Week 3 in Cagliari
I'll start with... Lunedì. What did we even do on Monday. Boh! Niente forse? We literally did nothing. Well, I mean; it took us forever to do shopping, cus the Anziani suggested we went to a different supermarket (one that doesn't cost a bomba), so we did, but this shop had no decent fruit or veggies, so then we had to go to the market. I don't know why it took so long, but it did. I may have actually mentioned this last week, cus we did it before email. Sorry if I did, but anyways. While I was there (I may have mentioned this too), but there was a British bloke at the markets and he spoke to me and told me he was from Newcastle (apparently he was here for his business in cooking), but he had a really strong Welsh accent. I mean, I rarely hear any accents other than Italian and American, so I could have got it wrong, but I went for it and told him he sounded Welsh anyways and his response was something like 'Well, me name is Gareth' hahahaha and I was like 'haha' then he was like 'Nahh, I do have a ton of family from Wales, so I go there frequently. Maybe I picked up the accent'. Anyways, that was a story that has absolutely nothing to do with anything. There was really no point in me sharing it .. but now I feel obliged to somehow expand on the story.. Errm, well, I do actually really miss British accents. Like so freaking much. Anything that sounds slightly British I actually get so happy about. I never thought I'd say that haha. I'm desperately waiting for someone to get their mission call to the Italy Rome mission. Do you know anyone waiting on their call? Pray for them! (to come here) .. hahahaha. Anyway! After that we emailed at Piazza Italia, then we went to Peter Pan. It was pretty good. Still not as good as Sicily .. Haha man I miss that place, but it was still good. I had cheesecake; nocciola and cream. They weren't super great together, but I couldn't decide, so I took the lot haha. Then we went home and ate. Then we did a lesson in the park with B (love that girl!!) .. about the Plan of Salvation. Then we did the FHE with all our simps. Me and Roberts were in charge of the game, so we played 'signs'. They loved it.. I think! It attracted a few of the random people walking through the park. I think they were trying to figure out what the heck was going on hahahaha. Then the Anziani did the spiritual thought. It was awesome!
Martedì... Began with DDM. We were supposed to see our simp, M before church, but she couldn't make it. Anyways, Anziano Mic did an awesome addestramento abooout desires and mentioned a 'being purified' programme that he is doing. He gave each of us the information about it. It looks awesome. I think I wanna do it. I'll send a pic of it.. :) After DDM, Fratello Caravagna made pranzo again, it was so gooooood. He's awesomeeee. Then after, we went and tried to do Less Active finding. We called these people a few times and hadn't received a reply, so we decided to go to their house. I'm getting pretty good at following maps, so that's handy. Anyways, none of them were in... either that or they were ignoring us. Then that took us to our lesson with Betty. She is so awesome and it went really well :) Then that took us to English course. We spoke about 'calling 911', so that was fun haha.
Mercoledì .. We saw Mari and spoke about the importance of scripture reading. She is awesome and the sweetest .. we love her a lot! After Mari, we went to see Rina. She wanted us to go to hers for pranzo... but she wanted us to make it, so we did (service right?) We made rice and chicken and really that was it. Oh and tomato and mayo. She loved it! Then she gave us gelato and melon. Then we spoke about the Priesthood, cus she had questions about the gospel principles lesson we did last Sunday. Then after pranzo and language, we went to (or shall I say attempted to) go to an appointment we had set up with a less active, R. She's Brazilian and from what I've heard she is awesome. She sounds really sweet, so we set off. It was in a different city. When we got there, we were kinda lost and the map didn't make sense, so we called her. She explained, but we must have not been where she thought we were. Then this huge crazy rainstorm happens and we are DRENCHED TO THE BONE .. and she tells us to just come back another time, so we were really sad about that :( Then we tried to get the bus home, but the first 4 buses just avoided us, cus they were already too full. (It's not like Rome where the impossible is made possible), so we waited and waited then finally got the bus home, made brownies and introduced ourselves to our neighbours. We packed them all cute with pass along cards and a scripture. Then spoke to them. Each of them let us in and told us if we ever need anything, they will help. They all seem super sweet. :) I'll attach a pic.
