Week 56 -- Island Girl

Hello!  I am so sorry if I get distracted doing this because we are currently on the most touristy street in Palermo and....ummmmm....and we're walking to get sushi because in Italy, and I guess they have it in America, too, but like I never thought about it....they have all you can eat sushi and it's not too expensive so we're going for it.  So this morning we went to the permesso office to get my permesso (my visa) and then we came out and we've done a little bit of shopping because I'm leaving!  So I picked up some little souvenirs, some pins to go on bags and that's literally it, I think. We got our comp item - a cutie ring - and then I bought a little magnet for someone that I want to put together a Christmas package for.  Also, I'm starting to think about that right now so if you have any Christmas requests let me know.  I might try to send a package....I'll try to send a package and maybe I can put also ittle things that Mom can send out to other people, if anyone wants anything. 

So I'm going!  Let's go to questions and then I'll see if I remember anything else from this week because, like, my brain is literally scrambled eggs.  I thought this week of that analogy that Mom uses and I was like, wow, there's never been anything more accurate!

1. Did you get transfer calls?  If so, what's the news?

Yes!  So....I am leaving Palermo and I'm going to Cagliari on the island of Sardinia which is a little island off the west coast of Italy.  So I'm just an island girl, I guess.  Basically that is a blessed land.  Pres Pickerd loved Sardinia because he spent a lot of his mission there.  It is beautiful -- look at pictures!  Also, I'll be companions with Sorella N which is, like, a dream.  She's on of the people who I was like, I hope I get to serve with Sorella N, it would be so fun to serve with her! She's the one who, when I went back to Napoli, she supported me when I tried to eat two pizzas.  LOL  She's so awesome. So she's two transfers older than  me, so YES! I get to be junior comp!  Low key...I was kind of hoping for that.  I'm a good leader also, but it will be nice to be junior comp.  There's a chance that I might kill her and I might die in Cagliari.  That's thinking very far in the future but, like, hey, it's possible!  Also, I don't know if you all remember Sorella T -- she will be my sister training leader!  There are only two sister cities, only three cities total on the island, so on the whole island our zone is six anziani and four sorellae, so Sorella T will be there.  Also, I found this out -- Sorella H is a cutie that I was in the Catania zone with her when I was there, and she's been here for all four transfers in Palermo 1 while I've been in Palermo 2, and she's going to Cagliara too, so it will actually be six sorellae and six anziani.  So I'll be in a four sister house which -- I'm not even going to lie -- I'm a little nervous about that, also because she'll be training in that house and I want to be only speaking Italian and that's hard when you have more people, you know?  It's hard enough to make just one companion speak Italian, let alone three other people.  And also, like, eating healthy is definitely a lot harder when there are a lot of people, so I might just come home fat.  We'll see what happens.

2.  What was the funnest thing that happened last week?  What made you laugh?

You always ask this question and I'm always like, I don't know, I don't remember....  And so I tried to pay attention this week because we've been laughing about stupid things. That's the thing -- we always laugh about stupid things and then I can't ever remember them.  But a fun thing was that we did a big activity for our ward, like a missionary activity (obviously every activity is a missionary activity, that's why your ward has activities -- surprise!).  Also for ward unity, but if your ward ever has an activity you should bring a friend!  Anyways...so we did like a play about a day in the life of a missionary and it was super funny and the anziani were obviously the main characters -- we were just side characters -- and they did such a good job and the members loved it and it was super funny.  And the funniest part was just people laughing at the dumbest thing.

3.  Tell me about a tender mercy that you experienced this past week.

I think a tender mercy, well, I don't know if this is a tender mercy but it was a miracle -- we were so worried about this activity.  Literally me and Sorella S were like, "why are we doing this?  This is going to be interesting...", but it went super well.  The members loved it -- really they did. And we also got a new potential from it.  So before the program we ate dinner together, always, and everyone just brings food, like a big potluck, and I was talking to this couple.  It's a less active man that the anziani have been working with and his girlfriend.  And I just went and sat down and started talking to them and they're like, "you have to come to our house!  Come to our house!"  And that feels good, you know, because a lot of people reject you and it's sometimes like sad, but then for someone to say "come over to our house!" after talking with them for like four minutes, it's like, OK, I have good personality maybe sometimes!

