Week 67 -- Staying in Bari!

I'll just answer questions...

1.  How did the choir performance go?

So, we went out to the location.  It was so awesome -- we went with V. V. and had pranzo at their parents' house and then we all went out to the location together.  They're so incredible.  And we sang in this Catholic church.  We did practice and then sang in the Catholic church.  It was really fun and then we slept at those sorrellae's house.  We got home late and Sorella P has been driving and we don't have the car -- it's the anziani's car -- but we took the car and so I got to be navigator.  Wow!  And that was fun.  It felt weird to have a car.  Then we drove home this morning and it took about an hour and a half.  That's the longest I've been in the front seat of a car....like, wow!

2.  How is Christmas celebrated in Bari?

I don't know. I think they eat fish.

3.  How have you been feeling this week?

Better.

4.  Tell me about something that made you laugh this week.

My companion has just been doing little funny things.  We were on the train and she had just gone to the bathroom on the train (keep in mind they're not nice) and she came back and I asked how it was.  She said it was disgusting.  I had to go to the bathroom so I said I was going to do that and she said a phrase that means "enjoy yourself" but her pronunciation was funny.  It was funny.

5.  Have you put up your Christmas decorations?

Yes.

6.  Does the Italian hymnbook have the same Christmas songs as the English hymnal?

I think it does.

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

What even happened this week.....?  One is that we drove safely.  We had one of the sorrellae from another area with us because Sorella B (my old companion) went to Palermo for her permesso, and Sorella A was with us, so we felt kind of bad because our work isn't going that well right now so we had a lot of time to go finding.  We had one appointment with a less active member but then we were just finding for a lot of the day.  At the very end of the night we got on the bus and someone was following me but I just assumed it was my companion, but it was Sorella A so I turned around and asked, "Where's my companion?" so we ran off the bus, which was about to leave.  So we ran off the bus and she was talking to some people, and it turns out that one of them has a Book of Mormon and has met with the missionaries in the past and we gave him some things and he asked us when church started and texted us, so that was awesome.  It was a tender mercy because I need that, "yeah, we did something!"

8.  How did someone serve you this week?

The V's.  They're super cutie.  We went over to the parents' house and then they gave us a ride and I was super, super grateful for that.

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

Probably also at that appointment.  There were fresh pasta that's typical of Bari and it was really good, and meatballs.  And the zucchini she made -- they were good!

10.  Do you know how much your Heavenly Father loves you?

Cutie!  Yes, I think so.  I probably don't comprehend fully how much He loves me but I have the faith that He does.

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

Today my studies were so weird because I was reading in Alma 25 and 26, I believe, which are incredible missionary chapters because it talks about missionaries and the feelings they are able to capture in this chapter are just the exact feelings that I feel.  There were so many parts of those chapters that spoke to me and told me things that I need to do better, told me things that I need to not worry about, so that was good.

12.  What was the most beautiful thing you saw this week?

I literally don't know why I can't ever remember the weeks....  But it was a good one.

13.  What can we pray for for you and the people you’re working with?

Honestly, our work is kind of dead.  Well, not dead...kind of dead.  There were a lot of people that we met with last transfer that haven't responded to us, and also a lot of people that they thought they were teaching that they've never said a prayer with and so wer'e kind of starting from base one, step one again.  So I think just praying that we can be led to the people who are ready to hear the gospel. 

Also, we got transfer calls and I'll be staying here in Bari for Christmas.  I'm excited about that!!

Love you so much!

Ciao, ciao!

The a picture of me with a panzarotto that's bigger than my face....

One day we went and did district pranzo and we went to this family's house and we're going to help them go to the temple.  YEA!  So for district pranzo we went to the husband's pizzeria but it's not a pizzeria -- it's a pinceria (????).  If you look at my pizza in the picture you'll see it's a bit different than an actual pizza.  It had pesto on one half and tomatoes on one half and then in the middle there's a fat ball called a bouretino (sp?) which is a like a matza ball but filled with strachiatella cheese.  Yum!!!!  Buono!

One night we went out to Torani which is one of our cities, I guess, and we went with these cutie, cutie, cutie, cutie members that live here.  One of them had a surgery so we went to go visit her....  She is just the cutest thing ever.

And a choir picture....

Mission tour

Week 66 -- Just Pictures

No explanation provided.....LOL

We had an appointment at a member's house and she had us sign her bed.

Caroling!

Week 65 -- Sii Una Luce

Hello, hello, hello!  Coming at you live from the Bari...

Starting with the questions....

1. How was church today?  How was choir practice?

Church was good.  It was fast and testimony meeting so I got to bear my testimony.  That was super cutie.  Choir practice....it was so long!  It's really fun to get to sing in the choir, y'know, but it's not like what I'm used to. They sent a text saying to start at 4:15 and we were with the bishop's family for a meal appointment after church and it was so fun -- they're so cutie -- and so we went with the bishop's wife so we got there early.  They live out in another city so that was the only way for us to get there.  We helped set everything up.  Practice was supposed to end at 7:00, so at 7:15 some people said they wanted to leave, but I didn't know any of the songs so we decided to stay because this was the last practice.  So choir practice was like four hours.  But it's good!

2.  What stood out to you in your studies this week?  What are you studying right now?

Mmmm.....I can't really remember.  I'm so tired and sleepy....I can't remember.  I promise I study every day and I have good studies!  I just finished up Mosiah and so a lot of my studies have been trying to figure out the intricate plot line of Mosiah.  I think I literally took one day and was, like, wait -- so these people left this place, and then these people from Zarahemla left this place, but then this happened, and then this happened, and this happened, but somehow they're all back and I just had to draw it out a few times.  I think I got it....  One thing I've been studying and thinking about -- this is what I bore my testimony about -- how the gospel is supposed to be a way for us to simplify things, not complicate things.  I told the story that the choir director in the MTC told.  It's about this boy and his bike and really, really wants a bike and so he begs his parents but they have to save up money and finally they get him this bike.  And one day he used the bike to go to his grandparents' house and he came home and seemed down and sad, and his Mom's like, "what's wrong?  Don't you like your bike?"  And he's like, "yeah, I love my bike, it's really pretty, it's great.  I'm just tired.  My arms really hurt."  And she said, "What are you talking about?" and he said "My arms are so sore.  My bike is so heavy!", and she's like, "dude, what are you doing?" and then it turns out that instead of riding the bicycle he had been carrying the bicycle on his shoulder to walk to his grandparents' house and walk back.  Just that idea.  We have a man/family that we're teaching and we did a lesson with them about why we do it all, y'know? It's not to put another thing on is, but it's to make it easier and to help us get to where we need to be faster.

3.  What made you laugh this week?

I can't remember.

4.  What was the most beautiful thing you saw this week?

Today we went and saw some caves, some caverns, stalagmites and stalagtites.

5.  How did you serve someone this week? How did someone serve you this week?

I've been really good about doing dishes in the house.  Members here are so cutie and every time we go over they're like, "drink this juice," "eat this cake," "come over for pranzo", and it's just so nice.

6.  Tell me about the people you’re working with….

When I got here we had a list of names of people we're teaching but are they really being taught....?  Some of them haven't really responded to us and some of them don't know that they're being taught because people have been really casual with them.  Some of them aren't progressing, and some of them can't progress.  One man and his wife would love to come to church and if he didn't work so much....he literally works SO much and he works in the fields picking olives, and he leaves the house at like 5 and gets back at like 3, or something.  And sometimes he has to do afternoons, too.  He works on Sundays.  He works so hard.  And if that wasn't the case they would be at church but they can't because of his work.  We're teaching a woman named C and we need her to pray about the things that she's learning but she doesn't understand that we need to pray to Heavenly Father.

7.  Tell me about a tender mercy or miracle you experienced this week.

That's actually one thing that we've been keeping track of because we want to work on following the
Spirit better.  Two things.  We were having a listen with C and we wanted to re-teach her the restoration but really hit hard on the apostasy.  I felt like she needed to understand that before she could progress, so she could understand that it's not just relative, whatever you want -- there is one street.   She and her son were talking casually about the medieval times and it was just perfect for us to talk to them about the apostasy, so that was a tender mercy.  Another one is that I'm feeling better.

