Monday, March 27, 2017

I think I can I think I can I think I can


Ciao cari miei!!!



Se vi dico che cos'รจ successo con i trasferimenti non mi crederete.........ma comunque

My new companion is SORELLA BICCHIERRI!!!! Haha yes she was already my companion in Ragusa! But now we are companions again in Rome 3. I was
a little unsure about it at the beginning, but I am just so excited now. I try to speak to her in only Italian. And she tries to speak to me in only English. It works out pretty well, but it's hard because if she doesn't hear English spoken then it's harder to learn so we have to figure it all out, but I am determined to learn this language as best as I can!!! She is a very hard worker and we have already seen a lot of miracles since being together again. We laugh and joke a lot and it will be fun to make more memories here in Rome 3.

Sorella Hills and I also had a good week together. We were able to attend the baptism of the Ladispoli Sorelle. He got baptized in the ocean at Ladispoli so it was really cool to witness that. And think that is like my first one I have witnessed on the mission. We also went and looked for this lady that called and it turns out she used to be an old investigator. She is in her 60's and was very sweet hopefully she will be able to make the steps toward baptism! She has been to the evangelical church a lot and was talking and thanking god while Sorella Hills was praying for her and it took a lot not to giggle during the prayer. We also had a day that completely didn't work out. We had gone through our original plans, our backup plans, and called everyone possible that we could visit, so at this point we were a little discouraged and didn't have much time to go somewhere far before English course, but we went back to the house and picked an address that didn't have a number from the area book and decided to go find it. Did we find the house? Yes. The family moved haha. So at this
point it's like well this stinks, but I just started singing and then we were singing the mission hymn and a bunch of other hymns and it turned the day completely upside down and we were able to end the day happy :)

We also talked to some ladies while we were eating our pizzas on the beach for lunch (Ostia is really pretty. It's like on the beach but is also kind of like in the country) and these two old ladies were saying, "they can't be Italian because they're not wearing Italian shoes" haha and I turned and said we're American!! And then we talked about why we are here and there was a great seed planted! I live for experiences like that.

Then I received Sorella Bicchierri!! We have done a lot of finding and casa in casa. We weren't able to get in anyone's house, but some people opened their doors and were able to see our smiling faces! We also met a lot of really cool people and hopefully will be able to meet our two investigators and find some new ones who are ready for baptism.

HAVE YOU GUYS HEARD!??!!??!?? Angel Moroni is up here in ROMA!!!!!! They announced it yesterday in church and I started tearing up and getting goosebumps as he was explaining the experience. First of all because it was a physical sign that they are making progress on the temple! I don't think I will able to still be here for when it opens, but I just feel so lucky that I get to be here at this time right now. I am helping prepare these people to make the most sacred decisions they will ever make in their life, which is going to the temple. And the sign that Angel Moroni symbolizes that the gospel shall be
preached to all of the earth and I am involved in that work!!! HOW GREAT IS MY CALLING?????

Ok sorry this is kind of long but I just wanted to share one of the things I learned in my personal study this week. I read a talk given by president Faust where he explains about the story of the little engine that could. Sometimes we as big trains are too tired or we have more important things than to help a little broken train over the mountain. But the little blue engine comes and is WILLING to help. She had never even been over the mountain, let alone pulled someone else over, but she was willing to try. And that is all that Heavenly Father asks of us. All He asks is that we are willing to try. And He will help us to get over the mountain!!!

Have a great week and know that I am grateful for all of your examples and for all that you guys do for me. I know I wouldn't be where I am right now without you all.

Sinceramente,

La sorella G ❤️๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡น














Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Fortuna (LUCK)

Hey everyone!!

So I'll try to give a little run down of the week.

Monday - Thursday were spent in Ostia
It's a really cute little city near the ocean. I don't really remember a ton of details right now because my brain is like overloaded with information.

Then Thursday night - until tomorrow (Tuesday) afternoon we are in Rome 3 (and from Tuesday afternoon - Thursday we will be in Ostia.) We have seen quite a few miracles though in these past couple of days. We went to find a less active here in Rome 3 and she answered her phone!! (First time ever) and gave us her address. So we were able to visit her. She has been offended by her son and won't come to church.  She is actually really sweet and we are excited to be able to work with her! It was a miracle that we saw her so I want to help her grow her testimony of the Book of Mormon and the sacrament and why we go to church every Sunday and then maybe we can get her to start coming to church!!

We also had an appointment with an "investigator" haha. That's in quotation marks because the elders talked to this lady that said, "the Sorelle used to come over all the time. I loved having them over" so she said she would love to have us over. She also explained to him how in apocalisse it says that we're not supposed to add or subtract from the Bible which is just a misunderstanding of the scripture so Anziano Larussa explained the whole thing. Well. Turns out she is a baptized member!! Of not very long ago. About a year and a half ago. So we talked to her about her baptism. From what I understood she said she never really had a very strong testimony of the Book of Mormon, she could just see a difference in the missionaries and she felt something when she prayed. She went less active because she was annoyed how members would get up and bear their testimonies of the same things, "that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph smith was a prophet." She couldn't understand why people weren't focusing more on Jesus Christ. So I was able to just bear powerful testimony of how the Book of Mormon is the KEYSTONE to our religion. 


I hope we all know what that means!! It means that if the Book of Mormon isn't true, then Joseph Smith wasn't a prophet of God. And if Joseph Smith wasn't a
prophet of God, then the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saint was not restored to the earth. This is why it is COSรŒ importante that we have to have a testimony of the Book of Mormon. And there is an incredible promise given by Moroni that ANYONE can read the book and know of its truthfulness. That's pretty cool. I love that. We all have the ability to know if it's true. And if we really desire it, then that is what we will receive. I know the Book of Mormon is true.

The title of the email is LUCK because I was so lucky this week. On my birthday we had some yummy blueberry muffins!!!! We were able to do a solid weekly planning session!!! I couldn't stand those at the beginning of my mission haha. And then we were able to take the carrot cake that we made for Sorella Sprague to her because it was HER birthday too. And then we had an appointment with one of my very favorite members here in Rome 3. She's from Argentina and we were just going over to teach a lesson. Well she had put up this "BUON compleanno" banner and she put up balloons and she made me a cake!!! It was like a vanilla cake with chocolate covered strawberries and Nutella and she
and Sorella H
ills sang happy birthday to me. It was the sweetest thing ever. I will never forget my birthday here. It honestly was one of my favorites because it wasn't necessarily centered around ME. It was just a normal day and people were so kind and thoughtful. I really find so much joy in serving others than thinking of myself. 

I have such a strong testimony that we find so much joy when we are able to
help others. And that is what missionary work is all about!! And I love it!!! I hope you all know that I feel very lucky to be on a mission. I feel very lucky to be here on this earth. I feel very lucky to be a part of Heavenly fathers plan. I feel so lucky for my family and loved ones. And I feel lucky to be a member of this church.

Love

Sorella GGGGGG ❤️️๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡น

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

COME WHAT MAY AND LOVE IT - aka MARCH MADNESS

Well now that march madness is in full swing I will just tell you a little bit about my week,

So my companion and I went to the doctor on Wednesday and he didn't really tell us anything. Just gave her more medicine to take that wasn't solving the problem. Long long long story short, she is now on a plane home back to Colorado and will be home tomorrow for her birthday. 

So I won't include all of the details of the week because they were a bit crazy and nothing really that stood out a lot, but I would like to share with you some things that made me smile this week:

- On the metro occasionally there will be people who go up and down the metro cars and play music and ask for money, there was a guy playing the violin and he was making everybody laugh and smile...including me 
- Sorella Sprague (senior couple missionary) stuck a candle in a wafer and sang happy birthday to me and Sorella graff. She had the lights off and everything. She is one of a kind. 
- a family with two young daughters on the metro were mesmerized by my hair because it was in a fish tail braid and they wanted to know how to do it so they asked and I taught them. Unfortunately they had to get off by the time I had finished explaining how to do a fish tail braid and didn't get to talk to them about the gospel hopefully a seed was planted
- for zone conference I got to play "oh my father" with a member from Rome 1. He had a tie on that had a bunch of music notes on it and I told him I like his tie. He said, "Thanks! I only wear it on special occasions." I loved that 
- my little brother Jake is like the smartest person ever, and he turns his mission papers in in one week from tomorrow!!
- I got a letter wishing me happy birthday from Nana and Papa!!
- The Spragues last night were waiting to take us to the villa (mission home) so Sorella graff could have a last interview with president Pickerd and it was about 8pm (they normally go to bed at about 7 pm) and sorella sprague was drinking water trying to stay awake and anziano sprague says, "don't worry honey, tomorrow is p day" and she says, "P day?? More like a p night after all of this water that I just drank!" Hahahaha so funny 
- la bellezza della musica: colpisce e non fa male (the beauty of music: it hits you, but it doesn't hurt you......it sounds a lot better in Italian haha)
- saga our investigator talks about trials, "yeah you know it's like sometimes I just want to say to God, 'do I really need to grow this much??'" 
So what's happening with me for the next week and a half left of this transfer? I will be companions with Sorella Hills. She serves in Ostia and her companion went home due to health reason last week. So we will be traveling from Rome 3 to Ostia this week to try to get some missionary work going and to get these cities back on their feet. It will be interesting to say the least haha. I'm not exactly sure yet how it's all going to work but we are going to do our best!!

In my interview that I had with President Pickerd this week, he helped me realize how important it is for me to always have an eternal perspective. He said, "I don't just see you as the Sorella Lucy Gochnour in the Italy Rome mission right now. I see you as the Sorella Lucy Gochnour in ten years." He went on to explain how the experiences that I am having now will give me experience and will be for my good. Maybe it won't be until five years from now that I use what I have learned in these past four weeks, but I am so grateful that we have a loving Heavenly Father who knows us. The things I experience will help me to help others in the future. I am being prepared and shaped into the person that Heavenly Father needs me to be. And that doesn't always mean that it is going to be easy. But that is where the title of the email comes in. My aunt Natalie sent me a talk titled "come what may and love it" and I really think that it is so applicable to every situation that we face in life. 

I love my savior and I am grateful for this crazy journey that I am on!! 

I love you all and thanks for all the birthday wishes! Pretty weird I'm not going to be a teenager after Friday!

Ciao ciao for now


Sorella G ❤️️๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡น











Monday, March 6, 2017

Napoletani

Hello everyone!!!

This week was probably the most uneventful week I have had thus far on my mission! My poor companion fell during p day and hurt her knee so on Tuesday we stayed home all day. As for the title of the email, we ran into quite a few people from Napoli this week haha. And they are something else. The first one was some old guy in the metro who told me, "sei troppo bella per fare una mission." Look that up if you want to know what it means haha. And then he made me write down his name and number so that when I go to Napoli He can show me the pretty sights and tell me the good places to eat. He couldn't have been younger than 60. I still can't tell if I should be creeped out by him or what but I'm probably not going to contact him ever haha. Then our doctor we saw at the hospital was from Napoli. Interesting guy. We also had a meal appointment yesterday with a man who is from a little town outside of Napoli and we tried giving a spiritual thought at the end about being grateful in ever circumstance of our life and he just went of talking about all of the different Catholic Churches in Rome and how in their family they have like a relative who is a bishop or a cardinal or something big in the Catholic Church haha. Which had nothing to do with being grateful in the slightest and we tried to bring it back like five times unsuccessfully so then we just started talking about the origins of our names. He told Sorella Graff she looks Chinese. 

Wednesday I did a scambio in a little beach city called Ladispoli. Sorella Flansberg (my trainer) served there and it is the cutest little city ever!! It reminded me a lot of Taranto. I miss that place. It is fun to wake up and look at the ocean every single day. While in Ladispoli we went to a birthday party for a three year old boy in their ward! Haha Italian birthday parties are a lot less stressful than American ones from what I have experienced. Basically you just invite a bunch of kinds, put them in a room, put on some music, and they run around and play with each other. There was this one little girl that kept Como up to us and growling at us like she was a cat haha and her mom was getting so mad at her. I don't know if it was because she didn't want her crawling on the floor or if she didn't want her near the missionaries haha. But we saw a big miracle at the party!! There was this really nice mom that was sitting by herself so I went and sat next to her and started talking to her. I was pretty sure that she was not of Italian descent so I asked her where she was from. She told me she was from Mexico and that she knows our church because in Mexico her parents would sometimes leave her with her neighbors who were members. She married an Italian and moved here and told me that when she got here, she called the Sorelle and asked them to bring her a Book of Mormon in Italian so she could learn the language better and she said that it was three sisters that brought her the book and Sorella Flansberg served there in a threesome! So that was kind of a cool connection. I hope the Sorelle can maybe try to start meeting with her and at least read the Book of Mormon with her a little bit. 

Right after the scambio I drove my companion (yes we have a car in Rome 3 that we have permission to use and yes driving in Rome is a little bit stressful haha especially in traffic) and two other Sorelle to the hospital. My companion has been having a lot of pain in her stomach so the whole week we just had to stay at home. We don't really know what the problem is. So. Luckily the past two days she has been feeling better, but we have a doctors appointment on Wednesday to do blood tests and stuff to see if they can figure out the apartment. 

So. That's pretty much it for the week. I will tell you that our house is suuuuuper clean. And I was super blessed to have some very good personal study time this last week. I read in Alma chapters 40, 41, and 42 and in it Alma is explaining what happens to us after we die. I honestly was able to learn just how perfect the plan of salvation is. We are so lucky to be able to be a part of that plan and have a knowledge of the plan. I can't help but think how lucky we are to have a Heavenly Father who is just, but also who is merciful. 

I also read a talk that elder Holland gave in the Mtc titled the miracle of a mission and I started crying at the beginning of the talk because he describes how important serving a mission is. I am lucky enough to be a part of the most important work on the earth, SAVING SOULS. And then right after that he describes how missionaries are he most prayed for people on the earth. I know that there are a lot of people that pray for the missionaries and there are some very kind people that tell me they pray for me a lot, but I was just so touched by the spirit and needed to know that I was being prayed for. I am so grateful for the power of prayer. I hope you all know that your prayers for the missionaries are not in vain. It may seem like it sometimes if you are half way across the world and never really see the results of those prayers, but I promise you, they are felt. 

Thank you all so much for your love and support

I hope you have a great week!! Go share the gospel and save some souls!!!!

Sorry this was a long email haha

(I should be a motivational speaker haha)

Sincerely

Sorella G ❤️️๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡น