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