Dear family and friends:
This has been a long week. The time warp quit working... Haha, just
kidding. But this week did seem really long. However, this next week,
I will hit my 6 month mark. How did that happen? I still am not quite
sure.
On Monday night, we had planned to help Jennifer move into her new
house, so we thought we were going to go to her old house and help her
pack up her things. But we arrived, and she said she was at her new
house, and we didn't know where that was. So, we went on a treasure
hunt. We would call her, and she would give us the next thing to look
for. Haha.. It was kind of fun. And it was refreshing because we wore
tennis shoes and sweats. I think that was the first time walking
around the city where my feet didn't hurt. Jennifer's new house is
wonderful and her landlord is literally an angel sent from heaven.
There are windows, and nice floors, and a little more space than her
other one.
On Tuesday, we had a lesson with our investigator, Gabriella. I don't
think I've told you about her before. Whoops! She is a golden simp and
we love her. She is adorable, and super short, and has such a blank
religious slate that we can write all over it. She asks a whole bunch
of questions, and she is already into second Nefi. Her boyfriend is
doing dialysis for liver failure from a drinking problem so she is all
about the word of wisdom. However, she isn't married, so we have to
work on that issue before she can get baptized. She is also like 50,
so I feel like the word boyfriend is a bit odd.
One day this week, we had like zero lessons planned. So, we took the
stop smoking program to one of the less actives we work with, and as
we were walking back, we stopped at a bancomat(ATM) for Sorella Decker
to get money. Then we both had the idea to go get French fries at this
place. Side note: this place puts sauce on French fries, like garlic
sauce and curry sauce. It's a thing from Holland, and if someone took
that idea to BYU, they would make bank. Copyright validated... :)
Anyways, we went to buy french fries and then got on the bus to go
home when we got a call from Marianne. She was having a really hard
time and because we didn't have plans, we were able to go and help
her. We have decided that this woman has so much faith and Heavenly
Father loves her so much because of all the miracles we have seen in
the past few weeks since we met her.
On Thursday, we had English course. Halfway through, Valentina asked
what the church's viewpoint is on war, and the entire English course
turned into a gospel discussion. It was really cool, and everybody was
listening to us very intently. I just love sharing the gospel, because
that is when I am the most happy.
Friday night, we had 2 hours to do finding. I was on a scambio with
Sorella Fuller, because we had the Messina Sorelle with us after the
training on Friday. I didn't really want to go finding, but I knew
that we needed to. So, we set a goal to get 2 numbers and have like 2
quality conversations. And we came back with 3 numbers and a work
location. I truly saw the blessings of setting a goal and having the
faith to go and talk to people on the street even when I didn't want
to walk any further or go out into the cold.
On Saturday, we had to go to Siracusa or Syracuse for stake
conference. We went to the bus stop to catch a bus to the train
station, and the bus sat there for literally 20 minutes and we had to
go, like we were going to miss the bus. So, I said an unspoken prayer
that the circular bus would come, and that we could get there on time.
And right before the driver of the bus drove away, there comes the
628. It was literally a miracle, because Heavenly Father knew I didn't
need any added stress... Not that I was stressed.. But it was a
blessing. Then we went to Siracusa and had stake conference. The
entire thing was about keeping the sabbath day holy. Even if I got
super bored after 4 hours of the sabbath day, I still learned
something. :)
In Italian, you say "observe the sanctity or sanctification of Sunday"
and someone mentioned that we should also observe the sanctification
of ourselves while we partake of the sacrament. Another person said
that there are cycles for everything.. Day and night, winter to
spring, and all of those cycles are meant for the earth to rest.
Humans need to rest too, so that cycle is consisted of 6 days of work
and 1 day of rest. The other thing I liked was someone said that the
sabbath is like a spiritual shower. It refreshes us and washes us
clean.
Two other things from this week. This weekend, we had a sleepover with
all 8 Sorelle since we were all here for stake conference. We are also
doing pday in Siracusa. It will be really fun. We are going to Ortigia
today that has a whole bunch of cool Greek ruins. I love this place.
Anyways, one of the Sorelle told us about the painting in the Sistine
chapel and how Michaelangelo added things that actually go against
Catholic doctrine. God and Adam have the same kind of body, Heavenly Father
and heavenly mother, the cherubim and the flaming sword, and Heavenly
Father and Jesus Christ appearing to Adam in the garden of Eden. :)
How cool is it to think those things are painted on the ceiling of the
headquarters of the Catholic Church? Haha.. It was cool to learn and
see on postcards that people have.
Then this week we also had specialized training. Nobody mentioned
seeing pictures so they probably aren't up yet... But it was so good!
I felt like every one of the trainings was meant for me and it was
such an answer to my prayers. Some of the things that I took from the
conference was that as missionaries, especially in other parts of the
world, disregard preach my gospel because they think it was written
for American missionaries. But as we worked with it a bit, I found a
new found appreciation for that book. Someone said that it was written
for us by someone who knows more than us. And if we don't use it, we
are making missionary work harder than it needs to be. And that
chapter 3 is only like 20 pages and the rest of that book is for the
missionaries. It was really enlightening. Then we talked about having
the faith to finish. Not necessarily finish the mission but finish
everything. They talked about how our happiest moments on the mission
are when we are out working and not when we are in bed sleeping. And
then they asked us rhetorically whether we have faith like Nephi or
Laman and Lemuel. They said that all of the brothers accepted the
mission call to collect the plates, but Laman and Lemuel were going to
give up when it started to get hard. It was just a really cool
comparison. Then president talked about how we receive and recognize
spiritual promptings and revelation. It was just a really great
conference and it got me all pumped up to be a better missionary.
Well, I love you all. Happy thanksgiving! We were actually invited to
the American base for thanksgiving, so I might be getting turkey after
all. Italians don't really celebrate thanksgiving. They don't even
really know when it is. It was fun to explain to them what we eat and
about Black Friday during English course. Americans are crazy! :)
Love you!
Con amore,
Sorella Flansberg
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