October 27, 2014

Cari Miei,

hey team! sorry I dont have time to respond to everyone personally today. We are heading out to the amalfi coast for p-day so we are trying to get out there as soon as possible! But thank you all so much for you emails! Luckily I can print them all off and read them tonight :)

Well first things first - I've got some pretty big news! We recieved our transfer calls this weekend and next week I will be heading up to ROME! Best of all I am heading to Rome 1, an area where rachie served! also, I already spent the day there when we went up for capi conference! So I got to see a bit of the area, and I even got to meet my new companion! I will be serving with Sorella Argyle. I only got to spend a day with her, but she is really great. I am super excited to be with her. I'm sad that my time at Pozzuoli is over, but I am excited for what Rome has in store!

As for the week here in pozzuoli it was a great one! I'll give you guys a few of the highlights :) first of all sorella baker came back to visit! it was so great to see her again. It also gave us a great chance to get in contact with some of the people that she and I worked with while she was here. She was only here for a day, but it was fun to see here even if it was just for a little bit. Also this week we headed down to Battipaglia for a scambio with the sorelle there. It was great to see some of their investigators again. That was the third scambio i have done in battipaglia so i feel like i love those people just as much as a love the people here! It was super last minute but it was great.

As for all the people here everyone is doing great! Good news - we went and saw peppe this week and turns out his legs are not broken. Haha we definitely got some bad information on that one. He was cut up pretty badly but he is healing and doing well! So we were pretty relieved about that one. Our other new converts are doing great as well. They are fantastic people. And rina is still going strong with no smoking! 4 weeks now! woot woot!

 We also had really great lessons with our investigators this week. Our lesson with Amalia was nothing short of a miracle. So when we met with her last week we left her the commitment to pray about a new baptismal date. When we asked her about it she said she hadn't really had time this week and didnt give it much thought. So we took some time and talked to her about being baptized. We really just wanted to emphasize that being baptized was her choice - nobody could make it for her. She had to make the choice to act and to show her faith. So together we looked at the calendar, and she picked out the date of november 29. Then we all kneeled together as she prayed for a confirmation if that was right for her. I have never prayed so hard in my entire life. Haha after she finished praying we sat in silence for a few minutes, then asked her how she felt. She simply said - I feel good. I feel good about this decision. It was such an incredible moment. And such a tender mercy for me. I love and care about her so much, and it breaks my heart to leave but it is incredible to see how much her faith has grown in the time that I have been here.

Our lesson with Massimo was incredible as well. Unfortunately we had to postpone his baptismal date, but only because we wont have enough time to teach him all the lessons. This week we taught him the word of wisdom and the law of chastity. We went through and talked about everything and at the end we asked him if he had and questions or concerns. He said no, it all makes sense. In fact, three days ago i felt like i needed to quit smoking, so i did. I guess this is why! Haha he seriously is incredible.  We got some new investigators this week as well. Needless to say the work is seriously growing here in Pozzuoli. It has been absolutely incredible to be a part of it.

So that's about it for me! Its been a crazy past couple of days. Transfers are always rough. I am excited for whats ahead, but I would be lying if I said my heart wasn't a little broken to be leaving Pozzuoli. It's just always a little hard to leave all of these people that you love so much. I was having a hard time with it, then this morning in personal study I found the perfect scripture. I was reading in jesus the christ, the chapter about parables. One of the parables is of the seed growing secretly. This parable is a bit different than the others, because it is given to christ's apostles and devoted disciples. Basically it is given to those who are called to preach the gospel. In the parable it talks about how we are called to plant the seeds, but in the end we have to leave the growth of the seed up to God. We may be called to serve in different areas, but we can go in faith and peace knowing that god is looking out for the seeds we left behind. that just really hit me this morning. I am so grateful for the opportunity I've had to serve in Pozzuoli. I can honestly say I am not the same person I was when I first got here, and that is pretty neat. It's hard to go but I am grateful for the experiences I've had here, and for whats in store in the future. After all, there's no place like ROME for the holidays :)

until next week!

sorella marsh

October 20, 2014

Cari Miei,

OH MY GOSH TINA IS PREGNANT!! (and she's gonna have a baby too! ;) ) best news of the WHOLE WEEK! woot woot woot! Tantissimi auguri to dantzel and oliver! You guys are going to make the greatest parents and I could not be more thrilled! Cant wait to snuggle that little nugget :) 

Well you guys, I gotta be honest, this week was a bit of a rough one for us over here in Pozzuoli. Lucia passing away hit us all pretty hard - both members and missionaries. As I wrote last week, we found out on Monday that she had passed away. We made a few phone calls to the members and found out that the funeral would either be Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. The only problem was that we were supposed to be going up to Rome those days to have our zone conference. So when we found out that was when the funeral would be we werent quite sure waht to do. We talked it over, gave President Waddoups a call, and decided that it would be best for us to stay. Which just felt right. It was a really hard time for our members and we all really felt like we needed to be here to help and support them.

