Hiiiiiii!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Adelide's wedding sounds awesome. And must have been super fun watching everyone jump in. I miss you all so much and love hearing from you and laughing at your stories. Also, happy Pioneer Day!!!! We watched the movie legacy in Italian during Sunday school so that was my little celebration of pioneers.
Ok so this week haha. Oh man this week. Every week in Italy is crazy. This is just a crazy mission. Last week at English course one of our students, Giovanni (he is probably 80 years old), showed up with a little surprise for me. He asked me if I knew who Luciano Pavarotti was and I said, yes of course! And he pulled out this piece of paper. He had printed out lyrics for la canzione dell'amore in English and in Italian and it talks about this girl named Lucia. All of the Italians hate when we say our first name is Sorella so they pry and pry until you tell them your real name so that was last week. We sat there and listened to the entire song before English course haha, a memorable experience. We also taught them how to play 'Simon says..' and that was hilarious.
The next day I put on my black Clark's because I hadn't worn them yet because my feet were too swollen to even fit in them. I wore them for maybe an hour and they RUINED my heels. I might not be able to wear them again unfortunately. Also, that same day I witnessed my first Italian girl fight! It was actually really scary. They were like punching each of her in the face and
pulling each other's hair and Sorella Flansberg and I were so scared and just walked around it and kept walking.
It has been SOOO HOT. I just drip sweat all the time. We decided to do a little experiment one night and go to centro which is like the center of the city and I played the violin while they tried to talk to people haha. And let me just tell you it was not that successful. It was very fun for me to play and I loved it but the contacting was not that great so we probably won't do that again unless we are super desperate for investigators. BUT the good thing about our mission is that we can go get gelato and it makes everything better. I think we finally found the best gelateria in Taranto so I am happy.
I'm going to kind of explain summers in Italy. Or at least in Taranto. Our transportation is solely by busses. And the busses don't come on time in the summers so you go to the bus station and sometimes you wait for two minutes and sometimes you wait for two hours. Which can be very frustrating and also hard to plan for. Then you have the beach. The beach in Taranto is gorgeous and every single person goes to the beach and they are there all day. So no one can meet with us. Then the lessons that you do get with people they talk the WHOLE ENTIRE TIME about their moms, dads, and cousins that lived fifty years ago. It is hard to concentrate on what they are saying and then try to get a word in on top of all of that haha. Also, there is no going door to door. They have citofonos which is like the thing you ring and they ask, 'who it is?" and then you tell them and they choose to unlock the gate or not to. So that makes things a little more difficult as well. And then you throw the whole city closing down for pranzo on top of all of that.
We had a lesson with one of our investigators named Christina and we also had Sorella Lahaderne there and oh man Italians can talk. We had this whole lesson planned and then we had to go start English course. We hadn't even started the lesson and it was time for us to go. I just asked, "can I share a scripture?" and they said for sure, for sure, so I shared my scripture and then was going to give a thought or testimony to go along with it and she just started talking and talking again so I just gave up haha. But I got a scripture in!!!!!!!
Last night the whole ward threw a party for this couple in our ward who was celebrating fifty years of marriage. It was so awesome. The ward is just like a family and I am trying my best to get to be better friends with them all because that is so important.
I want to leave a spiritual thought today of the things that I learned this week. One of the incredible things that we get to do as missionaries is study every single day for at least four hours a day. That is a lot of time and I have been able to learn so much in that time. I am sure you all know all of this but it is always good to be reminded of things. I studied the talk given by Elder Holland that is title Lord, I believe. I am sorry I always share quotes with you from Elder Holland. He is just my favorite and speaks with such power and elegance that really touches my soul for some reason.
He talks about this man who needs his son healed. He goes to Christ and says "if thou canst do anything" and Christ responds with "if thou canst believe". And
STRAIGHTWAY the father asserts his strength first, "Lord I believe" and only then acknowledges his limitation "help thou mine unbelief." Elder Holland prompts us to say that if we wish for more faith, we are to remember this man. He says, "HOLD THE GROUND YOU HAVE ALREADY WON even if that ground is limited. In this church what we know will always trump what we do not know. And remember, in this world, everyone is to walk by faith. Imperfect people are all God has ever had to work with, so be patient, kind and forgiving. And do not be afraid to ask for help. Honestly acknowledge your questions and your concerns but first and forever fan the flame of your faith because all things are possible to those that believe."
STRAIGHTWAY the father asserts his strength first, "Lord I believe" and only then acknowledges his limitation "help thou mine unbelief." Elder Holland prompts us to say that if we wish for more faith, we are to remember this man. He says, "HOLD THE GROUND YOU HAVE ALREADY WON even if that ground is limited. In this church what we know will always trump what we do not know. And remember, in this world, everyone is to walk by faith. Imperfect people are all God has ever had to work with, so be patient, kind and forgiving. And do not be afraid to ask for help. Honestly acknowledge your questions and your concerns but first and forever fan the flame of your faith because all things are possible to those that believe."
These words are so powerful to me. Our testimonies and our beliefs are things that no one else can take from us. It is important to hold strong. Keep that ground we have already won. We have been giving the blessing of charity which is a Christlike attribute that we can develop if we work for it. And always remember everyone that charity is not simply something you do, but it's something you become. Spending time in the Book of Mormon is so incredibly important. We will be able to feel the spirit more in our lives and be guided by how we are to live our lives in these last days.
I want you all to know how much I love this mission. The Italy Rome mission is something else. All missions are so incredibly different and I can say this one is a lot different than I had imagined. The work seems hard, but it is progressing. My character is being built, my testimony is being built, and this gospel is being built. Every experience I have is indescribable. I wish I could tell you the way I feel about these experiences that are hard and challenging and how I miss you all so incredibly much. I don't know how or why I love these crazy people or this crazy culture, but I do.
I hope you know I think about you all every single day. That is one thing I hope gets a little easier as time goes. I pray for you so hard haha and I love you all so much.
With much love and pizza and pasta and gelato,
Sorella Lucy Gochnour
Below is a link to Lucy bearing her testimony when she in SLC - before she left for Italy!
https://vimeo.com/176331926
I want you all to know how much I love this mission. The Italy Rome mission is something else. All missions are so incredibly different and I can say this one is a lot different than I had imagined. The work seems hard, but it is progressing. My character is being built, my testimony is being built, and this gospel is being built. Every experience I have is indescribable. I wish I could tell you the way I feel about these experiences that are hard and challenging and how I miss you all so incredibly much. I don't know how or why I love these crazy people or this crazy culture, but I do.
I hope you know I think about you all every single day. That is one thing I hope gets a little easier as time goes. I pray for you so hard haha and I love you all so much.
With much love and pizza and pasta and gelato,
Sorella Lucy Gochnour
Below is a link to Lucy bearing her testimony when she in SLC - before she left for Italy!
https://vimeo.com/176331926
Also my mission address is:
Missione Italiana di Roma
Piazza Monte Gemma, 9
00141 Roma Italia
Pictures from Taranto, Rome
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