Dear family and friends:
Well, I guess I can't count, because last week was definitely week 61.
But who even cares? It is still way too close to the end for me! Haha..
Well, we had a great week 62 here in Taranto with zone conference,
scambios, and lots of miracles. So, here we go:
On Tuesday night after our p-day, I went on a scambio with Sorella
Caliò. She is from Milan, and is super sassy and really funny. She is
actually my MTC companion's daughter in the mission. We had a fun time
together for the hour that we did English course finding at the mall.
We got really good and saying "ciao, facciamo un corso d'inglese
gratuito" really quickly and then handing them a card. Hopefully we'll
be able to get a few new students especially after summer ends when
all the Italians come out of hiding. Haha...
After that, we headed back to the church, and I joined other
missionaries for the English course spiritual thought. After class,
all the missionaries just went ham on all of our students. Haha.. In a
good way. We actually got a new investigator out of it. Her name is
Rosanna, and one of the AP's talked to her and we had a lesson right
then after English course. We taught her the restoration, and set up a
return appointment for Thursday because she wanted us to read the Book
of Mormon with her. So we read the introduction and went through all
the pictures, and she understands exactly what she needs to do. And
she said she would read it and pray about it. She's just worried about
what her family will think if she decides to change her religion.
Funny thing though: we texted her on Friday to invite her to the
baptism and she thought we were asking her to be baptized, so she
politely refused and said, I have to read and pray first. Haha... She
is so golden, and I'm really excited about her.
14 months was on Wednesday. Perfect timing for my third to last zone
conference. Ahh. That is weird to think about. But to put it
briefly... Wednesday was a day on the mission that made me never want
to go home. It was just so amazing and spiritually filled with good
stuff that made my heart so happy. :)
We had interviews for the first time with the Pickerds, so that was
fun. While president was talking to our companion, we talked to
Sorella Pickerd. I just love both of them so much. Sorella Pickerd
totally answered one of my questions though. I thought that because
she has an MBA and her husband and all her kids studied accounting,
they would try to convince me to study accounting... But that is the
exact opposite of what happened. She told me that she wishes she had
studied something math based instead of business for various
reasons... But it was such an answer to my prayer. Then Pres. Pickerd
asked me how much time I have left in the mission, and his words were
simple... He said, "sprint to the end." I just loved that thought.
I've been working/running hard my whole mission, but because the
finish line is in sight... It is time to sprint, and now I just need
to give it my all.
This zone conference was so amazing! I just loved every bit. One of
the first things the Pickerd's told us was that every general
authority cares about the Italy Rome temple and all of their eyes are
on us as missionaries. Just a bit intimidating, but this country is
under the microscope because Satan's hand has such a tight grip here.
We also talked about Alma 8 and how he "entered the city by another
way". We talked about the other ways we can "enter the city" and
different ways we can find people. It was here that we found out
Sorella Gochnour playing her violin wasn't a complete failure the
other night. Supposedly one of the people the anziani talked to came
to English course and from there became an investigator with a baptism
date. So now that story is going around the mission.
Then the first part of zone conference, we just had a council type of
a meeting. So everyone could speak if they wanted to and we just
bounced ideas back and forth and shared scriptures about repentance
for the first 2 hours. It was really fun, and everyone participated
and we all learned a lot. It was just a new way to do zone conference.
We trained each other instead of being trained by one person the whole
time.
That night, Sorella Conde and I left our greenies and went on a
scambio. We talked to a lot of people, showed 3 "Because of Him" and
we then had the biggest miracle of the night. We have this
investigator who is 9 years old. Her mom is a less active member, but
we've been trying for so long to see them. They just spend all day
every day at the beach and are never home when we go. But, they were
home this time! It was such a miracle. We had a lesson with almost the
whole family, taught them about how God loves them, how the gospel
blesses families, and how important prophets are. We invited them to
read and pray together as a family, but it was just a miracle that we
saw them.
It was good to go on a scambio with Sorella Conde. We had a good time
together, and saw so many miracles! We taught with unity, and we
caught up on all that has changed and all that happened since our time
together in Ladispoli.
The next morning, we went to see Margherita. She's been having a hard
time reading the Book of Mormon, because she hates reading. And so we
decided to take a suggestion from zone conference and teach her about
the atonement. And how our role as representatives of Christ is to
invite her to do things that will bless her life if she tests her
faith. It was such a great lesson, and also one of our other miracles.