The way it ended up happening actually turned out to be a huge tender mercy. Because we had all planned to go to zone conference none of us had made any plans for Tuesday or Wednesday. Which was a huge blessing because that meant we could spend all Tuesday making preparations for the funeral, and on Wednesday we were all available to go. Lucia's husband respected her wishes and allowed us to do the funeral in our church building - which is incredible because he is pretty against the church. But also it was really rare. Funerals always take place in Catholic churches here. In fact, this was the first funeral that our members had ever done. That being said, nobody had any idea what to do. So basically what ended up happening was that the missionaries and the American members put it together. So it was a crazy day but in the end we all made it happen. It was a really hard time but it felt like we were in the right place doing the right thing, and we were glad we could help.

The next morning was the funeral. I always knew that my mission would be difficult, but I never would have imagined that this would be something I would have to go through. The service was beautiful, but it was a really hard. They had the missionaries do the musical numbers, and Sorella Anderson and I were asked to sing for the opening song. I thought it would be nice to sing "Where can I turn for Peace" because that was Lucia's favorite song that we would sing when we went to visit her in the hospital. Turns out when it was time to sing it at the funeral it just all got too real and I couldn't make it through the song without shedding some tears. But it brought a beautiful spirit to the meeting. Some of the members of our church then got up and shared their testimonies. It was very touching, but also really difficult. I just love these people here so much, it was really hard to see them all so sad.

Needless to say, it was a bit of a tough day. But, as they always do, this trial has taught me so much and I have grown closer to my Father in Heaven because of it. I am grateful that through this experience my testimony of the plan of salvation has been strengthened. I am so grateful for the knowledge that the restored gospel gives us. I am glad to know that even if not especially during difficult times I have a Father in Heaven who loves and knows me perfectly and who is looking out for me. 

Unfortunately for us, that wasn't the end of the bad news this week. We got a call on Thursday saying that Peppe had fell and that he was in the hospital. We weren't able to go see him until the next day when we found out that he has broken both of his legs so he will be in the hospital for the next few weeks. You know Peppe though, it hasn't slowed him down for a second. His testimony is only stronger because of it. It is hard to see someone you love so much be hurting, but we know he will be alright. There's no one quite like Peppe.

So we had our struggles this week, but there was some light at the end of the tunnel! This weekend we were finally able to meet with Massimo. His treatments are finally lightening up so he was feeling well enough to meet with us. You guys he is absolutely incredible. I have never met somebody so prepared to recieve the gospel. We talked to him this week about personal revelation and how he can recieve his own testimony. Little did we know he's already got one. As we were talking he stopped us and said "I have been searching for the truth for years and years. I have been studying with countless religions. Never did I find in any of them what I have found here with you. I have only read the first few pages, but everytime I read this book (the Book of Mormon) I feel the greatest peace and happiness inside of me. I know it is true. I am so grateful to God for helping me to meet you people to put me on the right path." Then he went on to tell us that in these few weeks that we havent seen him he has been doing missionary work. Haha his daughter now wants to take the lessons with him, and he has a friend that he wants to bring to church. So incredible.

Later that day we were also able to meet with Amalia, and we had a really great lesson with her. You can never go wrong with some conference recap :) she absolutely loved it. She asked us how she could watch all the talks again, and the ones she missed. We watched President Uchtdorfs talk with her and talked to her about what she needs to do to recieve her own personal testimony of light and truth. Basically what it comes down to is that she has got to make a choice. God will never be able to tell her whether or not she is doing the right thing if she doesnt act. With that, she agreed to choose her own baptismal date and to go forward and see what answer she will recieve. So we'll be needing extra prayers for her this week!

The week finished of strong with a great day in church yesterday. Massimo finally came! and he absolutely loved it. Our members were awesome and fellowshipped him right in. When we asked him how he liked church he said "i just cant believe it...i have had this spiritual thirst for years that is finally being filled!" So great that he was finally able to come. Also Antonella came to chruch, and stayed for the entire sacrament meeting! So great progress on that one as well. Also, super random but also super awesome, some random couple that Sorella Baker and I met on the street months ago came to church! At the time we met them they didnt seem super interested, but I guess right now they are searching for more peace in their lives so they decided they wanted to try coming to church. All in the Lords timing! Also not nearly as important, but I did the translation this week! I was scared out of my mind, but it all ended up working out fine. So all in all church was a great success :)

