March 30, 2015

Carissimi Miei,

Buongiorno a tutti! Come state? It was so great to hear from you all this week! Thanks for always writing and keeping me updated about what is going on at home. Especially with the two little ones on the way :) I'm glad that all is well with everyone!

This week was another great one for us! This week we got started with our scambio's. Because Sorella Clyde went home last transfer Sorella Margheriti is now my STL companion, so that means that both Sorella Jones and I got to head out to rome 5 this week for exchanges! It went really well. I spent the day with Sorella Battezzato and learned so much from her. She is just a powerhouse. Each time we go out to do exchanges I feel so humbled to be serving in this position. I feel like I learn so much more from these girls than I could ever teach them. I'm grateful I get the opportunity to interact with so many other missionaries. 

But needless to say it is always great to get back to our own area and get to work. We saw a lot of great progress with our people this week :) first let's talk about Anna. We were able to do a little bit of follow up about her experience at church, and she really enjoyed it! She had a few questions, of course, but overall she said she really liked being there. Unfortunately she wasn't able to come again this week because she made plans to go visit her sister, but we'll keep our hopes up for the future. She is making such great progress though. We have been focusing our lessons on the Godhead and helping her to understand who God is. We have done lessons about God and Christ so this week we decided to do a lesson on the Holy Ghost. The lesson went so well. Anna is very sensitive to the spirit, and admits that she feels it when we are with her. So this week we did a lesson on how the Spirit is sent from God. We talked about how we can feel the spirit and know it is real and she finishes the sentence and says "logically that means that God is real too." She didn't even fight us on it! Little by little she is progressing :) the most beautiful part to me though is to see her understand more and more about how much God loves us. I think having a knowledge of that is something I have taken advantage of for a long time.

Our other investigators are doing great as well! Unfortunately we had some scheduling conflicts so we weren't able to have an actual lesson with Stefany and Sonia, but Stefany came to our English course and Sonia came to church so we were still able to talk with them this week. They really are so incredible. Stefany is so smart and has such a huge desire to learn. Sonia is so commited. We were sitting in gospel principles yesterday and she was asking question after question and turns to me afterwards and says sorry for asking so many questions, i just want to make sure I really understand before I make any decisions about joining the church. Never any problems with that! We got some appointments set up for this week so we are excited to really start working with them. 

We also saw a lot of good progress with our less actives and new converts this week. Leonardo and Moses are still goin strong! I love working with them. It's one of my favorite things to see the difference that the gospel has made in these people's lives. We are also making some good progress with our less actives! Little by little they're testimonies are growing again :)

So needless to say it was a great week! We were also lucky enough to watch the womens general session of conference! One of the American members here was so kind and invited all the english speakers over to her home to watch it. It was so great. I absolutely loved all the messages from the conference, but especially the overall emphasis on the family. It was a bit of a tear-jerker, but so so good :) I just want to take the opportunity to tell you all how much I love you. I am so grateful to be a part of our family, I can't believe how blessed I am. Thank you all for your constant support and your righteous examples. I am so grateful for the knowledge we have that our family can be eternal. I hope you know that you are each a part of the work that I do each day. This conference is off to a good start!

Love you! I hope you all have a wonderful week, and a wonderful Easter! Ci sentiamo presto!

sorella marsh

March 23, 2015

Carissimi Miei,

Hey everyone! So great to hear from you all this week :) talking with you guys is always the highlight of every p-day! It was a pretty incredible week for us over here in Rome, I am so excited to tell you all about it! 

So this week we had our mission conference and it was absolutely incredible. Exactly what we needed to give us a push forward with our work. We were blessed enough to have Elder Teixeira and his wife come and train us. He even pulled me aside afterwards and told me that he was Sam Webster's mission president! So that was fun for me :) anyway Elder Teixeira spoke to us about the importance of focusing on our key indicators, specifically finding new investigators. He gave us different methods and techniques of things that we could do to improve our finding, and it has already made such a huge difference! They were the most simple things like how to use the pass along cards to approach people or how to use the Book of Mormon in street contacting, but it seriously has already completely lifted our work. I've been doing it all wrong for the past year! Haha so needless to say I was incredibly grateful for this conference. The revelation we recieved was definitely inspired and I am excited to put it into practice.

So it has only been a few days but we have already started to see such incredible miracles. First off - Anna came to church. Yes, you read that right, Anna our atheist investigator came to church!! But I am getting ahead of myself. We saw a lot of incredible progress with her this week. So in these past few weeks we have been getting a lot of direction from our leaders here to use genealogy more in our work. Elder Allen talked about it when he came a few weeks ago, and also our district leader has been encouraging us to be more involved with family history work. As we were preparing for our lesson with Anna sorella jones and I both felt that family history was something we should share with her I'll be honest, I was a bit aprehensive at first just because up until this point we have had to go pretty slow in our lessons with her. We have to explain just a little doctrine each time and slowly build on it. But we felt like we had received a prompting, so we went for it. And the lesson went so well. Honestly we didn't go into much detail, but it gave us the opportunity to bear testimony about how families are eternal. Anna's family is the most important thing to her, especially her sister who passed away a few years ago. The spirit was so strong during the lesson, it was absolutely beautiful. 

