I know I say this every week, but man it's been crazy this week! And the time just flies! Speeking of! This next week is my 6 month mark as a missionary. Say what?! I don't know about you, but it does not feel like I have been on my mission that long! I am almost 1/3 done. Its kinda scary!
So Monday for P-day we finally went out and saw Palermo. This city is even more beautiful than I thought! Love it here! I will try and send some pictures.
Sorella Nef and I have been working our little tails off this week. Lots of finding and lots of talking to people on the streets. Last transfer us sisters were blown in and had no work and then when Sorella Nef came we had to split up the little work that we did have. And we ended up getting our one and only Alessandra. She made so much progress last transfer! But then the past week, something happened. And she broke up with us ;( so we had no work! But we worked really hard and now we have a good list of investigators and we saw quite a few little miracles. I love that when we show God how dedicated we are to him, he shows us how dedicated he is to us.
One giant miracle that happened was with two of our English course students. Silvia and Alessio are a young couple, about 25ish, and they both said prayers in class and they seemed really interested in our spiritual thoughts. Then when we started our gospel course after English course they came every week. They are pretty amazing. The only down side is that they are moving to Germany in 3 weeks. But we decided to still do the lessons with them and get them all prepared for the missionaries in Berlin. So Thursday we asked them to do a lesson with us after English course. We started off answering some of their questions and just talking about different standards that we have in our church. As we were finishing up the questions I asked if there was anything else they were wondering about and Alessio put his hands on the table and got a serious face. He said "So there is something different about this church. It all makes sense. I don't believe in coincidences, and I don't think that me coming to this English course was a coincidence. And I feel this amazing peace whenever I am in this church. And even if I just miss English course, I feel like something is missing out of the week. I guess my big question is, How do I become a Mormon?"
Ohhhh Alessio...let me tell you!!!!
The spirit was so strong as we were talking about baptism. I almost cried from happiness!
These two are so prepared by God. I know they were prepared because we didn't have to do anything. They did it all on their own. And I am so glad that I got to witness this light bulb go on for them. And now I understand more fully what it means when Preach My Gospel talks about people being prepared for this work. And so even though our one investigator dumped us at the beginning of the week, it was all made better by Silvia and Alessio!
And in fact, today for P-day they are going to take us to see these famous Catacombs! (google Palermo catacombs, they are pretty cool).
Bio: "More than 400 years ago, the monks at the Capuchin monastery in Palermo, Sicily, discovered that deceased friars interred in catacombs underwent natural mummification. Word got out, and the order began allowing ordinary citizens to be buried there as well. Now, visitors can see thousands of preserved corpses, most wearing the tattered remains of their finest garments, arranged in the macabre museum's narrow halls.
The 8,000 or so mummies in the Capuchin catacombs in Palermo, Sicily, are arranged in rooms according to their worldly status: man or woman; priest or professional; child or adult. There's even a chamber for virgins. The Italian government outlawed mummification at the site in 1881, but an exception was made in 1920 for two-year-old Rosalia Lombardo, whose remarkably well-preserved body is nicknamed "Sleeping Beauty."" (Taken from National Geographic.com)
Okay...so Sorella Bradford is Sister Training Leader for Sicily (kinda like zone leader) and so she had to go to Rome for a conference for all the leaders. And it so happens to be that my dear Sorella Wightman is also a Sister Training Leader. And Sorella Bradford is so amazing and she let Sorella Wightman call me off of her phone!!! And I cried tears of joy! I miss that girl SO MUCH! She is just the most amazing missionary in my eyes. She was my perfect trainer and I miss her so much more than I thought I would. And it was so great to be able to hear her voice and hear about all of our investigators in Rome 5! And, like always, she knew exactly what to say, she knew exactly what I needed to hear. And that phone call just made my week! She even sent down an amazing note with Sorella Bradford. Love her!
Rosalia Lombardo - "Sleeping Beauty"
So...I have been in Italy for 5 months. And like I have said before, the food is absolutely amazing. And fresh! Even when we go out and get a pizza or ice cream, it is made with homemade ingredients, No preservatives! But the other day when we dropped Sorella Bradford off at the bus station I decided to buy some french fries at McDonalds. Bad idea! My body hated me for it! It just isn't used to that kinda stuff anymore. And I never noticed how bad fast food is, until I went so long without it. So my challenge for you all this week. EAT LESS FAST FOOD!
(And then she sends a picture of her with a Coke & frozen pizza! ha ha... Oh Kaeli.) :)
As I have mentioned, I have been studying the Characteristics of Christ. And it was the coolest thing because... I have been reading in Jesus the Christ and the New Testament. And where I was reading in Jesus the Christ went along exactly where I was in the New Testament, The Sermon on the Mount. Coincidence, I think not? Comunque... (however)
As I was starting the Beatitudes I was intrigued by the attribute of Meekness. And I remembered that a few weeks ago in General Conference there was a talk on meekness, so I printed it off and also the talk called Meekness-A Dimension of the Discipleship by Neal A Maxwell. And boy did I get a little piece of humble pie. Through this study I have realized that I have so.many.things I need to work on. And I have honestly been a little bit disgusted with myself. I call myself a representative of Jesus Christ and yet there are so many things about myself that are not Christ-like. And so I asked Heavenly Father to give me opportunities this week to improve myself and put into practice the things that I have been studying. And boy did He respond to that prayer. Its been a rough week. I have done a lot of thinking, a lot of praying, a lot of studying, and a lot of humbling. And I have been thinking about what I should share with you guys today and I am going to share a little bit of something Sorella Wightman wrote in her letter to me.
"We are the silver of our grand Father in Heaven, the Silverman. And He is working us. There is lots of pounding and lots of heat. And it is a process. And the process will go on until we are at the point that He finds acceptable. He isn't going to pull us out of the fire until He sees His image in our countenance. So if you don't want the fire, you don't want the heat, you have to realize why you have the fire why you have the heat. And the quicker you figure that out, the quicker it will get better. But it is always important to keep in mind that He knows our limits. He will never pound us harder that we have strength and He will never heat us to the point that we will melt. He does it because He loves us. And He sees our potential."
(Editor's note: As parents, we are so, so grateful for Sorella Wightman and the wonderful example and trainer she was for Kaeli. She continues to watch over her little greenie and we love her!)
I love you guys! So so much!! Thank you mom for sharing your lesson plan with me! I have been trying to come up with creative ways to do family home evenings! I will have to use that!
Sorella Bank!
Italian phrase of the week: Stammi bene = take care!
This is a priest. Who has 4 of these in this Cathedral.
All of which are bigger than the pictures of Christ.
I found my Wedding Dress. Your welcome.
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