Buon giorrrrrrrrrrrrno!!!! (Good morning!!) I actually can't roll my r's
yet... Just pretend ;)
I am incredibly happy here. Like every day I bounce out of
bed (and then fall asleep while I am praying....ooops).
This week we did our first scambio (companion exchange).
Slla Patterson went to Pescara (an ocean town) and one of the sisters there came
to Passo Corese with me. Her name is Slla Jackson and she actually served in Roma
5 for six months at the beginning of her mission! (Secretly that's what I am
hoping/praying for. I love it here!). It was good for me to see the difference
between the kind of missionary she and my trainer are and deciding how I want
to be for the rest of my mission. Also, we went and saw two of her old
investigators, both of whom said they would start to meet with the sisters
again! And we had lunch (four hour lunc...) with this really cool
couple, Claudia and Luca. They were super interested when we told them we have
a prophet, and we invited them to watch general conference with us next month,
so speriamo bene (hopefully good ie: that's good) :) The food they gave us was incredible! Olive and cheeses for
the antipasto, gnocchi alla ragu (tomato sauce with meat) for the pasta, and
then steak and a salad with artichokes and balsamic vinaigrette. And Italian cantaloupe.
And gelato. We had to roll out the door ;) I also got to go to Pescara when we swapped back companions. It is a
beautiful ocean town. I got to see the Mediterranean Sea!
Last week we were walking out our apartment door and got
stopped by a car. They were a member family from Manchester, England here on
holiday, and they were lost trying to find the train station. We gave them
directions and our phone number, they came to church on Sunday, and then they
called Friday to tell us that they were leaving in the morning but since they
had been staying in an RV they had a bunch of leftover food. They met up with
us that night and gave us an incredible amount of food, plus a little cash to
help see us through the end of the month. It was a huge answer to prayer,
because we were both broke after the companion exchange. We spent a lot in travels since Pescara is a three hour bus ride from Rome, which is a 40 minute train ride
from Passo. So they are the coolest. God bless the Ashton family!
Then on Saturday night we went back to the paesino più bello
del'Italia (most beautiful village in Italy), Scandriglia, for a Texan rodeo. It was so much fun! We did a lot of
English course finding, since the people there were fans of all things
American. They had a stage for people to do line dances on, and it was SO funny
to see all these Italians with their thumbs in their belt loops, square dancing
to Toby Keith and Willie Nelson. I died. It was the best. I got a great picture
of the teepees and horse corral with the beautiful city on the mountain behind
it... It just cracked me up!
We also got a new branch presidency on Sunday, so the dad of
the family that just moved in to our town is in the branch presidency now! And
we should have a ward mission leader within the month! It is so exciting. We
have been talking a lot in our companionship about how impossible it is to be
super effective without the assistance of the congregation, especially
when the ward boundaries are so big. The missionaries need the members so badly
to come to lessons and to fellowship the new faces in church, and the
investigators need it to. Can you imagine walking in to sacrament meeting for
the first time, with all those people, not have anyone talk to you or know
anyone that you can talk to, and then be expected to come back? I would never
talk with the missionaries again! There is a whole section in chapters 9 and 13 of Preach My Gospel that talk about how the missionaries are to work with the ward,
but here the members aren't really willing to work with us. Well, they say they
are willing. We are just working on lighting the fire to get them moving ;)
That is about it from me this week, but I'll have more in
days to come! Especially the next two weeks as we finish the transfer and celebrate
my 20th in ROMA!!!! :D I’m not excited. It will be horrible. ;)
Ciao for now!
Sorella Decker
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The city that Nicole got to visit this week during her companion exchange |
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