Week 70: Kolob, ankles, temples, word of wisdom, and conference

Dear family and friends:

I don't know why the font is so funny. Sorry. 

I figured I'd update you on where our investigators are: 

Nicola: we met with him 3 times this week. The first time, we arrived too late but we talked about the importance of church, and the stop smoking program we use as missionaries. The second time, we taught him the restoration and he had a friend there who seemed to be interested as well. We invited him to read the introduction, and when we went back on Friday, he had read half of it and we talked about parts of the plan of salvation and about prayer. He wouldn't pray at the end of the lesson, but he will someday. Italians are always so worried that they won't say the right thing since we don't say written prayers. But he is progressing slowly and he is reading. He doesn't want to come to church because Sunday is his only day off and he goes fishing, but we are working on that. Piano piano... :) 

Cristina: she isn't getting baptized. Long story short, she doesn't want to marry the guy she is with, but she doesn't want to leave him... so we are at a stand still. But she is convinced that this is her church and that she isn't going anywhere soon, and that as soon as her circumstances change on their own, she will be baptized. Kind of frustrating because we know we are supposed to act on promptings when we receive them and not wait. We are agents to act not to be acted upon. But she is still awesome, and had a 2 hour meeting with bishop this week about everything. 

Elena: we have to figure out someway to keep our lessons at the basic range. She always wants to go into the deep doctrine without really understanding the basics and all of her deep doctrine theories are just slightly off. But she is awesome, and hopefully she will pray again this week. I learned that I still have a lot of patience to learn in that lesson. She has grown so much just in the time I've been here, so I know she is making progress and still has potential. She just did a bunch of religious research on her own such as traveling all around the world talking to leaders of other churches and now all her ideas get mixed up and those are truths that she has found. But some of them don't contain the whole truth. 

Tuesday, we had a member lesson with the De Giorgio's. We read a cute article from the Liahona about a 4 yr old yelling hooray at the end of the sacrament prayer. The author of this article learned that day that the message of the atonement is one filled with joy. We talked to them about something we learned at the conference that when we share the gospel, we should act like we are giving them the greatest gift this person could ever receive. Then we asked them to share their testimonies about Christ once this week to someone else whether less active kids or a neighbor. 

Wednesday, we had 3 lessons. One with Cristina, Elena, and Nicola. We were busy that day. That was nice. 

Thursday, we had an appointment with Fia, but we arrived there and she was in Taranto for a doctor's appointment and didn't call us. So we traveled back and practiced "If You Could Hie to Kolob" for sacrament meeting on Sunday. I played the piano and Sorella Gochnour played the violin. More on that later...

Something interesting from this week was that my ankle began to hurt when I turned it sideways but not when I walked or ran on it. It swelled up 2 weeks ago, but not again after that. So I walked just as much as always and iced it when we were home for lunch and wrapped it and wore tennis shoes. With my skirt. Yes, I was more than embarrassed. 

We talked with Cristina's partner this week while she was talking to bishop. He asked if she wanted to be baptized, and we said yes. Then he asked if he could convert himself, translated literally.. and of course we said yes! But he said he is too old to change. This week, we heard a lot about St. Thomas. The apostle who didn't believe without seeing. Both Nicola and Cristina's partner compared themselves to him, and I got to thinking after I read something that feelings we have from the spirit as a witness are much more memorable than anything we see. So if we can get these two people to feel the spirit and start building that relationship with Heavenly Father, they won't have any need to see these things anymore to believe. Plus, "blessed are they who believe without seeing." 

Saturday morning, we went to see Slla Basile, the mom of Sorella Lahaderne. She hasn't been doing well, so we basically begged her to let us help her out around the house and she let us. It was a serious miracle because Italians don't usually let us help them. I almost cried when we walked in and I saw dishes in the sink. I washed those, started a soup for her following her instructions, Sorella Gochnour swept the balcony and we went to the store to buy bread and lettuce. We were just so happy to help; we probably would have done anything. 

That afternoon, we went to see a less active mother from the Statte ward and her less active daughter from the Taranto ward and that went well. We talked about what the restoration teaches us about prayer. Even though we might not receive an answer as splendid as Joseph Smith's, we will still receive an answer because our Heavenly Father loves us. He knows our names, and he knows our needs. She also invited us to lunch this week and the food she was describing sounds like a lot of mozzarella and a heart attack all in one meal. So wish us luck! 

