Sorella Gisseman: Week 69 -- It's 2020 Already????!!!

Hi! It's 2020 -- what happened?!?! It's actually crazy. Today is the bouffana -- they say that it's the day the wise men came. I think that's the origin in the Catholic church, but it's literally called the bouffana which is this witch who comes so we're in centro and there were two witches.

Questions....

1. What time do you have church now?

We still have it at 9:30 and we just have one ward. It was just for those two weeks that we were combined.

2. Do a lot of Italians have pets?

I would say yes. But the houses are so small and they don't have yards or fenced yards. There are always dogs in the streets. They were like eight dogs earlier today!

3. How do they celebrate New Year's Eve/Day?

They shot off a ton of fireworks. All the car alarms were going off at midnight, LOL. I think it depends on the family. I think they either do another big dinner or here in Bari, tradition is to make panzarotti which is super cute. I want to learn!

4. What made you smile this week?

Having a clean house!

5. How have you served someone this week?

We did lots of service! On Wednesday, New Year's Day, we had deep cleaning and the four of us sorellae spent the entire day deep cleaning our house because it was disgusting and we didn't even finish. We did more the next morning. I think Sorella N did the math and it was a combined total of something like 60 hours cleaning the house. And we did a little bit more today. So on New Year's Day we did that, and then the next day in the afternoon we went and helped someone move. It's literally the sweetest family ever, this cutie couple who moved to Rome because she got a job working in the temple and he does a lot of music stuff in Rome so we helped them move. And then the next day in the morning we left the house at like 8 am and helped another family move out and then we went back to their house and helped them move out and they were super, super, super sweetie. They made us pranzo and were so sweet. So we spent a lot of time serving this week. It was awesome! It was so fun. Also, because in this time of my misison I have time that I can serve people, you know?

6. Tell me about a tender mercy or miracle this week.

The one that came to mind is one day we just had such good luck with the bus and we saw the bus pass and I was, like, not feeling that well that day, and so I was just like, we're not running. So we walked, and we got to the bus and it was still waiting there and so we got to get on it and then that happened again. The bus system was just in our favor and it never is, so that was definitely a tender mercy. Also, one of our goals this week was to mix up the type of finding we were doing, so we were doing like an hour of street finding, tried to do an hour of park finding (there actually aren't parks in our area), and then we did an hour of centro finding. I haven't done that in so long. We did that a lot when I was a greenie and in my fourth transfer, obviously, but we still never did a lot of centro finding. We were doing it, trying to talk to people, and nothing, nothing, nothing. We passed like 15 minutes and I asked Sorella N how long it had been, and I was like, it's ok, we only have like 20 more minutes, it's been so long....but it had only been 15 minutes! We did another 45 minutes. I said a little prayer in my head and then we got to talk to this really cool lady after that who is going through a really hard time and just needed someone to talk to and she told us that, it was like she just couldn't think of anything because it hurts too much, and she thanked us a lot for talking to her and listening to her and I bore my testimony that I knew that God loved her and was aware of her, even if she didn't believe in God in that moment and it was really cool. And then the rest of the time just flew. We got to have another really cool conversation with this woman who has a Book of Mormon and said she thinks other churches are built up on the actual doctrine but that she believes that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has been able to keep the doctrine in its pure form. And I was, like, "No one has maintained it..." and we taught the restoration and then my companion asked if we should head back to the station since we had like four minutes left, and I was, like, "What?!?!?! That's so awesome!" It was so much and that's definitely a miracle because...how do you have fun when people are rejecting you every two seconds? But it is fun! I think that's just because God literally blessed me.

7. Do you know how Heavenly Father loves you?

Yes.

8. Did you see more things you're interested in buying during saldi?

Yeah, yeah, I actually bought a lot of things today. That's what we did for P-Day today. I still want to buy a coat. That's the only thing I didn't get. I did get leather boots, a pair of pants, a sweater, a cutie shirt sweater, two shirts, a pair of jeans, and a jean jacket. I'll be cute when I go home!

9. Have you learned how to make any Italian foods besides ragu?

Yes. I know how to make the basic pasta, I also know how to make carbonara, pesto, tiramisu, the way they make their veggies I can make them, brioche... It's more a question of do I make it at home....No, because it's not good for me.....

10. What's the best thing you ate this week?

So cutie -- on the 31st the senior couple, Jacobs, we didn't have any plans and neither did their anziani and so they invited us over for dinner and they made shepherd's pie. SO good! That was really good.

11. What have you learned from each of your companions?

Mmmmm...many things, and it would be another 20 minutes of this voice recording if I went into all of it. LOL

12. What can we pray for specifically for you and the people you're working with?

Whatever you want -- just keep praying!!!

That's all I've got for now. Love you so much!

Ciao, ciao, ciao!