"Anna, WHY?" ha ha not uncommon to see this stuff all over. This is in an area, that we have a lot of members/investigators in. It freaks me out every time!
Before we moved from our old apartment.
Our District with Christian.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
January 31, 2010 Photos Received in Mail from Sorella Miller
"Anna, WHY?" ha ha not uncommon to see this stuff all over. This is in an area, that we have a lot of members/investigators in. It freaks me out every time!Before we moved from our old apartment.Our District with Christian.
Photo Album
The "Sicilian Gandparents"! The Nifusi couple
New Years @ Tony's a recent convert
Sorella Hostetter & Anziano Marzolla Christmas Conference at the Mission Home Dec. 09
Thursday, January 28, 2010
January 28, 2010 Fratelli e sorelle, amicci e genitori!
Helllloooooo all!
This letter arrives to you late, because yesterday we had an awesome Zone Conference in CAtania with a member of the 70, Elder Kausse (french descent, but now stationed in Frankfert).
I will go through and answer some of these questions the best that I can...
1. Ok, the food. I continue to leose weight, for many reasons.
a. We run out of money really like with 2 weeks left in the month, so we live off of oranges that members give us, dried beans, pasta, herbal tea etc.
b. There is simply not time to eat! We hardly ever SCHEDULE lunch appointments, because we like to be able to do our language study, which president wants us to be doing for one hour ever day during our lunch.
c. People eat dinner around 8:30....Too late forus to eat and be home on time.
So last time I got on the scale I was like 128 haha I am shriveling and not even trying to!! We occasionally eat on like a
Then...they bring our the MAIN course, some sort of meat. Usually like a lamb, or seafood, not tons fo beef.
Then, they will bring out cheeses. Tons of cheeses. oh, and they always eat bread with everything.
Then they do a piece of fruuit after that. Then Dolci--Dessert. Usually something like a cannolli, which are amazing. They are like this fried thing with ricotta chesse in the middle and powdered sugar on top. MMmmm. Sogood. No, people dont eat fast food here. TONS OF PIZZA TOO, there is a pizzeria on every corner, not kidding about that.
2. Our branch is a decent size. They say it is the biggest in Sicily, but we have tonnnns of inactives that we work with. The members are strong, of course there are the few original families who joined like all at the same time about 30 years ago, and they are really strong. WE have a few people who are especially good about comeing with us to work with people, and they are always at church etc... Then there is a HUGE chunk of women in the branch who are raising there family in the gospel without a husband. They are amazing, but it is really sad to see them struggle to raise a family without the foundation of the PRiesthood. It is something I have decided since I have been here. 1. I will never marry outside the temple. 2. I will NEVER go in-active. its incredible to see how people make covenants, and then still live a CAtholic lifestyle and have CAtholic attitudes. ex. church atttendance, they come when they feel like it. It is a commandment fr us to go to church every sunday, we HAVE to re-new those ordinances, its VITAL.
Sunday school lessons are good, Italians are very intense, loud, and intense. haha we have an awesome woman, sorella conforto who teaches gospel principles each week. She and her husband joined 4 years ago. He always plays the opening hymns, and it is the most intense arrangement of the hymns you have ever heard. HYSTERICAL. he is a doctor, and a super strong member. He has the most rediculous Italian voice, that sounds like some guy from the Godfather. I will never forget my reaction the first time I heard him read a scripture in Sunday school, haha they are great. So anyways, she always prepares awesome lessons, and they always stay under control. Oh, and no, members dont sing like opera stars, they have no pitch. PUNTO. its pretty bad actually, haha.
There is not a ward choir, but a group of old women that sing as peopel are congregating into Sacrament meeting, and we always sing and try to do them a favor..
3 There are many people here who are employed by an oil manufacturing company that is here on the way to Catania...for the most part though, most people here arent super educated and dont have tons fo money. Like Fratello Conforto in our ward, the one I was just talking about, he is a Dr. and our Bishop has a big company that he does really well with. But yea, I dont really know once people start talking complex business terms, we'll just say I am not FLUENT in the business world terms yet! haha A lot of women are teachers in our ward, and most mothers at least in our ward stay at home. most stay home.
4. There is not a University here in Siracusa, but there is one in CAtania, there is a Technical college here
5. My companion is really wonderful about letting me teach in lessons , and I appreciate that. She said for the first year of her mission she was with older companions, who never really let her teach, so she is very sensistive to that, and we teach with great unity. It is a lot of times frustrating, because a lot of times people think that because I am only 2 months into the mission that I cannot understand, so they just dont really try to include me in conversations, when realy, I understand everything that is going on, and I can totally put a word in to the conversation....But that is very frustrating, when people just like wont even make eye contact with me during a lesson, because they assume I cant understand or talk.
