Hello family and friends,
What a week!? There were the highs and the lows and everything in between.
One of the obvious highs was the conference we had with President Nelson, Elder Hallstrom, and Elder Kearon and their wives. It was phenomenal, and such a great experience. We all got to shake their hands and we learned so much. We left on Wednesday afternoon, arrived in Rome 7 hours later, stayed the night at the Michelini's (a senior couple again) with 4 other sisters (including Sorella Roberts-one of my favorites), and then left on a train again Thursday afternoon around 3. So, we spent a lot of time on the train traveling, but I can guarantee that it was worth it. :) We also got Napoli pizzas thanks to our beloved zone leaders who both happened to serve in Napoli and had connections. :) No complaints there.
Here's for some of the things that I learned.
Sister Kearon said: "We must be anxiously engaged. This includes how we behave ourselves in public, on the train, on the bus... we should be prayerfully glancing around looking for those who are ready. There is a whole spectrum of being anxiously engaged. Where are you? And how will you become totally, completely engaged?
Elder Kearon said: "Know what it is that you need to do and act. Look up, look around. You are the Lord's messengers, ambassadors, servants, hands, and voice here in Italy. [looking around the room smiling] You must have been very very good in the pre-mortal life."
Sister Hallstrom: "I'm so grateful to be part of a church where every meeting, a testimony is born of Jesus Christ... in word and in song."
Elder Hallstrom: "Never completely leave the mission. The core of who you are is what you establish now. It isn't a mask we put on for a year and a half and then take off when we leave, but it really becomes who we are."
Sister Nelson: "The Savior is really returning to earth. Do you get this? Okay, Wendy [Elizabeth]. It is time to kick it up a notch. If it wasn't on you pre mortal to do list, you don't have time for it now. Be aware of how you use your time."
President Nelson: "You are children of the covenant. You are not accidental beings. You have been reserved for this time and this place and even this mission for a reason."
And the apostolic blessing he left: "Feast on the words of the Lord Jesus Christ and you will become powerful disciples, exemplary disciples of him. Let this continue even when you return home. Safety in travels. Success in the work. Healing among such who need it according to the will of God. That you will become devout disciples. Proclaim his word with joy in your countenance. This is his church and his people. He lives."
Other notes from him: he says thank you to all our parents because we wouldn't be here without you guys. :) ❤️
He read every single word and marked his new scriptures up in 2 weeks, which means he was pondering too.
And part of our spiritual identity is what tribe we come from.
Basically, he [a 92 year old man] stood at the pulpit for an hour teaching us about the Abrahamic Covenant. I learned so much! I obviously recognized the fact that I still have a long ways to go with studying the scriptures... especially with the Bible. Because I know like nothing.. haha..
It was an awesome conference! For the spirit we felt, but also for all the power of singing "Called to Serve" and the mission hymn as a whole mission. And for seeing all my favorite mission friends. I got to see some people that I haven't seen since we left the mission home at the beginning of our missions, both of my mission daughters, and other old companions. So much fun. :) Also, Dayana came at the end. And that was awesome to see her! 😊
Other things from this week: we went to see the Oliva's. And they made us these baked apples. He basically cored the apple without cutting it, put it in a pan with some almond flavored water syrup and put it in the oven. Simple but nice dessert and quite tasty. Especially with cinnamon and sugar on top. :)
Tuesday, we walked a lot. We did less active finding in the morning. And then we did plan of salvation finding in the afternoon which consisted of us walking all over Lama and all over Taranto. We also went to see Nicola. We showed him a video about following Christ, and he made it quite clear that he has no desire to follow Christ or change at this point of his life. Sad! We officially dropped him on Friday and now we have like no investigators. Haha... yay for more finding!
We started a new thing for spiritual thoughts at English course. We had each student write down a question on a piece of paper that they had for us about the church, and we are picking one question to answer for every spiritual thought we do. We had "Do you believe in the trinity?" this week. It is such a good idea to clear up misconceptions people have of the church and for them to learn more about it.
Friday, we did a bit of finding and met a 16 year old girl named Rosa from Romania. She had a 2 month old baby named Raoul, who was the cutest thing ever. She even offered for me to hold him, and I had to say no... but hey, only for 3 more weeks. Then I can hold all the babies I want to. :) We shared a short message with her about the plan of salvation. She even gave us her address and phone number and we were going to see her again on Saturday. But turns out, the address doesn't exist, and she ended the call both times we called. Oh well, she will be more prepared the next time she meets missionaries.
Friday night, we went to see Sorella Parabita and as we were leaving the hospital, it was pouring down rain. And we didn't have umbrellas. #geniuses So we waited until it slowed down a bit and then walked really fast to the bus stop which was thankfully covered. When we got home, I noticed my throat had begun to hurt... and so I almost believed colpa d'aria was real. That is the myth that if cold air blows on your neck, you get sick which everyone in Italy actually believes in. But nope... just the common cold from someone who was probably sharing their germs with everyone at the conference.
It was funny though. On Sunday, I didn't want to bach anyone because I was sick. Don't know how to spell that. Not Bach like the composer but with a ch sound at the end. Haha.. the kissing of the cheeks. But everyone was telling me, "I've bached people my whole life and never have I once gotten sick from it" and I was just thinking that they need to go back to biology and learn how viruses spread. Haha...
Saturday, we had a pass off lesson with the anziani for a woman named Francesca who lives alone, so it would be better if the sisters teach her. That was a roller coaster of a lesson. She is pretty catholic and doesn't really want to change religion.
Time for a rant: this is something I've seen throughout my mission.... but you can't just sit around doing the same old things in the face of problems and hope that your circumstances will change. We are people to be acted upon. We have agency to act for ourselves. And often Heavenly Father won't help us change something that we can change on our own. We can't allow ourselves to become victims to our situations and expect Christ to come in, put a bandaid on, and make everything better. He wants us to put effort in ourselves and he will come and help us with everything we can't do alone. Okay... rant over.
Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon consisted of me resting, sleeping, watching movies, drinking lots of vitamin C, blowing my nose, and coughing. But I feel much better today.
Sunday, we had a multi stake conference with the Palermo Stake and the Puglia stake because the district of Calabria is combining with the stakes to dissolve the district. It was a great conference and we got to hear from President Pickerd and Elder Dini Ciacci of the area seventy. Temple update as far as right now: President Uchtdorf said it won't be ready this year in August. And when President Nelson came he said, "the temple will be ready when the members are ready." The challenge for the members right now is even though the temple won't be ready at the end of the year, they should all be worthy to have a temple recommend by the end of the year. Pretty cool.
Gilda and Cristina came to the conference. And one of these weeks, Gilda will become an investigator. We just have to meet with her!! Haha.. we also went to the ward mission leader's house for lunch. And it was delicious as always. It was said at the conference yesterday that it is impossible to cook Italian food with American ingredients. So I will try my best when I get home, but I can't promise that anything will be as good as what I have eaten here.
A scripture that touched me this week is 1 Corinthians 9:16-17. Go look it up. But it talks about the difference of preaching the gospel because we feel like we have to and preaching because we want to, and the different rewards we get. I hope we can all find true joy in sharing what we believe with the people that surround us. :)
Well, I love you all! I hope you have a wonderful week!
Con amore,
Sorella Flansberg
Missione Italiana di Roma
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