Saturday 28 February 2015

Lotti di trovare sotto la pioggia, e Ricotta Ravioli dolci

Week 1 of the fortnight …
So  week one of this fortnight was great!!! There have been tears... only on one day though and I was in good company with Sorella Hamilton. BUT DON’T WORRY. ALL IS WELL!!!
So Monday!
We did our everyday Monday things... cleaned the house.... did our groceries....
E-MAILED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (MY FAVE PART OF THE DAY.. WEEK..) Then packed our backs for a trip to Catania for Zone Conference!!! On the way to the bus stop... we had a quick look in Zara (one of my new faves) because the ZL’s told us there was a comp for best dressed Anziano and Sorella..... so I had to look my best.. right? Anyways.. I got the cutest skirt! Then we got on the 2 hour bus ride and went on our merry old way! We arrived in Catania and went to buy Granita, which is basically flavoured ice, but it’s so good! I got lemon. Sorella Hamilton got jacked ... She put 3 euros on the side and this Romanian Gypsy out right blatantly took them .... so Sorella Hamilton was like errrrrrrrrr ... prego!!! We told her to give them back and she just made up a lie that she had nothing when she so blatantly took them.... then she just gave one euro back and when we demanded the rest she started dancing around like an outright weirdo... anyways we enjoyed our Granita and that’s all that matters :) Then we headed to the apartment where the Catania Sorelle live (Sorella Vasilachi... and Sorella Hassell). They fed us and we had a really good time with them! (I sent a picture with them this week).
With the Sisters of Catania
Then in the morning we all got ready in our best! hahahah I didn’t really care about this comp... but some Sorelle took it really really seriously! Then we went to the Catania chapel for Zone Conf! :) It was really a good conference! This zone is possibly the most fun zone yet (out of the 3 I’ve been in). The ZL’s are Anziano Romano and Anziano Robi (who was my 1st DL when I was in Pescara), so that’s super cool! I’m in the same zone as some people from the MTC and past areas! (Anz Jorgenson, Beesley, Sor Cluff (MTC) ) (Anz Mika and Robi .. Pescara). It’s really cool when you get to catch up with people you know! :)Anywayssssssssss!!! The conference was about getting ready for the mission tour, which apparently an apostle will come to? So that’s really exciting!!! All about being the best example in the way we look and act etc! Then ‘our STL’ did an addrestramento on miracles... the ZL did one all about being friends and knowing the members and the AP’s one was all about David and Goliath and likening that to ourselves! Then after this, the results for the competition..... Anz Beesley won (he splashed out on Gucci shades.. how ridic hahahahahah he’s so funny"!) and one of the older Sorella..... but then I later found out that I won, but Anz Romano didn’t want contention between the Sorelle, cus some took it dead seriously; so he just announced her as the winner.... awks! hahahahah sad I didn’t get my 10 euro H&M voucher... jk!! But yeah... Zone Conf was awesome!!! I loved it!!! :):) Theeeeeeeeeeen, we headed home for Ragusa!
Photobombed at Zone Conference

Photos at Zone Conference

Before Zone Conference (Sorella Hamilton and Me!)