She goes home in April, and will be going back to BYUIdaho. She is trying to lose weight, and so that is something that is a constant struggle for her. We get along well and we all struggle with different things. She is awesome. We are great friends.
6. We have a hard time contacting people after about 8 oclock because everything closes at 8. Italians hate rain, and are incredribly verdramatic when it rains or is slightly cold or windy outside. They wont go to work, they wont come to church, they will cancel appointments on us etc. WE do house sometimes, but usually its not very effective. we find people with what president calls POwer Approaches. BAsically look at the 3-5 minute lesson idea at the endof each of the lessons...Like for the restoration, we will just go up to someone and teach a principle like that first paragraph at the endof the REstoration chapter (3-5 min lesson iddea) and recite that to them. The idea is 1. PRINCIPLE 2. QESTION 3. TESTIFY It is morelikely to get rejected when you teach when you find, because your not just going up and being talkative and being timid. You are going up to people you have never met, and being bold, because your not afraid they will reject you. ITs all about being humble, and recognizing that this message is not about me. Im just the instrument, in delivering the gospel of JESUS CHRIST to people. When people reject, they are rejecting Jesus christ, not me. Its so humbling to know that really, its me just being the instrument. That is probably the hardest thing on the mission. Just struggling to find the elect. When we teach when we find, that is the purpose, the elect will recognize the message.
I honestly kind of struggle with doing street, because it is really hard to just talk to people about RELIGION. Im not shy when it comes to just making small talk with people, but bein gbold, and really being a MISSIONARY, is hard. Its so hard. But every day is another chance to improve. Every day I rely on the Lord to help me overcome all of my struggles. Every day I just ave to remin myself its not about me, its not about me. I have 13 months left to devote all to the Lord, and the rest of my life to think back on what I could have done better.
7. English course started up last Thursday. I taught advanced last week, to the class of only 5 students. They all just speak in English, and your basically just there to let them practice speaking English with you. It was fun, but not really that fun. Sorella Morgan was teaching the Basic leverl, and it really stresses her out teaching to a lot of peopel like that, so I volunteered to teach basic, and I love it! I really like teaching BAsic, because there are like 25 people there of all ages, and im able to teach. People have a lot of fun, and love learnign English, so its fun. We do the last 10 minutes as a principle from PMG.
8. Every monday we do Distric Meeting with the Elders at the Church. We got a new Elder at transfers who is a convert from PEru. Hes pretty different, and is going by Preach My Gospel to a "T", which is awesome. WE are implementing a lot now with the ward mission plan, which they had not really referred to in a few years (not good), and doing more with calling ward missionaries, because we only have two, and they are now a couple who is serving a mission in the catania office. haha He is really good, Ilike him, hes our new Dist Leader and is stepping it up, its good, im all for it. Yea, the other Elder is Anziano Pesci, hes awesome. He looks like Derald's twin, and has such a similar personality to Derald. Haha, we get along really wekk, and he speaks Italian sooooo well because his first 2 and only two companions have been italian. (even though this new anziano is from peru, hes lived in rome the last 3 years, so he speaks perfect italian).
9. We walk everywhere. It depends where we are going, our different places we go to range from a 5 minute walk, to a 30 minute walk. Siracusa is the perfect size city because we can get to everywhere on foot, but there ARE busses. We just dont really use them, because the main reason missionaries take busses is so you can teach people, but there are only weirdos on the busses, sooo yea.
WE always take a train or bus toCAtania, for ezempio we took a bus to catania yesterday with the Anziani to Zone Conf. IT was madness, you should have seen the bus from the church where we had conference, back to the train station....Wow. It was packed full of freshly motivated missionaries (probably 12 of us) and then like 15 other people on the bus. Sorella Morgan and i taught 6 lessons yesterday!!! I wish we lived in a big city and could do bus more often!
You can always mail to the mission home, it just takes longer because the mission couple who serves in the office brings that once a week when they come church, but sometimes they forget....
Our heater in our house is brokken. I am constantly freezing. It is my new nightly routine to sit and blow the hairdryer on me for like 45 minutes as a write in my journal at night haha it is a trick a member told me to do, and now i am so greatful for a hair dryer!!!
Last week they called us SAturday night and told us we were giving talks on sunday! haha I was freaking out of course, because I am not the type that writes my talk Sunday morning before church, so I had a little breakdown, somehow got a talk ready, and then we got to church and they told us not to worry about is because a member of the stake presidency was there to speak. False alarm. solid. oh well. it was a good talk anyways haha.
