Serving An 18 Month LDS Mission

In the LDS church, when a girl turns 21 she has the opportunity to choose to serve an 18 month, self-funded mission. I have wanted to go on a mission since I was a little girl. My parents both served a mission in Rome in the 1970's. In 2001-2002, my sister Letty served as a missionary in Hong Kong and my brother Algot in the Philippines. As soon as I turned 21 I submitted my papers. The Prophet and 12 Apostles determine through inspiration which of the more than 300 missions worldwide each missionary will be assigned. I was overjoyed when I opened my mission call and discovered that I was called to Rome, Italy! I feel immensely blessed and I feel that God has been preparing me to serve the Italian people. Each week, while I am on my mission, I will send my sister Letty an email and pictures to post on the blog. I won't see this blog till I come home, so I will be unable to directly respond to your comments until then. However, the sidebar will always have a current street address for me, and I promise I will respond to your letters! If you would rather write via email, just email your letter to my sister and she will print it out and send it me with her weekly snail mail!

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Letter #9 and Pictures from Bari, Italy

Hello all!! 
Sorry that I did not get any pictures sent last time. We had to run to catch the train back to Bari :)

I just sent the Christmas packages today! I do not know if they will arrive on time but we can pray and hope :) Also I included candy bars! If they are smashed you can still lick them and enjoy :)
Mom asked me about my Thanksgiving. We did not go to anyone's home but S. Comollo and I went and bought creme brulee pudding things, a small cake, rolls, Pasta with Bietolle ( A really good vegetable I will make it for you when I get home!! :), and mashed potatoes and gravy. We had a little dinner for lunch and then we had a party for English course. I made apple pie which the students went crazy for!! Italy has really good food but they fail at baked goods. Their cakes are usually very dry or too soggy. Some of the English students asked for the recipe. Fabio kept insisting that instead of butter you could use olive oil for the pie crust!! :) I had to keep insisting that although olive oil is good, NO! That does not work!!  Sorella Comollo made some very good stuffing (dressing because we did not make it in a turkey) and everyone had fun :)


I love it here in Bari. One of our members, Sorella Viani, was just baptized 2 years ago. She is  60+  and her husband likes the Sorelle so he is letting us "practice teaching" him. :) He feels duty bound to be Catholic and refuses to change but he is coming around a little by little. We last asked them to start praying as a couple because that will make their relationship stronger. This past week we went to go visit them and were visiting with Sorella Viani in her craft room. She was talking about how it is hard for her to get her husband to pray with her. She said that she hopes he will change but she can't believe it anymore. I am so glad that we were there and were able to affirm and share our testimonies that she can know and believe that her husband will change and we are seeing it. 


One of the things I know is that God changes people. It is one of the greatest miracles I have ever seen!! One of the other Sorelle in our ward, Sorella Sebastiani (She and her husband have the cutest romance story ever. They could have a Nicholas Sparks book written about them :) has an experience with that. Her daughter was baptized and Sorella Sebastiani and her husband were not interested but little by little they changed their mind. When their daughter found out her parents were going to be baptized she started crying. She had never believed it, but in her patriarchal blessing it had promised her that they would join the church, and they did 15 years later :) Also Sorella Magno, her husband was very against the church but he let her be baptized and then 27 years later!! he was baptized. His heart was changed!!! They were married and sealed in the temple how beautiful! One of the greatest blessings of missionary work is that I can see people change, we don't know when - but they do!


One of the hardest things about the mission is teaching prayer. We teach people how to pray and all too often they refuse. They say "I am unworthy and I cannot talk to God with my own words. I need a saint to help bring my prayers closer. Or I need the poetry of written prayers." I just want to cry when I hear this and get it into their heads just HOW MUCH their Father in Heaven loves them and wants to hear their un-elaborate, ordinary prayers. It reminds of a quote by Richard G. Scott and I paraphrase, "The Maker of Universes, wants to talk with you! What a supernal thought! The invitation has already been sent!" I am so blessed I get to help people open that channel of communication with their Father. It is so beautiful to hear a broken and simple prayer uttered by someone who is just starting to know their Father in Heaven. It is a work in progress though, one of our investigators closed in the name of Christ ( Yay!) but then he added on "and Joseph Smith" we interrupted the prayer and fixed that little addition :) But it is such a gift to be here to see everything here. I agree with Richard G. Scott, what a supernal thought! God is waiting to talk with each and every one of us on a personal basis :)


We went to go visit Lecce last week it is beautiful and there are tons of churches :)
Really pretty church, that is the organ, and a pretty door under
We got to see some beautiful things and some weird things. In one of the churches there was a clear casket of a dead saint. Sorella Comollo and I just stood there for a moment and looked at it puzzled :) I eventually broke the silence and asked "Is that a real dead body or just a sculpture?" Sorella Comollo said " Yep that is him, embalmed" I took a quick foto and then we left :)
I also saw a horrifying picture of the Crucifixion. I was so happy for our churches :) the artwork is not as ancient, we don't have extravagant architecture. BUT the environment glows with the spirit and peace. This portrait of Christ was so scary I did not even take a picture. He was covered in blood, and his ribs were sticking out, and his eyes were rolled back so you only saw the whites of his eyes!!!! SUPER CREEPY. I prefer to focus on the resurrection and hope of the morning 3 days later :) 

We went to eat lunch at a restaurant in Lecce. I ordered Orrecchiete freshly made, she said they had little meatballs in them, and then I ordered Polpete big meatballs and I said in sugo. It was not until after She walked away that i realized I had ordered pretty much the same thing for 1st and 2nd course. 1st was past in thick red sauce with polpete, 2nd was bigger meatballs (polpete) in a whole bowl of the same sauce. I was so sick at the end. I had way TOO many meatballs. I was just forcing them down :)
Lecce
We got invited to a mass tonight it is going to be beautiful. Our ward Christmas Party was amazing! Tons of people came, English course students especially because we sang 3 songs as a class in English - Jingle Bells, Rudolph, and Silent Night. There were less actives there too. I got to try FooFoo that our african member made. It was way too spicy so that it cancelled all flavor, and I also got to try to make cartolatte, a traditional Christmas Barese dessert. One of the English course students brought beer to share which we took care of, but I was so happy! There was beer brought to a ward party, meaning we had nonmembers there :)!! YES!!!


We got invited somewhere for Christmas Eve and Christmas. The Diciollas are an amazing family in our ward with the best story. He came up to us and said, I heard you are alone for Christmas. We said yes, a little confused. He said, "Then, please, come home" :) It was so sweet. We are going to Skype from his house. He is a computer engineer so his computer in NICE! I will let you know the time a bit later :) I love our members they are so amazing :)
I love you all! I will try to send photos! Love, Sorella Preston
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