Week 5

Ciao famiglia! Come state?? (Hello family! How are you??)

Wow. I cannot BELIEVE that I am almost out of here! I love the MTC, but I am so ready to get out into the field and start serving. I know that the language isn't really going to click until I have no option but to speak it and not use English as a crutch. 

Also. Happy one-week to Milo, the cutest child alive. :D

In news this week, WE GOT OUR TRAVEL PLANS!!!!!  I'm supposed to land in Rome at 12:00 PM local time on August 6th. IT’S HAPPENING. I AM SO EXCITED!!! All the Rome missionaries in our branch are flying together, and my comp Sorella Argyle is our travel leader, which she is pretty stressed about...mostly because there is an elder in our travel group who intentionally missed the bus back from west campus last p-day and his companion had to stick with him. He and I do not get along very well.... Prayers for Sorella Argyle's peace of mind and ability to get 15 missionaries safely to Rome would be much appreciated.

MTC Relief Society is much different than anywhere else, all the sisters meet together and we have a guest speaker. This week we were lucky enough to hear from Sheri Dew, who gave an incredible talk on sister missionaries and how we access the priesthood. She broke down priesthood authority, ordinances, and power in a very interesting way and noted that we use the single word "priesthood" (sacerdozio) to mean a lot of different things.  It was very enlightening and inspiring, and a lot of what she said came back to me while I was going through a session at the temple today. 

Also on Sunday, I got to sing in Sacrament meeting in a quartet from my district! We sang Nearer My God to Thee acapella (which actually in Italian means chapel; la capella) and it was beautiful. 

Tuesday we got to do TRC again, which is where we teach members who speak Italian.  This week, we skyped a brother named Lucino (?) who lives in Geneva, Italy.  How cool is that?! We talked about the power of the Book of Mormon and how important it is to gaining a testimony of the Restoration. He served a mission in Bristol, England, so he actually spoke some English to us, which was cute. He's 61, he joined the church when he was 17. He had a really strong testimony, and I was relieved to realize that I could understand most of the Italian he was speaking.  It was just good to realize that (hopefully) I'll be able to function a little bit next week when I am in Italy.

I WILL BE IN ITALY NEXT WEEK WOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

Sorry. I'm a little excited. hehe:)

We taught three lessons this week, two to Angela and one to Luca. I love teaching lessons, it's so cool to watch them piece together what we have taught them, even if they are already members. I think MTC teachers go through some sort of actor training or something....because they do such a good job of pretending like they don't know what we are talking about!

The lesson with Angela was probably my favorite MTC experience. We taught the Plan of Salvation and we talked a lot about how Christ's atonement (l'Espiazione) allows us to be clean from the guilt of sin and return to live with Heavenly Father again. She was so excited about what we had taught her. We both bore our testimonies of Heavenly Father's plan and His love for us, and then I extended a baptismal invite.  She was worried that she wasn't good enough to be baptized, and then she said she had already been baptized. We talked about how without the right authority it didn't count and then we re-extended the invitation to come unto Christ by being baptized and she said yes!!! She told us how grateful she is for us and our willingness to sacrifice so that we can be missionaries. Sister Argyle bore her testimony of how accepting the invitation to be baptized and being baptized are the first steps towards eternal life, and I told her that we were there because we loved her. We told her that we know God loves her, and that He is so very happy (I actually said happiness, but that's ok) with her decision to be baptized. We were all in tears and the Spirit was so strong. Sister Argyle and I talked about it afterward and decided that if we can feel that strong a Spirit for something that isn't real, then how much more impactful and powerful the Spirit will be when we are actually helping people to change their lives. We also got to share a few scriptures during the lesson to address some of her worries about her son who is making some bad choices, and it will never cease to amaze me that the Book of Mormon has the answer to pretty much every question. Problems with your kids? Read about Alma the Younger. Questions about life after death? Alma 40-42. Crazy! And an incredible teaching tool.

We also committed Luca to baptism this week, with kind of the same lesson but a much less overwhelming experience.  His story is that his dad died when he was little and he is trying to find an answer about that for the last 8 years. Also, at the end of our lesson he invited us to come see him at work sometime, and he works in a gelato shop. In Italian, offering food is the equivalent of saying I love you. SO. :)

Last thing real fast, the devotional last night was with Elder John H Groberg, who wrote the other side of Heaven! He is incredible, he talked about the importance of bearing testimony in everything we do as missionaries. He was so cool, he spoke some Tongan over the pulpit and all the Tongan missionaries laughed, so he must have been making fun of all the (insert Tongan word for white people here..Kolipoki?) It was really cool. His metaphor was that when we bear testimony it's like a spiritual tuning fork sending out vibrations that other receptive souls can pick up on. Super cool.

I gotta dash to dinner! Vi amo (I love you all!)

Sorella Decker

Mom is down here helping me out with the baby. She couldn't resist catching a glimpse of Nicole on her last preparation day before she heads off to Italy :) Nicole's district noticed that there was a creepy lady taking pictures in the trees with a telephoto lens. Nicole instantly knew it was mom and she turned and waved, just before she walked into the temple gates.

Nicole walking to the temple with her district

Nicole's last wave to mom!