So I met an Elder at Zone Conference yesterday who told me that Dad, you baptized his FAther, DAve Kinzie, and his Grandparents! WOW! What a small world! that is so cool dad, I saw a missionary in my mission, who is here baptizing people, because YOU served a mission! That is so cool. Not goign to lie, sometimes it is a bit discouraging. I get letters from friends in other places who tell me they had like 18 people in church, theyre teaching 36 investigators, and last week they had 4 baptizms...haha. And we are struggling to get anyone in church, and we have 3 investigators. Giussi is still actually progressing really well. It has been beautiful to see how much she loves the Bok of mormon, that is what is truly converting her.
Paola is such a sad story. She has a testimony, but until she is willing to give up EVERYTHING (smoking, and vùcertain other commandments) she just cant have the joy that the Lord promises us. This dawned on me as I read Alma 22:18 this week. LAmoni was willing to give up everything to have the joy that Ammon promised him, andhe did! We have to live the commandments and do all we can, before we can become converted, truly having no more even DESIRE To sin. Its really sad, I just want her to have the blessings that come when we truly LIVE the gospel, and make covenants with God.
Well, I am doing well. OF course every day is a struggle, but luckily we have the Atonement, and we always have the chance to improve, and let the LOrd help us overcome our weaknesses. The gospel is true. I know it more and more every day. IT makes too much sense to be not true. I feel the spirit so much when I testify of Joseph Smith, especially watching the Restoration video. That film is amazing. I love you all so much. We are so luck to have such a close family. WE are all active and strong mmbers of the church. The gospel is the most important thing in life. Megan got married last week, and her wedding announcement was gorgeous!!!!! Wow, she looks so happy. I hope everyone is welll!
Love, -Sorella Miller
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
January 20, 2010 E Un Bell'Giorno!
Ciao Famiglia!
We are still here in Siracusa. We did not get transferred. One of our Elders did, but we are still here. The new apartment is much better. WE are no longer in a dark, dead area, but there are lots of cars, and it is on a busy well lit street.
Thank you for your letters/e-mails, I am glad to hear that you are all doing well and happily moving forward with your different day to day life experiences. We are so blessed to have the restored gospel in our lives. Every day as people try to break down my testimony, it only gets stronger. Each morning as I study, and come to more fully understand the gospel, and how it applies to us each day and can fortify us against the world, I am that much more grateful I AM here as a witness. Despite the many many people who tell me each day that there is no one in this country who will listen to us, I know there are. And even if i don't see direct fruits of my labors as I am here on my mission, I know that I myself have become a more devoted disciple of Jesus Christ.
Every day I realize that there are a lot of people who know a lot more than me, but it drives me to learn. Some man asked me to tell him who Melchizidek was the other day, and Aaron. I kind of feel like an idiot, a lot, haha. But I am gretaeful for these instances, because even if i don't know everything, I do know the most important things. I studied the Priesthood the next day. It doesnt cease to amaze me, how literally, the gospel today has truly been RESTORED. Even the PRiesthood, is a Restoration of something that Jesus Christ himself established. Read Hebrews 5, it's an incredible chapter that is truly a testimony of The Priesthood in correlation with the Restoration of the Gospel.
This week it has been raining a lot!! There were literally RIVERS in the streets, and I was gratefull for a pair of golashas I found in our old house, man, those things literally save me. This is apparantly a Sicilian winter according to locals, so i have this to look forward to for the next oh, 2 months or so. It's not bad though, I still would rather be here in the warmest city in the missio nand have rain, than be in some cities in the missio nwhere they have snow! Haha. Italians are so particular. Really. Like when it rains, we really struggle with the work, because literally people stay home from work, and no one walks around, because they hate the rain. Sorry Mom, they really "Dis-like" the rain. Ohhhh wow i am so much like you Mom its great. Your great. I have a great family. COMUNQUE--- So yea, rain, and lots of it. But like today its about 60 degrees and no rain, so we get a day now and there where it is still nice outside.
Our teaching pool has slowed down a bit, and we are currently just basically teaching Nando (I love Nando, I know he will be a Stake President if he ever joins..) Paola and Lorenzo, and Giussepa (aka Giussy the scarf thief Polvirente). No I never got my scarf back. But we did somehow manage to set a baptismal date with her- haha WHAT?! Yes- the ever so CAtholic Giussi has agreed to be baptized. She was very Catholic, and yet as we have progressively taught her she has come to see that the need for a Restoration makes tons of sense. She understands that God, Jesus Christ and The Holy Ghost are three seperate beings. We best were able to explain this to her by referring to the time when Jesus was Baptized...The voice of the Father was heard from the HEavens, and Jesus was on the earth, being baptized. We also are taught this Principle a lot from the 1st Vision, but for her this made the most sense. We have had to really work with her on prayer. That is a huge difference between us and the Catholics. We have been very bold with her, and yet sometimes she just forgets. "Giussi, we don't say Padre nostro, We just dont recite prayers." Haha We were able to do a good lesson on prayer and look at the scripter in Matthew where Jesus instructs us on the MANNER in which we are to pray, and learn from the Padre Nostro Prayer HOW we pray, not that we have to recite those prayers. She is learning, and we are seeing her twice a week, and hopefully she will be beptized Feb 27th. She also thinks it makes a lot more sense that we have the CHOICE to be baptized, and not that we are just baptized as infants. As I have studied more about this, it all just makes so much sense.
