Trevy! Call Salt Lake!

CIAO!!!

Everyone! I've been up to so many many "sings":

But first. Let me give you a lovely picture of my life here:

Squashing against people on crowded buses, smelling rancid italian man b.o. as people's bodies rub against me, the heinous smells of garbage cans, church bells early in the morning, graffiti everywhere, dog poop all over the sidewalks, tally marks of how many times we get the up-down from creeps on the street and saying "NOPE!".... i wouldnt have it any other way.

-Last P-day: we went for a "stroll" and hit up trevy fountain, piazza navona, pantheon. then in the evening we went to visit a member named Alina and ended up teaching her friend Vittorio who is from Moldova who has been living in italy for 2 years and still doesnt speak very good italian so she translated into romanian for him. We taught him the quick restoration and invited him to read the BoM. We've taught him once again since then, he had already read many chapters, taught restoration in full with "the cups"- building a little pyramid with the apostles on the bottom, principles building the top (faith, eternal marriage, baptism, priesthood...), and jesus on the top. "it's gold, jerry! gold!"

-Thursday: we went with Doris- a new member from nigeria- and her 2 little girls millicent and divine (africans here have the best names ever!- sor. smed. said she met a "god's power" and an "almighty" once. i'm partial to almighty for a middle name. whatcha think? oh, and Doris' husband's name is Monday) to her visiting teacher's house. sorella perego is american married to an italian and they live a ways away. we ate lunchie there and then stacked wood for service for the lady who lives under them and owns the restaurant down the way.

-I struggle just starting conversations with people on the bus/metro. So I practiced this week. One of my first ones I talked to a lady on the bus. She said she was romanian and new to italy. I offered her an english-class card and our bigliettino, which she accepted graciously. She then told me she couldnt read and then asked me for money.... :S

I did my first "sondaggio" this week. For street contacting Sor. Smed. likes to stop people and say we're missionaries and we're doing a short survey of 2 questions. I did it all by myself and it was slightly horrifying.

-I may or may not be eating a whole bunch, many, much a lot of nutella.

-We met with a potential named Prince (also Nigerian) at the mall where he works. AND GUESS WHAT HE SAID! "i'm not sure if my parents baptized me. can i be baptized in your church?" um. YES. sor. smed. explained we would have to continue teaching him to prepare for it but he completely agreed. We taught him restoration. He said he believed it all happened. He said he had been looking for a BoM for a really long time cause someone told him once he should look into the mormon church. He seemed so excited to read it. He asked if we could stay a little longer to study with him and we read the first few pages of the restoration pamphlet. This was all in english. We teach in english a lot.

-Our potential Tiziana came to the last bit of sacrament meeting. yay! and vittorio came for all of church with alina. the only bad thing. he was giving me unwelcomed attentions. not good. it made me very uncomfortable. he is Old. like 50s. ewwww.

but otherwise church was marvelous! loud and crazy and a little unorganized. but fantastic. just what i would expect and desire.

FUNNIES:

~Sorelle Sobeck and Winward were teachin a guy named Andrea last week who we met in english class. He came to conference. He told the missionaries he had a dream of God, that he had a white beard and was smoking a cigar of light. In the sister's last lesson with him he said he had a dream that there was someone with a gun who was going to kill the MORMON TABERNACLE CHOIR. he insisted that if they had 3 dreams about either shepherd or sheep that night that it would come true. he came to church next day for the first two hours, and then right before sacrament, he started insisting they "CALL UTAH! CALL SALT LAKE! THE CHOIR IS IN DANGER! SOMEONE HAS A GUN!" they told him they didn't believe him and he stormed out. uh. yeah.

One of the ladies at church who i already adore, Mariateresa, asked why we couldnt bring normal people to church.... :)

~We were walking home from a lesson this week in a thunderstorm and we were so scared and then sor. smed's umbrella cracked in half and she just left it on the sidewalk and we ran home and i was laughing like a manic the whole time. it was really scary. we were soaked.

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT:

-Zone Conference was yesterday, the theme was change. Pres. said we should learn to not be frustrated by change, or we'll always be frustrated. Excellent thought.

- ROMANS 8. Yes. it has Everything. If God is with us who can be against us? Nothing can separate us from the love of God. The sufferings of this present time will not compare with the glory that will be realized in us. I love it so much. And through my personal study- which I look forward to every day because I go on wild rides going from scriptures to topical guide to other scriptures and am learning so much- I find these things all the be true.

The Gospel makes sense. The Gospel is for everyone. It meets the needs that we all have.

Love you! Be Good.

-Sorella Caj.

In front of the Trevi Fountain