Ferragosto Apocalypse

This week was INSANE! (Also. I hit my 5 month mark!)

On Thursday, was this thing in Italy called Ferragosto. I think it is some sort of holiday dealing with Mother Mary and such. Anyway, you know how I said that a lot of people were gone? Well, on Thursday, it was literally a ghost town. The mission made it "Deep Cleaning Day" where everyone in the mission deep cleans their apartment. Sorella Preston and I had to go outside though for something, and I felt as though the zombie apocolypse had occurred. No one in sight. All the stores closed. All the fountains not working. Just think of Orem with no people, and no cars. That's what it was like. Also, Italians like to make holidays last more than one day...so for about the rest of the weekend there were even fewer people than usual. It was kind of weird and cool. I survived the zombie apocalypse.

On Saturday, there was a combined branch activity in the big mountain nearby called Sila. It was this picnic barbeque activity, and it was really amusing. Sorella Thompson (in Crotone as a senior couple) asked Sorella Preston and I to go looking for a store that was nearby...so of course we did. We got to this little town that reminded me of Heber, that has a Christmas Store all year long. We went inside, and everything inside reminded me of Mom. :) I think she would have bought the whole store if she had had the chance.

Today for P-Day, we headed up to Città Vecchia. Every City has one, and basically it is the part of the city that is really old. Like WAYYYYYYY older than America for sure. We went inside some big Catholic churches, and we were able to see the Castle of Cosenza. It was funny because there were SO many stairs to get to the castle. Whenever we asked someone for directions to the Castle, they all said the exact same thing, "Sempre Salire" which means "always go up".  It didn't matter which way we went as long as we were climbing stairs. It put those long stairs at BYU to shame. We got some cool pictures!

Sorella P and I have been working with some new converts on going to the temple. It's been quite a process. It's cool because they love us a lot. They are a couple, the man is Italian, and the woman is Albanian. She teaches us Albanian words and phrases every time. :)

Anyway, this week was great!

I love you all!

Love,

Sorella Worsham

The famous Claudio and Illaria!

I ate at Mcdonalds.

Dear Fam,

Today for P-day, Sorella Greco and I went to the mall, and I bought myself a purse. My other one I had bought from the MTC, and it was kind of falling apart. New (italian) purse for Sorella Worsham. The best part? Huge sales are going on right now! So it was only about 15 Euro. :D Woot!

Today we also went and got Mcdonalds.

After last pday, we went to teach Claudio and Illaria. It was the best lesson! It is so funny, because they are both very scientific, and they love the fact that I like Science and Religion together. At the end, we asked Illaria to pray, and she said that she "couldn't" and then Claudio encouraged her. At the end, Claudio offered to say a prayer, and he said the most honest heartfelt prayer. They also told me that when they were 19, she wanted to be a nun, and he wanted to be an exorcist. It's funny how people change. Haha.

Afterwards, we went on a walk around Cosenza, and Illaria and I made a deal that outside of lessons, she can only talk to me in English, and I can only talk to her in Italian. They hadn't seen us in awhile, and after I started talking to them, they turned to each other and started talking about how much better my Italian is now, as opposed to before.

There was a lot of lightning this week, and it was super cool!

We ate pranzo at members' houses this week two days in a row. It was so hard on my tummy! Nah, it wasn't that bad...just really full for a very long time.

I love you all!

Love,

Sorella Worsham

A few zone conference pictures!

Zone Conference 3

Dear Family,

Man...this week was mostly spent in Taranto. We got back to Cosenza Saturday afternoon, then went back to Taranto Monday for Zone Conference that was on Tuesday.

Also, for people freaking about because zone conference has already occurred, don't feel bad. Zone conference usually was the 5th week of the transfer for this zone...this time it was the second for us since the zones were split. I actually didn't find out I was having zone conference this early until a few days before zone conference.  

While in Taranto, one of the sisters (who was in my zone at the MTC) and I were doing finding on the street. Most of the people had turned us down, and we were at the point of almost getting home. Right then, an older man who was selling fruit started talking to us. We talked to him about the gospel, and we were just about to say a prayer, when another older man came around the corner and started talking to us. They were both interested, and very promising. We were getting their contact information, when the second man, named Achille, said, "I would like to meet and talk more about this, but unfortunately I am just here on vacation. I am actually from Cosenza."

At this point, I was ecstatic, because I'm serving in little ole' Cosenza!

We were able to get his contact information, and he said that he would be returning to Cosenza next week.The odds are too big of meeting someone from Cosenza in Taranto. It is amazing that literally God puts people into our path that we need to meet.

The day that Sorella Greco and I were supposed to leave Taranto, our bus didn't come. We were discouraged because it felt like we would never get back to Cosenza. Then, that day, we ran into Achille again, and Sorella Greco was able to meet him as well. It was an unexpected miracle that came out of our bus not coming.

It was so cool! Zone Conference was also really cool. We did this activity where we practiced teaching the restoration in a street situation. We were all doing it at the same time to other missionaries who were "investigators" and President Waddoups came up, watched me the whole time that I did the lesson. It was really nerve-racking, and because I was nervous, I spoke even faster in Italian. Part of me is going "Oh no...President Waddoups knows I speak Italian now..." but it was also a pretty cool experience.

Well Fam...

I LOVE YOU!