Sorella Gisseman: Week 35 -- More Palermo....and the Police

Buongiorno a tutti!

Just a few highlights from the week but first -- THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR THE BIRTHDAY WISHES!!! I cannot lie -- the day was pretty rough in a few ways, and the emails were literally what got me through. Luckily we did get to do lots of service so that's good. It hasn't been the easiest week again. But thank you for ALL the e-mails -- it was such a blessing. It was what I needed for sure and those e-mails kept me going through the week.

I haven't gotten packages yet because zone conference is next week, so it will be like my real birthday next week. LOL I'm excited. Thank you so much. I want to go to the temple so bad. Maybe one day I'll get to serve in Rome. Maybe not because there are so many sister missionaries there and at the temple, but we'll see. I hope so.

Daddy's pictures were so cute -- that he wore a BYU shirt for my birthday is the cutest.

Starting off the week strong with Monday. Last week was also a rough week so I got to call my Mom and Dad and I decided to do literally anything I could that night to fulfill my missionary purpose. Like talk to every soul we saw and try to share the gospel. And we ended up going over to the area near the church to knock doors which we don't do normally, and we got like 5 contacts, had an appointment with one and it was the smoothest appointment I've ever had (Her name was M -- I'll tell you about it in the questions). We got in walked in, prayer, taught, she ended the lesson by saying "ci credo", like "I believe it", when will you come back. LIT.

We also met with this girl named D a bit ago and met with her. She recently lost her husband and we taught the restoration and it went well and she took us to meet her family and her Mom was like, oh yeah, I used to meet with Mormoni and then they started talking about Mormoni and in the lesson we didn't introduce the Book of Mormon so we were like, oh yeah, that's us, but it's a nickname and then explained why and how we use the name of Christ because it's His church and then her Mom and sister were talking and kept saying Mormoni and she corrected them every time and was like no, la Chiesa di Gesù Cristo dei santi degli ultimi giorni. Yessssss. Also both her and her Mom invited us over for pranzo and said come whenever we want.

Then a fun thing. After our success on Monday, we were like, um, ok, why not do more casa a casa so we did for one of the feste because there was another this week because, like, oh yeah, people will be at home. We did not have the same success but we did get the police called on us so that's good. The police showed up and like us two American ginger girls, lol, ummm ok... I think they were confused, too.

And lastly there was something that stood out to me this week in church. There was a visitor and she bore her testimony in the African branch and she said "the sacrifices we make to serve Him are always worth it." And that was exactly what I needed to hear. Things might not be easy or go my way, but I know that the sacrifices I am making and the sacrifices we make in our lives in general, if they are for the Lord, will always be worth it. Another thing our branch president said was that it's not about comfort, it's about the sacrifices. Stuck with me and just an example that Heavenly Father knows me and exactly what I needed to hear.

Questions...

1. How was your birthday? Did you do anything special? Any chance that you got the birthday and Easter package that I sent? (I couldn't remember when your zone conference is)

I think I told you up above. It was rough, but that's ok. I'm not here for me -- I had to keep reminding myself that i can't expect anything because I'm not here for me -- I'm here to forget myself and go to work. So... Although, it was a rough day and I got to teach the restoration on the bus which was LIT so that was good. Little miracles that keep me going. And we did a trio with the STL and she bought me gelato for my birthday. :-)

2. How was church today? Do you interpret again?

It's tiring because we have two different congregations to attend but cute. I didn't interpret because there wasn't a need to translate yesterday.

3. Did you try any new foods this week?

An African member made us some turkey and spicy rice. It was spicy! No other new foods. They have these little cookies that are called digestive biscuits and I bought some in chocolate today. That's good. I made a bunch of ragu earlier so I've just been eating ragu on everything. I just make a bunch of vegetables, maybe some meat if I feel the need, and that's what I eat. And it's so good it takes me like no time. I cook the vegetables in advance, like I boil the carrots and stuff and then at the beginning of the week I make a huge thing of bell peppers that I just put in everything. So that's how you guys, my friends, should Whole 30 it because it's easy and it's delicious.

4. What was a tender mercy that you experienced this week?

So like I said above, Monday I was like, I'm just gonna go hard, I'm gonna talk to every single person I see, I'm gonna to literally like do the very, very, very, very, very best that I can. I'm going to fake it until I make it, be the best that I can. So went to the area by the church and we knocked on houses which we don't really do in this mission, but we did that and we got like three people who told us to come back and we found a less active that we went and visited later that week. A less active that has kind of fallen through the cracks but like he's going through a rough time and later in the week we told him how we were an answer to his prayers. That's a big deal. That's one of the things I pray for -- is that I can be the answer to someone's prayers. Then we found another lady named M and we literally set up an appointment with her at the door -- we said can we come back tomorrow and she said yeah. So we had our lesson with her and then we finished the lesson and she has a strong testimony already of the apostasy and we explained the restoration and the Book of Mormon and she was like, "I believe it." That's a big deal, so that was definitely a tender mercy, so that was LIT. We haven't been able to get back to see her yet, and that's my fault because I didn't want to come too soon but why not? Why not visit them every day if they're progressing? That's a huge blessing. I've never taught anything doing house to house and we got like four or five contacts that night. That's a big deal.

5. What was the funnest or funniest thing that happened this week?

Sometimes it's just fun to stop and get gelato. But funniest thing -- we're teaching this girl named P from Nigeria and her Dad recently passed away. So we showed up for the first lesson with her and we told her we know the gospel blesses families and you could tell something was bothering her and it turned out she had just lost her Dad so we changed plans and taught the plan of salvation. So she was planning a party to honor her Dad and the party was Friday night, I think, and we said we couldn't come but she wanted us to come really badly. So we came to help her set things up. We didn't know this before but she lives in a camp for Africans who come here by herself and this one was run by a Catholic church. So she really wanted us to be there, so we came to help to set up. So we got to help her take stuff to help her set up the party so literally I pushed a baby stroller full of alcohol across the city. We haven't taught her the Word of Wisdom yet, so it was just, like, OH...... So, yeah.....

6. How has the weather been?

It has been COLD. I put my winter coat away and I had to get it back out.

7. What did you do for P-day today?

So far we went to the catacombs which was crazy -- it's literally just a bunch -- a lot -- of dead bodies preserved. I don't really understand it but that's ok. And now we're going to eat pizza with the other missionaries and bowling.

8. Do you know how much I love you?

Si, si, si!

9. What has been the most interesting thing you've seen in Palermo so far?

There's a lot of history but it's hard for us to go do things but I would say the catacombs were pretty interesting.

10. Are the people in your ward nice?

Yes.

11. What are some of the people like who you have met or are working with?

See above (M and D).

12. What can we do for you, my darling girl?

Just pray lots, lots, lots, lots, lots. We need a lot of help.

LOVE you all and thank you again. I am sorry I don't have time to respond but I appreciate every message and am so grateful