So not much happened on Wednesday after I wrote. We had to go home early to clean the house and wait for the plumber/electrician to come to inspect our apartment. We spent over an hour deep cleaning the apartment and then they came. Yes, plural. Three men came in just casual clothes (jeans, t-shirts, jackets . . . etc) walked around the apartment for about three minutes and left. Hahaha! That is Italy for you. After that we hopped on a train to go meet Giuseppina (Pina) at the train station. She is the one that we ran into at the CNA appointment for Sorella Picketts Permesso di Soggiorno a couple of weeks ago. Sorella Pickett taught her English in her very first transfer a year ago and we accidentally ran into her clear on the other side of Roma when we both live in Fidene. She picked us up in her car at the station and took us to Porta di Roma - the huge shopping mall right by the temple site which is about 2 miles from our house. She is awesome! She is nineteen and attending one of the università here in Roma and offered to take us grocery shopping at Auchan, the incredibly huge shopping center in the mall. It is the closest equivalent to Walmart they have in Italy. Sorella Pickett and I had to laugh because Pina is a very pretty young girl who used to model. She was wearing the latest fashions and was all done-up and she was hanging out with two frumpy sister missionaries :) But it must prove something! She was still willing to be seen with us! As of now she probably will not be a new investigator but making friends with her will always keep the Church in her sights!
Thursday we went into the office in the morning to get somethings copied and got to meet Dr. Dahl, the area doctor. He was really nice and he and his wife offered Sorella Pickett and I a ride to our appointment. We were SO grateful because it takes about three times as long to get anywhere in Rome when you are traveling by the bus. So instead of an hour, it took us about 15 minutes to get there! We had a really good lesson with a girl named Laura. She is Italian and a law student not far from the church. Both Sorella Pickett and I really like her :) She speaks perfect English because she lived in New York for two years and she has quite the personality. She brings out both of our cynicism and we just do not stop laughing. I was showing her some pictures from home and she told me they had to be propaganda pictures to get people to believe that we live normal lives at home. In actuality we are the Amish. And because we HAVE to wear skirts, all of the Scottish must be Mormon too. She cleared up a great unanswered question as to why I have Scottish descent and I am LDS, it is because they both wear skirts! No worries though, she sincerely seems interested in our message and we left her a Book of Mormon with a dedica written inside to her. She said she would gladly read it and come to church in the next two weeks! Later that night we had correlation with Fratello Conzachi and got a lot of good work done. Our lesson in English course was also great! For the spiritual thought we brought a bunch of English Liahonas from November to show them the pictures from conference and the organization of the church in the center fold with all the pictures of the General authorities. Every single one of them brought the magazine home :) They all showed real interest because for many of them they do not see the church as a large organization that truly is world wide. The pictures in the Liahona really opened their eyes to how massive, professional, and clean cut everything is run. We know it left a lasting impression!
Friday we again went up to Bocchignano for English course. The night before I had a feeling that Marco, the student in our advanced English course in Roma as well as Bocchignano, would be the only one to attend class that Friday. Sure enough, Sorella Pickett and I had a personal lesson with him that afternoon. We had fun talking about stained glass, salmon fishing in Alaska, and the difference between elk and moose when we started talking about the gospel. We give him English Liahonas and he had the question of what "Restored Gospel" meant. We told him we use gospel and church almost synonymously because they are the way that we can return to live with Heavenly Father. The gospel is the "good news" of Christ and the Plan of Happiness. What made this lesson special was that it was not us just talking at him, but instead us expressing why these things are important. We spoke about the spirit and baptism, how we promise to follow our Lord Jesus Christ and in return her gives us the irreplaceable Gift of the Holy Ghost to help us accomplish His will. We expained our love of prophets and conference, what a blessing it is in our life to hear the message God wants us all to hear. Everything was set up perfectly and Sorella Pickett was beginning to explain why it is important to pray to know that the Book of Mormon is true when . . . the Anziani walked in. To their credit, they did not know our English lesson had turned into a gospel one and we had gone over the time by 20 minutes. But that was enough of a distraction that Marco hopped up out of his chair and said he had to leave. Luckily Anziano Schwing was on the ball and set up another teaching appointment with him next week before class. We love Marco! The next class went well also and the spiritual thought was about the temple. Every single student took a pass along card because they wanted the church internet site to learn more! One woman always brings her two kids and they have a sweet spirit to their little family :) President Kelly was right to have us continue this English Course even though it is quite the time commitment! That night we got transfer calls and the verdict is . . . . . . . . I am going to . . . be staying in ROMA 2 with Sorella Pickett! We were both super stoked because we can really feel the work progressing and growing and we would hate to miss it!
