Thursday 23 April 2015

Bonstetten 31/3/15 - 20/4/15 - 'Versetzung Anrufe, General Konferenz, Einkaufen in Deutschland, Neue Versetzung, Tschüss Jake und Zone Ausbildung'

The first week of three ...'Versetzung Anrufe, General Konferenz und Einkaufen in Deutschland'

We'll begin with Monday again! So Monday was Bowling day! District P-day! We went down to Baar to a bowling alley! It was fun, but I played terribly because of my back, even though I still got quite a few strikes in the 2 games we played! But hey! It was fun and wasn't terribly priced for Switzerland! Then we had Family Home Evening and it was my turn! So, I just decided to show the new #BecauseHeLives video and then discuss ways we can share it with friends and use it to do Member-Missionary work. It worked out quite well and we gave a few #WeilErlebt pass along cards to the members who came with us to give them out during the week, so it wasn't too much of a tricky home evening to prepare and give! 

Bowling fun on P-Day





Tuesday we had District Meeting in Bonstetten, so we finally got to do studies on a Tuesday Morning! Wahey! It was a pretty cool Meeting! And then Chur, so had to leave early to go to a lesson, so we chilled and had lunch with Richterswil! Then we ended the day by teaching the Plan of Salvation to the couple who are friends of members! I think I told you about them, so please pray for them that their hearts will be softened and they will have a spiritual experience to make them want to learn out of a desire to learn and come unto Christ, rather than just helping us improve our teaching, but it was a powerful lesson! 

Wednesday, we had a few WA lessons, but that was that!

Thursday! We did a load of WA Vorbeis, which Bishop asked us to do and one of them was home and let us in! He is only less active because of sleeping issues! He has a ridiculously strong testimony and he shared with us a book he's been writing for the past 40 years and it is basically proving that the Book of Mormon is true! It's strange, but the bits he shared were well interesting, but that was basically Thursday! Then, just as I was getting ready for bed the Young Women came by at like 10pm with Easter baskets with chocolate and cookies and stuff for us - which was cool!!! 

Then Friday we had our apartment inspection and apparently we have the cleanest apartment they have ever seen! I always seem to get comments like that when apartments I live in get inspected! I must have had a brilliant Mother who trained me well!!!! Then weekly planning and I had to get a new planner! Can you believe that it's planner number 6? This last transfer has gone by so quickly it's ridiculous!!! - and then ‘Bible Prophecies’ for transfer calls tomorrow! Mine was weird! It was Exodus 3:1-3 .. I'm still not sure what to make of it! haha!

Saturday!!!!! Transfer Calls!! Transfer calls kind of just came up out of nowhere! Legit - this transfer has gone by too quickly! We are both staying in Bonstetten! It's gonna be weird, I haven't done more than one transfer with a companion since Elder Little and it means that I will do at least 3 transfers in Bonstetten, meaning it will be the ward that I have spent the most amount of time in so far!!!!! So I'm happy with it and our district is us, Richterswil stays the same and then Chur; Elder Timm gets a Golden. Elder Timm was in my MTC group and so were both of the Richterswil Elders, so we are a real young district! Elder Paulsen is like a major old man!!!! hahha!!!  - but it is gonna be fun! Then, as today is Easter Monday everything is closed in Switzerland, so we were told by President to shop on Saturday! Our plan was to go to Germany today, but we can't as nothing would be open, so we went on Saturday! It was pretty cool and we got masses of food! So life is great!! Then General Konferenz! I loved the focus on the family in the Saturday Morning Session! It was brilliant! I absolutely loved the fact when Elder Perry said that a Muslim Scholar from Iran quoted 2 paragraphs from the Family Proclamation. That was just amazing!!!!! haha!

Then Sunday! We had breakfast with the rest of the men in the ward! They said it was an English Breakfast, but it seemed pretty Americanised to me with Pancakes and Syrup with Bacon and Eggs, but it was really great! Then we watched the Priesthood session, which was brilliant and then over to Schwammendingen to watch the Saturday Afternoon one and then we decided to stay in Schwammendingen instead of coming back to Bonstetten; that way we could get something to eat as well! So Sunday was very spiritually uplifting! I can't believe that was the second General Conference on my mission. Only 2 more to go!! And Ash just has 1 more!!!! That’s mental!!!! It goes too quickly!!!! 

Week 2... 'Neue Versetzung, Tschüss Jake and Daddy (Mission Daddy of course) und nur Schweizer Untersucher'

And we are back to Monday again!!! It is ridiculously crazy how fast time is going! In 2 transfers time I am legit at the half way mark! It's gone too fast!!!!! 

So Monday was P-day and we just decided to chill at the chapel here in Bonstetten with the Richterswil Elders. It was a fun day! We played Wizard (card game) and I won! Wahey! Then just chilled and had fun! Then we had our haircuts by our old GML’s wife! It was cool and I would definitely recommend her!!!

Tuesday we did a load of vorbeis, not too much came from it! Then we had Gemeinderat and it was fun!!! Gemeinderat always is!!!!!

Wednesday We had District Meeting in Richterswil- who knows why it was a Wednesday when it's meant to be Tuesday, but hey! It was actually a really good District Meeting! Probably the best one I've had in this District so far!!!

