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
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