Sunday, July 23, 2017

2017-07-19 Post Mission Predictions

This last week was really cool! We had two lessons with Jelena, who is on date to be baptized on August 19. I told President that I just want to leave Ancona in a good position (the work has a tendency of crashing right before I get transferred out of cities, not for lack of trying to prevent that!!). I know that it is quality over quantity so I knew I probably wouldn't see a baptism during my time here. In that case, I just wanted to leave with someone who would get baptized. Jelena is the one! 

We are also still working with Carla, who progresses, but on HER time haha. Her sister is sick with cancer and has been healing a lot recently. Carla accredits it to the blessing the elders gave her sister. A certain member has also been fasting every. Single. Week until her sister gets healed. Faith is working miracles and lots of people Carla knows have been noticing. Now Carla has had the chance to bear her testimony about the church to them and she's been super happy about that! The big question of the decade is, though: are five years enough to prepare a Carla for baptism, or should we raise our sights to 2018?? Stay tuned.

We also met with Matteo and Tiziana and had a really cool lesson with them. Less-active member heartbreak, finding new potentials, doing service with members, a visit from Presidente Allen to the branch, and district transfer predictions! They all guessed each others' next city and companion but they all turned against me and predicted my dating and marriage future. So even though I'm the only one going home, I did the same to them. Actually for them I think they really liked it but it was too weird for me because I was like, "holy shiz, that actually is the next step." Anyways, apparently I'm going to have one or two serious relationships to get to the right one about two years from now who will be a partially-ethnic man. Don't ask me where that all came from.


Francesca

Apartment has TV.  Now she can catch up on NASCAR!

Weird Italian Parade

Sunday, July 16, 2017

2017-07-11 Branch BBQ

Hellooo a tutti!!

So we had a lot of cool miracles last last week and last week we saw
not all of them play out. BUT we are still super blessed with lots
("lots") of work :) we have Lolita who is making progress towards
baptism and we just met a whole family (well, the mom and dad are
'just friends' so I'm not really sure what's going on there) from
Ghana that are super sharp and really liked our message about the Book
of Mormon, even if they thought I said 'The Book of Mohammad' until I
had repeated myself like, 4 times.

So miracles are still totally happening! Sometimes it's not people's
moment and so we find other people! Right now I'm sitting pretty with
an awesome companion, little Dutch waffles in my backpack from Tiger,
going to hike in the Italian "mountains" (large hills) and this
evening we're going to visit our other investigators, Matteo and
Tiziana, who have come to church not one but two times! This weekend
President Allen is coming down to give our members a fireside on
missionary work. They sure have a fire. What else can I say..?

OH!

After three weeks of stress and planning, lots of inviting, some help
from the Pesaro Anziani, and a last-minute purchase of an entire grill
😂...we successfully pulled off our branch barbecue. We had a lot of
people come! Like, five members and a good 20 people total. That's a
lot of potentials!! We're hopefully going to meet with one of them
next week when she's done with her exams (Italian university does
testing totally different) and aside from that we were just glad to
get to hang out with some people and make some good memories together.

We also:

- got adopted by an old Italian woman
- got fed a 5-course meal by Lolita until we both thought food was
gonna start coming out our ears
- made a peach cobbler for our branch president's wife
- played Italian card games with the Anziani and whichever Italian
wanted at a public piazza as a way to get talking to people

Thanks for keeping up with me! You guys are great and I love you all.
Have a good week.

🇮🇹 Transfer 12 with Sorella Hurst 🇮🇹






Last zone conference, where dying testimony was given

MTC Companion at last zone conference

Card playing on train

Got the grill, forgot the spatula

Investigator

"If I read I live more than seven lives"
Apparently Italian cats only get 7 lives.

Awkward moment running into Anziani on P-day

Tuesday, July 4, 2017

2017-07-04 Brutal Findings

This week has been incredible!! I'm not just saying that because I'm the rainbows and sunshine Sister missionary because even that's not true! I have to sing tomorrow at zone conference so that's definitely not the case!! 

Haha just kidding I'm happy to be able to sing. But I was also serious about all the miracles! In fact, the zone leaders have noticed and the stake president asked our mission president to please keep us four here "forever." If only! I don't have tons of time to write but let me just share a "just hang in there" experience. How many times have I had these experiences?? 

