Dear loved ones,
This email is coming in a little later because we had to deep clean
our apartment this morning. :)
The weather here in Ladispoli has been beautiful lately. Spring has
come. And I'm not complaining. I put my big coat away today, and I
don't have to wear tights everyday anymore. This week with the nice
weather, I also had a nice little visit by my pollen allergies. But
I'm feeling much better today.
I have quite a bit to say, and I honestly don't know what day all of
these things happened on, not that it matters.
We met with one of our less actives, Enriquetta. She's from Argentina,
I think.. And her family aren't members, so that makes it difficult
for her to come to church and she travels to see her family a lot.
Because here in Italy, family is so important! Families are important
everywhere, but you know what I mean. Her 5 yr old granddaughter woke
up from her nap while we were there, and she is mostly blind. But it
was amazing how she could feel the spirit even though she couldn't see
us or who we were very well. Sorella Tellez gave her a picture of
Jesus, and she kept asking "why?" questions every time we would say
something he did or when we would say that he loves children. She also
wanted to know why he had a beard. Haha... She has such a special
spirit and it was so fun to see her be curious about this man they
call Jesus.
Tuesday night, I wanted to shake things up at English course. So I
decided to play Redeemer on the piano for the students for the
spiritual thought. We only had like 3 students there, so they were the
lucky ones who got to hear me share my talent. It was a fun little
surprise for them for Easter, and it was perfect because we got to
share our testimonies of the Savior after. I think they were touched.
Wednesday, we had zone conference. It was amazing, like always. I'm
sure you all saw pictures on the mission blog. It was fun to see all
of my fellow missionaries. At this point in my mission, I know a lot
of people in the mission, especially since my group of sisters is the
oldest in the zone. As I said before, the mission is super young
considering that my group just hit 10 months. But all of the new
missionaries blew me away with their birth testimonies. They were all
so on point, and their Italian was awesome! The new missionaries must
be smarter, haha.. One thing I liked from the conference was that it
doesn't matter how many talents we have at the end of day. It only
matters how you used those talents to help others. Another thing I
liked was someone said that as we walk down the street, our presence
as missionaries is noticed. I guess the people who ignore us just
don't like happy people sharing a beautiful message about Christ, even
if we only want to say hello. But that's okay. :) Then President
showed us a demonstration of something he learned at a conference with
Elder Christofferson. He had two missionaries help him out. One, he
told to march like he was in the army, 10 steps in place. The other,
he said to march 10 steps toward someone. Then he asked, which one had
done more work. Neither, they both marched 10 steps. But then he asked
who went further. And obviously the one who walked towards somebody.
President said that as we have goals, we go further, and work just the
same amount as people who don't.
Wednesday night, we went to the Poli's house for dinner. They had
invited us and an English course student who has an interest in
genealogy over for dinner. She is from Poland, and we don't really
know how to use the fancy stuff on family search, but Fratello Poli
does. It was so good. She made us a light dinner, because she knew we
were Sorelle. Haha... :) That was my second meal appointment at a
members in my whole 2 months here in Ladispoli, and it was really fun.
And now, we have a better relationship with that member family. For
example, Sorella Poli said goodbye to us on Sunday before she left.
She never did that before. :)
This week, I had a few experiences where I felt like the Book of
Mormon was speaking to me specifically. I know that it doesn't just
happen by coincidence, and I know they were answers to my prayers.
Tender mercies that also help confirm my testimony of the Book of
Mormon while answering my question/needs at the same time. I know the
book is true, and even just reading it again has been such a blessing.
I've learned and seen so much new stuff. It's almost like I've never
read it before. But I have, a lot.
One day this week, we tried to see a less active, but she didn't let
us in. So, we walked down the road a bit with the intention of doing
street finding. I saw this lady sitting on the side of the road with
her big, white, husky. I felt the need to talk to her so I crossed the
street without telling my companions where I was going.. Oops.. Haha,
but she was so sweet. She was waiting for her daughter to come down
for a horse riding lesson. She is from Romania and orthodox and her
name is Theodora. She said she didn't have much time, but she watched
the Easter video and we talked for a bit more. Her dog conveniently
refused to get in the car, and that let us talk for longer. I think
the spirit can work on animals too. She ended up giving us her phone
number, so we'll see where that goes.
On Friday night, after a long day, I asked for a blessing from the
anziani. And it was just the thing I needed. I don't know why I am the
one in the trio at this time, but I know that Heavenly Father knows
and that it is for my good and for my experience. It gave me the much
needed comfort that I was looking for, and for the last few days, I
have felt like I can conquer anything and everything. I know I can do
anything I set my mind to with the help of my savior, Jesus Christ. It
certainly is never easy, but it sure is easier and more peaceful when
we ask for his help.
On Saturday, 2 English course students, Giada and Fabrizio asked if we
could come help them in the community garden that they started. It had
been a few months, and anybody knows what happens after a few months
in a garden. There were weeds galore, and if you all know me...
Pulling weeds is not my favorite thing in the world. But I kept a good
attitude by imagining what Christ would do if he were there pulling
weeds with me. I decided he would use the weeds to tell a parable.
That a weed is like a sin. If we leave it for too long, it creates a
big mess. Haha.. Also, some of these weeds were really stubborn. And
the word for "come on" in Italian is "dai" pronounced die. And Sorella
Hunter pointed out that when I said that as I'm pulling the weeds out,
I meant it in both ways. Haha.. Afterwards, we ate lunch with them,
and they made this delicious sauce by blending up a bell pepper and
adding salt. They put it on crackers, and it was SO GOOD! Don't worry.
I've started to collect recipes!
Also, Saturday afternoon, I was called to give a talk in sacrament
meeting the next day. Why does that always happen to me? Haha... At
least it only had to be 5 minutes, and it was for the kids (they have
a talk for the bambini every Sunday because there are so many kids in
the ward). And at least I didn't have to wow anybody with fancy
Italian, because I needed to make it simple enough that the kids could
understand, which is harder than you think. Haha.. Oh well. I got to
talk about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Also, President and
Sorella Waddoups came to church, so that wasn't intimidating at all
with my talk. Meno male, they thought it went well.
After church, we went to an English course student's house. His name
is Johnny and he is a pilot and lives out in this beautiful house in
this type of gated community. But it was better than a gated
community. His wife is the cutest thing ever, and their two boys were
well behaved and polite. They also had this other little boy over for
a few days from this orphanage run by nuns. He comes to their house
every so often to spend a few days. This man is the dryest Mormon I
have ever met. Holy moly. His family is the most important thing ever
to him and he wants to do so much good in the world. Also, his house
has got to be the most beautiful Italian house I've seen here. Also,
his kids play tennis. So I just like this family a lot. The food was
great, and I got the wife's focaccia recipe.
I love you all! Have a fantastic week!
Love,
Sorella Flansberg
Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Monday, March 21, 2016
Week 43: trio life, temple grounds, transfer craziness, battesimo al mare, and missing keys
Hello!
I have some more adventures for you all to enjoy this week!
Monday, I was in a trio with Sorella Condé and Sorella Tingey in Rome
2. We went to see St. Paul's basilica, and we also went to see this
Peruvian family that night. They are from Trujillo (Jake) and they
were really sweet. The son is a member of the church, and the sisters
are teaching the parents. They made us dinner unexpectedly and it was
actually really good. It was pasta with a fresh tomato sauce and tuna.
Sounds weird, but I actually liked it. As we were eating, we started
talking about how Jacob ate Guinea pigs while in Peru. I just didn't
know the word for Guinea pig in Italian, so I tried to circumlocute
using words like mouse and small and rodent. Haha... Anyways, then
they said cui cui and I recognized that. Haha... It was just a funny
moment. We taught them a bit more about the Book of Mormon, and they
said they would try to read. :)
Tuesday, I was in the same trio, and after having 2 different district
meetings, one with my district, and one with the Rome 2 district, we
spent a lot of time waiting for buses that never actually came. Even
though they were supposed to, so we ended up going to the temple
grounds early since we had English course there that night. We were
early and the temple is in the middle of nowhere, and Sorella Condé
had the idea of handing out temple pass along cards to the cars stuck
in traffic... I have never felt more like a bangladeshian guy in my
life. In Italy, they are everywhere trying to sell things to cars or
trying to wash your windshield. It was scary and after 2 minutes, we
decided it wasn't a good idea. We ended up sitting on the side of the
road and made some calls. But English course that night was amazing.
Even though the temple isn't finished yet, the feeling when you walk
on the site was tangible. It was so different from just outside the
gate where we had been sitting on the side of the road. And how many
people get to say they've been on the construction site for a temple
before? Not very many, penso io.
I ate salsa that day for the first time in 10 months. That was a
staple of mine in college, and I almost cried tears of joy. The senior
couple in the other district made some... Dreams do come true. Haha...
In our district meeting, we did the activity where you pass around a
piece of paper and everyone writes something nice about you. It was a
fun activity, and everyone was saying how they know I'm supposed to be
the one in this trio and that I can do it. It was just nice to receive
some encouragement.
On Wednesday, I was in a trio with Sorella Roberts and Sorella Ensign
in Rome 6. That morning, we tried to accidentally "run" into the new
greenies, but we ended up not being able to. Haha... We actually had
to do stuff at the church though. We were still diligent missionaries.
:) That afternoon, we went to see this Filipino family. There was this
adorable 4 year old kid who only speaks Tagalog and a little bit of
Italian. He was really shy and reminded me of me when I was little and
hiding behind my moms legs. At one point while we were talking, he
wanted to know what our names were and shyly asked us. Hearing that
'Come ti chiami' was probably the cutest thing I've heard in a long
time.
That night after English course, we rode the bus home and I felt this
prompting to go talk to this woman. I put it off a little bit because
I was already sitting down and didn't want to get up just to sit down
again and look weird. But I kept getting the prompting. I also noticed
Sorella Roberts sitting on the edge of her seat. Our stop came and
thankfully she got off the bus with us. We started up a conversation
and exchanged numbers. She thought we were from this church that
starts with an S, that now I can't remember. But twice in one day, we
were mistaken as people from this church. It was odd, but she seemed
genuinely interested. Her name was Miriam, and now I'm curious to see
how it all plays out and why we were prompted so strongly to talk to
her. We arrived home, kicked off our shoes, and started to relax a bit
when we got a call saying that we had to pick up the Rome 5 Sorelle
from the metro stop. So the shoes went back on, and we went to meet
them. That is when I first met my adopted daughter... And boy is she
cute. ;) haha..
Thursday was transfer day, and we had 7 big bags to get to Ladispoli
with only 3 people. Not to mention taking a metro and a train that
don't wait very long at the stops. Haha... It was an adventure to say
the least. And the anziani were our heroes, because they dragged all
of their bags and ours to our apartment before they went home. I
promised to make them cookies, so hopefully that baking excursion
won't be a complete disaster. While I was in Rome for the week, we had
mission people coming in and out of our apartment to get it all set up
for 3 sisters. It was clean when we left and when we got home, it was
a complete disaster. I wasn't too happy, but now we fixed it all up.
On Friday, we got our new washer! The delivery/repair people were so
Italian though. I can't explain it... But they were in and out of our
apartment in 10 minutes. Literally. They ran in, took the old one,
pushed the new one in, tried shoving the old one into the elevator
while breaking pieces off the sides, and setting the new one up. All
in 10 minutes. They certainly weren't wasting any time. Haha. It is
nice having a new washer, and it plays a cute little song at the end
when the cycle is done. I'm just grateful we don't have a lake in our
house anymore.
That night, the anziani had their baptism. Lorenzo wanted to be
baptized in the sea... And it was freezing cold according to the
anziani, but it did make for beautiful pictures. Someone had a camera
like mine at home there, and it was so fun to play with. It made me
miss mine, but someday I'll return to Italy with it. :) The baptism
was beautiful, but the confirmation on Sunday was even better. Lorenzo
was so prepared for the gospel. He was a 4 week baptism from the time
the missionaries met him... Not that it matters.
