Buongiorno!
This week was pretty great, and hey? Good news! No tears this week! Haha..
Like most of you mentioned... Yes! I had zone conference this week! And I loved it! It was nice seeing more missionaries around. It is a little bit of a hard transition to having hundreds of missionaries around in the MTC to just you and your companion in the mission field. But, I got to see Slla Embley again. We are soul sisters and she is literally the sweetest. She was in the MTC with me. And, I had to give my birth testimony... Duhn Dunn Dunn... In Italian! Yay! I sure hope you were being completely truthful bout the pictures of me on the blog. Sometimes Slla Waddoups puts absolutely horrible ones up there. And mom, I like my skirt too. :)
The main thing I learned is when we don't act in faith, we aren't opening any doors for the spirit to enter into our lives. We just have a beginning of belief and it will just continue to sit there until you do something about it. Acting on faith is what brings the blessings. When we do our part, God does his part. And his part is bigger and better than any part we could ever give him. We are to teach this concept to our investigators. That the missionaries won't always be there to help them. They need to read the Book of Mormon on their own. If they need a ride to church, call for a ride... Etc.
They fed us lunch. We had sandwiches. And then we had the genius idea of making this granita drink there. You take water and put fruit syrup in it and then you add the granita. It was delicious! I don't know if Presidente was talking about that or if they actually went to get a granita after the zone conference. Catania is known for their granite.
Speaking of granite. I got a few recipes for them. You could probably also look some up on the Internet and then make them in the ice cream maker. But here are two.
Lemon granita:
1 liter of water
500 g of sugar
5 big lemons
Melt water with the sugar, let it cool, add lemon juice
Put in freezer and stir every two to three hours
Once frozen, scrape the solid to make the granita like texture
Or put it in an ice cream maker :)
Watermelon granita: ( I would either take the seeds out or blend them up in the vita mix)
Blend a watermelon, but leave a few pieces
For every kilo of watermelon, 250 grams of sugar
Heat some of watermelon to make the sugar melt
Add some Lemon juice
Mix together and freeze
Let me know what you think. :) Oh, and you will have to do the conversions yourself.
Back to zone conference.. We had 8 sorelle in our apartment on Monday night. It got a slight bit crazy, but it was really fun too. I am beyond grateful for two showers though. Oh, and I also think it is slightly ridiculous how much time some of the sisters put into getting ready. They had to look perfect for zone conference. We had interviews with Presidente on Monday afternoon and that was really good. He said that he could tell I've learned some Italian, which is good I think. Our interviews are always super short.. Haha, but his love for me is tangible even though we only met 4 weeks ago. I still can't believe I have been here that long!
Tuesday was zone conference and then we had English course. And then Wednesday was super eventful.
We did scambios (exchanges) on Wednesday with the sister training leaders who also happen to speak only Italian. I was with Sorella Furia and yes, I spoke Italian all day. Exhausting? Yes. Headache? Definitely. But I learned so much. From day one in the MTC, they said to speak your language. But it has always been so hard because you just want to revert back to English instead of thinking sometimes... Or rather most of the time, but I have a testimony of SYL now. Also, everyone says I'm doing really well with the language. So, I still don't know what that means. Also, absolutely no comments on the translating thing. Really? I think that would be so cool!
Jennifer had her interview with Presidente Monday night. If you could pray for her that would be great. She is struggling with part of the Word of Wisdom right now because of a cultural thing... And she could really use your prayers. She is frustrated that this thing is keeping her from being baptized. But, sometimes we have to do things for reasons that are unknown to us.
I figure out at least once a week that I am older than most of the anziani here and it is so weird, because I could have sworn that they were older than me. It is fun to see the changing process firsthand on the mission instead of the before and after. Speaking of being older.... I turn 20 in less than three months. Uh, what? I won't be a teenager anymore!
