Sweet awesome famiglia . . . come state?
This week was fun. We went to Città Vecchia again this last Wednesday because it was Sorella Ashman's first preparation day in Bari. We went with the anziani from our ward, Anziano Kafel and Anziano Cuellar. Anziano Kafel has been to Città Vecchia 6 times though so I think he was about to die. He is also training in his 3 transfer and super stressed out. Meno male Anziano Cuellar speaks fluent English and Spanish and has picked up on Italian really fast. It makes things a lot easier. We had a lesson that night with the Anziani from the other Bari ward, Anziano Knutsen and Anziano Whitfield (un altro greenie), because we were doing a transition lesson of sorts because one of our investigators lives in their ward. It went really well and I think he will progress more with them teaching him. Speriamo.
Giovedì we went to Adelfia again and we ran into a contact from the week before. This story made me laugh, but you may have had to experience it for yourself. Anyways, this contact (si chiamo Francesco) is in his 20's and super nice and gave us his number last week. We thought, great! Potential investigator. But each time we tried to call him we got clicked off and we received some texts asking who we were. But we could answer back because we do not have texting. So we kept calling and received another text saying "Stai attenti!" or "Watch out!" At this point we went to a pay phone to send a text message that he would know that it was really us trying to call him and left our number. The next day we received a not so nice phone call from a very angry woman threatening to report us to the police. When we tried to explain that we were missionaries she said "Well obviously! Leave me alone!" So at this point we were pretty sure we had the wrong number. So back to Thursday . . . we had been in Adelfia for 5 minutes and were walking down the street and found Francesco in the EXACT same place we had before. He was super happy to see us, corrected the phone number, informed us that he was getting married on Saturday, and told us to call him the next week! That afternoon we went to see Francesca Leo. It was the first time Sorella Ashman had met her so it was a new experience on both of their parts, but it went well and we will go see her again in a couple of weeks. English course was great that night! We talked about beauty and the most beautiful things they had ever seen. then after 15 minutes or so they all asked me the same question. We had anticipated this, so I whipped out the temple edition of the Ensign and opened it to the double page spread of the Washington DC temple. I told them that the house of the Lord is the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. We then spent the rest of the time explaining to them about the temple, how it differs from normal churches, what we do inside, and the blessings we receive. Most of them have attended English course for years and you can tell that they really do want to know more but they either A) do not find an opportunity to ask B) are fighting their desire to learn more or C) are waiting for us to ask them. Either way, all of their faces lit up with every picture we showed them and they were at attention the entire time. Love them :) We also got Rocco's number. He is a musician we always see sulla strada. When Sorella Laws was with Sorella Hansen waiting for me to get to Bari they saw him on the street and he asked them to buy his CD. When they told him they did not have any money he just gave it to him. We usually see him ALL the time, at least 2 a day. The day before Sorella Laws left I had written a dedica inside a Book of Mormon with some selected verses for him to read. We gave it to him that day in the morning and he was really grateful. Later in the afternoon he was further down the street and I waved. He turned around, came all the way over to us and started asking about the Book of Mormon. He had gone home during lunch and read the dedica and the scriptures I had marked and wanted to know more about it. But I had not seen him since then which was really strange. More than a week without seeing Rocco? Che strano! But that night after English course we saw him at the usual place, waiting at the light. He was super excited to see us and the first thing he said was that it had been a really long time since we had seen each other. We then got his number and invited him to church. Vediamo!
Most of our plans fell through Venerdì, but we did go see the Tarantino's and they love Sorella Ashman. They were also really surprised at how well she speaks the language (as is everyone haha). Right after they complimented her they turned to me and said "but you speak well too . . . it is just easier to understand her." Haha. Yeah right! I am nothing even close to Sorella Ashman! But it was nice of them to try and console me :) After that we met a member at the church to get to know her better. Her name is Angela and joined the church 4 years previously. She told us her story, the circumstances with her family, and then went through the entire ward roster telling us who was active, who wasn't, and why they weren't. Well, now we have a list to go off of to do some less active work! After we talked with Angela we had a sweet lesson with Antonio. Last week I told you about the man who we had met at the station and invited to church? Well we finally had the first lesson with him and talked about prayer and then asked him if he wanted to be baptized. His answer was the greatest thing I have ever heard! "Seems indispensable to me." He agreed right there and we set a date. I know this is sad, but that is the first baptismal date I have set my entire mission and I was so stoked! But the crazy thing about the whole experience was how different it was from how I thought. After the lesson I felt like I had done nothing and I was not quite as happy as I knew I should feel because I was not really included in his desire and preparation. But that is when I realized it never really has ANYTHING to do with us. We are just lucky enough to be here, to literally be the hands of God, gathering His children unto Him. He has prepared them, taught them, given them experiences to guide their life. Then He guides us, despite all our inadequacies and faults, to be in the right place at the right time so that His children who are ready to receive the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ can find us. Literally we did nothing. Changes your perspective a little bit. I do not have to be a perfect teacher, I do not need to stress out about every single detail. I just have to be prayerful, obedient, and leave the house everyday. As Elder Bednar said in a MTC fireside "Be a good boy, be a good girl, and stop worrying about it." The rest is taken care of.