So, we went out with the Anziani and did two hours of brutal finding. Like, two hours and we talked to probably 5 people...one man even cursed us! I've never had such horrible success doing finding. But, anyways. So on the bus ride home I was chatting with the Anziani, telling them that I've always had more success meeting people on the bus than out actively talking to people on the street. Lo and behold, the next lady who I sat down by gave us her number and would like to meet with us, another man from Romania, and then a sad drunk Italian man who has lost his family, has tried rehab in the past to get clean and it didn't take, wants to try again to get ahold of his life and accepted to hear our message. Sooo cool! It always happens like that! 

All that on top of FOUR investigators coming to church (guys, NEVER happens!! Never! We almost had more investigators in the congregation than we had members haha), and other things. Miracles! Miracles miracles.

🇮🇹 Transfer 12 with Sorella Hurst 🇮🇹

Sunflower fields

Finding





Jill and Sorella Hurst

San Marino 



Porto Novo

BUG


Sweetie!







Friday, June 30, 2017

2017-06-28 Carla, Lolita, Matteo

Hello tutti!

This week has been another work of miracles and working through the hours of blank schedules to be able to find them. I will focus on three main miracles - all having to do with investigators!

So first, Carla. Carla is mid-thirties and wants to be baptized (yes!)....that's kind of it, we have an investigator who wants to be baptized. This is a miracle for missionaries, ok?? 
Carla has been being taught for years, she originally met the church through the free English class we do. The cancer her younger sister got recently has caused her to become closer to the church and often shows up to church and English class late because she was with her sister but expressing to us, "I wasn't going to come but I just felt a real need, I just need to come." She is so real, she totally gets it. She works at a conservatory of music and is super sharp, so she's awesome. She's the sort of person who will get baptized on her own, on her own time, she just needed simply to be taught things that her church hadn't taught her and then she took that and ran. Anyways, we're not able to see her this week but definitely next week and hopefully in the next few weeks she will be baptized. I made a crazy promise to my mission President when I got the call to come here that there would be a baptism, I think this could be her!

Next, Lolita!! K we need to thank our Anziani for all the work they've done because a lot of this we just walked into without having done anything to prepare these people. Instead, the Anziani have had a couple lessons with Lolita and handed her off to us bc she is a woman. She's from Madagascar and her and her daughter, who is Calabria now, have been meeting with the missionaries recently. The cool thing is that we've never met her, from as far as we could tell the daughter was more into the church than the mom, and we weren't even really sure we would get to see her on Sunday when we did.
But, we went over to her house, chatted with her a little bit, said the opening prayer, finished the prayer and sat in silence for a good 3 minutes while she cried. Finally we asked her, "what are you thinking Lolita? Happy thoughts or sad thoughts?" Hahaha. Well, she said she was so touched that we went out and visited her when everyone else in the world is taking a nap on Sunday afternoon. She said she had been making excuses to not come to church but that she knew she needed to go this next Sunday.
Well, we could have ended there! "Yes Lolita, you do. We know that coming to church this Sunday is the right thing to do and will bless your life. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen." I mean, honestly. We didn't even teach anything, the Spirit did everything. We barely even used words! Incredible. Anyways, no, we did teach her. We read Alma 32 with her which talks about faith and how her praying and coming to church will prepare her to be baptized, which she also said she would do when her daughter gets back from Calabria!! Che incredibile!!

