Ostia Week 6

Adventures in Italy

This week has been wonderful! On Monday we went to the bone church. It was cool, but creepy. Defiantly worth the experience. We had extra time so we stopped by the Colesseum. It was raining so there were not as many people out. That was nice. We tried to visit a less active who came to church on Sunday. First we got on the wrong bus, then the bus that we wanted never came.

Tuesday after DDM I had my second scambio. This time I stayed in Ostia and Sorella Bray left. My companion for the day was Sorella Fuller. We had a good time. We went to visit a simpatizzanti named Victoria. We ended up being an hour early so we sat outside and role played our lesson. Half an hour later she walks up so we started our lesson early. This was actually a really good thing because the anziani needed us to start corso. We didn't want to wait for the bus so we walked to the metro station, and we beat the bus! As we got up to the platform the metro pulled in! It was perfect! After corso we had a lesson with Giuliana and Leonardo. We read Alma 32 with them and talked about faith. It was a great lesson!

Trevi Fountain

On Wednesday we were supposed to have a private English lesson but that fell through so we ended up putting up posters for corso around town. I discovered that Italians are very stubborn, especially when it comes to food. We had a meal appointment and had arranged to end our scambio in time for the appointment, but she changed the time last minute. Then the metro was running late. There was also some confusion about the meeting spot. When we finally met up, there was no way we would make it back on time, so we tried calling to reschedule, but she said she would wait for us.

Afterwards we had to go directly to our lesson with Laura. That was a fantastic lesson. It was defiantly a break through lesson. She is shy, and she finally really opened up to us.

Thursday we went to visit the less active that we had tried to see on Monday. This time we  had better directions and realized that we could just walk. That was really nice. She is from South America. She had not been to church since before she came to Italy, but she decided to find it and go. She wants to take the lessons. Then she invited us to stay for pranzo. She made a four course meal for us! It was all delicious!

We had a private English lesson with Elena. She had just been proposed to the night before so she was a little distracted. We always do a spiritual thought at the end of every English lesson. The one we had decided to do was on how God has a plan for each one of us, and we can turn to Him when we need help or guidance in our lives. It was perfect for her. The Spirit was so strong. It went really well.

We went and heart attacked Laura and Clara. We left them brownies and a Book of Mormon.

Saturday was an Italian holiday. Anziano Kennedy is half Italian and has lived in Italy most of his life, so we asked him about the holiday. He doesn't know if there is a reason for the holiday, it is just an excuse for everyone to go the the beach. This means cleaning day for all of the missionaries. We also had a lesson with Giuliana and Leonardo. Lessons with them are really progressing.

We were on our way to get some gelato when we met a very nice family. The dad is from England, and the daughter is currently learning English so we told them about corso. Then the father also asked what a missionary was. It was an awesome experience. I really hope that they decide  to come to corso.

Prayer

All of our lessons this week talked about prayer. Why is it important to pray? Prayer is a two way conversation with God. You don't just pray and get an immediate answer to your pray. It takes time, pondering and listening.

One thing that a lot of Italians believe is that God is like a genie in a lamp. You pray to Him, tell him what you want, and then He gives it to you. God is our loving Heavenly Father and he wants to hear from you. Imagine you have a friend that lives far away. You still love them and want to communicate with them. That is how God feels. He wants us to communicate with him regularly. There is a quote by Ian S. Ardern that I really like. He says "let us be as quick to kneel as we are to text."*

We have a divine being who loves us and wants to hear from us. He has all the answers we could ever need. When we pray and ask Him, He will always respond. It may take time and practice to know how He responds, but He does always respond. Prayer is important for each one of us. We receive so many blessing when we pray. God loves us and want to hear from us. He wants us to sincerely pray and talk to Him.

This week I would like you to try praying twice a day. Once in the morning and once at night. If you already do this, I would like you to think of and apply ways that you can improve the quality of your prayers.

Letter dated August 17, 2105.
*quote from Elder Ian S. Ardern's conference talk in 2011, A Time to Prepare.