Thursday was transfer day!!! Zürich HB is in our area and we were meeting Jeffrey in Bahnhof for breakfast at 8.30am, so we met him and had breakfast and happened to be there to say goodbye to those heading to München, so I got to say goodbye to Jake (Elder Robertson) and to Elder Little!!! It was a sad time!!!! Although their train had a 10-15 minute Verspätung on it, so we got to chat for another 10-15 minutes longer!!! haha! Then tradition is that when the train leaves - you run with it, if your trainer is dying or a missionary you really get on with and seen as Jake and Elder Little were dying, I had to do the run, so I did it, and the platforms in Zürich HB aren't the shortest platforms either, so it was quite a run and you have to stay level with the carriage they are on, so when the train is late; they go pretty quick from the platform. Normally it's a nice chilled run, but not this time, but it was cool and I got to say Tschüss to them!!!! Then in the evening we got to teach Seminary- Wahey!!! It was D&C 133 I think- about the Second Coming, so it was a cool chapter to teach and then we went out to get something to eat as it was Elder Paulsen’s Birthday!!! 

Friday we had planning!!!! Then in the evening we went with Brüder Meier to see a less active. It was the cat lady I went with him on splits to a couple months back, so we went and it was an interesting appointment, although one of her cats were pretty ill.

Saturday we went down to Richterswil to go to a baptism. It's a guy the Richterswil Elders were teaching! He was so prepared, like legit; I don't know anybody more prepared then he was and it was the best attended baptism I think I have ever been to! The ward legit just love him, so that was awesome and it was a really spiritual baptism!!! Then we did some vorbeis and then I realised on Saturday that all of our investigators that we meet with regularly and have some form of progress are all Swiss!!!! Now that is really awesome!! A lot of missionaries never teach a Swiss person past the first lesson, if they teach one at all, but all of ours are currently born and bred Swiss, so that was the awesome highlight of the week!!!

Sunday we had church, which was cool and then Choir, which was also cool, but Elder Pauslen was ill, so the rest of the day not much happened, but that was our week!!!

I can't believe Jake is back! You will have to harass him for photos, cause he took some on his camera that I never did! Like our last photo at Bahnhof on the Thursday before he left!!! Jake mentioned then, "You know, now I'm home you are the oldest Robertson Missionary, in terms of time out in the field" That’s weird!!! It is only by like 5 days though!!!

Week 3….. ‘Zone Ausbildung, Interviews und Tempel
I guess we'll begin from Monday!!! So, we were shooting off to Konstanz, Deutschland to celebrate Elder Byrom’s birthday!!! We went, had lunch, took a trip to the Sea Life Centre and then did some shopping! It was actually a really fun day! Plus the workers gave us like all the stuff that they give to kids when they come with parents, so we had a childish p-day!!!! haha! And we got to touch/hold a starfish- it was disgustingly weird!!!! But that was basically Monday, with FHE I the evening!!! 

At the Sealife Centre in Konstanz for Elder Byroms Birthday / P-Day

At the Sealife Centre in Konstanz for Elder Byroms Birthday / P-Day

At the Sealife Centre in Konstanz for Elder Byroms Birthday / P-Day

Tuesday!!! This week was crazy busy, so Tuesday we headed to the Stake Centre for Zone Training!!! Our zone is even smaller this time round as one of the sister areas got closed down. But it's a pretty cool zone!! Zone Training was pretty awesome! And we have 2 goldens in the zone, one German and one from Australia. It's so funny hearing Golden German! It reminds me of the days when I could barely even speak MTC level German. Haha! Good times! After that we went to do a few vorbeis in Zürich before coming back to the Stake Centre to have a lesson with Jeffrey before Insti. We had a pretty awesome little lesson, then for Insti we went to the D&C class which is taught by none other than President Uchtdorfs son!!!! It was such a good class!!!! And.... During Insti the ZLs and STLs in the Zürich stake were having a meeting with the Stake Pres. And it turns out one of the STLs for the other Zone that is in the Zürich stake is Sister Smiley (we were in the same District when I was in Kaufbeuren)!!! So we had a catch up! It was so cool!!! Like I ledgit thought I wouldn't see anyone from that district until the Elder Bednar Conference! So that was highlight of the day!!!! 

Wednesday was another crazy part of this crazy week!!! We were back at the Stake Centre for interviews and training with President! Training is just 2 districts together and we just discuss different things with Pres. So we spoke about a few things and he finally told us that Elder Bednar is coming to speak about iPads. He said he isn't sure if we'll be getting them on Saturday but they are coming! Apparently at this stage of time, all missionary iPads are property of the church but in the coming months we will be buying them, or something like that! So we shall see!!! Exciting stuff!!!! Then interviews- it was another strange one! One thing about President Kohler is that he likes to hint at things! This time he knew like everything- the past few times he didn’t even know which area I was serving in let alone how long I've been out! But this time he really brushed up on his knowledge! So he was going on about how I've been in Bonstetten for a long time (only 3 transfers- but whatever) and that Elder Paulsen and I have been together for quite a while now (we are only in the 2nd transfer- but hey) and then he was going on about whether to move me or Elder Paulsen next transfer and how my age of the mission are the soul, we are the heart of the mission and he's needing us to start training and leadership and stuff! So it was a pretty weird interview!!!! But hey! Then we tausched with Richterswil! Did I mention before that Elder Bakewell is our District Leader! Well if not there you go! So I was with Elder Bakewell in Richterswil!! It was such a fun tausch- I just love working with him!!!

