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.
Sorella Flansberg
Missione Italiana di Roma
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