Blurry Week

Dear Family,

This week has kind of been a blur. We have been constantly going and going, kind of like the energizer bunny. I am actually having a little bit of a hard time remembering what happened this week. The main thing I remember is that it was really cold, and really rainy.

Yesterday, church was crazy. We had one of our investigators come, and she said she really likes the environment of church. She and I keep talking about the Spirit, which is why she feels good when she comes. She also stayed for a really long time after church, and we had mini lessons with her and different members. It was awesome. She is a little caught up on the fact that we don't use our first names.

We are teaching two cousins right now. One is ten, and the other is thirteen, and they both have member moms. We decided that they both have different needs,  so now we teach them separately. It is a pretty funny compromise. Either we stay for a really long time at their house, teaching one, while the other gets tutored in school, or we teach them at the same time, in different parts of the room. It is pretty funny, and we have to get creative, but we are already seeing more progress in both of them.

Today, Sorella Samuels and I have secret plans to make a pinata. The word "pinata" somehow came up in our english course, even though it's not english. Ever since, we have been gathering supplies to make one. I will let you know how that goes. :)

Anyway, I hope everything is awesome!

Love,

Sorella Worsham

Home Sweet Rome

Dear Family,

This week, Sorella Samuels and I have been working hard, and we feel it. I remember someone saying this, but I don't remember who, "It feels good to be exhausted in the work of the Lord."

...True.

This week we had zone conference, which was awesome, and we started an English course for kids and their parents. We are really hoping this will take off. We had a father and son attend our first class, and we invited them to take the missionary lessons as well, and they agreed! WOO! We have been doing a lot of english course publicity, and we have met a lot of great people along the way. We decided our strategy is to go to schools and libraries, and ask if we can put our posters up there. The first school we went to, we walked into the doors, and one of our members was there!! It was awesome. She basically talked to one of her co-workers and said, "These are my people, let them put their publicity up." It was awesome!! An awesome miracle there.

On Saturday, we had the infamous pranzo lunch appointment with the same member who was at the school. She is infamous in the mission for all the food mishaps. I have never been forced to eat so much food in my life. She really is great...just sometimes her food ends up in our purses...or pockets...or anywhere else. It's all about survival really.

Earlier this week, we did a spiritual thought with the bishop's family about family, and he really liked it. Yesterday at church, the bishop came up to me and told me he did the commitment we left with them. Woohoo! His wife is going to give birth to a baby girl pretty soon, and we are all really excited. We made him promise that he would text us when she is born. We are trying really hard to serve them, and make sure that their life is easier.

Anyway, our investigators are doing great right now. We have a lot of great plans for a lot of them, and we are really hoping for baptism dates set this week. Pray for us!

Anyway, Hope everything is awesome!

Love,

Sorella Worsham

13 Gennaio 2014

Dear Family,

This week was pretty awesome. It has been cool to see how well me and my companion work together. People have been wanting appointments with us! It is cool, because we have a week full of appointments, and then not having space to see everyone, so they just schedule with us for the next week. So now we already have plans for next week. Sigh, it feels good having a lot of work to do, especially after the holidays.

As far as investigators, four of our investigators came to church. :) We have a woman named Marisa, who we taught the Plan of Salvation, and she loves it. She wrote it down so that if anyone ever asked her a question about it, she can pull it out and explain. I love seeing when people learn about the gospel, and then want to share it. It is awesome. We are going to invite her to be baptized this week, hopefully for one of the first weeks of February. PRAY FOR US AND HER please! I feel like she has a lot of potential, and that she is going to rock being a member.

This week, there was the ward talent show. Us missionaries did a skit about a "Dear John" that one of the members wanted us to do. It was pretty fun.

Yesterday we ate dinner with one of the American families in the ward. It was so funny, because that morning, the sisters and I were talking about Mexican food. I literally said, "Do you remember taquitos?" Hahaha. Guess what we ate at dinner yesterday? American Mexican food! It was the best. It's funny, because if you ask any missionary in Italy what food they miss the most...almost 100% will say Mexican food. It was the first time I have had cheddar cheese in almost ten months. It was beautiful. :D

Also, it was pretty interesting this week. My scar on my leg where I got the injury (with the wood) in 7th grade started to hurt. I got a priesthood blessing though, and then ever since, it has been great. I think one of the biggest things I have gained a testimony about on the mission has been the priesthood.

We also visited the bishop and his family this week. It was awesome, and we really became friends with them.

Life is good, the work is good, the Lord is good. :)

Love,

Sorella Worsham

New Years Insanity

Dear family,

It's now 2014!

New Years was crazy. Literally. It sounded like a war zone outside. It's funny, because my companion always sleeps with earplugs, but the rest of us were kept up because it sounded like World War II. It was actually hilarious, because at one point we felt the fireworks outside shake our house. Then, after that, at about 1:30am, rave music started, and lasted for about ten minutes. Then, it was all quiet. One of the Sorelle that lives with us said, "Guys....do you think they're done?" And right after that, we heard one little poof of a firework. It's funny what is funny when you are really tired.

New Years Day is dubbed "Deep Cleaning Day" in the mission, where everyone in the mission stays home and cleans the apartment. I did an awesome job with the bathroom, if I do say so myself. :)

On Thursday we had an appointment to meet one of our investigators at Piazza del Popolo (The piazza that has cool Egyptian stuff everywhere). He actually didn't end up coming, but it was a cool place to meet an investigator. We ended up doing English Course Publicity instead.

On Friday, we had a dinner appointment with a member family. When we got there, one of their friends was there, named Paola. The family didn't know that she was coming, and she didn't know that we were coming. We ate a little bit of food, and then started talking about the Plan of Salvation. Then during dinner, Paola told us that earlier that day, she had felt that she needed to be at that house that night. Apparently her brother is an investigator, and now she is interested! It's cool how we had felt to make the appointment with this member family, and then she felt she needed to be there. The Lord works in mysterious ways... :D

This weeked they did a big youth conference. It included a dance, and my companion and I forgot about it, so we made an appointment in the church for the same time. I got to see a bunch of my friends from Pescara, and it was so so great. This youth activity included a long sacrament meeting and testimony meeting. The Bishop asked me to stay and translate for the English Speakers. Then, a few of the youth who spoke English, asked if I could translate their testimonies into Italian. It was a really cool experience.

Apparently today is ANOTHER italian holiday, so buses are being lame again. Rawr! It's okay...life goes on.

Till next time!

Love you all!

Sorella Worsham

After Christmas

Well, Christmas is over.

On the interesting side, Italians tend to drag out holidays longer than necessary. There was a holiday the day after Christmas, that also makes proselyting impossible. This week, we have Capo d'Anno, which is New Years. All the missionaries stay inside and do a deep cleaning of the apartment.

As far as the Skype call...yeah...the technical difficulties kind of stunk. Sometimes the headphones would mute what you guys were saying. I think what I might try next time, is to do two separate shorter calls, one to Utah, and one to Seattle.

Yesterday was dubbed  a "missionary work sunday", so all three hours of church were centered on missionary work. They asked if I would give a talk in church, and it was actually pretty fun. I had prepared some things, and then as I was up there, the Spirit was prompting me to say some other things. It's cool to think about the progress I have made as a missionary, where at the beginning it was hard to even bear a simple testimony in Italian, and now giving a talk in Italian is probably easier than in English. (Words in Italian are longer...so less words still equal more time, even when you talk fast).

Some members of the ward talked to me, and want to work with us, so I guess it worked. One woman was talking to me, and said, "Something that really stuck out to me, and that I really appreciate is that you became instant friends with us South Americans in the ward, because sometimes missionaries don't reach out to us." I made a really really really big effort to get to know people, so hopefully it is paying off.

We haven't been able to see many of our investigators this week because of the holidays. Until about the 7th of January, a lot of people are out of town. Luckily this gives us time to make mistakes, or learn about the transportation here. It was actually pretty hilarious, because yesterday we got on a bus that we thought would take us to where we needed to go...and then we ended up in a forest. Luckily, the bus eventually turned around, and we were able to get to our destination. :D

OH! I forgot! For Christmas we were able to watch two normal movies (with certain boundaries). We watched The Best Two Years (hahahaha), and Monsters University.

T'was the Week Before Christmas

I don't know if you are aware of this...but crazily, I am officially over my half-way mark. :O

Rome. is. scary...but I like it. It has been very interesting because my companion is in her third transfer, and she has been in Rome for one transfer. We get lost quite a bit, and I think it is pretty funny. Getting lost has actually taught me a lot about how different types of transportation works.

The other day, we got ourselves to a member's house outside of Rome, and it was hard to get back. Everything was lined up for us to get home on time, until a fight occurred right next to us while we were on the train. Luckily, I am pretty good at staying calm in situations like that, and I quickly got myself and my companion out of that part of the train. We didn't get home until pretty late, and I was pretty on edge after that, but we got home safely. Also, while we were out, a man from Florida started talking to us, and while my companion was on the phone talking to our district leader, I taught him the Restoration. I was still really on edge though, and my body had so much adrenaline, that I'm pretty sure that if he had made one wrong move, I would have attacked him. I kept telling my companion, "Man, if one more person does something weird, I'm just going to punch them." I have become pretty defensive lately. Hahaha. :D

Yesterday, I was pretty on edge too, and then when we were on the metro, we got to a certain stop, and we heard pounding on the windows. My first thought was, "Oh no...not again," thinking it was another riot or fight.Then all of a sudden, the doors opened, and TONS of people flooded on the metro. It was a bunch of crazy soccer fans who were celebrating a victory. Stressful, but a sigh of relief that it wasn't people fighting.

Also, friday, We got one-time permission from the mission president to sleep over at a members house, and then teach early morning seminary the next morning. It was so cool. They have about four students who come, and then the rest watch seminary through Skype. It was a really cool lesson about missionary work.

Yesterday all the Rome missionaries sang Christmas hymns at the Spanish Steps, and proselyted. I sang for awhile, and then decided to talk to people. It was cool, because there was this guy from Egypt, and he asked the perfect question, "What makes your church different from others?" I was actually able to teach the whole restoration lesson to him, and he wanted a Book of Mormon. It was weird, because now that I am in Rome, a big percent of the people speak English. I had never taught a lesson in English until yesterday, on the street with the Egyptian man. It was pretty strange actually, because I realized that I don't know the exact words that Joseph Smith uses to describe the first vision in English. I had to translate it in my mind from Italian first.

Yesterday at church, I made a big effort to meet a lot of members. I got asked what part of Italy I am from a few different times. Hahaha. This ward is pretty multi cultural, and the tourists usually come to this ward, because it is "Rome 1".

This week of Christmas is going to be pretty fun, and we have some appointments set up with members. I am kind of terrified though, because we have both a lunch and dinner appointment in the same day. In Italy, that is like tummy suicide.

Love you all! I hope Christmas is great!

Love,

Sorella Worsham

Weird Happenings

Alright, awesome news first.

Yesterday Gianni got the priesthood! For real, this ward is awesome. He is definitely a part of this ward. People have him over for family home evenings, he always sits with members at church, he has a running buddy, and he comes to institute every week. This makes this next part a little bit easier.

I got a phone call from the mission president on Friday. He told me that I am being transferred (MID TRANSFER). I leave this Wednesday, and I will be serving in...

ROME. The Rome first ward, to be exact. I am still kind of in the denial stage.

There was a sister missionary who was going to be going home at the end of the transfer, but then President decided to send everyone home before Christmas (plus I think she needed to be back before school). Long story short, a sister would be short a companion...ergo, early transfers. It was a complete shock and surprise, and I was a little bummed to be moving right before Christmas.

It's really weird though, because before my mission, I had a feeling that I would be in Rome for Christmas. Now, just a few days before, I will be there. Weird happenings.

It's cool though, because I came to Pescara about a week before we found Gianni, and then I am leaving right after he got the priesthood. That is pretty cool. It is pretty hard to leave, especially when it was so unexpected, but at least I know that he is in good hands.

It was cool, this week, we did splits, so I got to be companions with a young woman (and one of my closest friends) in the ward. It was a really good experience, and it was cool telling her about my mission, and teaching with her.

I love you all, and hope everything is awesome for Christmas and life!

Love,

Sorella Worsham