Saturday Sorella Pickett and I could not wait to go see conference but what made it even better is we had an appointment with Amy and Beth, two Philipinas who live here in Roma. They are both members and truly amazing! We met them at Termini and had a great lesson from President Monson's article in this months Liahona about the Atonement. Amy has such a sweet testimony about the restored gospel and has decided to return to live in Catania (she had previously lived there when Sorella Pickett served there) because her current employer often has her work on Sundays and she knows the importance of the Sabbath and she "needs that day to remember the Savior." Also, thanks to her help, we were able to track down her cousin Perry. Perry is the one that Sorella Pickett taught and baptized in Catania and came up to Roma for work. We were teaching him the post baptism lessons but the past several weeks we have not been able to get a hold of him. After Amy called him we went to the Philipino store where he works for his uncle and got to talk to him for a little bit. He is having a hard time and we hope we will be able to help him, if he will let us. We got to conference a little bit late and got to watch all of the talks from the Saturday morning session at 18.00 due to the eight hour time difference. The talks were very powerful and seemed to really apply to our lives, especially after finding Perry. It helped boost Sorella Pickett because she was pretty much heart broken over the whole thing . . .
Sunday morning they showed the Priesthood session so we had made an appointment will Sorella Maria Forcas out in Bufalota. Her mother just passed away last week so we went to visit her. She is the cutest little lady from Sardegna and visited with us for a while before unloading three grocery bags full of pizza. This is NO exaggeration. Three. Grocery. Bags. Of. Pizza. Oh, and some facaccia bread as well. After all of this we were really late for conference. It started at 14.00 and it takes over an our to get there. We did not leave Sorella Furcas home until 13.15. To add to it all, it was Sunday and buses run about half as often. After a very long, hot, tiring experience on the Rome public transportation system we made it to the Saturday afternoon session in time to watch the last 5 minutes of Elder Oaks talk and Elder Ballard's. All of the heat and exhaustion were worth it though because all of the talks were again great! After that session ended we were able to give almost every single piece of pizza away to the Anziani! They were also grateful because, of course, they did not have the foresight to realize they would have no lunch given it was Sunday and they could not go out and buy anything. At 18.00 the Sunday morning session started and it was also very inspiring . . . especially President Monson's talk on temples ;) Everyone in that room did a quiet little "Whoot!", "Yes!", or "Booyah!" as soon as the Rome Temple was mentioned :D The saints here in Italy are incredible! The closest temple is currently the one in Bern, Switzerland and can you guess which language has the highest number of sessions performed?! Italian! There is such a strong love of the family and temple here and they deserve this temple. And no one is more excited than the members of my ward in Roma 2 because they will be the ward attending the new chapel on the temple site! That is our goal as missionaries, to prepare for baptism those who will be able to go to the temple after the dedication! This truly is a great work and I often forget what an opportunity I have to serve here, at this time and place!
Yesterday morning (Lunedì) we had Consiglio di Distretto with my current district for the last time :( one of the assistents, Anziano Sapio, will be returning home Thursday, Anziani Pesci (district leader) and Garcia are being transferred. But it was good because we all got plenty of pictures taken before they all leave! Later in the afternoon we met with Lhouisa again and she is doing much better! She is really taking hold of her own strength and seeing that between herself and the Lord she can overcome anything! We went straight from there to Vescovo Celestinis home for a family home evening. They had over some family friends who are not members. The daughter, Veronica, has taken the lessons previously but chose to stop. Together with both families we watched the Restoration movie and despite the crazy children just being children, the spirit was there and really testified to us all of the truth we each have and can have in our lives. Sorella Pickett asked what this restoration would mean to them if they found it to be true. They did not answer at first but finally the dad said quietly, "Well, it would change everything." Vescovo, being the great leader that he is, invited them to the ward activity next week and they all want to continue to learn more. It would be so great to witness an entire family have their lives changed through this message that we bare, that we truly are sons and daughters of an Eternal Father. He loves us in the most intimate and personal way that He sent His son to earth to suffer and die for us. This son, our Savior Jesus Christ, is the Redeemer of the world. Through Him all things are possible. Of this I have no doubt.
Keep up the good work! You all bless the lives of everyone you come into contact with! I know this because you have each blessed me :) Muah! Vi Voglio Bene!
Sorella LeCates