4.  How did someone serve you this week?

I can say my cutie companion because she does the dishes.  I remember there was a nasty pan one morning and I was like, "I need to wash this" and then I got in the shower and then I came out and she had washed it, and I was like what???!!!!  And our less active friend, L, she called us and she said she made us food and asked us to come get it. That was really nice of her to do that.

5.  What was the best thing you ate this week?

I ended my diet!  No, just kidding, but kind of, for ward activities.  We did two ward activities.  We had the missionary activity and then we also ate pranzo with our ward yesterday. And this blessed woman in the ward named Sorella S made the best pasta.  It was sooooooo good!

6.  What is your favorite scripture right now?  How about your favorite hymn?

I love all the scriptures!  I especially like the Book of Mormon videos -- does that count?  LOL  There's not one that I'm focusing on right now.  Sometimes I'll memorize one but right now I'm not focused any one specifically. Hymns....I've been singing one a lot recently but I can't remember what it is...We actually sing a good amount.  We just kind of sing...we'll walk on the street and both sing badly.

7.  What aspect of the Italian culture do you want to try to bring home and keep going in your life?

I think meal culture. Taking time to eat.  Really taking time.  I think Italians are really good at doing things well.  They won't do something if they don't want to do it, you know, but if they do something I think they do it well.  I think that's how they eat -- they eat very good food and they take their time with it and they take their time to eat it as well and I like.  I love the idea of pranzo, eating the big meal in the middle of the day.  They're just a happy people.

8.  What was the best thing you ate this week?

Oops -- duplicate question, Mom!  I'm about to eat all you can eat sushi and it's going to be really good!

9.  When do you have zone conference again?

I have no idea because I'm switching zones and I haven't checked.  I think Sardinia is usually one of the first ones, those.  I think last transfer it was the first so maybe soon.

10.  What can we do to support you in your missionary work?

Be missionaries at home.  Be more converted.  Read your scriptures (@Dad!).

11.  Do you know how much I love you?

Yes.

12.  What did you do for P-Day today?

Already talked about it.

Other updates -- F is back.  We passed by his work and his boss is, like, yeah, he just wasn't feeling well last week so he wasn't at work a lot lately.  He's back.  We still haven't seen him but he's back and that's the most important part.  Also fun thing -- everyone has been so sweet when I told them I was probably leaving this week -- so we went to a meal appointment with an African woman named S who is in our ward. She was going to cancel but then I told her I was probably leaving so she cancelled her otHer plans to have us over and then we ate and then at the end she said, "Wait here!" and she brings out this beautiful African fabric. And she said, "This is for you. Go get a dress made." and so I'm going to get another African dress.  So we ran over to our friends who sew, F and E (who also came to the ward activity), so we talked to them about the activity and asked if they could make me a dress and they said yes. That's one example.  Then we went and visited this older sister, Sorella S, and she was such a sweetie and she was so nice and wanted to take pictures with us and said "You have to come back!  Send me a postcard!" So sweet.  And I gave a talk in church on Sunday and the branch president gave me the best salut before I went, like "Sorella Gisseman is probably leaving" and he thanked me.

Love you!

Ciao, ciao, ciao!

We are so blessed..this was the sunrise when we went on our run this morning.

Sorella S -- she's so sweet!

The anziani's skit at the ward activity

With S, who gave me the most beautiful African fabric for a new dress!

Palermo is beautiful for this Madonna (Mary) Festival

At ward pranzo

The festival again

Comp item 

Week 55 -- A Pizza Festival

I'm still on the tram but I just don't how much time I'll have so I'll start my weekly voice recording, because what's a weekly e-mail?  We do weekly voice recordings and then my dear mother transcribes them.

So there were some fun highlights from this week.  Sorella S and I just brainstormed some fun stories.  So the number one...after English group we were all talking (our students and the missionaries).  Our English group has grown a lot, actually -- all the students started coming back.  I think during the summer it's hard but now they've started coming back so that's good.  So they were talking after English group and I don't know why, because I think Sorella S and I had to go to an appointment or something, or maybe we just went and got a bidones (which is when people don't show up for an appointment but, like, it's fine...)...we had someplace to be, I remember.  And they were just sitting there talking about the moon landing, for some reason.  I don't know why.  They started debating the moon landing and they're like, "no, it didn't happen."  We had six students there and none of them believed in the moon landing.  They're like, "no, it's fake, they didn't have the technology to do it, there's no way they could make it to the moon."  And we're like, OK.  It was just funny.

