Friday 16 October 2015

Cagliari 28/9/15 - 12/10/15 "Tempeste e un rapido viaggio a Roma"



Week 1 of the fortnight …
Monday: We went shopping, thennnnnn we went to the chapel, emailed, ate pranzo with B, G, V, A, R, R, E and the Anziani, so that was awesome. After that, me and Roberts went to get a comp item hahahahah.... for the lols soooo. Then after, we went to McDonald's for a McFlurry, cus I really wanted gelato, but p-day was almost over and so we wouldn't have had much time to go get a good gelato, so we settled with Maccies. It was pretty good though. We got a Nocciola one (Hazelnut), one of my fave flavours! After that, we headed to the park for the FHE with the ragazzi and the Anziani (come sempre). We played some awesome games that Molnar came up with. First we did Chinese whispers, with German, Spanish and Indian phrases (Molnar, Cabbalero and Aman made them). That was hilarious!!! Then we played the game where you're like, paired up with someone from the other team and you have to walk towards and then past each other without laughing ... but the aim is to make the other person laugh. I explained that horribly, but it's a typical EFY one :) hahaha. Then Caballero did the spiritual thought, since he'll be heading to Rome on Thursday. It was a really awesome thought and I deffs felt the spirit :) Then we finished the day off with a hot choc after planning. Grazie a voi! :)

Oh, also an awesome miracle happened today. There was scheduled a huuuuuuuuge thunderstorm. All day, we were contemplating not doing the FHE, cus we do it at the park. Anyways, Anz Cab was like 'It won't rain, it won't rain .. let’s do it' etc and we were all like ‘hmmmmm, but it’s scheduled to be bad’. (This huge warning went across the whole of Sardegna. Someone even mentioned a tornado, but I think that part was for a bit of drama). He was all 'I know it won't rain'. So we did it anyways, at the park .. and I kid you not, it did not rain... For the whole evening!  Literally up until R did the closing prayer. Then it absolutely tipped it down. #therecanbemiracleeeeeeeeeeeeees

Also, this day I read an awesome talk called 'The Abundant Life' by James E Faust.

I realise that I didn't actually write anything this week other than Monday in my iPad notes journal. This week was super weird. With DDM one morning, then collecting Roberts’ permesso, then waiting all morning at the airport, so a lot of working time was cut most mornings, but we tried our best and still managed to see miracles. I'm limited on time today, cus we are planning on going to the local castle with our Anziani and the Anziani from Sassari, before we catch our flight to Rome later tonight for the Leadership Conference; cus I'm STL.. Molnar and Purpari are the ZL’s and I need a comp, so Roberts gets a free ticket to Rome too haha. Lucky duck :) 

Sending post to friends and family
 
Sooo.. 

Tuesday we spent the morning picking Roberts’ permesso up. SHE’S LEGAL .. WOO. Then we made some calls, then saw R, then A. There was a TONNNNNNN of thunder and lightning. It was beautiful though :) The lightning was just like what you'd see in a movie; it didn't even look real! Anyways, with R, we spoke about Christ-like attributes and did the activity from Preach my Gospel with her and then invited her to choose one to work on :) She was super enthusiastic to do it :) Then with A, we did the restoration and it was totally d'accordo with everything AND HE CAME TO THE SATURDAY GENERAL CONF SESSION TOO and loved it!
Sorella Roberts collecting her Permesso


Then (I've mixed Tuesday and Wednesday up oops) anyways, we had DDM. It was the last one with Cab and Mic and Jorg. SADTIMES. THEN Fratello C cooked pranzo for us, so gooood. Thennnn we saw R, made calls, then saw M, who has read like 8 chapters of the Book of Mormon this week and took notes and had a ton of questions..! He's so awesome! Then we had English course.

Thursday, we spent most of the day at the airport. Their flight was delayed. We had to be there to be comps with Hansen, while she waited for her new comp .. so that was so fun... Anyways, after that we finally got to eat. Then we saw a less active family who are AWESOME. The mom is actually pretty active and one of her daughters, but the other daughter who is about 16 isn't. We spoke about how the gospel blesses our lives and it went really well. They seemed to really like us. They made us a fruit tea. It was super good. I think it was apple and cinnamon. Roberts didn't like it though. Then we had English course

We also had the chance to see B this week. She is incredible. As per! 

I found a new word that I like it is... "ninnanannana". It means lullaby haha. 

