Hope all goes well on the home front! My days are numbered . . . shoot . . . lame. Darn it. What can you do? Gotta make the most of it!
So last Tuesday was fun, we finally got an appointment set up to see Carol! I really love her so much. We left earlier in the morning to get to the train station to take the hour and a half bus ride out to the base to go see her. We got lunch at the commissary and I had major culture shock. Number one . . . I had only ever been to the family housing base, but this time we went to the other one and it was pretty much mini-America. It was clean, the buildings were like we have at home, and there were Americans . . . everywhere. I kept on having to stop and turn around because everywhere I turned they were American! I know that may sound really weird to you, but I was a bit dumbfounded. I was getting whiplash from every time I thought I was seeing friends from home, when in reality it was just because I was not used to seeing anyone that even resembled anyone from home in so long. Second of all, everyone was speaking English and when we ordered Subway (Oh SUBWAY!) I would already have what I wanted to say in Italian so I was delayed in my order because I would have to translate it back into English in my head. Talk about a mental work out. Carol and Sorella Smedley got a good kick out of it. We also saw Tami (a member of Sigonella) in the food court and then we saw Bobbi too. It was a nice little branch reunion there in the Commisary Food court :) But it ended up being really nice. It wasn't necessarily a "lesson" because we didn't specifically sit down and talk directly about the gospel, but I liked it because we got to know her better and it was more between friends than anything else. I hope she knows how much we really do love her and that we are here for her whenever she needs. We want to be more than just the "missionaries", we want to be her friends. So in the end we had to take a bus that left at 2.00 and she had work at 3.00 so she dropped us off at the bus stop and we spent the next ten minutes taking pictures of ourselves in front of the garbage in front of the base until the bus came. We then took the hour and half bus back where I almost threw up (because my bad motion sickness is plaguing me again from when I was younger and would always get car sick) but I again survived. We got back and we took a bus to the church where we were supposed to have a meeting with a boy named Simone who needed help with English but at around 6.30 we got a call from him saying he couldn't come . . . darn it. At that point we just had to wait and we did a little bit of language study until English course students got there. This time I had two of the three kids that always come to English course (Vincenzo, the bishops son and his cousin Sofia) and then Esther who comes with her son. Vincenzo loves to talk so the whole time his mouth was moving to the irritation of everyone else. I kept telling him to sit down as always but he kept talking. It was fine, I am used to it. He isn't a bad kid, he just is like most 9 year old boys who don't know how to calm down. But for the spiritual thought I grabbed him, held him to my side and put my hand over his mouth the whole time. I don't know that he really appreciated it very much, but he loves me and I am sure he got over it. Also, in the end, I was able to finish the thought on the Atonement of Jesus Christ. My class ended on time and then I went over to the advanced class where Sorella Smedley and Anziano Andersen were at. They were in the middle of trying to explain the difference between when we use "still" and "yet" in English because in Italian the word is the same, "ancora". In the end they all had their brains fried, so Sorella Smedley and I sang "Nearer My God to Thee" and the spirit was really strong when we did. Even Anziano Andersen got really thoughtful with everyone else. We then talked a little bit about how the Lord is always close to us, but it is our choice whether or not we want to see Him next to our side. It was a very nice way to finish the lesson :)
Wednesday morning we went to the church to write a little bit until the Anziani came to get us to do the grocery shopping at Ipercoop which is in a mall. After we bought our stuff we got Burger King and then we went back to the church to write while the Anziani played pingpong. But because me and my companion are sneaky and we were feeling guilty for our we had acted on Monday (refer back to that day from last weeks letter . . . ) we had bought Baci (Italian version of chocolate kisses), corn flakes, and chocolate milk (because they eat that every morning for breakfast) and we wrote them a nice little card and left it in their car saying how grateful we were for how they do everything for us without ever complaining and we had no write to be upset. I think it made things better, especially since we then took forever writing home and they had to wait until we were done. We then left in the early afternoon to meet Massimo for a lesson. This time we had a nice little chat about the Law of Chastity. As weird as this is, it is actually my favorite thing to teach. I still don't know why . . . but we also discovered something new about Massimo. Just like the Word of Wisdom, this