Ciao Tutti Buona Pasqua e Pasquetta!!

Ciao Tutti Buona Pasqua e Pasquetta!!

     Italians also celebrate the Monday after Easter in remembrance of the angel that came to the tomb of Jesus and they call it Pasquetta. I'm convinced it's just an excuse to take another day off work.

     I hope everyone had a great Easter and spent time with friends and family!  Sorella Rowe and I made chicken, corn, and potatoes, the closest thing we could get to an American Easter dinner haha! We were given Colomba which is this weird bread cake thing Italians eat for every holiday and I'm talking EVERY holiday. They would have a Colomba cake for Martin Luther King day I swear. Easter is also just about the one time a year they go to church so that was interesting to see!

     We had quite the week so I will try to recap. We got a phone call from one of our investigators saying he was coming to the church Thursday night to meet with the branch president. We were a little surprised and weren't sure what to expect. I was not braced for the most awkward experience of my entire life. He drove all the way to Siena and then our President (coming from Prato which is also an hour drive from the opposite direction) shows up-in a full Adidas striped sweat suit no less- and our investigator  proceeds to open up his bag and pull out an entire presentation with graphs, slide show, and lap top, as to how to grow the church financially using his diamond and gold business. The president looked at us like "Did I really just drive an hour for this" and our investigator was trying his best to explain why this could really help us. I wanted to die. My heart absolutely broke for our investigator. It was a solid hour of him presenting and our President telling him why we don't use other means of investment, and then our investigator not listening or understanding, and then president getting frustrated and then our investigator getting frustrated. Eventually we told our investigator that we didn't realize he was under the impression that we need a new way of running the church financially. We explained we don't need a new way to make money so that members don't have to pay tithe. That's the whole point of paying tithing, it's meant to be a sacrifice. It's not that our church needs money or demands it from us, we pay it willingly out of respect for God's commandments. He got very frustrated because every time we tried explaining why we pay tithing it would turn into a spiritual conversation. he would say "I get that it's for your faith! But what I'm saying is that you wouldn't have to pay 10% because the church could make 10% off of this method and wouldn't need it from the members who can't afford it!" It was a difficult situation. I'm really praying we haven't lost him. It's so sad because his wife wants to be baptized, but she has no way of getting to church, and if we could only show him how much a blessing this gospel could be for his family then maybe he would be willing to take her on Sunday.

     We also had a lesson with Doris and Luciano, but while we were at the train station she called and told us she was sick. I was so bummed. Irma also had to cancel her lesson with us and Jennifer cancelled on us as well!! SO THAT'S FUN. So you probably thought we had nothing to do? ohhhhhhohoohoohoh no. Our zone leaders gave us 1,900 Easter pass along cards to hand out (that number is not exaggerated) and so we decided that if we weren't going to make our goal for lessons we would make a new goal to hand out every single one of those dang cards and we had only a couple days to do it.. 

     I wish I could write a book of all the people we met and things that happened to us in those couple days of handing out cards all day long. The cards were simple and had a picture of Jesus on them and on the back it said "Follow Him and find new life" and our website and our phone number. We had a full range of people who would laugh, take them and rip them in half, swear at us, call us Jehovah's witnesses, crumple them on the ground, and we also had people thank us, have conversations with us, and kiss His picture. One man even tried to pay me for handing them out! Many drunk men, a lot of rain, sore feet, a lot of rejection, and a lot of awkward moments. There were two times I had to run and find somewhere to sit because I thought I was going to pee my pants from laughing so hard. But we did it and we handed out the last card Monday night and celebrated with gelato and collapsing on the gelaterias couches. 

     I love my Savior and seeing how just the sight of his picture alone could elicit such different reactions made me both sick to my stomach and filled with the spirit. No one will ever in the history of the world understand the torment, rejection, denial, and mockery as Jesus Christ, and I'm grateful that I get to be apart of this work and experience a small tiny itty bitty fraction of what He felt. 

     I love you all and hope you have a great week!!!

