OWeek 7: Cagliari, Sardegna
There's no super duper important news for you all this week, so we'll dive straight in to Monday (in the words of Elder Ammon Robertson hehe ;) ) .....
P’day was a little bit different this time round. We went straight to do email. Then B, G, M and V came (oh also Anz Cab, Mic and Jorg were there). B made lunch... Lasagne. My faveeeee; so I was all made up hahahah. She's awesome. She's so good to us missionaries :) After that, we played a bit of table football with the girls and the Anziani, then me and Roberts did a lesson for B, so we could get them all done before the big day (Saturday) then we did spesa.. (B took us to Eurospin, cus it's the best supermarket in town Hahahah). Then we wrote some letterssssss. Then had the FHE. The Anziani did the spiritual thought and we played Charades. We made Anziano McColloum pretend to be the crazy hyena from the Lion King. It was super funny. After that, we went homeeee and planned.
Tuesday... Started off with 12 weeks, cus we got a bit behind again. Then had DDM. Anziano Cab shared part of the talk called 'The Atonement of Jesus Christ' by Jeffrey R Holland taken from the Liahona in March 2007. He began with the story that he starts with. It was awesome. If you have spare reading time, I'd recommend it. :) Then McColloum did an awesome (as per) addestramento on Charity. He gave us all the opportunity to share an experience when someone did something nice for us, which affected us and made us happier than they probably will ever know. I spoke about when I was in the MTC and it was just me and my teacher, Sorella Urban, because the other missionaries were in Salt Lake sorting their permesso stuff. I got really really stressed out, cus Italian was super super solid for me. She told me that she had a surprise and told me to follow her. She took me to one of the chapel rooms and let me play the piano for 30
mins, while she hummed along, because she remembered that during the first week of the MTC I told her that to calm down when I'm stressed, I play the piano. So yeah, that was the experience I shared. :) Then I got to share the miracle moment. I shared one of my Dad’s experiences from his mission about the Polish man. They all thought it was awesome. Even though it wasn't my miracle, I just felt prompted to share that experience. :) I ADORE the mission stories that my parents send me. They are incredible. Keep them coming! :) After DDM, Anziani Cab and Ray went to the shop to buy some food for us to all eat together. They made little pizzas and got a huge watermelon. It was awesome, cus we were able to get to know each other way better. These Anziani are really cool. :) After DDM, Bd cancelled us :( so we went to the park for find some souls haha. Always a joy! After that, we did another lesson with B. :) One of the ‘Laws and Ordinances’ lessons, but I can't remember which one though. It went well – as usualllll, as she's awesome :) After that, we did English course.
mins, while she hummed along, because she remembered that during the first week of the MTC I told her that to calm down when I'm stressed, I play the piano. So yeah, that was the experience I shared. :) Then I got to share the miracle moment. I shared one of my Dad’s experiences from his mission about the Polish man. They all thought it was awesome. Even though it wasn't my miracle, I just felt prompted to share that experience. :) I ADORE the mission stories that my parents send me. They are incredible. Keep them coming! :) After DDM, Anziani Cab and Ray went to the shop to buy some food for us to all eat together. They made little pizzas and got a huge watermelon. It was awesome, cus we were able to get to know each other way better. These Anziani are really cool. :) After DDM, Bd cancelled us :( so we went to the park for find some souls haha. Always a joy! After that, we did another lesson with B. :) One of the ‘Laws and Ordinances’ lessons, but I can't remember which one though. It went well – as usualllll, as she's awesome :) After that, we did English course.
Wednesday.. We saw M. Did the ‘Gospel of Jesus Christ’ and again extended the baptismal invite. She told us again that she knows it's a good thing, but she's wants to be 100% sure. :( We tried testifying to her that we know that between now and then, she can be 100% sure, but she wasn't taking it. Maybe the next time. After that we went to sort B's baptismal programme out. Then we went to have pranzo with R. We cooked Pesto di Pistachio, cream and bacon with pasta. She fed us octopus. Yes. I ate an octopus leg. Grosssss. Nah, it wasn't that bad, but still ![Flushed face]()
#dignity there is none these days .. anyways.
After we ate, we spoke about the importance of gaining and developing a personal testimony of the gospel. Then we went to see Re, a less active member. She is awesome. Her friend was also there to listen to our message. We spoke about the Atonement of Jesus Christ, how he helps us overcome trials and difficulties. Showed her the Mormon message 'Mountains to Climb'. I think the talk itself is one of Henry B Eyring’s, but don't take my word for it, I'm probs wrong. It went really well. After A cancelled us too, we did more findinggggg in the park. Yeyyyy.
After we ate, we spoke about the importance of gaining and developing a personal testimony of the gospel. Then we went to see Re, a less active member. She is awesome. Her friend was also there to listen to our message. We spoke about the Atonement of Jesus Christ, how he helps us overcome trials and difficulties. Showed her the Mormon message 'Mountains to Climb'. I think the talk itself is one of Henry B Eyring’s, but don't take my word for it, I'm probs wrong. It went really well. After A cancelled us too, we did more findinggggg in the park. Yeyyyy.
Thursday... We began doing area book finding and set up about 3 appointments with ex investigators, so we are super excited about that. One ex investigator even gave us a referral, so that was awesome. We called her and she told us that right now isn't possible, but after the 19th September – we should call her. We'll be on it! We also helped one of the YSA girls from Milan who is waiting for her mission call with mission prep. She had a ton of questions and wanted advice and stuff :)
Friday started off with the usual weekly planning sesh. We did finding at another park. There was a bloke who seemed to be interested and asked a ton of questions. He listened to basically all of the ‘Restoration’, then was like 'but there's a ton of religions, Catholics say this, TJ’s say that, Buddhists say that and you're saying this. How am I supposed to know what to believe?' We were like 'That's exactly why we are here; there is a way to know' etc etc you know the drill. He wouldn't swap numbers with us, but promised to meet us on Saturday, at 1700 in the same park. Then after a while, Roberts decided she wanted to do Casa finding. We went to this one apartment complex and started ringing the citos. Then there was this banging sound coming from the building, so as Roberts was ringing them and waiting for someone to answer, I looked up and there was this little crazy old woman waving a clothes hanger at me as if was a gun. Yelling at us saying that everyone is sleeping at this time (side note, it was about 4:45pm) anyways, it was hilarious. After that, we saw B for her last lesson as a non-member! It went really well. She was super excited, but also super nervous! Love herrrr
Saturday was a crazy day. We began meeting a less active called V in the park near her house. We spoke about the Sabbath and how it is a delight! She shared experiences of the Sabbath day that she had as she was growing up – when she was young. She is really sweet. She asked us to help her with her shopping next week, so finallyyyy we have service! :)) After that, we went to get a little something for B to give to her after her baptism :) We got her some bracelets :) Then we went to meet the man.. who never showed up, so we did more finding; then went to the chapel to set up for the baptism.
The baptism was absolutely beautiful! The spirit was certainly there – a very sweet presence. I felt the joy and happiness that Heavenly Father has for her for making this decision to come back. The happiness that G felt, brought her to tears. The talks were awesome. It was truly an incredible evening. Our ward mission leader (her hubby to be) baptised her. While we waited for her after the baptism itself, G (her daughter, who was baptised in June) shared her testimony. Then we all sang a few hymns. I'll send you some pictures :)
Sunday was awesome too. We got to church, and there was the Anziani and a random lady. We spoke to her and she told us that she had never been to our church before, but she lives close by, so she felt like coming to see what it's all about. She stayed for all 3 hours and loved it, we set up an appointment with her and E (the girl from Milan, who is waiting for her mission call) – for Thursday, so we hope it all goes well :) After, we had Relief Society. We did our usual spiritual thought and spoke about how with ‘Faith in Christ’ we can do anything. Roberts shared an example of when I got her to make a phone call; how she was scared and didn't want to do it, but she prayed and received the strength and ability to do it, to understand and to make sense. Then we shared 1 Nephi 3:7. The lesson was based on the talk that Anziano Bednar gave last General Conference titled 'Therefore, They Hushed Their Fears'. The Anziani did an awesome lesson about ‘Faith’ and the talks given in sacrament meeting were also awesome. After that, we came home, ate, studied, did area book finding again, then went out to find lonely old people (members' less actives); then ended up in another park, finding. We spoke to a few awesome people. One lady told us that she had seen us missionaries before. We spoke to her about how we believe that in questi giorni we have a loving prophet and apostles; just how it was when Christ was on the earth. We bore our testimonies of Jesus Christ, his gospel and church and invited her to read the Restoration pamphlet and to come to church. She accepted. :) After, we went home, planned, made calls to set up appointments for this week and ateeeee. Oh, also, 2 less actives that we have been working with came to church today!!! One for the full 3 hours and the other for 2.
I just wanna let you all know how much I love you. Each one of you. It has been said that we can read email during the week again now so ... ;) if you wanna..
This gospel is true. Jesus is the Christ, our Saviour, Redeemer, Brother and Friend. God is our loving Heavenly Father. I love the simplicity of this message. It is for everyone! All of us need the blessings that this gospel brings. I wanna invite you all to invite someone to church this week. I don't wanna sound bossy, that's not why I'm saying this.. but I know that if you exercise that faith by doing so, you'll be blessed along with the lives of your friends :) I'm so excited to do missionary work as a normal member when I get home. It's gonna be awesome!
BACI E ABBRACCI XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
Ps I'm really really really excited for my packageeeeee from home xxxxxxxx
Week 8: Cagliari, Sardegna
Sorry that is isn't super detailed, but we are at church again with some of the Ragazzi and they wanna play with us soooooo, I'll start with Tuesday...
Or Monday. I GOT THE PACKAGE!!!!!!!!! THE QUAVERS ARE ALREADY GONE AND ANZIANO CABALLERO ENJOYED STEALING MY PARTY RINGS. Lucky I still have another packet at home hehe yeyyyy. I forgot how gooooood they are mmmmMmMM.
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| We both enjoyed the contents of the Parcel from Home :) |
Tuesday. Today was so great! We began with Skype Capi Conference. President began by speaking about the standards of excellence and how we as a mission are doing with them. We seem to be doing pretty good, but there is visually a ton of room for improvement! He then got some of the missionaries to share miracles that they saw during ferragosto. The AP’s spoke about making the first lesson count. Sorella Waddoups spoke about obedience and reiterated a few basic rules and emphasised on how everythingggg we do should relate to our missionary purpose. President spoke again more about obedience... Anziano Sear and Stevens spoke about technology. Thennnn the AP’s again about obedience! It was a really good conference.. even though the connection was on and off throughout. Then at the end we sung the mission song. Wheyyyyyylaaaa
After that, the Oristano Anziani came (for DDM) but before that .. we ate at McDonalds next door to the chapel. I got chicken nuggets and a coconut milkshake, so I was super contenta; then after thattttt we did DDM at the chapel. Anziano Jorgenson did the 'funny' story and explained about the time he ate the wax from the cheese... Then Anziano Caballero did the language tip. Jacobs did the miracle moment and my figlia did the spiritual thought... and it was awesome!! After that, as per usual, Anziano McColloum did an awesome addestramento. This was all about giving everything over to the Lord and concentrating 100% on the work. He began telling a story. I don't have a ton of time to write it down, so I'll tell you next week.. but I loved it. He is an awesome DL. Probably one of the best I've had. After that, we studied, saw R, then B and then did English course.
Wednesday.. Oggi was awesome. We began with a lesson at the chapel for M. We spoke alllll about the Holy Ghost and began with an extract from the talk 'Receiving a testimony of light and truth' by Dieter F Uchtdorf. Then we spoke about how the Holy Ghost works. We used a variety of scriptures, which describe the nature of the Holy Ghost and how it helps us and she seemed to understand. She really is awesome and sweet. Straight after her, we went to meet P. He is an ex investigator who we found doing area book finding. He met with the Sorelle about a year and a half ago. He agreed to meet us when we called him last week. We met him at park, local to where he lives. He was there! We went and sat on a bench in the shade (otherwise I would have died and melted away) and he just told us all about his life. As he began to speak about his father, he began to cry. His father is still alive physically, but it's super hard for him to see him so old and unwell. He just got emotional. Then he went on to explain how his Dad went to this one church, where they only pray to God and that surprised him. He is super sweet. He has had it pretty tough life. I felt impressed to show him the Mormon message 'Montagne da Scalare' (Mountains to Climb). The spirit was definitely present. He has a few doubts, but me and Sorella Roberts felt really strongly that he is ready now, so we will see him again next week and begin over with the lessons:) After that, we went home for pranzo. I didn't sleep all night, so Sorella Roberts made dinner while I tried to take a nap. I don't know what is up these days, I haven't slept super well for about 2 weeks now. After that, we did our studies. Then we went to see R and spoke about the Word of Wisdom. We felt it was time, as each time we have gone over for pranzo she has offered us wine, even though we tell her we don't drink it, haha. She seemed super cool with it and agreed to follow the Word of Wisdom, so that was awesome haha :) Straight after that, we went to try and figure out where one of the referral lives.. We received one from the office and couldn't find her road name on any of the maps, so we went to Piazza Italia to use the wifi for the maps. She lives super far, so that's gonna be fun figuring a visit, especially when the only thing she gave was her address, no number.. Vediamo. As we were sat on the bench trying to figure this all out, a man approached us to ask us about English course. He seemed super friendly and after we explained how corso works, he then asked about church and said that it would be a pleasure for him to come one of these days; so we explained how it all works etc. It was super random, but another tender mercy, being in the right place at the right time I guess :) Right after that, we went to do some park finding We had 3 really really awesome gospel conversations, so hopefully something will come of them:) Then we went to see A. We shared the same message that we shared with R. Trying to get those referrals. She agreed to invite a friend to church next Sunday and promised to pray for missionary experiences. Today was awesome. Nobody cancelled us, so we did everything that we had planned.
Thursday... We started off meeting up with V, a less active. We spoke about how we can be the Lord’s hands. Again, that good old referral lesson! :) After that, we helped her with her spesa. We went to Auchan and then to the fruit store with her. She introduced us to the fruit guy and we got to speak a bit about our purpose and we invited him to church, which was cool. She was so funny, just tasting all the different fruit there, she must be his friend. Then in the end, we took the stuff back to her house and then she gave us a watermelon and some peaches. So cuteeeeee .. love her!! Straight after her, we went to read some of the Book of Mormon with R. It went well. Initially when we walked in, there was a bottle on the table. It looked suspiciously like wine, so I asked her what it was and she was just like 'wine' hahahahah and I was like .. errrrrm 'Do you remember what the Word of Wisdom is?' .. and she was all 'No, no, it's not alcoholic... Try some' and I was too scared to try some just in case hahahah Then she went and got the bottle and in the end, all it actually was, was blueberry juice hahahah. I love her, she's so cute! We read 2 Nephi 32 with her. Spoke all about the Holy Ghost and the importance of prayer. She understood everything and answered alllll of the questions right. After that, we pranzo'd, studied then left straight away for a lesson with F in the park that he works at. He got us gelato, haha even though we said we were bene. He's super sweet. We didn't have a ton of time, cus we were scheduled for another appointment at church for 5:00, so we shared a spiritual thought (as he was also on the job) all about Faith. There is a Mormon message that Elder Russell M Nelson presents. We obviously mentioned that he was one of the 12 apostles and that then led to an awesome conversation about Apostles and Prophets. He still has a ton of questions, but unfortunately time was running super short and we had to leave him with a prayer, but we are super excited to teach him next time about that stuff. He seemed to be super intrigued about it all. :) We get to the bus stop and realise we missed the bus by 5 mins and that the next one wouldn't have been for another 15 mins.... so we got speaking to a guy who was waiting there. He could obviously tell we were English, so he began saying the few odd words in English – to show off haha. I asked him about it and he told me he had lived in England for 5 years for work (in a bar) St. Albans infact! He seemed awesome. We got speaking about religion and he told us he is a practising Catholic.. but would listen to our spiel. We invited him to English course and that was that, cus his bus arrived. Finally our bus came and we got to church. E was there (we had planned to do the lesson with her .. for the random lady who came to church on Sunday), but the lady didn't turn up. (Also, side note, E’s mission call has arrived and she'll open in on Saturday when she's back in Milan!) Right after that, we did a lesson with G about Tithing, Fasting and Fast Offerings. It went really well and she knew everything really well, cus the last time, she asked a tonnnn of questions and she remembers basically the lot. Love that girl! Then .. The lady showed up, so me and Roberts did a lesson 0 with her and she said she will come to church again this week. After that, we did English course. It went super well. There are a few new students, which is awesome. In the end, Sorella Roberts did the spiritual thought (I do Tuesday's, she does Thursday's). Then we had an experience which made me glad I had my 'Sorella-Robertson-have-patience-and-be-nice’ face on and not my ‘Ashleigh-tell-them-how-it-is’ face. Luckily, Heavenly Father has blessed me with the ability to distinguish the two and keep the Sorella Robertson face on. Hahahahah. Anyways. That was English course. Such fun! So yeah, 5 lessons in one day .. so sick.
Friday... We began with weekly planning. Straight after that, we FINALLY got to see R. FINALLY. GOT A LITTLE LOST ON THE WAY AND THIS CRAZYYYYY man helped us out Hahahahah. He was literally pazzo, but he helped us out, so that was awesome. We finally found this library that she wanted us to meet her at... then did a lesson inside the library. Kinda a weird experience, cus we basically whispered the lesson (obv cus we were IN the library). The Sorelle taught her before and allllll of last transfer we could just never see her, as she was always busy, or she wouldn't answer our calls or she’d cancel on us last minute; but this time we actually saw her and spoke about the Book of Mormon. After that, she went and bought us a milkshake from Maccies hehe. After that, we went to meet E (the pic I sent where I look a ton like my mom). She had set a kinda appointment to give this guy a Book of Mormon and asked that we go with her! Soooo, we did :) He wasn't there to begin with, then he was. It was a young guy, probably mid 20’s, in a wheelchair with a missing leg. He was actually begging for money on the road. We gave it to him and he told us that he was grateful, but that he couldn't talk because he was 'busy'. However, E was so excited that she gave a Book of Mormon out, that she was lost for words. She is adorable! She is gonna be an awesome missionary! She told me a story of a man in the church who was converted not that long ago and it all began with the Book of Mormon. Then I shared Dad’s story of when the Sorelle left a Book of Mormon on the train and the guy (I forgot his name) found it etc. She was just over the moon, it was so awesome. After that, we did some finding. We spoke to one woman, who actually only spoke to us in French, but it was super strange and cool and weird and amazing, cus we each understood each other; so that was a really awesome experience .. and that was basically our day. Also, quote of the day that I found as I was reading a General Conference talk "The will to win is nothing without the will to prepare" – Food for thought.
Saturday... Happy Birthday to Bethhhhh, I was thinking about my sister all day!!!!! We started the day off making Reece's pieces cookies to take to some more of the less actives. Then we made calls while we waited for them to cook (area book). Thhennnn we set off to find the less actives who live in Quartu. It was a really hot, really long day! None.. of them were home, ther that or they ignored us, so the ones where we could, we snuck into the apartment and left them in their little post box thing. Muahahah. Then we saw J. Gave him the Book of Mormon, explained it, invited him to read and pray and he accepted. Thennnnn, we made him pinky promise to come to church. Then we went to order a Book of Mormon triple for a less active; then we saw a man (the kind of creepy one) we met before. It went well, but he isn't interested in our message, he just wants to be pals .. and that was our day!
Sunday... Church was awesome. More so than usual. We began all together (5th Sunday) and Fratello DePlano did an awesome lesson based on the talk 'On Being Genuine' that, if I'm correct, President Dieter Uchtdorf gave at the Priesthood Session April 2015. Then Gospel Principles was awesome, all about Repentance. Then sacrament meeting was super cool too. This week, Anziano Molnar played the piano, so I finally got to sing altoooooooooo yeyyyy! This was the first time ever on my mission where I have felt surrounded, in sacrament meeting, by investigators. M (the lady who rocked up last week), who is one of our new investigators; came again, J kept his pinky promise, R came, the kind of creepy man came for sacrament 'just to say hi', M came and Mi came. It was just incredible! ALSOOOO, THERE WAS A MAN WHO WE INVITED TO CHURCH IN THE PARK LIKE 3 WEEKS AGO AND HE ROCKED UP TOO and told Anziano Caballero that he just felt prompted to come. He said he wants to come again next week. He is totally gonna become an investigator. He even participated in gospel principles :) Then after, we pranzo'd, had correlation, then did more less active finding. One of the areas we had to get out of quick, cus it was way too ghetto for our liking and we totally did not feel safe. Then we did 12 weekssssss and that was that.
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| A Flamingo (A common sight in Cagliari) |
I'm sorry this email hasn't been super detailed. I didn't get to type everything up each day like I did the last few weeks. I'll be better at that this week, especially since this is basically my journal.
This is all for this week.
LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU
Baci e abbracci xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