Saturday we saw V, then R, then La Famiglis C. Then we saw the conferences in Italian! :)

Sunday we finished 12 weeks. SHE’S NOT A GREENIE ANYMORE. WOOOOO!! Then we had lunch with the Anziani and some members, then conference. We saw the first one (listened to, as only the audio would work) in English, then the second one, a Swiss FAM came (from Ammon's ward). They were AWESOME and they wanted to watch it in English. They were only showing English in a small room, so we just ended up watching it in Italian. So yeahhh.
I met a family from Reinach (Switzerland) at Church

So, this morning I found an awesome talk. It was all about service. I'll copy in the part which speaks about the blessings of service. It made me realise how important this is. I feel that in general, service is over looked, like under rated almost, but it's such a critical aspect in the church. Here it is:

"I testify that through serving our fellowmen we come to know the Lord.

Service makes us strong in our faith and useful in His kingdom. Service gives us purpose and courage in life. It brings us closer to God and helps us refine our divine nature. It teaches us to love and understand our fellowmen.  It helps us forget about our personal desires, eliminating selfishness, pride, and ingratitude. It teaches us to think of the needs of others, which allows us to develop the virtues that the Saviour possesses.

Kindness, love, patience, understanding and unity will increase as we serve; while intolerance, jealousy, envy, greed and selfishness decrease or disappear. The more we give of ourselves, the more our capacity to serve, understand, and love will grow.

Those who serve will always seek to please God and live in harmony with Him. They will be full of peace; they will have a cheerful countenance and a spirit of kindness.

Those who serve will strive to ennoble, build and lift their fellowmen; therefore, they will find the good in others and they will not find reason or have time to become offended. They develop the virtue of praying for those who criticize. They don’t expect recognition or reward. They possess the love of Christ.

Those who serve will always be willing to share what they possess and what they know at all times, in all places, and with all people.

Those who serve even in adversity will maintain a living hope of a better future. They will continue to be firm in the midst of a crisis because their hope is in Christ.

Those who serve will accept their assignments with humility, recognizing their limitations, but convinced that two people can do all things they propose to do as long as one of the two people is God.

With divine inspiration, King Benjamin declared, “When ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God” (Mosiah 2:17). Those who serve will have greater understanding of the personality and attributes of God.

Those who serve with devotion, even when things don’t turn out the way they would like, are not easily discouraged, fatigued, or frustrated because the promise of peace of mind and the companionship of the Holy Spirit will never abandon them."

All my love,

Sorella Robertson xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Week 2 of the fortnight …
Yoooooooooooooo so I’m just gonna go from the start...

Monday as I already explained... We were going to go to the castle with our Anziani and the Sassari Anziani.... but we didn't cus by the time we were ready to go.. there wouldn't have been enough time to get back home and pack for Rome and be at the airport on time. So, while the Anziani went, me and Roberts went to McDonalds haha and ate, cus we hadn't eaten all day.  We just emailed some more and then went home, packed and left for the airport. On the airplane I spoke to a lady who was next to me. She was awesome and knew the missionaries from years ago :) When we arrived in Rome, the AP’s and office Elders were there to pick us up. We went with the office Elders to the mission villa in their car. Well, the tomtom died and they took a wrong turn and they were stressing out. Anyways, we FINALLY arrived at the villa. Feels like home! TO BE GREETED BY Sorelle WADDOUPS, WINEGAR, DIFRANCHI and a few other MTC girls who I love so very much. Then we ate chips and kebab or as the Americans say 'kei - baaahb'; then chatted and went to sleeppppp. Hammy wasn't there at this point, cus her train was delayed big time, but as I was drifting off I heard her voice and I HAD to see her, so I was like 'Hammy, Hammy, Hammy!!!' and she jumped on my bed and hugged me and we both nearly cried and it was just the best. GOSH I've missed that girl. Then I went to sleep for reals. 

Tuesday was an early start. Some of the Sorelle set their alarm waaaaay early, so they could hop in the shower. I figured that enough were doing that, so I'd be okay to wake up normal time. After all, 6.30 is early enough for me, ha. We all got ready and on time. Then we all had breakfast downstairs. It was awesome to catch up with some other missionaries over breakfast too. Ahhhh, this is just like my own circle of friends now and it is just the best! After that, we headed over to the chapel. I walked over with Hammy and it reminded me of the good old times when she made me laugh so much, then we got there and we started some studies/caught up with missionaries I've served with nel passato. Again! The conference started and it was actually a super awesome conference. The AP’s began speaking about the importance of finding eternal families. They even sung a duet, cute. Here are some notes I took:
We have to put in the spiritual work. The Lord is working. There is a temple. They are working on it. We need to FILL that temple with ETERNAL families. Okay, this is all I wrote. I'm really bad at taking notes. I promise it was good and I learnt a lot. This is just what really stood out to me, like, something I really liked that they said. Anywaysssss... After that, President Waddoups spoke about a ton of things.
Consiglio - :Leadership Council in Rome



