So . . .

So all goes well here on the homefront. Other than the fact that my investigators really deserve a good kick in the pants! And it's not just me! Sorella Smedley, my new companion, even said that Angelo is a brat! But we'll get to that story later.

So after we wrote last week we skedadled off to Auchan to do some grocery shopping and buy some newer things for our house for the greenies. We were looking at all of the bedspreads but they were super expensive. Finally we found some that weren't badly priced but we wanted to make sure that they were big enough for the bed, and not just little blankets. So we pulled it out of the bag they were in to see. The first size was too small so we pulled out the next size just as one of the workers came over and started getting mad at us. We had already started putting them back into their bags but she grabbed the one that Anziano Andersen was trying to put back and told us that we had ruined it and it would never be the same again. Sorella Giordano was not impressed and said she was tempted to say "Actually, I have decided that I don't want to buy this cart full of groceries anymore because I have not been impressed with the employees here. Take it all back and put it on the shelves." But she instead behaved herself and we apologized and walked away. After the grocery store adventure we went back to our apartment where we cleaned and organized until 6.30 when the Sorelle from Mistretta came, Sorelle Tinoco and Johnson, because Sorella Tinoco was finishing her mission and had to take the bus from Catania up to Rome that night. We went with them and met up with all the Anziani that were being transferred as well. Anziano Pedula, an anziano from Argentina that came to Italy when I got here, entertained us by playing with Cicciolino, his little stuffed hedgehog that he had bought as a comp item with Anziano Packer in his fourth transfer :) He is the only Elder that can talk to a stuffed animal and still keep all the respect I previously had for him haha. At around 9.00 Sorella Giordano made an excuse to call the Assistants so that she could then ask who would be our new companions. She did but they said that they could tell us but president hadn't decided yet. So about 20 minutes later we got a phone call from them and they passed it around the circle and we each heard who our new greenies are! Mine is Sorella Jessica Smedley from Layton Utah.

The next morning Sorella Johnson had to buy a few things before heading back to Mistretta so we had to go to an electronic store and buy a GPS for the car so she does not get lost, and then we ate lunch before we all had to go to the airport to pick up our greenies! Ah! I was so nervous! As we were pulling up to the airport I said "I'm nervous!" and then Sorella Johnson said "Well I wasn't until you said that . . . " Whoops, sorry. So we went in and were waiting and I gave Anziano Andersen my camera to take pictures and he ended up taking a bunch of pictures of all of us instead. In the end Anziano Marengo ended up with my camera and he kept trying to video tape me without me knowing. In the end we saw a couple of the greenies walk past the gate but then they disappeared again because the gate is blocked by glass that you can't see through. We were going pretty crazy for 20 minutes when they finally came out. I was SO nervous! But Anziano Marengo caught most of it on video and maybe I will allow others to see it. We gave all the luggage and our keys to the Anziani to drive it all to our house while we took the bus to the station. I started talking to this old man that told me all about his divorce and how he will never be married again even though he has a girlfriend who he loves. He said marriages never work out. I think Sorella Smedley was confused, but she's awesome and is WAY braver than I ever was. We got off the bus at the station and then the Anziani came around the round-about stuck in traffic, so we ran to the car, Anziano Marengo crawled into the trunk, and we drove away. They were so nice and bought us all milkshakes at McDonald's! We are so lucky to have them in Catania with us. They dropped us off at the house, we gave the newbies a tour and were home for about an hour before we had to leave to an appointment with Kristiana. I think I broke Sorella Smedley in really well to missionary work haha. The Nikolli family is awesome, but absolutely insane. Kristiana talked to her while I talked to her dad and uncle. Her dad asked us why we had not been back for several days and said he thought it was because I was mad at him for being drunk the last time. I laughed and said "well, you were drunk." And then he just laughed again and her uncle rolled his eyes. I asked Kristiana if she had read from Alma 12, the chapter we had partly read with her the last time, and she said no. She knew I wasn't very happy and she also knew it meant we would be reading with her again. I then learned that we had not even read the right chapter with her anyways, I had messed up by one chapter. So we began reading chapter 13 with her. We explained as we read it and she just was tired. Not just mentally, but because she is fifteen she is getting tired of the same things over and over again. But what do we do when she does not understand? Boh . . . Welcome to lavoro missionario Sorella Smedley. Then Angelo. Oh I just love him haha. This lesson wasn't bad. He asked about war and how members of the church can follow orders in the military and still follow their values. This had been brought up in English course a few days earlier so he wanted to talk more about that. We talked a lot about violence and when it is necessary but in the end we just ended up telling him that if Christ is our goal and we strive every moment to follow His will we will be guided to do the right things in any given circumstance that is specific to us. He said I have a she-warrior spirit too. Not sure what that means but maybe I don't want to know haha.