Then Thursday we worked and then tausched back in the evening after Elders Paulsen and Byrom taught Seminary! (Yes we were asked to teach Seminary again!!!- luckily it was just a film this time) So we planned for us to tausch back after seminary! 

Friday was planning and we went out to get something during Lunch- I can't remember what, but we bumped into a member at this shopping centre and she just gave us CHF50 to get ourselves lunch as we haven't been over to theirs for dinner in a while! It was so nice! So we are definitely going to have to do a personal touch for them at some point in the next week!!! Then in the evening we had another essens termine which was really good!

Then Saturday! It was Stake Temple day. I believe the ward wanted the whole ward to be there, including us, so we took Saturday as our day this transfer to go to the temple! It was super nice! I just love going to the temple, it is such a special place and I always feel so much closer to family and home when I am there!!!! I love it! 

I love the Temple and I love Bern

Plus we were in Bern again, and I LOOOOOOOVVVVEEEE Bern!!!! 

Then Sunday!! Church was lovely! After we went to Bishops for dinner which was also awesome! I love Bishops family! They are so cool! There are a number of families in the ward that I love! You really grow even closer to a ward when you spend more time there! I just love Bonstetten!!!! 

In other news this week- I finished studying Jesus the Christ!!!!!!! If you haven't read it read it! It is such a beautiful book!!! I must admit though my favourite chapter in it is Chapter 40, it's about the Apostasy and it just explains it so perfectly! Like all we are taught growing up and even all we teach as missionaries is that there was an apostasy and a few other details but it's really brief. But this chapter is just exactly why there was an apostasy and how it happened, and why the Catholic church did have the Priesthood from Paul, but then the history as to why it was taken away! It was so cool!!!! 

Also, we finally got our travel plans for the Elder Bednar conference on Saturday!!! I am so unbelievably excited for it!!! It's the dodgiest plan though because we are taking the train from Zürich HB to Lindau Hbf, which actually goes through and stops at München Hbf, but we have to umsteig if we want direct- they just went dirt cheap on the whole thing, I think, but it is whole mission meeting, so would be costly!!!!! And then we take a bus back  from Lindau to München!!!!! It's gonna be a killer of a weekend but will be so, sooooo good!!! I cannot wait!!!! 
Well that’s it for now.

Love


Elder Robertson

Wednesday 15 April 2015

Ragusa 23/3/15 - 13/4/15 - Laboriosa, colta ed esperta nel settore della lavorazione della pasta

Week 1:
HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOO EVERYONE! Today I’m emailing you all frooooooooooom CATANIA!!! All of the Anziani in our zone are doing a zone football day and so we wanted to do something with the Sorelle here! So we came up last night and are gonna spend the day insieme!

Monday - So we had a ton of FUN in Siracusa with the Sorella! Saw the Greek theatre... the catacombs were closed, but we still had fun and got gelato instead! :) 
P-Day in Siracusa

P-Day in Siracusa

Rock Star Posing with the Sorelle of Siracusa

Rock Star Posing with the Sorelle of Siracusa


we're so fast we fly

Tuesday - Me and Sorella Puzey did some Less Active finding in the area! Didn’t find much success, but we had a few good gospel convos in the street! :) Then we went to some little ‘dodgy looking’ place to eat (close to the train station) and I had a boar sandwich. It was okay! I didn’t get ill, so that was good. It’s funny being on the mish.  We eat at places I would NEVER eat at if I was at home hahahahaha. You will be surprised!!! haha. Then we went home, which took FOREVER on the bus, but there wasn’t a train, so we had no option! Then had English course! A girl we met on the bus a while back called Bruna came! SHE EVEN did the closing prayer! IT WAS SO CUTE! Everything she said related to the spiritual thought that the Anziani did. So we spoke to her after and Sorella Hamilton gave her a book of Mormon! She said she’s Catholic, but we feel she has a ton of potential! :) Speriamo bene!

Wednesday - WE GOT BIDONES HERE, THERE AND EVERYWHERE. EVERYONE we had booked an appointment with (3 different appointments) CANCELLED!! I was so annoyed! We had all 0’s all week and this was nearly going to make up for the lack of numbers, due to the scambo, but no! I was so disappointed! DDM IN THE MORNING WAS AMAZING and we are really blessed to have such an awesome DL, Anziano Smith. He has such a great spirit with him as he teaches! He’s fab!

Thursday - We went to Comiso. Thursday is our Comiso day. Our area covers a few towns. It’s really sad, cus some we never get out to. In Comiso, we saw 2 less active families, the Guastellas and the Minardo :) It was really nice to see them! :) and we did our lil English course with Lorena’s friends :) and did a little talent show with them :) ah they’re really good kids!
Then on our travels, a man gave us a bag of free oranges!  ANDDDDDDDDDDD then at English course, there is a lady who we think is a really good potential and so for our spiritual thought I just played ‘Joseph Smiths First Prayer’ on the piano and then said: If they want to know about the story behind the song, speak to us! I managed to give her a restoration pamphlet and I just really feel so so good about her!! :)

Friday - Was ANOTHER day of bidones. I was just so done with cancellations, so we decided to just do the 'drop in' effect. We dropped in on a less active who was in and let us do a spiritual thought :) and the Puglisi family :) It really made up for it! I had prayed that morning and asked Heavenly father for success and that we don’t get bidones.. and we got bidones so I prayed again that we would find something to do, some kind of lesson and HE PROVIDED! As always! :) Then the ward had a 'salty cake' activity! :)

Saturday - We saw Rita and Rosemary! The lessons went really well and the spirit was so strongggg! :) Then we went to eat Chinese food with Gabe! :) HMMMMM!