Our Zone Photo at Zone Conference

Photos at Zone Conference

Photos at Zone Conference

Wednesday - Today not a lot happened... we did a lot of finding... and met Mose in Centro (town centre) and booked an appointment with him! :) THEN we saw Rosemary!!! Got her to teach us the Plan of Salvation to see what she remembered AND SHE GOT IT ALL DOWN perfectly!!!! :D we were SO proud of her! :)
Thursday - Friday were the scambiooooo with the STL and her greenie!!! (we only have 1 STL in this zone) SHE IS SO CUTE! Her name is Sorella Palmer and her greenie is Sorella Puzey! I love them!!! We had a fun 2 days!! I went with Sorella Puzey to see Sorella Ragusa (the meno attivi) it was a really good lesson! We taught about how God is a ‘God of Miracles’ and he ALWAYS hears our prayers and responds, sempre! :) She spoke a lot! When we left we headed to IBLA! … to do follow up finding! I actually got us there by foot without getting lost!!!! I surprised myself!!! None of them were in though.... then we knocked on the wrong door, so when I said 'siamo noi, le sorelle... siamo venuto la settimana scorsa eeeee ha detto che possiamo tornare.. quindiiiii siamo qui' and she was like 'errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr non ho capito... no no grazie' hahahaha … it now makes sense! But then when we found the right door, she didn’t answer. So we did some casa casa... then went to wait for the bus.... which never came... sooooo we called the Sorelle and they got someone to pick us up (cus it’s a long walk) THANKYOU ENGLISH COURSE SALVO and the Anziani! (Shout Out) haha THEN we got home and ordered pizza! Me and Sorella Hamilton went halves... One half mozz and the other half nutella pizza (that’s right!) … it’s so lush!
Friday - TODAY I was in the bathroom getting ready.... brushing my hair and I found something shimmering in the front, near where.. if I had a fringe, it would be there. I looked closer.... It was grey!!!!!!!  I FOUND MY 1ST GREY HAIR AT THE AGE OF 19 ... gross! hahahahahha I couldn’t believe it! I took a picture, but it’s too gross to send so I’ll save that one for later! I went out with Sorella Puzey again and we did finding.... but found no success. Then we went to take the Sorelle to the train station ... we said our farewells and that was that! (there was actually a crazy miracle that happened here, but I will save that one to after the mission... hahaha) then Sorella Hamilton and I tried to call Rosemary, but she didn’t respond... so we had to do more finding. Nobody would answer and those who did were rude. We were both so tired. We got to the point where we felt that finding is all we do and we haven’t seen a ton from doing so. It was really hard, dark and cold and we were both just crying after this one lady shouted at us. We just walked and didn’t say a word. We just cried. Then when we calmed down, Sorella Hamilton rang one bell and a boy game to his balcony in his PJ’s.. he told us to come back when he wasn’t in his PJ’s.. I think he was embarrassed.. but he was really nice and we felt a bit better after that... but we were still feeling emotional. Then at the end of the day we got home and sat in silence for about 5 or 10 mins. Then we knelt down to pray before daily planning. I said it, and after I said 'caro Padre Celeste' I just balled completely. Then it set Sorella Hamilton off. We just cried and it was one of the hardest prayers I’ve done, but then after we planned, we spoke about the day. Every day one thing we do as part of weekly planning (Sorella Nagliati taught me this), we write in our planner at LEAST 3 things we liked about the day. So that’s what we did and I was dreading it a bit, but when I sat and thought about it, I thought of a good amount and we both felt so much better :) Some of the things that we both liked were:
- Having time with the Siracuse Sorelle (STL and greenie)
- Man in PJ’s invited us back
- And on our way home there was a couple in their running gear and it was just hilarious to watch… we may have paused our cry for a few mins to have a little chuckle.  So all in all it was a good day!!! :)

Saturday - We did weekly planning! Then we had 2 lessons! One with a member, Sorella Frasca! We spoke about the power of prayer and then she told us about ALL of these missionary experiences she has had recently!!! She is a great member and we really want to work with her more!! Then we had a lesson with Iolanda! (our new convert!) We felt inspired to talk about our mission stories, because last lesson she told us about her dilemma ... she wants to go on a mission, but isn’t 100% sure what to do, cus she has other options. We decided to do that. The Spirit was SO strong in that lesson. She cried!! It was amazing! And to finish, we sung ‘Be Still My Soul !! Her Mum walked in during the song to join us and she started crying too!!! I LOVE THEM SO MUCH!!!ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! <3 Then we went to the chapel for correlation, but liiiike our WML didn’t show up, but we were still able to sort out our missionary work with the Anziani!
A beautiful view at night time (Beautiful Ibla)
Sunday -- I sent a vid home about this day, cus it was so GREAT! We had church!! Then had lunch with la famiglia cascone! :) We ate SWEET RICOTTA RAVIOLLI!!!!!!!!!! My fave thing here so far!!! It was SO SO SO GOOD!! <3<3<3 can’t wait for you to try it!! Then we did our calls for the week to confirm appointments... and we called Mose, but no reply.... sooooooo then, he calls us and says that he is busy today, but maybe during the week; so little by little our hope is dying.... but then he calls back again and tells us he is in the car with a friend and asked where the church is, so we tell him and he tells us he is close!!!!! SO we RUN to the church (like a 50 second run) and wait... then he calls again and tells us that he can’t find it.. it’s too long.. he’s going home, so we RUN out to find him and WE find him!!! walk to the chapel and do our 1st lesson with him!!! During the lesson he asked how church functions... we explain! Then he asked if it is alright if he comes on Sunday! OF COURSE we said YES!!!!!!! The lessons went so so welllll!!! We don’t have an exact date of our next lesson, cus he is a translator (French to Italian), so he works a lot, but he always calls when he’s free, so we basically have a new investigator that we found!!! :D It was amazing!!! Then we went to centro with the Anziani to do finding! Anziano Di Donato is sups good at spray paint art! … so he was doing that and getting a decent sized crowd and it was a great finding tool! We even saw Mose again watching! haha

SO THIS WEEK TURNED OUT TO BE AMAZING!!!!!
I LOVE IT HERE!
I LOVE SORELLA HAMILTON
I LOVE THIS GOSPEL
I LOVE YOU ALL
I LOVE A LOT OF THINGS!
I know that this gospel is true! I know that we have to experience trials to learn and to grow. I know people say that stuff all the time, but I can promise that that is true. I can testify, as I’m sure you all can too ... that it really is true! I believe that when we show that we have enough faith, even in those difficult times, that Heavenly Father will show us miracles! I know!
I know that Heavenly Father LOVES US!!! My fave thing to share with these people is the Plan of Salvation and the love our Heavenly Father has for them! I know that he listens to us. I know that he wants us to speak to him. I know that he is waiting for us to pray, always. I am so grateful for this knowledge that I have. I am SO SO grateful for a specific part of this plan, which is the knowledge of eternal families.
I love being a missionary. I have learnt so, so, much already and know that there is much more for me to learn!!
Thank you for being you!! I love each and every one of you!! So, so, so, flipping much!!
Have the best week!

