Italy Rome Mission

Hello family and friends:

This week was probably one of the longest weeks of my life. But... I
survived! The first part of the week was running around the beautiful
city of Catania saluting (saying goodbye to people).. I forget you
don't say that in English. It was hard to say goodbye to the people I
have come to love. And I realized it is hard to let go of a city. But
LADISPOLI is wonderful. More on that later. :) I also thought of some
things that I don't miss about Catania... Namely the bus system, dog
poop, dirty streets, and car horns. It was still my home for the last
7 months, so obviously it was still hard to say goodbye.

Wednesday morning, the assistants had a Skype call with all of the
missionaries who were beginning training. We had 17 new missionaries
come in last week, so our mission is turning quite young. It was good
for me to listen to as well, and I learned some things for when the
day comes that I start training. Sorella Davison has an Italian
greenie and she looks like they are doing good. Also the family we
began teaching are progressing! So happy! Wednesday night was
absolutely crazy as we had all sisters in the zone staying at our
house and the bus system wasn't working because of St. Agatha. It was
her holiday this last week. So glad I dodged out of most of it. I also
had to finish packing and finish up getting ready for my long train
ride on Thursday!

The train ride started out good. We got to Messina where we crossed
the strait on a ferry, and then we met up with the other missionaries
traveling from Palermo. One by one, the missionaries all started
getting off the train as they arrived at their destinations and then I
was left on the train with 4 elders as a solo sister. That was a bit
of an odd experience. But I met Anziano Mika (for all BYU fans and
ticket office people). Yes, he is really tall even for me. :p The
train ride was long. We arrived in the Rome train station around 6:45
and ran to catch another train to Ladispoli that left at 7:12 on the
far end of the station. That was a good workout.

I met Sorella Condé. She was raised in Boise, Idaho but now her family
lives in Logan. She goes to University of Utah... And she is studying
the harp. She wants to study musical therapy. She is the youngest of 6
kids, and she is such a great missionary. The work is not so great
here in Ladispoli. We have like 0 real investigators, but we know that
we will see miracles with the faith we have. The ward here is awesome!
It has a bunch of really young families, a lot of members speak
English but they still speak in Italian to us unless we don't
understand. There are a ton of kids, the stake president of the Rome
West stake is in the ward, and everyone is super nice. The church
building is the bottom part of an apartment building, so that is
interesting, but it is only a 10 minute walk from our house. Score! :)

When we got off the train in Ladispoli, this guy named Sergio offered
to help with my luggage. It was super sweet of him and we ended up
talking to him about English course, so we are off to a great start.
This city is so beautiful, little, clean, not very old, but I'm close
to Rome, so I can get all that from there. And just walking from the
station to our house, I couldn't help but singing, "I think I'm gonna
like it here" from the movie Annie.

There is an adorable new convert here that got baptized like 15 days
ago. Her name is Dayana. I don't know her that well yet, but she is in
her early 20's and absolutely adorable. Oh wait, I already said that.

My first real night in the city, we went to see this less active
Peruvian family. And that was probably one of my favorite nights of
the mission. The mom is from Lima, but the kids all grew up here. We
taught them about how when God gives us a commandment, he always gives
us a way to follow the commandment like going to church even when it
is hard. We also sang Nephi's Courage with them. Then the mom asked if
we wanted to stay for dinner. We couldn't really say no... So we
played Ninja and a few other hand games while we waited. And I learned
how to play jacks! When we left, the entire family agreed to come to
church! I think it was time well spent. :)

The Europe area has this plan thing... Like an area plan. And this
plan has 3 categories. Bring a friend. Become spiritually and
materially self sufficient. And find an ancestor. We had a training
thing with all the ward leaders about this plan and it was phenomenal.
I took all my notes in Italian so I got an extra hour and a half of
language study. They basically just talked about how this is important
and how they can help the missionaries (that's us) if they do the
plan. I love wards that want to help us!

The house we live in has this beautiful view of the ocean since it is
only 2 blocks away.. And there are 2 bathrooms. It is smaller than
Catania because we don't have to house sisters. But it is so cute.
There is so much fresh air here and the streets are really clean.

Overall... I love this city. It's hard not knowing the people very
well yet, but I can find my way to the church without getting lost and
if I can find the fountain with the turtles than I can find my way
home.

Today for p-day, we went and toured ALL of central Rome without
meaning too... it is beautiful! I felt like Lizzie McGuire.. And I'll
send some pictures home.

I hope you all had a good week. I love you!

Con amore,
Sorella Flansberg