We had another lesson with Cinzia on Saturday. We talked about
obedience using the story of the stripling warriors. And we talked
about how obedience to commandants will bring us blessings that the
Lord is just waiting to give us. The lesson then turned to having real
intent. And Sorella Tellez bore a beautiful testimony. She is an older
sister, and she is also the only member in her family. I think I
figured out that Cinzia is scared of receiving the answer that the
church is true and then having to change her life because of it. But
we actually had her read the talk by Elder Martino from the last
general conference. Cinzia is amazing nevertheless. But keep her in
your prayers! Ahh! I'm getting excited because general conference is
so SOON!
The last adventure of the week was last night. We left the house for a
lesson with Dayana, and as soon as Sorella Tellez closed the door, I
realized I had forgotten the keys. (Just the millionth thing that I've
forgotten this week). Thankfully the anziani have an extra set... But
they weren't answering their phone. So, we had our lesson with Dayana
inside her car outside the church because the keys were locked in our
house. Then we went to find some less actives and ran into an ex simp
named Bismarck from Nigeria. He said he wanted to meet with us again,
and we showed him the new Easter video. The less actives weren't home,
and so we continued doing street contacting as we walked to the
anziani's apartment. They were actually home, meno male, and they just
laughed at me for forgetting the keys. Dayana said that I need the
ball Neville's grandmother gave him in Harry Potter and I just said
that it would be red all the time and I wouldn't even know what I was
forgetting just like Neville. Haha...
This week, I have also spoken more Italian than ever. It's been a bit
tricky, because I always feel like I'm leaving somebody out of the
conversation, but it gets really tiring repeating everything you say
in 2 different languages. Thankfully, Sorella Hunter is trying to
learn Italian as fast as she can. Then I forget what I told what
person and in what language, and my brain doesn't even know the
difference between the two languages anymore. But life is good!
Tiring, but I'm learning a lot... And I've got the savior on my side.
:)
Con amore,
Sorella Flansberg
Sent from my iPad
I have some more adventures for you all to enjoy this week!
Monday, I was in a trio with Sorella Condé and Sorella Tingey in Rome
2. We went to see St. Paul's basilica, and we also went to see this
Peruvian family that night. They are from Trujillo (Jake) and they
were really sweet. The son is a member of the church, and the sisters
are teaching the parents. They made us dinner unexpectedly and it was
actually really good. It was pasta with a fresh tomato sauce and tuna.
Sounds weird, but I actually liked it. As we were eating, we started
talking about how Jacob ate Guinea pigs while in Peru. I just didn't
know the word for Guinea pig in Italian, so I tried to circumlocute
using words like mouse and small and rodent. Haha... Anyways, then
they said cui cui and I recognized that. Haha... It was just a funny
moment. We taught them a bit more about the Book of Mormon, and they
said they would try to read. :)
Tuesday, I was in the same trio, and after having 2 different district
meetings, one with my district, and one with the Rome 2 district, we
spent a lot of time waiting for buses that never actually came. Even
though they were supposed to, so we ended up going to the temple
grounds early since we had English course there that night. We were
early and the temple is in the middle of nowhere, and Sorella Condé
had the idea of handing out temple pass along cards to the cars stuck
in traffic... I have never felt more like a bangladeshian guy in my
life. In Italy, they are everywhere trying to sell things to cars or
trying to wash your windshield. It was scary and after 2 minutes, we
decided it wasn't a good idea. We ended up sitting on the side of the
road and made some calls. But English course that night was amazing.
Even though the temple isn't finished yet, the feeling when you walk
on the site was tangible. It was so different from just outside the
gate where we had been sitting on the side of the road. And how many
people get to say they've been on the construction site for a temple
before? Not very many, penso io.
I ate salsa that day for the first time in 10 months. That was a
staple of mine in college, and I almost cried tears of joy. The senior
couple in the other district made some... Dreams do come true. Haha...
In our district meeting, we did the activity where you pass around a
piece of paper and everyone writes something nice about you. It was a
fun activity, and everyone was saying how they know I'm supposed to be
the one in this trio and that I can do it. It was just nice to receive
some encouragement.
On Wednesday, I was in a trio with Sorella Roberts and Sorella Ensign
in Rome 6. That morning, we tried to accidentally "run" into the new
greenies, but we ended up not being able to. Haha... We actually had
to do stuff at the church though. We were still diligent missionaries.
:) That afternoon, we went to see this Filipino family. There was this
adorable 4 year old kid who only speaks Tagalog and a little bit of
Italian. He was really shy and reminded me of me when I was little and
hiding behind my moms legs. At one point while we were talking, he
wanted to know what our names were and shyly asked us. Hearing that
'Come ti chiami' was probably the cutest thing I've heard in a long
time.
That night after English course, we rode the bus home and I felt this
prompting to go talk to this woman. I put it off a little bit because
I was already sitting down and didn't want to get up just to sit down
again and look weird. But I kept getting the prompting. I also noticed
Sorella Roberts sitting on the edge of her seat. Our stop came and
thankfully she got off the bus with us. We started up a conversation
and exchanged numbers. She thought we were from this church that
starts with an S, that now I can't remember. But twice in one day, we
were mistaken as people from this church. It was odd, but she seemed
genuinely interested. Her name was Miriam, and now I'm curious to see
how it all plays out and why we were prompted so strongly to talk to
her. We arrived home, kicked off our shoes, and started to relax a bit
when we got a call saying that we had to pick up the Rome 5 Sorelle
from the metro stop. So the shoes went back on, and we went to meet
them. That is when I first met my adopted daughter... And boy is she
cute. ;) haha..
Thursday was transfer day, and we had 7 big bags to get to Ladispoli
with only 3 people. Not to mention taking a metro and a train that
don't wait very long at the stops. Haha... It was an adventure to say
the least. And the anziani were our heroes, because they dragged all
of their bags and ours to our apartment before they went home. I
promised to make them cookies, so hopefully that baking excursion
won't be a complete disaster. While I was in Rome for the week, we had
mission people coming in and out of our apartment to get it all set up
for 3 sisters. It was clean when we left and when we got home, it was
a complete disaster. I wasn't too happy, but now we fixed it all up.
On Friday, we got our new washer! The delivery/repair people were so
Italian though. I can't explain it... But they were in and out of our
apartment in 10 minutes. Literally. They ran in, took the old one,
pushed the new one in, tried shoving the old one into the elevator
while breaking pieces off the sides, and setting the new one up. All
in 10 minutes. They certainly weren't wasting any time. Haha. It is
nice having a new washer, and it plays a cute little song at the end
when the cycle is done. I'm just grateful we don't have a lake in our
house anymore.
That night, the anziani had their baptism. Lorenzo wanted to be
baptized in the sea... And it was freezing cold according to the
anziani, but it did make for beautiful pictures. Someone had a camera
like mine at home there, and it was so fun to play with. It made me
miss mine, but someday I'll return to Italy with it. :) The baptism
was beautiful, but the confirmation on Sunday was even better. Lorenzo
was so prepared for the gospel. He was a 4 week baptism from the time
the missionaries met him... Not that it matters.
We had another lesson with Cinzia on Saturday. We talked about
obedience using the story of the stripling warriors. And we talked
about how obedience to commandants will bring us blessings that the
Lord is just waiting to give us. The lesson then turned to having real
intent. And Sorella Tellez bore a beautiful testimony. She is an older
sister, and she is also the only member in her family. I think I
figured out that Cinzia is scared of receiving the answer that the
church is true and then having to change her life because of it. But
we actually had her read the talk by Elder Martino from the last
general conference. Cinzia is amazing nevertheless. But keep her in
your prayers! Ahh! I'm getting excited because general conference is
so SOON!
The last adventure of the week was last night. We left the house for a
lesson with Dayana, and as soon as Sorella Tellez closed the door, I
realized I had forgotten the keys. (Just the millionth thing that I've
forgotten this week). Thankfully the anziani have an extra set... But
they weren't answering their phone. So, we had our lesson with Dayana
inside her car outside the church because the keys were locked in our
house. Then we went to find some less actives and ran into an ex simp
named Bismarck from Nigeria. He said he wanted to meet with us again,
and we showed him the new Easter video. The less actives weren't home,
and so we continued doing street contacting as we walked to the
anziani's apartment. They were actually home, meno male, and they just
laughed at me for forgetting the keys. Dayana said that I need the
ball Neville's grandmother gave him in Harry Potter and I just said
that it would be red all the time and I wouldn't even know what I was
forgetting just like Neville. Haha...
This week, I have also spoken more Italian than ever. It's been a bit
tricky, because I always feel like I'm leaving somebody out of the
conversation, but it gets really tiring repeating everything you say
in 2 different languages. Thankfully, Sorella Hunter is trying to
learn Italian as fast as she can. Then I forget what I told what
person and in what language, and my brain doesn't even know the
difference between the two languages anymore. But life is good!
Tiring, but I'm learning a lot... And I've got the savior on my side.
:)
Con amore,
Sorella Flansberg
Sent from my iPad
Monday, March 14, 2016
Pictures!
Just casually studying at my desk. :)
This is my adopted daughter.. :)
Sent from my iPadMe and Sorella Bray! :)
Week 42: The 7 Surprises of the Italy Rome Mission
Buongiorno tutti!
This week, I titled my email the 7 surprises of the Italy Rome
Mission. Play on words off the 7 wonders of the world. As I continue,
you will begin to see just how crazy our week was.
On Monday night, Sorella Condé wanted to go on an exchange and so we
met up in Rome after p-day with Sorella Roberts and Sorella Ensign. I
took Sorella Ensign back to Ladispoli with me, and we had such a fun
time. We walked on the beach in the morning, and had a great lesson
with Dayana and a ward family. Sorella Ensign is a greenie, so I did a
majority of the lesson and she bore her testimony. But she is so
great, because she hopped in right when I needed her to. The next
morning, we switched back companions right before our DDM.
DDM this last week was so good. Anziano Fagerburg shared a diagram
with us about how we all have human needs. These needs are:
- to live
- To love/be loved
- To feel important
- Variety
He said that we then have beliefs in a belief window. These are the
things that we all believe and they are influenced by our human needs.
Then we create rules for our beliefs. If I believe that dogs are
scary, then every time I see a dog, I will run away. Our
behavior/actions are based on these rules. Then after the process is
over, we can see results. Our results are based on our beliefs. If the
results aren't meeting our human needs, then we have a bad belief in
our belief window. So, if I believe that I can't speak Italian, then I
won't speak it as my rule. If I don't speak Italian, I will never
learn, and then the results don't satisfy my needs to live in Italy.
If I can't speak Italian, then I won't survive here. If we find that
the results of something we are doing are not fulfilling our human
needs, then we need to change our beliefs, and not our behaviors. This
entire idea just lit a lightbulb in my head, and will probably
continue to influence my whole mission.
After DDM, President Waddoups said that he wanted to talk to me and
Sorella Condé. We had a nice little follow up interview, and he told
me that he was emergency transferring Sorella Condé to Rome 2 for the
week. SURPRISE #1. He then said that I would be companions with
Sorella Bray. She was supposed to go home last week, but her parents
had already bought tickets to pick her up when they changed release
dates, so she stayed an extra week in the mission. So basically I was
companions with a zombie all week since she was already a "dead"
missionary. SURPRISE #2. It was really fun to be with her. I learned a
lot, and now I am companion less and in a trio in Rome.
Before moving on with the rest of the week, I just have to say that we
got a new phone. When I first came in the mission, everyone had these
little Samsung smart phones, then when those started to stop working,
everybody got these silver flip phones. And then since we lost that
one, we got downgraded again. This phone is probably the worst phone I
have ever seen, but I am grateful for a phone. I really am. But it is
literally a toy... Haha...
Also, in Catania, I made the goal to walk up the stairs instead of
taking the elevator, but then when I came here, Sorella Condé told me
no since we live on the 5th floor. But then this last week, Sorella
Bray wanted to do it with me and by the end of the week, I was only
huffing and puffing on the last floor. It is a really good additional
workout, I promise you. :)
I also tried to make this recipe I got from Angela, the new convert in
Catania, for panettone. I was really excited to make it and eat it.