It is wonderful to have members with us at lessons. Our goal is to have a member present whenever possible. It makes all the difference in the world. Sometimes they are just able to explain things in a way that is just not quite at our level of italian haha. But we have some awesome mebers in our Branch who are always willing to help us. That has been something HUGE for me to learn being here as a missionary. I will never be the same ever again after the mission. Please help the missionaries. The work is so much easier when the members let the missionaries teach THEIR FRIENDS. Read the quote by PRes Hinckley in the FINDING PEOPLE sect. in PMG. Its all about the members!!!! We got two referralls last week, which was AWESOME!!!! WE have been really trying to focus on working with the members to try and do just that! Get their trust, so they will get us people we can teach, and it worked!
Speaking of Italian, I love Italian. We were overy helping the Zombra family (The family in our ward from Africa, single Mom with 5 kids, the mom cant read..) we were helping them with homework, and I always help Martina with Spanish hw. haha Seriously I don't remember Spanish anymore, it's so stressfull when we go over there because we leave and I say to myself i seriously can speak Italian better than i spoke spanish, what am I going to do when I get home???! haha Va bene. No, I don't speak Sicialian. I think Italian is way more beautiful than spanish too. i love it.
We do a lot of work with less actives here. We have a huge Branch, but there are a lotttt of less actives. There seem to have been a lot of baptizms of people who were more in love with the missionaries than the gospel of Jesus Christ. You have to be so careful to not just " do missionary things" and do stuff like hang out at members houses. But we are here specifically as missionaries, to teach peopel the gospel. Its hard to find the balance between spending time with investigators, teaching them, and them jsut wanting to hang out with you, because they have rough lives....I never know if Im doing this right! Haha its a stresful thing because I am like Mom in so many ways. At times i just have to remind myself if I am doing ALL THAT I CAN, and being OBEDIENT, I can know thats all I can do.
We always see this homeless man on the Bridge to ORtiga every week, and this week we learned he skeaks English, he's actually from England. I have never heard such an interesting excuse for why people "Should not be Mormons" So we taught him about the Restoration, and he made it clear he has been good friends with missionaries in the past, and he has even read the Book of mormon. It was pretty funny to hear Bob explain his theories. So " if all the people were to convert to your church, millions of people would die, because the two biggest industries in the world are alcohol and tobacco. It would put tons of people out of their jobs, and then they would DIE." Haha We decided Bob was nice, but he was a little too confused to try to teach seriously. It was his 55th birthday on Monday, so we made him a birthday cake, and went and found him and took it to him. His whole family is dead, and he has been traveling around the world just beggin for the last 20 years. He is a really nice guy, but it's sad to see people wither away when they have the opportunity to hear a message that could give them so much hope, direction and purpose.
Funny story. We went and visited a less active in our ward this week named Sorella Vinci. She is somewhat a hypochondriac, so much to the point that the last time she went to the hospital they told her she couldn't come haha. We brought her The Living Christ and she wanted to read the whole thing out loud, and every time we volunteered to read she jsut said she could do it. She read the first line, and then I got lost as I was following along. Then I realized I could not figure out where she was skipping ahead to!! Haha she would make up liike the next paragraph inbetween, then read like one line, or half of it! haha It was so funny, me and Sorella Morgan were trying to keep composure! Then she went off and was telling us how grateful she was to Joseph Smith, "For being the first person to preach the Gospel to all the world, in every language, even Aarabic!" hahaha Oh, here was the other thing she said "I also love sister Missionaries, because if it werent for them, we wouldn't have the Book of Mormon in ITalian! I am so glad sisters came to Italy and translated the Book of Mormon into Italian!" Hahaha Somtimes I wonder about certain people, and the misionaries that taught them! haha No, but really she is very sweet, and we just try to go and let her feel the spirit, because she cannot come to church most weeks because she is "Sick" Bless her heart. Sorella Vinci.
People like dogs here. They also like to dress up their dogs in stylish clothing such as overalls. We saw a dog in overalls the other day and it made my day. I laughed so hard.
I continue to utilize my boots as aplace to stuff food when people try to feed us. They do loooove to eat here, but I am still maintaining my weight nonetheless. We basically just buy like 10 Euros of fruuts and vegetables every week that last us. Breakfast I usually just have Orzo and like an orange. Lunch usually some sort of salad or vegetable soup, and then by the time I get home at night, we plan from 9-930, and I dont even eat because i am so anxious to get in my bed. I seriously am such an old woman. I fall asleep by like 9:45 every night, but its so nice. I drag Sorella Morgan out in the mornings to go run. We usually run at the pace of a quick "stride" but thats alright, shes a good sport. Its hard sometimes because my companion talks about how she only has 3 months left, and then im thinking to myself, WOw, I have....13 months left? haha Its ok, shes a good missionary, and she works hard. We teach with unity, and with the Spirit, and thats the most important thing. We laugh, and haev fun.
Tomorrow we start English course, and so we have been doing a lot of Publicity for that this week, making fliers and handing out cards for people to come.
Well, I dont really know what else to talk about. But I am doing well, the weeks go by fast, and I cannot believe I already am in my 2nd Transfer! I appreciate a wonderful family who are all naturally optimistic and positive. I am glad it's in my blood. There is DEFINITELY a need for optimism on the mission, because there really are days when i think that I can't do it, but I know that it is Satan who tries to tell us we can't do things. Jesus Christ wants us to be happy, because he has already paid the price for our happiness. I am grateful for prayer and I know the Lord hears and answers our prayers. I love you all and pray for you daily by name, eventhough it takes up a few minutes at night and sometimes I fall in and out of sleep as I am trying to remember the names of all the nieces and nephews! haha Thank you for the pictures! I LOVE getting PICS!!! I am so sad, I left my one picture of the whole family in front of the temple in one of our investigators car :( Please send more family pics if you can. I got the letters and it seems they take 6 days. I hope your rash gets better soon mom, and i will be printing pictures today to mail home soon! Love you all,
Ciao, Arrivederci!
-Sorella Miller
We are still here in Siracusa. We did not get transferred. One of our Elders did, but we are still here. The new apartment is much better. WE are no longer in a dark, dead area, but there are lots of cars, and it is on a busy well lit street.
Thank you for your letters/e-mails, I am glad to hear that you are all doing well and happily moving forward with your different day to day life experiences. We are so blessed to have the restored gospel in our lives. Every day as people try to break down my testimony, it only gets stronger. Each morning as I study, and come to more fully understand the gospel, and how it applies to us each day and can fortify us against the world, I am that much more grateful I AM here as a witness. Despite the many many people who tell me each day that there is no one in this country who will listen to us, I know there are. And even if i don't see direct fruits of my labors as I am here on my mission, I know that I myself have become a more devoted disciple of Jesus Christ.
Every day I realize that there are a lot of people who know a lot more than me, but it drives me to learn. Some man asked me to tell him who Melchizidek was the other day, and Aaron. I kind of feel like an idiot, a lot, haha. But I am gretaeful for these instances, because even if i don't know everything, I do know the most important things. I studied the Priesthood the next day. It doesnt cease to amaze me, how literally, the gospel today has truly been RESTORED. Even the PRiesthood, is a Restoration of something that Jesus Christ himself established. Read Hebrews 5, it's an incredible chapter that is truly a testimony of The Priesthood in correlation with the Restoration of the Gospel.
This week it has been raining a lot!! There were literally RIVERS in the streets, and I was gratefull for a pair of golashas I found in our old house, man, those things literally save me. This is apparantly a Sicilian winter according to locals, so i have this to look forward to for the next oh, 2 months or so. It's not bad though, I still would rather be here in the warmest city in the missio nand have rain, than be in some cities in the missio nwhere they have snow! Haha. Italians are so particular. Really. Like when it rains, we really struggle with the work, because literally people stay home from work, and no one walks around, because they hate the rain. Sorry Mom, they really "Dis-like" the rain. Ohhhh wow i am so much like you Mom its great. Your great. I have a great family. COMUNQUE--- So yea, rain, and lots of it. But like today its about 60 degrees and no rain, so we get a day now and there where it is still nice outside.
Our teaching pool has slowed down a bit, and we are currently just basically teaching Nando (I love Nando, I know he will be a Stake President if he ever joins..) Paola and Lorenzo, and Giussepa (aka Giussy the scarf thief Polvirente). No I never got my scarf back. But we did somehow manage to set a baptismal date with her- haha WHAT?! Yes- the ever so CAtholic Giussi has agreed to be baptized. She was very Catholic, and yet as we have progressively taught her she has come to see that the need for a Restoration makes tons of sense. She understands that God, Jesus Christ and The Holy Ghost are three seperate beings. We best were able to explain this to her by referring to the time when Jesus was Baptized...The voice of the Father was heard from the HEavens, and Jesus was on the earth, being baptized. We also are taught this Principle a lot from the 1st Vision, but for her this made the most sense. We have had to really work with her on prayer. That is a huge difference between us and the Catholics. We have been very bold with her, and yet sometimes she just forgets. "Giussi, we don't say Padre nostro, We just dont recite prayers." Haha We were able to do a good lesson on prayer and look at the scripter in Matthew where Jesus instructs us on the MANNER in which we are to pray, and learn from the Padre Nostro Prayer HOW we pray, not that we have to recite those prayers. She is learning, and we are seeing her twice a week, and hopefully she will be beptized Feb 27th. She also thinks it makes a lot more sense that we have the CHOICE to be baptized, and not that we are just baptized as infants. As I have studied more about this, it all just makes so much sense.
It is wonderful to have members with us at lessons. Our goal is to have a member present whenever possible. It makes all the difference in the world. Sometimes they are just able to explain things in a way that is just not quite at our level of italian haha. But we have some awesome mebers in our Branch who are always willing to help us. That has been something HUGE for me to learn being here as a missionary. I will never be the same ever again after the mission. Please help the missionaries. The work is so much easier when the members let the missionaries teach THEIR FRIENDS. Read the quote by PRes Hinckley in the FINDING PEOPLE sect. in PMG. Its all about the members!!!! We got two referralls last week, which was AWESOME!!!! WE have been really trying to focus on working with the members to try and do just that! Get their trust, so they will get us people we can teach, and it worked!
Speaking of Italian, I love Italian. We were overy helping the Zombra family (The family in our ward from Africa, single Mom with 5 kids, the mom cant read..) we were helping them with homework, and I always help Martina with Spanish hw. haha Seriously I don't remember Spanish anymore, it's so stressfull when we go over there because we leave and I say to myself i seriously can speak Italian better than i spoke spanish, what am I going to do when I get home???! haha Va bene. No, I don't speak Sicialian. I think Italian is way more beautiful than spanish too. i love it.
We do a lot of work with less actives here. We have a huge Branch, but there are a lotttt of less actives. There seem to have been a lot of baptizms of people who were more in love with the missionaries than the gospel of Jesus Christ. You have to be so careful to not just " do missionary things" and do stuff like hang out at members houses. But we are here specifically as missionaries, to teach peopel the gospel. Its hard to find the balance between spending time with investigators, teaching them, and them jsut wanting to hang out with you, because they have rough lives....I never know if Im doing this right! Haha its a stresful thing because I am like Mom in so many ways. At times i just have to remind myself if I am doing ALL THAT I CAN, and being OBEDIENT, I can know thats all I can do.
We always see this homeless man on the Bridge to ORtiga every week, and this week we learned he skeaks English, he's actually from England. I have never heard such an interesting excuse for why people "Should not be Mormons" So we taught him about the Restoration, and he made it clear he has been good friends with missionaries in the past, and he has even read the Book of mormon. It was pretty funny to hear Bob explain his theories. So " if all the people were to convert to your church, millions of people would die, because the two biggest industries in the world are alcohol and tobacco. It would put tons of people out of their jobs, and then they would DIE." Haha We decided Bob was nice, but he was a little too confused to try to teach seriously. It was his 55th birthday on Monday, so we made him a birthday cake, and went and found him and took it to him. His whole family is dead, and he has been traveling around the world just beggin for the last 20 years. He is a really nice guy, but it's sad to see people wither away when they have the opportunity to hear a message that could give them so much hope, direction and purpose.
Funny story. We went and visited a less active in our ward this week named Sorella Vinci. She is somewhat a hypochondriac, so much to the point that the last time she went to the hospital they told her she couldn't come haha. We brought her The Living Christ and she wanted to read the whole thing out loud, and every time we volunteered to read she jsut said she could do it. She read the first line, and then I got lost as I was following along. Then I realized I could not figure out where she was skipping ahead to!! Haha she would make up liike the next paragraph inbetween, then read like one line, or half of it! haha It was so funny, me and Sorella Morgan were trying to keep composure! Then she went off and was telling us how grateful she was to Joseph Smith, "For being the first person to preach the Gospel to all the world, in every language, even Aarabic!" hahaha Oh, here was the other thing she said "I also love sister Missionaries, because if it werent for them, we wouldn't have the Book of Mormon in ITalian! I am so glad sisters came to Italy and translated the Book of Mormon into Italian!" Hahaha Somtimes I wonder about certain people, and the misionaries that taught them! haha No, but really she is very sweet, and we just try to go and let her feel the spirit, because she cannot come to church most weeks because she is "Sick" Bless her heart. Sorella Vinci.
People like dogs here. They also like to dress up their dogs in stylish clothing such as overalls. We saw a dog in overalls the other day and it made my day. I laughed so hard.
I continue to utilize my boots as aplace to stuff food when people try to feed us. They do loooove to eat here, but I am still maintaining my weight nonetheless. We basically just buy like 10 Euros of fruuts and vegetables every week that last us. Breakfast I usually just have Orzo and like an orange. Lunch usually some sort of salad or vegetable soup, and then by the time I get home at night, we plan from 9-930, and I dont even eat because i am so anxious to get in my bed. I seriously am such an old woman. I fall asleep by like 9:45 every night, but its so nice. I drag Sorella Morgan out in the mornings to go run. We usually run at the pace of a quick "stride" but thats alright, shes a good sport. Its hard sometimes because my companion talks about how she only has 3 months left, and then im thinking to myself, WOw, I have....13 months left? haha Its ok, shes a good missionary, and she works hard. We teach with unity, and with the Spirit, and thats the most important thing. We laugh, and haev fun.
Tomorrow we start English course, and so we have been doing a lot of Publicity for that this week, making fliers and handing out cards for people to come.
Well, I dont really know what else to talk about. But I am doing well, the weeks go by fast, and I cannot believe I already am in my 2nd Transfer! I appreciate a wonderful family who are all naturally optimistic and positive. I am glad it's in my blood. There is DEFINITELY a need for optimism on the mission, because there really are days when i think that I can't do it, but I know that it is Satan who tries to tell us we can't do things. Jesus Christ wants us to be happy, because he has already paid the price for our happiness. I am grateful for prayer and I know the Lord hears and answers our prayers. I love you all and pray for you daily by name, eventhough it takes up a few minutes at night and sometimes I fall in and out of sleep as I am trying to remember the names of all the nieces and nephews! haha Thank you for the pictures! I LOVE getting PICS!!! I am so sad, I left my one picture of the whole family in front of the temple in one of our investigators car :( Please send more family pics if you can. I got the letters and it seems they take 6 days. I hope your rash gets better soon mom, and i will be printing pictures today to mail home soon! Love you all,
Ciao, Arrivederci!
-Sorella Miller
Thursday, January 14, 2010
January 13, 2010
We are teaching Nando. I still have faith he will get baptized one day. We teach him at the train station because he is afraid to tell his devout catholic wife that he is searching for more truth. We gave him a Book of Mormon this week and he said he has started reading it. He listens to us, and we continue to teach him. Giussi is sooooo catholic. We don't really know what to do. We bring ex-catholic members with us and they tell us there is little hope, but she feels the spirit and things make sense to her. We are going back to Ortiga to see Roberta. I'm excited to see her again. Hialu, we gave him a Book of Mormon on Sunday and today he said he hadn't started to read, but he feels like he is in the same situation as Joseph Smith. He doesn't like that there are so many translations of the Bible and he is excited everytime we teach him. He is from Utopia. Sorella Morgan tells me this is a country, legit country. I think we misheard the guy and he is from Ethiopia but ha ha who knows, if there is such a land named Utopia, I would maybe like to live there!? Google it? Let me know if there is such a place. Paola is hot and cold. It is frustrating to be a missionary sometimes. She knows everything is true, reads the Book of Mormon but is going back and forth with her x boyfriend. We can't give "counsel" as missionaries, only teach the doctrine, and let people govern themselves. Sometimes I just want to knock some sense into people. We get told I don't even know how many times a day, that we all believe in the same God, and it doesn't matter what religion we are, we are all saved by Jesus Christ dying on the cross. We just need to be good people. It is so frustrating..At least 5 times a day. Not kidding. But I am grateful to have the restored gospel. I guess my Italian is coming along! Apparently I woke up Sorella Morgan the other night speaking full blown Italian in my sleep!! ha ha Then we were over with the Zombra family last night and I was helping their 13 year old daughter Martina with Spanish homework and it made me so depressed. I couldn't even remember how to read it. The pronunciation I had no clue. I couldn't do anything. Wow! This was pretty scary. I love you all I am glad we have prayer. We pray alot. We look around us a lot. We are aware. Men are just very aggressive to us all the time. We get followed and all sorts of things, but I know we are fine. Ciao Ciao Vi Voglio bene... Sorella Miller
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Ciao Ciao from Sicilla January 6, 2010
Caro Famiglia ed Ammicci:
Well this was another tough, but great week. Today is another Festa believe it or not! haha and it is La Befana. GOOGLE IT. That is my way of saying I dont have time to explain it, but google will surely thoroughly inform you of it! haha
Well let me start with a testimony of The Restoration. It is truly the most crucial thing about our religion. The fact that Joseph was called as a prophet makes us so different from anyone else. We are teaching a lady named Cettina Fermosa. She is about 50 years old and is an artist. Her house is crazy, you walk in and there are all these naked women paintings of like "Eve" haha and it's a bit "troppo" as we say over here in Sicily. Meaning a bit too much haha to say the least. Anyways, she has a really hard time understanding how we have all this crazy talk of living with God before this life, and how we will return to live with God after this life. Really it come down to the fact that, there really ISNT a lot of written scripture in the bible, that talks about this, and there arent other churches that have this knowledge, because they dont have modern day revelation. Through Jospeh Smith, we have this fullness of what we need to do to return to God. It allllll somes back down to having a testimony of Joseph Smith and the Restoration!
Remember Nando? Miracle Man Nando? We ran into him like 3 times in like two weeks until he gave us his information and was asking us him to teach him? Then it was festa festa festa for the last month, and no one could meet with us, and he gave us christmas presents haha these sweet books, then this morning he called us and wants to have us teach him!!!!! I am so excited, but at the same time praying that the Lord will qualify me to be able to know what to say. HE is like super intimidating...I dont know why. He is like 60, and has been studying with different churches his whole life, but there is something he feels that just " ha senso" -makes sense- with this restoration stuff... I know he is ready to hear this, because it is what he has been missiong his whole life!
We had 8 people that were supposed to be in church last week and had one investigator. haha, that happens here. But..va bene! We had Giussi Polvirente in church with us, and she is progressing. Just imagine a lady about 70 yrs old who has been Catholic her entire life. Every time we pray, she mush do padre nostro after we do it haha she just sometimes is so catholic it seems like there is no hope, but at the same time, i got her to pray last time we taught her. And she prayed, in her own words, and it was beautiful. The gospel is starting to make sense for her. She remembers everything we teach her, and is starting to read the BOM. She has a mustache that is disgusting, and has some issues with hygene (as many Italians here do!...) but I love her!!!! SHe is so sweet, and she is searching the things fro herself as she learns taht we can pray, and our Heavenly Father hears us and answers our every question.
I truly have a testimony of Modern DAy revelation. not only through a Prophet today, but also personal revelation. We talk to many Jehovahs Witnesses who recite many prayers, and say they believe they have felt their prayers be answered, but yet they wont accept that we could possibly have a prophet who is led by God, and recieves revelation. It is just perfect how the gospel all fits together. At the end of every day, i just look back at all the people we talked to that day, and say, The Gospel is so true. IT makes too much sense to be not true!
I feel like the language is really starting to click for me. I am more able to teach without getting super frustrated. BUT I also know that life is not about getting comfortable. I know that it is all about constant change. Always we can improve our lives in some way or another, we are all just at different points. Some of the most teachable people we teach are peopel who beg for money on the streets, or peopel who are homeless. They dont have all the material things, but everyone else on the street with money are missing teh same things they are, the happiness that comes from the gospel.
New YEars day we were with a new member Tony, of about 2 years. We had a huge meal, full on octopus and some intense Tiramisu action. Italians do love to eat.
Yesterday we went on splits, and a sister from Catania came here with me for the day. We had two really cool experiences. Our appointment with our Paola who is trying to quit smoking, fell thru, and I felt like we should go to Ortiga to prostylyte--spelling ... Anyways, we werent having much luck, and finally when we were both really frustrated, I felt like we should go into this little store. It was dimly lit, adn there was this really cute little lady who had about 45 years, and we started talking to her. For the next 45 minutes we taught her, and hse listened!! She asked questions, this never really happens haha it was so incredible, no one else came into the store the whole time we taught her, and the spirit was so strong, the strongest I have felt it since on my mission. I felt prompted to show her the picture of my family, and she started asking about temple and families etc. Roberta. I love this lady, and I m so excited to teach her, she was going to milan today fro a week with her husband but said we can come teach her when she comes back in a week.
I know there ARE people looking for answers, and the Lord is leading me to them. ITs incredible.
Then on the way home, sorella hirsh made me go talk to this group of like 30 people haha it was the scariest thing I have ever done in my life. They all just looked at me as I started speaking to them, haha smiling, because that is what i do whenever I speak to people, and they got quiet, looked at me fo a second, made me feel like an idiot with some of the faces I got, and then everyone turned their backs to me haha but we got two peopel to talk to us out of that group, and one lady was really interested. i am learnign how to just open my mouth. At first it was really hard, and still is,. but when i just remind myself, "look, this is why im here" I get over it, and the lord fills me with love for the people, and puts word in my mouth.
I love you all.
-Vi Voglio Bene, Ciao Ciao,
-Sorella Miller
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