Dear friends and family:
I promise I'm not counting down. I have enough fellow missionaries who
do that for me. But I do have to say that I'm grateful that I only
have a few more big emails to write home. Haha.. Actually, I just miss
typing on a real keyboard. This would go much faster. I am so sad I
only have 12 more weeks of the mission, so I'm trying not to think
about it. It went so fast... We get transfer calls tonight, the new
mission president is switching it up, but we are pretty sure Sorella
Gochnour and I will stay together. :)
Well, before I arrived in Taranto, I never had to step foot inside a
hospital. But since I've been here, I've been to visit so many people
who are sick and want people to visit them. I think I've been 6 times
in 12 weeks... Haha.. And I don't even like hospitals. I'll just say
it has been interesting to see how social healthcare works. And I'm
glad I live in America. Haha.. I think there are pros and cons to both
healthcare systems.
We had a lesson with Elena on Tuesday, and when we arrived, she was
jumping in the shower so she opened the door for us and told us to
come in, have a seat, and wait for her. Haha.. We reviewed the plan of
salvation with her and that went well. And then she kept bringing up
the topic of baptism, so we asked if that was something she wanted.
She has had baptism dates before, but she said she understands more
now and she said she would be baptized when we wanted her to be
baptized. When we proposed September 10, she was more wishy-washy but
finally said yes. So hopefully that will happen. She explained
everything and understands that after baptism, she agrees to change
her life and follow Christ more. We are excited for her. :) Then she
didn't have ice cream in her house, so she took us downstairs and ran
to the store to buy some. Even though we arrived 2 hours before
English course, we were still running late. So we ended up scarfing
our ice cream down and then running/speed walking all the way to
English course. I love Italians.
We had district meeting on Wednesday this week and we did another
training. I like how Anziano Friedman does district meeting. He has
every companionship plan a part of the training and then we all teach
each other instead of him teaching us every time. Our assignment this
time was John 15:15-21 and we were to teach about our sacred calling
as missionaries. We liked the word friend in these verses, so we
talked about how Christ is basically calling us to be his friends.
Then in the following verses, all of the things correlate to a
Christlike attribute (faith, diligence, patience, humility, and love).
It went well and I learned a lot. Sometimes I feel like I've mastered
a Christlike attribute, but then I learn more about it and realize I
still have a long ways to go.
Wednesday after district meeting, we caught a bus to go to the station
in Taranto to catch a bus to Sibari. Then from Sibari, we took a train
to Crotone to do a scambio. And we were able to meet this lovely lady
named Caterina at the station in Taranto as we waited for our bus. She
lives outside our area, but was genuinely curious about the church.
She asked great questions, and I was so grateful Heavenly Father gave
me the opportunity to talk to her. I couldn't get her phone number
because the bus was literally pulling away as we were saying goodbye,
but she said she'd look up mormon.org so I am crossing my fingers. She
was such a tender mercy for me that day. :)
We arrived safely in Crotone without any problems even though the
train we rode from Sibari to Crotone seemed a bit sketchy. Haha.. It
was not even two carriages long and it kind of felt like Thomas the
Train Engine. We made it up the hill. ;) The "I think I can" 's
worked. We went out that night with the sisters there and we used a
chalkboard to advertise for English course or our English discussion
group. We were able to talk to quite a few people, and some of them
even came to class on Thursday.
I went on a scambio with Sorella Rohner who is Sorella Conde's
greenie. And we had a good day together on Thursday. We had an
appointment with a member in the morning and it was so hard to stay
awake. This lady talked for about an hour about the history of Italy
and Christopher Columbus... And her house was so hot. Oh did you guys
know that Christopher Columbus is actually Italian and not Spanish?
Haha.. I didn't until I arrived in Italy. We also met this cute lady
who is from Ukraine and another nice man who buys gold. They were both
really nice and seemed a bit interested, so hopefully they will become
investigators for them. We also had a lesson with this 10 year old
potential they have named Roberta. And supposedly she has decided to
be baptized in September. Haha... She was cute, sassy, and did not act
like a 10 year old. I also ate the best frozen gelato I've had here
because she couldn't make up her mind what kind of ice cream she
wanted.
That night after English course, the Lahaderne's arrived because they
were doing apartment checks for Crotone the following morning and then
driving us home. They invited us to go get pizza with them, but they
didn't end up leaving the church until 8:45 because the anziani were
teaching a lesson. So, we obediently decided to forego getting pizza
and walked home, and guess who shows up after we finish planning? The
Lahaderne's with calzones for each of us because they are literal
angels. Blessings for being obedient. It was a good thing they did
too, because the house smelled like gas and we couldn't figure out
why. They just turned the gas off until the next morning since we
wouldn't be using it anyways.
