September 26, 2012 - Senior Week!

It is senior week. Which means Sorella Mancuso has taken charge and I just sit in the back seat and let her run the show. It's been bringing back a lot of memories of my senior weeks with Sorella Willey. Sometimes I just can't help but giggle because I remember exactly how she feels, and now it makes me laugh looking back on it. I was a mess senior week. The thing about senior week is that yes this is still a companionship, but we are instructed to let them do everything... phonecalls, planning, appointments, leading lessons... it's been weird for me because I always felt that it was a 50\50 thing in all my companionships, and now I'm having to really sit back and just go along for the ride. It's pretty fun, although I'm learning a lot about patience. Milano in its entirety has been a big patience tryer. But Sorella Mancuso is doing awesome. She's a great senior companion. 

We had a really good week last week. We've really been trying to express our thanks to our Heavenly Father for all the good things that are happening. We still have our 4 baptism dates. Martin is doing fantastically and we talk about his baptism every lesson. He's really trying to figure out the work situation so that he can come to church. That will be his big trial I think before baptism. He can't get baptized until he comes to church at least 3 times! He's got 4 Sundays, so we're praying hard for him. But we taught him the Word of Wisdom last night and he accepted it right off and doesn't think he'll have any problems. I'm so happy for him! He's really seeing the differences already. He came to his appointment last night and was really agitated and sad because he got in an argument with someone at his work and I guess it was kind of brutto. I opened up to Jacob 2:8 and he read it and just smiled and said "è vero!" "La piacevole parola di Dio, sì, la parola che guarisce l'anima ferita."  ("It is true!" "The pleasing word of God, yea, the word which healeth the wounded soul)  It IS true. The word of God heals the wounded soul. It was a really good lesson. I'm not sure exactly how old Martin is, but I would say late 20s early 30s. 

Luis we didn't get to see this last week. He had to do something for his daughter. But I called him on Sunday and asked him how he was feeling about everything because we hadn't heard from him in a while and I was worried, but he said he's still reading the Book of Mormon and feels really good about everything. He too is seeing the blessings. He said he feels "più tranquillo, più pace." which is good. real good.

Roger and Cristina, we haven't seen since we set their date last Tuesday. But hopefully we'll get to see them this week and figure out where they're at.

Our other progressor is Claudia. She's from Brazil and doesn't speak a whole lot of Italian, but enough to understand. But she is also studying with the Jehovah's Witnesses and she asks a lot of hard questions. She asked us where eternal life will be and what is the name of God. Both questions we have the answers to, but milk before meat! Haha. She's reading and praying though because she is really confused. So we'll see how that goes this week.

I'm feeling good! I'm happy. I'm really really grateful for the miracles we're seeing. We still get bidoni. At least one every day. Friday and Saturday we were for 100% bidoni. We had four Friday and four Saturday. Awesome. But it's okay! The miracles make it all worth it! We are still so incredibly blessed in the work here that's happening now. 

I can't believe we're already to week five of this transfer! Transfers are next week! But I'm 99.9% sure Sorella Mancuso and I will be staying here together. We're getting 5 new sorelle next week! Sorella Power! As President would say...

Have I ever told you about the "Sorella Power" that President always talks about? It's pretty hilarious. He used to send us texts every week about the Sorella statistics and how we are leading the mission. It's exciting. I love our Sorelle. But we do have amazing Anziani also! don't get me wrong. 

I'm REALLY excited for General Conference. I love it. We won't watch the Relief Society broadcast, so MOM, if you want to send me the talks after, that'd be awesome. Maybe we can watch it some P-day. I'm praying I'll be able to get more out of General conference than I did the last time in Cuneo. That was kind of crazy. I love conference! How lucky are we that we get to listen to the PROPHET and the APOSTLES and other leaders of Christ's church?! We are blessed indeed.

Well that's all I got. Sorry you didn't get my email last week. There must have been some problems with the sight or something.

I'm doing good! Real good! I love you all and thank you so much for your love and prayers and support! Have a good week!

Sorella Forbes

September 26, 2012 - Quando le tavole si girano..When the tables are turning

EMAIL FROM LAST WEEK(Sorella Mancuso's family didn't get hers until Monday... Must be something up with the site or these computers...The pictures aren't attached so I'll send those in another.)