Week 2 of the fortnight …
Hey all!!!
SO … this week consisted mainly of finding, so unless for each day there was something specific I wanna share I will, but I’ll type the things that I said I liked about the day :)
Monday - I EMAILED HOME!! I always get butterflies before emailing home … I get so excited!!!! I finished the song I wrote for Dad! Me and Sorella Hamilton bought some meat (I wrote that cus I really like meat); then after pranzo we had 6 mins, so we had a 6 min nap hahahaha.
Cooking our Meat!

Meat, cooked and ready to eat!
Then we helped Iolanda and Stefano (Stefano leaves to serve in the ENGLAND MANCHESTER MISSION this Thursday!!!! so we were helping him, cus he wanted to call the MTC, but doesn’t speak English, so we did it for him. That was cool! 
Tuesday - IT WAS DAD’S BIRTHDAY!!! Shout out for my Dad … I am so glad you had a cool birthday and liked my little vid!!!  and if I’m honest, I may have felt a tiny bit homesick.. Anyways! WE had District meeting! I had the 'role play', so I got everyone to do a street contacting role Plan of Salvation, so we had to basically describe each part of the Plan of Salvation in 1 or 2 sentences. That was coooool. I’m excited to use it as an idea here! Then we did our weekly District Meeting Butchers sandwich trip! Me and Sorella Hamilton shared, cus they are huge! We tried to find sweet ricotta ravioli to buy ... but we couldn’t find it :( Then we did follow up finding, but no-one was in, then we had English course!! :) … which is always a blast!
Wednesday - Today we taught Iolanda!!!!! About tithing and fasting and fast offering (after baptism lessons)! That went really well, SHE IS SO CUTE! Then we did follow up finding! Again, it must have been the wrong time, cus no-one was in.. Then we were on our way to an appointment with one of the families in the ward, the Migliorisi family! They own a dry cleaners, so we met them there in one of the back rooms and did a spiritual thought with them. They are SO SWEET!! :):) On the way to theirs, the rain and wind was SO STRONG. We had this umbrella - one of those really really durable ones, that you wouldn’t expect to break and literally 10 steps from their workplace, it folded outwards and all of the bars folded in and ripped off the umbrella … IT WAS SO EMBARRASSING!!!!! I couldn’t close it either and it was a huge umbrella. hahaha awwwkward!!!! but it was so funny tooooo. THEN!! Gabe (one of the English course students that the Anziano are also teaching and he comes to church most weeks... he’s awesome!) decided he wanted to go to the Chinese restaurant (the only one here) and asked if we wanted to come, so for dinner we went there!! I had my FAVE sweet and sour chicken with some pork dumpling things and fried ice cream, which was really interesting hahaha, but it was so cool!!! I’ve been craving Chinese for a while! :)
Thursday - WE FOUND OUR SWEET RICOTTA RAVIOLI!!!!!! -good day! Today we did more finding; this week was a struggle to get appointments confirmed by most people! A few people confirmed and let us over this week though - I will love them forever!!!!! Then we helped clean the chapel! We made an action plan and one thing that we desired was to find service opportunities, and our WML called us and asked if we would help Sorella Campo clean the chapel! So we got to do that!! :) Then we had English course! On Thursdays, Sorella Hamilton and I teach the advanced students and we basically just have a big group convo, but this time we made backup questions in case the convo went dead. One was 'If you had 1 day left to live, which meals would you have?' Well … it got to my turn and for breakfast I said 'a full English breakfast and pancakes with syrup and pineapple juice!!!' and MY FAVE QUOTE was introduced today, it was hilarious! One of the students, in the cutest Italian accent, with the most passion in a sentence I have ever heard, said: 'I THINK I AM VOMITING RAINBOWS RIGHT NOW' It doesn’t even sound funny typed, but it was so funnyyyyyyy! Also, on this day we went to the Puglisi family, because it was Sorella Puglisi’s birthday the day before and she invited us in and gave us cake! :) THEY ARE SO CUTE! Then before daily planning, as always we begin with a prayer... well Sorella Hamilton prayed and half way through this prayer we hear the biggest man scream. WE had to quickly end the prayer before we lost it. Our neighbour (below) always screams and makes these strange noises, frequently hahahha so that was.. fun!
