Week 6?

Hello!

Oh boy, I am losing track of how long I've been here. I guess that is
good, but I don't know how to label my e-mails. Haha..

Okay, let's start the week off with last p-day. We took the train to
Taormina which is close to Messina which is the city that connects
Sicily to mainland Italy. It took an hour to get there. The train
leaves you at the bottom of the mountain, and central Taormina is all
the way at the tippy top. It was really hot, but there was a nice
breeze coming from the sea. Anyways, we had decided to wear jeans that
day, and so I wore jeans and toms and a t-shirt that got soaked with
sweat and was pretty disgusting, but to the point... We didn't want to
wait for the bus to take us up from the station to the city, so we had
the genius idea to walk. I about died, and would have been much
happier if I had been wearing workout clothes. Having jeans stick to
your legs is not quite comfortable. But we made it to the top, it was
absolutely gorgeous, and we enjoyed the views, and seeing an actual
tourist town. We were going to see a historic amphitheater, but it
costs 4€, and you need your passport if you are from anywhere outside
the European Union (which we don't carry around with us on a daily
basis). I also found the perfect honeymoon location.. The hotel is
super cute.. And it is literally perfect. :) Then, we were running
late to catch the train back to Catania, so we ended up literally
running down the mountain. Can you imagine a group of missionaries
running down a hill that is kind of like y-mountain, a little less
steep, and paved... Yeah, that was us. Toms were not the best shoe
choice. It makes for good memories though.

Tuesday was normal, but my calves were sore from the day before, and
walking everywhere was super hard.. I guess that is what happens when
you choose to have a fun p-day for once. Or I guess climbing up a
mountain.. But I think it was worth it.

Wednesday was absolutely crazy. We did our normal routine that
morning, and then we caught a bus to Motta which is an hour away from
Catania. The senior couple, the Clarks live there.. And they had made
a pranzo for us and this super sweet lady named Rosa and her daughter
Letizia. We taught about the plan of salvation and it was a super
great lesson and I think it touched Rosa especially because we were
able to testify of eternal families and her dad passed away a year
ago. Elder Clark made this super yummy omelette for us and this
delicious cranberry homemade bread. I also ate most of the salad they
had. I drenched it in bacon ranch, but I ate a lot of it. I was proud
of myself. Also, the Clarks have this couch that felt heavenly to sit
on while we waited for Rosa to get there. I think it has been my
entire mission that I haven't actually sat and relaxed on a couch.. I
miss couches. Then we rode the bus home, had an appointment with
Angela the new convert.. We now have 3 Angela's we are teaching.. It's
a bit confusing, more so for you all because you haven't met them.
Then we had our usual lesson with Jennifer. And she is all set for her
baptism on August 29. She is literally the sweetest person. And it is
too bad that we have a hard time getting the ward to help us with her
because she is "colored". Grr.. She is so super sweet, and she will be
one of the miracles that I remember from my mission for years to come.

Thursday was transfer day! Ahh! How did that come so fast!? We had to
wake up at 4 to help one of the sisters get to the airport, so we took
a bus to the airport.. You don't realize how much missing 2.5 hours of
sleep affects the next few days in missionary life, but it totally
does. Then we were a 3-some for that day until the train from Rome got
to Catania at 6:00. We have new missionaries! An elder was blown into
the city and is training a new greenie, but it is worse than being
blown in because they don't even have their own separate area book, so
they have to find all of their own people to teach. Oh, also the
greenie already speaks Italian because his parents are Italian, but he
is from America. I think he is like 6'5". Maybe more.. If I tower over
people, he towers over them even more. His trainer is also super
short, so it makes it kind of funny. They are super sweet, and it is
great to have more missionaries, but now we lose our car privileges
with the other anziani so we are completely reliant on the bus
systems. Yay for the unreliable bus systems. Also, I could be a bit
bitter that they got to go to Sigonella for the linger longer instead
of us. But, we get to go next time. :p

We got a new phone because our other one was broken.. And I don't like
it. Haha.. It is a flip phone, and it doesn't say who is calling on
the outside so when it rings and you open it, it answers the call. So
frustrating! I'm getting to be the expert at saying Pronto? And then
saying uno momento and passing the phone to Slla Defranchi. Haha.. But
now that it is the second transfer, I get to keep talking on the phone
to Italian people. Yay!

