Famiglia!!!!
I am here! Safe and sound, I promise. I hope the
family at home got my letter, I tried to send it out earlier but I put it in the
mailbox after the mail had been picked up on Saturday so it didn't go out till
Monday-ish. Mi dispiace! (I'm sorry).
Ok. Here we go:
The MTC is the COOLEST place on earth. I've never experienced anything that could compare. La mia colleghi (my companions) and I keep saying it's like a super concentrated EFY where the focus is actually on spiritual growth and learning instead of crushes.
I am in a trio with the only other sister headed to Rome, Sorella Argyle, and the only sister headed to Romania this transfer, Sora Black. SHE IS THE BLACKS' COUSIN. AND THEREBY RELATED TO ME. I AM COMPANIONS WITH MY COUSIN.
There is so much that I want to tell you all about!
My district is all headed to Roma on the same day. There are 5 anziani (elders) and 2 sorelle (sisters). Jess, Elder Pope is our district leader! And our zone leader was in my freshman ward, crazy. There are 51 missionaries in my zone, and about 20ish of us are headed to Roma. The others are going either to the Milan or Romania Moldova missions.
Also...if you can find it, please all read/listen to the Character of Christ talk that Elder Bednar gave in the MTC on Christmas Sunday a few years ago (2011 or 2012?). We watched it Sunday night and it actually changed my life. He teaches the principle of conversion (a hot topic around here!) and really emphasized that the first convert of this mission needs to be me. He taught that convert means change or turn, and that if you look at Christ's character, He was constantly turning outward when the natural man would turn in. So in order to be like Him, we need to get over ourselves and our selfish desires, self-pity, self-absorption, and turn out and serve others without thinking of ourselves at all. It was an amazing talk. The devotional on Tuesday night was along the same lines, becoming a converted disciple of Christ. God needs us to be completely devoted to Him and His work in order for us to be effective in accomplishing our purpose of bringing others unto Christ. I think the number one thing that I have realized is that the gospel means love. God loves each of us unconditionally. He wants everyone to know of that love. Because I love Him and my Savior, I am preparing to share that message, and to serve His other children, and I am learning to love them as He does.
I've already taught 4 lessons in Italian to a teacher, Fratello Deursch, who is posing as our investigator Stefano. He's a member already, but the lessons feel so real. My Italian is obviously not the best, but the most frustrating thing is that I have all these things that the Spirit is prompting me to say because I want to testify of the truth or add my testimony to my companion's but I don't have the Italian words to convey what I am trying to say. I have to simplify everything a ton and while that's taught me a lot about how simple a testimony really is, I can't really participate in the lesson teaching because Sorella Argyle already is so good at Italian. She does such a wonderful job of speaking the language and teaching the lessons because she's fluent in Spanish (her dad was the Buenos Ares North mission president from 2007-2011), and Italian and Spanish are basically identical. Sora Black is fluent too, she is from CA and she went to a Spanish-only elementary school so she didn't learn anything in English until 6th grade. She also lived in Switzerland at the same time that Sorella Argyle was in Argentina. They are both so fantastic, and I learn so much from each of them.
Sorry if this doesn't flow well... I am in a hurry and I have a list of things I want to tell everyone! Jess, you will have to post this so that I don't have to email everybody, I don't have time today!
The Lord is in charge of everything about this work. He knows who I need as companions and in my district, who the elders need to have as companions, and who to put in leadership positions. Both le meie colleghi are sister training leaders from our zone. There’s one headed to Milan, as well, so each mission in the zone is represented. I am senior comp because they are both part of the zone leadership. There are actually a ton of people here that I know from BYU. A third of my ward is in the MTC right now, or so it feels, I run into them all the time. Also, one of the district leaders, Anziano Pingree was on the BYU basketball team. Anziano Mika went out last transfer, and he was on the team as well. Both head to Roma!
There have been so many fun things that I've done here already! I love my district, we have the best time in class. There are 5 Elders: Pope, Fullmer, Zeppattini (yeah he's Italian), Tew, and Maxwell (he's our Canadian). Three of them are straight outta high school, and Sorella Argyle and I feel like their mothers, especially since they defer to us so often. They all take really good care of us. The other two are 19 and 20, and Zeppattini is already done with COLLEGE, even though he's only 19. They are all such great examples of dedicated priesthood service. They each bring something different that help us progress as a zone and as we struggle and labor to learn the language.
The STLs that took care of us before ours were called are going to Japan Tokyo South in about a week....Sister Howe is the only one I remember. She lives in Australia but was born and raised in Auckland, so I noticed her accent right off the bat and when she told us about it I asked if she'd ever lived in NZ because she doesn't sound like an Aussie. That really surprised her until I told her that dad served in Christchurch (right?). She is the most loving person I know. The night we got to the MTC she met with us and told us that even if we didn't remember anything else from our first day, to remember that she loved us. Later she came to our residence with her comps and gave me the BIGGEST hug and asked what I learned, and all I could choke out was "that you love me!" It was exactly what I needed, because in the midst of such a big transition it’s easy to feel lost and homesick. To know that I sort of "belonged" to her and to be able to say hi to her as I walked around campus was a huge blessing the first few days that I was here.
Speaking of Samoans, on Sunday I was on splits because my comps were doing STL stuff, and my temp comp and I were headed to lunch. There was a huge group of Samoan elders that passed us headed to California Anaheim, Samoan speaking. They had one elder with them who spoke super broken English and they asked where we were headed, and we tried to explain slowly and simply that we were going to Italy. His comp translated into Tongan, telling us that this Elder was straight from Tonga and didn't speak much English. I didn't buy that, but he did sound like he might have been a little disabled, so we tried to talk slower to him and such. And then they all just burst out laughing and apologized, saying that they were just kidding and that yes, they spoke English, even though they were fresh from Tonga. I told them about dad and we all laughed for a while before we kept walking to the cafeteria. The food here isn't too bad, just of the typical church variety (mass-produced "home cooking"). Also, I've run 6.5 miles on the elliptical since I have been here. And I'm not even sore. HA!
Someone please tell Aunt Kelli a MASSIVE THANK YOU for me, she's sent me two letters on Dear Elder that have made my day. Her language learning advice was to stop trying to compare it to my native language and just accept that a book is now un libro. That's really helped because now I am doing less translating in my head and the language flows a bit easier. I love Italian though, it's so hard but it's so gorgeous. Also, during my first investigator lesson I was really worried I wouldn't say anything, but when it was my turn to teach and bear my testimony I could feel the Spirit speaking through me IN ITALIAN. I don't remember what I said, but he was able to pull from the words I had learned and studied so that I could help Stefano feel the spirit. Then on Monday, our teacher Sorella Urban (who is THE BEST) came in and told us that Bro. Deursch's mom was really sick in the hospital, and he didn't have much time for us. We had a lesson on the Restoration planned, and we didn't have time to study anything else. We had to give the lesson that we had planned even though the spirit wasn't telling us to, because we don't have the Italian words to be able to just throw a lesson out the window and really go by the Spirit. That was so hard.
Also someone thank Pam and Brian for the cookies, my district and I are thoroughly enjoying them!
I can't think of anything else at the moment.... but I love you all so much!! I am so happy to be here, I know it is where I am supposed to be and I know that I am being blessed in so many ways because I am doing what God needs me to. The gospel of Christ is the most important thing, and I am so lucky to be able to learn how to share it!
I know that Heavenly Father loves each of us so much. I know that if we ask Him, He will bless us with what we need. We can grow closer to Him by studying the scriptures and the words of the prophets and apostles. He wants each of us to return to Him and to help our brothers and sisters along the way.