Trevi Fountain

Convento dei Cappuccini

Ostia Week 1

Gelato is our motto

Our plane arrived on time and we all had our luggage! We are the first group to be that lucky. We also were the fist group to arrive on Tuesday instead of Wednesday, so we got an extra day before meeting our trainers. The first thing we did is go and see the temple. It is looking beautiful! Afterwards we went to the villa to have a "light lunch." In Italy a light lunch is a panini the size of a medium pizza! Then the AP's (assistants to the president) took us on the metro to see the Colosseum and the senate building. It was a fantastic! They are right in the center of downtown Rome! When we got off the metro headed back to the villa we were supposedly running late so we had to speed walk back. The villa is the mission home. It was built by Mussolini for his daughter about a hundred years ago! It is beautiful! We all walked down and had kabobs for dinner. Kabobs are a little like shawarma in a tortilla.when we got back one of the sorelle played her violin for us. It was beautiful! We were finally allowed to go to sleep at about eight.

Wednesday we went to the church to meet all the mission office staff. We set up our iPads and received some training. For lunch we had pasta and chicken, it was amazing. We walked back to the villa around three and could do whatever we wanted until dinner. Dinner was salad and lasagna. We also had olives and mozzarella di buffila (mozzarella made from buffalo milk). For dessert we had pistachio gelato. It was fantastic!! After dinner we talked about our motto and our theme. Our motto is...gelato is our motto. Our theme is a little more serious, it is be the best you can be. Then it was time for the golden envelopes. I was the second to open mine. It tells you where you are going and who your trainer is. I am in Ostia and my trainer is Sorella Bray!

Sorella Bray picked me up at the villa around eight which meant that I didn't go to the train station at five like most everyone else. That was very nice. We went to the church to meet up with the Ostia anziani and started our journey to Ostia. Sorelle Anderson (the violinist) and her trainer came with us because they were not leaving until Friday. It is an hour and a half metro ride to Ostia from Rome. When we got to Ostia we dropped of our stuff and then the anziani showed us around. We are blow-ins which means that we are both new to the area. We stopped and had a cone of fries with sauce on it for lunch. Then we said good by to everyone and went back to the house and unpacked. We had English class at six and left early because we didn't know how long it would take us to get to the church. We taught the beginners course and the anziani taught the advanced. Afterwards the anziani wanted pizza so we got some for dinner and headed back home. The pizza is definitely better. Sorelle Bray and I got two and we each had half of one. One had eggplant on it and the other had egg whites and bacon. They were both pretty good, Sorelle Bray says they were okay. I guess Rome is known for having the worst pizza in Italy.

We had weekly planing Friday morning so we scoured all the notes that were left for us and the Area Book. I decorated my first planer!! For pranzo we had leftover pizza and then we had a meeting with the ward mission leader. He is pretty neat. He just got back from serving his mission in London, which is really nice because he speaks English. After the meeting the anziani wanted pizza again. We all went and tried another pizzeria. I was told it is better than the other one. I guess I have not been in Italia long enough, because I couldn't tell the difference. This time we only got one pizza to split because we were not very hungry. It was a mushroom pizza, very good.

On Saturday we had to do my promesso stuff in the morning. The anziani helped us with that. Anziani Kennedy has done it twice so he knew what to do. That was very nice because both Sorella Bray and I had no idea what to do or where to go. A promesso is my permit to stay in the country. It has to be started eight days after you arrive in the country or they can kick you out. After we got the promesso stuff done it was time for pranzo and study. Then we went to a lesson with the anziani. It was a young woman and her mom is a member. They were passing her to us so they were in charge of that lesson and we will be teaching her all the other lessons. I didn't understand very much but I was told it went very well. She has come to church the past for weeks and she came yesterday. After the lesson we went home and did a lot of cleaning.

Sunday was very nice. I didn't understand a thing, but that is okay. Sorelle Bray and I were asked to introduce ourselves and bear a short testimony in sacrament meeting, I went first.

Letter dated July 13, 2015.