At the end of the lesson she agreed to meet with us the next day to do a little tour of the church, and that also went really well. She really enjoyed the simplicity of our building and there was a beautiful spirit there. At the end of the tour she agreed to come to church with us the next day! I think she really enjoyed it.She definitely was overwhelmed at some points, but she absolutely loved gospel principles. She hasn't agreed to come back again yet, but we are really hopeful for what will happen :) please keep her in your prayers. This time is going to be so crucial for her.

Another miracle from this week - we got two new absolutely golden investigators! Their names are Sonia and Stefany and they were a referral from a member in our ward. Sonia was raised a catholic but is very interested in our church and what we believe, and stefany is her daughter. We met them this week when they came to an FHE that our ward members put together. But, incredibly enough, they showed up about 15 minutes early and asked us to show them the church. So we did church tour number two! I can't believe how prepared these two are for the gospel. Sonia told us that she feels like God has called out to her so many times in her life but she just hasnt listened, but she feels like she is ready now. And stefany is so dang cute. She is 14 years old and during the church tour I took her into the young womens room and she just about died when she saw the picture of christ in the americas because they are from peru. Then the next day they both came to church! And they absolutely loved it. We have an appointment with them this week and we are super excited about it. 

Last miracle I wanted to tell you about -- remember forever ago when I told you guys about the aquaviva family? Giovanni is a less active member but his wife and two children are all non members. Well they went to peru for the entire months of december and january, but they are finally back! We were able to go meet with them this week and I couldn't be more happy to report that we will be continuing to work with them :) we taught the restoration and his wife became a new investigator! They are such a cute family with so much potential. Giovanni still has a solid testimony, and what better way to help him come back into activity than to bring his family with him? Needless to say we are excited about it.

So we have got a lot of incredible things going on over here. Our work is growing and I just feel so grateful that I got to stay here for another transfer to be a part of it! Thank you for all of your love, support, and prayers. I love you all so much and I will talk to you soon!

sorella marsh

us and the Acquaviva family!  They are the cutest ever!  

 our investigator from Egypt, his name is George and he gave us flowers this week that smell like they came straight from HEAVEN!  He is so nice! 

 Meet the district. Here we are celebrating Anziano Calvagna's birthday for p-day

 Happy St. Patty's!

 remember this face?? I got to see my MTC companion sorella sorensen at the mission conference! greatest ever :)

One more picture of the mission conference (Rome East) from the Mission President's blog 

March 16, 2015

Carissimi Miei,

Hello everyone! I can't believe another week has come and gone and I am already here at the computer again. But so great to hear from you all this week. Come sempre :) I'm glad to hear that all is well with everyone! Thanks for all of the pictures and emails - they truly are the highlight of every p-day. Also thank you so much for the st patricks day package!! The new sister that i am serving with is from Colombia, and the caramel brownies literally changed her life. Haha you're a miracle worker mom. 

We had a great week over here in Roma 1! Definitely got the new transfer started off right :) we saw so many miracles and we are already seeing our work start to grow again. Fist off I want to tell you guys about James and Anna. So, a few weeks ago Sorella Jones and I were waiting at a bus stop to go to the church. It was a new bus stop so we weren't quite sure what busses we could take, so we just got on one of the first ones that came and figured it would be fine. Once we got on we saw two people kinda pointing at us and talking in spanish. We had no idea what they were saying until they mumbled the word "mormones." We quickly jumped in and said si! Siamo noi! Haha turns out Anna is a member! She was baptized in Equador about 15 years ago, but lost contact with the church when she moved to Italy. Here she met her husband james who is from El Salvador and he isn't a member. Anna said she wanted to start coming to church again so we exchanged numbers and said we would be in contact. Well it took a few weeks, but yesterday we were finally able to get them to come to church! Anna loved it, she was so thrilled to be back. And james came with her! They agreed to let us come over this week to start teaching james more about our church :) 

This week we were also got a new investigator! His name is George and he is fantastic. Crazily enough he is from Egypt, but has been living in Italy for about 20 years. He is a student from our English course and just one day after class he came up to us and asked us if we could explain to him more about our church. Of course we quickly agreed. I can't remeber if I already told you this, but he actually ended up coming to a baptism that we held in our building last week and he really enjoyed it. We were only to meet with him shortly this week, but the lesson went really well! He is a Christian and he said he loves coming to our church and listening to us talk about Christ during our spiritual thoughts. Such an incredible tender mercy! 