And finally, Matteo. Wow. Matteo is quite the miracle. So, we met him finding 1.5 weeks ago with our member friend. Meno male we brought a member with us!! Members change everything!! He stopped our member, asked us about the name tags, we get to talking. He's an older Italian guy which, if you know anything about older Italian guys, means that instead of a 30 second explanation of who we are and an invitation to know more, we actually ended up sitting there with him for 20 minutes while he told us his life story and we ended the whole thing by playing the violin for him and offering to bring him a Bible. Anyways, I mentioned that all last week. So after that we brought him the Bible! And the Book of Mormon! And he gave us ice cream! Said he would come to church!!! Look, this is not super mega rare in Italy but it is kind of rare! Lots of times people will tell us that they will come because it's good to learn about other churches but that's it and often they don't come. 
But Matteo totally came! He came and the members were so nice and the Anziani's investigator also came for the first time ever and Carla also came so we had THREE investigators in church!! How dope is that? So we got to see Matteo again yesterday but this time it was with Francesca. Guys, I swear to you, the Spirit was so strong that we could have given him a bap date right then if it wasn't that we were mega short on time and already running late. A bap date! To an old Italian catholic man! And his wife who both said they want to come to church! So many cool things happened in that lesson. They ate up Francesca's testimony on the Word of Wisdom (we asked her to bare her testimony on the Book of Mormon but ok hahaha), they talked about how they felt something different in all the times they've met with us or come to church, and he said he'd already been reading the Book of Mormon!! What the heck?? But in my opinion, one of the coolest parts was when they were expressing a desire to come to work but he works often on Sunday. He had mentioned this several times, which is often unavoidable, but then for some reason it came to the surface that he has to actively seek opportunities to work and that includes on Sunday. SO we were able to make him a super cool promise that if he puts God first and sets that time aside to come to church on Sunday, their lives will be blessed.
They said yes! Guys the Spirit is so real because literally they know so little about our church (bc they're Italian so it's hard to say anything bc they are typically doing the talking so, seriously, we haven't taught anything yet haha) but they're already letting the Spirit into their hearts and are repenting, coming closer to God, without even really understanding why!! It's so so cool and this is truly how I know that God is there because I've never seen his body with my eyes but I've felt the Spirit burn inside of me and I know that He is there.

Lots of other things happened too this week but you're a champ for making it this far so I'll end here! I love you all so much! Have a good week!

🇮🇹 Transfer 12 with Sorella Hurst 🇮🇹

Saturday, June 24, 2017

2017-06-21 Busy Week in Ancona

Ciao a tutti! From Ancona!

Probably few to none of you have heard of Ancona before. This is also evident based on how few American tourists there are here compared to Florence. #blessed. The few who come, come to bum out on the beach. It's a beach town.

I will give you a bullet-point run-down of this week! I'm sure you're all dying to hear what it has been like being the first Sorelle in this city ever!

- got off the train Thursday , Anziani were there to meet us and took us to our apartment which used to be the senior couple missionary's apartment soo...it's really nice ;)
- we have no phone!
- did grocery shopping
- went to English class and met some of our potentials and our one investigator who is close to being baptized
- lots of people we talk to do recognize the fact that we are the first women missionaries they've seen here. Pretty much everyone has seen the Anziani over the course of 40 years being here

- Friday, we did weekly planning with the Anziani because we know no one and nothing
- went and passed by a member and got to know her, Violeta
- met with our branch president during missionary correlation! He's got some big ideas! He's from the filippines and is super..........
- hung out with branch president's filippino friends and in their daughter's beauty parlor and some random Italian girls who were there, too. Got home at 10:30pm
but, we gave out two book of Mormons and they all wanted to come to this activity we have planned! And we got several numbers!

Saturday, we worked on filling out a map of the members because there's 100+ inactive members and like, 20 active :(
- tried to meet up with a member, without a phone
- ended up at the wrong bar and waited for her on the beach for :30 until we had to leave
- met with a different member who can't come to church because she works on Sunday. She has a really strong testimony, and also no shame in showing us her kidney stone that she keeps in a little bottle on her armadio
- ate some food in a train station while we kept working on the map and then went home

Sunday!! Got called as relief society president! I have no idea what I'm doing! Also, the lady we tried to see when we didn't have a phone is my counselor! And this other Violeta, who is Mexican. Very interesting and still have no idea what I'm doing. I'm thinking I should meet with them. So...I'll try to do that
- went home to help me relieve some stress because we also were called to be activity coordinators and primary teachers. O! I thought I was a missionary! Haha just kidding. We knew this could happen because it's a really small branch so we will do whatever president asks us to do.
- had a DOPE finding experience! It was a long story getting there but there's a couple American guys here, one of whom is a RM who served in Ancona. Them and the Anziani and us and an Italian member sister went finding at this big monument on the seaside. They played cards with some Italian kids to get in with them and we (meaning my comp and this member) played the violin while I tried to contact people. Talked to a couple of really cool younger people! Both men! It's so much easier for Anziani to find girls who are interested and vice versa. I wonder why! Anyways it was so cool for our member. She was like, "I've never seen an evening like this with the missionaries. I need to stop having miracles!" Because she was feeling the Spirit so strong haha. After, she took us in her car up to a cathedral on a hill and we watched the sun set over the ocean

