E capo d'anno!
After we wrote last week we went back to the church to open up the gifts we got for each other because we had exchanged names between us four. I had Anziano Andersen and got him a belt, 3 pairs of socks, and a Catania soccer team key chain all for 5 euro! I am so thifty :) Anziano Marengo had me and he got me 5 euro perfume from the market. The scents name is "Midnight Poison". It made me laugh because in the card he wrote for me he said he gave me the perfume so that I could attract new investigators. Thanks Anziano! I hope that was a joke . . . After we had finished all of the gift opening Angelo came and we had a lesson with him. But as always it was a based on one scripture and our analysis of it's contents. This time it was about Ether 3:14 and the fact that Jesus Christ said he was the Father and the Son. Then Angelo took us to John 1:1 and asked what our interpretation was. I had this feeling that there was a Joseph Smith translation for that but I did not have my English scriptures with me. So we went and asked the Anziani to pull it up on the computer. And sure enough, practically the whole verse changed in the new translation. When Angelo saw that he got really excited and I think he has now downloaded the whole Joseph Smith Translation from online. He just loves information haha. You should have seen his face when he discovered the Bible Dictionary. It was like he had died and gone to Heaven! But anyways, as the lesson was winding down I asked him "So Angelo, when do you want to be baptized?" He then smiled and said he had something to tell us, that his mom had told him that he could do what he wanted and be baptized. I then asked if he thought it was because he had received help through his prayers and he said "without a doubt." Good! So we then got a calendar and picked the 21st of January for him to be baptized because it is the day before Sorella Giordano's birthday and because we told him he has to come to church at least 2 more times CONSECUTIVELY. He agreed and we were quite pleased. Kumar, the investigator of the Anziani were there because he had his baptismal interview that night but he had to wait for the zone leaders from Messina to do the interview. But the Anziani were waiting for another investigator, Andrea to come. So we, the Sorelle, were waiting with them so that we could watch the Restoration with Kumar by the time Andrea came. In the mean time the Assistants arrived from Rome with all of our long awaited supplies (and the LIAHONA!) finally! We then took a picture together to remember all the fun times when Andrea arrived and the Anziani from Messina. We were quite a group. But because Andrea and the Anziani from Messina arrived at the same time there was no longer any need for us to watch the Restoration with Kumar. It was also 8 o'clock so we couldn't really go out and do finding so we did area book and phone calls in the Bishop's office until they were ready to go.
The next morning we went to go see Lidia because we had not seen her in two weeks and she had not come to church that Sunday. She'd been acting funny and is always too busy to see us so we decided to just show up and see what happens. We got there and even though she was in the shower she opened the door and let us come up. When we got to the the apartment door and she was standing there with her hair wrapped up in a towel and with just a towel around herself. Haha, I was a little surprised but she seemed to be in an alright mood. In fact, the first thing she told us was "I want to be honest and tell you I did not come to church on Sunday because I smoked this last week and felt guilty." Alright . . . At least she was honest with us. We were not there for too long, but we do need to go see her more often if she will let us. We then decided to stop by Maria Calogero to bring her a president Uchtdorf's talk from the Relief Society general session this last fall. She was really excited and said it was such a pleasant surprise that we came. She ended up telling us a whole lot more about her life and how terrible her family is for leaving her but that she was so happy we were there. In the end we all left together because she had to go to some shopping and she gave us a referral. We then went home and I made an attempt at brownies but after I had already placed the sugar and butter in the bowl I realized that we only had one egg when we needed four. I then pulled out the mayonnaise remembering that you can use it as a substitute for two different things, one of them being eggs. I did not take the time to think about what the other substitute was until after the brownies had cooked and they were basically oil. "Oh yeah!" I thought, eggs and OIL. So I had ended up putting in two sticks of butter and then a cup of mayonnaise in one batch of brownies. They did not taste bad, they just were . . . a heart attack waiting to happen. But we needed to bring something with us to a family night