Catching up with Hammy



After that, the AP’s spoke about how to conduct scambi properly and the importance of asking inspired questions. Something I liked that they said was:  The things that we learn every single day can help people. We don't create followers, we create future leaders (sign of a great leader).
Then Sorella Waddoups spoke about rules. Then President concluded. It was a really awesome conference and I went away with a really strong desire to do better. I have so much more to do. I am so far from being the missionary I want to be, still, but I'm trying! It was awesome. Anyways, afterwards we had lunch and I got to hang out with my lil Hamster. Love her millions! After that, I got some stuff from my other suitcase and stuffed it in my mini one I bought from a Chinese store.. And the one Roberts bought (I couldn't bring the whole thing, it was overweight), so that one is waiting in the office and probably will stay there until I come home. It's okay though, cus I have jumpers and stuff now. Then we set off to fly home. On the way we passed the Rome Temple, but the flight went well. It's super short! Then we headed straight to English course. It went well.
Wednesday.. Started making more ex investigator calls, becauuuuuse years ago there used to be 4 sisters and so we somehow have like 4 different area books with a TOOOON of ex investigators, so we spent the beginning of the morning doing that and then we headed over to the chapel for DDM (we swapped it, cus of Rome). Our new DL is Anziano Haroldson, who was in our district last transfer. He seems cool. He did a good addestramento about being responsible, using as a basis - the talk 'If you will be responsible'. One thing that stuck out to me was actually a comment Anziano Molnar made when he said 'Be the missionary your mother thinks you are!’ He spoke about our responsibilities and how everything we do throughout the day should reflect our responsibilities. He then spoke about 4 points in order to be the ‘great’ rather than the 'good' missionary. These were them: learning our duty, making decisions, acting accordingly to the knowledge of our duty and accepting the will of God. After DDM, we all went and got pizza :) After pranzo and Italian study, we went to see R... WHO PRAYED … YES SHE ACTUALLY HAD VOGLIO AND SAID THE PRAYER. It was awesome! Then we based the thought on the talk that President Dieter F Uchtdorf gave at the Women's session of conference, which was awesomeeeee. She loved it too. After R, we saw B and spoke about more of the commandments, then went straight to the chapel for a lesson with A. He is so ready. We watched the Restoration video with him. Just for more clarification. He loved and understood it. He had a TON of questions. We spoke about the gospel the whole time. We didn't even have time to teach English and he didn't even mind! It was just a really really awesome lesson :) 

Thursday... We finallyyyyy got to see a less active member who we have been trying to see since we got here (3+ months ago!!) her name is AC. She is SO CUTE. She told us a little about her. We got to know her. She got to know us etc, then we left her with a spiritual thought based on the talk 'Discovering the divinity within', another talk from this General Conference. She loved it. We then got onto speaking about the atonement and the importance of scriptures. She bore a solemn testimony. After that, as we were leaving she gets this giant bag and fills it with a ton of food and tells us she got it for us. Like, this stuff could have fed us for a week and she was still trying to give us more from the cupboards and fridge. Haha. We went away with 2 things of spaghetti, brie, homemade fig jam, crackers, more crackers, milk, tomato sauce. Probably more, but this is all I can remember. I stopped her when she got to the mozzarella, cus we already have some at home. Haha she was ADORABLE. This woman was just so so kind and so angelic. Gosh, we were so so so happy that we got to see her! She certainly brightened up our day :) After this, we did area book!.. Then pranzo and lingua thennnnnnn a lesson with R, who chose knowledge to study, so we studied that together. She told us how the conference gave her many answers to her prayers. It was just awesome. I always feel the sweet presence of the spirit when we go to see her :) I feel like she is someone I will be friends with outside the mission per sempre. :) After, we saw G :))) spoke about some more commandments. This girl is incredible. She is incredibly mature for her age. I've said this before, but I have honestly never met anyone like her. She is only 14 and she has one of the strongest testimonies I have ever heard in my life. It blows me away. She's just awesome! After that, we did English course. This time we did advanced.