Friday - WEEEEEEEEEKLY PLANNING. Then we broke our fast on SWEET RICOTTA RAVIOLI … IT WAS SO GOOD, but I got so full I could barely breathe. I had to stand out on the balcony to get back with it hahahaha. Then in the afternoon we did MOREEEEEEE FINDING! Some people told us to come back, which is promising! Then some would answer and then say 'No no non c'e nessuno' which means: 'No, there isn’t anyone' which is strange.. cus we were definitely talking to someone!! Hahahaha … but whatever.! Then we had an appointment planned with one of the DiMartino families! It was so nice! They are such a LOVELY family!!!! We did the lesson about the ‘Armour of God’ and they told us they did that for FHE on Monday and the little boy Giorgo came out with his little shield and sword, which was SUPER cute!!! They are a really sweet family!!! :) I loved spending time with them! :) Then we did more finding and on the way home me and Sorella Hamilton ran some of the way, cus there were some creepy men we were sure were following us... but it’s okay... PLUS Sorella Hamilton has pepper spray attached to her key which I think is totes hilar, but I guess one day it could come in handy!! hahaha
Ready for another day of Finding in the Rain
Saturday - We had no appointments again, which sucked, cus it meant more finding in the pouring rain. I’m sorry if I sound like I’m complaining, as I  usually love finding, but this week it has rained non-stop and all we seem to have done is finding aaaaaaand nobody is in the streets or at home so like, not sure where the people go, but we can’t find anyone, but THEN we met this guy and we thought he was an Italian, so we wanted to introduce him to English course, since we haven’t done finding for English course yet, but then he says he already speaks English.... then told us he teaches English and charges... awkward competition... then he speaks English and HE WAS IRISH!!!! It was so weird, but so cool!!! hahahaah. THEN we went with the Anziano to see their investigators, Gideon and Faith. Faith had a baby boy recently, Divine and he is SO BEAUTIFUL! They wanted us to go see them, so invited us with the Anz for dinner. Anyways, we get there; they live in an African camp (I think), but it’s nicer and smaller. We sit and talk and stuff for a while (in English) and then they give us food - fried chicken and rice. I wasn’t sure how to eat it.. all we had was a spoon, so then Faith taught me. I literally just leave the 1 white bone, the rest I eat, so to start with I was doing it wrong (how I do it at home), then at the end, she had me go through all the left-over bones and eat everything left on them including the black bones hahahahaha. So now, the missionaries are convinced that I am no longer posh! They said that next time, they will make me fufu.... ahaha 
No matter what the weather, we try to have fun too!
Sunday! CHUUUURCH! Church was great! Sorella Hamilton translated for Faith! Then we taught the gospel principles lesson. All about the Holy Ghost! (in English) … that went really well! :) Then sacrament meeting was super emotional!!! It was Stefano’s last Sunday here!!! Lots of people were crying - this ward is super tight!! Then we had dinner at the Chine’s house (they live above us in our apartment). We had lasagne, meats, fruit and cake! Safe to say I WAS SO FULL!!!!! It was so good!!! Sunday dinners never fail to please me!! Then we went to the lo Monaco family to do a spiritual thought, building relationships and trust with the members :) They are also a really lush family!!!! I love the members here!
THEN TODAYYYYYYYYY I AM HERE EMAILING YOU ALL AND PRESIDENT WADDOUPS SENT AN EMAIL THIS WEEK TO SAY THAT ON APRIL 28TH ELDER BEDNAR IS COMING TO THE MISSION TO EXPLAIN IPAD MINI TECHNOLOGY!!!!!!!!!! AND WE ARE ALL INVITED TO COME TO ROME FOR THE CONFERENCE!!!! I AM SO EXCITED!!!! 1) CUS IT’S ELDER BEDNAR AND 2) CUS IPADSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!! Goodbye annoying paper work! :D
But yeah, that’s all from this week. I’m sorry if this email was boring :S This week was pretty repetitive!
I just want you to all know I MISS YOU ALL SO SO SO SO MUCH!! I LOVE YOU ALL SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO MUCH AND CAN’T WAIT TO SEE YOU IN A YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!
I know this church is true. I know that you are all the best and I know that Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers! 
Have a great week! Keep being amazing! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <3 <3 <3 <3

ALL MY LOVE xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


Sorella Robertson

Saturday 21 February 2015

Week 6 and Week 7 Rigi and Zone Conference

Week 6:

Life really is like a box of chocolates (full of love hearts)!!!!!! Shout out for mom and dad … Thanks for the Valentine Treat box!!!  You’re the best!!! 
The Valentines Treat box from Home Finally Arrived :-)
But we'll begin with Monday again..... We did the same! We have a pretty boring life!!! Card Games with Richterswil! Then nobody turned up for Familie Heim Abend! So that was great!!!!!!