with Cristina Spina that night and we not longer had ingredients or time to make something else. So we left to go see Kristiana and had a good lesson with her. She had prayed to know if the church has the real priesthood of God and she said she had felt the same as when she had prayed to know if the Book of Mormon was true "I felt really good and warm in my heart, just as you told me I should. I think it's all true." Unfortunately her brother is returning to Albania for a couple of months so we ended up searching for the church near his grandpa's home on the church's website and he said he would go. We told him the only way we would believe him is if he took a picture of himself with the missionaries and sent it to us. He said he would so we will see if he goes. We then had to walk to a rest home owned by Sorella Catania. The Relief Society organized an activity to sing Christmas songs there. There were not many of us, but a few primary kids came with Sorella Sgroi and we all put on Santa hats and sang together. We didn't sing that great, but all of the residents smiled and sang along with us and that is what really matters. After that we started walking to Cristina's house for the family night and we walked past a street stand for these fried things. they are like scones, but made with rice. They then put honey on top. They are terrible for you but everyone likes them, especially Cristina's son Salvo. So we grabbed some and went. When we got there we ate a quick dinner with Cristina and Salvo and then Salvo was himself and started kicking me. Then he "played dead" on the ground and said we could do anything we wanted to him and he wouldn't move. I then pulled out my lipstick (a deep purplish red) and put it on him. It was actually the perfect color for his skin and hair color, too bad he is a 9 year old boy haha. He freaked out after I put it on and gave him a compliment and he flipped over and left a big kissy mark on the ground. I died laughing. After that we calmed down and we played Jeapardy with the Plan of Salvation. Salvo does not really come to church and Cristina was excommunicated when she was 16, but they still were able to respond to quite a few questions. In the end, Salvo won the game and ate all of the fried goodness. Also I found the earring that had been lost in our battle the last time she had given us a ride home. I was quite happy about that.
Friday morning we did weekly planning and then we left to go to a carpet store to have a first lesson with Hushidar, a boy who stopped us on the street the week before to ask if we were Jehovah's Witnesses. He was not there but his mom said he would be back later. We then got a phone call from Kristiana asking where we were. So we ran to her house and had another lesson with her. We taught her and her brother the Plan of Salvation again and they both said they want to go to the Celestial Kingdom. We then explained to them that that is the goal, the reason we are here as missionaries, to share HOW to go there. That is why the Restoration is so important, it is the message we carry and the Plan of Salvation is the "why". It went well and we informed her that she would need to study and reteach it to us the next time. We then went back to see Hushidar but he still wasn't there. So we stopped at the grocery store that was across the street to buy ingredients to make mom's raisin pie for the lunch we would have the next day. We then walked to the church because we had a lesson with Giuseppe Milia. It was for 8.00 but at 8.15 when we called him he was just leaving his house. So we then waited another half hour before he got there. Luckily Giuseppe does not like long lessons and it was only 15 minutes. We then waited another 10 minutes for the Anziani to finish there 2 hour lesson to take us home.
Saturday we left at 9.00 to go to Siracusa where we had a soccer tournament with the missionaries from Messina, us, Gela, Siracusa, and Ragusa. It was way fun and my team won the tournament :) Yep! Not because I was playing or anything like that, but that's okay. We then went back to the church where we all ate lunch together and ate pie. We then left to come back to Catania to go to the home of the Bay family to skype home. After that we played Madgab and then Scum and I totally won Scum too. I was President every round. Again, it's all the luck of the hand and the fact that you receive the three best cards of the scum, but I still like winning every now and then. After everyone had finished talking to their families we went up stairs and read the Christmas story from the Bible and then Sister Bay gave us all a present to open up! We each got pajama pants and then she gave us another gift to take home that night to open up for Christmas with the sugary chex mix recipe that us Mormon's make for Christmas and a Snicker's. She really is so amazing and Anziano Andersen and I both agree that we are the most blessed missionaries in the whole mission!
