Scambio in Firenze

Ciao tutti,

     This week has been the weirdest and to top it all off I'm sick! So it has been just super fun. I say a prayer of thanks everyday for NyQuil. Italians don't know what they are missing out on, American medicine is the best.  

     We got our big transfer call Saturday and we found out that BOTH of us are staying in Siena! We were shocked. This never happens where a greenie stays with their trainer longer than the first two transfers. I will be Rowe's last companion because she peaces out after this transfer and goes home, so sad. We are happy and scared and nervous and excited about staying. It's a hard load to take on and it's one neither her nor I have any experience with so we are going to do the best we can.  I'm trying to stay positive and get to work. 

     I had a scambio in Florence from Wednesday to Thursday with my fav Sorella Taylor. We had a lot of prayer lessons in the streets and met some great people! I was able to have conversations all on my own with a few people as well which was a big language confidence boost. Florence is crazy packed with tourists so I'm always happy to go home to Siena after being there.

     We also taught Sonya, Paul, and John again at the train station. They are great people. We are having a hard time explaining to them why they would need to be baptized. They always say to us "we have already been baptized". So we have been explaining to them authority and why no regular Joe Shmo from off the street can perform the ordinance of a baptism. Just like Jesus Christ going to John the Baptist, we must be baptized by those who have the proper authority to do so, that way our sins are truly washed away and we can receive the gift of the holy ghost. 

     We went to Roccastrada and visited Doris, Luciano, and Danielle. They are my favorite people in the entire world. Their home is one where you can feel love. I have missed that.  In a growing world where family principles go out the door, you can always feel the difference of going into a home where they still respect and love one another.

     Monday we went back to Florence for district meeting. Since the elders were taken out of our city, we are now in a district with the Florence missionaries. Afterward we went to the famous leather market before we had to catch a train home. What a magical place. The missionaries are so well known to all of the sales people that they offer us deals on almost anything. It's really cool when you see so many people with so many different views on religion, showing us respect for going out everyday and doing what we do. There is always a way to show kindness and find common ground with others. And sometimes that's through discount Italian leather bags hooollllaaaaaa.

     The rest of the week has been very slow because of how sick I have been. Today we were supposed to meet with Irma, but her work called her in at the last minute. I'm excited for this week to meet with the rest of our investigators and really establish new goals with a new transfer! 

Hope you all have a great week!

Love Sorella Williams

Firenze

Sorella Williams & Sorella Taylor teaching in Firenze

Sorella Williams & Sorella Taylor

Very famous bridge built by Julius Caesar in Firenze (Florence)

Chaos in Siena

wow holy week am I right or am I right?

     I hope everyone has been good and happy and great and cool.

     This letter will be lame because I am writing it on the train to Florence. This week in Siena has been nothing but chaos honestly. But first I want to write about some of our investigators. I love them and each of them are progressing in their own way. Last week we set a baptismal date with Eunice but it has been pushed back because she got sick and couldn't come to church on Sunday. Complete side note, Italians have some superstitions with wind. If wind touches their neck they believe they are sick or will get sick so they must stay inside to be safe. So Eunice said she was sick because she had gone outside and it was windy and she just "didn't feel good about it all" .  I pray for patience everyday  haha

     We are kind of scrambling down in Siena and nervous because President has decided to close down the Elders here. Everything is going to change now.  What that means is only one companionship of sisters will stay in the city. And if it is me, then it will just be me and a new companion who I have to show all of Siena to by myself  This doesn't happen often so we are trying to get everything ready. But there's also a possibility that it could be Sorella Rowe staying and then I would go to a new city which is unfortunate for President because I will be tying myself to my apartment and he will have to come and physically remove me from Siena. Either way it's a hard situation because I am afraid of being alone here, but I'm also afraid of leaving. And this puts a thousand more responsibilities on the sister missionaries because the elders have about 10 new investigators that will now be ours and we don't even know if we are technically allowed to teach them because of safety reasons, but we really don't want to drop them because they are great people who LOVE the gospel. . I would also have to  translate during church for those who don't speak Italian which I can barely understand what they are saying for myself. And then we would only have 2 teachers for English class which is really unfortunate because right now all 4 of us have several people we individually teach English and the gospel to and some are becoming potential investigators, but all at different levels. It will definitely be a lot of hard work for whoever has to stay behind. It's frustrating and I'm so nervous for this branch because we are just starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel with some of the ward members and investigators. I just pray that I can do whatever it is the Lord wants me to do with this city. I feel a lot of responsibility, but I am truly so happy and nothing can compare to teaching this gospel to those who have been waiting their whole lives to hear it. 

