So . . . not that I am counting down, but when you have a week left? What?! Up until this point I have been in my own little world, not allowing anything to sink in because I have been suffering from amnesia. In fact, in my "dying" testimony at zone conference I said "after this life . . . I mean, after the mission" and it was totally on accident! I really have forgotten what real life is like and so the reality of going home just isn't sinking in, but Monday I had a little bit of a shock and started to cry as we were getting ready for bed. But all Sorella Smedley said was, get over it, you have to go home. Thanks Sorella . . .
But anyways, so Tuesday morning we had our zone conference and I guess I was just stressed out or something or nervous for my testimony . . . which is weird because I don't get nervous anymore, because I was feeling really sick to the point where I couldn't eat anything during lunch. Anziano Hansen even said he was offended that I didn't eat anything because they had organized the lunch this time and had been rather stressed out about it. I don't know why they didn't ask for help though, because I have organized lunches for zone conference since I got to Bari, so 7 transfers? But they didn't ask for our help. So when Anziano Hansen told me how stressed out he was and I told him he could have just asked, he seemed really confused as to why he hadn't, and then I think he realized he would have saved himself a lot of worry if he had. Oh well, he still makes me laugh. After lunch I had to give my testimony. Honestly, I had no idea what to say. I didn't want to just get up and talk and totally miss out on the spirit. This is the culminating event of my mission where I need to tell over 40 missionaries what I learned and how great the mission is with real feeling and I was stressed out. So I said several prayers for help and got up and just started to talk. And lame . . . I cried. Lame lame lame. But that's alright because I really do love the mission so much and I told them all just how lucky they are to be serving here because it's true! I cannot imagine a place more beautiful, wonderful, and incredibly awesome than here. My Heavenly Father knows me so well and I cannot imagine a people or country more perfect for me and my mission. I have learned so much and I continue to learn each and everyday and I want to just stay here and continue to learn. Don't get me wrong, I am excited to come home, and I know the next steps in life will be great. But lets also face the fact that it's just not the same. And I feel like I have so much more to learn and so many more weaknesses to overcome before I should come home. And here I am and I can't believe it's ending! What am I supposed to do when I get home? Here I wake up every morning and know exactly what I am supposed to do, but real life is dumb because who knows what will happen in the next couple of months let alone the next few years. Lame. But Anziano Hansen gave me a very nice compliment at the end and said "thank you for giving a real testimony. You could tell you love your mission, and while were talking I thought 'yep, that is Sorella LeCates through and through.' We saw who you really were. Many missionaries lose that." Well, thanks Anziano! Anyways, sorry about the rant. I am done. But it was great because I saw a bunch of my MTC buddies! Anziano Anderson, who was my district leader in the MTC, was there and I got a picture with him. He is just the greatest! He also was shocked that he only has 6 months left, I think it draws everything into greater perspective when people from your MTC district start going home. It was the same for Anziano McMullen (my British friend who always made me get him apple juice). He's pretty great and he will be coming to UVU this next spring. Yay! We will be friends :) I also said my last good-bye to Sorella Salyer before we see each other as "non-missionaries". I love her a lot and it's crazy how far we have come since our first day in the MTC when she told me that mom told her that I was a bit of an air-hear. Thanks mom :) But yeah, life is strange that way but my bestest friends are now all my mission friends and I know this was the best freakin' choice I ever made! So anyways, now that my rant is over . . . Conference was good. I even got a head massage from Franchy. Anziano Marengo asked her to do something that would be legal since he is a missionary. She does this version of acupuncture that is done with crystal and colored lights, thing is the crystals have to touch your bare skin and he wanted her to help him out with his back. So because Franchy has a degree in all this natural medicine and stuff and Anziano Marengo has had problems with his back, they decided it would be alright. But it was still pretty funny when Anziano McMullen saw what was going on and he just looked at me and said "Yeah, pretty sure this is NOT okay." But after Anziano Marengo explained it to him he felt better about it but still had this priceless look on his face as he stared at the happenings before him while mindlessly shoving bread into his mouth haha. Before English course started Simone came and I at the beginning I asked him about how the studying was going. I was asking about the English, but he immediately started talking about the Book of Mormon and told us that he reads it every single day. Alright :) He's a pretty awesome kid and we told him we would bring him a Book of Mormon in English after we told him that there was a promise that a mission president in Russia gave his missionaries, that if they read from the Book of Mormon every single day in the mission language, that they would learn Russian. He was excited and we said we would bring it the next time. English course was good, my students didn't come and I even made them brownie! So instead I chilled in the advanced class and then shared my brownies at the end. Franchy really liked them a lot and took home the extra.
Wednesday we couldn't do our p-day because Sorella Smedley had to go to the Questura for her finger printing appointment for her Permesso di Soggiorno (more or less the Green Card for Europe). We waited for over an hour before I realized there was a small sign that said if you had an appointment you could go right to the window. The woman was super nice and started to do the paperwork until she saw that we didn't have the 4 small passport photos because the office forgot to put them in her folder. But because the lady at the window was that awesome she said we could run across the street to the copy center and get some printed off. We came back and fininished everything there, but still had to go to the other side of the city on Friday to finish her finger printing. So at 1.15 we were finally done and then went to the bus station to eat lunch with Franchy and do a spiritual thought with her. She made me laugh. She is in love with the man on the other side of the ticket window and gave him the brownies she had saved from the night before. It made me and Sorella Smedley laugh, but I just love her to death. We then went to go see Massimo afterwards and we talked a lot about desires. We asked him what was more important to him, us, or his cigarettes. He said it was definitely us, so we asked him if he would not smoke for the rest of the night. He was hesitant, but said he would. And the cool thing about Massimo is that when he says he will do something he ALWAYS does it. By this point we had to go to an appointment with the Rizzo family who live really close to Massimo. So we took the same bus with him until we got off. He's pretty great, just gotta say :) The Rizzo's are also pretty cool. Sorella Contandino was there too and we did the Easter Egg activity where there are the little objects that have to do with the last week of Christ'a life. We then ate very meaty sandwiches. Really. On one sandwich they put a big chunk of pan fried pork, with a hot dog, sausage, and mayonnaise. :P I could feel my arteries clogging. But that's okay. Sacrifices for the ones you love! We then showed the girls, Maria Grazia and Francesca, the cup game where you tap it and move it around, and then the 7's game where you do different clapping patterns all to he count of 7. They they it was great. By this point we were running a little late and it takes an hour to get home. We didn't have a prayer, so we had to call and ask the Anziani for a ride home. I felt bad too because by the looks of things, they hadn't had a very nice day. But we were appreciative!
Thursday we did our p-day in the morning and we had decided to do a little bit of shopping before we stopped at the internet point to write home. As we were walking though I had a thought of Carol and I pulled out the phone just as Sorella Smedley suggest that we call her. She called and I was praying so hard that she would answer because she hasn't in almost 2 months and you know what happened?! She answered! I was shocked but said a very grateful prayer to Heavenly Father. Unfortunately Carol was at work and said she really did need to talk to us and asked if she could call us later. We quickly agreed and after she got off the phone we made a pact together that it did not matter WHEN Carol called us, we would answer the phone. Lesson, church, or even in the middle of the night. We would answer Carol's call. She is too important to us not too and we really want to talk to her. Unfortunately she did not call later that day . . . but we hope we will hear from her soon . . . After we wrote home we then headed back to the church and met up with Simone and read with him from the Book of Mormon in English. But right after the prayer we started talking in English and I asked him what he had read recently in the Book of Mormon. He said that the night before he had been really sad and worried and that he just knew without a doubt that if he read from the Book of Mormon he would feel better. He read for a little while and he said his whole boy filled with peace and he could go to sleep. He then told us that he has this indescribable desire to share the Book with his friends and family. He even went to his grandma, who is very catholic and told her "Grandma, I know that you are catholic and you aren't interested in other religions, but you HAVE to read this book." I was rather impressed and we told him that that desire is exactly the reason that we are here on a mission, to share what we believe. He liked that at lot :) We read from 3 Nephi 11 about how Christ instructed us to baptize. Simone was daccordo :). We then had correlation and it went a little long, but that's what happens in the Mormon world, and it only becomes worse in the Italian Mormon world, and worse still in the Sicilian Mormon world. Haha. Love it here :)
Friday morning we had to leave at 8.30 for Sorella Smedley's finger printing appointment at, turns out, the Police Station. We weren't sure how to enter, until the gates magically opened and an officer came out and motioned us to come up the stairs. Turns out we were all over the security cameras. The officer was rather young and gave us far too much attention while we waited for the man who would take us to do the finger printing. He came and lead us down to the basement and we had a fun ol' time :) they joked around with us a lot but actually showed a bit of interest in the church. Nothing to the point of acting, but sincere curiosity. One of them asked us what "rules" we had and I came right out and told him. When I mentioned chastity his eyes bugged out of his head and said "you mean nothing at all until after you're married?!" I laughed and nodded. He seemed impressed at that as he puffed on his cigarette. They were pretty great though, I liked them a lot. They they told me I looked like one of the contestants on Italy's Big Brother, but said it could never possibly be me though because I'm too pure. They didn't say it demeaningly though, which I appreciated. Before we left we left a pass along card and we even left an English course card with the officer at the door. That afternoon we met with Massimo and we read an article from the Liahona in March about following the prophet and about that couple that sold their engagement ring so that they could buy food storage. We then kept talking with Massimo trying to get him to commit to the 14th. It was rough because he wanted to do it but he honestly doesn't believe he can quit smoking. That was frustrating and I ended up being a little rude to him . . . not out right rude to him, but joking in a way that was crossing the border into being a rather unkind. In the end he didn't commit to baptism but promised he would come to church. Then as we were walking towards the church I go reprimanded by the spirit and my companion as to my behavior. I had a nice little thought conversation with myself for the next little while as I realized I can be a brat and I need to be better. When we got to the church though, Simone didn't end up coming, and at this point it was almost 8.00, so we went home to do some phone calls, and our language study.
Saturday at 3.00 in the morning I was woken up to a phone call. I was way out of it but I saw it was from Carol. I hopped right up out of bed and went out into the hall to answer it, but I think it was a call from her pocket because all I heard was laughter and noises. Sad . . . I miss Carol and I hope she is doing alright and knows how much we love her. I just wish she would talk to us . . . Later that morning, much later in the morning we had a picnic with the Rizzo family. It had initially been organized with them and the Anziani and they had invited us as well. But the night before the Anziani told us that they couldn't come. I had assumed they had something really important they needed to do and that they would have called the Rizzos . . . But I found out when we all got to the church that they hadn't said anything to the Rizzo's who had prepared a lunch for all of us. They asked us to call the Anziani to see if they could at least come later, which they said no. But we enjoyed ourselves. We think Sorella Rizzo has been depressed lately and not doing so well spiritually which would explain why Fratello Rizzo asked us to go visit her after she hadn't been to church in several weeks. We ended up playing with the kids for a long time (hide and seek, soccer, volleyball . . . ) and we again ate meat filled sandwiches. I also made them cookies and we set up an appointment for the next week where I could show Sorella Rizzo how to make brownies. We had a jolly ol' time and by the end I was so tired. But we had to stay in the church because we had been called that morning by Fratello Bruno to perform as a Missionary choir at a funeral at 3. We of course then had to practice, which we did for an hour before people started showing up. It was a sad funeral. It was the father of a member, Sorella Musumeci. I am not sure if he was a member or not, but there were so many sad people in the audience and it was obvious that most were not members. We started out singing "I need Thee Every Hour" and I and Sorella Perez and Sorella Smedley sang it together. For the rest hymn, all 6 of us sang "Our Savior's Love", and then at the end Sorella Smedley sang and played by her self "The Lord is my Shepherd", "Abide with Me", and "Nearer, My God, to Thee." There were many people who were crying because she sang all these songs as the palm bearers exited and everyone else hugged and cried. But the spirit was really strong and I really think many people were touched by the spirit from the music and the talks given. As I was sitting on the stand (because I had lead the music) and Sorella Smedley was still playing, Sorella Perrisi came up to me and asked if I and my companion could sing at the end of Sunday School the next day for Easter. I laughed and asked if she would prefer it if just my companion sang but she asked if I would too. I'm am by no means even close to her singing ability, but I was still touched by her asking me too. After the funeral we got a ride to Sorella Contandino's to visit her for a little bit before riding around on buses and talking to people. You really do meet the best people on the buses :) And my feet were really hurting from my shoes and running around with the kids that whole morning. So it all worked out!
Sunday's weather was weird. It rained SUPER hard for about 5 minutes with nasty grey skies and a very angry ocean. But after those 5 minutes the skies cleared and it was a crystal blue day. I was down :) We got to church and guess who was waiting for us?! MASSIMO! I was worried that I really had been a brat to him, but he was smiling just as he always is :) I also had to say the opening prayer in Sacrament meeting and Fratello Bruno also announced that I was leaving soon. I had to think . . . "But Fratello, I still have another Sunday left?!" But it worked out alright because it gave me an excuse to see a couple of people that I would REALLY love to see before I go that are usually pretty busy. Like the Castorina family haha. I was in the bathroom and I heard someone say "Sorella LeCates?!" I recognized that voice immediately as the one of Sorella Castorina :) She said I have to go see them. I would LOVE too! We did end up singing in Sunday school, I can't remember the name but the first line in English goes "I know that my Redeemer lives". it turned out alright. We also had a visiting couple from Belgium with us and I really liked them a lot. The wife understands quite a bit of Italian and we had a good chat during the lessons as she asked me what certain words meant like peccato-sin, vuoto-empty . . . The rest of church went well, other than in relief Society when I realized that every woman in the room thinks that Mary Magdelene was the sinner who wiped Christ's feet with her tears. The Catholic Church's doctrine is that that's who she is and so many people here, members of the church included, that have had it so indoctrinated into themselves that there was no point in saying anything. Oh well, I like Mary. I think she is legit! You can't be a special friend of the Savior without being AWESOME! The Sigonella branch was fun too. Our member, Lilian, who is from Nigeria, gave a talk and she is pretty cool too. She has one of those accents that you can just imagine her having and then she started singing a song up on the stand called "Walk with Me". The look on President Shefchik's face was priceless. Really. If it wasn't inappropriate to take pictures during Sacrament meeting, I would have. After church we went to the Bay's house for Easter and we helped he finish cooking everything before we sat down to eat yummy food. And after dinner we played Bang! and then Scum together while eating lemon buddies. So there are muddy buddies, that yummy chocolate peanutbutter chex stuff that is covered in powdered sugar right? So she found a recipe for lemon buddies on pintrist (boh, I dunno how to spell it but I hear it's this popular new website that came out after I left) and instead of peanutbutter and chocolate, it's whitechoclate and lemon stuff . . . not sure exactly. But they were pretty good. And I was queen every round of scum :) I am cool! Oh, she also sent my two packages home so they should get there soon just so's you knows. The other Sorelle also passed by Kristiana that afternoon to see her and they said she did seem a little off and we have no idea what happened in the space of a couple of days from when that happened. One day she says she wants to be baptized and the next she hates us?! . . . breaks my heart. Literally . . .
