August 25, 2010

subject: sorry for the terrible letters!

Ciao Ciao Famiglia!
 
Well, thanks to all those Bday shout outs. For the first time in my life I kind of forgot it was my birthday, but what the heck, who DOESN'T want to go spend their 22nd Birthday in Sicily eh?? I know I know.
 
This week we did splits in Mistretta. Aka, you feel like you are walking around in some magical little town in a movie. We're talking cobblestone streets everywhere, horses and goats in the middle of the roads, picking fresh blackberries off trees. It was the coolest place I have ever been in my life.
 
We had some incredible experiences this week. Sorella Foote is incredible and we have SO much fun, and she is super good at just totally putting herself out there and teaching even though its so hard learning to communicate. She's awesome though. Ok we have like no time again, so I'm just cutting and pasting some of my presidents letter because i have no time again. so sorry.
 
We are really still trying to get the Maloku's a baptismal date. Klaudio and Monionla...we would love their three boys to get one too, they love the lessons and coming to church.After we studied together from chapter 10 in Preach My Gospel about helping people resolve concerns, we decided that we needed to get to the bottom of where the source of their problems were. We are now going to focus on really trying to create an atmosphere for them to be able to feel the spirit so that they can gain a strong testimony of The Restoration. We realized that that is probably part of the problem, because then they will truly understand and SEE the need to be baptised. We are continuing to try to be very sensitive to their needs, as they have many obstacles. I have felt that as I have tried to be more sensitive to seeing things from their perspective (two parents without works etc) that it is easier to truly discern how to help them, because truly The Lord is the only one who really can truly see the whole picture. We are doing very interactive lessons to help them when there is often the "language barrier" (although Sorella Foote and i are becoming quite fluent in Albanian...) Teaching the plan of Salvation on the staircase outside their apartment really helped them see how we progress through our difficult experiences, always either moving closer to God or farther away from him.
 
Rita is our investigator with a Baptismal Date (September 17th) We have been completely out of contact with her for this week. We have tried to call her every day, and her phone has been off, so we are a little nervous as to what happened. We are praying that she will come back. She told us that she was taking a trip.
 
We were able to see our new investigator Isaac this week when we went to Comiso. He is now reading the book of Mormon and truly searching for answers to his questions. We try to have at least daily contact with him on the phone, since his work schedule prohibits us from seeing him more than once or twice a week. He is very willing to come to church, and has two very strong member friends who are a great source for him to turn to when he has questions about the things we have taught him. 
 
We have really seen the Lord blessing us with our work with less actives this week. We were able to see Patricia Appiahand read some very inspired verses from the book of Mormon with her. We really tried to focus on promising her the blessing that comes from reading the scriptures and coming to church.
We had a lady named Claudia Trombadore come to church this week who we have been calling and scheduling appointments with her for about three months now. She randomly showed up at church and it was wonderful to see the members truly recognize the fact that she was there at church. We were also able to see Giuseppina Palermo. We gave her home-teachers a list of the principles she has still to be taught, and we are trying to systematize how we can help then to coordinate the lessons with their home-teaching message. In this last week we really tried to organize our map of the city, and coordinate it with our list of less active members. We are now working to try to track down all the less actives on our ward list. We had a successful story of this this last week. A woman named Ensa Guastella was a less active we were able to see, and have a very good lesson with this last week. 
 
We were able to see that in order to get more investigators with a Baptismal date, we really need to work on being more direct in our invitations to those who have felt the spirit. We would like to utilize new members who have been baptised, and create an environment where they can feel the need to be baptised as members bare their testimonies, and then in that moment invite people to be baptised. We would like to work on having more faith in the Lord, and especially in implementing the "lesson zero" that Elder Kausse eplained to us. We are really able to search for the Elect. We think that as we are more diligent at these direct invitations, and promising of blessings, that people will be more willing to accept baptismal invitations. 
 
We are trying to work more closely with our Ward council, and especially our ward mission leader. We are excited for something that we will be implementing this next week. In Relief society and Priesthood each Sunday they pass around a weekly availability list for the members to write, for those who can help us with missionary work. We think this will really help. 
 
I just really love my companion, and love how we see the Lord's hand each day. We have had several experiences where we just truly feel like we are representatives of Jesus Christ, and are on his errand to help others feel of his love, that they need so desperately. I love being missionary, and truly feel His help in this calling each day!
 
Never enough time in the mission for anything! Love you all, keep me in your prayers and I'll be sure to do the same for all of you!!!!
 
Con affetto, Vi voglio Bene,
MONICA
...Sorella Miller