Friday... Weekly planning. The zone goal was to be more specific, so we did and we ran over into lunch time, but it was really good :) This week will be way better :) We saw R again to finish the discorso. On the way back, an African preacher from the 'Redeemed Church' started speaking to us. Initially, because we were clearly foreign and could speak English. Then he asked about what we do. We barely got the chance to speak, cus he tried preaching at us. Oh my goodness. He was throwing bible references at us left right and centre. Not to contradict us at all. I think it was more to show off. He didn't really have a point, thinking about it. In the end, he was like 'We are all doing the work of God in the end and I commend you', which was annoying. We tried explaining the Book of Mormon and he was all 'No, we are told only one Bible' .. and so we explain that this isn't a Bible. Roberts pulls the scripture in Ezekiel 37:16 about the stick of Judah and the stick of Ephraim. I just don't really think he got it, mainly because he wouldn't listen. Every time we tried explaining something, he'd just change the subject to something else random, or some other biblical scripture. Anyways, that was fun.. 

After him, we went to the church to sort referrals. Found that we were given a new one too, which we will contact tomorrow. :)

Oh we ended the day with pancakes: bacon and maple :)

Saturday.. Today we began helping V with her spesa. :) Then we did a spiritual though about Christ-like attributes :) It went super well. I love her! Then we contacted our new referral and SHE ACTUALLY WANTS TO SEE US. We are super excited, cus when I called her, I heard a baby in the background, soooo it's a family I'm guessing :))))) Then we basically spent the rest of the day trying to find ex investigators who we don't have a number for and tried to pop in on a less active. We really struggled this week getting appointments in general and so it was a little disheartening, but we carried on. :) Also, received a bidone at the end of the day .. so that wasn't the best.

Sunday.. Everything is always better on a Sunday. We were ready to teach Gospel Principles, set off, got to church and I played the piano for the meetings. Anziano Molnar translated into German, cus there was a German family visiting (different from last week). The testimonies given were very simple, to the point and powerful. Many spoke about the temple and General Conference. After that, we did the Gospel Principles lesson. The lesson went well. Everybody participated (it was a continuation of the one we did two weeks ago about Gifts of the Spirit... longest lesson ever). It went well. After that, we had Relief Society, which was awesomeeee. M CAME TOO :) Then we came home, ate and studied. 

After, we went down to the chapel for correlation, then made calls for the following week and headed over to A’s. She was great as usual. Got my laughing, gosh that woman is hilarious hahaha. Then we got to share with her a spiritual thought about the importance of the sacrament and she agreed with everything and accepted the invite to keep on coming and to focus on Christ, as she partakes the sacrament. After that, she made us potatoes and spicy stew. It was super good, but I think Roberts' throat nearly got blown off hahah poor lass. 

Well, that was my week. In terms of numbers and lessons and finding new people, it wasn't super great, but we pray that being more specific in weekly planning will change that. This week is looking good!

Update about our Monday morning too... So we walked to Eurospin to go get spesa. Then went to the bus stop, as we had a heavy load. The bus comes, but Sorella Roberts is a little behind me (I had the bags, she had the cart). I stop the bus (this bus comes every 20/30 mins btw, so it was a miracle it was there..) I stop it and wait for her to cross the road, but then I couldn't see her and so I got on the bus to look through the window to beckon her to come faster... but as soon as I stepped foot onto the bus, he closed the doors and started driving off. In an absolute fluster, I'm like shouting to get him to stop and he literally carried on as if I wasn't there, so I bang on the plastic window that he was behind to get his attention and he still ignored me, so I was like ‘Okay, let me off, let me off' and he was like 'Non posso' and so I had to wait for the next stop. Well, this would be the day that there are road works and so the bus was diverted and the next stop was what would usually be like the 4th.. one before our house. Anyways, I call the Anziani to ask them what they suggest. They were not super sure, but in the end we decided that they were to drive to where I left her and I was to get onto the next bus back there. Well, the next bus came early (miracle!!!) and as I was on the bus, the phone rang. It was a member, but when I answered it, to my relief I heard MY COMPANION’S VOICE. Then I got to the church and we were reunited. I felt awful!
Her side of the story is better, because she received an answer to a prayer and there was nothing else it could have been than quite literally .. an answer to a prayer.

Anyways, so that's it for this week haha. Hopefully I'll get some boots today, as it's been raining quite a bit. 

Love you once again!

Sorella Robertson
Xxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxxooxoxxooxoxoxoxoxoxxo