Week 48: wisteria, transfer calls, gift of tongues, and mission trials

Dear family and friends,

As I've said before, Italy is beautiful in spring. Lately, the
wisteria has been blooming like crazy. And it smells so good walking
down the streets.

On p-day last week, we had a little bit of extra time after writing
emails, so I took my piano books to the church with me and it felt so
good to let everything out while playing. It was so peaceful, and it
helped me feel the spirit and just breathe for awhile. It also helps
Sorella Hunter a lot when I play.

On Tuesday, we had transfer predictions at DDM. My toy was a little
fish with a magnifying glass inside the middle of it. I think it was
just telling me that I'm getting old in the mission, and that I can't
see anymore. Everyone else guessed I'd be sister training leader, but
they were wrong. And I'm totally okay with that. :)

Tuesday night, we tried to take a Book of Mormon in French to this guy
we met a few weeks ago. So, I worked my little brain as hard as I
could to try to remember how to speak French. I came up with a few
simple sentences from my high school French which I forgot almost all
of in the MTC. But the gift of tongues helped with that too, because
when I checked with google translate, I was pretty much completely
right. Also, my accent has gotten a lot better since I've had to learn
how to make different sounds with my mouth in Italian.

This week, I read a verse in the war chapters of Alma. And it said
something about them going to war for the cause of maintaining their
religion which is the source of all their happiness. As I thought
about that verse, I realized that everything good in my life comes
from the gospel. My family relationships, other friendships, my peace
of conscience... And I could go on and on. But we truly are so blessed
to be a part of the Lord's restored church here on the earth. And
Heavenly Father loves us a lot.

One night this week, we went to see our Indian friend, Pria. She has
only been living in Italy for a month and a half now, so we asked if
we could help her learn Italian. So we went over, took a treat, and
brought a Book of Mormon in Hindi. This lady is super sweet, has an
adorable daughter, and maybe one day will have an interest in the
church. Slow and steady wins the race. :) I also learned something
about the Indian culture, and it is that women can't eat something if
their husband isn't home.

Thursday, we did some service at the Lloyds. We helped them put this
plastic, green thing up around the walls of their garden for more
privacy. Fratello Lloyd was helping us do it, and when Sorella Lloyd
came out to check on it... She didn't like the way Fratello Lloyd had
us do it, so she made us take it down and do it again. And we did so
happily. I learned again that if the wife isn't happy... Then nobody's
happy. Afterwards, they fed us pranzo, and we ended up talking for a
long time. They served a mission at the Spain Madrid temple grounds
and they could talk about the families they helped for hours and not
stop.

On Saturday, we got transfer calls. I was just wondering who would
scroll down to this part of my letter first. Haha... I am staying in
the Ladispoli with my sweet Sorella H. And I'm so excited.
Sorella Waddoups said that this transfer will be much more peaceful
than my last one and that Heavenly Father thinks I deserve it. Or
something along those lines. I just love Sorella H to bits, and
we've both struggled this last transfer to stay sane, so this transfer
we are ready to work hard and grow the pond in Ladispoli. Bad news is
that Sorella T is going home. When I heard that, my heart sank to
my stomach. But I know that it is the best place for her right now.
She has such a great desire to serve people, but there are health
problems that get in the way at times. I've come to love her, and at
times it was hard... But it was good for me to humble myself, and be
patient.

Speaking of patience, yesterday I realized that we don't notice our
growth as much as other people do. I need to be more patient with
myself as I continue on the path of discipleship, but I also need to
allow others the same space to grow and learn on their path. I
realized that sometimes I don't do that, and that is something I can
improve on. But mostly, I learned that I have changed and grown so
much in this last transfer, and I am so grateful Heavenly Father
trusted me with this responsibility. He only wants to give me
opportunities to grow.

Yesterday, we went to Rome for Sorella T's last interview with
President. We got to talk with all of the dying missionaries and
Sorella Reber said that "the challenging moments on the mission become
the most sacred to a missionary." And that statement is so true.

On the way home, we talked to this cute couple on the train. They were
practicing Catholics and had just come back from Vatican City, but
they kept looking at our name tags, so Sorella Hunter struck up a
conversation with them. We talked for a bit, explained who we were,
and got to know them. That is when I don't know where to go with a
conversation. Haha... So I asked how long they've been married (29
yrs) and then asked if they believed they could be together forever.
That was an inspired question because before I asked that, I was at a
loss. We need to role play how to switch from normal conversation to
gospel conversation a little more, haha.. But anyways.. They said that
they don't believe the roles of husband and wife exist in the next
world. How sad is that? We asked if we could exchange numbers and they
politely refused, and then we heard them saying that "we know the
truth". Haha... Oh well. We did our part. At least they were nice to
us, and I just hope that they will accept our message someday so they
can have an eternal marriage.