Sorella Williams

Sorella Rowe & Sorella Williams' Easter Celebration







Districto

Siena goes to Florence for Elder Chistofferson!!

Buona (quasi) Pasqua!

     I hope everyone had a good week!! I ate an entire bag of oranges so yeah you could say I've had a good week too. 

     We had a busy last couple days! Thursday we went to Roccastrada to visit Eunice and Adriano at their house and Doris and Luciano (her husband) at theirs. I was really nervous going into it after having that last lesson with Adriano, I wasn't sure what to expect this time around. But when we came over, he sat the table with us and Eunice and ate yummy pasta and we had a good lesson with them! It can be hard because most of the time he's only interested in talking about finances and investments in and out of the church. We can't always tell if he actually likes what we say. He told us he wanted to talk to our president (literally he wanted to talk to the prophet-I had to tell him that wasn't possible) about proposing to the church a good financial plan. We told him the one we have works pretty well because it's from God and it's the same plan they used in the Bible, which is tithing. I don't think he understands how big and organized our church really is. But by the end of the lesson he knelt and prayed with us and Sorella Rowe was so excited because he has never prayed with the missionaries before! They said they would try to make it to stake conference Sunday on the promise that we would introduce him to someone he could discuss investments with. Hope our branch president is ready for some serious money talk hahaha!

     Then we visited Doris and she said would try to make it to Stake Conference as well. We really challenged her to invite Luciano (he wasn't at the house when we visited) and make sure he knows how important this is to her and how rare an opportunity it is to hear from an Apostle of Jesus Christ.

     By Saturday night both families confirmed they would be in Florence the next day! We were so excited but still didn't want to get our hopes up because you know....Italians. We woke up on Sunday at 5 to walk all the way to the train station because there were no buses that early. We got to Florence and we met a couple other missionaries at the train station and we got on a bus headed to the hotel where Elder D. Todd Christofferson was speaking at. It was SO COOL to see how many members there are just in the Firenze Stake. I get so happy for my branch because it's a good reminder for them to see they aren't alone! Well, at the last minute both Eunice and Adriano with their kids Jason and Nicol, AND Doris and Luciano with their son Danielle came and sat by us and I was SO EXCITED that they all ended up coming. It was a really great meeting. Elder Christofferson mentioned that he had been to the Rome temple construction site just the day before and that he can't say exactly when it will be finished- only the prophet could do that, but within the next one to two years it should be done. He really complimented the Italian members and their handwork in the gospel. I was really grateful Doris and Eunice and their families were able to make it. I got to shake Elder Christoffersons hand after. whoot! and the lds.org photographer was there and I made sure I was camera ready at every angle and definitely made sure he knew it so maybe you guys will see me on the big screen you know what I'm sayin? 

     The rest of our investigators are progressing as well. Jennifer said she would finally pray to know if the Book of Mormon is true which is great and Irma is just hilarious and we pretty much have to chase her around at different bus stops in Siena just to teach her, that is if she puts down her apple sauce cups long enough to listen to us hahaha. oh my gosh she is the best. Everyone else is slowly, but surely coming along. 

     I hope everyone has a great Easter, but more importantly celebrates the gift that was given to us by Him instead of focusing on the chocolate eggs and weird man sized giant bunnies that we force crying kids to sit on (still freaks me out). Because of Him we have the opportunity to be forgiven, to be with families forever, and to have eternal life. There is nothing in human history that can compare to the magnitude of the atonement of Jesus Christ and there is nothing that can compare to seeing people truly discovering His love for them as I get to here in Italy.

love you all!

Sorella Williams  

Sorella Williams & Sorella Rowe at the Duomo di Firenze


Duomo di Firenze



Sister Training Leader, Sorella Taylor & Sorella Williams at Stake Conference

22 LESSONS!! Best Week Ever

Well today is my 3 month mark. Such wow. Much awesome. 

