It has been pouring lately! In fact, the streets were rivers at some parts. I guess winter is finally settling in. That, or we will be baking to death here in a couple of weeks. Vediamo!
But this week went really well. After internet last week we were scrambling to figure out what to do that night. We got done a little late and only had about an hour and a half to do . . . everything! And we were still in p-day clothes so we had to go home and get dressed and then try and get somewhere. The Anziani could tell we were stressed so they offered to take us home, wait, and then take us anywhere we wanted to go. They are so great! So we fixed an appointment with a woman named Cristina Spina. She has had quite the life experiences and Sorella Askew had heard about her from her trainer who served here in Catania. We got there and she was SO nice. She used to be a member but due to her choices she isn't anymore and you could tell that her life as made her a little harder, but she still believes the teachings of the church. Sorella Askew started talking to her but Cristina's son, Salvo, kept my attention. He is nine and quite funny. He ran into his room and brought out two bibles and the Book of Mormon and started showing me them. I tried to teach him the story of Captain Moroni, but as you can imagine his attention span is not that long. So the story was interrupted several times by toy car racing. But he is a sweet kid, when he wasn't trying to bite me! But during all of that I kept my ears open to the conversation between Sorella Askew and Cristina and added a few things here and there. She really has quite a story and I hope we can continue to try and help her. She was also nice enough to give us a ride home where I quizzed Salvo on English (colors, animals . . . etc.) And at the end he grabbed my face and kissed me on the cheek haha. He's so funny.
Thursday morning we went to go see Lidia for her birthday! We retaught her the Restoration with the cups pyramid and at the end we surprised her with a cake. I had made it that morning and we brought a candle and sang to her. It made her day. I don't think her kids were planning on doing anything for her birthday so she was beaming when we left. We just love her! After that we went to try and see Mary, our friend from Africa. Unfortunately she was busy and could not see us, but she has been reading a little bit from the Book of Mormon which is great! She told us to just come by around 2 in the afternoon and see if she is there any day. We hope we can luck out and see her when she isn't busy. After that we skipped lunch and went to go see Lia. We also taught her the Restoration because she is still a new convert and does not understand the gospel very well still. It's hard to explain but we always leave laughing about something she said. I know that sounds terrible but it's just too funny. For example, we also used the cups to teach her the restoration and right at the climax where we are about to take one of the bottom cups out to make it fall she says "Sorry, I have to use the bathroom." And then she waddles away. Then in the middle of the prayer she asked me to say so that her headache would go away her phone starts ringing and she answers it hahahaha. She's just . . . Lia :) but it's fun. After that we FINALLY went to the home of the Castorina family to get Giorgia's baptismal certificate signed. I know, we are irresponsible for getting that done a week and a half after she was baptized, but it's done, in the mail, and will be taken care of! It was just a full day and still did not end there. We then went straight to see our new little Philippino friend named Sonny to introduce him to the Book of Mormon. He read it in Tagolog but we still are not sure what he thinks about all this. We think he might just be bored and have nothing better to do because he is still looking for work. But we will find out soon enough. We then ran out of things to do, talked it over, and went to pass by a contact who was not there, so we did house. We ended up singing "I am a Child of God" for a woman named Nivea, and then her neighbor opens the door, smiles, and listens as well. They both were really jittery at the end because they had felt the spirit so strong. Elvira, the second woman who had opened the door laughed and said they were both overly excited because we sang so well. haha, I wish, glad to know the Lord helps us out where our talents lack. But they were both great. We got permission from both to come back another day and share our message. They both have families and seem really sweet so we will see what happens with them.
Friday we had planned to do a lot of different things after weekly programming but they almost all fell through. We had even made cookies for those people and we ended up just giving them all to the Anziani at the end of the day. Sonny was not home, we then saw Sorella Maiori on the street walking away from her house. She of course was disappointed she could not see us because she had to go to the store. So we then went and did house and found some really awesome people, again, from singing! At one door we asked if we could sing, the girl named Elizabetta smiled, said of course, and told us to come in and sit down. We then talked to her, her mother, Agata, and sister, Santa, for 20 minutes and then sang. All three said we were welcome to come back anytime. We do not need convincing :) We then had a lesson with Angelo, our investigator, and Emanuele Maribella. We were teaching the first part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and of course Angelo asked a million questions. But it was all perfect. Emanuele served a mission and explains things so perfectly. Then Angelo would turn to Sorella Askew and ask her what she thought. She would back up what Emanuele had said, share a scripture, and then Angelo would turn to me. I would just smile at him because I often do not know what to say to him right away, say I agree with the other two, and then share a personal experience. It was so funny because none of it was planned but it was perfect! And his questions are great, of which 2 questions that I think were really good for him to ask. One was why we need to feel guilt because in the catholic church, repentance is not a very positive experience. But at the end of that explanation from each of us he thought about it for a minute and then said "so, for you, repentance is a joyful thing. It's something you want to do." And it was not even a question. A statement. The other questions was what happens to those who were not baptized during their life and do not know that they need to repent and have faith in Christ. That settled some of his concerns because I think the apostasy cycle, especially the Great Apostasy, left some unanswered questions. So he is really moving along and wants to come to church and things he will be free this Sunday! I will shout for joy if he comes!
