Ostia Week 12

Italian companion for a day

Tuesday we went to Rome for DDM, and afterwards we had a potluck with the office missionaries and most of our zone. We had another scambio, and it was my turn to stay in Ostia. Sorella Sanchez came with me, she does not speak a lot of English, so I was scared at first but it was actually really easy! We were going to go to visit Clara and Laura, but our phone died last week and we didn't have her number in our new phone, so we could not call to confirm. We had corso in the evening. Sorella Sanchez is learning English so I was in charge of teaching. The next day we went to visit a past investigator who had called us and wanted us to stop by. It took us an hour to find her house. After our lesson with her we went to the meeting spot to end our scambio. We desired to meet at easily for lunch. It was a lot of fun to sit and talk with them. That evening we had a "lesson" with a "referral," it was actually Sorella Bray's new convert from Sassari!  It was a surprise for Sorella Bray! She was so happy!

On Thursday Sorella Bray was starting to feel a little sick, so she rested as much as she could. By the next day she was feeling better except for her eye. We went and visited Humphrey and his family. We have set an official baptismal date with them. It is so exciting! When we got home Sorella Bray's eye was really starting to bug her. By the end of the night her eye was swollen and red. My companion has pink eye. We have been in the house all week end.

On Saturday we got transfer calls! I am going to Cosenza!!! I will be in a tripanionship (I will have two companions). The nice thing about Sorella Bray's pink eye is it has given me time to pack.

This week I have been thinking a lot about what the gospel is. Before my mission I didn't really understand what it was. I thought it was kind of this nebulous compilation of doctrines and what we believed. Since I have been on my mission I have learned that it is actually a very simple thing. The gospel is faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. The thing about the gospel is that it is not just a one time thing. Because we are supposed to endure to the end, the gospel is a continuous loop, for every person, no matter how long you have been in the church. As a missionary, it is my  responsibility to teach others about the gospel. No matter whether they are non-members, not attending church, or church going members. For people who are not members you could be at the point where you are working on having faith in Christ, but you are still in the loop. If you are a member, you might be working on strengthening your faith. The gospel of Christ is simple. This week, try to identify where you are in this loop and see what you can do to move forward.

Have a great week! Miss you all! Next week I will be emailing you from Cosenza!

Letter dated September 28, 2015

You can currently send Victoria letters at:
Sorella Victoria Pinnegar
Missione Italiana de Roma
Piazza Carnaro 20
IT-00141 ROME RM
ITALY

Ostia Week 11

Trials and trees

Good morning! I hope you all are doing well. I know life is busier now that school has started and summer is over. I have had a lot of fun adventures this week! Things are going great here!

We went to the Vatican museum for P-day this week. It was beautiful! They had a lot of neat things in it. The Sistine Chapel is amazing. It looks three dimensional! It was so packed with people. We waited in line outside for two hours! If any of you ever go, you should make a safety plan for in case you get separated. We accidentally got separated.

On Thursday it was Sorella Bray's one year mark! To celebrate we went to the church for pranzo. We bought arancini  and cannoli for lunch. At the church we watched all of the addiction recovery videos. Those are so intense! The church did a really good job on them. I really liked them because you get to see the strength of the repentance process in the lives of people who thought they were beyond saving. They are very powerful.

When we visited Humphrey and his family, this week, we asked them to pray and ask if what we were teaching them was true, and if baptism was the right thing for them to do. About an hour later we got a call from Divine (Humphrey's wife), she told us that she knew the church was true and that she wants to get baptized!!!

We had a lesson this week with a less active, we talked about courage with her. It is sad, because she is so focused on all of the trials that she has had throughout her life that she is unable to see the blessings in her life. I have been thinking about how everyone has trials in their lives. Trials come in all shapes and sizes, they are individual to each person. They can be hard and scary. What is the point of having trials? They help us to learn and grow. They push us forward and as we over come our trials we become stronger. There is a story about a man who Heavenly Father told, every day, to go and move this giant boulder. He tried, every day he went out and pushed and pushed with all of his might. One day he got frustrated, he cried out "Why? Why do I need to move this boulder! I cannot move it, it is to big! Why do you ask me to move this boulder when you know I can't?" Heavenly Father answered and said "look at your arms. Look at how much stronger you are know! Every day you went out and pushed against this boulder with all of your might, because you did this, now you are strong." We can come out of a trial so much stronger than we were before. Sometimes we become so obsessed with our trials that it becomes all that we can see. It is like a big tree in front of us blocking our view of the forest. Yet, if we just take a few steps back we can see a bigger picture. We still cannot see the whole forest, but we can trust that Heavenly Father can. We just need to put our faith in Him and trust that there is a greater purpose in our life. The forest can be beautiful if we just step back and see the blessings in our lives even while we are going through our difficult trials.

Have a great week!

Letter dated September 21, 2015.

You can currently send Victoria letters at:
Sorella Victoria Pinnegar
Missione Italiana de Roma
Piazza Carnaro 20
IT-00141 ROME RM
ITALY

Ostia Week 10

Missionary Moments

This has been a great week! I have had a lot of new experiences and a lot of fun!

On Monday we went to porta di Roma. It is the closest thing Italy has to a shopping mall. It is right across the street from the Rome Temple, so we got to see the temple! It is looking great! All of the scaffolding is down! They have made a lot of progress since I last saw it.

Rome Temple

Tuesday we had DDM! I had the spiritual thought, and I had to do it in Italian. I decided to talk about walking by faith and not by sight. The Lord blesses our lives daily, sometimes we do not have the faith to see them.

After DDM we had a scambio. I stayed in Rome with Sorella Roberts. We went to their apartment and had lunch and did our studies. We made brownies for a less active family and ended up talking with them for a while. We tried to go see another less active, but she was not home. We went to the apartment for the night. There are four missionaries living in the same apartment. It was fun to go back and tell the other missionaries about what we had done, and hear there stories from the day.

In the morning we got ready and tried to go and visit a less active. She was not home. I did casa to casa for the first time. That was different. We also went and put up some corso posters. One of the girls we talked to lives near Ostia, and we told her there was a corso in Ostia. She said that she would rather just take the metro and go to Rome.

We all met back up to end the scambio. We decided to have lunch together. We went to a Filipino restaurant it was really tasty. We decided to try a dessert that looked interesting. It was really weird. It had all sorts of things in it, corn, beans, sweet potatoes, to name a few.

Filipino dessert

After we split up, Sorella Bray and I went to visit one of the less actives we have been working with. We talked to her about how Heavenly Father can make weak things strong for us (Ether 12:27). Then we had a lesson with Giuliana.

Friday we saw Humfrey and his family. They had a ton of questions for us, so we spent the whole time answering them.

This weekend we had Stake Conference. The stake is so wide spread that they do it over video broadcast! I worked really hard to pay attention. During the Sunday session on of the speakers mentioned sacrifice. In life we have to make sacrifices to achieve the things we want. He was talking about sacrifice in regards to temples. It reminded me of a quote by President Monson which states,

"My brothers and sisters, temples are more than stones and mortar. They are filled with faith and fasting. They are built of trials and testimonies. They are sanctified by sacrifice and service." (From The Holy Temple -- a Beacon to the World, April 2011)

Sorella Pinnegar & Sorella Bray at the Rome Temple

 Sorella Bray once modified it to say "My brothers and sisters, we are more than flesh and bones. We are filled with faith and fasting. We are built of trials and testimonies. We are sanctified by sacrifice and service." Why is sacrifice so important? I believe sacrifice is important, because it helps us to show what we truly want in life and what we are willing to do to get there. For one example, we sacrifice time and money for a good education. It is the same thing in the gospel. We are asked to sacrifice things to show the Lord how much we truly love him. When we make sacrifices we often cannot see the end result from the beginning. We must have the faith that we are doing the right thing. It can be very difficult, but the Lord will help us. He will give us the strength we need to make the sacrifices he asks for. He will make our weak places strong. Because of the sacrifices we make we are sanctified.

I have had a great week! My week has been full of fun new adventures. I hope you all have a great week!

Letter dated September 14, 2015.

You can currently send Victoria letters at:
Sorella Victoria Pinnegar
Missione Italiana de Roma
Piazza Carnaro 20
IT-00141 ROME RM
ITALY

Ostia Week 9

A wonderful week

This has been a great week full of exciting things. We kicked off the week by visiting the last church that Micheal Angelo built. It was stunning!! On Tuesday we were able to go and visit Laura. Lately we have been able to only see her once a week because her mom works most evenings. We should be able to start visiting with her twice a week again which is really nice. Our corso is also really starting to grow. We have one corso student who is from Egypt and when he went to visit, he brought us back a gift. He brought each of the missionaries a hand painted papyri scroll. They are all beautiful!

We got a referral this week for a family. We went and visited them on Wednesday. They were very nice and we loved visiting with them. Sadly they do not live in our area, but we got them in contact with the Sorelle near where they live. Saturday we went and visited Humphry and his family.

Friday was a great day! We had Personalized Training in the morning. Personalized Training is like Zone Conference except shorter. It was really good. I really liked the adestramental (training) that the Mission President did. He based his on over coming fears. This is actually something that I have been reading a lot about in my personal study. It is by our faith that we over come our fears. When we fear, we are not focusing on our faith. Every person experiences fear. We all can over come our fears. It is through our faith that we gain the courage to overcome our worst fears. Identify at least one fear and try to think ways that you can do to grow your faith and overcome your fears this week.

This has been a great week for me. I hope all of you have a wonderful week!

Letter dated September 7, 2015.

You can currently send Victoria letters at:
Sorella Victoria Pinnegar
Missione Italiana de Roma
Piazza Carnaro 20
IT-00141 ROME RM
ITALY