I love all of you guys. :) And I hope everyone had a great week!

Con amore,
Sorella Flansberg

Sent from my iPad

Week 47: Finding, finding, choir, general authorities, and scambio #3

Dear loved ones,

This week was crazy! Tuesday we went to Rome for DDM. I got Heidi's
graduation announcement in the mail, and since then I've been looking
into her beautiful blue eyes all the time. :)

Apologies right now if this email isn't very good. My brain is a bit
scattered today, and I didn't bring my notes. So sorry!

We got back from Rome and we had the opportunity to see a less active
that we never actually get to see. She is never home, and we hadn't
even really planned to see her. It just kind of happened. Also, we had
a great lesson with another less active and we were able to meet two
families who are both from Libya and Muslim. One of them has a son who
is 15 and he has been coming to English course. He is just plain
awesome, and his dad was really nice too. Then as we were walking
through a park, we saw this other family. They have two younger aged
boys and don't speak a lot of Italian, but the dad speaks English. We
invited them to come to English course too, and they actually came one
day to find the church later this week. It was such a miracle!

That night, the sister training leaders came into town. We stayed up
that night the latest I've been up on my mission doing a nice little
companionship inventory with them. I'll move on from that topic of
conversation before I say something I don't want to. Needless to say,
I took some things on how I can improve and have been trying to put
them into practice. Two things that Sorella Tingey said have really
stuck out in my mind though. One she said, "Heavenly Father is
probably looking down at you three right now with a smile on his face,
because he is so proud of what you all are doing and he knows that you
are doing your best. You really are his daughters and he loves you."
She also said that, "nobody's best is perfection." I just felt like
those 2 things were so inspired of her, and I am so grateful she said
them. That was just the beginning of all my personal revelation that I
received this week.

Wednesday, Sorella Hunter and I went to Rome, and we were with Sorella
Rushton for the day. That night, I was the only one in the house who
wasn't a greenie. That made me feel old in the mission. We ordered
pizza, and I got one with bell peppers and potatoes. It was quite
interesting. Italians put weird things and weird combinations on
pizza.

The next morning, we went to see Dayana. She's been planning this
little get together forever... And whenever we have it planned, I'm on
a scambio... It almost happened again, but I told her I'd be back for
it. We ate brunch together which was more like cookies and Nutella
with juice. And then we taught her about temples and family history.
And then she brought out all her nail polish. Haha... She had about
100 different types... I'm not even joking. It was a really fun
morning and nice bonding time with Dayana. She is so sweet! And for
anyone who was wondering, this was like our lunch break with a lesson
attached. ;)

Thursday afternoon when we were doing 12 weeks at the church, the
stake choir director came in looking a bit frazzled and asked if we
could help them sing for the stake conference that was coming up on
Sunday. We said sure, and commenced practicing. It was a completely
new song for me, but I guess it is only an Italian, French, and German
hymn. Haha... They had me sing soprano and this song happens to go
really high, so that was fun. We also sang it over and over again, and
every time someone would do something else wrong. But it ended up
going okay on Sunday.

We also had English course that night, and it was nice because we had
new students. I love it when we have more students. Hopefully that
trend keeps going.

Friday, we survived another weekly planning session. Only one more to
go this transfer. During the companion inventory, my companions both
said how they admire how much I want to improve and climb. And they
admire my strength and determination. I guess I should mention that
Friday was a really great day. We also had a good lesson with the
Bendezu family. This time we taught about Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith,
and how the Book of Mormon is how we get a testimony of these things
but mostly of Jesus Christ. It was a really unified lesson which was
really nice. Unity is a hard thing in trios, because I feel like
someone always talks too much, one person says a few things, and then
one person doesn't say much. But it has been improving.

Saturday, all day we did less active research. We ended up walking a
lot, and nobody was home. But as we went, we talked with people. We
called it a successful morning because we were working and opening our
mouths. That night, we practiced with the choir again, and then helped
a ward member do her grocery shopping. Her back was hurting and she
decided to ask us if we could help. It ended up being a really good
way to get to know her better. If we can get to know ward members by
singing in their choir and going grocery shopping with them rather
than eating with them in their homes, by all means, I'll do it.