~~fun fact! Ancona is one of the only cities in the world where the sun rises and sets on the ocean~~

Monday, we planned a little in the morning and finished up our map. Then, after lunch, we had an appointment with an investigator. We're probably going to drop her next time. Sometimes it's just really, really obvious when someone's not ready to accept the gospel. 
- did a bunch of pass-by's and tons of walking! Not much came from that other than a cute little Peruvian lady saw us, told us her brother is Mormon, and asked us if we could come over and teach her. Ummm no (jk, YES)

Tuesday we mostly spent in Rimini because we had a beginning-of-the-transfer meeting so I got to meet the whole zone. I've always thought the Rimini zone must be tight because it's so small and I was right! I got to meet the entire zone in one day and it did feel like we were all homies. Really good trainings, one of which on positivity which I think will be one of my last goals for the mission is to practice positivity and not wearing my emotions on my sleeve.
- after that meeting when we got home, we successfully obtained a Bible to give to a catholic man who has never read the Bible (most here haven't) and went to English class. There, we met with one of our investigators Carla who is close to baptism. We will see her next Thursday
- And we finally have a phone! We can start moving down our list of all the people we need to call and maybe actually be able to see them! How exciting is that!

Anyways, today we are going to San Marino which you can google. I'm loving this city and my companion and this transfer. Here's hoping the miracles keep coming. Have a good week, all.

🇮🇹 Transfer 12 with Sorella Hurst 🇮🇹

(no pictures sent this week)

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

2017-06-14 Leaving Florence, Off to Ancona

I'm leaving! In few words, I have been in Florence for 5.5 months now and have been reassigned. It's a little city with a little church and President is really excited to see what happens. I'm excited, too! Tomorrow morning bright and early I will leave to go meet my new companion, a sister I actually used to do exchanges with here. She's done half of her mission and is a really good egg. I have one transfer left, which translates to six weeks. On July 28 I go home.

Me ne vado! In poche parole, sono stata a Firenze da 5,5 mesi ora e sono stata riassegnata. È una piccola città con una piccola chiesa e Presidente e emozionato di vedere cosa succederà. Anch'io sono emozionata! Parto presto domani mattina ad incontrare la mia nuova collega, infatti una sorella con cui ho fatto degli scambi qui. Ha fatto una metà della sua missione ed è molto brava (in inglese diciamo una uova brava, non so perché). Io ho un trasferimento ancora, che sono sei settimane. Il 28 luglio vado a casa.

There's been so much that's happened over the course of four transfers. I started with the amazing and wonderful Sorella Garcia. She is from Argentina originally but lives in Rome. She's the epitome of relaxed. She was an example to me of having fun and working hard. I love her and miss her a lot, she taught me a lot of things and was always there for me when I needed to be cheered up.

C'è stato così tanto che è successo durante questi quattro trasferimenti. Iniziai con la fantastica e molto brava Sorella Garcia. Lei viene originalmente dal'Argentina ma vive a Roma. È l'epitome di scialla. Era un esempio per me di divertirsi ma anche lavorare duro. Le voglio bene e mi manca, mi ha insegnato tante cose ed era sempre lì per me quando avevo bisogno di un 'tiramisù' (non il dolce, tipo, letteralmente).

Then I got Sorella Smedley! She's one transfer behind me and has literally been following me around my entire mission, thank goodness! We've had very similar missions and became good friends, so I was interested to see how it would be being her companion. It was everything and nothing like I expected! But I'm glad for our two transfers together.

Poi, ricevei la Sorella Smedley! È un trasferimento in dietro di me e mi ha seguito per tutta la missione, meno male! Abbiamo fatto missioni molto simili e siamo diventate tante amiche, quindi mi interessava sapere come sarebbe essere la sua collega. Era tutto e nulla come aspettavo! Ma sono grata dei nostri due trasferimenti insieme.

