Dear family and friends:
"There must be opposition in all things." This week in comparison to
last week was that opposition. There were still good moments, and we
had some great lessons with our investigators, but there were also
some challenges to face and overcome.
We had a wonderful lesson with Elena on Monday night. We went planning
on explaining the gospel of Jesus Christ, but the spirit led us in a
different direction. We talked about how the Book of Mormon contains
the fullness of the gospel and how we can know for ourselves that
Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the book is true. She kept saying,
"ci credo." Or I believe it, I believe it. But I was led to ask her if
there was a difference between the words "to know" and "to believe".
Obviously, she said yes. Then we shared Moroni 10:5 and testified that
through the spirit, we can know the truth of all things. Then she
FINALLY agreed to read the Book of Mormon and to pray about it. What a
miracle! She also said the opening prayer in gospel principles
yesterday, and she is making great progress. She also understands
prophets and the idea of continuous revelation now.. So thank the
heavens! :)
On Tuesday, we went to see Lucia. She hadn't been answering her phone
and the last thing we had heard was that she was in the hospital. So,
we were a little worried that something happened. But, she was home
and had been in the hospital for 8 days. We had a good lesson with her
and now she finally understands that our church is not associated with
the Catholic Church. We hope she starts to feel better. Her daughter
was there to help her recover and to help her put her house on the
market, so we hope we can teach her more before she moves to Milan and
then we can give missionaries there a solid referral. We left an hour
before English course was supposed to start and after 30 minutes of
waiting at the bus stop, these members were our heroes and picked us
up as they were driving towards that direction.
Since we had to go to the questura on Monday, we were able to have 2
more hours of p-day on Wednesday morning, so Sorella Lahaderne took us
to the open air market where I bought a swimsuit of all things. Yes, I
bought a swim suit on my mission. My only excuse was that it was 4€
for top and bottom and it was modest. I promise I'm saving it for when
I get home, and I'm not apostate swimming on the mission. Then we went
back to our house and she taught us how to make Italian food. And she
trimmed my hair. It was a fun morning to spend with her. And now I
know how Italians make yummy tomato sauce. Woohoo!
We made homemade lemonade for a family we were going to visit that
evening. We had made an FHE game for the girls to do, but when we got
there, she sent the girls to the back and we just talked to the mom.
But we left the FHE for them to do later. And then we went to do some
English course finding, but nobody wanted to talk to us. They
wouldn't even say good evening, so... We were struggling a bit. I feel
like some people here think we don't have feelings as people. But I'm
actually a really nice person.. And I'm human. So, the least you could
do is say good evening. Sorry... *rant over*.
Thursday morning, we were able to meet with the new ward mission
leader and come up with a new ward mission plan. We are launching it
in September, and we are excited for it because hopefully the members
will become more involved. But until then, it is a secret that nobody
can know about it... Not even you guys. :)
That afternoon, we went out to find Margherita. She wasn't available
to stay around, so then we tried to call Tanya... But she didn't
answer, so we stopped by Nicoletta's pastry shop and she was not as
nice as she usually is to us, so we might have burnt our bridges with
her when we shared "because of him" last week. But hopefully not.
As we were leaving Margherita's house, we ran into a giant parade in
cittavecchia that was celebrating the moving up in ranks of the
Taranto soccer team. But don't worry about it too much, they are still
very much at the bottom. It was fun to see how much the city has pride
for their team though even if everyone knows that they aren't very
good. Even I know that, and I know nothing about soccer.
We cleaned our apartment for a few hours on Friday because we had
cleaning inspections on Saturday. The Lahaderne's were impressed by
how clean it was and it was nice to feel the spirit even more. Now
we've been trying to keep it clean. It had gotten really dirty ever
since we had zone conference, so now it is nice to have a clean
apartment. Also, our air conditioner is now working so I haven't been
sweating all day every day, and I can even sleep at night now.
