Dear family and friends,
It's a little weird writing to y'all on Wednesday, but next week will
be back to Monday. As a reward for your patience, you only have to
wait 4 days for my next letter. :) And I'll try to cover all the
important parts of our extra long week.
On Monday night, we had an FHE with a returned to activation family
and their mother who is an active member. We read the verses about our
baptismal covenant in Mosiah and then they ended up teaching us more
than we taught them. They answered all of our questions before we
could even ask them.. Haha... We also ate some focaccia for dinner,
and the primary president (the mom) invited us over another time to
learn how to make it. Look at me! I'm becoming domestic! We are going
over tonight for that. We also think it will be good to build a
relationship with her because we have 2 investigators who are primary
aged. It will be fun.
On Tuesday, we had DDM with a wonderful addestramento about leaving
commitments and helping people keep them. And afterwards, we had a few
ideas about what we could do. We've been wanting to visit Miriam, one
of our investigators, and go get gelato with her. We texted and called
Monday night, and she didn't respond. But for some reason [the
spirit], I felt all day Tuesday that we needed to stop by. We did, and
she was home! We ate gelato with her and I made a big mess because it
literally melts into a puddle as soon as you step outside and talked
with her about the worth of souls in the sight of God. We are trying
to figure out how to fellowship her more. She has taken all the
lessons from the missionaries and used to go to seminary for 2 years,
but every time we bring up a baptism invite, she disappears for a
month or so. It has happened 3 times, so for right now... We are going
to be friends and try to build up her faith as to why we do things in
the church. Like we don't go to church to have friends, we go to
worship God.
On the way to her place, we were on the bus and this guy was looking
at us a little weird and at our name tags. So, I said, "come va?" We
had a nice little conversation until we had to get off the bus. He
said he knew some of the members. Little did we know, he's a member!
He was a new convert in like 2007 and then stopped coming to church. I
was so glad I said hi to him, because if I'm honest... Men who stare
at us weird are not the first people I talk to on a bus. Or anywhere
for that matter. Two little miracles that afternoon from just
following the prompting to go see Miriam.
That night after English course, we met with Giusy. She is the
daughter of our investigator Cristina who came back to church a few
weeks ago. She was baptized 20 years ago and for various reason
distanced herself for years. But as she continued to study counseling
and personal coaching, her studies always brought her back to Christ
and all of the feelings and thoughts and experiences she had at church
started coming back. 4 years ago she started listening to the Mormon
tabernacle choir and general conference talks on YouTube and now has
come back. She is amazing, and we are so glad we are able to teach her
mom.
Wednesday, we went to see this other less active. Our theme video this
week was frammenti d'oro or flecks of gold in English. It is from a
talk by M. Russell Ballard and talked about how small and simple
things bring great things to pass. We shared that video with her and
bore our testimonies about how reading the scriptures, praying, and
going to church are simple things, but they do wonders to grow our
testimony. While we were watching the video, her adorable 2 month old
puppy was licking my toes. It tickled and I couldn't stop laughing...
Haha. :)
I guess this week was less active week, because on Thursday we went to
see another one. But here's the kicker. We pushed the wrong button on
the citofono and it ended up being the grandparents of this family we
wanted to see. We got up to the door and realized only 3 men were
home. They offered us a Popsicle, so we ate them while trying to make
small talk with the teenage boys who were playing soccer on the
PlayStation while the grandfather completely ignored us and continued
to work on family history. We just ate the Popsicles really quick and
then left since we weren't even supposed to be there in the first
place. We pretended to go down the stairs until they shut the door and
we went and knocked on the correct door. Why do we always have so many
awkward moments as missionaries?
We ran late at this certain less actives house, so we had 15 minutes
to run 2 miles to the church in 96 degree weather with humidity.
Needless to say, we were drenched with sweat... And we looked it too.
Meno male that the church as air conditioning, or I would have died.
We had a lesson with Cristina. She wasn't able to read because of this
bad back pain she had during the week/weekend. So we read the Book of
Mormon with a member (wife of the senior couple). Sorella Lahaderne
made a wonderful analogy with the Book of Mormon and her life. She
said that she's really Italian, but she chose to leave Italy to move
to America with her husband. Just because she doesn't live in Italy 1)
doesn't make her not Italian and 2) doesn't make her diary not true.
Same thing with the BOM. Just because the people who wrote it left
Jerusalem and wrote a new record, doesn't mean the new one isn't true.
Kind of a cool comparison.
Friday morning, we had to go to the questura (immigration office) to
do my fingerprints to finalize the renewal of my permesso. Sorella
Hess said she had to be there for like 5 hours so I was a little
worried, but I was the first appointment and we got in and out. The
lady behind us was super cute too and had the cutest kid. The funny
thing is that the first time I went to the questura, we met a
Brazilian woman with a little boy and then this time, we met another
Brazilian woman. Kind of strange. Haha.. :) She even saw us at the bus
stop afterwards and offered us a ride home, but she didn't know where
we lived.
We also had the musical on Friday, so IT IS FINISHED. I don't think
I've ever been more happy. Haha... No more practicing every night at
5. Haha.. I think our song went okay, and it went off without any
problems. It is a nice memory to have though, and now that it is over,
we'll be able to find more people to teach and do more missionary
work.
