March 28, 2012 Una Settimana Pieno Dei Miracolli! - A Week Full of Miracles!!

Wow wow wow! Thanks for all the emails family! Sounds like the family is doing so great. I love hearing all the stories of the funny nieces and nephews. They're so hilarious! I love them. And I'm glad everyone is feeling better.

My week has been FANTASTIC! I can't even begin to tell you all the miracles we are seeing here in Cuneo. We were watching the Joseph Smith movie with a new convert sometime last week and there was a quote that really hit me. It goes something like "Sometimes God puts you down only so he can lift you higher." I feel like the two weeks of being sick and down and out of Cuneo and everything was our down period, the trial of our faith. Last Wednesday started it off, since it was our real first day back to work in Cuneo and we were ready to go and just received a whole lot of inspiration from our training at Alessandria and ready to see some miracles! Well, last week at our training, President talked about visualizing the people you are going to find before going out. And being specific. So Sorella Willey and I "spiritually created" a few people last week before we went out to do finding work. And it is like God was saying, "Hey, I'm still here. Keep going, I'm helping you out." Seriously...

First of all, at that training we both received a really strong impression to go to this one particular part of the city as soon as we could. The first person we visualized we named Patrizia. Before we left to do casa one night Sorella Willey said "Who is waiting for us in Cuneo 2, Sorella?" I said "A young woman! About twenty..." "Seven! What does she look like?" "Hmm... dark hair! She's wearing..." "Purple!" "A purple sweater!" Or something like that... anyway this was Patrizia. The FIRST door we knock on in Cuneo 2, young woman, about late twenties/early 30s, dark hair, wearing a purple zip up jacket. Her cat ran up the stairs so she had to hurry and run up and get it and while she was doing that Sorella Willey and I just looked at each other with wide eyes and laughed quietly. She came back down put the cat inside and said "mi dica." So we talked to her for a while and it was amazing! However, her name was Anna. But still! The same thing happened the next night with a young man wearing a dark jacket with a white zipper. Except it was a gray zipper. But still! God is a God of miracles! And this is his work! We've really been trying to utilize everything we're learning in these trainings and we are seeing definite results. Our leaders are inspired!

Ho trovato la mia nonna italiana! Let me tell you about Clara and Giuseppe. I love them. We met them while doing casa and Clara just kept saying "Siete bellissime! Bellissime!" It was so great. And she kissed us a lot. Ha ha. But we went back and taught them the restoration. The lesson started out with Giuseppe saying how he thought it was so strange when someone old like they were (Clara is 85 and he is 82) changed religions, for so many reasons. But we pulled out the Book of Mormon and he was immediately hooked. He just stared at it, opened it up, looked at the pictures, started reading the title page and the introduction, and just held it in his hands for the rest of the lesson. We read Moroni 10:3-5 and he just said "Beautiful! I could read this in two afternoons!" He LOVES it! He wanted to give us something in return but we wouldn't take coffee so he gave us each our own 80 piece pack of these little toasts that the italians eat. haha! They gave us a referral, we invited them to church, he rode his bike there (unfortunately he was scared off before sacrament so he didn't stay...nother story that's coming) but he came! And I think he'll come back! We ran into him on the street on Sunday while doing casa and he had read from the title page through all the witnesses. And he loves the Book of Mormon! But when we left that lesson of the restoration Clara just said "La vostra nonna posso essere!" Our grandmother she can be! I loved it! So happy. And then they stand out on their balcony and just wave at us until we turn the corner. They're napolitani also so they talk really loud and I just love them so much!

About him being scared off... we had to have a training in the branch on Sunday about how to handle new investigators in church. We had talked to the branch president about this problem because we have had 7 investigators scared off in the last 4 weeks and they haven't come back. Ah! Anyway, We were able to share a really great spiritual thought in relief society and the spirit was really strong. We basically just said, with the use of scriptures, testimonies, explanation of our calling as missionaries, to not try to teach our investigators when they come to church and to let them gain their testimony in their own way. And then the EQP did the same in Priesthood. But I think all will be well now. Hopefully there won't be any more problems with that.