8.  How are you feeling??????

I am feeling a lot better.  This week, I think Monday, Tuesday, and maybe Wednesday were rough, or maybe just Monday and Tuesday, and then Wednesday and Thursday I felt really, really good.  I was so happy, I had so much energy, I felt so good.  And then Thursday I didn't feel good after a little bit and Friday I felt pretty normal, and I've been feeling pretty good since then.

9.  What do you love most about Bari so far?

I love the members here.  They're just so, so, so, so, so, so incredible and we're really focusing on working with members.  I'm making up for the fact that I haven't done it my whole mission.  We're really focusing on working with members, especially with Sii Una Luce because it's such a great program.  If you're not doing it, DO IT!  It's a great opportunity for us to invite the Spirit into our lives but also for us to help others feel the Spirit.  So we've been working a lot on that.

10.  Have you tried any new foods this week?

I don't think so.  I had pandoro (???).  We were walking after the caverns and we were almost to our bus but we were hungry so we went to this place and he was closing and I didn't even realize that.  He was literally closing the upper gate thing and I just walked in and he said they were closing and I was just like "Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry!"  He's like, no, do you guys want something?  And we said yeah.  So we went in and we asked if we could do sandwiches and he said yeah.  He asked what we wanted and I said, "Whatever you think" and he was, like "brava!"  And so he made us these really, really good sandwiches.

11.  What can we specifically pray for for you and your companion and the people you’re working with?

I would say pray specifically that we can be able to minister to people one-on-one, especially through Light the World, that we can really bring light to people one by one.

12.  What do you love most about the Italian people?

I really like the culture here.  Just the calmness.

13.  Do you know I love you?

Yes, I do.

This week we met a super cutie couple that Sorella N actually worked with and she got baptized a year ago, they're actually from another country and so we got to go over.  So we had this big pasta alforno that the members gave us and we told them we had this big pasta alforno and we would come over and bring it and so we did.  And we had this cutie little pranzo and it was so cute and they kept wanting us to eat more, like fruits.  They wanted us to try every fruit and we were like, "no!" and then she made this really cutie pudding thing and then we got to talk about the temple.  And they want to go to the temple but I think they need someone to help them get there so that's one of our goals.  They talked about going to the temple in February and he's like, "I'll ask President if you can come!"  Yea!  Any other highlights?  I don't think so....

The highlight is Sii Una Luce.  Honestly, if you haven't visited the website, do it!  Go look at it!  There are so many good resources, and I know that as we serve others that we will invite the Spirit into our lives and that as we invite others to also participate with us they will feel the Spirit and they will be more centered on Christ this Christmas.

Love you all.  Ciao, ciao, ciao!

Sometimes you just gotta eat pasta alforno to get you through 9 am study time...

Sorella N hit six months!

Christmas.....

At the caverns

 The sandwiches

Week 64 -- Mission Tour

Hello!  I'll get started on questions.

1.  How was your week?  When you think back on the week, what was the highlight?

It was good.  Highlight of my week was going to Rome, hands down.  Also, just seeing all my mission friends.  I miss everyone so much and I just, like, love everyone and I was just so happy to see all my friends and see all my old companions.  Also, there's a member from Palmero that came to the temple.  She just happened to be at the temple so me and Sorella E served in Palermo together and we got to take a picture with her and it was so cute.  Just being in Rome.  Mission tour was incredible.  Definitely the highlight.

2.  How was church today?

It was so good.  So, we really want to focus our members on Sii Una Luce (Light the World) because it's such a good movement and such a good way that we can invite the Spirit into our lives and that we can help other people have the Spirit in their lives, too.  So we really are focusing on trying to get our members involved in this.  It's a great way to do member missionary work.  You can invite someone to participate with you and the Church has released a wonderful video of the nativity and this our go-to. This is our new program, our new initiative, that we're trying to do also to get our members involved in our work because they're so bravi!  SO we passed around a little calendar and were -- and I explained it horribly, also -- I was like, ok, we want to come over to your house to do a 20-30 minute visit and explain this program of the church so that we can help ourselves feel the Spirit and help other people feel the Spirit and do missionary work.  And we got 11 appointments for two weeks which is so awesome because right before the Anziano was saying, "oh yeah, I told you that when I came from Messina and we got one appointment" and we got 11! So that was awesome.  So I'm really excited for this week because we can go do these member appointments and we can inspire people to be the light!

