November 24, 2014

Cari Miei,

 

Hey everyone! So great to hear from you all this week :) I can never say thanks enough for all the emails, pictures, and videos. I can't believe how big everyone is getting! But they are all just as cute as ever. I'm glad to hear that all is well with you guys back home.

 

As for me it was a great week to be a Roman missionary! It was a crazy busy week, but we got a lot of work done! And we wouldn't have it any other way :) first I'll give you all the updates on all our people. Marivel has officially moved back to Peru, so we are sad for ourselves but so thrilled for her. Get ready for this story. So we met up with her this week to say goodbye. We shared some of our favorite scriptures with her and left her with our testimonies, which was really great. After we had done the lesson she asked us if we could do her a favor. Of course we instantly agreed. She said she had bought a new bedframe, but that she couldn't carry it home by herself so she asked if we could help her carry it. She said it was light and that her home was very close to the store, so it shouldn't be a problem. Okay, cool. No big deal. We can do that. Turns out the "light" bedframe was not light in the slightest, and her house was not close in the slightest either. Like I'm talking a whole train station difference here. Haha so yes, sorella argyle, marivel, and I carried a bedframe across the city. I have to admit that about halfway through I started to doubt our abilities. I may or may not have said a little prayer in my heart that someone would see us, have compassion on us, and offer to take the bedframe in a car. Turns out God was listening to that little prayer because that is exactly what happened! Just as we were about to walk up the hill to get to marivels house, an angel with a van came and drove the bedframe the rest of the way for us. Haha the power of prayer is real. But more importantly we could help Marivel get everything in order to head to Peru. Before she left she said she wanted the hermanas to visit her right away :) so we know she will be taken care of over there.

 

As for our other investigators we were able to meet with Leonardo this week, and the lesson went really well! We taught him the plan of salvation. He had a lot of questions, which was really great because it lead into a good discussion about who God is, his plan for us, and the role of the Saviors Atonement in that plan. He is starting to read in the Book of Mormon, and little by little his faith is growing. And sure enough my love for him is growing as well. He is basically the Italian version of Dad. Haha he jokes and teases and always tries to sneak extra treats when Ala isn't looking, but he has a heart of gold. I am so excited to be working with him. 

 

Also this week we finally got to see Dyanne! Which was so great. We were able to talk to her about her baptism and where she stands on everything. Most of all we really just wanted to see where her desires were at. She is such a sweetheart. When we asked her why she wanted to be baptized she said "because I want to be like Janus and Fattima (members who she lives with) I can see that they are close to God, and I want to be like that too." The problem is her mom doesn't want her to be baptized, and she doesn't want to do it without her moms approval. Also the boy she is dating is less active, so she just has a lot of pressure to be a good example. We just really hope that we see her start to keep commitments this week and putting those desires into action.

 

We also had a fantastic lesson with Harrison and Mabel! We followed up on Mabel's reading in Alma 40, and she said she didn't understand a lot of it so we went through and read it together. She is very intruiged by the idea of the spirit world and wanted to learn more about it. After we read together we taught the restoration. It was so awesome to see how touched mabel was by the message of the restoration. When we explained that Joseph Smith had lived in a time of confusion and that he wanted to know the truth she quickly agreed, saying that was something she was searching for in her life as well. Both she and harrison agreed to read the book of mormon, and pray to know that it was true. Harrison even prayed to know if it was true as we said the closing prayer together! It was such a beautiful prayer. It is such an incredible experience to see these people who are so honestly and earnestly searching for the truth, and even more incredible to know that I can promise them that they are going to find it. Missionary work is the best :) we are having some struggles getting them to church, but we'll get that figured out. 

 

This week we also got a new investigator! His name is Luca and he is so incredibly prepared to recieve the gospel. So we met him a few weeks ago on the metro, where he actually stopped us. He had been looking at our nametags, then asked us what church we were from. I went over to sit by him and quickly explained a bit about our church and invited him to learn more about it. We exhanged numbers and agreed to meet the next week. During our first lesson with him we explained a little bit more about what we do as missionaries and why we are here. We then went into the Restoration, and he just soaked every bit of it up. He agreed with everything we said, and incredibly enough especially the apostacy. He quickly agreed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon, and when we called him a few days later he had already read through the introduction and all of the testimonies. So incredible!

 

Our less actives and new converts are doing great as well. This week I actually got to meet one of our new converts - her name is safaa and her story is nothing short of amazing. She is from egypt, and came her to rome on vacation. She was here for 10 days, and in those 10 days she recieved all the lessons and was baptized. Now she is back in Egypt where she can't go to church and can't tell anyone about her baptism because it is too dangerous for her. So we do lessons with her over skype to continue to teach her. Can you believe that?! She has such an incredible amount of faith, it is so cool. We also met with Giovanni Acquaviva and his family this week. Oh my gosh I'm obbsessed with them, especially their kids. We did a spiritual thought on prayer and as we were talking the little girl who is like 11 years old raises her hand and asks but how do we know when god is responds to our prayers? My heart just melted. They are such an amazing family, with so much potential. We are hoping to get some members involved in our visits with them this week.

 

This last week we also found another less active member, her name is Mila Hernandez. She hasn't been to church in about 5 years or so. She said that when she was baptized she felt so much love from the members, but with time she felt forgotten and that no one cared about her, so she eventually stopped coming. I know it wasn't coincidence that we chose to go to her house though. She wants to come back to church, she just needs help overcoming her bitter feelings and forgiving the members. She was so grateful that we had come, and with time we will be able to help her come back to church.

 

All in all things are going great here! I am so grateful that I get to be serving here in this area at this time. It's incredible work that we get to do! I hope you all have a great week,  and an espcially great thanksgiving! Don't worry, I'll be eating my chocolate suckers over here :) love you all so much! Until next week!

 

 

Sorella Marsh

Message from Sorella Baker

Saturday night, November 15th, I received this text from Stephanie's last companion and a picture.

"Hi, this is Camille Baker! I served with your amazing daughter in Pozzuoli.  And after I got home, I went back with my parents to visit.  I thought you would enjoy seeing a pictures :)  Thank you for raising such a wonderful daughter.  She is amazing and I feel SO blessed to know her.

November 17, 2014

Cari Miei,

 

Okay everyone first things first...I have got to tell you about the most INCREDIBLE thing that happened to us yesterday. So I don't know if you have heard, but the Pope is holding a colloquim (wow that is a hard word to spell) here in Rome, and representatives from different churches will all be speaking on the family and marriage between a man and a woman. President Eyring will be speaking at it, so he and Elder Perry and Bishop Causse are all here in Rome. Yesterday we were so incredibly blessed to have all 3 of them come to our sacrament meeting. I wish I could describe better in words how amazing of an experience it was. First of all it was just so great to be here with the members, and to see how excited they were to have these three men here with them. They cleaned the church for days, everything was exactly in order, and they made sure that everything would be perfect to welcome them to our ward. We were so blessed and we were able to hear each of them speak. Elder Causse read from Romans in the bible, and talked about proclaiming the gospel. He also spoke a little bit on the temple. Elder Perry spoke about the sacredness of the sacrement, and bore the most powerful testimony. I was so touched by what he said, and it made me really think about how I treat the sacrament, and what type of experience I should be having every Sunday. President Eyring addressed multiple topics throught his talk, but I will never forget when he addressed us missionaries. Sorella Argyle and I were sitting near the front, so when he was giving his talk he looked at us directly and bore his testimony that the Lord is preparing people to recieve his gospel. I will never forget when he looked me in the eyes, with tears in his, and said that as we preach the gospel His sheep will recognize His voice - God is speaking to His children through us. I felt the spirit so strongly in that moment, my body couldn't contain it and I instantly broke into tears. I can't believe how blessed we are to have had such an amazing and personal experience, and such an intimite tender mercy from our Heavenly Father.

 

After sacrament meeting we already began to see miracles. We were speaking with the members when one member, Barbara, beckoned us over. We went to go see her and she said see that woman over there? That's my mom. She is a non-member, so go do missionary work! Haha so sure enough we went to go talk to her! Turns out she is from England, so she came to the meeting because she wanted to hear the messages in English. But she absolutely loved it and she said she felt very peacful as she was listening to the words they said. She said overall she was touched by the amount of love she felt as the men were speaking. We quickly asked if it would be alright if we met another time to explain a little more, and she agreed :) 

 

Incredibly enough, we also got another member referral this week! His name is Leonardo, and he is dating one of the members in our ward. He has a great story - so he has been coming to church for about 3 months. He always dresses up in his suit and is there for all 3 hours. But because he comes so consistently, everyone just always thought he was a member. Then one day Ala (his girlfriend) pulled us aside and told us that he was a nonmember who had a lot of questions, and asked if we could come speak with him. Of course we quickly agreed :) our first lesson with him went really well. He is not a very religious person, in all honestly he is only coming to church to follow Ala. But he has a great desire to find the truth, and has a lot of real intent. I am so excited to work with him. It is the most incredible experience to see someone who is truly searching for something and to know that you can help them. Not to mention we have built in member support, so that is fantastic. We also teach him with the patriarch and his wife, and they are a huge blessing. I honestly can't believe how blessed we are.

 

Our other investigators are doing well! Greatest news ever - MARIVEL WANTS TO GET BAPTIZED!! She said that she has found the peace and tranquility that she was looking for, and that she wants to become a member of this church. But it is a little bittersweet for us, because she also told us that she will be moving home to peru for the winter. She wants the missionaries to continue to meet with her there so she can be baptized there. Which is absolutely incredible and i am so thrilled for her. But i have to admit i am a bit sad for myself that we dont get to see the process. But we know that she will be okay :)

 

 Unfortunately we didn't get to see Dyanne this week, we have had troubles getting a hold of her. We also didn't get to see Harrison and Mabel because of their work schedules, so we are going to try and figure that out this week. But! This week we had a really neat experience. So I was going through our area book because I wanted to call some of Rachel's old investigators and see if they would let us come visit them. I got a hold of one named Rossana, and when I told her that I was the cousin of Sorella Miles she instantly invited us over. (just goes to show what an incredible missionary rachie was :)) anyway, we got there and i showed her my family pictures, and she just about died when she saw the one of me and rach. she told us all about her wonderful experience with the missionaries and how she will always look back on that time with wonderful feelings. She had some hesitations about being baptized, but that we are always welcome in her home. She even invited us over for dinner on Christmas. Haha but what was really incredible was that while we were there we met her caretaker, Beatrice. She came and listened to our spiritual thought that we shared and was so touched. Before we left she asked for our phone number so we could stay in touch. We asked her if we could teach her more about our church and she said yes! So incredible to see how the Lord works. That through Rachel, and Rossana, now Sorella Argyle and I have the opportunity to teach the gospel to Beatrice :)

 

One more story then I better wrap this sucker up. SO. another crazy miracle. On Saturday we were had an apporintment with Marivel, then in the afternoon we were supposed to have an appointment with Harrison and Mabel. About 11 in the morning Mabel called and said she wouldnt be able to see us because she had to go to work. We were a little bit bummed, but we tried to think of other things we could do with our time. Then Sorella Argyle remembered that there is a less active member who lives out by Marivel, so we decided that after our lesson we would stop by and see if we could find him. We got done with our lesson, headed over to his house, and rang the bell. All of the sudden this head pops out the window, then popped back in, then out again. haha finally we just yelled at her, and asked if Giovanni was there. She said yes, and asked if we were from the church, so we said yes. then her head pops back in, then back out and she asks again, are you from the church? We said yes, we are here to see Giovanni. Her head pops back in, then a male head pops out. We introduced ourselves and he buzzed us in! We went up to there apartment and they are the sweetest family! They are from Peru, and Giovanni was baptized there. He is now married and they have the two most adorable children. Only Giovanni is a member. His wife is catholic, but she is very open to learning about other religions. As we talked to Giovanni it turns out that he hasnt been to church in about 15 years, and no one from the church has tried to contact him in about 10. (which explains all the confused head popping) But he still loves the church. He reads the Book of Mormon, lives the word of wisdom, and is trying to read the Book of Mormon with his kids. He said he would love to have us over to family home evenings with his wife and children, so we are thrilled about that. Pretty incredible tender mercy :)

 

Well that about sums it up for the week! Things here are going really well. I also went on my first exchange up to Rome 5 this week, and that was a really great experience. A little nerve wracking, but it was great. I just hope that in the end I was able to help the other sisters. All part of being a missionary! It's crazy work, but I absolutely love it. Thank you for all your love, support, and prayers. I feel so blessed to have the family that I do rooting me on from back where you are. You are all the best. I hope you have a great week and I will talk to you soon!