Sunday morning I opened all my gifts and thanks so much for the clothes! I really love the skirts a lot and the lotion and make up were perfect :) you are all great :) And I opened the other gift from Sister Bay and she hand crocheted me this really nice scarf that I ended up wearing to church. Once we were ready, we went to pick up Kristiana for church and she was up and ready. As we were walking there was this man that seemed a little nuts walking the other way. But I wished him a Merry Christmas anyways. He then held up his hand to stop us, walked over and gave me a piece of chocolate, waved, then continued walking away. I grinned and Sorella Giordano said "I wouldn't eat that chocolate if I were you." and Kristiana said the same thing. I hadn't been planning on it so the moment we turned the corner I tossed it in the weeds. Also as we walked she asked me if I had ever had a boyfriend, and when I said yes she asked me if I had kissed him. Again I said yes and she informed me that she did not like kissing and had never kissed a boy because she does not want to kiss anyone until she is married. When I asked her why she told me that it is because all boys want is a physical relationship and she wants respect and love from someone before she does anything like that. I was really impressed. She really is the coolest 15 year old girl from Albania I have certainly ever met! And thank goodness she won't have any problems with the law of Chastity! A lot of members were really happy that we got an investigator in church for Christmas when a ton of members didn't come either. But Kristiana is just that AWESOME! And Maria Grazia Rizzo, a young woman in the ward, grabbed Kristiana after and gave her a ride home. Then for church with the American's we just had sacrament meeting like with the Italians. But after, that the ward gave each of us missionaries a care package with a bunch of stuff from the base a.k.a. American! Peanut butter, oreos, cadbury chocolate, tortilla chips . . . I was so excited! This is such an awesome branch and I love them all! But unfortunately we ended up being really late to our lunch appointment with the Perrisi family. Italians eat Christmas lunch no later than 1.30, so were were already stretching it by asking if we could come at 2.30. But we didn't get there until 3.30. Luckily they weren't upset and we ate lasagna and tortellini with cream, peas, and ham for the first course. Then we had fried steak and salad. Then fruit and pandoro (the Christmas cake/bread that is EVERYWHERE in Italy) And while we sat and talked together they had nuts and a nut cracker that we could use. I decided to grab the nutcracker and use it but I had not really used one before and did not realize that I should place my hand over so that the shells didn't go flying everywhere. The three times I did it without my hand as a cover I almost killed Anziano Andersen who was sitting next to me. The last time the shell went ricocheting off of the lamp shade above the table and barely missed his eye. At that point Anziano Marengo stole it from me and felt it his duty to show me how. I knew how . . . but he likes to do things for people. After that we went to the church to pick up Kumar to take him to our dinner appointment at the Bellassai's home. They are such a great family and the dad is such a funny guy. Half of our conversation was about the fact that he is bald and his son should give him some of his hair. I had to laugh at that because it sounded so familiar. Then he took to calling me "Bionda" which I refused to respond to which he again thought was hilarious. Haha, good thing I like him. Our dinner was pretty much gourmet too. Sorella Bellassai cut thin slices of this roasted beef and laid them out perfectly on these awesome plates. Then she artistically ladled the sauce over and swirled a design of olive oil over top of that. It was pretty good. They also had nuts at there table after we finished eating and when I got my hands on the new nutcracker that was different than the last one I again forgot to cover the top to prevent flying shells. Again I almost killed Anziano Andersen. So Anziano Marengo stole that one from me and gave me the other one. Lame. But I can't really argue with Anziano Marengo. He's about 3 times my size and could kill me.
Monday morning we had district meeting but it was cut short because we had to go to lunch at the Mirabella family's house. Wow. That was a lot of meat they gave us. There was about 6 different types and they gave me ALL of them. One was a steak of horse meat. Yeah I know, gross. Oh well, I sucked it up and ate it just in time to eat more pandoro. You could probably say I am getting really tired of eating these days. Thank goodness after the Holidays I will be free to eat my own food again, if I even want to eat at all. After lunch we went into Emanuele's room to have correlation. After that we went to the Bay's house again to watch our two permitted films for the year. Anziano Marengo had downloaded Kung-fu Panda 2 and Happy Feet 2 in Italian to watch so I went downstairs with Sister Bay to watch Tangled. I FREAKIN LOVED IT! It was so cute! I even cried. So worth the year it took me to see it :) and because Sister Bay is so amazing, she brought in a dinner tray to me with cream of broccoli soup, crackers, and a cookie. Perfect :) especially after all that meat. Towards the end Anziano Andersen came down stairs because Kung-fu Panda had ended and we started up Toy Story 3 because he had never seen it. We all about died laughing at the part when Mr Potato head puts his eyes, hands, feet . . . in the tortilla. Oh good times :) But at the end of 3 days with practically no missionary work I was more than ready to start up again.
Tuesday morning we decided to do a sneak dive bomb attack on Lidia but she wasn't home. So we tried Maria Calogero but there wasn't an answer. So we called Sorella Terranova and went to see them. For the first time her husband was there and he sat through the whole lesson about the Plan of Salvation. He is not a member and Sorella Terranova has not been to church in about 15 years so it was really cool to have him there. They also gave us home made cookies that their daughter Valentina made at pastry school. Yum yum! (like I said, everyone gives us food, it really is a bit ridiculous). After that we high tailed it home and then left a little early to go see the Bruno family because they had invited us over for Christmas lunch but we couldn't go. It was too funny. We were sitting at their kitchen table while Sorella Bruno made us home made hot chocolate and the grandma comes out pulling up her pajama top with her real clothes in her hand. Sorella Bruno then went back into the room and dressed her and brought her out. She then sat down next to Alessia (the grand daughter) and gave her this stink eye and asked Sorella Bruno where Alessia was. Sorella Bruno told her about 30 times that Alessia was right by her. But every time the grandma just gave Alessia this look of disgust and said "No, that's not her." We were dying we were laughing so hard. But as we were getting ready to leave I was talking to Alessia in the living room and the grandma came in with this big grin on her face and took Alessia by the hand and just smiled as if her world was complete. Alessia laughed and said "thank goodness my grandma knows who I am now." Good fun :) We then went to go see Kristiana and she started teaching us the Plan of Salvation. Granted she didn't know it perfectly, but she remembered a lot. We then told her uncle that he had to teach it to us. For the first time he was actually involved in the lesson even though he is usually always in the room with us. At that point as I was helping him with the pieces to the plan of salvation he asked me if we were catholic. Catholic? We had been in their home a hundred times and he was finally asking that? So we then explained that no, we are not catholic, but another church. Sorella Giordano then took over as Kristiana's dad came in for the first time ever to talk to us. Turns out he had tried to come to church with us Sunday but had accidentally gone into the Evangelical church that is next door. I started talking to Kristiana because she was getting bored and showed her the Temple edition of the Liahona while Sorella Giordano talked to the other two. Kristiana loved the temple and asked how she could go so I explained having a testimony before you get baptized and that she needs to be able to say that she KNOWS that the church is true. She thinks she can say it now, but I told her she needs to pray specifically every night to know it. But she is such an awesome kid that I have no worries about that. She believes the things we say she just needs to connect all the ideas into one comprehensive truth. Sorella Giordano also filled me in after that her dad hates the pope and all the catholic priests because they are hypocrites and he does not believe that they have any real authority given from God. He believes that Christ established his church during his life but he does not believe that that church exists anymore. He asked Sorella Giordano how long she studied with the missionaries for before she was baptized and after she explained her conversion story she asked him if he wanted to learn it too. He said yes! I just love this family with my whole heart! Really I do! One day they will all go to the temple together I just know it :D After that we went to the church for English course but there was only one student, Michelangelo and the Anziani weren't there either. So we started the "lesson" with just us three. But after 20 minutes the Anziani showed up so Sorella Giordano and Anziano Andersen switched spots. We talked about s'mores, and other types of food and Christmas. And then it was time for the spiritual thought. I had not planned a thought and I looked through my bag to see if I had a pamphlet I hadn't taught yet, but there wasn't anything. But then the idea popped into my head to talk about prayer. Alright, why not. So I asked him what role prayer played in his life. He stopped and then said "A week ago I prayed everyday for 38 years. Ever since I was capable of understanding prayer I have prayed. But after a week ago I don't want to anymore." We were quite taken aback at that and we continued talking to him and we learned that he has been praying for over a year for help and answers for various things and according to him he has not received an answer in over a year from Heavenly Father. He feels abandoned and left completely alone and is too angry to pray to Heavenly Father because he feels like he "does whatever he wants. Good and bad." He still believes in God and Jesus Christ, he is just upset. So we ended up having a 45 minute lesson with him as we talked about this. Anziano Andersen shared some personal experiences and I shared a few things about an experience I had my freshman year at college when I was not very happy with my life and I was not very happy with Heavenly Father and that I understood a little bit and I also understood that he, Michelangelo, probably did not really want to listen to our testimonies and help. He agreed with that, that he just was not in the mood. But I did bare my testimony anyways, because that's what I do, that in the end, if he chooses to, he can learn and gain an even stronger testimony of that love that his Father in Heaven has for him. He even promised that the moment he even feels the smallest inkling to kneel down and pray he will. It was pretty cool :)
Today has been pretty chill. We came to the church after studies to write to you all and so I am still here.
The mission is stellar and I am ready to get rid of these holidays so that the Italians will be nicer to us so we can share the gospel with them! Whoot!
Love you all a ton! It was great talking to you all! Sorry I was boring and didn't really know what to say :)
Vi amo!
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!
