Week 45

(Week 15 Bari)

Miracoli!‏

Bari Zone Conference
Bari is known for "red power" so we decided as the leaders of the zone to have everyone wear red!  It was so awesome!  Everyone participated, even the assistants and President and Sister Waddoups!  It was a super fun idea.

What a week! My testimony of missionary work and how little part we
play has been strengthened this week as I've seen so many miracles
happen. During this week we had all sorts of different lessons planned
of where we were going to go and who we were going to see. Almost
every single day we were lead to someone else to teach. 

The first time we were headed to another lesson and we passed by a
door that I recognized. Sorella Taylor had told me that a woman lived
there but is only home when it was raining. Well, it was raining so we
knocked on the door! And this woman was home, let us in, we taught the
restoration and MIRACLE! So awesome.

The second time we were doing a little less active hunting and we
remembered that there was a part member family that lived close by. So
we ran on over and knocked! This wife and daughter who are not members
happily let us in, we taught the Restoration and MIRACLE! 

The third time a woman cancelled on us so we were walking to our next
appointment doing a little finding on the way and we stopped a woman
named Maria. She has a brother who is a member is SLC and she dragged
us right into her house where we sat down, taught the Restoration and
MIRACLE! 

The fourth time was on the bus headed to English Course. There was a
woman I recognized from church last week so we start talking and turns
out she isn't a member! Her name is also Maria and she had simply seen
us getting off at the bus stop all the time and decided to come check
out our church. She looooved it and told us about the peace she felt.
Serious MIRACLE! 

This transfer has been really really difficult so far, but I've
learned as we search for the miracles in every single day, Heavenly
Father makes miracles happen. As we work work work we forget all the
other problems and find so much fulfillment in the gospel. 

I love
being a missionary and love my small part in this great and marvelous
work! 

Sorella Nelson 

Ponderize scripture Alma 26:12

Beautiful little flower shop.

Check out this strange bouquet....

"Maria! Let's take a picture!"  This is her pose :)

Camilla!  Our Peruvian princess.

Typical Italian streets...

Alberobello with the whole district!!

The Pack Family from Logan was in Bari as they vacationed in Italy.  They attended our ward and I was able to translate for  some of them!  Always send missionary parents pictures of their missionaries and then give them a big hug!  It was such a tender mercy to have a woman from my hometown come and talk with me, take a picture and give me a great big hug.  It's the best!!

Week 44

(Week 14 Bari)

Happy Mothers Day!!!! I'm so blessed to have a wonderful mom back in
my dear Smithfield Utah and so many wonderful women here in Italy who
make me feel like my mom isn't that far away. 
View of my family during our Mother's Day Skype call.

This Sunday literally rocked!!! Our investigator Camilla was able to
come to church with her mom and sister! This means if she comes to
church these next two weeks she can be baptized on the 28th! Super
exciting! She got to go to primary and already made friends with two
of the other little primary girls. It was the most beautiful thing to
see this family in church feeling the spirit after such a long long
time. 

Sorella Torres and I were able to teach the lesson in Relief
Society. It was so awesome and I bear testimony of the gift of
tongues! Sometimes it freaks me out that Italians understand what I'm
saying and that I can speak with them. Pretty awesome. 

Since we have some Peruvian members in our ward we put on a "festa
Peruviana"! It was so fun! Members came, English course students, and
some of our investigators! Food and the gospel are the ways to
people's hearts. ;) I was so thrilled when our dear Maria made a
friendship with my favorite less active couple the Lagattollas! The
Anziani even pulled through with a llama piñata! Success! 
Pinata from our Peruviana party.

Cool story for the week: we went to visit a non active member Angela
on Saturday morning. We hadn't seen her for weeks and we so excited to
see her! When we got to her house she told us to come back in half an
hour so she could shower... So we hit the streets with finding! After
no, no, no, maybe, I'll call you..., we found a woman who's cousin had
given her a Book of Mormon the day before! So cool, hopefully we will
get to see her this week. 

After our half hour of power finding we went
back to Angela. She wouldn't let us into her house so we sat down in
the stair well to start a lesson. We were about to start and then her
daughter in law, brother, and granddaughter come right in the door. We
all start talking and we invite them all to join in our "stair well"
lesson. We all say a prayer and talk about the Book of Mormon and how
it brings us peace. Before we can say a closing prayer the daughter in
law tells us all about her son who needs our message and is looking
for some peace in this life. She ends up calling him right there and
puts me on the phone with him! So cool! He is super interested and so
is the mother in law! Can't wait to see what comes from this family. 

Our mission President gave us a challenge to read the Book of Mormon
before May 10 and I finished this last week! I know that the Book of
Mormon gives us power and strength to face our difficulties. Every day
I read the Book of Mormon I feel better and I know that the stories
found in the Book of Mormon really are for our days! It's true! 

Ciao! Alla prossiama! 

Sorella Carrie Nelson

Ponderize scripture Moroni 9:6

My "greenie" is pretty cute!!

The delicious Panzerotti

Sorella McFarlands Birthday!

Helping Maria move furniture....

Pretty Bari!

Our apartment building.

Beautiful Niocattero

Good Pday!

Awesome chalk drawing!!

Week 43

 (Week 13 Bari)
I'm officially a Mother!!

My greenie!!!! Her name is Sorella Torres, from Venezuela but she has
lived in Milan for a year and a half. She was born into the church in
Venezuela but then moved to Italy when her mom married an Italian. She
is 20 years old, so beautiful, and so full of energy! She speaks
Italian beautifully and understands five English words and I love her
so much! 
Sorella Torres my greenie!!!

I have such a testimony of revelation! Sorella Torres is
literally helping me accomplish my mission goals that I set for myself
at the beginning of my mission. Those first two days were kinda rough
with speaking 100% Italian and trying to help a new missionary BE a
missionary instead of helping a missionary speak the language. It's
been super cool to watch Sorella Torres teach and be a missionary. I
remember coming out of the MTC so ready to baptize all of Italy, but
literally not able to because I just couldn't overcome the language
barrier how I wanted, but it's not a problem for Sorella Torres! It's
super cool just how bold she is with everyone! 

This past week has literally been insanity! Sorella McFarland and I
had both "killed" our companions so she and I were covering both areas
for several days. Then I sent her off and welcomed the two new Bari
Libertà Sorelle and my dear greenie!!! 
Said bye to Sorella McFarland, my companion for a week.
More pals at train station with recent convert Rosa.

Training so far has been really fun. I forget so often that Sorella
Torres is a brand new missionary since she already speaks the
language. It's super cool because we can really focus our studies on
how we are going to teach and we are already able to share lessons
pretty equally. It's awesome! 

It's the cutest thing when she does
little things that remind me she is new like heading out of the house
without praying or asking what the morning schedule is like.

She is also kickin my butt, she is basically inviting everyone to be
baptized. Haha I've gotten lazy! Anywho, she is great and I'm excited
to help her learn English and really grow as a missionary and learn
all the little details of missionary work. 

Miracles/work update:
Our little Peruvian Camilla has been reading the Book of Mormon!!! It
was such a tender mercy that Sorella Torres was able to read a little
bit more of it in Spanish with her. A super huge miracle was trying to
see Camilla and her family. I had tried calling them all week and
nothing... I was praying all day to know if we should go try to just
pass by their house. So, we went and the mother Elizabeth just
happened to be outside putting the trash out. The moms phone was
busted and the sisters was left at a friends house. It was a miracle
that we went. The mother broke down in tears and explained she just
has been having a hard time adjusting here in Italy. Promptings are
real everyone. FOLLOW THE SPIRIT. 

Maria, she's doing awesome!!! We have been doing lots of reviewing
with her and she is remembering! Menomale! We also made her a baptism
calendar last week with verses everyday and a question to think about
and she has been following it. She rocks. 

Rafaela, she has been reading but not coming to church... We are
hoping this changes super quickly! She is a rockstar and obviously has
a desire to learn. 

We had a leadership mission meeting via Skype on Friday which was
awesome. We had all the zone leaders and sister training leaders in
every city on a conference call. Hashtag our mission is too big...
Before our President Waddoups leaves the mission, we have the goal to
baptize 40 people in one month. It's amazing to see the faith of all
the missionaries and how our leaders are truly inspired. 40 baptisms
in one month in the Italy Rome Mission has never happened, but I know
we as a mission can really do it! 

Lesson learned/reminder of the week: We had a lesson with an
investigator couple and it went just absolutely awful and the wife
ended up just walking out. I was so heartbroken and felt so sick and
sad inside. I wanted to cry as we were leaving, but then my sweet
greenie just comes up to me and tells me what a great job I did and
that she is glad to be serving with me. At first I thought she was
being sarcastic, but she was serious and told me that I did my best
and they just aren't ready for the gospel. Ooookay... And I'm the
trainer??? I really realized that we can feel sad that people don't accept our message, but in the end, we do our best we can and leave it
up to them to act on our message. I was super grateful for that little
reminder from Sorella Torres. 

Missionary work is the most rewarding work ever. The feeling of
working all day and then being exhausted when you go to bed
remembering all the miracles you saw and the spirit you felt during
lessons can't be beat. I'll just leave it as that. I love being a
missionary!!!

Buona settimana! 

Ponderize scripture: Ether 4:10 

Sorella Nelson

Typical Gelato store!!

Funny Anziani...

Three views from outside of our apartment.

Beautiful Bari Vecchia for the Festa of the patron saint.

All decorated for the saints day!

One of my favorite people Angela!

Cute Sorella Magno and her dolce she made us.