{"id":320,"date":"2013-06-22T17:58:21","date_gmt":"2013-06-22T17:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/?p=320"},"modified":"2013-06-22T17:58:21","modified_gmt":"2013-06-22T17:58:21","slug":"choosing-faith-in-italia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/choosing-faith-in-italia\/","title":{"rendered":"Choosing Faith In Italia"},"content":{"rendered":"
My dearest family,<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I am trying so hard not to cry as I read all of these emails that I just received from you all.\u00a0 My companion would freak out \ud83d\ude42 Since I told her that I never cry. \u00a0That’s changing fast.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Where to begin?! (the keyboards are different and I’m having trouble getting used to them. anyways.)\u00a0 We got on the plane and I talked on the phone. It was so good to hear your voices!!! Sorry this email will be long but I type fast and I want to tell you everything.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Our flight to from Dallas to London was somewhat delayed and so we missed our flight to Milan.\u00a0 Being the insomniac that I am, I didn’t sleep at all on the plane.\u00a0 So I was crazy and loopy and being really weird but it was fun.\u00a0 We were in the London airport for 8 hours, so we landed in Italy around\u00a010:30\u00a0at night.\u00a0 Our MTC group was awesome and positive about the whole thing.\u00a0 We had so many missionary opportunities it was bellissimo! I got to hear so many life stories it made me happy.\u00a0 In English, too \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 I met a woman from Germany and we gave her a Book of Mormon.\u00a0 I told her my brother would be serving a mission in Germany and she was happy to hear there were missionaries everywhere.\u00a0 She gave the Book of Mormon back though and wasn’t interested \ud83d\ude41 But, we planted a seed!<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
When I got off the flight and walked out of the airport and saw the Wolfgramms (my mission president). I don’t know what happened, I started balling.\u00a0 Like I haven’t cried so hard in I don’t know how long. I just clung to Sorella Carlock.\u00a0 They were happy tears! I kept saying, I’m finally here, I’m finally here, I’ve been waiting for so long.\u00a0 Yes, I was being Emma dramatic but who doesn’t love some Emma drama? It makes their life more interesting \ud83d\ude42 Then I went and hugged Sorella Wolfgramm and cried some more.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
My trainer is Sorella Acerson.\u00a0 And guess what? Funny story – I was her peer mentor! haha.\u00a0 We never met but as soon as they said her name I recognized it and then I just knew she would be my trainer.\u00a0 And she was.\u00a0 This is her third transfer, and she trained last transfer.\u00a0 So basically she’s amazing and speaks Italian really well and is a great teacher.\u00a0 Here’s the thing.\u00a0 We’re in Verona.\u00a0 Yes, the city of love.\u00a0 No, I haven’t been to Juliet’s wall yet but one of these P-days I will. Comunque. We’re opening a coppia (companionship).\u00a0 So we both are new here, and we started without anyone to teach. We get to find everyone ourselves!\u00a0 We keep getting lost since we’re both directionally challenged.\u00a0 There are 6 missionaries in our ward, and 4 in the other ward.\u00a0 So Verona’s kind of a big deal.\u00a0 We’re not sure why yet, but I’m sure we’ll figure it out \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 It’s hard figuring out everything because I’m really fresh and my companion has never been to this city, but it’s an adventure.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I am with Sorella Gross again in my apartment and her companion is Sorella Clawson.\u00a0 I love them!\u00a0 We ask Sorella Clawson questions all the time because she’s the only one who has been in Verona.\u00a0 And she’s only been out 3 months too.\u00a0 Adventures.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I’m gonna\u00a0be completely honest,\u00a0I am experiencing what\u00a0we call culture shock.\u00a0\u00a0Big time.\u00a0\u00a0It’s so\u00a0so so so so humid.\u00a0 Air conditioning doesn’t really exist, and I have never sweat so much in my entire life. \u00a0Their milk is different and everyone smokes and everything’s in Italian.\u00a0 People kiss your face all\u00a0the time. (the baci)\u00a0So many things.\u00a0 But I’m sleeping more because I’m so exhausted.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
We tract all the time.\u00a0 Street contacting mostly.\u00a0 It’s pretty weird for me.\u00a0 We just go up to random people and say\u00a0 “God loves you and we are His children.” It’s so random but la vita of a missionary!<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I can speak ok Italian, and understand some of it.\u00a0 I have trouble understanding the old people because their voices shake.\u00a0 And they talk way fast.\u00a0 And we talk to a lot of old people.\u00a0 I keep asking Slla Acerson if the people we are talking to are sane because a lot of them seem crazy to me.\u00a0 No, they’re not crazy.\u00a0 They’re perfectly sane, she says.\u00a0 They’re just Italian \ud83d\ude42<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
ok, story time.<\/div>\n
First day out tracting.\u00a0 We pass by some women gardening and we offer to help.\u00a0 They say no because it’s their job, but the woman that they were working for let us in.\u00a0 She was really old and all of a sudden I’m going into this old lady’s house and she’s kissing me on the cheeks and she’s offering us water. I couldn’t understand anything but my lovely comp did. Then, lo and behold, guess who’s sitting at her kitchen table? Two older women teaching her\u00a0a Bible lesson.\u00a0 Jehovah’s witnesses to be specific.\u00a0 They start asking us a bunch of questions that I couldn’t understand but Sorella Acerson handled it well.\u00a0 The old woman who let us in said we could come back another time though.\u00a0 I laughed so hard. First time we go into someone’s house and the other missionaries in the city want to argue with us. The next day we stop by and we thought she wasn’t there but her neighbor Fran gave us water (she offered us tea first, we said no of course). And then the old woman came out and started yelling at us telling us how terrible we are because we’re Mormons, and we’re worse than the Jehovah’s witnesses!\u00a0 Yeah that was sad.\u00a0 But Fran was nice and told us her whole life story.\u00a0 I’d tell it to you but quite honestly I could barely understand a word of it, except that her husband died from smoking.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Another woman we taught a lesson to at a piazza by our apartment kept interrupting us and telling us to speak English to her and asking about American singers we’d never heard of. I thought it was pretty funny.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
We had zone conference\u00a0on Monday\u00a0and that was really really good.\u00a0 And after that we went out tracting again.\u00a0 We met a man who started pulling out all of his philosophers on us, telling us that God was terrible because of all the suffering in the world.\u00a0 It was so sad, he wouldn’t listen to anything and wouldn’t have an open heart at all.\u00a0 I attempted to say in my broken Italian that I’ve actually read those philosophers before (he kept bringing up Nietzche – and let me just say, duh, if you’re reading Nietzche all the time you’re gonna be depressed) but that the Book of Mormon brings me the peace and helps me understand why bad things happen.\u00a0 He said he’d read the Book of Mormon before.\u00a0 It was sad, and I know that arguing doesn’t do anything, so we left. But my heart goes out to him and I hope he can be happier.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Then that night we met our first investigator!\u00a0 He’s from Ghana, and has such a big heart.\u00a0 We told him about the Book of Mormon, and he got so excited.\u00a0 How can I get this book in English? He kept repeating over and over again. We arranged to meet with him again, and now we’re teaching him in English.\u00a0 He wants to change his life and he kept saying that he wants Jesus. He said yes to baptism, and we told him we need to prepare for it now.\u00a0 Miracle.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
We also found a family to teach!\u00a0 We just met them yesterday but they invited us back and we got 2 referrals from it. Major miracle.\u00a0 They’re from Ghana too.\u00a0 My companion and I were joking that maybe we should have been called to Ghana instead \ud83d\ude42 We’re praying to meet some Italian people to teach.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Doing finding work all day is pretty hard.\u00a0 We’re still waiting for one more bike, so right now we’re walking everywhere.\u00a0 Our companionship motto is “Choose faith.”\u00a0 These days are tough. But we have to have so much faith because we need Heavenly Father’s help in so many ways. That’s my thought for you – always choose faith.\u00a0 Life is so much better that way!\u00a0 We’ll be happier, and see the brighter things in life.\u00a0 It doesn’t do anything to sit there and talk about how hard your situation is if you don’t have faith and try to do something about it.\u00a0 We could sit around complaining that we don’t have anyone to teach, but we get up, and go find them \ud83d\ude42 Choose faith!<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I love you all! Sorry this is so long.\u00a0 I miss you and I pray for you and\u00a0please pray for me! Pray for me to adjust to this culture \ud83d\ude42 Grazie mille.<\/div>\n
Verona is beautiful.\u00a0 I just look out my window and see all these old buildings with vines and balconies and flowers.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Vi voglio bene,<\/div>\n
Sorella Strong<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My dearest family, I am trying so hard not to cry as I read all of these emails that I just received from you all.\u00a0 My companion would freak out \ud83d\ude42 Since I told her that I never cry. \u00a0That’s changing fast. Where to begin?! (the keyboards are different and I’m having trouble getting used […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":323,"href":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions\/323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}