Okay next - get this. So last week at english course one of our students who is an ex-investigator came up to us and said that she wanted to have gospel discussions again. We weren't quite sure what she wanted to be talking about but we agreed to meet with her again. So this week we had an appointment and it was a really great experience. She has been having some personal problems with her work right now and she said she wasn't really sure where to turn to try and find help. She remembered what the other sisters had taught her and decided to try and find help in the Book of Mormon and that is what she wanted to talk to us about. Isnt that incredible! You never know what good will come out of the things you do. She didn't agree to start taking the lessons again, but she said she would read the chapters in the book of mormon that we gave her and she would talk about it with us. 

So as you can see we had some pretty incredible things going on this week :) and our other people are still doing great as well! We met with Anna this week and she is still continuing to progress. She asked us why we end our prayers in the name of Jesus Christ, so this week we did a lesson on the role of the Savior. It was so neat to see her understanding of the importance of Christ increase. This week she agreed to come to the church so we can show her around a bit in hopes that she will feel more comfortable coming to church with us. So we are hoping all goes well with that!

Our new converts are still going strong! We met with Moses this week and did a lesson on the sacrament to try and help him understand the importance of coming to church everyweek. During the lesson we asked him how he felt the day of his baptism and he just smiles and says "i felt so good. It was like paradise." I love the man! We then told him that he can feel that way everyweek when he comes to take the sacrament. He told us that right now he is signed up to be in a choir in another church, but after that he will make sure he comes to church everyweek :) and leonardo is still doing great as well! This week we got him started on his geneology work and he should be recieving the priesthood soon. I don't remember if I've told you abou this, but we are still also working with the new convert who lives in Egypt. Her name is Safaa. She is having a lot of difficulties with the situation she is living in right now. She can't talk much about her religious life and she is under a lot of stress trying to raise her two boys. We wanted to try and help her so this week we did a lesson on the Savior and how she should try and think of Him and what He would do and then try to follow his example. She absolutely loved it. It just brought be back to how simple and beautiful the gospel is. We literally did a whole lesson on the concept of "what would jesus do" and it was everything that she needed to hear.

So needless to say we've been seeing lots of miracles over here. We're definitely starting to see the work grow, and I am so excited to be a part of it. I love being a missionary here in this area at this time. Thank you so much for all of your love, support, and prayers. I am so grateful for each and everyone of you. I hope you have a great week and I'll talk to you soon!

sorella marsh

A Surprise email today, March 15, 2015

From Steph's mom: Today I was so happily surprised to receive an email from a man I have never met.  It made my day!  People are so nice!  Enjoy!

Dear Sisters Marsh and Jones,

We are currently in Rome, on our way home with my daughter who has completed her mission in Romania and Moldova, and we met your delightful daughters in church today. Sorella Marsh taught us our English language Sunday School class. And we later had lunch with them at a local member's home.

I'm please to report that both sorelle appeared to be happy and healthy and enjoying their missions. A picture is attached.

Best regards,

Kurt Bray

March 9, 2015

Carissimi miei,

Hello everyone! So great to hear from you all this week. The baptism looked absolutely beautiful! I can't believe how handsome emerson and finlay are! I am so proud of them. Give them an extra hug from me! Thanks for sending all the pictures from the great weekend. I loved every single one of them! 

We had a great week over here in Rome! It was kind of a strange one, but a great one none the less! On Monday we took Sorella Clyde to the office to finish off her mission. I'm so grateful for the opportunityI had to serve with her, she was an incredible missionary. We had to wait a few days for Sorella Frandsen's new companion to come so we spent a few days in a tri-companionship. It was fun to get a little peek into what sonn's life is like these days :) it really was a good experience though.Always great to have another testimony in your lessons, and it was fun to work with the other sorelle's investigators for a few days. 

Things here are going well though! We're kinda going through a bit of a turnover with our work right now. Some investigators aren't really progressing anymore, things like that. But just means there are other people who are ready! We just gotta find them :) We did get to meet with Anna this week though, and the lesson was incredible. Teaching her has been such a learning experience. In the lessons with her we have to rely 100% on the spirit, and I've learned so much about how to recognize the Spirit and then following the promptings we recieve. This week sorella jones and I just had the feeling that we needed to talk to anna. We didnt really understand where she was coming from and we didnt feel like we were on the same page. So we asked her a few questions about why she was meeting with us, if she felt like it had helped her in her life, things like that. In the end what she told us was that when she met us on the train she saw a light and a conviction in our eyes - that we knew the truth and she hoped that she could also have that same conviction. We asked her if she felt our lessons were helping her accomplish that and she said yes! She still cant say she believes in God, but she has a more open mind. You guys she tries to pray everyday. She can't always finish her prayers, but she at least tries to start one. This week she agreed to say a complete prayers asking God if He exists. It has been so incredible to watch her faith grow. Please keep her in your prayers!

Also a cute new converts are still going strong! We met with Moses again this week and talked a bit more about his conversion story. The man has so much faith, it is absolutely incredible. It is really hard for him to read, but he promised to read a verse from the book of mormon everyday. And he came to church this week! We got him introduced to a few members so hopefully he will start feeling included in the ward. Leonardo is doing great as well. This week we had the anziani come with us to teach a lesson about the priesthood and it went really well! He agreed to prepare himself to recieve the aaronic priesthood, so we are thrilled about that :) he is still coming to church and going strong!

This week was also a special one because we got a specialized training from steven b allen. He was in rome to check up on things with the temple and visitors center, so he stopped by the mission office to give us a quick training. He focused on baptismal invites and how we can have more faith and less fear. It was a great training, one of the perks of being a roman missionary :) also this weekend was stake conference for us over here,which was fantastic! Our stake president over here is an incredible man. He spoke to us about the differences between consequences of our actions and trials that we go through in life. Then we also got to hear from Elder Kieren! About his time last year he came around and did the mission tour. I learned so much from him, it was great to listen to him again.

All in all it was a great week for us over here! We are excited to get going with a new transfer. Thank you so much for all your love, support, and prayers. I love you all so much and I am so grateful for you!

Until next week!

sorella marsh

i wish i had the literary talent to describe in words this experience...but it would just not do it justice. Just know it was one of the funniest things that has happened to me on my mission.

March 2, 2015

Carissimi Miei,

Happy March! So great to hear from you all this week :) I can't believe that the twins get baptized this weekend! I am so thrilled! Can't wait to see all the pictures. Give them a hug for me and tell them tanti auguri.

Well crazy news of the week on my end...I'm staying in Rome!! The Lord has decided to bless me with another transfer in Rome 1 with Sorella Jones as my companion! Not quite sure what we did to break the mold, but I am so stoked about it. Haha I absolutely love it here in Rome and I love working with Sorella Jones and I am so excited to see what this next transfer has in store for us. So here we go!

This week was a great one for us. We had our zone conference and it went really well! The theme of the whole conference was faith, and the training that sorella clyde and i did was specifically on having enough faith to see miracles. It was a really great conference. It's always great to be reminded of the basics every once in a while and what we can do to apply them more in our work. So we've got a lot of goals set and we're excited to see what will come from them. Also quick shout out to the meadows ward young women! i got their cutest candy gram while we were at the office -- tell them i say thank you so much! nothing beats american candy :)

All of our people are doing great. This week we met with Rosa and Mauro to say goodbye to Rosa before she leaves for Ecuador. The lesson wasn't very long, but the spirit was so strong. The just each talked about how they have seen a difference in their lives and in their home since we have been coming to visit with them and how the gospel really is making a difference in their family. It was really beautiful. Hopefully we will still be able to meet with Mauro frequently while Rosa is gone. 

This week we were also able to visit with Anna. You guys...she prayed!! She said she didn't feel anything while she was doing it, but she tried! We still have a long ways to go, but it was so incredible to see how she is already making these little changes. This week we kinda went back a few steps and just did a lesson about God, and the Holy Ghost. We wanted to help her understand who God is and how to recognize the spirit. Working with Anna is very different from any of the other people I have worked with on my mission. We have to go very slowly and because she has gone for so long without believing in God very often she doesnt agree with what we say. But as we spoke about the spirit she couldn't deny what she had felt. It was a very powerful moment. So we are continuing to move forward :)

Leonardo is doing great! We are starting to do his post-baptism lessons and this week we talked about partaking of the sacrament and coming to church everyweek. He agreed to continue coming to church each week, and sure enough he was there sunday morning! He even came by himself - ala will be out of town for the next few weeks. He's the greatest. 

We also met with our miracle new convert moses this week! He is so great. He is 19 years old and was living in sweeden, but decided to move to italy so he could work here and support his family. He has such a powerful testimony. He loves the Book of Mormon and believes that Joseph Smith was a true prophet. Unfortunately because he lost contact with the church when he moved to Italy he started going to another church, so he has some commitments there. But with time we are hoping to help him strengthen his testimony of the restoration. 

This week we also did some great member missionary work. The members here seriously are incredible. We had two members this week approach us and ask us if we would be willing to come to their homes and talk to their friends about the gospel. So we are excited to see what happens there in the next few weeks!

So things are going well over here :) we've got lots of work to do and I am so grateful that I get to do it for 6 more weeks! I love you all so much and I am grateful for each of you. Until next week!

sorella marsh

Service Opportunites!  pranzo time with the scotchi's

Here are pictures from Pres. Waddoups' blog from the Rome East Zone Conference - February 2015