 

 

sorella marsh

Rome 5 Sorelle! After a long days work...dont judge.

 fighting the cold

 Marivel's niece :)

November 10, 2014

Cari Miei, 

Yay it was so great to hear from you all this week! E-mail time is always the highlight of p-day. Don't get me wrong, italy has some pretty incredible stuff to offer, but nothin beats my family :) thanks for all of your emails and pictures! I loved reading about all that is going on at home. Not to mention that I got my Thanksgiving package this week, complete with pilgrim suckers and everything! What more could a girl ask for?! Thank you so much. I definitely feel like a very loved and very blessed missionary.

This week was a great one for us here in Rome! I have so much to tell you guys about. I've only been here a week but we are already seeing so much progress in our area, which is really exciting. I'll give you an update on all of our people first. Our main investigators are Harrison, Marivel, and Dyanne. Harrison is doing great. The Sorelle met him outside of the grocery store where we do our shopping a while ago. We really wanted to start teaching him somewhere inside so we could have the spirit more in our lessons. This week we were finally ale to meet with him inside his house, and if that wasnt good enough we got to meet his wife too! She is fantastic. Her name is Mabel and she is really interested in learning more about the gospel. This week we taught her and Harrison about the plan of salvation. we were talking about the spirit world when she stopped us and said I would like to know more about this spirit world. where can I read about it? so we quickly turned her to Alma 40, and we are excited to follow up with her reading this week :)

Our other investigator Dyanne is doing well also. Remember the Silva family I told you about last week? Dyanne is the girlfriend of one of the sons. We have a great time teaching her :) Right now we are really just trying to help her to get active. she spends a lot of time sitting around at home, so when we do lessons with her we sometimes go for walks, and we also do zumba every once in a while. And yes, I am just as bad at zumba as you all probably think I am. Haha another "never thought I would do this on my mission" type of moments. But its great to spend time with Dyanne and to help her out. She is so great. She lives with the Silva family and has known about the church for years. So she has a lot of knowledge about the gospel, but she is hesitant about being baptized. So we are trying to work on that with her.

 

Our other main investigator is Marivel, and she is fantastic. She actually has a sister in Spain who is also taking the lessons from the missionaries, so maybe one day Sonn will run into her! This week we taught Marivel the gospel of Jesus Christ, and it went so well. she has so much faith, it blows me away. At the beginning the lessons she offered one of the most heartfelt prayers i have ever heard. She has had a lot of trails in her life, but she is finding peace and comfort in the gospel, and particularly in the Book of Mormon. It is such an incredible experience to be part of the process :) she came to church with us this week and everyone in the ward just LOVED her. She already fits right in!

 

Other highlights from the week of course include zone conference! It was a bit stressful this time around, but still great nonetheless :) also because I am now serving as a sister training leader I went to the conference that is held for all the leaders of the mission the day before. It was a bit overwhelming and I definitely have a lot to learn, but I am excited for the opportunity I have to serve the girls in my zone. Part of that included giving a training at zone conference, which I am not going to lie, was absolutely terrifying. But it went well! Sorella Clyde and I gave a training on giving the baptismal invite and maintaining baptismal dates. I feel like I learned way more than I probably taught anyone else, but it was a good experience all around. 

 

Zone Confernece is always great because we get the direction and inspiration that we need for our work. During zone conference our zone leaders encouraged us to put an emphasis on finding, in particular going through and calling all the people on our phones. They called it FLUSH. (finally look up some homies. haha my zone leaders are great) anyway, we decided to put it to the test! And we have already seen miracles. We have appointments set up with some old contacts for this week, and someone actually came to church! disclaimer: this story doesn't exactly exploit my strengths as a missionary, but it was cool so I want to tell you anyway. We went through and started calling all the people on our phone. We just took turns back and forth. We would call people and ask if they wanted to meet with us and invite them to church. In the two days after zone conference we had gone through and called at least 50 people. Then on Sunday morning we went to the train station to meet Marivel for church, so we got there a little late. While we were waiting we got a text from the Anziani telling us that there was an Antonio at the church looking for Sorella Marsh. Unfortunately i must admit that for the life of me i could not remember who Antonio was or what I had said to him. but he actually came to church! We met up with him there and now he wants to continue coming! He is going out of town this week but says we can meet with him when he gets back :) proof that we really do have inspired leaders over here.

 

Also another crazy thing - there was a code red weather warning this week! It was such a crazy storm. We were actually told to stay inside because it was supposed to be bad. The wind was crazy and there was wind and hail the size of walnuts. I may or may not have gotten stuck in it for about 10 minutes walking home from the bus. It was insane! But we survived and all is well. haha so there is the crazy story of the week.

 

Well i think that about sums it up! Sorry if i didnt answer all of your questions. ask me again or I will most definitely forget what they were. haha I hope you all have a great week! Thank you for your constant love support and prayers. love you!

 

sorella marsh 

Pictures from Pozzuoli

Finding out Dantzel and Oliver are having a baby!

 Receiving her Halloween package in Pozzuoli.

 when sorella baker came to visit - in that picture rina is with us!

Here are our first pictures from Rome 1 - The Vatican!

 Getting caught in the storm.

November 3, 2014 - Rome 1

cari miei,

What the devil I am writing to you guys from Rome! Can you even believe it?! The realization just keeps hitting me over and over again and it is just so surreal! Thanks everyone for all your emails this week. As always it was so great to hear from you. Best news of all sonn has an italian trainer! coolest ever! funny how that works because turns out two of the sorelle I live with now both speak spanish :) so we can learn together! I've got lots to tell you guys about my new area, so ready or not, here we go!

Sorella Argyle. My new companion. She is fantastic. She is from west jordan utah and is in her third transfer. She works so hard and has such an incredible desire to serve the Lord, and already speaks Italian like a native. We get along super well and I think we are going to have a great transfer together. She actually speaks spanish because she lived in Argentina for 3 years while her parents were mission presidents. So needless to say she has got this whole mission thing down. I am so excited to be working with her.

As for my area we are in the northwest-ish part of Rome. To answer your question mom you have probably been here. Most of the tourist sights are in our area - including the Vatican! So that is super neat. The apartment here is nice. It is a 4 man apartment so it is fun to be living with other sorelle again. We are relatively close to the mission home and office, but we dont go there very often. So as far as letters go probably best just to send them to my home adress. Which is - via villata, 28 00166 roma, italia

The ward here is fantastic. It is HUGE so that is definitely going to take some getting used to after being in my small little branch in Pozzuoli. The members here are great though. In fact, yesterday we went to go visit some members who know Rachie! They are the Silva family, and Rachie first taught the two boys. They all still love her, so that was super fun to talk to them about her.

As for my week it was a good one! I spent the first few days in Pozzuoli making last visits to people to say goodbye. It was hard to go but I am really excited about being here in Rome. There is a lot of potential here and I think we will see a lot of great things. I even got to meet one of our investigators! His name is Harrison and he is from Nigeria. He is a great man with a lot of faith, I am excited to be working with him. We also got to go to a seminar this past weekend about how we can use geneology more in our missionary work, and I was really hit by it. Geneology can be such a powerful tool in conversion, and it is definitely something I want to try to use more in my missionary work.

I think that is about it for me! We've got a lot of exciting things coming up this week, including zone conference and interviews with president. So that will be great! All in all I am excited to be here. It was hard to leave Pozzuoli and it always takes a few days of adjustment in a new area, but I already love it here in Rome. Thank you all for your constant love, support, and prayers. I love you all and I will talk to you next week!

sorella marsh