But, it started baking in the oven, and I didn't watch it close
enough, so it burnt the top when the inside was still liquid. I'll
have to work on my baking skills before someone will marry me. Haha...
Good thing I still have time to practice. I'm blaming it on the oven
and the weird Italian measurements.
SURPRISE #3. Transfer calls. I was completely caught off guard by
these... So get excited. We are going to be in a trio! And we are
going to change the history of trio missionary work. It gets a bad rep
all the time, and even though they aren't my favorite thing, I know
that this is what is supposed to happen. We are going to be one
terrific trio.
SURPRISE #4. I'm adopting a child. Her name is Sorella Hunter and she
is in her 2nd transfer. I'll finish training her with 12 weeks, and
then she will be all set to go. I'm excited to train... And I'm sure
it will be a little overwhelming, but I know Heavenly Father will help
me. I'm her 3rd mom and Ladispoli will be her 3rd city. Can you
imagine that?
SURPRISE #5. My other companion is Sorella Tellez. She is from Peru,
but she only speaks Spanish and Italian. She lived in Italy for a few
years before the mission, so at least she is fluent in it. I'm sure I
will get a lot of practice in acting as the translator for everything.
Haha... We've talked on the phone twice now, and she speaks slow
enough so I can understand. I told Heavenly Father last week that I
was starting to feel like I was in a rut with the language. Haha.. He
has a sense of humor, let me tell you. She's 2.5 months younger than
me in the mission, so I have my work cut out for me. I don't feel like
I'm old enough to be doing this, but Heavenly Father has confidence in
me. My group has some of the oldest sister missionaries in the mission
now. Crazy!
Sorella Condé is going to Foggia. I totally guessed it, and she is
very excited!
SURPRISE #6. I'm a mother to another son. Anziano Fagerburg is
training, and since I'm the oldest sister in the district/city, I am
technically his mom in mission lingo.
Well, enough mission lingo for now. This transfer will be so much fun!
SURPRISE #7. On Sunday, we travelled to Rome and we attended a baptism
of the assistants. They asked us to help them with a musical number,
so we did. We sang the youth theme, come unto Christ, and according to
them we saved the day. Sorella Bray and I thought we'd just be singing
all the girl parts together, but here's where the surprise is... We
sang SOLOS! And it went okay. I haven't sung in public since primary,
so that was a fun experience. Sorella Waddoups came up to me afterward
and told me that I shouldn't hide talents. Haha.. Oops! I guess I'm
always the one on the piano.
Also, as an added dose of happy today, Cinzia came to church
yesterday. Che miracolo! She enjoyed it, and the fast and testimony
meeting we had was wonderful. The ward in Ladispoli is wonderful.
Also, she was the first investigator who came to church for me in the
last 18-21 weeks of my mission. If you do the math, that is about half
of the time I've been out here. If you couldn't tell, I was on cloud
9, and I still am. Such a blessing! We are going to have some baptisms
this next transfer. I can feel it, and I have the faith that it can
happen.
I'm just going to share my testimony really quick. I am so grateful
for my savior, Jesus Christ. He has changed my life, and as the new
Easter video said, I have found new life in Him. He is there whenever
we need him. All we need to do is reach out and call out for help. And
I know that he will come. He loves us. Each and everyone of us. I know
that he died for us, that he suffered for us, that he lived for us to
show us an example, and I know that he lives today. He is only as far
away as we make him. Through him, we can find peace. True peace. The
kind of peace that the world doesn't know. His love is there. He gives
us miracles everyday, in attempts that we will recognize his hand in
our lives. My challenge for you all is to pray. Pray to feel his love
and his peace. Then wait and listen. Pay attention to how you feel.
And I know you will feel it. We can all come closer to him.
That's it for today. I hope you enjoyed the seven wonders of my week.
Con amore,
Sorella Flansberg
This week, I titled my email the 7 surprises of the Italy Rome
Mission. Play on words off the 7 wonders of the world. As I continue,
you will begin to see just how crazy our week was.
On Monday night, Sorella Condé wanted to go on an exchange and so we
met up in Rome after p-day with Sorella Roberts and Sorella Ensign. I
took Sorella Ensign back to Ladispoli with me, and we had such a fun
time. We walked on the beach in the morning, and had a great lesson
with Dayana and a ward family. Sorella Ensign is a greenie, so I did a
majority of the lesson and she bore her testimony. But she is so
great, because she hopped in right when I needed her to. The next
morning, we switched back companions right before our DDM.
DDM this last week was so good. Anziano Fagerburg shared a diagram
with us about how we all have human needs. These needs are:
- to live
- To love/be loved
- To feel important
- Variety
He said that we then have beliefs in a belief window. These are the
things that we all believe and they are influenced by our human needs.
Then we create rules for our beliefs. If I believe that dogs are
scary, then every time I see a dog, I will run away. Our
behavior/actions are based on these rules. Then after the process is
over, we can see results. Our results are based on our beliefs. If the
results aren't meeting our human needs, then we have a bad belief in
our belief window. So, if I believe that I can't speak Italian, then I
won't speak it as my rule. If I don't speak Italian, I will never
learn, and then the results don't satisfy my needs to live in Italy.
If I can't speak Italian, then I won't survive here. If we find that
the results of something we are doing are not fulfilling our human
needs, then we need to change our beliefs, and not our behaviors. This
entire idea just lit a lightbulb in my head, and will probably
continue to influence my whole mission.
After DDM, President Waddoups said that he wanted to talk to me and
Sorella Condé. We had a nice little follow up interview, and he told
me that he was emergency transferring Sorella Condé to Rome 2 for the
week. SURPRISE #1. He then said that I would be companions with
Sorella Bray. She was supposed to go home last week, but her parents
had already bought tickets to pick her up when they changed release
dates, so she stayed an extra week in the mission. So basically I was
companions with a zombie all week since she was already a "dead"
missionary. SURPRISE #2. It was really fun to be with her. I learned a
lot, and now I am companion less and in a trio in Rome.