Sunday - Church was great! Me and Sorella Hamilton taught Gospel Principles in English about the Atonement! :) Then we had pranzo with the Manzini SEN fam! I GOT SO FULL, BUT IT WAS SOOOOO GOOD! Then we did a LA lesson with Sorella Ragusa!!! Thennn headed to CATANIA!

Monday! I’m here in Catania with Sorelle Hamilton, Campos and Vasilachi! LOVING LIFE! The sun is OUT and we are so happy to be together!

I know the church is TRUE. It’s SO true! This is the Lords work and I’m so grateful to be a part of it.


Week 2:
Does anyone remember Sister Andrews? At the conference in Palermo one of the Anziani came up to me and said ‘hey’ and I was like errrrrrm ‘hi’! Then he was all... someone told me to look out for you and to say Hi and I was like haha okay (super confused) then he was like 'Sister Adams.. she served in your ward and she's dating my brother' and I was like errrrrrrrrrrrm, I don’t think I know a Sister Adams and then he was all awkward and embarrassed then went to sit down.... then during it Sister Andrews name came to my mind and then at the end I told him that there was a Sister Andrews and he was like 'YEAH her' hahahah, then we took a picture together, so he could show her. It was like random, awkward and funny, but he was a really sweet guy ha!
Also, this was in my notes for last week, but I must have forgotten.. but I read a talk called 'Mountains to Climb'. I don’t really remember what it is about right now, but I wrote it down cus I loved it, so if you find free time, it’s a really good talk! :) It’s by Henry B Eyring, who is literally one of my all time faves!! :)
Soooooooooo Monday we were in Catania with Sorella Vasilachi and Campos! WE went shopping... and all I bought was a new bag! Nothing too fancy, it’s a little smaller than the black one and it will come in handy for exchanges, so I have a rucksack and a small bag! We ate Arrancini and Conolli, which are so so good! Then we went back 'home' to Ragusa for a less active lesson with Sorella Angelini!!! We went to see her to read scriptures and speak about faith-- THEN Gaudia walked in (her daughter.. a less active we have been trying to see for AGES!) During the lesson, I bore my testimony of the small things that we can do to exercise our faith and Gaudia said 'So I need to come to church more?' and we like awkwardly looked at each other like ...'yeah' haha! SO that was super cool! :)
Tuesday we had a lesson in the morning set with Pietro... we met him at the main Piazza to do the Gospel of Jesus Christ lesson... After him, we went and did some direct finding in the street, which is always fun!! haha.. then we had lunch and studied the language, then we went and saw Rita! and read some scriptures with her! She bore her testimony on the Holy Ghost and the spirit was so strong. I think I’ve said this before, but I LOVE this woman. Her testimony and prayers are some of the most powerful I have ever heard!! THEN, in English course MARINELLA PRAYED!! We always begin with a prayer and close with a spiritual thought and prayer and after the spiritual thought the Anziani asked if anyone would like to pray and she volunteered straight away and it was one of the sweetest prayers I have ever heard (this is the lady I gave a restoration pamphlet to), so currently she’s a potential, but she really is great and we will try and set up an appointment with her tonight!! :) She would be such a great member!! :)
Wednesday -  In the morning we were supposed to finish the lesson with Pietro, but he cancelled on us, so instead we did moreeeeeee finding!! Then in the afternoon, we had a lesson with Iolanda (new convert) HER LAST lesson, but we will still meet up with her to do spiritual thoughts! She’s so great! :) Then we went to Ibla to do follow up finding... then on the way home an old ‘ish man started a conversation with us... he told us he used to come to our church and he knew a lot about it, so we gave him a mormon.org card with our number and church times! :) and then he helped us get off at the right stop (he asked the bus driver to change route for us and he did) haha! SO that was super cool! Then, as we were waiting for the next bus an African man named Tony came up to us with a lady and asked us to help her onto the bus, so we did and this old lady was SO FUNNYYYY! These creepy men came over to us and started asking us questions and this little old lady shouted at them so loud.. I didn’t really understand, cus she was speaking Sicillian and not very clearly, but she scared them off hahaha.  It was so funny! Then when they walked away, she was so proud of herself haha! 
Thursday we saw the Chines before DDM and we spoke about how we received a testimony of Joseph Smith and invited them to invite a friend for a FHE with us and they accepted the invite :)
Then DDM WAS SO SO GOOD! ANZIANO Joegenson did an addestramento about ‘Wants and Desires’. It was really well taught and it was just what I needed.  I found myself worrying about numbers a lot and then when I heard that and when he spoke about the differences between wants and desires; it got me thinking... Are these numbers a ‘want’ because of how I want to look to other missionaries and President or are they a ‘desire’ for the people. Basically, he taught that a desire is the reason behind the want. It was really really interesting and I took a lot of notes!! :)
Then Salvo (a member from Gela) brought treats for us and told us during this time that the only words he knows in English are 'I love you', 'kiss me' and 'prepare to eat' .. it was so funnyyyyy!! OH, also on this day me and Sorella Hamilton went outside to RUN!! :):) I was very proud of us! haha Then we had English course and me and Sorella Hamilton did the spiritual thought about the Book of Mormon! :) My fave quote of this day from English course was when we played the game where we write a word in English behind someone’s head and the others have to describe the work without saying it (in English) and one was Enchilada and someone says 'ENKILADA.. It is a kind of Mexican cat... I think' HAHAHAHAH it was hil as heck. I LOVE ITALIAN’s, especially when they speak English .. it’s so cute!!!