commandment will cause some thinking and changing on his part. But what doesn't? We each have to continually get better. I would know that better than anyone. I am not that . . . dutiful as I should be. So we both assured Massimo that we are not quite the angels he thinks we are and that we are each asked to push past who we have been in the past and move forward. After that we tried calling the Anziani because we had an appointment with them at Fratello Giardina's but I had only ever been there one time and didn't know exactly how to get there. He also lives in an area that is a little sketch and at this point it was dark outside and I didn't want to go wandering around there. We were also without coats because we had left them at home because it had been so warm all day. Finally they called us and met us to take us there. Fratello Giardina is the coolest man alive! I really do love him a lot and just adores us. He made us all sandwiches and was so stressed about it being just right. Right now his son, his wife, and their daughter have moved back in with him and their little girl, Alice (you pronounce it a-lee-che) here in Italy, is SO freakin cute! She is about two years old and I about died! We took pictures and videos of her as she was running around. We would have contributed more to the lesson but it was just Anziano Marengo arguing with Massimo, Fratello Giardina's son, about why he doesn't come to church. We were all a little frustrated so instead I talked to Fratello Giardina and played with his granddaughter. Anziano Andersen was especially frustrated at the end because he had prepared a lesson for Lucia (Massimo's wife) because she isn't a member, but we never got to the lesson because it was a 45 minute argument. Sigh . . . We did get a good laugh though when Anziano Marengo slipped and fell down the stairs when we were leaving :) I know, that sounds terrible of me, but he's a big guy and it didn't kill him haha.
Thursday was a rather long day. We had planned a lunch appointment with Sorella Gilda Fichera. I adore her, she is too funny, but because she lives so far away she never gets to see the missionaries. So for only the second time since I have been here we set up a lunch appointment with her. It was just us and the other two Sorelle so we had to take a bus. It was also a sciopero (a bus strike--they occur quite often) so we didn't get out there until a little later. Then when we got there lunch still wasn't prepared because Sorella Fichera had been out doing some errands in the morning. But it wasn't too bad. She just makes us laugh the whole time and we had a good old time. The best part was the soap operas. So when we had eaten with Sorella Contandino a couple of weeks ago she had left on the soap opera "Beautiful" which I think is "The Bold and the Beautiful" so we got a great dose of drama in that afternoon. Then last week the other Sorelle went to eat with her as well and they commented that they had then seen the sequel to our portion of the story. So low and behold, Sorella Fichera watches it too and we all got to see the last 10 minutes of the story because she was watching it while she cooked. Oh the things we view in members houses. After we ate we sang "I love to See the Temple" together and then we looked through the temple magazine. By the time we finally left it was 3.45 . . . I know. Oh Italy and the lunch appointments. But thankfully our mission president understands this, having served in Italy as well, and said we shouldn't feel guilty about this things. So we left hoping to catch a bus back into Catania at 4.00. Nope. Wasn't there. It finally did come at 4.30 though, and while we were waiting we met this really cool kid named Giorgio at the bus stop. We talked about . . . everything. Religion, school, injuries (he is getting his ACL operated on the next week) . . . and then we got on the bus and he sat by us for the next hour and half. We gave him our contact information, but my brain had a cramp or something because I forgot to ask for his number. But he lives really close to the Anziani in Catania so I am hoping by some divine guidance they bump into each other. We got off at the train station and we had to be up to Sorella Maiori's house at 6.00. That gave us a half hour. But we had to wait for the bus. But while we waited we got to know some really cool people. One lady was from Australia and had never seen a missionary from the church before. She was pretty sweet, even though she used the word "bugger" a lot. Dad, didn't you tell me that that word is a little bit . . . dangerous to use down under? Boh! Then we met another girl who was from China who was ever so nice and spoke perfect English. Eventually though our bus did come and we got merrily on our way. But we were 45 minutes late for our appointment with Sorella Maiori and she wasn't there when we arrived. Darn it! So we went to go see Kristiana and Dritan instead. Kristiana was the only one there though so we just read a chapter with her from the Book of Mormon. We read about Ammon and when he taught King Lamoni and his conversion. She got super interested in the back ground-story with the arms getting cut off so we left that as her home work, to read that part of the story. I think she may read that one haha.
Friday morning we had an appointment with Gianluca Pisa. He was the little man we had met earlier in the week who started talking to us at the bus stop by our house and said he liked the Mormons and that we had settled the west. He was rather excited when I had called the day before to come and see them and he asked to see us as soon as possible. His enthusiasm was a bit . . . strong, but he was very courteous on the phone so we set up the appointment for the next morning. We got there and he even came down stairs to the main door of the apartment building to come get us. Turns out he has two daughters, one is our age and the other is six. The little one is so cute. Her name is Lilia and has white blonde hair and bright blue eyes. So cute! They also have a killer view from their apartment. We were sure to get a couple pictures from there. You can see the ocean for miles, the beach, all of Catania, and even Siracusa. He explained that he had specifically bought that apartment for the sole purpose of the view and that there was an old little historic church on the other side of the street. By law no one could build there because the church was protected so he would be guaranteed his view for ever. Good reasoning to me. We talked about a good many things with him, including the history of Sicily and Italian grammar. But by the time we got down to the lesson he was attentive. He started out by telling us that he believed in God but was not good at practicing religion because he did not agree with all the teachings of the catholic church. Didn't bother us at all. So we kept talking and go to Joseph Smith and as we started saying the first vision his phone started to ring. Really? Why does that always happen to us. And when I saw him pick it up I thought, great, he is going to answer it like a ton of other people do. But instead he put it under the coach cushion and said, "Please continue. I can't interrupt that beautiful story." Well that was new. We then brought out the Book of Mormon and said it was for him and he at first said he probably wouldn't read it. But after we explained it's role in our conversion he said he would read it. In the end he even said the prayer for us and set up another appointment for the next night and that we would also go out and get a pizza together. Alright. I am down! At this point we went home and ate lunch and did a little bit of planning before going to meet Massimo for another lesson. We talked with him about Enos and how we can feel completely clean and free after repentance but we have to have a relationship with Heavenly Father. It was a good lesson and we then had a little bit of fun for 10 or 15 minutes while we waited for the Anziani and the Sorelle to come get us to go to correlation. Massimo kept singing us songs like "Ol' McDonald Had a Farm" or he would completely make them up. And because I have become completely sly with the camera I totally recorded it :) It was great! And then we gave him a spearmint lifesaver and he said it tasted like medicine and we go this expressions on camera and then when he ate a piece of Hershey's chocolate. Like him a lot :) Then the rest came to get us and we piled in the car to go out of Catania for correlation at Emanuele Mirabella's house. We met up in the garage where they have their brick fire burning stove for pizza. While we were waiting for him to come down stairs for correlation we were playing darts, something I have never done before. It was my turn to go first and I said I had never played before so Anziano Andersen explained how to throw it. I threw it and got a bulls eye. They were all shocked and then I threw the other one. Bullseye again. I then got called a hustler and I had to plead my case that I really had never played before. Needless to say I ended up winning by totally creaming everyone else. Nice! Thanks softball and pitching :) Correlation went all good and well and then we ate a bunch of home made pizza in a wood burning stove while Sorella Smedley tried to teach me how to cross my eyes. I don't know why, but I just cannot do it. Oh well, I guess everyone else got some good laughs at my attempts. And then we went home :) nice!