Friday morning, the Lahaderne's came to check the apartments and then
we got to go on our road trip with them. And it was so fun!! We
stopped at the store to buy sandwich fixing stuff before we left and
they stopped for gelato halfway there and we just had a fun time
talking to them and getting to know them better. I love them so much.
They spoil us like we are there own kids and when they walked in to
English course, it was like seeing my mission mom and dad walk in. So
fun! I will forever be grateful for them. I have also never been more
grateful for Taranto. I just love this city with all my heart.
We had a lesson with Cristina on Friday evening. Sorella Casti came to
that lesson again and she was awesome. Cristina had a hard week
because she had decided that she wanted to be baptized, but then ran
into some obstacles and she couldn't figure out why God was "stopping
her" from being baptized, but she realized that it is just something
that she has to get over and that he does very much want her to get
baptized. Yay! So grateful for the spirit that helped her realize
that. We had a great lesson about keeping the sabbath day holy and
prayer, and we read 3 Nephi 18 with her.
That night, we had a ward party for the summer. And it was a blast.
Literally every ward member came, there was music playing, food,
dancing, and karaoke. It was so fun and a good event for investigators
to come too. Cristina stayed for it and Elena came for a few hours,
and all of the anziani's investigators came too. It was so fun, and it
was nice to talk to all the members and get to know them better. The
bishop's wife even gave us a hug so basically she likes us. Woohoo!
The ward here is indescribable. I love it.
We've been able to see the power of thank you notes here the past few
weeks. We've been trying to figure out how to gain the members trust
other than just eating with them once a week. So every time they come
to a lesson or feed us, we have started to write them thank you notes.
And they love it. It is also a fun way for us to show our gratitude
and to bear our testimonies to them again.
Saturday night, we went to Statte to do a gesso (chalk
drawing/demonstration) to help the anziani there to find new
investigators. And it was a lot of fun. I drew the picture with chalk
on a sheet, Sorella Gochnour attracted people with her violin and it
was a successful night. We talked to a lot of teenagers (one of the
boys wanted a picture with me, so I might randomly show up on
someone's Instagram... Haha) and this other man approached the sheet
as I was drawing so I was able to talk to him. And we talked to
another girl who might go to English course. Then Anziano Lahaderne
treated us to gelato. Again, they spoil us so much.
Sunday, we had pranzo with the Mazzolari's. Sorella Mazzolari is the
nicest angel I've ever met and is such a great member. She is also a
great cook and we sure ate well. Her husband has this saying that is a
term of endearment for them and it is also the only 6 words he knows
in English. He says, "my wife is a beautiful witch." They tease each
other so much. It made for a fun afternoon. We talked about so many
things including how root beer tastes like medicine to them. Haha.. I
don't think I've ever had medicine that tastes like rootbeer. Most
Italians also don't like Dr. Pepper, so I guess they don't know what
they are missing out on.
Well, this week as we were traveling, we passed by a ton of olive
trees. And it just made me think of the atonement of Jesus Christ.
This is a topic that you think about a lot as a missionary. I was
curious so I searched olive tree on gospel library and it has so much
significance. Well, first I love how the olive tree is described in
Jacob 5 to signify the gathering and scattering of Israel. The only
way that Israel could ever be gathered is because of the atonement. He
loves us all so much that he suffered for all of our sins just so we
would have the opportunity to live forever in the presence of our
Heavenly Father. The Lord has done everything he possibly can for his
vineyard and now it is up to us to choose him. The word Gethsemane
also means oil press, and the first press of olives has a reddish tint
before it turns back to gold. Russell M. Nelson said this, "Remember,
just as the body of the olive, which was pressed for the oil that gave
light, so the Savior was pressed. From every pore oozed the lifeblood
of our Redeemer. Throughout the joyous days of your mission, when your
cup of gladness runs over, remember His cup of bitterness which made
it possible. And when sore trials come upon you, remember Gethsemane."
The olive tree represents peace. Without the atonement, we have no
hope of having peace in this life or in the life to come. And the last
thing I learned, if an olive tree is cut down, a new tree sprouts from
the roots which represents the resurrection. So much symbolism, my
mind almost exploded.
Also, other cool news for the week. Gordon B. Hinckley now has a
teaching of the presidents book. We read his history and it is crazy
how much the church changed and all the things he contributed to the
church while he was prophet. He was an amazing man!
Well, I hope you all had a wonderful week! I love you all! Happy
Ferr'Agosto! Today is a big holiday in Italy where everything shuts
down for the day. So we deep cleaned our apartment this morning, and
then went searching for a place with wifi that was open because the
church's conveniently stopped working yesterday.
Love you all!
Con amore,
Sorella Flansberg
Missione Italiana di Roma
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