Well I feel like I should congratulate anyone who made it to the end of this email. Haha sorry it was a bit intense this week. Needless to say we had our ups and downs, but in the end it was such a huge testimony builder that this is the Lords work. Regardless of the circumstance we can always turn to Him to find peace, comfort, and guidance. I am so grateful for the opportunity to be a missionary. I love being a part of this work. Thank you for all your love, support, and prayers. I love you all and I will talk to you next week!

sorella marsh

October 13, 2014

cari miei,

another week come and gone! I can hardly believe it is already p-day again. As always, thanks everyone for all your emails and pictures! I cant believe how grown up all the little ones are getting. But they are all just as cute as ever. I'm glad to here that all is well for you guys back home! As for me, here is an update on life here in pozzuoli!

This week we did an exchange with the battipaglia sorelle. We did it here in pozzuoli so that was fantastic. Twice as many sisters so we get twice as much work done :) our work here is going great! Unfortunately we weren't able to see massimo again this week. His cancer treatments are making him pretty sick so he had to go to the hospital for a few days. We are hoping he will get better soon though. We also didn't get to see amalia, which was a bit of a bummer. She started work this week so she was pretty busy. But we're hoping this next week we'll get a lesson in to do some serious conference recap :)

 We saw antonio twice this week, both lessons in the presence of a member. I can't even describe how much of a difference it made! We were able to feel the spirit so much more strongly in our lessons. Antonio is doing really well. He is consistently reading the book of mormon and praying to recieve an answer. He is going out of town this week, but before the end of our lesson he asked if there was a church where he was going. So we looked it up real quick for him and he said he will go! He's a great man :) We were also able to see manuela this week, she is doing great too. She is so incredible. She has been pretty sick lately because of her chemo treatments, but she never complains about anything. She always just smiles and says the lord will help her through it. Such incredible faith. After we met with her last week we had left her a plan of salvation pamphlet to read and study. When we went to see her this week she said that she had been reading it and that she really liked it, but she wanted to buy the book that it kept referencing (the book of mormon). We couldnt help but smile at that as we pulled a copy out of our bags and said she could have it for free. We taught her a bit of the restoration this week and she loved it. She is absolutely incredible.

As for our recent converts and less actives everyone is doing great! Rina has officially stopped smoking for two weeks now! Woot woot! She is doing great. And little by little we are slowly getting her off coffe as well. She has made huge progress since we first started meeting with her. That honestly is probably the most rewarding part of missionary work. Is looking back to when you first met a person and seeing how many changes they have made, and how much closer they are to Christ. I love it. We also met with another less active this week, her name is Michela. She is less active because she lives far away from the church, so the sisters go out to visit her every so often. Neat thing about her and her family - they became converts because they all love Donny Osmond. Haha isnt that the greatest thing you've heard? It was great to talk to her a bit and help her feel the spirit. All of our new converts are doing great. We are doing this new thing with peppe in our lessons where he has to teach us, and it has been fantastic. He learns so much more and we do too! Roselyn and Janet are doing great as well :) I seriously feel so blessed to be working with all these awesome people.

And just enough time to finish off with one quick miracle! So i dont know if i have ever told you guys about Milena. She works at a gelateria here in pozzuoli. She met the missionaries about 2 years ago and went to english course, but got too busy with work and everything so wasnt able to go anymore. Then one day the missionaries walked in the her gelateria and she gave them free gelato. So we would go back and see her every once in a while and try to talk to her more about her experience with the missionaries. We dont ever have much time to see her, but we at least try to build up a friendship so she knows she can turn to us if she ever needs anything. Well I hadn't taken sorella anderson to meet her yet because we have been so busy, but this week on friday we went to go stop by and see her. It had been about a month since I had seen her and she told us about how things had been pretty hard for her at home lately. Her mom and her didnt have a good relationship and she was thinking about moving out. We gave her a hug and told her we would pray for her, which we did when we got home. The next day we got a text message from her saying - "I dont know if you prayed for me or not, but I know god put his hand in my life. Today my mom and I talked for the first time in a month. Thanks for everything, I love you." The power of prayer is real.

Speaking of prayer - I just recieved a phone call with some bad news. I dont know if you guys remember Lucia, but she is the member we used to go visit in the hospital. We just found out that she passed away this morning. Please keep her family in your prayers, they will really need it at this time. I feel so grateful that I got to know Lucia. I can honestly say that my testimony was strengthened from her example. It's times like these when I really think about how grateful I am to be a member of this church and the knowledge I have. 

I love you all so much! I'm, am so grateful for the opportunity to be a missionary. Thanks for all your love, support, and prayers. Talk to you next week!

Sorella Marsh

October 6, 2014

cari miei,

okay first things first...THE HAPPY HUMP DAY PACKAGE. Thank you guys so much! Seriously words can't describe how happy I was when I opened it up. Thank you for all the kind notes and treats, you guys are the best ever. Although I do have to say that once I got past the excitement of all the american treats I did have a minor panic attack when I realized that a happy hump day package means that I am halfway through my mission. When on earth did that happen?! Thank you guys for your constant love and support these past nine months, can't wait for what the next nine have in store :)

second of all - wasnt conference the best ever?! Gosh I loved it. So far I have only watched the saturday and sunday morning sessions, we still have to watch the afternoon sessions. But what we have seen was fantastic :) we had the greatest weekend filled with conference miracles. Get ready for it.

But first some other awesome miracles from the week. We actually got a new investigator this week! Her name is Manuela and she is incredible. She is actually a referral from one of our members, Lucia. Lucia is the one who has cancer. We used to go visit her in the hospital to sing to her and giver her spiritual messages. Turns out while she was in the hospital she met manuela, who also is suffering from cancer. Manuela said that Lucia was a huge help to her while she was in the hospital and she wanted to learn more about her church. We went to go visit her in the hospital this week and she is absolutely amazing. She has some of the most incredible faith and such a positive attitude. This last week was supposed to be her last chemo treatment, if all went well. So hopefully this next week we will be meeting with her in her home!

Next miracle - his name is Vincenzo. So earlier this week we did a fast, and to break it we decided we wanted to go get pizza. We went to a little shop that is near our house, and when we left we decided to leave a pass along card and little thank you note. The next day we were hosting a baptism in pozzuoli. It was for the Casserta branch, but they dont have a baptismal font so we hosted the baptism. Before the baptism we decided to send a text to everyone in our phone inviting them to come see it. The baptism was about to start when all the sudden this guy walked in. It took me a few minutes to recognize him but turns out it was the guy from the pizzeria! Apparently his phone number was already in our phone and he had got the text inviting him to the baptism. He said that when he got the text he just really felt like he needed to go. But he got off work at 4:00 and the baptism started at 4:30. He was just going to go home but he said he had a feeling that he really needed to go to this baptism. So he asked his brother if he could take the car, and his brother said no. So he walked up the hill to come see the baptism. We talked to him after and he said that he could not deny that he had felt the spirit during the baptism and that he wanted to meet with the missionaries as soon as he could. Can you believe that?! Seriously I was just in awe....such an incredible man. Food finding, its a real thing. 

Okay now on to conference! There were so many tender mercies throughout the whole conference but I want to tell you guys about Amalia. So as you know she has been struggling a little bit lately. She has just been having a hard time feeling like she is receiving and answer to her prayers. Earlier this week we had a lesson with her talking to her about personal revelation. We promised her that if she came to conference with a question that she had thought about and prayed about that she would recieve an answer. She told us that she would come on satruday night (which would be the saturday morning session for you guys.) saturday rolled around, conference started and she wasnt there. We gave her a call, with no answer. I'll be honest - my heart just about broke in that moment. But a few minutes later we got a call saying she was on her way! She was gonna be a little late, but she was coming! Once she got there we went down to go watch conference together (first time in Italian, that was crazy). She was loving all the talks, and at the end President Uchtdorfs remarks on personal revelation were a direct answer to her prayers. Seriously it couldnt have fit her needs any better! She absolutely loved it. I even saw her wipe away a few tears during the talk. We were able to talk to her about it a little bit after at dinner and she loved it. She was so touched by conference and she felt the spirit so strongly. It was the exact miracle we needed for her.

All our other people are doing great as well! Unfortunately none of our other investigators could make it to conference, but Antonio did make it to the baptism. He is doing really well. We weren't able to meet with massimo this week because he had to go in for some treatments for his cancer, but hopefully we will see him this week. We finally met with Antonella though! We had a great lesson about the plan of salvation and set a new baptismal date. Rina is doing great as well. She has officially started the no smoking program! So we are super excited about that.

Needless to say, it was a great week for us :) how could it not be on conference weekend?! I am so grateful that we have a living prophet who leads and guides this church. I know that if we follow the guidance of the prophet we will have happiness in this life and in the life to come. I know that Joseph Smith was called as a prophet to restore the gospel in these latter days so that we could all have that knowledge. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to share that truth with the people of Italy :)

love you all so much! I hope you have a great week and I'll talk to you soon!

sorella marsh

heart shaped pizza that vincenzo made us...best ever!

 happy hump day!

 Battipaglia sorella and their investigator martina

 post-conference dinner with amalia and sorella trimble!