Buongiorno! I'm writing to you from Sorella
Scherbel's iPad this week. Also, pday for us has changed to Mondays. So now you can look forward to
letters from Christi and me on the same day! Well, my typing skills on this aren't
too good, so this one's going to be a little shorter.
This week Sorella Christiansen and Sorella Henson came down to Battipaglia for exchanges. So Thursday Cajin and I went to see the Melella's, Luciano, Marisa and did English course together. We've served in the same zones for our whole missions. Rome first, Puglia and now Napoli. It's been so fun. Then Saturday was really special. All eighteen missionaries from the Napoli zone came to little old Battipaglia to do finding. We started the day with a little training from the zone leaders and then were sent off, each companionship with a map and an assignment. Flavia came with me and Mathews.
We started with street contacting. I loved when we got out of the car in centro and Flavia pointed to a mannequin in the window of Benetton, "she seems nice". Really, the store display may have been just as receptive as most of the people we tried to approach.
So we decided to do house. Picked a palazzo, started on the top floor and worked our way down, ringing doorbells, leaving pass along cards...until someone finally opened the door. A young girl, probably around our age opened the door and let us in. Her mom was kind of yelling in Napoletano, said "mamma" after every phrase like some people do...but even with her non-stop talking, we had a really good lesson. Flavia bore her testimony of the Book of Mormon, how she was atheist and way far away from here she wanted to be, then with leukemia, how the missionaries kept telling her to read the Book of Mormon and she finally did...how it helped her understand the bible...everything she said was just perfect to help this family understand our purpose as missionaries and the difference between the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and every other one. They said us coming was an answer to their prayers. The mom had dreamed something the night before...it was just really cool.
We all met back at the church for lunch, which Sorella Scherbel made. Oh my. Soo good. Melon and mozzarella. The best bread with butter and jam, a salad with lemon dressing (I had the pleasure of climbing the tree to get the lemons that morning). And her lasagna, homemade pasta from Sorella DeLia, chocolate mousse dessert...made up for all we went through that morning, haha. We kicked around a soccer ball for a while and then it was back outside to find people to teach.
Long story short, we all saw lots of little miracles that day. 21 appointments, 53 phone numbers and 11 address. We have our work cut out for us. Sorella Mathews and I have since been to some of these people, and they are just golden! We have five new investigators who said they would come to church Sunday. We are so excited to meet and teach these people, and I know that if they read the Book of Mormon and pray, they'll know for themselves that it's true. Good things ahead.
This week Sorella Christiansen and Sorella Henson came down to Battipaglia for exchanges. So Thursday Cajin and I went to see the Melella's, Luciano, Marisa and did English course together. We've served in the same zones for our whole missions. Rome first, Puglia and now Napoli. It's been so fun. Then Saturday was really special. All eighteen missionaries from the Napoli zone came to little old Battipaglia to do finding. We started the day with a little training from the zone leaders and then were sent off, each companionship with a map and an assignment. Flavia came with me and Mathews.
We started with street contacting. I loved when we got out of the car in centro and Flavia pointed to a mannequin in the window of Benetton, "she seems nice". Really, the store display may have been just as receptive as most of the people we tried to approach.
So we decided to do house. Picked a palazzo, started on the top floor and worked our way down, ringing doorbells, leaving pass along cards...until someone finally opened the door. A young girl, probably around our age opened the door and let us in. Her mom was kind of yelling in Napoletano, said "mamma" after every phrase like some people do...but even with her non-stop talking, we had a really good lesson. Flavia bore her testimony of the Book of Mormon, how she was atheist and way far away from here she wanted to be, then with leukemia, how the missionaries kept telling her to read the Book of Mormon and she finally did...how it helped her understand the bible...everything she said was just perfect to help this family understand our purpose as missionaries and the difference between the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and every other one. They said us coming was an answer to their prayers. The mom had dreamed something the night before...it was just really cool.
We all met back at the church for lunch, which Sorella Scherbel made. Oh my. Soo good. Melon and mozzarella. The best bread with butter and jam, a salad with lemon dressing (I had the pleasure of climbing the tree to get the lemons that morning). And her lasagna, homemade pasta from Sorella DeLia, chocolate mousse dessert...made up for all we went through that morning, haha. We kicked around a soccer ball for a while and then it was back outside to find people to teach.
Long story short, we all saw lots of little miracles that day. 21 appointments, 53 phone numbers and 11 address. We have our work cut out for us. Sorella Mathews and I have since been to some of these people, and they are just golden! We have five new investigators who said they would come to church Sunday. We are so excited to meet and teach these people, and I know that if they read the Book of Mormon and pray, they'll know for themselves that it's true. Good things ahead.
So yeah, Sorella Mathews is getting
transferred to Messina and Ghio is coming here from Bari. I love it here, even
though I really miss everyone from Taranto. We had a stake fireside in Pozzuoli
where president Diniciacci spoke, the Viglietta's...it's cool that Napoli is
part of a stake now. With Rome 1 and Ladispoli, my first cities. I was thinking
about how fast this transfer has gone by, and how I only have three left. I
can't imagine being so far from these people I love so much. At the same time,
if I moved here, being so far away from my family...nope. Couldn't do it. So,
need to find a job subito when I get home. Skymiles?
Today we went hiking <3 I thought
Amalfi would always be at the top of my list, but the mountains we went to...as
President Scherbel said, "it doesn't get much better than this." I
I love you all so much!
Jenni
