Week 4

Buongiorno!

I swear the MTC is like some kind of really fancy time warp machine. How have I been here for 4 weeks already, and still feel like it has been forever since I said goodbye to everyone?? Not fair! I didn't sign up for that. haha.. I'm sad that I only have 2 more weeks here. But so excited to get to Italy! 

Well, this week had the good moments and the bad moments. But really the bad moments are where we learn the most so they really don't end up being bad moments. Also, this e-mail might be shorter than some of my others, but there will be a lot of spiritual stuff in it. So prepare yourselves. :) 

But first off... Today, the mission presidents arrive. I guess they are really strict on the dress code while they are here, so I'll be wearing my longer dresses, with cardigans and my blouses instead of my cotton t-shirts for Italy. On Thursday and Friday, we have one of the new mission presidents coming to teach our district for an hour in English. One of the other districts gets a member of the 70, and I'm kind of jealous. But I'll get over it. Maybe he'll come visit our class too. The cafeteria has moved to the gym and no catered food yet. We have yet to decide if that was just a rumor or not. 

So, in our Italian learning this week, we learned some interesting things. Italian is a very pretty language, and if something doesn't sound pretty using normal conjugation rules or something like that, they will make up random rules like adding an h to make the g or the c have a soft sound instead of the ch or the j sound. Just randomly. Just to make it sound pretty. Like really? Oh, and there are also like more than 8 tenses that we have to learn that all have different endings. Like 3 past tenses. I still don't quite understand when to use all of them, but I think I'll get the hang of it with the gift of tongues. We'll see. Sorella Rackham was like "there are so many tenses, it's making me tense." Just a little pun for y'all.

Also, I realized that I use a lot of words in the gerund tense in English like "running" or "going". Just the ing ending, but Italians don't use that tense as much, and so I have to end up changing my sentences around so I don't use them. This last week, we also had to take a language assesment on the computer. Not really an assessment. But it was a personal results kind of thing. I need to work on my Italian. But, I didn't do that shabby for only 3.5 weeks of learning Italian. 

I finally memorized D&C 4 in Italian. I have now memorized our purpose, the first vision, the baptismal invite, and section 4. It's fun to memorize those and actually understand what you are saying using fancy words. If that makes any sense. Our Italian is very basic right now. God loves you. He gave his son Jesus Christ. Through Jesus Christ, we can feel peace. That's pretty much how our lessons go. 

We decided that our district is the orphan district. We pretty much have all of the teachers, and then they all leave us. Sorella Anstedt left on vacation two and half weeks ago, Fratello Wortham left. And so we get stuck with the teachers who have time to sub us. It's fun getting different perspectives, but I wish we had the same teachers. I guess nobody wants us.... hahaha.. 

We get to go outside for a few moments each class. Mostly so we can walk around and so we don't fall asleep. This last week, we sat outside for 20 minutes, and I went back in and thought my legs were sunburnt from 20 minutes. But, they were just red for a little while, and then they got tan. I think they were only red because it was hot. 

The one thing I've decided that I want are report cards. I wish I knew how I am doing with the language, with teaching, with everything. Or I wish I could just be told what to work on. But, that is more like how school works. Not the MTC. 

This week in one of our lessons, we were teaching Domenica who is a less active and doesn't go to church because of headaches and she was offended once. So we decided to talk about forgiveness. Since she does have a testimony of the Book of Mormon, we were trying to decide which story to use from the BOM (Book of Mormon) that would teach her better than we could. And I remembered something we talked about in my BOM class with Moroni and Pahoran. Captain Moroni was very rude when he wrote Pahoran the epistle in Alma 60, but Pahoran responded with "I am not angry. I rejoice in the goodness of your heart." What? I would NOT have responded like Pahoran, so we shared that story with her and I think that was one of our better lessons. Kind of fun. Read Alma 60-61 and work on forgiving others. I promise it will help. :) 

Thank you mom for sending me that article about lighthouses from the Ensign. I absolutely loved it! We are actually using some of the things from it for our TRC lesson this week. Tomorrow, for TRC, we get to Skype real members from Italy. What? So nervous! But I am sure it will all go well, and better than we think it will. I'm really excited though too. :) 

This last Sunday, I was asked to give the relief society lesson. The topic was on enduring to the end. And it was really fun to prepare a lesson. I used two mormon messages. One was called After the Storm, and the other was from Joseph B. Wirthlin, Come What May and Love It. I also used D&C 123:17, Hebrews 12:1-2, and some quotes. "Stick to your task til it sticks to you. Beginners are many, but enders are few." You should recognize that one Ty. ;) I felt like it went well, and I got compliments, so hopefully I taught what some of the sisters needed to hear. 

In one of our other lessons, Slla Rackham and I decided to go off script. And guess what? We shared the wrong scriptures. But I didn't realize because I only had my italian book of mormon and I didn't know what scripture Slla Rackham was trying to share. So, we shared a scripture about wars and contentions instead of the Lord helping us do hard things. (1 Nephi 12:1-3 and 1 Nephi 16: 1-3). Whoops! 