Yesterday we had a specialized training in Milano with ALL the sisters! It was amazing! We have some super awesome amazing sisters in this mission. I love them! All 29 of them! Again we received some inspiration from our amazing inspired President and Sorella Wolfgramm and the Assistenti, and we are starting to put them into practice today. We planned a really powerful lesson with Rosy for tonight using the things we learned yesterday and I'm excited to see how it goes.

Conference weekend!!! Do you realize how lucky we are to get to hear from the prophet of God and the twelve apostles and other leaders of Christ's church here on the earth?!?! We are SO lucky!!! We'll be watching it in our little chapel. We get all the sessions but the last one. And I think it will all be in italian. We're trying to decide if we'll go watch it on the computer in english, but if we have investigators come we'll need to stay with them. But I'm excited! I LOVE conference weekend! Two days of spiritual feasting and enlightenment!!!

Well, life is good here in Italia. I love being a missionary. I love it love it love it. Thank you for all your prayers and support. I truly can feel them and your love. I send mine your way too!

Happy Conference weekend! Take notes! Pray! Be ready to get inspired! Be open! Love your fellow man! Do some good! Read your scriptures! Pray some more! And then do it all over again!!!!

Sorella Forbes

 Us in Verona 

 The Torino Zone Sorelle and Sorella Wolfgramm

Me in Genova!!!

 

 A picture I got as we were riding our bikes the other night. Cuneo mountains and sunset!

All of the Sorelle of the Milano mission!

March 21, 2012 Non ci stancheremo mai di servire II Signor -we never tire of serving

I took that fancy line from our beloved mission hymn. I love it. What a week!

First of all, I'm healed! I started feeling a lot better Friday, was still exhausted Saturday but we went out and worked and by Sunday I was pretty much healed. Then Monday I got to see Sorella Wolfgramm, who just has a healing touch so now we're back cento percento and ready to work! What a great week.

First of all, Abs came to church on Sunday! I was so excited! He got scared off by a member though after sacrament meeting who basically told him because he was Muslim we couldn't change his religion just like he couldn't change ours. GAH! We were so mad. I absoulutely love the members here, but these last couple of weeks in church we've really had to keep a close eye on our investigators because a lot have been scared off. Grrr. We talked to the Branch president about it though, and I think all will be resolved this week. But anyway, Abs is so great. He's doing really good, except he has a hard time reading the Book of Mormon when he goes home, but he eats it up when we read it together in lessons. We watched the Joseph Smith birthday on Saturday with him and a member and he loved it. He was asking all kinds of questions about baptism and prophets and it was great.

I don't know if I've ever told you about Rosy, but I just love her. She is one of our progressing investigators and the mother of David, who was baptized in December. She's the one that always cooks for us. Sunday she invited us to lunch after church and stuffed our faces with pasta, meatballs, stuffed peppers, bread, cheese, fruit, and I tried my first pan d'oro! It was marvelous. But she also is doing so good with things pertaining to the gospel. It's hard to meet with her in the week because she works 3 jobs, so we usually only get to see her once or twice a week. When we call her and ask her if she's been reading she'll say "no i've read a little tiny bit, pocchissimo..." but then when we meet she's read like 10 chapters. She's already halfway through 2 Nephi. Ha! I love her. She said as soon as she receives her answer that this is the true church she'll be baptized. We're hoping to set up a date with her tonight. She's feeding us more pan d'oro. With homemade cream this time. haha! i'm excited.

Our training at Alessandria on Monday was AMAZING! We had to take a 6:45 train, plus our brains and souls were stuffed with so much spiritual goodness that by the end of the day we were all just exhausted. Our leaders are so inspired! I absolutely love and admire Sorella and Presidente Wolfgramm. They are truly inspired and amazing people. They shared some of the wisdom they learned from their conference in Germany with Elder Cristofferson, and WOW! The Milano mission is ready to double our baptisms! We all signed our banner to have 20 lessons every week and at the end of the conference we all linked arms and sang the mission hymn. The spirit was so strong! I love my zone! the Assistenti! Presidente and Sorella Wolfgramm! Everything about the Milano mission! I left feeling so spiritually uplifted and full to the brim. Actually, overflowing at the brim! haha. It was amazing.

