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, May 29, 2013

Letter #4 and Pictures from Cosenza, Italy

Hello Everyone,

This week has been crazy but also wonderful. This sunday one Sunday one of our investigators came to church and the Anziani are teaching a family and they all came! It was great! We have a lot of potentials and people who we are excited to meet with. Cosenza is wonderful and full of people to find. It is the perfect size because you see many of the same people every day and a person you met 2 days ago you can see tomorrow. You can follow-up on how they are and if they read that pamphlet. It is great!!
We also have a ton of part-member families! Almost every member in the ward has a spouse or children who are not baptized but they come to all the baptisms and activities! So there is work to do!
 

This week we had to travel to Bari because my permesso had been suspended. Usually you get it (the official paperwork) within a month, and I have been here 9 mths. A Permesso is your permission to stay in the country, so I had to go to the questura in Bari to find out what is wrong because they would not tell me on the phone. We took a bus Sunday at 5pm and arrived in Bari at 9:30pm.
Sorella Worsham's reaction to bus travel
Then the next morning we went first thing. It was great seeing my old city and eating foccacia. While there we also did an exchange with the Bari Libertà sorelle. I was with Sorella Fuller's companion, Sorella Bradford (not my MTC companion Sorella Bradford).

 
Monday morning we went to the Questura and there was only 15-20 people in front of us but we did not know what to do or who to talk to. Miraculously the Poggiofranco Sorelle have an English course student who works there. They gave us his number. We called him and he called some friends. Max (name changed) the guard let us in a different entrance and Catherine (name changed) took us next at the window! It was so smooth and nice. OH! KNOWING PEOPLE!

 
The Permesso was suspended because they had not given me a certain form to sign (this is a relatively common mistake) so everything is in place and in about a month we will go back to Bari to get my Permesso di Soggiorno! I am very excited to be legal. The whole time I was praying and asking God to not let me get deported or anything.

 
While in Bari, we had a lesson with Mark, one of our old simpatizzanti, he is going to be baptized tomorrow. I am so excited for him. He is ready and very happy to be baptized. We saw many miracles while in Bari. I love how this is God's work and you are not anywhere by chance, even if you are on Scambio for a few hours. God arranges it to meet who He wants you to meet.


I am glad that James likes his job. And he has to tell which kind of dog he gets. And I hope it is a puppy!! (Yes, I just like baby dogs more).

I am praying for you all,
 
Sorella Preston
 
P.S. Ann you should keep an eye out for a Sister Shattuck. Her parents are in the branch on the military base in catania. They are a great family and their daughter just arrived from the MTC in the Birmingham, AL mission. I do not know if that includes Huntsville. But if you see her be extra nice :) I never met her, only her parents and siblings.

Bari and Olives. S. Preston and S. Worsham
Oh SANDRA DE! (Me, Sorella Bradford, Sorella Worsham, Sorella Fuller)
 
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1 comment:

  1. UnknownSeptember 8, 2013 at 12:46 PM

    x sorella bradford mi contatti in facebook mi trovi come tony cosenza con la foto sul profilo di sylvester stallone vestito di nero https://www.facebook.com/tony.cosenza

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