Buona Sera!

Hello family,

It it amazing what can be done once you put your mind to it. We had zero lessons with members two weeks ago and we strived so hard this week to get them and we quadrupled our number, how glorious. :) Member lessons are so fantastic, they really help people to realize the church is more than just missionaries. Crazy americans who have the grammer of a two year old italian;)

We saw the baptism of Giuliano, the investigator of the Anziani. I met him when I first got here, in English Course. He is a really chill guy. The Friday before the baptism we cleaned the font because someone had tried to fill it up and the water was nasty, like green gross dirty with bugs and the what not. So we cleaned it really good and made a make shift filter and ran the water again(making jerry rigged stuff reminds me of you dad, I think it is a talent that many italians have, for the person who made it up was an anziano from Bologna). The filter worked, but the water was still a little on the green side, but did not smell or anything, thank goodness. Well, Giuliano saw it and was like, yeah it looks great:) So we got to have the baptism in our church instead of the other one in Bari. It was so exciting to witness his baptism, he seemed so happy. My favorite part of the whole experience was when he received the Holy Ghost. I watched his face after the anziani and the bishop took their hands off of his head and he was blinking away tears, Giulano is not a guy to cry. There was such a beautiful spirit. Afterward I talked to him and asked him how he felt. He said it is interesting, how he has the same stresses in his life, but he feels lighter, like those stresses are not such a big deal anymore. The gospel is amazing and really changes lives for the better.

On Monday we did finding in a huge Palazzo and ran into a guy named Cosimo. He talked to us in the stair way for like 30 minutes. He just talked, he did not really listen or let us talk much. He told us that if we put God in the middle of our lives we can never progress. His argument was that if a scientist just says that the answer to every question is "God did it" then he would never search for the answer himself and progress. I do not agree at all. He was trying to make it so logical, but the thing is that God can help us to learn how he does things. We can go forward, progress even more as we put faith in him to figure out our questions. He wants us to learn to be like him, of course he will help us figure stuff out so we can learn, not just give us the answer. I see this pattern in the scriptures. Just like in the Doctrine and Covenants, the revelations came as Joseph Smith asked quesitons, worked to seek out answers and put his trust in the Lord. We must be aware of pride, for Cosimo would not even let us get a word in edge wise because he thought he knew everything and couldn't learn anything from us "ragazze" or might I add the spirit.

Not gonna lie, I get a tad frustrated with people sometimes...

There is a local commedian here who makes fun of mormons. They sing a song, "siamo noi la luce del amore, porta a via il buio del tuo cuore, bah bah bah". I saw one of the skits at a members house, it was funny and kind of sad. However, even this negative publicity is helping us to talk to more people. We always walk by this group of ragazzacci and they start clapping for us and singing the song. Well, we used it to tell them really about our message and laughed with them about how really we are the light of love and we take away the darkness of the heart. Instead of getting hurt or offened.

Also on Monday we had una bella Pizza with some of our investigators. SO yummy!

Well, I love you all so much! You should write me emails more, I like to read them and have not been getting very many. I am just here guilt trippin' you up:) I like even hearing about the activities of your day or what you learned from an experience or even a funny poop joke, anything just to hear from you:)

Love you tons!!!!!

Love,

Sorella Comollo

CIAO!!!!

Ciao!
This week has been challenging. We had almost all of our progressing investigators call and drop us. For different reasons, some are leaving to look for work in other places, others have family that do not want them studying with us, others have had surgeries and health problems. So we are thinking of ways to find new people that will stick. We noticed that we have a lot of female potential investigators that have the same age as many of the female less actives in our ward. We want to organize something to bring them all together, like a nail night or something like that. Hopefully we can get it all organized with some members so we can do it as soon as possible. We had our district meeting about working with members, so I learned a bit more on how to go about doing it. It is really different here than from Mistretta, since in Mistretta there were like 10 people to work with and here there are like 100.
I re started the Book of Mormon in italian to do this challenge that Sorella Kelly gave us to read the entire Book of Mormon by Christmas. I have decided to focus on the testimonies I see bourn throughout the book. So far I have found many that I did not even realize were testimonies before. It is great because it is helping me bear my testimony more to the people with whom I come in contact. I just love the Book of Mormon and what can be learned from it! Sorella Clark told me last night that when we were talking to a priest the other day and he was saying how it doesn't matter what church one takes part of, I just bore my testimony (instead of being contrary) and afterward she told me that she felt the spirit so strong. I love testimonies! Also, last night we were talking to a group of ragazzacci, one of them kept saying that he doesn't believe in anything and doesn't want to hear our lies. I bore my testimony about prayer and how he is a child of God and that God listens and wants to hear from him. I then asked him if he has ever prayed, with his own words not a written prayer. He got quiet and looked at me as to say, yeah I have, but did not want to say it in front of his friends. I felt that surge of the spirit that comes sometimes and I know that he felt it too.
We were doing finding in Citta' vecchia and saw a guy in a garage with a bunch of old fashion cars. He told us that he restores them as a hobby. We then told him about another kind of restoration, of the gospel and bore our testimonies of it and he changed attitudes toward us. We are going to stop by again this week:)
This work is incredible, it is so hard, but it is soooooo worth it and so true! 

I love you tons!
Have a good week!
Love,
Sorella Comollo

CIAO!!!!

Famiglia!

 

This week has been nice. I met an investigator, the bishop's dad, he told us that he loves the church, but will die a catholic. His situation reminds me of Anziano Bednar's, the story he told about his dad in the most recent conference. I am not sure exactly how to teach to this man's needs because I feel like he is a member already(not that members do not have needs, but it is just harder to know what they are). I am learning a lot about prayer and how to recognize answers, because I really want to help this man more fully come unto Christ. Answers can come in the coolest ways! We had zone conference yesterday and imbedded in the talks of the different people I was able to figure out what I need to work on to help certain people. It is so important to attend church meetings! I love how it is a commandment to keep the sabbath day holy because God gives us commandments to bless us, so if we follow them we can be happier and receive blessings:)

Our goal this week is to find a family, so far it has been going well, we have many phone numbers to do an FHE with these families, I hope we can see them all.

So I got to call Sorella Sobeck in Mistretta this week, to ask her some information about our rembursments, while talking to her she told me a little bit about what has been happening in Mistretta. She told me about a woman I had talked to, (we were in Santo Stefano and I wanted to talk to as many people as possible since it would be my last chance there). A woman was sitting on the side walk and I just plopped (is that how it is spelled? boh) down next to her and started talking to her. We talked about where we were from and the likes and then I told her about why I am her, I told her about Joseph Smith and I bore my testimony to her and asked her to be baptized. Usually I do not bear my testimony so strongly or ask them to be baptized after the first five minutes, but it just felt right. Anyway, she said that she needed to learn more, but really wanted to!) Well, Sorella Sobeck told me that she is their mega progressing investigator and that she loves to come to church! My heart started to pound and I felt this rush of warm go through me. All of those darn missionary cliches about planting seeds are true! Plants grow from them in the most wonderful ways, people learn of Christ and grow from it in the most wonderful ways. I am so happy I talked to her that day:)

Well, I must be off. I love you all so so much and pray for you lots!

Have a good week!

Love,

Sorella Comollo

PS Mamma, Autumn Bruner wrote me and said she has not been getting my emails, do you think that you can send them to her? Thanks so much!

Saluti da Bari!

Ciao Cari!!!

Okay, so about my address, we are not moving until the end of September so you can send all of your letters and packages to the mission home and I will get them at zone conference and when missionaries come from Rome to Bari.:) I think that would be best anyway, because we cannot really accept packages here, since one needs to be home in order to accept them and we are never home during the day.

The mission home address is:

Sorella Eva Comollo

Missione Italiana di Roma

Piazza Carnaro 20

00141 Roma, (RM)

Italia

Hopefully that works for you all!:)

So this week has been crazy. In Mistretta when we had four hours of finding ahead of us I kind of always wanted to poke my eyes out in frustration, pardon the grafficness, finding in small towns is hard, possible, but difficult) Here it is a cinch, I can never nor will never complain about four hours of finding again for Mistretta prepared me well. There are just so many people to talk to and to get rejected by and to get accepted by. I decided the other day just to go around on the bus passing out publicity for our english course and the church's internet site, it was just so much fun! And Sorella Clark is awesome, she just talks to everyone! She is a beast! We had a fun culture finding experience the other evening. We were walking down a pretty sketchy street and it started to rain. We went under a balcony for a minute to check where we should go on the map. We heard music while there, a piano and a man singing some pretty vibrato opera. We decided to search for the source. We got into the building and followed the lovely serenade and knocked on the door. The woman who answered asked what we wanted and we said we just want to listen to her music. She grabbed our arms and pulled us into her apartment and she pounded on the piano while her friend sang us don Giovanni. It was lovely. Then after we talked about why we are here and shared about our message. She said we could come back next week! hurray!

We went to a lady's house the other day. She lost her husband last month to parkinson's disease. She told us how when the symptoms of the degenerate muscle syndrome started she had to work hard to take him around the house, to the kitchen to eat, to the bathroom to wash him. She told us how on the way to these destinations, she holding him, almost dragging him, since his legs wouldn't work, they would stop and start swaying, dancing a little, doing a little waltz, some tango, she said those moments were perfect, for even though he had this illness, they did not let it overcome them, they faced it with serenity. She said she knows she got the strength both physically to carry him and mentally to accept this trial of his illness through the Lord. This reminded me of a talk given by Elder Bednar in the April 2012 Ensign about the enabling power of the atonement. Yes the atonement is meant for us to repent and change from wrong to right, but there is another aspect of it that sometimes I think we forget. Its saving grace is meant to make that right into something even better and giving us the strength to do it.

I am sending the talk to you in this email, since it is so wonderful! Everyone should read it this week,I know if you do you will have a better week!:)

We have a new investigator named Anna. She has a daughter in law who is a member. It is so amazing to see how the spirit works in peoples lives. She came to church on Sunday and told us how wonderful it was, how she has never felt so happy when walking into a church before. She wants to read the book of mormon and understand it. I am grateful for her example, for sometimes I take for granted those little things that bring such a peace, like cherishing a scripture or sitting in church and listing to the prelude music. In testimony meeting a man got up and talked about how he went to a space observatory this week and how he was awed by how much he didn't know was in the sky. He said by using the instrument of the telescope he was able to see more than he had ever imagined. He compared the telescope to the gospel, the gospel helps us to see, in a spiritual sense things that we never thought were there or that were so wonderful.

I love the gospel!!!

I love you!!!

Have a good week!

Con amore!!!

Sorella Comollo