Friday - Saturday the Siracusa Sorelle came to us for an exchange!  Me and Sorella Puzey went to the Guastella’s and Criscione’s! I only got a tiny bit lost, but on the way I asked a man for directions and ended up leaving him with a mormon.org card and VERY briefly explained who we are. He was really coooool!! :) Then after the appointments for dinner, we met the other Sorelle and the Anziani at a burger place! :) On Saturday, me and Sorella Palmer went to see Rita and we showed her a mormon message video and bore our testimonies of Christ! WE asked her if she needed help setting up for conference and she told us that a member family had invited her to go and watch it with them at their house, which I am really pleased about and she seemed very excited :) Then she closed with prayer and it was (as usual) one of the most beautiful prayers I’ve heard!!! <3 Ritaaaaaa!
Then in the evening when I was back to normal with Sorella Hamilton, we did finding and we saw this really cool man called Santi... we had a really long convo with him in the street. He seemed genuinely interested! He is from Milano! He took one of the ‘Article of Faith’ cards and then later in the day we saw him sat on the bench reading it :) Then after, we came to the chapel to watch one of the General Conference sessions. I loved it all and I took so many notes. President Eyring’s talk was about service and went PERFECTLY with my morning study that day and it just blew my mind!!! I did notice a LOT talked about marriage and the family though and it was super beautiful!! :) Made me think of my beautiful family!! Fratello Guastella made us lamb pie! I LOVE LAMB. It was so good! Lots of bones though, but very good!! Then I had a really good conversation with Sorella Magrograssi (jun) about missions. It was probs one of the best conversations I’ve had with a member. I was really pleased with myself .. I’m not super confident with general conversation, but that really boosted my confidence! She’s a super great member and we were speaking about missions (she’s from Brazil and served in Brazil) :) 

Sunday - I LOVED GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!!!! IT WAS FANTASTIC!!
Soooooooooo transfer calls are coming uppppppp!!! I’m sad, cus I think Sorella Hamilton will go :(:(:(:( but it’s okay, cus I’ll see her in April at the Elder Bednar Conference!!! :):):):)
ANyways! I SAVED THE EASTER EGGS MY FAMILY SENT ME AND ME AND HAMMY (SORELLA HAMILTON) ATE SOME OF THEM ON EASTER SUNDAY!! :):):) mmmm so good! :)

Week 3:
ALRIGHT where do I begin! SOOOOOOOOOOO I guess I’ll do the usual diary form..!
Monday - was our deep clean day! Yeah, that was boring and we half-managed to get the black mould... I guess Me and Sorella Reber will have to try and get the rest.

Also, I had a weird dream that Verity (my cousin) went on a mission to France Paris. That was a weird dream, but now you know, if she serves a mission and goes to Paris France; I totally called it.. 

Also, we were buying food in a shop and the video to 'Thinking out Loud' by Ed Sheeran came on and it was so cute and it made me feel way trunky! hahahah trunky is such a weird word... but home sick sounds too dramatic. You know what I mean! ha! 

ALSO, me and Sorella Hamilton watched the Women’s session of General Conference! All about the family!!!!! (made me think of my lush little family) hehe! <3 ALSO, I don’t know if you got to see it, but they showed a few videos and in the second video ASHLEY SOUTHALL AND HER FAMALAM were totally featured in it and it was SO SO CUTE!!!!!! You should watch it if you haven’t already!!! Brought a tear to my eye!! All of us missionaries noticed how a lot of the conference was all about marriage hahahaha ... awkward for the dying missionaries! They better get on it!! Menomale I still have just under a year hahahaha I don’t need to be worrying about all of that just yet!! Anyways, so that was basically our Monday.

Tuesday - Was our P’Day and Sorella Hamilton really wanted to eat a rabbit, soooooo we were in the shop and they had a full rabbit.... we debated in our own heads how likely it was that we would buy it and go for it... then discussed for a few mins.... than totally got it hahahahahhaha!! So, for lunch we had a 'different' time.. I mean; obviously we cooked and ate, but we also had to view and touch the insides of a dead rabbit, which was delightful... just kidding - it was actually really sad and if we could have bought just the meat (not looking like a rabbit), we totally would have, but this is all they sold and she really wanted to try it! So there you go! It tasted good, but we ate the whole thing in a day and I think it’s safe to say, neither of us wanna eat rabbit ever again! :) THEN as usual, 7:30 rolled around and we did English course! There is this guy who comes to English course and he is literally so funny; like one of the funniest people I’ve ever met and he speaks to us in English! (his English is pretty good - apparently he lived in Birmingham England for a while so that’s cool); anyways, some things he says are really strange, but they make my day anyhow!!
Wednesday - We saw Rosemary! That lesson went really well! We showed her the Easter video! If you haven’t seen it--- WATCH IT !! It’s really cool and powerful. I love the music used in it!!! <3 :) Then we went to meet Pietro..... but he stood us up... anyways we call him and he was all 'yea I’m sorry', so we shall see with him, but we will have to move his baptism date back! Anyways! then for pranzoooooooo we tried to make a Focaccia (I think that is how you spell it...), but it didn’t really work out. They are super good though if you buy them from a bakery-type place.
Thursday - We had DDM -- it was a late DDM cus the Anziani were on exchanges and then the other Anziani in Gela had an appointment, so it was later, BUT we did our kinder predictions... or shall I say giant weird different egg predictions (but I stuck to the tradition and just got a regular kinder egg ahha) anyways!!! the predictions were right ish!! I said Sorella Hamilton would follow-up train one of the 3 Sorelle that came in 2 transfers ago AND SHE IS!!!! Anyways for DDM we watched the other session of General Conference, which was really really good! :) then we went to go to Comiso and as we were waiting for the bus they called to cancel... so we ended up.... FINDINGGGGG:)  Then we had English course!

Things I liked about that day was that during pranzo time we went to get Granita, but apparently it was too cold for Granita .... but not too cold for gelato. I thought it was the same, but apparently not haha! Then, as we were walking to centro to do finding, a man on a motor bike beeped at us (the usual) then parked and came up to us with his phone on selfie setting all 'beautiful girls let’s take a picture .. so beautiful girls' and Sorella Hamilton was all 'EW NO' and I couldn’t control my laughter. They are so creepy, but if you get all serious it can get super annoying, so you really do have to just laugh it off. One day I will record one of these scenes cus it sounds unbelievable hahahahahha, but it really happens!! Then also, a lot of raggazzi in the street think we are German cus as they walk past they shout German words at us, so that’s weird! OH also, in the morning I studied 2 talks which were really good. One called 'Spiritual Whirlwinds' by Meil Andersen and one called 'Bare up their Burdens' by David Bednar! They were super good!
We constantly get "chatted up" by Italian Men of all ages, but our response to them is always the same!
Friday - We did weekly planning and it was the saddest weekly planning we ever did :(:( cus we knew it would be our last together. Then for comp inventory it was super emotional... then we gave each other advice for our new companionship etc and it was just so sad and we cried.. before we even got the call hahaha .. man, this girl is also another one of the BEST FRIENDS I’ve met here! Sorelle Hamilton, Nagliati and Perkins!!! So I have high hopes for Sorella Reber! Anyways! In the afternoon we had a member lesson with Sorella Iacano. SHE IS SO SWEET! We spoke about the restoration and she has the sweetest spirit! We sung with her, spoke about how we each came to know that he is a prophet and then spoke to her about life and she was legit just the sweetest person! Then she gave us cookies! Then as we left, our hearts were full with so much joy!!! Then straight after we went to a less active.. the one and only SORELLA RAGUSA!!!!!!! She is SO cute! She is so cute and funnyyyyyyy! Then we spoke to her about the Atonement.

THEN Gabe... one of the Anziani’s simps wanted to go to eat at a Mexican restaurant at Marina di Ragusa. MARINA DI RAGUSA IS SO BEAUTIFUL!!!! It really filled us up haha! THEN! After we got home, Sorella Waddoups called to thank us for the mini Easter package we sent... then asked if she woke us up.. which she didn’t... then gives us our transfer calls early!!!!!!!!!!! I spoke to her in my best american accent! We actually understood each other and she was very impressed with the work Sorella Hamilton has done with me in terms of the accent hahahaha! SO YEAH! Sorella Hamilton is follow-up training Sorella Harman in Cosenza and I remain and get Sorella Reber!! :)  Sorella Nagliati is going to Rome 1 and SHE IS IN THE SAME HOUSE AS SORELLA ARNOLD!!! JEL!!!!!!! and next transfer is Sorella Arnold’s LAST!!!!!!!! Can you believe it!!! She dies soon!!!!!! 
Saturday - We did a member lesson with the PUGLISIS AND I LEARNT HOW TO MAKE PASTA!!!!! Real FRESH pasta!!!!!! I’M SO EXCITED TO MAKE IT WHEN I GET HOME! It’s SO easy, but so fresh and so so so good!!!!!!!!!!!!! MMMMMMM then we ate with them too! :) Then after them, we had another member lesson with Sorella Campo and Iolanda!! THEY ARE SO SWEET!!!!!! Such a sweet sweet family! We spoke about their conversion story and we sung with them!!!! Iolanda really wants to serve a mission and really she would be such an amazing missionary and Sorella Campo is like the mom for the missionaries in Ragusa!! She is so adorable and all of you would LOVE her!!! :)
Making Pasta

