Week 61: A study in patience

Ciao tutti!!! :) Spero che stiate bene!! (Hi everyone!!! :) I hope you are alright!!)

This was sort of a weird week because of transfers for the anziani and a few other unfortunate events, but we also had a lot of good happen. On top of which FRANCESCO IS GETTING BAPTIZED TOMORROW and we laughed a lot this week. So like, its slow going because of the holidays, but the work still goes forward :)

Monday we went to Bari and saw the BEAUTIFUL ocean. Bari is absolutely gorgeous and I got to put my toes in the water. I felt like the ocean water pulled all the pain out of my feet. It was lovely. And we got to hang out with our beloved Bari sorelle, which is always super fun :)

Tuesday was all about English course, because we finally restarted! I love teaching English course, especially because we teach advanced. It is so much fun! We had a bunch of errands to run to make sure that everything was all ready to go, and then we had like seven new students show up in addition to a lot of the old regulars. We made it fun, and we are hoping to start teaching a lot of the new people. We also got to visit with the Bishop’s mom in the afternoon, and we found a service opportunity! She is blind, and she is raising one of her grandsons. He has some summer homework that he needs help with but she can't do it, so we offered to go and help him before the school year starts. We are super excited! We are also going to start reading the Book of Mormon to her so that she can become a little more familiar with it, since she doesn't have a way to read it and she has been blind since she's been a member.

Wednesday we had our last district meeting all together, which was so much fun. We are a really close district, so it was good to spend so much time together. There was a poem that one of the anziani read as part of his training a few weeks ago that he gave to all of us, and I am going to send it out to all of you because it is beautiful. It's called "after all we can do." We also played psychiatrist, which is where one person goes out of the room and the rest of the group decides on a pattern for their illness, so we sent Sorella Anderson out and we each chose one of the seven deadly sins. The "illness" is manifest every time the psychiatrist asks you a question, you have to respond according to the illness. So I was pride, and every time she asked me a question I just had to respond really haughtily. It was sooooo funny, one of the anziani was wrath, another was slothfulness, and then there was greed and gluttony. It was an absolute riot. Greed kept stealing things from everyone, slothfulness went to sleep on the table, gluttony at 300 grams of potato chips, and wrath just yelled at everyone. We were dying! We said goodbye to the anziani who got transferred, then in the afternoon we covered their shift at the caritas. We were about to head out the door, but in front of the portone there was a funeral sign and a guest book for the man who lives in the apartment above us. He was in his upper eighties and has been bed ridden since April, completely despondent, and his two daughters have been living there to help since their mom has late stage Alzheimer's and can't do much. So we went up to pay our respects and one of the nuns from the convent down the street was leading them in a big prayer circle. Sorella Anderson was really stoked because she got to sit next to a nun. We were really grateful for the opportunity to comfort the family though, we want to try and find a good moment to talk to them about the plan of salvation :)

Thursday we spent the morning helping with transfers, making phone calls, and preparing pizzas for the new anziani. We knew they didn't have anything to eat, so we decided to do lunch (5 pizzas). Anziano Stanley showed up with his greenie and one of the elders who served here last transfer, he had to come back to pick up his residency permit, and we all ate at the church together and got to know Anziano Grover. He is from Mississippi! He is just outta high school and we are loving having the extra greenie fire in the district. We also had a companionship get blown in, Anziano Blaise from California and Anziano Ponce from Peru. It's a fun district. We also went to the funeral for Nicola (the man who lived upstairs), it was the first time I have ever been to a catholic mass. It was at the church just across the street from us, la parrocchia s.s. Salvatore. It was a full hour, and a very different experience than what I am used to as far as funerals go. It was so sad! I am so grateful that the Church was restored with all the doctrines that Christ taught, because otherwise I don't know how I would get along in this world. Sometimes it feels helpless to live here, but I know that we have hope in our Savior. "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33) We also had English course, which was just as fun as ever. We have a new potential investigator! His name is Donato, he wants to know more about what we believe because, as he says, "la mia religione non mi convince più." (my religion does not convince me anymore) :) We met with Francesco and put together his baptismal program, which is super exciting. The best thing is when the baptismal candidates choose people from the ward to participate, instead of just missionaries. And the only things the missionaries are doing are a musical number and one of the prayers. I am so stoked for him!

Friday we did planning and went back to the caritas to volunteer. It's my favorite part of the week, because we got to out a hot meal in front of people who have next to nothing. Even though they act pretty ungrateful sometimes, it makes me feel good to know that we are meeting their most immediate needs. Obviously everyone needs the gospel, but even the Savior took time to feed the multitudes :) we saw Francesco again and taught him the last lesson from preach my gospel, he is excited to prepare to receive the priesthood and go to the temple. There is a baptism trip to the Bern Switzerland temple in November, so we are going to make that the goal!

Saturday we took our turn as missionaries to clean the church! We had a ton of fun. We also got the baptismal font all cleaned out so we can use it on Tuesday for Francesco!!! I am so excited for him. He is so prepared and so ready, and it has been the most incredible experience to see his conversion. I feel so blessed to have been here for all of it! Afterwards, we got to see Viktoria and Giacinta, we talked to them about how the orchestra in Austria went and stuff, and we invited them to be investigators! It was super scary because I didn't want to burn the bridge or offend them since we are already friends and Viktoria is atheist, but Sorella Anderson needed me to do it, so I did. And she said she would be willing to learn! She doesn't have a super sincere desire to grow closer to God, she isn't really searching, but we are going to try anyway. If nothing else they will feel our love for them and for the gospel, which might make them more open in the future :) we went and got gelato with the anziani because it was Anziano Grover's first one. I love getting to spend time with missionaries, they are just such cool people. I still look down at my tag sometimes in shock when it hits me that I'M a missionary, even though it has been over a year!

Sunday was a little cray. We went to church, Sorella Fasano gave another absolutely INCREDIBLE gospel principles lesson (seriously, I flipping love her. She is one of my heroes), then relief society got a little wild and outta control. That happens sometimes...people just play the "my trials are worse than your trials" game and start yelling, but things always get brought back under control :) we went out to do finding in the afternoon, our only investigator is getting baptized this week, which means we will have no one left to teach. It's a really cool problem to have :) so we got out there, and miracles abounded! We met a couple really cool young people and a few families, so we have some potentials to teach in the coming weeks :) I was super proud of Sorella Anderson and Anziano Grover getting out and talking to people, it definitely pushed me to keep trying and doing my best because neither of them are 100% proficient in the language yet...but they didn't hesitate in trying. It's cool to know that the new generation of missionaries is going to be so hard working and carry the work forward after we aren't here anymore :)

I am still doing well, my body is starting to give out...my only requests for when I get home are a MASSIVE chipotle burrito bowl and a week at the chiropractor. And then maybe a few days at the sauna to steam all the toxins from second hand smoke out of my pores. :) #missionlife haha anyway, gotta go! I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Love, 

Sorella Decker

Ps oh! The title. I decided to study patience this transfer...always a little risky, because it means my patience will be tried...but that is what I think the Lord needs me to work on right now, so it will be interesting.

We had fun flinging water at each other...

The district! Anziani Pace, Flynn, Stanley, and Souwan, plus me and Sorella Anderson

Our ravioli lunch