     This past week was the craziest of my life. AND GUESS WHAT?  You guys all probably thought we couldn't get 21 lessons huh? Well you thought wrong because these two sisters down in Siena got 22 LESSONS!! 22 LESSONS 22 LESSONS WOOT 22 LESSONS WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO WHA WHOOT YEAH!!

      On a serious note, I can't believe it. The mission president gave us that challenge last week and we were so scared because Siena is rumored to be one of the harder cities. Obviously I have nothing to compare it to since it's my first city, but everyone says that. We have such little member help down here that all the lessons we teach are either done because we tract on streets, trains, buses, door to door, etc. Or we teach our few investigators. We worked so hard to meet our goal and I saw so many miracles and I wish I could write about them all, but I will include a few highlights.

     We taught the Gori's, a less active family, in Montepulciano. I have been praying really really hard the past couple weeks to teach more by the spirit. Well the minute I walked into their house for what seemed like a normal lesson I knew something was going to happen because the spirit hit me like a semi. We sat down with Cinzia and Chiara (her daughter) and they began to explain to us why they are inactive. It varied from too much responsibility all the way to not getting along with other ward members. My heart broke as I saw how sad she was and unsure about what to do. My heart was pounding the entire time. We taught a really good lesson and then the spirit very strongly prompted me at the right time to bare my testimony on forgiveness and how Christ showed forgiveness and love for everyone. And also to let her know how much He loves her and that He wants her back. I barely opened my mouth before the tears were flowing. Her and I both cried as we talked about Christ's individual love for her and her family. It was such an incredible experience to feel like I could be used as an instrument for the Lord in telling her what he wanted her to know. Both mine and her prayers were answered! We are seeing them again on Thursday.

     We met with almost all our investigators last week and all are progressing in their own ways!  We also had a lot of cancelled appointments and by the time Saturday came around we had to get 6 lessons in order to meet our goal. It was cold and dark and we were stuck in Poggibonsi after a lesson with the Natales because the train left way early and the next one didn't come for over an hour so we began talking to everyone we possibly could. It was really hard because it was Saturday night and the only people out were a bunch of teenagers. It's so hard to get work done in those types of environments because we can't do anything without being stared down or laughed at!! dumb. Nothing we were doing was working. Sorella Rowe and I were getting so frustrated. She asked if I had any suggestions and the thought popped into my head that the next person we saw we should just ask to pray with them. We do not usually do that because that's weird and awkward and we are cool and awesome. Sorella Rowe was like uhhh.....ok?  The next person we saw we introduced ourselves and asked if we could say a prayer for her and her family and she said YES. We pulled an "Other Side of Heaven" and taught her a couple gospel principles in the prayer and she took our information and was really appreciative of us. It was a cool experience. It was also a really good thing we had missed the earlier train because we ended up meeting a great girl named Elenora on the next train and we are hopefully teaching her again this upcoming week. 

     We could not have accomplished our goal without God's help and there are so many more things I could write about but the moral of the story is He is with us. And He will help us if we let Him. 

     On Sunday I spoke in sacrament and then we taught relief society and then taught two lessons after church and by the time I got home I collapsed on my chair and died. I have never been so exhausted. But it felt so good to accomplish our goal. That night we ran to our favorite park to catch the beautiful Siena sunset for a celebration of the best week. We also may or may not have gotten a little peek at the Siena Soccer game from the secret side fence. And I couldn't help but have one of those moments where you feel so unbelievably lucky to be on the Lord's errand and to live in Siena, Italy with the best people in the world. 

     I hope you all have a great week and if you hate the world and everyone in it like I do sometimes read D&C 58:4 and remember He has never left your side!

Love Sorella Williams

Poggibonsi

Cioccolato Festival in Campo in Siena

Teaching Eunice and Adriano

This week was long and quick and I really don't know how else to explain it haha. 

     Poor Sorella Rowe has gotten even more sick since last week and was a walking nightmare for most of this past week. The fun thing about being a missionary is when your companion is sick in bed you get to.....read your scriptures and study or contemplate life while longingly looking out the window. hahaha. good stuff. Needless to say I've had a lot of me time. But she's starting to get better now which is good because this week we have a goal of teaching 21 lessons. So we are working a lot trying to talk to people on the street and make appointments with investigators or less actives. 

     We had a pretty cool experience when teaching Eunice the other day. We taught her the gospel and reminded her of why it's so important that we take those steps to baptism so that we may enter into that covenant with our father in heaven because when we do, he pours out even more blessings into our lives including a remission of sins and the constant companionship of the holy ghost. It's always a struggle to keep Nicol, her little toddler, quiet as we try to teach. I was sure to have my ipad there for her to play with this time. Eunice is really the best. She and I get along really really well and my heart goes out to her as she finds herself stuck in life not really knowing what's missing. We try so hard for her to discover the truthfulness of this gospel and I know she would receive a confirmation if we could only get her to church. She said she wants to be baptized but she needs to go to church first and we agree. Her husband Adriano doesn't have interest in our teachings and has never sat in on our lessons before, but when he came home from work I made sure I talked endlessly to him. He really appreciated that we cared about his job and his struggles with the economy right now. I tried to sound as smart as I could because I know nothing about the Italian economy or government. BUT I kept him talking which was the important thing. Right as we started talking to Eunice about the gospel he scurried out of the room despite my attempts to keep him there. Anyway while we were in the middle of our lesson with Eunice, he walked right in and said "You two are educated religious people no? So tell me what the world needs, tell me how to fix the world!" It kind of freaked me out because it came out of nowhere and he said it really loudly. We began to answer his question but he kept saying "no no no no I don't feel what you feel because I need something material, something I can actually DO, I'm sick of hearing about faith or belief because that doesn't mean any REAL change" I told him "we do have something material, something different from any church, we do have proof or evidence of God's love for us, It's the Book of Mormon. You can hold it in your hands and read it and know how it changes lives as you discover the truthfulness of it." He wasn't expecting that answer. He came and sat down and started talking to us about how it's frustrating that his church collects donations from its members and yet he never sees any of it truly helping those in need. We explained to him that we donate tithing as they did in the Bible and that we have seen countless people who are struggling  receive aid with our contributions through all the many programs our church has to help others. As I talked to this man my heart hurt because I know how many people in this country are in need of both spiritual and physical help and like him, are frustrated but have never known anything different. We had been talking to them for so long that we nearly missed our bus and that would have meant a sleepover on the park bench because there is LITERALLY no one who could have taken us the hour and a half  back to Siena. So we closed our lesson with them and booked it out of there. I was in disbelief at how much of an interest he showed and he said he would sit down with us next time we were there and listen. I'm really excited about that because Adriano has been learning from countless missionaries for years so maybe he is finally at a place where he is open to hearing the gospel. 

     In other news Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the quorum of the twelve is coming to Italy two Sundays from now and we are SO EXCITED. There is absolutely nothing in comparison to hearing one of God's apostles speak. We have invited almost all of our investigators and hope that they come. It's in Florence which I am also really excited about because it's good for the tiny branch down here to see that there are hundreds of members in the church here they are just in the Florence zone. A good reminder that you aren't alone is always a good thing.

     We had some really good lessons set up with people this past week, but we got stood up by many of them:( So I'm sorry I don't have more to report on other investigators).  We talk to a lot of people and try to find anyone on buses, streets, trains, etc. I love Italians, they are the best people.

     Last night we randomly had a girl call us asking for a book of Mormon! That's a first. We couldn't understand her lightning speed Italian mumbles, but apparently she talked to missionaries while traveling out of Siena and they gave her our number if she wanted to know more. So we are meeting with her Saturday. 

     We are meeting with the Gori family and the Natale family in two opposite towns both an hour away today! The Gori's are a less active family that we are really trying to get back to church. They have never answered their phone to the missionaries before except last week when we made the appointment with them!  We are excited to meet them and see what's up. 