Have a lovely week!! Also, send me letters on Dear Elder! It's free and I get them delivered same-day! My departure date is August 5th, and my unit # is 127.
Love you all,
Sorella Decker
Ok. Here we go:
The MTC is the COOLEST place on earth. I've never experienced anything that could compare. La mia colleghi (my companions) and I keep saying it's like a super concentrated EFY where the focus is actually on spiritual growth and learning instead of crushes.
I am in a trio with the only other sister headed to Rome, Sorella Argyle, and the only sister headed to Romania this transfer, Sora Black. SHE IS THE BLACKS' COUSIN. AND THEREBY RELATED TO ME. I AM COMPANIONS WITH MY COUSIN.
There is so much that I want to tell you all about!
My district is all headed to Roma on the same day. There are 5 anziani (elders) and 2 sorelle (sisters). Jess, Elder Pope is our district leader! And our zone leader was in my freshman ward, crazy. There are 51 missionaries in my zone, and about 20ish of us are headed to Roma. The others are going either to the Milan or Romania Moldova missions.
Also...if you can find it, please all read/listen to the Character of Christ talk that Elder Bednar gave in the MTC on Christmas Sunday a few years ago (2011 or 2012?). We watched it Sunday night and it actually changed my life. He teaches the principle of conversion (a hot topic around here!) and really emphasized that the first convert of this mission needs to be me. He taught that convert means change or turn, and that if you look at Christ's character, He was constantly turning outward when the natural man would turn in. So in order to be like Him, we need to get over ourselves and our selfish desires, self-pity, self-absorption, and turn out and serve others without thinking of ourselves at all. It was an amazing talk. The devotional on Tuesday night was along the same lines, becoming a converted disciple of Christ. God needs us to be completely devoted to Him and His work in order for us to be effective in accomplishing our purpose of bringing others unto Christ. I think the number one thing that I have realized is that the gospel means love. God loves each of us unconditionally. He wants everyone to know of that love. Because I love Him and my Savior, I am preparing to share that message, and to serve His other children, and I am learning to love them as He does.
I've already taught 4 lessons in Italian to a teacher, Fratello Deursch, who is posing as our investigator Stefano. He's a member already, but the lessons feel so real. My Italian is obviously not the best, but the most frustrating thing is that I have all these things that the Spirit is prompting me to say because I want to testify of the truth or add my testimony to my companion's but I don't have the Italian words to convey what I am trying to say. I have to simplify everything a ton and while that's taught me a lot about how simple a testimony really is, I can't really participate in the lesson teaching because Sorella Argyle already is so good at Italian. She does such a wonderful job of speaking the language and teaching the lessons because she's fluent in Spanish (her dad was the Buenos Ares North mission president from 2007-2011), and Italian and Spanish are basically identical. Sora Black is fluent too, she is from CA and she went to a Spanish-only elementary school so she didn't learn anything in English until 6th grade. She also lived in Switzerland at the same time that Sorella Argyle was in Argentina. They are both so fantastic, and I learn so much from each of them.
Sorry if this doesn't flow well... I am in a hurry and I have a list of things I want to tell everyone! Jess, you will have to post this so that I don't have to email everybody, I don't have time today!
The Lord is in charge of everything about this work. He knows who I need as companions and in my district, who the elders need to have as companions, and who to put in leadership positions. Both le meie colleghi are sister training leaders from our zone. There’s one headed to Milan, as well, so each mission in the zone is represented. I am senior comp because they are both part of the zone leadership. There are actually a ton of people here that I know from BYU. A third of my ward is in the MTC right now, or so it feels, I run into them all the time. Also, one of the district leaders, Anziano Pingree was on the BYU basketball team. Anziano Mika went out last transfer, and he was on the team as well. Both head to Roma!
