Friday, September 1, 2017

August 23rd email





Tanti miracoli!! E scambio!

Ciao!
This week was great!! Sometimes I feel like my brain is burning because of all of the awesome studying I am getting in haha. The Italian is going well, and I love it. 😀 Sorella Hoffman and I get along great. We play the slug bug game where we punch each other when we see a slug bug-- but we do it with nuns instead. So any time we see a nun, we punch each other haha. 😅 Also a few times I've felt discouraged about the language when I'm trying to listen in on strangers' conversations and can't understand a word. Sometimes it sounds like plain gibberish. But then Sorella Hoffman tells me it's actually Spanish and not Italian, and I feel better. 🤓
This week I saw so many miracles. I will just tell you about a few of them 😊
We have been teaching a less-active member of the church each week named Maria Luisa. She is a very difficult woman. This is because she has a great knowledge of the gospel but she often does not keep commitments and has told us that she doesn't want to change; she has said that she is comfortable with how she is and where she is in life. At a lesson two weeks ago, we asked her to read Alma 32 before the next lesson, and then we called her twice during the week to see if she had read yet. The second time we called, she yelled at us on the phone and told us to stop harassing her about it. So we went to the next lesson ready to tell her we couldn't visit her anymore if she wasn't going to progress. We got to her apartment and asked how she was and she was all lit up. She was so happy. It was like she was a completely different person! And then she told us she read her scriptures. Sorella Hoffman and I were like 😱 We were so happy too. And the lesson went awesome. I know that the Spirit can work miracles if we exercise even a tiny amount of desire to come closer to Christ.
We have also been teaching another less-active family, a mother named Carolina and a daughter named Claudia. We have previously been visiting and giving them spiritual thoughts, but Sorella Hoffman and I thought they needed more. So last week we planned to teach the Restoration lesson to them because we know that rekindling someone's testimony about basic doctrine of the gospel can help them remember what's missing. So we prepared to teach Carolina & Claudia, but Carolina's boyfriend, Simone, ended up being there also. It was really great that we planned to teach the Restoration. Simone was very interested and paticipating in the lesson even though he wasn't familiar with the church. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he was already flipping through it before we left. (Also side note-- I got to say the First Vision for the first time in a "real" lesson woop woop 🤓)
On Saturday we saw a woman on the bus that we felt we needed to talk to, so we did. Then on Sunday morning, on the tram on our way to church, I saw a woman look over at Slla. Hoffman and I all excitedly as we were talking to each other. Then I whispered, "Hey it's the lady from the bus yesterday!" It totally looked like the lady from the day before. We started talking to her and she was stunned and said, "I don't speak Italian, but I heard you speaking English..." So it actually was not the same woman... BUT this new woman, Roanne, told us she wants to learn more about the gospel!! We are setting up an appointment with her!
I am currently in Verona-- where Romeo & Juliet takes place 😱-- for scambio (exchanges) and have been since Monday. It's been so cool. Yesterday with Sorella Rabirù was super fun and I learned a lot. Attached is a picture of us getting a gelato at the end of our day together. I have found my favorite gelato flavor: "Biscotto della Nonna," aka grandma's cookie Also today for P-Day, Slla. Hoffman and I stayed in Verona and went to the Arena, Juliet's balcony, checked out the markets, ate McDonald's to treat ourselves, and went to the mall. I am so tired! But it was a good day. I am excited to go back to Bergamo. 😀
"And I have been supported under trials and troubles of every kind, yea, and in all manner of afflictions; yea, God has delivered me from prison, and from bonds, and from death; yea, and I do put my trust in him, and he will still deliver me" (Alma 36:27). God will deliver every single one of us if we put our trust in Him. I love the Atonement. Grazie a Gesù Cristo, we can have real joy.
I am attaching a cool picture I took after someone didn't show up to our appointment, Anziano Austin holding some ginormous zucchini from a member at church (we took one and cooked it), Slla. Rabirù and I with our gelato yesterday, me in front of the Arena in Verona, and another pic of Verona Centro. I hope you all have an amazing week. Thank you so much for your support-- it does not go unnoticed.
Vi voglio bene,
Sorella Johnson

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