     We met and taught John, Paul, and Sonya at the train station and they are so ready for the gospel. All three of them asked amazing questions. I am so excited to see them again. There's also a woman we taught the restoration to and she seemed like we were just reminding her of things she already knew! so cool. There is a man named Kelly who has two brothers who moved to Provo Utah (random) and became converted to Mormonism and he is really interested in our message.There is a man in English class we taught basically through google translate because he only speaks Spanish, but we gave him a Spanish book of Mormon and he has been reading it for a couple weeks and he says he knows it's true. So many miracles. So many great things beginning and I cannot imagine leaving these people!

     Please pray for my branch. 

     I hope you all have amazing weeks. I think the one positive thing about the elders leaving is we got their brown sugar, their hole puncher, a 2014 Bruce Lee calendar, a back brace, a chess set, & a garbage bag full of spices for cooking. We then had to run a solid 8 miles to catch the bus carrying all of this crap and we looked like idiots. I started laughing so hard I thought I was going to pee my pants, but we got on, sweating and panting, and people just stared at us like we were insane which only made me laugh harder.  

     ok ciao peeps. I find out Saturday where I will be going next and that will be the scariest phone call of my life.

love Sorella Williams

La Fortezza

Sorella Rowe & Sorella Williams

Sorella Williams with investigators 

Family Home Evening 

Surprise concert with Francesca

cccciiiaaaoooooo

I hope everyone's weeks were great!

     Last week we went to Florence for a president's interview. I love going to Florence 10% because of the amazing Duomo & 90% because of the best sandwiches I have ever had in my life. It was fun to see people and to see the President. But I'm always happy to go back to Siena after being in Florence because there are 209358092385 tourists in Florence.

     We taught Irma again this week and she is amazing. She seems to really love what we teach and is progressing right along. She always asks so many great questions. We taught her all about modern day prophets and she loved it. There is absolutely nothing like teaching someone the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I am so excited for her. 

     We went to my homie Kathy's house for dinner. Kathy is a New Yorker here in Siena studying art history at the University. She is a member and my favorite person ever because 1. she looks like Kerry Washington and 2. She is hilarious and we speak English together which is like a vacation for me haha. She invited her college roommate (also New Yorker) to eat with us and she was the sweetest girl and I had one of those moments that really hit me that I am a missionary! There was not one minute during that dinner I wasn't thinking about how we could work the gospel into the conversation and I kept catching myself doing it!. Of course we talked and laughed about life and normal stuff, but by the end of dinner we taught her roommate the entire restoration and she was fascinated by it and asked so many great questions. We gave her a Book of Mormon and she said she would start to read!  

     We also had a cute new lady show up to family home evening (a little embarrassing because she was the only one to show up haha. small city probs) that the Anziani had found her on a bus  We taught her the entire restoration and the spirit was so strong and undeniable. She really felt like her prayers were being answered and we will be teaching her again soon. 

     Sunday we visited Francesca and walked right into a full on choir concert being put on by a professional choir for the old folks. So we ran upstairs and grabbed Fran and booked it down the halls and to the elevators (I think that was the fastest her wheel chair has ever moved because I don't think she blinked once hahaha) and we used her as our ticket into the concert .  The three of us got to enjoy some nice music in this gorgeous catholic chapel and it was just dandy. 

I pray for you all and miss you all and love you all!!!

Sorella Williams

Also I would like to take a minute and recognize how amazing I am for discovering that if you hit the water heater pipe at the right angle with the broomstick the STUPID DUMB UGLY PIGEON ON THE ROOF SHUTS UP. Big accomplishment for the missionaries here in Siena. 

Concert with Fran at the old folks home

Outside our apartment

Our neighborhood

Roccastrada, Montepulciano and...........PISA!!

Hello hellllooooooo ciao buon giorno tutti wow hi how's it goin salve good day

     Conference am I right?! I Hope you all got a chance to watch it and if you didn't you need to. It's absolutely incredible how strong you can feel the spirit when listening to the words of one of God's apostles here on the earth saying what He needs us to know. My companion said "the devil checks under HIS bed for Elder Holland before he goes to sleep at night". I think that's pretty accurate.

     Thursday we went to Roccastrada and visited Doris & Luciano. Luciano had to leave early for work which was disappointing but we still had a good lesson with Doris. We talked mostly about conference and challenged her to ask God, in prayer, a question before she watches Conference and promised her that she would receive an answer. We could tell something was on her mind and she finally asked us if God doesn't answer questions to those who are unworthy of receiving one. My heart broke. We got the impression that she has been praying for a while about something and feels like she hasn't gotten an answer. We bore testimony to her that God loves all his children no matter their current "spiritual status" and that He is constantly reaching toward us, we just have to turn toward Him. We comforted her and prayed with her and I'm anxious to go back to hear if she watched conference on her computer.

     Friday we went to Pisa for zone training which was fun! I got to see the tower and 828484889 tourists all doing the exact same pose hahaha. At the training they told us that all American missionaries will be allowed to vote in the upcoming presidential election!!! They told us to do what we need to, to be educated in the candidates so we can chose who to vote for. I was so surprised!!! And pumped. Finally I get to vote and I'm halfway across the world to do it!

     Saturday we went to Tina's and taught her. I feel bad because I haven't given an update on Tina for a while! She's a great girl and it's awesome because we have almost re-activated her! She comes to church often and it's so wonderful!! Sorella Rowe said she has worked her whole mission to reactivate people and it's near impossible. It's a big deal with Tina because missionaries have been working to get her to church for years.

     Then we went and met Irma at the bus stop and guess what, she didn't stand us up!! That Irma:) we went to a cafe and taught her the restoration and the spirit was there. She is perfect. She apparently has been praying to find a true church and asked us so many great questions. She really liked everything we said and we were on cloud 9. But don't worry it didn't last long. We had our Book of Mormon sitting on the table and we saw many looks towards it and one lady eventually came to our table and started talking to Irma. I didn't think much of it, but Sorella Rowe whispered to me "j-dub". Sorella Rowe is an expert at spotting the Jehovah Witnesses. The lady left and sat at the table with her version of a companion and one other guy and they stared at us the rest of the time we were there. As we got up to leave Irma told us goodbye and lingered behind and we saw through the window that she had pulled a chair up to their table and began talking to them. We were so scared that they would shovel her full of false anti Mormon crap. Well LOW AND BEHOLD later that day we were on a bus and Irma got on! We said hi and she sat a couple seats in front of us and pulled out a weird looking pamphlet and started reading it.  Sorella Rowe and I did some serious yoga moves and were able to peer through the crack of the chair and see that she was reading a J dub pamphlet. I wanted to run over and SNATCH IT out of her hands, but instead I prayed that she would be able to tell the difference between our lessons and the Jehovah Witness lessons by the presence of the spirit. 

     General conference for us started at 6 pm and we watched it with the elders at the church. Our few members live far away so we weren't surprised when no one showed up. But That was OK  because I got to watch it in English   Over the next 3 days we watched random sessions when we could so I just finished the last session of conference yesterday. 

     Monday we went to Montepulciano and taught the Gori's. They fed us pasta and I've never been so full in my life. We told them on our way over that this crazy creepy guy had stopped us at the station and kept trying to give us a ride in his "taxi" um yeah don't think so buddy. Well the Gori's were not pleased about this so they sent their rugby playing, edgy looking daughter Chiara to walk us back to the train station hahaha. Even though I could have taken him, I accepted the body guard. I love Chiara she's hilarious and probably the sweetest person I've ever met.

     Tuesday we saw Eunice and Adriano in Roccastrada and we were super nervy because the last time we saw Adriano was when he did his financial pitch to our branch president. It's hard to write everything that happened, but we had to quick change our lesson and taught the gospel. Adriano just does not get it. He is so sick of hearing that the solution to everything is faith and prayer. Italians are THE MOST STUBBORN PEOPLE IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD. But we gave him a Book of Mormon and bore the strongest testimonies we possibly could of its truthfulness and told him to stop talking and put it to the test. I have so much hope for his sweet little family. I'm praying for a miracle with them.

     I really loved what Elder Holland said in conference, "The great thing about the gospel is we get credit for trying, even if we don't always succeed." So everyone calm down and know that you're not expected to be perfect. I have to tell myself this everyday.  Each morning when I get my butt out of bed at 6:30 am I know that He is happy with me. Try everyday to be better and you will see the blessings pour into your life. And if you fail try again because I promise He will give you the strength to do it.

Have a great week!! Pace Fuori cool cats.

love sorella williams

p.s Sorella Rowe and I literally almost got hit by a car last night after English class and we screamed bloody murder and ran arms flailing and continued running even when we got onto the side walk because of the adrenaline. It was probably one of the scariest and funniest things ever and we laughed for approximately 30 minutes afterward. We looked like total idiots.

Leaning tower of Pisa

Sorella Taylor & Sorella Williams at Zone Training



Siena District visits Pisa


The Elders posing like the Sisters at Pisa Zone Training