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 19, 2012

Letter #10 from Bari, Italy

Hey yall!!
I am so excited to talk with you, I am bouncing in my seat now as i write this :) I got permission from President Kelly to call and arrange so I called 30 minutes ago but NO ONE answers their phone! (Mom and DAD!) but Ann answered her cell phone :) But the first time she answered I did not know how to work it so she could hear me so she hung up!! My heart sunk but I called again and pushed a button so she could hear me and all is well. I told Ann the time and now I will tell you!

CHRISTMAS EVE at 6.30 pm ITALIAN TIME that is 11:30 YOUR TIME!!!! Don't forget that. I will SKYPE you from a member's home. So Letty, help Mom and Dad practice and make sure the camera works and everythings and the volume :) Also ALGOT I will skype you at 12:30 ish. So have your ipad ready!!! BUT IF YOU CANNOT TALK WITH ME TELL MOM AND DAD AND THEY WILL TELL ME WHEN I SKYPE THEM! I am excited to skype you. I can talk for an hour and after I can call Algot for 15-20 minutes.


HOMEWORK: Each of you must write a list of questions or TOPICS that you would like to talk with me about so our conversation will be guided and we wont forget anything.


LETTY: Thank you for your email and tell RICHARD CONGRATS!!!! He is so smart it is amazing. I am glad you all and mom and dad had a great trip :)


This week has been amazing. I had zone conference last thursday. President Kelly taught about how to handle trials and that, "Le difficoltà sono l'opportunità" or Challenges are Opportunities. Opportunities to grow. He shared what President Eyering said when he set him apart as a mission president. Pres. Eyering said, " Many people will tell your missionaries that in their mission it will be hard to baptize... IT IS! But they are blessed. They are lucky. They have to rely on the Lord and learn patience and hard work. Italy is where we send missionaries to make Latter-Day SAINTS." I can feel the truth of this quote already. Each missionary learns something different from their mission, I am learning diligence and time management and I have more to learn that I have not even discovered yet. Zone Conference was beautiful and Sorella Kelly, my mission mom, gave all the sisters beautiful red scarves.  It was wonderful :) We also got other small gifts AND a CD WITH 102 MOTAB songs on it !!!!! I LOVE IT


After zone conference I went to Taranto on a scambio, exchange, Sorella Wightman and I had the most amazing experience. We had homemade christmas cards from a sister in the ward to give to a few less-active sisters. We started Friday by trying to find one sister that they had tried to find a few days earlier. Before we left we chose John 17:3 to be a scripture for the day. We think about it, share it with people on the street and in our lessons. 


We found this sisters house miraculously when someone directed us right to it. The Portone, big apartment building door, was open and the porter told us that De Giorgo lived on the 2nd floor. We could not find her name on the door because it is her maiden name. We tried the 3rd floor, then we looked in the elevator where missionaries in the past mark the number of the floor a member lives on in the upper right corner of the door frame, really helpful practice. It was a 2 so we knew she lived on the 2nd floor. 


We decided to just start knocking doors and  see if we could find her. The FIRST door we knock this lady answers and she excitedly says, "COME IN COME IN" We were so confused because she was happy to see us. We started to explain who we were and she interrupted saying, "I know I know, I am Claudia De Giorgio." We went in and sat down, and we asked if we could share a message and start with a prayer - and she volunteered to offer the prayer. She prayed and thanked God for sending the sister missionaries in answer to her prayer!!! Because she was in need of comfort!! I was awestruck, after the prayer we got to know her. She has 3 children and she reads the BoM everyday and reads to her children. She served a mission in Milano and was baptized at age 8, but she married a non member. He is very against the church and she doesn't go to not make him mad. We promised her that God helps people change and then the miracles continued. We started to share John 17:3 and she said that that happens to be her favorite scripture!|!! I felt like I was in a Liahona article. It was amazing. The entire visit went this way and she said we could come back Monday and that she would come to church because she knows she needs to. It was one of the coolest experiences I have had here in Italy


Also last Pday we went to a concert at the cathedral in Citta Vecchia di Bari. We were invited by Rossella, one of our English course students. It was beautiful. We got there and a British lady with bright blue eye shadow and red lipstick ran up to us and asked us "Do you speak English?" We said yes and she dragged us to come sing in the assembly because they were singing lots of English songs. It was amazing!! I got to sing Christmas carols as part of a choir in the Cathedral in ITALY! SO amazing.

I am excited to talk with all of you. The skype should work well. The member whose house we are doing it at is a computer engineer and he has a NICE computer, so it shouldn't stop a lot :)
Love You,
Sorella Preston
The inside of the Cathedral where we sang
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