SCAMBIO! Wow! Genova is AMAZING! I love that city. I wouldn't mind going back there to serve in the future... if the Lord so desires that I go there. Of course. But Sorella Baker is an amazing Sorella! All of the Sorelle in this mission are amazing! P.s. we have 8 sorelle in the Torino zone this transfer! Awesome!!! Anyway, the Genova Sorelle have whitewashed this transfer, meaning they are both new to the area. They are basically starting new with investigators and everything, so we got to help them figure out the area book, and go and find! Sorella Baker and I talked to a lot of people out and about while Sorella Willey and McFadden took the appointments. People in Genova are so open to talking about religion! It was amazing. All but one person we talked to was really interested in talking and really open about what they believed. I was amazed. It's a little bit different in Cuneo, I've learned. But we walked alot, talked alot, hopped on buses and talked some more, I got to see a pretty good amount of Genova for only being there a few hours. But yeah, scambio was so great.

Last, I just want to share a little tid bit of spiritual goodness that I've learned from personal studies. Have you read Lehi's vision from 1 Nephi 8? It's really great. And there is SO much to learn from it. I want to talk about the tree in this vision. From chapter 11 of 1 Nephi, we learn that the tree means the Love of God. But first of all, how did Nephi learn that? He ASKED. With FAITH. He DESIRED to know. He ACTED. And an angel came to him and HELPED him understand. Notice that the angel in chapter 11 doesn't just come out and tell Nephi what everything means, but shows him and Nephi has to figure it out on his own. So, what does the angel show Nephi that helps him understand that the tree is the Love of God? He shows him Christ. Christ when he came to the earth as a baby and his mother Mary. Well, how did Nephi get "the Love of God" from that? Let's go to John 3:16 - "For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him perisheth not, but shall have eternal life." Christ IS the love of God! The Atonement of Jesus Christ is the fruit of the tree of the Love of God! The fruit that Lehi describes as "desirable to make one happy," and the fruit that is "most sweet, above all that I ever before tasted." Fruit that fills "the soul with exceedingly great joy." How blessed are we?! God loves us so much, he provided this way for us to be happy, to experience this joy, to have eternal life! Do you know what that means?! It means we can live with God and Jesus Christ and our families from our time here on this earth FOREVER in happiness and peace! It's all possible, but only through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The Atonement is Happiness! I have no doubt in my mind of the truthfulness of this. All we have to do is partake of the fruit. We have to act. We have to obey God. But aren't all of the difficulties we might think come with obedience worth the reward? This fruit? Of joy and happiness and peace and love and ETERNITY?! I don't think once we realize our true potential, what we can achieve, how we have God on our side...I don't think it should be hard. Read Mosiah 2... "All that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has PROMISED you that if we would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he NEVER doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth BLESS you and PROSPER you...he doth require that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth IMMEDIATELY bless you; and therefore he hath paid you." Wow. I know that this is true. Happiness is possible, no matter what we are experiencing in life. The Atonement is not only for our sins, but also for our sorrows. Christ experienced EVERYTHING that any one ever has experienced, and He is the only one that can truly take away our sadness. I know that if we have faith in him, we can turn everything over to him and ALWAYS be happy. I know it! It's a promise from God! A gift from Him!

I love studies. They're my favorite part of the day. Sorella Willey and I had a really exciting study session this morning. We're learning a lot about covenants and exactly why we need to make them. THE SCRIPTURES ARE A TREASURE TROVE OF GOODNESS! Maybe I'll share some of that stuff with you some day.