Saturday was fun haha. We were running really late for an appointment and Sorella Askew had to stop and withdraw money from an ATM. But the ATM ate her card. Then we had to walk/run to our appointment which was straight uphill and we were a half hour late. We then did finding for a while and met some really cool people. We again did singing and this one woman, named Louisa, told us no, that she did not have time to hear us sing but then she talked to us at her door for 15 minutes, then invited us in and we talked for another 45. At the end we said a prayer and then sang our song and she was really touched by the spirit and told us to come back. We then got picked up by the Anziani to go to a lunch appointment at Fratello Giardina's. He is so funny. He always says "è buono?! è buono?!" which means "is it good?" Is it good!?" and "Mangia!" which means "EAT!" We ate a WHOLE bunch of pasta and then probably 4 or 5 chicken breasts. I thought I was gonna die, but I somehow finished it all . . . diciamo. After lunch it was POURING rain so we sat in his stairwell and wrote dediche in some copies of the Book of Mormon for Elvira and Nivea so that we could drop them by that night. They were both home and took them graciously. Elvira even let us come in for a minute to explain it and she said she loves to read and it was so nice of us to bring it. After that we did go to see Sorella Maiori and we talked about the temple. We brought the Temple edition of the Liahona with us and she loved it. She asked if we could some how get her a copy and she would pay for it. She has literally no money, so there is no way she is paying for it so we told her it was free and we would get it for her. After that we did street and met this old catholic woman and it was probably the funniest street contact I have ever had. She just starts talking to us about God and I said "Yes, there is only one God." With a smile on my face because all Catholics here say "One God, one religion, so we are all equal." So Sorella Askew grinned and threw that one out there and said "Yeah! Why are there all of these religions out here anyways?! One God, one religion!" And the woman laughed, said we were very correct. She then told us how much she liked us more than members of other churches who don't pray to the Madonna (Maria). She said there is a woman that lives across the street from her that said they are only praying to a mannequin. But when she said that word in Italian I did not understand so I told her I did not understand the meaning of the world and she laughed and said that I was right again. I guess she thought I was making fun of the woman who had said it . . . boh, I dunno. But it made me all laugh because that woman had no clue about anything we believed and how she had recited all of the things we hear 10000000 billion times everyday. Oh Italy, how I love you :) literally I do :)
Sunday ANGELO CAME! We were so stoked and it went great! Well . . . Sacrament meeting could have been more reverent, but I think he liked it better that way because it offered a stronger distinction between that and Catholic mass. Sure a little girl was running around the whole time and onto the stand during her mother's talk, but it made the whole congregation smile. Good thing she's cute! Angelo also really liked Gospel Principles and Priesthood. He had been told that he probably should not go to Priesthood because sometimes it gets out of hand, but he said he wanted to go anyways and thank goodness it didn't get out of hand. After church we taught him a lesson before the American branch started on the Word of Wisdom. It was funny though because he told us that he had already read it in D&C, already lived it his whole life, and that he agreed with us. So that was a short lesson! He wants to come back next week! Then the English branch started. I lead the music and then gave a talk! But I was not nervous at all. How crazy is that? I was assigned to speak on the talk from President Uchtdorf this last conference called "You matter to Him". I only shared 2 or 3 quotes and the rest of the time I spoke TO the congregation. I know, I was shocked too. I spoke slow, I smiled, my face was not red. Hallelujah! Things are looking up! We also got the new Relief Society books that they have given to all the women of the church. I think I may end up getting one in Italian too. That'd be cool! After church we ate dinner with the Anziani in the church and then had correlation with Emanuele. Then we did house again where we had gone Friday night and found some more really cool people. But the best part of the night happened after we had gotten home. We got a call from the Anziani that Mount Etna was erupted, literally spewing lava. Sorella Askew grabs her shoes and camera and runs out the door. I follow and we are running through the streets looking for it, but it is impossible to see from our house. So we go back and she's really disappointed because she goes home and has never seen it. But after a while she asks if we can go try the window at the top of our apartment building to see if we can see anything. We couldn't from the window because it looks out over the sea instead but she got an idea to bring a chair so we could climb out onto the roof. We did and we saw it! It was so cool! So we ran back in to get her camera, but by the time we got back out the clouds had covered the peak. Darn it. But we still at least saw it for a couple of seconds!