Saturday morning we did planning, then we ate lunch, and then we tried to go see Giovanni (our hoot and a holler friend that invites us to lunch a lot) because he was leaving with his friend Alfredo who needs surgery in London. We weren't sure who was being transferred so we went to go see him to be sure. Turns out he wasn't at home anyways, just Alfredo. We did wish him luck though with his surgery and told him we would pray for him. Well we did end up getting our transfer calls and I AM STAYING HERE! WAHOO! I AM DYING IN CATANIA WITH SORELLA SMEDLEY! The assistants called to tell us and they said that President feels really good about leaving us together because we are already such good friends and that he feels we will become even better friends and that the work will do well having us here. I hope so! But the sad story of the day is that Anziano Andersen is leaving :( sad day. Really :( Darn it, after 6 months in the same city together it's kinda lame that he is leaving. But I will just have to have a good attitude about it. Sorella Giordano is also staying here in Catania (which I am glad. I love her lots) but she is getting a new companion. Sorella Cojan is leaving to Siracusa and Sorella Perez is coming here from Roma 2. Sorella Giordano has already told me that they do not get along, so it will be fun seeing what happens. And maybe Sorella Smedley's language will really pick up because neither one speaks English :) After transfer calls we went to the church for an English appointment with a boy named Simone Fichera. He was the kid who was supposed to come on Tuesday but couldn't. We talked to his dad a couple times on the phone while Simone was coming and he really expressed his gratitude at our willingness to help him and that he hopes a miracle will happen. Simone has a job interview on the 15th of March that will be in English and they are hoping we can help him enough that he can get hired on as a flight attendant. He is a really nice kid but his English does need some work. He also had a lot of questions about our church, and so did his dad when we talked to him, and we ended up sharing the whole Restoration with him and the Book of Mormon. Wow, you should have seen his face when I explained that we had a living prophet on the earth today and showed him the fold out of the first presidency and the quorum of the 12 apostles from the conference edition of the Liahona. He was at a loss for words and finally when he looked up at me he said "Sorry, I am just truly stupefied." Word of word. He is legit. Then after we explained how Joseph Smith prayed in the grove of trees and we recited the First Vision he paused at the end and said "Beautiful. Completely beautiful." He's legit. In the end we may get a awesome family interested in the church if we really make this miracle happen with his English. I have HIGH HOPES! Wahoo! After that appointment we left to go pass by Kristiana and Dritan but no one was at home. At that point we had to turn back to go meet Gianluca for pizza. I was expected a little cafe type thing. Oh no, where we went was legit. It was right on the tourist part of the harbor where there are the yachts and it's really pretty. The restaurant had huge panes of glass for walls so you could look out on the night sky and the water. Also everyone in the restaurant knew who Gianluca was and called him "avvocato" (lawyer) and only used the formal form of "lei" with him. I guess he's more legit than we thought. We also ate with his friend and his friend's daughter. They ordered appetizers which was "frutti di mare" which is octopus tentacles cut up into pieces with the suckers still on them, muscles that have been cut out of their shells and lots of other slimy crawly things. Sorella Smedley said nothing and her face did not betray her too much but I took one look at her and knew she was dying hahahahaha. I shouldn't laugh but it was pretty funny hahahahaha. I have gotten over my squirmy-ness with that sort of thing. If it is raw, yeah, no. I cannot do it. But it was all cooked. The texture is a little weird because it's rubbery, but it's fine. But oh man, she almost died hahaha. But then we got our pizza's so she survived. We then got home in time to do planning and then get in bed.