Tuesday we had District Meeting in Chur! It is beautiful down there!!!! Then we had a Tausch with the DL! I was in Chur with Elder Mongia! He's from Italy!!! And we had 2 lessons ALL in Italian, because Chur has a lot of Ausslanders from Italy!!!! It took me back a few months to those Golden Days where I had no idea what was going on!!!!! But even more so, as I hadn't just had 6 weeks in the MTC learning the language!!!! It was crazy!!!! But I spoke the little amount of Italian I could Ciao, Mi Chiamo Anziano Robertson und so weiter!!!!!!! Life was interesting!!!! It was a fun Tausch none the less!!!!! In other news this week.... I've dropped a hole on my belt!!!!! I'm losing weight and that is not good!!!!! Hopefully this package will soon sort that out, but it ain’t good!!!!!! I need to be putting it on, not losing it!!!!

Wednesday we had a less active lesson with a Sister who used to live in Gloucestershire! She has a daughter who is currently on a mission in the states somewhere!!! She has a pretty cool family! Then our other lesson fell out! But hey! It happens!!!! 

Thursday was an interesting one!! We had a tausch with the ZLs- weird! The ZL’s only tausch with the DLs and comp! So it was a little odd, but we did it anyway!  It was good! I worked with Elder Barber in Schwamendingen! We had 2 lessons and they actually went really well! It's so weird having so many lessons this week and actually getting to use some German lessons finally! Then Elder Barber had a dentist appointment, which filled the rest of the evening! It was a private practice, so who knows how much it costs..... being in Switzerland!!!! And my Package was at the ZLs place, so I got it! Apparently President thought it was for the other Elder Robertson, so brought it to his interviews! But I have it now, and love the HP sauce and the Heroes and everything else about it! It's the best package ever! Friday was just another day - weekly planning, etc!! 

Saturday we had a Finding Day in Richterswil!!! I worked with Elder Bakewell, who was in the MTC with me! We had a lesson, which was scary as; ‘cause he isn't confident in his Deutsch either, but it was actually a really good lesson!!! We did it!!!! It was so fun just working with him!!! 

Then Sunday - not even half the ward were at church, as there was a Schneeplausch, which is like a weekend thing that the ward have - where they go somewhere and just do Snow Activities all weekend! Last year the missionaries were invited and President Miles allowed them to go for it, but this year we weren't! So that sucks!!!!! Instead, we only had probably just about 1/3 of the ward at church! Then I had to teach the English Sunday School class, which wasn't too bad, as it was in English!!!! And we had to speak in Primary about the Atonement, which again wasn't too bad!!!! 

It's been an alright week!!! Mission Tour this week, so we'll see what happens!!!!! 

Have a super awesome week!!!! 
Week 7:
I have less than an hour to email again today, as we have a district p’day planned!
So … for P-Day last week we went to Rigi!! It was pretty awesome and the views were beautiful! 
At Rigi


Queen of Mountains - Rigi

Tuesday was just a normal day again! And then Gemeinderat in the evening! This one started at 7.15pm and went on till who knows as we had to get back, so we had to make our excuses and we left at like 9.20pm!
Wednesday was mission tour! It was amazing! We all went up at the start and introduced ourselves and shook Elder Kearon’s hand. It was hilarious how he had full on conversations with a number of Brits, but the Americans and other Europeans was just shake, introduce, go! Hahaha! So we had a nice little chat about life and which Robertson’s - My Parents are!!!!! Sister Kohler spoke to us about Obedience. How Obedience, never brings regret. It may be painful at times, as it was for Abinadi, Nephi, even Our Saviour Jesus Christ, but it will never bring regret. President Kohler spoke about Choice, Faith and Diligence. How we choose everything in our lives and how our choices will impact those around us. Then he shared a quote that went like "Consistent, Persistence in Faith and Diligence." Then Elder Kearon took the rest of the Conference. He spoke about a number of topics. "Look out; know who you are; serve others with all your heart and strength and you will never be disheartened; never be demoralised." He also mentioned how real knowledge comes from adversity. How we need to be committing to baptism in the first meeting … how that is our duty! Throughout, President and Sister Kohler were told to join in when they have ideas and Sister Kohler compared us to a salesman. We aren't salesmen, but when a salesman comes round and talks about a vacuum for instance, the one who lets him in, expect at some point for him to ask them to buy the vacuum; just like us, people expect us to ask them to do something; to join the church; they may not want to accept it, but they expect it, so we need to be doing it. Then Elder Kearon went on about "Attacking the Day" from 6.30am we need to attack the day! Those first few hours before leaving the apartment are what make or break the day. We need to use them and attack it. Powerful Morning Prayer, dedicated Frühsport, knowledge filled studies, take a cold blast in the shower if you need to wake up, and so on. But it was pretty awesome!!! And it was great seeing people again! I believe I sent you the pics of me and Jake, me and Elder Little and me and Sister Emmerson! Sister Emmerson was in my Golden District and she lives in the Huntingdon ward, so the same as Pete and Carol! She’s hilarious!!! 
Zone Conference with my Cousin Elder Jacob Robertson

