Week 31: Almost 2016!!

Hello and merry late Christmas to y'all:

Christmas in Italy was so great. We loved getting to skype our
families and watching two approved Disney movies, and spending time
with our district.

P-day last week, we had decided to go Catholic Church nativity
hunting. We heard that the churches have pretty awesome ones to see.
But there is a tradition in Italy where you don't place baby Jesus
until Christmas Eve. So the one church we went to had Mary and Joseph
and an empty manger. We kind of joked around a bit about the missing
baby Jesus, but then we realized what Christmas would be like if Jesus
was missing. Obviously, there would be no Christmas at all. This year
while in Italy, I was given the opportunity to reflect more on why the
baby Jesus was born instead of how. Every year before, I thought about
the humble circumstances of the stable. But how grateful I am for the
birth of my Savior and for what that single event meant for the rest
of the world. That event started the unlocking of the door between us
in our fallen state and the perfected state we all want to reach.
Without the birth of Christ, the atonement never would have happened
and we would never be worthy to live in Heavenly Father's presence
again. I count my blessings everyday that I get to share the sweet
message of Jesus Christ and what it means for each of us.

Monday night, we received a call from the Anziani B here in Catania
meaning the district leader. We learned that Anziano Bellini is
getting emergency transferred. It wasn't really emergency since he
can't leave until tomorrow. But we are all sad for him. He has really
come to love the city and the people love him too because he can speak
Italian with an Italian accent. But with this transfer, it also means
that I am the only missionary in this city that has been here for more
than 2 transfers. Go me! ;)

Wednesday, all our plans fell through.. Again. Christmas week, yo. :)
I felt like we needed to go to Librino... A little area outside the
city. An ex-investigator came to church and wanted a Book of Mormon
and we exchanged phone numbers. So we had been trying to call her for
a while and she never responded, so because missionaries keep the area
book up, we had her address. There are also a bunch of less actives
who live in that area, so we took a field trip. I guess I should
preface this story by saying Librino is surrounded by places that say,
"for the love, no", "don't go here", "not allowed", "all kinds of
sketchy". We just called the Anziani and told them to keep their phone
on. Haha.. But we went, rode a bus there, and we tried to find
Rosaria. No such luck. We did leave a BOM on the floor where it said
she lived, and we went and knocked on some less active doors. Nobody
was interested in a 5 minute Christmas message and we left without
doing anything as some people would say. All I know is that I felt
like we needed to go down there. And I know that what we did, someone
needed it, even if the trip seemed pointless. We'll see. (Vediamo.)

Thursday, Christmas Eve was going to be a really good day. It ended up
not going as planned, but what day ever does that as a missionary? It
started with us riding a bus. It is a longer bus ride so we decided to
sit when we got the chance. This lady comes and sits across from us
and asks us who we are. It ends up that she is a Jehovah's Witness.
She asked if we had ever read the Bible, we said that we have studied
it. And after we explained the BOM with her, she shows us the
scripture in Revelation where it says "nobody can add to this.." And
then she said that Joseph Smith wrote the BOM after that revelation so
it can't be true. We attempted to explain that we don't believe that
Joseph Smith wrote the BOM, and that he actually translated the record
from plates that were engraved 600 years before Christ was born. She
wanted nothing to do with that, and we stopped talking while she kept
arguing. It was time for us to get off, and so I said, "we don't want
to argue with you and we need to get off." (Non vogliamo litigare con
te, e dobbiamo scendere.) She continued to follow us up the aisle of
the bus. I was just grateful that I kept my head. I realized it wasn't
worth it to argue with her even though it would have been so easy.

That night, our plans fell through again and we didn't have a dinner
appointment. President said that going door to door on Christmas Eve
wasn't allowed, so we went home and made a makeshift couch out of
extra mattresses and watched the Joseph Smith movie. We ate a bunch of
junk food and had a lot of fun. I am grateful for my testimony that
Joseph Smith is a prophet of God and that he translated the Book of
Mormon.

Christmas was a blast. We had an appointment with Sorella Bachetti and
the Battezato family. It was a really fun lunch appointment. We talked
a lot about missionary work as Gabriele is on a mission as well. It's
really fun when you get to the point in the language when you can
understand all the stories and also tell stories. My personality is
starting to form in Italian. Woohoo! We also ate a lot of good food. I
was so full and made a joke about how I was grateful that Skype is
only from the chest up. Haha... Why is Italian food so good? :)

Christmas movies. We were allowed to watch 2. After the skype call, we
watched The Incredibles. And on Boxing Day (for my lovely Australian
companion).. Basically just another day to celebrate Christmas, we
watched Narnia with the whole district. It was kind of funny because
throughout the movies, we still found spiritual messages in both of
them. I wonder if I'll ever be able to watch a movie like a normal
person again. But I learned from The Incredibles that it is never good
to lie to your spouse and that you can do anything that you put your
mind to. And Narnia has a TON of symbolism regarding the Plan of
Salvation, and it was really cool to watch that. A Disney movie
strengthened my testimony of Jesus Christ. Sounds weird, I know.

On Sunday after church, we got a call from the zone leaders saying
that Dallin H. Oaks was in Rome and that he was doing a conference for
the missionaries and it would be broadcasted. Haha.. It's funny how
members of the church literally fan boy or fan girl over the apostles
and we drop anything and everything to go listen to them. We were
like, we're down. (Ci stiamo.) The computer ended up being super lame
and we only got to see the last 15 minutes, but it was really great. I
will just be super jealous of all the missionaries who were serving in
Rome on Sunday.

Sunday night as I was writing in my journal, our sweet neighbor who is
also deaf turned on the Catholic prayer channel. It just reminded me
of Music 101, Jake, with all the ancient Latin music we listened to. I
just love Italy so much!

Con amore,
Sorella Flansberg