Week 20

(Week 14 Caserta)

Not a lot of time for email, so we split up writing again! We spent Pday in
SORRENTO today sito the Napoli elders!!!! Most beautiful place in
Italy!!!!

Sorella Hamilton's words...

MONDAY You got a pretty good play by play last week of our belly
bursting meal, we followed it up with a little visit to one of our
older women members. The old ladies in this ward love us. When they
look at us their eyes turn into shiny little suns and they just must
put their hands on us. Never have I been more kissed, pinched, patted,
etc. we're talkin face and bum and whatever they can get their sweet,
wrinkly, little hands on. We visited with this sister and promised her
we'd find and reactivate her daughter. 

TUESDAY We woke up early to catch a train to Napoli for leadership
conference. We stopped in a little town on the way home from Napoli to
search for a few less actives who have dropped off the face of the
earth, but their addresses were nonexistent. What can you do? We then
met the elders at the church to practice our musical number before
English course. Not much to say about this, no matter how many times
we sang "Nearer My God to Thee" it just didn't improve we tried. 

WEDNESDAY Napoli again! DDM this time. Anziano Mic gave a sweet
addestramento on being unified as a district! What inspiration. He
wasn't even at leadership counsel! We have two members extra in our
district now, so there's ten elders instead of eight. It is SO MUCH
FUN! There are two greenies now. It's awesome. We got diavola pizzas
from Pellone. This pizza is the best pizza I've ever had. Never fails
to satisfy me. 

Sorella Nelson's words...
On our way back to Caserta we stopped to hunt down another less active
man. We were thirsty after eating our Napoli pizza so we had a "gypsy
moment" as we grabbed an orange off of a tree we were passing. The man
ended up not living there... Haha no one lives there... We ended the
night with a visit to our dear African woman Joy, another less active.
She is just always sad because she hates Italy and wants to leave and
also because she doesn't have custody of her children. We hope and
pray that her situation will improve. 

THURSDAY: Went to see the kindest woman Antonietta! She fed us a
massive pranzo consisting of pasta al forno, a red meat course and a
chicken course, along with salad, olives, fruit, and of course a
dolche. We shared a message about the Atonement. She doesn't want to
change religions but she has started reading the Book of Mormon so
hopefully something will spark from that. So we headed back to good ol
town Caserta for English Course! We LOVE our English course and it's
super exciting because we now have around four kids (8-12) who come! 

FRIDAY: Programmed for the settimana prossima, then headed to see Rosa
and Fratello Izzo with the Copia Bryan (senior missionaries). Elder
Bryan had about twenty questions about Rosa's beliefs google
translated for him to ask. This visit was the saddest thing. Anziano
Bryan would read the questions, Sorella Hamilton would sometimes say
it again in clearer Italian and then Rosa or her Cousin who was there
would answer. It was so sad because Anziano Bryan couldn't understand
what their answers were and before waiting for the answer to be
translated for him, he would insist that Sorella Hamilton keep
throwing these questions at them instead of taking these opportunities
to teach a gospel concept. My little heart was just so sad. Anziano
Bryan is one of the most intelligent, loving men and had the best intentions
in the world but a lesson was being taught instead of a person coming
closer to Christ. The spirit was not there but Rosa loves us enough to
feed us a pranzo. Best pasta course ever with mushrooms, she made me
eat 3 fried chicken breasts heaping with a delicious mushroom sauce
and Sorella Hamilton had to eat 4!!! Hahaha then peppers, bread,
olives, eggplant and then of course salad, nut course, fruit course,
and apple lemon cake!!! She is the best cook but literally does not
let us refuse to eat anything! 

SATURDAY: Sorella Hamilton, "we don't come here to see you cry". Best
quote EVER!!! A less active woman just cries and tells us all her
sorrows when we go to see her but we finally made our purpose clear
this time! Paid a visit to Vini and helped her with some party favors
for her 25th wedding anniversary. Best part of this day was the
Thanksgiving Ward Party. Since we have an American military base close
by, the ward pulled it together. Sorella Hamilton made some killer
pumpkin pies with real pumpkin we bought. We had sooo much food but
the best part was that soooooooooo many of our potential investigators
came! Literally was the happiest camper you've ever seen, plus I was
wearing a turtleneck so that's cool. Anywho, the daughters of Vini
came, GianFranco, and other English course potentials. SUPER great! We
even had one turkey that didn't even leave the kitchen so they sent it
home with the missionaries! 

Sorella Hamilton again... 

SUNDAY We walked to church in the rain. It was colder than we thought
it was going to be. All of a sudden the air is made of ice and our
toes turn into tiny frozen green beans. Bishop stood up to welcome
everybody and he surprised us by asking us to do our musical number right
away, before the speakers. Meh. The rest of church was fairly normal,
good talks, we taught the youth Sunday school class, Relief Society
was normal, etc. I love church. I wish it were all in Italian instead
of half and half, but it's nice comunque. We stuffed ourselves at
home, sausage burgers and mozz salad. This evening after studies we
went to the house of an old woman new convert and sang hymns with
their family. Sorella Nelson played the piano that was waayyyyyy out
of tune and dusty but the vocal chords may have been even more so. It
was an experience I'll never forget, lots of sweet feelings, good
intentions, and heartfelt belting. Then we finished the week with a
gesso with the elders. 

CHURCH IS SO SO SO TRUE!!!!! 

Ponderize for this week John20:29 

 Love you all and vi voglio il megliore!!!!!! 

 Love, Sorella Carrie Nelson

Week 19

(Week 13 Caserta)

Sorry this is sooooo long, it was just sooo good!!!!!

( In the words of Sorella Hamilton)
TUESDAY we went less attive finding around Caserta, there are sooooo
many addresses on the ward directory that just don't exist or are
uninhabited by members in these days. We're doing a little clean up
with the Elders Quorum President. We missed a train back to main
Caserta so we missed almost all of English course!!! Two good things
though 1) we met a Ghanian brother named Sparky who led us to the most
Walmart like grocery store I've been to in a year. I testify that bulk
is the way to buy. There is no better way. 2) I felt extra love from
the English course students, our class has grown from about 5 to
somewhere near 40 since we arrived, and they adoooreeee us. You
should've heard the uproar when we walked into the chapel and took the
whiteboard from the dear elder who subbed for us. We said goodbye to
Anziano Brandon this evening, he was transferred to Taranto!

WEDNESDAY DDM was it's usual greatness, amplified by the presence of
the Coppia Bryan!! They contributed a beautiful spiritual thought and
a fairly American (grazie American military base) lunch. Roast beef
sandwiches with Doritos, Pepsi, and double stuffed Oreos. After all
was said and eaten, I judged an Oreo-filling-licking-contest. It was
pretty disgusting to watch. We then stopped in the little city of
Maddaloni to visit a fairly but not too much less active woman who has
so many amazing stories of miraculous things that have happened to her
as a result of her joining the church! Tender mercies dapertutto.
She's going to bring us to meet one of her friends this week who's
been asking her questions about the church!

Last district picture for this last transfer!

Pranzo with some English course students, and GianFranco taking a selfie, we are trying to convert him since he comes to church every week!

THURSDAY In the past few weeks I've had two days that were inexplicably, unbelievably, mindblowingly AWFUL. the first was on a
scambio and I just wanted to be  back with my baby Sorellina Nelson,
the other was this day. Everything that could have gone wrong
literally went wrong. We were running around the nooks and crannies of
Caserta trying to do my permesso (my visa to stay here) and I forgot
things, printers had no ink, I had no money, there was language
confusion, we almost got roped into signing up for medical insurance,
and I can't even remember what else. Thank goodness Sorella Nelson was
there to smile her little smile and buy us dark chocolate and ritz
crackers to eat with our lunch. The most redeeming part of the day was
when we were in the grocery store during lunch and the song 'Who Says'
by Selena Gomez came on and I had a little moment where I took all the
words very personally and felt like she was literally telling ME that
I am beautiful and to not worry about my problems. We definitely sang
it out loud and it was probably the best moment of the day. Until we
went to the house of a member. This woman has two children, one who is
a newborn baby girl and was just blessed by the bishop because the dad
is super inactive and doing who knows what, and she's just incredible.
She has a lot of faith and returned back to activity after following
her husband a little bit to the dark. Basically she's incredible and
adorable and I would love to have her strength.

( In the words of Sorella Nelson)
FRIDAY great weekly planning in the morning and then a pranzo
appointment with some English course students! Rory is a member,
GianFranco, Cristina, and Silvana are all some great potential
investigators. As soon as we walked in the door at the home of
GianFranco, they whipped out their cameras and started taking photo
after photo of us with them and us sitting at the table! We felt like
movie stars! Hahaha so funny! We shared an awesome thought on the
atonement and used food coloring, water, and bleach as an object
lesson. It went SOOO WELL!!! Cristina was in tears and you could tell
everyone felt the spirit, super awesome experience and hopefully more
work will come from these great friends! The rest of the day we tried
hunting down some more less actives, it's a really good thing I love
Sorella Hamilton so much cuz we do a lot of walking and talking with
each other when we do this and people don't live where we are looking for them or no one is
home.

SATURDAY This morning we had our proprietor and others come to help
fix our leaky heater. Basically she is this short little woman who for
some reason loooooves us!!!! While they were fixing our heater she
took us to a market to buy "fish on ice" and taught us how to clean
and gut them ourselves, hashtag master chefs! All you do is pop the
head off and run your finger along the belly to pull out the
intestines! After they finished fixing our apartment up, she invited
us over for pranzo the next Monday! We said goodbyes and then realized
we don't even know this woman's name and she wants us over for Pranzo!
Hahaha super great! The rest of the day we visited the family of Maria
Russo and there were soooo many people there it was impossible to do a
lesson! One of her friends kept stroking my hair and wanted to adopt
us hahaha. Didn't get to share our message, but we let her know we
loved her so that was great.

Our Proprietor helped us fix our heater and took us to buy fish and gut them ourselves. Hashtag master chefs!!

SUNDAY My LAST day as a "greenie"!!!! Chiesa was SUPERB! Favorite part
was Relief Society. We have tried to visit all the sisters in the ward
and we just have soooo much love for each one of them now!!! While I
was leading the closing hymn I was looking at all their faces and into
their eyes and I just wanted to cry because I've never seen such a
beautiful sight! So many of these women are the only members, have
lost husbands, and so many other problems but they are ALWAYS in
church! Watching them baccio each other and greet each other as well
as Sorella Hamilton and I, was just the sweetest moment. WE LOVE OUR
SORELLE! Then we ate a wonderful pranzo, soup made by the one and only
Sorella Hamilton and then visited the famiglia Galardo. Plan was to
have me play the piano and we would sing together but we ended up
listening to Fratello Galardo sing all his old Catholic hymns he used
to love.... Hahaha Love It! We then did a gesso with the Anziani and
it went splendid!!! We asked everyone along the street how they
receive answers from God. People are sooo wonderful here and loved to
stop and talk with us! Super awesome night and we are so happy to have
some really great Anziani now who want to really help the work grow
here in Caserta. Our new Anziano is Anziano Pulperi from northern
Italy!

MONDAY/Today Went to our Proprietor's home for our pranzo appointment.
Her name is Rosa (we finally found out) and they made us sooo much
food!!! Olives, bread, tomatoes, sausage, steak, artichoke, lasagna,
fried potatoes, clementines, pomegranate, salad, and some sort of
chocolate pie something... Super good and their home is proprio
BELLISIMO!!!! They have a vineyard and make their own wine, which they
tried to get us to drink... We didn't... They make their own olive oil
and have all sorts of plants and fruit trees!!! They sent us home with
fresh lettuce, clementines, pomegranates, some sort of American
eggplants, eggs and even freshly cut roses! Sooo wonderful!!!!


This week we had only 4 lessons total taught but that is OKAY!!!! As
long as we are working hard I know the Lord is going to continue
blessing us! I love Italy so so much and the people here even more!!!!
But most of all I LOVE THIS GOSPEL!!!! Soooo happy!!!!! Ponderize
scripture for the week: Helaman 10:5

Vi voglio un sacco di bene!!!!
Sorella Carrie Nelson

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!

Can't believe how fast time is flying!!!!

Some of our English course students thought it was silly we borrowed
two bikes for Pday and wanted to teach us how Italians ride bikes so
we put Sorella Hamilton on the back and we practiced right outside the
church. Sorry I never let you sit on the back of my bike Carli...
Apparently that is what it is made for...

Pictures of my apartment.....

Carrie's reply when we asked how the language is coming........

There are some days when I feel so so so awesome at Italian and there
are days when I feel like I know three words. Sorella Hamilton and all
the other missionaries always are surprised how quickly I've learned
as much as I know and always compliment me on how well I speak. The
wonderful wonderful, kindest Italian people always are shocked how
well I speak when I tell them I've been in Italy for 3 months. I hope
that answers your question... We have an hour for language study
everyday and I have FINALLY just gotten in a routine that helps me
really learn and remember what I study. I still have a LOT to learn
but I'm feeling really good. Sorella Hamilton told me last night after
we did a display on the street that she stood close by while I was
talking to a couple in case I choked or didn't understand but she was
super impressed that I didn't need help and carried a conversation and
taught and invited to church! Super grateful for her, she has
seriously been a HUGE help. Whenever we say prayers, if I said
something wrong she helps me fix it and then the next time I fix it
and then learn another thing! Super great! I Love Love Love Italian!

Week 18

(Week 12 Caserta)

Ciao Tutti!!!!
This week has been another super fast week!!! 

We found out that we can no longer baptize or even teach Felix and
Evans. There has been direction from the area of the seventy that
refugees living on camps cannot be baptized or taught. Going along
with the recent news of the children in gay homes, I was at first
confused why we are not allowing people who are ready for the gospel
to be baptized and receive those blessings. Sorella Hamilton and I
were on a scambio and she got the sad news and had to deliver the news
to our dear dear African brothers that they could not be baptized. She
gave me a call to let me know we would no longer be having a baptism,
but instead of sad feelings and anger I felt so full of faith! I know
that we don't always understand things and why there are certain rules
when we feel there should be an exception, but I truly believe that we
have a prophet called of God.
Scambio (exchange) with Sorella Hassell in Pozzuoli!

Scambio in Caserta with Sorella Barona!!!

I love this quote from Elder Bednar's
talk this last conference talking about our prophet who leads our
church...
“Isn’t it wonderful to have a man of maturity at the head, a man of
judgment who isn’t blown about by every wind of doctrine?”
I don't know why Felix and Evans and all these other children and
people throughout the world will have to wait for baptism but I know
there is a reason and that eventually they will be able to have those
blessings. 

The rest of this week was very busy! We received transfer calls that
we will be staying in Caserta together for another 4 weeks! I'm
excited to stay because this week we met some really awesome potential
investigators!

Antonietta, is a woman who came to church the second week I was here
with her brother who lives in Switzerland. We have wanted to see her
forever but have never found time. Sorella Barona and I went to hunt
her down during our scambio and she was right outside her house and
was THRILLED to see us!!! We taught her and her husband Vincenzo the
restoration and then had pranzo with them! Nicest humans ever!!!

I've been so amazed with the kindness of the Italian people this week.
There have been soooo many little things like Antonietta feeding us
and giving us a bag of fruit to go, an old Italian man sitting behind
an American family and giving them little candies during sacrament
meeting, going to the home of a sister in the ward and having her show
us all the pictures of missionaries in the past, Rosa Izzo teaching us
to make a cake and then bringing out fresh pomegranate and a chocolate
treat for us and hen sending us home with fresh clementines, and Dora
Ruchiano the relief society president trying to speak English to the
few American sisters to make them feel welcome. My heart has just grown
so much for these people and their willingness to give and make others
feel welcome. 

Ponderize scripture for the week Matthew 10:39 

Vi voglio bene!!!!
Sorella Carrie Nelson

Cute Fratello Izzo went outside to bring these right back in from his garden.

At the home of the Izzo couple, Rosa the wife is not a member. She taught us how to make apple lemon cake. Sooooo good!!!

Turtle we found while cleaning a less active woman's apartment.

District meeting pizza pic

Week 17

(Week 11 Caserta)

Happy Halloween!!!
 In Italy Halloween is not very big, so we
decided to hold a Halloween party for English Course and ward members
on Friday! It was a HUGE success!!!

Sorella Hamilton and I decorated the chapel/cultural hall all up and
made some good looking mugs for the winners of the costume contest and
food contest. Soooo many people brought food, some themed and others
just delicious! (We made brownies...) Lots of people dressed up too!
We didn't have a ton of time so we tried to pull off being Elsa and
Anna, we did pretty alright I'd say... We played games like musical
chairs, bobbing for apples, toilet paper mummy wrapping and others.It
was so much fun!!! Lots of people brought their husbands and wives or
family and friends and we ended up with some new phone numbers so we
will put the Caserta Missionaries Halloween Party in the books as a
success!!!




































Elsa and Anna

The actual day of Halloween we spent the morning cleaning the church
but we got a real nice taste of creepiness and gruesomeness when we
went to visit Maria Russo. If you remember from my emails this is the
woman who was burned and always cries when we go over. Last time she
was sewing and this time when we walked in it took us a minute to
figure out what she was doing... She was sitting in her bed with her
covers pulled over her legs and there were feathers around her while
her hands are busily doing something in a white garbage bag. To her
left, we could see feathers of some sort and to her right there was a
bag of bloody meat of some kind. She then pulls her bloody feathery
hands out of the bag to show us that she is plucking birds. I am
pinching myself and tearing up from holding in my laughter. I can tell
Sorella Hamilton is just as surprised and amused as I am. Thankfully
she tells us to go look at her fridge in her kitchen so we let out our
laughter there and then we plan how to document this crazy crazy
experience. We go back in and I've got my iPad at the ready and Maria
Russo demonstrates how to clean the birds (which looked like birds off
the street) and trim the legs and head and take out the intestines.
Hahahahaha it was CRAZY!!!!! THEN.... Her little grandson comes in to
give her a candy for Halloween and without wiping her hands or
anything, she is rubbing his face and digging in her wallet to give
him some money! She then gives US some candy with those same hands!
Hahaha I could not contain myself, it was the best "Haunted" house
experience!  

This week we have not had very much work, we visited lots of less
active and part members. One lunch appointment it was proven to me
that Italy food is 100% better because she made pasta with peas and I
LOVED IT!!!! I've never liked peas but I could eat a whole can of them
here! Another woman gave us a bag FULL of MOZZARELLA BALLS! This area
is famous for the mozzarella, it's sooo buonissimo! Also, I eat raw
tomatoes all the time, which never happened before! Some things Italians
have a lot around these coming holidays are boxed cakes called
Penetone. They come in all sorts of flavors and the Italians always
have them on hand.

Funniest moment from the week with our Ghanian brother Evans!!!! We
were talking about the Godhead and really helping him understand who
the Holy Ghost is. He starts telling us about how when demons attack
you, you should yell "Holy Ghost fire"!!!!! Hahahahahaha it looked
like he was a Jedi with the moves he was doing!!! All three of us were
crying of laughter and it was soooo hard to stop because every time we
would say Holy Ghost again we would all start laughing!!!!

Our primary in Caserta...
Is sad really... There are two women who try to run it and normal
weeks they are combined the whole time and sometimes just sing
songs... It's hard because we have some American kids from the base as
well as the Italian children. We have probably 10 American primary
kids and then 5 Italian kids. When I taught the one woman took junior
into the other room and I had about 6 senior primary kids. They were
actually all English! I don't ever play the piano for them but I think
I'm going to ask if they'd like me to. I played once for sacrament but
if it would help these two women pull primary together a little more
then I can totally play for them. It's hard though because they
sometimes need us missionaries to translate for lessons in Sunday
school, YM, YW, priesthood and relief society. Sunday is crazy!



It was really such a good week. Something I realized this week as we
were finding people and teaching is the reality of agency. Sooo many
times this week I wanted to make these people just realize how
important the gospel is and choose the right, but I realized that is
how Satan wanted it to be. Everyone wouldn't have a choice and I have
learned to respect that I cannot take away the agency of others.
People will reject the gospel and choose another way but I can still
know that THE GOSPEL IS TRUE!!!!

Love you all and keep choosing to right!!!

Vi voglio bene! 

Sorella Carrie Nelson

Grocery store. We buy all produce at little markets here and there.
Basically they are little rooms full of fruit and veggies. And SO
CHEAP. One day we got probably 10 lbs of produce for 4 euro! Then we
buy everything else at the grocery store. They are pretty normal
looking except there is always fresh bread meats and cheese with
someone there to cut them for you!!! And basically shelves and shelves
of olive oil! Didn't know there were so many kinds! 

 Sooooo pretty!!  Oranges are in season.  Really love them freshly squeezed. 

Letters from home!!! 

 Dolce at a meal appointment.

Fell asleep writing in my journal.

Freshly made olive oil put into a beer bottle given to us 
by a woman named Vinnie.