Sorella Gisseman: Week 63 -- Hello, Bari!

Hello! Greetings from Bari! I'm just going to jump right into questions.

1 – How is Bari? Do you like your new area? Who is your companion and how is she? Is it as gorgeous there as the pictures we’ve seen online? Tell us all about it!

Bari is great. I like my new area. It's super, super pretty. I've only really seen centro so far, where the shopping is, but where we went for P-Day today was really cute. My companion is Sorella N. She is from Bountiful, Utah, and has been on her mission almost six months but three months in Italy. Her favorite part of her mission has been gelato. Literally -- so relatable to me.

2 – How was church today? How is the ward? I love that you’re singing with the choir! What Christmas songs are they singing – any familiar ones?

Church was good. The ward is really big. I'm super excited to work with them. It's super cute because they have a ward calendar so we get to have pranzo every single week, and the lady couldn't have us over this week but she made us a lasagne and gave us meat to cook at home and made us brownies. It was so sweet! We're singing with the stake choir and a lot of the Christmas songs are actually in English. Some will be a verse in English and then a verse in Italian. One is "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year."

3 – How did you get from Cagliari to Bari?

I took two planes. During the first plane ride I was with an anziano so I got to talk to him and have company, and then I was by myself for the rest. And -- miracle story -- I left my Hydroflask on the plane, so I'm with Anziano H and we exit the pland and you have to take a bus from where you exit the plane to the airport and I walked in the airport and I was like, "Oh my gosh, Anziano -- I left my water bottle on the airplane"! And he was getting off in Rome and was, like, "Oh dude, I'm sorry. What are you going to do about it? Do we need to do something?" And I told him not to worry about it since I had a long layover. I told him I could figure it out. And as I'm saying this, this woman comes up behind me with my Hydroflask and said, "Hey, you left this on the plane!". Miracle!

4 – Have you eaten anything new or unusual in your new area?

Yes, new. Unusual, no. New -- Bari has a specific culture and is big on ponzarotti whch is kind of like a calzone. I don't know what a calzone is but people say it's kind of like a calzone. It's basically fried pizza stuff of this bread. Super good. Also, something else that I don't know the whole word, but it's basically these weird bread/cracker things. They're good. Cheese -- ooh! Today we went to this place called the Mozzarella Bar and there is this cheese called strachiatella (sp?) -- it's a soft cheese and it's really good, very liquidy. So we went to this place and they stuff mozzarella balls with this strachiatelli cheese, and you can also get different flavors so I got the normal stracchiatella and then I got one that was with tomato and basil inside, and one that was stuffed with Nutella. It's actually good. Those are my fun foods.

5 – Do you know how much I love you?

Yes.

6 – What are you doing for P-Day this week?

So we went to this place and it's literally so pretty -- check out the pics!

7 -- Was it hard to say goodbye to your companion and the people you worked with in Cagliari?

Yes, but I think I really knew when I got there that I was going to be one-and-done. It was hard to say goodbye to Sorella N. She sent me a voice recording today and I miss her. I love her so much. Everyone was so sweet. A family invited me over to salute, we ate with a family, and they said they were so sad that I was leaving. People were really, really sweet in English group, saying "It's only been a little time and I'm already so attached to you! I really ilke you!"

8 – Is the Italian spoken in Bari different from your previous areas, or is all pretty much understandable to you now?

Yes, it's different but I understand it. They have a different dialect that I haven't really heard a lot of but the accent here is different. I like it a lot.

9 – What is your apartment like?

It's good. It's really good. It's kind of old but it's good.

10 – What can we pray for specifically for you, your companion, or the people you’re working with?

Our work. There is a lot of work here. We need to work on getting appointments set up and going to see all these people. Pray for us and for Bari.

11 – What stood out to you in your studies this week?

We're preparing for mission tour and so I've been reading a lot of those scriptures and the name of the training that he'll give is Principles, Patterns, and Heavenly Promises, I think. I think the things that have been standing out to me is the omniscience of God and the continuity of gospel principles. It's always the same. You always need to be doing the same things and God always treats you in the same way even if we feel that, "Oh, but this happened and this happened and this is different....". There's not outliers.

12 – What are you thankful for right now?

This is cute because I try before I got to bed to name three things I'm thankful for, even if I don't write them down. I'm thankful for my companion. She's super cutie and she really wants to work hard and she really appreciates me and that feels really good. I'm thankful for the ward here. I'm super thankful for my family and my friends and that all of you support me and sustain me. And I'm thankful for your prayers. I'm very thankful for the gospel and I'm really thankful for how much my testimony has grown. Yeah.... I'm thankful for a lot of things.

I'll give you some cute highlights of this week. We had to do all the things in Cagliari before I left so we got to go salute the Familia G, and we did something with Familia B and E who is our most progressing person. And it went so well and it was so exciting and then we all ate dinner together and it was so fun. Then we did some video calls to salute the other people we're teaching and they were all so sweet. And I really am attached to them! And then we had P-Day. And then I came here and we've been doing a lot of street finding and that's not something I've done since my fourth transfer so my body has been so tired. We come home and I'm like, "Sorella, I love you, but I just need to go to bed!" Getting to the new house, the new area. We had an appointment with this cutie named C and we were able to talk about prayer because she's having a hard time. Other than that we've been street finding and street finding and figuring out the new area. I had funny things to say but I forgot them all....

So just know that I love you all!!!

Ciao, ciao!

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