Week 31

(Week 1 Bari)

Craziest week ever! So many goodbyes and running around the Napoli
zone at the beginning, then so many train rides to Bari! Now I'm here
in beautiful Bari trying to not freak out how well the church runs
here! 

Beginning of the week (Caserta) Sorella Rackham, my temporary
companion for five days, and I took our bike ride through the palace
gardens for my last time. The weather was perfect and we ended a
wonderful P-day visiting a wonderful woman Maria who lives right under
the Anziani. 

Last P-day in Caserta at La Reggia

The next morning we were running all over Caserta doing
little errands and saying goodbyes to everyone. That afternoon we went
to see Lucia and try to help her adjust to having two new Sorelle. She
was adorable and I can't wait to hear how she is from the new
Sorelle. 

English Course... This was probably the hardest goodbye...
After being with the students for six months it was sooo sad to leave
them. I had thought a lot about what I wanted to share with them for
my last spiritual thought and I decided to do it on change. 

Member friend Rory and investigator Silvanna

We taught
about how with change we have the opportunity to progress and learn.
We had tried working with many of the students, but a lot of them
would always say "I'm Catholic" and that would be the end. I hope
maybe they will eventually understand that change can be a good thing and maybe one day
they will change their mind and meet with the Caserta missionaries. We
all cried as we took pictures and said goodbyes, but a lot of them
were happy for me to experience a new city. Can't wait to chat them
all up after the mission on FB!

Sweet Denis and Daniel gave me another phone call that night to say
goodbye and thank me for all I did. 
Goodbye English Course Class

We met with Ornella again and she
has totally quit smoking and drinking coffee! She is INCREDIBLE!!!!!

We wheeled my two bags to the church that night and went home to try
to catch up on sleep. (I'd been staying up till 11:30ish making sure
the Area Book was perfect). 

That morning we took an early train to
Napoli for a conference and then District Meeting. Anziano Borden
talked all about the area book and I learned a lot I was able to put
into practice to help the new Sorelle know more information.
Sorella Rackham and I headed to Battipaglia, taught a couple lessons,
more updating area book and then went to bed!!! 

Thursday!!!! Transfer day!!!! We woke up at 4 to get ready to catch a
train to Napoli! I was sooooo tired!!!! We got to Napoli and I found
out that I would be traveling alone with an Anziano...  awk... He
and I took a train back to Caserta where the Caserta Anziani had my
two bags. I thought they would wait with us until our train came to
take us to Bari, but... Nope. Anziano Mende and I just hung out at the
station for an hour before our train. We were freaking out five
minutes before it came in because we had no idea how we would get all
our bags on. 

The train pulled in and out comes two Anziani! I have
never been so happy to see other missionaries! There were four other
Anziani on the train headed to Bari so we had nice chats and told
stories for our three hour ride. 
Welcome to Bari!!!

Bari! Sorella Taylor was so cute and waiting for me at the station!
She is soooo adorable and already speaks the language really well! We
took my bags home and waited for the new greenie Sorella and her
trainer. Once everyone was home and in it was about 6. 

We took the bus
to the Poggio Franco church (we take the bus EVERYWHERE here) and I
have never seen such a beautiful sight! This church is soooooo
beautiful! Bari is like California just Italian style and this church
looks like something from Hawaii! It's all white and palm trees are
everywhere! 

Sorella Taylor gave me a tour of the church and I was in
tears, there is a baptismal font, a huge chapel, beautiful relief
society room, primary rooms, a genealogy room, a room for seminary and
institute with couches, a ward council room and so much more! There is
even a soccer/basketball court! I had no idea that there were places
in Italy where the church was like this. I guess I thought it was like
I've seen in the Napoli zone with churches that are like a small
apartment building with barely enough priesthood to hold callings. It
is soooooo wonderful!!!!! 

English course was great, it is smaller than Caserta so I hope we can
help it grow in numbers. After we had a great lesson with our
investigator Gabriella. She is great and can't wait to get to know her
better.

Friday was some good weekly planning with Sorella Taylor telling me
about everyone. Took us forever and I felt so bad because I just kept
asking her so many questions! This evening and Saturday we made a
bunch of visits to meet members and some less actives. Good stuff,
good stuff. 

One less active couple was adorable! The first thing they
told me was that they don't go to church but they love the Liahona
(Ensign). They want to prepare for the temple so we got to get them
back in church first. 
Bari!!!  Saturday night finding in the big piazza!!

Sunday!!!! Church was sooooo wonderful! Things run soooo smoothly here
and I was able to not worry about translators and people getting into
the building so that was really nice. It's a 100% Italian ward and I
love them!!! In Relief Society I translated for our new missionary couple. We had a KILLER lesson by a sister.... Someone...
(Still learning names) It was all about not letting those physical or
spiritual disabilities keep us from reaching our potential. It was
really uplifting and I appreciated it. 

EVERY Sunday a member feeds the missionaries! The Sorelle go with a
family and the Anziani with another family. Sorella Taylor said this
is the craziest longest one she has been to. We were eating with this
family for 4 whole hours!!!! Mamma Mia!!!!! The worst part was that we
literally had no way to leave. They had driven us and we had no clue
where we were, it was super delicious but we will have to chat with
bishop to make these pranzo appointments shorter. 

Anywho! We did a
couple more visits that night and my favorite was to Sorella Valenti
who is 92!!! What!?!? She walks everywhere and literally has the best
health ever! She is so wonderful and was so excited to read in the
Book of Mormon with us! 

Bari is seriously super wonderful! I live with two other Sorelle.
Sorella McFarland and Hunter (Hunter is a greenie and adorable). It is
strange having two more people in the house, but we don't see them
much except pranzo and the end of the day. 

Bari is huge! It is at
least three times the size of Caserta so it pretty different, but I
know we are going to see some awesome miracles here! I have an awesome
companion who wants to work, an incredible ward and panzarotti (scone
things filled with cheese and tomatoes) to keep our spirits high!
Can't wait!!!!! 

Gospel is soooo true, even on the other side of the
world!!!! I am so happy right now to be doing the Lord's work and
receive His help everyday. I know this is His work and that when we do
it His way, He will help us find those who are ready. 

You are all so wonderful and I love you all! Keep smiling!!! 

Tante belle cose! 

Ponderize scripture: 2 Nefi 4:20 

Sorella Nelson

P-Day at the beachfront at Bari.