HOTNESS

Dear fellow Americans, 

This week I wrote my email in my notes so it wouldn't get deleted. Genius huh? ;) 

To start at the beginning of the week... Monday night, we had a lesson with Iole and Gesualdo. We were going to teach them the restoration, and then quickly escape so we could be home on time and they stayed at the Bruno's to watch Legacy. But something really cool happened to me in the lesson. We got to the part about the Book of Mormon and Sorella Defranchi began to talk about spiritual promptings which was slightly off script... So like a normal person learning a new language, I start to worry about how to say something intelligent so that I can contribute to the lesson.. It gets to be my turn to add something, and I somehow figured out the words to say it. I said, "the spirit is the best teacher". And Iole reaches inside her purse to get a piece of paper so she could write down what I said! Like what? This is the lady who I find to be slightly intimidating, and she learned something from the Holy Ghost through me! I know that it wasn't me who came up with that simple statement... And quite honestly, I don't think I could have told you the word for teacher before that lesson. But I knew it in the moment I needed it. I also think that is the first time that has ever happened to me, and it was such a testimony builder. :) 

Then on Monday night, we stayed up late cooking all the pasta for the specialized zone training the next day. I will tell you that I wasn't too thrilled about this... Especially since we only had one medium sized pot to cook pasta in. I was happy to help, but I still do think there could have been a better way to split up all the work. Oh, and the only reason we did do all of the cooking was because even after the zone leaders said we didn't need to help with anything, my serviceable loving little red hen (terms of endearment) companion said we would handle all the food. Um, that is 12 batches of pasta to cook.. And then she got upset when I asked the anziani for another pan.. Oh well. Small bump in the road.

Tuesday, we had specialized zone training and it was so so good. Maybe y'all saw pictures on the mission blog. But it was really focused on how we can teach the restoration better. I learned so much. Somewhere in preach my gospel, it says that the restoration is a diamond and how we need to teach it so that the investigators understand the apostasy. Like really understand it, and when that happens, the apostasy becomes black velvet and the diamond shines even more. Because if a person doesn't fully understand that after the death of Jesus Christ and the twelve apostles, the priesthood was taken off the earth, along with the fullness of the gospel... Then they won't understand why a restoration of those precious truths was necessary. 

Another thing I learned is that everything we teach in the church can all be stuffed under the one umbrella of "God loves us." All of the commandments, all the trials we have, the Book of Mormon and the Bible, the prophets, the restoration, the plan of salvation, and all the blessings we receive in our lives are all because God loves us. And that is why we teach it first. 

President Waddoups then spoke about fear. The main point was how as disciples of Christ, we have no need to fear, because he is with us always. If we rely on him, he will make us fearless at heart. This lesson was definitely needed as we had a few moments of extra time on Tuesday and we decided to do apartment contacting down our street. This means we stand outside and ring the citofone for every single apartment and move our way down the list as people walk by on the street staring at us. Somewhat humiliating... But we fear no men. :) 

So Wednesday had some interesting events.. We had a lesson with Angela B who is a new convert.. And we walk an hour to get to her place, but when we get to downtown Catania, we see masses of people heading towards St. Agatha church, and a whole bunch of flowers that had been run over by cars or stepped on by people. As we got closer, we realized that it was a funeral. So we started to ask around to see who died because it seemed like he was someone who was really important. It was a big deal. But I guess it was this 21 year old guy who died in a car accident because his friend had been drinking. We asked this one girl who it was, and she just said, "he's dead" back to us. We just stared at her for a few moments because we couldn't believe that came out of her mouth. We are aware he is dead, thank you for that information though. 

Then, I was writing in my journal Wednesday night before bed.. And then Sorella Defranchi comes around the corner and says, "hey Sorella?" in a really concerned voice, so I look up and she screamed and she had a ninja mask on her face.. It scared me so bad, but I still didn't scream.. Again, silent suffering. I don't understand why that happens! Haha.. Oh, and she filmed it. 

Thursday morning, we went to see Lucia Casella, one of our less actives. I swear she just continues to get cooler with each visit. She is this older woman and her husband is deceased, but during this visit, we learned that she used to ballroom dance with her husband for competitions. How cool is that? Haha... I told her that I look a Latin ballroom class and how it was the worst because all the guys were shorter than me. She completely understood how I felt. Haha.. :) 

Then we went to the Amato household to eat pranzo. This family is absolutely crazy so I prepared for the worst. The food ended up being okay.. Definitely not something I would crave again... But I left with the biggest headache. Sorella Amato who is the only member of the church.. She is like 40 and she still lives with her parents and sisters, but she doesn't speak Italian. She yells Italian velocemente which means quickly. And then she gets frustrated when you don't understand.. And I'm like, "I don't even speak slow Italian that well!" Haha.. Big headache, let me tell you. Then at the end of the pranzo, she had us taste this drink. It is frizzante water with mint syrup in it. I guess the mint is supposed to calm your stomach down after a large meal... But I just felt like I was drinking mouthwash. 