Comunque (However), I'm about out of time, but I love you all! The Lord loves you all! You are all children of God! The church is true! Read your scriptures! Pray! Go to church! Obey the commandments! God will IMMEDIATELY bless you. I promise. :)

Sorella Forbes

March 14, 2011 - Un Po Giu - A Little Down

A little bit under... that's how I've been feeling this week. Remember how I was sick last week? Well, it didn't really go away. And unfortunately because of it our city is struggling. Stupid lungs... I think I've had more asthma here than in my whole life! Maybe it's all the cigarette smoke... since everyone and their dog smokes pretty much... anyway, I'm doing pretty good. It's been a really rough week for me because last week we couldn't go out nearly enough. Sorella Willey got a bug starting Wednesday night too, and on Saturday we hadn't even gotten half of the lessons of our goal for the week. Saturday we decided to muster up as much energy as we could and go out and do some strada. We went on this nice path that runs along the edge of the wedge because we figured a Saturday morning, there would be more people outside, but NOPE. We talked to one family who wasn't interested and then there was no one for a long time. So we just kind of wandered around not really knowing where to go. We got to a point on Via Roma and just stopped. Neither of us were having a feeling of where to go or what to do and we were getting frustrated. Then all of a sudden Marco pulled right up next to us (we hadn't seen him or Anna since church last Sunday) and we talked for a second. That was magical timing. He said they were going out of town but that we could call them when they got back. Weird! Anyway, besides that it was a pretty unsuccessful strada time. We got home after that and I collapsed on my bed feeling like the worse missionary in the world because we were doing horribly with lessons and we weren't finding new people because I had been so sick all week, then I had the feeling to call Sorella Wolfgramm again (she had been in Germany all week so we hadn't been able to reach her). But we got a hold of her and she told us all the things we should do and the medicine we should go buy and then told us we needed to just sleep... and I think I said "Oh no!" when she told me that. We told her we had been so down all week and we felt really bad and she just said "Well, Sorella, you know Heavenly Father understands." And I cried for a bit but then decided to follow her advice. She is so great. She's my mamma away from my mamma! haha. We went to the pharmacy, loaded up, came back, and I slept for like three hours. Something I hadn't been able to really do because I had been constantly thinking "no! you have to get up! go teach! go find! you're a missionary!" haha. It was like now I had received official permission from the MIssion President's wife my mind could relax and I slept. :) Anyway, we've gotten some good rest since then. Still feeling a bit blah and talked to Sorella Wolfgramm again last night. She told me to go get a z-pak, so we're doing that after this. Anyway, that's the update with the health. Prayers would be fabulous. I thank you for all of the ones that are already coming my way. :)

Friday we had a concerto in the church. An investigator and her son sang and played the violin and rented a cello for Sorella Willey. Um, did you know my collega is a cello MASTER?! She is on all of the MoTab albums we listen to. She was in the Orchestra at Temple Square. And she's amazing. Once she pulled out the cello and started practicing, our investigator came to me with tears in her eyes and just said "troppo bello!" It was touching. That's Donatella, I included a picture I took with her after the concert. Her eyes are closed... haha but I love her. She's a sweetheart. Sorella Willey is amazing. It was a pretty successful concert. Not very well attended by the members, but we had 6 investigators and 2 completely less actives that nobody had really seen in over a year. That was great to meet them. Hopefully we can go see them this week.

My collega took me to Verona on Monday. ha! We had to make the 6 hour trip to Verona for her Permesso di Soggiorno. We left Monday at lunch, took a few hours of p-day and went and saw the arena, casa di Giulietta and Juliet's balcony (as in Romeo and Juliet...), ate some kebab and gelato, and stayed the night with the Verona Sorelle, who are so fantastic. One is from Foggia and the other was in like 3 of my italian classes at BYU! It was really fun, but definitely frustrating because it's more time out of our city and traveling is exhausting and we came home feeling worse than we did before. It took us 8 hours to get back yesterday because there was a strike with trenitalia so one of our trains was cancelled. But Verona is AMAZING! I definitely hope I get to go back there some day. I loved that city.

Next Monday we have a training in Alessandria and afterwards we will head to Genova for a scambio. I'll be paired with Sorella Baker and we will be blitzing Genova! I'm really excited. I hear Genova is quite amazing. But again, frustrating because once again, Cuneo is suffering! That's two more days outside of our city next week. It makes me sad. BUT, the Lord knows what he is doing! All we can do is do our best!