Saturday wasn't very fun. Everyone was at the beach. I hate beaches
when everyone else can go, but I can't. That morning, we went to see
Tanya and we wanted to have a lesson with them. But her mom was really
busy packing, because they are moving to Bologna. :( She was being a
bit sassy and only speaking in Sri Lankan instead of Italian. That
afternoon, every single one of our plans fell through. One of them 5
minutes before the lesson was supposed to start and the Lahaderne's
were already there. #lifeofamissionary. It is kind of a said thing in
the mission that "when you get to plan d on your list of plans, go get
a gelato because you deserve one." But we couldn't even do that
because we started our mission wide fast for the new president after
lunch. Haha... It was miserable, but we kept going, we kept smiling,
and we kept inviting people to come to Christ.
Sunday morning came around, and it looked like we weren't going to
have any investigators in church when we were expecting 4. We were
like, really? We worked so hard this week. But as we read in a talk on
Monday, "often trials and tribulations are allowed to come into [your
life] because of what [you] are doing right". And I feel like this
statement is so true especially on the mission. Elena finally came, so
we were grateful for that.
We have had 3 meal appointments in the last 3 days... So much for
complaining about not having one last week. We went to the Del
Vecchio's and it was good. I felt like we were crashing a big extended
family dinner. There were so many people in that house. Also, when it
is hot... Your appetite to eat hot things diminishes by a lot. They
had these mint Popsicles for dessert, and I guess nobody likes them
because they gave us their extras and told us to take them home
because they are just taking up space in their freezer. Haha... They
are probably one of my new favorite treats. It is so light and
obviously cold. Much better than the fruity ones. :)
Sunday night, we had a lesson with Elena and we were a little worried.
Members weren't able to go with us like we had planned and then we
began to feel like the lesson we planned wasn't right. So we changed
plans last minute, and it actually went really well. We talked about
faith using alma 32-33. We talked about how some things, you just have
to believe on faith because there aren't facts or proof. And we talked
about how we need to pray and read the scriptures everyday. Like I
said before, we have to do these things and go to church to grow our
testimony, but she already has the coming to church part down. Which
is a miracle in and of itself because that is usually the hardest part
about helping people prepare for baptism. At the end of the lesson,
she actually said a prayer in the correct way and she said she would
read the Book of Mormon every day. We are making progress with her. :)
Monday was 13 months down. Ahh! We got gelato on Tuesday to celebrate
and I tried this Vienna Creme kind and it is my new favorite. It
tastes like a lemony cream ice cream. So good! And I'm not thinking
about how much time I have left because it scares me. 😳
We also went out to Giusy's house on Monday. She lives pretty far out,
and we barely missed the bus after sprinting after it. So we waited
for the next one, and finally arrived. She made pranzo for us and it
was a really good quinoa dish with peppers and eggplant. That was the
third time I ate eggplant in 4 meals, so it must be in season. We just
love Giusy so much and I learn so much from her all the time. I guess
according to blood type, our body reacts differently to different
kinds of food. I don't know how accurate that is, but it sounded cool.
She also made me feel like a down to earth girl because she has
drawers and drawers full of makeup and I just do the same thing
everyday and replace it with the same stuff when it runs out. Haha..
And some people think I'm high maintenance. :p
We said goodbye to Tanya Monday evening. Even though I've only known
her for 3 weeks, she is such an example to me of going forward with
hope and a smile on her face even if life is hard. She has such a
strong testimony and I'm going to miss her so much.
That night, we went to see our friend Nicoletta who owns this pastry
shop on one of the main roads. She has some of the best little
pastries, and we've been hoping to be able to teach her the gospel one
day. We just need to make the friendship a bit stronger. She had the
soccer game on (Italia vs. Spain) and we happened to be there when
Italy scored a goal. That was when we noticed that nobody was on the
streets, and once Italy scored, car horns started honking, people
appeared on balconies to wave flags, and we could hear cheering from
inside apartments. Who knew how big soccer was here? I wish I knew
more about it...
Yesterday, we went to see this little old widow in the ward. Her name
is Sorella Panunzio and she is the cutest little thing. Going to visit
her made me realize that we can learn so much from widows and they
benefit from our company. No wonder it is one of Thomas S. Monson's
favorite thing to do. She makes orecchiette every day which is the
famous type of pasta that everybody eats here and we asked her to
teach us how to make it. And it was so much fun! She also fed us
lunch, which included mystery meat, beets, and a worm in my apricot.
I'd say it was pretty successful. Haha... I'm grateful for the food
though. It is always good. I love Italy and Italian food and Italians.
Although I still don't like beets ever since mom made me sit at the
table until they were gone and she kept warming them up in the
microwave. I had a rough childhood. 😉 Now I know how to make homemade
pasta, and I'll be able to teach other people. As I said before, I'm
becoming domestic. Haha... :)
This morning, we went to see these underground ruins they discovered
in Taranto less than a year ago. We went with the whole zone. That's a
lot of missionaries roaming around Taranto. :)
Love you all! I hope you all have a wonderful week! If you read all of
that, you deserve some kind of reward. :) We go to Bari to meet
President Pickerd tomorrow. We are excited!
Con amore,
Sorella Flansberg
Missions Italiana di Roma
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