The finished result

I'm a Pasta expert - IO sono una pasta expert
Sunday! Church was great and refreshing and I loved it and I understand a bit more as time goes by, but I still don’t understand everything! I get the gist though, so that’s good! :) The Anziani taught about the priesthood for gospel principles! It was actually a really good lesson and even I learnt a few new things! :) Then we went to the Cascone’s house for pranzo and they did SWEET RICOTTA RAVIOLI AGAIN!!! IT IS SO GOOD!!!!!!!!!!! MM! Then we went to do finding in Ibla and as we were on the bus I hear this little English man’s voice saying .. 'We’re a hell of a way now!' and I was like: WHERE IS THIS MAN!!! Hahahaah, so I found him and he was SO British I loved it! This little old man and I’m sure his wifey was German or something, so I asked where he is from and he said 'London' and I told him where I’m from and Sorella Hamilton told him where she is from and then we spoke a bit about why we are here and he said 'yeah, there’s a show about the Mormons' and I’m all 'yeah, haha .. it’s not a very accurate one though ' hahaha .. it was awks, but he was super sweet and we offered our help but I think he was good with the map! :) Then we came home and Sorella Hamilton started.... :,( .. packing :( :( and then we made calls to book and confirm appointments for this week! So this week one of our member lessons is with Bishop and his family!!! The reception was bad, so Sorella Manzini said she would call back... Anyways, they call back and it’s Vescovo (bishop) and I don’t understand him (awks) then he passes her onto the phone and she is all 'he said hgilghlegh' and I still didn’t understand, then she speaks in English (SO CUTE) she served a mish in france, so she can speak a bit of English and apparently it turns out that he was joking around and was saying 'oh, so you want to go to other houses for lunch but not us' ahahaha, cus we are going to the Puglisis on Tuesday! ANYWAYSSS so we have a lesson and DINNER with them on Friday! Sorella Reber’s 1st full day and she has a lesson with BISHOP.... AND DINNER! She’s so lucky! hahaha :) I’m really excited .. they are such a sweet sweet family!! :):)
And that was basically our week!
ANYWAYS!
I want you all to know how much I love being here! I have learnt so much! I can only assume that there is still a TON of things for me to learn!!!
This opportunity to serve a mission has indeed changed my life. I have different perspectives; I see some things way more differently. I just love it here.  I know that this church if indeed Christ’s church. The same church he established when he was here on earth!! We are so blessed to have this knowledge!!!  I know that the Atonement of Jesus Christ is real and powerful. That only through his Atonement, we can be healed. I am so grateful for this knowledge!!! I know that only through him, we can be truly and eternally happy. I know the power of prayer is REAL. 

Have a good week!


Sorella Ashleigh Robertson xoxoxoxoxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <<3 <3 <3

Saturday 4 April 2015

Zone P-day, Tempel Besuch und Strasse Ausstellung!!!

Montag, so we did emails earlier, as we were heading to Richterswil, as Elder Paulsen wanted his hair cut! Mine really needs a cut too, but I'm not sure I trust Elders Bakewell or Byrom to cut it for me!!!! And after Elder Byrom cut Elder Paulsens, I was definitely not having him do mine!!!! So I asked our old GML yesterday if they have time this week when I can get it done, as his wife is a hairdresser! So the plan was to get that done on Wednesday!!! Wahey!!! Then not much happened until FHE in the evening!!!!
Dienstag!!!! Crazy day! So we had District Meeting down in Richterswil! It was actually a really good meeting; we learnt quite abit and we made it fun by giving our Deutsch tip as a game! So that was fun!!! Then we had a finding day there! It was actually pretty good! Richterwil is a pretty dead area for street contacting, so I tausched with Elder Bakewell and we did some dooring and vorbeis! We managed to set up an appointment for them, which was pretty cool!!! Then we went back to our area to go meet Jeffrey (our new member) to go to Insti! We had a lesson with him before and it was the most powerful lesson ever!!! It was amazing! We decided we'd go through Gospel Principles (GP) with him, as we don't have a GP class at church and we decided to do the one on 'The Life of Chirst.' It was such a good lesson and then Insti was also pretty amazing!!! So that was Tuesday!
Then we come to Mittwoch - where has the week gone!!! So this day was one of those days where we just went from appointment to appointment and they were pretty spread out, so lots of trains and lots of teaching!!!! We also had splits in the evening, which also went pretty well! Also, this week we had a zone goal of 85 lessons, as a zone in total (so less active, new members, investigators). Now that's a pretty high goal considering our normal average as a zone is like 60 or something like that. So every companionship needed to get 2 more lessons then their average! Our average is about 4 or 5 a week! So, so far this week we are on 5 lessons (already on the max end of our average) and the week's barely even begun!!! Plus, we have 2 new investigators that were taught on Tuesday!!!!! Wahey!!!
So Donnerstag rolls around and we have a day full of vorbeis with one appointment set up!!! And... nobody was home, not even the appointment!!! So Thursday sucked, but we ended it by teaching Seminary!! We legit teach Seminary at least once a transfer, but it was fun! We taught the lesson on D&C 121:34-46. It actually went pretty well, especially considering I can't read through the lesson in English first, cause they still use the old curriculum over here and you can't get a hold of the old one in English anymore! So that sucks, but hey! It went well!!!! 
I got Mail from Ashleigh

Then Freitag!! Oh, Freitag!! It was another Thursday! Apart from the evening... we had an appointment with our half naked friend! But this time... he was fully clothed, so he went straight to the progressing investigator list!!!! haha! No, but legit, he is awesome. He keeps all of the commitments we give him; he reads; he's just the cutest little old man ever!! haha! It was a pretty good lesson and he commited to come to church on Sunday!!
Samstag!!! Twas another Thursday and Friday! Not much going on, nobody home, nobody wanting to talk to us! Then we had Gemeindesport in the evening, which was actually pretty fun, but I think I may have done something to my back, cause it kills!! If it isn't better by the end of the day I'll call up the mission nurse, so don't stress it; Life's great!!!