Sunday, we had the stake conference to have a new stake presidency
called. It didn't change much. Everyone just moved up an extra spot
and they called a new second counselor. We rode there with the newly
called Elder Dini Ciacci of the area seventy and his mother in law.
Wait, did I tell you that every member in Ladispoli is like all
related to like 3 families? Haha.. That makes for a fun family reunion
every Sunday, but really. I'm not kidding. As soon as we got there, we
were put to work folding programs. We folded like 500 of them. As
people came in, they all offered to help, and many hands really do
make light work.

The conference was really great. I learned a lot. These are some
things I took notes on.

We aren't usually prepared or ready for any responsibility given to
us. But we will grow into our calling or responsibility as we serve.
We must have the faith when it is given to say yes.

When we look at other people, we see more strengths than weaknesses.
We must begin to look at ourselves the same way. We are stronger than
we think and better than we are.

Put ourselves in the shoes of others. It helps form better and
stronger relationships.

Coming back from the conference, we took public transportation. The
train ended up stopping at a station halfway home for someone to have
medical attention. Then we waited for the next one. The trains don't
run as often as they usually do on Sunday's, so we got home a bit
later, but we were able to do an hour of finding on Sunday night. We
decided to do animal finding, which is where you talk to people about
their animals and then try to strike up a gospel conversation. At
least everyone in Italy has a chihuahua which are not my favorite
animals, but I can pretend to like them for a few minutes. However, I
actually saw a really cute dog and his owner was sitting on a tree
trunk. Even better. When people are sitting, it makes it more awkward
for them to leave than for us. Anyways, this guy was so cool. His name
is Radu and he is from Romania, and his dog was basically a big sized
Kona. He talked to us for a good 40 minutes, and even though he
wouldn't admit it, I think he has a lot of questions that the gospel
has answers for. We exchanged phone numbers and we are hoping for the
best.

Anyways, this week was just another week in the life of a missionary.
Miracles were seen, challenges were faced, and we are ready for
another new and even better week.

I love you all!
Love,
Sorella Flansberg

Sent from my iPad

Week 46: Civitavecchia, interviews, general conference, and carcioffi

Dear people whom I love:

I'm sitting here on some stairs looking out at the beautiful sea in
Civitavecchia. It is this gorgeous little tourist town that is 20
minutes away from Ladispoli, the one where cruise ships stop. It's
basically Hawaii. And I am not complaining.

The week started with a miracle. On Monday, after p-day, we went to
find a less active who works at a veterinarian clinic. It's kind of a
show up and see if she has time kind of deal, so we went and she
didn't have time. You're probably thinking, what kind of miracle was
that? But wait for it... I felt a prompting to stop by and see another
less active. I was a little confused, because this less active never
lets us in after 5, and she usually isn't home, so I thought... "Why
would we go see Enriquetta?" But I followed the prompting, and lo and
behold, she was home and she let us in. And we had a beautiful lesson
with her (best lesson because it wasn't rushed and the spirit was so
strong) about the Book of Mormon and the strength we can receive by
reading it everyday. Everything I said was led by the spirit, and I
could feel it. It was one of the most unified lessons we've had in
this lovely trio.

And Tuesday after DDM, we began the scambio that was long awaited for.
I went to Rome 6 with Sorella Roberts, one of the sisters in my MTC
group, and her companion went to Ladispoli with my companions. We had
another sister from our group on a scambio with the other sister in
the house, so we had some time to reminisce on just how fast the
mission has gone. With Sorella Roberts, we planned to go find some
less actives, but none of them ended up being home, which gave us lots
of time to talk. And heaven knows I needed that. It was kind of nice
to hear that I'm not the only one who has struggled with things on the
mission. It is a universal thing. :) We had a lot of fun together. We
ended up getting gelato one night, because as the saying goes, "gelato
fixes everything". :)

On Thursday morning, we went to watch the Sunday afternoon session of
conference. It was amazing like all the rest of them. It was kind of
cool because both Elder Hallstrom, and Elder Kearon came and spoke to
the mission, and then they spoke in conference. I do have to say Elder
Kearon's talk about refugees hit home for me. I've seen all of what he
described first hand on the mission, and it reminded me of people I've
met like Jennifer and all the help the Bruno's gave to her. I know
that they have seen the blessings from that in their lives even though
it wasn't always easy or convenient to serve. I was going to pick out
the other talks I liked the most, but I couldn't. They all spoke to my
heart.

