So last Wednesday was not too exciting for a P-day. We were way excited to go book shopping at this underground bookstore so that we would have books in Italian for when we get home, but there was not anything really too interesting there. It was cool though because the entire store was underneath this Piazza in Centro. We also went to a couple of other stores as well. We did not have a ton of time because we had a family night that night with the Fiorellis again. This last Sunday Jaque (the mom) brought two friends to church. One was a 15 year old girl named Diana and she came to family night with her mom, Marina. They are from Argentina and have lived all over the place. They were really nice and they both seemed really interested. It was our first lesson with them so we played "the apostasy game" which demonstrates how information gets distorted through time through human error and misscommunication. After playing, Sorella Pickett asked Marina how this would apply to our life and Marina surprised us all by saying that that is why people are always so confused, why God has called prophets to help guide us. She even applied it to after Christs death and said that that was why we have so many churches today. It all made sense to her which is great. Diana came to church again this last Sunday and agreed to have a family night with us again, only problem is she is leaving for Buenos Aires this next week for a year . . . we will have to send a referral so that she can continue to learn more.
Because of the family night on our P-day, we had to go grocery shopping on Thursday and the most wonderful thing happened! There was American Food! Well . . . close enough. They had an section of "McKennedy-The American Way" food. This included potato chips, marshamallows, salad dressing, and even dried cranberries! Sorella Pickett and I were stoked! There were even these little Italian women who were whispering to themselves "wow, this must really be American food because those girls are obviously from the United States." It made us both laugh :) That night we met with Martina Aquaro. She has been investigating the church for many years because her Dad is a very strong member and she was raised with those values. That night we talked to her about her desires and shared Mosiah 18:8-10 with her but she is scared. She is having a hard time deciding to commit to this way of life. She knows it will not be easy and she has yet decided to choose the church over the world. She is such a sweet girl and I know she knows that the church is true, I just hope you makes the decision to be baptized sooner rather than later because we all need the strength that the Atonement and church offer in our lives.
Friday was quite funny. We had received a referral from a ward member and we met with her today. Her name is Anna Morgia and she is the president of a humanitarian group. We met her at her office and the moment she saw us she came and stroked my face in a very grandmotherly way. She is too funny! She really liked what we had to say about the church and told us it made so much more sense than her church. She even asked if The Book of Mormon was translated by Georgio Conzachi (the member who referred her to us) hahaha! We got a kick out of that one. She told us to call her again and got our number to ask us questions she has while she reads The Book of Mormon. We hope to meet with her again really soon when she has time.
Saturday we finally were able to teach Parry again! We had not seen him for two weeks because he has been so busy finding a job. Still no luck yet :( but we pray for him every day that he will find one and that it will allow him to have Sundays off. He has such a strong testimony already and he has only been a member for 3 months. He has much to learn but that has no effect on his love of the Savior. Later that afternoon we had an appointment with the little lady from Sri Lanka, Indra, but she had forgotten that she had a birthday party to go to so she could not meet with us. But because we were already in Centro we decided to stop by a previous contact. The woman's name is Angela and she owns a mystic shop that sells skulls, terot cards . . . etc. We got there but she was not working, it was her husband instead. He has met my companion before and was really nice to us. He asked to have a Book of Mormon in his store so that people can see it and even have it if they want. When we got there he had been talking to a friend named Ricardo. He gave us his name and number so that the Anziani could teach him more. We even got out of there with a gift from Angela's husband, a silver crucifix with Christ on it. We smiled and were very thankful, but when we got home we were not quite sure what to do with it. We knew we could not give it away and we also did not really want to keep it with us . . . needless to say we figured something out. It was very nice of him though. He really seems to like the missionaries and even posted a link to the church website on his website. We will probably never know if that is a good or bad thing, but that is alright.
On Sunday Sorella Kelly invited my companion and I, as well as the other two Sorelle in Roma, to come to a Valentines day Pranzo. I love Sorella Kelly! She is way too nice to all of us and is constantly looking for ways to help us with our calls as missionaries. We talked to her for a bit afterwards and she was telling us of her children's reactions once they came to Roma and one of her sons who served his mission in Argentina said that Roma is almost exactly like Buenos Aires. It is kind of a strange thought because Italy is often so fantasized, but I guess all big cities are pretty similar.