Hallelujah. :)
On Friday, we had a lesson with Cristina and Sorella Casti. It turned
out to be a really great lesson and their stories are very similar, so
it was fun for them to fellowship with each other. Cristina wants to
get baptized by the end of August, but has a few things she needs to
figure out before then, like where she is going to live. So keep her
in your prayers, please. She is so ready and just needs to climb over
this last obstacle.
Saturday was interesting. That morning after our apartment inspection,
we tried to go see some people. Our original appointment had cancelled
on us, so we were going to see this elderly sister in the ward... But
she wasn't feeling well when we arrived at her house. So then we tried
to find this less active, but there were two sides of the streets and
we picked the wrong one first. Then we stopped by to see this other
lady in this care home, but we went up to her room, and she wasn't in
her bed. Haha.. At this point, we were like... Okay Heavenly Father...
What do you want us to do? So we said a prayer, and still felt good
about going to find the less active because we finally figured out
where she lived. She opened the bottom gate for us, but when she
looked out her peephole and saw it was us.. She didn't open the door
even though we could hear people inside. Then we went home, because we
were out of time in the morning. But at the bus stop, we started
talking to this man.. But the only English sentence he knows how to
say is.. "You are beautiful girls." So you can just imagine how that
went.
Then when we left in the afternoon, we took a bus to cittavecchia. And
the bus broke down... Not once, but twice. We finally had to walk the
rest of the way, but we were already late. Need I mention that this
address was in the sketchy part of the old city. We found the street,
but it was in an alleyway that was literally no wider than if I stuck
one of my arms out and tried to walk through it. Yeah... Sorry, not
doing that. So after I called the lady for other directions, it
started pouring down rain. We still couldn't find where they lived, so
we called again and said we would have to come another time, because
we have to leave cittavecchia before it gets dark and we only had 30
minutes until that happened and you can't have a 30 minute appointment
with Italians. But as we were waiting at the bus stop to head back, we
saw a rainbow. So that was a nice tender mercy on a day when nothing
seemed to go right.
The air conditioning broke in the church this week, so it has been
quite hot.. All the old ladies have their fans out. Haha.. :) I love
Italians so much!
We had a nice meal appointment after church. The food was all
delicious! And Sorella Gochnour was waddling out of there. Haha... We
ate so much, and she kept saying... I've got to learn how to eat slow
like you. I just said that I'm experienced with these meal
appointments and I've learned that is the only way to survive. Haha...
So much food.
We also went to see Tanya last night, and we had a good spiritual
thought with her about Moroni's promise. Her baby sister, Raini, was
playing with me on the ground. And she was so fascinated by my name
tag. She kept trying to pull it off my shirt. And when I wouldn't let
her have it... She kept pinching and scratching me and pulling my
hair. Haha.. She is too cute and she knows it, except when that demon
side comes out. JoJo and Emmanuel in Catania were always fascinated by
them too. Haha..
Then we had a movie night featuring the District 1.
Training update: sometimes I feel like Sorella Gochnour is training me
more than I am training her. She is so awesome, and doesn't get
discouraged very easily. There is always something new that I can
learn from her.
I read the talk, "The Best is Yet to Come" by Jeffrey R. Holland this
week and something I really liked from it was:
"I plead with you not to dwell on days now gone nor to yearn vainly
for yesterdays, however good those yesterdays may have been. The past
is to be learned from but not lived in. We look back to claim the
embers from glowing experiences but not the ashes. And when we have
learned what we need to learn and have brought with us the best that
we have experienced, then we look ahead and remember that faith is
always pointed toward the future. Faith always has to do with
blessings and truths and events that will yet be efficacious in our
lives.
So a more theological way to talk about Lot's wife is to say that she
did not have faith. She doubted the Lord's ability to give her
something better than she already had. Apparently, she thought that
nothing that lay ahead could possibly be as good as what she was
leaving behind."
I hope you all had a good week! Love you all!
Con amore,
Sorella Flansberg
Missione Italiana di Roma
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