Sorella Gisseman: Week 10 -- It's Not Fun to be Sick

Ciao ciao ciao ciao.

So bad news, I totally got food poisoning this week (I think, but maybe it was a stomach flu?). I've been super tired so we got some energy vitamins. But we ate at a member's house on Monday. It was super good and they sent us with leftovers. They sent some really good ham and cheese and bread so of course I ate bread and ham and cheese that night and the next night. Maybe the next one, too. But on one of these nights I found some mold on the ham. Oops. I stopped eating, but then the next 3 (4?) mornings I got super sick in the morning. Thank you, Mom, for sending me with medicine. Anyways, Saturday the same thing happened but I felt better and then was fine for the day but Saturday I was sooooooo tired. We went area book finding (so like went to houses of people that used to be taught) and my whole body started aching. So for pranzo I just napped. Tried to study and couldn't. Dead. So we called the mission nurse and she said rest, so I slept for like 20 hours that day. It helped a lot and I'm feeling better now.

Another cute thing. We had district meeting and took pics for our ward Christmas card and also our Anziani made us pranzo because we still don't have a kitchen!!!!!!! Cute! It was delicious and we are it out on the balcony -- so cute -- awwwww!

This week was super frustrating for us. I have just been so tired all the time but we still haven't had a lot of success. And then getting sick just really put me over the edge. And I was literally exhausted. And we still had zeroes for every indicator. It was a super frustrating week. The standard of excellence for us is 3 new people a week that we are teaching so we are going hard all the time, and we had 0 new people we taught. Doesn't make sense why and Sorella says this has never happened to her before. But I was feeling better on Sunday. Then we had pranzo with a less active couple and the wife has lost her memory (her daughter married a missionary and went to the US) and the husband, since the wife has lost her memory, is not into the church, and he told us he would never read the Book of Mormon. Ouch. Just another blow. But of our investigators came to church. Anyways, that day in church we talked about how small and simple things build your testimony but also not doing the small and simple things ruin your testimony and literally the thing that did that to this brother is that he started helping his friends with work on every Sunday every once in a while (fishing) and not going to church.

ANYWAYS, GOOD NEWS OF THE WEEK -- so Sorella met this couple like a month ago street finding and they wanted to do a church tour and miracle ** we randomly ran into them on the street. So we gave then the tour and then taught them the restoration and THEY ARE SO COOL, like the word investigator is so Tre. They are actually investigating the church and like asked really good questions. And they asked all the right questions and we wanted to leave them with a Book of Mormon, and they were like no, I'm not ready, I need to decide if we have real intent. Which like sucks they didn't take it but it is so legit and I appreciate it.

So yeah, that was my week. Now today for P-Day we are going to Christmas Street in Napoli and will pick some things up. If you gave any requests, too bad, I already asked for them (just kidding, send them). (added later -- Christmas Street was fun -- it's literally just so many vendors selling the same thing basically but I got some cute things -- it's like mainly traditional things).

So I've been here only a little time and I didn't eat for 3 days really this week and still somehow I broke 140 lbs!!!! And Sorella wants to do a quick 3 months to sexy so we are going healthy. Stay tuned. It probably won't work -- I'll let you know when I break 150!!!!! So WHOLE 30 IT UP WITH ME! I WILL BE SUFFERING -- SUFFER WITH ME!!!!!!! Send me easy and cheap Whole 30 recipes...right now we have a cooktop (1) and a crockpot.

Answers to questions...I'm very tired and don't have a lot of time...but here you go...I'm doing these on a train....

1. Are you able to use your kitchen yet?

No. No one has come to inspect it or anything like that so we still can't cook in it. They also told us not to touch anything but we already cleaned up the food. If we hadn't cleaned up that food it would have be wretched by now. But they told us not to touch anything.

2. What was the funnest thing that happened this week?

This week we had a zone "Amazing Race", so like every day we get a text and it says "do this challenge," like give out three Proclamations on the Family, talk to two people at church that you haven't talked to before, stuff like that. So then you send in something after the challenge, like a video or something. They're just fun. One of the videos (I don't know if it uploaded to my drive)...I fell asleep early so Sorella sent a video of me sleeping. Wow, so fun.

3. What was your happiest moment this week?

It was a really frustrating week and it really sucked but yesterday we had that lesson and church tour with that couple I mentioned earlier and taught them the restoration and it was really good and they asked really good questions and that was good.

4. What stood out to you in your studies this week?

I mentioned how we talked about small and simple things that can build or break your testimony, and that less active couple -- it was really interesting how you could see that the small thing of him helping out his friends and working on Sunday instead of going to church, and now he has no testimony and refuses to read the Book of Mormon.

5. Did you try any new or interesting foods this week?

Not really. We had something at that family's house called bufmoz (sp?) which is a giant mozarella ball made from water buffalo milk. So it's basically this really good mozzarella ball but the inside is squeaky and the outside is super salty. Super good, super good!

6. How was church this week?

It was good. My dear companion has to translate everything 'cause I can't translate anything. So she had to translate for Sacrament Meeting and then second hour we were supposed to be in the English class but then one of the people we're teaching showed up so then Sorella had to translate our English class into Italian for her and then she also had to translate in Relief Society. One of the ladies in our ward in the middle of the lesson yelled at Sorella from the back of the room that she needs to study verbs!

7. What did you do for P-Day?

We went to Christmas Street in Napoli and got some little trinkets to send in some packages.

8. Have you been involved in any service projects?

No. We tried to start a drive because there's a huge problem with dogs and cats on the street so there's an organization that takes them in and spays and neuters them and puts them up for adoption. So we were trying to get involved with them but then our ward council just shut it down. Our main service is just teaching English.

9. How have you felt the Savior's love for you this week?

I definitely felt the Savior's love for me with that lesson on Saturday. I was super frustrated and like bawling on Friday and apparently so was Sorella and she said that she said a prayer and felt that God was aware and I also said a super mad and sad prayer and felt that God knew what we are going through and how hard it is and that lesson was seriously a miracle to both of us.

10. Do Italians start decorating early for Christmas?

I have seen zero Christmas decorations.

11. How are you feeling? How is your health?

I got sick this week and I'm tired but we got some vitamins.

12. What can we do to support you?

Just love me, pray for me.

13. Is there anything we can pray for specifically for your investigators?

Just that we can find the elect. That's our struggle right now. I feel like we're finding people but they're not truly interested and so it was super nice to teach that couple because they actually were listening and asking questions and trying to understand.

14. Do you know how much I love you?

Yes.

15. What is Italian fashion like?

People just literally wear black and also they wear their scarves on the outside of their hood.

16. How is your Italian?

My Italian is so bad. The accents here are so thick. When people are from the north I can understand them, LOL. The people here don't speak Italian as their first language. They speak Napolitan which is a dialect of Napoli, and so they speak with an accent an often use a lot of Napolitan.

Love you all xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Sorella Gisseman

With the bread and cheese and ham that made me sick... We also painted shells.