Before moving on with the rest of the week, I just have to say that we
got a new phone. When I first came in the mission, everyone had these
little Samsung smart phones, then when those started to stop working,
everybody got these silver flip phones. And then since we lost that
one, we got downgraded again. This phone is probably the worst phone I
have ever seen, but I am grateful for a phone. I really am. But it is
literally a toy... Haha...
Also, in Catania, I made the goal to walk up the stairs instead of
taking the elevator, but then when I came here, Sorella Condé told me
no since we live on the 5th floor. But then this last week, Sorella
Bray wanted to do it with me and by the end of the week, I was only
huffing and puffing on the last floor. It is a really good additional
workout, I promise you. :)
I also tried to make this recipe I got from Angela, the new convert in
Catania, for panettone. I was really excited to make it and eat it.
But, it started baking in the oven, and I didn't watch it close
enough, so it burnt the top when the inside was still liquid. I'll
have to work on my baking skills before someone will marry me. Haha...
Good thing I still have time to practice. I'm blaming it on the oven
and the weird Italian measurements.
SURPRISE #3. Transfer calls. I was completely caught off guard by
these... So get excited. We are going to be in a trio! And we are
going to change the history of trio missionary work. It gets a bad rep
all the time, and even though they aren't my favorite thing, I know
that this is what is supposed to happen. We are going to be one
terrific trio.
SURPRISE #4. I'm adopting a child. Her name is Sorella Hunter and she
is in her 2nd transfer. I'll finish training her with 12 weeks, and
then she will be all set to go. I'm excited to train... And I'm sure
it will be a little overwhelming, but I know Heavenly Father will help
me. I'm her 3rd mom and Ladispoli will be her 3rd city. Can you
imagine that?
SURPRISE #5. My other companion is Sorella Tellez. She is from Peru,
but she only speaks Spanish and Italian. She lived in Italy for a few
years before the mission, so at least she is fluent in it. I'm sure I
will get a lot of practice in acting as the translator for everything.
Haha... We've talked on the phone twice now, and she speaks slow
enough so I can understand. I told Heavenly Father last week that I
was starting to feel like I was in a rut with the language. Haha.. He
has a sense of humor, let me tell you. She's 2.5 months younger than
me in the mission, so I have my work cut out for me. I don't feel like
I'm old enough to be doing this, but Heavenly Father has confidence in
me. My group has some of the oldest sister missionaries in the mission
now. Crazy!
Sorella Condé is going to Foggia. I totally guessed it, and she is
very excited!
SURPRISE #6. I'm a mother to another son. Anziano Fagerburg is
training, and since I'm the oldest sister in the district/city, I am
technically his mom in mission lingo.
Well, enough mission lingo for now. This transfer will be so much fun!
SURPRISE #7. On Sunday, we travelled to Rome and we attended a baptism
of the assistants. They asked us to help them with a musical number,
so we did. We sang the youth theme, come unto Christ, and according to
them we saved the day. Sorella Bray and I thought we'd just be singing
all the girl parts together, but here's where the surprise is... We
sang SOLOS! And it went okay. I haven't sung in public since primary,
so that was a fun experience. Sorella Waddoups came up to me afterward
and told me that I shouldn't hide talents. Haha.. Oops! I guess I'm
always the one on the piano.
Also, as an added dose of happy today, Cinzia came to church
yesterday. Che miracolo! She enjoyed it, and the fast and testimony
meeting we had was wonderful. The ward in Ladispoli is wonderful.
Also, she was the first investigator who came to church for me in the
last 18-21 weeks of my mission. If you do the math, that is about half
of the time I've been out here. If you couldn't tell, I was on cloud
9, and I still am. Such a blessing! We are going to have some baptisms
this next transfer. I can feel it, and I have the faith that it can
happen.
I'm just going to share my testimony really quick. I am so grateful
for my savior, Jesus Christ. He has changed my life, and as the new
Easter video said, I have found new life in Him. He is there whenever
we need him. All we need to do is reach out and call out for help. And
I know that he will come. He loves us. Each and everyone of us. I know
that he died for us, that he suffered for us, that he lived for us to
show us an example, and I know that he lives today. He is only as far
away as we make him. Through him, we can find peace. True peace. The
kind of peace that the world doesn't know. His love is there. He gives
us miracles everyday, in attempts that we will recognize his hand in
our lives. My challenge for you all is to pray. Pray to feel his love
and his peace. Then wait and listen. Pay attention to how you feel.
And I know you will feel it. We can all come closer to him.
That's it for today. I hope you enjoyed the seven wonders of my week.
Con amore,
Sorella Flansberg
Monday, March 7, 2016
Fwd: Pictures from Week 41
Subject: Pictures from Week 41
Margherita
Scambio
Smoothies
Sorella Flansberg
Week 41: Zone Conference, missing phone, scambio, and cancelled transfer calls
Hello everybody!
This week seems to have gone on forever. But then again, it feels like
I was just writing to everybody yesterday. Since I know everybody
wants to know what happened with transfer calls, here's the scoop. We
have missionaries dying this week, but the MTC or the travel office
messed something up and the new missionaries aren't coming until the
next week. President cancelled transfer calls because he didn't know
what was going to happen yet. So, now we wait. We'll get them this
week, most likely before Saturday.
On Tuesday, we had the best zone conference of my mission. I felt like
the training President gave us was written just for me. He talked
about how we can all be better missionaries using the consecrated
missionary talk by Elder Callister. I think every missionary can
always be a little more consecrated than they are, even if they are
already consecrated. It was really great along with the training by
the assistants. They talked about how we need to be doing the work the
Lord's way and we do that by using Preach My Gospel. They challenged
us to read Preach my gospel for 30 minutes every day during personal
study and then again in companion study. That combined with 6 pages of
the Book of Mormon makes for a bit of a frantic personal study. But
I'm grateful already for the things I've learned. Funny how you always
learn something new every time you read something again.
Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, we did a scambio with Sorella Dew
and Sorella Tapia. It was so fun. I was with Sorella Tapia, and she
was Sorella Rackham's (my comp from the MTC) trainer. We had some
adventures on Wednesday morning when we went to the Lloyds to help
them with two things. One was family history, and the other thing I
didn't quite hear right on the phone which made for an interesting
adventure. But, it was PAINTING! Haha... That is kind of an important
thing to know so we wouldn't have worn our missionary clothes. But
Sorella Lloyd loaned us some old t-shirts and we got busy painting in
their kitchen. That was one of my first real service projects, and it
was so much fun. I got all the tall places, and Sorella Tapia saved me
from doing a bunch of squats. ;)
We had another lesson with Cinzia on Wednesday. She is still
progressing, so good news there. I think she is opening up to the idea
of baptism, but we'll continue working with her. We taught the gospel
of Jesus Christ, and we thought it went really well. She always has a
lot of questions, so we always have a lot to talk about.
Just another thing that I remembered little like the kinder egg thing.
While walking on the street, the number of cigarette boxes we see are
endless. So missionaries made up a game. When you see an unsmashed
cigarette box, you step on it.. And you get "husband points" kind of
like when young women say prayers. Haha... Stepping on them is so
satisfying, especially if you get unsoggy ones. It just crunches, and
you don't know how good it feels until you try it. I thought it was
kind of a dumb game, but it feels so good crushing those boxes.
Thursday morning, we had a lesson with another investigator we have
named Margherita. We hadn't seen her for a few weeks, and we couldn't
contact her either... But this last week, we tried to call her again.
And miracle. We got an appointment with her the day before she moved
to Palermo. We met her at a bar, and as soon as we get there, she
moves back into the back room where there are slot machines and where
you can smoke. You could literally see a haze of smoke when you walked
in the room. I had my doubts at this point about how the lesson would
go. But, we prayed that we would still be able to feel the spirit...
And it literally created a bubble around us for the entire lesson. She
is really sweet, and read until 2 Nefi 15 in the Book of Mormon. We
taught her the plan of salvation, and invited her to be baptized. She
didn't accept it yet, but she wants to. We told her the road to
baptism isn't an easy road and after baptism, it isn't easy either...
But it is so worth it. At the end of the lesson, she tried to give us
the Book of Mormon back, but we told her that it was a gift. She began
to cry and was holding the Book of Mormon up to her chest. She then
proceeded to thank Jesus by kissing his face on the pamphlet we gave
her. It was a sweet moment to witness, and sometimes I wonder if we as
members of the church realize just how precious the Book of Mormon is.
It is such a blessing.
Thursday night, we went to get gelato because I was craving it. So we
bought some, and then we sat by the turtle fountain to eat it when
along comes another lady eating gelato. She sat down by herself and we
took advantage of the opportunity. We asked if we could show her
Grazie A Lui or because of Him. And she said yes, but she was already
firm in her beliefs. We ended up talking for another 35 minutes in the
cold, mind you, we just ate gelato... And she explained how she
believes in reincarnation but she is this really strong Catholic.
Later as I thought about it, I realized that those two don't really
seem to match up. It says nothing about reincarnation in the Bible. Oh
well. She was really nice, and we opened our mouths which is all we
are required to do. :)
We made fajitas on Saturday, so that satisfied my Mexican food craving
for a bit.. Meaning another week.
I also finished Mosiah in the Italian Book of Mormon. Woohoo! Now to
get through Alma. I feel as though I will become really familiar with
words of war and different weapons and war strategies in the Italian
language. Haha... But it will be good just the same.
Saturday afternoon, we traveled to Rome for stake conference. We took
one train for about 20 minutes, got off, and then waited for another
train when Sorella Condé realized that the phone was not in her
pocket. We searched everywhere, called it, and it was gone. So we got
on the next train, and then hopped on the metro to go to the main
train station, Termini. Got there, literally ran down the platforms
and missed it by like 20 seconds. So we talked to the train engineer
that was driving the next train and he called the other train. They
searched the train, couldn't find our phone, and long story short.. We
are now phone less. We've gone 3 days, and we are no worse the wear
except for not being able to contact people. It's funny how much you
take it for granted when suddenly it isn't there anymore. We should
get a new one tomorrow, hopefully with the same phone number.
President Waddoups asked when we arrived at the conference if we had
talked to people on the way here... Without giving him the whole story
right then, we talked a lit how we had met some people from
California, a Filipino lady, and we talked to a train engineer. He was
a little confused until we told him the rest of the story later that
night. We feel sorry for the anziani in Ladispoli though because they
have to walk to our apartment every night to make sure we are home
safe. Oops!
Stake conference was really great. There was an area seventy there
from England with his wife. He had a heavy Scottish accent, and it was
pretty fun to listen to. Plus his talks were in English... Score.
Italian is great too, but some of the meaning of things gets lost in
the translation. I really love English.
Sunday afternoon, we went to the bishops' house for pranzo. We ate so
much, but I was in Catania so I was used to eating that much every
Sunday and even twice a week. But Sorella Condé was dying. Haha... It
was so good, and I just love the Bishop here. His family is great. He
had 10 kids, who are all grown now.. But his youngest two daughters
were there and we introduced one of them to Pinterest. She was amazed!
:) haha... I love to be a missionary.
The only spiritual thought I have for y'all is to remember that the
restoration is not a secret. But sometimes we treat it like it is for
fear of how people will react. Also, the gospel is simple... But it
doesn't mean it is easy. But the blessings we receive makes it all
worth it. Sometimes we confuse those. That is what I learned at stake
conference amidst other things. :)
Love you all! Have a fantastic week!
Con amore,
Sorella Flansberg
This week seems to have gone on forever. But then again, it feels like
I was just writing to everybody yesterday. Since I know everybody
wants to know what happened with transfer calls, here's the scoop. We
have missionaries dying this week, but the MTC or the travel office
messed something up and the new missionaries aren't coming until the
next week. President cancelled transfer calls because he didn't know
what was going to happen yet. So, now we wait. We'll get them this
week, most likely before Saturday.