We got 4 new investigators this week! We began to teach this woman who
has been coming to church for the past year and I guess all the
previous missionaries just assumed that she is a member, but she's
not.. She is dating an ex member of the church.. Not an
excommunicated, he just asked for his name to be taken off the
records. Comunque, her name is Iole and his is Gesualdo. We had our
first lesson on Monday with them, and they intimidate me a bit.
Because they know so much about the church. Like so much. I mean,
she's been coming to church for a year. All the simple stuff I know
how to say in Italian is just common knowledge from them. Iole is this
super smart person who is always wanting to learn more.. But quite
honestly, I don't think that me or Slla Defranchi can teach them more
than they already know. We now have 4 investigators who just want to
learn more before they get baptized.. It is frustrating to me, because
the gospel and living the gospel goes back to a simple faith for me. I
always have a desire to learn more and to gain more knowledge.. But
seeking out things that could be true or untrue about the church and
basing a testimony on that isn't how it works to me. If I ever did
hear any bad thing about Joseph Smith, whether it was true or false,
it wouldn't shake my testimony because I know that the gospel is
perfect and that God works through imperfect people. It's simple, but
these people are making it too complicated.. We had another lesson
with them on Saturday, and they invited 2 friends who are interested
in learning about the gospel. Gotta love referrals from investigators.

Teaching them also made me start thinking about something else... Our
lessons with them start at 8 at night because Gesualdo works that
late. The two times, they have invited us to stay for dinner. The
first time because we went over to a members house. We are also
supposed to be home no later than 9:30. Which gets me into my question
that I am going to ask.. 3 times this week, we were out later than
9:30.. But we were doing good things. We were forming friendships and
trust with our investigators, and then the third time, we helped
Jennifer do some dishes as service because she really needed our help.
We know that it is important to be home on time and be exactly
obedient, but I honestly don't know what falls under the good, better,
and best categories here. Any opinions would be helpful...

One thing Gesualdo said that I liked though was that "Our spirits are
all the same age. We are just at different stages in our mortal
bodies." I liked that. Just because someone is older or younger than
me or you, does not mean that you can or can't learn something from
them.

P.S. There are Nicholas Sparks books in Italian, say what? That's a
note for after the mission. :)

Then surprise! I was asked to give a talk last week for yesterday.. So
in other words, I have a 10 minute talk in church, in Italian
yesterday.. Fun stuff. I feel like the talks are just beginning. I
also had the genius idea of playing redeemer because music is an
international language and then I wouldn't have to talk as long.
GENIUS! Haha.. I talked on faith. I had to pick my own topic, which is
way worse than being assigned a topic. I picked that one because it is
the first principle of the gospel, and I've been reading about it a
lot in Jesus the Christ. One thing that I liked that I put in my talk
is that we say in English that we take a leap of faith.. When we leap,
our feet leave the safety of the ground. Or when we take a leap of
faith, we leave behind the things we know for things that we don't
know, and to our surprise, the things we didn't know become better
than the things that we knew. I wrote it mostly in Italian, but I will
translate my talk back to English and sent it to y'all next week.
Jake, I'll send it to you in Italian. Maybe you will actually be able
to understand it.. I don't know. Also, I think Redeemer was a real
treat for everyone because the ward does not have very much musical
talent. :)

Fun cultural things... I tried a cannoli this week. It was chocolate,
so different than the ricotta cheese ones... I'll try that one next.
:) it was delicious. I am also addicted to pistachio granita so dad,
if you can master a recipe for that, you would be my favorite person
ever. They are so good!

Well, I love you all! And I hope everyone had a great week!

Love,

Sorella Flansberg