Letter to President

During the last transfer cycle, we really emphasized the idea of building from the inside out.   It's easier to baptize and fellowship individuals if they are close to the church and not out in another location far away.  They are able to get to church and the members are able to fellowship them.

We've seen a lot of success in building from the inside out. Finding is so much easier around the church and the missionary apartment than it is in centro or on lungo mare! I believe that the lord chose where the church should be and where we should live because he's prepared people nearby. We have a potential family who we're meeting with today who lives across the street from us. Their daughter felt something really powerful as we shared a spiritual thought and prayer and asked us if she could learn more because she's been confused about religion. We're teaching our landlord's family who will return from vacation in September and will introduce us to their friends who were almost baptized 15 years ago but lost contact with the missionaries. Our neighbor upstairs will also return from his vacation in a few weeks and has remained in contact with us to give us referrals and reassure us that he will come to church. We're finding that people who live nearby our members and other investigators have been well prepared to hear our message. By finding in the areas where we're already teaching we've been seeing that the lord has many people prepared just waiting for us to start talking to them.

Letter to President

There are so many little rules that can seem insignificant. Waking up exactly at 6:30, having a good morning study, getting home right at 9, etc. It's easy to justify not following them exactly. But when you don't, something always seems a little off. And when you do, things always seem to go a little more right.

Letter to President

The Italy Rome Mission Miracles continue . . .

We had a couple of crazy miracles this last week. The first was that we had a member randomly ask us to meet him at the church to teach his girlfriend. She came and and said she wanted to be baptized! That was a surprise. The other was that on our way out from church yesterday, a guy drove up, hopped out of his car, and ran over to us asking if we were the Mormons. He said he had some Mormon friends in the past, and wanted to talk to us about our church. He mentioned that he was motivated by a friend that he has in Rome, Fratello ______, who I know and worked with in Roma 1. We are super excited for this next week, and I am sure we will continue to see even more miracles throughout the zone.

Letter to President

Today, I just want to share with you my testimony of the restoration. I've had the opportunity to teach it many times this week and its really just been on my mind a lot. I've taught the restoration more than a hundred times on my mission but every single time is just like the first. It's always as spiritual and magical. It's amazing to me how someone could love us so much to send His only begotten son to die for us. Someone who loves us so much that He reached out to us in love and restored His church on the earth. Someone who loves us so much He gave us the Book of Mormon. I love the Book of Mormon. I know it's true. It truly is the keystone of our religion. My testimony and love of it strengthens every time I read. We are truly blessed. I know this Church is true and I love my Savior.

Letter to President

Cool story of the week:

On the bus ride back from Taranto they turned on this movie.  At first it was just kinda this funny movie about old people picking out coffins...but then it started getting dirty. And I thought about how that same morning I read in the Liahona all of the stories about people standing up for what they believed.  I was really tempted to just say that I would ignore the film and just read my scriptures....but I just couldn't get that Liahona article out of my mind.  It talked about all of these young adults that could have just let the things go, but instead they stood up for what they believed.   I was really scared though because the whole bus would see me walk up and talk to the bus driver and then if he did turn it off they would know that it was me that asked.  We said a prayer.  Asked for courage.  Then walked up to the bus driver. 

This is how the conversation went.... 

me "hi...uh....So I was wondering if we could turn the movie off. It's kinda dirty"

bus driver: "hahaha"

other people around him: "HAHAHAHA"

awkward moment of him looking at me like I'm stupid

bus driver: "what do you want me to do? There is nothing else that I can turn on"

me: "Well....could we just not watch anything?" (with that little puppy dog look in my eyes that sometimes I do)

bus driver: "sorry but no..."

me: "okay" 

then I looked at him with this disappointed/puppy dog look.

I sat back down and opened up my scriptures and this is what I "happened" to turn to. 

D&C 29:4-6

4 Verily, I say unto you that ye are chosen out of the world to declare my gospel with the sound of rejoicing, as with the voice of a trump.

5 Lift up your hearts and be glad, for I am in your midst, and am your advocate with the Father; and it is his good will to give you the kingdom.

6 And, as it is written—Whatsoever ye shall ask in faith, being united in prayer according to my command, ye shall receive.

Not joking...I read the verse and then looked up and the tv screens were broken. Like grey and fuzzy broken.
The bus driver fixed the tv... (I was a little bit sad again)...but then a few minutes later took the disk out and turned off all of the tvs. (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

For some reason I have no fear walking down the street and stopping people and asking them (in Italian) if they want to hear more about Joseph Smith....but when it comes to turning off a dirty film I get all scared.

We live in a world that thinks bad is good and good is bad.
Elder Holland said last general conference
"Pure Christlike love flowing from true righteousness can change the world"

You may think that standing up for good doesn't do much. But it does. The only way for Satan to win is for us to do nothing.  Even if it is something as little as turning off a bad movie, or resisting the temptation to gossip. True righteousness can change the world.

After we got off the bus we walked up to the bus driver and thanked him and invited him to look at mormon.org. And it wasn't even awkward! I could tell that it made an impression on him....why else would he have turned off the movie?

We all have in our mind set that sharing the gospel is inviting friends to meet with the missionaries.... But the best way to share the gospel is to live it! Stand up for what you believe.  It might be scary at first, but just like the scripture says, God is in our midst and he will be our advocate for good!  We say the words, and he opens the hearts.

Letter to President

We were waiting at the bus stop to get back to our apartment and I saw this lady walking on the other side of the street pushing a suitcase in front of her and rolling her cart behind her. I was like, "oh man that doesn't look good." Then sure enough the suitcase gets caught and falls over and she falls on top of it. So I look at my companion and we both are like, "we need to help her." So we go over and help her get up and we take the things from her and ask her where she needs to go, and she says to the bus stop. SO we walk back to the bus stop and my companion was talking to her and I walk up to the bus stop and a man who was waiting there turns to me and says, "you are from a church, where is your church?" So I ended up telling him and he told me this, "I saw you two this morning on the bus and you were talking to people about your church, then I see you just now and I saw you worried about that old lady and then you go and help her. I think that is great. We need more people like you guys." So that was super duper cool. So I talked to him about our church and found out he had only been in Italy for 2 months, and I asked him if he had family here and he said no, then I asked if he had friends here and he said no. aw sad! So I was like, " you should come to church!" Then that was that, we got his number and stuff.

Then Sunday, the most miraculous of all days. So Sunday morning rolls around and we are in church and check our phone to find 4 missed calls from the same man and he said that he was trying to come to church! But he didnt know how to get there, but that he was at the bus stop. SO I explained it to him but he still sounded a bit confused. Then like 20 minutes later he called me and said that he was on the bus but that he didn't know which stop to get off at. So I tried explaining it some more, but he was still lost. So he passed the phone to other people and that didn't help. Finally he said that he found someone who was going to a church so he would go with him, but that could have been ANY church. So he passed the phone to that guy and he asked me, "What is the name of your church?" so I said, " The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." And he says, "GREAT! I'm going there too!" I was like "WHAT?! What is your name?" and he told me.   YES! He is another of our members, just so happened to be the ONLY one who took the bus that day and he just so HAPPENED to run into our contact. That was a miracle. So he shows up to church in a white shirt and suit coat and stayed for all of church. And all the lessons were super normal and great! The spirit was SO strong! IT was fantastic.  Things were just wonderful.   But that was just a super miraculous experience.

Letter to President

It is our quest to be exactly obedient, and because of this my companion and I have had some special moments together. We feel like the Lord has truly been putting those who are prepared for the gospel in our path. There was one night when we did finding. We stopped seven people in a row who were interested in our message. My companion (a greenie) was able to quote the first vision seven times in a row. At the end of it all we got all seven of their numbers so we could recontact them. It was truly a miraculous moment. We have had moments where we feel like we have been preaching with power.

Letter to President

We had an experience yesterday that was a bit traumatizing. We were doing finding yesterday afternoon and we stopped to write a text message to one of our members who was invited by a less active member to watch an anti-mormon film. We ended up talking to her on the phone and counseled her to not watch it. We hope she didn't. We will talk to her either today or tomorrow. Anyway, while we were doing this, a woman ran up and stole my companion's backpack. We chased after her and were yelling for people to help us. I am sure that there were angels with us because my companion caught her! She grabbed her and I grabbed the backpack. In the process of it all, the woman punched her in the face! I still am shocked. By this time there were other people around. But the woman started saying “The backpack is mine! They stole it from ME!” I couldn't believe the words coming out of her mouth! Luckily, my companion had her Italian ID inside so we got it out and showed everyone. Then the woman ran away. It was awful. We were pretty shaken up after that. We did however hand out bigliettini (pass-a-long cards) to the people who helped us :) Another miracle was that somehow the phone ended up in my bag with the zipper closed. I have no idea how because it was in my hand when she stole the backpack. I thought for sure I had dropped it. Anyway, my companion is doing great.  I think I am still more shaken up than she is, and it wasn't even my bag! I have just never in my life experienced anything like that. Then the look in her eyes was just really awful. But it is okay! Everything turned out just fine and I realized just how much Heavenly Father really does protect his missionaries.

(The two sister's are doing great.  It turned out to be a good experience for them.)

Letter to President

Remember when I was in Rome coming to Napoli and two of my bags got stolen (wow can't believe that was already 2 months ago). Well looking back at all the emotions, tears, feelings of stupidity, I remember just praying let some good come out of this. I would still think it stinks but It would be worth it if we could share the gospel with someone because of it. And yah we talked to the police officers at the station about it, gave a Book of Mormon to the man who found my bags so that was great.  So lets fast forward 2 months...So my glasses got stolen and I have just finally got around to getting new ones. And what do you know we struck up a conversation with the glasses guy.
Me: " SO how long have you ...(pausing. thinking of how to say worked here in Italian)
Him: "Have we been married?" ( pointing to the lady he is working with)
Me: Sure. (thinking. yes what an even better question)
They then go on to tell us all about their family, their 3 daughters, how they met, their whole life story, which continued into an invitation to lunch at their house Sunday afternoon. (oh these crazy Italians) It ended up being the optomitrists ( the husband and wife) their 3 daughters, and their boyfriends, and their cousin, and her family. It was a full house. But we were able to share a little bit about our message about Gods plan of happiness for us. How in our church we have temples where we can make ordinances that will seal us to our family forever. They want to hear more! Wahoo! SO hopefully I'll have more news for you next week!

What an answer! Maybe it took two months! but HEY IF MY GLASSES HADN'T BEEN STOLEN I never would have met this awesome, crazy Italian family. They are so great! I wish I could explain to you how fun they are! How much I already love them! God answers prayers...usually in ways we don't even expect. So Pray. Ask. Be patient. Your answer will come!

Letter to President

OUR INVESTIGATOR GOT BAPTISED THIS WEEK. Can you believe it? We still cant. All week we were like "Hey, remember when we met him on the bus and he denied us and NOW he is getting baptised?" It was one of the best baptisms I've ever been to.The spirit was super strong and he was SUPER happy. He invited a TON of his high school friends to come and we got to meet his family for the first time. That was the best part, while the elders were helping him get ready, my companion and I got to talk to his family. They were really exited for him and couldn't believe all the changes he had made in his life. This is the kid who plays Rock music and refuses to cut his long curly hair... getting baptized at age 17. They were so shocked and so proud of him. They were asking a lot of questions and we started explaining to them the blessings of the temple and his parents started crying and were clearly touched by the spirit. My companion gave them a copy of the Book of Mormon and we set up a Family Home Evening with them for this week. It was one of the strongest times Ive felt the spirit in my mission, at his baptism, we were worried that he might not be ready yet, but the spirit confirmed to me many times that he was ready and he knew the path that he was choosing to follow and how he is going to bring so many people with him. The best part though was his confirmation on Sunday.. it was one of the most beautiful blessings I had ever heard, it talked about him serving a full time mission and him being an example to his friends and family and all the people that he had promised to bring the gospel. We were just in awe. He truly is so special and people kept coming up to us saying "good job sisters" like we even did anything.. that's the thing.. all we do is invite... and we invite SO many people every day... the ones that make the difference are the ones that ACT on it. And it just reminded me that sometimes it's the most unlikely people that accept the gospel. That night we had an incredible conversation with the Bus driver and this boy just happened to walk on and we just gave him a pamphlet because he had been listening... not thinking anything of it.. and the bus driver never accepted an appointment with us while HE GOT BAPTISED.. It was really all him.. we just feel SO blessed to have played that small part.

Letter to President

My first day here we talked to this lady to invite her to English Course and she saw my Book of Mormon in hand and said she used to have one of those books. She said that in one of her moves it had been thrown out, though, and asked us to come by in the morning to bring a new one and talk about it. What a miracle! She wasn't there the next day when we went, but we will keep trying! I am so excited to get to work here! Well, we already have gotten to work. We have 3 lessons with some investigators and I have felt to invite them all to baptism, and so we did. I am tired of having investigators that don't progress, so I have decided to be more bold and to invite more and to explain our purpose more to them. The more that I understand it, the more that I want my investigators to understand it so that they know why we are seeing them and that we really want to help them have better lives and accept the gospel. I love inviting people to baptism! It is scary, but my companion and I are going to be bold together.

Letter to President

You have to love the enthusiasm of missionaries.

This was the best week! I love training! My greenie is so awesome. wow. I thought I was supposed to be the shining example but she is inspiring ME lol
Our first day together was kind of crazy. I picked her up off the train but we had to wait there for like 5 hours. So we took her luggage to the Elders' apartment and went out to do some finding. Right as we got out there, it started raining really hard, so we walked into this random pizzeria and ending up giving the guy that worked there a book of mormon, then he gave us free pizza in return and said he would come to church! haha
We had a ward activity last night that we have been planning for a few weeks. I'm pretty sure we invited every single less active on the ward list and also invited our english course, and it was a GRAND success! We had more non members there than members and two less actives came that hadn't been to church for over a year! It was definitely an answer to prayer. It made every bit of work we put into that activity worth it. I love missionary work.

Letter to President

Even missionaries experience humor in their lives.

Just thought I'd mention this really quick because I thought it was kinda funny. So, the other day, we went to go get a package that my companion received from her friend in Hawaii. Inside the package, there were sweets of some kind. Noi, supponendo che erano chocolate-covered macadamia nuts. We were surprised to see that they were actually "traditional Italian Biscotti"... that were made in California and bought and shipped to Italy from Hawaii. The humorous part of all this is that, to put the cherry on top, there was written on the box, "These cookies, made with tradional Italian goodness will make you feel like you're in Italy." It was really ironic, and we just loved it.

Letter to President

Thoughts from a sister experiencing her final transfer.


It's been an incredible week.

Words from the primary song ''yes, I know Heavenly Father loves me.'' explain things so well.

Driving into Rome, through the familiar streets, passing the park we had cleaned for the stake helping hands project my second transfer where I scraped the tip of my pointer finger off with a saw and became best friends with Gustavo...so many random memories came flooding back, and I was on the verge of tears, just overwhelmed with a feeling of gratitude for every single person I've met, for all of the experiences, everything I've learned. As we pulled up through the gate of the Villa, I felt it even more. There were my mission brothers! I went downstairs to put my backpack down and was met by my mission sisters. What a reunion. Dinner was Hawaiian haystacks. Can we say America?

''You get a strange feeling when you're about to leave a place . . . like you'll not only miss the people you love but you'll miss the person you are now at this time and this place, because you'll never be this way ever again.”  (Elder Holland)

Yes, I am going to miss this. I have met such amazing people here...missionaries included. Especially missionaries. I just want to do everything I can to show Heavenly Father my gratitude, to put what I've learned into practice, to keep studying, to maintain the relationships and friendships I've made...to live up to His expectations. I know I can't ever do even the smallest part...but I can try.

Yeah. My thoughts are kind of all over the place these days. So I'm just focusing on being obedient, loving everyone. We set a baptismal date with this fifteen year old girl  for the fourteenth of February. The only setback is the fact that she doesn't think her dad will let her. So we're just going to keep doing all we can, ''expect a miracle''.

So things are good. I love the mission, everyone in the ward, our investigators, it's great.

Thanks for everything!

Letters to President

You just have to love missionaries!

First, just a health update! My foot is doing a tonnnn better. The doctor called on Tuesday and told me to do a couple of things every morning and every night when we're at home and it's made a HUGE difference. My foot hardly bothers me at all during the day when I do it :) And then, on Thursday night we were walking back home after English course and I wasn't watching where I was going (I've been looking at the ground while I walk lately so I don't trip on another pothole or something and hurt my ankle again). So I'm walking along, watching the ground and I smack my head on a billboard!! Yes, a billboard. For some reason, the billboards are just superrrrr low and since I was looking at the ground, I didn't see it, and I smacked my head right on the corner of it! It hurt so bad, but it's just so ridiculous that we laughed so hard. And what makes it even better was when we got on the tram after that to go the rest of the way home! My companion and I were sitting across from each other, so she could see that my head was bleeding a tiny bit. And then she was like, "Sorella, what color is my face?" She almost passed out! It was kinda scary at the time because I don't know what I would've done if she had passed out while we were on the tram, but looking back on it now, it's soooo funny. And all of our investigators think it's the funniest story ever haha :) So. Moral of the story: Watch where you're walking!! I'm totally fine, just had a goose egg for a couple of days. And we washed it real good and I've been putting neosporin and stuff on it, so it's all good :)

Letter to President

Enthusiasm!


We have been doing a lot of finding, and we have really seen miracles!! The other day actually, we were doing some finding and the first man that we talked to put down his bags and listened to us for a minute!!! On the street!!! Now that is crazy!! That hardly ever happens!! The lord is really and truly preparing Italy for great things!! We set up a return appointment, and we also found out that he has a whole family!! What a great opportunity it will be!! I am full on 100 percent behind you with this 40 baptisms a month!! President I KNOW that it is going to happen!! I really do!!! The lord is hastening his work!!! Also, after that we stopped another lady while she was cleaning, and she said no, but hold on a second.. She then took us to this shop which was full of people.. All ladies, so we will be turning them over to the sisters to teach. Anyways, they loved us!! We got the opportunity to know all of them, and all of their names, and also shared our testimonies and what we believed and what not!!! Then after that, we set up a big lunch with all of them and also their families!!!!!!!!!! Man it was so cool!!!

THE LORD IS HASTENING HIS WORK!!!!! This all happened within only like an hour President!!! Man it was such a testimony to me!!! As I have been struggling with my trials that I have faced, I have endured them well, and the Lord has just blessed me more than I can ask for!!! What an amazing time it is to be a missionary!!

Letter to President

Optimism!

We are going to reach our goals and surpass them. I read a story from the Liahona a couple years ago about a girl doing a service project, when she met someone that the service would be benefitting, she tripled her goal and ended up surpassing it by a lot. It reminded me of our work and how having a high number seems unattainable, but only at first. When we have the right attitude, the blessings come.

Letter to President

The missionaries in the Italy Rome Mission are so inspiring!


This new week was a great opportunity for my companion and I to re-evaluate our companionship, our work, and where we want to go in the next six weeks. One of the things we noticed while we were talking about the ward and how their attitude towards missionary work has changed, was that we started to see more excitement in them when we started asking them to be in lessons or get involved with our investigators. I think a lot of times we as missionaries think that we are helpless to change people's attitudes and if certain people aren't really into missionary work, then that's just the way they are. But I have come to realize that if we are really doing everything we can to serve members and ask them for help when we need it, they will feel invested in the outcome of our work and these small things can help to change their attitude. We are excited to have six more weeks to work with the members in this ward and get as many of them as possible involved in missionary work.

To close, I wanted to share a story with you of a miracle we saw this week.  My companion and I have been writing in our planners one miracle that we see every day, and this was the miracle from yesterday.

After church we had a lunch appointment with some members who live a ways outside. The mom of this family served a mission and told us that she had lots of missionary work to be done in her town. After lunch, we did a spiritual thought and challenged each member of the family--the mother and her two daughters--to take seriously anz. Ballard's challenge to invite someone to know more about the gospel by Christmas. Immediately after, the Mom invited us to go for a walk with her and her friend to whom she had given a book of mormon. We went, and while we were on our walk we talked to her about why we chose to come to Italy and bore our testimonies to her. She told us that her husband had been reading the book of mormon, and that maybe sometime she and her daughter could come to our english course.

By the time we came back to the house to grab our things and go, the two daughters had already talked to two of their friends and invited them to meet with the missionaries. They both said yes, and had been to ward activities before. This was just such a testimony builder to me that when we take the counsel of the apostles and prophets to heart and act IMMEDIATELY on the promptings, we will see success. This family inspires me to be a better missionary and also a better member when I get home.

Letter to President

This e-mail came from a missionary who really struggled when he first came on his mission and we wondered if we would be able to get him to stay. 

This week has been such an amazing one!! I love this gospel so much, and I love the opportunity to be a missionary!! I have really found out, that the more energy that I have the better the work goes and the more strong and better the spirit is! I have really seen that!!! . . . We have a new investigator that has a baptismal date, and he has read all the way into 3rd Nefi in only like 2 weeks!!! Man it is so crazy it really is!! It is going so well with him!! Also we have found another man through English Course and it was really cool!!! Gosh this work is so amazing it really is!!! I am so happy to be a part of it!!! I am ready to take on anything and anyone!! I love Rome 5 and the wonderful members here!! I really and truly feel at home I really do!!!

Letter to President

This e-mail was sent to President the week following the cyclone that hit Sardegna.

We were able to talk to a lot of people this week about the plan of salvation, and hopefully help some of them find some peace. Then we were able to do service in Olbia on Saturday. It was an awesome experience to see all the LDS helping hand shirts everywhere, scraping off mud and cleaning out trash. The opportunity to help others is truly a blessing, and helps me appreciate how much I have to be grateful for.