Life In Pescara

Dear fam,

THIS WEEK WAS SO GREAT. I have seen so many miracles this week. Oh man.

First of all, we have this investigator who wasn't making progress last week. We met with her, and taught the plan of salvation, but now she has some worries about the rest of her family(if they will make the right choices so that they can be together forever). We asked her about baptism, and she said it was too soon for her.

A few days ago, I called her. She asked me if we had prayed for her, and I said yes. Then she asked what we prayed for about her. Then I told her that we had been praying about her and baptism. I asked her if she would be baptized November 23rd. She again said that it was too soon for her, but then she paused, and said, "Well, it is too soon for me...but maybe it's not too soon for the Lord." She didn't concrete decide about baptism on the 23rd, but she told me she wants to be baptized eventually. She agreed to have November 23rd be a goal date for her to be baptized. :D (PRAY FOR HER!!!!!)

On Saturday, we had an awesome ward activity. It was a talent show, and it was HUGE. There were a lot of non members there who performed, and came to support other people. It was probably one of the best ward activities I have ever been to...in my life. It was so great.  

Us four sisters also did a talent. A few days before the talent show, I was blowing into a bottle with water in it to make a sound. We have a lot of empty water bottles, and the idea came to me to fill them up at different intervals, and we could play a song. We filled them up, and tuned it to a scale on the piano. For our talent, we played "Popcorn Popping" with water bottles. Everybody loved it. We have been getting a lot of invitations to come over to people's houses ever since. I think it's because they saw that us missionaries are human beings with a sense of humor. :)

Also, at this activity, there was a cook off. We made brownies...and we won. One woman told us that they were the best brownies she had had in forty years. (Hahahaha...everyone in Italy is kind of obsessed with brownies.)

Another thing we have been doing with families, is making paper chains. For example, with one family, we did a paper chain about gratitude, and everyday they have to add a link to the chain of something they are grateful for. When the chain goes from the ceiling to the floor, we promised to make them brownies. (Like really, everyone in Italy is obsessed with brownies.)

We have also been thinking about using this as a method to get people to keep commitments (everytime they do service, read scriptures, pray as a family, etc).

Everyone we have done this with so far has LOVED IT.  

Anyway...this week has been great. I love you all!

LOVE YOU ALL!

Love,

Sorella Worsham

The Big Move, Pescara Style

Dear Family,

This was a crazy week. SO MUCH TRAVEL!!!!

I am now safe and sound in Pescara. I got to try my first Napoli pizza (which is the best in Italy), because some other missionaries brought it on the train to Rome.

...It is cold here, especially at night time. I have been wearing sweaters, coat, and scarves. Right now I am in the farthest north part that is open to sisters.

It has actually been kind of a culture shock coming here. The north and south are SO DIFFERENT (and I am not even in the north of Italy!).

First of all, I am serving in a ward now. It was kind of overwhelming going from maybe 20 people in church, to BIG. I felt like I was back in America again. Also, just the way people do things here are a lot more organized.

Also, the bishop has been a mission president twice. Enough said.

My companion is Sorella Paulson, and we get along great so far. It has been a really cool experience being with someone younger than me in the mission.There is not a whole lot to write right now, because I am still pretty new here. The apartment is beautiful, and Ikea furnished. Supposedly it is the nicest one in the mission. Now I am living with my companion, and two other Sorelle. It has been a blast.

By the way, yesterday I hit my 7 month mark. I have already been told that I am "getting old" in the mission. Jokes on them, because I still feel young.

Yesterday was the primary program! It was so great. They all started out in white robes (um, so it may have looked a little like a first communion), which represented them as spirit children, and then when they "came to earth", they took the robes off. It was a pretty intense primary program.

Anyway, I love it here. We ride the bus ALOT, so there are always a lot of people to talk to. There will be more to write about next week.

YOU ALL ARE GREAT!!!

Love,

Sorella Worsham

First Monday P-Day!

Alright family. I am packing my bags. ANXIETY!

I am leaving my little Cosenza nest that I have been in for about six months, and heading to...PESCARA!!!

This is super north compared to Cosenza. It is farther north than Rome, but on the east coast, so it is probably going to take a really long time to get there. I will now be in the Rome East Zone. Apparently from what I have heard, it is right on the ocean. I am still in Cosenza right now, and I make the move either on Wednesday or Thursday.

It's kind of funny, because PESCARA looks a lot like the verb "Pescare" which is "to fish" in Italian...so it is pretty appropriate because that is exactly what missionaries do. Also, I thought Dad would appreciate the name of the place because he likes to fish.

My new companion is named Sorella Paulson, and I will probably meet her on Thursday. She is just finishing her second transfer, which means I am with a youngin'! More news about Pescara next time.

Church was pretty sad yesterday actually. Everyone was really sad that I am leaving. Lots of hugging, kissing, and crying. They were also kind of upset about how far away I am going.The next few days are jam packed with people who wouldn't let us say no to coming to their houses. Haha. Also, tonight we are doing another pancake activity. One last hurrah!

Yesterday was a very..."us" sort of day at church. We taught Relief Society, Gospel Principles, Sorella Bailey played the flute in sacrament meeting, and then our branch president asked me to bear my testimony, and say the closing prayer. I feel a little bit like I am going into the MTC all over again, and that yesterday was like a "farewell". We also got fed the biggest meal ever... Sorella Bailey and I thought we were literally going to explode.

On Thursday and Friday, we were actually in Taranto doing an exchange. We saw some big miracles, and actually got the Taranto Sorelle four new investigators in an hour. It was pretty insane.

Love you all!

Love,

Sorella Worsham

A Strange But Awesome Week

Okay, so this Saturday is transfer calls. Then if either my companion or I gets transferred we travel to Bari on Wednesday, then to the other destination. We'll see. I am kind of nervous about getting calls, because it will be hard to leave if I have to leave. The comforting thing is that I will stay if the Lord wants me to stay, and go if the Lord wants me to go. By the end of this transfer, I will have spent almost six months in my home town, Cosenza.

This week was kind of strange. There wasn't as much proselyting time, but we still got things done! Phew.

Can I just say General Conference was awesome?!

On Saturday night, we watched the Relief Society, and the Saturday morning session(live), then on Sunday morning we watched the Priesthood session(Yeahhh....Sorella Bradford and I snuck in...), then we watched the Saturday night session on Sunday around 2, and theSunday morning session(live) around 6 on Sunday night. I didn't get to see the last session, but eventually I'll be able to read the talks. :)

Yesterday, we met the Korihor of Cosenza. We were talking to a woman on the street who had asked for a Book of Mormon, and then this guy walked up and started bashing our beliefs, telling the woman things like "your baptism means nothing to them!", etc. He was a very contentious fast witted man, who took advantage over the fact that we are not perfect Italian speakers and I just wanted to be like, "Dude...what's your beef? Calmmmm dowwwnnn." Hahaha. We handled it pretty well though. He pulled the traditional "Nothing should be added to the bible" and then I just calmly/logically and hopefully with the Spirit talked with him about the history of the bible, (like how the Bible has had things added and taken out, like it didn't include 2 Peter originally, or 3 John, and it is missing some books) and bore testimony about the Bible, Book of Mormon and God's love for all of His children. I don't think it got through to him, but at least we didn't handle it with bashing. I learned a lot from this experience, especially about how important it is to teach with the Spirit.

The Elders gave us some records of people that had been taught by sisters A LONG time ago. We got a hold of one of them, and started teaching her. It was a really cool experience as we taught her the Restoration, her starting to remember the things that she had been taught ten years before.

This week was overall pretty good.

I love all of you! Make this week a great one!!! :)

Love,

Sorella Worsham

It's Now Ottobre

Letter time again! It's October!!!

Last week I was sick with a pretty bad cold. I probably drank a whole can of Orzo (A powder you put in hot water...I guess it's kind of like coffee or hot chocolate). Luckily I pretty much got over it before zone conference.

Zone conference was awesome!!! We had quite the adventure with buses though. We tried to leave Sunday night, and when we tried to buy tickets, they were sold out. :(  We then lugged our luggage back (We bring luggage because we order materials at zone conference, and it's usually too much to carry) in despair. The next bus was at 5 in the morning. We woke up at 3:30 to make sure we were there in time to get tickets. Then we got there, and the bus driver said the tickets were sold out. DESPAIR!! We lugged our stuff back to the apartment again. The next bus was at 10 am...and we got on it! Phew! To get to Bari from Cosenza is about a four and a half hour bus ride. Bleh! We finally got to Bari, safe and sound in time for zone conference.

There were more sisters in the zone this time. We had 12 sisters in one apartment on Monday night. It was really fun, and I got to see some of my friends from my district from the MTC, and other friends. Also I got zone conference mail, and I received something from Caralee from the Lindon ward, and some other fun things from some friends. :)

My interview with President went pretty well. I said the prayer, and then he told me that he was impressed with my italian and that I probably have the best "rolled r's" in the mission. :O He told me that I need to teach his wife how to roll them. Hahaha.

Being sick was kind of hard, but we were still able to teach investigators. Remember that investigator that had us come back because we "made a good impression"? We taught her again, this time about the restoration, and it all just clicked with her. We also taught about the living prophet, and general conference, but she is going to be out of town. She was really interested though.

We taught some new investigators about prophets, and we invited them to general conference. Then they dropped the bomb that they might be moving on Friday. They are pretty much just up and go people, because they pretty much have nothing. I was pretty sad because we had a really good bond, but they might be able to find better opportunities somewhere else.

This week was hard, and great all at the same time. I could definitely feel people's prayers for me. Thank you!

THANK YOU!

LOVE,

SORELLA WORSHAM