On Tuesday, we had the best zone conference of my mission. I felt like
the training President gave us was written just for me. He talked
about how we can all be better missionaries using the consecrated
missionary talk by Elder Callister. I think every missionary can
always be a little more consecrated than they are, even if they are
already consecrated. It was really great along with the training by
the assistants. They talked about how we need to be doing the work the
Lord's way and we do that by using Preach My Gospel. They challenged
us to read Preach my gospel for 30 minutes every day during personal
study and then again in companion study. That combined with 6 pages of
the Book of Mormon makes for a bit of a frantic personal study. But
I'm grateful already for the things I've learned. Funny how you always
learn something new every time you read something again.
Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, we did a scambio with Sorella Dew
and Sorella Tapia. It was so fun. I was with Sorella Tapia, and she
was Sorella Rackham's (my comp from the MTC) trainer. We had some
adventures on Wednesday morning when we went to the Lloyds to help
them with two things. One was family history, and the other thing I
didn't quite hear right on the phone which made for an interesting
adventure. But, it was PAINTING! Haha... That is kind of an important
thing to know so we wouldn't have worn our missionary clothes. But
Sorella Lloyd loaned us some old t-shirts and we got busy painting in
their kitchen. That was one of my first real service projects, and it
was so much fun. I got all the tall places, and Sorella Tapia saved me
from doing a bunch of squats. ;)
We had another lesson with Cinzia on Wednesday. She is still
progressing, so good news there. I think she is opening up to the idea
of baptism, but we'll continue working with her. We taught the gospel
of Jesus Christ, and we thought it went really well. She always has a
lot of questions, so we always have a lot to talk about.
Just another thing that I remembered little like the kinder egg thing.
While walking on the street, the number of cigarette boxes we see are
endless. So missionaries made up a game. When you see an unsmashed
cigarette box, you step on it.. And you get "husband points" kind of
like when young women say prayers. Haha... Stepping on them is so
satisfying, especially if you get unsoggy ones. It just crunches, and
you don't know how good it feels until you try it. I thought it was
kind of a dumb game, but it feels so good crushing those boxes.
Thursday morning, we had a lesson with another investigator we have
named Margherita. We hadn't seen her for a few weeks, and we couldn't
contact her either... But this last week, we tried to call her again.
And miracle. We got an appointment with her the day before she moved
to Palermo. We met her at a bar, and as soon as we get there, she
moves back into the back room where there are slot machines and where
you can smoke. You could literally see a haze of smoke when you walked
in the room. I had my doubts at this point about how the lesson would
go. But, we prayed that we would still be able to feel the spirit...
And it literally created a bubble around us for the entire lesson. She
is really sweet, and read until 2 Nefi 15 in the Book of Mormon. We
taught her the plan of salvation, and invited her to be baptized. She
didn't accept it yet, but she wants to. We told her the road to
baptism isn't an easy road and after baptism, it isn't easy either...
But it is so worth it. At the end of the lesson, she tried to give us
the Book of Mormon back, but we told her that it was a gift. She began
to cry and was holding the Book of Mormon up to her chest. She then
proceeded to thank Jesus by kissing his face on the pamphlet we gave
her. It was a sweet moment to witness, and sometimes I wonder if we as
members of the church realize just how precious the Book of Mormon is.
It is such a blessing.
Thursday night, we went to get gelato because I was craving it. So we
bought some, and then we sat by the turtle fountain to eat it when
along comes another lady eating gelato. She sat down by herself and we
took advantage of the opportunity. We asked if we could show her
Grazie A Lui or because of Him. And she said yes, but she was already
firm in her beliefs. We ended up talking for another 35 minutes in the
cold, mind you, we just ate gelato... And she explained how she
believes in reincarnation but she is this really strong Catholic.
Later as I thought about it, I realized that those two don't really
seem to match up. It says nothing about reincarnation in the Bible. Oh
well. She was really nice, and we opened our mouths which is all we
are required to do. :)
We made fajitas on Saturday, so that satisfied my Mexican food craving
for a bit.. Meaning another week.
I also finished Mosiah in the Italian Book of Mormon. Woohoo! Now to
get through Alma. I feel as though I will become really familiar with
words of war and different weapons and war strategies in the Italian
language. Haha... But it will be good just the same.
Saturday afternoon, we traveled to Rome for stake conference. We took
one train for about 20 minutes, got off, and then waited for another
train when Sorella Condé realized that the phone was not in her
pocket. We searched everywhere, called it, and it was gone. So we got
on the next train, and then hopped on the metro to go to the main
train station, Termini. Got there, literally ran down the platforms
and missed it by like 20 seconds. So we talked to the train engineer
that was driving the next train and he called the other train. They
searched the train, couldn't find our phone, and long story short.. We
are now phone less. We've gone 3 days, and we are no worse the wear
except for not being able to contact people. It's funny how much you
take it for granted when suddenly it isn't there anymore. We should
get a new one tomorrow, hopefully with the same phone number.
President Waddoups asked when we arrived at the conference if we had
talked to people on the way here... Without giving him the whole story
right then, we talked a lit how we had met some people from
California, a Filipino lady, and we talked to a train engineer. He was
a little confused until we told him the rest of the story later that
night. We feel sorry for the anziani in Ladispoli though because they
have to walk to our apartment every night to make sure we are home
safe. Oops!
Stake conference was really great. There was an area seventy there
from England with his wife. He had a heavy Scottish accent, and it was
pretty fun to listen to. Plus his talks were in English... Score.
Italian is great too, but some of the meaning of things gets lost in
the translation. I really love English.
Sunday afternoon, we went to the bishops' house for pranzo. We ate so
much, but I was in Catania so I was used to eating that much every
Sunday and even twice a week. But Sorella Condé was dying. Haha... It
was so good, and I just love the Bishop here. His family is great. He
had 10 kids, who are all grown now.. But his youngest two daughters
were there and we introduced one of them to Pinterest. She was amazed!
:) haha... I love to be a missionary.
The only spiritual thought I have for y'all is to remember that the
restoration is not a secret. But sometimes we treat it like it is for
fear of how people will react. Also, the gospel is simple... But it
doesn't mean it is easy. But the blessings we receive makes it all
worth it. Sometimes we confuse those. That is what I learned at stake
conference amidst other things. :)
Love you all! Have a fantastic week!
Con amore,
Sorella Flansberg
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