     We also visited Tina this week and after, while we were waiting at the bus stop, (same one we found Irma at) a woman came and sat by us and we started talking. She is originally from Bolivia too and knows Irma really well! She was so sweet and gave us her contact info. I think that bus stop is magic. We had appointments with Irma but they keep falling through. Irma's gonna Irm I guess. But we are excited to teach them hopefully this week. 

     I hope all of you have a great week and if you feel down just remember that I am in Italy trying to speak Italian, we can all laugh about that for a good while no? I got us locked out of our apartment and we had to make the long hike of shame in the rain to Sorella Feri's who has the spare key and she basically told me to get myself together haha. Pigeons can sense my fear and I swear they find me in any location, and we get stared down by nuns daily, but on one particular day I was feeling pretty good after a lesson with Daniella in the nunnery she temporarily lives in, and as we got glared out of the place, I couldn't help but take my sweet time enjoying the Tocana view and decided to have myself a little photo shoot while they all gave me death looks from afar. Oh mission life. 

Love Sorella Williams

Distretto Di Siena

The Toscana view from the Nunnery

Sorella Rowe & Sorella Williams

Un mese in Italia!

First and foremost congratulations Leonardo you did it. It was a long up hill battle but we made it everyone #oscars.

     This week my umbrella was my best friend. Today the sun is out so I am happy, but also not because there are gross stupid pigeons everywhere. I swear they are starting to follow me. please send help.

     I hope everyone's week was swell.  Sorella Rowe and I did a lot of finding, talking, walking, and she shows it because today she is sick as a dog. I tried feeding her pizza but she didn't like the help. 

     Thursday our little branch and us fasted for missionary work. We pray continuously for more investigators. The members of the Siena branch are truly such dedicated, and hard working people to this gospel and it makes me want to find people so much more just for their sake! They are the best. 

     We went to a little countryside town called Sovicile outside Siena to visit a less active member named Lucia. I don't think I've ever seen such beautiful Toscana views before! Miles and miles of green hills and Italian villas and farms. I wish so badly you all could see what I see. Well it took an hour of walking all over this town and being stared down by nuns and other locals who aren't used to seeing missionaries walking around their sidewalks to find out she had moved to another city. We tried talking to some locals in the city, but none were too eager to listen in the rain.

     Friday we went to Doris' in Roccastrada and I got to meet her husband and he is the BEST. Whenever people hear me talk with such a thick American accent they get so excited and try talking to me in English so they can practice (or maybe impress me haha). The small English they know and how they phrase it is so funny I can't help but laugh sometimes. I may not be an expert at Italian yet, but I am an expert at thick Italian accented English. So there's my golden star of the week. He was really excited because his cousin lives in Texas and sent him a Texas ranger sheriff badge with his name on it (one of those things you could get at like a gas station or something). He was excited to show me his American souvenir. I hope as we continue meeting with Doris he will be interested in hearing our message as well. 

     We planned to meet Eunice afterwards, but she stood us up. But we are meeting with her this upcoming week so I'm excited about that. Later that day we tried this thing where we left a Book of Mormon with a restoration pamphlet inside with all our information in it on a bus stop bench and then we sat across the street and casually acted like James Bond as we watched several people pick it up. We would get so excited thinking someone was about to take it and then they would put it back down! We do so much finding most days so we thought it would be fun to change it up, especially because I think two missionaries talking to people can be pretty intimidating to them, but a book just sitting on a bench is harmless! Eventually one guy with his mom and sister did pick it up and got on the bus so maybe one day we will get a phone call from them.

     We visited Tina on Saturday, always an interesting time with that one.  She did come to church on Sunday again which was great! Mostly because I told her if she wanted a new CTR ring she would need to come to church to get it from me, but hey she came so who cares! When we left Tina's Saturday, we met this cute lady named Irma while waiting at the bus stop. And I love her! Seriously. She moved to Italy about 14 years ago from Bolivia. We started talking about the church and asked if we could meet with her again and she said perchè no? I was so excited. We had a plan to meet with her at the same bus stop yesterday but she never ended up showing, she said she got caught up in centro but we are trying to make another meeting with her for this week. I get a good feeling about that Irma. She is a gem. 

     We also got to have another lesson with the Natales and we had a miracle! A woman named Bianka who used to live in Siena and go to our branch and now lives in Milan, was in town and called us asking if she could help with any lessons we might have that day. We NEVER get members present lessons so we were pretty stoked. We met her at the train station and rode to Poggibonsi. I have never been more grateful to have someone with us in a lesson. The kids absolutely LOVE Bianka and when they saw her they lost their minds because they haven't seen her since she moved and the one or two times they ever went to church she really made an impression on them. They sat in on the lesson with us and learned all about following Jesus, it was great. I'm hoping next time we have a lesson with them it won't be like pulling teeth to have the kids join us now that they know the lessons can be fun. Team Bianka. 

     Sunday & Monday we were in Florence for new missionary conference and zone conference and it was fun to see everyone again. Our branch president gave us a ride to Florence after church Sunday because it's on the way to Prato which is where he lives. I have never been more scared on a freeway in my life. Italian drivers are absolutely insane. We didn't get to stay the night in Florence so we took the hour and a half train back to Siena Sunday night only to turn around Monday morning and go back. Well the stupid bus was so late and when we finally got to the train station the ticket thing wasn't working. We were running around like crazy, but alas, us and the Anziani missed the train to Florence. Nice first impression on the zone huh haha. But it was pretty cool because when we finally got onto the later train, we sat by a woman named Daniela and talked to her the entire train ride and we were able to teach her the whole restoration. She seemed genuinely interested and  Sorella Rowe and I were given multiple opportunities to bare testimony of the restoration and of this gospel. When it came to us getting her number so we could talk more another time she was super hesitant and didn't want to, so we gave her ours and hopefully one day she will call us. 

     The conference itself was fun, but pretty overwhelming to be one of 4 greenies in a room with so many old and experienced missionaries! After conference the bus was crazy late (I don't know what it was about Mondays and late buses) so we got a lot of time to just hang out with everyone outside before we all parted ways again and it was really fun. Finally the stupid bus came and me and my comp  booked it from the bus to a famous leather shop by the train station. After we were done at the shop we had only a couple minutes until the train to Siena was leaving since we were so late getting there because of the late bus. And so two sister missionaries in dresses ran like Usain Bolt across downtown Florence at night in the rain and all throughout the giant train station only to make our train at the last minute. It could have been in a movie I swear. We were jumping over things and hurdling babies. Something I won't soon forget haha. We didn't get a chance to talk to anyone on the train home,  however a man did persistently hit on me even after I kept telling him I was a missionary. He was very persistent for my number so eventually I gave him the Anzianis number. That will be an interesting phone call haha. Hope he likes talking about the gospel!

     I truly love the Italian people. You won't find nicer people I can promise you that. Even on our roughest days of finding we are still treated, for the most part, with respect and kindness. You meet the funniest people here. They are so passionate and traditional it's hard not to fall in love with them. You get these little experiences that happen all the time that make the night worth it. For instance, this one older man we found while doing casa wasn't interested in our message, but he was interested in making us laugh. He loved getting attention from two 20 year old girls and didn't waste time. When we told him we had to go he held onto my hand and kept trying to kiss it but he didn't realize I had a glove on so he got a mouth full of cotton. He was not happy about it. 

     I feel like I am already so different than just a month ago when I first got here and I know I will continue to learn and grow with time. At the conference I was reminded of something, "We are not here to do easy things, we are here to serve the Lord". I think the reason why life can seem near to impossible at times is simply because it's the only way we could ever understand a small fraction of what our Savior went through. I hope all of you spend some time to think of Him and what He did for you individually and pull strength from it. He loves you. I love you. 

Con il mio cuore! Sorella Williams





Beautiful Toscana View in Sovicile







Sorella Williams & Sorella Rowe



 Roccastrada


Sorella Taylor & Sorella Williams reunited at Zone Conference



Tuscany area Zone Conference with Florence & Pisa Zones