Sunday Dritan was in church and he was looking sharp! He had black dress shoes on and slacks. First time for that! Massimo came too and all was well. Then about half way through gospel principles the door opens and in walks Gianluca and his little daughter Lilia. Talk about surprises. 2 minutes after, Sorella Canata, the Primary President, comes in and says "I heard there was a little girl in here! Want to come play with us?" Lilia hopped right up, took her hand, and left. Gianluca was really intent during the rest of the lesson and was thumbing through the Book of Mormon. He had to leave after though because he wasn't feeling very well and so we went to go get Lilia from Primary. That is when Fratello Battezato hit. This tiny little man of 4.5 swamped us and just started explaining all about how we could put our hands on his head to heal him and that he had just philosophies of men and that he didn't have the truth. Well, thanks Fratello. Hope Gianluca was alright after that encounter . . . yikes. Sigonella was great. Sorella Smedley played the piano and I lead the music, as always. Then we started fast and testimony meeting. President Shefchik started off the meeting and then I got up to bare my testimony and then Samuel Boetang got up. He has a killer story about his life in Ghana, how he ran from the law to Libya, was put in prison there, and then how they broke out of prison and sailed across the sea to Italy. So he was the last to bare his testimony. Good thing I got up fast because a 45 minute testimony is hard to follow haha. And lucky for me Bobbi and Sister Bay are excited I am dying in Catania and they want to throw me a death party :) I am SO down. Haha. After church we went straight to go see Kristiana and Dritan and it didn't go as well as I had hoped. Dritan is convinced he will be baptized but he won't set a baptismal date until after March 23rd. I couldn't really tell you why, other than the fact that he does not want to get baptized while he is working until 5 in the afternoon . . . boh. Who knows. So we then read the story of Ammon from the Children's Book of Mormon stories book that we had given them to help them understand the stories better. Kristiana loved it and had already read some of it before we got there. We then went with the Anziani to go see the Rochira family and eat dinner. Sorella Rochira is SO nice to me. I still don't know how she found out I don't eat meat but she did and she goes FAR out of her way to make me food I want to eat. I usually don't tell anyone because I feel guilty that they have to change their plans for me. But she does not care. Instead she made me special pasta with ricotta cheese and pistachios. It was way good. Then when Fratello Richira found out I had served in Bari he had us watch a couple of youtube videos from these comedians that used to make fun of the Mormon missionaries. I had heard of these skits before but I had never seen them. I guess they had destroyed the work in Bari and all surrounding cities for YEARS. That is why the numbers in that region have been so low. Fratello Rochira told me that the missionaries couldn't even leave their apartments without getting ridiculed and laughed at by everyone that saw them. Quite sad, but the videos were pretty funny :) It's called "Fratelli Johnson e Johnson" it will be in Italian but you should check it out. Maybe Liesel can understand them. Another cool part of that day was Stephanie, the Rochira's niece, is planning on serving a mission! YES! I was so excited! She had out her white hand book all during dinner and was reading it and asking us questions. She will be so legit! I hope she goes to temple square :) Then I could go see her!
Monday at district meeting we had fun. Sorella Smedley and I recounted the story of when we were walking down the street the last week and an ambulance was plowing through traffic with it's lights and siren blaring, but as it passed the driver rolled down his window and yelled to us "Ciao Beautiful!" Really? Haha, still funny though. Sorella Smedley then did the training and it was all in Italian! She is the best and I am so proud of her! She does not have a lot of confidence with her ability to speak, but she is doing really well. After the meeting we had a fashion shoot because people are leaving our district and we had too much fun. I will send some of those pictures home, no worries haha. After lunch though we went to go see Massimo and that lesson didn't exactly go as planned . . . we started out by teaching him the law of Tithing and we did the example where he closes his eyes and we place ten pieces of candy in his hands. When he opens his eyes you then ask to have one back. They always WILLINGLY give you one. Then you ask them to close their eyes again and then you pour the rest of the bag of candy into their hands. They are shocked and then you relate that to tithing. But as you can probably imagine for a self employed artist in Sicilia, his income isn't that . . . extensive? But by the end we ended up directly asking "When you are baptized, will you live the law of the tithe?" He said "Yes, if I get baptized." Yeah, you better