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, August 21, 2013

Letter #16 and Pictures from Cosenza, Italy

Dear Family and Friends,

This past week has been amazing and there are so many things to write and stories to tell I cannot write them all so I will just have to suffice with the highlights.

This past week was Ferragosto. It is a big holiday in Italy. Everything closes down for that day and everyone goes to the sea. In the past people left for the whole month of August, but because of modernization and more people care about money, they do not close down so soon. Slowly over the past few weeks our members have been trickling away, and our investigators - but they all come back in September :) YES! I was so terrified for this month but it has been wonderful. God has made so many miracles happen! I can feel His hand guiding this work. It is nothing I do.

To quote Ammon, a prophet and missionary from the Book of Mormon "Yea, I know that I am anothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will bnot boast of myself, but I will cboast of my God, for in his dstrength I can do all ethings; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever." - Alma 26:12

There have been people just stopping us on the street. Members have been inviting us to meet and teach their friends. We have been helping our inactives that have stayed in Cosenza. It is AMAZING! And I MUST praise His name!

The other day we realized that there are some parts of Cosenza that we do not know - and that we have not done proselyting in before, so we started out the day planning to walk to some of these areas. Before we left, we went through the ward list and looked at all of our members who live in Cosenza and found their streets on the map. None of them lived where we were planning on going, but as we walked we would find ourselves on little streets that sounded familiar. The same streets where our inactives lived. We were able to find two addresses like this. And one of them still lives there. She was not home but it was amazing to me. God truly guided our footsteps. As we walked we met two old contacts, and students from corso d'inglese. It was so wonderful! We had left the house with a direction we wanted to walk and God inspired us to take certain small roads. It is hard to explain because the promptings of the Holy Ghost were so subtle and natural.

I thought Ferragosto was the month of August but it is one specific day, August 15th. On that day we deep-cleaned our apartment. 
Deep cleaning day we found this hideous house dress - so we took pictures with it!
We went outside around 1pm and I thought the ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE had happened! IT WAS Terrifying. There was no one on the streets and it was so quiet!

This Saturday we also had a district (smaller than a stake) activity in Sila. Which is the big mountain here close to Cosenza. We carpooled from the church with the members. It took about 2 hours before we left because people were chatting and we had to make pitstops to pick up the drinks and such :) It reminded me of family vacations. With six children it is IMPOSSIBLE to leave when scheduled. So you schedule a good 2 hours before you must leave.

We arrived in Sila - which reminded me of family camping trips :) The members from Crotone had already arrived and there were about 6 Italian men trying to make a fire with pine cones and needles. (Don't worry I got a video that I will show you upon my return). It was wonderful.
It was a great activity and the members loved it :) I feel so blessed that I could go :) I love you all so much. I have to leave but I will write you next week.
Sila. Some members from Crotone brought some music with them. That sister in the black danced the whole day. :)
Us with some members from Crotone :)
Sorella Worsham and I at Sila

We also went with Sorella Thompson (the wife of the senior couple that serves in Crotone) into the little tourist town close by and found a Christmas shop. It had the most beautiful stuff - I loved it.
The Christmas Shop
We also saw the grossest bathrooms I have EVER SEEN!! See attached Photos :) When Sorella Minieri saw our pictures of the bathroom she started gagging :)
Disgusting Bathroom
Sorella Worsham's reaction to the bathroom

PS We also went to go see Cosenza Città Vecchia and the Castle here today :)

Thank you for all of your examples for me!

Sorella Preston
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