Hello my dear family and friends:
I told my family yesterday that it would be a shorter email today, but
it turns out... I still have a lot of fun stories to tell y'all. (The
y'all is for my sweet Georgia peach of a companion).
This week, we were blessed to have zone conference! Blessed because I
turn into a different, better kind of missionary after each one. This
conference was based on the restoration. We practiced teaching the
restoration in 2-5 minutes so many times. President wants us to be
bold and get the message out there instead of just saying, "we're the
missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and
we have a message that we want to share with you." The other thing
that hit me the most was the training by the assistants. They talked
about the difference between numbers and key indicators. We talked
about how the connotation of numbers is "it's all about me as a
missionary and how good I am" and with key indicators, it is more
about the people and bringing them unto Christ. So in reality, numbers
don't matter, but key indicators do. We should plan our days according
to our goals for key indicators, and that way we are working to meet
goals instead of filling time. It was a really powerful zone
conference, and President challenged all of us at the end to give
someone the restoration pamphlet on our way home... And we did.
On the way home, we met Elena. She is from Romania, and is orthodox.
She kept saying that she has a religion, but she doesn't practice it.
It is a family thing, but she isn't likely to change. We were able to
testify how our religions should bring peace, joy, and happiness into
our lives. And I was able to be bold, and ask what she would do if she
found a church that had more truth and made her happy. It made her
think, and I'm so grateful for inspired questions by the spirit. I've
discovered that by asking inspired questions, and then bearing
powerful testimony, I do the most effective missionary work. I guess
Preach my Gospel is right. ;)
On Wednesday, one of our less actives was getting married, and we were
invited to the ceremony. So, we left the house and got to the bus
station and the bus (that never passes) came after 2 minutes. We knew
God loved us that day. Haha.. And then we got off the bus and walked a
good 45 minutes to the location. I'm just getting more and more tan,
and it's only May. I also have a nice sandal tan from the sun that
created nice diamond shapes on the top of my feet. Anyways, the
wedding was beautiful, Beatrice was happy, and she stuck to church
standards (modest bridesmaid dresses, and no alcohol). The ceremony
was like 10 minutes long, and not romantic at all... But they are
married! Yay! Now we get them to the temple. :)
Comparing myself/my mission
Cinco de mayo or cinque di maggio here in Italy, haha.. We ate tacos
for lunch. With orange juice. Can't forget the orange juice.
I found a secret admirer. Maybe not so secret.
We went to ward council on Thursday, and the bishop was happy with us
because we followed up on the two assignments he gave us for people to
try to visit. Then when I said that we don't have any progressing
investigators, a sister in the ward just confirmed to us that we were
doing a good job, and working hard, and it is typical for Ladispoli.
But, that won't stop us from working hard and helping make the work
explode since #mayisthemonth.
Both Sorella Hunter and I were sick this week, so we watched a lot of
movies and didn't get as much work done. But we worked when we could,
and rested when we needed to. And now we are both feeling better
thanks to vitamin C and zinc. ;)
On Friday, I went on a scambio with Sorella Leathern. She is in her
second transfer in Rome 2. And it was really fun. We ate gelato, and
pizza, and we had a wonderful lesson with Enriqueta. It has been fun
to watch Enriqueta open up to us over time. The first time I went, she
was a little cold. But little by little, she's starting to like us.
When we went to get pizza, the man who owns this pizza place was
begging us to eat our pizza there so he could talk to us. Since we had
time, we did. The missionaries have been trying to teach his family
for probably years. But it was fun. We got to know them a little bit
more, and his granddaughter just kept talking to us. She kept asking
if we knew her name.. And I did. So I said, your name is Claudia. But
she didn't understand me because of my American accent. Haha.. Her
parents and grandparents got a kick out of that. I've also eaten many
other kinds of pizza from other places, but they just aren't as good
as O'Sarracino's. I'm gonna be a pizza snob for the rest of my life.
On Saturday, we went to a Chinese buffet with Dayana, the anziani, and
a member. The Chinese food here is different, good but different. And
it was the first time I heard Dayana say that she wasn't hungry.
Haha.. The conversation kept switching back and forth from English to
Italian and back. And I could keep up with it all. It is just nice
being able to understand two languages. I'm not going to lie. :)
Since I'm almost at my year mark, I feel like sisters consider me the
wise old owl who is experienced at missionary work and who knows
exactly what she's doing. But the opposite couldn't be more true. I'm
just grateful for times like these where I can rely on the spirit to
help me give advice. And saying it to them usually helps me too. One
of these things helped me figure something out that I need to work on.
Haha... So as a surprise to none of you, I'm a perfectionist. And I
discovered that I'm afraid of endings because I'm worried that I won't
be where I'm supposed to be at the end. But I'm slowly learning that I
don't need to be perfect by the end of something, I just need to be
moving in the right direction. Like Boyd K. Packer said in one of his
talks... "If you have a letter that you need to mail, and you walk
half the distance to the mailbox every time, theoretically, you will
never reach the mail box. But you will be close enough to mail the
letter." Thank heavens there is grace to make up for the rest.
We had 3 less actives in church yesterday, and even if it doesn't go
towards a key indicator, it was a nice sign to me that the work is
moving forward.
Because yesterday was my half birthday, we celebrated with crepes on
Saturday night. We'll take any excuse to go get sweets, and I would
rather not tell you how many times we ate gelato last week.
And last but not least, we had Mother's Day Skyping. It was heavenly
to talk to my family, and a bit thrilling to think the next time will
be in person. I will admit that I prefer Christmas Day skyping,
because we had at least a few hours to enjoy ourselves after and then
get back to work. Yesterday, it was like.. Okay, you Skyped your
family, now let's go finding. Haha.. We did language study afterwards,
and all the way through I was thinking about how much I didn't want to
go finding. The quote ran through my mind, "when you don't feel like
praying, that is when you need to pray the most." And I decided that
Satan was working on me hard last night so we wouldn't find the person
who was out there waiting for us. So I changed the quote to "when you
don't feel like finding, that is when you need to do it the most." And
it was true, because we found Giovanni last night.
Giovanni was out sitting with his dog near the beach when we stopped
to talk to him, and he was our miracle for the evening. He is a
musician who speaks English really well. He told us that he grew up in
a Christian background, but he decided to stop going a few years back,
because he felt it was missing something. He turned his life to music,
loves Prince, and feels he receives inspiration through his music. We
got his phone number, and asked directly if he would read the
restoration pamphlet, and he said he would that night. He was really
really cool, and we know that he will find what his life is missing.
Our message as missionaries really is different from the rest of the
world, and we offer more. I know that I'm changing lives by being an
instrument in my Heavenly Father's hands.
Well, I hope all the mothers had a wonderful Mother's Day.
Vi voglio bene!
Sorella Flansberg
Missione Italiana di Roma
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