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 ️️🇮🇹