3.  What did you do for P-Day today?

For P-day today we kinda just took it slow because I had a dermatology appointment in the morning so we went to the dermatologist, cleaned the house, and then we went to the market here in Bari which was super fun.  It's not as big as Palermo and it's also covered, but I like it.  It's cutie.  I love markets.

4.  When is your next zone conference?

Next zone conference....well, we just had mission tour so it will be a long time from now.

5.  How have you served someone this week?  How has someone served you this week?

I like to think that I served someone this week.  I made my companion's bed the other day and put an extra blanket because our house is so cold.  What else....I wrote notes for people.  I don't know.  I'm just trying to serve the Lord, you know?  Someone served me this week...yes.  I have not been feeling well this week and I started not feeling well when we were in Rome, like during Mission Tour.  We had an hour to go out and I thought, oh my gosh, I'm going to throw up...but in a weird way...it's really pain, you know?  We came back in a trio because the other sister in our house had to stay out.  They were so sweet to me, so nice to me.  I hadn't been sleeping well so they found extra blankets and pillows for me so that I would sleep well.  It was so sweet.

6.  Tell me about something that made you laugh this week.

That's a good question.  I can't remember.  Sorry.

7.  Do you know how much I love you?

Yes.

8.  What characteristic are you working on developing right now?

Patience!  It's really hard!  It's so hard.  I'm working on looking outward instead of looking inward.

9.  Tell me about the people you’re working with.

We have technically a lot of people that we're teaching, but they're not really progressing and I don't think that most of them know that we're working with them.  Hahaha!  So that's what we're trying to work on.  There's this man whose wife is less active who is super bravo but he works on Sundays so he can't come to church.  So it's really hard because he literally does everything for his family, he works so hard for his family which is incredible.  For him it's hard to find the time to do the things that can strengthen his testimony.  We're working with another woman and we had a lesson on prayer and we came back and asked her if she had been praying to God, since God is our father and is the one who can grant blessings, Jesus prayed to God, not the madonna, He said pray to God, Jesus wanted to give all the glory to God.  So we came up and she said "I just pray in my own way to Jesus and the Madonna". *Sigh*

10.  What was the most beautiful thing you saw this week?

The temple.  It's so pretty.

11.  Tell me about a tender mercy or miracle you experienced this week.

We've had really bad bus luck lately, but one day we just had such good bus luck.

12.  What are you most proud of so far on your mission?

That's hard.  I think the fact that I know that I have a testimony.  Obviously I had some sort of testimony before I came on my mission or else I wouldn't be here.  But I think the depth of it completely a different thing now.  I look back and I'm like, "What was I??".  So I'm proud of that and I'm very grateful for that. I'm very grateful for that.

13.  How can we best support you in your calling as a missionary?

Just love me.

Mission tour highlights -- the new missionary handbook was released.  I don't think I talked about that last week.  It's really interesting.  President talked about it a lot, like principle-based learning instead of rule-based learning, and broke my boxes because you know I love rules!  Which is interesting -- this is something that I've been thinking about -- how obedience used to be one of my weaknesses.  Heehee -- you all know very well!  Like, if you told me to do something, I would either (a) barely do it, (b) do the opposite, or (c) I just didn't care about it.  On my mission it's definitely become one of my strengths.  And sometimes it's a little bit too much of strength in the sense that I'm, like, "Nope, it says this....Nope, we don't do that!...Nope, this is the rule..." and so the idea of principle-based learning is really interesting and I think I always hate because it's like, "There's not a line!"  I can't say yes or no -- I have to listen to the Spirit.  That was something really interesting.  Also, Anziano Sabin talked about gratitude a lot.  He talked about a lot of things, but he talked about how gratitude is the way that we will be happy and he challenged us to make a list of everything that we're grateful for, so maybe I'll do that on Thanksgiving because we don't have any plans.  Gratitude is something I definitely need to work on but have gotten a lot better at.  I definitely want to keep working on that.  Also he talked about how we only take three things with us when we go -- our relationships, our knowledge, and we take our characteristics.  That hit me, too, and I think if I'm not putting in my time and my energy to developing one of those three things, what am I doing?  Yeah.

I love you all so much!

Ciao, ciao, ciao!!

First focaccia!

Old town