In short, nearing the end of the mission (but not having reached it yet!!), it's been interesting to notice how much missionary work helps me. Teaches me. When I first noticed it, I thought it was a concentrated effort on God's part to teach me some cool, useful lessons considering I'm trying to help His sheep. But more recently, I've realized that the lesson-learning isn't a concentrated effort on God's part as much as it is a natural consequence of helping others walk the path that leads back to God. 

Insomma, avvicinandomi alla fine della missione (senza esserci arrivata ancora!!), è stato interessante notare come la missione aiuta a me. Insegna a me. Quando lo notai all'inizio, pensai che fosse una sforza concentrata da parte di Dio di insegnarmi delle lezioni forti, utili, visto che mi sto sforzando di aiutare le Sue pecore. Ma più recentemente, mi sono resa conto che l'apprendimento delle lezioni non è una sforza concentrata da parte di Dio quanto è una conseguenze naturale perché aiuto gli altri a camminare sulla via che ci conduce di nuovo a Dio.

First of all, I've learned that ugly dogs are often the cutest (Ciocurro). I learned how to straighten my companion's hair without burning her. I've learned that Florence is really hot in the summer. I finally learned to use a certain kind of conjugation. I've learned that Sorella Smedley doesn't like seafood, and that the only thing cooler than the Davide is the massive skeleton hiding out on the edge Florence. I also learned how to do my own graffiti tag from my Bishop.

Per iniziare, ho scoperto che i cani brutti spesso possono essere i più carini (Ciocurro(?!)). Ho imparato come fare la piastra ai cappelli della mia collega senza bruciarla. Ho imparato che Firenze davvero fa caldo d'estate. Ho imparato finalmente come usare passato remoto (hai visto??). Ho imparato che a Sorella Smedley veramente non piace frutta del mare, e che l'unica cosa più fico del Davide è lo scheletro gigante nascosto sulle confine di Firenze. Ho anche imparato come fare il mio proprio tag di graffiti dal mio Vescovo.

But the more important lessons I've learned are that God's plan is imperfect to the eyes of humans...because we are imperfect. I've learned that pride is difficult to notice within ourselves, especially when that pride exists because we want what's best for others but we don't know the best way to get it. I've learned that without the Spirit, we cannot convert. And I've learned that not many people have ears tuned to hearing it, and many others choose to ignore it. 

Ma le lezioni più importanti che ho imparato sono che il piano di Dio è imperfetto agli occhi degli umani...perché siamo noi che siamo imperfetti. Ho imparato che l'orgoglio viene notato difficilmente in noi stessi, sopratutto quando quel orgoglio esiste perché vogliamo bene agli altri ma non sappiamo il modo migliore per adempiere questo. Ho imparato che senza lo Spirito, non possiamo convertire. E ho imparato che sono poche le persone che hanno le orecchie sintonizzate a sentirlo, e tante altre scelgono di ignorarlo. 

In reference to the subject line of this email, "the cemetery of the elephants," you know how when elephants die, they leave their herd and go into the distance to die alone? Yeah, President has sent me to the farthest corner of the mission to die (or, as Sorella Allen prefers, 'twinkle'). You can find me in Ancona, an awesome place for working until my allotted time is up. I will work like an elephant! With strength and diligence and patience and remembering well of my Creator with every step I take. I love you all! Write me if you have any questions, thoughts, updates on Michael Phelps, etc.

In tanto riguardo al titolo di questa email, sapete quando gli elefanti muoiono, come lasciano la mandria prima e si trovano lontani e in solitudine? Sì, Presidente mi ha mandato al angolo più lontano della missione per 'morire.' Potrete trovarmi ad Ancona, un ottimo posto per lavorare finché il mio tempo distribuito non finisca. Lavorerò come un elefante! Con forza e diligenza e pazienza, ricordandomi bene di mio Creatore con ogni mio passo. Vi voglio bene! Scrivetemi se avete delle domande, dei pensieri, o aggiornamenti su Michael Phelps, etc.

Florence Missionaries 
Saying Goodbye to Friends







No idea what prompted this

Jill is on her last Transfer chair.







Sorella's she served with