HOPE

Ciao cari miei!!!! 

 So this week was pretty awesome!!! The best thing about this week was the hilarious quotes given by multiple Italians. I will share them. 

Some of them could fall under the "you had to be there" category, but I will share them anyway. 

 We visited a member this week and at the end of the lessons we asked them for referrals and they say to us: "No sorry Sorelle, we don't have any friends outside of the church. We don't know anyone outside of the church." 

 From a lesson with Elena: "How do we know if Jesus wasn't just an extra terrestrial person that they put into the body of Mary?" 

 Less active when we start telling her we want to share a message with her about the restoration: "I already know all of this." 

 After the musical number in church on Sunday a less active comes up to me and says: "I am a drummer and I actually hate the violin...." Me: "oh...." ".....but today I loved it! Maybe you could come over and I could make a recording." Me: "ok. Thank you!" 

 English course student after he figured out we don't drink alcohol or smoke: "Change religions" Same English course student after pranzo when they were trying to get us to talk about politics (I think he was drunk a little): "Just vote for Trump. We need him to start a Third World War because there are two many people on the earth anyway." 

 So just a normal Italian week for you!!! I love being a missionary and I will tell you it is hard! But so worth it. 

 We started off with that great quote from Elena! She is so awesome and I love her but she just wants to go into very deep doctrine about how we are creators and how there are lots of other worlds and about aliens. And then she asks, "ok when is my baptism?" And Sorella flansberg just said, "Elena, we don't think you're ready for baptism yet." Which she's not and we needed to tell her that. Preach my gospel specifically says that you cannot know spiritual truths without praying about them and receiving an answer from the Holy Ghost. (More elegantly than that of course, but you get the point) so we just need her to pray and are trying to break it down and start from the very beginning and just the basics. She's awesome though. I am not giving up on her. 

 Then we got a new investigator this week!!! His name is Nicola and he is quite interesting. He is catholic but doesn't go to church and he seems like he has been super prepared. He was getting really mad at this catholic lady who was being rude to us which was actually like woah. He kept asking her if the people payed Jesus or the apostles to be a prophet and she kept like saying no and seemed super ashamed about it because she knows it used to not be like that. So that was cool to witness, however, he refuses to pray and he REFUSES to come to church. So we're working on it. Piano piano. 

 Language update: this week was very rough on the language. I don't know why, but I'm still working on it. I just felt like I couldn't put together sentences and I felt like no one could understand me. But I guess both my English and my Italian will get very low, and then hopefully the Italian will go up haha. Speriamo bene! 

 Breaking news! Cristina is not getting baptized on Saturday. We figured out some interesting and important news that confuses everything more haha. She doesn't want to get married to her companion because then she won't get the money that she deserves from her ex-husband (who she is still married to). But she doesn't want to separate from him because she likes him now I guess. I don't know. We are still working with her and she still wants to get baptized. And we have tried to motivate her to act on the promptings we receive. When we receive answers from Heavenly Father, WE HAVE TO ACT ON THEM!!! But we can't act for other people. So we are just loving her and will continue to teach her. Pazienza. La parola Della vita 

 Then we had a day where none of our plans went through, but that's ok. Everybody has those days. And we just spent a lot of time working outside and it makes me sad to see how much sadness and darkness there is in the world today. 

There is so much hatred and so much just SATAN everywhere. WE HAVE TO HAVE HOPE!!!! We can find good in this world. We just have to help people see it. I loved this quote I read this week. 

 "Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey towards it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us.’ … Hope sweetens the memory of experiences well loved. It tempers our troubles to our growth and our strength. It befriends us in dark hours, excites us in bright ones. It lends promise to the future and purpose to the past. It turns discouragement to determination.” Samuel Smiles 

 The highlight of the week was the musical number in church that Sorella flansberg and I played. We played "If you could Hie to Kolob" and it was very pretty and the members were so kind about it after. Even though it wasn't perfect. They all kept saying "mi ha fatto piangere" (it made me cry) and they all said that all of the kids that are normally running around screaming were just in awe. Elena told me she had no idea I was that good haha. (She got to church right after sacrament so she just missed the most important part of church, but at least she came!!!!) Anyway. They were very nice about it and I am so grateful that I was able to bring the violin on my mission. It has blessed my life so much. 

 Then we ended off the week yesterday with a very interesting pranzo with some English course students. They us to come so badly which was so nice, but I probably would try to avoid it in the future. First of all, they're all catholic so they are just drinking wine and coffee. Luciano blessed the food very strangely but at least he started with "Caro Padre Celeste" (he has learned something from English course!!) the rest of the prayer was more like a speech haha. Then he decided to give everyone names. I was given very beautiful. Sorella flansberg got sweet and shy. I figured out I don't really like cozze (mussels). And then they brought out the dessert. There was this like little cake. I only took half of a piece. And ate the whole thing. And then there was tiramisu (which the cookies are soaked in coffee) and then this chocolate fudge thing that had lemon liquor in it. And after I had eaten the little cake and some of the chocolate we found out the cake had rum in it haha. MAMMA MIA. WHY????????? Apostate Sorella Gochnour right here I guess. Before I ever eat another dessert here I am asking if there is alcohol in it haha. 

 I got to end Sunday night really well though because I got to listen to the first talk from women's conference, in English! It was a great talk too. She talked about charity and the importance of not comparing ourselves. The Christlike attributes are SO important for us to develop. 

 Anyway. I love you all and I HOPE you have the best week ever!!!! 

VI VOGLIO BENE! Have fun watching conference! 

 Con tantissimo amore, Sorella Lucy Gochnour

PAINT BALLING FOR P-DAY!