Monday we had our big cleaning party day because the day after Easter (Pasqua) is little-Easter (Pasquetta) where everyone leaves the city and goes out to the country side. I think they have some religious backing for this holiday, but honestly I think it's more an excuse to get more time off work and go play. So because there is no one in the city, Sorella Kelly chose that as our cleaning day and we reorganized our house and cleaned out the "death closet" and everything else before we went to have a lesson with Massimo. We got one of the pictures of Christ in the red-robe and we wrote a letter to him in the back. We also decided to read our favorite scriptures on the Atonement together. When we met with him he seemed rather down. As we talked for a little bit we found out that he had spent Easter and Pasquetta (little Easter) all by himself . . . sad! And when we gave him the picture of Christ he started to tear up, and as he read the letter on the back he cried :) I really like him a lot! It was a really sweet lesson as we read from the Book of Mormon and I think it was exactly what he needed at that moment, to know that he wasn't alone. Even after we had said the closing prayer, he stayed there with us for 10-15 more minutes and it was obvious he didn't want to go yet. Poor guy, I just like him so much! We then walked home and we even stopped and got a gelato from Lindt. Yum Yum! I got banana and kiwi. Pretty much delicious! We were lucky enough too to catch the bus (which we had to run for to catch) and even met up with the other Sorelle who were heading home too. We got back to the apartment and we all helped to finish cleaning and then I tackled a monster load of phone-calls to re-organize our week before we planned and went to bed.
Tuesday morning we had district meeting and it went well. Then we played catch with a mini-football in the church parking lot. Unfortunately I am a failure at throwing now. I know. Failure. But I can still catch! Then Franchy came and we all ate lunch together and while everyone else was talking we made a card for Sorella Maiori's birthday! I just love her so much and we then walked with Franchy, talking about Elder Andersen's conference talk "What think Christ of Me?", up until we had gotten to Sorella Maiori's house. She was waiting for us and had the dog's pinned up and slices of the Colombo (a dove shaped cake they eat for Easter) for us :) and she had made us each a doily, hand crocheted by her and little baby stockings! I really love her so stinkin' much! But as Anziano Hansen made fun of me for earlier that day when he said "Oh Sorella, you just LOVE everyone." But I don't think there is ANYTHING wrong with that. I do, but especially Sorella Maiori. She is the sweetest lady on the planet. When we gave her her birthday card she almost started to cry and gave us both really big hugs. She then showed us the April Ensign because we haven't gotten ours yet and we sang "I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus" together because it was in the back of the Liahona. Then we did the same Easter Egg activity that we had done with the Rizzo family. After we talked a little bit more we sang two more songs, I don't remember the first one, but then we sang "The Lord is my Shepherd". She said she had never sang that song before, but she loved the words. Before we left we set up another appointment for before I leave and I was sure to get a picture with her just in case. We headed back to the church and we met with Simone. He had already read to 1 Nephi 19 in English! I was really impressed. His English has even improved too and we read another chapter with him and then I explained to him the story of Nephi going back to get the plates and when he killed Laban. The lesson with Simone went a little into English course, which ended up being okay because my students didn't come again and Anziano Hansen was teaching the advanced class by himself. At the end we asked Simone specifically if he would still like to meet with us after his final interview with this job so that he could learn more about our church. He said he would love to and accepted our invite to come to church. He's a good kid :) English course was good, we talked about the differences in how we use "about" in English and many other similar things and then I gave the spiritual thought on Helaman 5:12. Also, just to be sure, I got a picture with everyone who was in English course incase they weren't there next week. After English course we talked to everyone for a while and then Sorella Smedley got a blessing from the Anziani because she has been having some difficulties with her heart the last couple of weeks. We hope she is alright, but by the blessing she received, she will be just fine.
So that's about it. Things haven't changed much here in Catania. I wish I felt like I was doing more to help the growth of the ward, but we all feel a little at loss for how to help the ward. I have a feeling there may be a big change as far as who is serving here next transfer to give it some fresh eyes and views. Sorella Giordano, Anziano Marengo, and I have been here since the beginning of November, I think it needs somethings mixed up. But other than that things are going well. I keep learning a lot, I just wish I was doing more to help other people instead of just myself . . . Is it normal to have all these plans to be productive and then at the end of the day you feel like you've done almost nothing? Boh, I feel like that a lot. I know I don't do nothing, but I know I could do more.
But I love you all a lot and hope you are all doing well!
Muah!
Vi Voglio Bene!
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!