I think I just made up that expression in Italian. That's more of the literal translation... But I was meaning to say "when the tables turn". We've had a week of turning tables! Good things are happening here in Milano! Last week we had 0 progressing investigators and 2 baptismal dates that weren't really solid. And we actually had to drop Benedetta and Alam told us he's moving to Rome to find work... BUT, the Lord works in mysterious ways. 

We now have four baptismal dates! With Luis, Martin, Roger, and Cristina. From Peru, Peru, Honduras, and El Salvador. I love them all!!! We found Luis by a funny mistake. We were headed to an appointment one morning but couldn't find them. The husband's name was Luis. I had left my old planner with his number in it at home (duh...). His name was Luis. I was looking through the potentials in the phone and there was one with P Luis. I didn't remember putting Luis in the phone, but I called it anyway. I asked "Is this the Luis with the wife Patricia?" And he said "Uh... no..." And then I told him we were the sister missionaries and if he remembered meeting the misisonaries. He told me he met with the Anziani a year ago and came to church a few times and had started reading the BoM. there was a pause... I asked "well would you like to meet with the missionaries again?" And he said yeah! So we set an appointment. We've taught him twice now and he accepted a date for October 20. He is searching searching for the truth. He's awesome! Martin we found in the park. His brother is a member in Peru. He told us on the first lesson that he saw how much the church helped his brother and how it was really good for him, and he hoped it could do the same for him. I wanted to exclaim "If you only know how much it will help you!!!" Anyway, he is going to get baptized Oct. 27. He is SO solid. We took him his baptismal calendar and he was so excited and told us he will check the box every day for praying in the morning, in the evening, and for reading! And he completes all the reading assignments we leave him. He is so solid. His one challenge will be coming to church. He works on Sundays, and seeing as how work is hard to come by right now, he has to work on Sundays. But he said he's got a plan and he's praying that he can at least come to sacrament meeting every sunday if his friend will take his shift. Roger and Cristina are two giovani we met also in the park. So great! We set dates with them yesterday for 20 Oct as well. They just kept talking about how it was hard, especially as youth, to be strong and to know what's right and what's not and to be close to God in this world today. They are so excited about the Book of Mormon and the Restoration just clicked with them. They're great. All of our dates are progressing and super solid! Happiness. I feel so blessed.

As for Stefania... she just broke my heart a little bit this last week. I was talking to her on the phone on Friday trying to set up an appointment to see her and she said she still hadn't read anything from the Book of Mormon and that it was a problem. She said she just can't. It's not that she doesn't want to but that she just can't. Satan!!! He's got a hold on her. I've been praying with all my might that she could have the strength and the courage to just open and read one tiny bit and that when she does the spirit will chase the badness away. She's so elect! And it's pretty tough to see how the adversary works against them. She said that she would call us... which is never really good. I'm going to call her at the end of this week if we don't hear from her.

The stake conference this weekend was so awesome. Anziano Nelson didn't make it. I heard they were creating a Rome 5 ward this weekend too and that he went there. But Elder Rasband of the Presidency of the Seventy came and spoke and it was awesome! Also Elder Kearon of the Seventy. It was so cool to be there and be a part of this event. Elder Rasband just kept saying how big of a deal it is when they split a stake in Europe. And all of them talked about how this was a multiplication, not a division. The church is growing a TON in Italy. These last couple months have been record months for baptisms in our mission I think. At least I know May was the highest number of baptisms that the mission has ever had. If I remember correctly... but the work is moving forward! And Milano 3 was renamed "Milano Navigli." Classy. (you say it nah-veel-yee. insomma).

Yesterday we did scambio! I was with Sorella Heupel, Sorella Soh's trainee from Milano 2. It was a great time. Scambios are always fun because you get a new view of how to do things, how to talk to people, how to follow the spirit... etc. etc. These new Sorelle are awesome.

I am still trying to be a good trainer. Sorella Mancuso is catching on real fast. I've started making her do some phone calls. She reminds me of me when I was a trainee. I was terrified to do phone calls and Sorella Willey would always joke about the faces I made when talking to people on the phone. Because I couldn't understand them or I didn't know what to say... ha. 

Anyway. Things are going great! Milano 3 is back in action. I mean Milano Navigli... 