So more about my companion. She is pretty much awesome! I love her and we are more or less the same person with slight differences. One, she is naturally fearless. Nothing scares her. Darn it, I had to serve a mission to just START to overcome that. She sings really well and took voice lessons her entire life. And she's much spunkier than me. But she also grew up playing softball, she's a catcher. We are both one of five kids. We are both blonde with blue eyes. She has an older sister who is 23 (Chris is 23), a sister who is 19 (Melissa is 19), and a brother who is 17 (Seth is 17). She has a little sister who is 15 instead of one who is 25, but it's close enough. We have really similar personalities and tastes in things so it has been really nice. I adore Sorella Giordano, but I had forgotten what it is like to live with someone who is from your same culture (Utah :)), personality, age, background . . . *cough*crummy ex-boyfriends*cough* . . . and we hit it off immediately. Even the Anziani have commented and have said "Wow, siete uguali." So I am loving it :) As I explain the rest of the week you'll see it all. So Friday morning we did weekly planning and I explained a little more about the work after Sorella Giordano and I talked about splitting up our work between our two companionships. After planning we left with all four of us to go visit Sorella Prassede who is the less active member we had seen earlier that week for the first time and had told us she had a friend who would be interested in hearing our message. The girl's name is Ornella and she is super sweet. Quiet, but very sincere. She had a bit of interest and said she would like to hear more. It was a little awkward because there were so many of us and we were trying to get to know her and also introduce our purpose as a missionary gracefully, but in the end it worked out alright. After that we split up and Sorella Smedley and I took off to do house. At the beginning I was being stubborn and I wanted to find an open apartment door because I didn't want to ring outside the building. But we weren't having any success and I didn't want to waste too much time. So I caved and went up to a big one that had about 25 apartments inside. I rang the first one and asked if we could sing for them. She said no, but opened the door for us . . . or maybe it was just a tender mercy of the Lord and he opened the door for us :) Yeah, we'll go with that haha. We walked to the elevator and as we were waiting for it to come a man came up to wait with us and eyed us kind of funny and asked what we were doing. I technically didn't lie. Not really. I said we were visiting a friend. It's true, we all were friends in the pre-existence right? He still seemed a little skeptical but didn't say anything. So the elevator had gotten there and I was afraid to get out on his same floor so I immediately asked what floor he wanted. He said the third and asked me. I said 5. It was high enough that he wouldn't know the people on that floor and ask who our "friend" was. Now before you think I'm terrible, some Italians get really mad at you for being in the building and knocking on doors. I don't know why, but they do, and they always say "who let you in?! Get out! Get out and go away or I will call the police!" So gratefully we escaped a situation like that and went up to the 9th floor and rang the first house. This lady came to the door and asked what we wanted and we told her we wanted to sing for her. She then explained that she was a lawyer and that she was in the middle of a meeting that would take a while. We apologized for disturbing, but then she said "Well, if it isn't very long, you can still sing." I assured her it would be 30 seconds so she called her client from the other room to listen as well. We sang "I am a Child of God" and when we finished they were both smiling and said it was really nice and said we sang well. Then they said "You're christian aren't you? Not Jehovah's Witness?" I thought YES! Of course! So we talked a few more seconds about what we believe and left a pass along card with the temple on it. She was so nice but I don't think she was just ready to take the lessons. But she will definitely remember that. We ended up finishing that building just as it was time to turn back and go home because it would take at least an hour to walk. As we walked we stopped people and one woman we talked too said subito "Your the Mormons." Yes, we are the Mormons haha. Turns out she used to meet with the missionaries years ago and still has a Book of Mormon. I invited her to meet with us again but she said she isn't that interested right now. We left our number and she said she knows where the church is if she ever wants to come. On the way home we also stopped at Arancinissimi and Sorella Smedley had to her first arancino! She liked it, I think she had pistachio or something like that.