This week, one of the main things we learned was to not worry about the language. The grammar will come, but we need to be able to teach with the spirit and if we are worrying about the language, all the time or the correct conjugation of each verb, the spirit can't really be there. They said to just use the infinitive if you don't know how to conjugate it quickly. Kind of cool to hear since I forget how to conjugate a lot of the time. And the you and you formal still really confuse me from differences in French. In Italian, you use the he/ she tense for you formal but in French, you use the You plural. Still messes me up. 

Next week, we get to clean the Provo temple. We thought we might not get to go, because it was going to be closed, but now we get to clean it. Yay! I love the temple. It might be the best part of my week. Doing my last endowment session for 18 months today. Kind of weird to think about. 

So, yesterday I had a small meltdown. small. I just felt this personal inadequacy that I can't really describe. But in one of the lessons, I just couldn't think of anything to say. So, I decided my problem was that I haven't ever had big trials in my life. I've never broken the word of wisdom, I've never broken the law of chastity, I've never stopped going to church, my family are all members of the church... and so on... So, I felt like I couldn't relate to these people through words, because I really don't know what it feels like. But, I feel like my empathy gift runs so deep that even though I haven't felt what other people feel, I have in my own way. It's very distinct, and I really do feel it. That was my problem this week, because I felt like I couldn't explain that in Italian, and I also feel like that is really my only way to help people is this gift of mine. I like to listen to people and be their friend in hard times. But, I am also a missionary, and I need to talk to them about the gospel. So I need to find the happy medium. I started to cry because of my frustration, and none of the teachers were in the room. But, when they came back in, Sorella Bucco decided that she was going to do "coaching". It's like a personal "how are you doing" check up, and she picked me. I think she had the prompting, because I definitely needed it. She talked to me about what a successful missionary is for PMG Chapter 1 and it helped a lot. I feel like the teachers have to be prepared for their students to break down crying at any moment, because this whole MTC thing is very stressful, and hard, but amazing all at the same time. So hard to explain! 

Now for some spiritual thoughts from the devotionals on Sunday and Tuesday. On Sunday, one of the Sorella's fathers was asked to speak ( he is the guy who is in charge of everybody's mission application and he is there when they assign calls). He didn't tell her he was coming and her whole family was there. Such a sweet surprise for Father's Day. I guess he knew where she was going before she did, and he just took his call home with him after they assigned it. So crazy! But, it was a really great devotional. So, a lot of people before I left said "Oh, Italy is going to be such a hard mission. You aren't going to have very many baptisms, and Europe is just a really hard continent. You might only plant seeds when you are there." But, Brother Littlefield said that "the field is white already to HARVEST ". Not plant seeds. To harvest. I will probably do both, but he said our attitude really depends on how many baptisms we have. If I go thinking I'm not going to have very much success, I won't. But if I think I will teach a lot of people and change their lives, then I will have more success than if I had a different attitude. 

Then last night, Marcus B. Nash of the seventy came to speak to us. And he spoke to us about knowing who we are. We are children of God, we've been preparing for this work for a very long time. Like since the pre-mortal life. This is our work. We are here on Earth to learn how to become godly. The people who don't know what life is about are like people who enter a 3 act play in the middle of the second act. They don't know what was before, so they don't know how to act now in order to be prepared for the future. I really liked that analogy. They live day to day because they don't know why they are here, but lucky for them, we do. :) 

Mom - How dare you do the mommy no no! I can't believe you did that, but I'm also glad that Jake had a great time on his date. Good job for listening for promptings. We'll see what comes of that. Thanks for your thoughts on sanctification and guile. I'll include my thoughts in a letter that I will send home. Thanks for the stuff from the other sorella's blog. Fun to hear. Not so great about "swatting off nasty men". But I'm glad someday, everything will seem normal. And I know how she feels about Instagram and Facebook. I don't even miss it. Please send me a manila envelope for letters. I've received so many, but I'm always grateful for them. 

Dad - I'm glad you had a good Father's day. Sorry my letter was late, but know that I love you anyways. Yay for using Preach my Gospel for home teaching. I love that book. Marnell has a face for the news, I just know it. And I'm glad you are switching up your work outs. Lifting weights is fun. :) You are my sunshine! Love you!

Heidi - Sorry that Rexburg is going to be hot. I actually don't mind wearing a skirt everyday. Then p-day comes and I forget how nice it is to wear jeans. I'm glad my snail mail made a rough day better. And be patient with your roommates. Good luck with classes, tests, and all of that fun stuff. I don't miss not having to do homework. Sticky notes are the best. I agree. 

Jake - Happy birthday! Buon compleanno!! :) I sent you a letter in the mail on Monday. Hopefully it gets there in time. If not, I apologize. It doesn't feel like the end of June yet, so I'm proud of myself for remembering. Um... have fun at the Rodeo, I guess. haha.. :) And I'm glad you had a good time on your date. Love hearing all the sweet juicy details. 

Also, I've heard the mail system really sucks in Italy, and you can put a sticker on for a stamp and it will still get to the US. Not sure how that works, but not sure I"m actually going to try that. Oh, and we heard about fish bricks too. Not sure how I feel about those. haha.. 

I love you all! Have a fantastic week! I get my flight plans soon, so I will let you know when I leave. Love you!

Love, 

Sorella Flansberg