Mama Mia! Fa Caldo!
But we will get to that later.
Last Wednesday sera we had a buona lezione con Angela Pastor (from Peru, as always). We had her pick out an activity from Predicare il mio Vangelo. This seems to be helping a lot with members because it gets them looking through the book and seeing what is actually inside. After that she made us dinner. Riso. Yay! Luckily she does not force food down your throat though so I was able to stop eating when I was full, haha.
On giovedì mattina on our way to zone conference we got a call from Lhouisa and it turns out she has Lukemia (sp?) :( She had it as a child but it has been in remission for years. It is back now which is why she has lost so much weight and has not been sleeping. That poor girl! Everything that COULD go wrong in the last due mesi has. So now she is going back to the Philippines for treatment, which may actually be a good thing because she will see her son and husband again. Zone conference went really well. Again we had both the Roma and Napoli zones here. Many of the Anziani used to serve in Roma 2 (my current zone) and they all know Lhouisa. Hoping she would see us at the church, Lhouisa showed up just as we all started eating lunch and she got to see all of the older missionaries she had known. I think it helped her a lot. Dopo conference we went "shopping" down in the mission supply room and made it back up just in time per corso d'ingelse. Of course, being the nerdy missionary I am, I showed them the gospel art book I had just gotten. It is full of pictures from the Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and the church ordinances. They are used to my eccentricies by now so they just all smiled and asked more questions. I even explained the difference between a quad and a triple which led to an explanation of the Bibbia, Libro di Mormon, Dottrina e Alleanze and Pearl of Great Price. Again they just laughed. I even showed them my own scriptures which are pretty much illegible. I am pretty sure they think I am a zealous nut case, but it is probably vero. Because we started out like this, la tutta classe was about mission life. They had had the impression that the Sorelle and Anziani lived in the same building together. I laughed and said no, that it is only Sorella Pickett and I in our apartment. Then Christina, one member of the class asked if we then broke the rules. When I said no, she seemed surprised. But again I explained that we do not have to be here. We signed up to serve the Lord. We knew what the rules would be and we literally signed a piece of paper agreeing to them. Hopefully that made sense to them.
Venerdì pomeriggio we had a really good lesson with our investigator Candy. We again went over to Itala Boscos home for a member lesson. Candy had tante domande which is good. She had a really buona domanda, one that does not usually come up and means she has been doing her reading assignments. She asked us if Satan would have power to tempt us after we are resurrected. Of course that is a hard question to answer when someone is just barely being introduced to the church so we did not get too deep and left it at "C'e una buona domanda! Però, per unaltro giorno!" After that we explained prophet cycles and dispensations and then started "The Restoration". It was in Spanish, so most of it I did not catch, but it has nothing to do with the Spirit. I looked over at Sorella Pickett during the first vision and we grinned perché we were both crying. I think it had a similar effect on Candy because she was absolutely silent and still during the entire thing. As always she had a ton of questions after the movie and that conversation moved into a discussion of our values and morals as members della chiesa. We explained to her that we do not just teach them, we live them. She agreed that it was apparent just by looking at us and asked if there were young adult activities she could attend. We all grinned because Itala has a 23 year old brother who is a native Spanish speaker. Itala caught on really fast and said just that.
Saturday morning we went to go visit Lhouisa. Because she has been through so many trials lately we shared the story of the 2,000 stripling warriors. Dimentico that many members of the church have never heard this story so it was fun to explain it all to someone who was hearing it for la prima volta. I have just gotta say, she loved it! As she should. It is definitely one of my favorites! We left her with a card that had a list of scripture references from the war capitoli in Alma. The next day she called us and told us she had finished! Wow! She is really on a roll. On a funnier note, after the lesson her lawyer called and for some reason she handed the phone to me. Her avvocato, Alessandro, is Italiano and does not speak inglese so you can imagine what kind of exchange we had over the phone. I could understand most of what he said but I still miss vital words that pretty much determine the meaning of the entire sentence. When I just laughed he kept telling me I was crazy. So finally I said "Non sono paza, sono americana." At that he just laughed and told me I was crazy again, except in English. Great haha.
Sunday morning was Conferenza di Palo! C'era molto bella! I had heard many times that our Stake President, Presidente De Feo, is a wonderful speaker. He is in our ward, but because he speaks in Italian I have missed out on these edifying discorsi. But questa volta I could understand what he was saying. Sorella Pickett was struggling to stay awake, but when she saw that her little greenie was even taking notes, she became wide awake and became edified herself. He spoke about the biblical story of when Christ walked on the water towards His apostles and Peter left the boat to come to Him. President De Feo then spoke about this story representing the three steps of faith: 1. Have the desire 2. Act and 3. Keep your focus on Christ. All of the apostles obviously had the desire to uscita the boat to come unto Christ, but because of the storm swirling around them they did not act upon that desire. We too have fears in our lives that prevent us from doing that which would most richly bless our lives. But Pietro looked to Christ and saw only Him. Con corragio, he left the boat. He acted. His was not only a wish, ma true faith that Christ would not leave Him. But even Peter non c'era perfectto in all three points. He had suceeded thus far, coming towards the Salvatore but had become distracted. Instead of keeping His focus on the Master he allowed his eyes and thoughts to absorb the whirlwinds and waves around him. It was only then that he began to fall. Like Pietro we all fall, we all slip. But did Peter go beneath the waves? No, the Saviors hand was already outstretched. Keep your focus on the Lord, and even if you lose sight, He is always there, ready to lift you back up. I loved it! E il tutto c'era Italiano! I was rather proud of myself haha! The other discorsi were all great, but I will not write them all out, I have already bored you enough haha. So dopo conferenza we went to visit Maria Furcas, una membro of the ward. Because of work, school, her mothers illness and recent death, she has not been coming to church. But she has been coming much more frequently and we continue to visit her. She is molto gentile. We cannot go over without her giving us something. This time it was two grocery sacks full of artisan bread. I think Sorella Pickett had about died and gone to heaven. She breathes in bread, especially when balsamic vinegar and olive oil are concerned. Dopo that we went to an appuntamento con la familgia Duran. They are from Bolivia. Sorella Duran has not been coming to church for quite sometime, but the last three weeks she has come to sacrament meeting and activities! We have been molto excited about that and went over domenica sera for dinner and a lesson. They had gone to Stake Conference, but had left early so they missed the last talk given by Elder Donaldson, an area authority from Ingloterra. His was probably the best of the entire conference so we shared our notes with them. They really seemed to like it and we left them with the impegno to share the gospel with at least one person who has never heard il nostro messagio. They each agreed. Here is hoping they do it!