Friday morning, president asked us to come visit with him in Rome. So,
we all had personal interviews with him, and it was nice. He just
joked around a bit about the whole trio thing, and how we should all
walk in a line on the sidewalk, next to each other, link arms, and
play red rover with people and make them talk to us. Haha... And then
he gave us all some much needed advice on how to make the work grow in
Ladispoli. He also asked me why I was scared of him. I wouldn't
necessarily say I'm scared of him, but he does intimidate me a little
bit. He told me that his job is to be my friend, and Sorella Waddoups'
job is to break boxes. Haha... So I should be scared of her. ;)

WARNING: For all missionaries that read this... Please keep up to date
with your area book. I do have to say that I haven't been the best at
this since Sorella Condé left, and it wasn't until I started going
through when I realized that we had a lot to update. Sometimes when
the work is slow, you forget to add the little things that happen. But
no worries, we got all of it up to date and functioning again.

Friday night, we had a nice little lesson about prophets with the
Bendezu family. We played a little game with the kids. We blindfolded
one of them, and the other hid the Book of Mormon, and then we had the
blindfolded one try to find it. Obviously, it was a little hard. Then
we had the mom guide the blindfolded one to help him find it. When
they found it, I think they all had a new understanding of prophets.
Prophets guide us to find truth.

Saturday, we went to Civitavecchia to find a less active who we
weren't sure lived there, but it was the only city that had this
certain street name, so we went. And we talked to a lot of people on
the way. One gave us her phone number, one completely ignored us, one
tried to argue with us, and we gave one a Book of Mormon. But back to
the original missing less active. We arrived and started walking, and
as we continued walking, we were starting to get a little confused
because where the map said she lives, there was ocean, and more ocean.
We kind of joked about her living on a boat. In the end, we didn't
find her, but we did find our p-day destination and it is beautiful
here. There is also a cool fort that looks a bit like a giant castle.
Pictures will be attached.

This weekend, Friday - Sunday was the Carcioffi Festival in Ladispoli.
Carcioffi means artichokes, and everybody grows them here. It was this
huge festival covering all of the main roads in the city and going
everywhere. I wish it would have still been going on today, because it
looked so fun! There were so many people here from all over the place,
and I meant to take a picture... But I forgot. Since so many people
were there, we took advantage of the opportunity and did some corso
d'inglese (English course) finding. It wasn't very fun at first
because everybody rejected us... But then we got into the groove,
smiled a bit more, and people began to at least take the pass along
cards. One thing that people do here to say they don't want to talk to
us is wag their finger. I've come to hate that, and it stings more
than, "no, thank you, but I'm not interested." But hopefully in the
next few weeks, we'll have a few more students at English course since
that has been lacking lately, and then we can find new investigators
from that. :)

Other than that, testimony meeting on Sunday was on point. I liked
what someone said about Neill F. Marriott's talk. How when we love
somebody, we make space for them in our life. She then asked, "how
much space are we making in our lives for Christ?" Just a nice little
thought to ponder about. And then I really liked something that
Jeffrey R. Holland said. It might be out of order, but... "Keep
loving, keep trying, keep trusting, keep going, and keep
believing....The heavens are cheering you on." I just love the fact
that we will be judged according to the things we did, but also the
things that we had the earnest desire to do and that we kept trying to
do even if we kept failing.

I love being a missionary... And I love living in one of the most
beautiful places ever!

Con tanto amore,
Sorella Flansberg

Pictures from week 46:

I found subway.. After 10.5 months, it was a lot better than I remember. :)

I'll just live in a place like this someday. :)

This is the fort that is in Civitavecchia. :)

And a wonderful scambio with Sorella Roberts!

Sent from my iPad

Week 45: Cinnamon gelato, general conference, SPRING, and Italian recipes

Ciao tutti!

It's finally spring! (È primavera, finalmente!) This week, we did
district meeting on the balcony of the church in Rome because it was
so nice, and we all needed some fresh air. The addestramento
(training) was so good this week. We talked about the tender mercies
of the lord and how we are made mighty unto the power of deliverance.
This is one of my favorite scriptures, but who am I kidding, I have
more favorite scriptures than I can count. (1 Nephi 1:20) We talked
about how we need to have faith, hope, and charity to receive tender
mercies.

While at the church in Rome, I grabbed a conference edition of the
Liahona in Italian from the last conference. And I've been using it
for language study this week. When I read talks, I can usually figure
out what a sentence says even if I don't know every word. But this
week while I read, I underlined and looked up every word I came across
that I didn't know. It was so helpful!