She was alone at her house. Her mom who doesn't really like us wasn't
there, her grandmother who makes Margherita act all awkward around us
wasn't there, and her nephew who is loud and rambunctious wasn't there
either. It was her and us talking about Christ. And it was a powerful
lesson.
Friday, we did weekly planning. We baked cookies, and did laundry that
morning as well from all the sisters staying over, and our house got
so hot. It was ridiculous. Oh, did I mention that our air conditioner
was broken? Yeah... So hot. We were dying.
Friday night, we had a lesson with Cristina, and we were finally able
to teach her about the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a really great
lesson, and at the end... I knew we needed to ask her when she was
getting baptized. I'm not exactly sure what I said, but I know the
spirit guided it. I think it was something along the lines of,
"Cristina... You know it is true. You know that God has led you to
this church, this place, these people, and you know you want to get
baptized. I know that the sooner you make this decision, the more
blessed your life will be." I just felt so much love for this woman as
I was saying that, so I obviously started tearing up. And I think she
interpreted the whole thing as I want her to get baptized before I
leave Taranto, which isn't what I meant... Obviously, I would be
ecstatic if that did happen. But I think we needed to be bold with
her. Hopefully we'll get to help her pick a date during our next
lesson. She is so amazing!
On Saturday morning, we had a baptism at the church here in Taranto.
One of our investigators, Miriam, moved to Brindisi for the summer.
She called us the day Sorella Hess left and said she wanted to be
baptized and asked what she needed to do to be ready. This was a bit
of a shock to me and to the Lahaderne's but we told her to contact the
elders in Brindisi and go to church for like 2 weeks. She's been
investigating the church for more than 2 years. But she finally did
it. It was here in Taranto because we have a font and this is her ward
for the rest of the year except summer. It was a beautiful baptism.
She was so genuine and her smile was just gleaming.
During the scambio with Sorella Conde, we passed by this store called
upim and I pointed out that I really liked this dress that was on the
mannequin. And Sorella Conde was like, let's go in and try it on and
do store finding. So, we talked to people as we went, and I ended up
buying it. It is really cute, but besides the point... We saw this
lady at a bus stop later on in the week who was the cashier and she
recognized us. We talked to her a bit, but ran out of time to go too
much into the gospel, but I'm sure we'll see her again. It was just
cool that she recognized us and paid enough attention to even know
what I bought when we came in even though there was a line of people
behind me. The missionary name tag stands out, and she noticed that we
weren't just some American tourists. Such a cool follow up experience.
Sorella Gochnour had her first meal appointment on Sunday. We went to
the Taconelli's and the food was really good. They thankfully didn't
make that much food... It was a lot, but not too much that I was
dying. Sorella Gochnour thought she ate a lot, but little does she
know. Haha.. :) Her daughter is less active and our age and it was fun
to talk to her and get to know her better. Maybe we'll get to be their
friends and help her come back to church.
Sunday night, we tried to take lemon cookies to some members, but
Italians don't really like it when you just pass by their house and I
didn't want to walk halfway across the city if they weren't even going
to be home, so we called them first and nobody was home. So it was a
bit frustrating because our first plan had already fallen through, and
nobody seemed to want our cookies, but we decided to stop by this less
active's house who we haven't seen in awhile with some cookies. We
literally arrived just as they were heading out the door, so that was
a miracle. It was just enough, so this sister knows we love her. Then
we went to see Tanya and her mom. We had a really awesome lesson with
them too using President Monson's talk from last conference about
choices. We sang a hymn with them and it was amazing. We also took
them lemon cookies.
We had to go to the questura this morning to do Sorella Gochnour's
permesso. We arrived early, and then we realized that we didn't have
the paper we needed. Haha... So we called Anziano Lahaderne and gave
the anziani keys to our apartment and they went to pick it up for us.
Whoops! Thank goodness we realized that early enough. And I also don't
even know how people do missionary work without senior couples.
Haha... If you're as forgetful as I am... They are like lifesavers. So
grateful for them and all they do. Someday, I'll be a senior couple
missionary and be able to help all the missionaries as payback for all
of my "help" moments.
Training update: I feel like I didn't spend much time with Sorella
Gochnour this week because of all the different scambios and zone
conference, but she is still awesome. We are slowly discovering how
similar we are. If one of us says we like something, the other gasps
and is like, "I like that too." Haha.. She was also so brave and
during the scambio went out with another greenie, and they actually
talked to people and saw their own miracles.
President Pickerd says we can have and we should expect to have and
see miracles every day. And the miracles are happening. Italy is
blooming.
Love you all!
Con amore,
Sorella Flansberg
Missione Italiana di Roma
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