{"id":346,"date":"2013-07-24T23:34:34","date_gmt":"2013-07-24T23:34:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/?p=346"},"modified":"2013-07-24T23:34:34","modified_gmt":"2013-07-24T23:34:34","slug":"paesini-e-tiramisu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/paesini-e-tiramisu\/","title":{"rendered":"Paesini e tiramisu"},"content":{"rendered":"
Buongiorno!<\/div>\n
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We say that to everyone as we walk around – buongiorno, buongiorno, buongiorno! Most people look at us like we’re really weird.\u00a0 People are just a little bit closed off here.<\/div>\n
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I think this email will be a little bit real. It’s been a week, and we still aren’t teaching anyone.\u00a0 We have been doing finding work for a week, talking with everyone in our paths, seeking referrals, and trying to see less actives and members. We have had some beautiful experiences doing this.\u00a0 I long to teach someone in Italian though \ud83d\ude42<\/div>\n
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Last Thursday is what we would call a major, major adventure.\u00a0 We’re trying to do less tracting and go seek out our members and those that have stopped coming to church.\u00a0 In a small paesini (sorry, cannot remember for the life of me what the word is in English, that’s gotta be a good sign for something, right?) called San Martino Buon Albergo.\u00a0 It’s like a 35 minute bike ride out, not too bad.\u00a0 We got a map and started trying to find these people’s houses.\u00a0 We get there, and they’ve all moved and their phone numbers are all inactive now. There’s one more person we go to find.\u00a0 On the map it didn’t look that far away…but… we start going there and next thing we know we are in the middle of the Italian countryside. We were riding on some major highways to get there and going up some major hills in our super intense sister missionary beach-crusiers. And oh my goodness let me tell you, it was absolutely beautiful. I love the beautiful architecture in the city, but this was my Italian countryside that I’ve always dreamed of seeing. There were horses and green fields and flowers and beautiful orchards.\u00a0 And a lot of corn.\u00a0 Except no one was around.\u00a0 We felt quite effective at that moment…not.\u00a0 But we were trying to find this house.\u00a0 And when we get to the street, I see Slla Acerson up by some mailboxes laughing.\u00a0 I look over, and there’s the house.\u00a0 Completely abandoned, fallen to the ground, and covered in a black tarp.\u00a0 No one has lived there for quite a long time.\u00a0 All we could do was laugh – you know, one of those crying\/smiling laughs where there really isn’t anything else you can do.\u00a0 No big deal we probably just rode 20 miles on our bikes and none of the people we wanted to see even exist.\u00a0 But it was a beautiful bike ride and really good excercise \ud83d\ude42<\/div>\n
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Sunday we had one of those experiences I don’t think I’ll ever forget.\u00a0 The shining light of my week.\u00a0 We visted a less active in the ward.\u00a0 The only reason they are less active is because she has to take care of her mother who is 99 years old and can’t get out of bed.\u00a0 But they were so happy to see us.\u00a0 When we arrived, Slla Acerson talked to the sweetest 99 year old woman you’ve ever met and I helped the sister make tiramisu.\u00a0 It was fun, trying to understand cooking directions in Italian and she was basically doing charades for me the whole time so I would get it.\u00a0\u00a0 But we talked and I was able to clean her kitchen and listen to her life story (which is one of those stories that is so beautiful and heartbreaking but beautiful because of how she has endured everything).\u00a0 For one of the first times, I felt like I was actually helping someone and touching their life. I know that’s not true at all, but I could feel so much love and spirit in that home.\u00a0 It was a miracle and a wonderful experience for my companion and me. At the end of our lesson, her inactive son walked in and listened to the rest of it.\u00a0 His mother shared her testimony with all of us, grateful that her son was there. Ah. We bore testimony of faith and endurance and forgiveness.\u00a0 I seriously cannot explain how wonderful of an experience it was. It was so needed after a week of a lot of heartbreak.\u00a0 God answers prayers, and their faith and testimonies uplifted me in ways they will never understand.<\/div>\n
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We are still trying to find some more investigators, so when you’re praying, if you remember, pray for us to find some and to find the people that are ready and that God is preparing.<\/div>\n
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A real struggle: I know I’m only 6 weeks old, but I give myself a hard time.\u00a0 A really hard time. I love to connect with people and develop relationships with them.\u00a0 I know that my language skills have improved so much, it’s just hard to recognize it when you’re surrounded by fluent speakers.\u00a0 I want to connect with these members. I want them to know how much I love them and understand how I feel.\u00a0 I am such a words oriented person, I love expressing myself through words.\u00a0 But here I can’t do that as eloquently as I would like. I feel slightly trapped inside my body – I want to just love and love and love and express my thanks through words, but when I try to talk, I stumble and don’t sound confident with my Italian. (But, my Italian is pretty good for being 6 weeks old, I swear.) I am working on patience and hope and trust.\u00a0 I am trying to find other ways to show my love. These things take time.\u00a0 I know that as I continually pray I can show this love.<\/div>\n
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This work is real.\u00a0 The power of prayer is real.\u00a0 I know, con tutto il mio cuore, that this is God’s church.<\/div>\n
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Dobbiamo avere speranza.\u00a0 Il libro di mormon mi porta questa speranza perche sento pi\u00f9 vicino a il mio salvatore, Ges\u00f9 Cristo.\u00a0 Dobbiamo ricordarlo.<\/div>\n
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Vi voglio bene,<\/div>\n
Sorella Strong<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Buongiorno! We say that to everyone as we walk around – buongiorno, buongiorno, buongiorno! Most people look at us like we’re really weird.\u00a0 People are just a little bit closed off here. I think this email will be a little bit real. It’s been a week, and we still aren’t teaching anyone.\u00a0 We have been […]<\/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\/346"}],"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=346"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":347,"href":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346\/revisions\/347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}