At Zone Conference Catching up with my Trainer Elder Little

With Sister Emmerson 
Then Thursday we had our second DA of the transfer. So, we went to Family Girault and we had Lasagne!!!! It was awesome!!!!!! Then not much really happened. Friday, I had a third tausch with the DL! So I went to Chur with Elder Vasicek (MTC group) and we had 2 lessons - one in Portuguese (don't ask how we did it, cause neither of us speak Portuguese!!!!) haha! And we found some awesome potentials!!!! And my family got the Valentine’s pic! There was a dance in Chur Chapel and they had already decorated for it, so we took a few pictures - why not hey?!? 
Valentines at Chur Chapel

Then Saturday - we tausched back!
Sunday was church! President told me to work with the members in my interview, so I decided I'm gonna invite ourselves round, even if I just ask if we can come by to share a spiritual thought for 10-15 mins! It worked, we have a few member appointments this week and we can meet with members and start getting them involved in the work!!! We also had a Stake GML and full time missionaries video conference last night!!! 
And now we are on Monday!!!!! YAY!!!!!! Transfer calls are on Saturday - so predictions anybody???? And I'll let you know as and when!
We have to go in like 10 mins so I'm gonna say Ciao for now!
All my Love,

Elder Ammon Robertson xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Friday 13 February 2015

Divertimento e duro lavoro - Un perfetto equilibrio due settimane

Sooooo recently I realised... that I have passed my official 6 month mark!!!! Quindiiiiiiiiii So a little less than this time next year I'll probably have already stepped off the plane!!! Isn't that just the weirdest thing!!! Time is flying so so so quickly!!!! Normal life seems so weird hahahah I'm probably gonna feel so weird not knocking on random doors and speaking about Jesus!! .... Don't worry though... I'm not getting 'trunky,' as the Americans say.... I miss you all a TON of course!!!!!!!!! But I love it here too and I know that right here, right now - is where the Lord wants me to be!!!! 
 
I BOUGHT SOME BOOTS.... when I say some, I mean 2 pairs....... it has been raining A LOT here.... we have also had a ton of hail... AND ON Wednesday... IT SNOWED!!! Isn't that crazy!!! Also ... it has been snowing in England!!! Some of our English course students showed me pictures of Birmingham and it looked like it had snowed! haha! Who knows! But yeah.... I have had to throw some of my shoes... water damage.... or just because they are worn out... or because they stink hahaha oops! 
 
Sooooooooooo let me tell you all about my week! :)
 
Lunedi -- Me and Sorella H went to the 'mall' and bought matching skirts.. They're super cute and they're like a mustard colour.... but don't worry.. I won't wear them with my mustard cardigan! haha! .....Then.. we did some Casa 2 Casa!!!!!
Companionship Skirts
SO... 2 people told us to come back... so we are super excited about that!!! :) Then we went to Centro (centre) and did leaflet finding..... we GAVE A BOOK OF MORMON OUT!!! It was Sorella Hamilton's 1st time!! She was so excited and she was SO shocked and surprised!! She kept saying 'He just took that??' 'Did you see that?' hahaha so cute! That was kinda that day done! hahaha
 
Martedi -- IT WAS Sorella HAMILTON'S BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!! I wanted to get balloons and stuff, but we didn't have time and surprises are hard when you are with your comp 24/7! BUT I used post-it notes and drew balloons on them and left a message on the bathroom door for her haha!! Then I made her pancakes for breakfast with Maple Syrup!!!!!! :D
Birthday Pancakes for Sorella Hamilton

THEN! Me and Lolanda organised for her to come and surprise Sorella Hamilton at 7:30am with a cake!!!! I HAVE IT RECORDED !!! It is SUPER CUTE!!!!! Then we had DDM......... it was good! :) :) THEN we had an appointment with Sorella Campo (Lolanda's Mom) ... she's ONE OF MY FAVE MEMBERS!!!!!! We spoke about how we can help new converts and she shared her conversion story!!! The Spirit was so strong in that lesson!! :):) Then we had English course!! It went well - then at the end, after the Spiritual Thought.... the Anziani announced that it was Sorella Hamilton's birthday and gave her a gift (a fire extinguisher.. with a can of tuna and cake sprinkles sellotaped to the sides.. don't ask ha!) THEN Salvo and Gabe (English students who speak perfect English!) ... SNUCK BEHIND HER AND surprised HER WITH THE LUSHEST cake!!!!!!! and we all sang happy Birthday!!!!! She cried ... it was so cute and she was really happy!!!!! :):)