San Valentino here is gross. There is FAR too much love haha! I guess Europeans have no problem expressing their affection for one another so Sorella Pickett and I had a good laugh on our way to an appointment that night. We had dinner and a family night with the Zappata family from Quayaquil! When I told them Liesel served there they got really excited and even asked which ward she served in. So Liesel, let me know so next time I see them I can tell them. They are all so funny, especially the Dad. From what I have heard he usually pokes fun at the Missionaries a lot and is a tease, but that night Sorella Pickett just kept picking on him and he was rather put out by it. His wife laughed and said he deserved it all.
Yesterday was my first day of Scambi (exchanges). I went with Sorella Miller, Sorella Salyers trainer who lives with us. Because this was her first transfer in Roma and they also got put into our area after they moved in with us, they have had to do a lot of finding work and that was just about all we did yesterday. I do not think there has been a day I have been so stressed out, but in a good way. Sorella Miller knows how to help you get over your fears and that is by making you do it haha. We were on the metro and she said I was not allowed to get off until I stopped and talked to someone. She said it did not matter what I said, whether I invited them to English Course, explained who we were, or asked them if they were religious, I HAD to do it. And she stuck to her word. Ah! Ho paura! And I know it is all in my head. I am never going to see these people again, but I was so afraid! The first lady I tried to talk to I spaced on what to say after "Salve!" so I looked really dumb and they got off the train. The next lady could not understand my Italian and Sorella Miller had to restate what I said. But the moment the doors to the metro opened, that lady was out of there. But I did what she had asked, so Sorella Miller let us get off. The rest of the morning we did strada (street) and that was a different story for me. She kept slowing down for me to stop certain people but ah! I could not do it. But we still stopped many people, even a Jehovah's witness couple. That afternoon I did not get off so easily. We did strada again before our appointment at seven and I had to stop people this time. Funny thing is, two of the people I stopped were German, but luckily they spoke English. One of them recognized who we were and said "Oh, you are those people who like to talk to people about Jesus and tell them how nice he is and how much he wants to help us." We both chuckled and said "more or less, yes." We even ran into a couple of people from Saint George Utah! They actually stopped us on the street by saying "SISTERS!" They talked to us for a while and even took a picture with us haha! After our appointment we took the metro to the train station and got on, but to our surprise we ran into a woman we had met that morning, actually the very first person we had talked to that day. When she saw us she had a big smile on our face and talked to us the entire way home. This time we gave her a Book of Mormon. She already had a glow about her and you could tell she has just been waiting for the church to come into her life :) It was definitely no coincidence that we ran into her again and I am sure she noticed that as well. Lets just say I am expecting a phone call from her :)
This morning we had an appointment with a referral we had received from the Bari Sorelle when they stayed with us in Roma for a couple of days. We were supposed to meet her in a Piazza at 10:30 but she never showed up and did not answer our calls. So after a while we left and started our long P-day. Today we went on the walk we had planned for last week but did not have time because of the family night at the Fiorellis. Last week we had a beautiful day and today it rained hard all day. But we went through with it with smiles on our faces! We started out at Circo Maximo, which is where they did all of the chariot racing in ancient Rome and then walked over to la Bocca della Verità . If you have seen "Roman Holiday" with Audrey Hepburn they show this . It is this face in the wall of this church with open mouth and eyes. If you stick your hand into its mouth and tell a lie, it supposedly bites your hand off ;) I did not risk telling a lie. After that we walked through the little island called Tiberina in the Tevere River that runs through Rome and then we met up with the Ladispoli Sorelle. We then walked through Trastevere with them for a while. Trastevere is the "classic" Roman neighborhood that is exactly what you imagine when you think of Rome. The cobblestone streets, the yellow and orange buildings that look like they have been around for ages with ivy hanging over them. Above that is Gianicolo Hill which has a perfect panoramic view of the entire city. We climbed that and it really was amazing because you can see everything, the Colosseum, the Vatican, Vittorio Emanuele . . . We then went and searched for the Jewish Ghetto. That was also really cool. It was a lot like Trastevere except they had the star of David on a lot of things. After all of that walking I was quite tired but the day is yet to be over because we still had not done internet yet. We are also hoping to meet with Indra tonight, but she has not answered our attempted phone calls yet. We are crossing our fingers, but we may end up running out of time to go see her. We will be sure to call her tomorrow.
Love you all a ton. Thank you for all the letters and the love. I will continue to try and get over my fears and talk to people more . . . I have been told it never gets easier though, but that is what the Lord is for! We are never alone!
Vi Amo Sempre!
Sorella LeCates
