July 6, 2015

No email from Stephanie today because she is traveling to the mission office to come HOME!  BUT, here are some pictures from her mission president from 2 different events.  1 was a visit to Crotone, June 26-28 and the other was from a specialized training in June in Taranto sometime around June 23rd, where Steph was called on to share her departing testimony.  We will be in Rome TOMORROW to pick her up!  She is officially done being a missionary!

Taranto

Pictures from Crotone Karoke party!

June 29, 2015 Stephanie's LAST email!

Carissimi Miei, 

Buongiorno a tutti! I can hardly believe that this week will be my last one as a missionary. What in the world. It still just seems so surreal to me. These last few weeks have just flown by, I can't believe we're here at the end. I have a few more days here in Crotone, then on Friday Sorella Puzey and I will leave for Pozzuoli where we will spend the weekend. Then next monday I will head up to Rome! Which means I probably won't get a chance to write next week because we will spend the day traveling. 

As my mission has been coming to a close I have been thinking a lot about these past 18 months, and this week I wanted to share two experiences that we had that describe why I have loved being a missionary so much. The first was a little experience we had with a less active this week. We were out one morning when a random thought popped in my head that we should give her a call and ask her if we could come see her. We were near the store where we normally visit her while she works, so I figured it wouldn't hurt just to call. She told us that she was really busy that morning, but that she could give us about 10 minutes if we wanted to come pass by. I'll be honest, I was a little confused about why I felt like I needed to call her if she was so busy and didn't have a lot of time to see us, but we went anyway. As we were walking over we decided we were going to show her a mormon message by president uchtdorf that talks about our individual worth. She absolutely loved it. After we watched it together she told us that earlier that morning she had woken up feeling terrible. She was overwhelmed by all that she had to do, and she didn't feel adequate to do it all. She told us that she said a prayer, asking for Heavenly Father to help her to get through the day. As we watched the video together she said that she knew that it was an answer to her prayer and that Heavenly Father sent us to her because He was aware of her. I feel so blessed that throughout my mission I have had the opportunity to be an instrument in the Lord's hands to help others draw closer unto Him. 

The other experience I wanted to share was one we had with Joy the other day. We have taught her the restoration, the plan of salvation, and the gospel of Jesus Christ, so we wanted to do a little bit of follow up on everything before moving on. As we were talking to her about her thoughts and feelings about everything the conversation was turned towards Joseph Smith. We asked her if she believed that he was a true prophet and if the church was true. She smiled at us and said yes, I believe. Every time that I come here I have so much joy and happiness. I feel good when I am here. My friends try to tell me that this is not a true church, and I tell them that when I come here I feel joy. That means that it is good and it is true. As a missionary I have loved seeing the pure happiness that the gospel brings in others lives. I know that when we live the principles of the gospel it truly does bring us peace and happiness. I know that because I have seen it in the lives of people here, but also because I have felt it myself. As a missionary I have loved seeing the pure joy that the gospel can bring.

And the best part about these things is that they don't have to end! In a few weeks I may not be wearing a tag, but I will still be able to be an instrument in the Lord's had to spread the joy of the gospel to others. I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have had to serve the Lord for this past 18 months in Italy. I am so grateful for each of you and for your constant love, support, and prayers. I can't thank you all enough for all you have done for me throughout my mission. 

I love you all so much! See you soon!

Sorella Marsh

June 22, 2015

Carissimi Miei,

Hello everyone! So great to hear from you all this week! I am so sorry that it's a little late, but happy father's day to the greatest dad in all the land! I hope you had a fantastic day. I am so grateful for all that you do for our family and I can't believe how blessed I am to be your daughter. Love you papps :)

We had another fantastic week here in Crotone! It has been so hectic and we have been so crazy busy, but we wouldn't have it any other way! Best news of the whole week - Juliet is a confirmed member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! The baptism was absolutely beautiful. Incredibly enough Sorella McFarland was able to be here to see it! She had to come back to crotone to pick up her permesso, and it just turns out that the baptism happened to be the same weekend. We held the baptismal service Saturday evening and we ended up doing the baptism out in the sea. We were stressing a little bit the day of because a few of the roads were closed off that led out to the sea, so we ended up taking a long round-about way to get there and it took a bit longer than we thought it would. But in the end we got there just before sunset, and it was absolutely incredible. Juliet was thrilled, she could hardly even wait to get in the water. The whole day was very special, but my favorite part was when I had a few moments to walk with Juliet back to the car after the baptism. We were talking for a bit when she looked at me, smiled, and said "now I am a new person. I will start a whole new life." The next day she was confirmed a member and received the gift of the Holy Ghost. The spirit was so strong throughout both of the ordinances. Juliet has worked so hard and has made so many changes in her life to prepare herself to be baptized, I am so proud of her. But even more importantly we could all feel that God is proud of her. It was an incredible weekend.

