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

April 13, 2015

Carissimi Miei!

Gosh I can't believe it is already time to be writing again! I guess that's what happens when p-day comes a day late, the next week just flys by. But as you all know the big news of the week was transfer calls, so without further ado...I am being transferred to Crotone! I'll be heading back down south! Crotone is a city in "the foot" of Italy in the area of Calabria. Apparently it is pretty small because none of the members here knew where it was when I told them about it. Haha but I'm super excited! My new companion will be Sorella McFarland and she has just finished her first 12 weeks, so I will be follow-up training her. Being transferred is always such a mix of a emotions. I am so excited to get working in my new area, but it breaks my heart to leave Rome. I really have loved serving here. But I know I'm leaving the area in good hands with Sorella Jones.

That being said this week was a crazy one trying to squeeze apointments in to start saying goodbye to everyone. To finish up our exchanges for the transfer we had the Rome 5 sorelle come stay with us and Sorella Margheriti and I spent the day with the other companionship of Sorelle here in Rome. I was with Sorella Cano, the sorella from Colombia. Never would I have ever thought that serving a mission in Italy would make me grow to love hispanic people so much. I felt so blessed to spend the day with Sorella Cano. She is so loving and cares so much about the people she works with, I learned so much from her. I feel so blessed to be able to interact with so many sorelle. The scambio went well though! We were able to do a bit of our work and a bit of theirs as well.

This week we saw a lot of progress with Anna. She really is such an amazing person with the biggest heart. It has been incredible to see the progress she has made. In our lesson this week we went over the talk we left with her last week and she loved it. She loved the simplicty of it and how it was easy to understand. During our lesson we went over the 4 steps that President Uchtdorf gives us to receive a testimony and how they are the same for each and everyone of us. In the end I think that was what was most important for her to hear. That is doesn't matter what backgrounds we come from. Whether we are born in the church, converted from a different church, or even atheist, the steps to receive a testimony are the same for each and every one of us. I'm so grateful for the opportunity I have had to work with her. I've learned so much more about God and who He is, but I think I've learned the most about how much he truly does love us. 

Our other investigators are doing well! Unfortunately Sonia and Stefany were really busy this week, they are trying to find a new house so we weren't able to meet with them. So we are hoping to see them in the next few days, as well as Rosa and Mauro. Their poor family got sick this week so we had to reschedule. We did get to see a few of our less actives though! Incredibly enough we actually got a random call from Rosita this week. She had moved for work so we hadn't heard from her for a long time, but she has moved back into the area so we were able to meet with her this week. I was grateful that I was able to say goodbye to her. Tender mercies from the Lord :)

This week we also got to spend some time visiting the members and saying goodbye. There really are some of the most incredible people here, I can't believe how blessed I am that I was able to serve here to work with and learn from each of them. That has been one of my favorite things about Rome 1, working with the members here. These people have such incredible testimonies and I really have grown to love them so much. Which makes leaving hard, but I know there are people waiting for me in Crotone!

So this week we've got a few more appoitments to say goodbye to everyone, then I will be heading down south. I don't know the address of the apartment there yet, but I'll get it to you as soon as I can. So it should be an exciting week! Thanks so much for all of your love, support and prayers. I am so grateful for each of you. 

Ci sentiamo!

sorella marsh

 Barbara Ventura, one of the most rock star members I have met since I have been here.

 The Alabastro Family!  They are SO GREAT!

April 7, 2015

Carissimi Miei,

Buongiorno a tutti! Sorry I was such a space case and forgot to tell you guys that I would be emailing a day later this week. In Italy the day after Easter is also a holiday, it is called Pasquetta. Because people are usually with their families it is a less productive day for missionary work so we stay in and clean the house. So that means p-day got moved to today! Sorry for not giving you a heads up. But it was so great to hear from you all nonetheless!

This week was another great one for us over here in Rome! I mean how could it not be with conference - wasn't it just the best?! We got to watch all but the sunday afternoon session because of the time difference, so we will watch that one later this week. So lucky for us it isn't even over yet :) what we did get to hear was so great though, and so needed. So many answers to questions and prayers and help that we need to be doing the work over here. I had so many favorites, but to contribute to the "conference recap" I'll just share one. I absolutely loved Elder Perry's talk about the family. That might have been because he talked about his experience here in Rome..we were all a bit excited about that one. Haha but I love how he addressed the centrality of the family in all religion. It is so true, and I see it everyday out here on my mission. No matter where people come from or what their religious background may be, their family is always what matters most to them. The family is something that unites each and everyone of us, no matter what our differences. But in addition to that, we as members of the church are so blessed to have an eternal perspective on the family. We know the potential that we have to live as families forever, and the steps we need to take to make it possible. And that is our incredible message to the world :) i loved it! 