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| Cooking Brownies |
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| Brownies for our Neighbours |
Giovedì we started off doing casa in casa finding with no success. Then we did video finding, where we get out the iPads to use and tell people we are showing a video about Jesus Christ (Because of Him) and then share it, then bare testimony. It went really well. We found this one really awesome potential who said she would come to church (but didn't) .. but we swapped numbers and she asked for an extra Mormon.org card to give to a friend, so that was awesome! After that, we had a lesson with an African man called Buba, who we met last week. It went well until he broke it to us that he is actually a practising Muslim and then started flirting with me and sending really weird text messages, so he is being passed on to the Anziani for sure! After, we did a lesson with G (an awesome 13 year old new convert... B's daughter) she is the best! In fact, she basically taught the lesson haha. She has the strongest testimony I have ever seen in a 13 year old. She's incredible. She's so cute. You'd all love her! She talks to all her friends about the gospel. In fact one investigator, M, is her best friend. They study the scriptures together all the time, and she comes to church with her every week. M’s scriptures look more marked up than mine! They're incredible! Love them!! Then we had English course :)
Venerdì .. began with the weekly planning session, which went wellll; then pranzo; then lingua; then an appointment with R’s friend who lives nearby, M. She is about mid 50’s. It was her birthday, so we ate a bit with her, then spoke about the gospel. Two other people were there; a friend and her nephew. Her nephew seemed nice until we had to refuse the coffee they offered and explained the Word of Wisdom. He was insisting on how we are wrong, cus in the Bible Christ says that all food is good. Boh! It was weird. He just wouldn't accept it, however, the other lady LOVED what we were teaching. The only problem is, she isn't actually from around here. She asked us to pray that she can find a job here, so that she can see us - so please pray for her! After that, we had set up an appointment with R, but she bidoned us :( then there was an activity at church for the Pioneer Day! It went really well. It was very well organised. :)
Sabato... We taught M at Betty's house, then they made lasagna for us. It was so good!! I love lasagna. I haven't eaten it half as much as I expected I would though! After that, we did ex simp finding. Some told us to come back, others said they were too busy and weren't interested, so this week we shall follow up on that! Then we saw Rina and followed up on her reading. She couldn't remember if she’d read or not, so we read with her. Then we went home to do 12 weeks. We are so behind.
Domenica .. Churchhhhhhh. Home. Food. Language study. 12 weeks. Correlation. G and L shared their fave scriptures with us. Ate with them. Did more old simp finding. Called to set up the week.
I need to go, cus Betty is taking us to do spesa and she will be here any min. You're all the best. You are always in my prayers. I love you so much. I miss you so much. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thank you for everything you do for us!!!!!!!!!! MWAH
BACI E ABBRACCI XOXOXOXOXOXOXOOXOX
Week 4 in Cagliari
Ello chucks!
Let's start from the top.
LUNEDÌ ... We emailed.. In church ... With the LUSH AIR CONDITIONING MMMM .. then Betty took us to Eurospin to do spesa and it was wayyyy cheaper. I forgot how much better it is (that's where me and Nagliati shopped in Pescara), so we got a ton of food for real cheap and it actually lasted us all week! :)) Betty is a hero .. comunque .. after that we chilled out, then had the FHE. The Anziani were in charge of it this time. They planned the game (charades) and the spiritual thought. That was about it.
MARTEDÌ ... We were at the immigrant station alllllll morning. The Anziani took us, cus it was right on the other side of town and we would have never made it. We got there and waited about 4 hours. The place s t u n k, so we all waited elsewhere. We were the last number. When they finally called us, it went really smoothly. Apparently normally there are problems and they're rude, but we really didn't have a problem. The Anziani said it’s cus we are 'blonde girls', so they thought we were cute and were supppper nice to us. Hahaha I'm not complaining. Roberts did her finger prints; they measured her and just did their random little checks. Anyways, we took some pictures of ourselves as we waited and by the time we were done it was lunch time. Then language study time. Then we saw Rina and finished off reading 3 Nefi 11 with her. After Rina, we did a lesson with Betty. All about the Plan of Salvation. I used the wooden visual Nagliati gave me and Betty loved it!!!! So, that really went so well. One of the scriptures I shared when I spoke about Life on Earth was Mosiah 3:19 and after I read it she said 'Wow, I don't believe this Sorella' and I was like 'What?' .. and she went on to explain that all week she was wondering what 'the natural man' means, then told me that this scripture was an answer to her prayer.:) Don't you just love the spirit? After Betty, we had English course. 'Going to the dentist' .. I knew NONE of the words. That sucked. Like, we tried to study for it, but we never use the words 'cavity, filling' etc in Italian. Like, ever, so that was great! We just acted a lot. Some of them got it and they all knew that we didn't know these words for beans. Lol awks. Comunque/anyway.. hehe. My awesome verdina (greenie) took the lead in the spiritual thought and she did SO WELL. All the students complimented her on it, so that was super awesome.
MERCOLEDÌ ... We started the day with Mari! We spoke about baptism and confirmation and Sabbath day observance. It went really well! She is awesomeeeee! After that, we needed to do some 'online training' for part of the 12 week programme, but we couldn't find it, then we needed to search for the date of Sorella Roberts’ 'cultural class', which is part of obtaining the permesso. She will have to do like a 5 + hour cultural class, haha poverina!!! After that, we went through and did 'flush' finding. Going through the phone and calling all contacts, potentials, ex simps. We didn't have a ton of success doing that, although we came across one man who had read all of the Book of Mormon and thought it was awesome, but then didn't have time. Grr! Dopo that we pranzo'ed, then studied the lingua. Then we saw THE FIRST LESS ACTIVE SO FAR. YES! Finally someone actually answered the phone and agreed to meet us. Her name is Valeria. We met her in the park and just spoke with her and left her with a spiritual thought :) After that, we made cookies, so that we can actually get to know these members! We originally planned to make them and see the people in leadership position. You know, there's nothing wrong with getting in with them first! Problem is, the ovens here in Italy are all just really bad gas ones that don't have any set temperatures (either that or they're just so old you can't see anything), so first they burnt, then then weren't cooked, then just bad things happened, until we figured that we can only bake 2 at a time, which was ridiculous, so we ended up just doing like 10 cookies, before heading off to Vescovo’s .. who's house we just couldn't find for beans. The maps are horrifically out of date and we can only access google maps with Wifi. Non c'è. Anyway, we decided that there was a reason that we needed to be in the area in which we ended up, so I suggested that we prayed. Sorella Roberts said it. Then we decided not to go home until we had found that person who was in that area. We walked and walked, then Sorella Roberts pointed out this lady who was pushing a wheelchair with a 5’ish year old girl inside. The only thing was, she was on the other side of the road and the lights had only just changed to red (for pedestrians), then the woman stopped with the little girl to look into a shop window, which gave us perfect time to wait for the lights, cross the road, and walk to her. As we were crossing the road I asked Sorella Roberts what she wanted to say to them and initially she just said 'I don't know', then when we got there, without hesitation, she just approached this woman, grabbed the cookies out of the bag and said (in Italian): ‘Hey, we have a gift for you .. Cookies!' The woman kinda looked at us strangely haha. Then we went on to say how we are missionaries and we are here to speak about the gospel and that today, as service, we made cookies and are giving them out for free! After that, she didn't look as scared hahaha, but it was still a really strange situation for her! We gave her a Mormon.org card, spoke a little about our church, then left her. We don't know what will come of it, but I just wanna brag a little bit about how good my verdina is so good at listening and recognising promptings .. and then following them. She's awesome! After that we went to catch up on 12 weeks!
GIOVEDÌ ... SCAMBIOOOOOOOOOOOO. The Sassari Sorelle come into the Train station at 9:30, so we met them there. I began with Sorella McKenzie and Roberts was with Hansen. Me and McK went to see ANOTHER LESS ACTIVE WOO called R. She's Brazilian and adorable, but I cannot pronounce her names for beans. Every single person corrects me every time (but her), so that's really awkward. Worse still, I'm sure each time I say it I pronounce it differently haha, fun!! She was awesome. We got to know her and based our spiritual thought was on the talk 'The Music of the Gospel' by Elder Anderson (his son is actually here in the mission). Anyways, it went really well. She is a convert. The only one in her family. She is here for work, but she actually wants to prepare to go to the temple, so we'll be working really hard with her. She alsoooo came to church on Sunday and spoke with Vescovo about it and he's gonna help prepare her too, so that's superrrrrr exciting :) I love her :) After that, we had our interviews with President Waddoups. I think mine was the longest hahahahahah. During the transfer I was preparing for it, so I had a ton of questions written down on my iPad ready for the beginning question he asks in interview 'So Sorella Robertson, what do you want to talk about today?' Usually I sit there awkwardly like 'errrrrrm nothinggggg?' Hahahah and I don't wanna be awkward any more so yeah. I got ready. He really helped me and it was probably the best interview I've had with him. He's awesome! He really cares for his missionaries. :) Then Hansen and I taught M about the scriptures and obedience. Then I went back with Hansen to finish up my addestramento.
VENERDÌ ... ZONE CONFERENCEEEEEE. It began with a Leadership Meeting (see picture where I'm the only girl.. Well, me and Sorella Waddoups.
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| Leadership Meeting (Pre-Zone Conference) |
We just went through the program for the conference, then spoke about our responsibilities and how everyone in the zone is doing. Shared miracles etc. Sorella Waddoups did an addestramento about baptisms and mission successes in general. Then we had the conference! President started talking about the basics; street contacting and teaching The Restoration. That's what we are doing in the pic when the Anziani are awkwardly opposite the Sorelle. President likes doing that. So yeah, we were role playing that. Woo!
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| Role Play at Conference |
After that, the AP’s spoke about interviews and preparing our investigators for baptism. Then we had lunch, then me and Sorelle Hensen’s (flute) did the musical number; a mash up of ‘Lead Kindly Light’, ‘I Need Thee Every Hour’ and ‘Brightly Beams Our Father’s Mercy’. Personally I think it was pretty sweet.
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| Musical Item with Sorella Hensen |
After that, I did my addrestamento. I was so scared. Haha but once I was up there the nerves just left me.
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| Delivering training at Zone Conference |
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| Delivering training at Zone Conference |
Lucky our zone is the smallest in the mission. Anyway, there's just like 16 missionaries in the zone. I think it went well. I took up the full 30 mins no problem. I think the ZL’s were worried I'd go over, cus they flashed up the 5 min remaining card hahaha. I didn't bring my notes for what I actually did, but next week I'll send them. It was all about involving the members in the work. I felt like a bit of a hypocrite, cus it’s certainly something that I could do better at, but I learnt a lot and we'll be trying our best to put it into practise this week! I got them to do 2 role plays. It was nice, cus I didn't have to do it (I hate role plays). I got them to first role play inviting a member to a lesson; pointing out their qualities; why they chose them; explaining what they would like the member to do etc. Then the second one they were seeking a referral. I hope they weren't too bored. Sorella Waddoups told me she understood 70% ish of what I said, haha she's a joker! Love her! So that was cool. Then the ZL’s spoke about finding. Sorella Waddoups did her bingo game. Pres spoke about the Doctrine of Christ. Then we sung the mission hymn; prayed and basta. I loved Zone Conference. I began the mission really disliking them, cus I would just feel out of the loop and it sucked and I hated role plays, but now I'm considered 'old' in the mission I've got a grip of things and I'm way more comfortable now! Roberts seemed to enjoy it too! PS talking about being old in the mission.... Can you believe 1 year ago yesterday I was set apart?........... 1 year ago today I took off on a plane?!!! It doesn't feel real. Time is flying and as much as I am so excited to be home with you all, part of me feels heartbroken that I have such a short period of time left here.
Anyways, I'm gonna get emotional, so I'm gonna finish Friday off with a classic President Waddoups joke. So he walks over to an Anziano and he is like, massaging his temples with his two pointer fingers and he says 'Anziano, what am I doing?' .. and he was like 'Errrm I dunno, what?' .. and he looks at him with a big cheesy grin and he said 'My temple work’ hahahahahahah and that's President!
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| The Cagliari Zone |
After conference we did a Mostra. Sorella McKenzie and I (but mostly her, I just ruined it) drew out the Plan of Salvation. We did it with the Sass Sorelle and 2 Anziani. We managed to get 3 numbers, 2 of which I think are legit and the other 1 is a mystery. Still .. we are gonna call them tonight. After, we treated ourselves with gelato from Peter Pan .. and a pizza.
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| Treating ourselves to Gelato |
SABATO ... The Sorelle left early in the morning to go back. We did weekly planning, ate gnocchi and began our fast. We studied Italian and dropped cookies off at B’s house. We haven't heard from her all week. We didn't know what was up, we got a bodone and did park finding. Shared quasi all of the Restoration with this one lady who was waiting for her friends, then as I was about to pass the First Vision onto Roberts, but her friends came and she had to go, but we left her with the pamphlet and our number. Then we spoke to a lady who was from Russia, called L. She spoke no Italian and we speak no Russian, but it was amazing, cus somehow we were able to communicate with her and we understood each other. We gave her our number, but she told us that she won't have a phone til Monday (she had only been in Sardegna for 3 days). We explained as best as we could (with a lot of actions) about the Book of Mormon. After some more finding we went home to catch up on 12 weeks (so behind).
DOMENICA ... CHURCHHHH WAS AWESOME. I tried my best to translate Relief Society for an American girl who's here for a while. I am the worst at translating. It's so hard for me to concentrate, translate, speak it out in English and still listen to the Italian. It's impossible for me!!! It's not that I don't understand it, there's just so much going on at once, I really struggle! Then we had pranzo con la famiglia Sanna. THEY ARE SO CUTE. LOVE THEM!!!!!! They were talking about how Chris Hughes thinks it’s a 'bellissima cosa' that in England we have a queen hahahah. We ate really well and were in really really good company. Wasn't awkward at all! I was so worried it would be, cus usually my companions talk LOTSSSS and so I've never had to really say much, but they were so friendly and talkative and easy to understand. We really enjoyed ourselves. We shared Alma 13:24 and bore our testimonies that our Heavenly Father is preparing people to hear and accept the gospel and we invited them to pray for opportunities to share their testimony with family and friends during the week and they accepted.
After that we went home...... and guess what the temperature was?!!!! I took a pic in their car, cus I didn't think you would believe me.... 45C !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So hot!!!!!
We studied the language, had correlation, then went to a FHE that a member held at her home with other members, Betty (our simp) and a less active that we worked with this week. We shared the spiritual thought for that and then ate some more, so we were fed really well yesterday!
Today we are late. I'm typing up the email while we wait for the Anziani to sort the Wifi, as someone turned it off yesterday and then locked the computer room, which none of us have a key for. So yeah! Then I'll go buy some stamps; then we'll do spesa; then I'll go birthday shopping for Beth :))) woo!
I just wanna thank you all for everything you do for me! I love this country. I love these people. I love this gospel. I love my Saviour, Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. I love you all, a ton!!! This has by far been the best thing I've ever done with my life. I'm trying not to think about how little time I have left, cus it really brings so many mixed emotions; it excites me, but at the same time it breaks my heart, just like it broke my heart when I left you all. Mom, you were right!
I love you all more than anything in the world! Each of you are incredible examples for me.
Keep being amazing. You never know how much good you do! Be yourselves. Serve others. Look after each other, smile always, laugh lots and love even more.
All my love, hugs and kisses.
Sorella Ashleigh Robertson xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox
