Life Here In The Ghetto of Rome .....

Subject: Life here in the ghetto of Rome ...

Well, Ciao famiglia,

It has been kind of a crazy whirlwind serving here in Rome. We are definitely in the most ghetto area of Rome, and are having some CRAZY EXPERIENCES. We have been able to see the hand of the Lord more than ever before in these last few weeks. I am honestly trying so hard to just work my guts out every day. My companion is probably feeling a little like I'm crazy because I seriously try to talk to everyone that the Lord puts in our path. Its such a cool thing to do, and we are seeing MIRACLES, as far as the Lord just having people fall from the sky, right in our path. This week we were able to see finally our investigator named Patrizia, who is supposed to be getting baptised on the 19th. We went with the Elders Sunday night to give her a blessing. She is recently separated from an abusive husband and has some pretty intense problems. Like I have said many many times before, the mission is a humbling experience, to know that God trusts me enough to send ME, to help his children. I sit there so often and feel so small, and listen to these problems that are so huge, and often feel completely inadequate...Like, ME, I know nothing, all I can do is follow the Spirit, and I can testify that as we strive to just say the words that come to us through the Spirit (with PLEADING for that guidance) the words come, every time. I have such a testimony that life is about never feeling confident, or comfortable. We constantly are reliant upon God, and should BEG for his spirit, and do all that we can to qualify for it. When we do our part, God protects us. He protects us from danger. I know that it is because I have been doing everything in my power to follow the Holy Ghost, that He has protected me this week, and that He has led us to those who are searching.

This week we were going off to contact some contacts. It was about 6 O'clock and we had just gotten off the bus and started heading down the road looking for these apartments. This mysterious "hooded man" walking a dog came up to us and asked us where we were going. We told him the address and told us to go get back on the bus, and NOT go there. We both had previously had some feelings like we shouldn't go there that night, then the Lord placed this man there to reassure our feelings. We went a few days later in the daytime, and we found ourselves in some super sketchy government housing complexes...After a few wacky people coming to the door, we got out quick and decided if there were people there we would find them some other way. When you have thoughts that come into mind, don't EVER second guess from what source the feelings come. The Spirit has guided our EVERY step in this city. It is crazy how intertwined our every action is, because God guides us. I have never seen it more that in the last 2 weeks. But, I can say that it is a result of constantly having that prayer in my heart, feeling completely reliant on that guidance. We cant do it alone. Never doubt the Spirit, just go and do, and the Lord takes care of us.

We found an amazing lady this week named Natalya from Ukraine who owns a flower kiosk. She wants s much o believe in a life after death, but doesn't believe that there actually could be something that good, in a world so bad. Can you imagine just thinking that all there is to life is waking up and going to sell flowers every day in a little stand, going home, making a plate of pasta, going to bed, doing that same thing for 50 years, and then dying, and that's it. That's life. Basta?? The plan of Salvation is a plan that gives us a reason to live, a reason to progress, and it honestly brought a light into this woman's eyes as we explained it to her.

We have had a crazy last few hours. Today I am writing this letter from the kitchen, of the mission mansion, as I like to call it. We had a pretty scary experience last night. We were coming home from an incredibly long day, because we had traveled like two hours (via metro, train and bus) to go visit a less active (who wasn't home when we got there :) ) and we were seriously exhausted. We got to our apartment, and stuck the key in the door, as soon as we put the key in I got this sick feeling, then the lock from our door just completely Fell out of the door....We ran downstairs completely freaked out and called the Anziani to come over. So they got there and they got our door open, to find our apartment had been robbed. It was the craziest thing I have ever seen in my life. Some one had got in and completely destroyed our apartment opened every single drawer, gone through every trash can, every zipper in all of our suitcases, every single thing was dumped and thrown all over our apartment. It was pretty much a sick feeling, and really upsetting. however, we are OK. So we got all of our stuff out of there like the next hour, and the Elders took us to the mission home. We got here last night around 11:30, and we are making a lot of decisions today. President told us we will be here probably until Saturday. Tomorrow we have zone conference, and then he said we will probably finish the transfer living with the sorelle in the Rome 2 house. I don't know what is going to happen, its pretty upsetting to think that we might not be able to finish the transfer in our own area, but I guess we still don't know for sure what will happen. the most important thing is that we are fine, and none of our documents or anything important was taken. We don't know what the motives were, but we are totally just grateful we weren't home when they came. I will let you know next week what is going to happen for these next 4 weeks...Don't worry, I'm FINE!!

Rome is pretty crazy to say the least! HAHA! Hope you all are well, love you tons

Viv voglio un mondo di bene,

Monica

...Sorella Miller

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