Cajitalia: Eccomi in Italia!

CIAO!!!!!

ECCOMI IN ITALIA.

I am currently sitting in a little internet cafe across the street from our apartment. i have been back in my beloved italia a whole week. can you believe it?

the picture of bodie on his bike talking to that old man pulls right at my heartstrings.

Thanks for sharing that talk papi. it's something i was thinking about a lot, especially yesterday when we went to visit this old lady named fiorella. i'll talk a little more about her in a second.

um BOONE. would you do that to the family? has that ever happened in the history of the world to have 3 out at the same time??? AHHHHH!

um gen. conf. was marvelous. we took a bus and a metro and a 15 minute walk to go to the rome 1 area to their building to get it. got to see relief society broadcast and the first 3 sessions. my favorite thought was elder holland saying he wouldnt be surprised if God asked "did you love me?" THINK ABOUT THAT! are we showing Him we do??

Update for the last week and a half:

-Got in last wednesday. the flights were rough on me. traveling in a skirt is the worst. but i had my first experience talking about the church with a kid from mexico on his way home from a trip to vienna. i told him about prophets and how long i would be in italy as a missionary and gave him a mormon.org card. i dont think that's how he planned the conversation to go.... ;)

-Stayed the night in the mission home. The guy who drove us there from the airport is italian but learned english in australia so he had a hilarious aussie accent. "there's the tiber rivah..." :)

-Got our first areas. Me: ROME 3. the south eastern section below Roma centrale. Comp: Sorella Smedley.

Sorella Smed. is from layton, and has been out almost a year. we get along great and study great together. she's cute and has perfectly straight blonde hair. she did karate. and has horses.

Sorella Smedley

-Um, did you remember that Hendrik Larcher was on his mish here? I didnt. I didnt see him, but saw him in our mission newsletter on the list of people going home last week. So i left him a little note at the mission home.

-A ton our our elders got to go to Napoli. I gave them notes for the Lords, Fede Bruno, the Romanos, Mariella Baiano. One is going to pozzuoli. i was writhing in jealousy.

-i want a lord of the rings cd too!

-FIRST DAY: unpacked, failed attempts to visit less actives. Taught english class all myself. Beginning. There were 6 people. I picked up some tips from Fratello Pesci in the MTC by teaching some words (we reviewed months, days of the week, and colors) and then putting it into a question and answer and asking everyone the questions.

Then we gave a new member lesson to Denis. He is from Gabon, speaks italian and french, and got baptized in july. He's adorable! He has such a strong testimony and most of the lesson was him raving about Sor. Smed. and how she brought him to the right path.

He calls us every night to make sure we got home safe and is so kind and excited to be a member.

-OTHER INVESTIGATORS:

1. 2. 3. the "kiddies": the most darling kids EVER! Eva (14), Ivan (12), and Elen (10). Their mom is inactive, their dad strongly catholic, their uncle Davide newly reactivated who insisted they get to meet with the missionaries. They would be baptized in an instant, they want to be, but their parents wont even let them come to church, not even with their uncle.

We taught them keeping the sabbath day holy and about general conference and prophets. and sang "follow the prophet/ segui il profeta" with them. it was slightly disastrous cuz the italian words are awkward but it was funny.

Elen gave me a big hug right when i got there, and another at the end and said "i dont want to let you go" and i promised we would be back soon. we meet with them every friday.

Sor. Smed. told me when they invited them to be baptized a while ago, and they knew they couldnt, Elen said the closing prayer to that lesson and asked "please help us to be good so we can be baptized as soon as possible". doesnt that just kill ya????

4. Salvatore: is a welder working on the temple who had a dream of himself and his family in the finished temple all in white. he asked anziano fenn- who is overseeing the work there- what it meant. Sor. Smed has been teaching him since the summer and he's getting baptized Nov. 17, it would be sooner but he wants to kick his smoking habit. He told us yesterday he's down to 3 cigarettes a day instead of 30. yay yay yay!

5. Tiziana- a referral from some other sisters. All 4 of us met with her this week after she talked with Sor. Lovell on the bus and said she was searching for meaning. She's a 42 yr old school teacher, looks 32, incredibly intelligent, speaks perfect english, has studied all over europe, and is just wonderful. very open minded and willing to try. we're gonna try to meet with her again next week. She made me laugh really hard when she said that when she first saw Sor. Lovell (who always looks a little loopy happy) on the metro she asked herself "what crack is she on?" but realized she was just genuinely content.

Afterward we went and got gelato with her and at the gelateria she said to the lady there "dont these girls look happy? theyve been teaching me about how i can be too, you should listen to them too!" adorable, right??

OTHER VISITS:

-Fiorella: the mother of a Melchiore (one of our ward missionaries) who is 82 and practically bed ridden. when she walks she is practically at a 90 degree angle. she likes us to come over every once in a while cuz she doesnt do anything all day. we chatted with her and sang her a hymn, and she showed us pictures of her family and from when she was first married and then went on and on about how beautiful we were and how she wished she were young again. i almost cried cause she's so sad. she insisted on giving us both a little spankin when we first got there and when we left and she showed us her diaper. We reminded her God loves her and prayed with her.

-Patrizia Prato: is a spectacular member but cant always come to church because she takes care of her little papito. they're both like 4'10". and her dad has a cross eye that makes him hilariously adorable. she made us dinner last night and we gave a quick thought about lehi's vision and holding the iron rod to get to the delicious fruit.

I'm so happy! I cant wait to meet the ward. I love walking and riding buses and smiling at people and attempting conversations. I need to be bolder. Im practicing.

The church is true! I love it and I love italians! I love love love the scriptures and the things I'm learning that will help the people we teach.

VI VOGIO BENE!

-Sorella Caj