Mercoledi -- Today was one of my fave days of this week! :) We went to find a referral!! Her name is Silvano.. she was referred to us by her less active brother! She was really happy to see us, but it wasn't a good time, so we are seeing her this week! :) ... Then we did some more inspirational street finding (I think I explained that last week) IT WAS AWESOME!!!! Like... nobody is ever out on the street... the place is DEAD, so we just do door to door!!! BUT so many people were SO nice and friendly and welcoming!!!!!! We have a good bunch of return appointments, so a ton of really promising potentials!!! :):) Then we received a cancellation with a member... so we ended up doing more casa in casa!!! We are experts now haha! We went to some apartments near the chapel! A family LET US IN!!! They know the missionaries 'cus they used to attend English course!!!! THEY WERE SO NICE!!! We spoke with them a little about the restoration! :) It was awesome! Then they said we can come back whenever.... she warned us that she is Catholic BUT STILL! there is a lot of potential there! :)... Then we went to see a guy called Massimo who works at a shop.... we set up to see him later today to teach English and then a gospel lesson! :) HE GREETED US 'hello boys!!' (he speaks little English). We corrected him and he was like 'oh.. girls' hahahah - it was hil! He is super funny and I'm excited to start teaching him! :) OH on this day I also had my 1st Sicillian gelato with brioche! IT WAS SO GOOD. the ice-cream here really is way better!!!!! You HAVE to come!!!!! Then we found a guy while doing casa in casa who wanted to let us in, but he was alone, so we passed him on to the anziani to see! :)
Sicilian Gelato with Brioche
Giovedi -- MOREEEEEEEEEE finding!!! but it's okay 'cus we make it fun! 5 people let us speak to them!!! and told us when would be better to come back!!!!!! We are SUPER excited about them!!!! :) We then went to see a less active, her husband is active and he is AWESOME!! We are gonna get him to come to a lesson with Rosemary this week! :) :):) Then we had English course and me and Hamilton did the spiritual thought! We did the 'God is the same yesterday today and forever.. God of miracles' scripture with the paper visual!! Where you ask someone to cut a whole in the A4 paper, so they can put it around their body... then we do it and show them how! Visual spiritual thoughts are the best :)
 
Venerdi -- We went to follow up on the people in Ibla (IBLA IS LUSH you should google it!!.. It is EXACTLY HOW I IMAGINED Italy to be!!! ) But the people were not in.. :( BUT we did a bit of finding around there and a lady came to her balcony.. she was ill, but was really excited to see us and told us to come back next week in the morning!!! :):) I feel really good about her!! :):) Then we saw Rosemary!!! We did the Restoration lesson with her... she had a LOT of questions about Priesthood! She has a LOT of faith. Oh! .. also.. I had custard for breakfast with bananas this day! ha :) It as SO GOOD! I am so thankful for treats sent from home...even the simple pleasures!!! Then... the ward threw an activity ... 'PIZZA PARTY' hahaha ... only in Italy!!!! It was great though! All the members brought pizza and it was just one huge pizza feast! :) Then it rained a ton and my umbrella broke.. hahaha! Then we saw a man and he was speaking to us in a Sicilian dialect so we had 0 idea what he was saying, but it was something along the lines of 'We are already saved, we don't need religion' so that was super fun.. hahaha :D
 
Sabado -- We went to see a less active called Rita! :) Buuuuuuut she was doing her friend's hair and told us to come back on Thursday! soooooooooooo I guess we shall do just that! ha :) Then we went through the area book to do more finding!!! and called them to organise appointments! We got 2 that responded really well to us, so we are super excited! Then we went out with Sorella Campo to do some less active and member visits!! I LOVE SLLA CAMPO ahhhhhh!!!! The visits went really well!!! :) Theeeeeeeeeeen... we did 'FLUSH' I think I told you about that..... where we go through all the ex-simps in the phone... or just names that nobody knows... and call them and invite them to see us again!!! One guy called 'Goodluck' told us he is in Milan and that he sees the missionaries there, so that's aweeeeeeesome! Then a few others told us to call back later... and one lady called Mariasa set an appointment with us! :)Oh, also!!! This day we wanted a good lunch to fast on!!! Sooooo we had potatoes and stuff, but it didn't fill us up..... so we went to make crepes...... aaaaaaand realised we didn't have milk, soooo we kinda just made our own with cream and water... it worked haha! :)
 
Domenica -- We had church!! We taught gospel principles! It went really well! :) Then had pranzo with the family Micozzi! :) It was so good! :) Then at the end when we said goodbye, Fratello Macozzi wanted us to hi 5 him... so I did,.. then he was like 'NO no sister.. piu FORTE' so I did a better hi 5 then he yelled 'AHHHHH' hahahahahahah I hope it didn't hurt him..... I think he was joking.. I'm not sure, but yeah! hahaha Then we did weekly planning!
 
SOOO... that was that week!! :)
 
However, WEEK 2 of the fortnight HAS BEEN ONE OF THE BEST SO FAR!! FOR THE WORK....AND FOR FUN!
 
I'll try to fit in as much as possible!!! BUT THERE WAS JUST SO MUCH!! haha
 
So... Like I said earlier - Lunedì we did shopping and I GOT BOOOTSSSSSSSS !!! :)
 
Martedì - There is an old couple who live 2 floors above us and BEFORE DDM we had a lesson with them. IT was so cool! They're members... they have been serving missions for a total of 7 years!! They're amazing!!!
 