Saturday morning we were supposed to have an appointment with Ike and Prudence with the Anziani but right after we walked out to their car they told us that Ike had just cancelled because they weren't home. And because the Anziani are awesome! They offered to give us a ride to another part of the city where we could do finding. We took them up on the offer and went to a street that Sorella Smedley had chosen the day before where she thought we should go. We started out with a couple citofonos until we came to an open gate that closed off about 8 apartment buildings. We entered and started doing house. But surprisingly it was really boring. You usually have funny experiences when you are doing house, but there wasn't anything at all. It really was boring. Don't get me wrong, we had a couple rude people, but nothing out of the ordinary. We came to the last citofono and rang the first one, which it was my turn. The lady said she wasn't that interested but we could feel free to continue trying. I asked if she could at least open the door so we could knock on the doors. She freely obliged, but the door didn't open. She tried three more times but it still didn't open. She apologized and said the button must not be working. So she hang up and we rang three more apartments when this man came to open the door, probably 2 minutes after the woman had tried opening the door. She turned around, smiled, and said we were Mormon. I said yes, and asked him the normal questions: Have you ever seen the missionaries? Have you ever talked to them? Do you have a Book of Mormon? He answered yes to all of the above and said he had lost his Book of Mormon when he had separated from his wife and really wished to have it again. He at that point opened the door and offered to have us come up with him. We stopped at his door though and told him we couldn't go in though because there wasn't a woman. He immediately said "Of course, you're right. That is not appropriate at all. But do you two sing?" We smiled and told him we were there to sing for anyone who wanted to hear us. So we then sang "I am a Child of God" and he had tears in His eyes at the end. He immediately said "I liked that line you sang, that God gave us a family. I lost my family 5 years ago . . . I have a 9 year old little girl." He tried to give us a half smile but you could tell he was really sad. He then explained that he always wanted to have a relationship with God but it was always really hard for him and he struggled even believing in Him. We assured him that God did exist and He does love him. I gave him the Book of Mormon I had in my bag where I had written a letter in the front and he was very grateful. He gave us his name, Massimo, number, and the exact address. We left our pass along card with him with our number and directions to our church. He said he couldn't come that Sunday because he had to go to the cemetery, but he would be there the next week. I HOPE SO! He was awesome! We then had to go home for lunch and we walked to a bus stop and waited 45 minutes for the bus and ended up getting to know each other much better. Yep, me and Sorella Smedley are tight now. That afternoon we went to go see Kristiana again but she was "sick". But instead of sending us away, her mom lead us into her bedroom and Kristiana was buried under the blankets. When she heard my voice she stuck her head out, smiled, and said "hello" in English. We convinced her to come out for 10 minutes so we could share a story with her. We had chosen to read a story from the Ensign because it is obvious she is tired of reading the Book of Mormon with us. We chose one from this last months "Latter-day Voices" section. It was a story about a woman that had just given birth to a still born and came home heart broken. She prayed and asked for help and felt the impression to start reading the Book of Mormon again from the beginning. She did and she shared her feelings as she had read through the whole book. Kristiana is a sap, especially for little children and sad stories, so she really liked the story and said she would read the Book of Mormon. Vediamo. We then went to visit the Bruno family and the Nonnina :) I sat by the Nonnina the whole time with both of my hands clasped in hers'. She was as happy as a clam just sitting their talking to me in half siciliano, half Italian which was even harder for me to understand because she has suffered from a stroke and cannot talk clearly. I guess, from the translation of Sorella Bruno, she was telling me she had been starving all day but had not eaten because her daughter had not fed her. Sorella Bruno assured me that that was not the case :) Alessa, their daughter, showed me her birthday dress for her 18th birthday party. Here in Italy the 18th birthday is the equivalent to the sweet 16 or the 15th in south America. It was really pretty. And we just chatted with them until we needed to go see Sorella Maiori. But when I tried to go, the Nonnina wouldn't let go of my fingers. By this point she had grabbed two fingers of one had and my thumb on the other. She was squeezing them and wouldn't let go. Eventually I freed myself and I had finger marks haha. It made me laugh and the whole family laughed at me too. We then escaped and saw my dear Sorella Maiori. I adore her. We sang two hymns at the beginning and one at the end and shared a story I had read in the ensign a couple of months ago. Sorella Smedley had really liked the story too and we both felt like it would be perfect for her. Unfortunately we didn't have the article in Italian but I explained it to her. It was the First Presidency address from the December 2004 ensign. Look it up online. It is really an awesome story about a solider stationed it post bombed Japan during Christmas. Sorella Maiori really liked it and I promised her we would bring the article to her in Italian if we could find it.

The next morning we got a call from Kristiana telling us she wouldn't be in church because she had a really bad head ache. As we were walking to church, Carol also called and said she had been put on duty that day so she couldn't come either. So I just kept saying a little prayer in my heart, as I had been doing the last few days, that Angelo will come, even though he already said he wouldn't be able to come, and that Massimo would have the desire to come. We got to church and I introduced Sorella Smedley to everyone and then I looked back towards the entrance and there was Angelo talking to Anziano Marengo! Davvero?! I about died, went up to him and told him how happy I was and how I had been praying for days that he would come to church. He smiled at that and ended up staying for the American branch too. The whole time we have known Angelo he has only come to church 4 times and one was this Sunday and the other the week before :) Yes! Church went well and Sorella Smedley did awesome on her testimony in sacrament meeting. I couldn't help but smile. She really is the greatest. The best part was probably when she couldn't think of the word for "call" and Angelo yelled out from next to me the "chiamata!" Haha. Oh Sicily. I love it :) The third hour of church was combined with the R.S. and priesthood and they did a lesson on ward unity and talked about all of the problems we have here in Catania and asked the members why. It was very much needed and I hope the members too it to heart. Then both the Anziani and the other sisters ditched out on us to go eat lunch with the Rochira family while we stayed for Sigonella. But I love that branch and it is a pleasure to be there and I was so excited for Sorella Smedley to meet them. The first thing Bobbi said when she saw me with a new companion was "you survived the transfers, I knew it!" Haha, love her. We also planned a surprise birthday party at Sister Bay's house for next Sunday. I think he might suspect, but I am a pretty good liar and I also found out his favorite type of cake without him even guessing why I asked. So now Sister Bay can make him a giant chocolate chip cookie cake. It will be epic. Then after church we had the famous linger longer and we ate really good food together. Angelo went and sat with all the kids and seemed perfectly at home, even after they all left and brother Shadduck went and talked to him. After that we got a ride home with the Shadducks and all squished in their car. We were home for 20 minutes or so to organize the rest of the night and went to go see Sorella Catania. We had been to see her just one other time when I was still with Sorella Giordano. We talked to her a little bit and then she started saying that she drinks coffee but she doesn't think it's bad if she only does it every once in a while. We then started talking about the Word of Wisdom and read from Doctrine and Covenants section 79 with her. But I was surprised at that. I had somewhat expected a inactive member that had never really read the scriptures and could not really understand them. But she was different, not only did she understand, but she had a look of longing in her eyes as she read them. We then talked about the blessings we receive when we obey God's commandments and then I had pulled out the temple Liahona I had brought with us because I thought it might be something good to share with her. Her face lit up and she started looking through the pages. She was so happy with each picture until she saw the picture of the temple in Switzerland. You cannot even imagine her face when she saw it. It was like she was seeing her husband who died years ago for the first time. She said she hadn't been to the temple in 4 years and at that point I wanted to know if she had only done baptisms or if she had received her endowments. She had done the latter. And she did use to wear garments until they wore out and she didn't have more, nor a current temple recommend to get more. That came down to finding out why she didn't come to church. It was obvious she had a testimony and the understanding and her past excuse for not coming to church wasn't valid either. She eventually told us the reason she stopped coming was because the women in the church always talked about her behind her back because she wouldn't wear a skirt to church, or tights . . . or just little things that the women in this ward just knick pick at each other over. But it really is a problem in this ward. I don't know why, but they judge each other too much. I have never seen anything like it. As we were talking Sorella Smedley showed her own temple recommend and the pictures of her family and said how happy she was that she has an eternal family, which wouldn't be possible without the temple. Then I asked her "So you are allowing these stupid little women to prevent you from going to the temple? A place that you love?" She didn't have a response and you could see the inner battle inside as she was trying to decide what she wanted more. In the end, I am confident she will eventually come back to church, especially if we keep going to visit her. I like her a lot :)

The next morning Sorella Smedley had an appointment to start her Permesso, her green card more or less. We had to leave the apartment at 7.30 in the rain and after we were outside for about 3 minutes she started singing "There is Sunshine in my Soul Today" and I joined in with her. We were then laughing and I thoroughly enjoyed myself after that, even though my boots were soaked through haha. You can always choose if you will cry or laugh about something and I much prefer laughing. it's so much more enjoyable :) We got to the appointment and it went well and then we had to walk to the Post office to send all of the papers. But turns out a new law was enacted that day that had changed the prices to apply for a permesso from 27.50 to 107.50€. So we had to walk back to the office where we were and have him re-write the price. He, Dr. Niale, was surprised to see us so soon and was even more surprised when we told him why we were there. He then made a bunch of phone calls to find out if the law really had changed that day, because he had been sure it was supposed to be the next day. After he learned it was true, he then made a bunch of calls to be sure exactly what the cost would be. Then he sent us back to the post office and the ending price was 138.50€, plus the special stamp that cost 14.81€. I had to call the mission office to let them know and they were quite shocked as well. Whoops, stinks for the mission, but what can we do? We then walked to the metro stop where we had gotten off and found out that it does not part from there, it just ends there. So we then walked from there to the station where we took the metro to Piazza Abraham Lincoln. At this point it was almost 1.00 and we were supposed to meet the Anziani there so that we could get a gelato and then go to district meeting. While we were waiting we started talking to a fruit vendor who was very Evangelical and wouldn't take our Book of Mormon because he already knew the truth. I did get him to promise he would pray that night and ask Heavenly Father "Is there more truth in the world that I need to find?" And I told him that if the answer was yes, then he should call us and I gave him our number. Haha, I had seen that the Anziani had made it to the Piazza and were waiting for us while we were taking staring up at the sky and whistling. So we hopped in the car, and chose McDonald's instead of a gelato right as it started to pour. We got to the church right after the other sorelle, Sorella Giordano and Sorella Cojan (from France), had gotten there after walking out in that rain storm we had driven through. They were soaked and they were not very happy. But they had their McDonald's and then we started district meeting. We practiced street contacts where the Anziani were the contacts and we had to stop them. Then it was there turn against all four of us sisters. We were in the "park" and they had to talk to us. They were pretty successful even though sorella Giordano kept distracting me to talk about shoes haha. But it was a good old time and I enjoyed myself. By the time District meeting was over it was 5.00 and we still hadn't done our studies and we hadn't done it the day before either. Plus the weather was terrible, so we did Person study, companionship, the extra hour of companionship study that we are now asked to do when we are training, and language study. I felt spiritually uplifted haha.

So I think this letter is long enough. And what happened on Tuesday/yesterday will take many words because the lesson with Angelo did not go as well as I had thought. That is why Sorella Smedley also says he is a brat as well. But I will save that story for next week!
Love you all a ton! I am loving the mission and my new companion!
Muah!
Sorella LeCates