Sunday, we fasted to show our gratitude for temples. We are grateful for the progress of the Rome temple, but we are also grateful for all of the blessings we receive from the temples. I for one am so grateful that I can go in 7 weeks! A year and a half without the temple is too long. It's my first stop! :) 

Sunday, we played our musical number in sacrament meeting and it was just a testimony that Heavenly Father works through imperfect people. It was a tricky piece and when your hands shake, it is inevitable that you will hit the wrong keys every once in a while, but the spirit was so strong. Everyone, even all the kids, were silent. And all the members came up to us afterward and just talked about how they cried. It was nice to be able to use our talents to help others feel the spirit. 

After church, we went to an English course students house for pranzo with a bunch of other English course students and the anziani. And that was full of adventures. All 4 of us broke the word of wisdom because the desserts all had a form of alcohol or coffee in it that wasn't cooked out... so memories there. The part of the cake I had contained rum.. golden, right? We all stopped as soon as we found that out. Whoops! Sins of ignorance... I'm pretty sure that has happened more than once on my mission. 

That night, we watched the first talk of the women's session from general conference and it was so good. It made me even more excited to watch general conference next week. It is such a blessing we have to hear from prophets and apostles every 6 months and to receive guidance in our lives. 

I love you all! Thanks for all your love, prayers, and support. 

Con amore,

Sorella Flansberg

Missione Italiana di Roma

Week 69: Rome, conferences, rain, miracles abounding, faith, and Napoli pizza

Dear family and friends:

Mamma mia! What a week we've had here! So many miracles, lots of
traveling, and lots of missionary work going on.

Monday night, we had a lesson with Elena and Fratello D'Appuzzo, the
ward mission leader, and that went really well. We talked about prayer
and how important the spirit is and reviewed the restoration again. We
read the story about King Lamoni's father and Aaron in the Book of
Mormon. And she began to realize that all this time she has just been
listening to us and not acting on what we say. Having a member there
agreeing with everything we said helped give us a little more
credibility than just being 19 and 20 year old girls. We think
Fratello D'Appuzzo told her that we have traveled more than 10,000
miles to get to Italy to share this message with her. We are hoping
and praying that she will start to act and begin to form a
relationship with our Heavenly Father. She is awesome though and has a
desire to get baptized. We just have a bit more work to do and so does
she. When we got home the Caserta Sorelle were in our house, so we got
to the spend the next two nights with Sorella Hess and Jarnigan while
they were in town to pick up her permesso. So much fun to see old
companions. :)

On Tuesday morning, we went to go return the umbrella to our friend
Nicola. He is actually prepared for the gospel except for smoking 2
cigarettes in the short 20 minutes we were there. But he is so
awesome! We asked him what he thinks about God and he knows the
Catholic Church isn't really true. It frustrates him that they make
you pay to get baptized, to get married, to have a funeral..etc. We
were going to teach him the restoration, but the atmosphere wasn't the
greatest with his friends there. So we tried again on Friday when we
got back to Taranto from Bari, but he told us to come back at night
next week when it will be more calm, so we are going tonight. We are
hoping it will go well, but he said he read the restoration pamphlet
and he liked the part about the Book of Mormon. He also kept
introducing us to everyone in the building and all the people he
knows. More on that next week.

We actually had a few sunny days this week and people were in a much
better mood. They actually said hello back to us. Love that!

On Wednesday, we took a train ride up to Rome. And we stopped in
Napoli on the way up and had to change trains... So because Anziano
Friedman was "born" in Napoli, he contacted some connections he had to
get someone to bring us pizza while we were at the train station. And
now, I can die happy because I've had Nap-town pizza. Haha.. It was
good, but I'll look forward to visiting again so I can have it hot.