Thursday, we had pranzo with a sister in the ward. The food was really good. And this sister is the best member missionary. She talks to everyone about the gospel. She is really sweet, but she also doesn't have a filter. She told me that I should stop touching my face so I won't have acne. But I really don't touch my face that much, and plus I only have like 3 spots on my chin. It isn't even that bad! But really? It made me a bit upset. But, I read in Jesus the Christ why we need to bless those that persecute us.. ;) But in all seriousness, it is easy to treat others with kindness if they are kind to you. But because we are disciples of Christ, it is required of us to do more than every other man does. We are striving to be lights to the world, but we can't be lights if we aren't shining out in the darkness.
On Saturday, the elders were supposed to have a baptism, but then he called an hour and a half before that he didn't know if he could do it anymore because his family couldn't come because of a freak storm. We were like what? What storm? 5 minutes later, the rain was pouring, the lightening was striking, the waters went up, and the thunder started cracking. It was nice to be in the church building because I definitely felt safe in there, and I was definitely glad that I wasn't outside. So, he will be baptized in 2 weeks. This guy is literally golden. He walked into the church one day because he had read the BOM online. Like what? He is super sweet though, and he will be a great member of the church. We decided either Satan made the storm happen or that God was clapping because he was getting baptized. Haha.
Sunday was so good. We had visitors from Colorado and England and they obviously spoke English. Yay! Hahaha. :) I also play the piano almost every Sunday at church which is fun. I'm grateful that I have that talent. So thanks mom and dad for making me practice! ;) Sis. G is also the American sister and she gave us more American food. A big jar of peanut butter, kix, Reese's, and Oreos. She is so awesome! Love love love! Slla Defranchi and I also gave into the temptation and bought a jar of Nutella this week. Grr. I think I'm past the stage of losing weight that everyone goes through when they first get here. Slla Defranchi says I'm a fatty at heart. Inside joke, but I think it is true. I have never been one of those to necessarily watch what I eat. I eat what I want to eat when I want to eat it. I think that will need to change. Haha.
Then after church, we went to the home of the Parisi Family. The food was probably the best I have had here. They are the ones who gave us the recipes for the granite and her breaded chicken was the best. I also tried figs this week (side note). They aren't my favorite, but I will eat them. Italians don't know how to have an hour meal. Probably because they don't start cooking until we get there, and then we eat and we talk and we eat some more. We also shared a thought with them about missionary work and you would have hated me mom, but we did role plays with them. :) Haha.. Fratello P was not the biggest fan. He then spouted off on us how we shouldn't just talk to everyone about the gospel and how we should only talk to those who are ready. We then tried to explain to him that we don't know who is ready just by looking at them, and that is why we talk to everybody. He was still determined that the spirit will tell you who is ready or not, but his wife and daughter understood what we were getting at. He talks a lot.. Like the entire meal and then this little lecture to us. But guess what? We will continue talking to everyone. :)
Then we had a lesson with a less active. She is having a hard time, and she explained it to us in French! Uh... Non parlo Francese! I picked up a few phrases here and there, but Slla Defranchi didn't want to stop her and remind her to speak in Italian.. So I tried not to look bored. Haha..
So, I said a few weeks ago, how I am reading conference talks from a few years ago. It is super fun, and it makes me reflect how we are so lucky to have the knowledge we do of living prophets. We get so many questions all the time of how our church is different than others. And we are different because one, we have the fullness of the gospel and the actual priesthood, and two, because we have the Book of Mormon, and three, because we have living prophets. My testimony has grown so much about prophets just from reading the conference talks. They are truly men of God, and 1 Nephi 22:2 explains just how they know what to say to us. :)
My other spiritual thought of today is: What is a miracle? In Jesus the Christ, it talks about how everything is a miracle, but it seems to me in modern day culture, that everything is not necessarily a miracle. Miracles cease when knowledge of why something happens replaces the astonishment of something happening. Once we know something, the wonders seem to disappear. So my challenge for you all this week is to try to recognize the miracles of life around us. Not the miracles that only the world counts as a miracle, but everything! Even just the idea of a plant growing up from a seed is a miracle.
Love, Sorella Flansberg
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