Week 33

(Week 3 Bari)

Basically life is just great. We wake up, eat a nice bowl of cereal,
study, comp study, leave and teach, come home and eat, study Italian,
leave and teach, come home, plan, write in journal and bed. REPEAT! I
honestly don't know what's better than this! 

Sorella Taylor and I had
an AWESOME week! Fun fact about our companionship: we are the youngest
companionship in the entire mission, but we aren't letting this stop
us from seeing miracles! 

Investigator Gabriella: she literally kills me. Haha she loves loves
loves reading the Book of Mormon and every night when we call her to
give her a new chapter to read she is super pumped, but... She is
super sensitive when we talk about baptism. Patience... Patience...
Patience... 

Favorite Gabriella highlight was when we taught her the
Gospel of Jesus Christ. When we explained at the beginning that there
are five steps we need to do in our life and we continue repeating
these steps she asked if it was okay if she took notes. Haha ADORABLE! 

While we taught the whole lesson she took notes on each step and
sometimes asked us to repeat what we had said. She is awesome and
loves learning. 

This week we found a beautiful African family. They only speak African
language and Italian so I felt super bad when I first was speaking in
English because most people from Africa speak English... Anywho, they
have a daughter who is probably 13 and two beautiful twins who are
2ish. 

We found them when we were stood up by another potential so we
decided to knock the doors in the apartment building. Hopefully we
have found an eternal family!!! 

We had a KILLER scambio (exchange) this week with the Sorelle from
Foggia. We got sooo many lessons taught! I have the biggest testimony
of miracles happening during scambi! Crazy moment when the greenie in
Foggia is someone who you went to high school win! Sorella Karlee
Peterson! So crazy! 

Hilarious moments with men this week!!!
After English course we were giving out family proclamations to go
along with our spiritual thought and one man comes up and gets one
from me, he grabs my hand and in a second flat kisses my hand. I about
died of laughter! 

On the bus one day Sorella Taylor and I were checked by the security
men for tickets. After getting checked and cleared we started a conversation
with them. Eventually they started being creepy and wierd and then a
little 15 year old boy with a mustache we invited to English course
just keeps making awkward eye contact with us and we are both trying
to not die of laughter it is so awkward! 

The bus men get off and
another man comes over to us on the bus and asks how old we think he
is... Random but okay... I say 38 and he just dies of laughter!!! He
starts talking to us and I am biting my tongue to keep from laughing
because he is speaking in dialect and we don't understand and the
mustache boy is still being creepy. Another old man gets on the bus
and I say "come va" and he just gives me the strangest look in the
world. I explain that no, we don't know each other I just wanted to
greet you and see how your day is... Haha he is so confused as to why
I would just talk to a stranger so then sweet Sorella Taylor changes
the subject and tells him she likes his scarf. He then lights up and
is so happy and in perfect English says that his sister made it. I was
so surprised by his English and just still dying of laughter from our
awkwardness that I'm just lost for words and Sorella Taylor is tucked
in the corner just dying of laughter. Haha we love our Italian men... 

We have been cleaning out our phone contacts and area book. One day we
called someone named Fextos and he declared that "I have a love for
you" to me. Haha I don't remember ever meeting...

Presidente e Sorella Waddoups came to our Poggio Franco ward this
Sunday! Hashtag stressful Saturday night making sure people would be
in church! 

During the meeting I was asked to share my testimony with
the ward since I am new. It was awesome because I talked a lot about
how much I love missionary work, but I also shared an experience that
I will talk about later in this email. 

I shared with the ward that we
are here in Italy to help the members with their missionary work.
President was also asked to speak and he talked about the exact same
thing. We are here to help the members. 78% of baptisms come from
member referrals. 

This is the experience I shared which was also the highlight of the entire week...
Angelo is a less active man who was baptized 5 years ago. We have been
working with Angelo and his wife to get back to church so they can
eventually go to the temple. One night during our scambio we met with
Angelo. We were planning on boosting his testimony, but when we sat
down on a bench in the park he explains that he is ready to change and
wants to help us with our missionary work. I'm just like..,
what!?!?... 

He continues telling us that when we called him he
realized how much of the Lord's time he has wasted and how he
literally has friends all over Bari he has not shared the gospel with.
We asked him if he would like to have us help him teach his friends
and he hops of the bench and says "andiamo" let's go! Hahaha! 

We
walked up and down streets with Angelo and every person he knew we
would talk with. Angelo knows a lot of people... He was so bold and
basically told all his friends that we are missionaries who will
change their lives. He made that night one of the best finding
experiences of my mission. 

I seriously love missionary work so so so much!!! I also love Italy
and Italians just as much! Every day we have strange and sometimes sad
experiences, but everyday Heavenly Father makes us laugh and blesses
us with little miracles. 

This week a marketplace man invited us over
to share our message with his family, we also found a woman who is a
member but not on the records so we can get her back to church. Best
moments ever!!!

Have a killer week everyone! Make a new friend. You never know who is
looking for a little light in their life  

Ponderize scripture: 2 Nephi 32:4 

Sorella Carrie Nelson 

P.S. Sometimes Italians put scarfs on their dogs when it is windy
outside... Hahaha

Made all of these things for lunch one day....Always a surprise what we come up with. :)

Fresh Mozzarella with tomatoes and vinegar.

No bake cookies

Zucchini soup type thing.

Found some homemade pasta out drying.

Below are pictures of beautiful Bari Vecchia (Old Bari.)

Outside one of the many churches.

Below are pictures of inside of Saint Nicholas church.

The confessional (above picture).

Where is Santa Claus?  (Saint Nicholas)  He's supposed to be buried somewhere here....

Some kind of thing that people put money inside.  There are hundreds and hundreds of bills inside and spilling out.

Angelo and me.

Week 32

(Week 2 Bari)

Uon Giorno tutti!!!!!
La cosa più bella è che io posso dire qualsiasi cosa e voi non potete capirmi! 

This week has been a great one. Work as far as investigators has been
really slow, but we were able to visit many people and find small
service opportunities. 
Pranzo with Lucia and Nicola.

Our progressing investigator is Gabriella. She is in her 40s, and was
found through English course. She LOVES reading the Book of Mormon.
Just in two weeks she is already in       2 Nephi which is awesome. She
really loves everything we teach her, but she is very unsure of
herself when it comes to committing to be baptized. She is currently
reading other materials from other churches and is really just in
search for the truth. Hopefully she will receive her answer that the
church is true and will be able to end her search. 

One of the sweetest women in the ward is Sorella Magno. She is quite
old and alone. We went to visit her and saw she had Facebook. Our
invite for her was to post a Mormon message on FB. We taught her how
and once she understood how, she posted two videos right then and
there. She is awesome and tells us she can't die until she brings ten
more souls into the church.

Thanks to this woman an awesome family who
is all active were baptized several years ago in this ward. One of the
members of that family is currently Relief Society pres. Awesome
example and keep your eye out on Facebook... I'm sure she has been
posting more videos ;) 
Sister Taylor, Monica, Monica's cousin and me.

Monica is a member from Venezuela who was very very less active. We
were able to see her this week as well as her cousin who is not a
member. Monica is moving to London area this week for work and we hope
we can help her stay in touch with the missionaries there. 

Language study!!! A member named Fabrizia lives two floors above us
and every Thursday we go to her home for language study. She is
AWESOME! She gave us all sentences to translate. It was such good
practice and at the end we were able to answer any questions we had.
She is a huge help especially because I often wonder if I am phrasing
things wrong and no one tells me. Fabrizia also has the most adorable
golden retriever Luca who we all love. 

Lucia is a woman from English course who had us over for Pranzo one
day. She and her husband are both named after saints (Nicola and
Lucia) and the pictures of these saints hang right above their front
door. Quindi... They are super Catholic. 