And then we got to Rome! Roma! 🇮🇹🇮🇹 We had to get from the train
station to the metro, to the stop by the Sears house and I did it all
by myself not even having been in that part of Rome before. It's kind
of cool being able to say that you can find your way around
underground Rome. So we were basically the luckiest companionship in
the mission because we got to stay at the Sears. They are the best!
(Jake, she wrote the book about Russia you told me to read before the
mission). I love senior couples! They made us dinner, American style.
And I actually ate salmon for the first time. Just a little piece of
it... But I knew you would all be proud of me. :) That night, we left
to walk around and get gelato and talk to people and when we came
back, Sorella Sears was in the back room on the phone and couldn't
hear the door, so we were locked out for a solid 40 minutes, and I
forgot the phone. #genius The next morning, I ate RAISIN BRAN and they
had American peanut butter. Can I say again that senior couples are
the best?!? Haha.. On the way to the conference that morning, we took
the Appia Antica which is basically the road that Paul walked on from
Pozzuoli to Rome. You can see the outer walls of the old city of Rome
and it was so cool! One of those moments, where I was just like, "I
serve in the coolest mission ever!"

We arrived at the conference where there were 140 missionaries.
Everyone that was not in Sicily came (all the Sicily missionaries met
in Palermo for a different conference) and it was so fun to see people
I haven't seen since the MTC. It was weird because the MTC doesn't
seem like it was that long ago, but a lifetime of things have changed.
But the conference was so good! I loved it! Anziano Kearon and the
Sabin couple came and of course President and Sorella Pickerd. Sorella
Pickerd talked about getting along with our companions and remembering
that we are loved by so many people. President Pickerd talked about
looking outward instead of looking in when times get tough. And the
rest... Here's some of my notes.

Things from President Kearon:
* The new standard of excellence will stretch you. And that is
fantastic. We should not be scared of hard things.
* Don't worry so much. Work hard and just stop worrying. Appropriate
worry is shown by Jacob. He is the most anxious of all the BOM
prophets. He is most anxious about the people. We should not be
worried about our language, our success as missionaries, or about how
WE are doing. We need to worry about them not us.
* We don't take your service for granted.
* Be like Paul. Let's go out and be persecuted.
* Elders, get used to girls astonishing you. I hope all of you will
marry a daughter, sister, and future mother who will continue to
astonish you.
* However committed we were yesterday, we need to step it up today.
* There is not a straight line relationship between our inputs and his
outputs. It is his work.
* Become the message. As you worry less, and work harder, and are
happy in your work, you will become the message. Relax, but work hard.
You might be the message, but you need to let it show.
* Forgetting yourself takes mighty prayer.
* The gospel is not something that we teach. It is something that we are.
* You have to have a passion for finding. You can just decide to enjoy it.

Elder Sabin:
* Life is wonderful, it is difficult, but you'll be home soon. The
mission is wonderful, it is difficult, but you'll be home soon. The
mission is short, but you will have the rest of your life to think
about it. So make the best of it.
* You know you are on the right trail if it is uphill.
* You will never be happier than you are grateful.

And the thing that we are trying to do is to attack our day.
First thing you do, pray. It should be a pleading prayer. And a prayer
of gratitude. That will be a very different way to start your day.
Exercise. Get your heart rate up. If you aren't sweating, it doesn't
count. Attack your day with energy.
Make your study focused. Study for yourself, your investigators, your
members, and your less actives.
Don't drift into your day. Attack it. Carpe diem.
You make or break your day by your morning hours.

And I took a lot more notes, but those are basically what I liked the
most. It was such a spiritual filled conference. But I love President
Kearon because he let us see himself as a real person. He used to be
one of those tough converts in London years ago, so he understands
from the other point of view. It was so good, and got us even more
pumped up to do missionary work.

Right after the conference, we went to catch our train to Bari where
we were going to stay for the night. The rest of the missionaries
traveling down with us were in a different carriage, but that is okay.
We got to meet Antonio! About 15 minutes into the ride, I asked him
where he was going and that one simple question launched us into a 3.5
hour conversation. Not even joking. We didn't stop talked for that
long. He is awesome though! He writes piano music and is actually
really good. He let us listen to some. He lives in one of the Bari
areas though and used to go to our church when he was a teenager. He
doesn't drink coffee or smoke, and he is just a solid all around guy.
Hopefully we can get the elders of Bari to go find him.

Friday morning, we finally got home to Taranto. We were so happy to be
back in our own domain. I love Taranto so much!