Thanks for your prayers and support and love and letters and everything! I really hope you do know that I really appreciate it, even if I can't respond to everyone all the time... 

Vi voglio un sacco di bene!!! (I want a lot of good)

Sorella Forbes

September 12, 2012 - Andiamo Avanti! Let's move on!

So again this week has been a bit rough. We are teaching 20+ lessons  every week, so that's not the problem. The problem is that our number of progressors this last week was 0. Yup. Zero. Zip. It's crazy! We talk to SO many people every day. Already I've filled almost three pages of my planner with potentials. Our problem is getting our peeps to progress. We find a lot of new investigators, but about 80% of the time they don't make it to their return appointment or they just flat out give us wrong information. For example: We stopped and talked to a really nice girl and her young daughter on Monday. It was just a brief contact but she seemed really interested. She gave us a phone number and address and we had a return appointment set for yesterday at 5:30. We went yesterday, no one was there. We called her phone. Inexistent number. We rang the rest of the citofonos just to get in the building so we could find her, but it didn't seem like the citofonos were working. An older couple comes by and says no one has lived in this building for six months. What?! Why would you waste a person's time like that? Just tell us you're not interested! It was frustrating. So we walked back to the church stopping people on the way but it was in the area where I don't get excited about doing finding. And as for our baptism dates, Alam from Bangladesh told us he is moving to Rome with his cousin because there isn't work here in Milano. Benedetta we haven't heard from for a while. And as for Stefania and Luigi, I was sad because she called us on Sunday and said she didn't feel well and couldn't come to our return appointment and can't see us until at least Sunday. And she hasn't read any of the Book of Mormon... tristezza. (sadness)

So here we are. Starting at 0 basically. I am doing my best and trying to not get discouraged. But that's difficult when you are working so hard and have nothing really to show for it... But I have faith! I know there have got to be good things coming. We all have the trials of our faith. We're trying to work with the members better and we need to start getting more referrals from them, because that's where we will get our solid investigators who have already been prepared because they know members. The members are awesome. So we're hoping we'll see some miracles with that. I don't know if I've ever mentioned the Ramos family... they are bravi. They are the missionaries in this ward. Not us. They had a birthday party for Jaime (the husband) with all their friends and invited the missionaries. The Assistenti went because we had another appointment. But they shared a snippet of the Restoration and there were like 3 of their friends that were interested and became referrals. And Marisa's (the wife) sister is getting baptized at the end of this month. Sorella Ramos has a list of people she wants to share the gospel with and she prays for them individually and then is starting to invite them one by one to learn about the gospel. They are rock stars. We had a lesson with them on Wednesday and role played what she would do to invite her friend to learn about the Restoration the next day. She bore a crazy awesome testimony with her husband and I was stupita after. (astonished...) 

Yes I got your big package and the post it package! Got them yesterday. Thanks! Although I don't like thinking about how my mission is already more than half way over... thanks a lot! Jokes. That was cute. I really loved it. The chocolate suffered a bit, but it's still edible. :) And oh! Did you know the CTR rings are in danish? I haven't met any one here that speaks danish... but I'll keep a look out! ;)

As for our p days... last transfer we would always go to the duomo area, do some window shopping/real shopping, eat some gelato and kebap, and that's about it. Today we are getting together with all the Milano Sorelle and the Varese Sorelle are coming and we are going to go inside the duomo, go see the early christian baptismal font underneath in the ruins from the baptistery that was there, eat some pizza at Fratelli La Bufala, and maybe get some gelato. It's going to be a party. There are some art exhibits I would like to go see maybe next week. A free Bramantino exhibit at the Castello! And I want to try to get tickets to see the Last Supper while I'm  here in Milano. (Mom! Maybe you can look into that for me? see if there are any openings on a wednesday afternoon sometime before November?) 

Thanks for your love and support everyone! I am truly so grateful and feel your prayers pushing me along. Love you all!

Buona settimana!!! (Have a great week!)

Sorella Forbes

Ps i don't have any new pictures... i'll send you some next week!