Update on Cristina: we had to drop her. Or she dropped us? We're not really sure, but she stopped keeping commitments and it was causing Sorella Willey and I too much stress and sadness with all the phone calls we would get from her and Salvatore and the whole situation is just crazy. So for the time being we'll just be praying for her and waiting patiently. Still breaks my heart to think of it, but I've had to turn it over to the Lord. He has a plan. I have faith that everything will work out.

Anyway, that's all for the week. I wanted to share a really cool thing I learned in my personal study this week, but I don't have time. So it will have to wait for next week. But if you want, you should read 1 Nephi 8 - Lehi's vision. And then chapter 11 talks about the interpretations. There are SO many things to learn from these two chapters! I'll try to share some thoughts next week.

Love you all and I hope you are all well!!!

Sorella Forbes

March 7, 2012: Le Prove Della Nostra Fede - The Evidence of our Faith

There's a scripture in one of my favorite chapters of the Book of Mormon, Ether 12, that talks a lot about faith. Verse 6 says "...for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith." Holy moly mamma mia I have seen so many trials of faith this last week! Not only for myself, but for our investigators. This week has been so hard and a definite low up to this point.

Cristina was not baptized on Saturday. Absolutely broke my heart. She was so ready last Wednesday and then that night something happened and everything exploded. I can't even begin to tell you the whole experience, but Sorella Willey was right when she warned me last Sunday to get ready for a crazy week. The week before a baptism is always difficult and crazy, as I am now learning. Cristina wants to get baptized so bad, but with the situation she's so confused. Pride has taken hold of someone close to her, and as we know, "Pride bringeth a snare upon souls." It opens up a flood gate for Satan, and he has all power right now. It's so hard to watch. It's crazy to see how the light and the hope and the glow that you can so clearly see in someone, thanks to the Atonement of Christ and the willingness to obey, vanishes and when you look in the eyes, all you see is black. When someone is about to take the step through the door to the road to salvation, which is baptism, Satan throws all he has in their direction. And in a lesson with Cristina the spirit moved us to make promises and warnings if she weren't baptized on Saturday, and everything that was said and promised is happening. She is facing a HUGE trial of her faith right now, and because of her environment and certain people around her, she will have a very hard time overcoming it. I'm worried for her, but I pray for her constantly. And we're seeing her later today. All we can do at this point is pray! The choice is hers, and I know she'll make the right one, if she can remove herself from her current situation. Magari. (maybe)

Sunday in church was my first time that it was stressful. Sorella Willey warned me how that can be too, and I was stressed. Woof. We had four investigators in Sacrament meeting (including Marco and Anna!) but by the end, all four had left early. I think they were scared off... ahhh!! Stress. I'm praying with faith that everything that happened was what should have happened and every one was acting on promptings of the spirit. Marco and Anna haven't responded to our calls since Sunday. Yikes. Comunque, It's been a rough week.

And it snowed again yesterday! On Friday the gelaterias were all PACKED with people! Including with us! ha! I love gelato...

And to top it all off, I'm sick!!! I got the wheezy lung disease on Sunday. And because of it we haven't been able to do a whole lot of work. It's so frustrating! Because we need to find more people to teach but i'm been down quite a bit these last couple of days. Pray for me! I'm feeling a lot better today, still have the cough but not feeling so wasted and exhausted as before.

Now from all of this, I hope you don't think I'm completely down and out, because I am NOT! I have been blessed with the gift of faith, and I know that if I just hang on to that for dear life, I'll be okay. As one of my favorite BofM prophets said, "My God hath been my support; he hath led me through mine afflictions in the wilderness; and he hath preserved me upon the waters of the great deep. He hath filled me with his love, even unto the consuming of my flesh." It's true! Every time I'm down I pray for comfort and I receive it, despite how difficult the trials of our faith may be sometime. We always have help if we keep the faith and ask. My testimony of that is greater now than it ever has been. I see it every moment of every day. I'm still happy, despite the occassional moments of tristezza. :) (sadness)

Sounds like everyone at home is doing well. Don't worry about me! I'm just puttin' my shoulder to the wheel, like Great-grandpa Ed told me to do. I included some pictures of Sorella Willey on her bike riding through Old Cuneo. Pretty right?! I love Cuneo.

Sorella Forbes