Also a fun thing -- we went to a pizza festival type of thing.  I don't know how we heard about it.  A guy in our ward makes pizzas or he's doing a program so he can be a pizza maker because it's serious.  You can't just be a pizza maker -- it's serious.  And they did this event for the Catholic church and so that's what's in the video -- this pizza making festival.  We went and we ate pizza and that was super fun.  The pizza guys were just handing us plates of pizza, but we got to talk to a lot of people.  A lot of people were like, "who are you?  who are you?"  And S., the guy we were with, said, "These are the sorellae!"  So we got to actually answer people's questions which was cool, and talk to people, and that was fun.  Then also we went to go visit our friend S. -- she's in the hospital because she just had her baby -- and so she's like, "come visit me!" and we said OK and so we went and visited her and I LOVE BABIES!  J went with us, and J picked up the baby and tried to hand the baby to us and we're like, "we can't hold the baby!" but it was really hard not to!  Also, fun thing, we went over to D's for a lesson and P. was there. We're not teaching P anymore but she braided my hair.

But sad things....these are the main things that I remember....We went to F's house on Tuesday for a lesson and we had a member with us and we were so excited because this member is so incredible and he has the same type of problem with working on Sundays as F.  A lot of Africans in this area do.  We had seen F. Monday night by chance and he said he would meet with us on Tuesday at 3:00.  And so we show up with Ahjay (the member) and we're like, "F. should be here, we don't know where he is."  It was really cool because we got to talk to Ahjay and he's literally incredible.  And so that was a little miracle, but F. never showed up.  So we went on Thursday because we always have lessons on Tuesdays and Thursdays and he wasn't there.  We talked to his boss and his boss is like, "I haven't seen him since Monday."  And so we're a little worried and I was like, it's fine, he's just going to come to church on Sunday, but he didn't come to church on Sunday and so I'm worried.  So we're going to keep praying for him and hope that everything's ok.  I hope he's ok.  Then we had this member lesson with an older man that no one would ever think like, "Hey, can we come to your house?" and it turns out his family are all nonmembers and sorellae hadn't been at that house in 20 years.  The anziani had been but the sorellae had not been in 20 years.  And they were so happy to have us there!  So we came in and he's also just gone to the temple and so we talked about that and showed them some of the videos of the inside of the Rome temple that are on Facebook and they LOVED them!  And they were like, "Send us the link, send us the link!  My granddaughter wants the link! How can she get this on her phone?" and so we showed them and we were sitting down and we talked about all the blessings and the peace and it was so good and the Spirit was so strong.  We told them that we had all this thanks to the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, we are so blessed to live in this time and then I was going to be like, "And this is what we want to talk about today"....and then the granddaughter brings out cheesecake!  Augh!  But it's ok because we asked them if we could come back next week to talk about this and they said yes.  They're so golden!  I'll be sad to leave because I think they have a lot of potential.  I'm really excited about that.

Those were the main events of this week. Now I can answer your questions.

1.  What do you love most about the area where you are currently serving?

I love the ward here!  I feel like I've been here for so long that I'm comfortable.  Also the food is so good.  Also it's beautiful.  It's hot but other than that I can't complain!

2.  How do you think you have changed thus far in your mission?

I was actually thinking about that.  I think I really have just learned who my Heavenly Father is and who my Savior Jesus Christ is and the role and power that they can have in my life.  I don't think I really realized that before, and I think the biggest thing that I've learned is how to have the Spirit with me and how to have God directing me in every single moment, not just when I need, but how to truly be guided.  That's something that I do not want to forget, because when we have that we have so much more peace.

3.  What was the best thing you ate this week?

Be proud of me -- I've been eating Whole 30!  Yeah, yeah, yeah!!  And then we went to the pizza festival and it wrecked me.