Sonntag!!!!!!!!!!! Church was awesome!!!!! Sister Brown came with the family again!!!! That's 3 weeks in a row she has been at church! Then we got invited to 2 members for lunch, so we had to let one of them down, which was sad, but they said next week instead then, so life is still great!! So we had an awesome dinner appointment, then we had 3 more appointments! So our Sunday was so full! That took us to 9 lessons in total this week, plus 4 new investigators!!!! I'd say it was a pretty successful week and we definitely did our part to make the zone goal!!!! So you get good weeks and bad weeks, bad days and good days, but I'd say in general this week was certainly one of the best so far!!!!

So moving on to week two of the fortnight!!! What a week! Let's just say Zone P-day probably wasn't the best for my back, but hey! We played Football for like 3 hours while the Sisters just sat on the grass sunbathing, but it was good fun being together as a Zone and just playing sports, which took me back to the MTC! Although I got bitten like a gazillion times! My ankle itches like crazy and to top it off one of the bites made my ankle swell up on Wednesday, so it was a little painful to walk for a few days! But hey! And that was basically last Monday!

Tuesday! District Meeting in Chur! I hate and love district meeting in Chur! I hate it cause it takes us away from our area for like a whole day, although on the plus side Chur is mega beautiful!!! So that was basically all that happened on Tuesday! And I called Sister Kohler to get permission to call the nurse about my back! So I called and it went straight to answer phone, so I left a message! 

Wednesday! Now Wednesday took me back to when I was 14 years old and a Year 9 school kid, going around posting leaflets through peoples' letter boxes (it so reminded me of that annoying paper round!!) The ward asked us to post a load of flyers in the area! There were probs about 500 ish! It was for a Vortrag (No idea what that is in English- Presentation? Maybe!) on Whales and Dolphins, which the ward were hosting on Friday, so we did that for a good chunk of the day! Then we had a lesson and then the member who was going to cut our hair cancelled on us!!! I really badly need a haircut!!!! It's terrible how long it is!!! 

Thursday rolls around! We came to the chapel to organise a few things for the Ausstellung on Saturday, as Bishop ordered a load of pamphlets and BofMs in all sorts of languages, so we sorted how many and what languages we will take! Then we did some Vorbeis - nobody home, then weekly planning and then we went by our 90 year old investigator, who answers the door half naked again! He forgot about our appointment, so he was like ... you can come in now or we can reschedule! So we thought it best to reschedule and took a note to call him up to remind him an hour before in the future! Note taken!!!
At the Temple with Jacob
Cousins
Friday was Temple day! We planned like at the start of the transfer to go on the 27th and didn't tell anyone! Then a few weeks back Richterswil told us they were planning on going on that day as well and a few others. Then Thursday evening we got a call from Wetzikon, "Hallo, hier ist der Elder Robertson" "Hey Elder Robertson, here's Elder Robertson" ... so we chatted on the phone for like well over an hour about all sorts of stuff!!! Then we met them at Bahnhof to get our train to Bern! Legit there were so many missionaries going to the temple on Friday! It was crazy! Took me back to the MTC again, with like the whole session being full of missionaries!! It was so cool!!! Then we went back into Bern and got something to eat and chilled for a bit, while waiting for our train! I LOVE Bern- It is definitely a city you have to visit at some point! Everytime I go back there I just feel like it's home! It legit is where I was Born (mission wise)! So that was awesome! Then as soon as we got back to Zürich we headed to a members for a dinner appointment and it was awesome! Then we were asked by the ward to be at the Vortrag thing, but that was Friday done and still no call back from the nurse!
 The View from our Balcony at Study Time
Saturday! STRASSE AUSSTELLUNG!!!! Again, right in the middle of Bahnhofstrasse, middle of the city - it was crazy busy and this time we had Islam Ausstellungs either side of us! It was pretty good! A few members turned up to help out this time, which was cool! They need to though, because when it is Aprils' ausstellung, all of the missionaries are due to be in München for the Elder Bednar Conference, so only members will be able to be at the Ausstellung! That should be interesting, but it was cool! Although standing up all day really killed my back, so I called up Sister Kohler again, cause it went straight to voicemail again when I called the nurse, so she said she'll try and get a message to her for me another way! Then about 20 minutes later I get a call from the nurse! I have to take Ibuprofen, put ice on my back for 15 minutes every hour and sleep on the floor for the next few days! It's horrible and when I wake up, my back is killing even more from the floor, so I'm not sure how much longer I'll be doing that one! 

Sunday! Church! It was pretty cool! Jeffrey who was baptised in December and received the Priesthood about 4 weeks ago, passed the sacrament for the first time on Sunday! We worked pretty hard with him to help him prepare for the Priesthood last transfer, so seeing him pass for the first time, was like a proud missionary moment!!!! It was super cool!!!! Then joint Priesthood/FHV lesson, which was interesting and that was church! Then in the evening Richterswil Ward had a Musikalischer Abend, so we went along! It was pretty cool! It was a different one to the one we did in Zolikofen, so that was pretty cool and then home - and the week is over! 

And that brings us out to today!!! I want you to know that I know without a single doubt that this work is the work of the Lord. Miracles never cease to happen! The church is true, it is unbelievably true! That's why so many people have such a hard time accepting it, cause the truth is too much for them to acknowledge!!! I am so grateful for the blessing of the gospel in my life. I know without a shadow of a doubt that I am where I am needed to be right now! I am even more grateful for the knowledge I have that I belong to an eternal family! I love them all so much and can't think of anybody else right now that I would rather spend eternity with than my beautiful, amazing family!! I love them all so much!!!
Have an awesome day and even more awesome week!!
All my love,
Elder Ammon Robertson