We truly were so blessed this week, we saw so many miracles in our work. We finally got to talk to Salvo! He is back from vacation and we should see him soon. We also started to work with Vincenzo, the man who let us in while we were knocking doors this week. He has been so incredibly prepared to receive the gospel. We taught him two lessons this week and during that time he talked to us about how he has always just been searching for the right religion, but never felt like he found it. He decided to give up for a while, but then felt that God was telling him that he needed to listen to us. He has already started reading in the Book of Mormon and loves it. He loves the idea of prophets and how God can communicate to us through them. We are so excited to continue meeting with him. This week we also had a really great lesson with Roberta. For a long time we have been struggling with how we can help her. Obviously she is going through a really hard time, and very often I don't feel adequate to help her. But this week we felt that we just needed to talk to her about temples and the lesson went so well. We talked about eternal families and she was so touched by what we said. She talked about how for the first time she felt peace and hope, and we explained to her that we were here as missionaries to help people know for themselves that the message we bring is true. She told us she would start reading in the Book of Mormon this week, so we are hoping that things continue to go well. 

It has been incredible for me to see this week how much the Lord's hand really is in this work. We were able to contact a less active this week and we had a really good lesson with her. While we were talking with her she was expressing feelings of guilt and how she just felt like she had made too many mistakes in her life and she just wasn't good enough. Which are all things that I have felt at times as a missionary, at least to some degree. But I have had to learn to focus on the enabling power of the Atonement and gain a greater understanding of the love that God has for us. And because of the experiences that I have had I was able to reach out to her in a way that I wouldn't have been able to before. It was a really touching experience. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be here as a missionary and to be an instrument in the Lord's hands to reach out and bless other people. 

Thank you so much for all of your love, support, and prayers. I am so grateful for each of you! I hope you have a wonderful week. Talk to you soon :)

sorella marsh

June 15, 2015

Carissimi Miei,

Buon P-day! Gosh I can't believe I am already back here writing again. Somehow the weeks just keep flying by. But it was another great week for us here in Crotone!

First thing's first -  we are almost 100% ready for Juliette's baptism!! We have literally had to see her just about everyday this week to finish all of the lessons, but we will finish up the last one tonight and then she will be ready to go for her interview tomorrow. Meeting with her has seriously been the highlight of each day though. This week we finished up teaching her all of the commandments, and it has just been so incredible to see her make all the necesarry changes in her life to be baptized. And she is always so willing to do it! She seriously is incredible. The best story I can think of to describe her is when we taught her the law of tithing and fast offerings. We went through and explained both laws and in the end showed her how to fill out the tithing slip. When we asked her if she would live both of these commandments not only did she agree immediately without any hesitation, but she also asked us to translate the rest of the slip so she could understand what other organizations she could contribute to as well. She honestly just has the biggest heart - she is so willing to do anything and everything she can to help and serve someone else. I love her so much. So now we just have a full-filled week of actually planning the baptism and she will be ready to go! 

We have also seen a lot of good progress with our other investigators as well! We are continuing to teach Glory, she is so adorable. My favorite thing about teaching her is just seeing how much she loves the book of mormon. She carries it with her to each of our appointments and always brings it to church. In church if there are any scriptures read in class or in any talks she always opens up and tries her best to follow along. She always loves to read during our lessons and will stop us and ask us to explain words that she doesn't understand. She really is a sweetheart. We are continuing to work with Slesia as well! We have decided that in order to help her understand better the role of Christ we need to focus more of our teaching in the Book of Mormon and encourage her to be reading more. So this week we just sat together and started reading. She feels the Spirit when she is with us, we are just trying to help her understand that the Spirit that she feels is a testimony of the truth of what we say. She'll get there though. She is the sweetest, most gentle, and I think the most patient person on the planet. Please continue to keep her in your prayers, I know the gospel would help her so much. On that note I would also like to ask you to keep Roberta in your prayers as well. We have been continuing to work with her and she is still just having a really hard time with the loss of her husband and she really needs help and comfort at this time. 

I really do feel so blessed to be working here with all of these incredible people. We truly do see miracles everyday. This week there was the miracle of all miracles - get ready for this one. For the first time ever in my whole mission I was actually let in to someone's house while out knocking doors! We went out in the morning trying to contact some less actives. Incredibly enough we actually found one at home. After we left her house we went out to do some finding, when sorella puzey turned to me and asked if casa and casa usually worked in the area where we were at. I told her that I had never tried, but that it was worth a shot. So we trying to ring some doorbells, but turns out the door where we were at was broken and we couldnt actually get it. So we went to the palazzo next door. The first door we knocked the woman said she was busy, but that we could come back another day. Then we felt weird staying by her door, so we decided to go all the way up to the top of the palazzo and just work our way back down. We knocked the first door and no one answered, We moved on to the next door and a middle-aged man opened up. I told him that we were missionaries from our church and that we had a message about Jesus Christ and asked him if we could come in and share it. He shook his head yes and invited us in. At that point I just looked at Sorella Puzey completely cluless as to what to do. Haha luckily she maintained her senses. Turns out this mans name is vincenzo. He met some missionaries on the street years ago. He tried to come to our church but could never find it. We started talking a little bit about the Book of Mormon when he ran back to his room and got his copy that the missionaries had given him years ago. He agreed to meet with us again to talk some more! Can you believe that?? The Lord truly is preparing people.

I can't believe how blessed I am to have this opportunity to be a missionary! I truly do love this work and I am so grateful to be a part of it. Thank you so much for all of your support from back home. I love each of you so much! I hope you have a wonderful week, and I will talk to you soon!

Sorella Marsh

June 8, 2015

Carissimi Miei,

Buongiorno a tutti :) come state? I can't believe another week has already come and gone! It is great to hear from you all, I am glad that all is well back home. 

Things are going well for us here in Crotone! This week was a bit of a strange one, though. On Tuesday there was capi conference held in Rome but we participated through skype from Cosenza, another city in my area. So on Monday night we headed over and stayed the night before the conference. Unfortunately that Tuesday was also a holiday, which meant there was no public transportation running and no way for us to get home. So we just ended up spending a little bit more time in Cosenza with Sorella Hamilton and Sorella Jones! It was a bummer that we got back to our work later than expected, but it was so great to spend the day with those two. The conference was really great as well. Lots of much needed guidance and counsel for how we can help the work move forward here in Italy. 

But as always, it was great to get back home and get back to work. I love the people here and I am so excited and feel so blessed to be working with them. Slesia is progressing really well. Our main focus with her right now is still trying to help her understand the role of the Savior. This week we watched the movie Finding Faith in Christ together and just had a discussion afterwards. We asked her what she liked about it and she said she loved how Christ served and forgave others. We then talked about the Atonement and Christ's love for each of us, and it was a truly incredible moment. One of the most rewarding as a missionary. We were able to simply bear testimony of the reality of the Atonement and how we have felt it in our lives. The spirit was so strong, she is beginning to feel it. Please keep her in your prayers this week! 

After that lesson with Slesia I have been thinking a lot about charity and Christ's love for us. As I was thinking about it I realized that so many of the miracles that I have seen on my mission have been a result of us reaching out to make someone feel loved. For example, this week we wanted to go pass by a less active. We have been trying for about a transfer now to contact this less active but we have never had success. While we were walking over there Sorella Puzey had the idea to walk into a flower shop on the side of the road, just to be friendly and try to talk to some people about the gospel. The worker wasn't interested, but she was so kind and gave both Sorella Puzey and I a rose. We had no idea what to do with them, then we got the idea to take them to the less active member we wanted to stop by. We went to her home and she wasn't there, but the front door was open that let us into her apartment complex (divine intervention on that one). So we went up to her door and left the rose with a note saying that she could call us if she needed anything. Incredibly enough later that night we received a text from her telling us thank you for the note and the rose. Who knows what will happen in the future, but we were glad that we were able to reach out and contact this woman in some way and help her feel loved and cared about. That's what missionary work is all about anyway :)

Anyway, that is a tidbit of my thoughts these days. Our other investigators are doing great as well! Unfortunately we didn't get to see Juliette very much this week. There was a miscommunication and we thought she was out of town when really she leaves today to go to Milan. So we might have to postpone her baptism a bit just so that we have enough time to finish the lessons. She is doing really well though. Her testimony is growing each day and she is so excited to be baptized. This week we also started teaching her friend Glory. She is so cute! She is 18 years old and also from Nigeria. She has been to church 3 times with us and at the end of sacrament meeting yesterday Sorella Puzey said she overheard Glory praying for both of us by name. How could you not love her?!

We are also continuing to work with Roberta, and things are going well. This week we taught the Restoration and invited her to start reading in the Book of Mormon. She has an old copy from her husband, that was really neat to see. Things are also going well with Salvo! He left on vacation last week and won't be back until next week, so unfortunately we weren't able to meet with him at all but we have heard from him a few times and he said that he took his Book of Mormon with him! He has been reading it and says he finds it very interesting. So hopefully we'll be able to start up the lessons again in a few weeks.

Needless to say we are very blessed missionaries over here! As this precious time that I have to serve the Lord is starting to come to an end I have just constantly been overwhelmed with gratitude for the opportunity I have to serve as a missionary. I love this work and I love the people that we are doing it with. Thank you all so much for your love, support, and prayers. Talk to you next week!

Sorella Marsh

 The Roses

Steph was forwarded this picture: of the entire mission from the Elder Bednar Conference.

She titled it "Where's Waldo?"  She's funny!

June 1, 2015

Carissimi Miei,

Buongiorno a tutti! Here we are again at the start of a new transfer, can you believe it?! It still just seems so strange to me that it was 6 weeks ago that I first got here to Crotone, it does not feel that long at all. Luckily for me I will be sticking around :) I am happy to report that my new companion arrived safe and sound! She is fantastic, I am so excited to be working with her. Her name is Sorella Puzey and she is from Lehi, Utah. She is 21 years old and has been on her mission for about 7 months. She works so hard and just radiates light. Needless to say it should be a great transfer!

We have only been working together for a few days, but we have already seen huge miracles here in crotone. For starters, Slesia is making so much progress. In our lessons with her this week we focused mainly on Christ and His role in each of our lives. It has been a really interesting experience teaching her because a lot of these concepts and ideas aren't new to her, it's just that she's never felt for herself that they are actually true. It reminds me a lot of the talk "the music of the gospel" from this past general conference. Her whole life she has been taught a lot of the steps, but has never really felt the music for herself. But she is progressing more and more each day. She is continuing to read, pray, and come to church, and with each of those she is feeling the spirit increasingly. It has been really incredible to see how, little by little, she is starting to "hear the music" through the spirit. It has also been a really neat experience teaching her because it forces us to go back to the basics and really consider how we got a testimony of these basic doctrines for ourselves and how we first felt that these things were true so that we can help her feel it as well. I feel very blessed to have the opportunity to work with her.

Juliette is doing great as well! We are just finishing up the review on all the lessons and we are right on track to have her be ready for her baptism! She is so excited, it is so cute. She is the greatest missionary I have ever seen. Every week she brings at least 2 friends with her to church and tells us that they want to be taught the gospel. She is a referral machine. The best part is to hear her share her testimony with her friends though about she knows that our church is the real church of Christ. This week we were also able to meet with Roberta, and things are going well! Actually a pretty incredible story happened with her this week. So before Sorella McFarland left Roberta wanted to have us over for dinner. While we were there she also invited a friend to eat with us. After the meal was over we did a spiritual thought about the Book of Mormon. As we were talking about it her friend jumps in and says "oh yeah, I have one of those. The missionaries gave it to me about a year ago. I never read it, though. I think I will start reading it tonight." Needless to say we encouraged him to do so, and told him we would love to talk about it another day. Miracles all around!

Speaking of miracles, this week we picked up two new investigators and I am so stoked to tell you guys about them. Their names are Salvo and Giovanni. So last week we had to got to the train station to try and get sorella mcfarland a train ticket to go to palermo. We did to run over before DDM, but the machine wasn't working so we just had to leave and try again later. While we were turning to go Salvo stopped us, asking us if we were American. We told him yes, and that we were missionaries for our church. We then gave him a pass along card and didn't think much of it. Then later that day he texted us asking if he could come meet with us in the church. We set up an appointment for a few days later. Sure enough he showed up, and even brought his friend Giovanni. He truly is so prepared for the gospel. During out first lesson together Salvo told us his experience at the train station. He told us that it was as if someone had grabbed him, turned him around, and said "talk to those girls". He was raised a catholic, but doesn't practice much because he feel that there is a lot of corruption in the church. During our last lesson we taught the Restoration, and at the end we gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon. After we said the prayer he looked up at us with tears in his eyes and said "I am so happy - I have never had a bible of my own. I have never had a book like this to hold in my hands and to call my own. Thank you." I was so struck by how much he treasured that book - made me think about how many times I have taken it for granted in my own life. We are really excited to see where things go with him.

I truly do feel so blessed to be here as a representative of Jesus Christ and to do this work. Thank you all so much for your love, support, and prayers that have carried me throughout my mission until this point. I hope you know that I have felt and continue to feel them each and every day. I love you all so much. Have a great week :)

sorella marsh

May 25, 2015

Carissimi Miei,

Hello everyone! Happy p-day! Can you believe that the month of may is almost over?! What the devil! This one seriously just flew by. It feels like I just got to crotone, but somehow or another another month and another transfer has gone by. We got our transfer calls this week and it is confirmed that I will be finishing my mission here in Crotone! Which I am thrilled about :) we have so many incredible things going on over here and I am so excited to finish out working with these people. Sorella McFarland, however, is being sent to the blessed land of Palermo! I have been talking her ear off about it for days. Haha so you know what that means, I will be getting a new companion. Her name is Sorella Puzey and she is in the same group as Sorella Jones, so she has been serving for about 6 months now. I have never met her but I have heard great things about her, so I am excited to start working with her. It will be sad to see Sorella McFarland go though, I have really loved serving with her. But also with these transfer calls we got some fantastic news - sorella jones will be coming to serve in the calabria zone! Which means that I will get to do exchanges with her these last few weeks, so I couldn't be more thrilled about that. So that is what this next transfer has in store!

The work here is going great, growing more and more each day. This week we saw a lot of progress with our investigators, which is so exciting. This week we were able to meet with Juliette and fix a baptismal date! She is now officially preparing herself to be baptized on the 20th of June :) obviously we are thrilled about that. She is continuing to listen to the Book of Mormon and her testimony is growing day by day. This week she brought her sister and a few of her friends to church and during the gospel priciples lesson she bore her testimony about how the leaders in our church are real prophets of god. So awesome! 

This week we also saw a lot of progress with Slesia. More than anything else our relationship with her grew a lot. She was having a bit of a rough week so we decided to take a step back from the lessons and just take some time to talk with her. During one of our lessons we felt like we needed to show her the talk "forget me not" by President Uchtdorf. She absolutely loved it! At the end we were able to have a discussion about what he said and she told us how listening to his words helped her feel at peace, and that she was a loved daughter of God. Such a rewarding moment as a missionary - to be part of the process of helping someone else feel the love that God has for them. She texted us a few days later asking for the website where we watched the talk so that she could listen to it again. She came to church as well and seemed to really love it. It is so exciting to see the progress she is making. 

This week we also continued to work with one of less active families that we delivered brownies to. Their names are Sorella Tristaino and her daughter, Valentina. This week when we visited we felt like we needed to talk to them about temples and try to help them have a goal to go there. The lesson went really well, they absolutely loved listening to everything we had to say about temples and the love of God that we can feel while we are there. It was really incredible to see the complete change of heart that they had in comparison to the first few times that we tried to stop by and do small little spiritual thoughts together. There was a pretty incredible spirit when we talked about the temples that really touched them. Such an incredible blessing that our Heavenly Father has given us.

And to finish off we've got a highlight from the week. But it has some background, so let me explain. This week sorella McFarland and I decided that we wanted to focus on serving the members. The problem is that if you just go up to someone and say "how can I serve you?" most of the time they wont tell you anything that you can do. So we decided that to serve the member we wanted go and "heart attack" them. This week we had planned to attack the Sarcone family. I dont remember if I have already said this, but our investigator Roberta is the daughter in law of the Sarcone family. So yesterday we walked over to their house with all of our cut out hearts in a bag ready to do the deed, when we noticed that their was someone out on their front porch. As week got closer we realized that it was Roberta, and just as we were about turn and bolt she saw us -- caught red handed in the act. Words can't describe the look of pure confusion on her face. Haha she called out her mother in law, sister sarcone, who looked equally confused, and asked what we were doing. The only thing we could think to respond was "oh we are just passing by to say hi, we have a little thought that we want to share with you." Then horror filled our whole souls as we realized that we had to walk into this families home with nothing but a poorly cut out, wrinkled paper heart with a quote from president monson written on it. Haha I've never felt so sheepish. But they were nice about it, in the end we just ended up telling them the truth and we all laughed about it. What can ya do.

So needless to say, the work is going great and we are finding joy in the journey every step of the way. Thank you all so much for your constant love, support, and prayers. I am so grateful for each of you! Have a great week, talk to you soon :)

sorella marsh

May 18, 2015

Carissimi Miei,

Buongiorno a tutti! So great to hear from you all this week :) as always thank you for all of the pictures, videos, and emails! I'm so glad to hear that all is well back home.

As for me this week was a pretty crazy one. At the beginning of the week we headed off to Taranto for another scambio. Which went well! The city is absolutely beautiful there, and it is always a great experience to work with other missionaries and see their way of doing things. Also, I dont remember if I told you guys about this, but when Elder and Sister Teixiera came for the mission conference a few months ago sister Teixiera extended us an invite to read the Book of Mormon in 65 days. And while I was in Taranto I finished! But I need to explain. So while Elder and Sister Teixiera were here they did 3 mission conferences to cover all of the missionaries, if that makes sense. Basically they split all the missionaries up into 3 groups and did 3 conferences. However, not all 3 conferences were the same. Similar things were said, but also somethings that were different were said. Turns out the mission conference that I was at was the only one where Sister Teixiera extended that invite to the missionaries. As I finished the Book of Mormon I was thinking about why it was important for me to be at that conference and why I specifically needed to receive that invite. As I thought about what I had learned as I read the Book of Mormon I realized that this time through I felt like I had just gotten to know the Savior so much more. I came to a greater understanding of who He is and especially how much He loves us. I was pondering that and thinking about why it would be so important for me to know those things when I realized that this assignment was given to us during my last few weeks in rome and my first few weeks in crotone, where some of my main investigators have been Anna and Slesia - an atheist, and a buddhist. I think it was so important for me to read the book of mormon during this time to help me realize how powerfully it teaches of Christ to all people, despite their religious background.  Anyway, I dont know if any of that made sense, but just thought that I would share :) 

Then when we came back to crotone there was a HUGE catholic festival during the weekend and so the city was just packed with food booths, carnival games, and so many people. Which made missionary work a bit difficult, but we still made it work :)  Since proselyting wouldn't be the most effective during the big hours of the festival we decided that we would make brownies for some of the people we have been trying to working with and write them little notes to tell them that we love and appreciate them. We dropped them all off and didnt think anything of it, until the next day when we had two people set up appointments for us to visit them this week. So there you have it - the converting power of American sweets!

We did manage to squeeze some lessons in though, and things here are going well! Slesia is making a lot of progress. She has started reading in the Book of Mormon and so far she says she likes it. What is the greatest though is listening to how her prayers are becoming more sincere and more hearfelt. It is really beautiful. This week we also met with Roberta and she is doing well! We continued to talk about the plan of salvation, but this time we focused on the Atonement and its enabling power. She is incredible woman. All of the trials that she has gone through haven't shaken her faith in the slightest. This week we also saw some great progress with Juliette. For the first time ever she came to Relief Society! We have been pushing for weeks to get her to come to more than just sacrament meeting, and she finally came. Later that night we went to have a lesson with her and we focused on the prophet Joseph Smith. When we asked her why Joseph Smith was important she just smiled and said "he is so important because he helped us have the real church. He asked God and believed he would have an answer. And now we have the real church of Christ." She is so great. We are really excited about the progress she is making. 

So despite all the craziness it was a great week! Not to mention that Sorella McFarland and I earned another rite of passage as missionaries - this week we were popped on by a bird. The same bird, in fact. Talk about killing two birds with one stone. So now I can cross that one off the list. Haha but needless to say things are going well! Lots of exciting things going on over here, I am so grateful that I get to be a part of it. Love you all so much! Until next week :)

sorella marsh

May 11, 2915

Carissimi Miei,

It was SO great to see you all this week! Seriously I have just been on cloud 9 these past few days. Thanks everyone so much for making the skype call happen! I really am convinced that I am the most blessed sister missionary. And of course Happy Mother's day to our wonderful angel mother. What on earth would we do without her? Love you mom :) 

This week was a fantastic one for us here in Crotone! I have lots to tell you guys about. This week we got started on our exchanges with the other sisters so we had the sorelle from Cosenza with us for a few days, which was fantastic. Twice the amount of work done in the same amount of time, what more could you ask for? They are incredible missionaries too. We have been seeing lots of blessings from the work they did here with us. One of which includes our new investigator Slesia! She is so fantastic. So sorella McFarland and I actually met her at the beginning of the week just on the street. The day was almost over so we were on the way home when we saw one more person on the street, so we decided to stop her before heading home. She said she was interested in learning more so we set up a return appointment for a few days later. However because we were doing the scambio during that day Sorella McFarland and one of the sorelle from cosenza went to the lesson, and had wonderful things to report. Turns out that during that lessons she said that she felt like she never really found a religion that felt right to her, but in these days she tends towards buddhism. But she is filled with a desire to learn. She just soaks up everything that we teach to her and even better she is willing to act on it. She even accepted the invite to be baptized and came to church with us yesterday - for all three hours! She is fantastic, we are really excited to be working with her.

Another great miracle of the week - we contacted a long lost referral! So when I first got to the area there was the name Roberta on our board. She is the daughter in law of one of our members and was given as a referral a few months ago, if I remember right. The sorelle in the past tried to contact her and set up an appointment, but I guess it just never worked out. But this week while we were doing weekly planning we had a feeling that we should call her again, so we did. She picked up the phone and we asked her if we could come by to see her and she said "well I'm free this afternoon if you want to come by" to which we quickly responded yes. Haha so we headed over to her home and she is just the sweetest woman. Her husband passed away very tragically a few months ago so she is going through a very difficult time. Honestly it broke my heart listening to how much she was hurting. But I found so much comfort in knowing that we could give her exactly what she needed to heal. We left her with a pamphlet of the Plan of Salvation and we will go back this week to follow up on it. 

Our other investigators are doing great as well! We are continuing to work with Juliette, and this week we officially started working with her daughter Victory again! They are such a cute family and we think that we are going to see a lot of great things with them. Unfortunately we weren't able to see Rossana and Teresa again this week, but we are hoping to meet with them again soon. And the D'Agostino family is doing well. Unfortunately Raffaela has gotten pretty sick again, so we haven't been able to stop by in these days. But we hear from each other frequently on the phone and we hope to visit them soon. 

Needless to say, it has been a pretty incredible week :) I love doing the work of the Lord. We have got a few pretty exciting weeks ahead of us. After the conference with Elder Bednar President Waddoups announced that he has raised the standards of excellence for our mission. Which means we've got work to do! It is so exciting to be a part of though, and so rewarding to think that the work we are doing now is going to change the way that future missionaries will serve here in Italy. The Lord really is hastening His work, and I feel so blessed that I get to take a part in it. I love you all so much! Have a great week!

Sorella Marsh

May 4, 2015

Carissimi Miei,

Hello everyone! Can't believe we are already back here again. Feels weird writing again so soon! But just as great to hear from everyone :) thanks for your support and for writing each week. I am one incredibly blessed sister missionary - thank you thank you thank you! So today I want to give you a bit more of an update about life here in Crotone! The only problem is that by now I have no idea what I've already told you about, so apologies if I repeat some things. 

First off I'll tell you about the investigators we are working with. In these past few weeks we have spent a lot of time working with Juliette and her daughter Victory who is about 9 years old. They are from Nigeria and have both been meeting with the missionaries off and on for about 6 months. Right now we are trying really hard to work with them together as a family and help them progress towards baptism. It will be quite the progress, but they are so fantastic. The other day we were teaching a lesson about the importance of reading the scriptures and when I asked Juliette why she thought it was important to read the scriptures everyday she said "because the scriptures are like a medicine. If we do not take we will be sick." I loved that! They are such a cute family. She has one other little boy as well, his name is Elliot. He is about a year and a half and he has stolen my heart. This week he has officially learned to call me marsh :)

As for our other investigators this past week we started working with a family! The sorelle met Rossana on the street before I got here, but we were just able to set up an appointment with her before leaving to Rome. When we got to her home Rossana, her daughter, and two sons all sat in on the lesson. We explained a little bit about our purpose as missionaries and did an introduction to the Book of Mormon and they absolutely loved it. They are going through a lot of trials as a family right now and are just seeking to be closer to God. They are really wonderful people. 

Here in Crotone we are also working with quite a few less actives, so I am thrilled about that. I wish I could tell you about all of them, but there is one story that I wanted to share. So one of the less actives that we are working with is named Daniella. She is married and has 2 kids, one of which is also baptized. Her name is Raffaela. When I first got to Crotone we called Daniella to see if we could pass by and visit and she told us that Raffaela wasn't well so they were in the hospital. Turns out Raffaela had to stay in the hospital for about a week, and throughout that time we visited her frequently. We would go and read stories from the Liahona, sing hymns, and play games to help her pass the time. It was a heartbreaking experience to see Raffaela so sick in the hospital, but it was pretty incredible to see that after that time their hearts had completely opened up. During our last visit before we left to Rome they were asking us when we could come visit them in their home to read more stories together. So we are excited about that :) and we've heard that Raffaela is doing much better as well. 

So that is a little bit more about life here in Crotone! We've been so blessed in seeing lots of miracles this week. We are definitely seeing some good things with the work here and we are excited to move forward. So it should be a great week! I love you all so much and I am so grateful for all you do for me. Can't wait to see you all on SATURDAY! Hooray :) 

a presto!

sorella marsh


***Note from Steph's mom: Stephanie gave me some information about the Sr. couple that is serving in Crotone.  They have some marvelous pictures on their blog http://bullockitalymission.blogspot.com
Here are some that are from when Steph first got to Crotone.

Branch members who were able to make the trip to Cosenza on Sunday 

Sorelle MacFarland and Marsh drove back to Crotone with the Bullocks

 Celebrating Sorella McFarland's birthday on April 27!

 Going to Rome for Elder Bednar's special training.   Airport hang out! The Airport is officially closed, but the workers continue to keep the place open. 

Only Ryan air flies in and out of here.

  Elder Williams has been playing a game with the missionaries  for weeks. They had been finding little stones about the apartment, really glass that has been broken and then ground and smoothed by ? and they turn into these stones that look like clear green stone. Sorella Bullock thought it was Sorella McFarland all this time and one of her Island traditions. BUT no it was Elder Williams, We we made necklaces out of them and worn them to Rome.

Missionaries at the mission home before a couple of them went home after honorably completing their missions.

April 30, 2015

Carissimi Miei,

Buongiorno a tutti! I'm sorry that last p-day I didn't explain very well what was going on this week, I didn't mean to leave you all in confusion. This week we were incredibly blessed as a mission. We had the opportunity to have a conference with Elder Bednar, Elder Teixiera, and Brother Allen to discuss our mission receiving i-pads. Our mission is one of the European missions that has been chosen as a testing group with the new technology. That conference was on Tuesday, so we spent last Monday traveling up to Rome, Tuesday at the conference, Wednesday traveling back, and now here we are with P-day on Thursday! Next p-day will be on Monday again so everything will be back to normal then :) but because I will be writing again so soon I wanted to wait to give you more updates about Crotone next week, and just focus my e-mail today about my experience at the conference. 

  

Needless to say the conference was an incredible experience. I'll be honest though, it was absolutely nothing like how I thought it would be. After we sang the opening song, said the opening prayer, and got the chairs all situated, Elder Bendar got up to the pulpit and the first thing he said was "today is not about i-pads." And sure enough the longer the meeting went on the truer that statement became. The hole conference was set up as a discussion. Elder Bednar would ask us questions, we would respond, and it was completely guided by the spirit. That was one of the things that stood out to me the most in the conference, was how Elder Bendar taught. Nothing about the conference was a presentation, it was a discussion based off of our needs and our concerns. By the end of the conference we had been uplifted and edified and had been completely involved throughout the entire conference. It was an incredible example, and something I want to try to improve in my own teaching. 

Throughout the conference Elder Bednar, Elder Teixiera, and Brother Allen covered a whole range of topics, but I wanted to share with you a few that really stood out to me. What stood out to me from what Elder Bednar taught us was just the importance of action. He spoke to us a lot about moral agency and that we are each agents, not objects.  An agents acts, an object is acted upon. He also related that to our investigators in the sense that they are also agents and we can't make them objects. Until they choose to act they can't accept the message of the gospel, and they can't act until we invite them to do something. That was an idea that really struck me. I was also really touched by what Elder Teixiera said to us. He focused almost all of his remarks on the idea that missionary work really isn't about us. He mentioned that when we get into new situations we tend to focus inwards and be concerned about our own needs. I felt like his message was particularly for me, especially since I have been transferred to a new area. It is so easy to become concerned with ourselves and our needs in these times when everything is new, but Elder Teixiera counseled us that it is during these times that we need to focus even more on serving others. He encouraged us to think of how we can use this new situation with the use of technology to reach out and serve more people. I loved that idea, that this new technology will just be a tool to help us help more people to feel the love of our Savior. Elder Allen focused a bit more on the logistics of the new ipads, but one thing that he said really stood out to me. He said "if you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always got." During his remarks you could just feel how much this new technology can lift the work and how it will help us to get those new results. But what really stood out to me was the message that the ipad will just be another tool to add to our resources. He still encouraged us to go through preach my gospel and find new ideas and things that we haven't put into practice yet. 

I wish I had more time to be able to tell you more about the conference, but for me those were a few of the highlights. Needless to say it was a pretty incredible experience, we are a very blessed mission. We should be getting the i-pads within the next couple weeks, and we are so excited to put into practice everything that we learned. But in the end I honestly am just grateful for the opportunity I had to go and learn from each of those men, and their spouses. Just like Elder Bednar said, "it's not about the i-pads." It is about becoming more converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ, then reaching out and helping others to do the same. 

I love you each so much! I am so grateful for all of your love, support, and prayers. I hope you have a wonderful week and I will talk to you soon!

Sorella Marsh

touring the Castel on P-day

 Meet Elliot, our investigator's little boy. He is SO dang cute. He calls me marsh :)

An iPad mission

Stephanie's usual day to email home was changed this week due to some special training meetings since her mission will now be using iPads.  Elder Bednar and Elder Allen have forwarded these pictures to us and to my Dad for which I am most grateful!  Elder Bednar even sent my Dad a note with this picture:

 The following 2 pictures were sent to Rick by Elder Allen:

Exciting time to be a missionary with an iPad!  And I am so grateful for thoughtful people who send us pictures of our daughter!

District Conference

Steph had mentioned last week that she had a zone conference.  I was grateful to find pictures of that conference on Sister Waddoups' blog.  Here you go:

"The Calabria District is the only remaining district in our mission boundaries.  This area is distant from any other area where the church is stronger and has stakes and wards.  The Calabria District consists of 4 very small branches and is lead by a District President who reports directly to President Waddoups,  They hold semi-annual district conferences just like any other part of the church.  Their meetings are just smaller.  The meetings were held in Cosenza."

Calabria - Combination of members, missionaries, and investigators

 MIssionaries in Calabria District

 Sorelle in Calabria

April 20, 2015

Carissimi Miei,

Okay first thing's first - TANTI AUGURI to Dantzel and Oliver e la bellissima principessa Ginny!!! She seriously is the sweetest most precious little girl, and she is absolutely beautiful! I can feel her sweet spirit all the way over here on the other side of the globe. I am so happy for you and your little family! Can't wait to snuggle her :)

As for me, buongiorno from Crotone! Made it here safe and sound :) Everything went well with transfer day and we are ready to go! So far I absolutely love it here. Crotone is basically the opposite of Rome. It is a small small city, but it is right on the ocean. And surprisingly enough there are actually a ton of people here. There is a beautiful walk right along the beach where we like to do a lot of our finding, which is great. As far as the area goes it actually reminds me a lot of my beloved Pozzuoli. So that has been fun to feel like I am in a similar area again. My new companion is Sorella McFarland and she is from California. She is going into her third transfer so she has lot of energy and excitement about the work. We've got a lot of great things in store!

The church down here is a small branch. On the ward list we have about 60 members, but only about 15-20 come to church regularly. So we've got some work to do to get things growing here! I have only met a few of the members so far, but they seem absolutely fantastic. There are a few returned missionaries who help us out a lot with our work, which is a huge blessing. We are also so blessed to have a senior couple here. Anziano Bullock is the branch president here in Crotone so we work pretty closely with them. They are an incredible couple. 

So that's the low down on things here! In these past few days I have been able to meet some our investigators and less actives, and we even have some new converts as well! So there is a lot of great work going on down here, I am really excited to be a part of it. This weekend was our district conference in Cosenza so I haven't really spent much time in Crotone yet, but I am excited for what is in store. 

So it should be exciting! I have to admit though, my heart was just a little torn to be leaving Rome. I feel so blessed for the opportunity I had to serve those people. They truly just stole my heart. This last week was so hectic trying to say goodbye to everyone, but there was one experience that I wanted to share with you guys. Before I left we were able to have one last lesson with Anna. In our lesson last week she promised us that before I left she would try to say a prayer, so we knew that this lesson we would have to follow up on that. We fasted and prayed to know what to say to help her have the courage to say a prayer and from the minute the day started the opposition was so real. It was insane. Just so many things kept happening throughout the day to both me and Sorella Jones but at the end of the day we finally made it to Anna's house. Even during the lesson there were so many random distractions and disruptions that usually don't happen, always when the spirit was strongest. For our lesson we read together from the book of mormon about king lamoni's experience and how he gained his testimony. From the story we focused on verse 16 of Alma 22, when aaron promised to king lamoni that he can have the hope he desires. We promised Anna that if she prayed that God would respond to her and she could receive more hope that he was there. She agreed to pray, and I wish I could describe in words how beautiful the experience was. The spirit that we felt was so pure and strong. It brought me, sorella jones, and anna to tears. She offered the most sincere and heartfelt prayer, and we all felt Heavenly Father reaching out to her in love as a response. It is one of my most treasured experiences as a missionary. 

I am so grateful for the opportunity to be here. I love serving the Lord and bringing this message of joy to other people. Thank you all so much for your love and support. I love you each so much. 

Until next week!

sorella marsh

A Recent Stephanie Sighting!

I received this awesome email!  I am so blessed to be Steph's mom!

Dear Laurie,

My husband and I are vacationing in Italy and met your beautiful
missionary daughter in Cozensa at district conference. We are from
Denver. My husband's cousin and his wife, Elder and Sister Bullock, are
the senior missionary couple serving in Crotone and we are spending the
weekend with them.

We are so impressed with your missionary. You can be very pleased with
the service she is giving. She is bright and joyful. It is obvious that
she loves the Italian saints and investigators. We served in the Ghana
Accra mission, so we have seen a lot of missionaries and can spot the
gems :)  She's a jewel!

Attached are some photos we snapped at district conference.

Best wishes,

Carolee Scoville