Friday evening, the ward put on a goodbye to summer party and they all
cooked dinner for us. We had some investigators and English course
students come and we were able to talk to and meet some members that I
hadn't really talked to before. It was a lot of fun. I've also been
noticing now how much the question, "how long have you been on the
mission?" comes up in any conversation. Maybe I'm just noticing that
more because I'm more sensitive about my answer. Haha... Everyone is
positive that I will "die" in Taranto, but we'll see I guess. I still
have 2 more weeks until transfer calls.

Saturday morning, we had the most amazing lesson with Cristina. We
taught about the word of wisdom and studying the scriptures and how it
is important to nourish both our bodies and our spirits with the right
things. Then we launched into a discussion about leaps of faith. And
we felt like she was just letting her situation stop her from acting
and getting baptized. So we challenged her to take a leap of faith,
meet with the bishop, and be baptized on October 1. We wanted her to
pray to know if that was the right date and yesterday, when we talked
with her, she said her heart was just bursting as she was praying
about it. And she knew it was the right thing to do. I just love how
Heavenly Father guided us in that lesson to challenge her and how he
answered her prayer. So now, just pray for her to have enough faith to
take this step. And pray for us as we try to figure out how to
organize a baptism. Haha.. I don't have very much experience with that
type of thing.

Saturday evening was a good night too. We went to see Sorella Parabita
and we sang hymns again and she sang with us which was so cute and
sweet. And then we talked to this cute family after we went looking
for a bathroom in a bar. They had an adorable 5 year old daughter who
was eating a gelato. She was just amazed that we were American but we
knew how to speak Italian. They also know some members, so that was a
pretty cool experience. And then we saw the De Giorgio's as we were
walking through centro and another member couple picked us up at a bus
stop and took us home.

Sunday at church was a little bit rough, but our day automatically
turned around after we heard from Cristina and her answer to her
prayer and the pranzo we had at the D'Amuri's. The D'Amuri couple are
some of my favorites here. She is the one who taught us how to make
focaccia a while back and I just feel comfortable around her. She is
awesome! We had a good spiritual thought with them about reading the
Book of Mormon again from beginning to the end and how that will
increase their faith. That night, we went to the church for
correlation and were going to go and see Elena, but it was pouring
down rain and so she called us and told us not to come.

Anyways, it was a great week. I love being a missionary! It is the
greatest thing ever!

Con amore,
Sorella Flansberg
Missione Italiana di Roma

Week 68: more goodbyes, rain, tender mercies, pie, pasta, and the never ending adventures we have in the Italy Rome Mission

Dear family and friends:

Wow! We had a crazy week. We felt like we were just running here and
there trying to get everything done. So prepare yourselves for a crazy
long email. Haha.. :D

Monday night, we went to see Tanya and her family. We had planned to
make pancakes with her and so we made the batter before we went. And
they turned out so good. I haven't eaten pancakes in a very long time.
Plus we had peanut butter and syrup from the Lahaderne's so it was
basically like America. Tanya thought we were crazy with all of our
topping combinations. Then we talked with her about having faith to
leave the harbor because she is moving to Bologna at the end of the
week. And then she brought up the point that the church is like a safe
harbor wherever we go. She is just awesome and Bologna is so lucky to
have her!

Our DDM this week was absolutely fantastic. We talked about Pilate and
how we can't have fear of men or just be passive as representatives of
Christ. We need to live up to our potential as missionaries. We also
used the story of the rich young ruler and how important it is to give
our will to God, because it is really the only thing that we can give
him. And then last of all, we talked about enjoying being a
missionary. This opportunity is really a once in a lifetime thing, and
I'm starting to realize just how short this period of time really
is...

After DDM on Tuesday, we headed out to Matteo's with the anziani. They
had planned a going away lunch for him since he left for Scotland on
Friday. (So sad!) His mom made lasagna, and it was basically to die
for. We watched her make it, and we took a time lapse so maybe someday
we will be able to replicate it. We also had a great lesson with all
of us missionaries with Matteo about faith and how we need to pray in
faith to receive an answer. His mom and sister sat in at the end of
the lesson, and the mom said, "basically you guys teach what every
other church teaches". And something I read in personal study a few
weeks ago helped me answer her question. I read a statement by Elder
McConkie and he talked about the importance of having the word and
having the power. A lot of churches have the word or some of the word,
that comes from the Bible, so yes... A lot of the doctrine that we
teach is going to sound the same, but because we also have the power
of God leading this church, we have access to continuing revelation
which helps us know ALL of the word and we have access to the power
that helps us complete saving ordinances. I just loved how simple that
explanation was. This was me paraphrasing him. :) At the end of the
lesson with Matteo, he promised with a good firm Italian handshake
that he would pray that night to know that 1) God exists and 2) that
the Book of Mormon is true.

And guess what? He got an answer. He prayed, ended his prayer, waited,
didn't really feel anything different. Then right before he was going
to bed, he felt like he needed to pray again. He didn't follow that
prompting until the anziani told him to try it again because that was
likely a prompting from the Holy Ghost. So the next night, he prayed
again... And this time, after his prayer, he said, I just felt good
inside. He likened this good feeling with the feeling he feels
whenever he is in the church, whenever he is around the missionaries,
and whenever he is around members. The missionaries were able to
testify that it was the Holy Ghost that brings us those feelings. And
he promised that he would find the church in Scotland and the anziani
are sending the missionaries there his information. He said that if he
feels the same thing at the church there and with the people there,
then he will know that this is the true church. How cool is that? :)
He is the miracle that came from that one night of finding where we
felt like it was a failure, but it wasn't.

One thing that I've really been realizing this week is how important
it is to have a relationship with God. We must all have the beginning
of some personal, spiritual, true experience with God and know that he
exists before we will have real conversion. And how do we have that
experience with God? We pray. I believe the commandments to read the
scriptures and to pray daily are commandments to help us form a
relationship with our Heavenly Father. We learn about him, he teaches
us about himself through the Holy Spirit, and in receiving those
answers, we experience the love that he has for us. And that love
leads to true conversion.

This is the experience that we are trying to help Elena develop. We
had a lesson with her this week, and just from listening to her, we
learned that she still doesn't know that God has a body of flesh and
bone. He isn't just some abstract idea that lives inside of all of us.
He is literally our father and he asks us to come and to learn about
him and his plan of salvation for all of us. So she might have what
she calls a testimony of Joseph Smith, but until she begins to build
that relationship with God, it will be hard for her heart to be open
to the rest of the doctrine that came along with the restoration of
the church. We have a lesson with her tonight with a member and we are
praying that it will go well.

Wednesday after our lesson with Elena and our unplanned lunch with
her, we met up with Tanya again to go get ice cream. It was her 2
years since being baptized anniversary and so we treated her to
gelato. We also had to say goodbye and that was so sad.

We had ward council at the church later that night and the zone
leaders were in town doing a scambio with the anziani. They had made a
deal with the whole zone a few weeks back that if every companionship
brought an investigator to church, we could pie them in the face at
specialized training. Well, we aren't having specialized training this
transfer because we are going up to Rome for a mission conference. I
think I forgot to mention that... Haha.. So, we can't exactly pie them
in the face in front of a general authority. Haha.. But our district
was the only district where every companionship had an investigator in
church that Sunday, so we had the privilege of pieing them. Anziano
Friedman made pies with pudding and Greek yogurt and it was so funny.
The incentives we do in the Italy Rome Mission to get investigators in
church... Haha.. :)

Thursday morning, we had a surprise phone call from Pres. Pickerd.
Haha.. I was worried I was getting emergency transferred for some
reason, but no.. He was just calling to do my ecclesiastical
endorsement interview over the phone. Haha.. He told me that part of
the BYU honor code is respecting those around me and that includes
people who go to the University of Utah. Kind of ironic because of the
BYU game this week. Now that is one less thing I have to stress about.

Thursday, we had pranzo with a member. So we rode a bus out to San
Giorgio to do a little less active finding before that. The pranzo
took forever.... And after we finally left, we found a bus stop. But
there are 2 bus companies that take us back to Taranto, and I was so
sure that the tickets we had were for CTP, so two busses pass that are
from Sud-Est and I kind of ignored a prompting to go ask the driver.
Whoops. So then a CTP bus finally comes and he tells us our tickets
are for Sud-Est, so we waited some more. At least this stop had a
cover over it for when it started to poor down rain. And even though
I ignored a prompting (don't do that), we still saw blessings? One of
our investigators that we haven't seen since my first week in Taranto
passed by the bus stop and we were able to talk with her and she said
we can come see her this next week. And we also talked to this really
nice guy named Alfonso who is Italian but lives in the Dominican
Republic. So I'd say the moral of that story is to follow the
promptings of the spirit, but then we wouldn't have met Alfonso or
seen Nunzia. So.... Take from that what you will.