believe that "if" caught my attention. It pretty much blew up my whole universe . . . I asked him what he meant by if and he said he does not think he can live the word of wisdom. In fact, he told me he CAN'T live the word of wisdom. I was really quiet at that point and was quite desperately searching for what the Lord wanted us to say. Sorella Smedley was doing so as well and so the next half hour was us trying to find out how to help him. We eventually felt inspired to talk about Alma 32 with him and about faith. He really liked the parable and feels a desire to do the experiment of the seed but he feels like he has already done everything in his power to quit smoking. Even when I asked him if he could say that to God himself he still said yes. I told him that he was wrong and he had NOT done everything possible. As we kept talking about faith we then were struck with the idea to ask about his prayers. When he told us that he maybe prayed once a day at most I was shocked. That is the problem, and then, as we missionaries often experience, words just come flying out of our mouths that are not ours. I found myself saying "Massimo, if you do not start praying at least 3 times a day and start developing a relationship with Heavenly Father you will NEVER quit smoking." That took him back a little bit. He was really quiet after that and by the time we closed the lesson with a prayer he hopped right up and it was obvious he was ready to leave. But before he left he lifted up the container of orzo (toasted barley, coffee substitute) that we had just given him and he said he would drink it the next morning instead of coffee. But he was anxious to leave and left directly after that. I was a bit upset. Usually, okay, always, after these sorts of lessons I come away from them with a head ache and this was no exception. We found a bar, bought some water and a coke for Sorella Smedley and took a 10 minute break. Why can the work be so tough sometimes? I mean . . . We are trying to hand people over eternal glory and happiness. We are showing them how to become a God one day and they just don't get it and it breaks my heard watching them hold onto the world around them which in the end will be taken away as well. This is the ONLY thing that will last after this life and I don't know how to help them understand . . . Sigh. Well, after I had recovered a little bit we went to go see Sorella Maiori. In relief Society we had learned that her mother-in-law had died. Her flu had ended up getting bad enough that last Sunday, the day after we had gone to visit her, she had passed away. That was quite a shock to us. So that afternoon we passed by. We couldn't be there for long, because they obviously had a lot to do, but we sang a song with her and then said a prayer together. I truly love her with my whole heart. She has such a special spirit and I hope she knows how dear she is to us :) We then went to go see Kristiana and Dritan afterwards. And can I just tell you I am really getting tired of the little games that Dritan plays with me. He has sincere interest in the church, but I am pretty positive that sincere interest goes to where is shouldn't and I am not going to play into it anymore. So during that lesson I was trying to talk to him and he just started to irritate me with his joking, flirting attitude. So I turned around, told Kristiana to come sit by me and Sorella Smedley and we said a prayer together and then read together. Yes, we are there to be their friends, but what he often does chases the spirit away and it isn't good for us or for them. I think he may have gotten the hint, if not, I will clear it up quite nicely for him that I am here to help him be baptized and that is it. But I love Kristiana. She will not be baptized while I am here, but one day she will. She is one of the most special people I have met in my mission and I love her so much. We read a couple of stories from the children's Book of Mormon together: The brother of Jared and Abinadi and King Noah. She liked them and she's still reading.
So the work goes on. It's funny the learning curve isn't it? Literally each and everyday I continue to learn more and more. I am towards the end of my mission and I still receive new realizations and I learn new things about myself and testimony all the time. Without this church, without my testimony, without . . . everything that I have lived for the last 18 months, I would be . . . nothing. I don't know how people can function in the real world without the knowledge of the Restoration because it is literally everything to me. It is the only way to find true happiness and it is the only path that leads to our Heavenly Father. I love my mission so much. I do I do I do. I can't even tell you. It is incredible each and everyday and I hope I am doing all I can to make my Father in Heaven proud of me. That is probably my greatest fear now, that my Heavenly Father isn't proud of me. That is my goal and I hope I have served a worthy mission in His eyes . . . but only time will tell.
I love you all so much and I hope you know that! Tons!
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!