So Saturday we went out to try and find more people prepared. We went and did house in Loseto. We knocked 18 doors in the first palazzo and nothing. We then went into another and went to take the elevator to the top floor like we always do, but it was not working. The elevator was present but the door would not open. We tried for another minute until Sorella Ashman suggested we go up to the first floor and start their. So we did and right as we got there a woman came out of her apartment and said hello to us. We stopped to talk to her for a few minutes and was super nice to us. She seemed interested in our message and had studied with the Jehova's Witness missionaries previously. She does not like the catholic church because of it's oraganization and is looking for something different. So we left her with an opuscolo and she invited us to come back whenever. We then tried to take the elevator on every floor until the 8 out of 9. On the 8th floor we knocked and woman answered and the first thing she says is "you are the girls from the bus." It took us a minute but then we remembered seeing her as we had come out to Loseto. She, again, was super nice. She did not want to hear more about the gospel but now she will always remember the Sorelle Missionarie! So at this point we went up to the 9th floor and after that tried the elevator. Guess what? It worked haha. So 36 doors, 2 semi successes. Not too bad. The statistics in Italy is 49 no's for 1 yes. So we are ahead of the odds! That night we had a family home evening with Maria Pia, an ex-investigator of the anziani in the other ward, with Sorella Magno and Fratello and Sorella Curci. The lesson did not go too bad. We also got home made ice cream, orzo flavored, out of it! Gotta love Sorella Magno! On the way home, in-between street contacts, Sorella Ashman and I told each other our 5 year perfect plan because that night was our last night speaking English. We made a pact that for the last 10 months of our missions we would only speak in Italian, minus those who do not speak Italian, interviews with President Kelly, and Zone conference. It was good, we got to know each other a little bit better, and we had a few good laughs lol.
Allora, Domenica! Il mio primo giorno senza inglese! Sto scherzando . . . I won't really write it all in Italian . . . If I even could haha. But it actually is really fun speaking only in Italian. And Sorella Ashman is perfect for me. Because she speaks English she can correct me and understand when I am trying to say something that does not translate perfectly into Italian, and because she speaks Italian so well I can trust she is telling me things that are right. We had lunch at the other church because a coupe of ex anziani came to visit the ward. That night there was also a GANS activity at the stake presidents home. I feel so bad for the Anziani though . . . Sunday it was about 104 degrees with 90% humidity or something like that. With their shirts, ties, and slacks they sweat up a storm! We were sitting with all these people our own age and they had sweat dripping down their faces. Poverini! Luckily I do not sweat that bad, but pretty close unfortunately. That is why I have a hand held fan, given to me by my "mom" Sorella Pickett. This is a shout out to her and a thank you! It is saving my life, and the Anziani's. They pass it around, each taking their turn :)
Monday we had consiglio di distretto and Sorella Ashman and I taught the addestrimento, in Italian! Okay, so my part did not go so great. But we all need a good dose of humility every couple of days! She did great though! We discussed stress and it's causes and how we can cope with it. Let's just say that some of the Anziani have been juggling a lot of responsibilities lately and we can tell. It was good for them to remember that Heavenly Father does not want us forgetting the joy that is in the work. That night we had another lesson with Antonio, our golden little investigator. We taught him the Restoration with Vescovo Mongelli. Again, went well. Especially since our mission president and the stake president were there in the building for interviews. Antonio got to meet everyone haha! My interview with President Kelly also was great. He even told me to take a break if I need to with my knee. But no worries, no problems there. It is holding up just fine! Almost a year now!
Martedì abbiamo avuto conferenza di zona and as always it was fun to see all the other missionaries. We learned tons of things to help us be missionaries but I will spare all of you the details. At the end we took lots of goofy pictures that I may share with you and after we high tailed it out of there to correlation. English course afterward was great as always and Sorella Ashman bore a sweet testimony of the gospel after they asked what our aim/goal is as missionaries. They certainly got an ear full haha. And one of our students, Tomasso, is a professor of Italian at the Università. He teaches courses to foreign students and he offered to give us private lessons in Italian. Personally we believe he just wants an excuse to learn about the gospel, but it is a win win situation :D
Today we went to the street market in Japigia and I got a super cute little dress for Evie. I do not know if it will fit her but I liked it :) Then we had a lesson with Antonio at Fratello Curci's. He seemed a bit overwhelmed at this point, so we will give a couple of days to think things over and then have a lesson about the Plan of Salvation. Heavenly Father asks a lot, but nothing in comparison to what He wants to give us! The gospel is so true and I cannot believe I get to share it! Days are hard, sometimes . . . okay, often, I wonder if I am making any difference at all. But just being here and trying I know I am having an effect on others, and at the very least myself.
Love you all! Vi voglio un SACCO di bene!
Sorella LeCates