Monday morning we went to go and see Melina, our friend who only speaks Sicliano. It is really funny though because the more I think about it, the harder it is to understand her. But when I just pay attention to her I can understand just about everything! It's crazy this gift of tongues thing . . . let me tell you! We also found out she read from the Book of Mormon! That is a literal miracle! She can't read very well because it hurts her eyes, but she tried! And so we read to her from Alma 32 and talked about acting on the Spirit. She still adores us and always kisses and hugs us. I just love my little Italians :) We then stopped by to see a contact who lives by the church named Stefania. She was home and at the beginning she did not seem very excited to talk to us, but after we briefly explained the Plan of Salvation she brightened up and said she might do something about it. That's another thing, lots of people tell us they are even too busy to pray everyday. But we bore testimony of the blessings and she seemed a little more willing to do it. We will see. We then went to the church and ate lunch and I played the piano for an hour and a half while we waited for the Anziani to come for District Meeting. I have to play the piano for their baptism on Saturday because no one in the American branch plays and I think there is a REALLY good chance I will have to play for the Primary program lol. I know right? Me? Piano? Oh well, I have no more shame or pride. Nothing bothers me anymore haha. So when the Anziani got there they ate and then I gave the training on teaching clearly. Then they gave us a ride to the other side of the city so that we could stop by our contact Louisa. She did not have time to see us and we hope she isn't losing interest, but there is not much we can do about that. Then we went to go stop by another contact we had met who just gave us his address so we had to find it in a zone we had never been. We walked through a lot of "country side" until we found that the address existed but he didn't. We also were in a sketchier part of town and it was getting dark. The only buses in that area went to Librino, a zone even worse than the one we were already in and that we, as the sisters, are not allowed to go. So we started walking towards Centro. We had been walking for 15 or 20 minutes when I glance behind me and see a car that looks just like the Anziani's but think, nah, it's not them. Why in the world would they be here? But then I realized it really was the Anziani! And they were shocked to see us. They quickly pulled over and motioned for us to come over and get in the car. Anziano Hill said "what on earth are you doing here? This is Librino! How did you even get here?" We kind of grinned sheepishly and said we had walked. They did not believe that either. We then both explained our shock for having run into each other. We had been fighting the urge to call them ever since we started walking and they told us they had taken a different street that they had never taken before and they had not known why. Obviously we were supposed to get a ride from them right then. Glad I don't know why. We had an activity in church that night anyways but we still had another hour so they dropped us off by their house so we could continue to do finding and we did some house. We happened to choose an apartment that had many college boys in it. That did not go over well. But we left laughing. Then I saw a man on the street with a cool sailor hat and said to Sorella Askew "He has a cool hat, I want to talk to him." His name is Antonio and he is so great. We sang for him and he said "I am in love with your voices." then we talked about our message and he told us he is a catholic but of the Jesuit sector (or however you would classify that) but wants to hear more. In fact, he told US "can I give you my number so that you can call me?" Gotta love inspiration because someone has a cool hat! We then went with the Anziani to the church for an activity that was actually for the Bishop's birthday! We all ate a bunch of great food, including a cake that had a filling with alcohol in it. Anziano Hill tasted it first, got a really funny look on his face and told me to taste a little and tell me what it was like. There was definitely something special about it. So we slyly threw it away and watched as all the members, including the kids, all ate it. :) Again, Oh Italy! But seriously, I FREAKIN' LOVE THIS WARD. They are all so great and really take care of each other and us the missionaries. I just don't wanna leave!
Tuesday morning we went to go see Lidia but she was not doing so well. Her daughter just lost her job and they do not have enough food to feed her two little kids. She is really stressed and wants to know why God would do that. We then forgot the lesson we had planned and ended up sharing our favorite scriptures about trials with her from the Book of Mormon like Mosiah 24. I think she felt better. She gave us big kisses and tight hugs at the end and we hope she has a little more hope now. We wanted to see Lia and Mary but neither one could see us. We then had to take a really long bus ride home but again, met some really cool people. One was a man from the Dominican Republic, named Egnar Augusto, who said as soon as he got on the bus "You are the Mormons!" We then talked to him for a half hour while we watched his little boy run around like a maniac. He was super cute though speaking in half Italian, half Spanish because his mom is Sicilian. We hope to see them again. That night as we went to go stop by some contacts we were stopped on the street by a man in the car who asked who we were , asked for our pamphlet and if he could come to church. He then asked if we could take his number and call him. Of course! That was a neat experience to say the least! Then when all of our contacts weren't at home, we then went to the church to see Franchy and talk more about personal revelation. And she shared a little secret about her love life that made us all really excited! Whoot! I would say, but it wouldn't make any sense to you unless you have served in Mistretta. So I will just keep that to myself. Then we had a lesson with Angelo and Franchy helped us. That was an interesting lesson and we did not get to the things we wanted to teach, but he got some more questions answered by another member. Then English course started and it went well as always.
Today we went to Argrigento! It was a long day, but so worth it! We went to go see the Ancient Greek Temples where we had an olive fight. Yep, that's right, we pelted each other with a ton of olives and even tried to eat them. Don't worry, they were nasty. But my favorite was the Turkish steps afterwards because we were all out on the beach in the rain and for the first time in the mission I saw the Mediteranean haha. This is the fourth sea I have been to so far. I had no clue before hand that they changed names so often. But it was a blast and now we are here writing to all of you and hope to have some amazingly cool adventures this next week! One being Transfer calls . . . yikes! Who knows what will happen?! I just know I am getting a new companion but with 6 new sisters coming in my chances of training are kind of high. We shall see!
thanks for everything! You are all GREAT!
Muah!
Sorella LeCates
In July 2010 I was called to serve an 18 month mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the Italy Rome mission. I've always wanted to see Italy and I can't believe I'm lucky enough to spread the gospel there!