The entire pranzo we had an
awesome discussion about what we do an missionaries and why we
wouldn't drink the wine they offered and all that good stuff. We were
able to share our testimonies that the Church of Jesus Christ has been
restored, but in the end it was the most common response "Dio è uno".
Breaks my heart. 

We taught a billion first lessons it felt like this week. So many
people here just believe that if they pray and live a good life they
will be fine. They always say they have grown up in their church and
they can't change. They like their church and always say God is one...
I have no idea how they feel, but I just know they are missing out on
an eternity of happiness! 

Couple of cool experiences
Since we hop on and off of buses everywhere, Sorella Taylor and I try
to always get at least one persons phone number. As we were waiting
for the bus to go home, we met three of the most fashionable people I
have ever seen. The woman and the two men looked like they walked out
of a Twilight book. Black fur and leather coats fitted perfectly,
designer shoes and bags, and pale olive skin. We decide to start up a
conversation with them and turns out two of them have Books of
Mormon!!! Sooo cool! We hope to see them soon. Hopefully our sister
missionary attire didn't turn them away ;) 

There is a woman in our ward who is 93 years old, Sorella Valenti. I
adore her! I thought she was 70ish by the way she moves all around. We
visited her this Sunday and she started laughing soooo hard. I about
had a panic attack because I thought she was going to die right in
front of us from laughing so hard. She didn't and she is just the
sweetest happiest person in the world. 
A sweet sister showed us how she made her homemade ravioli.  These are some of her tools she used. Working on getting the video I made to show up here on the blog.....Someone please help my mom to figure how to do that.

During Relief Society a Fratello came and tapped me on the shoulder
and asked me to come with him. I was thinking there is like an
emergency or something, but instead he introduced his friend to me!
Awesome woman named Nadia who asked the prime question... What makes
your church different? The best! 
Happy Valentine's Day!!!  In Bari there are hearts like this all over mixed in with the graffiti.

Here in Italy because EVERYONE is obsessed with the saints,
Valentine's Day is a little different. Chocolates and roses aren't
very big but instead a huge church mass. It's also not just Valentine's
Day, it is SAINT Valentine's Day. Haha love it. 

PDAY today: went to a BEAUTIFUL city called Matera. It is where they
filmed The Passion of Christ apparently. It is one of the oldest
cities in the world and 100% beautiful. 

Life is really great right now. It's beautiful weather here in Bari
right now. Very humid with the ocean and feels like springtime. My comp
is so wonderful. She has the biggest heart and she is being so patient
with me learning the area. I'm super lucky. 
Panzarotti!!!  Filled with hot tomatoes and mozzarella cheese.

Sometimes I stress and
worry I am not doing my best whether it is translating in Relief Society for the senior couple or making sure I am
understanding what our investigators are saying or just making sure I
am being bold and talking with everyone. These feelings of stress were
calmed during church this Sunday. Walking up to the church I just felt
so at peace and felt like I was doing exactly the right thing. 

The
church is so true. We had a ton of rejection this week and I was a
little heart broken about it because it is so sad they don't realize
what they are missing. Jesus Christ is the ONLY way we can feel hope
and peace. He is the light and the way. I'm so grateful for Him and
that He has suffered for my weaknesses as a person and missionary. I'm
so grateful that because of Him, I can always improve. He literally
makes everything possible! GRAZIE A LUI!

Ponderize scripture: John 15:7

Vi voglio un sacco di bene!!!! 

Sorella Carrie Nelson
Bari at night...

P-Day in Matera!!!  This is where the Passion of the Christ was filmed.  One of the oldest cities in the world!!

Surprise picture for the week!!!  Cristina (on right) is from my old area in Caserta!!  She must have been visiting out of town and ran into one of my high school friend Rowdy Jensen who is currently serving in the Italy, Milan Mission!!! Crazy small world it is.....