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
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