There have been so many fun things that I've done here already! I love my district, we have the best time in class. There are 5 Elders: Pope, Fullmer, Zeppattini (yeah he's Italian), Tew, and Maxwell (he's our Canadian). Three of them are straight outta high school, and Sorella Argyle and I feel like their mothers, especially since they defer to us so often. They all take really good care of us. The other two are 19 and 20, and Zeppattini is already done with COLLEGE, even though he's only 19. They are all such great examples of dedicated priesthood service. They each bring something different that help us progress as a zone and as we struggle and labor to learn the language.
The STLs that took care of us before ours were called are going to Japan Tokyo South in about a week....Sister Howe is the only one I remember. She lives in Australia but was born and raised in Auckland, so I noticed her accent right off the bat and when she told us about it I asked if she'd ever lived in NZ because she doesn't sound like an Aussie. That really surprised her until I told her that dad served in Christchurch (right?). She is the most loving person I know. The night we got to the MTC she met with us and told us that even if we didn't remember anything else from our first day, to remember that she loved us. Later she came to our residence with her comps and gave me the BIGGEST hug and asked what I learned, and all I could choke out was "that you love me!" It was exactly what I needed, because in the midst of such a big transition it’s easy to feel lost and homesick. To know that I sort of "belonged" to her and to be able to say hi to her as I walked around campus was a huge blessing the first few days that I was here.
Speaking of Samoans, on Sunday I was on splits because my comps were doing STL stuff, and my temp comp and I were headed to lunch. There was a huge group of Samoan elders that passed us headed to California Anaheim, Samoan speaking. They had one elder with them who spoke super broken English and they asked where we were headed, and we tried to explain slowly and simply that we were going to Italy. His comp translated into Tongan, telling us that this Elder was straight from Tonga and didn't speak much English. I didn't buy that, but he did sound like he might have been a little disabled, so we tried to talk slower to him and such. And then they all just burst out laughing and apologized, saying that they were just kidding and that yes, they spoke English, even though they were fresh from Tonga. I told them about dad and we all laughed for a while before we kept walking to the cafeteria. The food here isn't too bad, just of the typical church variety (mass-produced "home cooking"). Also, I've run 6.5 miles on the elliptical since I have been here. And I'm not even sore. HA!
Someone please tell Aunt Kelli a MASSIVE THANK YOU for me, she's sent me two letters on Dear Elder that have made my day. Her language learning advice was to stop trying to compare it to my native language and just accept that a book is now un libro. That's really helped because now I am doing less translating in my head and the language flows a bit easier. I love Italian though, it's so hard but it's so gorgeous. Also, during my first investigator lesson I was really worried I wouldn't say anything, but when it was my turn to teach and bear my testimony I could feel the Spirit speaking through me IN ITALIAN. I don't remember what I said, but he was able to pull from the words I had learned and studied so that I could help Stefano feel the spirit. Then on Monday, our teacher Sorella Urban (who is THE BEST) came in and told us that Bro. Deursch's mom was really sick in the hospital, and he didn't have much time for us. We had a lesson on the Restoration planned, and we didn't have time to study anything else. We had to give the lesson that we had planned even though the spirit wasn't telling us to, because we don't have the Italian words to be able to just throw a lesson out the window and really go by the Spirit. That was so hard.
Also someone thank Pam and Brian for the cookies, my district and I are thoroughly enjoying them!
I can't think of anything else at the moment.... but I love you all so much!! I am so happy to be here, I know it is where I am supposed to be and I know that I am being blessed in so many ways because I am doing what God needs me to. The gospel of Christ is the most important thing, and I am so lucky to be able to learn how to share it!
I know that Heavenly Father loves each of us so much. I know that if we ask Him, He will bless us with what we need. We can grow closer to Him by studying the scriptures and the words of the prophets and apostles. He wants each of us to return to Him and to help our brothers and sisters along the way.
Have a lovely week!! Also, send me letters on Dear Elder! It's free and I get them delivered same-day! My departure date is August 5th, and my unit # is 127.
Love you all,
Sorella Decker
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