That night after English course, we went to get panzerotti with the
anziani and Matteo, his sister and her boyfriend. And that was really
fun. And then we had to say goodbye which was hard because Matteo is
just so awesome. He taught us all of the hand gestures that they use
most commonly in Italian and he is just a fun person to be around. But
it will be good for him to go to Scotland and we are just praying that
he will get baptized there.

We did weekly planning on Friday morning, and we have another crazy
week ahead of us. Monday night, the Caserta sisters are coming to stay
until Wednesday morning so they can pick up Sorella Hess' permesso.
Wednesday morning, we all leave to go to Rome for the mission
conference with President Kearon of the Europe area presidency and
Elder Sabin of the seventy, and we will officially return to Taranto
on Friday morning. Friday evening, we have a ward party. Saturday, we
have correlation, and Sunday, we have church and a self sufficiency
workshop that we want some of our investigators to go to, so this next
week is bound to have some adventures. :)

It has been raining every day this week, so that has made things nice
and cool. And currently, it is pouring down rain. Haha.. We've had
more than a few opportunities to get wet and then stay wet the whole
day because of humidity. But it also brought some miracles because
sometimes I can be a dumbo and leave my umbrella at home. Friday, we
had gone to see Sorella Parabita, and after her, we had an appointment
with this less active couple and we had decided to wait at a bus stop
that we hadn't ever waited at before. We were already running late,
and we waited and we waited, it was raining, and we waited some more.
Finally, this guy comes to tell us that there aren't any buses that
pass at this stop and he thought he would come tell us so we weren't
waiting out in the rain. So nice of him, right?? And then we crossed
the street and he gave us instructions on where we could catch a bus
and then he let me a borrow an umbrella. We have plans to return the
umbrella and then teach him the gospel. His name was Nicola and he was
so nice to us lost Americans. I've gotten lost more times in these
last 2 transfers than I would ever like to admit. Haha.. It's just
humbling me...

Saturday, we rode a bus out to visit Slla Panunzio. She is the nicest
old lady and she taught us how to make pasta again. She has been a
widow for a little less than 40 years, her testimony is so strong, and
she is literally the most humble person I have ever met. We stayed for
lunch even though that wasn't our original plan, and her prayer almost
made me cry. She just thanked Heavenly Father for allowing 2 beautiful
angels to be in her home and visit with her, and how that day was such
a special day for her. Making pasta was fun too, although she said
that I'm not very good at working with my hands.. Haha.. 😐 I guess
you are supposed to use your palms to roll out dough but I use my
fingers and then the dough becomes misshapen. Oh well, I'll just keep
practicing. She's been making pasta for her whole life.

We left her and we walked to our other appointment because we thought
it was nearby. We ended up walking a lot more than we needed to and
because the roads are kind of out in the country, these cars that
didn't slow down splashed us all up and down with water. We were
soaked when we arrived at Sorella Basile's house. Haha...

This week, we spent a lot of time waiting at bus stops. So frustrating
especially when the bus stop you are waiting at is not a busy one, so
nobody is there waiting with you. Sometimes it is hard to feel like
you are not wasting time.... But those are some of the things that are
out of control as missionaries. And I just remind myself of D&C
123:17. "Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all
things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the
utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be
revealed."

This week, we also didn't cook once. We were literally at somebody's
house for every lunch except for Friday when we ate leftovers someone
gave us. Haha.. We ate so much, and we have been feeling it. Haha...
So much food. Looking forward to tomorrow when we can cook curry and
have some different flavors.

Sunday was a beautiful day as well. The lesson that Anziano Friedman
taught in gospel principles went really well. He made everyone cry
because the spirit was so strong. The lesson was on faith in Jesus
Christ and how we shouldn't have faith that we will get the solutions
we want to all of the problems that we have in this life. We should
put our trust in Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father who know the grand
scheme of things and who know what is best for us to figure out the
details. We just need to show our faith by keeping the commandments
and enduring to the end. At some point, we will realize why everything
happened the way that it did, and we just need to trust that
everything that happens is for a benefit. There is not a single trial
that we will go through in this life that is not intended for us.

