and a less active that Sorella Bucco taught on her mission. Her name is Barnaba. That's a lot of lessons and not very much time to figure out what we are going to teach, write it in English, and translate it to Italian. But i have faith that the spirit will help me and put words in my mouth. Hopefully those words are in Italian, gramatically correct, and actually make sense coming out of my mouth. 

Yesterday was so amazing! Class was absolutely crazy filled with the Spirit, and the devotional last night was really great too. Linda K. Burton came to speak to us with her husband. (General RS President). They talked about picking apart the scripture 3 Nephi 5:13. She especially pointed out "I Am ". It is only talking about who you are and what you are supposed to be doing. I am a missionary. I am a disciple of Christ. I will shout the gospel from the rooftops to all who will hear. 

In class, we literally dissected 3 Nephi 17. In our classroom, there is a picture of Christ healing the sick. And I didn't notice it until Friday this last week. But it becomes a lot more meaningful when I pretend that I am the sick and lame man. That I need Christ to heal me and through my faith, I can become whole. But then we dug in deeper. We can look at it like we are the sick and we need to be healed. We can also look at it like we are the healthy. In verse 7, it says to bring the sick hither and he will heal them. These sick people have probably been sick their entire lives. These people were the Nephites friends and family. They've probably been to see every doctor in Zarahemla and they still couldn't be healed. But then Christ said to bring them hither, and he will heal them. The people who are healthy need to have the faith that these people will be healed. It probably seemed like an impossible task to them. Also, Christ didn't just snap his fingers and heal all of them at once. I heard once that the gospel is very personal. And Christ likes to do things one by one to make us feel important and special. All covenants that we make are personal, individual promises that we make. Sorry, got off topic. As the healthy people, we just need to bring others to Christ. We as missionaries might not think that Barnaba will ever stop smoking or that the homeless man will ever change his addictions or that Gloria will never come to church. But it isn't our job to heal them. Our job is to bring them to Christ. He will do the rest. Christ gives us power beyond our own means. And along with this.. Sorella Bucco asked why we are here? I am here because I want to share the gospel with everybody I come in contact with either through example or words. I need to remember to talk to everybody even if I think they will never change. If I wasn't a member of the church, and I had an addiction to nicotine, I wouldn't want to be missed just because somebody else thought I would never be able to change. Only Heavenly Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ, know our capability of change. As missionaries, we are to invite all people to come unto Christ. Even if one person in my family line hadn't been invited to read the book of Mormon or invited to change, I might not be a missionary right now. We never know what will come of the invitations we offer to others. 

In verse 14-21 of Chapter 17 it also says that Christ groaned within himself because of the wickedness of the people, but then he had a fullness of joy when the people were righteous. He loves us so much. Our faith makes him full of joy. I will be so happy when my investigators show faith, but even my happiness is nothing compared to what he feels for me and for everyone else on the planet when we choose the right. Being a member of the church is a privilege, not a right.

All is well here. I can't think of another time when I have been so tired, but yet so happy to be doing what I am doing. The MTC is full of the spirit all the time. The food might not be so great, but I only have 4 more weeks of that. Then gelato and pasta! Woohoo! :) 

Thanks for all the letters and support. I love you all! Letters make my day. And I absolutely LOVE dear elders. Unit 57, people. Send me some! :) 

Mom, Thanks for the package and the yummy thin mints.  It is fun to see people I know here. I saw Adam, my accounting buddy. He's a teacher here, and today Mallory Moss, one of my coworkers arrives. So fun. I love missionary work. 

Jacob,  So exciting about the Provo City Center Temple. I hadn't heard that yet. So exciting! Obedience is a topic that never ends here at the MTC. It is important though, I agree.  Also, super exciting for Aaron Woodbury and his mission call. Super exciting for their family. We have one of the worst classrooms here. So small, and so squishy with 11 people in it all the time. I found new food at the cafeteria, but it still isn't all that great. Not everybody has p-day on Wednesdays. It just so happened Adam has it on wednesday too. 

Heidi, Thank you for the package. And for the pictures of the royal children. So cute! I'm also glad that registration went well. I know that you will do awesome!  Love you! Looking forward to your letter. You better send me one. 

Dad, We learned that Babbo is Daddy in Italian well in Tuscany. Not anywhere else. Elsewhere it means Father Christmas or idiot. So don't put it in google translate. Just know that you're my daddy and I love you more!

Tell Grandpa thanks for his sweet letter. That rainstorm sounded crazy. And he is a blessing in my life. :) 

Well, gotta go. One hour goes too fast. Love you!!

Sorella Flansberg