September 5, 2012 - Trovare i eletti..Find the elected

Finding the elect here in Milano has been a bit harder than the typical missionary would like. We have talked to SO many people since I first came here to Milano. My planner from last transfer was overflowing with names and phone numbers. And we've been calling people so much because now almost everyone is back from vacation and life is returning back to normal, but we've really been struggling getting progressing investigators. Sorina told us she didn't want to change and she didn't have an open heart to knowing if the Book of Mormon or the church was true, Stephen has vanished, Benedetta hadn't read the Book of Mormon for her 2 weeks of vacation, all the people we find that think could have potential we have to refer to the other Milano missionaries because they live outside our area (Atilio was one of these. An elect Peruvian man who accepted a baptismal invite on Saturday.), and we have had more bidoni in the last two weeks than my entire mission. Combined. Okay, maybe not. But almost every return appointment we set up with a new investigator, they don't come or call and cancel. I was feeling really discouraged on Saturday, because we had many more cancellations and none of our investigators said they were coming to church the next day. I have gotten 20 lessons every week on my mission for the last several months, so it's hard to not be seeing the promised blessings. Yet. But I have faith.

 

The giant ray of sunshine in my life right now is Stefania. Maybe I told you about Stefania about 6 weeks ago. We met Stefania and her fifteen year old son Luigi in the park my first week in Milano. When we first met her she said they had been talking about how Luigi couldn't feel the love of God and was having big questions about religion. We weren't able to see them before they left on their month long vacation, but I have been thinking of them often since we first met because there is something so special about them and about how we met them. Yesterday we met with Stefania. We talked about how that first meeting was so special. She told us that they had been in a moment of crisis and Luigi was asking questions about why he needed to believe in God and that he just felt so lost. She said it was as if they had just picked up the phone to call for help and then we were there. We had a very spiritual brief lesson where we explained that the Book of Mormon was the key to knowing if our message was true and she agreed to read it and to pray. We gave her the baptismal invite, and she didn't exactly accept it right off, but she understands that this is where it is leading to. She gets it! Finally someone who gets it! I have the strongest feeling that she and Luigi are elect. Luigi has exams right now so he's really busy, but we have an appointment with them on Sunday and we gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon for Luigi too. She also mentioned about how she didn't like how in her church there are just the priests and you just go and watch and listen, but she feels that church should be more of something you participate in and can ask questions and make comments. I said "Stefania! You HAVE to come to the church! I KNOW you would love it so much!" And she says she wants to give it a bit of time, but I know she's going to come and she will love it and I just love her and Luigi so much already. I can't stop thinking about them and how much this gospel will help them in their life. There is something so special about meeting with elect people. I felt more the spirit working through me yesterday in the park with Stefania than I have in a while. And I honestly believe it's because she is ready and has been prepared. I'm praying with all my heart for her and Luigi.

 

So, it's a really good time to be in Milano. They are splitting the stake next week! And we get to go to a conference with Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the twelve apostles! I'm so excited. It's going to be at a hotel here in Milano with the 5,000 members of the Milano stake! And then it will be split into two. So exciting!!! The church is growing so much here in Italy. The Milano stake consists of the three Milano wards, Pavia, Lodi, Como, Varese, Muggio, and I think Bergamo. If I'm not mistaken. But this is huge and I get to be here for it! So awesome. I'm really excited to tell Stefania she can come and see an apostle in Milano. How rare and awesome is that?!

 

The weather has taken a drastic change. It went from african heat wave to autumn rain and cold real quick. I had to unpack all of my cardigans and tights and my big blanket this last week. It's been cold and rainy! It makes finding work a bit more difficult, but it's nice. I like it. I much prefer the cold to the heat. Not so much the rain, because I have to go out and walk in it, but that's okay! I can handle it. We sing the mission hymn often while we're out in the rain... "Non ci stancheremo mai di servire il Signor! Servirem con grande fè dando tutto nostro cuor!" etc. etc. It's great.

 

Another problem we're having here in Milano right now is talking to people that seem really interested. Then we have return appointments and find out they don't have work, sometimes they are homeless, and they want help from us. I wish I could help them but all I can do is promise them that our message with help them better the quality of their lives because Jesus Christ and his teachings, the Gospel, will help them. But it's becoming more and more of a problem it seems. Especially as we are getting closer to the winter people seem more desperate. Pray for the people of Italy. Italy is in a period of crisis and we are really seeing the effects here.

 

Well I'm out of time. Love you all and thanks for the emails and love and prayers and support! Have a good week!

 

Sorella Forbes