Lunedì was pretty much a complete failure. We had consiglio in the morning which was really good, as always. We talked a lot about battesimo and the spirit of conversion. It turned into one big conversation about how we need to feel and how our investigators need to feel in order to be converted al vangelo. I have just gotta say, I left feeling rather edified. We went home per pranzo as usual and then left at four, as usual, to go to the Ingrassia's for a serata famigliare. It takes about 1 1/2 hours to get out there. We had been trying to call to confirm but could not get a hold of them, but we went out anyways. By the time they called us back we were on their street and it was six. Turns out they were not home so we only had about un'ora until we had to go all the way back home, just in time for curfew. We were rather frustrated, especially since not many people ride the busses we take to get out to their house . . . but what can you do? We ended up getting home around 20.00 and continued to work on the member book we have been putting together.
Ieri morning we stopped by a meno attivo we had been trying to track down. Luckily she was there this time. At the last minute Sorella Pickett had decided to take an April Liahona con noi, just to have a reason to go over there. Luckily we did because she buzzed us into the building but did not allow us in the house. She was friendly, but had a wall up. We are unsure what happened, but she told us for her own reasons she was keeping her distance dalla chiesa. Well at least she was upfront about it . . . Hopefully something will change because she was really nice and you could tell she was still living the church values. Her apartamento is also literally right next door the Villa, mission home, so we stopped by there after to give Sorella Kelly a Mothers Day card. We told her about the member next door and she said she would love to go over and visit her, even though she does not speak Italian. Sorella Kelly is great :) But the rest del giorno turned out like the day before. We had had three appointments planned, but they all cancelled last minute. Luckily though we scrounged up two more. One was Claire. She is a doll. She always is so excited to see us, and yesterday was no different. She had expressed interest in informazione on the Second Coming so we gave her un discorso by Elder Oaks. In it he had discussed the Parable of the Dieci Vergine. Again I was surprised that Claire had never heard this story, so we explained it and the meaning. She liked it a lot and was excited when we told her we had brought a song that based upon that story. We played "Drop by Drop" from the Doctrine and Covenants Soundtrack CD. She was grinning ear to ear by the end so we gave her the CD. We then talked for a while after and she told us the sweetest thing . . . She has not been to church for quite a while. I am not sure for all of the reasons, but she has not made it a priority to come. The Sorelle have always come to visit her though, to make sure she is doing alright and her Visiting Teachers always go to visit her. But Claire told us that out of all the Sorelle in the past, none have done for her what we have. She said "I know you are here for baptisms, but you have changed my life as much as it had been changed when I was baptised." She had it all wrong. We are not here for numbers, we are here to invite everyone to come closer to Christ. Sorella Pickett explained that to her, that her progress and friendship could never be replaced. Oh! We love Claire! I will admit, I have been a little discouraged about the lack of investigators . . . but after she told us that I just felt peace in my heart that my first trè transferimenti here in Rome were well worth it, even if she had been our only success. It is about people, non i numeri. We helped Claire and in turn she helped us :) After that we were able to go teach a new convert lesson the Tempestas. Brenda, from Peru (of course :)) has been a member for years but her husband, Livio, just joined the church a year ago. We did a fun attività with them incorporating il vangel di Gesù Cristo. They made it all really fun and even Piccola, their miniature snouzer, joined in. Brenda has been sick though and Livio has wanted to give her a priesthood blessing since he recently recieved the Sacerdozio di Melchezedik, but he had never been taught how. We then took it upon ourselves to call the Anziani. It will be great for Livio to know how to personally bless the life of his wife and his future famiglia!
Oggi was again, somewhat of a failure as far as our planning. For a week now we had planned on going out to Tivoli to see the 100 fontane. Sorella Pickett was super excited and we were going to make it a whole day thing. But . . . as always . . . Public Transportation failed us. Bleh. Oh well, us and the Ladispoli Sorelle, Sorelle Askew and Giordano, took off to eat Pranzo and then the Vaticano! Whoot! After that we split up and Sorella Pickett and I went to Piazza Navona to look at the paintings. They had water colorings that were rather inexpensive so I bought one. I literally thought I would die of heat which greatly amused my companion. She told me I better hope I go to Mistretta then, otherwise I will die quest'estate. She said she literally asked her friends and family at home to pray for her because she did not know how she would live uno più giorno in the inescapable heat. Great.
So, there you have it. The crazy adventures of the Sorelle from Roma 2. Niente troppo pazo, but we have fun! Next time you hear from me we will have had our transfer calls (yikes!) Questa volta I may actually be heading off somewhere . . . Or not :)
Tah Tah for now! Ciao!
Sorella LeCates