So conference was quite the highlight for us. We watched two of the sessions at church and one at the Scotchi home with Ala and Leonardo. I think we spend just as much time there as we do in our own home. Haha they are too good to us. And if it wasn't enough just to hear all the messages from conference, it even brought us some miracles! We were able to contact Rosa after her trip in Equador, and she, Mauro, and the whole family came to one of the sessions! They couldnt stay the whole time, but what they did get to listen to they absolutely loved. They asked us to come over later this week to help them figure out how they can watch the rest of it at home. So we are thrilled about that :)

Things here are going well! Unfortunately Anna went out of town this week for Easter so she wasn't able to come watch conference, but we did get to meet with her before we left. We did a lesson about faith, and how through exercising our faith we can strengthen our testimonies. We read from Alma 32 together and talked about the parable of the seed. It went really well! I love seeing her progress, it is so wonderful to see her small changes. We left her with President Uchtdorf's talk "receiving a testimony of light and truth" and we are really excited to follow up on it. Little by little she is progressing, but she still just needs help in saying her prayers. So we are hoping that this week we will be able to help her get to that next step! 

Also this week we were finally able to have a real lesson with Sonia! She seriously is so prepared for the gospel. She grew up reading the bible on her own and just fell in love with the stories. She has always wanted to do what is right and so that is her main motivation in searching for the truth right now. Because of that she was so touched by the story of Joseph Smith. We finished reciting the first vision and she just stared at us in awe and said "how marvelous." The spirit was so strong, but nothing tops when she said the prayer at the end of the lesson. It was the first time in a long time that she had attempted to pray out loud. She said the most beautiful, sincere, heartfelt prayer. Once she had finished she sat silently for a little while. I had the feeling to ask her what she was feeling, so we talked about it for a little while. She said while she was praying she felt something warm, like a person standing by her side. We told her that feeling was the Holy Ghost, bearing witness that everything we had told her was true. It was so beautiful! She accepted the invitation to be baptized on the 2nd of May :) if all goes well we are hoping that her daughter Stefany will get baptized that day as well!

So we saw a lot of miracles over here this week and know that there are more to come! Before I finish I just wanted to share one more story. This week we went up to Pescara for our exchanges and I spent the day with Sorella Nagliati. While I was there we taught a lesson to one of their investigators about fasting with two members from their ward. The lesson went really well, and at the end Sorella Nagliati asked one of the members if he would like to share his testimony about fasting. Up until this point he hadn't said much, and it wasn't until he started telling a story that I realized he had a speech impediment. He told a story about a time he fasted for his sister and as a result of that fast she was baptized. Throughout the whole story the spirit there was so strong, I couldn't hold back the tears. It was just such a good reminder to me that it doesn't really matter how eloquently we can speak. It's not our talent our ability in speaking the language that brings the spirit, but the meaning behind what we say. That member bore his testimony with all of his heart, and although he couldn't speak perfectly through the spirit he brought you could understand everything he wanted to say. 

I know that this is God's work. He leads and guides every aspect of it, we are just lucky enough to be the instruments in His hands. Thank you for all of the love and support you give me everyday. I hope you know how much I can feel each of your prayers. I love you all so much! 

Until next week!

Sorella Marsh

the roma 1 sorelle!

 the easter bunny made it to our house!

 Sonia :)

  sorella jones and I outside our church

 us with our eggs on easter

 my district at a members house for lunch. can you believe all these decorations?! i seriously was so touched by how much time and effort she put into the lunch....i felt like royalty.

Another update from Elder Teixeiras' visit to Rome

(from Steph's mom) This is a pretty sacred experience so I hope it is ok to put it on Steph's mission blog.  Remember a couple of weeks ago when Steph reported that Elder and Sister Teixeira came to Rome for some trainings?  When I went to General Conference yesterday, my sisters Sylvia and Rosalie were talking to Elder and Sister Teixeira.  They were Sam Webster's mission president and served some of the same time Sylvia and Dave did as mission presidents in Brazil.  Rosalie and Mike know them from working together in the quorum of 70.  Anyway, Sylvia introduced me and I said "you were with our daughter a couple of weeks ago in Rome".  They said YOU are Sorella Marshes mother?  I said yes.  They both grabbed my arm to tell me how very special Sorella Marsh is.  Elder Teixeira told me that photography and videography are his hobby and he quite often interviews missionaries.  He interviewed Stephanie.  He told me that her answers were unlike any other missionary he has interviewed.  He said, she is an amazing young woman and missionary.  Sister Teixeira said, you are so blessed to be her mother.  With tears streaming down my face I could only say "I know".  Elder Teixeira said, I literally interview hundreds of missionaries and your daughter is so special!  I am so grateful for this sacred experience I was blessed to have yesterday.  Stephanie really is such an amazing daughter, not just Rick's and my daughter but Heavenly Father's daughter.  I love her and appreciate the joy and blessings her missionary service have brought to our family.  Thank you Sylvia for introducing me to the Teixeiras and for sending me pictures.

Sister Teixeira and me

 Elder Teixeira, Sister Teixeira, me, Rosalie

Now I am just trying not to worry about the fact that we didn't hear from our sweet Sorella today...

JK, I am sure she is fine, just off doing something fun and/or important.  (I hope :))

An Email from Elder Allen

Today, Rick received and email from Elder Stephen B. Allen.  He had gone to Rome for some training meetings with the missionaries.  We were so touched that he sent these pictures and sent the report that Sorella Marsh is doing GREAT!

Apparently Stephanie is not the only Granddaughter of an apostle in the Rome, Italy mission.  

 Nice Elder Allen.  He happens to be the area president that Rick reports to with his calling and is SUCH a great man!

 2 granddaughters of Apostles

 Steph and her companion Sorella Jones

Thanks Elder Allen.  We LOVE you Steph!