On Sunday, we had the shortest pranzo appointment of my life. It was
really good. We are with the Piccione's. The husband is really smart.
And he tells a lot of really interesting stories. Haha.. One of them
was explaining why the streets in the old city are really just like
super thin alleyways. He said, that 1) it is because the old city is
on an island and they didn't have enough space and 2) it was to enable
the people to drop boiling oil on pirates when they came and tried to
take over the city from above these tiny alleyways. I'm not sure how
much I believe reason number 2 but it makes for a fun story. :)

Sunday night, we went to the church to practice the musical number
that Sorella Gochnour and Anziano Anderson (the kids) are
participating in for the mission conference. It is a really pretty
arrangement of Joseph Smith's First Prayer and it will be a powerful
musical number because that is the reason all of us are on missions,
and it testifies of the sweet message of the restoration of the
fullness of the gospel. It will be so good. :)

Well, you made it to end of another one of Sorella Flansberg's
famously long emails. Enjoy them while you can. ;)

I love you all! Have a wonderful week everyone!

Con amore,
Sorella Flansberg
Missione Italiana di Roma

Week 67: goodbyes, potential investigators, centipedes, Redeemer, scambios, and missionary work

Dear family and friends:

This week, I've begun to realize how much I'm going to miss hearing
people say "ciao, bella, ciao." Obviously not the creepy men, but the
cute old ones... Yeah, nobody says that in America.

Tuesday was an all around sad day.. Well, not really. But we had to
say goodbye to the Lahaderne's! And it was so hard because they have
literally become my mom and dad on the mission. They were all crying,
we were all crying, and it was a mess.. But Anziano Lahaderne was just
like.. We'll see you soon. ;) haha.. Taranto is not the same without
them.

This week, we taught really basic English course lessons like the
alphabet and the pronunciation of the vowels and other funky letter
combinations. And then this week, we get to start the lessons over
again. Hopefully, we will start to have more students now that summer
is basically over. :) We survived my last Italian summer, for the most
part. That is a miracle all on its own.

Tuesday night after English course, we were invited by four of the
English course students to get panzerotti with them and the anziani.
And it ended up being a really great evening. We were able to talk
about the gospel, and every single one of the girls said something
that will hopefully make it easy for us to start teaching them all
this week. We are so excited for that. They are all amazing and are
all in the golden age of golden conversion meaning 15-45. Ish....

Wednesday started out with no solid plans other than finding, but by
the end of comp study, we had 2 appointments so that was a miracle. We
were able to go see a lady who lives out in Taranto 2 who is a less
active. We decided it would be more time efficient to walk there
instead of taking the bus that only passes once an hour, and it was
more time efficient, but she just didn't answer the door the first
time. Or her phone. So we walked back because there is literally
nothing in Taranto 2 except us and dumpster divers... And then we
walked back an hour later to see if she was home then. Turns out she
was waiting for us, but we went to the wrong door. That's okay, we
just got a lot of extra walking in that day. I had never met her
before, but she was super nice except she wouldn't let us help her
paint her house. That is one thing that drives me crazy is that
Italians won't let you help them. We are guests in their book so they
won't let us do their dishes or paint their house or help them with
anything! I guess it counts that we try.

That night, we helped Tanya study for one of her exams at school, and
we went home... And we had a centipede in our house. Sorella Gochnour
refused to get anywhere near it, so I had to swallow my fear and do
something with it. I know... You read that right... I saved my mission
daughter from a centipede. I made it climb on a piece of paper and
then threw it over the balcony because I wasn't going to step on it.
So gross. And I managed to do that without screaming, impressive, huh?

Thursday, we had lunch with a less active who we went to visit in the
hospital a few weeks ago. The food was really good, but she had
invited another member family over to pranzo that day too, and they
could have cared less if we were there or not. I think we might have
said 10 words in total during the whole 2 hour meal. They would stop
their conversation a few times to tell us to eat more when we were
already eating more than all of them combined. Haha.. Oh well.
Memories.

Then we had planned to go visit her son who is also less active and
his family, but the bus never came.. So we had to take a different bus
back to Taranto, but we didn't know where the stop was. So we asked
these 3 old men on a bench at a park where it was located and all 3
men point in opposite directions and then try to tell us their
individual instructions all in something that wasn't Italian.. It was
probably Tarantino, the dialect here, but it was so funny. Haha.. We
just kept walking until we eventually found it. Haha..

That night for English course, Sorella Gochnour and I had practiced
Redeemer for the spiritual thought and it went well. Some of the girls
we went to get panzerotti with cried as we played it, and all of them
were really impressed with our musical talent. Don't worry, dad.. We
recorded it. I'll show you at some later date. :) Hopefully they were
able to feel the spirit through the music we played. Then one of them
brought his harmonica and played some songs for us.. It was funny.
Then one of the anziani's investigators stayed after to give us all
these books. It is part of a trilogy by Dante Alighieri who supposedly
created the Italian language. I got the book called purgatory, Anziano
Friedman got hell, and Sorella Gochnour got paradise. I guess they are
really cool books with a lot of value. I'll have to do more research.
Anziano Anderson got a different book, but it was so nice of him. We
are so sad that he is leaving for Scotland this week. He is the nicest
kid.

I had the opportunity to go on a scambio with Sorella Hills this week.
She is from New Hampshire and Sorella Conde's new companion. She is
super cute and we had a good day together. We walked a whole bunch,
but we got a lot done and we saw some miracles. My favorite of the day
was when our plans fell through that night, so as we walked out of the
hospital, I opened my planner to decide which of the 3 back up plans
was the most effective use of our time. And it just seemed to me that
this less active's name was highlighted in my planner even though it
wasn't. I was a little doubtful that she would be there, but she was
and it was a really great lesson. We talked about how Jesus Christ is
aware of us, and how he knows us and he has a plan for us. We also
talked about the painting of Jesus Christ waiting outside the door
without the door handle and we are the ones who have to let him in.
Christ is at the door. What are we going to do to let him in? It was a
great lesson. She also gave us green seedless grapes to take home, so
basically she gets an A in my book.

We made our very first lasagna that day too, and it actually didn't
turn out too shabby. Obviously, Italians have years and years of
practice. So with a little more practice, we'll get the hang of it.

We did weekly planning on Saturday since we had the scambio on Friday.
And that afternoon, all of our plans weren't working. And it was hot
and it felt like we were walking through molasses. Haha... But we did
some finding in this piazza and talked to these two men named
Giuseppe. We invited them to come to church, and then we went to see
this less active in the old city. We had started our fast, but they
gave us ice cream anyway even when we said we didn't want it. Haha..
And then we left their place and caught a bus right before it got
dark.

Cristina brought Gilda again to church. When Sorella Gochnour and
Sorella Conde went to the lesson with Cristina this week and taught
her about tithing and fasting, she was already fasting.. And then both
her and Gilda payed a fast offering, and everybody is like "baptize
them already".. And we're like.. "We're trying". Hopefully we will be
able to meet with Gilda this week. :)

We had lunch with the bishop's mom and dad and with bishop and his
wife on Sunday. It was really good, and we had a good time. They all
talk really fast, so it was hard to understand at times, but they are
so funny. And the bishop just understands missionary work because he
was a missionary not that long ago. He believes that missionaries are
the protagonist and that they should be at the center of every church
meeting, for example, ward council. And I frankly agree with him. I
just love that family so much! :)

I also read this quote during my studies of Joseph Fielding Smith this
week. He said, "The fall of Adam brought to pass all of the
vicissitudes of mortality. It brought pain, it brought sorrow, it
brought death; but we must not lose sight of the fact that it brought
blessings also. … It brought the blessing of knowledge and
understanding and mortal life." I wish more people would understand
this. The fall is not a bad thing, but a good thing. And even though
the bad things like death, sorrow, and pain come, we wouldn't be able
to know things like life, joy, and happiness.

I hope you all have a wonderful week wherever in the world you may be.
I love you all! This work is really the greatest work we could ever be
a part of.. And I'm grateful for the time I have to still do it 24
hours a day. It is such a blessing. My challenge for you all this week
is to pick one truth that the gospel brings into our lives that really
changed our lives and think of one person to share that thing with. Be
it eternal families, or personal revelation, or living prophets, or
the Book of Mormon. You'll receive blessings. I promise. :) Love you
all!

Con amore,
Sorella Flansberg
Missione Italiana di Roma