4.   How are F., Francis, E,. L., and everyone else doing?

I already talked about F.  Francis is super busy.  E -- we have lessons with the Spirit with her but we're a little confused on her but it's ok.  L. -- little miracle -- we had a lesson with her last night on missionary work.  In the beginning of the lessonvwe prayed for her to have a missionary opportunity and literally as we're having the lesson one of our contacts (one of her friends from the past) walked by and started talking to her and after I was like "L., we literally prayed for an opportunity and that's your opportunity!" and that's incredible! If you pray for a missionary opportunity it will come.  If you are searching them out and have that real intent God will answer your prayer, you know?  It was just incredible how fast it was!!

5.   What made you laugh this week?

The moon landing...that was funny.

6.  Tell me about a tender mercy you experienced this week.

Friday was a really good day.  I feel like everything lined up perfectly.  We had a really good lesson with this woman named B. in the morning, and we got some phone numbers --I said to someone, "I don't know if this is something that would interest you..." and they're like, "Yeah, it's something that interests me!" and usually people are just like, "yeah, yeah, yeah..." but she was like, "yeah, it's something that interests me."  That's a tender mercy.  Also the trains have been coming on time.  It will just be passing and we're like, "Yes!  We can get it!"  That's a big tender mercy!

7.  Do you know how much I love you?

Yes, I do.

8.  Do you feel like the way Italians eat is more healthy than the way Americans eat?

Ummm...I think it depends on the person. My companion says in general, yes, and I would agree.  They eat a lot of carbs. I think also the thing is that they're aware of what they're eating.  Like they eat pasta for lunch but for dinner they'll eat their meat and veggies.  I think also their ingredients are a lot -- seriously a lot -- more pure and I think that contributes a lot to health.

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

Lots of things.  But I'm going choose this time to talk about the Book of Mormon video.  There's just one -- 1 Nephi 1 and 2 -- if you haven't watched it go watch it!  It's literally incredible!  I watched it twice just today.  I'm in 1 Nephi 20 which means I'm about to start with the Isaiah chapters...but in 1 Nephi 17 or 18, somewhere around there, they finally build the boat and they're in the boat and they're sailing across the sea and Nephi is bound and he can't break the cords and he has to wait.  But if we look earlier in 1 Nephi there's a time when he's able to immediately break the cords.  So we were talking about that and how everything is according to the Lord's timing.  Just because we're not being immediately delivered from something does not mean the Lord is not there.  It's that the Lord knows more than us and He has bigger purposes.

10.  How was church today?

Church was good.

11.  I think there is something we can learn from each person who comes into our life….what have you learned from Sorella S?  What do you hope people learn from you?

I feel like I've learned a lot from her because she's so patient and kind with me and puts up with me and is long-suffering with me.  And I very much appreciate that.  I think also it's very helpful to have have someone in my group that I'm able to serve with so we can learn together.  We're learning how to do member work better together.  We're learning how to do things better.  I feel like we're doing a very good job teaching to people's needs and teaching by the Spirit.  I feel like that's something I have definitely improved on this transfer.

What do I hope people learn from me?  I know I'm a little crazy but I hope that hard work and obedience is something people recognize me for always.

12.  What specifically can we include in our prayers for you and for the people you’re working with?

Pray for F.  Who knows what's happening...

And on that note....I love everyone so much!  I just love the whole world!  I love all the people!  :-)

Ciao, ciao!

I love babies!

But we can't hold the baby...

P braiding my hair

At the pizza festa

With sfincione (Sicilian pizza) that a member gave us

Recharging on our way to do service....

With E and L

At the pizza festa

With L and E

Week 54 -- We Took a Few Pictures.....

Brie called this morning and she's doing well.  She said she was going to send a voice memo or e-mail but it didn't come through.  But she did send LOTS of pictures!

President and Sorella Smith and the APs were coming to our apartment -- you can see them waving at us in the distance.

At a meal appointment.  It's so simple and  beautiful and delicious

Taking pictures -- it was zone conference and interviews so we looked ok....

A package from Emma -- I loved it!

More pictures!

One year, baby!!!

With the Agrigento sorelle

Our Sister Training Leader brought us balloons to celebrate one year

The real me.....

Oh Italy....there was a fashion show...at night...on the steps of the post office.  We were a little out of place!

(Brie didn't tell us where they went today for P-Day, but based on the pictures below this is definitely someplace I want to go!)

From zone conference

We did a big zone mostra and sang the mission hymn to ukulele at the end and it was SO GOOD.