After DDM, Sorella Hunter went with Sorella Tingey, and we took
Sorella Rushton back to Ladispoli with us. We had a really good
scambio. As always, everyone loves our balcony. I have included the
balcony as one of my tender mercies from Heavenly Father. It is so
nice to go out at pranzo and eat or to go out at night just to listen
to the waves. We usually miss the sunset since we are out working, but
that's okay. :) Sorella Rushton is in her first transfer, and she
looks a lot like Sorella Rackham. It was fun to have another sister
with us. We switched back the next day, so lots of time on trains back
and forth to Rome.

One night this week, we walked into our apartment building and there
was this really good smell coming from the apartment on the ground
floor. We knew that an Indian family lived there, and we decided to
ask the lady for her recipe for whatever she was cooking. Why not,
right? Haha.. So we knocked, and she let us in and gave us this recipe
for a vegetable soup with tamerick powder in it. She doesn't speak
very much English, or Italian, but we communicated enough. Haha... She
is really cute, and now the whole family is our friends.

That afternoon, we had a lesson with a member and one of her friends
who she was hoping would be interested in the gospel. Her daughter and
the members daughter were playing together that afternoon, and she
wanted us to just stop by with a treat. So we took brownies, and tried
to talk about religion with her, but she wasn't interested, so to
change the topic so we didn't end on a bad note, we asked for her
ciambalone recipe, and I'm excited to try that. It is basically just
pound cake, but with a fancy name. I'm collecting recipes all over the
place. :) Yum!

Thursday was an especially beautiful day, and there were so many
people outside. Sorella Hunter and I started a Hello contest. Haha.. I
tried to get more people to say hello back to me than her. It was fun,
and I won. It's amazing what the weather does to people's moods. Also,
whenever we say hello to people, they think we know them.. Then it
always surprises them that we were just being friendly.

Charlotte Bronte died on March 31, and as such our new convert who is
obsessed with the Bronte sisters, asked us to wear all black to mourn
with her. Haha... It was weird wearing all black on such a nice spring
day, but to make Dayana happy, I'll do pretty much anything. I just
love her so much!

And then it was April. I still choose not to believe this.

Paola is a less active that we met for the first time on Saturday. We
rode the train all the way to Anguillara, and we found her house! She
had the cutest villa ever. It actually had a yard! And it was fun to
meet someone new that we can help come back to church. Something that
I've realized over the span of my mission is the importance of reading
the Book of Mormon everyday. Yes, it is important to read any type of
scriptures everyday, but the Book of Mormon is so important. I can't
tell you how many people I've met who read only the bible and who are
less active or who lost a testimony of the church because of that.
Even if it is only a few verses next to the Bible, all of us need to
read the Book of Mormon everyday. :) Just a little challenge for you
all!

Since Paola lives all the way in Anguillara, we were able to talk to a
lot of people on the train on our way out there. We were given so many
opportunities, and we met a lot of really nice people. One lady got on
the train a stop after us, and when she sat down, I felt like I needed
to talk to her. But I was the farthest away, and didn't want to talk
over my companions, so I just smiled really big and straightened my
name tag a bit. Then Sorella Tellez was given the opportunity to say
something to her. When we told her why we were there, and pulled out a
Christ pass along card, tears came to her eyes, and she just kept
thanking us as she got off the train at the next stop. It was such a
cool experience. :)

I knew I would find another food weakness here in Italy. It was
pistacchio granita in Catania, and here in Ladispoli, I found cinnamon
gelato. And it is to die for. Literally. Too bad I don't walk as much
here, because I'll be eating that a lot. SO GOOD!

Also, General Conference was so good! Sunday morning session was
probably my favorite session all together. Every talk was amazing! I
loved Elder Uchtdorf's talk, and I loved Thomas S. Monson's remarks.
How cool is that to have a temple being built in Zimbabwe? And another
one in Lima! I love conference so much, and I am so grateful we get to
listen to our prophet and leaders twice a year. In other news, the
stake president here in the Rome West stake was called as an area
authority. How cool is that? He is from the Ladispoli ward, and has a
really young, cute family. It's kind of like another Elder Keele. ;)
Now we have an Italian general authority and an Italian area
authority. That is how you know the church is growing in Italy. :)

I love you all! I hope you all had a great week! I'm alive, and all is well. :)

Con amore,
Sorella Flansberg

Pictures from the week!

Read the street sign!

Charlotte Bronte's death day!

Scambio with Sorella Rushton!

A district family photo. :)

Sent from my iPadFound home in Ladispoli!