Mercoledì - THIS WAS MY FAVE DAY! We had 1 lesson with Rosemary.. about the Plan of Salvation. She agreed with everything, but still thinks its okay to go to the Catholic church (if she's too tired to walk to our church).  We then had 3 lessons with less actives! (4 lessons in 1 day is the best I have ever had in the mission so far!) We also gave 2 Books of Mormon out within the space of 1 min of each other and if that wasn't good enough, we THEN had an African guy approach and ask us about the Book of Mormon (before we could even approach him). He asked for one in French! We have called him and have organised to take it to him today. WE ARE SO EXCITED! He seems super genuine and sweet and we wanna teach him!!!!
 
Giovedì - We went to see Rosemary again to see how she is doing and to share the faith scripture..... She had a tear in her eye and loved it! and then on the way home we found this stray dog that followed us EVERYWHERE.... then we went home to get pranzo..... And he was waiting for us (I've sent a pic of him), then we had a call from Fratello M inviting us to his house to do a spiritual thought, so we went ... then after the dog was still waiting for us!! This dog literally followed us everywhere hahahaha so we fed him cornflakes... yomo (you only mission once - Sorella Hamilton) haahahh!
Jeffrey The Stray Dog who followed us all day

BUT then we realised something really cool..... this guy has never spoken to us... (Fratello M) and we found out he speaks fluent FRENCH.... So we thought of MOSE.... the guy we met on Mercoledì... And then we thought.. Fratello M must have been inspired... like I dunno, but it's super exciting. I'M so excited to see what happens with Mosè! :)
Then after English course we went to a burger bar with the Anziani and the zone leaders 'cus they were here for exchanges with our Anziani !!! SO that was cooooooool.
 
Venerdì - OKay, so this is one of my fave stories of the week!! SO we were invited to Vescovo (Bishop's) home for dinner and to obv share a message... he has a lil daughter and a baby son - SO CUTE!!! We went to wash our hands in the bathroom and couldn't find a towel to dry our hands on and the lil girl (mARTA) came with us, so we just stood there blowing our hands, then she tells us to use the towel near the bidet (the butt wash thing) and we were like nooooo ... and she was like "si si", so we went and pretended to use it 'cus she was demanding; then she ran out and we told her parents what she said 'cus I was dying with laughter hahahaha and she was like 'ho bugiato' (I lied) hahahahhahaha IT WAS SO FUNNY!!! She's like 4 and then she did the dinner prayer and it was the cutest thing!!! ahhhhh!!!! :):)
 
We have knocked a ton more doors and have added more numbers and names to our list of potentials that we need to follow up on! I'm a firm believer of casa in casa... that's how my grandparents were introduced to the Gospel. We did some following up this week too for some streets that said 'come back'. One man invited us in... but he was alone, so we just did an introduction to the Book of Mormon on his door step!!! 
 
Then the weekend wasn't very exciting... We had a ton of meetings with the stake etc... and it was Ward Conference! OH.. but a lady from English course came to church with her husband... It was a tiny bit awks 'cus it was all about missionary work.... So we explained that Sacrament Meeting isn't usually like this.. and after we went and taught the Restoration to them!! They seemed to enjoy it though, especially the lady (Mariesa) :):)
 
THEN today it snowedd!!!! again! Isn't that crazy! :) This afternoon we are going down to Catania for Zone Conference tomorrow!!! 
 
Life is great!!!!! I'm gonna share some quotes for the week that made me laugh!! 
 
Sorella Hamilton and I were talking about goals and stuff we can do better in weekly planning.. one thing we brought up was getting out of bed asap when the alarm goes off.... and Sorella Hamilton said 'Yeah, but we are always conscious at the time' hahah it was real funny the way she said it!
 
We're working hard and setting some great goals
Then we shared our goals with each other...and Sorella Hamilton's was 'Mine is... to sit up, when I wake up' hahahahahahhaha ... she the funniest!
 
Then we went to the guy Massimo in his shop to set an appointment and he greeted us this time by saying 'hello babies' hahahahha that was hil
 
THE NEWS ABOUT THE ROME TEMPLE IS AMAZING!!!!! hashtagthepowerofthefast (there's not a hashtag on this comp,,) Things with Rosemary are going good... She is so faithful, but it's just hard to help her to understand sometimes!! We don't have a baptismal date yet. We are starting over with her, but this week in weekly planning we decided to extend the baptismal invite to her the next time we see her and explain the importance of it.
 
I LOVE YOU ALL MISSIONS.. no I mean MILLIONS. millions of missions .. I don't know. hahah! BUT I LOVE YOU SO SO SO SO MUCH!!! I know that this church is TRUE. It's so true and I am so so lucky to be able to share it with the people here in Sicily!!!!! :) Thank you for your testimonies!!! Thank you for your love and prayers!!!
 
Have a great week 
 
Sorella Robertson xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx