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