La chiesa e… orzo! (letter dated 1/22/14)

Cara famiglia,

It was another beautiful week, filled with rain, lots of yummy food, and beautiful moments in church and progressing investigators.  The week was hard, as we are working our hearts out to help a couple of investigators keep their commitments!! Let me just say, orzo is becoming our best friend… kinda working… it tastes like coffee, right? without all the added stuff that makes coffee bad. Okay, not really sure how orzo works but it seems like we’re telling everyone about it right now.

There has been so much prayer, fasting, and sleep lost over these people.  Saturday night, we were feeling a little overwhelmed, wondering if we are working hard enough, etch, but still enduring to the end.  We called every single person we could to invited them to church, including a man that lives a couple floors below us.  (We met him about a month ago, and he kept tellling us he wanted to bring his family to church). And guess what, he CAME! And he brought his wife, his daughter, his granddaughter, and his mother in law. It was a little stressful since it seemed like I was the only piano player in the building and I had to keep playing for all this random stuff, we did a musical number, and I gave a talk, (we are in two branches, which I know the missionaries in the states are totally used to, but, we are not) and we had another investigator there, so we were running all over the place trying to introduce people to members, etc., but they loved it 🙂 They loved it and they felt the spirit and can’t wait to come back.  They’re from an island off of Madagascar, speak both English and Italian, and are super bravo! We’re super excited about them, and hope they come back next week and agree to actually meet with us.

There were 2 baptisms in Florence this weekend for the anziani! The work is exploding here! Firenze used to be the city where everyone thought the work was really slow, but after so many missionaries doing member work for the past year or so, we’re starting to see the fruits.  It has brought me a lot of comfort, because in my last two cities I often felt like we were doing nothing and trying so hard. But, no effort is wasted. Every thing is important as long as we strive to follow the spirit and do what the Lord tells us to do.  One of our investigators, who lost her baptismal date :(, came to a baptism and was truly touched.  It made all the difference for her, and now she is starting to realize the steps she needs to take to get to baptism too.  She asked us who would baptize her 🙂 We told her she got to choose. Ah, it’s exciting but also super duper stressful, to pray and to know if someone is ready to make such an important covenant with their Heavenly Father.  I have been on my knees so much and studying the scriptures and preach my gospel to know how to help these people.  I’m learning about humility, how everything is in the Lord’s hands, and how we are merely His instruments.

Among our daily adventures, we made GOUDA PASTA, and let me tell you, it is amazing delicious. I made it up. Quite proud of myself. (Okay, it’s super duper simple. But gouda really is quite good.)  We went out in the rain quite a bit. Glad I bought rain boots 🙂 And, yesterday we went to Pisa and did a scambio with Sorella Jameson and Sorella Stewart! Like every scambio, I learn so much and loved Pisa. It’s a cute little town, not nearly as bustling as Firenze, and we were able to help the sorelle find some more people to teach! We took our scambio pic in front of the leaning tower, and we rode past it a couple of times on the bikes. Pretty cool.  We also did a singing finding approach with the anziani, four missionaries sang, and two of us stopped everyone we could.  There were some great miracles, music really can open people’s hearts to the gospel.

Also, we have discovered Italian pastries. Gelato is still better, but, mamma mia, I LOVE ITALIAN FOOD. I’m trying to learn some tips, I promise.  Enjoy the pictures! Pisa, gouda pasta, and rain adventures!

I love you all.  Thank you for your prayers. I really felt that our miracle on Sunday was thanks to the prayers back home. Keep praying for me, my companion, and these people we are teaching.  Pray for us to receive the inspiration we need to know how to help them in the right way.

Vi voglio bene,

Sorella Strong