August 25, 2014

Cari Miei,

thanks everyone for all the great pictures and emails! So great to hear from all of you, I am glad you are doing well. Quick heads up before I forget - so next week we will be having zone conference on monday, which means pday will be tuesday. So when you don't hear from me on monday thats why.

Anyway, this week was another great one to be a missionary! The people we are working with are all making great progress, it is such an exciting work to be a part of. We'll start off with Peppe, one of our new converts. So this week we got to have two meal appointments with him and his family, which is HUGE. Peppe is 75 years old and his whole family is catholic and they were very against him being baptized and very against the church. So the fact that they are even letting us into their home now is awesome. Plus we got lots of great food, so I was a happy camper :) great story about peppe. So when we met with him at the beginning of the week we left him with commitment to read about the tree of life. We figured when we went back at the end of the week we could follow up and talk about the meaning of it, how it applies to him, all that stuff. So we go back at the end of the week and he says "listen. what you gave me wasnt enough. I read about the tree of life, but i didnt even know what it meant. I had to keep reading!" he then proceeds to pull out a notebook with a picture he drew of the tree of life, complete with a summary of what he learned. Haha sorella baker and I just looked at each other and said "welp, there goes our lesson plan." Peppe is the best ever.

We also saw some great progress with Rina the less active member we are working with. For the first time in 20 years she started to read the book of mormon! Can you believe it?! She is loving it too. She is such a great lady. She has so much faith and wants so badly to do what is right. We are continuing to work with her on how we can get her back to church. We have a few appointments set up for her to meet some of the members this week so we are really excited to see how that goes.

As for our investigators Amalia is doing well! She couldnt come to church yesterday, which we were bummed about, but we had a great lesson with her about prophets this week. We talked about how God works through prophets so we can know the things that he wants us to do in life and she loved it. The highlight though was when we showed her a mormon message from president monson about prayer. At the end she started tearing up and we asked her to describe what she was feeling. She said she just felt something strong inside of her, something peaceful. We told her that was the spirit testifying to her that the things we had said were true. It was such an incredible moment. Her progress is slow, but it is defintiely moving in the right direction. Which is all that matters :)

Unfortunately we weren't able to meet with Theresa or our other investigator Antonella this week. They were both out of town. But we did have a lesson with an old investigator! So her name is shirley and she has been in Rome for the past two months so that it why whe havent met with her. She is from the Philipeans and she is absolutley fantastic. I have never met a person so happy and just filled with pure joy. I love being around her. When we met with her this week we taught her the plan of salvation, which was great. She was recently diagnosed with cancer so she loved the idea of our resurrected glorified bodies. She goes back to rome this week so we wont be able to see her again for a few weeks, but I am excited to be working with her in the future.

Well I think that is about it from over here! I love you guys all so much, I wish I could thank you enough for all you do for me. Thank you for all the love, support, and prayers. I am such an incredibly blessed missionary. I hope you all have a great week and I will talk to you soon!

Vi voglio un MONDO di bene :)

sorella marsh

August 18, 2014

Cari miei, 

Thanks everyone for writing this week! No matter what crazy stuff we are out doing on p-days, the highlight is always hearing from all of you :) you guys are the greatest! It was another awesome week over here in Pozzuoli and I have tons to tell you guys about. So here we go!

So this week was a bit of a different one for us as far as our schedule goes. We had to go down to Napoli to pick up Sorella Baker's permesso on wednesday, and Friday was Fer D'Agosto. Which is basically the Italian equivalent of labor day. It's just a day where everyone takes of work. Anyway, because everyone is usually gone it isnt a very productive day for missionary work so we spend the day inside doing deep cleaning. So between both of those days our schedule got a little mixed up and we weren't able to stick to our usual schedule. Unfortunately because of that we weren't able to see Theresa this week. But when we talked to her on the phone she said that everything was going well and that she was still reading the Book of Mormon! So hopefully all is well there :)

We did get to see Amalia though! She is doing SO much better. As we have been working with her this week we have really been trying to help her grow her testimony. We talked about prayer and reading the scriptures, but she was still showing a little bit of doubts. So in our next lesson we talked about the commandment to be bapitzed. She still isnt completely sure, but we are definitely working in the right direction! She even came to church yesterday! That was the greatest ever. She said she loved the lessons and she just left church so much happier than she normally is. She is going through a pretty hard time right now, so it was so awesome to see how church could help her find some peace and happiness.

Speaking of church - the COOLEST thing happened this week! But first I gotta back up and give you the background. So after our appointment with Amalia on Saturday we were at the bus stop waiting to go home. The busses aren't very reliable here, so you never really know how long you will be there waiting. Anyway, this was right before lunch so needless to say I was really hoping that a bus would come soon. We ended up waiting for a while, when down the road we saw an old lady pushing a huge suitcase and a small cart. She seemed to be having a pretty hard time, then the suitcase fell and she tripped a little bit. Sorella Baker and I immediately turned to each other and decided we needed to go help her. So we ran down the stairs and picked up her luggage for her, and carried her stuff to the stop. When we got to the stop I stayed and talked with her, but a man pulled sorella baker to the side and said "where is your church? I saw you on the bus this morning, and I saw what you just did for that lady. There needs to be more people in the world who have Jesus in their lives like you do. I would like to come to your church." So that is how we met cornelius!

The next day we headed to church. Once we got there we pulled out the phone and saw that we had 5 missed calls from him. We called him back right away and turns out he was on the bus trying to get to church! The only problem is that he had no idea where it was. Cornelius is from Nigeria, and he has only been in Italy for about 2 months. So he doesnt speak Italian and he doesnt know the area very well. After trying to explain the address to him a few times, sorella baker finally just asked for him to pass the phone to someone  else that she could explain it to. So he passed the phone and this is how the conversation went - "what is the name of the church where this man needs to go?" "the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints" "Is it an american church?" "yes there are americans that come to church here" "great! I am going there too!" "what? what is your name??" It was Soloman, one of the members in our ward! Can you believe that?? Of all the buses he could have gotten on and of all the people he could have talked to, he found a member of our church. So they were able to come to church together, and now the elders have an appointment set up with cornelis this week!

Also, slight side note. Yesterday in church I taught the sunday school class and gave a talk in Italian. What in the world?! Who would have ever thought that would happen. Gift of tongues is real people.

Yikes this is getting long but there is one more story I want to share with you guys. So back to Ferr D'Agosto. We spent the day inside cleaning, but then went out in the night to do some finding. We couldn't decide if we wanted to stay in pozzuoli, or if we should head down to another city called Bacoli. While we were at the train station trying to make a decision, we kept feeling like we needed to go to Bacoli. But, being the indesicive (how on earth do you spell that word?) person that I am, we couldnt make a choice. Luckily Heavenly Father made it for us. He sent a train so we decided to get on. We got to Bacoli and ended up waiting for about 30 minutes for a bus. After that we decided to just call it and head back to Pozzuoli. We were both a little bummed because we felt like we had made the wrong choice, but then on the train back we met Elena. Elena is from Ukraine and was only in Napoli for vacation, so she didn't speak one word of italian or english. But somehow we were able to communicate the idea that we were missionaries from our church, and that missionaries could come visit her in Ukraine if she would like. She gave us her name and number to be sent off as a referral! It was the neatest experience. Just goes to show that it really isn't the things we say that have an effect on people, it's the way we make them feel.

Well I think that about sums it up for this week! I love you guys so much and I am so grateful for you! Until next week!

sorella marsh

meet arianna! one of our new converts :)

 Theresa :)

 this is silvana :)

 pozzuoli at night :)

 Castel St Elmo at the top of napoli!

August 11, 2014

cari miei,

hey everyone! sorry I dont have much time this week. We are going to see Mt Vesuvius for P day so we have to head out in a little bit to catch the train. Sorry I wont be able to respond to everyone personally this week, but thank you so much for writing! Luckily this internet point has a printer so I will be able to print off your emails and read them later this week!

This week was another great one to be a missionary! We had some incredible experiences. I dont remember if I told you guys about this, but last week we got a referal from our branch president and his wife. They brought a family to the activity at carney park, and they are incredible. We were able to meet with them this week and they seriously are such a great family. They have four kids, all of which are awesome. I mean the little two and a half year old was walking around offering us drinks when our classes were empty. Who does that! We watched the restoration film with them and after the little 9 year old was just pounding us with questions. It was so cool. The parents are obviously great as well. It was so fun to have the opportunity to teach them. Unfortunately they dont actually live in our area, they were just here on vacation. But we are working on getting more direct information of their adress so we can send them off as a referral.

As far as our work here in Pozzuoli goes things are just chugging along! We were able to see Amalia and Theresa this week, and I honestly could not be more thrilled. Lets talk about amalia first. So the first time we met with her this week we just had a much needed heart to heart. We talked to her about where her testimony is at, and how she was feeling about the church. She told us she didnt know if she believed that what we were teaching her is true. So we talked a little bit about prayer and what she has to do to recieve her answers. She admitted to us that she isnt putting in the work she needs to in order to recieve an answer. So that was really great that she realized that. She recommited to praying, reading the scriptures, and coming to chuch so we are thrilled with the progress she is making again. Later this week we met with her and watched the restoration. At the end she said she could feel her testimony growing of the truthfulness of the gospel. Greatest ever!

Our appointments with Theresa went really well also. She seriously is the most prepared person I have ever met to recieve the gospel. Every time we meet with her the Spirit is so strong. I wish I could think of the words to describe it better. She is just so sensitive to the spirit, and even recognized that it is the spirit that she is feeling. Earlier this week we met with her and taught her the restoration, and it went so incredibly well. At the beginning she said that she didn't believe that God would restore His church through a modern day prophet, but after we talked to her a bit more about it and testified of the necesity of prophets the spirit bore testimony to her and her whole idea completely changed. It was so incredible. At the end of the lesson we asked her to say the prayer, and it was one of the greatest experiences Ive had on my mission. We asked her if she would like to ask god if what we had told her was true, and she said yes. She started saying her prayer, and was so overcome by the spirit that she couldnt even continue. We sat there in silence for at least 5 minutes (you know I was just freaking out. never prayed so hard in my whole life) then when she could finally finish all she could say was this is too beautiful. There is nothing that is more beautiful than this. 

Later this week we met with her and taught her the plan of salvation. That went really well also. She accepted everything we taught and told us that she believed everyone. Unfortunately we did run into a bit of a problem with how to get her to church. She doesnt have a car and she literally lives out in the middle of nowhere. So we are going to have to work a little bit harder with that one. Please keep her in your prayers. She is so ready for the message of the gospel, I know it would bless her life so much. We just gotta work a little harder to find a way to make it happen!

All of our other people are also doing great! Rina is making progress towards coming back to church, and even told us this week that she wants to stop smoking. So we are excited to help her out with that. All of our new converts are doing great as well. We actually had lunch yesterday with Peppe and his wife, which was a huge step. His family was very against him getting baptized, so we are really grateful that they are at least opening up to the idea of having us in their home. 

Well I think that about sums it up for me! Thank you all so much for your love, support, and prayers. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be here as a missionary. I hope you all have a great week, cant wait to hear from you soon!

sorella marsh

August 4, 2014

Cari miei,

hey everyone! So great to hear from you all this week! I loved getting all the pictures and videos. Looks like the hike was fun down in rockville! blessed blessed rockville. I love all the pics and videos of all the little ones too. Keep those comin :) it was another great week to be a missionary here in Pozzuoli! We have a lot to cover from this week - buckle up :)

So remember that less active named Rina I told you about last week? We were able to meet with her again this week, but without her husband. At first we were really bummed out by it, but in the end I think it might have been better. That way we were really able to focus on her and her needs right now. We taught her the plan of salvation and it went really well! We went through the lesson, then at the end pulled out the pictures of our families to talk about how our families can be together forever. You guys really are such a huge part of the work that I do here. The spirit was so strong, and at the end of the lesson we asked her where she wants to go after this life. She said of course the celestial kingdom. Then we asked her what she needed to do to get there. She said she needed to come back to church. So we invited her to do so and she said she would! She has to take care of her mom for the next few weeks, but she said once her caretaker comes back from vacation she will come back to church. Such an incredible miracle! 

Our new converts are also doing well. I really enjoy doing lessons with them, it is one of my favorite parts of the work here. Haha it is just so awesome to see someone who was just recently baptized. Each of their testimonies are just on fire and they soak up everything they can get. It is such a neat experience to work with them. They are also all doing really well with adjusting into the branch here. This week we had a branch activity at Carney Park, which needless to say was fantastic! Our new converts fit in with all the members so well, it was so great to see. All the members got together and we basically just had a huge BBQ. The Americans brought all sorts of great stuff, and the italians did too. All of my favorite foods in one sitting - I was a happy camper. Haha not important. What was really great was all the people that our members brought! It was such an awesome opportunity to meet new people. One girl in particular that we met was named Elisabetta. She is the niece of one of the members here. She is about 15 and she is awesome. She has already started reading the book of mormon and wants to learn more, so we told her we would stop by and see her this week!

All our other work is going well! We are continuing to see miracles everyday. There was one I wanted to share with you guys realy quick. So, unfortunately we are having a little bit of a hard time with Amalia. Ever since she came to church she has been dodging our phone calls and canceling our appointments. Sorella Baker and I were getting really worried about her. We were nervous that church freaked her out and she didn't want anything to do with us anymore, so we decided to fast for her on Sunday. We fasted for help to know what her needs were and what we could be doing to help her, and that we would be able to meet with her to help her make progress again. After church we decided to stop by her house really quickly before our coordination meeting with our ward mission leader. We buzzed the citof and she was there! She let us in and we were able to have a lesson with her. She did have a few questions about church, but we were able to get everything straightened out and set up another appointment with her this week. Prayer and fasting works :)

Okay one more quick story! So this week we got a referral from Milan. They said there was a woman named Theresa who lived in our zone and she wanted to be visited from the missionaries. Great. So we headed out there, turns out she lives in the boonies. Haha we walked through fields for an hour before we got to her home. (Side note - got to see a tomato harvesting machine. That was pretty neat. Only in Italy) But it was totally worth it. We got to her home and started asking her questions to try and get to know her a little better. As we talked a little more about religion she told us that she loved to read, especially books about god and jesus. She said that she was just enthrawled by anything she could read to learn more about them. Umm okay could you ask for a better set up as a missionary?! So right on que we whipped out the book of mormon! As we started to explain the book and where it came from she silently started to cry. We asked her what she was feeling, and she just said she felt so much peace and warmth. We told her that was the Spirit testifying to her that what we were teaching was true. She promised to read the whole book, and invited us back so we could discuss what she read.

I know that this is God's work. There are people He has prepared who are waiting and wanting to recieve this message. I am just so grateful for the opportunity I have to be a part of the process. I love you guys so much and I am so grateful for each of you. I hope you all have a great week!

sorella marsh.