On Friday, we did weekly planning like usual. When we began looking at the past week we had, it hadn't been bad, but it definitely wasn't the best when you looked at the week as a whole, but Friday had a bunch of little silver linings in the clouds. :)  So we are planning, and then our phone rings. And it was Angelo! The guard who helped us find Angela's graduation. We lost contact for awhile because he didn't seem interested, but he called to say he wanted us to come share a message with him at work that afternoon. We were like, okay! We'd love to! So we had an appointment with Eleanora and then we were going to see Angelo. As we were walking to Eleonora's, it literally felt like a damp furnace outside. It was so hot! But by the time we left her house, the sky was all gray and cloudy. We leave, and it begins to pour down rain.. Like huge raindrops and we were soaked within a few seconds. We were so happy and all the people on the streets began to run for cover and they kept saying, "Vieni qua" which is come here.. And we were like no! È bello! Haha.. We looked like drowned rats by the time we got to Angelo's, but it was so much fun and it felt amazing! Then we were supposed to meet with Jennifer, but she wasn't home AGAIN! She has been working so much lately, but while we were waiting for her, we met this adorable woman named Anna who is also from Nigeria. She is neighbors with Jennifer, and we switched numbers and she said we should call her to set up an appointment to come back. Oh bonus, she also speaks English. :) Although teaching in English is hard now that I've been doing it in Italian. Ahh. So many silver linings in the literal clouds. 

The coolness of the rain didn't last long though as Saturday was 110 degrees and humid.. Then on Sunday it rained again... The weather is literally freaking me out. I never know what to expect. 

Saturday morning, we went to a funeral for a guy who I still don't know who he was. I guess he was an active member of the church. It ended up being a good thing we went, because they needed a pianist. I also decided while I was there that I am with mom on the whole funeral thing. I don't like them. Haha, so the closing song was "God Be With You 'Til We Meet Again". That song is like impossible to sing without crying, so I'm not sure why they brought that on themselves. And then the stake president asked me to play I Am A Child of God after the closing prayer to bring the spirit in while they took the casket out. And I played that song over and over and over again for a solid 25 minutes. I was dying inside. It might become Love at Home for me mom. It was horrible. 

Now for some other funny things... Sorella Waddoups says we are to drink 2-3 liters of water a day... That is so much, but sometimes I get so sick of water.. And I just want to drink something else.. But I don't like the milk here just plain. I'll eat it over cereal, but in all reality... It's rather gross. So, Sorella Defranchi had the genius idea of making horchatas. I tried them at BYU before, but now I am addicted. They are so good. She just makes it with rice milk, vanilla flavoring, and cinnamon... And it tastes so good! :) We will be trying to make a granita with that this week. And we will let you know how that turns out. We think we could make bank on this genius idea of ours. 

Then I have gotten a bit creative with my food. We decided to make separate food as a companionship so we don't share food anymore... Which is good with me because now I get a whole jar of Nutella to myself... ;) But, I also don't have any recipes. So I've been eating lots of curry rice, pasta with pesto, and pasta with red sauce. I also tried to make a peanut butter Thai sauce, but that was not my best idea. Haha... Any recipes that anybody has that only take a few ingredients that I can find here in Italy would be so helpful. Like 3-6 ingredients. 

Then one time during DDM, we were talking about how crazy some of the people here are.. And Anziano Bellini was like, "On a scale from 1 to Sicilian, how crazy are they?" Haha.. Then the Enna anziani brought their investigator to Jennifer's baptism. They told us she was slightly crazy.. But we thought she was really cool. So either, I've been in Catania too long and my definition of normal and crazy are now really skewed, or the Enna anziani don't know what they are talking about, or both... :p

Also, for all those who are interested... Namely dad and Jake.. We get 200€ a month on our cards. That means that my mission is one of those that costs WAY more than $400 a month! So this is my apology to all the other missionaries in the world. 

And today, we are going bowling. Yes, bowling while I could do anything else in Italy, but if we go bowling... I get to wear pants and that might be the real reason. I guess y'all will never know. ;)

Okay, so first of all... 1 Nephi 13 blew my mind when I read it in Italian this week. When you read through that chapter slowly, you see so much more meaning. I personally think it is awesome that the BOM talks about Christopher Columbus and the revolutionary war and everything that would happen after with the restoration of the gospel more than 2000 years before any of that actually happened. 

Then a few weeks ago, I talked about a scripture in 1 Nephi 10 where it says we need to rely on our redeemer, and I said I was pondering what relying meant.... Well, in Italian, it uses the verb for "to confide". When I think about the word confide, I think about trust. So we are to trust in Christ. Then I was thinking about the verb to trust. In Italian, the verb is reflexive meaning whoever is doing the verb does the verb to their own self. So, it technically means that we are trusting ourselves to God. I really liked that because this past week, I kept pondering, how do I become the instrument that he wants me to be. And the answer is... By trusting myself to him. By leaving behind the life I had before, by being willing to change, and by being willing to put myself in his hands. There is a poem used by Boyd K. Packer with an auctioneer and an old violin... Afterglow made a song about it. But here are my thoughts on it. We are all broken humans. We have all made mistakes, and we all need a bit of tuning up by the hand of the master. We can choose whether "to be sold" for $2 or $3000 by accepting the atonement or not. When we rely on our redeemer, we are trusting ourselves into his care knowing that he will make us worth more than we could ever be on our own. Heavenly Father truly loves us, and he wants us to become the best that we can be. But we can't do that by ourselves. We need the atonement of Jesus Christ and the enabling power that comes with it in order to do hard things. Long explanation to a one word change. Haha..But it was really enlightening for me to connect all of that together. 

Okay. I think this email is long enough. ;) 

Vi voglio bene! 

Love, 

Sorella Flansberg